https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/api.php?action=feedcontributions&feedformat=atom&user=91.209.51.151explain xkcd - User contributions [en]2026-07-10T11:41:52ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.30.0https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1165:_Amazon&diff=263191165: Amazon2013-01-27T21:09:45Z<p>91.209.51.151: /* Explanation */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1165<br />
| date = January 25, 2013<br />
| title = Amazon<br />
| image = amazon.png<br />
| titletext = Amazon.com took a surprise early lead with 'Time required to transport a package from Iquitos, Peru to Manaus, Brazil' but then lost it at 'Minutes to skeletonize a cow'.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
The {{w|Amazon River}} in South America is the second longest river in the world and by far the largest by waterflow. {{w|Amazon.com}} is a website that specializes in commerce and selling goods over the internet. The "round 14" suggest they are being compared in different criteria in a sort of competition. With such different systems, we can assume that most of those comparisons were similarly funny. The title text mentions two other criteria of comparison.<br />
<br />
The measure of flow for the Amazon river (cubic meters per second) indicates the volume of water that passes a given point in the river at any second. To illustrate how much 220,000 cubic meters is, the comic shows a car parked next to 220,000 cubic meters of water. 220,000 cubic meters equals a cube with vertex length of 60.4 meters. By comparison the 0.9 cubic meters of goods that are shipped by Amazon.com seems very small (note that 0.9 cubic meters of goods per second is still a lot).<br />
To illustrate this size, the comic shows an Amazonian fish (or possibly an {{w|Amazon river dolphin}}) investigating the packages.<br />
<br />
'Minutes to skeletonize a cow' refers to {{w|piraña}}, a predatory fish with a popular reputation of being capable of the mentioned act when hunting in groups, which has little basis in reality, though.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:Round 14<br />
:Estimated outflow volume<br />
:in cubic meters per second<br />
:[A cube of water representing the outflow of the Amazon.]<br />
:Amazon 220,000<br />
:[A pile of boxes representing the outflow of Amazon.com.]<br />
:Amazon.com 0.9<br />
:Advantage: Amazon<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Comics with color]]</div>91.209.51.151