https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/api.php?action=feedcontributions&feedformat=atom&user=70.166.209.171explain xkcd - User contributions [en]2026-04-15T02:29:49ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.30.0https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1119:_Undoing&diff=14423Talk:1119: Undoing2012-10-10T14:35:55Z<p>70.166.209.171: </p>
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<div>Perhaps his motivation is to restore natural wind patterns to the environment. I remember reading about the ecological impact of wind power includes lessened wind currents. Some organisms rely on the wind to propagate the species, such as winds that blow seeds or how some spiders "parachute" on wind currents. Or it could be that he just likes to mess with people. --[[User:Joehammer79|Joehammer79]] ([[User talk:Joehammer79|talk]]) 13:46, 10 October 2012 (UTC)<br />
At first I thought this should be more of a Blackhat trick, but since he seems to think he is creating good in the world by restoring, it makes sense that it is Cueball--[[Special:Contributions/70.166.209.171|70.166.209.171]] 14:35, 10 October 2012 (UTC)</div>70.166.209.171https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1119:_Undoing&diff=144221119: Undoing2012-10-10T14:34:06Z<p>70.166.209.171: /* Explanation */</p>
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<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1119<br />
| date = October 10, 2012<br />
| title = Undoing<br />
| image = undoing.png<br />
| imagesize = <br />
| titletext = I've been sneaking out at night and installing lamps on the underside of every photovoltaic panel I can find. Sure, there are upwards of 80% losses, but I prefer to think of them as nearly 20% gains.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
The comic is a play on regenerative energies and the way they transform the natural resources (wind, sun, water) into electricity. It may also be a continuation of Randall's mistrust of modern electric windmills (see [[556|comic #556: Alternative Energy Revolution]]).<br />
<br />
The alt text is a reference to the very bad efficiency of solar panels (roughly 20-25%) and light bulbs (20-30%). Thus instead of only 80% loss of energy, which is either not converted to electricity or converted into heat) it's actually far more.<br />
<br />
Thus the undoing done by the character is quite less effective than the common "Undo" function known from computers.<br />
<br />
A windmill is powered by blowing wind, and it "absorbs" some of the strength of the gusts. Someone standing on the "front" side of a windmill will feel a stronger gust of wind than someone who stands on the "back" side. Cueball has severed the connection from the windmill to the electrical grid (thus decreasing the amount of energy on the grid) and used it to power a giant fan blowing the other way, thus restoring the amount of wind that was blowing before it came across the windmill, effectively "undoing" what the windmill accomplishes.<br />
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==Transcript==<br />
<!-- The transcript can be found in a hidden <div> element on the xkcd comic's html source, with id "transcript".<br />
-- Tip: Use colons (:) in the beginning of lines to preserve the original line breaks. <br />
-- Any actions or descriptive lines in [[double brackets]] should be reduced to [single brackets] to avoid wikilinking<br />
-- Do not include the title text again here --><br />
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{{comic discussion}} <br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:My Hobby]]</div>70.166.209.171https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1119:_Undoing&diff=144211119: Undoing2012-10-10T14:33:08Z<p>70.166.209.171: /* Explanation */</p>
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<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1119<br />
| date = October 10, 2012<br />
| title = Undoing<br />
| image = undoing.png<br />
| imagesize = <br />
| titletext = I've been sneaking out at night and installing lamps on the underside of every photovoltaic panel I can find. Sure, there are upwards of 80% losses, but I prefer to think of them as nearly 20% gains.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
The comic is a play on regenerative energies and the way they transform the natural resources (wind, sun, water) into electricity. It may also be a continuation of Randall's mistrust of modern electric windmills (see [[556|comic #556: Alternative Energy Revolution]]).<br />
<br />
The alt text is a reference to the very bad efficiency of solar panels (roughly 20-25%) and light bulbs (20-30%). Thus instead of only 80% loss of energy, which is either not converted to electricity or converted into heat) it's actually far more.<br />
<br />
Thus the undoing done by the character is quite less effective than the common "Undo" function known from computers.<br />
<br />
A windmill is powered by blowing wind, and it "absorbs" some of the strength of the gusts. Someone standing on the "front" side of a windmill will feel a stronger gust of wind than someone who stands on the "back" side. Randall has severed the connection from the windmill to the electrical grid (thus decreasing the amount of energy on the grid) and used it to power a giant fan blowing the other way, thus restoring the amount of wind that was blowing before it came across the windmill, effectively "undoing" what the windmill accomplishes.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
<!-- The transcript can be found in a hidden <div> element on the xkcd comic's html source, with id "transcript".<br />
-- Tip: Use colons (:) in the beginning of lines to preserve the original line breaks. <br />
-- Any actions or descriptive lines in [[double brackets]] should be reduced to [single brackets] to avoid wikilinking<br />
-- Do not include the title text again here --><br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}} <br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:My Hobby]]</div>70.166.209.171