https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/api.php?action=feedcontributions&feedformat=atom&user=Iggynelix 2026-04-12T14:52:56Z User contributions MediaWiki 1.30.0 https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2917:_Types_of_Eclipse_Photo&diff=339195 2024-04-09T12:00:05Z

<p>Iggynelix: </p> <hr /> <div>&lt;!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~ and don't delete this text. New comments should be added at the bottom.--&gt;<br /> The 'standard' and '2x' sized images had unexpected sizes, so a Trivia section has been automatically generated, and an imagesize parameter has been added (at half size) to render the image consistently with other comics on this website. --[[User:TheusafBOT|TheusafBOT]] ([[User talk:TheusafBOT|talk]]) 06:16, 9 April 2024 (UTC)<br /> <br /> 8920x6909?! [[User:JLZ0kTC5|JLZ0kTC5]] ([[User talk:JLZ0kTC5|talk]]) 06:21, 9 April 2024 (UTC)<br /> Title text likely refers to this image [https://science.nasa.gov/resource/earth-eclipses-the-sun-apollo-12/], and may also refer to Alan Bean destroying the color tv camera on that same mission by pointing it inadvertently at the sun.<br /> [[Special:Contributions/172.69.140.145|172.69.140.145]] 07:03, 9 April 2024 (UTC)<br /> <br /> Cleveland, Ohio Science Center had a terrific view and NASA research and public relations teams were out in force. It was terrific. All of my photos are of the Focus and Crowd variety.[[User:Iggynelix|Iggynelix]] ([[User talk:Iggynelix|talk]]) 12:00, 9 April 2024 (UTC)<br /> <br /> I've seen one in 1999. It was glorious. Huge shadow crossing a large lake at a million miles an hour.<br /> <br /> Lots of pixels today [[User:MrCandela|MrCandela]] ([[User talk:MrCandela|talk]]) 09:26, 9 April 2024 (UTC)<br /> <br /> Why did Munroe do this??? I opened the email (I get it emailed because I'm too lazy to check the website) and it crashed my computer. Three times. Surely it wasn't intentional... [[User:No Idea If There&amp;#39;s A Character Limit LMAO|By me.]] ([[User talk:No Idea If There&amp;#39;s A Character Limit LMAO|talk]]) 10:25, 9 April 2024 (UTC)<br /> <br /> Is it just me, or is &quot;solar earth eclipse&quot; just a synonym for things like &quot;sunset&quot; and &quot;night&quot;? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.174.209|172.70.174.209]] 11:17, 9 April 2024 (UTC)</div>

Iggynelix https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2912:_Cursive_Letters&diff=338382 2024-03-28T13:23:15Z

<p>Iggynelix: /* Explanation */</p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 2912<br /> | date = March 27, 2024<br /> | title = Cursive Letters<br /> | image = cursive_letters_2x.png<br /> | imagesize = 549x484px<br /> | noexpand = true<br /> | titletext = 𝓘 𝓽𝓱𝓲𝓷𝓴 𝓬𝓪𝓹𝓲𝓽𝓪𝓵 𝓛 𝓲𝓼 𝓹𝓻𝓸𝓫𝓪𝓫𝓵𝔂 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓶𝓸𝓼𝓽 𝓯𝓾𝓷 𝓽𝓸 𝔀𝓻𝓲𝓽𝓮, 𝓽𝓱𝓸𝓾𝓰𝓱 𝓵𝓸𝔀𝓮𝓻𝓬𝓪𝓼𝓮 𝓺 𝓲𝓼 𝓪𝓵𝓼𝓸 𝓪 𝓼𝓽𝓻𝓸𝓷𝓰 𝓬𝓸𝓷𝓽𝓮𝓷𝓭𝓮𝓻.<br /> }}<br /> <br /> ==Explanation==<br /> {{incomplete|Created by a ''𝓑𝓞𝓣 𝓦𝓘𝓣𝓗 𝓓𝓔𝓒𝓔𝓝𝓣 𝓗𝓐𝓝𝓓𝓦𝓡𝓘𝓣𝓘𝓝𝓖'' - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> This graph ranks {{w|cursive}} Latin script letters. The type of cursive used is closest to {{w|D%27Nealian|D'Nealian}} (notably the Q) though a few of the letters appear to be in the {{w|Zaner-Bloser_(teaching_script)|Zaner-Bloser}} style of cursive (specifically the P and p). The graph uses two criteria: legibility and coolness. <br /> <br /> According to the graph in the comic: 'L' is in the top-right quadrant indicating it is both cool and easy to read; 'C' is in the top-left, meaning it is easy to read, yet not cool; 'Z' and 'z' are in the bottom-right which means cool looking, yet not easy to read; and 'r' which is bottom-left indicating it is neither particularly cool nor very easy to read (perhaps being confusable as a form of 'n', or even 'M', at least until actual cursive versions of those are comparable against). <br /> <br /> The purpose of cursive is to allow efficient handwriting and make characters look nice and more &quot;connected&quot; at the same time. The possible downside of this is the legibility of the individual letters. This may be due to the similarity of cursive letter shapes (e.g. 'U' and 'V' in the graph), especially when joined to other letters, or due their dissimilarity from more familiar &quot;block letter&quot; counterparts (e.g. 'Z' and 'z' in the lower right corner).<br /> <br /> In the title text, [[Randall]] states 'L' and 'q' are letters that he enjoys writing in cursive, which could possibly add a third axis (most fun to least fun) to the graph. Notably, some RSS apps have challenges displaying the font and result in settings of '???'s. <br /> <br /> The title text is written in cursive-looking font using upper unicode characters (encoded as UTF-8). <br /> Example: the cursive I character 𝓘 (Unicode [https://www.compart.com/en/unicode/U+1D4D8 120024 U+1D4D8]) is F0 9D 93 98 in UTF-8. <br /> The title text includes 22 of 26 characters in the {{w|English alphabet|English lowercase alphabet}} and is thus 4 characters short of a {{w|pangram}} (missing letters: j, v, x and z). Pangrams are often used to show the characters in a typeface in print or on a computer screen. It is unclear if the comic deliberately chose the words in the title text to show almost all the characters in cursive or if it is simply a coincidence.<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> {{incomplete transcript|Do '''NOT''' delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> :[A graph with 10 ticks on both the X and Y axes. The graph contains cursive uppercase and lowercase Latin letters. X axis is labeled &quot;Looks cool&quot; with an arrow pointing right and Y axis is labeled &quot;Easy to tell what letter it's supposed to be&quot; with an arrow pointing upward. From top to bottom, left to right, the letters are: C, B, P, K, d, X, R; M, N, c, O, x, t, y, L; D, W, a, Y, o, i; H; A, b, j; p, h; w, Q; m, u, k, g; E, I, l, q; f, J; U, V, T, e; n; v, F; G; r, S, s, z, Z.]<br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}<br /> <br /> [[Category:Charts]]<br /> [[Category:Language]]<br /> [[Category:Comics with lowercase text]]</div>

Iggynelix https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2842:_Inspiraling_Roundabout&diff=326214 2023-10-17T17:11:13Z

<p>Iggynelix: /* Trivia */ added link</p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 2842<br /> | date = October 16, 2023<br /> | title = Inspiraling Roundabout<br /> | image = inspiraling_roundabout.png<br /> | titletext = Look, I just think we need to stop coddling those hedonistic roundabout hogs who get into the inner lane and circle for hours, wasting valuable capacity.<br /> }}<br /> ==Explanation==<br /> {{incomplete|Created by RUNAROUND SUE}}<br /> <br /> A {{w|roundabout}}, also called a traffic circle or rotary, is a traffic control device that often serves as an alternative to stop signs, instead allowing for mere yields, as all traffic flows in the same counterclockwise direction around a central point (clockwise in left-driving countries). <br /> <br /> Various roundabout designs have been proposed and used throughout the world. This comic proposes an &quot;Inspiraling Roundabout&quot; which spirals each entrance/exit lane inward, eventually leading all three roads to meet in the center.<br /> <br /> The caption states that it's [[Technically|technically]] navigable, since you can get anywhere on the roundabout without breaking highway laws, but that the Highway Department has vetoed it, presumably due to its complexity and impracticality. <br /> <br /> A few '''observations''' of this particular design (assuming right-hand driving):<br /> * To drive from one entrance to the next exit is '''easy''' and does not require entering the spiral. If you start at 12 o’clock, it’s easy to exit at 8 o’clock.<br /> * Driving to the '''2nd exit''' (e.g., from 12 o’clock to 4 o’clock) first requires entering the spiral, driving '''counterclockwise''' (normal direction for a roundabout) as you head inward to the center<br /> * Exiting the spiral from the center means first finding the correct exit lane (which may not be obvious) and then driving '''clockwise''' (not typical for a roundabout)<br /> * Inward-bound and outward-bound vehicles would use the same lanes, risking '''head-on collisions''' if more than a few vehicles are using the roundabout at the same time<br /> * When exiting back into the outermost lane and then turning into one’s exit, drivers must make a '''very sharp left turn''' to exit to avoid crossing the painted lines.<br /> <br /> Alternative methods to legally get from 12 o’clock to 4 o’clock (i.e., to the 2nd exit):<br /> * Exit at 8 o’clock, do a legal U-turn, re-enter, and then exit at 4 o’clock.<br /> * If lane changes are allowed across dotted lines (which is typically what dotted lanes indicate), enter at 12 o’clock and then simply lane-change into the outermost lane near 6 o’clock.<br /> <br /> The '''title text''' justifies this creative design by presuming the amusing existence of &quot;hedonistic roundabout hogs who get into the inner lane and circle for hours,&quot; expressing Randall's frustration that we've been &quot;coddling&quot; them with normal roundabout designs that let them get off on circling in the inner lane for hours, wasting capacity. Of course, this is a non-issue {{citation needed}}.<br /> * In street racing culture, doing &quot;donuts&quot; -- circling a single spot at high speed to leave circular tread marks on the pavement -- is a popular pastime, but these drivers circle for a few rotations, not several hours.<br /> * The &quot;coddling&quot; of some population is a complaint sometimes seen in US conservative discourse, most famously as a criticism of modern higher education in the 2018 book, &quot;The Coddling of the American Mind&quot;<br /> <br /> ==Trivia==<br /> * Unlike inspiraling roundabouts, outspiraling roundabouts are a real thing, common across western Europe. They are known as &quot;[https://g.co/kgs/51QWWt Turbo Roundabouts]&quot;, though the design requires at least 4 entrances/exits.<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> {{incomplete transcript}}<br /> :[A large roundabout with three entrances of two lanes, three exits, and three spirals (as is CLEARLY evidenced by the three inner termini and three separate starts) of dotted lines starting from the medians between entry lanes and exit lanes of the same road which terminate in the center leaving a lane-sized median of plain asphalt.]<br /> <br /> :[Caption below the panel:]<br /> :Even though it '''''was''''' technically navigable, the highway department vetoed my inspiraling roundabout design.<br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}<br /> &lt;!-- Include any categories below this line. --&gt;</div>

Iggynelix https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2830:_Haunted_House&diff=323978 2023-09-19T13:05:52Z

<p>Iggynelix: /* Explanation */</p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 2830<br /> | date = September 18, 2023<br /> | title = Haunted House<br /> | image = haunted_house_2x.png<br /> | imagesize = 278x349px<br /> | noexpand = true<br /> | titletext = You can leave at any time through the door over there. It's a Louisville door, so you'll need to find a compatible knob. No, don't be silly, that one is a Lexington knob! Of course it won't fit.<br /> }}<br /> <br /> ==Explanation==<br /> {{incomplete|Created by a BOWLING GREEN-PADUCAH DOORKNOB ADAPTER - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> The ISO ({{w|International Organization for Standardization}}) and ANSI ({{w|American National Standards Institute}}) are organizations that create standards for commonly used objects such as electrical sockets, preferably so that there would exist standardized forms everywhere (or at least across large areas). The comic depicts an office Halloween party, which is a common event on the celebration of Halloween. A &quot;haunted house&quot; is a house or other building/room designed to induce fright in the participants, typically by including well-known/cultural scary elements such as vampires or zombies. The haunted house is tailored to scare members of these organizations by suggesting a world where nothing is standardized (e.g. different electrical wiring from state to state). The title text furthers the joke by implying that something which is usually standardized (door/doorknob interfaces) would be different from city to city even within a state (Kentucky, in this case)<br /> Further confounding types of &quot;knobs&quot;, where 'Lexington' is a hardware style collection for actual drawer knobs and such, whereas the 'Louisville Knobs' are a set of geological mound features in the region.<br /> <br /> In reality, electrical current is standardized within any given country ({{w|Electricity sector in Japan|usually...}}), but it does vary worldwide, with different countries providing different voltages, frequency, and outlet shapes. The International Electrotechnical Commission maintains [https://www.iec.ch/world-plugs a web site where these differences are catalogued.] International travelers often require adapters that will plug into different outlets and adjust the current to one their devices can use.<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> {{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> :Ponytail: Welcome! If you need to charge your phones, note that this house has Pennsylvania wiring, but we have New Jersey and Delaware adapters available.<br /> :Megan and Cueball: AAAAAA!<br /> <br /> :[Caption below the panel:]<br /> :The haunted house at the ISO/ANSI office halloween party<br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}<br /> <br /> [[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]<br /> [[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]<br /> [[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]</div>

Iggynelix https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2830:_Haunted_House&diff=323977 2023-09-19T13:04:21Z

<p>Iggynelix: /* Explanation */</p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 2830<br /> | date = September 18, 2023<br /> | title = Haunted House<br /> | image = haunted_house_2x.png<br /> | imagesize = 278x349px<br /> | noexpand = true<br /> | titletext = You can leave at any time through the door over there. It's a Louisville door, so you'll need to find a compatible knob. No, don't be silly, that one is a Lexington knob! Of course it won't fit.<br /> }}<br /> <br /> ==Explanation==<br /> {{incomplete|Created by a BOWLING GREEN-PADUCAH DOORKNOB ADAPTER - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> The ISO ({{w|International Organization for Standardization}}) and ANSI ({{w|American National Standards Institute}}) are organizations that create standards for commonly used objects such as electrical sockets, preferably so that there would exist standardized forms everywhere (or at least across large areas). The comic depicts an office Halloween party, which is a common event on the celebration of Halloween. A &quot;haunted house&quot; is a house or other building/room designed to induce fright in the participants, typically by including well-known/cultural scary elements such as vampires or zombies. The haunted house is tailored to scare members of these organizations by suggesting a world where nothing is standardized (e.g. different electrical wiring from state to state). The title text furthers the joke by implying that something which is usually standardized (door/doorknob interfaces) would be different from city to city even within a state (Kentucky, in this case)<br /> Further confounding types of &quot;knobs&quot;, where 'Lexington' is a hardware style collection for actual drawer knobs and such, whereas the 'Louisville Knobs' are a set of geological features of sandstone-capped mounds in the region.<br /> <br /> In reality, electrical current is standardized within any given country ({{w|Electricity sector in Japan|usually...}}), but it does vary worldwide, with different countries providing different voltages, frequency, and outlet shapes. The International Electrotechnical Commission maintains [https://www.iec.ch/world-plugs a web site where these differences are catalogued.] International travelers often require adapters that will plug into different outlets and adjust the current to one their devices can use.<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> {{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> :Ponytail: Welcome! If you need to charge your phones, note that this house has Pennsylvania wiring, but we have New Jersey and Delaware adapters available.<br /> :Megan and Cueball: AAAAAA!<br /> <br /> :[Caption below the panel:]<br /> :The haunted house at the ISO/ANSI office halloween party<br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}<br /> <br /> [[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]<br /> [[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]<br /> [[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]</div>

Iggynelix https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2830:_Haunted_House&diff=323976 2023-09-19T12:51:50Z

<p>Iggynelix: </p> <hr /> <div>&lt;!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~ and don't delete this text. New comments should be added at the bottom.--&gt;<br /> I initially thought this was Randall's version of the old joke &quot;The great thing about standards is there are so many of them.&quot; Like the zoo of USB cables and adapters to allow you to connect them. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 21:22, 18 September 2023 (UTC)<br /> :Well, shoot. I was hoping to find an online old phone charger cord museum but it doesn't seem to exist. In the late 1990s-early 2000s, every time you bought a cell phone, you automatically got a different charger cord that was basically incompatible with anyone else's. Those flat, wide weird looking connectors that predated USB-anything. Thought maybe someone would have compiled a list. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.126.192|172.70.126.192]] 22:05, 18 September 2023 (UTC)Pat<br /> :No mention of https://xkcd.com/927/?! [[User:TPS|TPS]] ([[User talk:TPS|talk]]) 03:10, 19 September 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> This reminds me of how Eastern Japan uses 50Hz but Western Japan uses 60Hz (and how under the Articles of Confederation each state had their own form of paper currency) [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.63|108.162.237.63]] 22:03, 18 September 2023 (UTC)Bumpf<br /> <br /> Not only are doorknobs quite standardized, they are usually already IN the doors. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 22:29, 18 September 2023 (UTC)<br /> :Not always, unfortunately. I once rented an apartment where the bathroom door's inside knob had to be &quot;plugged in&quot; in order to open the door, but would fall out when not in use. If you couldn't find it you'd be stuck in the bathroom till someone let you out. [[User:Andes|Andes]] ([[User talk:Andes|talk]]) 22:55, 18 September 2023 (UTC)<br /> :Not really standardised. From what I've heard, on a number of occasions, there are places in America (need to check, could be Canadian provinces or US States, or subset areas) where doors legally must have doorknobs, rather than door-handles, as an anti-bear measure (they can't be a 'clever girl' so easily with a doorknob). And then there are legislative areas which require ''handles'', not ''knobs'', as an accessability (or indeed egressability!) measure for those people with arthritis/other hand-disabilities for precisely the same reason (they would have difficulty with a doorknob, unassisted) but now looking for the more widely usable outcome. Thus mutually incompatible Building Codes are in force. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.241|172.70.91.241]] 00:16, 19 September 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> <br /> Household electrical outlets do vary from country to country in Europe, such that I have collected a variety of plug adapters. And world-wide, I have seen it asserted that there are 15 different standards, including a number that are partially compatible with each other, differing only by the arrangement of the grounds. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.197|162.158.62.197]] 22:45, 18 September 2023 (UTC)<br /> :[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mains_electricity_by_country Wikipedia list] [[Special:Contributions/162.158.63.63|162.158.63.63]] 03:50, 19 September 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> The Louisville Knobs are a geologic/geographic feature. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.174.252|172.71.174.252]] 02:42, 19 September 2023 (UTC)<br /> : Kentucky, USA [[wikipedia:Knobs_region]] [[User:Iggynelix|Iggynelix]] ([[User talk:Iggynelix|talk]]) 12:51, 19 September 2023 (UTC)<br /> The explanation so far is somewhat inaccurate, as ANSI and ISO are not the organizations that set specific electrical configurations in the US. For electrical wiring in general, the National Fire Prevention Association publishes NFPA-70, The National Electric Code, which is the basis for most electrical wiring. Plug and socket configurations in buildings are defined by the National Electrical Manufacturers Association, and are referred to by that organization's nomenclature, such as &quot;NEMA 5-15&quot; for the 125V 15A standard plug and socket for most convenience outlets and cords. Appliance connectors like the &quot;C-13&quot; socket used on most computers are defined by the International Electrotechnical Commission. It's too late at night for me to make something shorter than this paragraph...[[Special:Contributions/172.68.174.209|172.68.174.209]] 06:14, 19 September 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> :The relationship between ANSI and NEMA is sufficiently tricky that I'm not sure &quot;somewhat inaccurate&quot; is a true statement. For instance, see https://www.nema.org/standards/technical/ansi-accreditation, which states in pertinent part, &quot;NEMA is accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) to develop American National Standards…&quot; I'd not be surprised if there's a similar ISO/IEC or even ANSI/IEC thing. Dual branded standards are not unheard of. [[User:JohnHawkinson|JohnHawkinson]] ([[User talk:JohnHawkinson|talk]]) 11:01, 19 September 2023 (UTC)</div>

Iggynelix https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:27:_Meat_Cereals&diff=320322 2023-08-05T14:37:46Z

<p>Iggynelix: Comment on a comment</p> <hr /> <div>;Scrapple Jacks<br /> Apple Jacks cereal have very little actual apple in them. That's why they don't taste like apples. Perhaps Scrapple Jacks has very little actual scrapple in it. [[User:Blaisepascal|Blaisepascal]] ([[User talk:Blaisepascal|talk]]) 00:53, 17 August 2012 (UTC)<br /> <br /> :While they may have little apple in them, I don't know that that's necessarily the reason they don't taste like apples (as I noted in the [[Apple Jacks]] comic itself, the wiki page for the cereal alleges they are supposed to taste like Apple and Cinnamon. Other candy or cereals that have fruit flavours (for example, the candy Runts) rarely have any of the actual fruit in them, but still have flavourings that are designed to taste like that fruit. The question is whether Kellog's used poor flavouring in their cereal, I suppose. [[User:TheHYPO|TheHYPO]] ([[User talk:TheHYPO|talk]]) 14:33, 17 August 2012 (UTC)<br /> : Perhaps large food companies with massive advertising campaigns brand their products in ways that may make them appear healthier than they actually are. [[User:Iggynelix|Iggynelix]] ([[User talk:Iggynelix|talk]]) 14:37, 5 August 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> I came here to make a &quot;Honey Bunches of Goatse&quot; joke, but I feel it may be in bad taste. [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 18:26, 17 April 2013 (UTC)<br /> <br /> ;Cereal Meats<br /> Many cereal based meat alternatives are marketed using parodies of meat product names. This is generally not considered disgusting, even by those not interested in vegetarian product lines.<br /> <br /> Possibly Randall is exploring the difference by inverting the product and ingredient type. {{unsigned|Eltimbalino}}<br /> <br /> [[file:chicken-and-waffles-cereal.jpg|This is a real thing.]]This is a real thing. — [[User:Kazvorpal|Kazvorpal]] ([[User talk:Kazvorpal|talk]]) 17:22, 21 April 2019 (UTC)</div>

Iggynelix https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=14:_Copyright&diff=320321 2023-08-05T14:23:48Z

<p>Iggynelix: /* Explanation */</p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 14<br /> | date = September 30, 2005<br /> | title = Copyright<br /> | image = copyright.jpg<br /> | titletext = After reading Slashdot and BoingBoing, sometimes I have to go outside.<br /> }}<br /> <br /> ==Explanation==<br /> Following the copyright wars can be tiring and irritating, but faced with the beauty of nature, the importance of such matters withers away.<br /> <br /> {{W|Copyright}} is a monopoly granted by governments to writers, artists, performers, or corporations to control the distribution, copying, and performance of their creative expression or the creative expression of artists under contract with them. Before the digital age, it allowed authors and publishers an opportunity to profit from their work without fear of someone making copies and selling them for their gain.<br /> <br /> In the digital age, when the cost and difficulty of copying has been reduced to near zero, it hasn't worked so well, especially for publishers of music and video. Via the idea of {{w|digital copyright}}, industry trade organizations like the {{w|RIAA}} and {{w|MPAA}} fought to preserve their old business models, lobbying for new laws to protect their income streams in an age where anyone can copy an {{w|MP3}} file or a DVD quickly and cheaply. This has involved ordering web sites to take down &quot;infringing&quot; material (and many times material that wasn't infringing), media campaigns comparing file copiers to folks who commit murder on the high seas, and suing artists and writers who have used samples of music or movies in their own work. The {{w|RIAA}} has claimed that rampant illegal copying hurts the artists whose work is copied, as it cuts into the artists' royalty payments; many artists, on the other hand, complain that the RIAA's accounting practices have denied them their fair royalties for decades anyway, and that increased copying leads to increased fans and money through direct sales and is actually better for them than the RIAA. It's a vicious war.<br /> <br /> An early casualty in the copyright wars was {{w|Napster}}; a later casualty was the concept of {{w|DRM}} (Digital Rights Management) on recorded music and/or elsewhere. The wars have been going on since the early 1990s and essentially ended with the advent of streaming service royalties (Apple Music, Pandora, etc.).<br /> <br /> [http://slashdot.com Slashdot] and [http://boingboing.net Boing Boing] are two news aggregation websites that cover (among other things) the copyright wars in detail, usually biased against the RIAA, MPAA, and similar organizations.<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> :[A colored drawing of a hilly, grassy landscape. Cueball is leaning against a tree.]<br /> :Cueball: Sometimes I just can't get outraged over copyright law<br /> <br /> ==Trivia==<br /> * This was the twelfth comic originally posted to [[LiveJournal]]. The previous was [[10: Pi Equals]], and the next one was [[11: Barrel - Part 2]].<br /> * Original title: &quot;Copyright Law&quot;<br /> * Original [[Randall]] quote: &quot;I posted this to a Slashdot thread about copyrights, and without any moderation, over 600 people clicked on it.&quot;<br /> * This was one of the [[:Category:First day on LiveJournal|first 13 comics]] posted to [[LiveJournal]] within 12 minutes on September 30th, 2005, on the first day of the xkcd LiveJournal account.<br /> * This comic was posted on [[xkcd]] when the web site opened on Sunday the 1st of January 2006.<br /> ** It was posted along [[:Category:First day on xkcd|with all 41 comics]] posted before that on LiveJournal as well as a few others.<br /> ** The latter explaining why the numbers of these 41 LiveJournal comics ranges from 1-44.<br /> * One of the original drawings drawn on [[:Category:Checkered paper|checkered paper]].<br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}<br /> <br /> [[Category:Posted on LiveJournal| 12]]<br /> [[Category:First day on LiveJournal| 12]]<br /> [[Category:First day on xkcd]]<br /> [[Category:Comics with color]]<br /> [[Category:Checkered paper]]<br /> [[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br /> [[Category:Comics with lowercase text]]</div>

Iggynelix https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=14:_Copyright&diff=320320 2023-08-05T14:23:16Z

<p>Iggynelix: /* Explanation */ The content here was like 30 years old so tried to update the language a bit and add references.</p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 14<br /> | date = September 30, 2005<br /> | title = Copyright<br /> | image = copyright.jpg<br /> | titletext = After reading Slashdot and BoingBoing, sometimes I have to go outside.<br /> }}<br /> <br /> ==Explanation==<br /> Following the copyright wars can be tiring and irritating, but faced with the beauty of nature, the importance of such matters withers away.<br /> <br /> {{W|Copyright}} is a monopoly granted by governments to writers, artists, performers, or corporations to control the distribution, copying, and performance of their creative expression or the creative expression of artists under contract with them. Before the digital age, it allowed authors and publishers an opportunity to profit from their work without fear of someone making copies and selling them for their gain.<br /> <br /> In the digital age, when the cost and difficulty of copying has been reduced to near zero, it hasn't worked so well, especially for publishers of music and video. Via the idea of {{w:digital copyright}}, industry trade organizations like the {{w|RIAA}} and {{w|MPAA}} fought to preserve their old business models, lobbying for new laws to protect their income streams in an age where anyone can copy an {{w|MP3}} file or a DVD quickly and cheaply. This has involved ordering web sites to take down &quot;infringing&quot; material (and many times material that wasn't infringing), media campaigns comparing file copiers to folks who commit murder on the high seas, and suing artists and writers who have used samples of music or movies in their own work. The {{w|RIAA}} has claimed that rampant illegal copying hurts the artists whose work is copied, as it cuts into the artists' royalty payments; many artists, on the other hand, complain that the RIAA's accounting practices have denied them their fair royalties for decades anyway, and that increased copying leads to increased fans and money through direct sales and is actually better for them than the RIAA. It's a vicious war.<br /> <br /> An early casualty in the copyright wars was {{w|Napster}}; a later casualty was the concept of {{w|DRM}} (Digital Rights Management) on recorded music and/or elsewhere. The wars have been going on since the early 1990s and essentially ended with the advent of streaming service royalties (Apple Music, Pandora, etc.).<br /> <br /> [http://slashdot.com Slashdot] and [http://boingboing.net Boing Boing] are two news aggregation websites that cover (among other things) the copyright wars in detail, usually biased against the RIAA, MPAA, and similar organizations.<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> :[A colored drawing of a hilly, grassy landscape. Cueball is leaning against a tree.]<br /> :Cueball: Sometimes I just can't get outraged over copyright law<br /> <br /> ==Trivia==<br /> * This was the twelfth comic originally posted to [[LiveJournal]]. The previous was [[10: Pi Equals]], and the next one was [[11: Barrel - Part 2]].<br /> * Original title: &quot;Copyright Law&quot;<br /> * Original [[Randall]] quote: &quot;I posted this to a Slashdot thread about copyrights, and without any moderation, over 600 people clicked on it.&quot;<br /> * This was one of the [[:Category:First day on LiveJournal|first 13 comics]] posted to [[LiveJournal]] within 12 minutes on September 30th, 2005, on the first day of the xkcd LiveJournal account.<br /> * This comic was posted on [[xkcd]] when the web site opened on Sunday the 1st of January 2006.<br /> ** It was posted along [[:Category:First day on xkcd|with all 41 comics]] posted before that on LiveJournal as well as a few others.<br /> ** The latter explaining why the numbers of these 41 LiveJournal comics ranges from 1-44.<br /> * One of the original drawings drawn on [[:Category:Checkered paper|checkered paper]].<br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}<br /> <br /> [[Category:Posted on LiveJournal| 12]]<br /> [[Category:First day on LiveJournal| 12]]<br /> [[Category:First day on xkcd]]<br /> [[Category:Comics with color]]<br /> [[Category:Checkered paper]]<br /> [[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br /> [[Category:Comics with lowercase text]]</div>

Iggynelix https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2810:_How_to_Coil_a_Cable&diff=320158 2023-08-03T12:23:36Z

<p>Iggynelix: /* Methods explained */</p> <hr /> <div>&lt;!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~ and don't delete this text. New comments should be added at the bottom.--&gt;<br /> <br /> I don't actually know what name of 'coiling' it has, but the way I was taught to coil an AV cable (by an AV technician), and these days mostly use with long (garden-mower) power extensions, was ''maybe'' the 'quarter-turn' - though it's not a quarter, so maybe not - in finger-rotating the latest &quot;end of loop&quot; around the axis of the cable to leave it effectively twistless in its looped form (whilst introducing a 'one twist per loop-so-far' longitudinal twist in the still trailing unlooped cable that easily 'rolls-out' as you progress towards the free end/drag the length towards you). Done right, it's like smoothly 'drum-winding' the cable. But you ''can'' over-/under-twist the cable (especially if it has an internal/inherent twisting, like those christmas lights probably have with probably two entwined single-cores) so you may need to keep an eye on the multiloop you're forming and backtrack a bit if it looks like it's starting to figure-of-eight from the combined helical forces. But tricky to get perfect, may have a bit of a loop-twist (that only stays untangled due to it being ultimately hung on a hook). Maybe I've just not been taught the right methods by a powercord expert. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.20|172.70.90.20]] 19:39, 2 August 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> : That first method is pretty much how I was taught by a guy with rather expensive microphone cables. It really does help the cable to last longer, since it's not stored with a twist. As a bonus, coiling a rope or extension cord this way also lets you throw it without it tangling in midair. Just make sure to hold onto/step on the non-thrown end... [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.142|108.162.237.142]] 20:12, 2 August 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> Another profession that deals with hose/cable managment is nursing (e.g. in operating room). Don't know if they have any techniques distinct from those in the mentioned professions. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.135.82|172.69.135.82]] 21:50, 2 August 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> Still wondering how topology factors into this... as of this comment, there's no explanation. - [[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.234|172.70.130.234]] 22:38, 2 August 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> :Probably referencing [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knot_theory Knot Theory]. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.76.97|141.101.76.97]] 23:17, 2 August 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> As a sailor once explained to me, the AV method (over/under) can potentially form a clove hitch around one's ankle while on deck, hence their use of figure-8. Meanwhile, there's another technique espoused by the likes of 'Essential Craftsman' where you basically use a chain stitch to hold it all together. [[User:Nayhem|Nayhem]] ([[User talk:Nayhem|talk]]) 00:35, 3 August 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> :I have a flat extension cord that was stored for some years using the &quot;chain stitch&quot; method. I ended up hanging the center of the cord from my garage ceiling for a week to get the worst of the kinks out, then wound it around a 5-gallon bucket to try to flatten it out some more. For the sake of your cables, DON'T use the chain stitch method!<br /> <br /> <br /> This sentence makes absolutely no sense to me:<br /> <br /> : ''... alternating each obvious helix loop with a backhand loop (backwards helix turn) where the loop curls the same way as the other loops, but its 'helix height' is backwards ...''<br /> <br /> I think I need an &quot;Explain Explain xkcd&quot;... 😕 [[User:IMSoP|IMSoP]] ([[User talk:IMSoP|talk]]) 10:03, 3 August 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> == Methods explained ==<br /> <br /> The over-over(quarter turn twist)<br /> <br /> <br /> The over-under<br /> https://youtu.be/JtOGJZ_gYy8<br /> https://youtu.be/cpuutP6Df84<br /> <br /> Chain technique<br /> https://youtu.be/L7av0C0jWQw<br /> <br /> See also https://people.maths.bris.ac.uk/~majge/hjce.06.pdf &quot;Knotting probability of a shaken ball-chain&quot; [[Special:Contributions/172.70.251.170|172.70.251.170]] 10:08, 3 August 2023 (UTC)</div>

Iggynelix https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2810:_How_to_Coil_a_Cable&diff=320157 2023-08-03T12:14:28Z

<p>Iggynelix: Links to methods</p> <hr /> <div>&lt;!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~ and don't delete this text. New comments should be added at the bottom.--&gt;<br /> <br /> I don't actually know what name of 'coiling' it has, but the way I was taught to coil an AV cable (by an AV technician), and these days mostly use with long (garden-mower) power extensions, was ''maybe'' the 'quarter-turn' - though it's not a quarter, so maybe not - in finger-rotating the latest &quot;end of loop&quot; around the axis of the cable to leave it effectively twistless in its looped form (whilst introducing a 'one twist per loop-so-far' longitudinal twist in the still trailing unlooped cable that easily 'rolls-out' as you progress towards the free end/drag the length towards you). Done right, it's like smoothly 'drum-winding' the cable. But you ''can'' over-/under-twist the cable (especially if it has an internal/inherent twisting, like those christmas lights probably have with probably two entwined single-cores) so you may need to keep an eye on the multiloop you're forming and backtrack a bit if it looks like it's starting to figure-of-eight from the combined helical forces. But tricky to get perfect, may have a bit of a loop-twist (that only stays untangled due to it being ultimately hung on a hook). Maybe I've just not been taught the right methods by a powercord expert. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.20|172.70.90.20]] 19:39, 2 August 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> : That first method is pretty much how I was taught by a guy with rather expensive microphone cables. It really does help the cable to last longer, since it's not stored with a twist. As a bonus, coiling a rope or extension cord this way also lets you throw it without it tangling in midair. Just make sure to hold onto/step on the non-thrown end... [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.142|108.162.237.142]] 20:12, 2 August 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> Another profession that deals with hose/cable managment is nursing (e.g. in operating room). Don't know if they have any techniques distinct from those in the mentioned professions. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.135.82|172.69.135.82]] 21:50, 2 August 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> Still wondering how topology factors into this... as of this comment, there's no explanation. - [[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.234|172.70.130.234]] 22:38, 2 August 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> :Probably referencing [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knot_theory Knot Theory]. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.76.97|141.101.76.97]] 23:17, 2 August 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> As a sailor once explained to me, the AV method (over/under) can potentially form a clove hitch around one's ankle while on deck, hence their use of figure-8. Meanwhile, there's another technique espoused by the likes of 'Essential Craftsman' where you basically use a chain stitch to hold it all together. [[User:Nayhem|Nayhem]] ([[User talk:Nayhem|talk]]) 00:35, 3 August 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> :I have a flat extension cord that was stored for some years using the &quot;chain stitch&quot; method. I ended up hanging the center of the cord from my garage ceiling for a week to get the worst of the kinks out, then wound it around a 5-gallon bucket to try to flatten it out some more. For the sake of your cables, DON'T use the chain stitch method!<br /> <br /> <br /> This sentence makes absolutely no sense to me:<br /> <br /> : ''... alternating each obvious helix loop with a backhand loop (backwards helix turn) where the loop curls the same way as the other loops, but its 'helix height' is backwards ...''<br /> <br /> I think I need an &quot;Explain Explain xkcd&quot;... 😕 [[User:IMSoP|IMSoP]] ([[User talk:IMSoP|talk]]) 10:03, 3 August 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> == Methods explained ==<br /> <br /> The over-over(quarter turn twist)<br /> <br /> <br /> The over-under<br /> https://youtu.be/JtOGJZ_gYy8<br /> https://youtu.be/cpuutP6Df84<br /> <br /> See also https://people.maths.bris.ac.uk/~majge/hjce.06.pdf &quot;Knotting probability of a shaken ball-chain&quot; [[Special:Contributions/172.70.251.170|172.70.251.170]] 10:08, 3 August 2023 (UTC)</div>

Iggynelix https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2776:_Crystal_Ball&diff=313246 2023-05-16T12:37:29Z

<p>Iggynelix: </p> <hr /> <div>&lt;!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~ and don't delete this text. New comments should be added at the bottom.--&gt;<br /> I AM A STUPID TROLL[[Special:Contributions/162.158.203.55|162.158.203.55]] 01:05, 16 May 2023 (UTC)!!!!!!!!!! [[Special:Contributions/172.71.175.82|172.71.175.82]] 22:15, 15 May 2023 (UTC)Andrew Ens<br /> Don't troll the wiki<br /> <br /> I added an explanation of spherical aberration and the tendency of light to distort around spherical objects, as well as the idea of how fisheye lenses use this principle to do their thing. [[User:Darkwolf0218|Darkwolf0218]] ([[User talk:Darkwolf0218|talk]]) 01:01, 16 May 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> I can't seem to find the citation toolbar while editing on mobile. So dropping this here for a reference to ball lenses on fiber optic cables. {{Cite web}} https://www.edmundoptics.com/knowledge-center/application-notes/optics/understanding-ball-lenses/<br /> [[User:Iggynelix|Iggynelix]]</div>

Iggynelix https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2776:_Crystal_Ball&diff=313245 2023-05-16T12:36:59Z

<p>Iggynelix: </p> <hr /> <div>&lt;!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~ and don't delete this text. New comments should be added at the bottom.--&gt;<br /> I AM A STUPID TROLL[[Special:Contributions/162.158.203.55|162.158.203.55]] 01:05, 16 May 2023 (UTC)!!!!!!!!!! [[Special:Contributions/172.71.175.82|172.71.175.82]] 22:15, 15 May 2023 (UTC)Andrew Ens<br /> Don't troll the wiki<br /> <br /> I added an explanation of spherical aberration and the tendency of light to distort around spherical objects, as well as the idea of how fisheye lenses use this principle to do their thing. [[User:Darkwolf0218|Darkwolf0218]] ([[User talk:Darkwolf0218|talk]]) 01:01, 16 May 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> I can't seem to find the citation toolbar while editing on mobile. Do dropping this here for a reference to ball lenses on fiber optic cables. {{Cite web}} https://www.edmundoptics.com/knowledge-center/application-notes/optics/understanding-ball-lenses/<br /> [[User:Iggynelix|Iggynelix]] ([[User talk:Iggynelix|talk]])</div>

Iggynelix https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2768:_Definition_of_e&diff=311738 2023-04-27T17:48:34Z

<p>Iggynelix: </p> <hr /> <div>&lt;!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~ and don't delete this text. New comments should be added at the bottom.--&gt;<br /> This is of course one way of arriving at the value of e: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E_(mathematical_constant)#Compound_interest [[User:Trimeta|Trimeta]] ([[User talk:Trimeta|talk]]) 03:55, 27 April 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> I do not know who said that Miss Lenhard is after a dollar - but that is so not her![[User:Tier666|Tier666]] ([[User talk:Tier666|talk]]) 09:15, 27 April 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> One explanation may be that Miss Lenhart is in a Ponzi scheme. Ponzi schemes claim to offer unbelievably high returns that are actually paid by later investors, it will invariably crash, but by the time, the scammers will have vanished with the money. Here, Miss Lenhart effectively offers +172% annual returns, which is way above what a honest bank can offer, and she seems to push the student into investing, which is aligned with the Ponzi scheme goal of getting as many people to invest as possible. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.22.234|162.158.22.234]] 11:25, 27 April 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> ==e^iπ + 1==<br /> '''e''' is an inherent feature of mathematics. The equation e^iπ + 1 = 0 is made of the 5 most important numbers. - [[User:Frankie|Frankie]] ([[User talk:Frankie|talk]]) 13:10, 27 April 2023 (UTC)<br /> :i is not a number, it is the imaginary ''unit''. [[User:SDSpivey|SDSpivey]] ([[User talk:SDSpivey|talk]]) 16:00, 27 April 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Does anyone else see the buttons at the top as being weird? The first comic arrow is split into two buttons separated by a new line. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.38.17|172.70.38.17]] 12:24, 27 April 2023 (UTC)<br /> : Agree. It does not appear on the main comic, just here. [[User:Iggynelix|Iggynelix]] ([[User talk:Iggynelix|talk]])<br /> <br /> Maybe the bank was originally owned by Beret Guy? That would explain why it continues to stay in business despite effectively giving away money. It's not suggested anywhere in the comic, but the idea is very much in line with his powers. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.137|162.158.158.137]] 13:40, 27 April 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> The current explanation is vague regarding the identity of the speaker in the title text, but it seems clear to me that the title text is being said by Miss Lenhart - she's explaining how she came into possession of the bank account in question. Her high school teacher set it up, and then she engineered the takeover so she could continue to use the account after passing the class. [[User:Snuffysam|Snuffysam]] ([[User talk:Snuffysam|talk]]) 16:12, 27 April 2023 (UTC)<br /> :Why would she need to pass the class to use the bank? [[User:SDSpivey|SDSpivey]] ([[User talk:SDSpivey|talk]]) 16:35, 27 April 2023 (UTC)</div>

Iggynelix https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2758:_My_Favorite_Things&diff=310669 2023-04-19T13:57:55Z

<p>Iggynelix: /* Table? */</p> <hr /> <div>&lt;!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~ and don't delete this text. New comments should be added at the bottom.--&gt;<br /> <br /> I like the copper veneer news link, can someone find a version not behind a paywall though? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.100.130|172.70.100.130]] 18:29, 4 April 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> Still no April Fools' comic? 😞 ~ Megan &lt;sup&gt;she&lt;/sup&gt;/&lt;sub&gt;her&lt;/sub&gt; &lt;sup&gt;[[user talk:megan|talk]]&lt;/sup&gt;/&lt;sub&gt;[[special:contribs/megan|contribs]]&lt;/sub&gt; 23:31, 3 April 2023 (UTC)<br /> :Sadly --[[User:Purah126|Purah126]] ([[User talk:Purah126|talk]]) 02:42, 4 April 2023 (UTC)<br /> ::guess there won't be one for this year [[User:Lettherebedarklight|youtu.be/]][[User talk:Lettherebedarklight|miLcaqq2Zpk]] 03:04, 4 April 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> :Anyone have any news?[[Special:Contributions/172.70.131.182|172.70.131.182]] 23:32, 3 April 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> :[[:File:Explanation length.png|Frankly, I'm worried about burnout.]] [[User:Liv2splain|Liv2splain]] ([[User talk:Liv2splain|talk]]) 10:52, 3 April 2023 (UTC)<br /> ::Naw, I think there's life in explainxkcders yet...<br /> ::If you mean Randall, however:<br /> ::# Complexity of necessary explanation doesn't necessarily tally with the quality of the comic (some might even say that the best comic is something real smart and yet perfectly understandable without much actual blather required by/from us),<br /> ::# There'll be more natural and immediate zeroing in on the 'ideal' explanation length with each emerging comics, whilst it becomes a conscious decision by someone to decide to revist an early comic and completely rewrite (solo, rather than as part of a crowd) to the 'latest' standards of verbosity/succinctity.<br /> ::# As xkcd lore grows, there's more back-referencing and expansion possible (c.f. &quot;So... What's this boy in a barrel about?&quot; vs the now established behaviour of any particular '&lt;Colour&gt; &lt;Headwear&gt;' character.<br /> ::# Everyone likes some types of comic and dislikes others.. If a new Map Of The Internet came out, some would enjoy it (and then maybe rail against a boring Cursed Thing comic, afterwards), and some others might think it derivative (yeah, they got a good Cursed thing joke, straight after, but the Map just sticks in their mind as a bad decision).<br /> ::...so I say enjoy or don't enjoy. There's a whole world of webcomics out there, and yet none of them is capable of being &quot;every one a winner&quot;, by whatever aesthetic, metric or tally you might decide works for you. I'm probably missing some other rising (or risen, and favourably plateaued) star, by being right here, right now, but I feel happy enough to lurk here (and everywhere else I hang around). You do and think as you will. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.187|172.71.178.187]] 13:20, 4 April 2023 (UTC)<br /> :::Complexity of necessary explanation doesn't necessarily correlate with length of actual explanation either, nor length of actual explanation with quality of said explanation. There examples of near-perfect explanations that are short and succinct, and others of comincs of equal complexity/simplicity that are filled with several paragraphs of tangential repetitive waffle. If anything, I'd say that longer explanations tend to be an indication of a comic that touches on enough ideas for a number of people to throw stuff into the mix, but doesn't engage people enough to edit it down into a quality article.[[Special:Contributions/141.101.77.28|141.101.77.28]] 11:41, 5 April 2023 (UTC)<br /> ::There's a few concerning things about this wiki, like the fact that the MediaWiki version's lagging behind the latest release by too far. If there's a security vulnerability who knows what the vandals will do with it... ~ Megan &lt;sup&gt;she&lt;/sup&gt;/&lt;sub&gt;her&lt;/sub&gt; &lt;sup&gt;[[user talk:megan|talk]]&lt;/sup&gt;/&lt;sub&gt;[[special:contribs/megan|contribs]]&lt;/sub&gt; 02:26, 5 April 2023 (UTC)<br /> ::: Vandals are capable of doing a lot. As they have done, over the last year or two, in particular (though those incidents were probably just the one idiot who is still likely around, but more subtle). The potential for security vulnerabilities is a separate issue, and there a documented reasons for how that is/isn't being dealt with, if you check. Your concerns are probably noted, they've been mentioned often enough, but I wouldn't want to speak for those with more direct influence and responsibility. I presume you all practice Safe Hex (i.e. not reusing passwords, especially in any email service you're registered with, should such stored details somehow become compromised) and that means it's 'only' an inconvenience if worst comes to worst, less so than the loss of the Forums was.<br /> ::: And this really has nothing to do with complaints about a 'decline in quality' of either comics or their explanations. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.148|172.70.86.148]] 05:47, 5 April 2023 (UTC)<br /> :I mean, we did just get Gravity back in December, which is at about the same scale as the April fools comics. I assume that took the place of the April fools comics for this year. [[User:CJB42|CJB42]] ([[User talk:CJB42|talk]]) 20:15, 7 April 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> The [https://twolumps.net/comic/ea-nasir/ Two Lumps] webcomic joined in on April 5, 2023 with an Ea-nāṣir reference. [[User:Gmcgath|Gmcgath]] ([[User talk:Gmcgath|talk]]) 23:13, 6 April 2023 (UTC)<br /> == Table? ==<br /> <br /> I'd like to add this table, but I'm not completely certain about it; it may be redundant to the transcript and comic itself, and just including the original lyrics would suffice.<br /> <br /> {|class=&quot;wikitable&quot;<br /> ! Original line<br /> ! Cueball's version<br /> |-<br /> |Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens<br /> |Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens<br /> |-<br /> |Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens<br /> |Bright copper kettles leave... flakes on my mittens!?<br /> |-<br /> |Brown paper packages tied up with strings<br /> |Hey, these are stone with a copper veneer!<br /> |-<br /> |These are a few of my favorite things!<br /> |I've been bamboozled by Ea-nāṣir!<br /> |}<br /> <br /> Thoughts? Plus a version for the title text, most likely. --[[User:Jacky720|Jack]] ([[User talk:Jacky720|t]]|[[Special:Contributions/Jacky720|c]]) 15:11, 4 April 2023 (UTC)<br /> :I think the transcript is fine as is. If you know the song, the way it's done in the text is sufficient. If you don't, doing it as a table won't help. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 15:18, 4 April 2023 (UTC)<br /> : I think the table would look better, and be more understandable to people who have not heard of the song before. [[User:Thisfox|Thisfox]] ([[User talk:Thisfox|talk]]) 23:06, 5 April 2023 (UTC)<br /> : $0.02 I think the table is helpful. And the title text is not yet in transcript so that would be a nice addition. [[User:Iggynelix|Iggynelix]] ([[User talk:Iggynelix|talk]])<br /> <br /> == XKCD forums ==<br /> <br /> if you think randall munroe should bring back xkcd fourums sign this petition https://chng.it/MVYcybvVrJ and spread this link for every 10 people signing i will bother randall munroe about it [[Special:Contributions/172.70.42.86|172.70.42.86]] 12:42, 5 April 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> :I wouldn't presume to pressure Randall into taking on the (significant) burden of moderating forums. I'm grateful for all he's done for free to date. -- [[User:Dtgriscom|Dtgriscom]] ([[User talk:Dtgriscom|talk]]) 19:33, 5 April 2023 (UTC)</div>

Iggynelix https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2764:_Cosmological_Nostalgia_Content&diff=310668 2023-04-19T13:41:25Z

<p>Iggynelix: /* Inconstant &quot;Constant&quot; */</p> <hr /> <div>&lt;!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~ and don't delete this text. New comments should be added at the bottom.--&gt;<br /> When I added the transcript it broke the &quot;Created by a BOT&quot; tag on explanation, even though I didn't touch explanation [[Special:Contributions/172.71.151.98|172.71.151.98]] 05:30, 18 April 2023 (UTC)<br /> :No, it was broken before your edit. Someone else changed &quot;BOT&quot; to &quot;Z=90s KID&quot;. The equal sign causes problems for mediawiki, but it's been fixed now. --[[User:Orion205|Orion205]] ([[User talk:Orion205|talk]]) 06:03, 18 April 2023 (UTC)<br /> ::For anyone who would benefit from a deeper explanation:&lt;br&gt;<br /> ::In the syntax for templates, equals signs come after parameter names (see [[mw:Help:Templates#Parameters|Help:Templates &amp;sect; Parameters]]). So, &lt;code&gt;Created by a Z&lt;/code&gt; was parsed as the name of a nonexistent template parameter, and &lt;code&gt;90s KID - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.&lt;/code&gt; was passed in as that parameter's value.&lt;br&gt;<br /> ::That still wouldn't necessarily be a problem. It just also left the first parameter empty. This specific template is programmed to show an error message when that happens. &lt;span style=&quot;background:#0064de;font-size:12px;padding:4px 12px;border-radius:8px;&quot;&gt;[[User talk:AgentMuffin|&lt;span style=&quot;color:#f0faff;&quot;&gt;~AgentMuffin&lt;/span&gt;]]&lt;/span&gt; 06:13, 18 April 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> Two times the red tint around Megan has been mentioned, in explanation and transcript... I cannot see that, no matter how much I zoon in. Is it actually there (can it be measured on the image file?) or is it just someone who wished it was like that? If it can be measrued it should be explained and if not then the mention should be deleted --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 07:13, 18 April 2023 (UTC)<br /> :What I meant was that Megan's line art in this comic appeared more brownish/reddish to me than the line art of the other characters. Specifically, the colour hex #472425 using an online colour hex checker. --[[User:Multiuniverse|Multiuniverse]] ([[User talk:Multiuniverse|talk]]) 07:22, 18 April 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> :It's definitely there, but I didn't notice it until I saw it mentioned. It's subtle enough that I imagine certain displays or differences in individual color perception could make it harder to see, but trust me, it's certainly there. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.222.5|162.158.222.5]] 07:24, 18 April 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> ::Why is everyone so unsure? it's definitely there. [[User:Mushrooms|Mushrooms]] ([[User talk:Mushrooms|talk]]) 09:00, 18 April 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> :::Not all monitors have the same quality, I can imagine that on some cheapish laptop screens it can be a lot harder to see -- [[Special:Contributions/172.71.131.134|172.71.131.134]] 12:20, 18 April 2023 (UTC)<br /> :::: On this laptop (Dell Latitude 600 - good for its time, a rather archaic thing now) it shows ''just''. Took the explanation mentioning it for me to notice. (And, yes, I'm using pretty archaic kit, at this moment. Though not my oldest, because I tend not to throw away 'perfectly working' things. That said, when it comes to remembering how the universe is, I'm not ''quite'' in the &quot;I remember when all this was fields&quot; category...) [[Special:Contributions/172.71.242.203|172.71.242.203]] 19:31, 18 April 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> :::For me: {{w|Congenital_red–green_color_blindness|red green color blindness}} [[User:Josot|Josot]] ([[User talk:Josot|talk]]) 12:27, 18 April 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> <br /> For anybody wondering: the current (accurately measured) {{w|Redshift#Highest_redshifts|Highest redshifts}} is z = 11.1 [[User:Josot|Josot]] ([[User talk:Josot|talk]]) 12:31, 18 April 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> Isn't it a bit ironic that Randall now clearly identifies &quot;Want to feel old&quot; content as clickbait, while I remember that he himself did a number of comics around that topic some years ago? I imagine that he changed his opinion BECAUSE that became such a popular clickbait topic. Could you link to some of these older comics?<br /> (&quot;Want to feel old? Randall Munroe did &quot;want to feel old&quot; comics closer to the inception of xkcd than to today.&quot;)--[[Special:Contributions/172.71.160.38|172.71.160.38]] 07:47, 19 April 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> == InB4 ==<br /> Before anyone embarrasses themself by asking, &quot;multimanteau&quot; is obviously a portmanteau of &quot;multiple&quot; and &quot;portmanteau&quot;. Sheesh, get with the neurolinguistic program. &quot;Phrasemanteau&quot; would also be an acceptable neologism. - [[User:Frankie|Frankie]] ([[User talk:Frankie|talk]]) 11:48, 18 April 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> I'm not fond of a explanation needing an explanation :/<br /> The first relevant use of &quot;multimanteau&quot; found by Google is this page<br /> [[User:Victor|Victor]] ([[User talk:Victor|talk]]) 09:01, 19 April 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> == Inconstant &quot;Constant&quot; == <br /> I find it weird that so much professional study still refers to an assumed &quot;cosmological constant&quot;, when it is observably ''not'' constant. Feels like we should be calling it &quot;the cosmological value&quot;, since expansion has not been occurring uniformly &amp; considerable localized variation in &quot;vacuum energy&quot; seems relatively certain. Parts of the observable universe are considerably older than the &quot;big bang&quot; that so much theory is hung upon; what part of &quot;these laws are localized effects, not unchanging constants&quot; has ''not'' been obvious, for &gt;30 years? <br /> [[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 14:31, 18 April 2023 (UTC)<br /> :This may be related to the fact that there are so many actual problems around the cosmological &quot;constant&quot; that noone wants to bother renaming it before getting better idea what it actually is. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 21:01, 18 April 2023 (UTC)<br /> : I'm in agreement with you,[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]], with a slight change. In most of the sciences we call something that's not constant a &quot;variable&quot;. Thus we'd have the &quot;cosmologicial variable&quot;. Which admittedly does not roll off the tongue as easily. Maybe &quot;cosmic variable&quot; instead? Which seems too alike a &quot;Cepheid variable&quot; star now. Hmm. Maybe I agree with [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] afterall. 😂 [[User:Iggynelix|Iggynelix]] ([[User talk:Iggynelix|talk]]) 13:40, 19 April 2023 (UTC)</div>

Iggynelix https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2764:_Cosmological_Nostalgia_Content&diff=310667 2023-04-19T13:40:40Z

<p>Iggynelix: /* Inconstant &quot;Constant&quot; */</p> <hr /> <div>&lt;!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~ and don't delete this text. New comments should be added at the bottom.--&gt;<br /> When I added the transcript it broke the &quot;Created by a BOT&quot; tag on explanation, even though I didn't touch explanation [[Special:Contributions/172.71.151.98|172.71.151.98]] 05:30, 18 April 2023 (UTC)<br /> :No, it was broken before your edit. Someone else changed &quot;BOT&quot; to &quot;Z=90s KID&quot;. The equal sign causes problems for mediawiki, but it's been fixed now. --[[User:Orion205|Orion205]] ([[User talk:Orion205|talk]]) 06:03, 18 April 2023 (UTC)<br /> ::For anyone who would benefit from a deeper explanation:&lt;br&gt;<br /> ::In the syntax for templates, equals signs come after parameter names (see [[mw:Help:Templates#Parameters|Help:Templates &amp;sect; Parameters]]). So, &lt;code&gt;Created by a Z&lt;/code&gt; was parsed as the name of a nonexistent template parameter, and &lt;code&gt;90s KID - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.&lt;/code&gt; was passed in as that parameter's value.&lt;br&gt;<br /> ::That still wouldn't necessarily be a problem. It just also left the first parameter empty. This specific template is programmed to show an error message when that happens. &lt;span style=&quot;background:#0064de;font-size:12px;padding:4px 12px;border-radius:8px;&quot;&gt;[[User talk:AgentMuffin|&lt;span style=&quot;color:#f0faff;&quot;&gt;~AgentMuffin&lt;/span&gt;]]&lt;/span&gt; 06:13, 18 April 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> Two times the red tint around Megan has been mentioned, in explanation and transcript... I cannot see that, no matter how much I zoon in. Is it actually there (can it be measured on the image file?) or is it just someone who wished it was like that? If it can be measrued it should be explained and if not then the mention should be deleted --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 07:13, 18 April 2023 (UTC)<br /> :What I meant was that Megan's line art in this comic appeared more brownish/reddish to me than the line art of the other characters. Specifically, the colour hex #472425 using an online colour hex checker. --[[User:Multiuniverse|Multiuniverse]] ([[User talk:Multiuniverse|talk]]) 07:22, 18 April 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> :It's definitely there, but I didn't notice it until I saw it mentioned. It's subtle enough that I imagine certain displays or differences in individual color perception could make it harder to see, but trust me, it's certainly there. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.222.5|162.158.222.5]] 07:24, 18 April 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> ::Why is everyone so unsure? it's definitely there. [[User:Mushrooms|Mushrooms]] ([[User talk:Mushrooms|talk]]) 09:00, 18 April 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> :::Not all monitors have the same quality, I can imagine that on some cheapish laptop screens it can be a lot harder to see -- [[Special:Contributions/172.71.131.134|172.71.131.134]] 12:20, 18 April 2023 (UTC)<br /> :::: On this laptop (Dell Latitude 600 - good for its time, a rather archaic thing now) it shows ''just''. Took the explanation mentioning it for me to notice. (And, yes, I'm using pretty archaic kit, at this moment. Though not my oldest, because I tend not to throw away 'perfectly working' things. That said, when it comes to remembering how the universe is, I'm not ''quite'' in the &quot;I remember when all this was fields&quot; category...) [[Special:Contributions/172.71.242.203|172.71.242.203]] 19:31, 18 April 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> :::For me: {{w|Congenital_red–green_color_blindness|red green color blindness}} [[User:Josot|Josot]] ([[User talk:Josot|talk]]) 12:27, 18 April 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> <br /> For anybody wondering: the current (accurately measured) {{w|Redshift#Highest_redshifts|Highest redshifts}} is z = 11.1 [[User:Josot|Josot]] ([[User talk:Josot|talk]]) 12:31, 18 April 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> Isn't it a bit ironic that Randall now clearly identifies &quot;Want to feel old&quot; content as clickbait, while I remember that he himself did a number of comics around that topic some years ago? I imagine that he changed his opinion BECAUSE that became such a popular clickbait topic. Could you link to some of these older comics?<br /> (&quot;Want to feel old? Randall Munroe did &quot;want to feel old&quot; comics closer to the inception of xkcd than to today.&quot;)--[[Special:Contributions/172.71.160.38|172.71.160.38]] 07:47, 19 April 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> == InB4 ==<br /> Before anyone embarrasses themself by asking, &quot;multimanteau&quot; is obviously a portmanteau of &quot;multiple&quot; and &quot;portmanteau&quot;. Sheesh, get with the neurolinguistic program. &quot;Phrasemanteau&quot; would also be an acceptable neologism. - [[User:Frankie|Frankie]] ([[User talk:Frankie|talk]]) 11:48, 18 April 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> I'm not fond of a explanation needing an explanation :/<br /> The first relevant use of &quot;multimanteau&quot; found by Google is this page<br /> [[User:Victor|Victor]] ([[User talk:Victor|talk]]) 09:01, 19 April 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> == Inconstant &quot;Constant&quot; == <br /> I find it weird that so much professional study still refers to an assumed &quot;cosmological constant&quot;, when it is observably ''not'' constant. Feels like we should be calling it &quot;the cosmological value&quot;, since expansion has not been occurring uniformly &amp; considerable localized variation in &quot;vacuum energy&quot; seems relatively certain. Parts of the observable universe are considerably older than the &quot;big bang&quot; that so much theory is hung upon; what part of &quot;these laws are localized effects, not unchanging constants&quot; has ''not'' been obvious, for &gt;30 years? <br /> [[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 14:31, 18 April 2023 (UTC)<br /> :This may be related to the fact that there are so many actual problems around the cosmological &quot;constant&quot; that noone wants to bother renaming it before getting better idea what it actually is. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 21:01, 18 April 2023 (UTC)<br /> : I'm in agreement with you,[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]], with a slight change. In most of the sciences we call something that's not constant a &quot;variable&quot;. Thus we'd have the &quot;cosmologicial variable&quot;. Which admittedly does not roll off the tongue as easily. Maybe &quot;cosmic variable&quot; instead? Which seems too alike a &quot;Cepheid variable&quot; start. Hmm. Maybe I agree with [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] afterall. 😂 [[User:Iggynelix|Iggynelix]] ([[User talk:Iggynelix|talk]]) 13:40, 19 April 2023 (UTC)</div>

Iggynelix https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2763:_Linguistics_Gossip&diff=310450 2023-04-15T13:52:55Z

<p>Iggynelix: </p> <hr /> <div>&lt;!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~ and don't delete this text. New comments should be added at the bottom.--&gt;<br /> <br /> Added initial explanation [[User:Bamboo|Bamboo]] ([[User talk:Bamboo|talk]]) 14:08, 14 April 2023 (UTC)Bamboo<br /> <br /> Added possible explanation of title text [[User:Bamboo|Bamboo]] ([[User talk:Bamboo|talk]]) 14:14, 14 April 2023 (UTC)Bamboo<br /> <br /> Has anyone asked O what they think of all this?[[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.152|172.70.91.152]] 14:32, 14 April 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> NOTE: I'm assuming the IE/VE ligature is IE, where the I is tilted<br /> Could this also be a reference to the historical Latin pronunciation of Æ, and its separation into &quot;AA&quot; (which could be represented by &quot;ar&quot; in English (&quot;r&quot; is silent), hence the ligature &quot;AR&quot;) and &quot;IE&quot; (which would be pronounced &quot;ee&quot; as in &quot;relieve&quot;) [[User:1844161|1844161]] ([[User talk:1844161|talk]]) 15:21, 14 April 2023 (UTC)<br /> : I disagree. The title text strongly points towards VE as the logical interpretation [[User:Boatster|Boatster]] ([[User talk:Boatster|talk]]) 15:52, 14 April 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> <br /> I think it might be helpful to readers to provide a parenthetical describing the pronunciation of the 'ash' glyph, so that people who aren't old language aficionados aren't left in the lurch if they're the sort who read aloud in their head. I'm going to add it, but if someone removes it I won't be miffed. Also, there's no way the new E ligature is meant to be IE. The title text only makes sense if it's VE.[[Special:Contributions/172.69.67.136|172.69.67.136]] 15:56, 14 April 2023 (UTC)<br /> : Thank you. That was super helpful as I'm language-curious, but not an æficænado. Any chance we could get similar explanations of the AR (seems legit) &amp; AV(seems not)? [[User:Iggynelix|Iggynelix]] ([[User talk:Iggynelix|talk]]) 13:49, 15 April 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> I hope AR wedding hat a pirate theme. --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 16:05, 14 April 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> The AR ligature is used in aeronautical engineering for the aspect ratio of a wing. This mainly applies to handwritten work, since there isn't an easy way to insert that glyph when typing. [[User:D5xtgr|D5xtgr]] ([[User talk:D5xtgr|talk]]) 17:18, 14 April 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> 2763 -MathHacked<br /> <br /> I suppose the Æsop is that it's not necessary to maintain a chimæric quæstionability just for primævally æsthetic reasons, or have sæcularly dæmonic adhærence to adhæsively mæandering through an anæsthetic tædium of hæritage fæcality. Unless that's all just hæretical hyperbolæ, casting pædagogical umbræ on the matter. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.160|172.70.162.160]] 21:22, 14 April 2023 (UTC)<br /> : Well plæd. <br /> <br /> It's just too bad they all now live in the same ''small recreational vehicle'' because that leads to awkwardness. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.142.159|172.71.142.159]] 02:07, 15 April 2023 (UTC)<br /> : Seems pretty roomy based on the space between them.;)<br /> <br /> A and E got REM🜇RIED?! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.38.96|172.70.38.96]] 05:28, 15 April 2023 (UTC)</div>

Iggynelix https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2763:_Linguistics_Gossip&diff=310449 2023-04-15T13:49:15Z

<p>Iggynelix: Request for additional clarification</p> <hr /> <div>&lt;!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~ and don't delete this text. New comments should be added at the bottom.--&gt;<br /> <br /> Added initial explanation [[User:Bamboo|Bamboo]] ([[User talk:Bamboo|talk]]) 14:08, 14 April 2023 (UTC)Bamboo<br /> <br /> Added possible explanation of title text [[User:Bamboo|Bamboo]] ([[User talk:Bamboo|talk]]) 14:14, 14 April 2023 (UTC)Bamboo<br /> <br /> Has anyone asked O what they think of all this?[[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.152|172.70.91.152]] 14:32, 14 April 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> NOTE: I'm assuming the IE/VE ligature is IE, where the I is tilted<br /> Could this also be a reference to the historical Latin pronunciation of Æ, and its separation into &quot;AA&quot; (which could be represented by &quot;ar&quot; in English (&quot;r&quot; is silent), hence the ligature &quot;AR&quot;) and &quot;IE&quot; (which would be pronounced &quot;ee&quot; as in &quot;relieve&quot;) [[User:1844161|1844161]] ([[User talk:1844161|talk]]) 15:21, 14 April 2023 (UTC)<br /> : I disagree. The title text strongly points towards VE as the logical interpretation [[User:Boatster|Boatster]] ([[User talk:Boatster|talk]]) 15:52, 14 April 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> <br /> I think it might be helpful to readers to provide a parenthetical describing the pronunciation of the 'ash' glyph, so that people who aren't old language aficionados aren't left in the lurch if they're the sort who read aloud in their head. I'm going to add it, but if someone removes it I won't be miffed. Also, there's no way the new E ligature is meant to be IE. The title text only makes sense if it's VE.[[Special:Contributions/172.69.67.136|172.69.67.136]] 15:56, 14 April 2023 (UTC)<br /> : Thank you. That was super helpful as I'm language-curious, but not an æficænado. Any chance we could get similar explanations of the AR (seems legit) &amp; AV(seems not)? [[User:Iggynelix|Iggynelix]] ([[User talk:Iggynelix|talk]]) 13:49, 15 April 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> I hope AR wedding hat a pirate theme. --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 16:05, 14 April 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> The AR ligature is used in aeronautical engineering for the aspect ratio of a wing. This mainly applies to handwritten work, since there isn't an easy way to insert that glyph when typing. [[User:D5xtgr|D5xtgr]] ([[User talk:D5xtgr|talk]]) 17:18, 14 April 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> 2763 -MathHacked<br /> <br /> I suppose the Æsop is that it's not necessary to maintain a chimæric quæstionability just for primævally æsthetic reasons, or have sæcularly dæmonic adhærence to adhæsively mæandering through an anæsthetic tædium of hæritage fæcality. Unless that's all just hæretical hyperbolæ, casting pædagogical umbræ on the matter. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.160|172.70.162.160]] 21:22, 14 April 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> It's just too bad they all now live in the same ''small recreational vehicle'' because that leads to awkwardness. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.142.159|172.71.142.159]] 02:07, 15 April 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> A and E got REM🜇RIED?! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.38.96|172.70.38.96]] 05:28, 15 April 2023 (UTC)</div>

Iggynelix https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2751:_March_Madness&diff=308828 2023-03-18T12:51:24Z

<p>Iggynelix: </p> <hr /> <div>&lt;!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~ and don't delete this text. New comments should be added at the bottom.--&gt;<br /> <br /> == Difficult ==<br /> <br /> An hour, and still no explanation. Is this harder to get than usual, or is it just me?<br /> <br /> Left top two are march [word], next two are [word] of march, bottom left section all reference Seventy-Six Trombones, which is apparently a common song for marching bands. Top right section is March of the [word], and bottom right is [word] March. [[User:NyanSequitur|NyanSequitur]] ([[User talk:NyanSequitur|talk]]) 19:15, 17 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> Well I was going to say something, but now I find myself doubting my ability to find patterns and understand references. This man is on another level. [[User:Toriski3037|Toriski3037]] ([[User talk:Toriski3037|talk]]) 19:29, 17 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> Not confident enough to edit the actual article directly, but I can get the gist of these references:<br /> <br /> :- March Madness (NCAA Basketball Tournament)<br /> :- March Hare (&quot;Mad as a march hare&quot; being a common idiom in English, and the March Hare being a 'mad' character in Alice in Wonderland)<br /> :- Middlemarch (novel by George Eliot)<br /> :- Ides of March (March 15th, aka Julius Caesar Assassination Day)<br /> :- aforementioned &quot;Seventy-Six Trombones&quot; references - the first three lines, followed by an impressive option later in the lyrics<br /> ::- &quot;Seventy-six trombones led the big parade&quot;<br /> ::- &quot;with a hundred and ten cornets right behind&quot;<br /> ::- &quot;there were more than a thousand reeds springing up like weeds&quot;<br /> ::- &quot;there were fifty mounted cannon in the battery/ thundering, thundering, louder than before&quot;<br /> ::- (possibly worth noting: the first version of the song ends with &quot;the kids began to march/ and they're marching still, right today!&quot; - it was a pain to confirm this, since the reprise of the song is much easier to find)<br /> ::- (also worth noting for the title text: the song is introduced with the character claiming that the 76 trombone parade was from the day when several historical notables, culminating in &quot;John Philip Sousa&quot;, &quot;all came to town on the very same historic day&quot;)<br /> :- March of the Dimes (charity)<br /> :- March of the Toy Soldiers (musical piece from Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker)<br /> :- March of the Ents (from Lord of the Rings)<br /> :- March of the Penguins (documentary about emperor penguins, narrated by Morgan Freeman, also relevant to title text)<br /> :- Wedding March (musical piece - per Wikipedia, the &quot;here comes the bride&quot; piece which I thought of is actually the &quot;Bridal Chorus&quot; from Wagner's Lohengrin; the most famous Wedding March is from Felix Mendelssohn's Midsummer Night's Dream, used more commonly at the end of weddings)<br /> :- Funeral March (musical piece - most famous version is Chopin's)<br /> :- Imperial March (musical piece by John Williams for Star Wars)<br /> :- Nissan March (model of car; Nissan is also the official sponsor of March Madness)<br /> <br /> Hopefully this will help someone look up properly cited references! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.134.144|172.70.134.144]] 19:53, 17 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> :: nice work! [[User:Iggynelix|Iggynelix]] ([[User talk:Iggynelix|talk]]) 12:51, 18 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> I hope the previous contributor doesn't mind that I tidied up their layout. I hope the ExplainXKCD Police don't object to the way I did that. :) [[Special:Contributions/172.68.210.5|172.68.210.5]] 00:46, 18 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> March is not another word for parade. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.84|172.70.130.84]] 01:27, 18 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> :It can be. I wouldn't call a Mardi Gras parade a march, but I would do an {{w|Orange Order|Orange Order}} one, for example. And the defining characteristic of a &quot;band parade&quot;, above even a mishmash of men just shuffling along the road in a group, is (generally!) walking in lockstep (keeping the music in lockstep), so that (frivolity and syncopation aside) it is as much a march as anything. I mean, I'm not the OA of that phrase linking the sense, but there's clear overlap that cannot be denied as intended. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.242.12|172.71.242.12]] 09:59, 18 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> For the second bracket in the top left quadrant, &quot;Ides&quot; refers to &quot;Ides of March&quot;, which implies the structure used here is &quot;___ of March&quot;, which means that the reference would rather be &quot;Middle of March&quot; (rather than Middlemarch), which is used in crossword puzzle as a clue for the word &quot;arc&quot;. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.186|172.71.178.186]] 12:23, 18 March 2023 (UTC)</div>

Iggynelix https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2751:_March_Madness&diff=308827 2023-03-18T12:49:09Z

<p>Iggynelix: </p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 2751<br /> | date = March 17, 2023<br /> | title = March Madness<br /> | image = march_madness_2x.png<br /> | imagesize = 593x333px<br /> | noexpand = true<br /> | titletext = My bracket has 76 trombones led by John Philip Sousa facing off against thousands of emperor penguins led by Morgan Freeman.<br /> }}<br /> <br /> ==Explanation==<br /> {{incomplete|Created by a PENGUIN OVERLORD - Do we need a chart? - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> [[Randall]] has created [[:Category:Tournament bracket|yet another]] {{w|Tournament bracket|single-elimination tournament bracket}}. This time, everything in the bracket relates to the word March. The first section has things that are named after March.<br /> <br /> {{w|NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament|March Madness}} is a college basketball tournament played each spring in the US.<br /> <br /> {{w|Mad as a March hare|March Hare}} refers to the observed chaotic behaviour of the European hare said to occur during its breeding season, which peaks in March in Europe. Lewis Carroll comically used the phrase as the name of a {{w|March Hare|'mad' character}} in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland as though it referred to a type of hare rather than a seasonal behaviour.<br /> <br /> {{w|Middlemarch|Middlemarch}}, A Study of Provincial Life is a novel by the English author George Eliot.<br /> <br /> {{w|Ides of March|The Ides of March}}, is the 74th day of the Roman Calendar, corresponding to March 15th, and is notorious for being the date {{w|Assassination of Julius Caesar|Julius Caesar was assassinated}}.<br /> <br /> The Lower left quadrant all refers to {{w|Seventy-Six Trombones|Seventy-Six Trombones}}, which is a song from the 1957 musical &quot;The Music Man,&quot; about the instruments in an imagined parade. (&quot;March&quot; is a synonym for &quot;parade&quot;, in this context.) The [https://genius.com/Meredith-willson-seventy-six-trombones-lyrics opening line] of that song states that &quot;76 trombones led the big parade, with 110 cornets close behind.&quot; Later in the song the lyrics &quot;there were more than a thousand reeds springing up like weeds&quot; and &quot;there were fifty mounted cannon in the battery&quot; inspire the next match up.<br /> <br /> {{w|March of Dimes|March of Dimes}} is a charity program advocating for moms and babies.<br /> <br /> {{w|March of the Toy Soldiers|March of the Toy Soldiers}} is a musical piece from Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite.<br /> <br /> {{w|Ent|The Last March of the Ents}} is a scene in the Lord of the Rings: The Two towers, where ents, fictional{{citation needed}} treelike creatures, march against Isengard.<br /> <br /> {{w|March of the Penguins|March of the Penguins}} is a 2005 nature documentary directed by Luc Jacquet. Originally produced in French, available in several translations, with the English narration by actor Morgan Freeman. <br /> <br /> Wedding March may refer to {{w|Wedding March (Mendelssohn)|Felix Mendelssohn's musical composition in C Major}}, or as a more general description of a bridal chorus as the bride enters a wedding.<br /> <br /> {{w|Funeral March|Funeral March}} is a musical genre, usually in a minor key, in a slow &quot;simple duple&quot; metre, imitating the solemn pace of a funeral procession.<br /> <br /> {{w|The Imperial March|The Imperial March}} is a theme from Star Wars which often plays when characters from the empire, particularly large batches of storm troopers, are on screen.<br /> <br /> {{w|Nissan Micra|The Nissan March}} is a supermini car produced in Japan.<br /> <br /> In the alt text, Randall claims his bracket has 76 trombones being led by Sousa (a famous bandleader; the lead character in &quot;The Music Man&quot; claims that he led the supposed parade) against the March of the Penguins, led by Morgan Freeman (who narrated the English release of the film).<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> {{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> :[Title:]<br /> :March Madness<br /> <br /> :[A tournament bracket tree is shown with 16 competitors, 8 on the left and 8 on the right side]<br /> <br /> :[Left side:]<br /> :Madness<br /> :Hare<br /> <br /> :Middle<br /> :Ides<br /> <br /> :76 Trombones<br /> :110 Cornets<br /> <br /> :1000+ Reeds<br /> :50 Mounted Cannon<br /> <br /> :[Right side:]<br /> :Dimes<br /> :Toy Soldiers<br /> <br /> :Ents<br /> :Penguins<br /> <br /> :Wedding<br /> :Funeral<br /> <br /> :Imperial<br /> :Nissan<br /> <br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}<br /> <br /> [[Category:Tournament bracket]]</div>

Iggynelix https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2751:_March_Madness&diff=308825 2023-03-18T12:41:49Z

<p>Iggynelix: </p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 2751<br /> | date = March 17, 2023<br /> | title = March Madness<br /> | image = march_madness_2x.png<br /> | imagesize = 593x333px<br /> | noexpand = true<br /> | titletext = My bracket has 76 trombones led by John Philip Sousa facing off against thousands of emperor penguins led by Morgan Freeman.<br /> }}<br /> <br /> ==Explanation==<br /> {{incomplete|Created by a PENGUIN OVERLORD - Do we need a chart? - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> [[Randall]] has created [[:Category:Tournament bracket|yet another]] {{w|Tournament bracket|single-elimination tournament bracket}}. This time, everything in the bracket relates to the word March. The first section has things that are named after March.<br /> <br /> {{w|NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament|March Madness}} is a college basketball tournament played each spring in the US.<br /> <br /> {{w|Mad as a March hare|March Hare}} refers to the observed chaotic behaviour of the European hare said to occur during its breeding season, which peaks in March in Europe. Lewis Carroll comically used the phrase as the name of a {{w|March Hare|'mad' character}} in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland as though it referred to a type of hare rather than a seasonal behaviour.<br /> <br /> {{w|Middlemarch|Middlemarch}}, A Study of Provincial Life is a novel by the English author George Eliot.<br /> <br /> {{w|Ides of March|The Ides of March}}, is the 74th day of the Roman Calendar, corresponding to March 15th, and is notorious for being the date {{w|Assassination of Julius Caesar|Julius Caesar was assassinated}}.<br /> <br /> The Lower left quadrant all refers to {{w|Seventy-Six Trombones|Seventy-Six Trombones}}, which is a song from the 1957 musical &quot;The Music Man,&quot; about the instruments in an imagined parade. (&quot;March&quot; is a synonym for &quot;parade&quot;, in this context.) The [https://genius.com/Meredith-willson-seventy-six-trombones-lyrics opening line] of that song states that &quot;76 trombones led the big parade, with 110 cornets close behind.&quot; Later in the song the lyrics &quot;there were more than a thousand reeds springing up like weeds&quot; and &quot;there were fifty mounted cannon in the battery&quot; inspire the next match up.<br /> <br /> {{w|March of Dimes|March of Dimes}} is a charity program advocating for moms and babies.<br /> <br /> {{w|March of the Toy Soldiers|March of the Toy Soldiers}} is a musical piece from Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite.<br /> <br /> {{w|Ent|The Last March of the Ents}} is a scene in the Lord of the Rings: The Two towers, where ents, fictional treelike creatures, march against Isengard.<br /> <br /> {{w|March of the Penguins|March of the Penguins}} is a 2005 nature documentary directed by Luc Jacquet. Originally produced in French, available in several translations, with the English narration by actor Morgan Freeman. <br /> <br /> Wedding March may refer to {{w|Wedding March (Mendelssohn)|Felix Mendelssohn's musical composition in C Major}}, or as a more general description of a bridal chorus as the bride enters a wedding.<br /> <br /> {{w|Funeral March|Funeral March}} is a musical genre, usually in a minor key, in a slow &quot;simple duple&quot; metre, imitating the solemn pace of a funeral procession.<br /> <br /> {{w|The Imperial March|The Imperial March}} is a theme from Star Wars which often plays when characters from the empire, particularly large batches of storm troopers, are on screen.<br /> <br /> {{w|Nissan Micra|The Nissan March}} is a supermini car produced in Japan.<br /> <br /> In the alt text, Randall claims his bracket has 76 trombones being led by Sousa (a famous bandleader; the lead character in &quot;The Music Man&quot; claims that he led the supposed parade) against the March of the Penguins, led by Morgan Freeman (who narrated the English release of the film).<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> {{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> :[Title:]<br /> :March Madness<br /> <br /> :[A tournament bracket tree is shown with 16 competitors, 8 on the left and 8 on the right side]<br /> <br /> :[Left side:]<br /> :Madness<br /> :Hare<br /> <br /> :Middle<br /> :Ides<br /> <br /> :76 Trombones<br /> :110 Cornets<br /> <br /> :1000+ Reeds<br /> :50 Mounted Cannon<br /> <br /> :[Right side:]<br /> :Dimes<br /> :Toy Soldiers<br /> <br /> :Ents<br /> :Penguins<br /> <br /> :Wedding<br /> :Funeral<br /> <br /> :Imperial<br /> :Nissan<br /> <br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}<br /> <br /> [[Category:Tournament bracket]]</div>

Iggynelix https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2750:_Flatten_the_Planets&diff=308721 2023-03-16T12:47:30Z

<p>Iggynelix: </p> <hr /> <div>&lt;!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~ and don't delete this text. New comments should be added at the bottom.--&gt;<br /> I have to wonder, would you slide down to the sun, or be flung outwards? [[User:SDSpivey|SDSpivey]] ([[User talk:SDSpivey|talk]]) 19:39, 15 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> : The discs are centered on the orbit of the parent planet, and presumably rotating at the same frequency as the parent planet's orbit. That means the inner edge of each disc is going slower than you'd need to orbit the Sun at that distance, and the outer edge faster. If you moved inward from the original planet's orbit, the Sun's gravity would pull you in, but when you crossed the boundary to the next disc, you'd get flung back outward.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.61|162.158.62.61]] 19:58, 15 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> ::No Each planet fills out the space within their orbit into the next planet. Easy to see as the outer edge of Neptune's orbit is the same as with the planet flattened. There is a distance from Mercury to the Sun indicated. Maybe because it would melt if it got any closer? --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 20:03, 15 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> :::First, they're rings not discs, but I'm skeptical of the math. And it looks to me like the ring's edges are halfway between the orbits, with Neptune extended outwards the same distance as halfway to Uranus's orbit. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.22.4|172.69.22.4]] 20:08, 15 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> {{cot|My mistake, Randall's math is correct, sorry.}}<br /> <br /> {| class=&quot;wikitable&quot; style=&quot;text-align: right;&quot;<br /> |-<br /> ! Planet !! Volume (10&lt;sup&gt;9&lt;/sup&gt; km&lt;sup&gt;3&lt;/sup&gt;) !! Orbital radius (10&lt;sup&gt;6&lt;/sup&gt; km) || halfway to prior || halfway to next || Annulus area (10&lt;sup&gt;&lt;s&gt;9&lt;/s&gt; ''12'' OOPS!&lt;/sup&gt; km&lt;sup&gt;2&lt;/sup&gt;) || Thickness (&lt;s&gt;cm&lt;/s&gt; ''10s of microns'')<br /> |-<br /> | Mercury || 61 || 58 || 29 (to 0) || 83 || 19,000 || 321<br /> |-<br /> | Venus || 928 || 108 || 83 || 129 || 30,637 || 3,029<br /> |-<br /> | Earth || 1,083 || 150 || 129 || 189 || 59,942 || 1,802<br /> |-<br /> | Mars || 163 || 228 || 189 || 504 || 685,794 || 24<br /> |-<br /> | Jupiter || 1,4310,00 || 779 || 504 || 1,107 || 3,051,847 || 46,890<br /> |-<br /> | Saturn || 827,130 || 1,434 || 1,107 || 2,154 || 10,726,236 || 7,711<br /> |-<br /> | Uranus || 68,340 || 2,873 || 2,154 || 3,684 || 28,061,145 || 244<br /> |-<br /> | Neptune || 62,540 || 4,495 || 3,684 || 5,304 (symmetry) || 45,743,348 || 137<br /> |}<br /> <br /> :::: The volumes in this table are at 2 different scales. Only the Mercury to Mars volumes are at 10&lt;sup&gt;10&lt;/sup&gt; km&lt;sup&gt;3&lt;/sup&gt;. Jupiter to Neptune are at 10&lt;sup&gt;12&lt;/sup&gt; km&lt;sup&gt;3&lt;/sup&gt; [[User:Sandor|Sandor]] ([[User talk:Sandor|talk]]) 21:01, 15 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> ::::: Thanks, fixed; I had the scale wrong for the radii too. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.158.231|172.71.158.231]] 21:16, 15 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> :::Someone please double-check this, I think Randall is off by a factor of 1000. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.154.229|172.71.154.229]] 21:37, 15 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> :::: I did my own spreadsheet, and my figures agree with Randall's (roughly). I think your thinkness figures are mostly out by 1000, and a few of your volume figures also have the wrong scale (Mercury is smaller than Mars, and the giants are too big by a factor of 10). [[User:Sandor|Sandor]] ([[User talk:Sandor|talk]]) 22:07, 15 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> ::::: 61 * 10^9 km^3 is [https://www.google.com/search?q=61+*+10%5E9+km%5E3+in+cm%5E3 6.1 × 10^25 cm^3], 19000 * 10^9 km^2 is [https://www.google.com/search?q=19000+*+10%5E9+km%5E2+in+cm%5E2 1.9 × 10^23 cm^2], and (6.1 × 10^25 cm^3) / (1.9 × 10^23 cm^2) is [https://www.google.com/search?q=%286.1+%C3%97+10%5E25+cm%5E3%29+%2F+%281.9+%C3%97+10%5E23+cm%5E2%29 3.2 meters]. I'm afraid I'm correct. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.22.145|172.69.22.145]] 22:31, 15 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> ::::: According to {{w|List_of_Solar_System_objects_by_size#Objects_with_radius_over_400_km}} yes I had Mars wrong (corrected) but the others are roughly correct. I stand by my claim that Randall is in error. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.154.86|172.71.154.86]] 22:39, 15 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> :::::: Mercury's orbital radius is about 58 * 10&lt;sup&gt;6&lt;/sup&gt; km, not 58 * 10&lt;sup&gt;9&lt;/sup&gt; km, which makes the annulus' area 19000 10&lt;sup&gt;12&lt;/sup&gt; km&lt;sup&gt;2&lt;/sup&gt;. [[User:Sandor|Sandor]] ([[User talk:Sandor|talk]]) 23:20, 15 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> ::::::: I fixed that label, hold on... [[Special:Contributions/172.71.154.86|172.71.154.86]] 23:30, 15 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> ::::::: You're right. Thanks. Sorry. Reverted on main. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.154.215|172.71.154.215]] 23:39, 15 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> |} &lt;!-- {{cob}} --&gt;<br /> <br /> This makes about as much sense as other Flat Earth theories. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.200.137|172.70.200.137]] 20:00, 15 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> :But this would actually be a flat Earth. Albeit with a rather larger surface area ;-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 20:03, 15 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> :And..the Earth-ring is not a disc and it's also in the same plane as the sun. Meaning If you were to stand on the surface of this ring earth , there would be a perpetual sunrise / sunset... And similar for everything else in the plane of the ecliptic. [[User:Iggynelix|Iggynelix]] ([[User talk:Iggynelix|talk]]) 12:36, 16 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> But what does the plot of surface gravity vs distance from the Sun look like? Gravity of an infinite plane and all that?--[[User:Brossa|Brossa]] ([[User talk:Brossa|talk]]) 00:01, 16 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> The explanation currently says that it would require &quot;several solar system's worth&quot; of matter, but isn't there enough matter in the actual solar system? --[[User:Purah126|Purah126]] ([[User talk:Purah126|talk]]) 00:49, 16 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> :That was said in reference to the Alderson Disk, which requires 1000km or so of thickness. Clearly more than the proposal here that gives a minute thickness (relatively) from the ''actual'' planetary mass in the solar system. Even if you reduced its extent (smaller outer, bigger hole for the Sun) it wouldn't thicken up enough. The prior (non-xkcd) version would require a mass of material rivaling, if not exceeding, that of the Sun itself. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.222|172.70.162.222]] 02:07, 16 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> One of the reasons NASA rejected this could've been the use of inches. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.102.13|172.71.102.13]] 02:26, 16 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> : Except for Mars. I can only imagine that use of the metric system for the Mars ring is a reference to the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Climate_Orbiter#Cause_of_failure Mars Climate Orbiter] fiasco, which certainly would not endear Randall, or his proposal, to a NASA granting agency program officer. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.214.150|172.70.214.150]] 02:45, 16 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> :: I assume the use of microns there is simply because 5/512 is a really awkward fraction. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.223.25|172.71.223.25]] 05:48, 16 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> ::: Awkward? Its vulgar!<br /> [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.56|172.70.162.56]] 08:05, 16 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> If the planets of the solar system were to become disks centered on the respective planet's current orbit, how do we deal with the different orbital eccentricities? For example, per That Other Wiki, Venus has an orbital eccentricity of 0.006772, Earth has 0.0167086, and Mars has 0.0934. Not to mention Neptune's 0.008678 and Pluto's 0.2488; Pluto's orbit actually crosses Neptune's. Surely that would cause issues with the disks? [[Special:Contributions/172.71.98.5|172.71.98.5]] 08:33, 16 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> :Pluto isn't involved, so at least that difficulty doesn't have to be dealt with. Maybe Pluto and other dwarf planets could be used to supplement the asteroid ball bearings.[[Special:Contributions/172.71.242.63|172.71.242.63]] 10:55, 16 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> It appears that there is enough material in the asteroid belt to do this, since a ring of asteroid ball bearings with a 1 trillion kilometer diameter where each ball bearing was a cube 1 meter by 1 meter (clearly more than enough!) would be less than 10 trillion cubic meters. Since the total mass of the asteroid belt is 10^21 kg, and the average density is around 2 g/cm^3, = 2000 kg/m^3, then the amount of matter required is 2,000*10 trillion = 2 quadrillion which is much less than 10^21. (Not sure if this is actually correct) --[[User:Purah126|Purah126]] ([[User talk:Purah126|talk]]) 12:17, 16 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> :Ahh yes, the classic cubic-bearing. Just what we need in this planetary ring system we've created. Since Randall elects to eschew spheres for the planets, let's go all in and refuse them for the bearings as well. Bravo. ;-)<br /> <br /> Did anyone notice that this came out just after pi-day? [[User:Iggynelix|Iggynelix]] ([[User talk:Iggynelix|talk]]) 12:40, 16 March 2023 (UTC)</div>

Iggynelix https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2750:_Flatten_the_Planets&diff=308720 2023-03-16T12:46:38Z

<p>Iggynelix: </p> <hr /> <div>&lt;!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~ and don't delete this text. New comments should be added at the bottom.--&gt;<br /> I have to wonder, would you slide down to the sun, or be flung outwards? [[User:SDSpivey|SDSpivey]] ([[User talk:SDSpivey|talk]]) 19:39, 15 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> : The discs are centered on the orbit of the parent planet, and presumably rotating at the same frequency as the parent planet's orbit. That means the inner edge of each disc is going slower than you'd need to orbit the Sun at that distance, and the outer edge faster. If you moved inward from the original planet's orbit, the Sun's gravity would pull you in, but when you crossed the boundary to the next disc, you'd get flung back outward.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.61|162.158.62.61]] 19:58, 15 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> ::No Each planet fills out the space within their orbit into the next planet. Easy to see as the outer edge of Neptune's orbit is the same as with the planet flattened. There is a distance from Mercury to the Sun indicated. Maybe because it would melt if it got any closer? --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 20:03, 15 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> :::First, they're rings not discs, but I'm skeptical of the math. And it looks to me like the ring's edges are halfway between the orbits, with Neptune extended outwards the same distance as halfway to Uranus's orbit. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.22.4|172.69.22.4]] 20:08, 15 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> {{cot|My mistake, Randall's math is correct, sorry.}}<br /> <br /> {| class=&quot;wikitable&quot; style=&quot;text-align: right;&quot;<br /> |-<br /> ! Planet !! Volume (10&lt;sup&gt;9&lt;/sup&gt; km&lt;sup&gt;3&lt;/sup&gt;) !! Orbital radius (10&lt;sup&gt;6&lt;/sup&gt; km) || halfway to prior || halfway to next || Annulus area (10&lt;sup&gt;&lt;s&gt;9&lt;/s&gt; ''12'' OOPS!&lt;/sup&gt; km&lt;sup&gt;2&lt;/sup&gt;) || Thickness (&lt;s&gt;cm&lt;/s&gt; ''10s of microns'')<br /> |-<br /> | Mercury || 61 || 58 || 29 (to 0) || 83 || 19,000 || 321<br /> |-<br /> | Venus || 928 || 108 || 83 || 129 || 30,637 || 3,029<br /> |-<br /> | Earth || 1,083 || 150 || 129 || 189 || 59,942 || 1,802<br /> |-<br /> | Mars || 163 || 228 || 189 || 504 || 685,794 || 24<br /> |-<br /> | Jupiter || 1,4310,00 || 779 || 504 || 1,107 || 3,051,847 || 46,890<br /> |-<br /> | Saturn || 827,130 || 1,434 || 1,107 || 2,154 || 10,726,236 || 7,711<br /> |-<br /> | Uranus || 68,340 || 2,873 || 2,154 || 3,684 || 28,061,145 || 244<br /> |-<br /> | Neptune || 62,540 || 4,495 || 3,684 || 5,304 (symmetry) || 45,743,348 || 137<br /> |}<br /> <br /> :::: The volumes in this table are at 2 different scales. Only the Mercury to Mars volumes are at 10&lt;sup&gt;10&lt;/sup&gt; km&lt;sup&gt;3&lt;/sup&gt;. Jupiter to Neptune are at 10&lt;sup&gt;12&lt;/sup&gt; km&lt;sup&gt;3&lt;/sup&gt; [[User:Sandor|Sandor]] ([[User talk:Sandor|talk]]) 21:01, 15 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> ::::: Thanks, fixed; I had the scale wrong for the radii too. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.158.231|172.71.158.231]] 21:16, 15 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> :::Someone please double-check this, I think Randall is off by a factor of 1000. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.154.229|172.71.154.229]] 21:37, 15 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> :::: I did my own spreadsheet, and my figures agree with Randall's (roughly). I think your thinkness figures are mostly out by 1000, and a few of your volume figures also have the wrong scale (Mercury is smaller than Mars, and the giants are too big by a factor of 10). [[User:Sandor|Sandor]] ([[User talk:Sandor|talk]]) 22:07, 15 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> ::::: 61 * 10^9 km^3 is [https://www.google.com/search?q=61+*+10%5E9+km%5E3+in+cm%5E3 6.1 × 10^25 cm^3], 19000 * 10^9 km^2 is [https://www.google.com/search?q=19000+*+10%5E9+km%5E2+in+cm%5E2 1.9 × 10^23 cm^2], and (6.1 × 10^25 cm^3) / (1.9 × 10^23 cm^2) is [https://www.google.com/search?q=%286.1+%C3%97+10%5E25+cm%5E3%29+%2F+%281.9+%C3%97+10%5E23+cm%5E2%29 3.2 meters]. I'm afraid I'm correct. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.22.145|172.69.22.145]] 22:31, 15 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> ::::: According to {{w|List_of_Solar_System_objects_by_size#Objects_with_radius_over_400_km}} yes I had Mars wrong (corrected) but the others are roughly correct. I stand by my claim that Randall is in error. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.154.86|172.71.154.86]] 22:39, 15 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> :::::: Mercury's orbital radius is about 58 * 10&lt;sup&gt;6&lt;/sup&gt; km, not 58 * 10&lt;sup&gt;9&lt;/sup&gt; km, which makes the annulus' area 19000 10&lt;sup&gt;12&lt;/sup&gt; km&lt;sup&gt;2&lt;/sup&gt;. [[User:Sandor|Sandor]] ([[User talk:Sandor|talk]]) 23:20, 15 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> ::::::: I fixed that label, hold on... [[Special:Contributions/172.71.154.86|172.71.154.86]] 23:30, 15 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> ::::::: You're right. Thanks. Sorry. Reverted on main. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.154.215|172.71.154.215]] 23:39, 15 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> |} &lt;!-- {{cob}} --&gt;<br /> <br /> This makes about as much sense as other Flat Earth theories. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.200.137|172.70.200.137]] 20:00, 15 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> :But this would actually be a flat Earth. Albeit with a rather larger surface area ;-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 20:03, 15 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> :And..the Earth-ring is not a disc and it's also in the same plane as the sun. Meaning If you were to stand on the surface of this ring earth , there would be a perpetual sunrise / sunset... And similar for everything else in the plane of the ecliptic. [[User:Iggynelix|Iggynelix]] ([[User talk:Iggynelix|talk]]) 12:36, 16 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> But what does the plot of surface gravity vs distance from the Sun look like? Gravity of an infinite plane and all that?--[[User:Brossa|Brossa]] ([[User talk:Brossa|talk]]) 00:01, 16 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> The explanation currently says that it would require &quot;several solar system's worth&quot; of matter, but isn't there enough matter in the actual solar system? --[[User:Purah126|Purah126]] ([[User talk:Purah126|talk]]) 00:49, 16 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> :That was said in reference to the Alderson Disk, which requires 1000km or so of thickness. Clearly more than the proposal here that gives a minute thickness (relatively) from the ''actual'' planetary mass in the solar system. Even if you reduced its extent (smaller outer, bigger hole for the Sun) it wouldn't thicken up enough. The prior (non-xkcd) version would require a mass of material rivaling, if not exceeding, that of the Sun itself. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.222|172.70.162.222]] 02:07, 16 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> One of the reasons NASA rejected this could've been the use of inches. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.102.13|172.71.102.13]] 02:26, 16 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> : Except for Mars. I can only imagine that use of the metric system for the Mars ring is a reference to the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Climate_Orbiter#Cause_of_failure Mars Climate Orbiter] fiasco, which certainly would not endear Randall, or his proposal, to a NASA granting agency program officer. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.214.150|172.70.214.150]] 02:45, 16 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> :: I assume the use of microns there is simply because 5/512 is a really awkward fraction. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.223.25|172.71.223.25]] 05:48, 16 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> ::: Awkward? Its vulgar!<br /> [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.56|172.70.162.56]] 08:05, 16 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> If the planets of the solar system were to become disks centered on the respective planet's current orbit, how do we deal with the different orbital eccentricities? For example, per That Other Wiki, Venus has an orbital eccentricity of 0.006772, Earth has 0.0167086, and Mars has 0.0934. Not to mention Neptune's 0.008678 and Pluto's 0.2488; Pluto's orbit actually crosses Neptune's. Surely that would cause issues with the disks? [[Special:Contributions/172.71.98.5|172.71.98.5]] 08:33, 16 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> :Pluto isn't involved, so at least that difficulty doesn't have to be dealt with. Maybe Pluto and other dwarf planets could be used to supplement the asteroid ball bearings.[[Special:Contributions/172.71.242.63|172.71.242.63]] 10:55, 16 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> It appears that there is enough material in the asteroid belt to do this, since a ring of asteroid ball bearings with a 1 trillion kilometer diameter where each ball bearing was a cube 1 meter by 1 meter (clearly more than enough!) would be less than 10 trillion cubic meters. Since the total mass of the asteroid belt is 10^21 kg, and the average density is around 2 g/cm^3, = 2000 kg/m^3, then the amount of matter required is 2,000*10 trillion = 2 quadrillion which is much less than 10^21. (Not sure if this is actually correct) --[[User:Purah126|Purah126]] ([[User talk:Purah126|talk]]) 12:17, 16 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> :Ahh yes, the classic cubic-bearing. Just what we need in this planetary ring system we've created. Since Randall elects to eschew spheres for the plants, let's go all in and refuse them for the bearings as well. Bravo. <br /> <br /> Did anyone notice that this came out just after pi-day? [[User:Iggynelix|Iggynelix]] ([[User talk:Iggynelix|talk]]) 12:40, 16 March 2023 (UTC)</div>

Iggynelix https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2750:_Flatten_the_Planets&diff=308718 2023-03-16T12:40:17Z

<p>Iggynelix: Pi Day</p> <hr /> <div>&lt;!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~ and don't delete this text. New comments should be added at the bottom.--&gt;<br /> I have to wonder, would you slide down to the sun, or be flung outwards? [[User:SDSpivey|SDSpivey]] ([[User talk:SDSpivey|talk]]) 19:39, 15 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> : The discs are centered on the orbit of the parent planet, and presumably rotating at the same frequency as the parent planet's orbit. That means the inner edge of each disc is going slower than you'd need to orbit the Sun at that distance, and the outer edge faster. If you moved inward from the original planet's orbit, the Sun's gravity would pull you in, but when you crossed the boundary to the next disc, you'd get flung back outward.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.61|162.158.62.61]] 19:58, 15 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> ::No Each planet fills out the space within their orbit into the next planet. Easy to see as the outer edge of Neptune's orbit is the same as with the planet flattened. There is a distance from Mercury to the Sun indicated. Maybe because it would melt if it got any closer? --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 20:03, 15 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> :::First, they're rings not discs, but I'm skeptical of the math. And it looks to me like the ring's edges are halfway between the orbits, with Neptune extended outwards the same distance as halfway to Uranus's orbit. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.22.4|172.69.22.4]] 20:08, 15 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> {{cot|My mistake, Randall's math is correct, sorry.}}<br /> <br /> {| class=&quot;wikitable&quot; style=&quot;text-align: right;&quot;<br /> |-<br /> ! Planet !! Volume (10&lt;sup&gt;9&lt;/sup&gt; km&lt;sup&gt;3&lt;/sup&gt;) !! Orbital radius (10&lt;sup&gt;6&lt;/sup&gt; km) || halfway to prior || halfway to next || Annulus area (10&lt;sup&gt;&lt;s&gt;9&lt;/s&gt; ''12'' OOPS!&lt;/sup&gt; km&lt;sup&gt;2&lt;/sup&gt;) || Thickness (&lt;s&gt;cm&lt;/s&gt; ''10s of microns'')<br /> |-<br /> | Mercury || 61 || 58 || 29 (to 0) || 83 || 19,000 || 321<br /> |-<br /> | Venus || 928 || 108 || 83 || 129 || 30,637 || 3,029<br /> |-<br /> | Earth || 1,083 || 150 || 129 || 189 || 59,942 || 1,802<br /> |-<br /> | Mars || 163 || 228 || 189 || 504 || 685,794 || 24<br /> |-<br /> | Jupiter || 1,4310,00 || 779 || 504 || 1,107 || 3,051,847 || 46,890<br /> |-<br /> | Saturn || 827,130 || 1,434 || 1,107 || 2,154 || 10,726,236 || 7,711<br /> |-<br /> | Uranus || 68,340 || 2,873 || 2,154 || 3,684 || 28,061,145 || 244<br /> |-<br /> | Neptune || 62,540 || 4,495 || 3,684 || 5,304 (symmetry) || 45,743,348 || 137<br /> |}<br /> <br /> :::: The volumes in this table are at 2 different scales. Only the Mercury to Mars volumes are at 10&lt;sup&gt;10&lt;/sup&gt; km&lt;sup&gt;3&lt;/sup&gt;. Jupiter to Neptune are at 10&lt;sup&gt;12&lt;/sup&gt; km&lt;sup&gt;3&lt;/sup&gt; [[User:Sandor|Sandor]] ([[User talk:Sandor|talk]]) 21:01, 15 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> ::::: Thanks, fixed; I had the scale wrong for the radii too. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.158.231|172.71.158.231]] 21:16, 15 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> :::Someone please double-check this, I think Randall is off by a factor of 1000. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.154.229|172.71.154.229]] 21:37, 15 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> :::: I did my own spreadsheet, and my figures agree with Randall's (roughly). I think your thinkness figures are mostly out by 1000, and a few of your volume figures also have the wrong scale (Mercury is smaller than Mars, and the giants are too big by a factor of 10). [[User:Sandor|Sandor]] ([[User talk:Sandor|talk]]) 22:07, 15 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> ::::: 61 * 10^9 km^3 is [https://www.google.com/search?q=61+*+10%5E9+km%5E3+in+cm%5E3 6.1 × 10^25 cm^3], 19000 * 10^9 km^2 is [https://www.google.com/search?q=19000+*+10%5E9+km%5E2+in+cm%5E2 1.9 × 10^23 cm^2], and (6.1 × 10^25 cm^3) / (1.9 × 10^23 cm^2) is [https://www.google.com/search?q=%286.1+%C3%97+10%5E25+cm%5E3%29+%2F+%281.9+%C3%97+10%5E23+cm%5E2%29 3.2 meters]. I'm afraid I'm correct. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.22.145|172.69.22.145]] 22:31, 15 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> ::::: According to {{w|List_of_Solar_System_objects_by_size#Objects_with_radius_over_400_km}} yes I had Mars wrong (corrected) but the others are roughly correct. I stand by my claim that Randall is in error. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.154.86|172.71.154.86]] 22:39, 15 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> :::::: Mercury's orbital radius is about 58 * 10&lt;sup&gt;6&lt;/sup&gt; km, not 58 * 10&lt;sup&gt;9&lt;/sup&gt; km, which makes the annulus' area 19000 10&lt;sup&gt;12&lt;/sup&gt; km&lt;sup&gt;2&lt;/sup&gt;. [[User:Sandor|Sandor]] ([[User talk:Sandor|talk]]) 23:20, 15 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> ::::::: I fixed that label, hold on... [[Special:Contributions/172.71.154.86|172.71.154.86]] 23:30, 15 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> ::::::: You're right. Thanks. Sorry. Reverted on main. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.154.215|172.71.154.215]] 23:39, 15 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> |} &lt;!-- {{cob}} --&gt;<br /> <br /> This makes about as much sense as other Flat Earth theories. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.200.137|172.70.200.137]] 20:00, 15 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> :But this would actually be a flat Earth. Albeit with a rather larger surface area ;-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 20:03, 15 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> :And..the Earth-ring is not a disc and it's also in the same plane as the sun. Meaning If you were to stand on the surface of this ring earth , there would be a perpetual sunrise / sunset... And similar for everything else in the plane of the ecliptic. [[User:Iggynelix|Iggynelix]] ([[User talk:Iggynelix|talk]]) 12:36, 16 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> But what does the plot of surface gravity vs distance from the Sun look like? Gravity of an infinite plane and all that?--[[User:Brossa|Brossa]] ([[User talk:Brossa|talk]]) 00:01, 16 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> The explanation currently says that it would require &quot;several solar system's worth&quot; of matter, but isn't there enough matter in the actual solar system? --[[User:Purah126|Purah126]] ([[User talk:Purah126|talk]]) 00:49, 16 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> :That was said in reference to the Alderson Disk, which requires 1000km or so of thickness. Clearly more than the proposal here that gives a minute thickness (relatively) from the ''actual'' planetary mass in the solar system. Even if you reduced its extent (smaller outer, bigger hole for the Sun) it wouldn't thicken up enough. The prior (non-xkcd) version would require a mass of material rivaling, if not exceeding, that of the Sun itself. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.222|172.70.162.222]] 02:07, 16 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> One of the reasons NASA rejected this could've been the use of inches. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.102.13|172.71.102.13]] 02:26, 16 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> : Except for Mars. I can only imagine that use of the metric system for the Mars ring is a reference to the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Climate_Orbiter#Cause_of_failure Mars Climate Orbiter] fiasco, which certainly would not endear Randall, or his proposal, to a NASA granting agency program officer. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.214.150|172.70.214.150]] 02:45, 16 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> :: I assume the use of microns there is simply because 5/512 is a really awkward fraction. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.223.25|172.71.223.25]] 05:48, 16 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> ::: Awkward? Its vulgar!<br /> [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.56|172.70.162.56]] 08:05, 16 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> If the planets of the solar system were to become disks centered on the respective planet's current orbit, how do we deal with the different orbital eccentricities? For example, per That Other Wiki, Venus has an orbital eccentricity of 0.006772, Earth has 0.0167086, and Mars has 0.0934. Not to mention Neptune's 0.008678 and Pluto's 0.2488; Pluto's orbit actually crosses Neptune's. Surely that would cause issues with the disks? [[Special:Contributions/172.71.98.5|172.71.98.5]] 08:33, 16 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> :Pluto isn't involved, so at least that difficulty doesn't have to be dealt with. Maybe Pluto and other dwarf planets could be used to supplement the asteroid ball bearings.[[Special:Contributions/172.71.242.63|172.71.242.63]] 10:55, 16 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> It appears that there is enough material in the asteroid belt to do this, since a ring of asteroid ball bearings with a 1 trillion kilometer diameter where each ball bearing was a cube 1 meter by 1 meter (clearly more than enough!) would be less than 10 trillion cubic meters. Since the total mass of the asteroid belt is 10^21 kg, and the average density is around 2 g/cm^3, = 2000 kg/m^3, then the amount of matter required is 2,000*10 trillion = 2 quadrillion which is much less than 10^21. (Not sure if this is actually correct) --[[User:Purah126|Purah126]] ([[User talk:Purah126|talk]]) 12:17, 16 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> :Ahh yes, the classic cubic-bearing. <br /> <br /> Did anyone notice that this came out just after pi-day? [[User:Iggynelix|Iggynelix]] ([[User talk:Iggynelix|talk]]) 12:40, 16 March 2023 (UTC)</div>

Iggynelix https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2750:_Flatten_the_Planets&diff=308717 2023-03-16T12:36:18Z

<p>Iggynelix: </p> <hr /> <div>&lt;!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~ and don't delete this text. New comments should be added at the bottom.--&gt;<br /> I have to wonder, would you slide down to the sun, or be flung outwards? [[User:SDSpivey|SDSpivey]] ([[User talk:SDSpivey|talk]]) 19:39, 15 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> : The discs are centered on the orbit of the parent planet, and presumably rotating at the same frequency as the parent planet's orbit. That means the inner edge of each disc is going slower than you'd need to orbit the Sun at that distance, and the outer edge faster. If you moved inward from the original planet's orbit, the Sun's gravity would pull you in, but when you crossed the boundary to the next disc, you'd get flung back outward.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.61|162.158.62.61]] 19:58, 15 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> ::No Each planet fills out the space within their orbit into the next planet. Easy to see as the outer edge of Neptune's orbit is the same as with the planet flattened. There is a distance from Mercury to the Sun indicated. Maybe because it would melt if it got any closer? --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 20:03, 15 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> :::First, they're rings not discs, but I'm skeptical of the math. And it looks to me like the ring's edges are halfway between the orbits, with Neptune extended outwards the same distance as halfway to Uranus's orbit. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.22.4|172.69.22.4]] 20:08, 15 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> {{cot|My mistake, Randall's math is correct, sorry.}}<br /> <br /> {| class=&quot;wikitable&quot; style=&quot;text-align: right;&quot;<br /> |-<br /> ! Planet !! Volume (10&lt;sup&gt;9&lt;/sup&gt; km&lt;sup&gt;3&lt;/sup&gt;) !! Orbital radius (10&lt;sup&gt;6&lt;/sup&gt; km) || halfway to prior || halfway to next || Annulus area (10&lt;sup&gt;&lt;s&gt;9&lt;/s&gt; ''12'' OOPS!&lt;/sup&gt; km&lt;sup&gt;2&lt;/sup&gt;) || Thickness (&lt;s&gt;cm&lt;/s&gt; ''10s of microns'')<br /> |-<br /> | Mercury || 61 || 58 || 29 (to 0) || 83 || 19,000 || 321<br /> |-<br /> | Venus || 928 || 108 || 83 || 129 || 30,637 || 3,029<br /> |-<br /> | Earth || 1,083 || 150 || 129 || 189 || 59,942 || 1,802<br /> |-<br /> | Mars || 163 || 228 || 189 || 504 || 685,794 || 24<br /> |-<br /> | Jupiter || 1,4310,00 || 779 || 504 || 1,107 || 3,051,847 || 46,890<br /> |-<br /> | Saturn || 827,130 || 1,434 || 1,107 || 2,154 || 10,726,236 || 7,711<br /> |-<br /> | Uranus || 68,340 || 2,873 || 2,154 || 3,684 || 28,061,145 || 244<br /> |-<br /> | Neptune || 62,540 || 4,495 || 3,684 || 5,304 (symmetry) || 45,743,348 || 137<br /> |}<br /> <br /> :::: The volumes in this table are at 2 different scales. Only the Mercury to Mars volumes are at 10&lt;sup&gt;10&lt;/sup&gt; km&lt;sup&gt;3&lt;/sup&gt;. Jupiter to Neptune are at 10&lt;sup&gt;12&lt;/sup&gt; km&lt;sup&gt;3&lt;/sup&gt; [[User:Sandor|Sandor]] ([[User talk:Sandor|talk]]) 21:01, 15 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> ::::: Thanks, fixed; I had the scale wrong for the radii too. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.158.231|172.71.158.231]] 21:16, 15 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> :::Someone please double-check this, I think Randall is off by a factor of 1000. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.154.229|172.71.154.229]] 21:37, 15 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> :::: I did my own spreadsheet, and my figures agree with Randall's (roughly). I think your thinkness figures are mostly out by 1000, and a few of your volume figures also have the wrong scale (Mercury is smaller than Mars, and the giants are too big by a factor of 10). [[User:Sandor|Sandor]] ([[User talk:Sandor|talk]]) 22:07, 15 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> ::::: 61 * 10^9 km^3 is [https://www.google.com/search?q=61+*+10%5E9+km%5E3+in+cm%5E3 6.1 × 10^25 cm^3], 19000 * 10^9 km^2 is [https://www.google.com/search?q=19000+*+10%5E9+km%5E2+in+cm%5E2 1.9 × 10^23 cm^2], and (6.1 × 10^25 cm^3) / (1.9 × 10^23 cm^2) is [https://www.google.com/search?q=%286.1+%C3%97+10%5E25+cm%5E3%29+%2F+%281.9+%C3%97+10%5E23+cm%5E2%29 3.2 meters]. I'm afraid I'm correct. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.22.145|172.69.22.145]] 22:31, 15 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> ::::: According to {{w|List_of_Solar_System_objects_by_size#Objects_with_radius_over_400_km}} yes I had Mars wrong (corrected) but the others are roughly correct. I stand by my claim that Randall is in error. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.154.86|172.71.154.86]] 22:39, 15 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> :::::: Mercury's orbital radius is about 58 * 10&lt;sup&gt;6&lt;/sup&gt; km, not 58 * 10&lt;sup&gt;9&lt;/sup&gt; km, which makes the annulus' area 19000 10&lt;sup&gt;12&lt;/sup&gt; km&lt;sup&gt;2&lt;/sup&gt;. [[User:Sandor|Sandor]] ([[User talk:Sandor|talk]]) 23:20, 15 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> ::::::: I fixed that label, hold on... [[Special:Contributions/172.71.154.86|172.71.154.86]] 23:30, 15 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> ::::::: You're right. Thanks. Sorry. Reverted on main. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.154.215|172.71.154.215]] 23:39, 15 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> |} &lt;!-- {{cob}} --&gt;<br /> <br /> This makes about as much sense as other Flat Earth theories. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.200.137|172.70.200.137]] 20:00, 15 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> :But this would actually be a flat Earth. Albeit with a rather larger surface area ;-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 20:03, 15 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> :And..the Earth-ring is not a disc and it's also in the same plane as the sun. Meaning If you were to stand on the surface of this ring earth , there would be a perpetual sunrise / sunset... And similar for everything else in the plane of the ecliptic. [[User:Iggynelix|Iggynelix]] ([[User talk:Iggynelix|talk]]) 12:36, 16 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> But what does the plot of surface gravity vs distance from the Sun look like? Gravity of an infinite plane and all that?--[[User:Brossa|Brossa]] ([[User talk:Brossa|talk]]) 00:01, 16 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> The explanation currently says that it would require &quot;several solar system's worth&quot; of matter, but isn't there enough matter in the actual solar system? --[[User:Purah126|Purah126]] ([[User talk:Purah126|talk]]) 00:49, 16 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> :That was said in reference to the Alderson Disk, which requires 1000km or so of thickness. Clearly more than the proposal here that gives a minute thickness (relatively) from the ''actual'' planetary mass in the solar system. Even if you reduced its extent (smaller outer, bigger hole for the Sun) it wouldn't thicken up enough. The prior (non-xkcd) version would require a mass of material rivaling, if not exceeding, that of the Sun itself. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.222|172.70.162.222]] 02:07, 16 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> One of the reasons NASA rejected this could've been the use of inches. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.102.13|172.71.102.13]] 02:26, 16 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> : Except for Mars. I can only imagine that use of the metric system for the Mars ring is a reference to the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Climate_Orbiter#Cause_of_failure Mars Climate Orbiter] fiasco, which certainly would not endear Randall, or his proposal, to a NASA granting agency program officer. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.214.150|172.70.214.150]] 02:45, 16 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> :: I assume the use of microns there is simply because 5/512 is a really awkward fraction. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.223.25|172.71.223.25]] 05:48, 16 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> ::: Awkward? Its vulgar!<br /> [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.56|172.70.162.56]] 08:05, 16 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> If the planets of the solar system were to become disks centered on the respective planet's current orbit, how do we deal with the different orbital eccentricities? For example, per That Other Wiki, Venus has an orbital eccentricity of 0.006772, Earth has 0.0167086, and Mars has 0.0934. Not to mention Neptune's 0.008678 and Pluto's 0.2488; Pluto's orbit actually crosses Neptune's. Surely that would cause issues with the disks? [[Special:Contributions/172.71.98.5|172.71.98.5]] 08:33, 16 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> :Pluto isn't involved, so at least that difficulty doesn't have to be dealt with. Maybe Pluto and other dwarf planets could be used to supplement the asteroid ball bearings.[[Special:Contributions/172.71.242.63|172.71.242.63]] 10:55, 16 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> It appears that there is enough material in the asteroid belt to do this, since a ring of asteroid ball bearings with a 1 trillion kilometer diameter where each ball bearing was a cube 1 meter by 1 meter (clearly more than enough!) would be less than 10 trillion cubic meters. Since the total mass of the asteroid belt is 10^21 kg, and the average density is around 2 g/cm^3, = 2000 kg/m^3, then the amount of matter required is 2,000*10 trillion = 2 quadrillion which is much less than 10^21. (Not sure if this is actually correct) --[[User:Purah126|Purah126]] ([[User talk:Purah126|talk]]) 12:17, 16 March 2023 (UTC)</div>

Iggynelix https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2750:_Flatten_the_Planets&diff=308716 2023-03-16T12:32:15Z

<p>Iggynelix: </p> <hr /> <div>&lt;!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~ and don't delete this text. New comments should be added at the bottom.--&gt;<br /> I have to wonder, would you slide down to the sun, or be flung outwards? [[User:SDSpivey|SDSpivey]] ([[User talk:SDSpivey|talk]]) 19:39, 15 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> : The discs are centered on the orbit of the parent planet, and presumably rotating at the same frequency as the parent planet's orbit. That means the inner edge of each disc is going slower than you'd need to orbit the Sun at that distance, and the outer edge faster. If you moved inward from the original planet's orbit, the Sun's gravity would pull you in, but when you crossed the boundary to the next disc, you'd get flung back outward.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.61|162.158.62.61]] 19:58, 15 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> ::No Each planet fills out the space within their orbit into the next planet. Easy to see as the outer edge of Neptune's orbit is the same as with the planet flattened. There is a distance from Mercury to the Sun indicated. Maybe because it would melt if it got any closer? --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 20:03, 15 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> :::First, they're rings not discs, but I'm skeptical of the math. And it looks to me like the ring's edges are halfway between the orbits, with Neptune extended outwards the same distance as halfway to Uranus's orbit. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.22.4|172.69.22.4]] 20:08, 15 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> {{cot|My mistake, Randall's math is correct, sorry.}}<br /> <br /> {| class=&quot;wikitable&quot; style=&quot;text-align: right;&quot;<br /> |-<br /> ! Planet !! Volume (10&lt;sup&gt;9&lt;/sup&gt; km&lt;sup&gt;3&lt;/sup&gt;) !! Orbital radius (10&lt;sup&gt;6&lt;/sup&gt; km) || halfway to prior || halfway to next || Annulus area (10&lt;sup&gt;&lt;s&gt;9&lt;/s&gt; ''12'' OOPS!&lt;/sup&gt; km&lt;sup&gt;2&lt;/sup&gt;) || Thickness (&lt;s&gt;cm&lt;/s&gt; ''10s of microns'')<br /> |-<br /> | Mercury || 61 || 58 || 29 (to 0) || 83 || 19,000 || 321<br /> |-<br /> | Venus || 928 || 108 || 83 || 129 || 30,637 || 3,029<br /> |-<br /> | Earth || 1,083 || 150 || 129 || 189 || 59,942 || 1,802<br /> |-<br /> | Mars || 163 || 228 || 189 || 504 || 685,794 || 24<br /> |-<br /> | Jupiter || 1,4310,00 || 779 || 504 || 1,107 || 3,051,847 || 46,890<br /> |-<br /> | Saturn || 827,130 || 1,434 || 1,107 || 2,154 || 10,726,236 || 7,711<br /> |-<br /> | Uranus || 68,340 || 2,873 || 2,154 || 3,684 || 28,061,145 || 244<br /> |-<br /> | Neptune || 62,540 || 4,495 || 3,684 || 5,304 (symmetry) || 45,743,348 || 137<br /> |}<br /> <br /> :::: The volumes in this table are at 2 different scales. Only the Mercury to Mars volumes are at 10&lt;sup&gt;10&lt;/sup&gt; km&lt;sup&gt;3&lt;/sup&gt;. Jupiter to Neptune are at 10&lt;sup&gt;12&lt;/sup&gt; km&lt;sup&gt;3&lt;/sup&gt; [[User:Sandor|Sandor]] ([[User talk:Sandor|talk]]) 21:01, 15 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> ::::: Thanks, fixed; I had the scale wrong for the radii too. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.158.231|172.71.158.231]] 21:16, 15 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> :::Someone please double-check this, I think Randall is off by a factor of 1000. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.154.229|172.71.154.229]] 21:37, 15 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> :::: I did my own spreadsheet, and my figures agree with Randall's (roughly). I think your thinkness figures are mostly out by 1000, and a few of your volume figures also have the wrong scale (Mercury is smaller than Mars, and the giants are too big by a factor of 10). [[User:Sandor|Sandor]] ([[User talk:Sandor|talk]]) 22:07, 15 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> ::::: 61 * 10^9 km^3 is [https://www.google.com/search?q=61+*+10%5E9+km%5E3+in+cm%5E3 6.1 × 10^25 cm^3], 19000 * 10^9 km^2 is [https://www.google.com/search?q=19000+*+10%5E9+km%5E2+in+cm%5E2 1.9 × 10^23 cm^2], and (6.1 × 10^25 cm^3) / (1.9 × 10^23 cm^2) is [https://www.google.com/search?q=%286.1+%C3%97+10%5E25+cm%5E3%29+%2F+%281.9+%C3%97+10%5E23+cm%5E2%29 3.2 meters]. I'm afraid I'm correct. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.22.145|172.69.22.145]] 22:31, 15 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> ::::: According to {{w|List_of_Solar_System_objects_by_size#Objects_with_radius_over_400_km}} yes I had Mars wrong (corrected) but the others are roughly correct. I stand by my claim that Randall is in error. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.154.86|172.71.154.86]] 22:39, 15 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> :::::: Mercury's orbital radius is about 58 * 10&lt;sup&gt;6&lt;/sup&gt; km, not 58 * 10&lt;sup&gt;9&lt;/sup&gt; km, which makes the annulus' area 19000 10&lt;sup&gt;12&lt;/sup&gt; km&lt;sup&gt;2&lt;/sup&gt;. [[User:Sandor|Sandor]] ([[User talk:Sandor|talk]]) 23:20, 15 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> ::::::: I fixed that label, hold on... [[Special:Contributions/172.71.154.86|172.71.154.86]] 23:30, 15 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> ::::::: You're right. Thanks. Sorry. Reverted on main. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.154.215|172.71.154.215]] 23:39, 15 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> |} &lt;!-- {{cob}} --&gt;<br /> <br /> This makes about as much sense as other Flat Earth theories. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.200.137|172.70.200.137]] 20:00, 15 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> :But this would actually be a flat Earth. Albeit with a rather larger surface area ;-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 20:03, 15 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> :And..the Earth-ring is not a disc and it's also in the same plane as the sun. Meaning If you were to stand on the surface of this ring earth , there would be a perpetual sunrise / sunset... And similar for everything else in the plane of the ecliptic. <br /> <br /> But what does the plot of surface gravity vs distance from the Sun look like? Gravity of an infinite plane and all that?--[[User:Brossa|Brossa]] ([[User talk:Brossa|talk]]) 00:01, 16 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> The explanation currently says that it would require &quot;several solar system's worth&quot; of matter, but isn't there enough matter in the actual solar system? --[[User:Purah126|Purah126]] ([[User talk:Purah126|talk]]) 00:49, 16 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> :That was said in reference to the Alderson Disk, which requires 1000km or so of thickness. Clearly more than the proposal here that gives a minute thickness (relatively) from the ''actual'' planetary mass in the solar system. Even if you reduced its extent (smaller outer, bigger hole for the Sun) it wouldn't thicken up enough. The prior (non-xkcd) version would require a mass of material rivaling, if not exceeding, that of the Sun itself. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.222|172.70.162.222]] 02:07, 16 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> One of the reasons NASA rejected this could've been the use of inches. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.102.13|172.71.102.13]] 02:26, 16 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> : Except for Mars. I can only imagine that use of the metric system for the Mars ring is a reference to the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Climate_Orbiter#Cause_of_failure Mars Climate Orbiter] fiasco, which certainly would not endear Randall, or his proposal, to a NASA granting agency program officer. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.214.150|172.70.214.150]] 02:45, 16 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> :: I assume the use of microns there is simply because 5/512 is a really awkward fraction. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.223.25|172.71.223.25]] 05:48, 16 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> ::: Awkward? Its vulgar!<br /> [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.56|172.70.162.56]] 08:05, 16 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> If the planets of the solar system were to become disks centered on the respective planet's current orbit, how do we deal with the different orbital eccentricities? For example, per That Other Wiki, Venus has an orbital eccentricity of 0.006772, Earth has 0.0167086, and Mars has 0.0934. Not to mention Neptune's 0.008678 and Pluto's 0.2488; Pluto's orbit actually crosses Neptune's. Surely that would cause issues with the disks? [[Special:Contributions/172.71.98.5|172.71.98.5]] 08:33, 16 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> :Pluto isn't involved, so at least that difficulty doesn't have to be dealt with. Maybe Pluto and other dwarf planets could be used to supplement the asteroid ball bearings.[[Special:Contributions/172.71.242.63|172.71.242.63]] 10:55, 16 March 2023 (UTC)<br /> <br /> It appears that there is enough material in the asteroid belt to do this, since a ring of asteroid ball bearings with a 1 trillion kilometer diameter where each ball bearing was a cube 1 meter by 1 meter (clearly more than enough!) would be less than 10 trillion cubic meters. Since the total mass of the asteroid belt is 10^21 kg, and the average density is around 2 g/cm^3, = 2000 kg/m^3, then the amount of matter required is 2,000*10 trillion = 2 quadrillion which is much less than 10^21. (Not sure if this is actually correct) --[[User:Purah126|Purah126]] ([[User talk:Purah126|talk]]) 12:17, 16 March 2023 (UTC)</div>

Iggynelix https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2747:_Presents_for_Biologists&diff=307443 2023-03-09T14:02:04Z

<p>Iggynelix: Birthday to gift</p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 2747<br /> | date = March 8, 2023<br /> | title = Presents for Biologists<br /> | image = presents_for_biologists_2x.png<br /> | imagesize = 396x353px<br /> | noexpand = true<br /> | titletext = A lot of these are actually non-venomous, but I can see which species you mistook them for. If you pause the crane for a sec I can give you some ID pointers for next time!<br /> }}<br /> <br /> ==Explanation==<br /> {{incomplete|Created by a SUPERVILLAIN - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> In this strip, [[Black Hat]] is a supervillain subjecting '{{w|James Bond}}' (drawn as [[Hairy]]) to a death trap, similar to [[123: Centrifugal Force]] (presumably Bond managed to escape in that instance). <br /> <br /> This time, however, Black Hat also has another victim, [[Science Girl]], being subjected to the same device – a pit full of snakes, into which the victims are slowly lowered (upside-down and suspended by just one ankle) entirely at the whim or mercy of the antagonist.<br /> <br /> While Bond voices typical defiance at Black Hat's scheme, Science Girl instead gushes over the sight of an unfamiliar snake species within the pit, asking Black Hat to lower her faster before that creature either escapes (there seemingly being very little to prevent any snake escaping the pit) or just moves to the other end of the pit.<br /> <br /> The caption reveals that Science Girl is a biologist. For her, the contents of this death trap would be happily considered a suitable present or experience gift, and apparently even these circumstances don't dampen the experience sufficiently to reduce her interest. <br /> <br /> The caption also mentions that there are a surprising amount of overlap between what would be &quot;good presents for biologists&quot; and &quot;things villains want to do to James Bond&quot;. Although we can only guess what other activities [[Randall]] is think off, shark tanks could be one of them.<br /> <br /> The title text explains how Science Girl has expertly spotted that the supervillain included some less dangerous snakes, probably {{w|Coral snake#North American coloration patterns|in error}}. Ever the professional, she suggests the possibility of her advice to help him avoid these errors in the future. She would need a short stay of execution, to do so, but is apparently not particularly fazed by how things end up immediately afterwards.<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> :[James Bond, drawn as Hairy, and Science Girl are hanging upside down from ropes attached to one of their ankles. Underneath them is a pit with many snakes. Science Girl is pointing down, while Black Hat to the left is operating a lever. Bond is yelling at Black Hat, indicated by lines emanating from his head. Science Girl is also yelling, but that is in the direction of the snakes beneath them. There seems to be many snakes in the pit, at least eight heads can be seen, and there are also snakes whose heads are not visible. At least six snakes are partly outside the pit. They have different patters of spots and shades and stripes.]<br /> :Bond: You won't get away with this!<br /> :Science Girl: Ooh! Ooh! That one is a new species for me!<br /> :Science Girl: Hey, can you lower me faster? It's getting away!<br /> <br /> :[Caption below the panel:]<br /> :There's a surprising amount of overlap between &quot;Good presents for biologists&quot; and &quot;Things villains want to do to James Bond.&quot;<br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}<br /> <br /> [[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]<br /> [[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]<br /> [[Category:Comics featuring Science Girl]]<br /> [[Category:Biology]]<br /> [[Category:Animals]]<br /> [[Category:Fiction]]</div>

Iggynelix https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2674:_Everyday_Carry&diff=295142 2022-09-20T18:14:48Z

<p>Iggynelix: </p> <hr /> <div>&lt;!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~ and don't delete this text. New comments should be added at the bottom.--&gt;<br /> Randall speaks: https://www.npr.org/2022/09/18/1123689628/randall-munroes-what-if-2-answers-the-absurd-science-questions-you-didnt-know-yo [[Special:Contributions/172.70.126.245|172.70.126.245]] 08:47, 20 September 2022 (UTC)<br /> <br /> My EDC: Swiss Army Knife, Kershaw Leek, Kershaw Chive, SOG Multi Tool, Quarters for Aldi, Visa card.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.131.44|172.70.131.44]] 08:54, 20 September 2022 (UTC)<br /> <br /> Hypothetical: Wandering around the jungle, as you do, you find an old, overgrown airstrip with abandoned planes strewn across its overgrown runway. Just then, several lost school parties show up out of nowhere, having miraculously survived various mid-sized airplane emergency landings in the vicinity. With one of the crowd's mobile phones (not you, because you haven't had a spare pocket for one since 2014, but you ''do'' have a USB recharge facility built into one of your many torches), and sufficient signal, the authorities are alerted to your exact position, and can send an airliner to rescue you all, just so long as the runway is cleared and you can set up enough lights to assist with their approach and landing. – Hopefully you hadn't a day or two ago had a wheel come off your cart (because of the jungle vines snagging at it!) and found that the screw that had come loose was of a size and configuration that ''none'' of your gadgets could actually handle. I mean, you had a darned star-penta-posix (with a hole in the end) for every other size from 1mm up to 35mm ''except this exact one''..! Amirite? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.107.159|141.101.107.159]] 08:58, 20 September 2022 (UTC)<br /> <br /> Turns out, when the time you prepared for comes, you're still really unprepared. It's not just that you'll still only have two hands and will be missing that one &quot;No need, you can find it anywhere&quot;-Part. You also will have no idea that the time has come (after 213 false alarms) or which of the many, many things you prepared for has actually occurred. [[User:627235|627235]] ([[User talk:627235|talk]]) 13:04, 20 September 2022 (UTC)<br /> <br /> There's only one true EDC: a bottle opener<br /> <br /> Did this come out on Monday? I didn't see it around 1am ET Tuesday, and the bot didn't create the ExplainXKCD page until 05:47 [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 14:00, 20 September 2022 (UTC)<br /> :No, Tuesday. Presumably the book tour has thrown the regular schedule off. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.134.131|172.69.134.131]] 15:59, 20 September 2022 (UTC)<br /> <br /> Can someone familiar with EDC give some examples and explain why all of them might be so bulky please? [[Special:Contributions/172.69.134.131|172.69.134.131]] 15:59, 20 September 2022 (UTC)<br /> <br /> This reminds me a little of 1833 when Ponytail compares code to a JSON table of the model numbers of all flashlights with the word “tactical” in their names<br /> :[[1833:_Code_Quality_3]] and<br /> :[[1603:_Flashlights]]</div>

Iggynelix https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2625:_Field_Topology&diff=284259 2022-05-27T13:04:06Z

<p>Iggynelix: /* Explanation */</p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 2625<br /> | date = May 27, 2022<br /> | title = Field Topology<br /> | image = field_topology.png<br /> | titletext = The combination croquet set/10-lane pool can also be used for some varieties of foosball and Skee-Ball.<br /> }}<br /> <br /> ==Explanation==<br /> {{incomplete|Created by a TOPOLOGIST MATHLETE - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> This comic strip depicts a logical extreme of multi-use athletic facilities, in which sports are grouped by the topological equivalence of their fields (not to be confused with {{w|Field (mathematics)|mathematical fields}}, or the {{w|Fields Medal}} prize -- although successfully {{w|Straightedge and compass construction|constructing}} these fields might lead to medals of one kind or another being granted).<br /> <br /> In topology, shapes which can be smoothly changed into one another, without making or closing cuts or holes, are equivalent. {{w|Baseball}}, {{w|soccer}}, and {{w|tetherball}} are played on fields with no obstructions, so they are grouped ({{w|Group (mathematics)|heh!}}) into one continuous field without holes. {{w|Volleyball}} and {{w|badminton}} are played on a field split in two by a net, and the {{w|high jump}} has a bar that contestants jump over. The space bounded by the bottom of the net (or bar), the supporting poles and the ground can be considered as a hole, so their fields all have one &quot;hole&quot;.<br /> <br /> Similarly basketball has two holes, the nets, and some football goal posts are &quot;H&quot; shaped, thus creating a 'hole' at either end of the playing surface. Parallel bars can be thought of as two rectangles and thus as two topographical &quot;holes&quot;.<br /> <br /> The lane dividers in swimming create bounded holes on the 'playing surface' equivalent to the number of lanes. And each hoop in croquet is a hole with one edge bounded by the playing surface.<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> {{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> Four indistinct shapes with various numbers of holes in, with signs next to them<br /> <br /> zero holes: &quot;Baseball. Soccer. Tetherball.&quot;<br /> <br /> one hole: &quot;Volleyball. Badminton. High jump.&quot;<br /> <br /> two holes: Basketball. Football. Parallel bars.&quot;<br /> <br /> nine holes: &quot;Olympic swimming. Croquet.&quot;<br /> <br /> Image caption: &quot;No one ever wants to use the topology department's athletic fields.&quot;<br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}</div>

Iggynelix https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2625:_Field_Topology&diff=284258 2022-05-27T13:02:48Z

<p>Iggynelix: /* Explanation */</p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 2625<br /> | date = May 27, 2022<br /> | title = Field Topology<br /> | image = field_topology.png<br /> | titletext = The combination croquet set/10-lane pool can also be used for some varieties of foosball and Skee-Ball.<br /> }}<br /> <br /> ==Explanation==<br /> {{incomplete|Created by a TOPOLOGIST MATHLETE - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> This comic strip depicts a logical extreme of multi-use athletic facilities, in which sports are grouped by the topological equivalence of their fields (not to be confused with {{w|Field (mathematics)|mathematical fields}}, or the {{w|Fields Medal}} prize -- although successfully {{w|Straightedge and compass construction|constructing}} these fields might lead to medals of one kind or another being granted).<br /> <br /> In topology, shapes which can be smoothly changed into one another, without making or closing cuts or holes, are equivalent. {{w|Baseball}}, {{w|soccer}}, and {{w|tetherball}} are played on fields with no obstructions, so they are grouped ({{w|Group (mathematics)|heh!}}) into one continuous field without holes. {{w|Volleyball}} and {{w|badminton}} are played on a field split in two by a net, and the {{w|high jump}} has a bar that contestants jump over. The space bounded by the bottom of the net (or bar), the supporting poles and the ground can be considered as a hole, so their fields all have one &quot;hole&quot;.<br /> <br /> Similarly basketball has two holes, the nets, and some football goal posts are &quot;H&quot; shaped, thus creating a 'hole' at either end of the playing surface. Parallel bars can be thought of as two rectangles and thus as two topographical &quot;holes&quot;.<br /> <br /> The lane dividers in swimming create bounded holes on the 'playing surface' equivalent to the number of lanes.<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> {{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> Four indistinct shapes with various numbers of holes in, with signs next to them<br /> <br /> zero holes: &quot;Baseball. Soccer. Tetherball.&quot;<br /> <br /> one hole: &quot;Volleyball. Badminton. High jump.&quot;<br /> <br /> two holes: Basketball. Football. Parallel bars.&quot;<br /> <br /> nine holes: &quot;Olympic swimming. Croquet.&quot;<br /> <br /> Image caption: &quot;No one ever wants to use the topology department's athletic fields.&quot;<br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}</div>

Iggynelix https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2625:_Field_Topology&diff=284257 2022-05-27T13:00:13Z

<p>Iggynelix: /* Explanation */</p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 2625<br /> | date = May 27, 2022<br /> | title = Field Topology<br /> | image = field_topology.png<br /> | titletext = The combination croquet set/10-lane pool can also be used for some varieties of foosball and Skee-Ball.<br /> }}<br /> <br /> ==Explanation==<br /> {{incomplete|Created by a TOPOLOGIST MATHLETE - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> This comic strip depicts a logical extreme of multi-use athletic facilities, in which sports are grouped by the topological equivalence of their fields (not to be confused with {{w|Field (mathematics)|mathematical fields}}, or the {{w|Fields Medal}} prize -- although successfully {{w|Straightedge and compass construction|constructing}} these fields might lead to medals of one kind or another being granted).<br /> <br /> In topology, shapes which can be smoothly changed into one another, without making or closing cuts or holes, are equivalent. {{w|Baseball}}, {{w|soccer}}, and {{w|tetherball}} are played on fields with no obstructions, so they are grouped ({{w|Group (mathematics)|heh!}}) into one continuous field without holes. {{w|Volleyball}} and {{w|badminton}} are played on a field split in two by a net, and the {{w|high jump}} has a bar that contestants jump over. The space bounded by the bottom of the net (or bar), the supporting poles and the ground can be considered as a hole, so their fields all have one &quot;hole&quot;.<br /> <br /> Similarly basketball has two holes, the nets, and some football goal posts are &quot;H&quot; shaped, thus creating a 'hole' at either end of the playing surface. Parallel bars can be thought of as two rectangles+again, two topographical &quot;holes&quot;.<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> {{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> Four indistinct shapes with various numbers of holes in, with signs next to them<br /> <br /> zero holes: &quot;Baseball. Soccer. Tetherball.&quot;<br /> <br /> one hole: &quot;Volleyball. Badminton. High jump.&quot;<br /> <br /> two holes: Basketball. Football. Parallel bars.&quot;<br /> <br /> nine holes: &quot;Olympic swimming. Croquet.&quot;<br /> <br /> Image caption: &quot;No one ever wants to use the topology department's athletic fields.&quot;<br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}</div>

Iggynelix https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2625:_Field_Topology&diff=284254 2022-05-27T12:57:58Z

<p>Iggynelix: /* Explanation */</p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 2625<br /> | date = May 27, 2022<br /> | title = Field Topology<br /> | image = field_topology.png<br /> | titletext = The combination croquet set/10-lane pool can also be used for some varieties of foosball and Skee-Ball.<br /> }}<br /> <br /> ==Explanation==<br /> {{incomplete|Created by a TOPOLOGIST MATHLETE - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> This comic strip depicts a logical extreme of multi-use athletic facilities, in which sports are grouped by the topological equivalence of their fields (not to be confused with {{w|Field (mathematics)|mathematical fields}}, or the {{w|Fields Medal}} prize -- although successfully {{w|Straightedge and compass construction|constructing}} these fields might lead to medals of one kind or another being granted).<br /> <br /> In topology, shapes which can be smoothly changed into one another, without making or closing cuts or holes, are equivalent. {{w|Baseball}}, {{w|soccer}}, and {{w|tetherball}} are played on fields with no obstructions, so they are grouped ({{w|Group (mathematics)|heh!}}) into one continuous field without holes. {{w|Volleyball}} and {{w|badminton}} are played on a field split in two by a net, and the {{w|high jump}} has a bar that contestants jump over. The space bounded by the bottom of the net (or bar), the supporting poles and the ground can be considered as a hole, so their fields all have one &quot;hole&quot;.<br /> <br /> Similarly basketball has two holes, the nets, and some football goal posts are &quot;H&quot; shaped, thus creating a 'hole' at either end of the playing surface.<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> {{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> Four indistinct shapes with various numbers of holes in, with signs next to them<br /> <br /> zero holes: &quot;Baseball. Soccer. Tetherball.&quot;<br /> <br /> one hole: &quot;Volleyball. Badminton. High jump.&quot;<br /> <br /> two holes: Basketball. Football. Parallel bars.&quot;<br /> <br /> nine holes: &quot;Olympic swimming. Croquet.&quot;<br /> <br /> Image caption: &quot;No one ever wants to use the topology department's athletic fields.&quot;<br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}</div>

Iggynelix https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2625:_Field_Topology&diff=284252 2022-05-27T12:55:33Z

<p>Iggynelix: /* Explanation */</p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 2625<br /> | date = May 27, 2022<br /> | title = Field Topology<br /> | image = field_topology.png<br /> | titletext = The combination croquet set/10-lane pool can also be used for some varieties of foosball and Skee-Ball.<br /> }}<br /> <br /> ==Explanation==<br /> {{incomplete|Created by a TOPOLOGIST MATHLETE - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> This comic strip depicts a logical extreme of multi-use athletic facilities, in which sports are grouped by the topological equivalence of their fields (not to be confused with {{w|Field (mathematics)|mathematical fields}}, or the {{w|Fields Medal}} prize -- although successfully {{w|Straightedge and compass construction|constructing}} these fields might lead to medals of one kind or another being granted).<br /> <br /> In topology, shapes which can be smoothly changed into one another, without making or closing cuts or holes, are equivalent. {{w|Baseball}}, {{w|soccer}}, and {{w|tetherball}} are played on fields with no obstructions, so they are grouped ({{w|Group (mathematics)|heh!}}) into one continuous field without holes. {{w|Volleyball}} and {{w|badminton}} are played on a field split in two by a net, and the {{w|high jump}} has a bar that contestants jump over. The space bounded by the bottom of the net (or bar), the supporting poles and the ground can be considered as a hole, so their fields all have one &quot;hole&quot;.<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> {{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> Four indistinct shapes with various numbers of holes in, with signs next to them<br /> <br /> zero holes: &quot;Baseball. Soccer. Tetherball.&quot;<br /> <br /> one hole: &quot;Volleyball. Badminton. High jump.&quot;<br /> <br /> two holes: Basketball. Football. Parallel bars.&quot;<br /> <br /> nine holes: &quot;Olympic swimming. Croquet.&quot;<br /> <br /> Image caption: &quot;No one ever wants to use the topology department's athletic fields.&quot;<br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}</div>

Iggynelix https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=915:_Connoisseur&diff=270519 2022-05-19T16:23:05Z

<p>Iggynelix: /* Transcript */ cranberries panel reference</p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 915<br /> | date = June 22, 2011<br /> | title = Connoisseur<br /> | image = connoisseur.png<br /> | titletext = Our brains have just one scale, and we resize our experiences to fit.<br /> }}<br /> <br /> ==Explanation==<br /> [[White Hat]] is fond of good {{w|wine}}, and he can probably distinguish slight differences in different types of wine, perhaps being the type that attends {{w|wine tasting}} parties. He doesn't like the cheap wine that Cueball has served for him (implying a cheap wine cannot be a good one, an opinion held by stereotypical wine snobs), looking with disgust at the label of the offending bottle. <br /> <br /> On the other hand, [[Cueball]] doesn't have a preference; all of them taste the same for him, so presumably he gets the cheaper ones. White Hat tells Cueball that if he just tried some really good wine and paid more attention he would discover a whole new world.<br /> <br /> Cueball's answer is the main message of the comic. He says that wine is no different from anything else in this respect, and makes a list starting with the wine but then going past {{w|house music}}, {{w|fonts}}, {{w|ants}}, ending with {{w|Wikipedia:Signatures|Wikipedia signatures}} and {{w|Canadian}} {{w|surrealist}} {{w|porn}}. His point being if you spend enough time focusing on any one subject, then you'll become a snobby '''{{w|connoisseur}}''' on that topic. <br /> <br /> White Hat tries to defend wine by saying that some things have more depth than others (wine being among them), but Cueball challenges him on this by choosing something as obscure as 500 pictures of {{w|Joe Biden}}, then {{w|Vice President of the United States}} under {{w|Barack Obama}}, eating a sandwich as an example. He claims that if people were locked up in a box with those pictures for a year, they would end up being connoisseurs with the same vehemence regarding the best picture as wine tasters can be about the best wine.<br /> <br /> White Hat claims that this is an exaggeration, but Cueball takes this as a challenge so in the last panel, apparently White Hat and Cueball are actually running this experiment to see if they will end up concentrating on slight differences among the pictures of Joe Biden eating a sandwich, just in the same way that White Hat concentrates on slight differences among different kinds of wine. The result of the experiment is clearly going to Cueball's side, the discussion being mainly between the importance of mayo or the light through lettuce from the sandwiches.<br /> <br /> This mentality may also be applied to online groups based on any subject (such as television shows, films, and other hobbies and interests), where arguments and vehement, stubborn opinions are common despite the fairly unimportant subject. <br /> <br /> The title text presents the same idea in a different wording. The &quot;scale of our brains&quot; refers to a concept similar to Richard Dawkins' {{w|Middle World}}, where things too small (say, smaller than the point of a pin) or too big (bigger than what we can see from a mountaintop) are just out of our comprehension, so the things our brains understand must be neither too small nor too big, i.e. the &quot;middle world&quot;.<br /> <br /> However, the title text goes further in this idea: When we find things too big (like the distance to the Moon), we shrink it so that it fits into the &quot;middle world&quot; we're used to. Conversely, when we find things too small (say, a mote of dust), we expand it for the same reason. In a quite similar way, if all we have is pictures of Joe Biden eating a sandwich, we &quot;resize&quot; that subject so that we can fill books with the details about the pictures.<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> :[White Hat is holding a wine glass down in one hand and holding a bottle of wine up in front of him with the other hand. He is looking at the label and talking with Cueball standing next to him with his own filled wine glass in one hand. He is looking down at the glass.]<br /> :White Hat: How do you stand this cheap wine?<br /> :Cueball: Wine all tastes the same to me.<br /> <br /> :[Close-up of White Hat.]<br /> :White Hat: You've just never had ''good'' wine. If you paid more attention, you'd realize there's a whole world here.<br /> <br /> :[Close-up on Cueball, who spreads his arms out, resulting in the wine in the glass sloshing so much that part of the wine is above the rim of the glass, some even hanging over the edge and a spray droplet hanging above the sloshing liquid.]<br /> :Cueball: But that's true of ''anything!'' Wine, house music, fonts, ants, Wikipedia signatures, Canadian surrealist porn—<br /> :Cueball: Spend enough time with any of them and you'll become a snobby connoisseur.<br /> <br /> :[This panel has no border (aka a 'frameless panel') and is next to but aligned further down than the first three panels. It shows a zoom out of both White Hat and Cueball again. White Hat now has both glass and bottle held down at his side. Cueball holds his glass down, but tilted away from him. A small puddle of wine is on the floor next to Cueball.]<br /> :White Hat: But some things do have more depth than others.<br /> :Cueball: If you locked people in a box for a year with 500 still frames of Joe Biden eating a sandwich, by the end they'd be adamant that some were great and some were terrible.<br /> :White Hat: You're exaggerating.<br /> :Cueball: Oh, really?<br /> <br /> :[This panel is below the feet of the two characters from the previous panel. It goes further to the left than those two, and is wider than the previous panels, but it does not go much past the middle, so there is a blank white space to the left of this panel, below the first and most of the second panel. It shows a box, with two star burst on the surface from where two voices emanate from the inside. Over the top left of the panels frame is a small frame with a caption:]<br /> :A year later:<br /> <br /> :[The voice from left side of the box:]<br /> <br /> :Sure, most closed-mouth frames are boring, but in #415, the way the man's jaw frames the mayo on his hand is pure perfection, and—<br /> <br /> :[The voice from right side of the box:]<br /> <br /> :What a surprise- ''you'' praising a mayo frame. Listening to '''you''', I'd think there was nothing else in The Sandwich. <br /> <br /> :[The voice from right side of the box:]<br /> <br /> :Frankly, the light hitting J.B.'s collar through the lettuce would put #242 in my top ten even if he had ''no'' mayo on his hand at ''all''.<br /> <br /> ==Trivia==<br /> *Specialized interests and the people involved in them are used again, with ants being the subject of [[1610: Fire Ants]], typefaces in [[590: Papyrus]] and [[736: Cemetery]], plastic straws in [[1095: Crazy Straws]], porn-video quality in [[598: Porn]], and common colds in [[2535: Common Cold Viruses]].<br /> <br /> *In [[1534: Beer]], Cueball also argue slight differences in alcohol brands don't make much difference (in 915 &quot;Wine all tastes the same to me.&quot;; in 1534, &quot;maybe we should just admit that all beer tastes kind of bad and everyone's just pretending?&quot;) and people just pretend due to social pressure.<br /> <br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}<br /> <br /> [[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]<br /> [[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br /> [[Category:Politics]]<br /> [[Category:Food]] &lt;!-- Sandwich and wine --&gt;<br /> [[Category:Wikipedia]] &lt;!-- Wikipedia signatures --&gt;<br /> [[Category:Animals]] &lt;!-- Ants --&gt;<br /> [[Category:Music]] &lt;!-- House Music --&gt;<br /> [[Category:Sex]] &lt;!-- Canadian surrealist porn --&gt;</div>

Iggynelix https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2607:_Geiger_Counter&diff=230599 2022-04-16T16:25:13Z

<p>Iggynelix: /* Leonard Cohen reference? */</p> <hr /> <div>&lt;!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~ and don't delete this text. New comments should be added at the bottom.--&gt;<br /> Vanilla joke, but funny. [[User:Nafedalbi|Nafedalbi]] ([[User talk:Nafedalbi|talk]]) 18:41, 15 April 2022 (UTC)Nafedalbi<br /> :It's Randall's &quot;dad joke&quot;. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 19:23, 15 April 2022 (UTC)<br /> :Honestly, yeah. I impulsively went &quot;wow... Randall's really jumped the stick figure shark.&quot; --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.110.121|172.70.110.121]] 06:32, 16 April 2022 (UTC)<br /> ::Not me. After plumbing the depths of Unicode and trying to describe a Taylor series expansion from square one, this is a welcome relief. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.214.81|172.70.214.81]] 07:34, 16 April 2022 (UTC)<br /> : When does an ordinary joke become a dad joke? When it becomes apparent. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.121|172.70.130.121]] 10:31, 16 April 2022 (UTC)<br /> <br /> I added telegraph wires (UK-only term, possibly, and anachronistic as they are telephone cables, so feel free to change to be US-centric) and birds seem happy to sit on pole-suspended POTS cables as much as power-lines, so the linked heat-effect thing is definitely a minority necessity. I think it's just a perch. Though we probably have more signal-wires. Most(?) streets more than a few decades old have telegraph poles feeding wires to established properties (even if cable/FTTP has been dug into trenches) but mains electricity tends to have been subsurface for much longer, with only HV national/rural-area transmission grids up on pylons/poles. Obviously there ''are'' a lot more perching birds out in the countryside, where they may dominate (but still the 'telegraph' may follow road or rail routes to service the villages and isolated inhabitations along them) but you don't tend to see birds atop the larger lines at all... Too high up? ''Too'' hot? I've seen rooks/etc happily doing a Hitchcock upon a pylon itself, apparently enjoying the communal view. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.63|172.70.90.63]] 18:54, 15 April 2022 (UTC)<br /> <br /> For the record, [[User:Avni]] at 19:30 UTC on 2022-04-15 [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2607:_Geiger_Counter&amp;diff=next&amp;oldid=230502 deleted everything on this page]&lt;br/&gt;<br /> --[[User:FrankHightower|FrankHightower]] ([[User talk:FrankHightower|talk]]) 04:11, 16 April 2022 (UTC)<br /> <br /> The title text joke may be understood more easily by reading &quot;stood under&quot; in place of &quot;understood&quot;. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.107.124|162.158.107.124]] 19:37, 15 April 2022 (UTC)<br /> <br /> Living in Manhattan, you learn to notice when an area is full of bird droppings and avoid standing there. You also need to pay attention when parking your car. Certain lamp posts (where the lamp is cantilevered over the street) near Central Park often tend to have a large accumulation under them. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.178|108.162.246.178]] 19:47, 15 April 2022 (UTC)<br /> <br /> I do not understand the joke in the title text, so if somebody could please write an explanation, that would be great.<br /> Also, this is my first ever full comic description! Yay!<br /> I don't know what categories this fits in, if somebody could also put those in that would be great. [[User:MrYellow04|MrYellow04]] ([[User talk:MrYellow04|talk]]) 19:58, 15 April 2022 (UTC)<br /> :I suggest you stand under a wire with lots of birds on it for a while. It will hit you. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 20:32, 15 April 2022 (UTC)<br /> :Dirty birdy in the sky, why you do that in my eye? Boy I'm glad that cows can't fly! [[User:TCMits|TCMits]] ([[User talk:TCMits|talk]]) 14:15, 16 April 2022 (UTC)<br /> <br /> Randall, come here. Yes, right there. Stand still. THWACK! THWACK THWACK THWACK THWACK THWACK! That is all, you may go now. 20:41, 15 April 2022 (UTC)<br /> <br /> The explanation makes clear the side of the pun regarding the Geiger counting clicking, but for non-native English speakers, the phrase &quot;it clicked&quot; meaning &quot;I understood&quot; may need clarification. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.166.213|162.158.166.213]] 21:17, 15 April 2022 (UTC)<br /> <br /> I thought it meant the birds were dangerously mutated because of the radioactivity, but now I understand. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.34.84|172.69.34.84]] 22:00, 15 April 2022 (UTC)<br /> :Just make sure you don't open your mouth and tilt your head back. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.63|172.70.90.63]] 22:59, 15 April 2022 (UTC)<br /> <br /> Also possibly related to this news story https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/unprotected-russian-soldiers-disturbed-radioactive-dust-chernobyls-red-forest-2022-03-28/<br /> <br /> Calling the pun a parody of another joke is weird. Jokes aren’t parodied. Parodies aren’t made of general things people say. It can be a ''play on'' that other joke, but not a ''parody'' of it. It’s not ''making fun'' of the other joke. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.69|108.162.245.69]] 11:24, 16 April 2022 (UTC)<br /> :I somewhat agree with you. It's a 'type of' pun related to the Tom Swifty, which I edited in just now. I didn't actually remove the claim of parody. Perhaps someone else should also do that without hesitation... (...says I, unerringly!) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.43|162.158.159.43]] 15:06, 16 April 2022 (UTC)<br /> <br /> Dates for the Trinity Site Open House are April 2 and October 15 for 2022. Bring your own geiger counter. [[User:TCMits|TCMits]] ([[User talk:TCMits|talk]]) 14:15, 16 April 2022 (UTC)<br /> :...and possibly a time-machine? ;) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.43|162.158.159.43]] 15:06, 16 April 2022 (UTC)<br /> <br /> == Leonard Cohen reference? ==<br /> <br /> It seems to me that the title text has to be somehow referencing one of Leonard Cohen’s better known songs, “Bird on the Wire”, from the very specific phrasing there. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.69|108.162.245.69]] 11:21, 16 April 2022 (UTC)<br /> : It's a fairly common phrase. Including the 1990 Goldie Hawn / Mel Gibson<br /> [https://g.co/kgs/QZ6LpN film]. [[User:Iggynelix|Iggynelix]] ([[User talk:Iggynelix|talk]]) 16:23, 16 April 2022 (UTC)</div>

Iggynelix https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2607:_Geiger_Counter&diff=230598 2022-04-16T16:24:38Z

<p>Iggynelix: /* Leonard Cohen reference? */</p> <hr /> <div>&lt;!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~ and don't delete this text. New comments should be added at the bottom.--&gt;<br /> Vanilla joke, but funny. [[User:Nafedalbi|Nafedalbi]] ([[User talk:Nafedalbi|talk]]) 18:41, 15 April 2022 (UTC)Nafedalbi<br /> :It's Randall's &quot;dad joke&quot;. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 19:23, 15 April 2022 (UTC)<br /> :Honestly, yeah. I impulsively went &quot;wow... Randall's really jumped the stick figure shark.&quot; --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.110.121|172.70.110.121]] 06:32, 16 April 2022 (UTC)<br /> ::Not me. After plumbing the depths of Unicode and trying to describe a Taylor series expansion from square one, this is a welcome relief. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.214.81|172.70.214.81]] 07:34, 16 April 2022 (UTC)<br /> : When does an ordinary joke become a dad joke? When it becomes apparent. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.121|172.70.130.121]] 10:31, 16 April 2022 (UTC)<br /> <br /> I added telegraph wires (UK-only term, possibly, and anachronistic as they are telephone cables, so feel free to change to be US-centric) and birds seem happy to sit on pole-suspended POTS cables as much as power-lines, so the linked heat-effect thing is definitely a minority necessity. I think it's just a perch. Though we probably have more signal-wires. Most(?) streets more than a few decades old have telegraph poles feeding wires to established properties (even if cable/FTTP has been dug into trenches) but mains electricity tends to have been subsurface for much longer, with only HV national/rural-area transmission grids up on pylons/poles. Obviously there ''are'' a lot more perching birds out in the countryside, where they may dominate (but still the 'telegraph' may follow road or rail routes to service the villages and isolated inhabitations along them) but you don't tend to see birds atop the larger lines at all... Too high up? ''Too'' hot? I've seen rooks/etc happily doing a Hitchcock upon a pylon itself, apparently enjoying the communal view. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.63|172.70.90.63]] 18:54, 15 April 2022 (UTC)<br /> <br /> For the record, [[User:Avni]] at 19:30 UTC on 2022-04-15 [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2607:_Geiger_Counter&amp;diff=next&amp;oldid=230502 deleted everything on this page]&lt;br/&gt;<br /> --[[User:FrankHightower|FrankHightower]] ([[User talk:FrankHightower|talk]]) 04:11, 16 April 2022 (UTC)<br /> <br /> The title text joke may be understood more easily by reading &quot;stood under&quot; in place of &quot;understood&quot;. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.107.124|162.158.107.124]] 19:37, 15 April 2022 (UTC)<br /> <br /> Living in Manhattan, you learn to notice when an area is full of bird droppings and avoid standing there. You also need to pay attention when parking your car. Certain lamp posts (where the lamp is cantilevered over the street) near Central Park often tend to have a large accumulation under them. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.178|108.162.246.178]] 19:47, 15 April 2022 (UTC)<br /> <br /> I do not understand the joke in the title text, so if somebody could please write an explanation, that would be great.<br /> Also, this is my first ever full comic description! Yay!<br /> I don't know what categories this fits in, if somebody could also put those in that would be great. [[User:MrYellow04|MrYellow04]] ([[User talk:MrYellow04|talk]]) 19:58, 15 April 2022 (UTC)<br /> :I suggest you stand under a wire with lots of birds on it for a while. It will hit you. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 20:32, 15 April 2022 (UTC)<br /> :Dirty birdy in the sky, why you do that in my eye? Boy I'm glad that cows can't fly! [[User:TCMits|TCMits]] ([[User talk:TCMits|talk]]) 14:15, 16 April 2022 (UTC)<br /> <br /> Randall, come here. Yes, right there. Stand still. THWACK! THWACK THWACK THWACK THWACK THWACK! That is all, you may go now. 20:41, 15 April 2022 (UTC)<br /> <br /> The explanation makes clear the side of the pun regarding the Geiger counting clicking, but for non-native English speakers, the phrase &quot;it clicked&quot; meaning &quot;I understood&quot; may need clarification. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.166.213|162.158.166.213]] 21:17, 15 April 2022 (UTC)<br /> <br /> I thought it meant the birds were dangerously mutated because of the radioactivity, but now I understand. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.34.84|172.69.34.84]] 22:00, 15 April 2022 (UTC)<br /> :Just make sure you don't open your mouth and tilt your head back. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.63|172.70.90.63]] 22:59, 15 April 2022 (UTC)<br /> <br /> Also possibly related to this news story https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/unprotected-russian-soldiers-disturbed-radioactive-dust-chernobyls-red-forest-2022-03-28/<br /> <br /> Calling the pun a parody of another joke is weird. Jokes aren’t parodied. Parodies aren’t made of general things people say. It can be a ''play on'' that other joke, but not a ''parody'' of it. It’s not ''making fun'' of the other joke. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.69|108.162.245.69]] 11:24, 16 April 2022 (UTC)<br /> :I somewhat agree with you. It's a 'type of' pun related to the Tom Swifty, which I edited in just now. I didn't actually remove the claim of parody. Perhaps someone else should also do that without hesitation... (...says I, unerringly!) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.43|162.158.159.43]] 15:06, 16 April 2022 (UTC)<br /> <br /> Dates for the Trinity Site Open House are April 2 and October 15 for 2022. Bring your own geiger counter. [[User:TCMits|TCMits]] ([[User talk:TCMits|talk]]) 14:15, 16 April 2022 (UTC)<br /> :...and possibly a time-machine? ;) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.43|162.158.159.43]] 15:06, 16 April 2022 (UTC)<br /> <br /> == Leonard Cohen reference? ==<br /> <br /> It seems to me that the title text has to be somehow referencing one of Leonard Cohen’s better known songs, “Bird on the Wire”, from the very specific phrasing there. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.69|108.162.245.69]] 11:21, 16 April 2022 (UTC)<br /> : It's a fairly common phrase. Including the 1990 Goldie Hawn / Mel Gibson<br /> [https://g.co/kgs/QZ6LpN|film]. [[User:Iggynelix|Iggynelix]] ([[User talk:Iggynelix|talk]]) 16:23, 16 April 2022 (UTC)</div>

Iggynelix https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2607:_Geiger_Counter&diff=230597 2022-04-16T16:24:08Z

<p>Iggynelix: /* Leonard Cohen reference? */</p> <hr /> <div>&lt;!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~ and don't delete this text. New comments should be added at the bottom.--&gt;<br /> Vanilla joke, but funny. [[User:Nafedalbi|Nafedalbi]] ([[User talk:Nafedalbi|talk]]) 18:41, 15 April 2022 (UTC)Nafedalbi<br /> :It's Randall's &quot;dad joke&quot;. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 19:23, 15 April 2022 (UTC)<br /> :Honestly, yeah. I impulsively went &quot;wow... Randall's really jumped the stick figure shark.&quot; --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.110.121|172.70.110.121]] 06:32, 16 April 2022 (UTC)<br /> ::Not me. After plumbing the depths of Unicode and trying to describe a Taylor series expansion from square one, this is a welcome relief. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.214.81|172.70.214.81]] 07:34, 16 April 2022 (UTC)<br /> : When does an ordinary joke become a dad joke? When it becomes apparent. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.121|172.70.130.121]] 10:31, 16 April 2022 (UTC)<br /> <br /> I added telegraph wires (UK-only term, possibly, and anachronistic as they are telephone cables, so feel free to change to be US-centric) and birds seem happy to sit on pole-suspended POTS cables as much as power-lines, so the linked heat-effect thing is definitely a minority necessity. I think it's just a perch. Though we probably have more signal-wires. Most(?) streets more than a few decades old have telegraph poles feeding wires to established properties (even if cable/FTTP has been dug into trenches) but mains electricity tends to have been subsurface for much longer, with only HV national/rural-area transmission grids up on pylons/poles. Obviously there ''are'' a lot more perching birds out in the countryside, where they may dominate (but still the 'telegraph' may follow road or rail routes to service the villages and isolated inhabitations along them) but you don't tend to see birds atop the larger lines at all... Too high up? ''Too'' hot? I've seen rooks/etc happily doing a Hitchcock upon a pylon itself, apparently enjoying the communal view. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.63|172.70.90.63]] 18:54, 15 April 2022 (UTC)<br /> <br /> For the record, [[User:Avni]] at 19:30 UTC on 2022-04-15 [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2607:_Geiger_Counter&amp;diff=next&amp;oldid=230502 deleted everything on this page]&lt;br/&gt;<br /> --[[User:FrankHightower|FrankHightower]] ([[User talk:FrankHightower|talk]]) 04:11, 16 April 2022 (UTC)<br /> <br /> The title text joke may be understood more easily by reading &quot;stood under&quot; in place of &quot;understood&quot;. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.107.124|162.158.107.124]] 19:37, 15 April 2022 (UTC)<br /> <br /> Living in Manhattan, you learn to notice when an area is full of bird droppings and avoid standing there. You also need to pay attention when parking your car. Certain lamp posts (where the lamp is cantilevered over the street) near Central Park often tend to have a large accumulation under them. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.178|108.162.246.178]] 19:47, 15 April 2022 (UTC)<br /> <br /> I do not understand the joke in the title text, so if somebody could please write an explanation, that would be great.<br /> Also, this is my first ever full comic description! Yay!<br /> I don't know what categories this fits in, if somebody could also put those in that would be great. [[User:MrYellow04|MrYellow04]] ([[User talk:MrYellow04|talk]]) 19:58, 15 April 2022 (UTC)<br /> :I suggest you stand under a wire with lots of birds on it for a while. It will hit you. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 20:32, 15 April 2022 (UTC)<br /> :Dirty birdy in the sky, why you do that in my eye? Boy I'm glad that cows can't fly! [[User:TCMits|TCMits]] ([[User talk:TCMits|talk]]) 14:15, 16 April 2022 (UTC)<br /> <br /> Randall, come here. Yes, right there. Stand still. THWACK! THWACK THWACK THWACK THWACK THWACK! That is all, you may go now. 20:41, 15 April 2022 (UTC)<br /> <br /> The explanation makes clear the side of the pun regarding the Geiger counting clicking, but for non-native English speakers, the phrase &quot;it clicked&quot; meaning &quot;I understood&quot; may need clarification. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.166.213|162.158.166.213]] 21:17, 15 April 2022 (UTC)<br /> <br /> I thought it meant the birds were dangerously mutated because of the radioactivity, but now I understand. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.34.84|172.69.34.84]] 22:00, 15 April 2022 (UTC)<br /> :Just make sure you don't open your mouth and tilt your head back. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.63|172.70.90.63]] 22:59, 15 April 2022 (UTC)<br /> <br /> Also possibly related to this news story https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/unprotected-russian-soldiers-disturbed-radioactive-dust-chernobyls-red-forest-2022-03-28/<br /> <br /> Calling the pun a parody of another joke is weird. Jokes aren’t parodied. Parodies aren’t made of general things people say. It can be a ''play on'' that other joke, but not a ''parody'' of it. It’s not ''making fun'' of the other joke. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.69|108.162.245.69]] 11:24, 16 April 2022 (UTC)<br /> :I somewhat agree with you. It's a 'type of' pun related to the Tom Swifty, which I edited in just now. I didn't actually remove the claim of parody. Perhaps someone else should also do that without hesitation... (...says I, unerringly!) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.43|162.158.159.43]] 15:06, 16 April 2022 (UTC)<br /> <br /> Dates for the Trinity Site Open House are April 2 and October 15 for 2022. Bring your own geiger counter. [[User:TCMits|TCMits]] ([[User talk:TCMits|talk]]) 14:15, 16 April 2022 (UTC)<br /> :...and possibly a time-machine? ;) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.43|162.158.159.43]] 15:06, 16 April 2022 (UTC)<br /> <br /> == Leonard Cohen reference? ==<br /> <br /> It seems to me that the title text has to be somehow referencing one of Leonard Cohen’s better known songs, “Bird on the Wire”, from the very specific phrasing there. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.69|108.162.245.69]] 11:21, 16 April 2022 (UTC)<br /> : It's a fairly common phrase. Including the 1990 Goldie Hawn / Mel Gibson<br /> [Bird on a Wire https://g.co/kgs/QZ6LpN| film]. [[User:Iggynelix|Iggynelix]] ([[User talk:Iggynelix|talk]]) 16:23, 16 April 2022 (UTC)</div>

Iggynelix https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2607:_Geiger_Counter&diff=230596 2022-04-16T16:23:41Z

<p>Iggynelix: /* Leonard Cohen reference? */</p> <hr /> <div>&lt;!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~ and don't delete this text. New comments should be added at the bottom.--&gt;<br /> Vanilla joke, but funny. [[User:Nafedalbi|Nafedalbi]] ([[User talk:Nafedalbi|talk]]) 18:41, 15 April 2022 (UTC)Nafedalbi<br /> :It's Randall's &quot;dad joke&quot;. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 19:23, 15 April 2022 (UTC)<br /> :Honestly, yeah. I impulsively went &quot;wow... Randall's really jumped the stick figure shark.&quot; --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.110.121|172.70.110.121]] 06:32, 16 April 2022 (UTC)<br /> ::Not me. After plumbing the depths of Unicode and trying to describe a Taylor series expansion from square one, this is a welcome relief. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.214.81|172.70.214.81]] 07:34, 16 April 2022 (UTC)<br /> : When does an ordinary joke become a dad joke? When it becomes apparent. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.121|172.70.130.121]] 10:31, 16 April 2022 (UTC)<br /> <br /> I added telegraph wires (UK-only term, possibly, and anachronistic as they are telephone cables, so feel free to change to be US-centric) and birds seem happy to sit on pole-suspended POTS cables as much as power-lines, so the linked heat-effect thing is definitely a minority necessity. I think it's just a perch. Though we probably have more signal-wires. Most(?) streets more than a few decades old have telegraph poles feeding wires to established properties (even if cable/FTTP has been dug into trenches) but mains electricity tends to have been subsurface for much longer, with only HV national/rural-area transmission grids up on pylons/poles. Obviously there ''are'' a lot more perching birds out in the countryside, where they may dominate (but still the 'telegraph' may follow road or rail routes to service the villages and isolated inhabitations along them) but you don't tend to see birds atop the larger lines at all... Too high up? ''Too'' hot? I've seen rooks/etc happily doing a Hitchcock upon a pylon itself, apparently enjoying the communal view. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.63|172.70.90.63]] 18:54, 15 April 2022 (UTC)<br /> <br /> For the record, [[User:Avni]] at 19:30 UTC on 2022-04-15 [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2607:_Geiger_Counter&amp;diff=next&amp;oldid=230502 deleted everything on this page]&lt;br/&gt;<br /> --[[User:FrankHightower|FrankHightower]] ([[User talk:FrankHightower|talk]]) 04:11, 16 April 2022 (UTC)<br /> <br /> The title text joke may be understood more easily by reading &quot;stood under&quot; in place of &quot;understood&quot;. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.107.124|162.158.107.124]] 19:37, 15 April 2022 (UTC)<br /> <br /> Living in Manhattan, you learn to notice when an area is full of bird droppings and avoid standing there. You also need to pay attention when parking your car. Certain lamp posts (where the lamp is cantilevered over the street) near Central Park often tend to have a large accumulation under them. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.178|108.162.246.178]] 19:47, 15 April 2022 (UTC)<br /> <br /> I do not understand the joke in the title text, so if somebody could please write an explanation, that would be great.<br /> Also, this is my first ever full comic description! Yay!<br /> I don't know what categories this fits in, if somebody could also put those in that would be great. [[User:MrYellow04|MrYellow04]] ([[User talk:MrYellow04|talk]]) 19:58, 15 April 2022 (UTC)<br /> :I suggest you stand under a wire with lots of birds on it for a while. It will hit you. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 20:32, 15 April 2022 (UTC)<br /> :Dirty birdy in the sky, why you do that in my eye? Boy I'm glad that cows can't fly! [[User:TCMits|TCMits]] ([[User talk:TCMits|talk]]) 14:15, 16 April 2022 (UTC)<br /> <br /> Randall, come here. Yes, right there. Stand still. THWACK! THWACK THWACK THWACK THWACK THWACK! That is all, you may go now. 20:41, 15 April 2022 (UTC)<br /> <br /> The explanation makes clear the side of the pun regarding the Geiger counting clicking, but for non-native English speakers, the phrase &quot;it clicked&quot; meaning &quot;I understood&quot; may need clarification. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.166.213|162.158.166.213]] 21:17, 15 April 2022 (UTC)<br /> <br /> I thought it meant the birds were dangerously mutated because of the radioactivity, but now I understand. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.34.84|172.69.34.84]] 22:00, 15 April 2022 (UTC)<br /> :Just make sure you don't open your mouth and tilt your head back. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.63|172.70.90.63]] 22:59, 15 April 2022 (UTC)<br /> <br /> Also possibly related to this news story https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/unprotected-russian-soldiers-disturbed-radioactive-dust-chernobyls-red-forest-2022-03-28/<br /> <br /> Calling the pun a parody of another joke is weird. Jokes aren’t parodied. Parodies aren’t made of general things people say. It can be a ''play on'' that other joke, but not a ''parody'' of it. It’s not ''making fun'' of the other joke. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.69|108.162.245.69]] 11:24, 16 April 2022 (UTC)<br /> :I somewhat agree with you. It's a 'type of' pun related to the Tom Swifty, which I edited in just now. I didn't actually remove the claim of parody. Perhaps someone else should also do that without hesitation... (...says I, unerringly!) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.43|162.158.159.43]] 15:06, 16 April 2022 (UTC)<br /> <br /> Dates for the Trinity Site Open House are April 2 and October 15 for 2022. Bring your own geiger counter. [[User:TCMits|TCMits]] ([[User talk:TCMits|talk]]) 14:15, 16 April 2022 (UTC)<br /> :...and possibly a time-machine? ;) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.43|162.158.159.43]] 15:06, 16 April 2022 (UTC)<br /> <br /> == Leonard Cohen reference? ==<br /> <br /> It seems to me that the title text has to be somehow referencing one of Leonard Cohen’s better known songs, “Bird on the Wire”, from the very specific phrasing there. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.69|108.162.245.69]] 11:21, 16 April 2022 (UTC)<br /> : It's a fairly common phrase. Including the 1990 Goldie Hawn / Mel Gibson<br /> [Bird on a Wire https://g.co/kgs/QZ6LpN film]. [[User:Iggynelix|Iggynelix]] ([[User talk:Iggynelix|talk]]) 16:23, 16 April 2022 (UTC)</div>

Iggynelix https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2597:_Salary_Negotiation&diff=228957 2022-03-24T13:22:51Z

<p>Iggynelix: /* Explanation */</p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 2597<br /> | date = March 23, 2022<br /> | title = Salary Negotiation<br /> | image = salary_negotiation.png<br /> | titletext = &quot;We can do 0.33 or 0.34, but our payroll software doesn't allow us to--&quot; &quot;NO DEAL.&quot;<br /> }}<br /> <br /> ==Explanation==<br /> {{incomplete|Created by a GAUSSIAN INTEGER SALARY INCREASE - Please change this comment when editing this page, for fun and profit. Do NOT delete this tag too soon. Sincerely, management.}}<br /> [[Ponytail]]'s company would like to hire [[Cueball]] for a job. And now she is telling him that their offer for his starting salary is $55,000. <br /> <br /> When offered a new job, it is common to negotiate on aspects of the offer such as salary, and employers may offer below the market rate initially in the expectation that the final negotiated amount will be higher. Given that one's future income depends on the outcome of a one-time process requiring skills unrelated to the job one is hired for, it is advisable to take one's time and do as much research as possible. <br /> <br /> Cueball realizes that he has ended up in this situation, but, in typically [[Randall]] fashion, he states the fact, saying out loud ''Wow. I guess I'm inside a negotiation!'' Ponytail comments that it's a weird way to phrase it, and would then probably have continued to say, ''but that is correct.'' Cueball, however, interrupts her by stating that ''I can do this.''<br /> <br /> Cueball has clearly done some research, but perhaps too much as he is flummoxed by this high-stakes situation and starts to ramble with decreasing coherence. First he gets completely confused about the numbers. He might have said I wont accept a penny below $60,000, starting out by putting a bit more on, letting now, that this might not even be the lowest he would accept. Instead he says he wont have a penny over $50,000, thus cutting $5000 of the initial offer, and saying he will not have more than that. He realizes this was completely wrong, and corrects to ''under'', but is still 5000 lower. Then he continues to mess up the numbers. Clearly he meant to go for $60,000, but first says $60 then $600, 100 times below what he wishes to say. Then adds the word ''Thousand'' after a short break, and continues to say it as one word $600,000. That is of course 10 times more than he wished to try for.<br /> <br /> Realizing that he is completely off he asks for &quot;15% cut of the salary&quot;. Here, Cueball seems to confuse salary and commission. &quot;X% cut of the salary&quot; seems like what a recruiter/headhunter may get from their employer as a commission if they successfully make their person hired. This is not the phrase to be used when negotiating a salary, as is the case for Cueball here, since it's not commission based.<br /> <br /> The next word he says is ''Raise''. This could make sense if he already had a job, and wished to negotiate for a pay raise. But that is not the case. After this, he begins to think of raise as in a card game and starts rambling off mainly poker related terms, like raise, fold and pass. He throws in double down in between. This can also be a card game term, as in blackjack where double down means to double a bet after seeing one's initial cards, with the requirement that one additional card be drawn. <br /> <br /> But in everyday speak, in a fairly dramatic [https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=double+down&amp;year_start=1800&amp;year_end=2019&amp;corpus=26&amp;smoothing=3&amp;direct_url=t1%3B%2Cdouble%20down%3B%2Cc0 rise in popular usage], to double down is to take a further risk in a situation or passionately re-commit one’s efforts to a cause or course of action ''despite'' clear and contrary revelations. This could make a limited amount of sense in a negotiation situation in which one is trying to establish the necessary self-worth. But of course not in Cueball's ramble, that finishes with him saying ''Fill it up with regular'', something you would say at a gas-station, where they still had an attendant to operate the pumps. Likely something Cueball has only experienced when watching old movies...or territories and states where mandated by law.<br /> <br /> At this point Ponytail tries to ask him something. Maybe, ''Are you OK?''. But again Cueball interrupts her, saying he is sorry and that he would like to start over. At this time he takes out several sheets of paper and looks at some charts. But the charts are not clear enough, or only have a suggestion for what percentage he should ask for. He asks if he can borrow a calculator (something he would likely have on his smart phone) and then asks what's 20% of $55,000. This last bit seems like he is finally following a common advice to take the initial offer and add 10-20%. That would be $11,000, so it would have been $66,000.<br /> <br /> Once more Ponytail tries to give him some time to think, but once more he interrupts, as he eventually have settled on a number, $61,333.333.... He even states that the decimals of 3 should be repeating, as in forever. Thus exactly $61,333 + $1/3. He clearly states he will not take the job for less than that.<br /> <br /> The value he settles on is 11.51515...% larger, or exactly &lt;sup&gt;184&lt;/sup&gt;⁄&lt;sub&gt;165&lt;/sub&gt; times the asking price, closer to 10% than the 20% he just asked for. In classic Cueball style, he has made the simple problem sufficiently complex that one must wonder how he got there. However, the value does still fall within the band suggested by the common advice.<br /> <br /> Since this is not that much more than the starting offer Ponytail is ready to accept this and says ''Sure, $61,333 is fine.'' She is once more starting to say something, like ''That's actually a reasonable request'', or ''That's actually within our limits''. But for the fourth time Cueball interrupts her, this time almost yelling ''Point 3 repeating or I walk!'' Because what she just offered him was $1/3 less than he asked for, and thus more than a penny less.<br /> <br /> This last outburst is just plain ridiculous as this would only lower his asking salary by 5 parts in a million. And for certain Ponytail would accept going to $61,334.<br /> <br /> In the title text it shows that this is not good enough. Cueball has now confused himself to the limit that he will not only not accept less than his asking salary, he will also not accept more. So when Ponytail tries to explain to him that the point 3 repeating cannot be paid in whole cents, and tries to let him now that their payroll software only can handle whole cents, and he thus can get either 0.33 or 0.34 (the latter actually being more than he asks for), he again shout out ''NO DEAL.'' <br /> <br /> Since Ponytail cannot pay him out in a number with infinite decimals (1/3, pi or any other kind){{Citation needed}}, it seems Cueball will let this job slip out of his hands, because he has completely misunderstood the concept of negotiation.<br /> <br /> The situation could be resolved if he would be happy with an arrangement such as a leap cent every three years, but maybe Ponytail would at this point realize it was probably a mistake to hire such an easily confused person, and happily let him go.<br /> <br /> This can be read as a cautionary tale about taking time to compose one's thoughts before responding to a situation. The confusion caused by the wad of papers also reminds us that more information does not necessarily mean more clarity.<br /> <br /> For more interview-related xkcd comics, see for instance [[125: Marketing Interview]], [[1088: Five Years]], [[1094: Interview]], [[1293: Job Interview]] and [[1545: Strengths and Weaknesses]].<br /> <br /> This could also be taken in series with Cueball (possibly as a stand in for Randall) misunderstanding classically &quot;adult&quot; ideas, see for instance [[616: Lease]], [[905: Homeownership]], [[1674: Adult]] and [[1894: Real Estate]].<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> :[Ponytail sits in an office chair at her desk, with Cueball sitting in a similar chair on the other side with his hands on his knees. Ponytails has her hands on the desk and in front of her, there is a slim thing standing up. It could be a very small screen, but there seems to be no keyboard in front of her. Maybe it is a small tablet with a support for letting is stand up. Behind that there are what appears to be two piles of papers of different sizes.]<br /> :Ponytail: We'd like to extend an offer! The starting salary is $55,000.<br /> :Cueball: Wow. I guess I'm inside a negotiation!<br /> :Ponytail: I... Weird to phrase it like that, but-<br /> :Cueball: ''I can do this.''<br /> <br /> :[Zoom in on Cueball's upper half.]<br /> :Cueball: I won't accept a penny over $50,000. Sorry, I mean under. Under $60. I mean, $600. Thousand. $600,000. I want a 15% cut of the salary. Raise. Double down. Fold. Pass. Fill it up with regular.<br /> <br /> :[The same shot, except Cueball is now holding three pieces of paper, and he is looking down on them. Ponytail is talking to him from off-panel.]<br /> :Ponytail (off-panel): Are you-<br /> :Cueball: Sorry, sorry. Let me start over.<br /> :Cueball: OK, my chart says... <br /> :Cueball: ...Can I borrow a calculator? What's 20% of $55,000?<br /> <br /> :[Back to the scene from the first panel. Ponytail has taken one hand down to her knee, with the other still on the desk. Cueball has put the papers on his lap and has raised his hand in the air holding one finger up. In his other hand he holds either a borrowed calculator or his own smartphone.]<br /> :Ponytail: Listen, if you need to-<br /> :Cueball: I won't take this job for less than $61,333 point 3 repeating!<br /> :Ponytail: Sure, $61,333 is fine. That's actually-<br /> :Cueball: '''''Point 3 repeating or I walk!'''''<br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}<br /> <br /> [[Category:Job interviews]]<br /> [[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]<br /> [[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]</div>

Iggynelix https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2595:_Advanced_Techniques&diff=228652 2022-03-19T13:41:49Z

<p>Iggynelix: </p> <hr /> <div>&lt;!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~ and don't delete this text. New comments should be added at the bottom.--&gt;<br /> The title text refers to [[wikipedia:Noether's theorem|Noether's theorem]]. [[User:Trimeta|Trimeta]] ([[User talk:Trimeta|talk]]) 04:24, 19 March 2022 (UTC)<br /> <br /> This is my first explanation [[User:GcGYSF(asterisk)P(vertical line)e|GcGYSF(asterisk)P(vertical line)e]] ([[User talk:GcGYSF(asterisk)P(vertical line)e|talk]]) 05:41, 19 March 2022 (UTC)<br /> <br /> This sounds a lot like Laplace or Fourier transforms, converting a function into a different where it is easier to manipulate then reversing the transformation. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.173|108.162.245.173]] 06:28, 19 March 2022 (UTC)<br /> <br /> I'm not sure that it's proper to refer to someone as a &quot;giant&quot; while explaining a comic that references mythological creatures. Unless it was literal of course, but as far as I'm aware giants never existed. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.111.12|162.158.111.12]] 11:28, 19 March 2022 (UTC)<br /> :I think she may actually have been a wizard-giant.[[User:Iggynelix|Iggynelix]] ([[User talk:Iggynelix|talk]]) 13:41, 19 March 2022 (UTC)<br /> <br /> Not my area, but I am passingly familiar with the [[:wikipedia:Gauss–Kuzmin–Wirsing_operator|Gauss–Kuzmin–Wirsing Operator]], [[wikipedia:Dragon curve|Dragon Curves]], and [[wikipedia:Hilbert spaces|Hilbert ''Spaces'']] (guessing that the &quot;arrow&quot; refers to scalar vector?). Some type of iterative/recursive conversion that yields to analysis of the period? Probably not pertinent to the joke which is more about the fanciful names attached to mathematical concepts, constructs, and processes [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.173|108.162.245.173]] 11:53, 19 March 2022 (UTC)</div>

Iggynelix https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2595:_Advanced_Techniques&diff=228650 2022-03-19T13:20:40Z

<p>Iggynelix: </p> <hr /> <div>&lt;!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~ and don't delete this text. New comments should be added at the bottom.--&gt;<br /> The title text refers to [[wikipedia:Noether's theorem|Noether's theorem]]. [[User:Trimeta|Trimeta]] ([[User talk:Trimeta|talk]]) 04:24, 19 March 2022 (UTC)<br /> <br /> This is my first explanation [[User:GcGYSF(asterisk)P(vertical line)e|GcGYSF(asterisk)P(vertical line)e]] ([[User talk:GcGYSF(asterisk)P(vertical line)e|talk]]) 05:41, 19 March 2022 (UTC)<br /> <br /> This sounds a lot like Laplace or Fourier transforms, converting a function into a different where it is easier to manipulate then reversing the transformation. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.173|108.162.245.173]] 06:28, 19 March 2022 (UTC)<br /> <br /> I'm not sure that it's proper to refer to someone as a &quot;giant&quot; while explaining a comic that references mythological creatures. Unless it was literal of course, but as far as I'm aware giants never existed. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.111.12|162.158.111.12]] 11:28, 19 March 2022 (UTC)<br /> :I think she may actually have been a wizard-giant.<br /> <br /> Not my area, but I am passingly familiar with the [[:wikipedia:Gauss–Kuzmin–Wirsing_operator|Gauss–Kuzmin–Wirsing Operator]], [[wikipedia:Dragon curve|Dragon Curves]], and [[wikipedia:Hilbert spaces|Hilbert ''Spaces'']] (guessing that the &quot;arrow&quot; refers to scalar vector?). Some type of iterative/recursive conversion that yields to analysis of the period? Probably not pertinent to the joke which is more about the fanciful names attached to mathematical concepts, constructs, and processes [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.173|108.162.245.173]] 11:53, 19 March 2022 (UTC)</div>

Iggynelix https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2595:_Advanced_Techniques&diff=228648 2022-03-19T13:16:42Z

<p>Iggynelix: </p> <hr /> <div>&lt;!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~ and don't delete this text. New comments should be added at the bottom.--&gt;<br /> The title text refers to [[wikipedia:Noether's theorem|Noether's theorem]]. [[User:Trimeta|Trimeta]] ([[User talk:Trimeta|talk]]) 04:24, 19 March 2022 (UTC)<br /> <br /> This is my first explanation [[User:GcGYSF(asterisk)P(vertical line)e|GcGYSF(asterisk)P(vertical line)e]] ([[User talk:GcGYSF(asterisk)P(vertical line)e|talk]]) 05:41, 19 March 2022 (UTC)<br /> <br /> This sounds a lot like Laplace or Fourier transforms, converting a function into a different where it is easier to manipulate then reversing the transformation. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.173|108.162.245.173]] 06:28, 19 March 2022 (UTC)<br /> <br /> I'm not sure that it's proper to refer to someone as a &quot;giant&quot; while explaining a comic that references mythological creatures. Unless it was literal of course, but as far as I'm aware giants never existed. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.111.12|162.158.111.12]] 11:28, 19 March 2022 (UTC)<br /> I think she may actually have been a wizard-giant.<br /> <br /> Not my area, but I am passingly familiar with the [[:wikipedia:Gauss–Kuzmin–Wirsing_operator|Gauss–Kuzmin–Wirsing Operator]], [[wikipedia:Dragon curve|Dragon Curves]], and [[wikipedia:Hilbert spaces|Hilbert ''Spaces'']] (guessing that the &quot;arrow&quot; refers to scalar vector?). Some type of iterative/recursive conversion that yields to analysis of the period? Probably not pertinent to the joke which is more about the fanciful names attached to mathematical concepts, constructs, and processes [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.173|108.162.245.173]] 11:53, 19 March 2022 (UTC)</div>

Iggynelix https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2557:_Immunity&diff=222889 2021-12-21T13:50:23Z

<p>Iggynelix: </p> <hr /> <div>&lt;!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~ and don't delete this text. New comments should be added at the bottom.--&gt;<br /> <br /> well, if you look at society as a whole it makes more sense. the reason we have so many mutations is that we have a significant portion of the populous with no immunity [[Special:Contributions/172.68.110.125|172.68.110.125]] 20:49, 20 December 2021 (UTC) mark ifi<br /> :But the mutations come about from the virus replicating a lot, i.e in people with the virus. It still doesn't make sense to catch it, because you have a chance of your infection being the one that produces a terrible mutation [[Special:Contributions/141.101.77.130|141.101.77.130]] 22:02, 20 December 2021 (UTC)<br /> <br /> I can see this one annoying a lot of people. It's the lot of people who can already be annoying, so I don't think that's a big problem. (A few, who misread it as about ''vaccination'' giving immunity, may actually think it supports them. I'm not sure we can do anything about that either.) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.85|162.158.159.85]] 21:51, 20 December 2021 (UTC)<br /> <br /> Would you kindly provide a link to the &quot;Mount Stupid&quot; comic for reference.{{unsigned|172.70.174.119}}<br /> <br /> To be fair, if the vaccination would only protect you for ONE infection it wouldn't be worth it. The idea about immunity is that immunity trained by either vaccination or infection will then protect you from '''multiple''' following infections. The problem with it is that in case of covid (or flu), the immunity wanes off with time AND the virus mutates into new variants the immunity doesn't work as well against. Sure, it still makes sense to vaccinate, but just because the virus spread so much you are very likely to catch it. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 22:32, 20 December 2021 (UTC)<br /> :Are you making the mistake (without the other baggage) I mentioned above about misreading the comic? This comic isn't about the vaccination at all. It's about infection. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.22|172.70.86.22]] 22:51, 20 December 2021 (UTC)<br /> :(And, to add, if the vaccine just protected against ONE infection, where that one infection was sufficiently dangerous, it would indeed be worth it. Better than chancing the infection on a naïve immune system and hoping to come out the other side with a similarly infection-specific immune effect (c.f. annual flu waves) but without the QC and care given to the vector.) ((See, I knew it'd spark response, didn't intend to say much. Maybe I should just stay out of this until it blows over.)) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.79|172.70.85.79]] 23:01, 20 December 2021 (UTC)<br /> ::Of course it is about the vaccination - this supports Randall's earlier statements for being pro vaccine, that you should get the immunity from vaccination and not from infection! --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:24, 21 December 2021 (UTC)<br /> :::Hmmm, no. It's about COVID (and that by inference). It doesn't mention the vaccine. The conversation ''might'' have been about the vaccine, but the comic (and its discussion of what it is sensible to do, or not) is vaccine free. It's &quot;anti-infection&quot;, but not directly &quot;pro-vaccine&quot;. (He, I and you ''are'' all sensibly pro-vaccine, I think. The comic itself is only vocal on that subject by omission and a chain of logic that will never occur to those stuck at the original fallacy.) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.73|172.70.85.73]] 13:06, 21 December 2021 (UTC) <br /> <br /> People who know a lot about the immune system could also be referring to people who are aware of possibilities like the varicella zoster virus which causes chickenpox, but stays dormant in your body after you recover and can come back later as shingles. This is less likely to happen if you get the vaccine to prevent chickenpox in the first place. --[[User:Norgaladir|Norgaladir]] ([[User talk:Norgaladir|talk]]) 00:32, 21 December 2021 (UTC)<br /> <br /> A vaccination doesn't necessarily give you immunity, e.g. with the Covid or influenca vaccines, so you still can get infected. But being vaccinated reduces the risk of suffering complications like death that can ruin your and other peoples' life.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.94.229|162.158.94.229]] 07:59, 21 December 2021 (UTC)<br /> :...''significantly'' reduces the risk, in fact. It likely also (though it's a harder thing to establish) reduces the catch-and-transmit rate, thus yet another thing to do to help others, even those you'll never meet directly, who are unable or (ugh!) unwilling to think this far ahead. Unmitigated (and, especially, sought-after) 'natural' infection as represented in the comic just helps spread the thing further and faster and does a gross disservice to onward contacts, contacts-of-contacts, etc, etc. Excuse my preaching to the choir here, but it needs to be said. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.73|172.70.85.73]] 13:06, 21 December 2021 (UTC)<br /> <br /> While trying to update the explanation for 'neutrality of tone' and address some infectious disease history, I came across this [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7120728/#!po=44.6721|Highly Infectious Diseases in Critical Care] article<br /> from the NIH published January 3 of 2020 which includes a comparison of smallpox, measles, SARS-1, and MERS-cov illustrating how significantly vaccination has reduced global infections. Check out the graph of measles from 1980. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.110.227|172.70.110.227]] 13:46, 21 December 2021 (UTC)</div>

Iggynelix https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2526:_TSP_vs_TBSP&diff=219095 2021-10-11T14:15:58Z

<p>Iggynelix: /* Explanation */ Nife</p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 2526<br /> | date = October 8, 2021<br /> | title = TSP vs TBSP<br /> | image = tsp_vs_tbsp.png<br /> | titletext = It's like one teraspoon / when all you need is a kilonife<br /> }}<br /> <br /> ==Explanation==<br /> {{incomplete|Created by ALANIS TURINGETTE - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> This comic plays a joke on the common liquid measurements of {{w|teaspoon}}s (tsp) and {{w|tablespoon}}s (tbsp), which are commonly confused. In the US, a teaspoon is defined as 4.9 mL (0.18 imp fl oz; 0.17 US fl oz) while a tablespoon is defined as 14.8 ml (0.50 US fl oz; 3 tsp).<br /> <br /> It also plays a joke on metric prefixes (based on powers of 10) versus binary prefixes (based on powers of 2), which are also a common source of confusion (see also [[394: Kilobyte]]). In the International System of Units (SI), T (for ''tera-'') signifies a multiplier of 10&lt;sup&gt;12&lt;/sup&gt; (that is, 1&amp;nbsp;000&amp;nbsp;000&amp;nbsp;000&amp;nbsp;000), while Ti (''tebi-'', for ''terabinary''), and not Tb, is an ISO standard binary prefix meaning 2&lt;sup&gt;40&lt;/sup&gt; (that is, 1024&lt;sup&gt;4&lt;/sup&gt; = 1&amp;nbsp;099&amp;nbsp;511&amp;nbsp;627&amp;nbsp;776).<br /> <br /> If &quot;spoon&quot; is understood as US teaspoon, then one teraspoon will be 4&amp;nbsp;928&amp;nbsp;922 cubic meters (1.302 billion US gallons or 3996 acre-feet) and a binary teraspoon will be 5&amp;nbsp;419&amp;nbsp;407 cubic meters (1.432 B gal or 4394 acre-ft). If the US tablespoon is taken as base unit, a teraspoon will be 14&amp;nbsp;786&amp;nbsp;765 cubic meters and a binary teraspoon 16&amp;nbsp;258&amp;nbsp;220 cubic meters – roughly equivalent to six thousand Olympic-size swimming pools or slightly more than six times the volume of the Pyramid of Giza. All these units have fairly limited uses in cooking.{{Citation needed}} <br /> <br /> The title text is a play on a lyric from the Alanis Morissette song &quot;{{w|Ironic (song)|Ironic}}&quot;: &quot;It's like ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife.&quot; Randall changes the line to &quot;teraspoon&quot; and &quot;kilonife&quot;. The &quot;kilonife&quot; comes from ''knife'' being interpreted as &quot;nife&quot; with a ''k'' prefix – ''k'' being the SI symbol for ''kilo-'' –, in a similar vein as taking ''tsp'' for &quot;teraspoon&quot;. &quot;Nife&quot; is a geophysical name for Earth's core, thought to be composed of nickel and iron, and hence the word comes from the chemical symbols Ni (nickel) and Fe (iron).<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> {{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> :Cooking tips: tsp vs tbsp<br /> <br /> :[left column:]<br /> :&lt;big&gt;Tsp&lt;/big&gt;<br /> :Teraspoon <br /> :1,000,000,000,000 <br /> :(10&lt;sup&gt;12&lt;/sup&gt;) spoons<br /> <br /> :[right column:]<br /> :&lt;big&gt;Tbsp&lt;/big&gt;<br /> :Binary tsp <br /> :1,099,511,627,776 <br /> :(1024&lt;sup&gt;4&lt;/sup&gt;) spoons<br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}<br /> [[Category:Computers]]<br /> [[Category:Tips]]<br /> [[Category:Math]]<br /> [[Category:Food]]</div>

Iggynelix https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2526:_TSP_vs_TBSP&diff=219094 2021-10-11T14:12:05Z

<p>Iggynelix: /* Explanation */ citation needed</p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 2526<br /> | date = October 8, 2021<br /> | title = TSP vs TBSP<br /> | image = tsp_vs_tbsp.png<br /> | titletext = It's like one teraspoon / when all you need is a kilonife<br /> }}<br /> <br /> ==Explanation==<br /> {{incomplete|Created by ALANIS TURINGETTE - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> This comic plays a joke on the common liquid measurements of {{w|teaspoon}}s (tsp) and {{w|tablespoon}}s (tbsp), which are commonly confused. In the US, a teaspoon is defined as 4.9 mL (0.18 imp fl oz; 0.17 US fl oz) while a tablespoon is defined as 14.8 ml (0.50 US fl oz; 3 tsp).<br /> <br /> It also plays a joke on metric prefixes (based on powers of 10) versus binary prefixes (based on powers of 2), which are also a common source of confusion (see also [[394: Kilobyte]]). In the International System of Units (SI), T (for ''tera-'') signifies a multiplier of 10&lt;sup&gt;12&lt;/sup&gt; (that is, 1&amp;nbsp;000&amp;nbsp;000&amp;nbsp;000&amp;nbsp;000), while Ti (''tebi-'', for ''terabinary''), and not Tb, is an ISO standard binary prefix meaning 2&lt;sup&gt;40&lt;/sup&gt; (that is, 1024&lt;sup&gt;4&lt;/sup&gt; = 1&amp;nbsp;099&amp;nbsp;511&amp;nbsp;627&amp;nbsp;776).<br /> <br /> If &quot;spoon&quot; is understood as US teaspoon, then one teraspoon will be 4&amp;nbsp;928&amp;nbsp;922 cubic meters (1.302 billion US gallons or 3996 acre-feet) and a binary teraspoon will be 5&amp;nbsp;419&amp;nbsp;407 cubic meters (1.432 B gal or 4394 acre-ft). If the US tablespoon is taken as base unit, a teraspoon will be 14&amp;nbsp;786&amp;nbsp;765 cubic meters and a binary teraspoon 16&amp;nbsp;258&amp;nbsp;220 cubic meters – roughly equivalent to six thousand Olympic-size swimming pools or slightly more than six times the volume of the Pyramid of Giza. All these units have fairly limited uses in cooking.{{Citation needed}} <br /> <br /> The title text is a play on a lyric from the Alanis Morissette song &quot;{{w|Ironic (song)|Ironic}}&quot;: &quot;It's like ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife.&quot; Randall changes the line to &quot;teraspoon&quot; and &quot;kilonife&quot;. The &quot;kilonife&quot; comes from ''knife'' being interpreted as &quot;nife&quot; with a ''k'' prefix – ''k'' being the SI symbol for ''kilo-'' –, in a similar vein as taking ''tsp'' for &quot;teraspoon&quot;.<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> {{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> :Cooking tips: tsp vs tbsp<br /> <br /> :[left column:]<br /> :&lt;big&gt;Tsp&lt;/big&gt;<br /> :Teraspoon <br /> :1,000,000,000,000 <br /> :(10&lt;sup&gt;12&lt;/sup&gt;) spoons<br /> <br /> :[right column:]<br /> :&lt;big&gt;Tbsp&lt;/big&gt;<br /> :Binary tsp <br /> :1,099,511,627,776 <br /> :(1024&lt;sup&gt;4&lt;/sup&gt;) spoons<br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}<br /> [[Category:Computers]]<br /> [[Category:Tips]]<br /> [[Category:Math]]<br /> [[Category:Food]]</div>

Iggynelix https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2524:_Comet_Visitor&diff=218841 2021-10-05T13:32:29Z

<p>Iggynelix: </p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 2524<br /> | date = October 4, 2021<br /> | title = Comet Visitor<br /> | image = comet_visitor.png<br /> | titletext = It's a myth that the Great Wall of China is the only human-made structure visible from space--there are LOTS of structures for us to feel self-conscious about!<br /> }}<br /> <br /> ==Explanation==<br /> {{incomplete|Created by a PACIFIC MOON FOOT-PATCH - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> {{w|C/2014 UN271 (Bernardinelli-Bernstein)|Comet C/2014 UN&lt;sub&gt;271&lt;/sub&gt;}} is a large comet that was discovered in 2014 almost as far from the Sun as the orbit of Neptune, and it will reach its closest approach in 2031, near Saturn's orbit. It's an {{w|Oort Cloud}} comet, with a period of more than 4 million years. Since modern humans ({{w|homo sapiens}}) evolved about 300,000 years ago (although tool-making ancestors were around about 2.5 million years ago), the last time it was among the planets was long before humans evolved.<br /> <br /> When a long-period comet comes into the inner Solar System, it's often figuratively called a &quot;visit&quot;. But Megan and Cueball treat this more literally. Just as one usually neatens up their home when they're expecting guests, to make a good impression, they realize they need to clean up the Earth and its vicinity in preparation for this &quot;visitor&quot;. Cueball starts handing out assignments -- he'll clean up the {{w|Pacific Garbage Patch}}, and suggests that Megan take care of all the debris in orbit. It's also common to put some useful objects out of view without throwing them away (perhaps to prevent someone damaging them), planning on returning them to their normal place after the visit; Cueball suggests doing this with the Mars rovers. And he suggests sweeping up the footprints that NASA astronauts left on the Moon during the Apollo missions. However, since the comet will never be anywhere near Earth and Mars, all this hardly seems necessary; it would be like cleaning up your home because the President or some other dignitary will be somewhere in the same metropolitan area. Furthermore, sweeping footprints in the Moon, that Cueball sees as a way of tidying up, would be seen as [https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/nasa-looks-to-protect-historic-sites-on-the-moon-47186092/ destroying an invaluable archaeological sites by NASA and other people].<br /> <br /> The title text debunks the claim that the {{w|Great Wall of China}} is the only [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_structures_visible_from_space human-made structure visible from outer space]; in fact the Great Wall cannot easily be distinguished from space (as it is very long but not wide), but some other human constructions such as the Pyramids can (and cities are easily visible at night because they emit light).<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> {{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> :[Megan sits at a desk in front of a computer, looking to the left off-panel and pointing at the screen]<br /> :Megan: Have you seen this big comet, C/2014 UN271? It'll pass near Saturn's orbit in 10 years.<br /> :[Cueball stands behind Megan, who is now looking at the computer and typing]<br /> :Cueball: Wow, look at the orbital period.<br /> :Megan: Yeah, it hasn't been to this part of the solar system since humans evolved. At '''''least.'''''<br /> :[Cueball starts running off-panel, holding his finger in the air. Megan looks towards him with both arms resting on the back of her chair]<br /> :Cueball: Well, we definitely need to tidy up. I'll start on the Pacific Garbage Patch, you tackle orbital debris.<br /> :Megan: What about the moon footprints?<br /> :Cueball: Sweep them up. Collect the Mars rovers, too! We can put them back once it's gone.<br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}</div>

Iggynelix https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2493:_Dual_USB-C&diff=215561 2021-07-25T16:18:52Z

<p>Iggynelix: /* Explanation */</p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 2493<br /> | date = July 23, 2021<br /> | title = Dual USB-C<br /> | image = dual_usb_c.png<br /> | titletext = Small devices use two-prong USB-AC, but there's also a three-prong version with a USB-B plug as the ground.<br /> }}<br /> <br /> ==Explanation==<br /> {{incomplete|Created by a USB-DC PLUG. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> This comic shows Cursed Connectors #187, indicating that there are many very bad types of connectors and that this comic could be the first in a series of Cursed Connectors, just like the [[:Category:Bad Map Projections|Bad Map Projections]] series. Only time will tell if this actually becomes a series like with the map projections.<br /> <br /> {{w|USB-C}} connectors are the newest version of the {{w|USB|USB standard}}, and were controversial on launch{{citation needed}} for reasons [[Randall]] previously covered in [[927: Standards]]. Randall proposes a new type of connector which would see two USB plugs side-by-side able to be inserted simultaneously by housing them inside a {{w|NEMA_connector#NEMA_1|NEMA 1-15P}} plug, more commonly known as a Type A plug, that is usually used in some countries to connect electrical devices to AC current. This does not seem to offer any advantages other than reviving the controversy.<br /> <br /> Further, the plug introduces several disadvantages, including, but not limited to<br /> *The plug creates the risk of accidentally plugging a USB-C device into a power outlet, which is likely to damage the device as the voltage of a NEMA 1 circuit is about six times as large as the maximum for USB-C. Additionally, mains power outlets typically supply {{w|Alternating_current|alternating current}}, whilst USB devices operate on {{w|Direct_current|direct current}}, which is also likely to result in damage to the device.<br /> *The outer metal casings of the plugs are usually connected to the device's ground plane, so the casings likely have a low-resistance path between them. Plugging such a device into a power outlet would form a short circuit.<br /> *The plug likely won't fit a power outlet (NEMA plug pins have a 6.4×1.5 mm cross-section and the USB-C is 8.4×2.6 mm.)<br /> *Any device meant to be connected to the full plug would need vertical ports, making any theoretical device quite thick.<br /> *The plug could occupy 6+ ports of a USB-C hub with vertical ports, taking up the space to charge 2-6 phones with a single device.<br /> *The plug being mimicked is typically not found in a double male configuration implying that the cord is attached to a device at the other end in a non removable way (Typically, the other end of detachable power cords for appliances is one of the plugs specified in the {{w|IEC_60320|IEC 60320}} standard, so presumably for Randall's connector application would substitute USB-C sockets in a C9 or similar configuration.)<br /> <br /> The connector therefore is considered cursed.<br /> <br /> Notably, there's an existing [https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1520/4366/products/type-c-dual-multimedia-adapter-multi-ports-satechi-340267_1024x.jpg?v=1595892279 dual USB-C plug] in use for Macbook-compatible high-performance dongles, among other things, which is remarkably similar but avoids all the above disadvantages.<br /> <br /> The title text indicates that an equivalent for the 3-pronged {{w|NEMA_connector#NEMA_5|NEMA 5-15P}} plug (a.k.a the Type B plug) for AC current could be created easily by incorporating a USB-B plug, which are small and square-shaped and could therefore function as the ground prong. There appears to be no reason to do this other than because both names contain the letter 'B'.<br /> <br /> Unconventional uses for electric plugs are a recurring topic in xkcd (see [[1293: Job Interview]] and [[1395: Power Cord]]). Combining them with USB was previously explored in [[1406: Universal Converter Box]] among other combinations.<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> :[A power cord like plug with two prongs is shown, but each prong is in the shape of USB-C connectors. Above is a title and below a lable.]<br /> :Cursed Connectors #187<br /> :Dual USB-C<br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}</div>

Iggynelix https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2451:_AI_Methodology&diff=210381 2021-04-17T15:11:11Z

<p>Iggynelix: /* Explanation */ Typo. But frankly I think we should rename to &quot; flavor text&quot; instead of hover text , It tastes great and 8s less filling</p> <hr /> <div>{{comic<br /> | number = 2451<br /> | date = April 16, 2021<br /> | title = AI Methodology<br /> | image = ai_methodology.png<br /> | titletext = We've learned that weird spacing and diacritics in the methodology description are apparently the key to good research; luckily, we've developed an AI tool to help us figure out where to add them.<br /> }}<br /> <br /> ==Explanation==<br /> {{incomplete|Created by a BOT (91%). TRAINED BY AN ADVERSARIAL AI (72%). If you are knowledgeable about AI, please rewrite at least one paragraph for us. The current content was completely fudged by amateurs. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> The joke in this comic is that the people are using {{w|artificial intelligence}} (AI) without understanding how to. That classifier is trained on data that doesn't include the causes of the results, and then not testing it at all, producing a model that is both random and heavily overfitted. Such a model appears perfect but makes random predictions on new data. The hover text is describing this happening, and how. For an introduction to machine learning, you can visit https://fast.ai/ .<br /> <br /> This comic shows Cueball giving a presentation of some description. He is reassuring his audience of the validity of his research's methodology, which he says is &quot;AI-based&quot;. There are many issues that can arise from an AI-based methodology, such as lingering influence from its training data or a bad algorithm reducing the quality of the investigation.<br /> <br /> Cueball seeks to reassure his audience by quantifying the quality of his methodology. He does this by creating yet another AI to rank methodologies. This would not actually improve the confidence of any audience member, as any flaws of the methodology AI would likely be shared by the ranking AI, due to being created by the same team.<br /> <br /> Furthermore, the ranking AI heavily favours the methodology of Cueball's AI, and may be biased. It shows a normal distribution, with a singular outlier to the far right with an arrow above. It can be inferred (from the arrow) that this data-point represents the AI's methodology. It is a significant outlier, and as such it is probably not an accurate representation of Cueball's AI. Alternatively, this could be taken as AI 'nepotism', where Cueball's methodology AI is more likely to select AI-based approaches over others. This type of algorithmic bias is mentioned in [[2237: AI Hiring Algorithm]]. Another explanation would be that the x axis measures something other than &quot;how good the methodology is&quot; (eg, rate of highly significant results), and the fact that Cueball's AI is not within the normal distribution should have been a red flag indicating a problem with their methodology, but the ranking AI didn't notice the skew / correctly interpret the meaning of the data. (However, the title text seems to indicate that the x axis was indeed labeled by &quot;quality of methodology&quot;, albeit defining this quality by very strange criteria.)<br /> <br /> The title text is likely a continuation of Cueball's dialogue, saying that when the classifying AI was shown good research methodology descriptions, the AI identified weird spacing and diacritics as the indicators of a good methodology. Cueball then used his AI to figure out where to put these into his own methodology description to improve his research report. Adding weird symbols into a text doesn't improve the quality of the text {{Citation needed}} and hence Cueball may be doing something very similar to p-hacking, where data is manipulated to decrease the p-number, which represents the likelihood the data is a fluke. P-hacking is mentioned in [[882: Significant]]<br /> <br /> ==Transcript==<br /> {{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br /> <br /> :[Cueball stands in front of a projection on a screen and points with a stick to a histogram with a bell curve to the left and one bar to the far right marked with an arrow]<br /> :Cueball: Despite our great research results, some have questioned our AI-based methodology.<br /> :Cueball: But we trained a classifier on a collection of good and bad methodology sections, and it says ours is fine.<br /> <br /> {{comic discussion}}<br /> [[Category:Artificial Intelligence]]<br /> [[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]</div>

Iggynelix https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2386:_Ten_Years&diff=201950 2020-11-17T12:34:46Z

<p>Iggynelix: </p> <hr /> <div>There is little or nothing I can add to this except to say that there is at least one good thing that has happened in 2020.  Congratulations, Randall and Megan.[[User:RAGBRAIvet|RAGBRAIvet]] ([[User talk:RAGBRAIvet|talk]]) 04:14, 17 November 2020 (UTC)<br /> <br /> I was so confused when I read the comic-until I realized it was based on a true story. This is very sweet of Randall to dedicate this comic to his wife's progress. -neverdroptop 04:37, 17 November 2020 (UTC)<br /> <br /> Congrats Megan and Randall! - skotos<br /> <br /> I'm not crying, _you're_ crying. Such a heartbreakingly gorgeous comic, thanks Randall. Congratulations to you both. - Excession_OCP<br /> <br /> This is lovely. Congratulations on 10yrs cancer free. May your 15 year traditional anniversary gift not be cursed. [[User:Iggynelix|Iggynelix]] ([[User talk:Iggynelix|talk]]) 12:34, 17 November 2020 (UTC)</div>

Iggynelix