https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/api.php?action=feedcontributions&feedformat=atom&user=84.174.37.142 2026-07-10T15:43:33Z User contributions MediaWiki 1.30.0 https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=688:_Self-Description&diff=23871 2012-12-29T11:35:05Z

<p>84.174.37.142: /* Explanation */</p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 688<br /> | date = January 13, 2012<br /> | title = Self-Description<br /> | image = self_description.png<br /> | titletext = The contents of any one panel are dependent on the contents of every panel including itself. The graph of panel dependencies is complete and bidirectional, and each node has a loop. The mouseover text has two hundred and forty-two characters.<br /> }}<br /> <br /> ==Explanation==<br /> This comic is self-referential, because every graph is dependent on the whole comic. If you would change anything in the comic, you would change the ink distribution, therefore you would have to update all three graphs, resulting in further changes which have to be considered.<br /> <br /> The title text refers to the comic's own self-reference, but its also self-referencing because of the character count in it.<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> :[There is a pie chart, mostly white with a black slice. The white is labeled &quot;Fraction of this image which is white.&quot; The black is labeled &quot;Fraction of this image which is black.&quot;]<br /> <br /> :[There is a bar graph labeled &quot;Amount of black ink by panel.&quot; Bar 1 is medium height, Bar 2 higher, Bar 3 lowest.]<br /> <br /> :[There is a scatterplot labeled &quot;Location of black ink in this image.&quot; It is the positive quarter of a coordinate grid with the zeroes marked. The graph is, of course, the whole comic scaled to fit the axes, including a smaller version of itself in the last panel, etc.]<br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}<br /> [[Category:Charts]]<br /> [[Category:Math]]</div>

84.174.37.142