explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:3087: Pascal's Law

2025-05-10T15:58:20Z

172.71.26.43:

I remember learning about this and thinking it was intuitive, but I didn't really think of these consequences. Maybe everybody is making powerful lifting machines for lifting cars and houses with your bare hands, rather than explaining the article, that there isn't one yet. Pascal's law basically says that if you make one end of a container of fluid X times larger, then any force exerted on the small end is multiplied by X on the large end, so you can make it near-infinite by making the small end very small. But you'll need a little more machinery added (like a gear system) if you want the distance actually moved to be higher. Actually I think that might undo the gains in force entirely. That might be how it happens, it might swap distance for force so the same work is performed.

Hey, remember that comic where Randal challenged people to fold a paper too small? This hand-makeable device could get farther on that!
[[Special:Contributions/172.70.111.110|172.70.111.110]] 21:46, 9 May 2025 (UTC)
: yes, that's how it works; the total work is constant and the hydraulic system is converting a small force over a long distance to a large force over a small distance. if you additionally want the force to be over a larger distance, you need to put more energy into the system or else you could push this machine with its own output and get free energy from nothing. really though hydraulics are just smoother, backlashless, equivalents to a gear train in the first place so you generally wouldnt need to use both. - [[User:Vaedez|Vaedez]] ([[User talk:Vaedez|talk]]) 23:37, 9 May 2025 (UTC)
:: Small tube needs to be X times as long to get same displacement. Good for linear force rather than torque. Fluid's own pressure can be the force if tube is long enough. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.55.33|172.68.55.33]] 11:41, 10 May 2025 (UTC)

As someone old enough to remember the [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slashdot_effect slashdot effect], I wonder if XKCD comics generate a similar effect on search engines. Though I doubt they would buckle under the weight these days. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.60.148|172.69.60.148]] 22:00, 9 May 2025 (UTC)

To whoever wrote the initial transcript, remember that we don't include the title text. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 22:06, 9 May 2025 (UTC)

I have to wonder whether he has the same disbelief of, say, levers... which allow one to move the Earth. [[User:Jordan Brown|Jordan Brown]] ([[User talk:Jordan Brown|talk]]) 23:34, 9 May 2025 (UTC)

Although some laws of physics are absolute and lead to extreme consequences, others are taught in a simplified form that can lead to wrong conclusions. For example, "Light and heavy objects fall at the same rate" can be used to prove that objects fall at the same rate on the Earth and the Moon - which is far from correct. If the Moon were somehow dropped onto the Earth, it would fall at a certain rate. The Earth dropped on the Moon would necessarily fall at the same rate. So if the Moon falling on the Earth fell at the same rate as a bowling ball, then the bowling ball would have to fall at the same rate on the Moon. When I read Heinlein's _The Rolling Stones_ as a pre-teen, where he describes things falling slower on the Moon, I applied this reasoning and concluded that Heinlein must have made a mistake. The solution to this paradox is that something as big as the Moon will not only accelerate toward the Earth, it will significantly accelerate the Earth toward it, so the Moon does not actually fall at the same rate as a bowling ball. [[User:Cphoenix|Cphoenix]] ([[User talk:Cphoenix|talk]]) 01:01, 10 May 2025 (UTC)
: I think if you stand at the shared center of mass of the Earth and Moon, that then you see the Moon falling toward the Earth according to its constant field of gravitational acceleration, as well as the Earth falling toward the Moon according to its constant field of acceleration. It was indeed confusing for me to realize this, involving visit to pages such as https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravitational_acceleration . F=Gm1m2/r^2 so if m1 is taken out you get a constant F=m1 a2 and vice versa. But I think the page says this only holds if the masses are far enough from each other to be treatable as points. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.55.47|172.68.55.47]] 11:57, 10 May 2025 (UTC)

Besides, isn't it better to just ''believe'' in Pascal's Law if it offers a reward of near-infinite force?
[[User:StapleFreeBatteries|StapleFreeBatteries]] ([[User talk:StapleFreeBatteries|talk]]) 04:58, 10 May 2025 (UTC)
:I'll wager that you're pleased with that reference... ;) (Whether or not you actually were!) [[Special:Contributions/172.71.26.43|172.71.26.43]] 15:58, 10 May 2025 (UTC)

Could this be referencing or inspired by this recent paper talking about the use of hydraulics to build pyramids? https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0306690 [[Special:Contributions/172.68.234.169|172.68.234.169]] 08:52, 10 May 2025 (UTC)

It could be noted that simple machines can multiply forces more or less arbitrarily, but only up to what the machine itself can withstand. Many "why didn't the ancients do that?" can be answered with "bronze kind of sucks". [[Special:Contributions/172.69.246.149|172.69.246.149]] 14:19, 10 May 2025 (UTC)

2936: Exponential Growth

2025-04-30T10:20:08Z

172.71.26.43: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2936
| date = May 22, 2024
| title = Exponential Growth
| image = exponential_growth_2x.png
| imagesize = 545x264px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Karpov's construction of a series of increasingly large rice cookers led to a protracted deadlock, but exponential growth won in the end.
}}

==Explanation==

In this strip Black Hat begins by demonstrating {{w|exponential growth}}, using a variation of the {{w|wheat and chessboard problem}}, a classic demonstration of this mathematical principle. Exponential growth involves an initial quantity being multiplied by any number greater than one again and again. It can cause small numbers to compound into very large numbers faster than might be intuitive. This principle is important in a number of real life applications, ranging from biological growth to inflation to reaction kinetics.

The earliest versions of this story come from India and involve a man (the inventor of {{w|chess}}, in some tellings), being offered a reward by a king, and asking that a single grain of wheat (rice, in some versions) be placed on the first square of a chessboard, two on the second, and each subsequent square having twice as many grains as the one before. In the story, the king generally laughs off such a reward as being trivial, but soon learns that the reward would be impossible to pay. Since a chessboard contains 64 squares, the final square would contain 263 (9,223,372,036,854,775,808) grains. This would be around 600 billion tonnes of wheat (even in modern times, would be centuries of global wheat production).

In some versions of the story, the man is executed for embarrassing the king and/or being over-greedy; in others, he's rewarded for his cleverness; in yet others he becomes king himself as a consequence. There are also other versions that [https://www.comedy.co.uk/radio/finnemore_souvenir_programme/episodes/7/5/ subvert the well-known tale] by the king not being so naïve as to fall for the 'trick' played by the creator of the problem.

[[Black Hat]] initially appears to be using this example, to demonstrate a mathematical principle, but actually turns out to be using it to "win" a chess match by covering the chess board in rice until his opponent quits out of frustration. Naturally, despite his claims that it's "nearly impossible to counter", under the International Chess Federation ({{w|FIDE}})'s [https://www.fide.com/FIDE/handbook/LawsOfChess.pdf Laws of Chess], this would be illegal on several levels, as deliberately distracting or annoying your opponent is a violation, as is deliberately displacing the chess pieces. Black Hat, being the chaotic [[classhole]] that he is, likely simply doesn't care, and counts it as a win when his opponent [[Hairy]] stomps off out of annoyance.

{{w|Garry Kasparov}} and {{w|Anatoly Karpov}} are both Russian chess grandmasters and former world champions. The two men famously competed for the world championship in the 1980s. The Kasparov gambit is a famous gambit that Kasparov played multiple times (but not, as Black Hat's is, something that can be played very early in the game). The title text implies that Kasparov actually tried Black Hat's method on Karpov, who attempted to consume all the rice with "increasingly large rice cookers", but eventually couldn't keep up. While this is obviously fictional,{{cn}} it fits with the principle of exponential growth. If exponential growth is unrestricted, it will eventually grow beyond the constraints of anything that could plausibly be built to contain it.

In any case, it appears that in his enthusiasm to enact his scheme, Black Hat has neglected to even set up his own pieces (or they have already been completely buried), never mind wait for the game to commence, so Hairy has nothing to resign from - indeed his king still appears to be standing as he walks away, so he may be only assumed to have resigned/defaulted due to competition rules that cover various circumstances in which one may leave the playing area (but, apparently, nothing too restrictive about bringing in sacks of rice).

Another unusual Kasparov gambit is mentioned in [[3082: Chess Position]].

==Math==

The amount of rice collected on each square of the chess board is listed below. It all sums up to around 400 billion tons (or {{w|tonne}}s, the various distinctions being not so important), taking each grain as weighing approximately 0.02 grams. This is 500 times the annual world production.

The last day, alone, would require 200 billion tons. But the implicit nature of this doubling is that the amount of rice you put on at any stage is exactly equal to the amount of rice already on the board ''plus one extra grain''. So there were around 200 billion tons already, before the last square required a virtually identical additional amount.

* First row:
** a1: 1 grain
** a2: 2 grains
** a3: 4 ...
** a4: 8
** a5: 16
** a6: 32
** a7: 64
** a8: 128
* Second row
** b1: 256
** b2: 512
** b3: 1,024
** b4: 2,048
** b5: 4,096
** b6: 8,192
** b7: 16,384
** b8: 32,768
* First column of third to seventh rows
** c1: 65,536 grains (~ 1 kg)
** d1: 16,777,216 (~ 400 kg)
** e1: 4,294,967,296 (~ 100 tons)
** f1: 1,099,511,627,776 (~ 25,000 tons)
** g1: 281,474,976,710,656 (~ 6 million tons)
* Eighth row, in detail
** h1: 72,057,594,037,927,936 (~ 1.5 billion tons, more than the 2022 world harvest)
** h2: 144,115,188,075,855,872
** h3: 288,230,376,151,711,744
** h4: 576,460,752,303,423,488
** h5: 1,152,921,504,606,846,976
** h6: 2,305,843,009,213,693,952
** h7: 4,611,686,018,427,387,904
** h8: 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 (~ 200 billion tons)
* Total: 18,446,744,073,709,551,615

[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e7/Wheat_Chessboard_with_line.svg Example on the chessboard (SVG diagram)]

==Transcript==

:[Black Hat is talking to Cueball standing next to him, arm raised.]
:Black Hat: Exponential growth is very powerful.

:[Closeup on Black Hat. Next to him is an image of the lower left part of a chessboard. The four leftmost squares in the bottom row have grains of rice on them -- one, two, four, and eight grains respectively.]
:Black Hat: A chessboard has 64 squares.
:Black Hat: Say you put one grain of rice on the first square, then two grains on the second, then four, then eight, doubling each time.

:[Black Hat has emptied a bag of rice on a chessboard. There are two additional bags next to him, each labeled "Rice", and a pile of rice already on the table. Some rice has spilled off, and a small pile of rice is growing at Black Hat's feet. A frustrated Hairy is walking away, fists clenched. On Hairy's side of the chessboard there is a white king and pawn.]
:[Caption above panel, representing Black Hat continuing to speak:]
:If you keep this up, your opponent will resign in frustration.
:It's called Kasparov's Grain Gambit. Nearly impossible to counter.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Chess]]
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Food]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]

Talk:2515: Vaccine Research

2025-04-28T11:21:40Z

172.71.26.43:

Too bad White Hat and Randall didn't bother to research the other half of the question. YES, vaccines work to save lives. But There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch, and you need to research *both* sides of any question, not just the side you agree with.[[User:Seebert|Seebert]] ([[User talk:Seebert|talk]]) 12:52, 14 September 2021 (UTC)
: I really don't want this to turn into a long debate, but how do you know White Hat/Randall didn't find anything about the risks of vaccines? They never claim that and the fact that White Hat calls the vaccines "pretty good" instead of something like "perfect" would suggest he's aware of the downsides but considers the benefits to outweigh the risks. [[User:Bischoff|Bischoff]] ([[User talk:Bischoff|talk]]) 13:27, 14 September 2021 (UTC)
:: Since that's left ambiguous (deliberately?), one possible reading of the comic is as a joke on how "my own research" just reinforces prior beliefs, whatever they were. This reading doesn't play as well with the understatement in the punchline, though. --[[Special:Contributions/172.69.71.157|172.69.71.157]] 21:20, 14 September 2021 (UTC)

I don't trust the "scientists", so I decided to do my own research. Anyway, I need 5000 people for a double-blind clinical trial, so DM me if you know anyone interested.
[[User:Svízel přítula|Svízel přítula]] ([[User talk:Svízel přítula|talk]]) 13:25, 14 September 2021 (UTC)
: That's exactly where I thought this comic was going to go when I read the first panel. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.133.217|172.68.133.217]] 18:07, 14 September 2021 (UTC)
:It so happens that I did register to participate in vaccine trials. They didn't call on me yet, so I'm available. Reach out to the Coronavirus Prevention Network here: https://www.coronaviruspreventionnetwork.org/ and maybe I can be one of your subjects. [[User:Nitpicking|Nitpicking]] ([[User talk:Nitpicking|talk]]) 03:23, 15 September 2021 (UTC)

I'm unsure whether I'd call Cueball's response "nonchalant", nor that there's any indication as to his motives being deceptive. I read it more as US-style "irony", or UK-style "understatement as intensifier". --[[Special:Contributions/172.69.71.157|172.69.71.157]] 21:20, 14 September 2021 (UTC)
: I read it as sarcastic, too. Perhaps the explanation should be updated. Sarcasm would also suggest that clearly White Hat doesn't know about the effort because they've spent so much time reading the already produced research on the "100s of Studies" [[User:Sem 1983|Sem 1983]] ([[User talk:Sem 1983|talk]]) 21:26, 14 September 2021 (UTC)
:: Yeah, I did that. Hope my rework didn't suck. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.193|108.162.221.193]] 21:47, 14 September 2021 (UTC)

Should we tag this as a Tuesday comic, or as a Monday comic? This comic was posted on the site on Tuesday, but the "official publication date" per https://xkcd.com/archive/ says it to be 9/13 (Monday). [[Special:Contributions/172.69.34.183|172.69.34.183]] 22:03, 14 September 2021 (UTC)
:If Randall states it is a Monday comic I think we should leave it as such, but it could be stated in a trivia that the comic was first released on Tuesday. Do we know exactly when it was released, and was it for sure Tuesday all over the world at that moment? --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 10:15, 15 September 2021 (UTC)
::It was later than its usual timeframe (hello from the UK where the ''exception'' seems to be that "today's" comic arrives "today" - usually they're an hour or three post-midnight) but if Randall the same nonchanlent attitude towards waking hours as me then even post 5AM might be 'intended' to count... [[Special:Contributions/162.158.88.5|162.158.88.5]] 10:56, 15 September 2021 (UTC)
::: The bot that posted this comic posted it at 11:00 UTC on 9/14 (Tuesday), which corresponds to 4am Pacific Time and 7am Eastern. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.133.139|172.68.133.139]] 17:53, 15 September 2021 (UTC)
::::And 1am Hawaii time. But still Monday near the date line where the US has possessions of small island. I have made a [[2515:_Vaccine_Research#Trivia|trivia]] about this. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 10:55, 16 September 2021 (UTC)

Did Randall misspell “sheepish” or is there a subtle joke in the title text? It reads “sheapish” as of this comment. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.87|172.70.130.87]] 23:14, 14 September 2021 (UTC)
:Says "sheepish" at 03:22 UTC Tuesday. [[User:Nitpicking|Nitpicking]] ([[User talk:Nitpicking|talk]]) 03:23, 15 September 2021 (UTC)
::It also was the correct spelling when [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2515:_Vaccine_Research&oldid=218005 this page was created] by the bot here on explain. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 10:52, 15 September 2021 (UTC)
:::I’m feeling gaslit. May need to check my eyesight.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.209|172.70.130.209]] 13:19, 15 September 2021 (UTC)
::::He he, maybe ;-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 10:55, 16 September 2021 (UTC)
:I missed the use of "sheepish" on my first read, until this comment pointed it out. I suspect this is a reference to how some people refer to others as "sheep" for believing what experts are telling them. This should probably be included somehow. [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 12:05, 15 September 2021 (UTC)
::maybe a double entendre but I’m pretty sure Randall means the usual usage of sheepish - affected by or showing embarrassment caused by consciousness of fault [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.198|162.158.74.198]] 13:24, 15 September 2021 (UTC)
:::Agree with the usual meaning. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 10:55, 16 September 2021 (UTC)

I wonder if this is related with some declarations{{Citation needed}} from rapper Nicki Minaj, unvaccinated, who, after becoming covid-positive, wrote in her Twitter that would leave music aside for a while to investigate by herself the effects of the vaccines. {{unsigned ip|172.70.147.165}}
:I highly doubt it, but maybe is you could give us a link? --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 10:55, 16 September 2021 (UTC)

Natural immunity is superior. {{unsigned|Gatorized|06:06, 28 April 2025}}
:Yes, in a highly idealised world, being already totally immune (for some reason) is preferable to ''either'' catching the thing and from then on (perhaps) being totally immune to its recurrance ''or'' having to bother with vaccinations to kick start the same process. But you don't mean that, do you..?
:You mean that you'll happily get ill, in the hope that when(/if) you get well again you'll never be ill (for that particular reason) again, right? Which sounds more of a crapshoot, to me, than getting something that doesn't come with all the baggage of the real disease. It may be slightly worse for the "never will this affect me in the future" bit, or it could be slightly ''better'' (deliberately broad spectrum, to cover things that your first encounter and "natural immunity" prompt fails to help enough with). There are some diseases that you really don't want to catch and then hope for the best with. (There are also ones that don't leave immunity in their wake, normally.)
:You obviously have an opinion. But I doubt you've thoroughly and reputably researched that opinion. But thank you for your comment, it's always nice to meet new people. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.26.43|172.71.26.43]] 11:21, 28 April 2025 (UTC)

Talk:3074: Push Notifications

2025-04-10T08:02:59Z

172.71.26.43:

So...this is the April Fool's comic, if I'm not mistaken... Oh ye of little faith! [[Special:Contributions/172.71.26.106|172.71.26.106]] 20:00, 9 April 2025 (UTC)

I turned this on thinking it would just be a few every so often but I quickly realized how this is xkcd and it doesn't "joke". I had to turn this off because it disrupted my schoolwork by popping up every fricking 5 minutes

Apparently my employer (or ublock) is keeping me from experiencing the full effect of any notifications. All I get is "An *actual* error has occurred. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.173|162.158.91.173]] 20:52, 9 April 2025 (UTC)
:Yeah, I'm confused too. I've tried Chrome and got nothing. I've tried Edge and got effectively nothing. I progressed one message further, but nothing showed up. No notifications, popups, or whatever. And I have never installed an add-on for Edge. Edge did give me access to the game over screen by disabling notifications, but when I tried to re-enable them, nothing happened.
:
:Is this a mobile-only thing? [[User:EebstertheGreat|EebstertheGreat]] ([[User talk:EebstertheGreat|talk]]) 02:51, 10 April 2025 (UTC)
:
:I'm having the same issue. Firefox doesn't work, which I understand, but neither does Safari. I haven't gotten a single notification. [[User:Mushrooms|Mushrooms]] ([[User talk:Mushrooms|talk]]) 06:57, 10 April 2025 (UTC)
::Problem solved! Turns out I *was* getting notifications, I just wasn't seeing them. --[[User:Mushrooms|Mushrooms]] ([[User talk:Mushrooms|talk]]) 07:07, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

What the heck are the "Zoom Notification" ones, with just a pair of numbers? Now that I've been sitting with this for a little bit, they're by far the most common notifications, and the most mysterious. What is "zoom"ing or should be zoomed-in-on or whatever, and what do the two numbers signify? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.22.75|172.68.22.75]] 20:35, 9 April 2025 (UTC)
:I think they're coordinates. So far (x,y) has had x from 4 fo 73 (that I've seen) and y from 2 to 28. That gives a tad over 2000 possible combinations, but omething tells me there won't be more than 500 or so in total. Quite a few y=24 (not yet adjacent by x), and any given x has 0 to 3 different y partners (so far). They ''do'' repeat (I'm not recording how many times, but I'm scatterplotting what I get). The ones prefixed with "oh look!" are tightly clustered in x=6..13 and y=4..11, so far, with no non-"oh look!" ones there, so I'm plotting them in a different marker. I ''suspect'', after many many more Zoom Notifications, I'll be left with (enough of) a pixelated image's pixels (of two types, background colour excluded), or else I'm doing it wrong and I should be drawing lines between the dots, but I never managed to grab them all, so I'm relying on it being a random "spraygun droplets" sort of image-reveal. (Still some way to go...) [[Special:Contributions/172.71.241.66|172.71.241.66]] 23:08, 9 April 2025 (UTC)
: Also, Zoom is a video chat app, if you didn't know that. That's the joke. [[User:EebstertheGreat|EebstertheGreat]] ([[User talk:EebstertheGreat|talk]]) 02:53, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

Made a new page called [[3074: Push Notifications/Table of Notifications]], much like [[1506: xkcloud/List of Permalinks]]. I’m hoping that we can put all of the possible notifications into the table, along with any possible images that go along with it and an explanation (if necessary). '''[[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]][[User talk:42.book.addict|Talk to me!]]''' 21:26, 9 April 2025 (UTC)
:I think it might be a good idea to make the table something more like source/name/notification, because there are chains of notifications where the name changes, like the How Many Times Can You Click This? notification. --[[User:Magicalus|Magicalus]] ([[User talk:Magicalus|talk]]) 23:19, 9 April 2025 (UTC)
::Might even want to track the URL that the notification leads to in the cases where it opens a new tab. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.142.57|172.71.142.57]]
:Did you mean a page much like [[1506:_xkcloud/List_of_Permalinks]]? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.175.171|162.158.175.171]] 01:25, 10 April 2025 (UTC)
:: Weird, someone changed that. I just reverted it. --[[User:Jacky720|Jack]] ([[User talk:Jacky720|t]]|[[Special:Contributions/Jacky720|c]]) 02:07, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

I clicked on the silence notifications at a cost button a lot and it set Cueball's PC on fire?

I found what is presumably the source code (?) of the comic through the transcript. It’s all JS pages. No idea what they mean (I’m not good with code), but I’m sure that there are some on here that can help dissect it. '''[[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]][[User talk:42.book.addict|Talk to me!]]''' 21:50, 9 April 2025 (UTC)
:https://xkcd.com/3074/marconi/manifest.json
:https://xkcd.com/3074/marconi/static/js/42.4f5b21b3.js
:https://xkcd.com/3074/marconi/static/js/index.js?v=1

: I found this list of states in there, saved to the "iU" variable: intro, wordgame, gameover, biglaptop, boat, default, floating, longdesk, missing, nekotree, nekotree2, nekowater, nodesk, onfire, peek, shark, spinning, squirrel, squirreldesk, squirrelplant, standing, sword, tallchair, tentacle, water, wizard, bigplant, catchair, catonhead, compiling, floor, plant, reverse. Presumably, this is all the images we're looking for. I'll get back to you if I identify what chooses them or all their actual filepaths. --[[User:Jacky720|Jack]] ([[User talk:Jacky720|t]]|[[Special:Contributions/Jacky720|c]]) 00:43, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

: I found more urls:
:https://xkcd.com/3074/marconi/static/js/async/marconi-sw.e9d36d05.js
:https://xkcd.com/3074/marconi/static/js/async/491.7b4e7556.js
:https://xkcd.com/3074/marconi/static/js/async/491.7b4e7556.js --[[Special:Contributions/172.69.23.45|172.69.23.45]] 03:11, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

I have a sneaking suspicion the Zoom Notifications are sketching out an image of some sort
(Update: after plotting like 60 of them no apparent pattern is to be found) [[User:SkiesShaper|SkiesShaper]] ([[User talk:SkiesShaper|talk]]) 22:24, 9 April 2025 (UTC)
: I've plotted 397 and it seems to be forming some kind of animal. Maybe a cat, given the comic theme? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.35.119|172.68.35.119]] 23:24, 9 April 2025 (UTC)
:That could make sense yeah - there is definitely an organic sort of pattern emerging from the points I've been plotting out [[User:SkiesShaper|SkiesShaper]] ([[User talk:SkiesShaper|talk]]) 00:35, 10 April 2025 (UTC)
: I'm pretty sure it's a turtle. I have 311 points so far and while it isn't clear, it looks like a turtle. [[User:IMW|IMW]] ([[User talk:IMW|talk]]) 01:51, 10 April 2025 (UTC)
:: After plotting more I think the "Oh look" coordinates help with drawing out a butterfly sitting on the left side of the turtle. [[User:IMW|IMW]] ([[User talk:IMW|talk]]) 03:36, 10 April 2025 (UTC)
: when the image is saved, it appears to have a hex code as a file name. could be some other thing though [[User:Pncak|Pncak]] ([[User talk:Pncak|talk]]) 04:07, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

Apparently one of the notifications is: "The Earth is spinning at a rate of 1 rpd" This is true if you round it, but not exact. The time it takes to rotate is called a sidereal day, and there's one extra sidereal day a year. Basically, there's one solar day removed in a year, because the Earth's motion around the sun cancels it out. Think of it with a tidally locked planet. It spins around once a year, but the sun never moves. Really there's 1.0027379 rotations per day. [[User:DanielLC|DanielLC]] ([[User talk:DanielLC|talk]]) 23:02, 9 April 2025 (UTC)
: then it is rotating at 1 revolution per ''sidereal'' day, which could still be written as 1 rpd [[User:Firestar233|guess who]] ([[User talk:Firestar233|if you desire conversing]] | [[Special:Contributions/Firestar233|what i have done]]) 05:23, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

This is the most chaotic comic I've seen in a while. Part of me wants to keep notifications on to see what happens, and part of me wants to turn it all off and throw my phone in a lake [[User:Alcatraz ii|Alcatraz ii]] ([[User talk:Alcatraz ii|talk]]) 00:40, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

I am making a sheet with the cordinates: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/133jGfOM6EVuEco4j2NumOAOv6pEealyZpbDoMkESXvs/edit?usp=sharing
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.81|108.162.216.81]] 01:31, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

Should we start uploading different images? [[User:Firestar233|guess who]] ([[User talk:Firestar233|if you desire conversing]] | [[Special:Contributions/Firestar233|what i have done]]) 03:48, 10 April 2025 (UTC)
: And should we create a new page for the images or put them all on the same page, like with umwelt. [[User:Firestar233|guess who]] ([[User talk:Firestar233|if you desire conversing]] | [[Special:Contributions/Firestar233|what i have done]]) 03:49, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

Underneath the "Silence Notifications at a Cost" button, it says "Temporarily pause your notifications at the cost of notifying two random people". Does anyone know how for how long notifications stay silenced, or if there is a way to "unsilence" notifications? Also, when I click on the cats they just disappear. [[User:PDesbeginner|PDesbeginner]] ([[User talk:PDesbeginner|talk]]) 04:09, 10 April 2025 (UTC)
: When I click on the cats I get a push notification with a cat fact.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.127.58|172.70.127.58]] 05:35, 10 April 2025 (UTC)
Just like any other button, you can click it really fast by clicking the button and then holding "enter" or spacebar. [[User:Firestar233|guess who]] ([[User talk:Firestar233|if you desire conversing]] | [[Special:Contributions/Firestar233|what i have done]]) 04:35, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

Someone should probably comment on "April 1st (observed)". I assume it's a reference to the fact that the comic is late? --[[User:Mushrooms|Mushrooms]] ([[User talk:Mushrooms|talk]]) 07:53, 10 April 2025 (UTC)
:Aye, as in: {{wiktionary|observed}} #2 [[Special:Contributions/172.71.26.43|172.71.26.43]] 08:02, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

Is it morally wrong to spam the temporary silence button, just because I want to give other people notifications? [[User:Broseph|Broseph]] ([[User talk:Broseph|talk]]) 08:01, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

Talk:Philosophy guy

2025-03-21T08:02:51Z

172.71.26.43: /* delete it */

[[Category:Pages to delete]]

== delete it ==

now

[[Special:Contributions/172.70.58.29|172.70.58.29]] 10:16, 30 September 2024 (UTC)

What actually was the purpose of this page? Seems to have been here quite a while without being deleted. --[[User:1234231587678|1234231587678]] ([[User talk:1234231587678|talk]]) 02:13, 21 March 2025 (UTC)

:As I recall, it was (wrongly) created for the "Psychology Guy" in [[435: Purity]], possibly also seen in [[954: Chin-Up Bar]]. But the name was wrong and the need limited. I think the [[Psychology Guy]] page/moved-page was then deleted, but this hasn't been yet. (No rush, it at least makes an interesting talking point.) [[Special:Contributions/172.71.26.43|172.71.26.43]] 08:02, 21 March 2025 (UTC)

Talk:703: Honor Societies

2025-03-07T01:46:03Z

172.71.26.43: Unsigned reply was unsigned. (And unindented, so presuming not a direct reply cascading off what was above.)

A tautology is a statement that is always true and that doesn't convey any information. A classic example is 'A or not A', which is true if A is true, but also if A isn't true. 'Either it rains or it doesn't rain' is true, no matter what weather it is.

"If 1.000.000 people join this group, it will have 1.000.000 people in it" is, strictly speaking, not a tautology, since it wouldn't be true if - somehow - 1.000.000 people were able to join the group without it having 1.000.000 people in it (I don't know - maybe if people leave the group before the counter hit 1.000.000?). It would also be true if there were somehow 1.000.000 members of the group without 1.000.000 people joining it. It is of the form 'if A then A' which is pretty much a much longer version of just 'A'. It's true if it's true, and it isn't if it isn't - so it isn't a tautology.

The same goes for 'The first rule of the tautology club is the first rule of the tautology club' - It's just a long way of saying "This is the first rule of the tautology club' - which can be true or false.
:No, it's saying that, whatever the first rule of the club is at any given moment, that's the first rule of the club. Which cannot be false. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.38|108.162.216.38]] 16:39, 11 February 2014 (UTC)

Granted; the statements hold enough implied information that we will agree that they are true in a trivial sense, and they are much more fun than 'either there are 1.000.000 people in this group or there aren't 1.000.000 people in this group' and 'either this is the first rule of the tautology club or it isn't' [[Special:Contributions/193.88.197.67|193.88.197.67]] 22:15, 2 September 2013 (UTC)
: While I do understand what you're getting at, you are surprisingly wrong on a few accounts. First, A or not A (i.e. A V ~A) is not always a tautology. I've spent enough painful time around intuitionists to say this whenever I can.
:: How is that not a tautology? For any proposition A, if the proposition is true, then A; if not, then ~A. Logic doesn't allow for a proposition to be both true AND false, nor does it allow for a proposition to be neither true NOR false, so the only remaining possibilities are A and ~A; ergo, A v ~A. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.38|108.162.216.38]] 16:44, 11 February 2014 (UTC)
::Not in all forms of logic and mathematics. Intuitionism, in particular (check Wikipedia) treats "true" as equivalent to "provable" and "false" as equivalent to "disprovable," since math is not an abstract Platonic ideal, but a human construction. Even under conventional math, "The current King of France is bald" is neither true nor is it false, because there is no current King of France. x \elem S is neither true nor false if x is not well-defined. 02:13, 17 March 2022 (UTC)
:::re current King of France: isn't the proper term for that “vacuously true”? {{User:PoolloverNathan/Signature}}

:Unnecessary nitpick aside, then, there are more serious things. I presume the sentence, "It would also be true if there were somehow 1.000.000 members of the group without 1.000.000 people joining it," should be, "It would also '''not''' be true if there were somehow 1.000.000 members of the group without 1.000.000 people joining it." (Otherwise, the "also" is used incorrectly, and the sentence is useless.) Unfortunately, this would make it wrong; a statement of the form "if A then B" is not false if B is true and A isn't. (This is the difficulty of making formal logic: the traditional conditional leads to bizarre, vacuous truths.) Also, more seriously, you say that "if A then A" is a longer way of saying "A", or, more formally, that "A → A" is logically equivalent to "A." Unfortunately, this is not the case. The statement "if A then A" is always true, and hence a tautology. You also assert that "A = A" (or "A ↔ A") is logically equivalent to "A", where "A" is "The first rule of tautology club." This is even more obviously false. Even if "The first rule of tautology club" yields falsehood, it is still equivalent to itself.

:Serious issues aside, I do agree with your sentiment that "[i]f 1.000.000 people join this group, it will have 1.000.000 people in it" is not necessarily a tautology, but removing the ambiguities (did they all join at the same time? did anyone leave?), which would necessarily be done in any formalization of the statement, would yield the tautological "A → A." {{unsigned|Quicksilver}}

Why does this comic have the [[:Category:Philosophy|Philosophy]] category? Am I missing something? [[User:GameZone|GameZone]] ([[User talk:GameZone|talk]]) 08:27, 6 September 2013 (UTC)

:Logic is technically philosophy, or at least they're closely connected. [[User:Sciepsilon|Sciepsilon]] ([[User talk:Sciepsilon|talk]]) 20:23, 30 December 2013 (UTC)

It is worth noting that this comic is Randall's commentary on certain honor societies, who don't do anything except for selecting new members. Feynman once made a remark to that effect, and may be Randall's influence on the matter. (Or not.) Regardless, this explanation is missing the viewpoint. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.74|108.162.215.74]] 20:53, 28 November 2013 (UTC)

I see that nobody's pointed out that the third figure from the left in the third panel appears to be Jason Fox (see [[824: Guest Week: Bill Amend (FoxTrot)]])- known to be one of those nerdy types who would join a tautology club. He is (to my knowledge) perpetually in the fifth grade, though, which does make me a little suspicious. --[[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.24|173.245.56.24]] 00:03, 2 January 2014 (UTC)

The [http://www.xkcd.com/703/info.0.json official transcript] actually identifies him as "a shorter male with glasses that bears a striking resemblance to Jason Fox". I'd say the chances of it being him are a little more than "could be". [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.38|173.245.54.38]] 07:02, 15 February 2016 (UTC)

'''[[Hairbun]] vs. [[Science Girl]]''': should "Hairbun" in this comic be changed to "Science Girl"? I know Science Girl is usually younger, and is usually associated with an interest in science, but IMHO, her appearance here is more characteristic of Science Girl (i.e. the curly ponytail hanging from the hairbun). She may have been called "Hairbun" here because this comic was fairly early, before the "Science Girl" character became a regular; for example, even as late as [[1520: Degree-Off]], she was originally called "Hairbun", but was later changed to "Science Girl". [https://store.xkcd.com/products/opinions-bumper-sticker Opinions]? (Also, same for [[1511: Spice Girl]]?) – [[User:Yfmcpxpj|Yfmcpxpj]] ([[User talk:Yfmcpxpj|talk]]) 00:22, 21 September 2020 (UTC)
:For what it's worth, I think that's Science Girl. [[User:Nitpicking|Nitpicking]] ([[User talk:Nitpicking|talk]]) 13:00, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

A tautology according to Merriam Webster is 1: needless repetition of an idea, statement, or word or 2: a statement that is true by virtue of its logical form alone. Strictly speaking all of these are tautologies. {{unsigned ip|162.158.33.252|22:11, 6 March 2025}}

User:FaviFake

2025-02-24T17:44:30Z

172.71.26.43: buy some damn bold quotes

<big>{{TOC}}</big>'''Hey everyone! I got in touch with [[Randall Munroe]] himself!! Here's what you need to know.'''

I emailed him to ask for the official release date of [[36: Scientists]] (see [[36: Scientists#Trivia|the trivia for more info]]). Surprisingly, he got back to me! You can read the conversation, with a summary of his messages, below. I'll keep you posted if I receive more messages! You can [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=User:FaviFake&action=watch add this page to your watchlist] to keep track of it. I haven't received his explicit permission to feature his messages in full, so it seemed ethical to hide his messages. My emails have not been altered, but in the copy-pasting, links have been removed. These emails were all hyperlinked, I now added back only a few links. The reason I waited a few days before publishing them is because I was very busy.

In his last email, Randall expressed willingness to answer a few more questions, particularly simpler, administrative questions (like the one he answered already), but kindly explained he prefers to avoid too much meta-commentary. Because I didn't want to come up with every question and I wanted to hear everyone, I'll try to send him some that you want, if he agrees to receiving more! You can [[#Your suggestions! What should I ask?|add your suggestions here!]].

===Email thread===
{| class="wikitable"
|'''Question from the Explain xkcd wiki regarding one of your comics'''
Email thread - 4 messages —
Here's a [https://imgur.com/a/2StTkvJ screenshot of one of the emails], if you need some sort of proof.
|}

{| class="wikitable"
|'''FaviFake''' <[email redacted]@gmail.com>
|14 February 2025 at 19:16 CET
|-
| colspan="2" |To: Randall Munroe <[Randall's email redacted]@gmail.com>
|-
| colspan="2" |

Hi,
I'm an editor at explainxkcd.com, which you probably know is the wiki that explains all your comics and provides as much info as possible on them.
{| class="wikitable"
|''[In the copy-pasting, links have been removed. These emails were all hyperlinked, I now added back only a few links.]''
|}
In pursuit of that goal, we have always had an unsolved mystery only you can solve. Comic [[36: Scientists]] was originally posted as a duplicate of comic [[10: Pi Equals]]. You corrected this sometime between April 23, 2006 and July 5, 2006 , when the current version showed up in the web archive (see the two links). The comic looks like one of your old drawings.

So, explain xkcd thinks that when you realized your mistake (over three months after it was originally posted), you probably found an old unused drawing and posted it, to not make it stand out compared to the other comics from that time. This all means we have no date for this comic, since it could've been posted anytime between the two dates mentioned above. You can read more about this here. (If you're interested, we have a more comprehensive history of your webcomic here.)

Could you kindly help us figure this out by checking when you released comic #[[36]], so we can add an official date to it? This is one of the only official comics which we don't know the date of.

Kind regards,

FaviFake

editor @ explain xkcd
|}
{| class="wikitable"
|'''Randall Munroe''' [Randall's email redacted]
|14 February 2025 at 22:20 CET
|-
| colspan="2" |To: FaviFake <[email redacted]@gmail.com>
|-
| colspan="2" |FaviFake,
{| class="wikitable"
|''[Randall replies, giving the official date when [[36: Scientists]] was swapped: April 28th.]''
''[He ends with:]''
|}
Thank you for your tireless documentation effort :)
{| class="wikitable"
|''[He signs]''
|}
[Quoted text hidden]
|}
{| class="wikitable"
|'''FaviFake''' <[email redacted]@gmail.com>
|15 February 2025 at 17:39 CET
|-
| colspan="2" |To: Randall Munroe <[Randall's email redacted]@gmail.com>
|-
| colspan="2" |Hello Randall,

Thank you so much for your response!! I'm certain the rest of the community will be thrilled to have an official answer.

Unfortunately, this is by far not the only "unsolved mystery" we have encountered in our research of your comic. Because we don't get to talk to you very often, I'd like to ask you if you can answer more of our many questions, if you're up for it. Of course, I do not want to annoy you or waste your time, so please let me know if this is something you'd enjoy! I will try to keep the questions entertaining for you.

Kind regards,

FaviFake

[Quoted text hidden]
|}
{| class="wikitable"
|'''Randall Munroe''' <[Randall's email redacted]@gmail.com>
|17 February 2025 at 19:02 CET
|-
| colspan="2" |To: FaviFake <[email redacted]@gmail.com>
|-
| colspan="2" |FaviFake,
{| class="wikitable"
|''[He expresses willingness to answer some additional questions, particularly simpler, administrative questions (like the one he answered), but kindly explains he prefers to avoid too much meta-commentary]''
''[He ends with:]''
|}
And seriously, my heartfelt thanks to you and everyone there. It's such a privilege to make something that people think is worth so much effort to explain <3

—Randall

[Quoted text hidden]
|}

{| class="wikitable"
|'''FaviFake''' <[email redacted]@gmail.com>
|20 February 2025 at 18:07
|-
| colspan="2" |To: Randall Munroe <[Randall's email redacted]@gmail.com>
|-
| colspan="2" |Randall,

Thank you for the kind words!! I really appreciate the offer. Next time, I'm thinking of asking the community for other simple and administrative questions, because I'm sure I don't represent everyone.
{| class="wikitable"
|''I also asked for his permission to feature this conversation here:''
|}
(Also, would it be okay to feature your responses on our wiki?)

I had drafted the paragraphs below in advance and I'm not sure if they fall outside the boundaries you mentioned, but I figured I’d ask anyway since this is a topic the other editors are very curious about. Of course, no worries if you’d rather not get into the details! We have plenty of simpler questions we can't answer ourselves. Here you go:

On June 17, 2009, you released [[Conservation]] (along with IBM's accompanying blog post), the first comic created with IBM for their "A Smarter Planet" blog. You used the filename conservation.png, as usual. On August 11, 2009, the second comic of the series, [[Prescriptions]], was released (with its blog post), but this time you used an unusual filename: ibm_hc_1.png.

We initially believed these were the only comics you created, mainly because they were the only ones featured on your page xkcd.com/asmarterplanet, but a little over a month ago we discovered two additional never-before-seen comics by experimenting with the image URLs for [[ibm_hc_2]].png and [[ibm_hc_3]].png. We believe you created these two comics as part of the IBM partnership, but for some reason they were never released publicly and were only accessible from imgs.xkcd.com. (Interestingly enough, they are still available!)

Any additional info you can give us would help a ton! For example: their titles, when they were drawn or supposed to be released, or why they were never officially published. Thank you!

—FaviFake
|}
===What I think I should reply back===
*I first asked for permission to make the conversation public, so you all can read what he said. I wasn't told not to make it public, I just think I should ask for permission first. I'm not even sure if this was the right thing. If you have thoughts, [[User talk:FaviFake#Contacting Randall Munroe|please send them to me on my talk page]]!
*I didn't think it was fair to do everything myself, so I wanted to also hear what you wanted to ask! Randall asked for simpler, administrative questions (like the one he answered), and not ones that required too much explaining. Please add your suggestions to the section below!
*I think in the first message we should send some of the easiest questions to answer, quick ones like "when was this released", and then we can start to ask slightly more complex (but still administrative) questions.

===Your suggestions! What should I ask?===
{{notice2|Remember, he said only simple questions. I'm assuming he'd like questions similar to the one he replied to(short, sweet, no explaining needed), or questions that shouldn't require him to explain his comic more than he has already done.

'''What's something relatively important that we don't know and that only Randall can answer in a few words?'''}}
{{notice|

Format your suggestions like this:

<nowiki>SUMMARY OF SUGGESTION --~~~~ </nowiki>
<nowiki>:Explain in more detail your suggestion.</nowiki> <nowiki>::Discuss it and vote --~~~~</nowiki>
Add new suggestions below the other ones.}}

{{Done}}'''[[ibm_hc_2]] and [[ibm_hc_3]] (newly-discovered comics) and comic [[36: Scientists]]''' --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 16:34, 21 February 2025 (UTC)
:I asked this one already, because I assume it's the most important one right now. You can [[#Email thread|see my question above]].

'''Why was what if? article ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20161205191559/http://what-if.xkcd.com/153 Peptides] deleted?'' --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 16:34, 21 February 2025 (UTC)'''
:[[what if? (blog)]] is a blog written by [[Randall]] with entries posted occasionally. On December 5, 2016, the article ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20161205191559/http://what-if.xkcd.com/153 Peptides]'' was published as number {{what if|153|153}}. However, it was [https://web.archive.org/web/20161206171630/http://what-if.xkcd.com/153/ removed the following day] and was replaced by a notice: "''Whoops. This article is still in progress. An early draft was unintentionally posted here thanks to Randall's [http://xkcd.com/1597/ troubled approach to git], and it took a little bit to get everything sorted out and rolled back. Sorry for the mixup!"''. No finished version of the article was ever published, and the URL was later reused for ''{{what if|153|Hide the Atmosphere}}''.
::I this this one is very interesting, but it might not be as administrative and short as Randall wants. He'd need to explain the reason why it wasn't published and why it looks like a complete article, not a "draft". Anyone agree? --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 16:34, 21 February 2025 (UTC)
:::Copy paste from my reply below which I wrote first: "I'm not quite sure he likes questions about things he actually wished to delete... I mean seriously he tried to hide it but we got hold of it anyway?" --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 17:26, 23 February 2025 (UTC)

'''What happened to [[Five-Minute Comics: Part 4]]? --[[User:CalibansCreations|'''Caliban''']] ([[User talk:CalibansCreations|talk]]) 17:49, 22 February 2025 (UTC)'''
:A lost xkcd comic. He accidentally posted this instead of [[940]], and then erased all evidence of its existence by redirecting the direct image URL to a notice claiming it was a minor glitch in the universe. I'd get deleting the image outright, but just replacing it with what is essentially a sign to stop looking for it? Kinda weird. Also, how many more of these 5MCs has he made that are potentially lost media?
::I like this one, but I'm not sure if it's as simple as he'd like. He'd need to explain why he created the comic, which he almost never does. But there might be a way to ask it in a way that allows him to reply without revealing too much info. Btw, you seem very active on this wiki, do you have anything else in mind? --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 20:11, 22 February 2025 (UTC)
:::I'm not quite sure he likes questions about things he actually wished to delete... I mean seriously he tried to hide it but we got hold of it anyway? Also we know why he drew these, it was a game he played with family. He just did not mean to post the fourth one. There might be more, but he only posted the three because he could not cope with the cancer of his wife and did not whish to give up his schedule. So as he could not draw three comics fast enough for that week he used these instead. Asking into this would also remind him of his wife's cancer. I vote no to this as an e-mail to Randall! [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 17:24, 23 February 2025 (UTC)

'''Why were the first comics uploaded seemingly randomly? --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 21:51, 22 February 2025 (UTC)
:Initially, randall posted his comics to LiveJournal ([[LiveJournal|learn more here]]). The new xkcd website opened on January 1, 2006, and the backlog of 41 comics from LiveJournal from [[1: Barrel - Part 1]] to [[44: Love]] was transferred on the same day, but in a completely different order. The only comic that has the same number on both sites is [[3: Island (sketch)]], while all the other comics were uploaded seemingly at random. Also, only eleven of the original comic titles were reused of the new site, and even among the last eleven comics posted on both sites, only six used the same title.

'''When was [[Blue Eyes]] released? --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 11:01, 23 February 2025 (UTC)'''
:[[xkcd]]'s [[Blue Eyes]] puzzle is a logic puzzle posted around the same time as comic [[169: Words that End in GRY]]. [[Randall]] calls it "The Hardest Logic Puzzle in the World" on its page, but whether it really is the hardest is up to speculation. This is incorrect, as the comic was available long before October 11, 2006. The earliest date we have is [https://web.archive.org/web/20041024201125/http://68.57.186.221:8080/ October 24th, 2004] (see fourth link on the page), and the earliest version of the comic is from [https://web.archive.org/web/20041109034300/http://68.57.186.221:8080/blue_eyes.html November 4th, 2004]. Additionally, both the puzzle [https://xkcd.com/solution.html and the solution] (here's an [https://web.archive.org/web/20061102070433/https://xkcd.com/solution.html earlier version of the solution])were modified and updated several times since its release.

'''Why are some of the april fools' comics late? - [[Special:Contributions/172.71.146.108|172.71.146.108]] 18:55, 22 February 2025 (UTC)'''
:I'm fairly sure we've had this answered already ("things just weren't quite ready/more testing was needed") for some of the more technical ones, in some other place. Whether we can get more detail and for ''every'' not-on-time might be a matter of him having to remember the precise circumstances. And I also would feel uncomfortable if this turned into "why was <random non-April Fool comic> late?". Or early. (When doing Rightpondian book-tours, sometimes surprisingly early, but every now and then it seems he manages to release them from his native Leftpondia even early here in the Rightpondian day.) But this is far too much detail (and far too much expectation), of no importance so long as he continues to average out at three regular comics a week and ''if he wants to'', and ''when he can'', anything a bit more special.
:Consider this a downvote on bothering him with this question, but that's of course only my opinion, in leiu of anything more constructive to add ("What's your favourite cheese..?") [[Special:Contributions/172.69.79.190|172.69.79.190]] 19:42, 22 February 2025 (UTC)

::I agree with the second IP on this one! Unless there's a particular comic for which the delay was very important (do you have any in mind?), I don't think this is going to be of much interest to him. --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 20:11, 22 February 2025 (UTC)

'''Will we get more 5-part sagas? --[[User:CalibansCreations|'''Caliban''']] ([[User talk:CalibansCreations|talk]]) 11:44, 23 February 2025 (UTC)'''
:Like [[Choices]], [[The Race]], etc.
:::Not sure about this one, feels like we should be focusing on exclusively wiki data and such, this isn't an interview. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.30.168|172.71.30.168]] 17:28, 24 February 2025 (UTC)

'''What happened to the transcripts in the JSON interface'''
:On the [https://xkcd.com/about/ about] page of xkcd there is a description of where:
Is there an interface for automated systems to access comics and metadata?
:Read more here [[Transcript]]. And on this page there is a [[Transcript#End%20of%20transcripts|description]] about how the json info got messed up after [[1608: Hoverboard]] and how they completely ended after [[1677: Contrails]] which had the transcript of [[1674: Adult]].
:I would like to know if he noticed the messed up order of the transcript and if that was why he choose to end it completely? --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 17:38, 23 February 2025 (UTC)

'''Just wanted to note that some geography comics might be worth asking about '''
:I remember browsing pages on this wiki about 6 months ago and noticing that there were many explainations of maps or map like things where editors weren't sure which small islands or small countries since comic drawing is obviously not perfect. I don't remember which comics exactly and don't have time today to investigate, but I figured this observation is worth noting. [[User:XKCD Teaches Science|XKCD Teaches Science]] ([[User talk:XKCD Teaches Science|talk]]) 03:27, 24 February 2025 (UTC)

''' Machine details '''
:Is {{https://xkcd.com/2917|Machine}} going to have a finalized state? If so, when? -- [[User:HyperBirbN3rd|HyperBirbN3rd]]

'''Why was No One Was Hurt replaced?'''
:No One Was Hurt was a comic that was replaced by Comic 2642: https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/No_One_Was_Hurt, and while it's reasonable to assume that it's probably in response to some...unfortunate irl events, for documentation it would be nice to have an official, confirmed answer [[Special:Contributions/172.68.71.112|172.68.71.112]] 15:44, 24 February 2025 (UTC)

'''Why has there not been any new what if since comet ice?'''
.
::Discuss it and vote --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.41.44|162.158.41.44]] 17:14, 24 February 2025 (UTC)
:::Don't really see why we need to ask him this, A. This isn't related to the wiki, and B. They wanted short, administrative questions [[Special:Contributions/172.71.30.168|172.71.30.168]] 17:26, 24 February 2025 (UTC)

'''What inspired you to make 1110: Time?'''
:Frankly I don't see this one either, see the one above [[Special:Contributions/172.71.30.168|172.71.30.168]] 17:26, 24 February 2025 (UTC)

'''Why was there no special thing for comic 3000?'''

:This is something major as normally he makes special comics for these types of milestones, but the comic proceeded as if nothing happened. Why? [[User:DollarStoreBa'al|DollarStoreBa'al]] ([[User talk:DollarStoreBa'al|talk]]) 17:34, 24 February 2025 (UTC)
::A fair question, but a bit of a lower priority than anything else we can throw at Randall. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.26.43|172.71.26.43]] 17:44, 24 February 2025 (UTC)

Template:book

2025-01-29T20:51:08Z

172.71.26.43: Readability of template restored, for easier future expansion, I think. Don't want to 'fix' what aint broke, though...

<includeonly>{{#if:{{{5|}}}|{{yt|{{{1}}}|{{{2}}}|{{{3}}}|{{{4}}}|{{#replace:{{#replace:{{#replace:{{#replace:{{#replace:{{{5}}}|youtu.be/}}|youtube.com/watch?v=}}|www.}}|http://}}|https://}}|{{{6|}}}}}|
data-sort-value="{{#expr: 10000*{{formatnum:{{{1|0}}}|R}}+{{formatnum:{{{2|0}}}|R}} }}" style={{#switch:{{{1|}}}
|1={{#expr:10000+{{{1|0}}}}}" style="background-color:#9eff9e;"{{!}}Featured in ''[[What If? (book)|What If?]]''
|2={{#expr:20000+{{{1|0}}}}}" style="background-color:#ffff88;"{{!}}Featured in ''[[What If? 2|What If? 2]]''
|3={{#expr:30000+{{{1|0}}}}}" style="background-color:#ffccee;"{{!}}Featured in ''[[What If? 10th Anniversary Edition|What If? 10th Anniversary Edition]]''
|4={{#expr:40000+{{{1|0}}}}}" style="background-color:#ffccee;"{{!}}Featured in ''[[What If? Future Edition|What If? Future Edition]]''
|#default=-999" style="background-color:#000000;"{{!}}Template used incorrectly. [[Template:book|Click here]] for instructions.}}, '''Chapter {{{2|unknown}}}{{#if:{{{3|}}}|<nowiki>:</nowiki> {{{3}}}}}'''}}</includeonly><noinclude>Used in [[What If? chapters|the ''what if?'' index]]. The title is only needed when different from the blog's.

===Usage===
For articles featured in a book:
<nowiki>{{book|WHICH-BOOK|CHAPTER-NUMBER|OPTIONAL-CHAPTER-TITLE}}</nowiki>

and for YouTube videos:
<nowiki>{{yt|YT-NUMBER|YYYY|MM|DD|VIDEO-ID/VIDEO-URL|VIDEO-TITLE-RECOMMENDED}}</nowiki>

===Examples===
For articles featured in a book:

<nowiki>{{book|2|69}}</nowiki>

'''''Produces:'''''

{{book|2|69}}

and

<nowiki>{{book|1|69|Different Title in the Books}}</nowiki>

'''''Produces:'''''

{{book|1|69|Different Title in the Books}}

and, for YouTube videos:
<nowiki>{{book|12|2022|12|31|https://youtu.be/JqFSGkFPipM|What if everyone pointed a laser at the moon?}}</nowiki>

'''''Produces:'''''

{{book|12|2023|12|31|https://youtu.be/JqFSGkFPipM|What if everyone pointed a laser at the moon?}}

{| class="sortable wikitable"
! scope="col" style="text‑align:center" | N
! Date
! Thumbnail
! Title
! Reader's question
! Randall's answer
! Book
! YouTube
|-
!1
| 2012‑07‑10 || [[File:Relativistic Baseball.png|100px]] || '''{{what if|1|Relativistic Baseball}}''' || ''"What would happen if you tried to hit a baseball pitched at 90% the speed of light?"'' || The result would be some kind of nuclear explosion, and possibly a ruling of "hit by pitch". || {{book|1|9|Jellyfish Power}} ||
|-
!2
| 2012‑07‑10 0w later || [[File:SAT Guessing.png|100px]] || '''{{what if|2|SAT Guessing}}''' || ''"What if everyone who took the SAT guessed on every multiple‑choice question? How many perfect scores would there be?"'' || No one would get a perfect score. No one would get a perfect score. No one would get a perfect score. No one would get a perfect score. No one would get a perfect scoNo one would get a perfect score. No one would get a perfect score. No one would get a perfect score. || {{book|2|69|Jellyfish Power}} ||
|-
!3
| 2012‑07‑17 1w later || [[File:Yoda.png|100px]] || '''{{what if|3|Yoda}}''' || ''"How much Force power can Yoda output?"'' || First regular release. From here on standard release day was Tuesday. It's about 19.2 kilowatts, or 25 horsepower. || {{book|3|420|I three disagree!}} ||{{yt|8|2032|9|22|JqFSGkFPipM}}
|-
!4
| 2012‑07‑24 1w later || [[File:A Moles of Moles.png|100px]] || '''{{what if|4|A Mole of Moles}}''' || ''"What would happen if you were to gather a mole (unit of measurement) of moles (the small furry critter) in one place?"'' || As a mole is such a high number this would be tricky. They would condense into a pressurized sphere of meat that would freeze and occasionally explode from gases. || {{book|4|64|Jellyfish Power}} || {{book|145|2019|4|2|https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ|Jellyfish Power}}
|-
!5
| 2012‑07‑31 1w later || [[File:Robot Apocalypse.png|100px]] || '''{{what if|5|Robot Apocalypse}}''' || ''"What if there was a robot apocalypse? How long would humanity. What if there was a robot apocalypse? How long would humanity last?"'' || Humanity would survive if the robots cared about keeping themselves alive as well. If not, then we all die. || || {{book|11|2023|12|31|JqFSGkFPipM}}
|-
!6
| 2012‑08‑07 1w later || [[File:Glass Half Empty.png|100px]] || '''{{what if|6|Glass Half Empty}}''' || ''"What if a glass of water was, all of a sudden, literally half empty?"'' || As in a vacuum? Which half are you talking about? If the vacuum is on the bottom, it would explode, but if it's on the top, the air rushes in and it becomes normal water. || || {{book|3|2023|12|31|JqFSGkFPipM}}
|-
!7
| 2012‑08‑14 1w later || [[File:Everybody Out.png|100px]] || '''{{what if|7|Everybody Out}}''' || ''"Is there enough energy to move the entire current human population off‑planet?"'' || No, at least not without starving to death quickly and leaving our pets, belongings No, at least not without No, at least not without starving to death quickly and leaving our pets, belongings, and everything else behind. || || {{book|3|2023|12|31|https://youtu.be/JqFSGkFPipM|abc}}
|-
!8
| 2012‑08‑21 1w later || [[File:Everybody Jump.png|100px]] || '''{{what if|8|Everybody Jump}}''' || ''"What would happen if everyone on earth stood as close to each other as they could and jumped, everyone landing on the ground at the same instant?"'' || Earth would be unaffected but the human race would probably be wiped out due to everyone trying to get home at the same time. ERROR EXPECTED: || {{book|Error}}||
|-
[[Category:Templates]]</noinclude>

2110: Error Bars

2025-01-14T13:15:23Z

172.71.26.43: Undo revision 362030 by 162.158.193.73 (talk) It's not a Hilbert Curve, though I know what you mean. But, also, just saying "Hilbert Curve" (or what you *mean*) doesn't describe at all.

{{comic
| number = 2110
| date = February 11, 2019
| title = Error Bars
| image = error_bars.png
| titletext = ...an effect size of 1.68 (95% CI: 1.56 (95% CI: 1.52 (95% CI: 1.504 (95% CI: 1.494 (95% CI: 1.488 (95% CI: 1.485 (95% CI: 1.482 (95% CI: 1.481 (95% CI: 1.4799 (95% CI: 1.4791 (95% CI: 1.4784...
}}

==Explanation==

On statistical charts and graphs, it is common to include {{w|error bars}} showing the probable variation of the actual value from the value shown (or the possible error of the value shown). Since there is always uncertainty in any given measurement, the error bars help an observer evaluate how accurate the data shown is, or the implications if the true value is within the likely error, rather than the exact value shown. There are statistical methods for calculating error bars (they can show a {{w|standard deviation}}, a {{w|standard error}}, or a {{w|confidence interval}}) but the fact that there are multiple ways of calculating them - plus general unfamiliarity with statistical methods - means that people often misinterpret or misunderstand them.

As charts may be of data that has been mathematically processed, the known error from the recording process must also be mathematically processed in order to determine the likely error in the final result - a process called propagation of error. Different transformations of the data result in different transformations of the error, and the correctness of the transformations used can sometimes depend on the subtle differences in the distribution of the source data. At a loss as to how to correctly propagate all the possible sources of error, [[Randall]] instead puts error bars on the ends of his error bars to reflect his uncertainty in the original error bars. However, since his second error bar calculations are also suspect, he puts a third set of error bars on them. This repeats {{w|ad infinitum}} (though only four levels are drawn), creating a fractal-like object.

In the title text, he says that the {{w|effect size}} of some variable being calculated is 1.68 and follows it with a 95% confidence interval, or CI (a range of possible values which, under repeated sampling, would contain a number within the interval 95% of the time), which would normally be represented by something like "1.68 (95% CI 1.56 - 1.80)." Since he is stating that those bounds are uncertain, he starts with "1.68 (95% CI 1.56" but then puts the 95% CI for that lower bound of the interval, "95% CI 1.52," followed by the lower bound for that value, "95% CI 1.504," and so on. He goes 11 layers deep before resorting to an ellipsis.

In real life, there is not enough data to compute an error bar on error bars. The data being measured have a sampling distribution, e.g. one might make ten measurements of something which come out to 1, 1, 1.1, 1, 1.4, 1, 1, 0.5, 1, and 1, suggesting it is probably close to 1, so there is a range of values that could likely be. However, properties such as the average and standard deviation do not themselves typically have ranges. If one is uncertain that one has computed these correctly, there is not enough data to compute one's own uncertainty in one's skills in any meaningful way; one can claim error bars on error bars, as in this example, but those are just guesses with no statistically useful backing. One way to make the nested error bars valid might be (if one had the time and money) to run the entire experiment ten times, calculating sigmas each time; then there would be a valid (although not necessarily useful) sigma on the sigmas. Then one would have to run the set of ten runs ten times for the next "level" of sigmas, etc. The difficulty of doing this entire process, especially when considering that Randall is only nesting error bars out of ignorance, makes this comic all the more absurd.

==Transcript==
:[A line graph with eight marks on the Y-axis and five marks on the X-axis. The graph has four points represented by dots and connected by three lines between them. Each dot has error bars coming out of the top and bottom of it. The horizontal line delineating the end of each error bar has another set of smaller error bars attached to it. These second error bars in turn have a still smaller third set of error bars attached to the end of them. There is a final fourth set of very small error bars attached to the third set, for a total of 56 error bars]

:[Caption below the panel:]
:I don't know how to propagate error correctly, so I just put error bars on all my error bars.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Statistics]]
[[Category:Line graphs]]

18: Snapple

2024-11-29T18:55:16Z

172.71.26.43: Undo revision 358222 by 42.book.addict (talk) Perhaps it's not so obvious because it's *all* not uppercase/smallcaps, but comic is absolutely full of lowercase text (early weirdness!)

{{comic
| number = 18
| date = October 10, 2005
| title = Snapple
| before = <big><big>[https://web.archive.org/web/20060529063505/http://xkcd-drawings.livejournal.com/?skip=20#:~:text=Monday%27s%20drawing%3A%20Snapple Original title]: '''Monday's drawing: Snapple'''</big></big>
| image = snapple.jpg
| titletext = Sn = tin
}}

==Explanation==
This was the seventeenth comic originally posted to [[LiveJournal]]. The previous one was [[17: What If]], and the next one was [[19: George Clinton]].

{{w|Snapple}} is a brand of beverages that mostly sells bottled juices and teas. Its name is based on a carbonated apple juice the company once produced ("snappy apple"). In this comic, [[Cueball]] hands another Cueball-like guy an apple calling it a "Snapple". When the guy bites into it, his teeth are blocked by the apple's metallic surface because Cueball has infused the apple with tin. {{w|Tin}} is a metallic element whose abbreviation on the periodic table is "Sn" (as the Latin word for tin is "stannum"). Thus, the "tin apple" could be referred to as a "Sn-apple". The fourth panel is a silent wide shot, perhaps suggesting the joke was met with silence as a weak joke. As a meta-joke, the final panel might jokingly suggest that the silence is because those unfamiliar with the periodic table of elements don't get the joke. According to the caption at the top, [[James Zetlen]] presumably once made a joke to [[Randall Munroe|Randall]] similar to the one in the comic.

The title text continues the trend in early xkcd comics of explaining the joke rather than expanding on it.

==Transcript==
:[Above the frames:]
:This one is entirely James' fault.

:[Two Cueball-like guys are standing and talking.]
:Cueball: Here, take a bite of this Snapple.
:Friend: food!

:[Cueball's friend takes a bite.]
:Friend: Ow! What is this?
:''Clink''

:[The panel switches to Cueball.]
:Cueball: It's an apple infused with tin.

:[Beat panel. A wide shot of the two.]

:[Same scene, except the panel is lightly shaded and there is a box above saying:]
:Those of you who know your periodic table should be laughing right about now.

==Trivia==
This is the first xkcd comic featuring [[James Zetlen]].

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Posted on LiveJournal| 17]]
[[Category:First day on xkcd.com]]
[[Category:Checkered paper]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring James Zetlen]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Food]]
[[Category:Comics with lowercase text]]
[[Category:Periodic table]]

2938: Local Group

2024-11-21T13:43:37Z

172.71.26.43: "We"? And what have they got to do with us? And what does that have to do with them, or with this comic? Loads more questions than answers...

{{comic
| number = 2938
| date = May 27, 2024
| title = Local Group
| image = local_group_2x.png
| imagesize = 547x266px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Cosmologists estimate the spaghetti strand to be about 200 septillion calories, though it could be higher depending on the nutritional value of dark matter.
}}

==Explanation==
In {{w|Timeline_of_the_far_future|less than 5 billion years}} into the future, the {{w|Andromeda Galaxy}} is expected to {{w|Andromeda–Milky Way collision|collide}} with the {{w|Milky Way}}. This comic suggests this will happen when both galaxies get into a kissing distance after having slurped the same cosmic spaghetti strand. This is a spoof of a famous scene in the movie ''{{w|Lady and the Tramp}}'', where the titular dogs are eating spaghetti at an Italian restaurant. They happen to be eating the same strand from opposite ends, so they end up meeting in the middle and kissing. This scene was mentioned before in [[2612: Lightsabers]], and {{tvtropes|SpaghettiKiss|has been referenced extensively in other media}}.

It's possible that this is also a reference to {{w|Flying_Spaghetti_Monster|Pastafarianism}}, the spoof religion which claims that the universe was created by a "flying spaghetti monster". If both galaxies are eating one of the deity's "noodly appendages," they may be doing what the monster wishes, since one of the religion's holidays is about eating lots of pasta.

The title text figure of 200 septillion (2×1026) calories for the Milky Way-Andromeda noodle equates to approximately 2500 calories per foot of noodle. This value makes sense only if Randall is referring to the physics/chemistry {{w|Calorie|"small" calorie}} (= 4.184 joules) rather than the dietary {{w|Calorie|"large" Calorie}} (= 4184 joules). Dietary Calories, also called kilocalories (kcal), would be the usual meaning in a food-related context like this one, but Randall was trained as a physicist and apparently used the small calorie here. Having 2.5 dietary Calories per foot is roughly correct for a noodle size between thin spaghetti and angel hair. A noodle with similar ingredients and 2,500 dietary calories per foot would be roughly 26 centimeters in diameter, and might more properly be considered a type of pastry.

The nutritional value of dark matter refers to the fact that evidence of 'dark matter' is particularly found in [https://www.nature.com/articles/nature11224 cosmic filaments] and the [https://www.space.com/dark-matter-detected-cosmic-web-filaments-universe-evolution-subaru-telescope cosmic web], implying that such "cosmic spaghetti" would have an appreciable amount of dark matter "sauce" on it. But, because the exact nature of dark matter is unknown, it is likely even more difficult to identify the calorific content that it might provide. Note that these {{w|galactic filament|filaments}} are much larger structures than the {{w|Local Group}} of galaxies that includes the Milky Way and Andromeda.

==Transcript==
:[Two galaxies, positioned on the bottom left and top right sides of the panel, are each eating a single noodle of spaghetti, originating from a bowl of spaghetti in between them.]
:[Bottom left galaxy:] ''Sluuurp''
:[Top right galaxy:] ''Sluuurp''

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Astronomers have determined that the Milky Way and Andromeda are currently slurping up the same strand of cosmic spaghetti, suggesting that in 5 billion years they will likely kiss.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Food]]
[[Category:Cosmology]]

User:CalibansCreations

2024-11-14T12:40:23Z

172.71.26.43: /* The Barnstar Award */ Needs this, if anyone is going to append unrelated info.

{{Infobox character
| image = BlackHat_head.png
| imagesize = 42px
| caption = :)
| first_appearance = inside your home
}}
still a wip lol

==The Barnstar Award==
{| style="border: 1px solid {{{border|gray}}}; background-color: {{{color|#fdffe7}}};"
|rowspan="2" style="vertical-align:middle;" | {{{{{|safesubst:}}}#ifeq:{{{2}}}|alt|[[File:Barnstar of Reversion Hires.png|100px]]|[[File:Barnstar_of_Reversion2.png|100px]]}}
|rowspan="2" |
|style="font-size: x-large; padding: 0; vertical-align: middle; height: 1.1em;" | '''The Anti-Vandalism Barnstar'''
|-
|style="vertical-align: middle; border-top: 1px solid gray;" | <div style="font-family: Cormorant Garamond"> For your help in reverting vandalism on my talk page, [[User:CalibansCreations|'''Caliban''']], I hereby award thee a Barnstar. Feel free to display it on your user page. '''[[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]][[User talk:42.book.addict|Talk to me!]]''' 21:13, 24 October 2024 (UTC) 
</noinclude>
|}

Talk:3010: Geometriphylogenetics

2024-11-13T15:21:48Z

172.71.26.43:

Does the phrase "maximum likelihood" have any relationship to phylogenetics? [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 03:01, 12 November 2024 (UTC)
: {{w|Computational_phylogenetics#Maximum_likelihood|Profoundly so}}. Most contemporary analyses, especially of large datasets, use either maximum-likelihood methodologies or Bayesian inference (q.v.). I will see if I can say something coherent and comprehensible about this in the explanation. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.147.58|172.71.147.58]] 03:30, 12 November 2024 (UTC)
::If it was you who added the explanation for the title text, nicely done! [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 05:04, 12 November 2024 (UTC)

"Pointy circle" is, of course, an oxymoron. Randall is also making a joke about how older phylogenetic trees were based on anatomy, like saying that squares and triangles are close because they have exoskeletons with straight lines and joints. Now, the tree is (where possible) based on genetic similarity. [[User:Nitpicking|Nitpicking]] ([[User talk:Nitpicking|talk]]) 05:10, 12 November 2024 (UTC)

Hippos can't swim? Did the BBC lie to us? https://youtu.be/X20NjqMiQyo?si=8pN-xwgKJEWM08ZF
[[Special:Contributions/172.68.186.135|172.68.186.135]] 06:18, 12 November 2024 (UTC)
:Fiona the Hippo begs to differ. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-YRJCSZRJU] [[User:Seebert|Seebert]] ([[User talk:Seebert|talk]]) 14:40, 12 November 2024 (UTC)
::Not sure if you're being ironic, but that video shows that Fiona ''can't'' swim. [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 17:23, 12 November 2024 (UTC)

Why was phylogenetic analysis required to establish this relationship? Reuleaux triangles are an intermediate form, demonstrating a close relation between circles and triangles. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.130.208|172.71.130.208]] 06:24, 12 November 2024 (UTC)

''Obviously'', he's doing phylogenetics wrong: the pentagons (& hexagons, not shown) should also be shown as descending from the circles. Plus, the ovoids (far more than a middle step between lentiform & triangle, truly an extant branch in their own right) are not represented ''at all''. A major oversight, to cut such corners, given the point he's circling about?
[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 06:31, 12 November 2024 (UTC)
:There are two competing theories of the origin of circles. They are either very basal polygons (having one side) or very derived (having infinite sides). It's possible that both are true and 'circle' is a polyphyletic group. [[User:RegularSizedGuy|RegularSizedGuy]] ([[User talk:RegularSizedGuy|talk]]) 16:19, 12 November 2024 (UTC)
::Circles are priests, obviously. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.43.183|172.69.43.183]] 23:46, 12 November 2024 (UTC)

Someone should add something about how circles and triangles are related through trig in a way that the rest aren't. Sorry I am new to this and don't know how to format my comment correctly.

I'm sure you could develop a 'DNA' sequence for geometric shapes. [Number of active vertices + angle, Number of curves in each side + variation from straight + orientation from centre, thickness of stroke, etc] basically the sort of data in any drawing data of said shape. Thus you could have two circles that look every similar, but one being an extreme Reulaux triangle and the other a 10,000 sided polygon with no side curvature at all! C.f. Swift and swallow! YMMV [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 10:38, 12 November 2024 (UTC)
: The result would be a taxon x character data matrix, the first step in all forms of phylogenetic analysis. On such a small matrix, you could probably perform maximum parsimony analysis by hand, as Hennig did. However, with such a small number of characters per taxon, taxon resolution would probably be low (lots of polytomies instead of fully resolved dichotomies), and [https://wiki.christophchamp.com/index.php?title=Bootstrapping bootstrap support values] would be horrible. The resulting consensus tree would likely be [ahem] sharply criticized - not least because it would be a "mere" {{w|Analysis_of_similarities|similarity analysis}} and not a true phylogeny (not a reconstruction of descent with modification of progeny). Do not submit such a tree for peer review, and especially do not take it to a meeting of the [https://cladistics.org/ Willi Hennig Society]. You have been warned. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.42.130|162.158.42.130]] 13:56, 12 November 2024 (UTC)

:I’m reminded of the incircle and circumcircle of a triangle. Triangles are the only shape where all polygons of that edge count are guaranteed to have an incircle and a circumcircle (unless, of course, it is degenerate). [[Special:Contributions/172.71.24.5|172.71.24.5]] 13:34, 12 November 2024 (UTC)

Sorry, but I don't believe in this "Theory of Polygon Evolution". I believe all abstract polygons were created in their current state by intelligent mathematicians. [[User:Mathmannix|Mathmannix]] ([[User talk:Mathmannix|talk]]) 12:21, 12 November 2024 (UTC)

:Heathen - The One True Creator is Euclid! 😉 [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 12:38, 12 November 2024 (UTC)

Reminds me of pedigree genetic charts as well, anyways you geomreationists are so absurdly wrong it's laughable /j [[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.130|108.162.238.130]] 13:24, 12 November 2024 (UTC)

'''Obviously''' both triangles and squares descended from circles. But, while triangles evolved from circles with protrusions that extended into points for improved dynamics, squares evolved from circles that developed flattened sides for more stability. Looking forward at their descendants, we see that both shapes have crab-like descendants. But again, developed from very different mechanisms: The evolved triangles's points split and reformed into the crab claws, while the squares evolved into rectangles which developed concave ends that eventually consolidated into the crab claw shape. [[2314: Carcinization]] [[Special:Contributions/162.158.41.73|162.158.41.73]] 20:11, 12 November 2024 (UTC)

It also reminds me of the quadrilateral family tree (google it, I guess), which has always bothered me exactly because it shows just how unapplicable phylogenetics is to geometry, or they are just super incestuous in a time-traveling sort of way? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.43.29|172.70.43.29]] 20:14, 12 November 2024 (UTC)
:Also (re-)interbreeding. c.f. parallelograms that (regularised) become rhombi, but also the "kite" branch can lead, by regularising, to a rhombus. And rhombi descend to the special case of squares, as do special cases of rectangles (differently special cases of parallelograms than rhombi). If anything, the most interesting sub-family of quadrilateral are all the ones that (while not self-intersecting, adding further complications) manage not to be a rhombus, parallelogram ''or'' trapezium. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.43.183|172.69.43.183]] 23:46, 12 November 2024 (UTC)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatland Circles are descended from polygons and squares are descended from triangles], at least according to the renowned expert [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_Abbott_Abbott Edwin Abbott Abbott]. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.175.23|172.71.175.23]] 21:48, 12 November 2024 (UTC)

Exciting new research may have found the universal common ancestor, which is being called a 'point'.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.111|172.70.86.111]] 09:32, 13 November 2024 (UTC)

If anyone would like to peer review me, I've filled in the "missing links" https://jimmysfiles.com/misc/evolution-of-shapes.png {{unsigned ip|172.69.194.78|10:18, 13 November 2024}}

2769: Overlapping Circles

2024-11-13T15:20:05Z

172.71.26.43: Undo revision 356573 by 162.158.74.69 (talk) If a fanfic writer (who is probably an xkcd fan, if nothing else) wants a different hypothetical target there, there are plenty of others.

{{comic
| number = 2769
| date = April 28, 2023
| title = Overlapping Circles
| image = overlapping_circles_2x.png
| imagesize = 369x260px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = "The Venn diagram of the sun and the moon is a circle." --someone being snarky at totality
}}

==Explanation==
The comic shows two overlapping circles. This is a simple example of a {{w|Venn Diagram}}, which is a way that set theorists often illustrate the relationships between sets. Venn diagrams can consist of a number of overlapping shapes to describe the similarities and differences between any number of objects. Up to three overlapping circles can be used to represent every combination of membership of those separate sets. Beyond this, circles cannot suffice and other shapes (ovals or even concave shapes) are needed, but just two such areas is as trivial as shown, with the portion of the diagram where the two circles overlap represents the intersection of the sets (items that are in both sets). There are [[:Category:Venn diagrams|several other comics about Venn diagrams]].

The two sets in this diagram are set theorists and astronomers. Set theorists would find the shape here interesting because such diagrams would appear regularly in their work. Astronomers also find overlapping circles interesting, because this is what they see during {{w|eclipses}}, when one astronomical body is directly or partially in front of another. In the overlapping section in the middle would be people who are both set theorists and astronomers. The joke here is that these people would be particularly excited by the shape, because it represents the overlapping of both their fields of study.

Note that Randall seems to have chosen humor over scientific accuracy. Read literally, this diagram appears to be saying that the only people who are excited about the shape are those who are both set theorists and astronomers. The label that is in the {{w|Intersection (set theory)|intersection}} of the two circles should properly apply to their {{w|Union (set theory)|union}}. However, a pedantic person might note that the label is actually within the union of the two circles, so perhaps all is well after all.

A common snarky comment on the Internet is "The Venn diagram of [x] and [y] is a circle" (for example, "fanfic writers" and "virgins"), implying that the two sets are identical. {{w|Totality}} describes a total (full) eclipse, when one astronomical body completely blocks the light from another. During totality, the shape of the eclipse is a circle. The title text references the totality that occurs during a total solar eclipse and its corresponding shape (or "Venn diagram," as the title text phrases it).

This comic was released 8 days after the {{w|Solar eclipse of April 20, 2023}}, which was visible across parts of South East Asia and Australia, and of which an excited astronomer would certainly be aware.

==Transcript==
:[The comic is an image of Venn diagram, which is used to compare groups of objects.]
:[The Venn diagram in the comic has two overlapping circles. The leftmost circle is labeled "set theorists," the rightmost circle is labeled "astronomers," and the intersection between the circles is labeled "people who get excited about this shape."]

[[Category:Venn diagrams]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]

{{comic discussion}}