explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:3138: Dimensional Lumber Tape Measure

2025-09-06T03:59:49Z

70.115.234.146: Is this a real thing? If not, it soon will be

I was under the impression this was actually a thing that exists, somewhere. (Separate and apart from so-called "shrink rules" used by patternmakers who create patterns for metal castings). No? [[User:JohnHawkinson|JohnHawkinson]] ([[User talk:JohnHawkinson|talk]]) 00:36, 6 September 2025 (UTC)

https://www.inchcalculator.com/actual-size-of-dimensional-lumber/ for reference --- MEL

: Wikipedia has {{w|Lumber#Dimensional_lumber|a similar table}}. Interestingly, if the values on this table are correct, the xkcd measure fails for the 8 x 8 board. [[Special:Contributions/2605:59C8:160:DB08:988B:772A:4E5:B209|2605:59C8:160:DB08:988B:772A:4E5:B209]] 02:18, 6 September 2025 (UTC)

:"I was under the impression this was actually a thing that exists, somewhere" - if doesn't exist now, it soon will. [[Special:Contributions/70.115.234.146|70.115.234.146]] 03:59, 6 September 2025 (UTC)

Thinking that there might be a typo in the comic - It says : A "1x8" IS "3/4 BY 7 1/8", yet it should be "3/4 BY 7 1/4".

Talk:3132: Coastline Similarity

2025-08-26T01:19:52Z

70.115.234.146: m

Lol what [[User:SectorCorruptor|SectorCorruptor]] ([[User talk:SectorCorruptor|talk]]) 16:20, 22 August 2025 (UTC)
:Lol what --'''''[[User:DollarStoreBa'al |DollarStoreBa'al]][[User talk:DollarStoreBa'al |'''''Converse''''']][[Special:Contributions/DollarStoreBa'al|'''''My life choices''''']] 17:30, 22 August 2025 (UTC)
::Lol what [[User:Broseph|Broseph]] ([[User talk:Broseph|talk]]) 18:13, 22 August 2025 (UTC)
:::Lol what [[User:CalibansCreations|'''Caliban''']] ([[User talk:CalibansCreations|talk]]) 18:52, 22 August 2025 (UTC)
::::Lol what [[Special:Contributions/24.54.131.250|24.54.131.250]] 19:24, 22 August 2025 (UTC)
:::::Lol what [[Special:Contributions/2001:67C:2564:A301:C26:D05F:D5AA:CA02|2001:67C:2564:A301:C26:D05F:D5AA:CA02]] 21:46, 22 August 2025 (UTC)
::::::Lol what [[User:Aprilfoolsupdate!| Aprilfoolsupdate!]]([[User talk:Aprilfoolsupdate!|talk]]) 08:16, 24 August 2025 (UTC)

^^^Plagerism at work^^^ [[User:These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For|These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For]] ([[User talk:These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For|talk]]) 02:18, 24 August 2025 (UTC)

npcs [[user:lett‪herebedarklight|raeb]] 14:29, 23 August 2025 (UTC)

Plagiarism might refer to the designer of one of the coastlinescopying the design of the other one (a reference to The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy).
[[Special:Contributions/147.234.73.125|147.234.73.125]] 22:56, 22 August 2025 (UTC)
:Given that Randall has made references to the guide and that a main part of the first book is talking to Slatibartfast who designed the Norvegian fjords, and later had to just do Africa, could actually mean that this is what Randall/Cueball is thinking of... Should this be mentioned in the explanation? --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:14, 25 August 2025 (UTC)
::Can one (even a Planetary Designer) ever ''self-''plagiarise? The same guy got given a different(/additional) part of the replacement Earth and tried his old award-winning design again... I don't think that counts as plagiarism. There are better ways to describe it, so I say it's an inspiration too far.
::At least how it turned out... might have progressed through different stages, say Zlarti got to do Africa, ''then'' to do South America, and he still had some of the large-scale patterns and molds so just re-used them on the other side of the adjacent continent, etc... but that's a stretch of reverse-engineering the joke to the supposed cause, long since diluted if it was ever part of the original concept. Mention it, if you must, but I don't think it's anything to do with that. [[Special:Contributions/82.132.236.41|82.132.236.41]] 17:54, 25 August 2025 (UTC)

I'm the comic "Coastline similarity" is likely a roof on "Cosine Similarity" which is used in software industry to measure how close two images are. This method is also used to detect plagiarism. {{unsigned ip|108.76.190.132|23:00, 22 August 2025}}

F***ing vandals. Best of luck, I'm gonna bunker down until this blows over. [[Special:Contributions/207.195.86.18|207.195.86.18]] 01:47, 24 August 2025 (UTC)

EDIT: To the dumbs*** who apparently doesn't know how curse words are used: referring to "f***ing X" is a way of expressing HATRED towards X, not love.

:I mean to play devils advocate you did pick the single most versatile word in the English lexicon. Capable of not only being a noun, a verb and an adjective, but also an adverb and probably more too. How are we to know without cultural context clues? (Signed a coitus looter)

:I'm sure the [[wikipedia:Vandals|vandals]] procreated. [[Special:Contributions/70.115.234.146|70.115.234.146]] 01:19, 26 August 2025 (UTC)

My dad once had the opposite conversation with his teacher, where he asked if the two continents had ever been connected and his teacher scoffed at him because continental drift wasn't widely-known yet. --[[Special:Contributions/2603:800C:500:18B3:38A0:233D:17B2:D289|2603:800C:500:18B3:38A0:233D:17B2:D289]] 16:05, 24 August 2025 (UTC)

Ooh, spotted an error in the strip: the fossils that match up are Triassic, not Cretaceous. (This is actually an underappreciated geological/paleontological thing: the Atlantic Ocean is what ended the Triassic. The Atlantic crust started as a mantle plume that split apart Pangaea, causing the largest volcano in Earth's history... which is what drove the extinction of the rivals of the early dinosaurs.) (Signed, tr0gd0r)

<s>Plagerism</s> Research!
[[User:Jgharston|Jgharston]] ([[User talk:Jgharston|talk]]) 22:59, 25 August 2025 (UTC)

Talk:3132: Coastline Similarity

2025-08-26T01:19:15Z

70.115.234.146: f'ing vandals

Lol what [[User:SectorCorruptor|SectorCorruptor]] ([[User talk:SectorCorruptor|talk]]) 16:20, 22 August 2025 (UTC)
:Lol what --'''''[[User:DollarStoreBa'al |DollarStoreBa'al]][[User talk:DollarStoreBa'al |'''''Converse''''']][[Special:Contributions/DollarStoreBa'al|'''''My life choices''''']] 17:30, 22 August 2025 (UTC)
::Lol what [[User:Broseph|Broseph]] ([[User talk:Broseph|talk]]) 18:13, 22 August 2025 (UTC)
:::Lol what [[User:CalibansCreations|'''Caliban''']] ([[User talk:CalibansCreations|talk]]) 18:52, 22 August 2025 (UTC)
::::Lol what [[Special:Contributions/24.54.131.250|24.54.131.250]] 19:24, 22 August 2025 (UTC)
:::::Lol what [[Special:Contributions/2001:67C:2564:A301:C26:D05F:D5AA:CA02|2001:67C:2564:A301:C26:D05F:D5AA:CA02]] 21:46, 22 August 2025 (UTC)
::::::Lol what [[User:Aprilfoolsupdate!| Aprilfoolsupdate!]]([[User talk:Aprilfoolsupdate!|talk]]) 08:16, 24 August 2025 (UTC)

^^^Plagerism at work^^^ [[User:These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For|These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For]] ([[User talk:These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For|talk]]) 02:18, 24 August 2025 (UTC)

npcs [[user:lett‪herebedarklight|raeb]] 14:29, 23 August 2025 (UTC)

Plagiarism might refer to the designer of one of the coastlinescopying the design of the other one (a reference to The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy).
[[Special:Contributions/147.234.73.125|147.234.73.125]] 22:56, 22 August 2025 (UTC)
:Given that Randall has made references to the guide and that a main part of the first book is talking to Slatibartfast who designed the Norvegian fjords, and later had to just do Africa, could actually mean that this is what Randall/Cueball is thinking of... Should this be mentioned in the explanation? --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:14, 25 August 2025 (UTC)
::Can one (even a Planetary Designer) ever ''self-''plagiarise? The same guy got given a different(/additional) part of the replacement Earth and tried his old award-winning design again... I don't think that counts as plagiarism. There are better ways to describe it, so I say it's an inspiration too far.
::At least how it turned out... might have progressed through different stages, say Zlarti got to do Africa, ''then'' to do South America, and he still had some of the large-scale patterns and molds so just re-used them on the other side of the adjacent continent, etc... but that's a stretch of reverse-engineering the joke to the supposed cause, long since diluted if it was ever part of the original concept. Mention it, if you must, but I don't think it's anything to do with that. [[Special:Contributions/82.132.236.41|82.132.236.41]] 17:54, 25 August 2025 (UTC)

I'm the comic "Coastline similarity" is likely a roof on "Cosine Similarity" which is used in software industry to measure how close two images are. This method is also used to detect plagiarism. {{unsigned ip|108.76.190.132|23:00, 22 August 2025}}

F***ing vandals. Best of luck, I'm gonna bunker down until this blows over. [[Special:Contributions/207.195.86.18|207.195.86.18]] 01:47, 24 August 2025 (UTC)

EDIT: To the dumbs*** who apparently doesn't know how curse words are used: referring to "f***ing X" is a way of expressing HATRED towards X, not love.

:I mean to play devils advocate you did pick the single most versatile word in the English lexicon. Capable of not only being a noun, a verb and an adjective, but also an adverb and probably more too. How are we to know without cultural context clues? (Signed a coitus looter)

:I'm sure the [wikipedia:Vandals|vandals] procreated. [[Special:Contributions/70.115.234.146|70.115.234.146]] 01:19, 26 August 2025 (UTC)

My dad once had the opposite conversation with his teacher, where he asked if the two continents had ever been connected and his teacher scoffed at him because continental drift wasn't widely-known yet. --[[Special:Contributions/2603:800C:500:18B3:38A0:233D:17B2:D289|2603:800C:500:18B3:38A0:233D:17B2:D289]] 16:05, 24 August 2025 (UTC)

Ooh, spotted an error in the strip: the fossils that match up are Triassic, not Cretaceous. (This is actually an underappreciated geological/paleontological thing: the Atlantic Ocean is what ended the Triassic. The Atlantic crust started as a mantle plume that split apart Pangaea, causing the largest volcano in Earth's history... which is what drove the extinction of the rivals of the early dinosaurs.) (Signed, tr0gd0r)

<s>Plagerism</s> Research!
[[User:Jgharston|Jgharston]] ([[User talk:Jgharston|talk]]) 22:59, 25 August 2025 (UTC)

Talk:3120: Geologic Periods

2025-07-26T03:28:15Z

70.115.234.146: Google searches for "The Great Dying" probably way up today

Discovered this explanation fresh off the griddle. The transcript doesn't even exist yet wow. Also, hi! This is my first time commenting! Did I do it right? [[User:Giraffequeries|Giraffequeries]] ([[User talk:Giraffequeries|talk]]) 22:54, 25 July 2025 (UTC)
:(Yes, looks like you did.)
:A couple of hours on, and nobody's attempted the Transcript yet. If you're still around right now-ish and you've got more time than everyone elses seems to have (including me, sorry), that could be your next thing.
:Check prior Transcripts for the right kind of way (and a few wrongs, but hey?), and imagine the words+'markup' being read through the hypothetical screen-readers. That might not know how to 'audible' a table, may at best shout/stress '''bold-strong'''/''italics-emphasis'', but perhaps not correctly.
:But just getting the words down helps the next soul with a few more minutes at hand. Any normal weekend, I'd be happy to do it right now, but I've got to be up in five hours, and I mildly regret just checking right now to see if I might have missed the latest comic popping up when it was a bit earlier and I was prepping my weekend bags. :) [[Special:Contributions/82.132.236.123|82.132.236.123]] 01:49, 26 July 2025 (UTC)
:Darn, forgot to say my intended actual personal comment I was just going to add. i.e.: Looks like Randall hasn't forgotten about Raptors! Anyway, goodnight/early-morning (my time).... [[Special:Contributions/82.132.236.123|82.132.236.123]] 01:53, 26 July 2025 (UTC)
I've done my part. Also, Raptors [[User:TPS|TPS]] ([[User talk:TPS|talk]]) 02:20, 26 July 2025 (UTC)

Did anyone else google "The Great Dying"? How about "Manicouagan"? How about "Picture of a dinosaur eating a burrito" (just to prove Randall wrong)?

3101: Good Science

2025-06-11T23:34:20Z

70.115.234.146: /* Explanation */ "so it does contribute somewhat" - O RLY?

{{comic
| number = 3101
| date = June 11, 2025
| title = Good Science
| image = good_science_2x.png
| imagesize = 387x833px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = If you think curiosity without rigor is bad, you should see rigor without curiosity.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created by a BOT VERY CURIOUS ABOUT XKCD. Don't remove this notice until the explanation below has the appropriate rigor.}}

[[Miss Lenhart]] is teaching a class to [[Jill]] and [[Cueball]]. Based on her opening statement "I'm supposed to give you the tools to do good science." this is likely a general class on the principles of science, although it could be the start of a class on a specific field of science such as biology or physics. Classes about the principles of science (i.e. the scientific method, or what makes "good science") are common at the very introductory level, such as middle school science classes that give young students a basic framework to understand science, and also at the very advanced level, where PhD students take classes on the philosophy and history of science with detailed examination of epistemology, metaphysics, logic, and ontology to be able to understand how their research affects the world.

However, Miss Lenhart explains that doing "good science" is hard, because research often produces incorrect results. She wonders what are the key things she should teach her students so that their scientific inquiry ends up being successful. She lists a series of items that are commonly suggested as leading to successful research, such as collaboration or skepticism, and explains that she performed a regression (a mathematical technique often used in science), to find out which were most important. She concludes that the two most crucial factors are genuine curiosity about the subject (which makes sense as something that would drive scientists to achieve good results) and {{w|ammonium hydroxide}}, a chemical which does not obviously relate significantly to achieving good results (although it's often used to clean laboratory equipment, so it does contribute somewhat{{citation needed}}).

When Jill points out that ammonium hydroxide is a non-sensical factor, Miss Lenhart replies that Jill is doing good science. The joke is that including ammonium hydroxide was just a means to get Jill to question the results. It also suggests that skepticism is actually the second crucial factor after genuine curiosity, as being skeptical of ammonium hydroxide as an important factor led to Jill's newfound success as a scientist.

The title text addresses a common criticism in scientific circles that science is only good if it has rigor, that is if it is well documented and follows all of the proper procedure. It says that if curiosity without rigor is bad (in other words someone earnestly trying to figure out the answer, but doing it in a sloppy way) the opposite or rigor without curiosity is much worse (a person who produces professional looking results but who doesn't care about if they are right or wrong). Randall has suggested that rigor is not as important in science as some make it out to be before when discussing the Mythbusters.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
:[Miss Lenhart is standing in front of a whiteboard with some scribbles on it.]
:Miss Lenhart: I'm supposed to give you the tools to do good science.

:[Miss Lenhart is now standing in front of Jill and Cueball, who are seated at classroom desks.]
:Miss Lenhart: But what are those tools?
:Miss Lenhart: Methodology is hard and there are so many ways to get incorrect results.
:Miss Lenhart: What is the magic ingredient that makes for good science?

:[Miss Lenhart headshot.]
:Miss Lenhart: To figure it out, I ran a regression with all the factors people say are important:
:[A list, presented in a sub-panel that Miss Lenhart is pointing to:]
:Outcome variable:
::• correct scientific results
:Predictors:
::• collaboration
::• skepticism of others' claims
::• questioning your own beliefs
::• trying to falsify hypotheses
::• checking citations
::• statistical rigor
::• blinded analysis
::• financial disclosure
::• open data
::[presumably the list goes on, as it runs off the visible part of the panel]

:[Another Miss Lenhart headshot.]
:Miss Lenhart: The regression says two ingredients are the most crucial:
:1) genuine curiosity about the answer to a question, and
:2) ammonium hydroxide

:[Miss Lenhart, standing, and Jill, seated at desk]
:Jill: Wait, why did ammonia score so high? How did it even get on the list?
:Miss Lenhart: ...and now you're doing good science!

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
[[Category:Comics featuring Miss Lenhart]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Jill]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]

[[Category:Science]]

Talk:3100: Alert Sound

2025-06-09T23:14:09Z

70.115.234.146: "Randall 3100"

https://www.amazon.com/Funny-Pranks-Annoying-Noise-Maker/dp/B08KG6XHN1

The reviews are hilarious. [[Special:Contributions/47.248.235.170|47.248.235.170]] 21:35, 9 June 2025 (UTC)Pat
:Damn, someone beat me to it. If it didn't exist I was gonna make one and call it the "Randall 3100" aka "Black Hat 3100." [[Special:Contributions/70.115.234.146|70.115.234.146]] 23:14, 9 June 2025 (UTC)