explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:2852: Parameterball

2023-11-09T11:28:54Z

172.71.242.83:

added transcript and a kinda crappy explanation [[User:Certified_nqh|Me]][[[285: Wikipedian Protester|''citation needed'']]][[Category:Pages using the "citation needed" template]] 17:36, 8 November 2023 (UTC)
: added a bit of crappy info to the explanation. also hi nqh [[User:SomeoneIGuess|someone, i guess]]([[User talk:SomeoneIGuess|talk i guess]]|[[Special:Contributions/SomeoneIGuess|le edit list]]) 17:42, 8 November 2023 (UTC)
: added crappy edits. also do i have an account or… [[User:TenGolf MathHacker|TenGolf MathHacker]] ([[User talk:TenGolf MathHacker|talk]]) 19:30, 8 November 2023 (UTC)

Does the tennis court in upper right look about 50% larger than normal to anyone else? The ping-pong table definitely looks too small, about half size. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 18:07, 8 November 2023 (UTC)

: I'd say the the upper right is similar width to a tennis court but is 25% longer. The lower left looks to be similar width to table tennis / ping pong but is about half as long. So the explanations for those need revising. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.51|162.158.62.51]] 18:13, 8 November 2023 (UTC)

I have some neat plans for that Incomplete template. Get ready for an occasional change to something random that uses anything but metric... [[User:SomeoneIGuess|someone, i guess]]([[User talk:SomeoneIGuess|talk i guess]]|[[Special:Contributions/SomeoneIGuess|le edit list]]) 18:29, 8 November 2023 (UTC)
: mobile account here, first of many implemented [[Special:Contributions/172.70.42.48|172.70.42.48]] 20:55, 8 November 2023 (UTC)
If no limits, then neutron star or black hole ball exists as much as more non lethal games. {{unsigned ip|172.71.151.139|00:06, 9 November 2023}}

Could the title text be talking about the mass of a bowling ball, rather than then density? If the diameter of a bowling ball is 20cm and the diameter of a table tennis ball is 4cm, which is consistent with a quick Google search, than the volume of the bowling ball is around 125 times as big as the table tennis ball (because we have to cube it for three dimensions). Let's assume a bowling ball is 12 pounds, which is about average. Therefore, a ping pong ball with the density of a bowling ball would weigh much less than a pound. A 12 pound table tennis ball, however, could easily cause equipment damage. [[User:Thexkcdnerd|Thexkcdnerd]] ([[User talk:Thexkcdnerd|talk]]) 02:44, 9 November 2023 (UTC)
:I'm sure a one-pound table tennis ball could do sufficient damage to destroy a racquet, but I guess there's really only one way to find out, and I don't know where to find a one-pound ping pong ball. Or is it pingpong? Ping-Pong? pingPong? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.214.62|172.70.214.62]] 05:03, 9 November 2023 (UTC)
::Originally "gossima", with hard rubber balls, even before "whiff-waff" (or "wiff-waff" or "whiff-whaff" or something). First ''properly'' marketed as "ping-pong", in its recognisable form though. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.122.115|172.71.122.115]] 09:07, 9 November 2023 (UTC)
:Isn't the bowling ball a reference to the 'bowling ball on a sheet' metaphor for the distortion of space-time by the gravitational fields of massive objects?[[Special:Contributions/172.71.123.146|172.71.123.146]] 09:31, 9 November 2023 (UTC)

Does the screwdriver measurement relate to the drink or the tool?[[Special:Contributions/172.69.194.245|172.69.194.245]] 09:32, 9 November 2023 (UTC)

The explanation claims that the max density depicted is that of a bowling ball. However, the balls in the first three panels look much too light for that, and the ball in the fourth would probably have crushed the player if it was that dense.[[Special:Contributions/172.71.242.83|172.71.242.83]] 11:28, 9 November 2023 (UTC)

2833: Lying

2023-09-26T09:53:42Z

172.71.242.83: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2833
| date = September 25, 2023
| title = Lying
| image = lying_2x.png
| imagesize =
| noexpand = true
| titletext = I was, at least at the start of this disastrous game night, your friend.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by an HONEST BOT (That's something a mafioso would say) - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

{{w|Mafia (party game)|Mafia}} (also known as Werewolf) is a party game centered around two opposing teams who must eliminate each other: the mafiosi (or werewolves, accordingly) whose aim is to secretly gain a majority and the ordinary players (who may be termed 'villagers') who have to resist this. While the mafiosi know who are mafiosi and who are villagers, the villagers do not know any other person's role. The mafioso also need to keep their affilation secret from the villagers so long as they are outnumbered. The game alternates between day and night phases. During the day, all villagers (and their opponents, under the guise of being villagers) vote on which suspected to be anti-villager should be 'lynched' (removed from the game). During the night, all surviving members of the mafia decide upon which villager should be 'killed' to further their own purposes.

Here we have [[Cueball]] (possibly [[Randall]]), [[Megan]], [[Ponytail]], and [[White Hat]] sitting at a table playing some sort of game. In this game some sort of secret must be maintained by lying. Cueball was quickly unable to maintain the lie and came clean, hoping that they would remain friends. The other members are annoyed by his undermining of the basic concept of the game, and White Hat offers to play another game called {{w|Taboo (game)|Taboo}}. This may not improve things - given Cueball's apparent inability to maintain secrets, he may feel compelled to tell them the word concealed on his card, and thereby immediately lose.

The title text could both be referring to what Cueball says about how the others are his friends, and also that the others could have gotten so annoyed that they stop being his friends. It could also be a reference to Spock's dying words in Star Trek II: "I have been, and always shall be, your friend".

In reality, Cueball could actually be cleverly playing one of a number of other roles that a mafia/werewolf game can have. There are additional player-types that win by ''being'' voted off (sometimes this must be a day-vote, a night-vote by the 'bad guys' is a loss), and others that make the player invulnerable to votes in certain conditions, make the 'kill' act upon another player and/or result in assisting those in a further 'team' of conspirators. Though usually such complications aren't included in gaming groups with as few as four players.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

:[Cueball, Megan, Ponytail, and White Hat sit around a table.]
:Cueball: It's me. I can't look you in the eyes and tell you it's not. I'm sorry, I know this ruins everything.
:Cueball: I just need you to know that you're my friends and you can trust me.
:Megan: ...This is ridiculous.
:White Hat: Let's just play Taboo instead.

:[Caption below the panel:]
:I'm really bad at those Mafia-style games where you have to lie.

== Trivia ==
This comic was published as the unscaled original drawing, at an outstanding 4422x6653. This is probably an accident.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Games]]

Talk:2833: Lying

2023-09-26T09:08:20Z

172.71.242.83:

Why the heck is the image so biiiiig? {{unsigned ip|172.69.135.23|03:54, 26 September 2023}}
:well, looks like he accidentally published the source file for the comic... [[Special:Contributions/141.101.100.205|141.101.100.205]] 04:06, 26 September 2023 (UTC)
::Good. People should be using HD monitors by now. (EDIT: I didn't realize it was 8k, but still, don't most browsers let you resize images anyway?) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.126.188|172.70.126.188]] 08:41, 26 September 2023 (UTC)
:::Why do I have to lug around an HD monitor as well as my smart-tablet?
:::(Actually, it's not width that's the problem, for me, but height. As using in portrait orientation makes text too small for browsing, and I hate sites that 'mobile optimise' assuming I'll turn my device that way.)
:::Note that especially wide images play merry-hell with the rest of the page (when it breaks out of the pixel-limits assumex, and an image that's twice as large (in both dimensions) could be quadruple the data (depending upon image compression), which has data/bandwidth/etc issues that not everyone can easily suck up and laugh off, even in this post dial-up era. It ought to be best not to assume that the best quality image is the 'best' or desired, although that ship has long sailed. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.242.83|172.71.242.83]] 09:08, 26 September 2023 (UTC)

The rhythm of the title text calls to mind Spock's words to Kirk as he's dying at the end of Wrath of Khan: "I have been, and always shall be, your friend." This can't be a coincidence. {{unsigned ip|172.70.210.182|08:06, 26 September 2023}}

I'm the same. Can't stand these games. I have a hard enough time with jokes that people refuse to explain; if I have to _intentionally_ mislead people, who know my tics to start, where's the line? What's real, what's fake, what's important, what's just another joke?

I need to lighten up? No, the world needs to be comprehensible. I can't just choose to know what's real and what isn't. Other people can very easily make it clear to me, if they so desire.
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.2.39|162.158.2.39]] 06:35, 26 September 2023 (UTC)
:i, uh, good for you. [[user talk:lettherebedarklight|youtu.be/miLcaqq2Zpk]] 07:04, 26 September 2023 (UTC)
:Simple answer: Don't play those games.
:Non-simple answer: Learn how to play those games with your advanced hyper-analytical abilities being used to your advantage (or as a "non-optional social convention") in which the reality is the game you're in and thus you are fulfilling the role of your existence.
:Meta-answer: I think you're a Joker (winning condition is to be lynched). Or maybe one of a number of other player-types which demands that you play differently from either mainstrean Mafia or vanilla Villager. Which, in a four-player game (very short of practical assignments!) makes it a bastard-setup of some sort. (Rather than single mafia/werewolf and all the rest vanilla village, or ''possibly'' one cop/special-role of some kind.) [[Special:Contributions/172.71.242.83|172.71.242.83]] 09:08, 26 September 2023 (UTC)

2816: Types of Solar Eclipse

2023-08-16T20:48:02Z

172.71.242.83: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2816
| date = August 16, 2023
| title = Types of Solar Eclipse
| image = types_of_solar_eclipse_2x.png
| imagesize = 501x572px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = The best place to be for a hug eclipse is a scenic natural area with good views and few clouds. The worst place to be is the lunar surface.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a DARK SHADOW OF A DRAGON THAT PERIODICALLY EATS THE SUN - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

{{comic discussion}}

Talk:2788: Musical Scales

2023-06-20T21:34:21Z

172.71.242.83:

The page says it was last edited about four hours from now. I'm wondering wether the lineage of in the hall... is worth mentioning. ie Grieg composed it for an Ibsen play. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.175.178|172.70.175.178]] 23:06, 12 June 2023 (UTC)
:(It's server time. Which is set as UTC. Currently matches central European summer time, I guess, but is one hour behind me (using BST in ordinary life), but matches me nicely when I'm back on GMT. If I read you right, I'm guessing you're on the US east-coast TZ (or equivalent, elsewhere in the Americas), and if you're on DST right now you'll find you have to mentally adjust by ''five'' whenever you're not. I imagine that logged-in people can configure dynamic time displays to local time (for themselves), but 'hard written records like on these signatures probably aren't converted 'live' (no good way to not mess up with false-changes/false-nonchanges) so there's probably no point doing that anyway. Just realise that you need to remember that it's an offset of four/five/whatever-it-might-be for your current time and place and rejoice that (with a spherical Earth, not somehow unified under one global political system that can tell all people to work with ever stranger hours of daylight, therefore with necessarily disjointed timezones) at least there's no possibility of falling off the 'edge' and perhaps into the jaws of the world-serpent. There are plenty of other problems, but not that! ...and no doubt there was discussion as to whether to align with Randall's habitual locale, instead, but more people know how to convert between their local UTC±whatever and straight UTC (or don't have to) than might be expected to reliably cross convert between two different ± values, correctly and accounting for whether either or both are DST at the moment. So I don't just say I'm happy with the situation because (for half a year) it matches my own TZ, I think it's just best all round. And doubtless various Europeans think so too (especially the other half of the year!). With apologies to Kiwis, Hawaiians and everyone else for the minor (but predictable) time-shifts they pretty kuch always have to consider, but still would even if you were happily aligned by circumstance... ;) ) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.220|141.101.98.220]] 09:42, 13 June 2023 (UTC)

::No, central European summer time is TWO hours away from UTC. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 20:06, 13 June 2023 (UTC)
::The UTC times are usually 4 hours ahead of me, and I'm Eastern, the first North American time zone, same as New York City and Miami (i.e. now it's just past midnight, on the West coast of North America it's just past 9pm). Usually I find my friends in U.K. are 5 hours away from me (and my time zone is always listed as -5), my family in Europe tend to be 6, but I think that changes with Daylight Savings (we ALMOST got rid of the stupid useless Daylight Savings last year, I'm hoping for this year). UTC always seems to resolve to the middle of the ocean, I always wonder why UTC exists at all, why not go with Greenwich Mean Time in such cases??? So, yeah, the "last edit" was probably just before your comment, and you're in the same time zone as me. [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 04:22, 17 June 2023 (UTC)
:::UTC==GMT (for all practical purposes), i.e. Greenwich-zeroed, straight down the Prime Meridian (solar time) and UK-wide time when not we're not on BST==UTC+1. East Coast US is 5 hours from us, ''except'' for the week or three when either the entry or the exit from DST (I forget which one, but it ''is'' just the one or other) is not the same weekend for both UK and US, so we're disjointed by an hour (I think it reduces to 4 hours, but it's been a while since I needed to know that to avoid disturbing anyone's sleep/lunch). However, UTC definitely isn't in the ocean (well, not the main bits) like you seem to say. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.169|172.70.85.169]] 05:25, 17 June 2023 (UTC)
::::No, UTC=/=GMT, they're an hour apart, usually. Whenever I check. That's why it doesn't make sense. I'm not sure if it cuts into the western part of Africa, but if not that entire time zone is ocean (which may be the point, to not favour anybody). GMT, a.k.a. the time in England, is 5 hours from me, time for my friends in England are 5 hours ahead of me in Eastern, and any time I have to set my time zone it's listed as "GMT -5", usually along with one of the major cities in this time zone (like New York, Miami, Montreal, Toronto). UTC is 4, as proven by my 22 minutes past midnight comment being marked as 4:22am. EVERY time I check where 4 hours is, it's the middle of the ocean. Since it sounds like you're in the GMT zone, did you not comment at 6:25am? Two things are for sure: I'm "GMT -5" and UTC is +4 for me, making it GMT -1. [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 06:05, 17 June 2023 (UTC)
::::: {{w|Greenwich Mean Time}}=={{w|Coordinated Universal Time}}+0. I ''would'' be in GMT zone but (like your other friends, here) I'm technically in {{w|British Summer Time}} right now, which is +1 to either of those two. I commented then at 5:25 GMT/UTC, but it was actually 6:25 BST. Midnight+22 minutes in your timezone is 4:22am UTC/GMT right now(/then). Because whilevyou are UTC-5 for half the year, you are UTC-4 right now with DST shifting ''you'' Eastwards, into the ocean, effectively, like it shoves me 'eastwards' (into the time that Paris/etc would have, if it wasn't for {{w|Central European Time}} places now being {{w|Central European Summer Time}} at +2...).
:::::: See my reply below, :) Though I thought GMT was simply the name for the time zone in England. My time zone being officially GMT -5 and UTC being GMT -1 by comparison seems to say you're incorrect? I swear, every country needs to just drop this Daylight Savings crap, it just causes confusion, it serves no practical purpose. [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 05:20, 18 June 2023 (UTC)
::::::: Your mistake is in believing that GMT is ''ever'' anything other than UTC+0. And it's not DST causing confusion, because GMT never includes any DST adjustment. That's what BST is for. c.f. your(?) own EST and EDT. "London time" (or "UK..."/"English..." or whatever region/town you wish to label) varies by moving between +0 and +1 offsets on top of UTC/GMT, identically.
::::::: The complaints about DST (in my country and yours) are well known, but different issues. Indeed, some people would prefer that we do one last "spring on" one year but then never "fall back" again. Then Greenwich (the place) ''might'' never again be at UTC, but I suspect that GMT will remain equivalent to UTC but now we'd be on British Standard Time (UTC+1/GMT+1) all year, rather than British Summer Time (likewise) for only about half of it.
::::::: Or there are those who always wanted to just miss ''one'' 'fall back' to then align ourselves with CET/CEDT of the large swathe of Central Europe (and most places that we would cross the Channel/North Sea/Bay Of Biscay to reach), but that doesn't remove DST and as for moving towards Germany/France/etc, I suspect people would either hate that or find it now pointless since the B-word was initiated. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.242.83|172.71.242.83]] 21:34, 20 June 2023 (UTC)
::::: GMT and UTC are basically synonyms, but both are only 'correct' time for England (and Wales, Scotland, NI, IoM, Channel Islands, non-British Ireland and the non-British Portugal; but ''not'' Gibraltar and of course other OTs ...except maybe an Antarctic base or two) for the non-DST half of the year. Wait six months, check time.is (or your favourite method of finding times in other places) and you'll be 5 hours adrift from UTC+0 and GMT. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.66|172.70.91.66]] 06:32, 17 June 2023 (UTC)
:::::: Ah, but if you take the stance of "Daylight Savings is crap", from that viewpoint it's summer that the time is correct and proper, what would be the official time for each timezone. Meaning OFFICIALLY, GMT is an hour ahead of UTC. :) It's just during winter it happens to sync up (since presumably UTC does not observe Daylight Savings Time). DST is designed for winter, to adjust the daylight to more compatible hours during the winter, to save candle usage (shows how irrelevant and out of date this practice is), the winter time is the one that would be ditched if all the countries got their acts together and dismissed this DST silliness. When the practice is dropped, GMT will be permanently an hour ahead of UTC. Hence my comments of UTC being in the middle of the ocean. :) Last year when the countries were discussing it, the plan was to just not do the Fall Back last November and stay on summer time. Also, I can't check in 6 months because hopefully by then this nonsense will be abolished. [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 05:09, 18 June 2023 (UTC)
::::::: No, GMT (although replaced as a standard by UTC) is always the same as UTC, for our purposes at least. It is not the same as UK local time which varies by summer/winter. Iceland does not have daylight savings and is constantly on UTC so we could talk about Reykjavík time instead. {{unsigned ip|162.158.111.223|07:08, 20 June 2023}}

Now I have to re-listen to In the Hall…; I think there are some errors here.[[Special:Contributions/172.71.146.212|172.71.146.212]] 01:23, 13 June 2023 (UTC)

Can someone make a midi of Hall of the Mountain King but with an exponential time scale to "compensate" for the log transform? I want to hear a version that both starts and ends at 200 bpm. Is there any music that actually uses mathematically varying tempos? [[User:Quantum7|Quantum7]] ([[User talk:Quantum7|talk]]) 06:35, 13 June 2023 (UTC)
: I can't make a midi but I can make an mp3: https://voca.ro/17QJDbYxNnlh [[User:Viliml|Viliml]] ([[User talk:Viliml|talk]]) 20:25, 13 June 2023 (UTC)

Ein belegtes Brot mit Schinken, ein belegtes Brot mit Ei...(Germans will understand.) [[Special:Contributions/198.41.242.94|198.41.242.94]] 06:50, 13 June 2023 (UTC)
: das sind zwei belegte Brote, eins mit Schinken und eins mit Ei. [[User:Bischoff|Bischoff]] ([[User talk:Bischoff|talk]]) 07:28, 13 June 2023 (UTC)
:: und dazu eisgekühlter Bommerlunder, Bommerlunder eisgekühlt. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.163|172.69.33.163]] 05:29, 17 June 2023 (UTC)
:: But what does that have to do with dead pants?? [[Special:Contributions/172.71.26.254|172.71.26.254]] 13:36, 13 June 2023 (UTC)
:: I don't really understand much German, and my Dutch is too weak to compensate, so I used my translator... :) (NOW I recognize some words, LOL!) I suspect that's the German equivalent to the English saying "Six of one, half a dozen of the other", :) Basically "Eh, either way works". [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 04:30, 17 June 2023 (UTC)
::: It is a song by Die Toten Hosen that gets quicker and higher for each repeat until you can't sing anymore, https://www.dietotenhosen.de/diskographie/songs/eisgekuehlter-bommerlunder

Why "mistakenly"? Sure there are some-half notes in there, but it's generally linear in the sense that every 7 steps correspond to a doubling of the frequency no matter where you start from {{unsigned ip|172.68.51.197|07:30, 13 June 2023}}
::For the line spacing it doesn't matter much. A true linear-scale staff which takes half-steps into account would have spacings of 0.9, 1.8, 4 and 8. The one glaring discrepancy is that on a true linear scale, the note E5 (659 Hz) would be closer to F5 (698 Hz) than to D5 (587 Hz). [[User:Rick4|Rick4]] ([[User talk:Rick4|talk]]) 14:29, 13 June 2023 (UTC)

Most sheet music is not truly linear in time to begin with. It's pseudo-logarithmic but in the sense that the shorter notes (8ths and 16ths and heaven forbid 32nds for us da**ed drummers) are given MORE space relative to the (fixed) size of the note heads compared to quarter, half, and full notes. This then affects the on-page length of measures: measures with faster notes are longer (as measurable with a small ruler) than those with longer/slower notes, even though -- assuming a fixed tempo -- their play speed (time duration) stays the same. And then you get modifiers like "rit(ardando)", "rall(entando)", "accel(erando)", "piu mosso", "meno mosso", and the like which modify tempo and throw the whole page-space-to-time relation out the window as if the page of sheet music itself (or the audience) sped to near-light speeds. Randall's going off the deep end trying to make this insane notation fit into fixed science rules; best to leave it to us crazy musicians and just enjoy the music. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.65.46|172.69.65.46]] 10:44, 13 June 2023 (UTC)

"Randall seems to have mistakenly assumed" what? no, the entire point of the comic is that Randall knows standard staves do *not* represent a linear increase in frequency. A treble clef is centered on G4, which has a frequency of 392 Hz, F4 has a frequency of 349, and E4 has a frequency of 330. The drawn stave has one line between E4 and F4, corresponding to a jump of about 19 Hz. Two lines between F4 and G4, and we're assuming a linear scale, so that's about right to get to 392. The size of the games grows geometrically, as you expect. Again, this is the entire point of the comic.

:That's not what it says, though. It says he may have assumed it's a linear increase in *pitch*, and therefore a *exponential* increase in frequency.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.2|172.70.86.2]] 08:40, 14 June 2023 (UTC)

::is that not correct? Doesn't an equal temperament scale exactly mean that it is a linear increase in pitch? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.114.240|172.70.114.240]] 16:11, 14 June 2023 (UTC)

:::An equal temperament scale means there's a linear increase in pitch by half-step/semitone, correct. However, any Western scale or mode regardless of quality will only include 7 notes, while there are 13 when including accidentals; the quality is determined by which notes are adjacent or separated by an accidental, or in other words if they are separated by one half-step or two. *However*, since standard notation uses other symbols to indicate deviation from the expected frequency and not separate lines, I'd argue that such would be the approach taken in a world where this sheet music was used. Therefore, I'd say this whole paragraph is unnecessary and misguided. Randall is taking a standard piece of sheet music and warping the scales of the axes, nothing more. He's not trying to make a valid, coherent new system of notation, he's making a graph joke. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.125|162.158.159.125]] 17:27, 14 June 2023 (UTC)

::::But the point is that not only is his 'mistake' version 'wrong' (non-standard), but his remedy would result in notation that was 'wrong' as well, on both 'axes'.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.49|172.70.85.49]] 08:37, 15 June 2023 (UTC)

::::I'm not following. Don't the lines in a staff indicate equal spaced whole steps (between consecutive lines) or half-steps (between lines and spaces)? What is the "mistake" that randall is alleged to have made, and have we agreed that it is infact a mistake or not? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.58|162.158.158.58]] 04:01, 17 June 2023 (UTC)

:::::They do not. Each line in a staff is either a half step or whole step above the space below it, depending on the key. For example, C major has the notes C, D, E, F, G, A, B with no sharps or flats. Each one gets a line or a space between lines on the staff. But the interval between C and D is a whole step, while the interval between E and F is a half step. In equal temperament tuning, every half step has the same ratio, so the ratio in a full step is its square. On a log plot, that would mean the full steps would be twice as wide as the half steps, but they are in fact the same width. It gets even more complicated when you consider accidentals. For instance, D and D♭ are a half step apart but occupy the same line. Meanwhile, B and C♭ are enharmonically equivalent (i.e. the same pitch in equal temperament tuning), but they occupy different parts of the staff. And of course, double accidentals just make things worse. [[User:EebstertheGreat|EebstertheGreat]] ([[User talk:EebstertheGreat|talk]]) 15:12, 17 June 2023 (UTC)

All this musical theory talk is giving me a headache. I think I'll go put on some Zappa, RUSH, and Tool albums to relax. [[User:These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For|These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For]] ([[User talk:These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For|talk]]) 02:25, 19 June 2023 (UTC)