explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:3092: Baker's Units

2025-05-22T01:37:15Z

172.71.178.96:

Why did he go with only 9/13ths of a Baker's List? [[Special:Contributions/172.69.65.8|172.69.65.8]] 23:48, 21 May 2025 (UTC)

A ruler for a "baker's foot" is, apparently, similar to a metal casting patternmaker's {{w|shrink rule}}, although in practice those top out at 2.5%, versus 13/12ths or 8.{3}%. [[User:JohnHawkinson|JohnHawkinson]] ([[User talk:JohnHawkinson|talk]]) 23:59, 21 May 2025 (UTC)

It appears to me like g marked by the g-clef is on the second space making the notes b and c which wound be 13 semitones apart. Two compensating errors or just a bit more cleverness for lagniappe?[[User:Lordpishky|Lordpishky]] ([[User talk:Lordpishky|talk]]) 01:07, 22 May 2025 (UTC)

There's also baker's percentages. All the ingredients are defined as a percentage of the weight of the flour. So if you have 1kg (1000gr) of flour and 600ml (gr) of water then the water is said to be 60% hydration.

3080: Tennis Balls

2025-04-24T08:53:30Z

172.71.178.96: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 3080
| date = April 23, 2025
| title = Tennis Balls
| image = tennis_balls_2x.png
| imagesize = 411x574px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = After initial tests created a series of large holes in the wall of the lab, the higher-power Scanning Tunneling Tennis Ball Microscope project was quickly shut down.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a SCANNING WIKI BOT. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

A {{w|scanning electron microscope}} produces images of a sample by scanning the surface with a focused beam of electrons, and interpreting the different signals that are generated in response. Since [[Megan]] and [[Cueball]] find electrons too small to work with, they have created a macroscopic version using tennis balls instead. The tennis ball launcher uses a similar mechanism to a scanning electron microscope: it fires tennis balls, instead of electrons, over a wide range of heights, and detects objects obstructing the stream (in this case a person) by the noises generated on impact. However, this would only be 'useful' in scanning things at a macroscopic level, so is not really a microscope.

Megan and Cueball have detected a person using their device, by the fact that it generated two yells during the scan, presumably from impacting the person's face and, er, somewhere further down. They intend to repeat the experiment to determine the person's height, by working out the angle of the tennis balls that generate the yells. Combined with the velocity and time to impact, this should give them enough information to work out the height above ground at impact and the distance from the launcher. The joke is that this height measurement could probably have been completed with a visual assessment, and with far more accuracy than using tennis balls to approximate their height. Most humans do not see using a microscope.{{Citation needed}} This method is also likely to be problematic, as the person would likely duck or run away in response to being bombarded with tennis balls, affecting future measurements. This is known as the {{w|Observer effect (physics)|Observer Effect}}. (It may also be why the 'scanning' is done from the top down, as early low-hitting projectiles might reduce the height that later projectiles can detect.)

The title text is a reference to {{w|scanning tunneling microscope}}s, which take advantage of the {{w|quantum tunnelling}} effect. In this case, the tennis balls were actually tunneling through the wall, creating holes in the process, which is not what tunneling electrons would do.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball fires eight tennis ball at varying heights using a tennis ball machine, making four "thunk" noises. Megan is standing behind him.]

:[Ten noises come from the right side of the panel.]
:Bonk
:Bonk
:Bonk
:Bonk
:Bonk
:OW!
:Bonk
:OW!
:Bonk
:Bonk
:[Megan has her hand to her chin.]
:Megan: Ok, there's definitely a person over there. Let's do one more pass to try to measure their height.

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Electrons are small and hard to work with, so some scientists have developed a scanning tennis ball microscope instead.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Physics]]

Talk:1056: Felidae

2025-04-19T09:26:50Z

172.71.178.96:

I'm pretty sure there's the saber-toothed tiger in the smilodon category too. That's gonna be ''faaar'' to the right. [[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]][[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 10:05, 23 December 2012 (UTC)
::@davidy: saber-toothed tiger == saber-toothed cat. Same animal, different name. [[Special:Contributions/189.135.115.199|189.135.115.199]] 21:38, 11 April 2013 (UTC)

If I'm not mistaken, Dracorex hogwartsia was specifically named for Hogwarts, so the name isn't disturbingly similar.[[User:Kdesltd|Kdesltd]] ([[User talk:Kdesltd|talk]]) 06:13, 16 February 2013 (UTC)

;this page is useless without a table of cat names to osx versions

cause where else am i going to go for that information?
obviously [explain]xkcd. [[Special:Contributions/68.201.90.115|68.201.90.115]] 22:43, 30 June 2013 (UTC)

{{w|OS X#Versions|Here!}} [[User:Dawfedora|Dawfedora]] ([[User talk:Dawfedora|talk]]) 18:27, 21 August 2013 (UTC)

I see your sarcasm and raise you one wikitable. {{unsigned ip|173.245.52.205}}

No one addresses what the Ox problem is - I believe that he could be referring to the fact that all the cool names are taken. Although it could be the strange order? Seems like the mountain lion version wasn't even out? Did he know that this was the name or did he guess? No matter what he did spot a problem since they did stop using cat names. [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 16:24, 4 January 2014 (UTC)

The version Mountain Lion had been announced in (I believe) February of that year, so he would have known about the name. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.84|108.162.216.84]] 03:40, 9 April 2015 (UTC)
:I personally interpreted "the OSX problem" as them increasingly struggling to find cat names for their releases which top the previous names in some way. The first three releases were clearly moving up the scale of "which would win in a fight". The fourth takes a step backwards in "would win in a fight" but moves forward in "coolness of name". Then we see a step up in both scales. Then a double step back in coolness of name. Then further progress on coolness of name before finally taking steps backwards in BOTH "coolness of name" and "would win in a fight". -- plugwash

One other problem: cheetahs are the fastest animal on earth. 10.0 Cheetah was SLOW.[[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.174|173.245.50.174]] 18:15, 7 September 2015 (UTC)

The next versions of the OS X were named "Mavericks", "Yosemite" and "El Capitan". No more cats indeed. :-( [[Special:Contributions/162.158.102.231|162.158.102.231]] 09:42, 9 January 2016 (UTC)

Really have to disagree with the coolness of the name sort results in this comic. I'd rank them probably as: Lion < Snow Leopard < Leopard < Tiger < Jaguar [[User:Zorlax the Mighty|Zorlax the Mighty'); DROP TABLE users;--]] ([[User talk:Zorlax the Mighty|talk]]) 17:55, 2 June 2016 (UTC)

"Panther" is an ill-defined term, not only referring to the puma species but large black cats in general (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panther ) [[Special:Contributions/172.68.79.81|172.68.79.81]] 20:05, 11 December 2016 (UTC)

:You can use <nowiki>{{w|Panther</nowiki> to put {{w|Panther}} [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.243|162.158.74.243]] 02:29, 4 June 2018 (UTC)

:I think, the Revolver Ocelot meme made Ocelot cooler, than Cheetah. If you swap those two, you get a route to housecat and lynx. Problem solved.[[Special:Contributions/172.68.10.172|172.68.10.172]] 04:17, 29 November 2019 (UTC)
:: I agree. Although that would be a reference to a videogame, a joy unavailable to Mac OS users. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.184.84|172.71.184.84]] 05:46, 8 June 2024 (UTC)

Whoever called it a mountain "lion" has obviously never seen a real lion. Lions are enormous animals, that tiny felid isn't worthy of the name "lion". [[User:The Cat Lady|-- The Cat Lady]] ([[User talk:The Cat Lady|talk]]) 09:50, 1 September 2021 (UTC)
: Still a deadly surprise. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.184.84|172.71.184.84]] 05:46, 8 June 2024 (UTC)

This comic pretty much lacks ''serval'' and ''caracal'' [[Special:Contributions/172.71.184.84|172.71.184.84]] 05:46, 8 June 2024 (UTC)

i also added ''Linsang''--[[Special:Contributions/162.158.114.64|162.158.114.64]] 04:28, 19 April 2025 (UTC)
:Wut? (Also when/where?) [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.96|172.71.178.96]] 09:26, 19 April 2025 (UTC)

3074: Push Notifications

2025-04-10T15:31:52Z

172.71.178.96: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 3074
| date = April 9, 2025
| title = Push Notifications
| image = push_notifications_2x.png
| imagesize = 277x347px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = NOTIFICATION: Now dismissing a head of the Notification Hydra… NOTIFICATION: Success! You have dismissed a head of the Notification Hydra! Different title text: :3
}}
To experience the interactivity of the game, visit the {{xkcd|1110|original comic}}.

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Please write a better overall explanation and explain the other functions of the comic. If you see any comic images that haven't been uploaded yet, please download and add them! Also, a table might not be the most space-efficient way to display the different comic images; a gallery of imges might be better.}}
This interactive comic is the 15th [[:Category:April fools' comics|April Fools' Day]] comic released by Randall, just over a week late. It uses {{w|push notifications}} to change the comic image over time and make other statements. A table of notifications can be seen at [[3074: Push Notifications/Table of Notifications]].

After viewing the comic for the first time, there is a sequence of notifications rendered over the comic itself. After clicking through these, you are provided with two buttons: one labeled "Emergency Stop" which will halt all notifications, and one labeled "Silence notifications at a cost" which will silence notifications at the cost of notifying two random people.

If you press silence notifications too much the laptop blows up.

Notification types include:
* One asking you to select a word, with further notifications to be sent whenever someone chooses the same word as you. Following this up changes the comic pane to a comic-style input dialogue with a space for the word and a submit button.
** Upon providing a word, a notification informs you that you will then receive notifications (of the form "Someone else has selected the word <Your Word>!"), and that your choice is permanent and cannot be changed.
** It is entirely possible to (mis-)submit a blank word, and to receive "Someone else has selected the word !" notifications.
* A few starter notifications about this comic, the successful sending of a notification of this comic, and the lack of another comic.
* An announcement that an old comic was posted, specifying a comic and its publication date.
* A "streak" notification counting the number of times you've clicked it. The message changes every 10 clicks, and after 50 clicks there is an offer to make future clicks count twice, making this a simple version of {{w|Cookie Clicker}}. If you chooses to accept the offer by clicking on it, it will reset your clicks back to zero but makes all future clicks count double of the current click rate; you can also reject the offer by continuing to click on the click counter message. There are occasionally notifications encouraging you to keep clicking and "extend your streak," tempting you with "a free click to keep you going". After 400 clicks it will reset your clicks back to zero but makes all future clicks count four times. There will be new messages up to a total of at least 1000 clicks.
** Early notifications encourage further clicking.
** Approaching a hundred, the messages grow more concerned and later start warning that the server will crash or has crashed.
** Above 750: "Are you just doing this to annoy me?"
** 1000-2000: "Are you just doing this to annoy you?"
** Above 2000: "I guess it worked"
* A "have you seen my cat?" notification which spawns up to 7 clickable cats all over the comic (nonrandomly), including one on the edge of the Emergency Stop button.
* Cat fact notifications that appear when a cat is clicked, in reference to [https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/241/756/e6e.png this exchange].
* Various "erroneous errors" with a warning triangle, some with just flavor text, some corresponding to changes in the comic image.
** A "gravity malfunction" indicating a change to the floating image.
** An "Error 40¾" HTTP malfunction (with {{w|Zalgo text}} on the error code) indicating a change to the tentacle image.
** "I forgot whether I'm the server or the client."
** An error for not enough errors.
** An error for too many errors.
** A Kernel Panic indicating the Kernel can't remember what number comes after 38
** A notification claiming that your computer ballast needs emptying, along with the computer room being flooded
** "Your computer has encountered an error" indicating a change to the fire image.
** Error 418: {{w|Hyper Text Coffee Pot Control Protocol#Commands and replies|I'm a teapot}}.
* "Zoom notifications" including numeric coordinates, sometimes prefixed with "oh look!"; plotting these coordinates creates an image that appears to be a turtle, apparently a reference to [[1416: Pixels]].
* "Constant reminders" stating what some constant will be "at the tone". (This is in reference to time-of-day phone services, largely obsolete since the popularization of the internet, which you could call to hear the exact time at a given tone.) There are also joke constants such as "your favorite number will be equal to 14," and some definitions are tautological or not related to the actual value of the constant. Constants include
** The silver ratio (1 + the square root of 2)
** The golden ratio (half of 1 + the square root of 5)
** Pi (the ratio between a circle's circumference and radius, and half of Tau)
** Zero (a real number)
** Your favorite number (14)
** The luminosity of the sun (L☉)
** {{w|Euler's constant}}
** "We are currently experiencing 3600±1 seconds per hour. Changes to this rate will be announced six months in advance." - Referencing {{w|Leap second#Procedure|standard Leap Second procedure}}
* A notification that offers to provide weather alerts for your location, which leads into a series of notifications asking whether you live in a named city. If none of the cities that it knows are selected, your location is set to the summit of {{w|Mount Washington}}.
* A reminder that the Earth spins at 1 rpd (rotation per day).
* A statement near an hour or half-hour time that the current time is five-o-clock somewhere.
* An invitation to subscribe to the "What if?" YouTube channel
* A notification with the heading "System Log" that reads (INFO): A user has paused notifications
* A reminder to comment and subscribe, leading to one of various Wikipedia pages, including: {{w|Talk:Mathematics}}, {{w|Talk:Romance}}, {{w|Talk:Language}}, (presumably, as the fourth of the stated topics [[xkcd]] is about) {{w|Talk:Sarcasm}}, {{w|Talk:Boneless}}, {{w|Talk:Sitting}}, {{w|Category talk:Unix text editors}}, {{w|Talk:Robot}}, {{w|Talk:Jamming avoidance response}}, {{w|Talk:Squircle}}, {{w|Talk:Like}}, {{w|Talk:Drafting linen}}, {{w|Talk:Hot dog}}, {{w|Talk:Goomba}}, {{w|Talk:Tidal locking}}, {{w|Talk:Multiple unit}}, {{w|Talk:Flag semaphore}}, {{w|Talk:Stoating}} {{w|Talk:Roseate_spoonbill}}.
* A "{{w|Carriage return|Carriage Return}} Line Feed", referencing the Windows standard of storing line returns as a carriage return character followed by a line feed (newline) character. However, the xkcd Carriage Return Line Feed is instead a news feed concerning the next stop on a supposed "Carriage Return Line" of a train system. The announcements are all related to stations on the {{w|London Underground}}, including the use of the phrase "{{w|Mind the gap}}".

The title text references the {{w|Lernaean Hydra}}, a multi-headed serpent-like monster from Greek mythology. In many stories, such as {{w|Labours_of_Hercules#Second:_Lernaean_Hydra|the second labour of Hercules}}, when one of its heads was cut off, two heads would grow in its place, resulting in more heads than before. Something similar has happened in the title text itself: there was a notification that was requested to be dismissed, and it created two more notifications notifying the user of the status of the dismissal.

The subdirectory where the images and scripts for this comic are stored is titled 'marconi,' which is likely a reference to the Italian engineer and inventor of the same name, {{w|Guglielmo Marconi}}, who is credited with inventing the radio, and did much work in the field of early communication systems.

Clicking the "Emergency Stop" button allows you to either restart the full game or to subscribe just to notifications for new comics.

===Table of comic images===
{|class="wikitable sortable"
! Image !! Explanation
|-
| [[File:3074_normal.png|100px]] ||Cueball sitting at his desk, with his laptop.
|-
| [[File:3074_big_laptop.png|100px]] || Cueball sitting at his desk, with a very large laptop.
|-
| [[File:3074_plant_small.png|100px]] || Cueball sitting at his desk, with a small potted plant.
|-
| || Cueball sitting at his desk, with a squirrel in the pot.
|-
| || Cueball sitting at his desk, with a much larger plant that has clearly outgrown the pot, at least vertically.
|-
| || Two images with the larger plant that also have cats in the leaves.
|-
| || Cueball sitting at his desk, with a cat in the foreground near the point of view.
|-
| [[File:3074_cat_chair.png|100px]] || Cueball sitting at his desk, his chair replaced with a large cat.
|-
| [[File:3074_computer_fire.png|100px]] || Cueball sitting farther back from his desk, with the laptop on the desk on fire.
|-
| [[File:3074_float.png|100px]] || Cueball, the desk, and the laptop floating in the air.
|-
| [[File:3074_spin.png|100px]] || Cueball spinning in his chair.
|-
| [[File:3074_desk_sit.png|100px]] || Cueball sitting on the desk, facing the laptop on the chair.
|-
| [[File:3074_gameover.png|100px]] || The desk vacant with "Game Over" displayed if you use the emergency stop.
|-
| [[File:3074_sword.png|100px]] || Cueball sitting on the desk, with a sword leaning against the desk.
|-
| || Cueball and Ponytail swordfighting while the computer has an hourglass icon, referencing [[303: Compiling]].
|-
| || The room flooded 2/3 of the way up the desk. Cueball is still sitting with his laptop.
|-
| [[File:3074_sailboat.png|100px]] || The same flooding, with a miniature sailboat behind Cueball.
|-
| || The same flooding, with a cat face behind Cueball.
|-
| || The same flooding, with a shark fin on the far side of the desk, facing toward Cueball.
|-
| || Cueball kneeling on the chair, which is raised up higher than the desk, and leaning over to use the laptop
|-
| || Cueball sitting at the desk, which has been extended behind his laptop like a long meeting table.
|-
| || No Cueball, only the chair, desk, and laptop.
|-
| || Cueball using the laptop on his lap, with no desk.
|-
| || Cueball with a squirrel on his head.
|-
| || A squirrel sitting at the desk, seemingly using the laptop.
|-
| || Cueball standing on top of the laptop keyboard.
|-
| || Cueball sitting at the desk, wearing a wizard hat.
|-
| [[File:3074_floor.png|100px]] || Cueball sitting on the floor behind the desk.
|-
| [[File:3074_tentacles.png|100px]] || Cueball sitting in his chair, shielding his face from a tentacle coming from the computer screen.
|-
| [[File:3074_cat.png|50px]] || The cat that appears after returning to the comic window after leaving it idle for long period of time. It has a unique title text of ":3".
|}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Cueball sits at a desk in an office chair. He is typing on a computer.]
:[Gray message boxes with a small circled “x” at the top right corner are shown:]
:Happy April 1st (observed)!
:To celebrate, we were excited to introduce a new xkcd.com feature: push notifications for new comics!
:Unfortunately, this feature has gone horribly wrong.
:Until further notice, we are asking people ''NOT'' to sign up for new comic notifications.
:Frankly, we recommend not even clicking on any notifications to learn more.
:''Click this notification to learn more!'' (a circled arrow is shown)

:“Push notifications for new comics” sounds like a simple feature, right?
:There’s a nice API for browser notifications. xkcd updates three times a week.
:So you just send a notification for each update, right?
:That’s what we thought, too.
:''Click to continue!'' (a circled arrow is shown)

:[To the side of the comic frame is a big, horizontal hexagonal stop sign]
:Sign: Emergency STOP
:Below the sign: ''Halt ALL notifications and forget everything''
:The good news is that we did build a button to stop xkcd new comic notifications.
:You can press this button at any time and the system will stop sending you notifications.
:The nightmare will be over and the server will forget you ever existed.
:This part definitely works.
:''The rest of the system does NOT work.'' (a circled arrow is shown)

:We’re sorry.
:We don’t know how things went so wrong.
:The system is sending more than three notifications a week. A LOT more.
:We cannot recommend signing up for xkcd new comic notifications at this time.
:''Click here to ignore the warnings.'' (a circled arrow is shown)

:No, really.
:Our notification system may send a large number of very real system notifications.
:These may flood your browser, displace other notifications, and cause problems.
:<big>⚠️DO NOT ENABLE XKCD NEW COMIC NOTIFICATIONS⚠️</big>
:''Yeah, I get it, but I definitely want to enable xkcd new comic notifications.'' (a circled arrow is shown)

:Are you sure?
:''Yes!'' (a circled arrow is shown)
:Absolutely sure?
:''YES!!'' (a circled arrow is shown)
:To enable push notifications on mobile you need to add xkcd.com to your home screen.

:''Click here to subscribe to xkcd notifications''

:[Initial static image shows Cueball sat on an office chair at a desk using a laptop computer. A notification 'window' is speech-bubbled above the computer]
:[Grey notification box, header:] April 1st (Observed)
:[Notification box, further text:] Open xkcd.com to view.
:Laptop: [Warning sign.]

:[When viewed live, various xkcd-style popover notifications appear, each can be dismissed or (usually the last on every page) invited to press an 'onwards'-style button.]

:[First page of messages]
:Happy April 1st! To celebrate, we were excited to introduce a new xkcd.com feature: Push Notifications for new comics!
:Unfortunately, this feature has gone horribly wrong.
:Until further notice, we are asking people NOT to sign up for new comic notifications.
:Frankly, we recommend not even clicking on any notifications to learn more.
:[Notification with 'onwards button':] ''Click on this notification to learn more''

:[Upon choosing to continue, further messages appear, replacing any prior ones left open]
:"Push Notifications for new comics" sounds like a simple feature, right?
:There's a nice API for browser notifications, xkcd updates three times a week.
:So you just send a notification for each upafte, right?
:That's what we thought, too.
:[Notification with 'onwards button':] ''Click on this notification to continue''

:[Next set of popover messages]
:The good news is that we did build a button to STOP xkcd new comic notifications.
:You can press this button at any time and the system will stop sending you notifications.
:The nightmare will be over and the server will forget you ever existed.
:This part definitely works.
:[Notification with 'onwards':] ''The rest of the system does not work.''
:[To the right of the comic frame, a red, octagonal button has white text upon it:]Emergency Stop
:[Below the button is red text:] Halt all notifications and forget everything

:[Next set of popovers, "stop" button remains permanently so long as you continue]
:We're sorry.
:We didn't know how things went so wrong.
:The system is sending more than three notifications at this time.
:['Onwards' notification:] ''Click here to ignore the warnings''

:[Next set.]
:No, really.
:Our notification system may send a large amount of very real system notifications.
:These may flood your browser, displace other notifications, and cause problems.
:[Text bookended by warning triangles:] Do not enable xkcd new comic notifications
:['Onwards':] Yeah, I get it, but I definitely want to enable xkcd new comic notifications

:[Just two popovers, initially]
:Are you sure?
:['Onwards':] Yes
:[On clicking onwards, two more appear below]
:Absolutely sure?
:['Onwards':] Yes!!
:[On clicking, a further popover]
:[Red-tinted 'onwards'-style popover with warnings:] Click here to subscribe to xkcd notifications.

:[...something appeared then dissappeared...]
:[Genuine(?) browser dialogue activated:] xkcd.com wants to send you notifications. Block / Allow

:[If allowed, one more popover in the original style]
:Success!!
:[Below the Emergency Stop button, an oval gray button appears labeled in white:] Silence notifications at a cost
:[Below that, in grey text:]Temporarily pause your notifications at the cost of notifying two random people.

:[Further changes include the contents of the pane, whether Cueball is sat at the laptop, whether the laptop is larger, or a pot-plant, whether there are cats in the frame, outside the frame, sat on the Stop buttons, whether Cueball is sat on a large cat instead of an office chair...]
{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Interactive comics]]
[[Category:April fools' comics]]

Talk:2585: Rounding

2025-03-20T16:26:18Z

172.71.178.96:

Wot no {{w|FFF system|furlongs per fortnight}}? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.126|172.70.91.126]] 23:14, 23 February 2022 (UTC)

: I, too, was initially surprised that Randall hadn't used the standard joke measure. But, then I realized that F/F is so outrageously large that rounding wouldn't offer much advantage. [[User:MAP|MAP]] ([[User talk:MAP|talk]]) 05:10, 24 February 2022 (UTC)

If we're using the table, can I suggest it be fully filled in, but mark "original (rounded)" value cells one key colour and the chosen conversion in another, so that scanning along (not necessarily adjacent/rightwards) then down (always next row) then along... you see the 'bounce around'. And we also get to appreciate what other fractional values ''could'' have been chosen, prior to rounding... Alternately, some flow-charty layout (perhaps contained within a nominally borderless version of the table?) with arrows leading across the width and filling in-between each down-step. Ideas only. I have others, but those seem the best bet to consider. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.113|172.70.85.113]] 01:32, 24 February 2022 (UTC)

Disagree with the current (as of 23:27 US Eastern, 23 February) explanation. According to this site (https://ilovebicycling.com/average-bike-speed/), average downhill bike speed is over 45 mph. Since Cueball doesn't specify "on flat terrain", he should have no problem going 45 without exploiting imprecise conversions. [[User:Nitpicking|Nitpicking]] ([[User talk:Nitpicking|talk]]) 04:30, 24 February 2022 (UTC)
:Huh? This does not say average downhill speed is > 45, it says "fastest". Also why would Cueball need to do this bizarre rounding if he can actually go 45mph? This is an exaggeration because he can only go a typical speed of 17mph.[[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.145|172.69.33.145]] 04:52, 24 February 2022 (UTC)
::Fastest for average cyclist. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 05:05, 24 February 2022 (UTC)
:As a cyclist of several decades experience, who has indeed attained such speeds on rare (reckless) occasions, I think that "fastest downhill speed for an average rider" is overstated. Maybe it is what average people are capable of on a well-surfaced, steep, straight, non-undulating road with sufficient vision (forward and of anything potentially moving into the road from the side) or at least confidence that you're not dealing with traffic/pedestrians/other unaware cyclists. Oh, and sufficient stopping distance for whatever brakes you have.
:Maybe everybody can do it ''once'', but a good bike-ride should be one you can walk away from at the end.
:(Also, that cycling-centric site might have a different idea of 'average' cyclist. The average person on a bike here can't even put their feet on the pedals correctly. If we're talking club-/competitive-cyclists (but still sub-pro) then I'd much more readily agree, but there are far more people these days who can't even ride on the roadway, it seems.)
:That bike, as drawn, looks like it'll be Okish (if kept well maintained) but not exactly set up as functional downhill racer, nor probably is the rider. I really think the machine probably could be ridden at 20+mph on the flat for as long as the rider can stand to, but the characterisation makes me not confident they're able to maintain that kind of average speed for a [https://www.cyclingtimetrials.org.uk/race-results/22059#anchor long ride], and I think they'd overbake a downhill speed-run too, or (sensibly) be more cautious. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.143|172.70.85.143]] 05:14, 24 February 2022 (UTC)
:: Yep - the speeds on that site are for road bikes. Cueball looks to be riding a hybrid (flat bars), which would tend to put him in a more upright position, creating a higher frontal area and air resistance, and so slowing his progress. That would have even more of an effect at higher speeds. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.43|162.158.159.43]] 11:14, 24 February 2022 (UTC)

Arguably, once you're up to numbers around 45, you're as likely, if not more so, to be rounding to the nearest 5 than the nearest unit (depending on context). So Cueball's initial statement could be taken as suggesting that he can ride at around 42.5 - 47.5mph (rather than 44.5 - 45.5mph). And if he could actually ride at over 45mph then he presumably wouldn't need to add the 'if you round' qualifier, so it could further be taken as just suggesting that he can exceed 42.5mph. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.43|162.158.159.43]] 11:22, 24 February 2022 (UTC)

Note I find it kind of disappointing that the insane "KPH" unit is used in the comic. Nobody uses that in places where speed is actually measured in km/h.
: yes, but we are talking about a US based comic, one of only 3 countries (Myanmar, Liberia, USA) that don't use the metric system for measurement...oh, except for money, but that isn't really metric, it is money ;o) [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.190|108.162.250.190]] 00:50, 25 February 2022 (UTC)
:: Erm, I think you'll find the UK uses miles as well. And we're just putting ourselves through a massive political and economic upheaval so that we can have our old imperial weights and measures back (at least, I think that was the point of it all).[[Special:Contributions/141.101.77.24|141.101.77.24]] 16:30, 25 February 2022 (UTC)

Ironically, by the same standards it only takes one conversion to say that he can't move at all on a bike. he goes 0 parsecs, lightyears or AU (for example) per year, decade or century (for example).

Can we remove the rounding errors in the "exact" values in the tables? For instance, the final value should be "45.0000" not "45.0001". In fact, all three values ending with 0001 are rounding errors. (These were probably a result of converting to metric and back, using low precision conversion factors.) [[User:Divad27182|Divad27182]] ([[User talk:Divad27182|talk]]) 15:49, 24 February 2022 (UTC)
: Yeah, like fathoms/s and yards/s are by definition just a factor 2 apart. I recalculated the values without rounding at any step except the final step, so the rounding errors should be gone now. Also added vincula for repeating digits. [[User:Tharkon|Tharkon]] ([[User talk:Tharkon|talk]]) 19:25, 27 February 2022 (UTC)

Whoever decided to display that information in that table deserves an award. Gg. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.126.65|172.70.126.65]] 16:38, 24 February 2022 (UTC)

It's nice how the rounding of exact half-integers only ever has to deal with odd-numbers-and-a-half, so Cueball can't be charged with violating the "round to even" rule, nor with violating the "round away from zero" rule. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.131.122|172.70.131.122]] 18:06, 24 February 2022 (UTC)

It looks like Randall picked a starting speed (within a reasonable bike-riding range) to maximize his gain. Groups of starting speeds round to the same final speeds, and some groups have a higher maximum speed earlier in the rounding chain:
::{| class="wikitable"
! Start Speed
(mph)
! Max Speed
(rounded to mph)
! Final Speed
(mph)
|-
|1
|1
|0
|-
|2 to 9
|9
|8
|-
|10
|10
|8
|-
|11 to 16
|16
|15
|-
|17 to 45
|45
|45
|-
|46 to 54
|54
|53
|}[[Special:Contributions/172.70.131.122|172.70.131.122]] 21:24, 24 February 2022 (UTC)
:Are you assuming the exact same chain of conversions, just with different input values? Surely if he'd chosen to start at (say) 16, he'd have chosen whatever ''other'' chain of conversions would have sent him towards some decent high-value. Might have differed only by the initial conversions before it found itself landing on the same late-path, or could be completely different (to get to a different end) as the biased random-walk of choices hit a different useful stride pattern. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.20|141.101.99.20]] 22:39, 24 February 2022 (UTC)
::Yes, I put different starting speeds into the same conversion chain. Perhaps I should have said "He chose a reasonable starting speed and chain of conversions to maximize the gain." I was initially surprised that starting at 16mph ends at 15mph, then decided to plot it. The grouping of ending speeds also surprised me, but in hindsight that's to be expected with multiple round offs. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.75.17|162.158.75.17]] 23:02, 24 February 2022 (UTC)
:::Not surprising at all. Given any random (not selectively chosen) conversion-then-rounding function, you'd expect about half the time you get a lowered (absolute) value rather than a raised one, for the input number somewhere in the range 1 to infinity. For any pair of measures of unequal scales but sharing zero. (Possibly also viable in non-equal and dislocated scales, like °C and °F, but that's just a hunch that I've not emperically checked, and not applicable here anyway.)
:::The chain chosen was conspicuously optimal to get the starting value 17 to always rise. Possibly by the maximum possible amount, on each chosen step, from amongst all those considered conversions, but I haven't checked this. It even has a viable unit_A=>unit_B for one rounding rise then unit_B=>unit_A for yet another rounding rise, because it happily works like that at the respective points of each scale.
:::But when you start from a different value, you lose the initial upwards-bias in the same 'meshing' and on each subsequent Randall-chosen one. It's pretty much a random sequence, as far as the value that it wasn't designed for is concerned. Logic dictates that it will downplay the value about as often as it will up-play it, for most scenarios. Except maybe at resonant multiple/divisors of the original (which will still chaotically drift, as rounding up .6 for a value would mean rounding down .3 for value/2 or down from .2 for value*2, setting you up for the next function in the adopted sequence to fail), but then 17 is prime so you'd have to start with 34 for that to (sometimes) work.
:::And, assuming the sequence is chosen for maximising upwards, you've got the function at each stage that is selected precisely because ''for that exact state-value'' it is specifically upward-trending, so when you try that in a different context reversion-to-the-mean suggests you're perhaps more likely to hit one of the downward-trends in the relationship.
:::My theory is that for any given starting value, some convert-then-round (from a sufficiently diverse choice of options) will always maximise the resulting magnitude. And that result will always have its own maximal conversion. Although those two operations may be less maximising in combination than a submaximal first operation (maybe, in some cases, a slight ''reduction''?) that 'lands' on a better number for a differing secondary maximiser step to act upon. So a full search-path needs to consider an N-step look-ahead method rooted in a breadth-first trial of each step-1, etc, to optimise the maximiser-optimiser process. But I haven't the time to test it right now. Maybe later! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.77|172.70.162.77]] 00:53, 25 February 2022 (UTC)
::In fact, the starting value of 17 is most definitely optimal for these choices of units, assuming you want only one optimal choice of rounding (not having to choose between several equivalent values, and not end up non-rounding, like you get at 45 mph). A simple spreadsheet with the ablity to copy-paste an indefinite number of steps with error-checking is here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ZUSbUmY2rz2JqJBfYIC2GQJucOJ71A0riTCm_OAE4VU/edit#gid=962607803 [[Special:Contributions/141.101.69.214|141.101.69.214]] 16:46, 9 March 2022 (UTC)

A note about the propulsion system in the mouseover text: This system is not entirely novel and was first proposed by Douglas Adams who suggested using the notebooks of waiters in bistros to achieve the desired precision loss. He suggested it should be possible to achieve speeds of round ∞kph (∞mph) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.202.247|162.158.202.247]]
:The books don't mention those details in their description of "bistromathics", and I don't recall them having been added to the radio adaptations. [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 23:15, 24 February 2022 (UTC)
::To clarify: the book mentions the waiters' notebooks, but nothing about precision loss or achievable speeds. [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 16:55, 25 February 2022 (UTC)
:The Improbability Drive (in the Hitchiker's Guide) also seems somewhat related.
:What relation can that have? I'm looking at {{link|https://hitchhikers.fandom.com/wiki/Bistromathics|this link}}. [[User:GcGYSF(asterisk)P(vertical line)e|GcGYSF(asterisk)P(vertical line)e]] ([[User talk:GcGYSF(asterisk)P(vertical line)e|talk]]) 03:32, 25 February 2022 (UTC)
:The various things that {{w|Hex (Discworld)|Discworld's "Hex"}} can do (including occasionally providing magical teportation) can rely upon it trying lots of 'impossible' things very quickly "before the universe notices". [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.125|162.158.159.125]] 14:19, 25 February 2022 (UTC)
:My favorite "impossible" thing mentioned in the Hitchhiker's Guide is be able to fly by "learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss". I have done this successfully while dreaming, but have never accomplished it while wide awake. But it is surely worth trying. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.49|108.162.219.49]] 15:13, 25 February 2022 (UTC)
::people on ISS miss the ground all day long, while falling at astounding speeds. [[User:Bmwiedemann|Bmwiedemann]] ([[User talk:Bmwiedemann|talk]]) 04:48, 5 March 2022 (UTC)
:Interestingly, it's impossible to get above 45 mph using any of the units Randall used: Converting 45 mph into any of those units always results in either an integral number or a number with fractional part below 0.5, which would result in rounding down. (I've used https://www.unitconverters.net/speed-converter.html for the more common units).--[[Special:Contributions/172.70.250.159|172.70.250.159]] 17:36, 25 February 2022 (UTC)
:It also reminds me of the Dungeons & Dragons "Peasant Railgun," which abuses a queue of readied actions to accelerate a projectile to relativistic velocities. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.110.163|172.70.110.163]] 19:59, 25 February 2022 (UTC)

"Normally, when you say you can ride a bike at 45 mph if you round, you mean that you can ride at a speed between 44.5 and 45.5, something most people are incapable of doing." When I was MUCH younger, in my late teens or early twenties, I decided to bicycle from a northern suburb of Philadelphia to my home in Hockessin, DE. It was a hot summer day and, only being in average shape, I underestimated my ability to hold up under the heat. A Delaware State Trooper wound up driving me and my bike to my destination. Halfway through my trip, I was going down a long hill on U.S. 1 in Media, PA and decided to see how fast I could go. The speed limit was 55 MPH. My speedometer didn't read that high, but I was passing cars going in the same direction. I estimate I was going at 5-10 MPH faster than the cars, and I'd guess they were going at least 55 MPH. So this statement may be true--most being more than 50%--but I suspect most young men of that age would be capable of 45 MPH and faster.
[[User:Hugh|Hugh]] ([[User talk:Hugh|talk]]) 15:20, 1 March 2022 (UTC)

I don't normally use this wiki so I don't know standard practices, but it might be worth pointing out somewhere on the explanations page that [https://mathoverflow.net/questions/416965/how-far-away-can-we-get-by-multiple-rounding-and-unit-change the question (implicitly raised in this comic) has been asked on MathOverflow] of whether it's possible to get to arbitrarily large (or small) values using conversion-and-rounding between a finite set of units, and [https://mathoverflow.net/questions/416965/how-far-away-can-we-get-by-multiple-rounding-and-unit-change/417018#417018 the answer is 'no']. So maybe one of y'all wants to add one of these links in the appropriate place, whitherever that may be. --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.69.46|141.101.69.46]] 08:59, 29 April 2022 (UTC)

The current speed record for a bicycle is 183.932 mph. Of course that was a special bicycle drafting behind a car. {{unsigned ip|172.69.59.147|15:57, 20 March 2025}}

3058: Tall Structures

2025-03-05T18:09:25Z

172.71.178.96: /* Explanation */ Specifically what is being suggested, there?

{{comic
| number = 3058
| date = March 3, 2025
| title = Tall Structures
| image = tall_structures_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x430px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Briefly set a new record for tallest human-made structure by getting my knit sweater snagged on the skydiving plane door as I jumped and not noticing until I'd landed.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Need to add more details[''Specifically what?''] to the table.}}

This is a comparison of various tall buildings and structures, ranging from a {{w|pyramid of Giza}} to the {{w|Burj Khalifa}}, sorted by increasing height. The pyramid of Giza was the tallest structure in the ancient world, and the Burj Khalifa is broadly acknowledged as the tallest building in the world. When comparing the tallest structures of various types, the question of definitions often becomes important. Some definitions define the heights of buildings to their highest occupied floor, while others including all permanent structures, including spires and antennae on top of the building (which may comprise a significant portion of the building's height). There's also the question of whether structures need to be self-supporting to be counted, since structures such as antennae may be extremely tall, but only stay up with the help of {{w|guy-wires}}.

In this comic, [[Randall]] seems to take the broadest possible definition, apparently defining a "structure" as any artificial construct with continuous extent from the ground to its height. The comic then demonstrates how ludicrous such a broad definition becomes, by portraying a "random {{w|aerostat}}", tethered to the ground by a long cable, which is by far the tallest structure on the chart, significantly exceeding the height of the Burj Khalifa.

An aerostat is a lighter-than-air aircraft that can be tethered to the ground. A {{w|kite balloon}} (or {{w|kytoon}}) is a variant of the aerostat where the balloon body includes a lifting-body or kite design for additional lift. It is more stable than a balloon in winds and tends to hold its position above the tether. This is the main joke of the comic, since as long as it is tethered to the ground and is higher than the Burj Khalifa, it could be considered the tallest man-made structure. Since aerostats (and similar tethered flying objects) are generally not counted as "structures", this points out that, without agreed-upon and restrictive definitions, the question of what's tallest quickly becomes meaningless. There is a {{w|Compliant tower|class of structures}}, typically seen in oil platforms, that are "medium supported" and that use buoyancy to stand 'tall' above their anchored deep-sea end in an otherwise freestanding manner; there are clear parallels to the concept of a tethered balloon, and {{w|Petronius (oil platform)|one such structure}} had indeed been touted by some as the "tallest free-standing structure" up until the Burj Khalifa physically surpassed it.

The comic doesn't accurately depict the world record for how high tethered aerostats can actually fly (4880 meters, achieved on 23 September 2014, close to 6 times the height of Burj Khalifa), which would either dwarf the other buildings or make the comic very tall, but since it is just some random aerostat flying at that time that is shown, this may be at a much lower height.

The title text takes this point even further, claiming that Randall once skydived out of an airplane wearing a knit sweater, which caught on the airplane door, and presumably unraveled as he descended. The implication being that the yarn unraveled without breaking during his entire descent. When he reached the ground, the long thread presumably extended from his body up to the plane (typically 8,000 to 14,000 feet, or 2,400 to 4,300 m, above the ground). For the tiny moment between when he hit the ground and when the thread snapped or came loose (since the plane was still moving), this would "briefly" form a structure, under the broadest possible definition, and would therefore set a new record. This is not realistically feasible, since knit tops usually only use around 1000 m (3280 ft) of yarn if knit using thin fingerling weight yarn. However, a sweater knit at a T-shirt density could, in principle, use over 2000 m (6561 ft) of yarn, which (assuming it hasn't started felting) is enough to extend to skydiving height.

===Table of structures in the comic===

{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Name !! Height !! {{w|List_of_tallest_buildings_and_structures#History|Tallest structure}} !! Explanation
|-
| {{w|Great Pyramid of Giza|The Great Pyramid}} (Giza) || 137 m (449.5 ft) || style="text-align:center" data-sort-value="-2570" | c. 2570 BC–1311 AD || A famous pyramid built c. 2570 BC
|-
| {{w|The Shard}} (London) || 309.6 m (1,016 ft) || style="text-align:center" | – || A skyscraper with steeply angled sides, the tallest 'habitable freestanding structure' in the UK.
|-
| The {{w|Eiffel Tower}} (Paris) || 330 m (1,083 ft) || style="text-align:center" | 1889–1930 || A wrought-iron lattice tower named after its designer, Gustave Eiffel
|-
| The {{w|Empire State Building}} (New York) || 443.2 m (1,454 ft) || style="text-align:center" | 1931–1967 || An art-deco office tower often seen in media
|-
| The {{w|CN Tower}} (Toronto) || 553.3 m (1,815 ft) || style="text-align:center" | 1975–2007 || A communication and observation tower in Canada
|-
| {{w|The Clock Towers}} (Mecca) || 601 m (1,972 ft) || style="text-align:center" | – || A hotel complex featuring the largest clock in the world
|-
| {{w|KRDK-TV mast}} (North Dakota) || 630 m (2,060 ft) || style="text-align:center" | – || Current tallest structure in the United States ({{w|KVLY-TV mast
}} was previously taller)
|-
| {{w|Shanghai Tower}} (Shanghai) || 632 m (2,073 ft) || style="text-align:center" | – || Tallest skyscraper in China
|-
| {{w|Tokyo Skytree}} (Tokyo) || 634.0 m (2,080 ft) || style="text-align:center" | – || Tallest tower in the world
|-
| {{w|Merdeka 118}} (Kuala Lumpur) || 678.9 m (2,227 ft) || style="text-align:center" | – || A skyscraper with diamond-shaped facades
|-
| {{w|Burj Khalifa}} (Dubai) || 828 m (2,717 ft) || style="text-align:center" | 2007–present || Tallest structure in the world
|-
| Some random {{w|aerostat}} that happens to be operating today || ~1,280 m (4,200 ft) (Depicted) {{w|Tethered Aerostat Radar System#System|~4,600 m (15,000 ft)}} (Actual) || style="text-align:center" | Varies || The main joke in the comic
|}

==Transcript==

:[Labels below structures shown in a black silhouette, from left to right, shortest to tallest:]
:The Great Pyramid (Giza)
:The Shard (London)
:The Eiffel Tower (Paris)
:The Empire State Building (New York)
:The CN Tower (Toronto)
:The Clock Towers (Mecca)
:KRDK-TV Mast (North Dakota)
:Shanghai Tower
:Tokyo Skytree
:Merdeka 118 (Kuala Lumpur)
:Burj Khalifa (Dubai)
:Some random aerostat that happens to be operating today

:[Caption below the panel:]
:The Burj Khalifa is the world's tallest artificial structure, but only on days when no one is flying a high-altitude kite balloon aerostat.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Aviation]]