explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

User:625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8

2018-09-21T02:46:23Z

625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8:

Hi! This is my user page!

I 'discovered' Explain XKCD after [[1758: Astrophysics]] but I actually started reading XKCD at [[1719: Superzoom]].

I'M BACK TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD AFTER 7 MONTHS OF INACTIVITY

My information and favorite things:

<nowiki>[[CLASSIFIED]]</nowiki>
(I mean you can read the page history (please don't))

I can't believe that this page has been accessed 1,210 times! Thanks so much!

edit Jan 2018: 2523 that's 2x the amount as before

edit September 2018: wait where'd the page view counter go

User:625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8

2018-09-21T02:44:28Z

625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8:

Hi! This is my user page!

I 'discovered' Explain XKCD after [[1758: Astrophysics]] but I actually started reading XKCD at [[1719: Superzoom]].

I'M BACK TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD AFTER 7 MONTHS OF INACTIVITY

My information and favorite things:

*My age: [[907: Ages|Everything sucks!]]
*My location: The United States of America. West coast.
*My sex: Male.
*My height: 5'1" or 155 cm. I am short, okay?
*My pets: A 1.21917808-year-old cat.
*My money: <nowiki>[[CLASSIFIED]]</nowiki>
*My boredom: Very high.
*'''Favorites:'''
*Video game: Minecraft by a landslide. I spend ''hours'' on it each day. Redstone is my thing!
*Programming language: Javascript. Occasionally Python, but only when I'm doing stuff on my Raspberry Pi.
*Food: ICE CREAM
*Instrument: I play both trumpet and piano. I honestly haven't played piano much lately, so only trumpet nowadays.
*School subject: Math
*Person: Who do you think? Highlight there: Meeee!

I can't believe that this page has been accessed 1,210 times! Thanks so much!

edit Jan 2018: 2523 that's 2x the amount as before

edit September 2018: wait where'd the page view counter go

297: Lisp Cycles

2018-04-04T22:52:10Z

625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8: title text typo

{{comic
| number = 297
| date = August 1, 2007
| title = Lisp Cycles
| image = lisp_cycles.png
| titletext = I've just received word that the Emperor has dissolved the MIT computer science program permanently.
}}

==Explanation==
{{W|Lisp (programming language)|Lisp}} is one of the oldest {{W|High-level programming language|high level programming languages}}. Despite being significantly ahead of its time, it never got enough traction outside of academia, and has never been widely used. However, it is considered to be a very powerful language even in the present day. [https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lisp_programming_language Quotations regarding Lisp] show that several big names in computer science and the tech industry hold Lisp in very high esteem. {{W|Eric S. Raymond}} goes as far as to say

<blockquote>Lisp is worth learning for the profound enlightenment experience you will have when you finally get it; that experience will make you a better programmer for the rest of your days, even if you never actually use Lisp itself a lot.</blockquote>

Lisp is also famous for its use of fully parenthesized Polish prefix notation. As a result, Lisp programs take the form of enormous nested lists bounded by parentheses, and it is not uncommon to see the source code of a large Lisp program close off with an equally enormous stack of close-parens, representing the simultaneous termination of dozens of recursively and hierarchically nested functional and procedural structures.

In the first panel, [[Cueball]] praises Lisp, observing that no other language can match the awe that it still strikes despite its significant seniority.

In the second panel, Cueball proposes that new programmers might continue to learn Lisp forever; despite the language's lack of widespread adoption, a small cadre of hackers will always exist who keep the language alive.

First, a little background:

Lisp was once the lingua franca of the frontier of computer science research at places like {{w|MIT_AI_Lab|MIT's Project MAC}} and {{w|Stanford_University_centers_and institutes#Stanford_Artificial_Intelligence_Laboratory|SAIL}}, and is still highly relevant in academic and theoretical computer science, despite the subsequent emergence of many other {{w|functional programming language|highly functional research languages}}. That many of these venerable research institutions have vanished or declined, their faculties having split up or moved into the private sector, and the advanced and demanding course-work taught there using Lisp having been replaced by courses based around teaching languages-of-the-day (such as Java, Python, Ruby, and even JavaScript for web design) in a series of so-called {{w|AI Winter}}s is a widely remarked upon feature of history. To many, this conjures a nostalgic impression of the halcyon days of advanced computer research when funding for blue-sky exploratory coding was plentiful, and most of the features of the contemporary digital world were first thought up and made real by wizardly hackers (the well-known purple cover of one venerated Lisp textbook is especially evocative, featuring a renaissance woodcut illustration of a sorcerous natural philosopher conjuring up magic with Lisp symbols superimposed into the image).

Throughout all this, Lisp, one of the first and greatest successes of theoretical computer science, has persisted, still in general though no-longer-universal use within the warrens of programming language and computability research, still studied by handfuls of students interested in something more than simply getting a job as a code grinder for Big Data, its features still inspiring generations of new language designers and implementers to ''do better'' ({{w|Ruby (programming language)|Ruby}} was designed — according to his admission — by Matsumoto Yukihiro as "a bad rip-off of Lisp" that would be "nicer to ordinary people;" {{w|Java (programming language)|Java 8}} introduced lambdas — ''in 2014!''). David Thornley even noted that whether or not Lisp was a "dead" or moribund programming language is, in fact, a question older than almost all programming languages, and has been for decades.

The third panel references ''{{w|Star Wars (film)|Star Wars}}.'' The "old wizard" Obi-Wan Kenobi, who remembers the culture and sophistication of the Old Republic ("Before the dark times. Before the Empire.") and lives as a hermit in the desert at the beginning of the film spoke these lines when passing on a lightsaber to Luke Skywalker:

<blockquote>Your father's lightsaber. This is the weapon of a Jedi Knight. Not as clumsy or random as a blaster; an elegant weapon for a more civilized age.</blockquote>

The title text is also a reference to ''Star Wars'' lines:

<blockquote>The Imperial Senate will no longer be of any concern to us. I've just received word that the Emperor has dissolved the council permanently. The last remnants of the Old Republic have been swept away.</blockquote>

The {{w|Massachusetts Institute of Technology|MIT}} mentioned in the title text is, of course, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, an institution fundamental to the development of Lisp (and Scheme, which is a dialect of Lisp). For about 20 years, MIT taught Scheme in its introductory computer science course, ''6.001 — {{w|Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs}}'' (that course has since been replaced with a course teaching Python).

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is sitting at a computer, and Megan is standing behind the desk.]
:Cueball: Lisp is over half a century old and it still has this perfect, timeless air about it.
:Cueball: I wonder if the cycles will continue forever. A few coders from each new generation rediscovering the Lisp arts.

:[Man in Jedi robes carrying a towering stack of parentheses in his arms, speaking to Hairy.]
:Jedi: These are your father's parentheses. Elegant weapons. For a more... civilized age.
{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Star Wars]]
[[Category:Programming]]
[[Category:Computers]]

1853: Once Per Day

2018-04-04T22:50:39Z

625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8:

{{comic
| number = 1853
| date = June 21, 2017
| title = Once Per Day
| image = once_per_day.png
| titletext = I'm not totally locked into my routine—twice a year, I take a break to change the batteries in my smoke detectors.
}}

==Explanation==
Many news reports on health recommend the "best" way to perform the processes, such as eating, drinking, exercising, or sleeping, that are required to live healthy. These reports tend to give such factors as a type of food to consume regularly, the amount of a nutrient to consume, or how long to exercise, in terms of what or how much to do daily. A simple example of this is the proverb, "An apple a day keeps the doctor away." Perhaps this kind of advice is [[1592|overthinking]] things, but [[Cueball]] decides to follow it strictly as explained in the caption.

So when [[Megan]] asks Cueball what his plans are, he just lists his routine consisting only of things that the news has told him exactly how often to do.

His list includes the following, which he has to do once per day:
*Eat an [//www.care2.com/greenliving/10-reasons-to-eat-an-apple-a-day.html apple] - This references the common old wives tale of "an apple a day keeps the doctor away"
*Eat an [//www.nhs.uk/news/2016/11November/Pages/Eating-one-egg-a-day-may-lower-risk-of-stroke.aspx egg] - One egg would provide protein. This could also be a stand in for "breakfast is the most important meal of the day"
*Take one [//www.webmd.com/men/features/aspirin-day-not aspirin] - Aspirin can reduce heart issues. Baby aspirin would contain a lower dose and be safe.
*Eat a piece of [//www.everydayhealth.com/diet-and-nutrition-pictures/delicious-reasons-to-eat-dark-chocolate.aspx dark chocolate] (see also {{w|John_Bohannon#Misleading_chocolate_study|John Bohannon's chocolate study}} for an example of how bad science can wind up as such "you should do ... daily" suggestions in the media) - Dark chocolate would contain more antioxidants and less sugar.
*Drink [//www.lifescript.com/diet-fitness/tips/y/your_weight-loss_solution_drink_6_glasses_of_water_a_day.aspx six glasses of water] - There is a common, long standing myth that you're supposed to [[1708:_Dehydration|drink X amount of water per day]]. Some say 6 or 8 cups. A liter or two. etc. etc.
*Drink [//www.health.com/health/article/0,,20410287,00.html one glass of red wine] - Always used as a "health can be fun" example. Wine would contain large amounts of antioxidants, and one glass a day shouldn't cause liver damage.
*Drink [//www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/17/coffee-health-benefits_n_4102133.html a cup of coffee] - Coffee is one of those health items that has a new health benefit or loss every week, depending on which media outlet you follow.
*Drink a [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/11/reasons-to-drink-tea_n_6276862.html cup of tea] - Tea's health benefits are a very common subject. There is much media talk about the benefits of different types of teas, usually focused around Green Tea.
*Get [http://www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise/news/20120824/30-minutes-daily-exercise-shed-pounds 30 minutes of exercise] - Different media outlets give different amounts of exercise to do. Usually, they tend towards 15-30 minutes a day to sound easy and low commitment{{Citation needed}}.
*Get [http://archive.jsonline.com/news/health/studies-say-7-8-hours-of-sleep-is-needed-for-best-health-b9936714z1-212691521.html/ 8 hours of sleep] - An average adult needs 6-8 hours of sleep daily, but this varies per person, and by age.

Several obvious problems arise with these "you should do ... daily" tips. They are often based on population studies, but they may be harmful in the case of some individual persons. This health-related advice would be beneficial in, say, 60 or 70% of the population, but may be ineffective in other 20% of the people, and deleterious in 10%. This especially relates to the suggested daily intake of aspirin.

The second problem is the shaky scientific foundation of this advice. There have been studies examining the effects of a daily glass of red wine, for example, but there is certainly no study which has observed the ''interaction'' of all ten of these health tips at once. In particular, {{w|tannin}}s (which occur in red wine and coffee) are known to absorb certain substances, which may influence the way in which apples and eggs are digested.

Furthermore the scientific basis for these articles are shaky at best. A large number of these studies are just junk science - poor methodology and bias making the study more attention-grabbing, but lacking real substance. Even those studies that are scientifically rigorous are often reported on poorly. "Study proves that dark chocolate helps you lose weight" is a better headline than "Several studies over the last five years hint that chocolate may have certain long term benefits; more research needed"

Of course, if Cueball ''only'' does these things, then he can't/doesn't attend to other important matters, such as going to work, which most likely allows him to buy the recommended materials in the first place. And the routine is subject to change as soon as he hears another such daily recommendation on the news (which won't happen, though, because he hasn't heard a recommendation to tune in to the news every day - so, poor Cueball is trapped in his daily schedule).

In the title text Cueball explains that his daily routine is not completely fixed. It is broken twice a year, since he also follows public information campaigns suggesting the replacement {{w|Smoke_detector#Batteries|smoke detector batteries}} twice a year. While the US {{w|National Fire Protection Association}} recommends a replacement at least once per year others suggest every time when the clock changes according to {{w|daylight saving time}}, i.e. twice a year. (All such recommendations will likely become irrelevant as citizens of the United States, starting in California, are encouraged to replace their existing smoke detectors with new models containing irremovable ten-year batteries.) This is just another example for official overdone recommendations nobody follows, in this case since smoke detectors make annoying beeps when their batteries run low and thus rarely need routine replacements before then.

==Transcript==
:[Megan and Cueball are standing together, facing each other.]
:Megan: Got any plans for the day?
:Cueball: I'm going to eat an apple, an egg, one baby aspirin, and a piece of dark chocolate, drink six glasses of water, one glass of red wine, a cup of coffee, and a cup of tea, then do 30 minutes of exercise.
:Cueball: Then back to sleep for another 8 hours!

:[Caption below the panel:]
:I only do things that news stories have specifically told me to do once per day.

==Trivia==
*Fire alarms were also the subject at [[1794: Fire]].
*Drinking six glasses of water per day has been the subject in [[1708: Dehydration]], and earlier, when it was more common to say eight glasses per day, in [[715: Numbers]].
*If Cueball actually did all these things once per day, then he would have to stretch out the eating and drinking over 15 hours and 30 minutes.

{{comic discussion}}

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

Talk:1975: Right Click

2018-04-04T22:39:22Z

625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8: backup noise

I created this page manually. DgbrtBOT fail?

Also, notably, while the comic at xkcd.com works as intended (even from Chrome on Android, to a certain degree), the mobile site, m.xkcd.com, does not. It shows the standard system/browser-specific context menu. --[[User:Videblu|Videblu]] ([[User talk:Videblu|talk]]) 00:28, 2 April 2018 (UTC)
:The BOT didn't fail, the comic just wasn't released on Mon, Wen, or Fri. And in the past there was no comic on 1. April when it didn't fit into that rule. And the release was LATE; it was already the 2. April in Europe.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 09:45, 2 April 2018 (UTC)
:The mobile version at m.xkcd.com works fine in Android. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 10:56, 2 April 2018 (UTC)
::Untrue; going to m.xkcd.com on my Android devices brings up a '''non-interactive''' version of the comic, whereas going to xkcd.com (without setting the browser to present a Desktop client type) works fine. Viewing https://xkcd.com/1975 on mobile works fine for me; viewing https://m.xkcd.com/1975 does not work properly. I'm on Kit-Kat & Marshmallow, using the standard browsers; you? [[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 16:04, 2 April 2018 (UTC)
:::You are right. I don't remember what I've tested before. It cannot work because the embedded [https://m.xkcd.com/1975/alto/comic.js JavaScript file] doesn't exist. Maybe this will be fixed in the future. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 17:46, 2 April 2018 (UTC)

How are we going to handle submenus submenus and subitems etc? (Also Captcha outdated! Update immediately!) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.238.34|162.158.238.34]] 01:46, 2 April 2018 (UTC)
:Um, I don't see a reCapatcha. Just saying...[[User:Fmccarthy|Fmccarthy]] ([[User talk:Fmccarthy|talk]]) 04:17, 2 April 2018 (UTC)
::There is one when saving edits. I'm assuming this is the one they mean. Also, aside from a table with way too many columns I don't really know. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.79.215|162.158.79.215]] 04:21, 2 April 2018 (UTC)
:::Captchas only appear for guests and young accounts. I haven't seen one since roughly the day after I signed up, LOL! (I commented a lot my first day, "taking" ownership of all my previous anonymous comments) [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 04:44, 3 April 2018 (UTC)

Oh my gosh this is incredible. The Games section, especially, is mind boggling. Entropy! [[User:Hameltion|Hameltion]] ([[User talk:Hameltion|talk]]) 00:30, 2 April 2018 (UTC)

Whoever owns this site update ReCaptcha! [[User:Sizzilingbird|Sizzilingbird]] ([[User talk:Sizzilingbird|talk]]) 00:40, 2 April 2018 (UTC)

WOO!!! [https://uni.xkcd.com/ Unicode XKCD]!!! [[User:Phoenix Up|Phoenix Up]] ([[User talk:Phoenix Up|talk]]) 00:44, 2 April 2018 (UTC)

2 hours later I'm done, and the save picture button wouldn't work... rip[[User:Linker|Linker]] ([[User talk:Linker|talk]]) 11:38, 2 April 2018 (UTC)

This (uni.xkcd.com) is not new, I remember using this months (perhaps years) ago :P [[User:PotatoGod|PotatoGod]] ([[User talk:PotatoGod|talk]]) 02:44, 2 April 2018 (UTC)

Is there a second for easter eggs in there? Fork bombs ( :(){ :|: &};: ) work, I'm not sure what else. [[User:Waterlubber|Waterlubber]] ([[User talk:Waterlubber|talk]]) 02:52, 2 April 2018 (UTC)

Sorry if this is already well known, but there are a couple unlisted commands, e.g. you can delete things individually using rm -rf. It looks like auto-completion and * don't work. [[User:Power Factor|Power Factor]] ([[User talk:Power Factor|talk]]) 03:27, 2 April 2018 (UTC)

Reluctant to call it an Easter Egg, but Utilities / Identify Song / Hey Now / Hey now na now / Sing "This Corrosion" to me inverts the colours on the comic/background [[User:Maslink|Maslink]] ([[User talk:Maslink|talk]]) 02:02, 2 April 2018 (UTC)

: He missed a chance for a Rick Roll there (For all we know there may be a Rick Roll in here) [[User:Phoenix Up|Phoenix Up]] ([[User talk:Phoenix Up|talk]]) 02:36, 2 April 2018 (UTC)

SPOILER:

I managed to save the image by playing ADVENT.exe, has anyone else found other ways? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.75.172|162.158.75.172]] 00:54, 2 April 2018 (UTC)

'''COMIC MAY BE UNDER CONSTRUCTION''' I think one of the menu options change since the comic was first posted. Randall may still be changing things. --[[User:Videblu|Videblu]] ([[User talk:Videblu|talk]]) 01:15, 2 April 2018 (UTC)
: Actually it's that once you do some things others "unlock". For instance, accessing File > Open > A:\ > Insert > Floppy disk, and then File > Open > A:\ you get the Games, Music, and the really cool Bookmarks catalog of comics. Also, as said above, completing the game ADVENT.exe lets you go to save:
{{Collapse top|title=Egg spoiler: Text adventure route}}
* Games
* ADVENT.EXE
* Castle
* Well
* Pull up the bucket
* Examine bucket
* Get key
* Back
* Back to the castle
* Open door
* Get clamp
* This might come in handy
* Get outta here
* Enter castle
* Examine machine
* Hmmm
* Put clamp in C-Remover
* Take lamp
* Leave
* Go back
* Cave
* Go deeper
* N
* E
* N
* N
* N
* W
* S
* W
* Examine nest
* Take egg
* ''Click''
Now you can save [https://i.imgur.com/X4LX3w9.png the image]! :)
{{Collapse bottom}}
: I made it hidden so that anyone who wants to explore on their own may still... [[User:Hameltion|Hameltion]] ([[User talk:Hameltion|talk]]) 02:01, 2 April 2018 (UTC)
:How did you solve the maze? Is there a clue anywhere or just brute force?{{unsigned ip|141.101.98.196}}
::When at the Well, maybe try wishing for wisdom[[User:Steampunkery|Steampunkery]] ([[User talk:Steampunkery|talk]]) 19:44, 2 April 2018 (UTC)
:: The Help menu changed after I refreshed the page (that is what I see at first glance), other things may have changed as well. [[User:Phoenix Up|Phoenix Up]] ([[User talk:Phoenix Up|talk]]) 02:29, 2 April 2018 (UTC)
::: Ah - I don't recall it being different, but I may have missed an earlier version. Anyway here is another way to make the image available:
: C-remover is a reference to the interactive fiction "[http://emshort.com/counterfeit_monkey/ Counterfeit Monkey]". (Adding it for future restructure) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.134.142|162.158.134.142]] 08:00, 2 April 2018 (UTC)
:: I claimed earlier that it was a Counterfeit Monkey reference on the Reddit thread, but someone who worked on the comic pointed out on [https://twitter.com/wirehead2501/status/980703946971860993 Twitter] that it is actually a reference to "Leather Goddesses of Phobos", though Counterfeit Monkey also uses that mechanic. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.90.52|172.69.90.52]] 16:23, 2 April 2018 (UTC)
{{Collapse top|title=Egg spoiler: London Underground route}}.
* Games
* Mornington Crescent
* Euston
* Warren Street
* Oxford Circus
* Green Park
* Victoria
* Pimlico
* Vauxhall
* Easter basket
* Take egg (''Click'')
Though in reality it may be [https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Mornington+Crescent,+London+NW1+2JA,+United+Kingdom/Vauxhall,+London,+UK/@51.5103249,-0.1720918,13z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m14!4m13!1m5!1m1!1s0x48761b2037dd36b9:0x11812a2d5cfb2ea3!2m2!1d-0.1388607!2d51.5343884!1m5!1m1!1s0x487604ec2b79a13d:0xdfa3f51e98dee89c!2m2!1d-0.1227798!2d51.4861366!3e1 faster to bike]?
{{Collapse bottom}}
:::This is really fun! (and there's [https://xkcd.com/1975/kat-bun-small.png this]) --[[User:Hameltion|Hameltion]] ([[User talk:Hameltion|talk]]) 02:43, 2 April 2018 (UTC)

I followed the "Land of 1000 dances" "na-na"s over 1000 times and didn't hit an end. It may be infinite. [[User:Jedi.jesse|Jedi.jesse]] ([[User talk:Jedi.jesse|talk]]) 02:45, 2 April 2018 (UTC)

Doing System > / > home/ > guest (''click'') takes you to [https://uni.xkcd.com/ uni.xkcd.com] which it pretty neat. [[User:Hameltion|Hameltion]] ([[User talk:Hameltion|talk]]) 02:53, 2 April 2018 (UTC)

List of D&D spells can be ported into explanation from [https://www.reddit.com/r/dndnext/comments/88vwoe/xkcds_latest_comic_has_a_dd_easter_egg/ here].
And [https://www.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/88v6if/xkcd_1975_right_click/dwnp4ml/ here] is a path through Mornington Crescent to an easter egg.
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.134.142|162.158.134.142]] 07:52, 2 April 2018 (UTC)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mornington_Crescent_(game) Mornington Crescent is a joke nonsensical game from an old British radio show. {{unsigned ip|141.101.98.142}}

You actually can install apt with brew. It can't actually install anything because it needs to create a package record during the initial operating system install, but you can do it if you want to. Not sure why you would though. EDIT: I can't find the package anymore, but I am pretty sure I was able to do this at one point. Might have been removed due to uselessness. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.34.64|172.68.34.64]] 00:08, 3 April 2018 (UTC)

;Land of 1,000 Dances
This goes on forever. Or at least well over 1000 levels: [Media:https://i.imgur.com/iiHDE3e.png number of popups checked with jQuery]--[[User:MikeOShay|MikeOShay]] ([[User talk:MikeOShay|talk]]) 04:21, 2 April 2018 (UTC)

;Transscript
Is the transscript really unfinished? It transcribes the entirety of the comic image itself, and the menu part is in explanations. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.238.142|162.158.238.142]] 05:36, 2 April 2018 (UTC)

;Release date
This comic was probably released on April 2, 00:00 UTC. But of course it was still April 1 in the US. I don't really care, but the release date here is probably wrong.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 11:31, 2 April 2018 (UTC)

;More discussions
No effect for iOS. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.138.88|162.158.138.88]] 05:37, 2 April 2018 (UTC)

If you quickly right click on the comic after refreshing the page, it is possible to save the comic. Unfortunately there is no easter egg for doing so. [[User:Baquea|Baquea]] ([[User talk:Baquea|talk]]) 12:26, 2 April 2018 (UTC)

Added it to the page. ~~~~ 02:49, 3 April 2018 (UTC)

Katamari in the music bit is a reference to [https://youtu.be/iMH49ieL4es?t=48s this song] --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.137|141.101.99.137]] 13:31, 2 April 2018 (UTC)

spell list (half of it, i didnt test spells with material components): --norill
{{Collapse top|title=Spellbook}}
{| class="wikitable sortable"
!V !! S !! M !! L !! School !! Spell !! Class !! Result
|-
|V || - || - || 2 || Illusion || Blur || Wizard || Causes the screen/comic to appear blurry
|-
|V || - || - || 2 || Illusion || Blur || Sorcerer || Causes the screen/comic to appear blurry
|-
|V || - || - || 5 || Divination || Contact Other Plane || Wizard
|-
|V || - || - || 5 || Divination || Contact Other Plane || Warlock
|-
|V || - || - || 1 || Divination || Hunter's Mark || Ranger
|-
|V || - || - || 2 || Necromancy || Blindness/Deafness || Wizard
|-
|V || - || - || 2 || Necromancy || Blindness/Deafness || Sorcerer
|-
|V || - || - || 2 || Necromancy || Blindness/Deafness || Cleric
|-
|V || - || - || 2 || Necromancy || Blindness/Deafness || Bard
|-
|V || - || - || 9 || Enchantment || Power Word Kill || Wizard
|-
|V || - || - || 9 || Enchantment || Power Word Kill || Sorcerer
|-
|V || - || - || 9 || Enchantment || Power Word Kill || Warlock
|-
|V || - || - || 9 || Enchantment || Power Word Kill || Bard
|-
|V || - || - || 8 || Enchantment || Power Word Stun || Wizard || Links to https://what-if.xkcd.com/156/
|-
|V || - || - || 8 || Enchantment || Power Word Stun || Sorcerer || Links to https://what-if.xkcd.com/156/
|-
|V || - || - || 8 || Enchantment || Power Word Stun || Warlock || Links to https://what-if.xkcd.com/156/
|-
|V || - || - || 8 || Enchantment || Power Word Stun || Bard || Links to https://what-if.xkcd.com/156/
|-
|V || - || - || 6 || Enchantment || Irresistible Dance || Wizard || Links to https://xkcd.com/878/
|-
|V || - || - || 6 || Enchantment || Irresistible Dance || Bard || Links to https://xkcd.com/878/
|-
|V || - || - || 5 || Enchantment || Geas || Wizard || Links to https://xkcd.com/1559/
|-
|V || - || - || 5 || Enchantment || Geas || Paladin || Links to https://xkcd.com/1559/
|-
|V || - || - || 5 || Enchantment || Geas || Druid || Links to https://xkcd.com/1559/
|-
|V || - || - || 5 || Enchantment || Geas || Cleric || Links to https://xkcd.com/1559/
|-
|V || - || - || 5 || Enchantment || Geas || Bard || Links to https://xkcd.com/1559/
|-
|V || - || - || 1 || Enchantment || Command || Paladin || Links to https://xkcd.com/857/
|-
|V || - || - || 1 || Enchantment || Command || Cleric || Links to https://xkcd.com/857/
|-
|V || - || - || 0 || Enchantment || Vicious Mockery || Bard || Links to https://xkcd.com/732/
|-
|V || - || - || 9 || Transmutation || Time Stop || Wizard
|-
|V || - || - || 9 || Transmutation || Time Stop || Sorcerer
|-
|V || - || - || 8 || Transmutation || Glibness || Warlock
|-
|V || - || - || 8 || Transmutation || Glibness || Bard
|-
|V || - || - || 2 || Transmutation || Knock || Wizard
|-
|V || - || - || 2 || Transmutation || Knock || Sorcerer
|-
|V || - || - || 2 || Transmutation || Knock || Bard
|-
|V || - || - || 0 || Transmutation || Thaumaturgy || Cleric
|-
|V || - || - || 9 || Conjuration || Wish || Wizard
|-
|V || - || - || 9 || Conjuration || Wish || Sorcerer
|-
|V || - || - || 6 || Conjuration || Word of Recall || Cleric
|-
|V || - || - || 4 || Conjuration || Dimension Door || Wizard
|-
|V || - || - || 4 || Conjuration || Dimension Door || Warlock
|-
|V || - || - || 4 || Conjuration || Dimension Door || Sorcerer
|-
|V || - || - || 4 || Conjuration || Dimension Door || Bard
|-
|V || - || - || 4 || Conjuration || Guardian of Faith || Cleric
|-
|V || - || - || 2 || Conjuration || Misty Steep || Wizard
|-
|V || - || - || 2 || Conjuration || Misty Steep || Warlock
|-
|V || - || - || 2 || Conjuration || Misty Steep || Sorcerer
|-
|V || - || - || 7 || Evocation || Divine Word || Cleric
|-
|V || - || - || 3 || Evocation || Mass Healing Word || Cleric
|-
|V || - || - || 2 || Evocation || Prayer of Healing || Cleric
|-
|V || - || - || 2 || Evocation || Branding Smite || Paladin
|-
|V || - || - || 1 || Evocation || Healing Word || Druid
|-
|V || - || - || 1 || Evocation || Healing Word || Cleric
|-
|V || - || - || 1 || Evocation || Healing Word || Bard
|-
|V || - || - || 1 || Evocation || Faerie Fire || Druid
|-
|V || - || - || 1 || Evocation || Faerie Fire || Bard
|-
|- || S || - || 5 || Illusion || Mislead || Wizard
|-
|- || S || - || 5 || Illusion || Mislead || Bard
|-
|- || S || - || 0 || Divination || True Strike || Wizard
|-
|- || S || - || 0 || Divination || True Strike || Warlock
|-
|- || S || - || 0 || Divination || True Strike || Sorcerer
|-
|- || S || - || 0 || Divination || True Strike || Bard
|-
|- || S || - || 3 || Abjuration || Counterspell || Wizard
|-
|- || S || - || 3 || Abjuration || Counterspell || Warlock
|-
|- || S || - || 8 || Conjuration || Demiplane || Wizard
|-
|- || S || - || 8 || Conjuration || Demiplane || Warlock
|-
|V || S || - || 9 || Illusion || Weird || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 7 || Illusion || Mirage Arcane || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 7 || Illusion || Mirage Arcane || Druid
|-
|V || S || - || 7 || Illusion || Mirage Arcane || Bard
|-
|V || S || - || 5 || Illusion || Seeming || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 5 || Illusion || Seeming || Sorcerer
|-
|V || S || - || 5 || Illusion || Seeming || Bard
|-
|V || S || - || 4 || Illusion || Greater Invisibility || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 4 || Illusion || Greater Invisibility || Sorcerer
|-
|V || S || - || 4 || Illusion || Greater Invisibility || Bard
|-
|V || S || - || 4 || Illusion || Phantasmal Killer || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 3 || Illusion || Phantom Steed || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 2 || Illusion || Mirror Image || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 2 || Illusion || Mirror Image || Warlock
|-
|V || S || - || 2 || Illusion || Mirror Image || Sorcerer
|-
|V || S || - || 2 || Illusion || Silence || Ranger
|-
|V || S || - || 2 || Illusion || Silence || Cleric
|-
|V || S || - || 2 || Illusion || Silence || Bard
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Illusion || Disguise Self || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Illusion || Disguise Self || Sorcerer
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Illusion || Disguise Self || Bard
|-
|V || S || - || 5 || Divination || Commune with Nature || Ranger
|-
|V || S || - || 5 || Divination || Commune with Nature || Druid
|-
|V || S || - || 2 || Divination || Find Traps || Ranger
|-
|V || S || - || 2 || Divination || Find Traps || Druid
|-
|V || S || - || 2 || Divination || Find Traps || Cleric
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Divination || Detect Magic || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Divination || Detect Magic || Sorcerer
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Divination || Detect Magic || Ranger
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Divination || Detect Magic || Paladin
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Divination || Detect Magic || Druid
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Divination || Detect Magic || Cleric
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Divination || Detect Magic || Bard
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Divination || Speak with Animals || Ranger
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Divination || Speak with Animals || Druid
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Divination || Speak with Animals || Bard
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Divination || Detect Evil and Good || Paladin
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Divination || Detect Evil and Good || Cleric
|-
|V || S || - || 0 || Divination || Guidance || Druid
|-
|V || S || - || 0 || Divination || Guidance || Cleric
|-
|V || S || - || 7 || Necromancy || Finger of Death || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 7 || Necromancy || Finger of Death || Warlock
|-
|V || S || - || 7 || Necromancy || Finger of Death || Sorcerer
|-
|V || S || - || 6 || Necromancy || Eyebite || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 6 || Necromancy || Eyebite || Warlock
|-
|V || S || - || 6 || Necromancy || Eyebite || Sorcerer
|-
|V || S || - || 6 || Necromancy || Eyebite || Bard
|-
|V || S || - || 6 || Necromancy || Harm || Cleric
|-
|V || S || - || 5 || Necromancy || Contagion || Druid
|-
|V || S || - || 5 || Necromancy || Contagion || Cleric
|-
|V || S || - || 4 || Necromancy || Blight || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 4 || Necromancy || Blight || Warlock
|-
|V || S || - || 4 || Necromancy || Blight || Sorcerer
|-
|V || S || - || 4 || Necromancy || Blight || Druid
|-
|V || S || - || 3 || Necromancy || Vampiric Touch || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 3 || Necromancy || Vampiric Touch || Warlock
|-
|V || S || - || 3 || Necromancy || Bestow Curse || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 3 || Necromancy || Bestow Curse || Cleric
|-
|V || S || - || 3 || Necromancy || Bestow Curse || Bard
|-
|V || S || - || 2 || Necromancy || Ray of Enfeeblement || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 2 || Necromancy || Ray of Enfeeblement || Warlock
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Necromancy || Inflict Wounds || Cleric
|-
|V || S || - || 0 || Necromancy || Chill Touch || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 0 || Necromancy || Chill Touch || Warlock
|-
|V || S || - || 0 || Necromancy || Chill Touch || Sorcerer
|-
|V || S || - || 8 || Enchantment || Dominate Monster || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 8 || Enchantment || Dominate Monster || Warlock
|-
|V || S || - || 8 || Enchantment || Dominate Monster || Sorcerer
|-
|V || S || - || 8 || Enchantment || Dominate Monster || Bard
|-
|V || S || - || 5 || Enchantment || Dominate Person || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 5 || Enchantment || Dominate Person || Sorcerer
|-
|V || S || - || 5 || Enchantment || Dominate Person || Bard
|-
|V || S || - || 5 || Enchantment || Modify Memory || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 5 || Enchantment || Modify Memory || Bard
|-
|V || S || - || 4 || Enchantment || Dominate Beast || Sorcerer
|-
|V || S || - || 4 || Enchantment || Dominate Beast || Druid
|-
|V || S || - || 4 || Enchantment || Compulsion || Bard
|-
|V || S || - || 2 || Enchantment || Enthrall || Warlock
|-
|V || S || - || 2 || Enchantment || Enthrall || Bard
|-
|V || S || - || 2 || Enchantment || Zone of Truth || Paladin
|-
|V || S || - || 2 || Enchantment || Zone of Truth || Cleric
|-
|V || S || - || 2 || Enchantment || Zone of Truth || Bard
|-
|V || S || - || 2 || Enchantment || Calm Emotions || Cleric
|-
|V || S || - || 2 || Enchantment || Calm Emotions || Bard
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Enchantment || Charm Person || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Enchantment || Charm Person || Warlock
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Enchantment || Charm Person || Sorcerer
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Enchantment || Charm Person || Druid
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Enchantment || Charm Person || Bard
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Enchantment || Heroism || Paladin
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Enchantment || Heroism || Bard
|-
|V || S || - || 8 || Transmutation || Animal Shapes || Druid
|-
|V || S || - || 7 || Transmutation || Etherealness || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 7 || Transmutation || Etherealness || Warlock
|-
|V || S || - || 7 || Transmutation || Etherealness || Sorcerer
|-
|V || S || - || 7 || Transmutation || Etherealness || Cleric
|-
|V || S || - || 7 || Transmutation || Etherealness || Bard
|-
|V || S || - || 5 || Transmutation || Telekinesis || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 5 || Transmutation || Telekinesis || Sorcerer
|-
|V || S || - || 5 || Transmutation || Animate Objects || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 5 || Transmutation || Animate Objects || Sorcerer
|-
|V || S || - || 5 || Transmutation || Animate Objects || Bard
|-
|V || S || - || 4 || Transmutation || Fabricate || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 4 || Transmutation || Giant Insect || Druid
|-
|V || S || - || 3 || Transmutation || Blink || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 3 || Transmutation || Blink || Sorcerer
|-
|V || S || - || 3 || Transmutation || Plant Growth || Ranger
|-
|V || S || - || 3 || Transmutation || Plant Growth || Druid
|-
|V || S || - || 3 || Transmutation || Plant Growth || Bard
|-
|V || S || - || 3 || Transmutation || Speak with Plants || Ranger
|-
|V || S || - || 3 || Transmutation || Speak with Plants || Druid
|-
|V || S || - || 3 || Transmutation || Speak with Plants || Bard
|-
|V || S || - || 3 || Transmutation || Meld into Stone || Druid
|-
|V || S || - || 3 || Transmutation || Meld into Stone || Cleric
|-
|V || S || - || 2 || Transmutation || Alter Self || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 2 || Transmutation || Alter Self || Sorcerer
|-
|V || S || - || 2 || Transmutation || Magic Weapon || Paladin
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Transmutation || Expeditious Retreat || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Transmutation || Expeditious Retreat || Warlock
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Transmutation || Expeditious Retreat || Sorcerer
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Transmutation || Purify Food and Drink || Paladin
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Transmutation || Purify Food and Drink || Druid
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Transmutation || Purify Food and Drink || Cleric
|-
|V || S || - || 0 || Transmutation || Prestidigitation || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 0 || Transmutation || Prestidigitation || Warlock
|-
|V || S || - || 0 || Transmutation || Prestidigitation || Sorcerer
|-
|V || S || - || 0 || Transmutation || Prestidigitation || Bard
|-
|V || S || - || 0 || Transmutation || Druidcraft || Druid
|-
|V || S || - || 9 || Abjuration || Prismatic Wall || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 8 || Abjuration || Mind Blank || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 8 || Abjuration || Mind Blank || Bard
|-
|V || S || - || 4 || Abjuration || Death Ward || Paladin
|-
|V || S || - || 4 || Abjuration || Death Ward || Cleric
|-
|V || S || - || 3 || Abjuration || Protection from Energy || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 3 || Abjuration || Protection from Energy || Sorcerer
|-
|V || S || - || 3 || Abjuration || Protection from Energy || Ranger
|-
|V || S || - || 3 || Abjuration || Protection from Energy || Druid
|-
|V || S || - || 3 || Abjuration || Remove Curse || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 3 || Abjuration || Remove Curse || Warlock
|-
|V || S || - || 3 || Abjuration || Remove Curse || Paladin
|-
|V || S || - || 3 || Abjuration || Remove Curse || Cleric
|-
|V || S || - || 3 || Abjuration || Dispel Magic || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 3 || Abjuration || Dispel Magic || Warlock
|-
|V || S || - || 3 || Abjuration || Dispel Magic || Sorcerer
|-
|V || S || - || 3 || Abjuration || Dispel Magic || Paladin
|-
|V || S || - || 3 || Abjuration || Dispel Magic || Druid
|-
|V || S || - || 3 || Abjuration || Dispel Magic || Cleric
|-
|V || S || - || 3 || Abjuration || Dispel Magic || Bard
|-
|V || S || - || 3 || Abjuration || Beacon of Hope || Cleric
|-
|V || S || - || 2 || Abjuration || Lesser Restoration || Ranger
|-
|V || S || - || 2 || Abjuration || Lesser Restoration || Paladin
|-
|V || S || - || 2 || Abjuration || Lesser Restoration || Druid
|-
|V || S || - || 2 || Abjuration || Lesser Restoration || Cleric
|-
|V || S || - || 2 || Abjuration || Lesser Restoration || Bard
|-
|V || S || - || 2 || Abjuration || Protection from Poison || Ranger
|-
|V || S || - || 2 || Abjuration || Protection from Poison || Paladin
|-
|V || S || - || 2 || Abjuration || Protection from Poison || Druid
|-
|V || S || - || 2 || Abjuration || Protection from Poison || Cleric
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Abjuration || Shield || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Abjuration || Shield || Sorcerer
|-
|V || S || - || 9 || Conjuration || Storm of Vegance || Druid
|-
|V || S || - || 8 || Conjuration || Maze || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 8 || Conjuration || Incendiary Cloud || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 8 || Conjuration || Incendiary Cloud || Sorcerer
|-
|V || S || - || 7 || Conjuration || Conjure Celestial || Cleric
|-
|V || S || - || 6 || Conjuration || Transport via Plants || Druid
|-
|V || S || - || 6 || Conjuration || Planar Ally || Cleric
|-
|V || S || - || 5 || Conjuration || Cloudkill || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 5 || Conjuration || Cloudkill || Sorcerer
|-
|V || S || - || 5 || Conjuration || Tree Stride || Ranger
|-
|V || S || - || 5 || Conjuration || Tree Stride || Druid
|-
|V || S || - || 3 || Conjuration || Conjure Animals || Ranger
|-
|V || S || - || 3 || Conjuration || Conjure Animals || Druid
|-
|V || S || - || 3 || Conjuration || Create Food and Water || Paladin
|-
|V || S || - || 3 || Conjuration || Create Food and Water || Cleric
|-
|V || S || - || 3 || Conjuration || Call Lightning || Druid
|-
|V || S || - || 2 || Conjuration || Find Steed || Paladin
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Conjuration || Fog Cloud || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Conjuration || Fog Cloud || Sorcerer
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Conjuration || Fog Cloud || Ranger
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Conjuration || Fog Cloud || Druid
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Conjuration || Entangle || Druid
|-
|V || S || - || 0 || Conjuration || Acid Splash || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 0 || Conjuration || Acid Splash || Sorcerer
|-
|V || S || - || 0 || Conjuration || Poison Spray || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 0 || Conjuration || Poison Spray || Warlock
|-
|V || S || - || 0 || Conjuration || Poison Spray || Sorcerer
|-
|V || S || - || 0 || Conjuration || Poison Spray || Druid
|-
|V || S || - || 0 || Conjuration || Mage Hand || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 0 || Conjuration || Mage Hand || Warlock
|-
|V || S || - || 0 || Conjuration || Mage Hand || Sorcerer
|-
|V || S || - || 0 || Conjuration || Mage Hand || Bard
|-
|V || S || - || 0 || Conjuration || Produce Flame || Druid
|-
|V || S || - || 9 || Evocation || Meteor Swarm || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 9 || Evocation || Meteor Swarm || Sorcerer
|-
|V || S || - || 9 || Evocation || Mass Heal || Cleric
|-
|V || S || - || 7 || Evocation || Prismatic Spray || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 7 || Evocation || Prismatic Spray || Sorcerer
|-
|V || S || - || 7 || Evocation || Fire Storm || Sorcerer
|-
|V || S || - || 7 || Evocation || Fire Storm || Druid
|-
|V || S || - || 7 || Evocation || Fire Storm || Cleric
|-
|V || S || - || 6 || Evocation || Heal || Druid
|-
|V || S || - || 6 || Evocation || Heal || Cleric
|-
|V || S || - || 6 || Evocation || Blade Barrier || Cleric
|-
|V || S || - || 5 || Evocation || Mass Cure Wounds || Druid
|-
|V || S || - || 5 || Evocation || Mass Cure Wounds || Cleric
|-
|V || S || - || 5 || Evocation || Mass Cure Wounds || Bard
|-
|V || S || - || 3 || Evocation || Daylight || Ranger
|-
|V || S || - || 3 || Evocation || Daylight || Paladin
|-
|V || S || - || 3 || Evocation || Daylight || Druid
|-
|V || S || - || 3 || Evocation || Daylight || Cleric
|-
|V || S || - || 2 || Evocation || Scorching Ray || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 2 || Evocation || Scorching Ray || Sorcerer
|-
|V || S || - || 2 || Evocation || Spiritual Weapon || Cleric
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Evocation || Burning Hands || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Evocation || Burning Hands || Sorcerer
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Evocation || Magic Missle || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Evocation || Magic Missle || Sorcerer
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Evocation || Thunderwave || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Evocation || Thunderwave || Sorcerer
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Evocation || Thunderwave || Druid
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Evocation || Thunderwave || Bard
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Evocation || Hellish Rebuke || Warlock
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Evocation || Cure Wounds || Ranger
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Evocation || Cure Wounds || Paladin
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Evocation || Cure Wounds || Druid
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Evocation || Cure Wounds || Cleric
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Evocation || Cure Wounds || Bard
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Evocation || Divine Favor || Paladin
|-
|V || S || - || 1 || Evocation || Guiding Bolt || Cleric
|-
|V || S || - || 0 || Evocation || Fire Bolt || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 0 || Evocation || Fire Bolt || Sorcerer
|-
|V || S || - || 0 || Evocation || Ray of Frost || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 0 || Evocation || Ray of Frost || Sorcerer
|-
|V || S || - || 0 || Evocation || Shocking Gasp || Wizard
|-
|V || S || - || 0 || Evocation || Shocking Gasp || Sorcerer
|-
|V || S || - || 0 || Evocation || Eldritch Blast || Warlock
|-
|V || S || - || 0 || Evocation || Sacred Flame || Cleric
|-
|}
{{Collapse bottom}} {{unsigned ip|172.68.110.52}}

'''Recursive package managers''' are perfectly sane if the two package managers use different repositories, for example apt install python3-pip. The true hilarity arrives if you install a package manager for the sole purpose of installing another, or if they use the same repositories. But that's not unheard of either: apt install npm && npm install yarn -78.68.24.134 but your site thinks I'm [[Special:Contributions/162.158.134.130|162.158.134.130]] 16:42, 2 April 2018 (UTC)

;Bing image search
Surprisingly, when you are playing 20 questions and get into the section with the animals, all of the image requests go to Bing.

I'm curious if anyone will look at the traffic of Bing and compare the normal traffic with the traffic from this comic. I want to see just how much of a spike Bing image search gets from this.

And by the way, "Bing" is actually a red underlined misspelling according to Firefox.
[[User:Keybounce|Keybounce]] ([[User talk:Keybounce|talk]]) 19:48, 2 April 2018 (UTC)

Is there a reason why UniXKCD is under comic 721? Also, there are significant things missing from it, especially the special ctrl- functions! [[User:ChunyangD|ChunyangD]] ([[User talk:ChunyangD|talk]]) 02:56, 3 April 2018 (UTC)

I read the comic, tried to save, it saved. Check what saved, was the same comic. How boring. LOL! Guess Randall doesn't think people read XKCD on iPads (or maybe just that he doesn't think anybody is reading on an iPad 1 with iOS 5.1.1). :) [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 04:44, 3 April 2018 (UTC)
:Not your iOS 5.1.1's problem, basically all the interactive comics are like that with iPads, even if using iOS 10. (On my iPad, [[1608: Hoverboard]] works but lags and controls are awful, [[1663: Garden]] can't run, [[1037: Umwelt]] refuses to appear, you can't do anything in [[1193: Externalities]], and as for ''this comic''... *flips table* ) The only comic that works perfectly on my iPad is [[1350: Lorenz]]. [[User:Herobrine|Herobrine]] ([[User talk:Herobrine|talk]]) 11:25, 3 April 2018 (UTC)

;Graph
[https://i.imgur.com/4X4jD6j.png This] is what the whole network of menus looks like, minus the massive Comics tree. The big cluster near the center is the DnD game, and the single-file trail on the left is Who's on First. Blue circles are menus, red are links, purple are client-side JS calls, pinks are null (they just collapse the menu), and yellows are "tags" - client-side state variables that are set or unset by some menu options. The orphaned pair of grey dots at the top are the Save menu, which is only visible when a tag is set by the ADVENT.EXE or Mornington Crescent games. I'll try to make this some kind of interactive graph that people can explore - the actual DB I made contains more data than is visible in the image. [[User:Okofish|Okofish]] ([[User talk:Okofish|talk]]) 15:27, 3 April 2018 (UTC)

I made a scraper that downloads all the jsons, and also makes a graphviz graph. Code: https://github.com/ad1217/xkcd1975scraper, Graph: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ad1217/xkcd1975scraper/master/out.svg (save the graph and open it in Inkscape or something, it is rather large). [[User:Ad1217|Ad1217]] ([[User talk:Ad1217|talk]]) 19:58, 3 April 2018 (UTC)

;Where is the javascript source?

Where is the source file for this comic? I had trouble figuring out what was happening from opening my browser console. I can usually figure out things like e.g. kittens game, etc. Which file has the source for the right click menu in this comic? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.210.130|108.162.210.130]] 17:41, 3 April 2018 (UTC)
:It's [https://xkcd.com/1975/alto/comic.js here], but the interesting stuff happens server-side. You'll get more info by looking at the network tab in your browser's developer tools. [[User:Okofish|Okofish]] ([[User talk:Okofish|talk]]) 19:03, 3 April 2018 (UTC)

None of the "links to ___" things actually link to anything here. I guess they use window.open or something similarly silly that does not work in real browsers. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.210.88|162.158.210.88]] 08:43, 4 April 2018 (UTC)

When you play the "Backup" noise, the audio quality isn't that great, it seems to be recorded from a device. Also, you can hear what seems to be a bird chirping and a mouse click. Can anyone else verify this? [[User:625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8|625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8]] ([[User talk:625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8|talk]]) 22:39, 4 April 2018 (UTC)

721: Flatland

2018-04-04T21:15:18Z

625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8: fixed a few typos

{{comic
| number = 721
| date = March 31, 2010
| title = Flatland
| image = flatland.png
| titletext = Also, I apologize for the time I climbed down into your world and everyone freaked out about the lesbian orgy overseen by a priest.
}}

==Explanation==

This comic is a reference to the satirical novel {{w|Flatland|''Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions''}}, in which a society of flat shapes live in a {{w|Two-dimensional space|2D}} world. Half the book is a direct satire of {{w|Victorian era|Victorian}} society, and the other half explores the experience of discovering a new dimension, where a sphere introduces a square (named A. Square) to {{w|Three-dimensional space|3D}}. [[Cueball]] appears to have taken the place of this sphere, and the comic takes place after the square knows the third dimension exists.

Humans will never fully be able to grasp the concept of a four spatial dimensions (at least not in the foreseeable future), but there are ways of squashing or slicing four dimensions to create partial visualizations of 4D space. {{w|Miegakure}} is a 4D game that uses cross-sections of 4D space. Cueball attempted to play it, but after having his mind blown, he gained more sympathy for A. Square, who'd had similar trouble understanding 3D. A. Square accepts his apology.

The joke here is that Cueball was being silly and drew lines on A. Square to make him look like {{w|SpongeBob SquarePants (character)|SpongeBob}}, which did not make the square happy. Cueball apologizes again.

The title text is a third apology for when Cueball crawled down into the second dimension. Being a stick figure, he is comprised of a circle and straight lines. In Flatland, circles are priests (Flatland's highest social level), and all women are lines; thus, to a watcher in Flatland, Cueball would look very much like a priest above many connected women, which may look like a lesbian orgy.

==UniXKCD==
This comic was released on March 31, 2010 and was still up on April 1st, 2010. On {{w|April_Fools%27_Day|April Fools' Day}} [[Randall]] altered the website to mimic a {{w|Unix}} command line interface. This interface is still available on [https://uni.xkcd.com uni.xkcd.com] and the source code is available on [https://github.com/chromakode/xkcdfools GitHub].
The terminal lists a few available commands:
* <code>next</code> shows the next comic. Shows the error "Time travel mode not enabled" on the last comic (see <code>enable time travel</code>).
* <code>prev</code> shows the previous comic.
* <code>first</code> shows the first comic.
* <code>last</code> shows the last comic.
* <code>display [number]</code> shows the comic with the specified number.
* <code>random</code> shows a random comic.
* <code>ls</code> shows the content of the current directory.
* <code>cat [filename]</code> shows the content of the file.
* <code>cd [directory]</code> changes to the specified directory.
But there are several undocumented commands as well:
* <code>a/s/l</code> [https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=a%2Fs%2Fl A/S/L] is not a unix command, but an acronym of Age/Sex/Location. The following replies are possible:
: <code>2/AMD64/Server Rack</code> answered as if the server replied.
: <code>328/M/Transylvania</code> answered by {{w|Dracula}}.
: <code>6/M/Battle School</code> answered by {{w|Ender Wiggin}} or another boy from battle school.
: <code>48/M/The White House</code> answered by {{w|Barack Obama}} or another male of the same age in the White House.
: <code>7/F/Rapture</code> answered by a {{w|Little_Sister_(BioShock)|Little Sister}} from {{w|BioShock}}.
: <code>Exactly your age/A gender you're attracted to/Far far away.</code> Requests for a/s/l are often not answered truthfully, but crafted to suit the one asking the question.
: <code>7,831/F/Lothlórien</code> answered by {{w|Galadriel}} or another elf.
: <code>42/M/FBI Field Office</code> answered by an FBI agent (referencing the old [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ThereAreNoGirlsOnTheInternet trope] that all girls on the internet are FBI agents impersonating them).
* <code>apt-get</code> replies "This APT has Super Cow Powers.". The <code>apt-get</code> command is part of the Debian package manager {{w|Advanced_Packaging_Tool|APT}}. This reply is one of the build in Easter eggs.
* <code>asl</code> same as <code>a/s/l</code>.
* <code>bash</code> replies "You bash your head against the wall. It's not very effective.". {{w|Bash}} is a shell for POSIX-based systems.
* <code>buy stuff</code> same as <code>cd store</code>.
* <code>cat [number]/alt.txt</code> displays the alt-text of the specified comic.
* <code>cat</code> (without a filename) will show "You're a kitty!" referencing [[231: Cat Proximity]].
* <code>cheat</code> promotes the [https://store.xkcd.com/ xkcd store].
* <code>clear</code> clears the screen.
* <code>date</code> replies "March 32nd".
* <code>dir</code> same as <code>ls</code>.
* <code>echo</code> replies "Echo ... echo ... echo ...". The {{w|Echo_(command)|echo}} command is used to print text to the terminal.
* <code>ed</code> replies "You are not a diety ''[sic]''.". {{w|Ed_(text_editor)|ed}} is a very simple text editor. It is usually not considered very user friendly (see also <code>vi</code> and <code>emacs</code>).
* <code>emacs</code> replies "You should really use vim.". References [[378: Real Programmers]].
* <code>enable time travel</code> replies "TARDIS error: Time Lord missing.". A {{w|Doctor Who}} reference. See also the <code>next</code> command.
* <code>exit</code> will end the terminal session.
* <code>find kitten</code> showed the {{w|robotfindskitten}} game (the link to the Flash version no longer works, but an HTML version is available [http://robotfindskitten.org/play/robotfindskitten/ here]).
* <code>find</code> replies "What do you want to find? Kitten would be nice.".
* <code>finger</code> replies "Mmmmmm...".
* <code>fuck</code> replies "I have a headache.".
* <code>goto [any]</code> shows comic [[292: goto]] and asks if you meant <code>display</code> instead.
* <code>halp</code> same as <code>help</code>.
* <code>hello joshua</code> replies "How about a nice game of Global Thermonuclear War?". A reference to the {{w|WarGames}} movie.
* <code>hello</code> replies "Hello.". There is a second reply "Why hello there!" coded, but it is never used.
* <code>help</code> says "That would be cheating!".
* <code>hi</code> replies "Hi.".
* <code>hint</code> randomly replies "We offer some really nice polos.", "This terminal will remain available at xkcd.com/unixkcd/", "Use the source, Luke!" or "There are cheat codes.".
* <code>i read the source code</code> replies "<3".
* <code>irc [nick]</code> starts an {{w|IRC}} session on the xkcd channel on irc.foonetic.net.
* <code>kill</code> replies "Terminator deployed to 1984.". A reference to the {{w|The_Terminator|Terminator}} movie.
* <code>locate [filename]</code> is normally used to locate a file in a directory. It will give humorous results when searching for <code>ninja</code>, <code>keys</code>, <code>joke</code>, <code>problem</code> and <code>raptor</code>.
* <code>logout</code> same as <code>exit</code>.
* <code>lpr</code> replies "PC LOAD LETTER". {{w|Line_Printer_Daemon_protocol|lpr}} is a command to print documents. {{w|PC_LOAD_LETTER}} is a printer error.
* <code>make love</code> replies "I put on my robe and wizard hat.". A reference to this [http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/text/bloodninja roleplay chat transscript] (NSFW), also mentioned in [[442: xkcd Loves the Discovery Channel]]. <code>make love</code> is a standard unix joke, because the reply is "make: don't know how to make love.".
* <code>make me a sandwich</code> behaves like [[149: Sandwich]].
* <code>man [command]</code> show unhelpful information about the command (only <code>last</code>, <code>help</code>, <code>next</code>, <code>cat</code> or no command are supported).
* <code>moo</code> replies "moo".
* <code>more</code> replies "Oh, yes! More! More!". The {{w|More_(command)|more}} command is used to paginate output.
* <code>nano</code> replies "Seriously? Why don't you just use Notepad.exe? Or MS Paint?". {{w|GNU_nano|Nano}} is another text editor for Unix systems (see <code>vi</code> and <code>emacs</code>).
* <code>ping</code> replies "There is another submarine three miles ahead, bearing 225, forty fathoms down.". The {{w|Ping_(networking_utility)|ping}} command used to measure round trip times to a destination. The name does indeed originate from {{w|sonar}} technology.
* <code>pwd</code> replies "You are in a maze of twisty passages, all alike.". The {{w|pwd}} command prints the current working directory (see <code>look</code>).
* <code>quit</code> same as <code>exit</code>.
* <code>reddit [number]</code> shows the [https://www.reddit.com/ Reddit] voting bar for the specified comic (or xkcd when no number is specified).
* <code>rm [filename]</code> will make it seem like you deleted the file.
* <code>serenity</code> replies "You can't take the sky from me.". This is a line from the Balad of Serenity from the {{w|Firefly_(TV_series)|Firefly}} TV series.
* <code>ssh</code> replies "ssh, this is a library.". {{w|Secure_Shell|ssh}} is the command to start a secure shell, but it also resembles the "{{w|Shh}}" sound.
* <code>su</code> replies "God mode activated. Remember, with great power comes great ... aw, screw it, go have fun.". The {{w|Su_(Unix)|su}} command is used to log in as super user, which gives you full and potentionally dangerous access to the system.
* <code>sudo [command]</code> executes the command with {{w|Superuser|root}} privileges.
* <code>sudo apt-get dist-upgrade</code> Returns "You are already running [OS].".
* <code>sudo apt-get moo</code> replies "Have you mooed today?" (apt-get Easter egg).
* <code>sudo apt-get update</code> Refreshes the package list so the system knows which updates are available.
* <code>sudo apt-get upgrade</code> shows a link to [http://abetterbrowser.org/ A Better Browser] on Internet Explorer and Firefox (< v3). On all other browsers it doesn't complain.
* <code>sudo make me a sandwich</code> behave like [[149: Sandwich]].
* <code>sudo poweroff</code> will shutdown the system.
* <code>sudo reboot</code> will restart the system.
* <code>sudo restart</code> same as <code>sudo reboot</code>.
* <code>sudo shutdown</code> same as <code>sudo poweroff</code>.
* <code>time travel</code> displays [[630: Time Travel]].
* <code>top</code> replies "It's up there --^". The {{w|Top_(software)|top}} command shows a table of processes. Here it is taken literally.
* <code>uname</code> replies "Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator". The Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator is an explosive device created by Marvin the Martian in the {{w|Looney Tunes}} series.
* <code>unixkcd</code> opens a new terminal window.
* <code>use the force luke</code> replies "I believe you mean source.". A reference to the {{w|The_Force_(Star_Wars)|Force}} in the {{w|Star Wars}} franchise.
* <code>use the source luke</code> replies "I'm not luke, you're luke!", an old programmers' joke.
* <code>vi</code> reply "You should really use emacs.". References [[378: Real Programmers]].
* <code>vim</code> same as <code>vi</code>.
* <code>wget [url]</code> shows the content of the specified url. The {{w|wget}} command on unix will download the content and not show it.
* <code>who</code> replies "Doctor Who?". Another {{w|Doctor Who}} reference.
* <code>whoami</code> replies "You are Richard Stallman.". The {{w|whoami}} command lists the name of the current user.
* <code>write [nick]</code> same as <code>irc</code>.
* <code>xkcd</code> replies "Yes?".
* <code>xyzzy</code> replies "Nothing happens.". {{w|Xyzzy_(computing)|xyzzy}} is a magic word, originally used in the {{w|Colossal Cave Adventure}}.
* <code>your gay</code> replies "Keep your hands off it!".
There are also some other commands borrowed from a {{w|Zork}} like {{w|Text-based_game|text based adventure game}}.
* <code>look</code> describes your current surroundings.
* <code>go [direction]</code> moves you in the specified direction (<code>down</code> is also supported; however, it replies a different message).
* <code>light lamp</code> lights your lamp.
* <code>sleep [seconds]</code> sleeps for the specified time. Without specifying, the nap is 5 seconds.
You will be killed by a {{w|Grue_(monster)|grue}} if you didn't light your lamp when going south.
Going west repeatedly will list the refrain from the song {{w|Go_West_(song)|Go west}}.

The terminal also responds to the {{w|Konami code}} Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A. Entering this code repeatedly will transform all characters to upper case, add a gray text shadow, add an orange text shadow, shake the screen and add a background image of Richard Stallman from [[345: 1337: Part 5]].

==Trivia==
There is actually a SpongeBob episode featuring a flat creature that resembles a crude drawing of SpongeBob.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball encounters a square on the ground.]
:Cueball: Hey, A. Square. How's Flatland?
:Square: Still flat. What's up?
:Cueball: I just spent an hour playing a demo of this 4D game called Miegakure.

:[A character in Miegakure jumps around the 4D landscape.]
:Trying to jump from block to block in four dimensions hurt my brain.

:Cueball: So I apologize for giving you a hard time when you were slow to understand 3D space. I sympathize now.
:Square: It's okay.

:Cueball: Also, I apologize for drawing arms, legs, and eyes on you to make you look like SpongeBob. That was out of line.
:Square: Yes, it was.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Video games]]
[[Category:Homosexuality]]
[[Category:Sex]]
[[Category:April fools' comics]]

Talk:721: Flatland

2018-04-04T21:09:28Z

625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8: suggestion

There might be another comic in this joke with Cueball's last line "That was out of line." Where a line would be a 2-dimensional object. [[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]] ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 21:58, 29 October 2012 (UTC)
 Point of order - a line is a ONE dimensional object (and a point is a zero dimensional object) -- mwburden [[Special:Contributions/70.91.188.49|70.91.188.49]] 14:32, 12 December 2012 (UTC)

:True, but in the book "lines" were in fact extremely flat triangles. [[Special:Contributions/184.66.160.91|184.66.160.91]] 21:33, 22 August 2013 (UTC)

Also, how has nobody noticed the "What's up?" line from the square? This could be a double - or even a triple entendre, meaning "What is the nature of 'up'?", "What is located in the upward direction?" or "What's going on?". The first two would be plays on the square's inability to sense 'up', which is the general idea of the Flatland story. [[Special:Contributions/193.88.197.67|193.88.197.67]] 07:35, 3 September 2013 (UTC)

It might be worth noting that there isn't a playable demo yet (unfortunately :P ) [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.188|199.27.128.188]] 18:18, 20 February 2015 (UTC)[http://vectorlightning.tumblr.com VectorLightning] (Guest)

Hidden DoodleBob reference!! -- [[User:JayRulesXKCD|JayRulesXKCD]] ([[User talk:JayRulesXKCD|talk]]) 8:17, 11 September 2016 (EDT)

<code>sudo sudo</code> is another undocumented command and says "Too much recursion" if entered. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.165.154|162.158.165.154]] 16:05, 3 April 2018 (UTC)

Should the UniXKCD section be put on its own page? It has nearly nothing to do with the actual comic. [[User:625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8|625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8]] ([[User talk:625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8|talk]]) 21:09, 4 April 2018 (UTC)

Talk:1140: Calendar of Meaningful Dates

2018-01-19T01:20:14Z

625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8: asking question

Seeing how the (northern hemisphere) summer months are bolder than the winter ones, I remember that someone said that "historical things" like wars and battles used to occur during the good weather months. Same for e.g. romance novels - people date and love on those dates. {{unsigned|‎81.34.231.6}}
: I don't think historical wars happened as much during the summer as during the spring and fall. Winter was obviously out for any place that had snow, but do you really want to be marching around in the heavy uniforms or armor that armies used to wear? Additionally, I don't know where I heard about it (maybe in some Discovery video), but there was a study that showed that winter is better for romance. It makes sense, with "holiday magic" and people more likely to snuggle together.{{unsigned ip|108.162.216.190}}

If the search included Spanish dates in English texts, May 5th would be larger. {{unsigned|214.4.253.121}}

I wonder if he took into account the month/day swap between the US and UK dating system (among other countries). [[Special:Contributions/76.122.5.96|76.122.5.96]] 14:22, 28 November 2012 (UTC)
:That's a good question. I entered [http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=July+4%2CNovember+5%2C4+July%2C5+November%2CJuly+4th%2CNovember+5th%2C+4th+July%2C+5th+November&year_start=2000&year_end=2008&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share= July 4 and November 5 (Guy Fawkes Day) into Google Ngram], and the difference reflected in the calendar is only apparent when you put the month before the date.--[[User:Prooffreader|Prooffreader]] ([[User talk:Prooffreader|talk]]) 01:11, 29 November 2012 (UTC)
::Yes, [there's a lot of difference](http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=November+5%2C+November+5th%2C5th+of+November%2CFifth+of+November%2Cfifth+of+November&year_start=1500&year_end=2008&corpus=0&smoothing=3) in the spelling. --[[Special:Contributions/84.181.107.38|84.181.107.38]] 17:58, 9 December 2012 (UTC)

Interesting about the 11ths -- perhaps that correlates with low passenger loads on airplanes as well, and thus why the 11th was chosen for the attack (the month of September having been chosen for some other reason).[[Special:Contributions/50.0.38.245|50.0.38.245]] 15:33, 28 November 2012 (UTC)

:I want to point out that Randall doesn't know either, and I think he would have thought about the plane correlation, so I don't think that's the reason. I'm going to investigate this. --[[User:Castriff|Jimmy C]] ([[User talk:Castriff|talk]]) 02:53, 29 November 2012 (UTC)

::September 11 (1973) is also the date of the coup d'etat in Chile. I suppose that might (partially) explain why this specific 11th has been mentioned more frequently even before 2001...
:::I changed the page to show what I thought were the most important events (that I knew without looking up).[[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.171|173.245.56.171]] 21:53, 6 May 2015 (UTC)

:: 9/11 is also an important date in both the American Revolutionary War and the War in Europe half of World War 2. [[Special:Contributions/169.233.101.195|169.233.101.195]] 21:19, 26 September 2013 (UTC)

:The reason for the low appearance of the 11ths is due to an error in Google's book scanning algorithm as explained by David R. Hagen in his blog post [http://drhagen.com/blog/the-missing-11th-of-the-month/ The Missing 11th of the Month]. --[[User:Phoenix616|Phoenix616]] ([[User talk:Phoenix616|talk]]) 01:50, 30 December 2015 (UTC)

I second the Spanish language date in English texts. May 5th is routinely routinely called Cinco De Mayo in English. Has Randall weighed in on how this was handled? [[User:Donglebaker|Donglebaker]] ([[User talk:Donglebaker|talk]]) 18:16, 28 November 2012 (UTC) JC

I also wonder about the difference between the 4th of July (Big 4) and November the 5th (small 5) as being the two "firework" days in US and UK! 4th of July peaks at 0.00003 July the 4th 0.0000001 November the 5th peaks at 0.0000006 and 5th of November peaks at 0.00001 so there are big differences and also whether you pick anything but English 2009. Reader in Invisible Writings --[[Special:Contributions/90.208.142.152|90.208.142.152]] 19:42, 28 November 2012 (UTC)

:No one forget that November 5th is also the day the Flux Capacitor was invented by Dr. Emmitt Brown using little more than a toilet seat and a minor concussion. I believe that is worth a mention.--[[User:Dangerkeith3000|Dangerkeith3000]] ([[User talk:Dangerkeith3000|talk]]) 16:08, 29 November 2012 (UTC)

The transcript reads "[A regular Gregorian calendar laid out in a grid, with some numbers larger than others.]" In fact, there is no way to tell if this is a Gregorian or a Julian calendar; they both have the same months and days. The Gregorian calendar only differs from the Julian in its leap year rule (it has 3 fewer every 400 years).--[[User:Prooffreader|Prooffreader]] ([[User talk:Prooffreader|talk]]) 01:17, 29 November 2012 (UTC)
:This was surely meant to distinguish it from other calendar systems such as the Islamic and Hindu calendar, not the Julian calendar. Since it is consistent with both, the current phrasing is not inaccurate. [[User:Jerodast|- jerodast]] ([[User talk:Jerodast|talk]]) 14:45, 3 December 2012 (UTC)

Certain days of the week tend to get their dates mentioned more than others. Since the sample data were from a small number of years, this may be relevant to the results (unless it was controlled for). For example, in the US, elections are always held on a Tuesday, and Thanksgiving is always on a Thursday (and the Friday and Saturday right after it also get mentioned a lot), but these would not be the same numeric dates every year. — [[User:Jonadab||Jonadab the Unsightly One]], 2012-Nov-28 9:45pm EST (GMT+0500)
:The title only says that the books were published since 2000. The events in the book may have taken place many years before. --[[User:Jasqm|Jasqm]] ([[User talk:Jasqm|talk]]) 09:37, 29 November 2012 (UTC)jasqm

The last few US Presidential elections were 11/6/2012, 11/4/2008, 11/2/2004, 11/7/2000, 11/5/1996, 11/3/1992. November 1 is writ large, but that seems typical of the first day of all months. November 4 and 5 seem next largest. They correspond to the elections of 2008 (McCain-Obama) and 1996 (Dole-Clinton-Perot).

It seems like some of the dates in the explanation were of minimal importance to the comic - March 15th doesn't seem as large as the 21st or 31st of the month, and Halloween and Kristallnacht aren't that large, either. Sure, it's nice to know, but then there'd have to be explanations for several dozen more days. [[User:Bobidou23|Bobidou23]] ([[User talk:Bobidou23|talk]]) 21:46, 29 November 2012 (UTC)

It is missing 4/20. [[Special:Contributions/70.49.173.75|70.49.173.75]] 23:30, 30 November 2012 (UTC)

:If you'll notice April, third row, second column from the right. That must be some good stuff you've got if you missed that. [[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]]_a ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 01:45, 1 December 2012 (UTC)

I think the language category should include only comics whose joke or topic is ''about'' language. Surely, almost all comics and every chart ''employs'' language. --[[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 10:59, 1 December 2012 (UTC)

I was curious about August 15th, that is quite larger then its surrounding numbers, so I checked out: only a few noticeable references (to me) in history:
- Macbeth's death (1057)
- Napoleon's birthday (1769)
- WWII Japan Surrender (1945) and, consequently, Korea's Independence Day
- India's Independence Day (1947)
- and, of course, Woodstock opening (1969)
But besides Mary's Assumption (Catholic Feast) I found no significant events since year 2000. Anyone?

Paulo Sedrez [[Special:Contributions/139.82.111.111|139.82.111.111]] 18:33, 7 January 2013 (UTC)
: The 15th is also a reasonably common "deadline" day, being treated as the halfway point of the month. [[Special:Contributions/70.116.137.237|70.116.137.237]] 01:12, 15 February 2013 (UTC)

: Not sure if it's relevant for this chart because it's restricted to English books, but August 15th is a holiday in many European countries and it marks the peak of summer holidays: it's the day when most people take leave from work. [[User:Dargor17|Dargor17]] ([[User talk:Dargor17|talk]]) 19:13, 29 August 2013 (UTC)

Sept. 11th, is also 9/11, which is very similar to 911. Not sure if there's a correlation there. –{{unsigned|24.49.68.40}}
:How do you mean?–[[User:St.nerol|St.nerol]] ([[User talk:St.nerol|talk]]) 21:34, 17 February 2013 (UTC)
:Well, there is such a thing as Emergency Number Day, in case you are referring to that, though I doubt that ever got very big in literature... Interesting: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_11#Holidays_and_observances --[[User:Maplestrip|Maplestrip]] ([[User talk:Maplestrip|talk]]) 20:06, 27 September 2014 (UTC)

I was surprised by April 1st's relatively small size, and Christmas is much smaller than I expected. {{unsigned|‎75.69.96.225}}
: About Christmas, it's probably because it's often mentioned by name and not as "the 25th of December" [[User:Dargor17|Dargor17]] ([[User talk:Dargor17|talk]]) 19:13, 29 August 2013 (UTC)

I was surprised with the lack of remembrance remembrance for November 5th. {{unsigned ip|Gigahertz}}

Why are some of the last 10 days of January so small compared to the others? [[User:625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8|625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8]] ([[User talk:625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8|talk]]) 01:20, 19 January 2018 (UTC)

437: SUV

2018-01-19T01:03:34Z

625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8: /* Explanation */ changed a bit of wording

{{comic
| number = 437
| date = June 16, 2008
| title = SUV
| image = suv.png
| titletext = Electric skateboards, by cost, get the equivalent of about 300 miles per gallon. Lithium batteries just need to get cheaper.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is one of a series of [[My Hobby]] comics. Here [[Randall]] describes a "hobby" of confusing self-righteous hybrid car drivers by creating situational irony.

There are many anecdotal instances of drivers of "green" vehicles both criticizing owners of less fuel-efficient vehicles (such as SUVs) and for taunting them about how much more they are paying for fuel. Randall is reversing this by taunting/criticizing the owner of a Prius hybrid vehicle as though their roles were reversed. The owner of the hybrid car is irritated and does not understand what is being said.

Alternatively, in the second sentence, Randall could be talking about the fact that the other person has a hybrid vehicle instead of a full electric vehicle, although Randall's SUV wouldn't be any better in that case.

The title text, rather than being a joke or additional punchline, seems to be a serious opinion about how much more efficient electric vehicles are compared to gas-powered vehicles; they would be a far superior form of transportation if only they weren't so expensive. But an electric skateboard can only move a fraction of mass comparing to an SUV.

==Transcript==
:My Hobby:
:Renting an SUV and confusing the hell out of hybrid owners
:[A Prius Driver is pumping gas into his car at a gas station. The prices can be seen in the background, and read:]
:$4.08
:M: $4.38
:P: $4.51
:D: $4.85
:[Cueball drives up alongside in an SUV and leans out the window.]
:Cueball: Check out those prices! Your Prius ain't looking so smart ''now'', huh?
:Prius Driver: It's ... wait, what?
:Cueball: Maybe you'll go green ''next'' time, asshole!

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:My Hobby]]

437: SUV

2018-01-19T01:03:06Z

625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8: /* Explanation */ added alternative explanation

{{comic
| number = 437
| date = June 16, 2008
| title = SUV
| image = suv.png
| titletext = Electric skateboards, by cost, get the equivalent of about 300 miles per gallon. Lithium batteries just need to get cheaper.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is one of a series of [[My Hobby]] comics. Here [[Randall]] describes a "hobby" of confusing self-righteous hybrid car drivers by creating situational irony.

There are many anecdotal instances of drivers of "green" vehicles both criticizing owners of less fuel-efficient vehicles (such as SUVs) and for taunting them about how much more they are paying for fuel. Randall is reversing this by taunting/criticizing the owner of a Prius hybrid vehicle as though their roles were reversed. The owner of the hybrid car is irritated and does not understand what is being said.

Additionally, in the second sentence, Randall could be talking about the fact that the other person has a hybrid vehicle instead of a full electric vehicle, although Randall's SUV wouldn't be any better in that case.

The title text, rather than being a joke or additional punchline, seems to be a serious opinion about how much more efficient electric vehicles are compared to gas-powered vehicles; they would be a far superior form of transportation if only they weren't so expensive. But an electric skateboard can only move a fraction of mass comparing to an SUV.

==Transcript==
:My Hobby:
:Renting an SUV and confusing the hell out of hybrid owners
:[A Prius Driver is pumping gas into his car at a gas station. The prices can be seen in the background, and read:]
:$4.08
:M: $4.38
:P: $4.51
:D: $4.85
:[Cueball drives up alongside in an SUV and leans out the window.]
:Cueball: Check out those prices! Your Prius ain't looking so smart ''now'', huh?
:Prius Driver: It's ... wait, what?
:Cueball: Maybe you'll go green ''next'' time, asshole!

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:My Hobby]]

Talk:1047: Approximations

2018-01-19T00:54:24Z

625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8: comic is wrong now?

The US population estimate is now off by 7 million, although 2018 just started. Even so, in December 2017, it would have been 4 million off. [[User:625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8|625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8]] ([[User talk:625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8|talk]]) 00:54, 19 January 2018 (UTC)

The world population estimate is still accurate to within .1 billion. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.63.28|162.158.63.28]] 13:41, 5 May 2017 (UTC)

They're actually quite accurate. I've used these in calculations, and they seem to give close enough answers. '''[[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 14:03, 8 January 2013 (UTC)

I only see a use for the liters in a gallon one. The rest are for trolling or simple amusement. The cosine identity bit our math team in the butt at a competition. It was painful. --[[User:Quicksilver|Quicksilver]] ([[User talk:Quicksilver|talk]]) 05:27, 17 August 2013 (UTC)

Annoyingly this explanation does not cover 42 properly, it does not say that Douglas Adams got the number 42 from Lewis Carroll, who is more relevant to the page because he was a mathematician named Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. He was obsessed with the number forty-two. The original plate illustrations of Alice in Wonderland drawn by him numbered forty-two. Rule Forty-Two in Alice in Wonderland is "All persons more than a mile high to leave the court", There is also a Code of Honour in the preface of The Hunting of the Snark, an extremely long poem written by him when he was 42 years old, in which rule forty-two is "No one shall speak to the Man at the Helm". The queens in Alice Through the Looking Glass the White Queen announces her age as "one hundred and one, five months and a day", which - if the best possible date is assumed for the action of Through the Looking-Glass - gives a total of 37,044 days. With the further (textually unconfirmed) assumption that both Queens were born on the same day their combined age becomes 74,088 days, which is 42 x 42 x 42. --[[Special:Contributions/139.216.242.254|139.216.242.254]] 02:43, 29 August 2013 (UTC)

:: This explanation covers 42 adequately, and would probably be made slightly worse if such information were added. The very widely known cultural reference is to Adams's interpretation, not Dodgson's original obsession. Adding it would be akin to introducing the MPLM into the explanation for the hijacking of Renaissance artists' names by the TMNT. I definitely concede that it does not cover 42 exhaustively, but I think it can be considered complete and in working order without such an addition. If it really irks you, be bold and add it! --[[User:Quicksilver|Quicksilver]] ([[User talk:Quicksilver|talk]]) 00:37, 30 August 2013 (UTC)

"sqrt(2) is not even algebraic in the quotient field of Z[pi]" is not correct. Q is part of the quotient field of Z[pi] and sqrt(2) is algebraic of it. The needed facts are that pi is not algebraic, but the formula implies it is in Q(sqrt(2)). --DrMath 06:47, 7 September 2013 (UTC)

13/15 is a better approximation to sqrt(3)/2 than is e/pi. Continued fraction approximations are great! --DrMath 07:23, 7 September 2013 (UTC)

How could he forget 1 gallon ≈ 0.1337 ft³?! [[Special:Contributions/67.188.195.182|67.188.195.182]] 00:51, 8 September 2013 (UTC)

Worth mentioning that Wolfram Alpha now officially recognizes the [http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=e%5E-%28%281%2B8%5E%281%2F%28e-1%29%29%29%5E%281%2Fpi%29%29 White House switchboard constant] and the [http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=%287%5E%28e-1%2Fe%29-9%29*pi%5E2 Jenny constant]. [[Special:Contributions/86.164.243.91|86.164.243.91]] 18:28, 8 October 2013 (UTC)

Maybe we should add the [Extension:LaTeXSVG LaTeX extension] to make it easier to transcribe these equations. -- [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.220|108.162.219.220]] 23:02, 16 December 2013 (UTC)

;Protip - Does anyone see the correct equation?
Maybe this is just an other Wolfram Alpha error, like we recently have had here: [[1292: Pi vs. Tau]]. All equations still look invalid to me.
*''√2 = 3/5 + π/(7-π)'': is impossible because √2 is an irrational number and no equation can match.
*''cos(π/7) + cos(3π/7) + cos(5π/7) = 1/2'': could only match if ''cos(x) + cos(3x) + cos(5x) = 1/2'' would be valid, because ''π/7'' is also an irrational number.
*''γ = e/34 + e/5 or γ = e/54 + e/5'': would mean that a sum of two irrational numbers do fit to the Gamma Constant. Impossible.
*''√5 = 13 + 4π / 24 - 4π'': √5 and π are irrational numbers, there is no way to match them in any equation like this.
*''Σ 1/nn = ln(3)e'': doesn't make any sense either.
Maybe [[:Category:Comics featuring Miss Lenhart|Miss Lenhart]] can help.
--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 21:41, 17 December 2013 (UTC)

cos(π/7) + cos(3π/7) + cos(5π/7) = 1/2 is exactly correct.

Let a=π/7, b=3π/7, and c=5π/7, then
(cosa+cosb+cosc)⋅2sina=2cosasina+2cosbsina+2coscsina=sin2a+sin(b+a)−sin(b−a)+sin(c+a)−sin(c−a)=sin(2π/7)+sin(4π/7)−sin(2π/7)+sin(6π/7)−sin(4π/7)=sin(6π/7)=sin(π/7)=sina

Hence, cos(π/7) + cos(3π/7) + cos(5π/7) = sin(π/7) / 2sin(π/7) = 1/2
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.74|108.162.216.74]] 01:57, 16 January 2014 (UTC)

:What is this: sin(6π/7)=sin(π/7) ? A new math is born... --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 20:49, 16 January 2014 (UTC)

::Actually it does. My proof is geometric: the sines of two supplementary angles (angle a + angle b = π (in radians)) are equivalent because they necessarily have the same x height in a Cartesian plane. Look on a unit circle, or even a sine function. Also, Calculus and most other mathematics use radians over degrees because they make the functions simpler and eliminate irrationality when a trig function shows up, but physics uses degrees because it's easier to understand and taught first. Anonymous 01:27, 13 February 2014 (UTC)
::As an aside, just how far along in math are you? Radian measure is taught in high school (at least the good ones). Anonymous 13:24, 13 February 2014 (UTC)
:::Sure, I was wrong at my last statement. sin(6π/7)=sin(π/7) is correct by using the radian measure. But just change π/7 to π/77 would give a very different result on that formular here. I still can't figure out why PI divided by the number 7 should be that unique, PI divided by 77 should be the same. My fault is: I still can't find the Nerd Sniping here. And we all do know that Randall did use wrong WolframAlpha results here. According to the last question: I'm very well on Math, that's because I want to understand this. This is like 0.999=1. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 22:01, 13 February 2014 (UTC)
::::Ah, I see. I think it has to do with the way e^i*π breaks down, as one of the answers shown in the corresponding link explains, but other answers rely on various angle identities (including the supplementary sines one in the proof above). Anonymous 03:10, 14 February 2014 (UTC) (PS, have you checked [[545]] lately? I answered your question there, too)
:::::As per the derivation from january 16 , you can use any a,b,c that satisfies this set of equations: 2 a = b - a, a + b = c- a, c + a = π - a. This is due to the fact that sin(x) = sin(π-x), and what was derived the 16th. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.53.199|173.245.53.199]] 12:38, 21 February 2014 (UTC)
:::: Dgbrt: If not convinced by the proofs linked to in the "explanation" part, you might want to try this: [http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=sum_%28k%3D0%29%5E38+cos%281%2F77+%282+k%2B1%29+pi%29]. I'm sure you'll find inspiration for similar formulas using PI over [any odd integer]. Your assumption that Randall used WolframAlpha for this very identity is probably wrong. This is a very well-known formula that appears in many high school books, and I am pretty sure it is part of Randall's culture. And this has nothing to do with 1=1. As for your original post,
::::*√2 = (√2-1)/((4-2)π/2-π)+1 : Is this what you call "matching an equation" to √2?
::::*So what you mean is that if an equation is true for an irrational number, then it must be for any real number? Like, (√2)^2 = 2, but because √2 is irrational, then x^2=2 (for all x?)
::::*This one's a bit tough. You will probably agree that γ-√2 is irrational. And so is √2. What about their sum?
::::*Well, maybe it doesn't to you. But is Σ n-2 = π^2/6 any better? Well, this one is true (using Fourier's expansion of the rectangular function).
::::Finally,
::::*√2 = 3/5 + π/(7-π) is false because it would imply that π is an algebraic number
::::*cos(π/7) + cos(3π/7) + cos(5π/7) = 1/2 is true, and proven by many
::::*γ = e/34 + e/5 seems false. But there doesn't seem to be a quick way to disprove.
::::*Σ 1/nn = ln(3)e seems false, but I can't see why. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.210.234|108.162.210.234]] 09:15, 11 May 2014 (UTC)
::Dgbrt, yes, sin(6π/7)=sin(π/7). Simple proof: sin(6π/7)=sin(π-π/7)=sin(π)cos(-π/7)+cos(π)sin(-π/7)=0*cos(-π/7)+(-1)*(-sin(π/7))=0+sin(π/7)=sin(π/7) [[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.89|108.162.215.89]] 02:34, 20 May 2014 (UTC)
;So, still incomplete?

Where's our (in)complete judge? [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.186|199.27.128.186]] 19:21, 18 December 2013 (UTC)
:The protip is still a mystery. I'm calling for help a few lines above. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 21:16, 18 December 2013 (UTC)
::The cosine one, in radians, is correct [[Special:Contributions/141.101.88.225|141.101.88.225]] 12:54, 28 April 2014 (UTC)

The 'Seconds in a year' ones remind me of one of my favorite quotes: "How many seconds are there in a year? If I tell you there are 3.155 x 10^7, you won't even try to remember it. On the other hand, who could forget that, to within half a percent, pi seconds is a nanocentury" -- Tom Duff, Bell Labs. [[User:Beolach|Beolach]] ([[User talk:Beolach|talk]]) 19:14, 17 April 2014 (UTC)
:Please do not change former discussions. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 23:57, 17 April 2014 (UTC)

;cos(pi/7) + cos(3pi/7) + cos(5pi/7) = 1/2 ???
Why the hell the divider seven makes the difference?
*cos(pi) + cos(3*pi) + cos(5*pi) = -3
*cos(pi/8) + cos(3*pi/8) + cos(5*pi/8) = 0.92387953251128675612818318939678828682241662586364...
So why the "magic" prime number seven produces this exact result? I know radians and π/7 is just a small part of a circle which is 2π. One prove claims that sin(6π/7) equals to sin(π/7); my best calculator can't show a difference. Of course sin(6π) equals to sin(π), in radians, BUT sin(6π/8) is NOT equal to sin(π/8). So if the number 7 plays a magic rule here this would be "one of the", no... the BIGGEST mystery in mathematics forever. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 23:03, 16 May 2014 (UTC)
:Dgbrt, please see my answer from 11 May 2014 up there. Any odd integer will do, as long as you sum enough of cos(pi/[thing]).
:*Let's try with 5 : cos(pi/5) + cos (3pi/5) = 1/2.
:*With 9 : cos(pi/9)+ cos(3pi/9) + cos (5pi/9) + cos(7pi/9) = 1/2
: No big mystery around here. Just a beautiful formula :) I think there are similar formulas with cosines and even integers. I'll post them here if I have time. [[User:Varal7|Varal7]] ([[User talk:Varal7|talk]]) 09:56, 17 May 2014 (UTC)

::You mixing up to different equations and even not prove them. If there is any prove to a mathematician I would accept and include a proper explain for non math people here. We still have to find a prove. And I do not trust my calculators, we just have to explain why even cos(pi/5) + cos (3pi/5) is also nearly the same. This issue is still not explained. So please give us a explain. And a PROTIP: This does not work with Integers, PI is infinite--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 17:55, 17 May 2014 (UTC)

:::Okay. If I understood what you said.
:::* I mix up different topics. -> True. From now on, we'll just focus on the cosine one.
:::* You ask for a proof/explanation. -> My opinion is those are two different requests. Maybe that's why you use the distinction between math people/not math people. For a proof, please read further. What I exposed above are just other "fun experiments" we could do. e.g : [http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=cos%28pi%2F11%29%2Bcos+%283pi%2F11%29+%2B+cos+%285pi%2F11%29+%2B+cos+%287pi%2F11%29%2Bcos+%289pi%2F11%29].
:::* You do not trust your calculators -> Great. I don't either. (Well more accurately, I trust mine to 10^-8, so I would definitely not use it to prove any of the discussed equations in PROTIP). That's why we'll prove the formulas we assert.
:::* "This does not work with integers" -> Well, I got myself misunderstood. It would probably have been better if I had said: the following formula is true for all integer n. sum_{k=0}^{n-1}{cos((2k+1)*pi/(2n+1)). But It's harder to read, so just say. Choose any odd integer, say N=2n+1. Then start the following sum. cos(pi/N) + cos(3pi/N) + … and stop when the numerator is cos((N-2)pi/N). Then the result is 1/2. And that's what we'll prove, a few lines down from here.
:::*"Pi is infinite" -> That's a common misconception. What you mean is, Pi is irrational. (Fun fact: Pi is a transcendental number. Quite difficult theorem. Lindeman proved it in 1882. Hence, if we identify the real number x with the Q-vector space Q[x], it would make sense to say that "x is infinite" because, the Q-vector space Q[x] is indeed of infinite dimension. But then, that's not what mathematicians do). I think Vi Hart made a video where she addresses this issue (or was it someone else?). Anyway, I might come to that point some other time in the future.
:::Okay, so now let's first prove the protip formula. Well first, here is the link that the explainxkcd wiki points to: [http://math.stackexchange.com/questions/140388/how-can-one-prove-cos-pi-7-cos3-pi-7-cos5-pi-7-1-2]. Most of them are correct. Some are more ugly than others. I'll adapt the last one.
::: We need a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complex_number complex numbers]. (I choosed this because I think explainxkcd readers are fine with this. See comic [http://explainxkcd.com/179/ 179]). I will be using dots to show the steps of my proof. Please allow me an extra level of indent for clarity's sake.
:::'''Proof'''
:::: *Let z be a primitive 14-th [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Root_of_unity root of unity] (the reader doesn't need to understand the 3 last words). Just say z = exp(i*pi/7) = cos(pi/7) + i sin(pi/7). Using [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euler%27s_formula Euler's formula].
:::: *We have z^14-1 = (exp(i*pi/7))^14-1 = exp(i*2pi) - 1 = 0. Using exponential law for integer powers, as seen in this article: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Moivre%27s_formula De Moivre's formula].
:::: *Now let's factor: z^14-1 = (z^7-1)(z^7+1) = (z^7-1)(z+1)(z^6-z^5+z^4-z^3+z^2-z+1) = (z^7-1)(z+1)*Phi_14(z). where Phi_14(X)= X^6-X^5+X^4-X^3+X^2-X+1, (see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclotomic_polynomial cycltomic polynomial]). Now, because z^7-1 = (exp(i*pi/7))^7-1 = exp(i*pi)-1 = -2. And because z is not -1, the two first factors are not 0 so, Phi_14(z) = 0, which is already a pretty awesome equality.
:::: *Note that exp(i*pi/7)*exp(i*6pi/7)= exp(i*pi)=-1. So the inverse of z is -exp(i*6pi/7). But we also know that it is exp(-i*pi/7). Well. That was just a fancy way to prove that exp(-i*pi/7) = - exp(i*6pi/7). Good enough. The same holds for exp(-i*3pi/7) = exp(i*14pi/7)*exp(-i*3pi/7)=exp(i*11pi/7)=exp(i*7pi/7)*exp(i*4pi/7)=-exp(i*4pi/7). And the exact same calculation shows that exp(-i*5pi/7)=-exp(i*2pi/7). Alright.
:::: *Now, use that for any x, we have cos(x) = (exp(ix)+exp(-ix))/2. See [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euler%27s_formula#Relationship_to_trigonometry here]. Let's calculate twice the sum of the left hand side. 2(cos(pi/7)+cos(3pi/7)+cos(5pi/7))= exp(i*pi/7) + expi(-i*pi/7) + exp(3pi/7) + exp(-3pi/7) + exp(5pi/7) +exp(-5pi/7) = exp(i*pi/7)-exp(i*2pi/7)+exp(i*3pi/7)-exp(i*4pi/7)+exp(i*5pi/7)-exp(i*6pi/7) = -Phi_14(z) +1 = 1.
:::: * So dividing both sides by 2, we get what we want. Pfew.
::: '''Why is 7 so special? Well it isn't.''' Let's prove it for 9.
::::* Let z = exp(i*pi/9) = cos(pi/9) + i sin(pi/9). We have z^18-1 = 0, and z^9-1 and z+1 are not 0, so using the same factorisation, Phi_18(z) = z^8-z^7+z^6-z^5+z^4-z^3+z^2-z+1 = 0.
::::* Hence, the conclusion follow from: 2(cos(pi/9) + cos(3pi/9) + cos(5pi/9) + cos(7pi/9)) = exp(i*pi/9) + exp(-i*pi/9) + exp(i*3pi/9) + exp(-i*3pi/9) + exp(i*5pi/9) + exp(-i*5pi/9) + exp(i*7pi/9) + exp(-i*7pi/9) = -Phi_18(z)+1 = 1.
::: Well, well. I hope you kinda see the pattern. Dgbrt, I know you hate typos, and I'm pretty sure that in this long text lay many of them. So I apologize, and I will correct them later. The following paragraph was posted after I started my text but before I finished mine. It wasn't signed so I will just leave it down there. It's another valid straightforward proof. Oh. And Friendly TIP: Don't say protip when you're not pro. [[User:Varal7|Varal7]] ([[User talk:Varal7|talk]]) 21:50, 17 May 2014 (UTC)

The valid identity cos(pi/7)+cos(3pi/7)+cos(5pi/7)=1/2 was correctly proved by the writer at 108.162.216.74 above. For a different proof, consider the complex number z = cos(pi/7)+i sin(pi/7) corresponding to rotation of the complex plane by pi/7 radians, i.e., 1/14th of a full rotation. It satisfies z^{14} -1 = 0 (z to the fourteenth is one). Dividing by z-1 gives z^{13} + z^{12} + ... + z + 1 = 0. The same argument, starting with z^2 corresponding to 1/7th of a full rotation, gives z^{12} + z^{10} + ... z^2 + 1 = 0. Taking the difference, we get z^{13} + z^{11} + ... + z^3 + z = 0. Looking only at the real parts, we get cos(13pi/7) + cos(11pi/7) + cos(9pi/7) + cos(7pi/7) + cos(5pi/7) + cos(3pi/7) + cos(pi/7) = 0. Here cos(13pi/7) = cos(pi/7), cos(11pi/7) = cos(3pi/7) and cos(9pi/7) = cos(5pi/7), since cos is even and 2pi-periodic. Finally cos(7pi/7) = -1, so 2(cos(pi/7) + cos(3pi/7) + cos(5pi/7)) - 1 = 0, which you can rewrite as the desired identity. All of this can be clearly visualized using a regular 14-gon, so a proof with pictures is possible. {{unsigned ip|141.101.81.216}}

;99 is sexual reference?

In first explanation it says: "99^8 and 69^8 are sexual references". 69 I understand, but what would 99 refer too?
--[[Special:Contributions/173.245.53.167|173.245.53.167]] 17:38, 18 May 2014 (UTC)
: see [[487: Numerical Sex Positions]][[Special:Contributions/141.101.70.181|141.101.70.181]] 15:33, 20 July 2014 (UTC)

I'd add pi = (9^2 + (19^2)/22)^(1/4) [[Special:Contributions/198.41.230.73|198.41.230.73]] 02:41, 13 May 2015 (UTC)

User:625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8

2018-01-19T00:51:48Z

625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8:

Hi! This is my user page!

I 'discovered' Explain XKCD after [[1758: Astrophysics]] but I actually started reading XKCD at [[1719: Superzoom]].

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edit Jan 2018: 2523 that's 2x the amount as before

User:625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8

2018-01-19T00:51:07Z

625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8: i'm backkkk

Hi! This is my user page!

I 'discovered' Explain XKCD after [[1758: Astrophysics]] but I actually started reading XKCD at [[1719: Superzoom]].

I'M BACK TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD AFTER 7 MONTHS OF INACTIVITY

My information and favorite things:

*My age: [[907: Ages|Everything sucks!]]
*My location: The United States of America. West coast.
*My sex: Male.
*My height: 5'1" or 155 cm. I am short, okay?
*My pets: A 1.21917808-year-old cat.
*My money: <nowiki>[[CLASSIFIED]]</nowiki>
*My boredom: Very high.
*'''Favorites:'''
*Video game: Minecraft by a landslide. I spend ''hours'' on it each day. Redstone is my thing!
*Programming language: Javascript. Occasionally Python, but only when I'm doing stuff on my Raspberry Pi.
*Food: ICE CREAM
*Instrument: I play both trumpet and piano. I honestly haven't played piano much lately, so only trumpet nowadays.
*School subject: Math
*Person: Who do you think? Highlight there: Meeee!

I can't believe that this page has been accessed 1,210 times! Thanks so much!

571: Can't Sleep

2017-05-16T02:18:55Z

625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 571
| date = April 20, 2009
| title = Can't Sleep
| image = cant sleep.png
| titletext = If androids someday DO dream of electric sheep, don't forget to declare sheepCount as a long int.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] is in bed and is having trouble sleeping. He tries the old standby of {{w|counting sheep}} as they jump over a fence, but upon reaching 32,767 sheep, 65536 sheep jump back over the fence and start counting up again from -32,768. This is because when a whole number or integer is represented in a digital form, such as on a computer, the number's range is limited by the amount of space used to store it. When the greatest possible number given the storage space is exceeded, an arithmetic overflow occurs, which may result (depending on the used language among other things) in starting over at the least possible number given the storage space. This is not at all unlike a car's odometer. Imagine an odometer with six digits reaching 999999. Upon driving one more mile or km, the digits will roll back over to 000000. Causing or failing to prevent integer overflow is a common mistake by programmers that may have software security consequences. Some languages like C/C++ even leaves the signed integer overflow ''undefined behavior'', it may or may not wrap to the beginning, the instruction can be ignored or may cause the software to crash.

In this case, the least and greatest possible numbers are -32,768 and 32,767, which implies that the storage space used would be two bytes. In addition, it's clear that the number is designated as a signed number, meaning that it can be either positive or negative.

However, even if Cueball had this limitation, it would never actually pose a problem. By 32,767 sheep, at a rate of one sheep per second, Cueball has been counting for over nine hours. This would signify that he has extreme insomnia and probably needs treatment, and also that he has spent the entire night counting, and therefore would just get up and start the day rather than count sheep all over again from -32,768. Moreover, according to an experiment conducted by researchers at Oxford University, ''counting sheep is actually an inferior means of inducing sleep'' (see the {{w|Counting sheep|Wikipedia article}}).

The title text refers to the 1968 Philip K. Dick science fiction novel ''Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?'', which was adapted into the perhaps more widely known Ridley Scott directed 1982 film ''Blade Runner''. The implication is that if we ever do create androids that dream of electric sheep, we should make sure to give them sufficient storage space to store numbers large enough such that an arithmetic overflow will be far less likely to occur, even if they count for a long time. A "long int" typically consists of four bytes rather than two, so instead of being limited to a range from -32,768 to 32,767 the number will be capable of storing numbers from -2,147,483,648 to 2,147,483,647, which would take 68.1 years to exhaust. "sheepCount" is a possible name for a variable to be used in a computer program. Declaring a variable tells the computer that it should allocate a portion of memory to be associated with the variable name given. For those who might be unfamiliar with common programming practices, "sheepCount" is named using what is commonly referred to as {{w|CamelCase}}, meaning that all words in the name ("sheep" and "count") are pushed together and the first letter of every word after the first is capitalized. This is one of several common approaches to naming variables in computer programming.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is in bed, presumably trying to sleep. The top of each panel is a thought bubble showing sheep leaping over a fence and Cueball's counting and the sheeps baaing is written above the sheeps. Two sheep are jumping from left to right in the first panel.]
:1... 2...
:Sheep: Baaa

:[Two sheep are jumping from left to right. Cueball is holding his pillow.]
:... 1,306... 1,307...
:Sheep: Baaa

:[A whole flock of sheep (nine visible) is jumping over the fence from right to left, the first and last sheep is cut of at the edge of the frame. Also the last baaa is cut of after one a. Cueball is now sitting up looking up at his thought bubble.]
:... 32,767 ...-32,768...
:Sheep's: Baaa baaa baaaa baaa ba
:Cueball: ?

:[Two sheep are again jumping from left to right. Cueball is holding his pillow over his head.]
:...-32,767... -32,766...
:Sheep: Baaa

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Animals]]

User talk:625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8

2017-05-15T21:16:15Z

625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8:

==Welcome==
Hi IPv6, I may call you like this? Or do you prefer 4ed8? Nevertheless, WELCOME here! There are approximately 3.4×10^38 addresses in the IPv6 room but the number of exoplanets is still not clear. Try to start a discussion first on those edits, this would reduce the edits on the page itself. But since the number is unknown (up to trillions) the entire sentence simply should be removed. Or it must be explained, not just a statement everyone can tell. So let's talk.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 23:28, 7 March 2017 (UTC)
:Hi there! You can call me UUID, because that is what my username is. You can just remove the sentence, I decided that I didn't really want it there anyways. [[User:625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8|625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8]] ([[User talk:625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8|talk]]) 02:19, 8 March 2017 (UTC)
::Hi UUID, shame on me about your name, I apologize. But that's also approximately 3.4×10^38 IDs... Nevertheless I've not removed that sentence but inserted a wiki link to the Milky Way and the estimated number of stars. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 14:47, 8 March 2017 (UTC)

Hi, can you help me with this [[The Rise of Open Access]]? Such a large comic needs more people and more citations. {{Citation needed}}

==Comic 1132: Frequentists vs. Bayesians==
I've added a header to the former part, hoping you don't mind. I really like your edits, but you left a red link to an internal page here: [[1132: Frequentists vs. Bayesians]]. Initially not your fault because the link only worked on the comic number redirection. So [[246]] and [[Labyrinth Puzzle]] works but this [[246: Labyrinth Puzzle]] is the correct link. The problem was that [[246: Labyrinth]] does not exist. So don't hesitate to ask others when something goes wrong.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 23:58, 9 March 2017 (UTC)

This is UUID's talk page. Please don't spam. Also, you must be quite dedicated to try to read this.

User talk:625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8

2017-05-15T21:15:09Z

625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8:

==Welcome==
Hi IPv6, I may call you like this? Or do you prefer 4ed8? Nevertheless, WELCOME here! There are approximately 3.4×10^38 addresses in the IPv6 room but the number of exoplanets is still not clear. Try to start a discussion first on those edits, this would reduce the edits on the page itself. But since the number is unknown (up to trillions) the entire sentence simply should be removed. Or it must be explained, not just a statement everyone can tell. So let's talk.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 23:28, 7 March 2017 (UTC)
:Hi there! You can call me UUID, because that is what my username is. You can just remove the sentence, I decided that I didn't really want it there anyways. [[User:625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8|625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8]] ([[User talk:625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8|talk]]) 02:19, 8 March 2017 (UTC)
::Hi UUID, shame on me about your name, I apologize. But that's also approximately 3.4×10^38 IDs... Nevertheless I've not removed that sentence but inserted a wiki link to the Milky Way and the estimated number of stars. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 14:47, 8 March 2017 (UTC)

Hi, can you help me with this [[The Rise of Open Access]]? Such a large comic needs more people and more citations. {{Citation needed}}

==Comic 1132: Frequentists vs. Bayesians==
I've added a header to the former part, hoping you don't mind. I really like your edits, but you left a red link to an internal page here: [[1132: Frequentists vs. Bayesians]]. Initially not your fault because the link only worked on the comic number redirection. So [[246]] and [[Labyrinth Puzzle]] works but this [[246: Labyrinth Puzzle]] is the correct link. The problem was that [[246: Labyrinth]] does not exist. So don't hesitate to ask others when something goes wrong.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 23:58, 9 March 2017 (UTC)

This is UUID's talk page. Please don't spam. Also, you must be quite dedicated to try to read this.

User:625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8

2017-05-15T21:14:15Z

625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8:

Hi! This is my user page!

I 'discovered' Explain XKCD after [[1758: Astrophysics]] but I actually started reading XKCD at [[1719: Superzoom]].

Also, due to some internet problems, I won't be editing this wiki as much. EDIT: As of May 2017, I am back! Yay!

My information and favorite things:

*My age: [[907: Ages|Everything sucks!]]
*My location: The United States of America. West coast.
*My sex: Male.
*My height: 5'1" or 155 cm. I am short, okay?
*My pets: A 1.21917808-year-old cat.
*My money: <nowiki>[[CLASSIFIED]]</nowiki>
*My boredom: Very high.
*'''Favorites:'''
*Video game: Minecraft by a landslide. I spend ''hours'' on it each day. Redstone is my thing!
*Programming language: Javascript. Occasionally Python, but only when I'm doing stuff on my Raspberry Pi.
*Food: ICE CREAM
*Instrument: I play both trumpet and piano. I honestly haven't played piano much lately, so only trumpet nowadays.
*School subject: Math
*Person: Who do you think? Highlight there: Meeee!

I can't believe that this page has been accessed 1,210 times! Thanks so much!

754: Dependencies

2017-05-04T00:40:09Z

625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8: Catch-22

{{comic
| number = 754
| date = June 16, 2010
| title = Dependencies
| image = Dependencies.png
| titletext = The prereqs for CPSC 357, the class on package management, are CPSC 432, CPSC 357, and glibc2.5 or later.
}}

==Explanation==
A compiler is a program that converts code, written in a particular programming language, into an executable program. A section of code is said to be dependent on a second segment of code if the results of the first segment are potentially impacted by the second segment. Dependency resolution is part of compiler design, and is the study of determining and correcting dependencies which result in an unwanted, ambiguous, or impossible definition of the dependent section. Requiring that an action occurs if and only if the action has already occurred, like the prerequisite in this comic, is one type of potentially unwanted dependency.

The comic envisions a college computer science course (CPSC432) focusing on "compiler design with dependency resolution" which has itself as a prerequisite. The joke is that the prerequisite is an unresolved dependency, as you must complete this course before you can enroll in it, a phenomenon called {{w|Catch-22 (logic)|Catch-22}}.

This dependency would send a poorly designed compiler into an infinite loop. In real life, the problem is solved by allowing an object to satisfy itself as a prerequisite. This stops the compiler's infinite loop, but may not produce the desired functionality in the program. Another layer of the joke may be that any student who successfully enrolls in the class already knows this solution because they must have employed it in order to get past the apparent infinite recursion in the class prerequisites.

Managing dependencies is useful in other areas of computer science, e.g. {{w|package management}}. Collections of files are known as "packages". A software package might require that a particular operating system patch (a type of package) be installed first. That package might in turn require other packages be installed, and so on. Therefore, a package installer must know the dependencies of a package, and be able to figure out whether any required packages are missing before continuing with the installation.

The title text envisions a course on package management which has itself as a prerequisite, as well as the compiler design course with the impossible prerequisite presented in the main comic (CPSC 432), and glibc2.5 or greater. By looking at the course number it can be observed that CPSC 432 is a fourth year course, and this package management course (CPSC 357) is a third year course. Glibc is a commonly used package on Unix systems, and therefore should be taught in the course. This continues the joke since this course has the following unresolved dependencies:
*Requiring that the course be a prerequisite to itself (CPSC 357).
*Requiring that a course with an unresolved dependency (CPSC 432) be a prerequisite, as CPSC 432 can not be taken.
*Requiring that a fourth year course (CPSC 432) be a prerequisite to a third year course (CPSC 357), as the student should be in their fourth year while taking CPSC 432, and should be in their third year while taking CPSC 357. This is analogous to a lower-numbered package requiring a higher-numbered package.
*Requiring that the student knows part or all of the course material (glibc2.5 or greater) before taking the course, as the student is supposed to learn this information from the course.

==Transcript==
:[A portion of a page from an imaginary course catalog.]
:Page 3
:{| class="wikitable" |
|Department
|Course
|Description
|Prereqs
|-
|Computer science
|CPSC 432
|Intermediate compiler
design, with a focus on

dependency resolution
|CPSC 432
|}
:[The very top of the text for the next course in the table is visible but unreadable.]

==Trivia==
The letter code "CPSC" is the letter code Christopher Newport University, [[Randall]]'s alma mater, uses for Computer Science.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Programming]]
[[Category:Recursion]]

1832: Photo Library Management

2017-05-04T00:12:11Z

625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8: Incomplete tag fixing

{{comic
| number = 1832
| date = May 3, 2017
| title = Photo Library Management
| image = photo_library_management.png
| titletext = A good lifehack is to use messy and unstable systems to organize your photos. That way, every five years or so it becomes obsolete and/or collapses, and you have to open it up and pick only your favorite pictures to salvage.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|More explanation needed on what the comic is about, and the transcript is incomplete.}}

While the comic focuses on storing the pictures on a computer (as well as managing this ever-increasing mass of photographs), the title text hints at a physical storage for pictures, such as a cardboard box. Such a box can collapse under its weight, and it can also be physically opened to retrieve the most precious photographs for further storage.

The comic is split into 6 sectors as described below:
{| class="wikitable"
!Sector
!Caption
!Explanation
|-
| Low Amount of Photos Taken, more than a little amount of time to sort
| No Problems
| With only a few photos to sort, and lots of time to do so, Randall is able to maintain his photo library efficiently
|-
| Area under line increasing where more time is spent as more photos are taken
| Can't find the good photos among the thousands of bad ones
| The amount of photos being taken is too high for Randall to adequately sort in the small amount of time he has
|-
| Area above line of negative gradient, as number of photos increases and time decreases
| Can't Sleep, Too busy sifting through photos to find the best one
| Randall has taken too many photos, but has dedicated the time to sorting them. As a result he is lacking sleep through his determination to complete the task
|-
| Area in between both side lines, after No Problems but before cloud storage
| Phone library fits on most devices as long as they're not too old
| Randall takes quite a few photos, but still enough to fit on a more modern hard drive.
|-
| Area in between both side lines, after 'not too old' but before 'Moore's Law'
| Need cloud storage, external hard drives, or frequent upgrades
| Randall takes so many photos that he need more storage than is on his computer to hold them.
|-
| Area after 'cloud storage', going off until the two side lines meet
| Photo library grows faster than Moore's Law
| {{w|Moore's Law}} is a law that states that technology will keep getting better exponentially. However, Randall's photos take up so much space that even Moore's law can't catch up to the number of photos stored.
|}

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

A graph with the x axis being number of photos taken per day and y axis being the time spent going through photos per day, divided into six sections:

Section 1: Few photos taken per day, no limit to time spent: "No Problems"

Section 2: Some photos taken per day, a limited amount of time spent going through: "Photo Library Fits On Most Devices As Long As They're Not Too Old"

Section 3: More photos taken per day, less time spent going through: "Need Cloud Storage, External Hard Drive, Or Frequent Upgrades"

Section 4: A lot of photos taken per day, a very even less time spent going through: "Photo Library Grows Faster Than [http://www.mooreslaw.org/ Moore's Law]."

Section 5: Above line increasing where more time is spent as more photos are taken: "Can't Find The Good Photos Among The Thousands Of Bad Ones"

Section 6: Below line of negative gradient, as number of photos increases and time decreases: "Can't Sleep, Too Busy Sifting Through Photos To Find The Best One"
{{comic discussion}}

1832: Photo Library Management

2017-05-04T00:11:12Z

625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8: More tables

{{comic
| number = 1832
| date = May 3, 2017
| title = Photo Library Management
| image = photo_library_management.png
| titletext = A good lifehack is to use messy and unstable systems to organize your photos. That way, every five years or so it becomes obsolete and/or collapses, and you have to open it up and pick only your favorite pictures to salvage.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

While the comic focuses on storing the pictures on a computer (as well as managing this ever-increasing mass of photographs), the title text hints at a physical storage for pictures, such as a cardboard box. Such a box can collapse under its weight, and it can also be physically opened to retrieve the most precious photographs for further storage.

The comic is split into 6 sectors as described below:
{| class="wikitable"
!Sector
!Caption
!Explanation
|-
| Low Amount of Photos Taken, more than a little amount of time to sort
| No Problems
| With only a few photos to sort, and lots of time to do so, Randall is able to maintain his photo library efficiently
|-
| Area under line increasing where more time is spent as more photos are taken
| Can't find the good photos among the thousands of bad ones
| The amount of photos being taken is too high for Randall to adequately sort in the small amount of time he has
|-
| Area above line of negative gradient, as number of photos increases and time decreases
| Can't Sleep, Too busy sifting through photos to find the best one
| Randall has taken too many photos, but has dedicated the time to sorting them. As a result he is lacking sleep through his determination to complete the task
|-
| Area in between both side lines, after No Problems but before cloud storage
| Phone library fits on most devices as long as they're not too old
| Randall takes quite a few photos, but still enough to fit on a more modern hard drive.
|-
| Area in between both side lines, after 'not too old' but before 'Moore's Law'
| Need cloud storage, external hard drives, or frequent upgrades
| Randall takes so many photos that he need more storage than is on his computer to hold them.
|-
| Area after 'cloud storage', going off until the two side lines meet
| Photo library grows faster than Moore's Law
| {{w|Moore's Law}} is a law that states that technology will keep getting better exponentially. However, Randall's photos take up so much space that even Moore's law can't catch up to the number of photos stored.
|}

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

A graph with the x axis being number of photos taken per day and y axis being the time spent going through photos per day, divided into six sections:

Section 1: Few photos taken per day, no limit to time spent: "No Problems"

Section 2: Some photos taken per day, a limited amount of time spent going through: "Photo Library Fits On Most Devices As Long As They're Not Too Old"

Section 3: More photos taken per day, less time spent going through: "Need Cloud Storage, External Hard Drive, Or Frequent Upgrades"

Section 4: A lot of photos taken per day, a very even less time spent going through: "Photo Library Grows Faster Than [http://www.mooreslaw.org/ Moore's Law]."

Section 5: Above line increasing where more time is spent as more photos are taken: "Can't Find The Good Photos Among The Thousands Of Bad Ones"

Section 6: Below line of negative gradient, as number of photos increases and time decreases: "Can't Sleep, Too Busy Sifting Through Photos To Find The Best One"
{{comic discussion}}

Talk:146: Join Myspace

2017-05-03T01:21:52Z

625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8:

[[User:Rikthoff|Rikthoff]] ([[User talk:Rikthoff|talk]]) The issue date is definitely off. Can anyone fix?

:Yep, I've fixed the date. [[User:Lcarsos|lcarsos]] ([[User talk:Lcarsos|talk]]) 20:59, 28 August 2012 (UTC)

carebearstare :D [[User:625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8|625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8]] ([[User talk:625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8|talk]]) 01:21, 3 May 2017 (UTC)

User:625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8

2017-05-03T01:12:34Z

625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8: :D

Hi! This is my user page!

I 'discovered' Explain XKCD after [[1758: Astrophysics]] but I actually started reading XKCD at [[1719: Superzoom]].

Also, due to some internet problems, I won't be editing this wiki as much. EDIT: As of May 2017, I am back! Yay!

My information and favorite things:

*My age: [[907: Ages|Everything sucks!]]
*My location: The United States of America. West coast.
*My sex: Male.
*My height: 5'1" or 155 cm. I am short, okay?
*My pets: A one-year-old cat.
*My money: <nowiki>[[REDACTED]]</nowiki>
*My boredom: Very high.
*'''Favorites:'''
*Video game: Minecraft by a landslide. I spend ''hours'' on it each day. Redstone is my thing!
*Programming language: Javascript. Occasionally Python, but only when I'm doing stuff on my Raspberry Pi.
*Food: ICE CREAM
*Instrument: I play both trumpet and piano.
*School subject: Math
*Person: Who do you think? Highlight there: Meeee!

I can't believe that this page has been accessed 1,000 times! Thanks so much!

User talk:625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8

2017-05-03T01:10:26Z

625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8: See for yourself

==Welcome==
Hi IPv6, I may call you like this? Or do you prefer 4ed8? Nevertheless, WELCOME here! There are approximately 3.4×10^38 addresses in the IPv6 room but the number of exoplanets is still not clear. Try to start a discussion first on those edits, this would reduce the edits on the page itself. But since the number is unknown (up to trillions) the entire sentence simply should be removed. Or it must be explained, not just a statement everyone can tell. So let's talk.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 23:28, 7 March 2017 (UTC)
:Hi there! You can call me UUID, because that is what my username is. You can just remove the sentence, I decided that I didn't really want it there anyways. [[User:625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8|625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8]] ([[User talk:625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8|talk]]) 02:19, 8 March 2017 (UTC)
::Hi UUID, shame on me about your name, I apologize. But that's also approximately 3.4×10^38 IDs... Nevertheless I've not removed that sentence but inserted a wiki link to the Milky Way and the estimated number of stars. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 14:47, 8 March 2017 (UTC)

Hi, can you help me with this [[The Rise of Open Access]]? Such a large comic needs more people and more citations. {{Citation needed}}

==Comic 1132: Frequentists vs. Bayesians==
I've added a header to the former part, hoping you don't mind. I really like your edits, but you left a red link to an internal page here: [[1132: Frequentists vs. Bayesians]]. Initially not your fault because the link only worked on the comic number redirection. So [[246]] and [[Labyrinth Puzzle]] works but this [[246: Labyrinth Puzzle]] is the correct link. The problem was that [[246: Labyrinth]] does not exist. So don't hesitate to ask others when something goes wrong.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 23:58, 9 March 2017 (UTC)

This is UUID's talk page. Please don't spam. Also, you must be quite dedicated to try to read this.

User:625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8

2017-05-03T00:55:17Z

625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8: My description

Hi! This is my user page!

I 'discovered' Explain XKCD after [[1758: Astrophysics]] but I actually started reading XKCD at [[1719: Superzoom]].

Also, due to some internet problems, I won't be editing this wiki as much. EDIT: As of May 2017, I am back! Yay!

My information and favorite things:

*My age: [[907: Ages|Everything sucks!]]
*My location: The United States of America. West coast.
*My sex: Male.
*My height: 5'1" or 155 cm. I am short, okay?
*My pets: A one-year-old cat.
*My money: <nowiki>[[REDACTED]]</nowiki>
*My boredom: Very high.
*'''Favorites:'''
*Video game: Minecraft by a landslide. I spend ''hours'' on it each day. Redstone is my thing!
*Programming language: Javascript. Occasionally Python, but only when I'm doing stuff on my Raspberry Pi.
*Food: ICE CREAM
*Instrument: I play both trumpet and piano.
*School subject: Math
*Person: Who do you think? Highlight there: Meeee!

Talk:793: Physicists

2017-05-03T00:40:14Z

625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8: Needs more explanation

And thus, the character of Sheldon Cooper was born...{{unsigned|108.28.72.186}}
: Oh great, now I can't help but read the title text in his voice. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.2.62|162.158.2.62]] 22:04, 10 November 2016 (UTC)
: Lol accurate [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.223|108.162.219.223]] 04:59, 30 December 2013 (UTC)
::Nobody seriously reads scientific papers all the way through. Most of it is just about conditions used as controls, et cetera. Most people just get by on the abstract and the conclusion whilst seriously interested people get through to the introduction from the abstract before skipping to the conclusion.
::: I read the above statement in Raj's voice because of the original comment. Not sure why Raj.

[[User:Weatherlawyer| I used Google News BEFORE it was clickbait]] ([[User talk:Weatherlawyer|talk]]) 15:54, 26 January 2015 (UTC)

The transcript claims the blackboard contains equations and diagrams. But there is no equation on the blackboard.

How does the title text take the dismissive attitude to an extreme? What does the thesis statement mean? I would add an incomplete tag, but this comic is so old I don't think I should. If this page doesn't get more thoroughly explained soon, I might add one. [[User:625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8|625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8]] ([[User talk:625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8|talk]]) 00:40, 3 May 2017 (UTC)

987: Potential

2017-05-03T00:30:12Z

625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8: I will kill the person who forgot to close the quote.

{{comic
| number = 987
| date = December 7, 2011
| title = Potential
| image = potential.png
| titletext = The bunch of disadvantaged kids I was tutoring became too good at writing, and their essays were forcing me to confront painful existential questions, so I started trying to turn them on to drugs and crime instead.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic jokes about the common rant by teachers when they are annoyed by lazy or ignorant kids. They commonly say that the kids are not working up to their "full potential" and they need to work harder. The comic comforts the kids who were subject to this — by telling the students if they did reach their full potential, they could, instead of providing better essays and science fair projects, possibly create a monster robot with 6 mechanical legs apparently able to pick up and throw cars, and use machine-guns and force-fields. This is definitely not what they wanted when they said to work to your full potential.{{Citation needed}}

Note that such a huge and complex machine is usually seen in Si-Fi books or movies. Mostly, it is the main antagonist that creates them and making such a thing would be impossible now even if all the top scientists of this age were to work on it at their fullest potential.

The title text describes a parallel to the example in the strip, using philosophy rather than engineering. [[Randall]] expresses frustration when his teaching gives underprivileged kids the intellectual skills needed to raise existential questions that bugs him. His somewhat destructive solution is to put the students back on the broad road, where they won't have time or peace of mind to think about philosophy.

==Transcript==
:Narrator: When teachers complain, "You're not working at your full potential!"
:[Explosion in background.]

:Narrator: Don't take it too hard.
:[Car casually spirals through the air while a crash is heard in the background.]

:Narrator: They complain ''way'' more when you do.
:[A mechanized, 6-tentacled robot rampages around, picking up cars and creating a small warzone before the student inside while the lamentations of people and the building of military forces are in the background.]
:Throughout the third frame: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
:In the control center of the robot: Click, beep, whirr
:Out-of-frame: It's headed this way!
:Ponytail: Somebody stop him!

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Robots]]

Talk:419: Forks and Spoons

2017-05-03T00:29:07Z

625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8: Lol

What could the title text be about? [[Special:Contributions/208.120.153.144|208.120.153.144]] 05:45, 4 September 2013 (UTC)

Rachael Ray and Emeril are two celebrity cooks in America; he has a TV show (or did at the time this was drawn); she has her own magazine. Spielberg is presumably the movie guy. {{unsigned ip|24.61.10.104}}

Speilberg is definitely "the movie guy" and most relevantly the director of ''Jurassic Park'', with which Randall has a well-documented obsession ([[87:_Velociraptors]], [[135:_Substitute]], and many others.) The overall plot -- disaster brought about by cocky scientists "toying with powerful forces" -- is the same as this comic's. Rachel Ray and Emeril would presumably be the stand-ins for ''JP'''s Drs. Sattler and Grant. --[[Special:Contributions/66.114.70.139|66.114.70.139]] 17:38, 28 October 2013 (UTC)
It looks more like a spoork (stage 2 spork) in the last panel[[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.215|141.101.99.215]] 09:16, 24 January 2014 (UTC)

could it be a knife at the last panel? [[User:Imanton1|Imanton1]] ([[User talk:Imanton1|talk]]) 03:39, 26 January 2014 (UTC)

It does look like a knife; one edge is completely straight and one is rounded. [[User:LogicalOxymoron|LogicalOxymoron]] ([[User talk:LogicalOxymoron|talk]]) 20:18, 11 March 2014 (UTC)

The first line of the explanation suggests that the spoon-spork hybrids are produced in manner "similar to Mendelian inheritance" is incorrect. In fact the process is far more similar to non-Mendelian inheritance. [[User:LordofMarzipan|LordofMarzipan]] ([[User talk:LordofMarzipan|talk]]) 06:46, 25 June 2014 (UTC)

Might be going too deep into the charts... --[[User:Flewk|flewk]] ([[User talk:Flewk|talk]]) 16:26, 28 December 2015 (UTC)

"Should'a just stayed with the fork'n knife"
"Huh?! What kind'a knife?" [[User:NerillDP|NerillDP]] ([[User talk:NerillDP|talk]]) 19:28, 1 April 2016 (UTC)Nerill
:A sponife! 1/2 spoon and 1/2 knife! You don't need spoons anymore! Weirdly enough, I have a weird utensil that is a fork and knife on one side, and a spoon on the other side. It can be kind of weird to eat with it because you have to be careful to not cut yourself while using the spoon.

"I don't use a spoon or fork, i use a spork!" (Jurassic Park music starts playing)[[User:Dontknow|Dontknow]] ([[User talk:Dontknow|talk]]) 00:08, 3 May 2017 (UTC)

File:spam accounts.PNG

2017-05-03T00:24:25Z

625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8: 625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8 uploaded a new version of "File:spam accounts.PNG": Made it smaller and less obtrusive.

This is an image that shows the number of spam accounts being made recently.

File:spam accounts.PNG

2017-05-03T00:01:47Z

625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8: This is an image that shows the number of spam accounts being made recently.

This is an image that shows the number of spam accounts being made recently.

1331: Frequency

2017-05-02T23:59:43Z

625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8: Why should there be N/I's? Also more baseball clarification

{{comic
| number = 1331
| date = February 17, 2014
| title = Frequency
| custom = <center><table><tr>
<td>[[File:heartbeat.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
<td>[[File:birth.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
<td>[[File:death.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
<td>[[File:wikipedia.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
<td>[[File:vibrator.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
</tr><tr>
<td>[[File:car china.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
<td>[[File:car japan.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
<td>[[File:car germany.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
<td>[[File:car us.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
<td>[[File:car elsewhere.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
</tr><tr>
<td>[[File:kiss.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
<td>[[File:fire dept.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
<td>[[File:holeinone.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
<td>[[File:turnsignal1.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
<td>[[File:turnsignal2.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
</tr><tr>
<td>[[File:earthquake1.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
<td>[[File:earthquake2.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
<td>[[File:earthquake3.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
<td>[[File:earthquake4.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
<td>[[File:parliament toilet.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
</tr><tr>
<td>[[File:flight.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
<td>[[File:book mockingbird.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
<td>[[File:cat mockingbird.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
<td>[[File:phoenixshoes.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
<td>[[File:phoenix.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
</tr><tr>
<td>[[File:keys.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
<td>[[File:amelia.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
<td>[[File:dogbite.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
<td>[[File:bike.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
<td>[[File:eagle.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
</tr><tr>
<td>[[File:bottles.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
<td>[[File:recycled.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
<td>[[File:meteor.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
<td>[[File:oldfaithful.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
<td>[[File:shark.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
</tr><tr>
<td>[[File:us cancer.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
<td>[[File:us cancer death.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
<td>[[File:dog.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
<td>[[File:cat.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
<td>[[File:wedding.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
</tr><tr>
<td>[[File:domain.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
<td>[[File:house.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
<td>[[File:tattoo.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
<td>[[File:pulsar.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
<td>[[File:facebook.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
</tr><tr>
<td>[[File:iphone.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
<td>[[File:littleleague.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
<td>[[File:ndsex.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
<td>[[File:bieber.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
<td>[[File:denverpizza.gif|This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.]]</td>
</tr></table></center>
| titletext = This comic shows estimated average frequency. I wanted to include the pitch drop experiment, but it turns out the gif format has some issues with decade-long loops.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic shows a number of common events, arranged in a grid. Each of the events flashes with its average frequency.

For example, statistically a child is born somewhere on the world approximately every 0.24 seconds, or four times per second. Therefore, the tile "One birth" blinks about 4 times per second.

The title text refers to the {{w|Pitch drop experiment}} which measures the flow of a piece of pitch over many years. At room temperature, tar pitch flows at a very slow rate, taking several years to form a single drop. The title text jokes that Randall tried to include a tile that flashes about once every {{w|decade|ten years}}, but the tiles are all {{w|Animated GIF|animated GIFs}} and while the file format supports animations of any length, the resulting file would be too big (at least 10 megabytes).

A thorough analysis of the frequencies present in this comic and how they relate to the underlying technology (the GIF format) was published as [http://notebooks.jsvine.com/reverse-engineering-xkcd-frequency/ Reverse Engineering xkcd's 'Frequency'].

The table below lists all the events and their duration / frequency. Some events make reference to other comics.

===Events===
{| class="wikitable sortable"
!class="unsortable"|Picture
!class="unsortable"|Text
!Period (seconds)
!Frequency (per minute)
!Frequency (per year, N/I = not interesting)
!class="unsortable"|Explanation and/or references to other comics.
|-
|[[File:heartbeat.gif]]
|Heartbeat||style="text-align:right;"|0.86||style="text-align:right;"|70||style="text-align:right;"|33,000,000||The typical resting {{w|heart rate}} in adults is 60–80 beats per minute (bpm).
|-
|[[File:birth.gif]]
|One birth||style="text-align:right;"|0.24||style="text-align:right;"|250||style="text-align:right;"|131,490,000||The {{w|Birth rate|birth rate}} that occurs on Earth.
|-
|[[File:death.gif]]
|One death||style="text-align:right;"|0.56||style="text-align:right;"|107||style="text-align:right;"|56,360,000||The {{w|Mortality rate|Mortality rate}} is much lower than the birth rate shown above; thus, the world's population continues to increase.
|-
|[[File:wikipedia.gif]]
|Someone edits Wikipedia||style="text-align:right;"|0.67||style="text-align:right;"|90||style="text-align:right;"|47,100,000||{{w|Wikipedia}} is an online, freely editable encyclopedia. A table recording the time between completion of each block of 10 million edits can be found [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Katalaveno/TBE here], which suggests that the value 0.67 Sec/Edit is a little high, with the average being closer to 0.63 Sec/Edit.
|-
|[[File:vibrator.gif]]
|Someone buys a vibrator||style="text-align:right;"|2.99||style="text-align:right;"|20||style="text-align:right;"|10,550,000 || This is just a joke; there are no reliable statistics on worldwide vibrator productions or sales.
|-
|[[File:car china.gif]]
|China builds a car||style="text-align:right;"|1.89||style="text-align:right;"|32||style="text-align:right;"|16,700,000|| According to the International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers, China is the world's most prolific car manufacturer, producing just over [http://www.oica.net/category/production-statistics/2013-statistics/ 18 million cars in 2013].
|-
|[[File:car japan.gif]]
|Japan builds a car||style="text-align:right;"|4.01||style="text-align:right;"|15||style="text-align:right;"|7,870,000|| According to the International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers, Japan is the second most prolific car manufacturing country, producing just over [http://www.oica.net/category/production-statistics/2013-statistics/ 8 million cars in 2013].
|-
|[[File:car germany.gif]]
|Germany builds a car||style="text-align:right;"|5.8||style="text-align:right;"|10||style="text-align:right;"|5,440,000|| According to the International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers, Germany is the third most prolific car manufacturing country, producing nearly [http://www.oica.net/category/production-statistics/2013-statistics/ 5.5 million cars in 2013].
|-
|[[File:car us.gif]]
|The US builds a car||style="text-align:right;"|6.95||style="text-align:right;"|8.6||style="text-align:right;"|4,540,000|| According to the International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers, the US is the fourth most prolific car manufacturing country, producing just under [http://www.oica.net/category/production-statistics/2013-statistics/ 4.4 million cars in 2013].
|-
|[[File:car elsewhere.gif]]
|Someone else builds a car||style="text-align:right;"|1.03||style="text-align:right;"|58||style="text-align:right;"|30,640,000|| This relates to car manufacture in countries other than those four listed above. According to the International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers, this total is just under [http://www.oica.net/category/production-statistics/2013-statistics/ 29.4 million cars in 2013].
|-
|[[File:kiss.gif]]
|A European Union resident has their first kiss||style="text-align:right;"|5.53||style="text-align:right;"|11||style="text-align:right;"|5,700,000|| Given that each person can only have their first kiss once, this statistic is tied to the EU birth rate. This [http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/statistics_explained/index.php/File:Number_of_live_births,_EU-28,_1961%E2%80%932012_(1)_(million)_YB14.png eurostat graph] shows the birth rate in the EU, and if we assume that the majority of people experience their first 'real' kiss at around age 12-16, then the years 1998-2002 are of interest, where the birth rate is fairly stable at just over 5.5 million.
|-
|[[File:fire dept.gif]]
|A US fire department puts out a fire||style="text-align:right;"|23||style="text-align:right;"|2.6||style="text-align:right;"|1,370,000|| The latest available statistics from the US Fire Administration show that in 2011 there were [http://www.usfa.fema.gov/data/statistics/ roughly 1.39 million] reported fires.
|-
|[[File:holeinone.gif]]
|Someone hits a hole-in-one||style="text-align:right;"|180||style="text-align:right;"|⅓ (20 per hour)||style="text-align:right;"|175,320||A {{w|hole in one}} is a feat in {{w|golf}} in which the player hits the ball directly from the tee into the cup with one shot. This does not account for the possibility of [https://what-if.xkcd.com/85/ Rocket Golf].
|-
|[[File:turnsignal1.gif]]
|My turn signal blinks||style="text-align:right;"|0.94||style="text-align:right;"|64||style="text-align:right;"|33,638,400||This, together with "The turn signal of the car in front of me blinks", forms a reference to [[165: Turn Signals]].
|-
|[[File:turnsignal2.gif]]
|The turn signal of the car in front of me blinks||style="text-align:right;"|0.9||style="text-align:right;"|67||style="text-align:right;"|35,215,200||This, together with "My turn signal blinks", forms a reference to [[165: Turn Signals]].
|-
|[[File:earthquake1.gif]]
|Earthquake (magnitude 1)||style="text-align:right;"|2.43||style="text-align:right;"|25||style="text-align:right;"|13,000,000||These are continually happening, and not felt by humans. The [http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/map/#%7B%22feed%22%3A%221419026358584%22%2C%22sort%22%3A%22newest%22%2C%22mapposition%22%3A%5B%5B-85%2C0%5D%2C%5B85%2C360%5D%5D%2C%22viewModes%22%3A%7B%22help%22%3Afalse%2C%22list%22%3Atrue%2C%22map%22%3Atrue%2C%22settings%22%3Afalse%7D%2C%22autoUpdate%22%3Afalse%2C%22search%22%3A%7B%22id%22%3A%221419026358584%22%2C%22name%22%3A%22Search%20Results%22%2C%22isSearch%22%3Atrue%2C%22params%22%3A%7B%22starttime%22%3A%222014-12-12%2000%3A00%3A00%22%2C%22minmagnitude%22%3A-1%2C%22eventtype%22%3A%22earthquake%22%2C%22endtime%22%3A%222014-12-19%2023%3A59%3A59%22%2C%22maxmagnitude%22%3A1.9%2C%22orderby%22%3A%22time%22%7D%7D%7D USGS does report them], but the link provided was produced at the time this description was written. It can however be updated by the user.
|-
|[[File:earthquake2.gif]]
|Earthquake (magnitude 2)||style="text-align:right;"|24.26||style="text-align:right;"|2.5||style="text-align:right;"|1,300,000|| The US Geological Survey estimates that [http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eqarchives/year/eqstats.php 1.3 million] earthquakes of magnitude 2.0-2.9 occur worldwide each year.
|-
|[[File:earthquake3.gif]]
|Earthquake (magnitude 3)||style="text-align:right;"|242.6||style="text-align:right;"|¼ (15 per hour)||style="text-align:right;"|130,000|| The US Geological Survey estimates that [http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eqarchives/year/eqstats.php 130 thousand] earthquakes of magnitude 3.0-3.9 occur worldwide each year.
Earthquakes below this magnitude pass by largely unnoticed by most people (or [[723|tweeters]]).
|-
|[[File:earthquake4.gif]]
|Earthquake (magnitude 4)||style="text-align:right;"|2426||style="text-align:right;"|0.025 (1.5 per hour)||style="text-align:right;"|13,000|| The US Geological Survey estimates that [http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eqarchives/year/eqstats.php 13 thousand] earthquakes of magnitude 4.0-4.9 occur worldwide each year.
|-
|[[File:parliament toilet.gif]]
|A member of the UK parliament flushes a toilet||style="text-align:right;"|10.06||style="text-align:right;"|6||style="text-align:right;"|3,140,000||At the time of this comic, there were 650 elected MPs and in the UK parliament, resulting in an average of 13.2 flushes per MP per day, which would mean that supposing that MPs get up to go to the toilet once between midnight and 6am, that means that during the rest of the day they are averaging a trip to the toilet every hour and a half. It appears that Randall included the unelected Lords in the upper house of Parliament (not technically called Members of Parliament), which numbered around 780 at the time of the comic. In that case, that averages a slightly more reasonable 6 flushes per Parlimentarian per day.
|-
|[[File:flight.gif]]
|An airline flight takes off||style="text-align:right;"|0.93||style="text-align:right;"|65||style="text-align:right;"|34,000,000|| Research conducted in 2008 by Thomas Ruosch and Dr Karl Rege at [http://www.init.zhaw.ch/index.php?id=9&L=1 Zurich University of Applied Science] plotted the [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oR00_uLfGVE 93,000 daily worldwide airline flights].
|-
|[[File:book mockingbird.gif]]
|Someone buys ''To Kill a Mockingbird''||style="text-align:right;"|42.05||style="text-align:right;"|1.4||style="text-align:right;"|750,000||"{{w|To Kill a Mockingbird}}" is a novel by {{w|Harper Lee}}, often an assigned reading in high school. Since 1960 it has sold in the region of [http://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/jul/09/harper-lee-to-kill-a-mockingbird 40 million copies], an average of 740,000 a year.
|-
|[[File:cat mockingbird.gif]]
|Someone's pet cat kills a mockingbird||style="text-align:right;"|1.82||style="text-align:right;"|33||style="text-align:right;"|17,340,000||Whereas the previous item references the well-known book "To Kill a Mockingbird", this one talks about {{w|Mockingbird|mockingbirds}} being literally killed (in this case, by cats). There are 45 million mockingbirds in the world;[http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/accounts/Mimus_polyglottos/] this means that according to Randall, cats kill 39% of mockingbirds in one year, i.e. in 2.5 years they are able to kill all mockingbirds (excluding the ones that are born in the meantime).
|-
|[[File:phoenixshoes.gif]]
|Someone in Phoenix buys new shoes||style="text-align:right;"|1.08||style="text-align:right;"|56||style="text-align:right;"|29,200,000||Since {{w|Phoenix metropolitan area|metro Phoenix}} has 4,200,000 inhabitants, according to Randall people in Phoenix buy 7 pairs of shoes per capita per year.
|-
|[[File:phoenix.gif]]
|Someone in Phoenix puts on a condom||style="text-align:right;"|2.05||style="text-align:right;"|29||style="text-align:right;"|15,390,000||An unverifiable joke that would take into account the sexually active population of Phoenix, cross-tabulated with those who use protection, and finally those who are ready to engage in intercourse at any given time. It's one thing to attempt to calculate copulation rates, but the condom makes it a joke and fluke variable.
|-
|[[File:keys.gif]]
|Someone locks their keys in their car||style="text-align:right;"|2.43||style="text-align:right;"|25||style="text-align:right;"|13,000,000||There does not appear to be any data on this mishap, but a [https://twitter.com/search?q=locked%20keys%20in%20car&src=typd Twitter search] reveals this happens, or people discuss it happening at a high frequency.
|-
|[[File:amelia.gif]]
|A Sagittarius named Amelia drinks a soda||style="text-align:right;"|7.79||style="text-align:right;"|7.7||style="text-align:right;"|4,000,000||Randall Munroe is a [http://blog.xkcd.com/2014/01/31/the-baby-name-wizard/ fan of The Baby Name Wizard] blog and its [http://www.babynamewizard.com Name Voyager] tool which shows that "[http://www.babynamewizard.com/baby-name/girl/amelia Amelia]" has recently exploded in popularity. 
This particular frequency is taken from:
* The number of persons called {{w|Amelia (given name)|Amelia}} ([http://howmanyofme.com/ est. 82,572 people in the U.S.])
* The number of persons born between November 22 and December 22 under the astrological sign of {{w|Sagittarius (astrology)|Sagittarius}} (~1/12th of the population, i.e. approximately 6881 Amelias in the U.S.)
* The frequency of soda (soft drinks) being drunk (216 liters per person per year in the U.S.[http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/foo_sof_dri_con-food-soft-drink-consumption]).
According to our figures, 6881 Amelias drink 1.44 million liters of soft drinks per year in the United States alone, which means that Randall's figures only account for American Amelias (drinking 355 mL or 12 fl. oz. of soda in each drink).
|-
|[[File:dogbite.gif]]
|A dog bites someone in the US||style="text-align:right;"|7.01||style="text-align:right;"|8.6||style="text-align:right;"|4,500,000|| A [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18836045 2008 report] by the Centers for Disease Control concluded that 4.5 million people are bitten by dogs each year.
|-
|[[File:bike.gif]]
|Someone steals a bicycle||style="text-align:right;"|24.93||style="text-align:right;"|2.4||style="text-align:right;"|1,265,000||About half of all cyclists have their bikes stolen, oftentimes more than once, but riders have a 90% chance of theft, all according to [http://www.citylab.com/commute/2014/04/these-8-depressing-bike-theft-statistics-show-just-how-bad-problem/8890/ this report].
|-
|[[File:eagle.gif]]
|A bald eagle catches a fish||style="text-align:right;"|2.69||style="text-align:right;"|22||style="text-align:right;"|11,700,000||It is estimated that there are 70,000 bald eagles in the world and they eat up to [http://www.hancockwildlife.org/forum/viewtopic.php?showtopic=949 a pound-and-a-half of fish] every day.
|-
|[[File:bottles.gif]]
|50,000 plastic bottles are produced||style="text-align:right;"|1.27||style="text-align:right;"|47||style="text-align:right;"|1.24 trillion||This fact speaks for itself, but here are some [http://www.banthebottle.net/bottled-water-facts/ alarming facts] about plastic bottle production and usage.
|-
|[[File:recycled.gif]]
|50,000 plastic bottles are recycled||style="text-align:right;"|4.64||style="text-align:right;"|13||style="text-align:right;"|340 billion||27% of the plastic bottles manufactured get [[885: Recycling|recycled]]
|-
|[[File:meteor.gif]]
|A bright meteor is visible somewhere||style="text-align:right;"|1.15||style="text-align:right;"|52||style="text-align:right;"|27,400,000||This varies based on location, time of day, time of year, weather, personal perception and a number of other factors, but according to [http://www.amsmeteors.org/meteor-showers/meteor-faq/#4 The American Meteor Society], between 2-16 can be seen during the hours before daylight where it would be too bright to see them.
|-
|[[File:oldfaithful.gif]]
|Old Faithful erupts||style="text-align:right;"|5640 (94 minutes)||style="text-align:right;"|0.011 (15 per day)||style="text-align:right;"|5,595||{{w|Old Faithful}} is a geyser in {{w|Yellowstone National Park}} in the US, that tends to erupt every 65 or 91 minutes. XKCD's period of 1h 34m falls between the [http://geysertimes.org/getGeyserInfo.php?geyserID=2 mean and median of recent Old Faithful eruptions] and corresponds to a [http://geysertimes.org/getSingleEruption.php?id=645135 February 16, 2014 eruption].
|-
|[[File:shark.gif]]
|A fishing boat catches a shark||style="text-align:right;"|0.83||style="text-align:right;"|72||style="text-align:right;"|38,000,000|| [[1326: Sharks]]; Shark populations have experienced severe declines due to fishing impacts both of {{w|shark finning|finning}} and by-catch.[http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=shark+population+decline+fishing]
|-
|[[File:us cancer.gif]]
|Someone in the US is diagnosed with cancer||style="text-align:right;"|18.99||style="text-align:right;"|3.2||style="text-align:right;"|1,660,000|| According to the [http://www.cancer.org American Cancer Society], there will be an estimated 1,665,540 new cancer cases diagnosed ins the US in 2014.
|-
|[[File:us cancer death.gif]]
|Someone in the US dies from cancer||style="text-align:right;"|54.34||style="text-align:right;"|1.1||style="text-align:right;"|580,000|| According to the [http://www.cancer.org American Cancer Society], in 2014 there will be an estimated 585,720 cancer deaths in the US.
|-
|[[File:dog.gif]]
|Someone adopts a dog from a shelter||style="text-align:right;"|15.6||style="text-align:right;"|3.8||style="text-align:right;"|2,000,000||[http://www.statisticbrain.com/pet-owner-industry-stats/ 10%] of owned dogs were adopted from shelters
|-
|[[File:cat.gif]]
|Someone adopts a cat from a shelter||style="text-align:right;"|21.3||style="text-align:right;"|2.8||style="text-align:right;"|1,500,000||[http://www.statisticbrain.com/pet-owner-industry-stats/ 18%] of owned cats were adopted from shelters
|-
|[[File:wedding.gif]]
|Someone gets married||style="text-align:right;"|0.75||style="text-align:right;"|80||style="text-align:right;"|42,000,000||According to [http://www.statisticbrain.com/marriage-statistics/ this study], there are 2,077,000 marriages in the US every year.
|-
|[[File:domain.gif]]
|Someone registers a domain||style="text-align:right;"|0.64||style="text-align:right;"|94||style="text-align:right;"|49,300,000 ||According to [http://www.dailychanges.com/ Dailychanges.com], about 135,000 domains are registered every day, but this figure fluctuates.
|-
|[[File:house.gif]]
|Someone in the US buys a house||style="text-align:right;"|6.22||style="text-align:right;"|9.6||style="text-align:right;"|5,000,000||According to [http://www.census.gov/construction/nrs/pdf/newressales.pdf The Census Bureau], on average there are 400,000 home purchases in the US each month.
|-
|[[File:tattoo.gif]]
|Someone in the US gets a tattoo||style="text-align:right;"|2.06||style="text-align:right;"|29||style="text-align:right;"|15,300,000||This estimate is probably based on the percentage of people who are tattooed, and not how frequently they purchase one, but the figures [http://theweek.com/article/index/233633/the-tattoo-economy-by-the-numbers here], [http://www.vanishingtattoo.com/tattoo_facts.htm here], and [http://www.statisticbrain.com/tattoo-statistics/ here] add to the credibility of the claim.
|-
|[[File:pulsar.gif]]
|The star PSR J1748-2446AD rotates 1,000 times||style="text-align:right;"|1.4||style="text-align:right;"|42.9||style="text-align:right;"|22,548,240, which means 23.5 billion times per year||{{w|PSR J1748-2446ad}} is the fastest spinning {{w|pulsar}} known.
|-
|[[File:facebook.gif]]
|Someone lies about their age to sign up for Facebook||style="text-align:right;"|4.32||style="text-align:right;"|14||style="text-align:right;"|7,300,000||To sign up for Facebook, [https://www.facebook.com/help/210644045634222 the user must claim to be at least 13 years old]. This is a reflection of the U.S. {{w|Children's Online Privacy Protection Act}}.
|-
|[[File:iphone.gif]]
|Someone breaks an iPhone screen||style="text-align:right;"|0.93||style="text-align:right;"|65||style="text-align:right;"|34,000,000||According to a [http://www.cnet.com/news/quarter-of-iphones-have-a-broken-screen-says-new-poll/ CNET report], up to a quarter of iPhones have a broken screen.
|-
|[[File:littleleague.gif]]
|A Little League player strikes out||style="text-align:right;"|1.23||style="text-align:right;"|49||style="text-align:right;"|25,754,400||{{w|Little League Baseball|Little League}} is a system of local youth baseball and softball competitions. A {{w|strikeout}} is a situation in baseball and softball. This figure will be inconsistent throughout the year as baseball is normally not played in the winter.
|-
|[[File:ndsex.gif]]
|Someone has sex in North Dakota||style="text-align:right;"|1.38||style="text-align:right;"|43||style="text-align:right;"|22,900,000||Since {{w|North Dakota}} has 723,000 inhabitants (ranked the 48th state), and if we estimate the sexually active population as 80% (and if ''someone'' means ''a couple)'' this means that people in North Dakota have sex 79.1 times a year. It is estimated that 3.93% of the world population has sex on a given day;[http://geography.about.com/od/culturalgeography/a/geographyofsex.htm] Randall's rate for North Dakota is 17.3% which is not low.
|-
|[[File:bieber.gif]]
|Justin Bieber gains a follower on Twitter||style="text-align:right;"|4.73||style="text-align:right;"|13||style="text-align:right;"|6,670,000|| [[802: Online Communities 2#Twitter Region|802: Online Communities 2]]; {{w|Justin Bieber}} is a Canadian pop music singer whose [https://twitter.com/justinbieber Twitter account] is extremely popular.
|-
|[[File:denverpizza.gif]]
|Someone in Denver orders pizza||style="text-align:right;"|1.27||style="text-align:right;"|47||style="text-align:right;"|24,800,000|| In 2013, an estimated [http://www.statisticbrain.com/pizza-statistics/ 3 billion] pizzas were sold in the US. With a population of approximately 320 million, this is an average of just over 9 pizzas per person per year. According to the [http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/08/08031.html 2010 Census], the population of Denver was, rounded, 650,000. The frequency shown equates to over 38 pizzas per person per year, four times the national average.
|}

==Transcript==
:[Repetitive events are written in grey and arranged in a grid. Each statement pulses to black and then returns to grey at an interval characteristic of the named event.]

{| style="text-align:center;"
|- style="vertical-align: top; background-color:#eeeeee;"
|Heartbeat (0.86 sec)
|One birth (0.24 sec)
|One death (0.56 sec)
|Someone edits Wikipedia (0.67 sec)
|Someone buys a vibrator (2.99 sec)
|- style="vertical-align: top;"
|China builds a car (1.89 sec)
|Japan builds a car (4.01 sec)
|Germany builds a car (5.8 sec)
|The US builds a car (6.95 sec)
|Someone else builds a car (1.03 sec)
|- style="vertical-align: top; background-color:#eeeeee;"
|A European Union resident has their first kiss (5.53 sec)
|A US fire department puts out a fire (23 sec)
|Someone hits a hole-in-one (180 sec)
|My turn signal blinks (0.94 sec)
|The turn signal of the car in front of me blinks (0.9 sec)
|- style="vertical-align: top;"
|Earthquake (magnitude 1) (2.43 sec)
|Earthquake (magnitude 2) (24.26 sec)
|Earthquake (magnitude 3) (242.6 sec)
|Earthquake (magnitude 4) (2426 sec, 42 min)
|Member of the UK Parliament flushes a toilet (10.06 sec)
|- style="vertical-align: top; background-color:#eeeeee;"
|An airline flight takes off (0.93 sec)
|Someone buys ''To Kill a Mockingbird'' (42.05 sec)
|Someone's pet cat kills a mockingbird (1.82 sec)
|Someone in Phoenix buys new shoes (1.08 sec)
|Someone in Phoenix puts on a condom (2.05 sec)
|- style="vertical-align: top;"
|Someone locks their keys in their car (2.43 sec)
|A Sagittarius named Amelia drinks a soda (7.79 sec)
|A dog bites someone in the US (7.01 sec)
|Someone steals a bicycle (24.93 sec)
|A bald eagle catches a fish (2.69 sec)
|- style="vertical-align: top; background-color:#eeeeee;"
|50,000 plastic bottles are produced (1.27 sec)
|50,000 plastic bottles are recycled (4.64 sec)
|A bright meteor is visible somewhere (1.15 sec)
|Old Faithful erupts (5640 sec, 94 min)
|A fishing boat catches a shark (0.83 sec)
|- style="vertical-align: top;"
|Someone in the US is diagnosed with cancer (18.99 sec)
|Someone in the US dies from cancer (54.34 sec)
|Someone adopts a dog from a shelter (15.6 sec)
|Someone adopts a cat from a shelter (21.3 sec)
|Someone gets married (0.75 sec)
|- style="vertical-align: top; background-color:#eeeeee;"
|Someone registers a domain (0.64 sec)
|Someone in the US buys a house (6.22 sec)
|Someone in the US gets a tattoo (2.06 sec)
|The star ''PSR J1748-2446ad'' rotates 1,000 times (1.4 sec)
|Someone lies about their age to sign up for Facebook (4.32 sec)
|- style="vertical-align: top;"
|Someone breaks an iPhone screen (0.93 sec)
|A little league player strikes out (1.23 sec)
|Someone has sex in North Dakota (1.38 sec)
|Justin Bieber gains a follower on Twitter (4.73 sec)
|Someone in Denver orders a pizza (1.27 sec)
|}

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics with animation]]
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Sharks]]
[[Category:Romance]]
[[Category:Cancer]]
[[Category:Sex]]
[[Category:Wikipedia]]
[[Category:Baseball]]

1047: Approximations

2017-03-29T20:06:18Z

625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8: 7.38 billion people

{{comic
| number = 1047
| date = April 25, 2012
| title = Approximations
| image = approximations.png
| titletext = Two tips: 1) 8675309 is not just prime, it's a twin prime, and 2) if you ever find yourself raising log(anything)^e or taking the pi-th root of anything, set down the marker and back away from the whiteboard; something has gone horribly wrong.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic lists some approximations for numbers, most of them mathematical and physical constants, but some of them jokes and cultural references.

Approximations like these are sometimes used as {{w|mnemonic}}s by mathematicians and physicists, though most of Randall's approximations are too convoluted to be useful as mnemonics. Perhaps the best known mnemonic approximation (though not used here by Randall) is that "pi is approximately equal to 22/7". Randall does mention (and mock) the common mnemonic among physicists that the {{w|fine structure constant}} is approximately 1/137. Although Randall gives approximations for the number of seconds in a year, he does not mention the common physicist's mnemonic that it is "pi times 10^7," though he later added a statement to the top of the comic page addressing this point.

At the bottom of the comic are expressions involving {{w|transcendental numbers}} (namely pi and e) that are tantalizingly close to being exactly true but are not (indeed, they cannot be, due to the nature of transcendental numbers). Such near-equations were previously discussed in [[217: e to the pi Minus pi]]. One of the entries, though, is a "red herring" that is exactly true.

Randall says he compiled this table through "a mix of trial-and-error, ''{{w|Mathematica}}'', and Robert Munafo's [http://mrob.com/pub/ries/ Ries] tool. "Ries" is a "{{w|Closed-form expression#Conversion from numerical forms|reverse calculator}}" that forms equations matching a given number.

The world population estimate is still accurate as of March 29, 2017 (if you round). The estimate is 7.4 billion, and the population is 7.38 billion.

The first part of the title text notes that "Jenny's constant," which is actually a telephone number referenced in Tommy Tutone's 1982 song {{w|867-5309/Jenny}}, is not only prime but a {{w|twin prime}} because 8675311 is also a prime. Twin primes have always been a subject of interest, because they are comparatively rare, and because it is not yet known whether there are infinitely many of them. Twin primes were also referenced in [[1310: Goldbach Conjectures]].

The second part of the title text makes fun of the unusual mathematical operations contained in the comic. {{w|Pi}} is a useful number in many contexts, but it doesn't usually occur anywhere in an exponent. Even when it does, such as with complex numbers, taking the pi-th root is rarely helpful. Similarly, {{w|e (mathematical constant)|e}} typically appears in the basis of a power (forming the {{w|exponential function}}), not in the exponent. (This is later referenced in [http://what-if.xkcd.com/73/ Lethal Neutrinos]).

:{| class="wikitable"
|-
|align="center"|Thing to be approximated:
|align="center"|Formula proposed:
|align="center"|Resulting approximate value:
|align="center"|Correct value:
|align="center"|Discussion:
|-
|align="center"|One light-year(m)
|align="center"|998
|align="center"|9,227,446,944,279,201
|align="center"|9,460,730,472,580,800 (exact)
|align="left"|Based on 365.25 days per year (see below). 998 and 698 are sexual references.
|-
|align="center"|Earth Surface(m2)
|align="center"|698
|align="center"|513,798,374,428,641
|align="center"|5.10072*1014
|align="left"|998 and 698 are sexual references.
|-
|align="center"|Oceans' volume(m3)
|align="center"|919
|align="center"|1,350,851,717,672,992,089
|align="center"|1,332*1018
|align="left"|
|-
|align="center"|Seconds in a year
|align="center"|754
|align="center"|31,640,625
|align="center"|31,557,600 (Julian calendar), 31,556,952 (Gregorian calendar)
|align="left"|After this comic was released [[Randall]] got many responses by viewers. So he did add this statement to the top of the comic page:
"Lots of emails mention the physicist favorite, 1 year = pi x 107 seconds. 754 is a hair more accurate, but it's hard to top 3,141,592's elegance." Pi x 107 is nearly equal to 31,415,926.536, and 754 is exactly 31,640,625. Randall's elegance belongs to the number pi, but it should be multiplied by the factor of ten.

Using the traditional definitions that a second is 1/60th of a minute, a minute is 1/60th of an hour, and an hour is 1/24th of a day, a 365-day common year is exactly 31,536,000 seconds (the "for Rent method" approximation) and the 366-day leap year is 31,622,400 seconds. Until the calendar was reformed by Pope Gregory, there was one leap year in every four years, making the average year 365.25 days, or 31,557,600 seconds. On the current calendar system, there are only 97 leap years in every 400 years, making the average year 365.2425 days, or 31,556,952 seconds. In technical usage, a "second" is now defined based on physical constants, even though the length of a day varies inversely with the changing angular velocity of the earth. To keep the official time synchronized with the rotation of the earth, a "leap second" is occasionally added, resulting in a slightly longer year.
|-
|align="center"|Seconds in a year (''Rent'' method)
|align="center"|525,600 x 60
|align="center"|31,536,000
|align="center"|31,557,600 (Julian calendar), 31,556,952 (Gregorian calendar)
|align="left"|"Rent Method" refers to the song "Seasons of Love" from the musical "{{w|Rent (musical)|Rent}}." The song asks, "How do you measure a year?" One line says "525,600 minutes" while most of the rest of the song suggests the best way to measure a year is moments shared with a loved one.
|-
|align="center"|Age of the universe (seconds)
|align="center"|1515
|align="center"|437,893,890,380,859,375
|align="center"|4.354±0.012*1017 (best estimate; exact value unknown)
|align="left"|
|-
|align="center"|Planck's constant
|align="center"|1/(30πe)
|align="center"|6.68499014108082*10−34 (rounded)
|align="center"|6.62606957*10−34
|align="left"|Informally, the {{w|Planck constant}} is the smallest action possible in quantum mechanics.
|-
|align="center"|Fine structure constant
|align="center"|1/140
|align="center"|0.00714285
|align="center"|0.0072973525664 (accepted value as of 2014), close to 1/137
|align="left"|The {{w|fine structure constant}} indicates the strength of electromagnetism. It is unitless and around 0.007297, close to 1/137. At one point it was believed to be exactly the reciprocal of 137, and many people have tried to find a simple formula explaining this (with a pinch of {{w|numerology}} thrown in at times), including the infamous {{w|Arthur Eddington|Sir Arthur Adding-One}}.
|-
|align="center"|Fundamental charge
|align="center"|3/(14 * πππ)
|align="center"|1.59895121062716*10−19 (rounded)
|align="center"|1.602176565*10−19 (rounded)
|align="left"|This is the charge of the proton, symbolized "e" for electron (whose charge is actually -e. You can blame Benjamin Franklin [[567|for that]].)
|-
|align="center"|Telephone number for the White House Switchboard
|align="center"|1/ 
π√(e(1 + (e-1)√8))
|align="center"|.2024561414 (truncated)
|align="center"|2024561414
|align="left"|
|-
|align="center"|Jenny's Constant
|align="center"|(7(e/1 - 1/e) - 9) * π2
|align="center"|867.530901981685 (approximately)
|align="center"|8675309
|align="left"|"Jenny's constant" is actually a telephone number referenced in Tommy Tutone's 1982 song {{w|867-5309/Jenny}}. As mentioned in the title text, the number not only prime but a {{w|twin prime}} because 8675311 is also a prime.
|-
|align="center"|World Population Estimate (billions)
|align="center"|Equivalent to 6+((3/4 Year + 1/4 (Year mod 4) - 1499)/10) billion
|align="center"|2005 6.5
2006 6.6
2007 6.7
2008 6.7
2009 6.8
2010 6.9
2011 7
2012 7
2013 7.1
2014 7.2
2015 7.3
2016 7.3
2017 7.4
2018 7.5
2019 7.6
2020 7.6
2021 7.7
2022 7.8
2023 7.9
2024 7.9
2025 8
2026 8.1
2027 8.2
2028 8.2
2029 8.3
2030 8.4
2031 8.5
2032 8.5
|align="center"|
|align="left"|
|-
|align="center"|U.S. Population Estimate (millions)
|align="center"|Equivalent to 310+3*(Year - 2010) million
|align="center"|2000 280
2001 283
2002 286
2003 289
2004 292
2005 295
2006 298
2007 301
2008 304
2009 307
2010 310
2011 313
2012 316
2013 319
2014 322
2015 325
2016 328
2017 331
2018 334
2019 337
2020 340
2021 343
2022 346
2023 349
2024 352
2025 355
2026 358
2027 361
2028 364
2029 367
2030 370
2031 373
2032 376
|align="center"|
|align="left"|
|-
|align="center"|Electron rest energy
|align="center"|e/716 J
|align="center"|8.17948276564429*10−14
|align="center"|8.18710438*10−14 (rounded)
|align="left"|
|-
|align="center"|Light-year(miles)
|align="center"|2(42.42)
|align="center"|5884267614436.97 (rounded)
|align="center"|9460730472580800 (meters in a light-year, by definition) / 1609.344 (meters in a mile) = 8212439646337500/1397 (exact) = 5878625373183.61 (rounded)
|align="left"|{{w|42 (number)|42}} is, according to Douglas Adams' ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'', the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything.
|-
|align="center"|sin(60°) = √3/2
|align="center"|e/π
|align="center"|0.8652559794 (rounded)
|align="center"|0.8660254038 (rounded)
|align="left"|
|-
|align="center"|√3
|align="center"|2e/π
|align="center"|1.7305119589 (rounded)
|align="center"|1.7320508076 (rounded)
|align="left"|
|-
|align="center"|γ(Euler's gamma constant)
|align="center"|1/√3
|align="center"|0.5773502692 (rounded)
|align="center"|0.5772156649015328606065120900824024310421...
|align="left"|In {{w|mathematics}}, the {{w|Euler-Mascheroni constant}} (Euler gamma constant) is a mysterious number describing the relationship between the {{w|Harmonic series (mathematics)|harmonic series}} and the {{w|natural logarithm}}.
|-
|align="center"|Feet in a meter
|align="center"|5/(e√π)
|align="center"|3.2815481951
|align="center"|1/0.3048 (exact) = 3.280839895 (rounded)
|align="left"|
|-
|align="center"|√5
|align="center"|2/e + 3/2
|align="center"|2.2357588823 (rounded)
|align="center"|2.2360679775 (rounded)
|align="left"|
|-
|align="center"|Avogadro's number
|align="center"|69π√5
|align="center"|6.02191201246329*1023 (rounded)
|align="center"|6.02214129*1023 (rounded)
|align="left"|Also called a Mole for shorthand, this is (roughly) the number of individual atoms in twelve grams of pure Carbon. Used in basically every application of chemistry.
|-
|align="center"|Gravitational constant G
|align="center"|1 / e(pi - 1)(pi + 1)
|align="center"|6.67361106850561*10−11 (rounded)
|align="center"|6.67385*10−11 (rounded)
|align="left"|The universal {{w|gravitational constant}} G is equal to F*r2/Mm, where F is the gravitational force between two objects, r is the distance between them, and M and m are their masses.
|-
|align="center"|R (gas constant)
|align="center"|(e+1) √5
|align="center"|8.3143309279 (rounded)
|align="center"|8.3144622 (rounded)
|align="left"|The {{w|gas constant}} relates energy to temperature in physics, as well as a gas's volume, pressure, temperature and {{w|mole (unit)|molar amount}} (hence the name).
|-
|align="center"|Proton-electron mass ratio
|align="center"|6*π5
|align="center"|1836.1181087117 (rounded)
|align="center"|1836.15267246 (rounded)
|align="left"|
|-
|align="center"|Liters in a gallon (U.S. liquid gallon, defined by law as 231 cubic inches)
|align="center"|3 + π/4
|align="center"|3.7853981634 (rounded)
|align="center"|3.785411784 (exact)
|align="left"|
|-
|align="center"|''g''0 or ''g''n
|align="center"|6 + ln(45)
|align="center"|9.8066624898 (rounded)
|align="center"|9.80665 (standard)
|align="left"|Standard gravity, or standard acceleration due to free fall is the nominal gravitational acceleration of an object in a vacuum near the surface of the Earth. It is defined by standard as 9.80665 m/s2, which is exactly 35.30394 (km/h)/s (about 32.174 ft/s2, or 21.937 mph/s). This value was established by the 3rd CGPM (1901, CR 70) and used to define the standard weight of an object as the product of its mass and this nominal acceleration. The acceleration of a body near the surface of the Earth is due to the combined effects of gravity and centrifugal acceleration from rotation of the Earth (but which is small enough to be neglected for most purposes); the total (the apparent gravity) is about 0.5 percent greater at the poles than at the equator. Randall used a letter g without a suffix, which can also mean the local acceleration due to local gravity and centrifugal acceleration, which varies depending on one's position on Earth.
|-
|align="center"|Proton-electron mass ratio
|align="center"|(e8 - 10) / ϕ
|align="center"|1836.1530151398 (rounded)
|align="center"|1836.15267246 (rounded)
|align="left"|ϕ is the {{w|golden ratio}}, or (1 + √5)/2. It has many interesting geometrical properties.
|-
|align="center"|Ruby laser wavelength
|align="center"|1 / (12002)
|align="center"|0.00000069444
|align="center"|694.3 nm
|align="left"|The ruby laser wavelength varies because "ruby" is not clearly defined.
|-
|align="center"|Mean Earth Radius
|align="center"|(58)*6e
|align="center"|2343750e (exact), 6,370,973.035450887270375673760982 (6370 km, 973 m, 35 mm, 450 μm, 887 nm, 270 pm, 375 fm, 673 am, 760 zm, 982 ym) (rounded)
|align="center"|6,371,008.7 (International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics definition)
|align="left"|The {{w|Earth radius#mean radii|mean earth radius}} varies because there is not one single way to make a sphere out of the earth. Randall's value lies within the actual variation of Earth's radius. The International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG) defines the mean radius as 2/3 of the equatorial radius (6,378,137.0 m) plus 1/3 of the polar radius (6,356,752.3 m).
|-
|align="center"|√2
|align="center"|3/5 + π/(7-π)
|align="center"|1.4142200581 (rounded)
|align="center"|1.4142135624 (rounded)
|align="left"|There are reoccurring math jokes along the lines of, "3/5 + π/(7 – π) – √2 = 0, but your calculator is probably not good enough to compute this correctly".
|-
|align="center"|cos(π/7) + cos(3π/7) + cos(5π/7)
|align="center"|1/2
|align="center"|0.5
|align="center"|0.5 (exact)
|align="left"|This is the exactly correct equation referred to in the note, "Pro tip - Not all of these are wrong", as shown below and also [http://math.stackexchange.com/questions/140388/how-can-one-prove-cos-pi-7-cos3-pi-7-cos5-pi-7-1-2 here]. If you're still confused, the functions use {{w|radians}}, not {{w|degrees (angle)|degrees}}.
|-
|align="center"|γ(Euler's gamma constant)
|align="center"|e/34 + e/5
|align="center"|0.5772154006 (rounded)
|align="center"|0.5772156649015328606065120900824024310421...
|align="left"|In {{w|mathematics}}, the {{w|Euler-Mascheroni constant}} (Euler gamma constant) is a mysterious number describing the relationship between the {{w|Harmonic series (mathematics)|harmonic series}} and the {{w|natural logarithm}}.
|-
|align="center"|√5
|align="center"|(13 + 4π) / (24 - 4π)
|align="center"|2.2360678094 (rounded)
|align="center"|2.2360679775 (rounded)
|align="left"|
|-
|align="center"|Σ 1/nn
|align="center"|ln(3)e
|align="center"|1.2912987577 (rounded)
|align="center"|1.2912859971 (rounded)
|align="left"|
|}

===Proof===

One of the "approximations" actually is precisely correct: cos(π/7) + cos(3π/7) + cos(5π/7) = 1/2. Here is a proof:

cos(π/7) + cos(3π/7) + cos(5π/7)

* Multiplying by 1 (or by a number divided by itself) leaves the equation unchanged.

= (cos(π/7) + cos(3π/7) + cos(5π/7)) (2sin(π/7)/(2sin(π/7)))

* The 2sin(π/7) on the top of the fraction is multiplied through the original equation.

= (2cos(π/7)sin(π/7) + 2cos(3π/7)sin(π/7) + 2cos(5π/7)sin(π/7))/(2sin(π/7))

* Use the trigonometric identity 2cos(A)sin(B)=sin(A+B)-sin(A-B) on the 2nd two terms ([2cos(3π/7)sin(π/7)] + {2cos(5π/7)sin(π/7)}) /(2sin(π/7))

= (2cos(π/7)sin(π/7) + [sin(3π/7+π/7) - sin(3π/7-π/7)] + {sin(5π/7+π/7) - sin(5π/7-π/7)}) (1/2sin(π/7)) 
= (2cos(π/7)sin(π/7) + [sin(4π/7) - sin(2π/7)] + {sin(6π/7) - sin(4π/7)})/(2sin(π/7))

* Use the trigonometric identity 2cos(A)sin(A) = sin(2A) on the first term (2cos(π/7)sin(π/7))

= (sin(2π/7) + [sin(4π/7) - sin(2π/7)] + {sin(6π/7) - sin(4π/7)}) (1/2sin(π/7)) 
= (sin(6π/7) + [sin(2π/7) - sin(2π/7)] + {sin(4π/7) - sin(4π/7)}) (1/2sin(π/7)) 
= (sin(6π/7))/(2sin(π/7))

* Note that 6π/7 = (7π - π)/7 = 7π/7 - π/7 = π - π/7.

= (sin(π - π/7))/(2sin(π/7))

*Since sines of supplementary angles are equal.

= (sin(π/7))/(2sin(π/7)) 
= (1/2) (sin(π/7)/sin(π/7)) 
= 1/2

==Transcript==
:'''A table of slightly wrong equations and identities useful for approximations and/or trolling teachers.'''
:(Found using a mix of trial-and-error, ''Mathematica'', and Robert Munafo's ''Ries'' tool.)
: All units are SI MKS unless otherwise noted.

:{| class="wikitable"
|-
|colspan="2" align="center" | Relation:
|align="center" | Accurate to within:
|-
|align="center" | One light-year(m)
|align="center" | 998
|align="center" | one part in 40
|-
|align="center" | Earth Surface(m2)
|align="center" | 698
|align="center" | one part in 130
|-
|align="center" | Oceans' volume(m3)
|align="center" | 919
|align="center" | one part in 70
|-
|align="center" | Seconds in a year
|align="center" | 754
|align="center" | one part in 400
|-
|align="center" | Seconds in a year (''Rent'' method)
|align="center" | 525,600 x 60
|align="center" | one part in 1400
|-
|align="center" | Age of the universe (seconds)
|align="center" | 1515
|align="center" | one part in 70
|-
|align="center" | Planck's constant
|align="center" | 1/(30πe)
|align="center" | one part in 110
|-
|align="center" | Fine structure constant
|align="center" | 1/140
|align="center" | [I've had enough of this 137 crap]
|-
|align="center" | Fundamental charge
|align="center" | 3/(14 * πππ)
|align="center" | one part in 500
|-
|align="center"|White House Switchboard
|colspan="2" align="center"|1/ 
π√(e(1 + (e-1)√8))
|-
|align="center"|Jenny's Constant
|colspan="2" align="center"|(7(e/1 - 1/e) - 9) * π2
|-
|colspan="3" align="center"|Intermission: World Population Estimate which should stay current for a decade or two: 
Take the last two digits of the current year

Example: 20[14]

Subtract the number of leap years since hurricane Katrina

Example: 14 (minus 2008 and 2012) is 12

Add a decimal point

Example: 1.2

Add 6

Example: 6 + 1.2

7.2 = World population in billions.

Version for US population:

Example: 20[14]

Subtract 10

Example: 4

Multiply by 3

Example: 12

Add 10

Example: 3[22] million
|-
|align="center"|Electron rest energy
|align="center"|e/716 J
|align="center"|one part in 1000
|-
|align="center"|Light-year(miles)
|align="center"|2(42.42)
|align="center"|one part in 1000
|-
|colspan="2" align="center"|sin(60°) = √3/2 = e/π
|align="center"|one part in 1000
|-
|colspan="2" align="center"|√3 = 2e/π
|align="center"|one part in 1000
|-
|align="center"|γ(Euler's gamma constant)
|align="center"|1/√3
|align="center"|one part in 4000
|-
|align="center"|Feet in a meter
|align="center"|5/(e√π)
|align="center"|one part in 4000
|-
|colspan="2" align="center"|√5 = 2/e + 3/2
|align="center"|one part in 7000
|-
|align="center"|Avogadro's number
|align="center"|69π√5
|align="center"|one part in 25,000
|-
|align="center"|Gravitational constant G
|align="center"|1 / e(pi - 1)(pi + 1)
|align="center"|one part in 25,000
|-
|align="center"|R (gas constant)
|align="center"|(e+1) √5
|align="center"|one part in 50,000
|-
|align="center"|Proton-electron mass ratio
|align="center"|6*π5
|align="center"|one part in 50,000
|-
|align="center"|Liters in a gallon
|align="center"|3 + π/4
|align="center"|one part in 500,000
|-
|align="center"|g
|align="center"|6 + ln(45)
|align="center"|one part in 750,000
|-
|align="center"|Proton-electron mass ratio
|align="center"|(e8 - 10) / ϕ
|align="center"|one part in 5,000,000
|-
|align="center"|Ruby laser wavelength
|align="center"|1 / (12002)
|align="center"|[within actual variation]
|-
|align="center"|Mean Earth Radius
|align="center"|(58)*6e
|align="center"|[within actual variation]
|-
|colspan="3" align="center"|Protip - not all of these are wrong:
|-
|colspan="2" align="center"|√2 = 3/5 + π/(7-π)
|align="center"|cos(π/7) + cos(3π/7) + cos(5π/7) = 1/2
|-
|align="center"|γ(Euler's gamma constant) = e/34 + e/5
|align="center"|√5 = (13 + 4π) / (24 - 4π)
|align="center"|Σ 1/nn = ln(3)e
|}

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Protip]]

Talk:1817: Incognito Mode

2017-03-29T14:48:25Z

625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8:

Is this a new female character?{{unsigned ip|108.162.245.76}}

This may be related to several news reports regarding an easter egg found in incognito mode (where a "wink" ;) emoticon shows in the "tab count" field if you have more than 100 tabs open - many news sites (independent, daily telegraph) are suggesting that this is google showing that they know their incognito mode is used to look at pornography (100+ tabs of it apparently!) [[User:Cprobertson1|Cprobertson1]] ([[User talk:Cprobertson1|talk]]) 14:32, 29 March 2017 (UTC)
:Did you just find the solution of how to end a parenthetical statement with an emoticon!? [[541: TED Talk]] [[User:625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8|625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8]] ([[User talk:625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8|talk]]) 14:48, 29 March 2017 (UTC)

1817: Incognito Mode

2017-03-29T14:41:37Z

625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8: Explain it!

{{comic
| number = 1817
| date = March 29, 2017
| title = Incognito Mode
| image = incognito_mode.png
| titletext = They're really the worst tech support team. And their solutions are always the same. "This OS X update broke something." "LET'S INFILTRATE APPLE BY MORPHING APPLES!"
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Explain the title text. Do NOT remove this tag too soon.}}
{{w|Animorphs}} is a book series by K. A. Applegate featuring several kids who have a special power - they can morph into any animal they want. However, if they stay morphed for over two hours, they will get stuck in that form until they die. Randall pokes fun at this by relating it to Incognito mode in a browser, saying that if you use Incognito mode for more than two hours, you get trapped using it forever, which may not be a bad thing.

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

...But Remember-If you browse in incognito mode for more than two hours, you'll be trapped there ''forever!''

Below: Animorphs Tech Tips

{{comic discussion}}

Transcript

2017-03-23T14:43:08Z

625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8:

{{incomplete|Needs to be updated}}
*Most [[xkcd]] comics have a transcript posted on xkcd.
*On the [https://www.xkcd.com/about/ about page] on xkcd this is explained under:
:''Is there an interface for automated systems to access comics and metadata?''

*His example in general is to the transcript for comic 614, [[614: Woodpecker]], which can be found on this address:
:https://xkcd.com/614/info.0.json
*Just change the number in the address to go to any other comics info.
**This info covers details like the comics title, the date and link to the image and the [[Title text]].
*Today's comic is always displayed on this link:
:https://xkcd.com/info.0.json

*The transcript on these addresses is not the same as the ones written here on Explain xkcd, which also includes names only used on Explain xkcd and more details of the images as well as any text in the images, not just spoken text.
**Also most of the comics with [[:Category:Large drawings|Large drawings]] are not transcribed at all on xkcd.
**Sometimes Explain xkcd is even referenced by [[Randall]] for a transcript like it happened after [[1461: Payloads]] came out, see this [[1461:_Payloads#Trivia|trivia]].
***More comics referenced can be found here: [[:Category:Explain mentioned by Randall|Explain mentioned by Randall]].

*The last transcript that can be found on xkcd by the method mentioned above is for [[1608: Hoverboard]]:
:https://xkcd.com/1608/info.0.json
*This is one of the large comics that doesn't have a full transcript on xkcd.
*After that a mistake evolved in the combination of transcripts with the other details.
**There are no transcript for the next two comics after Hoverboard, only the details like title, date and title text.
**But then after that the transcript returned, but now it was for the comic released two numbers before.
*So the transcript for [[1609: Food Combinations]], which should have been here:
:https://xkcd.com/1609/info.0.json
*is first "released" here:
:https://xkcd.com/1611/info.0.json
*where the transcript for [[1611: Baking Soda and Vinegar]] should have been.

*So far the last comic with a transcript like this seems to be [[1674: Adult]], with the transcript three comics later under [[1677: Contrails]] here:
:https://xkcd.com/1677/info.0.json
*So it had shifted one more comic since the first error.

*After this page there seems to be no more transcripts
**(Not tested through, just checking several from that and up till the day of this post where [[1788: Barge]] was the last released comic).
**So it is no longer of any help with the transcript.

[[Category:Meta]]

1307: Buzzfeed Christmas

2017-03-21T21:19:55Z

625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1307
| date = December 23, 2013
| title = Buzzfeed Christmas
| image = buzzfeed christmas.png
| titletext = The 6 Weirdest Objects The Buzzfeed Writers Are Throwing Out Their Windows At Us
}}

==Explanation==
Christmas caroling is a tradition in which groups of singers travel from house to house, singing {{w|Christmas carol|carols}}.

These carolers are in front of the [http://www.buzzfeed.com/ BuzzFeed] offices singing the {{w|The Twelve Days of Christmas (song)|The Twelve Days of Christmas}}, which ''usually'' contains:

:On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me.
:12 Drummers drumming
:11 Pipers piping
:10 Lords a-leaping
:9 Ladies dancing
:8 Maids a-milking
:7 Swans a-swimming
:6 Geese a-laying
:5 Golden rings
:4 Calling birds
:3 French hens
:2 Turtle doves
:And a partridge in a pear tree.

The carolers changed the lyrics to match the style of headlines of the topics published by BuzzFeed, which usually contain a number and a superlative; for example, ''13 Worst Plane Crashes of the Decade'' or ''8 Otters Who Are So Cute We Can't Even Handle It''. This method of writing headlines, referred to as clickbait, is used by several other news sites, because it is known to generate a lot of visits and therefore more ad revenue. [[Randall]] has touched on this subject before in [[1283: Headlines]].

Carolers are usually rewarded with a gift, but the BuzzFeed writers probably didn't appreciate the song, because they threw weird stuff at them which the carolers used in their 6th verse, in place of '6 Geese a-laying'.

==Transcript==
:[Four carolers (Megan, Cueball, Ponytail and Hairy) are singing.]
:12 Best drummers of ''all time''
:11 Pipers whose jaw-dropping good piping will make you cry
:You won't ''believe'' what these 10 lords leap over
:[Caption below the frame]
:Carolers outside the Buzzfeed offices perform "12 Weird things I ''actually got'' for Christmas"

==Trivia==
*The Buzzfeed YouTube Channel uploaded a [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_v92edGrMbY video] called ''The 12 Days of Internet Christmas'', which is similar to ''The Twelve Days of Christmas'' song. But the video contains a number of strange objects and images, to name a few, a naked Ryan Gosling and four men with curly beards. Because of its absurd content, according to the like-dislike ratio, the video's quality is rather controversial.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Christmas]]
[[Category:Clickbait]]
[[Category:Music]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]

1086: Eyelash Wish Log

2017-03-21T21:13:11Z

625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8: The text of this summary is: "The text of this summary is: "The text of this summary is: "The text of this summary is: "The text of this summary is: "The text of this summary is: "The text of this summary is: "The text of this summary is: ...

{{comic
| number = 1086
| date = July 25, 2012
| title = Eyelash Wish Log
| image = eyelash wish log.png
| titletext = Ooh, another one. Uh... the ability to alter any coefficients of friction at will during sporting events.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is based on a common belief/superstition that when someone's eyelash falls out, that person can make a wish on it. This comic appears to be a page from the fictitious Wish Bureau in charge of granting said wishes. And of course the wisher is [[Black Hat]] and he has quite a few wishes, most of them based on the previous wish. A common trope in fiction is that wishing for more wishes is prohibited and for many of his wishes Black Hat attempts to circumvent that.

;January 9: That wishing on eyelashes worked
:This wish is pointless. If wishing on eyelashes worked, then this would do absolutely nothing (because it already works) and if it didn't then nothing would happen because wishing on eyelashes wouldn't work.

;January 12: A pony
:This wish functions as a test to see whether or not previous wish worked. It can be assumed that it did, as Black Hat then continued to make additional wishes. Wishing for a pony is a stereotypical wish made by very young girls; since Black Hat is an adult man (with a very dark sense of humor), the contrast is humorous. It could also be a reference to Mr. Krabs wishing for a pony (with saddlebags full of money) on the Spongebob episode "Christmas Who?".

;January 15: Unlimited wishes
:This appears to have failed, due to the typical ban of wishing for additional wishes in conventional folklore.

;January 19: Revocation of rules prohibiting unlimited wishes
:An attempt to circumvent the ban in the previous wish.

;January 20: A finite but arbitrarily large number of wishes
:Another attempt to circumvent the ban on unlimited wishes.

;January 28: The power to dictate the rules governing wishes
:Yet another attempt to circumvent the ban on unlimited wishes.

;February 5: Unlimited eyelashes
:This wish likely caused Black Hat to grow unlimited eyelashes, which could be quite inconvenient and painful. And, yes, one more attempt to circumvent the ban on unlimited wishes.

;February 6: That wish-granting entities be required to interpret wishes in accordance with the intent of the wisher
:This wish is likely a response to the previous day's misguided wish. It's actually quite a common problem that people making wishes leave them open for misinterpretation.

;February 8: That wish-granting entities be incapable of impatience
:An attempt to prevent whatever being is powerful enough to grant wishes from becoming angry with Black Hat while he tries to manipulate the system.

;February 12 #1: Unlimited breadsticks
:The first wish of this day seems to be a reference to the unlimited {{w|breadsticks}} offered at {{w|Olive Garden}}.

;February 12 #2: Veto power over others' wishes
:A power that could be interesting to have. It also very much fits with Black Hat's character.

;February 19: Veto power over others' wishes and all congressional legislation
:An improvement of the previous wish. This would be very interesting to have indeed, especially if you are Black Hat, because you could veto any federal law, a power normally entrusted only to the President.

;February 23: The power to override any veto
:This wish would allow Black Hat to override vetoes which in addition to the previous wish would effectively make him control the US legislature and, to some extent, also all other governing bodies. (Notably the UN, where the veto powers wielded by the "big 5" cannot be overridden and can have large impacts on global politics.) Note that it will not allow him to turn laws off (veto them) and on again (override the veto) at any moment, as once a bill becomes law it cannot be vetoed. Without the ability to propose legislation, Black Hat's powers are still limited. The wish may also refer back to the February 19 wish: by granting himself veto power over wishes, Black Hat just made vetoes more powerful than wishes; now he is trying to control other people's vetoes as well, lest they one-up him.

;February 27: The power to see where any shortened URL goes without clicking
:This wish relates to a common practice especially in tweets or other short length media where full length specific HTML addresses such as <tt>www.somewhere.com/articles/specificdate/the page.html</tt> would not be feasible. So a more compressed but nonsensical string of seemingly random characters is used which links to a link of the full text address. This creates some problems for people who are security or privacy conscious and prefer to be informed beforehand where they will be traveling on the Internet. The use of shortened URLs is also central to many types of trolls or practical jokes, most notably Rickrolling (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5MDnkV8DZA for an example), by directing someone to a different location than the link would initially suggest. Thus Black Hat might be wishing to be able to tell where the links go for the purpose of avoiding this sort of trolling.

;February 29: The power to control the direction news anchors are looking while they talk
:This wish likely appeals to Black Hat's mischievous side, allowing him to cause news anchors to look at the wrong camera during live broadcast. Repeatedly switching to the incorrect camera would cause havoc in the studio. Additionally, Black Hat may also attempt to get a news anchor fired by having them stare where they should not such as a female anchor's breasts.

;March 7: The power to introduce arbitrary error into Nate Silver's predictions
:A reference to {{w|Nate Silver}}, who is a former writer for {{w|Baseball Prospectus}} working on predicting baseball players' stats and now writes for {{w|Five Thirty Eight}} in which he predicts the outcome of elections based on polling data. This would grant Black Hat the power to influence the result of elections. This would tighten the Black Hat's control of the US even more.

;March 15: A house of stairs
:This wish refers to the {{w|lithograph}} {{w|House of Stairs}} by {{w|M. C. Escher}}, or perhaps another of his lithographs, {{w|Relativity (M. C. Escher)|Relativity}}

;March 23: A universe which is a replica of this one sans rules against meta-wishes
:Another attempt to circumvent the rules against wishing for more wishes.

;March 29: Free transportation to and from that universe
:While the previous wish appears to have worked, Black Hat notes a problem with it: he is still in our universe with no ways to get to the new one.

;April 2: A clear explanation of how wish rules are structured and enforced
:It appears that one or both of the previous two wishes failed, so Black Hat tries to discover exactly what is offending the Bureau. Having clear rules and how they work helps anyone finding loopholes in them.

;April 7: The power to banish people into the TV show they are talking about
:Black hat is obviously fed up of hearing people talking about certain TV shows, and would like to be able to banish them into the show, thus prevent him having to listen to those people. It would be quite horrifying for the person getting banished.

;April 8: Zero wishes
:An attempt to hack the wish-granting system by using a quite common vulnerability in input validation: an unexpected value. There may be multiple vectors this can work:
:* in many computer systems, 0 is reserved for unlimited
:* the number may be used as a divisor in some equation and this will make the system divide by zero and probably crash
:* there also may be an assertion like "number of wishes granted == 1" which would fail, again crashing the system
:* similarly, if viewed as a computer system, it is possible that the wish decrement is performed after the wish is granted, thus resulting in either -1 wishes (another common placeholder for unlimited numbers), or an integer overflow if the wish counter is stored in an unsigned integer; the overflow can result in an exception, otherwise -1 becomes represented as MAX_INT-1 - basically, an arbitrarily large number.
:However it seems the eyelash wish-granting system does proper input validation on zero because it did not crash or grant unlimited wishes
:This wish may also be a reversal of the January 9 wish. Black Hat is attempting to win his game by introducing a logical contradiction: if he gets "zero wishes", this is one wish granted; however, if it is not granted, then, de facto, he will have been granted zero wishes. This is a common technique used in logical proofs to show that an earlier assumption does not hold (in this case, the possibility of eyelash wishing to work).

;April 15: Veto power over clocks
:Midnight, April 15 is the deadline for filing income tax returns in the United States.
:It may also be that Black Hat, now in control of all human legislation, is attempting to extend this to further control also rules of nature -- in this case: time. The strange wording is likely to be due to Black Hat having consulted with the wish-hacking manual he acquired April 2.

;April 22: A pokéball that works on strangers' pets
:A reference to the cartoon and video game series {{w|Pokémon}}. A Pokéball can be thrown at a Pokémon (or in this case, a pet that the Pokéball thrower finds either annoying or cute) to capture/contain it and/or achieve ownership of it. Unless cheats are used, Pokéballs cannot be used on Pokémon owned by other people in the Pokémon games. Many players wish to obtain the often high-level Pokémon of NPCs, and Black Hat may also be interested in pranking other players by stealing their powerful Pokémon. This was later revealed to be one of Randall's wishes in the title text of [[1705: Pokémon Go]].

The title text is yet another mischievous wish. The coefficients of friction, though usually not noticed as they are unchanging, are all-important when performing physical activities — imagine trying to play hockey on a field of sand or sprinting over a sheet of ice. In addition to the difficulty going where you want or getting any balls that might be in play where you want them to go in a changing friction environment, angular momentum would also be very difficult to control.

Note, when Black Hat makes meta-wishes no follow-up wishes are logged. This would be logical as any wish made to test the meta-wish would not involve the eyelash process. Since the meta-wishes failed, no valid eyelash wish condition existed and the test wishes were not logged in the eyelash wish log.

==Transcript==
:{|
! align="left" colspan="2" |Eyelash Wish Log
|-style="color: gray;"
|
|align="right"|Wish bureau ID#:
|-
|
|align="right"|21118378
|-style="color: gray;"
|
|align="right"|Date range:
|-
!scope="row" style="color: gray;"|Wisher
|align="right"|Jan-Apr 2012
|}

:{|
!align="left" width="50px"|Date
!align="left"|Wish
|-
|Jan 09
|That wishing on eyelashes worked
|-
|Jan 12
|A pony
|-
|Jan 15
|Unlimited wishes
|-
|Jan 19
|Revocation of rules prohibiting unlimited wishes
|-
|Jan 20
|A finite but arbitrarily large number of wishes
|-
|Jan 28
|The power to dictate the rules governing wishes
|-
|Feb 05
|Unlimited eyelashes
|-
|Feb 06
|That wish-granting entities be required to interpret wishes in accordance with the intent of the wisher
|-
|Feb 08
|That wish-granting entities be incapable of impatience
|-
|Feb 12
|Unlimited breadsticks
|-
|Feb 12
|Veto power over others' wishes
|-
|Feb 19
|Veto power over others' wishes and all congressional legislation
|-
|Feb 23
|The power to override any veto
|-
|Feb 27
|The power to see where any shortened URL goes without clicking
|-
|Feb 29
|The power to control the direction news anchors are looking while they talk
|-
|Mar 07
|The power to introduce arbitrary error into Nate Silver's predictions
|-
|Mar 15
|A house of stairs
|-
|Mar 23
|A universe which is a replica of this one sans rules against meta-wishes
|-
|Mar 29
|Free transportation to and from that universe
|-
|Apr 02
|A clear explanation of how wish rules are structured and enforced
|-
|Apr 07
|The power to banish people into the TV show they're talking about
|-
|Apr 08
|Zero wishes
|-
|Apr 15
|Veto power over clocks
|-
|Apr 22
|A Pokéball that works on strangers' pets
|}

{{Comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Nate Silver]]
[[Category:Pokémon]]
[[Category:Time]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:News anchor]]

737: Yogurt

2017-03-21T21:09:20Z

625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8: Rotten Yogurt!

{{comic
| number = 737
| date = May 7, 2010
| title = Yogurt
| image = yogurt.png
| titletext = I am firmly of the opinion that if something doesn't have a year on it, every time the expiration date rolls around it is good again for the two weeks preceding that date.
}}

==Explanation==
Most packaged food has an {{w|shelf life|expiration date}} that indicates when the food will probably no longer be suitable for consumption. This could be due to any number of reasons; most products will rot or grow mold after their expiration date passes, but some processed foods will dry out or just generally become unpleasant long before they actually spoil. The expiration date is sometimes called a "best before" or "use by" date for this reason.

Some products don't list the year as part of the expiration date, on the assumption that by the time the year becomes an issue, the food will obviously be spoiled. [[Cueball]] is encountering this issue; clearly the yogurt has gone bad - it's raising "stink lines" and appears to have visible mold - but the expiration date only lists "May 12th" and it's currently May 7th, so the characters reason that it must still be good since the expiration date hasn't passed yet. Somehow, they fail to notice the terrible smell coming off of it.

The {{w|Gregorian calendar}} was initially adopted in the Catholic European countries in 1582 to correct the slow drift of the seasons relative to the calendar year that occurred under the Julian calendar. The Protestant and Orthodox countries were slower to adopt it. The British Empire, including the American colonies, adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1752. Cueball sarcastically wonders whether the expiration date might have been printed under the Julian Calendar, i.e., at least several hundred years ago.

The {{w|Gregorian calendar}} (our current calendar) is mostly the same as the {{w|Julian calendar}} with two major differences:

*The Julian calendar overestimated the length of a year by 10 minutes 48 seconds or about 1 day every 128 years. The Gregorian calendar has 97 leap days every 400 years instead of 100, which reduces the error to about 1 day in 3300 years.
*As each country adopted the Gregorian calendar, it was necessary to skip the appropriate number of days to realign the {{w|Vernal Equinox}} with March 21. When the British Empire adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1752, 11 days had to be skipped, so in the English-speaking countries, September 2, 1752 under the Julian calendar was immediately followed by September 14, 1752 under the Gregorian calendar; there was no September 3–13 in that year.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is holding a cup at arm's length. Waves of stink are rising from it.]
:Cueball: Oh God, how old is this yogurt in your fridge?
:[Someone speaks from off-panel.]
:Person: What's the expiration date?

:[Cueball holds up the cup to look at the bottom.]
:Cueball: May 12th, but there's no year.
:[From off-panel again.]
:Person: It's May 7th. So it's fine.

:[Now the second person is on panel, and Cueball speaks from off-panel. The second person is sitting down working on a laptop.]
:Cueball: I'm not sure. When it was packaged, was civilization using the Gregorian or Julian calendar?
:Person: ''Okay,'' I'll throw it out.
:Cueball: No, it might still be good!

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]

1108: Cautionary Ghost

2017-03-21T21:06:39Z

625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8: You forgot to capitalize 'grammar' in 'Grammar Nazi'

{{comic
| number = 1108
| date = September 14, 2012
| title = Cautionary Ghost
| image = cautionary_ghost.png
| titletext = But then the Ghost of Subjunctive Past showed up and told me to stay strong on 'if it were'.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is a parody of {{w|Charles Dickens}}'s ''{{w|A Christmas Carol}}'', where Scrooge is replaced with a "grammar Nazi" and speaks to the irrelevance of correcting people's speech.

In "A Christmas Carol" the ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future awaken the main character in the middle of the night to show him the negative causes and effects of his selfish and uncharitable behavior. Where in this comic the ghost wakes up a "Grammar Nazi" who is intent on correcting people's usage of the word literally. People often use literally as emphasis to a figurative statement. A statement like "I literally ate 40 lbs of chocolate" might be said when what was intended was "I ate like 40 lbs of chocolate!".

A ghost awakens the main character in the middle of the night to show him the effects of correcting people's usage of the word literally. He shows the protagonist two futures, one where he keeps correcting people, and one where he stops. That the two "different" futures are exactly (i.e., literally) the same suggests that the man's struggle to get people to stop using "literally" incorrectly will have no meaningful effect on the world, and so the man (and by extension, everyone else) may as well stop wasting time and energy on it.

Ironically, the title text indicates that a second apparition encouraged the man to continue the fight on a different grammatical issue, the use of the phrase "if it were," which is frequently incorrectly substituted with "if it was." "Were" is correctly used in a hypothetical condition, when referencing something that may not be true. The ghost of subjunctive past references the ghost of Christmas past and the {{w|English subjunctive#Use of the past subjunctive|'Subjunctive past tense'}}. The following sentences illustrate the correct usages:
*If I were rich, I wouldn't have to work for a living.
*When I was rich, I didn't have to work for a living.

Another xkcd comic, [[725: Literally]], also refers to the overly mocked usage of "literally."

A similar ghost is seen in [[1393: Timeghost]], where it reminds Cueball about the passing of time.

===Popular Culture===
The comics ''[http://www.explosm.net/comics/2923/ Cyanide & Happiness]'' and ''[http://www.theoatmeal.com/comics/literally The Oatmeal]'' offer examples of this sort of derision.

==Transcript==
:[A man wakes up to an apparition hovering over his bed.]
:Apparition: ''ooOOOOOOOOOOooooo''
:Man: A ghost!?
:Apparition: ''I bring a '''cautionary vision''' of things to come!''

:Apparition: This is the future:
:[Two people are standing between a pair of houses. There is a tree. An airplane flies past.]

:Apparition: And '''''this''''' is the future if you give up the fight over the word "literally":
:[Two people are standing between a pair of houses. There is a tree. An airplane flies past. The cynical might suggest the panel is copy pasted.]

:[Back to the man in bed.]
:Man: They looked exactly the same.
:Apparition: ''ooOOOOOOOOOOOooo''
:Man: Ok, I get it.
:Apparition: Seriously, this is duuuuumb.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Language]]

222: Small Talk

2017-03-21T21:05:07Z

625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8: An unmatched parenthesis: (

{{comic
| number = 222
| date = February 12, 2007
| title = Small Talk
| image = small_talk.png
| titletext = But surely I owe you an accurate answer!
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] is approached by his friend who offers the standard greeting of, "What's Up? How've you been?" In standard "small talk" an appropriate answer would be only one or two words (e.g. "Fine", "Pretty good"). These are generally positive responses, with negative ones only offered in extreme circumstances. In this situation, Cueball forgets that this type of answer is what his friend is expecting. Instead, he contemplates thoroughly on his condition, wanting to provide accurate, detailed information to his friend. His response sheds light on the many layers of meaning a simple question such as "What's up?" can have. His friend, thrown off by the delayed response, snaps to regain Cueball's attention and reminds him that they are having a conversation, which is best facilitated by the standard short responses.

The title text shows that Cueball was more interested in accuracy than the ease of the conversation, simply out of respect for his friend.

==Transcript==
:Sometimes I forget how to do small talk.
:Friend: Hey!
:Cueball: Hey, man!
:Friend: What's up? How've you been?
:Cueball: Well...
:[Three identical frames indicate time passes.]
:''Friend snaps fingers''
:Friend: Uh, you ok?
:Cueball: Yeah! It's just an interesting question. I'm trying to decide what best sums up my--
:Friend: Hey. Conversation.
:Cueball: Oh, right. I'm fine. You?

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]

747: Geeks and Nerds

2017-03-21T21:03:21Z

625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8: I classify myself as a neek.

{{comic
| number = 747
| date = May 31, 2010
| title = Geeks and Nerds
| image = geeks and nerds.png
| titletext = The definitions I grew up with were that a geek is someone unusually into something (so you could have computer geeks, baseball geeks, theater geeks, etc) and nerds are (often awkward) science, math, or computer geeks. But definitions vary.
}}

==Explanation==
The words "geek" and "nerd" are both commonly used to describe people who are looked down upon due to being too intelligent and not socially conventional enough. Distinction between the two varies, but it commonly involves differences in range of interests, depth of interests, choice of hobbies, social capability, if you play sports, and so on.

The title text gives [[Randall]]'s personal definitions: geeks are people passionately into something to a greater extent than casual hobbyists, while nerds are analytical logic-oriented people, often with underdeveloped social skills.

The comic makes the argument that if you care a lot about the distinction between a geek or a nerd, then you are most likely too invested in the result to not be either a nerd or a geek. But although one who maintains this distinction strongly could be a linguistics geek merely expressing their general interest in words/expressions, given the {{w|Disputes in English grammar|more pressing controversies}} linguistic geeks have to deal with, the strong interest one might have in the words "geek" and "nerd" is probably due to simply being a <del>nerd</del> <ins>geek</ins>.

==Transcript==
:[There is a two-circle Venn diagram; the circles are labeled and there is text in the intersection.]
:Left circle: Geeks
:Right circle: Nerds
:Intersection: People with strong opinions on the distinction between geeks and nerds

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Venn diagrams]]
[[Category:Baseball]]
[[Category:Language]]

941: Depth Perception

2017-03-21T14:44:37Z

625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8: Grammar

{{comic
| number = 941
| date = August 22, 2011
| title = Depth Perception
| image = depth_perception.png
| titletext = I've looked at clouds from both sides now.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is one of those that is less focused on humour and more focused on a sense of wonder at the world for both [[Cueball]]/[[Randall]] and the reader.

Cueball discusses how difficult it is to intuitively feel the reality of how vast the things he sees every day and night are - how big the clouds are, and how far away the stars are. {{w|Depth perception}} - seeing things in 3-D rather than as a flat 2-D image - is partly created by having "binocular vision", or two eyes spaced apart. Each eye sees a slightly different angle on a scene, and the brain combines these two views to give a genuinely three-dimensional view of something. 3-D glasses work the same way, by feeding a slightly offset image into each eye. When you look at far away objects, the offset from each eye is undetectable, and so they may look more like flat 2-D images - hence the impression Cueball has of stars being painted onto a dome rather than being extremely large, far away objects at very different distances.

He wonders if he can work around this impression as far as the clouds are concerned... Normally, Cueballs eyes are a few centimetres apart, like everyone elses, and his 3-D perspective is based on that scale. Here, Cueball puts HD webcams on the tops of football uprights, which are 360 feet apart instead of a few centimetres. He uses strong reading glasses to hold up a smartphone, and feeds the far more offset images of the webcam feeds to each eye so that his brain will create a 3-D perspective of the clouds, which would normally be too massive for the offset between two human eyes to grasp their three-dimensional structure in the same way as smaller, closer things.

This technique doesn't give him the view as if he were a giant as in the final panel, but rather as if he were a giant "at the bottom of an abyss" as per the second-last panel, as the clouds are higher than the goalposts on which the cameras are mounted. The final panel is some artistic license to give the reader a real sense of what it feels like for Cueball to carry this out; it shows us that he has finally achieved a more truthful perspective on the size and shapes of the clouds than he had when he started.

The reason for the reversal of the "right camera" and "left camera" panes on the smartphone screen is unclear, this is likely just a mistake.

The title text is a line from the 1969 song "{{w|Both Sides Now}}" by Joni Mitchell; the full chorus runs: "I've looked at clouds from both sides now / From up and down and still somehow / It's cloud illusions I recall / I really don't know clouds at all." Binocular depth perception involves seeing the same object from slightly different angles, from 'both sides', so Randall is taking the song lyric and literalising it. The song itself has a bittersweet tone and relates to how you understand things differently as you mature, but still don't necessarily feel like you understand them at all, so the tone also fits pretty un-ironically into the theme of the comic.

==Transcript==
:[The entire comic is narrated by Cueball, and never spoken by the Cueball shown in the examples. All dialog is shown in rectangular frames overlaid on the comic panels.]

:[In the first panel the background shows a cloudy sky in color, with the clouds all running together and appearing as a blue gray smear. Towards the bottom the horizon and the ground appear dark almost black at the very bottom. Two frames with two lines of text are at the top left and right, similar below except the one to the left has four lines and the one to the right only one line.]
:I've always had trouble with the size of clouds.
:I ''know'' they're huge. I can see their shapes.
:But I don't really see them as objects on the same scale as trees and buildings.
:They're a backdrop.

:[The next panel is split in three parts. The top part is in a single frame. The middle part is frame-less and only has text - the only narrating not inside one of the frames. Then at the bottom there are two frames overlaid over three small panels in a row]

:[In the top part of the 2ns panel stands Cueball on a flat disk inside a hemispherical dome with the front half cut away. The dome is about three times as tall as Cueball. Above the dome there is one frame with text. There is also two labeled arrows pointing to the dome and the disk.]
:Stars are the same way.
::Arrow up: Sky
::Arrow down: Ground

:[Text in between the top and the bottom panels:]
:I know they're scattered through and endless ocean, but my gut insists they're a painting on a domed ceiling.

:[The next two frames with text is overlaid above (three lines of text) and below (one line of text) the three panels described first. Those three panels are all inverted with black background and white Cueball:]
:[Left panel: Cueball stands on a curved surface, looking up.]
:[Middle panel: The perspective of the scene shifts, suddenly the surface Cueball is standing on is in the top left of the panel. Cueball is now looking down, leaning back, and waving his arms trying to regain balance.
:[Right panel: The perspective of the scene returns to normal, Cueball is now semi-crouched, staring at the ground with legs spaced apart to help him balance.]
:If I try hard enough, I get a glimmer of depth, a dizzying sense of space,
:But then everything snaps back.

:[An American football field is shown with Cueball drawn very small near the middle. Sections at the left tips of each of the goal posts are highlighted and shown as a zoomed view in an insert box. These insert shows the two webcams mounted on the top of the very tip, one for each goal posts. There are two frames with text above the field, the top one most to the left with one line, the second directly below it with two lines, and below the field there is also one frame with one line in it.]
:So one summer afternoon
:I set up two HD webcams hundreds of feet apart,
:Pointed them at the sky,

:[The next two frames with two lines of text each are stretched over the two middle panels in this second row of panels:]
:[The first panel shows a pair of glasses and a smartphone with an attachment designed to clip onto the glasses. The smartphone screen is setup to display two images side by side such that one camera is visible in the left half of the screen, and the other camera is visible in the right half of the screen. There are four arrows pointing to the two items and to each of the two parts of the screen. They all have labels which are between the two lines of text, but here shown below for clarity.]
:[The next panel shows the completed phone glasses assembly.]
:And fed one stream to each of my eyes.
:The parallax expanded my depth perception by a thousand times,
::Arrow top left: Right camera
::Arrow top right: Smartphone
::Arrow bottom left: Very strong reading glasses
::Arrow bottom right: Left camera

:[Cueball stands wearing the phone glasses assembly, one hand held up to the device, staring into the sky. There are two frames one above and one below with two lines of text each:]
:And I stood in my living room
:At the bottom of an abyss

:[Another colored panel with blue sky and clouds below the top part of the panel from left to right. Cueball is now a giant who stands in the middle of the frame on the shore of a coastline with a small island off the coast, only a step away for him. A city is near his right foot and the tallest skyscraper appears ankle high. A mountain range is behind him with mountains that are also only barely ankle high. A river flows past the mountains and joins another coming from them on it's way down towards the coast. Cueball is standing with his head well above cloud level as clouds swim around him. At the top above and left of his head the last frame with one line of text is located:]
:Watching mountains drift by.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Comics with inverted brightness]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:American football]]

1813: Vomiting Emoji

2017-03-21T14:37:23Z

625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8: Citation needed and more on combining modifiers

{{comic
| number = 1813
| date = March 20, 2017
| title = Vomiting Emoji
| image = vomiting_emoji.png
| titletext = My favorite might be U+1F609 U+1F93F WINKING FACE VOMITING.
}}
==Explanation==
{{incomplete| Please change this comment when editing this page. Neeeds someone who knows more about Unicode and Emojis. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic relates to the recent [http://unicode.org/emoji/charts-beta/emoji-released.html Unicode v5.0 proposal] for a [http://unicode.org/emoji/charts-beta/full-emoji-list.html#1f92e vomiting emoji]. Megan believes that there should be vomiting versions of all emoji. She writes up a proposal, putting the new modifier at U+1F93F. Six example emojis are given, being progressively more nonsensical, starting with a vomiting cowboy and ending with a vomiting hand. Randall states that his favorite possibility is a winking face vomiting.

Unicode is the computing industry standard for representing text. More recent additions have included emoji characters, such as grinning face (😁) or a clap symbol (👏)

Unicode also supports "combining modifiers". These allow, for example, accents to be placed on characters that do not have an accented version elsewhere, or to make a white flag into a rainbow flag. There are also modifiers for emojis, usually intended to modify skin tone. Megan's proposal is to add another one of these modifiers for vomiting, so that any emoji could conceivably be vomiting.

A list of the emojis:

'''Vomiting Cowboy''' (🤠): This seems reasonable and not much worse off than the regular one.

'''Vomiting Statue of Liberty''' (🗽): Given the turbulent political climate in present-day America, this emoji might see a lot of use by opinionated folks.

'''Vomiting Dove''' (🕊): As the dove is usually seen as a symbol of peace, a vomiting one could be construed as an omen for war. It may also reference a tendency for birds to drop unpleasant things on people below. It is worth noting that pigeons are a subspecies of doves so a dove emoji might as well represent a flying pigeon.

'''Vomiting Moon''' (🌛): This might seem just a little odd as the moon is made of rock<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon#Physical_characteristics Wikipedia] on physical characteristics of the moon</ref> and cannot vomit. {{Citation needed}}

'''Vomiting rocket ship''': (🚀) This might be a reference to the "{{w|Vomit Comet}}" aircraft that astronauts train on. Also, space travel can be associated with vomiting. However, since the cabins of rocket ships should be airtight when in flight, vomit coming out of a flying rocket indicates a serious problem.

'''Vomiting Hand''' (✋): This one is just bizarre. Maybe it could be used in the context of some horror flick?

'''Winking Face Vomiting''' (😉, title text): This suggests that the context in which a wink is used is combined with vomiting to humorous effect.

In [[1726: Unicode]], Randall mentioned the proposed "brontosaurus" emoji in Unicode.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball, looking at his smartphone, approaches Megan who is sitting at a desk working on her laptop.]
:Cueball: The proposed emoji for Unicode 10.0 look good.
:Megan: Hmm. [vomiting emoji] "U+1F92E FACE WITH OPEN MOUTH VOMITING"

:[Cueball is holding his device lower and no longer looking at it.]
:Cueball: Eww.
:Megan: Really, "vomiting" should be a combining modifier, so you can use it to make a vomiting version of any emoji.
:Cueball: Umm.
:Megan: I'm gonna write up a proposal.

:U+1F93F VOMITING MODIFIER
:[cowboy emoji vomiting] U+1F920 U+1F93F VOMITING COWBOY
:[Statue of Liberty emoji vomiting] U+1F5FD U+1F93F VOMITING STATUE OF LIBERTY
:[dove emoji vomiting, with an olive branch near its head] U+1F54A U+1F93F VOMITING DOVE
:[first quarter moon with face emoji vomiting] U+1F31B U+1F93F VOMITING MOON
:[rocket ship emoji with vomit coming from its window] U+1F680 U+1F93F VOMITING ROCKET SHIP
:[hand emoji with a hole in it, vomit is coming from that hole] U+270B U+1F93F VOMITING HAND

==References==
<references>

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Emoji]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]

Talk:754: Dependencies

2017-03-21T01:00:23Z

625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8: Someone please confirm this!

Concurrent enrollment FTW [[Special:Contributions/75.60.27.102|75.60.27.102]] 03:11, 29 March 2013 (UTC)

I'm a programmer so I'm ok with the explanation, but it seems too technical for non programmers. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.212.196|108.162.212.196]] 02:22, 12 January 2014 (UTC)

In response to the programmer at [[Special:Contributions/108.162.212.196|108.162.212.196]]: yes, it's probably too technical for non-programmers. But then again, so is the comic. It's a programming (or logic) joke. Unfortunately the level of knowledge required to 'get' some of Randall's humour can't always be reduced down to a simplistic lowest common denominator. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.81.216|141.101.81.216]] 06:36, 24 February 2014 (UTC)

"Yes, Microsoft CRT 9.0 or later is acceptable. But you should probably think about getting MinGW, Cygwin, or just switch to Linux." (groan) [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.9|108.162.221.9]] 01:00, 17 April 2014 (UTC)

CPSC 432 lists itself as a ''pre''req, not a ''co''req. A coreq can be satisfied by enrolling in the original course and the coreq course at the same time; however, prior completion of the course is required in the case of a prereq. So the dependency problem here cannot be solved by allowing a course to satisfy itself, and as a result, no one will be able to enroll in this course. The joke here is thus that the instructor of a course on dependency resolution created a dependency problem himself. --[[User:Troy0|Troy0]] ([[User talk:Troy0|talk]]) 07:04, 17 August 2014 (UTC)

Added to the talk as it was removed from the main content:
:Alternately, the title text could be a meta joke where course prerequisites are confused with {{w|system requirements}}. System requirements tell the user what other hardware or software are requied in order for a piece of software to run properly, such as a minimum amount of RAM or a particular operating system. The inclusion of glibc2.5 in the prerequisites might mean that the student needs to have this package loaded rather than be familiar with it. --[[User:Smperron|Smperron]] ([[User talk:Smperron|talk]])
:: This does not fit with the context of the joke (which is about dependencies) also clearly all other items in the title text are dependency related, therefore this is very unlikely. However the current description may be incorrect and the glibc2.5 or later comment may just be the author intentionally confusing prerequisite and package management dependencies. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.209|108.162.216.209]] 20:32, 5 December 2014 (UTC)

About the third/fourth year things: I don't know how it works at all U.S. schools, but at mine just because a class starts with a 3 or a 4 doesn't mean it HAS to be taken in that year. Because of the way the pre-reqs (for my major, at my school) work, I can take a 2000-level class, then a 3000-level, then a 4000 and some more 3000s... so a "fourth year" class can be taken before a "third year", just in general. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.71|173.245.56.71]] 12:46, 1 July 2016 (UTC)

I was trying to read the next course, and here's what I saw:
"Computer" | CPSC 433 | Advanced compiler design | DHTL 101

Talk:488: Steal This Comic

2017-03-20T21:59:54Z

625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8:

I'm not sure how credible Natural News is.
http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/NaturalNews
Then again, I'm not sure how credible RationalWiki is, either. [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 16:08, 5 April 2013 (UTC)
:I'm not sure how credible The Internet is. [[User:Thokling|Thokling]] ([[User talk:Thokling|talk]]) 06:43, 25 September 2013 (UTC)
:Replacing that NaturalNews link with a link to the same story on The Guardian. --[[User:Alex|Alex]] ([[User talk:Alex|talk]]) 14:26, 4 June 2014 (UTC)
"Steal this Comic" refers to the TPB-related "Steal this Film" and not to "Steal this Book" unless I'm very much mistaken. Also, it needs an explanation of what DMCA 1201 is and why it makes "getting your stuff back" illegal (it is, IIRC, the anti-circumvention clause, which says that breaking DRM, even for a legal purpose, is illegal; thus, getting your stuff back, ordinarily a perfectly legal act, is illegal if it involves getting around the DRM). [[User:Magic9mushroom|Magic9mushroom]] ([[User talk:Magic9mushroom|talk]]) 11:39, 21 December 2015 (UTC)
:The title of "Steal this Film" was itself a reference to "Steal this Book." {{unsigned ip|162.158.56.197}}

I believe the breaking of DRM is necessary in certain cases because the media could be associated with specific accounts/computers/IPs/etc. It is not just about the use of iTunes or any other media manager. [[User:Flewk|flewk]] ([[User talk:Flewk|talk]]) 23:12, 3 January 2016 (UTC)

I deleted the "license" crap. When you buy music - on physical media - you do own it. Copyright law prohibits you from doing some things with it - just like how driving laws prohibit you from doing some things with your car - that doesn't mean you don't own it. CDs, tapes, and LPs usually don't even have shrinkwrap "licenses". You only need a license to do legally restricted stuff. IANAL. PS I hate the CAPTCHAs on this site.Tor user @ [[Special:Contributions/108.162.218.47|108.162.218.47]] 04:30, 13 April 2016 (UTC)
:Once you have an account for 5 days (I think), you don't have to answer any CAPTCHAs. [[User:625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8|625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8]] ([[User talk:625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8|talk]]) 21:59, 20 March 2017 (UTC)

There's also System of a Down's album titled "Steal This Album" which is more directly related to the topic of the comic, which is music. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.7|108.162.215.7]] 02:06, 30 April 2016 (UTC)

Black Hat's arms seem too short in the last drawing, or is it just me? [[User:625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8|625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8]] ([[User talk:625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8|talk]]) 21:09, 16 March 2017 (UTC)

1324: Weather

2017-03-20T05:20:42Z

625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8: "One of the"

{{comic
| number = 1324
| date = January 31, 2014
| title = Weather
| image = weather.png
| titletext = At least if you're really into, like, Turkish archaeology, store clerks aren't like 'hey, how 'bout those Derinkuyu underground cities!' when they're trying to be polite.
}}
==Explanation==
Social norm accepts casual small-talk as an ice breaker for interaction — usually it is always safe to talk about the weather without hitting any disagreements as there are rarely any personal view points about the weather — in contrast small-talk is never about political subjects or similar where chances are that there are strong personal view points.

In this strip [[Cueball]] is described a "weather geek", enjoying subjects such as {{w|meteorology}} and {{w|weather forecasting}}. When [[Hairy]] makes a comment about the weather, Cueball launches into a detailed technical discussion, not realizing Hairy is simply trying to engage in small-talk. Only weather geeks would have this problem, but this topic is a common opening for a conversation in casual small-talk. Cueball switches to small-talk once he realizes that Hairy is confused and didn't expect this level of technical information.

As to the jargon:
*{{w|Jet stream|Jet streams}} are strong air currents high in the atmosphere which have a big influence on the weather.
*18z is 18:00 {{w|Coordinated Universal Time|UTC}} (6 PM in Greenwich, England, 10 AM in California). See {{w|ISO 8601}} at Wikipedia. The letter "Z" is used as 'Zulu' in the {{w|NATO phonetic alphabet}}, meaning just UTC.
*GFS is the {{w|Global Forecast System}} (also known as NCEP-GFS). It is a computer model used by the {{w|National Weather Service}} to predict the weather up to 16 days in advance. The model is run 4 times a day and the output is distinguished by the UTC hour it was started (18z in this case).
*Part of the prediction is the {{w|atmospheric pressure}} expressed in {{w|Bar (unit)|mbar}} (or mb). 960 mbar is very low pressure, which is usually associated with seriously bad weather (record low pressure for Minnesota was 963 mbar till 1998).
*"Think it'll verify?": A forecast "verifies" when an analysis of observations at the forecast time are found to match the forecast. Cueball is asking if Hairy thinks the prediction of a 960mbar low will be shown to have been correct.

The title text clarifies the problem weather nuts like Cueball here have: Unlike other geeky pursuits (like, say, the {{w|Derinkuyu Underground City|Derinkuyu Underground Cities}}, [[1368: One Of The|one of the]] most well-known {{w|History of Turkey|archaeological sites in Turkey}}) weather is a fairly common small talk subject. As a result, weather geeks have to be constantly vigilant so as not to launch into technical monologues.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and Hairy are talking.]
:Hairy: So, how 'bout this weather?
:Cueball: I ''know,'' right? The whole jet stream layer is ''nuts!''
:Hairy: Um, sure...
:Cueball: The 18z GFS forecasts 960mb by Tuesday. Think it'll verify?
:Hairy: What?
:Cueball: ...Right. Sorry. Uh, yeah! Weather sure has been crazy.

:Weather geeks have it tough.
{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]

Talk:705: Devotion to Duty

2017-03-20T05:15:38Z

625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8:

This is very clearly a Die Hard parody. {{unsigned|‎70.12.4.193}}
Indubitably --[[User:JSekula71|JSekula71]] ([[User talk:JSekula71|talk]]) 23:36, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

Oh man. This needs some reworking. --[[User:Quicksilver|Quicksilver]] ([[User talk:Quicksilver|talk]]) 03:10, 20 August 2013 (UTC)
: This entire entry has to be a troll... We may need an ExplainExplainxkcd for those who don't get it. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.249.155|108.162.249.155]] 05:15, 9 March 2016 (UTC)

[[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.203|108.162.250.203]] 10:33, 26 April 2014 (UTC) In Die Hard, the terrorists used a chainsaw to cut the telephone trunk cables. Try repairing that damage.
:Never underestimate the dedication of a truly devoted sysadmin! -Pennpenn [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.162|108.162.250.162]] 04:57, 23 June 2015 (UTC)

The title text is highlighting the absurdity of the sysadmin's devotion to duty by contrasting the forces of darkness (very serious) against a blog describing the daily activities of your cat (trivial). --[[User:Bedunkel|-BD]] ([[User talk:Bedunkel|talk]]) 07:36, 17 November 2014 (UTC)

Why are there so many parentheses in the explanation? I think that needs to get fixed. [[User:Vince7778|Vince7778]] ([[User talk:Vince7778|talk]]) 23:09, 17 January 2017 (UTC)
:Yeah, it's kind of ridiculous. [[User:625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8|625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8]] ([[User talk:625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8|talk]]) 05:15, 20 March 2017 (UTC)

Talk:1333: First Date

2017-03-19T01:24:48Z

625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8:

PRAISE THE HELIX, ahh TPP is just so fun to watch [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.20|141.101.99.20]] 21:02, 2 March 2014 (UTC)

HAIL HELIX {{unsigned ip|‎173.245.54.74}}

Should this be put into the Pokémon category? The comic has nothing to do with Pokémon itself, but the subject matter does. [[User:Blitzer|Blitzer]] ([[User talk:Blitzer|talk]]) 07:37, 21 February 2014 (UTC)

Kill me for being a stupid nerd, but when I first read the title "First Date" I thought it was going to be a strip about the Unix Epoch. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.53.201|173.245.53.201]] 10:30, 21 February 2014 (UTC)
::I think that was a very cool deducton, Monica. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.53.138|173.245.53.138]] 15:47, 21 February 2014 (UTC)
::Thats nothing. Ive actually nerd sniped myself with an xkcd comic before. thinking that the one about DNE referred to the concept of an undefined value (ie 1/0) [[User:BruceJohnJennerLawso|BruceJohnJennerLawso]] ([[User talk:BruceJohnJennerLawso|talk]]) 19:00, 22 February 2014 (UTC)

This is the first strip for a while that I had no idea what was going on. Thanks, explainxkcd! BTW I do think the Pokémon category is probably relevant enough. [[User:Markhurd|Mark Hurd]] ([[User talk:Markhurd|talk]]) 11:02, 21 February 2014 (UTC)
:Ah, ditto. Cheers for the explanation (not sure whether I'm happy or not that I'm so disassociated from apparently popular culture though). I actually thought "Twitch" was some sort of "random Twitter feed" thing, though, so (to some degree) I suppose I was also ''almost'' on the right track.  [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.145|141.101.99.145]] 17:31, 21 February 2014 (UTC)
::Hah, ditto. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.7|108.162.215.7]] 05:44, 2 June 2016 (UTC)
Anyone else notice that between panels 2 and 3, Cueball drinks most of his wine? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.145|141.101.99.145]] 17:51, 21 February 2014 (UTC)
:Yes, I was intrigued by that! At least, his glass gets emptier — it seems plausible that Megan might have drunk or spilled it too. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.218.23|108.162.218.23]] 18:48, 21 February 2014 (UTC)
::Seems like the amount of wine in his glass is constantly decreasing from panel 1-4. Also, the helix will guide us! [[Special:Contributions/173.245.53.185|173.245.53.185]] 12:48, 22 February 2014 (UTC)
::Praise the Helix! [[Special:Contributions/108.162.254.106|108.162.254.106]] 16:21, 24 February 2014 (UTC)

I took my 4-year-old out to lunch at a restaurant last week. Randall, was that you, sitting at the next booth, taking notes? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.55.62|173.245.55.62]] 18:42, 6 March 2014 (UTC)

::[http://en.illogicopedia.org/wiki/User:XY007 This guy] says: It's been 1.5 years and now this is an old dead meme. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.2.158|162.158.2.158]] 09:36, 5 October 2015 (UTC)

Should we add a table explaining each of the phrases that Megan speaks? [[User:625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8|625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8]] ([[User talk:625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8|talk]]) 01:24, 19 March 2017 (UTC)

1685: Patch

2017-03-19T01:16:07Z

625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1685
| date = May 25, 2016
| title = Patch
| image = patch.png
| titletext = My optimizer uses content-aware inpainting to fill in all the wasted whitespace in the code, repeating the process until it compiles.
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Adobe Photoshop}} is a commonly used application for image manipulation. One of its features is the Patch tool, which allows the user to overwrite parts of the image, replacing them with a copy of another area of the same image. It is often used for “patching up” photographs by overwriting scratches or other visible damage to the photo. Another of Photoshop’s features is “content-aware fill”, which could also be described as “content-aware inpainting”. It works similarly to the Patch tool, but automatically generates a replacement texture from the area surrounding the deleted part instead of copying a user-specified area exactly.

{{w|GNU}} {{w|Patch (Unix)|patch}} is a program that replaces only parts of code with an updated version, without requiring the user to download the entire source code. Here, it appears the author was told to “patch” the code, but used Photoshop to do this instead of GNU patch, with devastating results. Although the title text suggests that if you did this enough times the code would eventually compile, this would never happen. In fact, Photoshop could only edit an image of the text and not the text itself. However, it could work if optical character recognition (OCR) were integrated into the workflow as well.

The comic blurs the difference between {{w|text_file|text}} (in which letters and symbols represent discrete values, such as 65 being the number for the letter A in the ASCII encoding standard, and it's relatively easy for a program compiler to interpret combinations of these values as keywords and other programming constructs) and {{w|Raster_graphics|graphics}} (where the letters and symbols in the comic are actually represented by pattern of colored dots), playing with the idea that the ''patch'' metaphor can be used on both (although with different meanings). There are common and straightforward processes for converting text information to images, such as printing, which can convert text to a graphics format very faithfully. The reverse, however, requires the use of {{w|optical character recognition}} (OCR), which attempts to figure out which letter or symbol certain patterns of dots "look like". OCR could be effective in converting some of the image in the comic back to usable text, however it would fail on some of those patterns that have been mangled and don't look like any existing characters or symbols. A compiler can only operate on text data, so converting the graphic back into text would be a requirement to even begin to attempt to compile it, a step omitted in the title text.

The code appears to be written in {{w|Python_(programming_language)|Python}}, a programming language often referred to in xkcd, such as in [[353: Python]]. A few of the function names that can be recognized are "isPrime" and "quicksort", both elementary programming algorithms. It was also apparently originally edited using a Python-aware programming text editor, which is able to use different colors for different programming elements. For example, it appears to use red for keywords, blue for variables, and black for other elements, however because of the mangling from the use of the wrong patching program, that doesn't appear to be consistent. Since the patching replaced graphical elements rather than whole characters, there are examples of symbols that are combination of two different characters, and when the original two characters were rendered in different colors the resulting non-character could be in two colors, or the resulting "word" might be rendered in multiple colors.

The comic brings to attention the high rate of Adobe Photoshop piracy. GNU Patch is available for free, even [http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/patch.htm for Windows], and Mac OS X. So the comic implies that Adobe Photoshop, subscription to which costs $20/month, is more available than GNU patch. According to [http://blog.epicedits.com/2008/03/28/60-of-photoshop-users-are-pirates/ this poll], 58% of Photoshop copies were pirated.

The title text also explains that patch used the content-aware inpainting to fill in all the wasted whitespace in the code. In most programming languages, whitespace is necessary to separate words, so this would combine words that shouldn’t be combined and create invalid code. Since the code in the image is Python, the code will be messed up even more, because Python uses whitespace as a part of its programming syntax. For example, statements are separated by new lines instead of by semicolons (;), and indentation is used instead of brackets to determine the scope of each section of code.

The original code was likely as follows:

import re
def isPrime(n):
if n<=1:
return False
for i in range(2, int(n**0.5)+1):
if n%i==0:
return False
return True
def isPrimeRegex(n):
if re.match(r'^1?$|^(11+?)\1+$', '1'*n):
return False
return True
def quicksort(a):
if len(a) < 2:
return a
pivot=a[0]
l=[i for i in a if i<pivot]
r=[i for i in a if i>pivot]
mid=[pivot]*(len(a)-(len(l)+len(r)))
return quicksort(l)+mid+quicksort(r)

isPrime and quicksort are standard python implementations of simple algorithms (although you would not generally write a sorting algorithm in python as there are built-in algorithms available). isPrimeRegex uses the [https://docs.python.org/library/re.html re module] to detect if a number is prime by seeing if a string containing that many 1s can be matched to 2 or more copies of some string containing at least 2 1s.

The comic two comics back [[1683: Digital Data]], also related to turning digital data into bad copies. Less than a month before quicksort was mentioned in [[1667: Algorithms]], and a month before that another "easy" solution to a programming problem was released in [[1654: Universal Install Script]].

Using a Photoshop tool for a task it is not intended for was also used in [[1784: Bad Map Projection: Liquid Resize]], where [https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/content-aware-scaling.html Photoshop's content aware resizing tool] was a very questionable choice to use for a Map Projection.

==Transcript==
:[The panel displays part of a code, in five different colors (red, purple, light blue, blue and green) as well as normal black text, which due to image editing is difficult to read. The first and last line are partly obscured by the frame of the panel. Here below is an attempt to transcribe the code, using the sign "¤" for anything not easily transcribed. Feel free to add other signs instead of these that looks more like the one in the image (and also improve the attempted transcription if possible).]
impoɞtme
dooPisPŞ¤me(n):
r(¤n<n,1:
retern F(ise
for i irararre(2, nint *n**n+5)+5):
if n i==0
ret¤¤nrselsel:
re¤ irn True
defesisPrimcieg ¤x(cx
if ge¤inatcx(ᵣ'^(1?| ?.1+?)\+)$'*n )1'*n):
rerjrn Fa( e
LetylnrTrl
dql qlsorsorn(a :
if ¤n(a < 2:
eteturn a
pi= =r fa[0]
l=pi=for j ln a i< i<pi<(t]()
r=[l=for f in a) r i>viviv](vo)
mid=[pi[*t]*(l*t,(a)-(lenpienlen(c)))
r¤lrurrriklcksckt(l) + r ¤ ¤quickrort(r)

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Protip: If you don't have access to the GNU ''patch'' tool, you can use the Photoshop one.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Protip]]
[[Category:Programming]]

Stick figure

2017-03-19T01:08:38Z

625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8: Clarification

[[File:white hat.png|thumb|[[White Hat]] is an example of a stick figure character]]

A "stick figure" is a style of drawing human beings (or other creatures) in which major portions of the body are simplified into single line segments. The majority of [[xkcd]] is drawn in a stick-figure style.

A typical stick figure has one line each for the torso, each arm and each leg, and a circle for a head. More complexity can be added to stick figures by adding joints (two line segments for each arm or leg, or a neck) as well as adding line segments for feet, circles for hands, line segments for fingers, or facial features for expression. xkcd typically makes use of these more versatile methods of adding expression or movement to stick figures, although modern xkcd strips rarely use facial features on stick figure characters.

In most stick figure drawings (including xkcd, typically), most other objects depicted are generally drawn in a similarly simplified style, just as simplified outlines or with line segments or basic shapes in place of more complex figures.

==See also==
* [[:Category:Characters]]
* {{w|stick figure|Stick Figures on Wikipedia}}

[[Category:Meta]]

Talk:256: Online Communities

2017-03-19T01:02:02Z

625571b7-aa66-4f98-ac5c-92464cfb4ed8:

I'm gonna try and put together some sort of explanation at all for this one. A couple of things I could use help on in terms of location if people want to chip in: series of tubes within myspace; the Icy North; the islands bounded by the Ocean of Subculture, Sea of Memes, and P2P Shoals; and the location of some of the tiny islands around the map (e.g. why is the Lonely Island near friendster, Google's Volcano Fortress off the IRC Isles, etc.). Thanks in advance!! [[User:Amurfalcon|Amurfalcon]] ([[User talk:Amurfalcon|talk]]) 20:30, 10 December 2013 (UTC)
:I've found Googling some of the more obscure things and half-readable things helps a lot. It's how I got Xu Jinglei. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.219|141.101.99.219]] 17:03, 20 December 2013 (UTC)

Can someone remove that stray line break before "A larger version..."? It irks me and I don't know how to get rid of it.

;bay of trolls

Might this be a reference to bay of pigs? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.48.135|173.245.48.135]] 03:58, 31 December 2013 (UTC)
:Possibly, but, well, it'd be rather speculative to include it, and there's [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special%3APrefixIndex&prefix=Bay+of&namespace=0 lots] of other "Bay of X" places, e.g. Bay of Fundy. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.235|141.101.99.235]] 05:46, 16 January 2014 (UTC)

; Map of the Internet

I don't know if or how much this art was inspired by this comic, but if you like 256 you'll love the [http://jaysimons.deviantart.com Map of the Internet]. ''— [[User:Tbc|tbc]] ([[User talk:Tbc|talk]]) 16:14, 6 January 2015 (UTC)''

"World of Warcraft ... based on a previously-existing RPG series" i'm not sure about this statement. The first thing that most people think about would be Warcraft but that's not an RPG series (they are strategy games) unless we are considering it so for the minimal RPG elements in Warcraft 3. Perhaps it's referencing an other series (maybe Diablo) or I'm missing something and since i'm far from an expert in either WOW or xkcd i'll let someone else decide if it should be changed (a possible minimal change would be changing "RPG series" to either "game series" or "video game series"). [[Special:Contributions/188.114.111.125|188.114.111.125]] 07:49, 5 November 2016 (UTC)

There's no explanation of the "anthropomorphic dragons" bit. I mean, I'm sure many of us know what it means (wink wonk), but some may be confused. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.33|108.162.246.33]] 03:31, 8 November 2016 (UTC)