explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:2640: The Universe by Scientific Field

2024-12-01T04:44:44Z

172.71.134.216:

I have a feeling reproductions of this particular XKCD will be popular on the doors of many offices in astronomy departments around the world. A bit like Gary Larson's Far Side cartoons are found everywhere in biology departments.

I just discovered Safari's "Live Text" feature. It allowed me to copy the numbers with all the digits, so I don't have to count them to create the transcript. But then someone else beat me to creating it. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 22:44, 1 July 2022 (UTC)

I wonder if we should mention the area of telescope apertures compared to, say, the surface area of all laboratory glassware or something like that. Too much of a stretch? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.214.81|172.70.214.81]] 23:18, 1 July 2022 (UTC)

“Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space.”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
--[[Special:Contributions/162.158.129.117|162.158.129.117]] 00:40, 2 July 2022 (UTC)

Agreeing with the argument in the current version of the explanation as I write: it is really, really hard to argue that astronomy covers more than physics, which lays claim to including all the physical sciences as subfields. Also, is "field" a pun on the force fields of ... physics? [[User:Nitpicking|Nitpicking]] ([[User talk:Nitpicking|talk]]) 03:32, 2 July 2022 (UTC)
:I don't think most chemists would say that they're in a sub-field of physics, but chemistry is a huge part of astronomical spectroscopy. Similarly mathematicians relative to trigonometry. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.36|172.70.211.36]] 03:47, 2 July 2022 (UTC)

There's a bit of a problem here. Yes, Astronomy is the study of pretty much anything that isn't Earth. But the other part is pretty much limited to studies of life on earth (biology excluding exo-/astrobiology as well as pretty much all branches of social sciences), studies of earths atmosphere (meteorology and related fields), studies of earths water (e.g. hydrology as well as aspects of biology and others), studies of earths lithosphere (terrestrial geology and subfields) and various tangential branches thereof (like studies of earth's past - as part of pretty much any subject mentioned before). Fields like physics (pretty much everything "real", i.e. 100%), chemistry (any condensed matter) or geology (any rocky bits) have claims to various (already "taken") parts of the universe. Mathematics and philosophy (mentioned in alt text) don't have a claim to much of anything "real" in the universe (except maybe the pieces of data storage (paper, brain, digital) used) but have a claim to all of the (not "real, I guess) sciences mentioned before. Of course, that makes them subject to, at least, physics, chemistry, biology and social (including historical) sciences in turn. - - - TL/DR: I seem to be in a bit of a mood to kill jokes today. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.251.112|172.70.251.112]] 13:16, 2 July 2022 (UTC)
:of course to continue the joke, while all those fields may have applicability beyond earth, the vast majority of what they actually study is ON earth (although to make the stretch, you have to consider any field that studies things off earth as a subset of astronomy, which would make for many very angry scientific debates... hmmm... science thunderdome, I kinda like this idea =D [[Special:Contributions/172.69.71.127|172.69.71.127]] 15:05, 2 July 2022 (UTC)
:Don't feel bad. The entire second half of the explanation at present is devoted to casting the joke as absurdist exaggeration and hyperbole. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.36|172.70.211.36]] 15:30, 2 July 2022 (UTC)

Maybe the idea of the comic is that the diagram was created by astronomers to justify their existence, which explains the bias. Many lay people wonder why we spend so much money studying "out there" when there are so many problems here that could use the money (never mind that the fraction of government budgets devoted to astronomy is miniscule, and some of the discoveries do have terrestrial uses, particularly regarding climate change). And as alluded in the title text, other researchers could probably make a similar diagram that emphasizes their discipline. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 17:01, 2 July 2022 (UTC)
:Climate change? Only thing astronomy can tell us about climate change is where to move to when we inevitably destroy Earths climate. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 01:03, 3 July 2022 (UTC)
:: The greenhouse effect was originally described in terms of {{w|albedo}} when the absorption spectra of CO2 was first characterized, but I can't think of any other examples. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.34.6|172.69.34.6]] 01:16, 3 July 2022 (UTC)

:: Solar astronomy tells us what contributions are made by the sun and it's various cycles, general astronomy gives us orbital and therefor seasonal modifiers on that, both of which can then be accounted for to determine both local contribution, and expected trend changes. Further it gives both examples of what various conditions can result in (venus and mars especially) and even possible useful modifications we can make (eg solar shades for reducing, and reflectors for increasing solar effects, albedo modification for either). Not to mention minor things like knowing if a country sized rock might ruin our day --Not an Astronomer [[Special:Contributions/172.69.70.155|172.69.70.155]] 15:54, 3 July 2022 (UTC)

There should be a large proportion for "Dark Knowledge" to imitate those astronomical summaries that try to emphasise how much of the universe is dark matter and/or energy [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.64|172.70.86.64]] 01:38, 3 July 2022 (UTC)

As to the alt text, you also have Max Tegmark, a physicist at MIT, who believes the entire universe is literally made of mathematics: {{w|Mathematical universe hypothesis}}. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.52|172.70.211.52]] 06:54, 3 July 2022 (UTC)
:Could be... although just like Holographic Theory, and to some degree Simulation Theory we'd be hard pressed to tell a difference. As long as the rules are consistent, and resist self modification, there's nothing to say the experience from the inside is any different between, physical, simulation, holographic, or mathematical realities. Hard to know which box you're in if you can't look outside it to confirm what the walls are made of [[Special:Contributions/172.69.70.155|172.69.70.155]] 15:54, 3 July 2022 (UTC)
::Quite true. Almost all of those "theories" aren't {{w|falsifiable}}, and therefore are technically metaphysics instead of genuine science. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.132.96|172.68.132.96]] 22:24, 3 July 2022 (UTC)
:::Oh, absolutely. But it's definitely been made fun of by webcomics before, e.g. by: [https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/theoretical-physics SMBC], so it's not outside the realm of possibility Randall may have meant that. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.207.8|172.70.207.8]] 02:20, 5 July 2022 (UTC)
::::SMBC is a great comic. I wonder why it doesn't have an explanation wiki. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.210.125|172.70.210.125]] 03:14, 5 July 2022 (UTC)
:::::It's inexplicable...
::::: :) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.177|172.70.85.177]] 11:45, 5 July 2022 (UTC)

I deleted this sentence from the explanation: "If we measure the universe by mass-energy instead, for example, the study of physics becomes non-trivial." I was planning to put an {Actual citation needed} tag on it, but it seemed to break up the explanation in an odd way, inside a paragraph front of a group of bullet points making similar arguments, so I'm moving it here for discussion instead. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.149|172.69.33.149]] 17:33, 25 August 2022 (UTC)

"although one could argue back that theology is nothing more than writing fiction". yeah, and one could also argue that the earth is flat and that 2+2=5.[[Special:Contributions/172.71.134.216|172.71.134.216]] 04:44, 1 December 2024 (UTC)

1525: Emojic 8 Ball

2024-10-03T07:21:25Z

172.71.134.216:

{{comic
| number = 1525
| date = May 15, 2015
| title = Emojic 8 Ball
| image = emojic 8 ball.png
}}
{{TOC}}
*To experience the interactivity of the game, visit the {{xkcd|1525|original comic}}.

==Explanation==
Emojic 8 Ball is a parody of the {{w|Magic 8-Ball}} using {{w|emoji}} instead of words. "Emojic" is a portmanteau of "emoji" and "magic".

A real Magic 8 Ball is a toy designed to visually resemble a real {{w|billiard_ball#International_pool|pool ball}}, which responds to questions (posed as yes-or-no questions) asked of it, ostensibly by magic. The responses are provided through a window on one face that displays text phrases printed on a triangular shape as depicted in this comic. Vintage balls contained a die with multiple triangular facets suspended in a dark fluid, while modern balls feature an electronic screen.

The ball in this comic provides responses in the form of graphical {{w|Unicode}} "text" (which this comic is suggesting are {{w|emoji}}).

It is possible that this may be commentary on the inclusion of such "meaningless" symbols into Unicode. Ask a question and get a meaningless reply, even more meaningless than the answers given by a Magic 8 Ball.

It could also be commentary about the ambiguous nature of advice from fortune tellers, horoscopes, etc. Each emoji has an ambiguous meaning (for example, depending on context, the cow symbol 🐄 could refer to beef or farming). The interpretation has more to do with the person receiving the fortune than anything given by the so-called fortune reader.

With the default question being "How will I die?", this may also be partially a reference to "{{w|Machine of Death}}". This book from 2010 is a collection of short stories edited by amongst other {{w|Ryan North}} (of {{w|Dinosaur Comics}}) mentioned here since the idea was based on one of [http://www.qwantz.com/index.php?comic=675 his comics]. Since [[Randall Munroe]] wrote one of the stories the reference is very likely. All the stories are based around a device, the "Machine of Death", that can predict, with 100% accuracy though generally with extreme ambiguity, how people die from a drop of their blood. In many of the stories very unusual deaths are predicted, often in a very literal way, but not so you know when or where you will die. From the [http://machineofdeath.net/ official home page] the entire book can be downloaded for free as a [https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4648190/MachineofDeath_FINAL_SPREADS.pdf PDF file](broken) [https://web.archive.org/web/20170423012915/https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4648190/MachineofDeath_FINAL_SPREADS.pdf 2020/06 archive.org copy]. (Randall's story begins on page 421 - or page 218 of the two sided PDF file. It is simply called "?"). The "Machine of Death" is also referenced in the title text of [[1341: Types of Editors]].

Emoji were previously referenced in [[1513: Code Quality]]. Emoji has since then become a [[:Category:Emoji|recurrent theme]] on xkcd. But this is the first one with Emoji in the title.

===Permalink===
*After the first time you ask a question a permalink will appear below the panel in light blue letters, the same colour as links on the rest of xkcd.
*The "permalink" is an actual link of the type that is called a "'''{{w|permalink}}'''", a portmanteau of "permanent-link".
*If you wish to "save" any given question and combination of emojis for future reference (for instance one where you think the combo makes sense to your question) you can do so by copying down this link.
*The last two years [[:Category:April fools' comics|April Fools' Day]] comics, [[1350: Lorenz]] and [[1506: xkcloud]] also used the [[1350: Lorenz#Permalink|concept of a permalink]].
*The permalink option did not appear in the comic when it was first posted. This has been seen before.
*Here a three examples with one, two and three emojis in the reply
**[http://xkcd.com/1525/#eyJxIjoiV2h5IGFtIEkgc28gc2FkPyIsImEiOlsiJiN4MjY3RjsiXX0= permalink with 1 emoji].
***Question: ''Why am I so sad?''.
***The answer is one emoji [♿ (Wheelchair symbol)] (A reply that actually makes sense as to why you might feel sad)
**[https://xkcd.com/1525/#eyJxIjoiV2hhdCBzaG91bGQgSSB3ZWFyIHRvbW9ycm93PyIsImEiOlsiJiN4MUYzRTY7IiwiJiN4MUYzNTY7Il19 permalink with 2 emojis].
***Question: ''What should I wear tomorrow?''. (Version 1)
***The answer is two emoji [👚 (womans clothes) and 👖 (jeans)]
**[https://xkcd.com/1525/#eyJxIjoiV2hhdCBzaG91bGQgSSB3ZWFyIHRvbW9ycm93PyIsImEiOlsiJiN4MUY0NUE7IiwiJiN4MUY0NTY7Il19 permalink with 2 emojis].
***Question: ''What should I wear tomorrow?''. (Version 2)
***The answer is two emoji [🍆 (eggplant) and 💦 (water splash)]
**[https://xkcd.com/1525/#eyJxIjoiV2hlcmUgd2lsbCBJIGJlIGFmdGVyIHRvbW9ycm93PyIsImEiOlsiJiN4MUYzRUY7IiwiJiN4MUYzQTk7IiwiJiN4MUY0MjE7Il19 permalink with 3 emojis].
***Question: ''Where will I be after tomorrow?''.
***The answer is three emoji [🏯 (Japanese castle), 🎩 ‎(top hat) and 🐡 ‎(blowfish)].
***This is also available as a [[media:emojic 8 ball with answer.png|picture]] - it is the picture linked to above the explanation.

===Bugs===
Note: if you see mostly squares (possibly with six numbers/letters inside) in the 8 Ball instead of actual symbols or pictures, it means your system doesn't have fonts that support the Emoji unicode characters. Scroll down to [[#Discussion|the discussion section]] below for suggestions on how to get and install the right font for your system, as well as to see a list of emoji characters so you can easily see if they're working or not.

==Transcript==
:[An image of a shiny black ball with a white circle forming a black window at its center. Above the image is a title where the number 8 is written in a black circle, making it look like an 8-ball.]
:'''Emojic 8 Ball'''

:[Below the title is an input field with a placeholder text in grayed out text:]
:How will I die?

:[Below is a gray submit button.]
:Ask

:[The Emojic 8 Ball is below the ask button. The text in the input field can be changed by the user before pressing the ask button. After the submit button is pressed, 1 to 3 emoji symbols appear in the black window, framed inside a light blue equilateral triangle with one end pointing straight up. Once this has been done once, then a link appears below the panel with this text: Permalink].

==Trivia==
*The 8-ball randomly returns between one and three emoji characters. The source code reveals there is 42.1% chance of getting one character, 52.6% chance of getting two characters, and 5.3% chance of getting three.
*The source code contains 507 different emoji characters. For a full list of the supported characters, see [[1525: Emojic 8 Ball/List of emoji|List of emoji]].
*This is the second official comic with [[:Category:No title text|no title text]]. The first was [[1506: xkcloud]].
*The [http://xkcd.com/1525/info.0.json official transcript] of the comic [http://web.archive.org/web/20150515133138/http://xkcd.com/1525/ originally] said:
**"Sorry blind people. There is no title text, even. Just a text box, an \"ask\" button, and a graphic that changes to a random emojii.\n\nThis one doesn't seem to be for you."

{{comic discussion}}

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2194: How to Send a File

2024-04-29T15:42:08Z

172.71.134.216: Changed "threats" to "threatens", "books" to "book's" and removed a random space.

{{comic
| number = 2194
| date = August 26, 2019
| title = How to Send a File
| image = how_to_send_a_file.png
| titletext = Note: How To will teach you lots of cool stuff about technology, data storage, butterfly migration, and more. Also you will never see your files again.
}}

==Explanation==
Similar to [[2190: Serena Versus the Drones]], this is another teaser ad for Randall's new (at the time the comic came out) book, ''[[How To]]'', due to be released a week from this comic's release, on September 3, 2019. This also prompted a [[Header text#2019-08-27_-_Out_in_a_week|change]] to the [[Header text|header text]].

The comic shows an image from of one of the chapters, and <s>containing</s> [[Header text#2014-07-23_-_what_if.3F_book_tour|being]] [https://blog.xkcd.com/2019/08/26/how-to-send-a-file/ a link to] a larger piece of that chapter, or perhaps the entire chapter.

This comic discusses transferring files, previously discussed in [[949: File Transfer]] and in [https://what-if.xkcd.com/31/ what if 31]. The snippet from his book that is shown in this comic shows scissors cutting off the (top) screen of a laptop, presumably as a way to give the "bottom" portion to someone for file transfer. While it is true most laptops house their hard drive in the bottom half of the machine, you would probably never need to prove it in a destructive manner. Tearing the screen off any given laptop is not a good idea.{{Citation needed}}

It has not been unknown, in times past, for someone to take their 'computer' somewhere to be repaired and arrive with just the monitor (and perhaps the keyboard and mouse) unplugged from the 'box' (desktop or possibly under-desk tower case). This is because the owner has considered the latter to be little more than the 'disk drive' thing that reads the occasional floppy-disk, rather than being often the ''only'' absolutely necessary piece of equipment needed to be looked at – the cumbersome CRT screen may well be far less necessary to take to a computer repairer, despite it being where "all my files" are commonly seen. The comic example may parody the above example with a more updated twist, but does also overlook that a number of slimline devices have touchscreen technology, and all the most important bits are included within the part with the screen, yet may also have a 'bottom half' keyboard that is optional and indeed removable (scissors not required!) while not actually including any of the relevant data.

The chapter linked to shows other methods of getting your files to another person and, in fact, explicitly states that breaking a computer to send files is not a good idea.

The title text hints at other amazing content in the upcoming book, including discussion of butterfly migration (does it cause predictable tornadoes in Kansas? Can they carry coconuts to England?). It also threatens that using the book's idea for file transfer will make sure you will never see those files again, i.e. they will be lost for good if you try the book's method at home.

The chapter preview, that the comic links to, discusses using butterflies as a method of sending files from one person to another on the form of flash media attached to butterflies, or encoded in DNA, and goes pretty in depth into these particular methods of data transmission as opposed to the more traditional methods that are detailed in traditional computer science books.

==Transcript==
:[Randall, depicted as Cueball, stands with his arms spread out]
:Randall: It feels weird that it's 2019 and yet I still sometimes find that the easiest way to move a file around is to email it to myself.

:[Randall has raised a hand to his chin,]
:Randall: If only there were a better way...

:[A picture of Randall's new book is shown to the left of the text. The book is black with large blue text and smaller white text. On the book cover, in white drawings, are seen Megan with a ladder and White Hat. Both are looking up on Cueball who is floating in the air with a quadcopter drone beneath either leg, trying to plug in an electric light bulb in a naked lamp hanging down near him. It seems he has already removed the broken light bulb, as he has one in both hands. And now he tries to put in the new one. The blue text stating title and author can be read but not the white text. The "blog.xkcd.com" link is in link blue color.]
:Book: How To
:Book: Randall Munroe
:My new book ''How To'' is out next week! If you want to learn how to send data, you can visit blog.xkcd.com for a sneak preview of Chapter 19: How to Send a File

:[Beneath a heading are three pictures next to each other of a laptop computer. The first picture shows a regular laptop computer, with a labeled arrow pointing to the lower half of the computer. The second picture shows the laptop in a lighter outline, with scissors instructing to cut horizontally on a dotted line across the middle of the laptop. The third picture shows a laptop in two pieces cut over between the screen and the rest. There is a very jagged edge on both parts, which has been moved away from each other.]
:Exclusive advice from '''''How To:'''''
:When sending a file, it helps to know which part of your device the file is stored in.
:Label: Files are usually in this part

{{comic discussion}}

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