3038: Uncanceled Units

2025-01-15T14:13:13Z

LRataplan: /* Explanation */ Imperial gallons are gallons too!

{{comic
| number = 3038
| date = January 15, 2025
| title = Uncanceled Units
| image = uncanceled_units_2x.png
| imagesize = 323x355px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Speed limit c arcminutes^2 per steradian
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by THE PLANCK CONSTANT, WHICH IS TECHNICALLY A FREQUENCY AND CAN THUS BE EXPRESSED IN HERTZ - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
In this comic, [[White Hat]] is presenting a refrigerator to [[Cueball]], claiming it only uses 3 kWh per day. This is a commonly used, but uncancelled unit: kiloWatts x hour / day contains two units of time, which can be cancelled (24h = 1d), yielding 1/8 kW or 125 W.
Cueball answers by asking whether the refrigerator would fit in his kitchen, since the ceiling is only 50 gallons per square foot high, which is also an uncancelled unit, as gallons can be transformed to cubic feet, which can be divided by the square feet, yielding a ceiling height of around 203.7 cm, or around 6 feet 8 inches. (Using imperial gallons, the height is approximately 244.7 cm, roughly 8 feet.)

In the title text, a speed limit is given as c arcminutes^2 per steradian, where c is presumably the speed of light in vacuum, 2.998×10^8 m/s (meters per second) or 186282 mi/s (miles per second). A steradian (sr) is the SI unit for solid angle, subtending a section of a sphere, like a radian is a unit of angle subtending a section of a circle. A square arcminute is also a unit of solid angle, equivalent to a section of a sphere of 1/60 of a degree by 1/60 of a degree. There are ((1/60)*(pi/180))^2 = 8.462×10^-8 sr in a square arcminute. Then multiplying by c gives a speed of 56.75 mph or 91.33 km/h.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

:[White Hat and Cueball are standing to either side of a refrigerator. The fridge has two top compartments and one bottom compartment. The top left compartment has a tall handle on its right, the top right compartment has a tall handle on its left, and the bottom compartment has a long handle on its top. The top left compartment has a paper attached to it with unreadable text, possibly an advertisement.]
:White Hat: This fridge uses only 3 kWh per day!
:Cueball: But will it fit in my kitchen? The ceiling there is only 50 gallons per square foot.

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Pet peeve: Uncanceled units

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Math]]

Talk:2915: Eclipse Clouds

2024-04-05T15:00:39Z

LRataplan: 50 shades meme?

I suspect Friday's and next Monday's comics will also be about the eclipse. We should be proactive and create a category for them. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 17:12, 3 April 2024 (UTC)
:Might explain why there was no time to fit in a decent AF comic. (And this one definitely reminds me of '99!) [[Special:Contributions/172.69.43.225|172.69.43.225]] 17:31, 3 April 2024 (UTC)

Nephele (νεφέλη) is Greek for cloud. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.123.81|172.71.123.81]] 17:14, 3 April 2024 (UTC)Ben
:I'm still trying to find a good way to word it, for those not already aware. (There are a number of related words, c.f. germanic "nebel", "nebulous" or of course "nephelococcygia"). [[Special:Contributions/172.69.43.225|172.69.43.225]] 17:31, 3 April 2024 (UTC)

I thought the joke in the title text is that a combined solar-lunar-nephelogical eclipse is impossible, not just "rare". You can't have a solar and lunar eclipse at the same time. Either of them can be nephelogical, though. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 17:16, 3 April 2024 (UTC)
:Triple-conjunctions (plus the 'viewpoint', to make it a four-body syzygy) are a thing, though. A rare thing. And not to be confused with the standard meaning of {{w|triple conjunction}}, but I'm not sure what else to call it (when not just a sequence across time). [[Special:Contributions/172.69.43.225|172.69.43.225]] 17:31, 3 April 2024 (UTC)
:no the clouds are occluding the moon and the moon is occluding the sun so it is a lunar eclipse. Not a nephelogical eclipse though because the clouds aren’t occluded
::They are if you close your eyes.[[Special:Contributions/172.69.43.242|172.69.43.242]] 08:28, 4 April 2024 (UTC)
:If you are in Australia through India, on Monday, you will be able have a solar '''and''' lunar eclipse, as the moon will block the sun and the Earth will block the moon. :) Extremely rare. [[User:SDSpivey|SDSpivey]] ([[User talk:SDSpivey|talk]]) 15:27, 4 April 2024 (UTC)

We don't already have a catagory for eclipses?? I'd have thought someone would have made one last eclipse, since there was so many comics about them [[User:Apollo11|Apollo11]] ([[User talk:Apollo11|talk]]) 17:24, 3 April 2024 (UTC)
:Someone has just been adding the (currently redlinked) [[:Category:Solar eclipses]]. Which is admirable, but perhaps better to have established the actual Category first. (I would have suggested "Eclipses" be created. Or at least that as a super-category for the separate Solar and Lunar cats, plus any further eclipses that individually might be mentioned.) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.190|172.70.90.190]] 17:41, 3 April 2024 (UTC)
:I created the category page. I wasn't sure what should go on it, so other people could review it [[User:Firestar233|guess who]] ([[User talk:Firestar233|if you want to]] | [[Special:Contributions/Firestar233|what i have done]]) 23:50, 3 April 2024 (UTC)

Oddly enough, clouds tend to disappear during eclipses. Strange, but true. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.39.72|172.70.39.72]] 20:03, 3 April 2024 (UTC)
:Maybe they're there, but you can't see them because it's dark :) [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 00:55, 4 April 2024 (UTC)
::Clouds typically form because warm air rises, cools off in the higher layers and water vapor then condenses. During an eclipse, the Sun no longer heats the ground, temperature drops a bit, and thus the cloud forming mechanism is interrupted. This means that there will indeed be somewhat fewer/less dense clouds during an eclipse. It is definitely not enough to get rid of all possible clouds, but I have seen a lightly overcast sky clear up when the totality approached. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.182.142|172.71.182.142]] 06:41, 4 April 2024 (UTC)
:::I've seen lightly overcast skies clear up when there wasn't an eclipse, though - how do you explain that?[[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.38|172.70.162.38]] 08:31, 4 April 2024 (UTC)
::::Clearly that was just an eclipse you couldn't see! Checkmate! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.163.48|172.70.163.48]] 13:58, 4 April 2024 (UTC)
::::To the clear up without eclipse question: that could be a matter of the butterfly in the Brazil rainforest [i]not[/i] flapping its wings. We are usually only told what happens when the butterfly is active, but it stands to reason that quiet and clear weather results when the beastie is asleep. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.99.218|172.71.99.218]] 06:59, 5 April 2024 (UTC)

Nobody has mentioned that Eclipse coolness tends to a Dirac delta function. I fear this site is dumbing down. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.50|172.70.86.50]] 12:39, 4 April 2024 (UTC)
:Perhaps its creator is more focused on financial functions these days - such as the one asserting that every equation in a published work cuts sales/hits by half. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.147.18|172.71.147.18]] 19:49, 4 April 2024 (UTC)

I always thought Murphy's given name was Edsel.[[Special:Contributions/172.71.147.18|172.71.147.18]] 19:49, 4 April 2024 (UTC)

"My tastes are very singular" is a quote from Fifty Shades of Gray and, by the looks of it, a bit of a meme because of that. It seems to me the use here is intentional... and I don't know what to do with the info. Personally, I'd forget that book if I could. [[User:LRataplan|LRataplan]] ([[User talk:LRataplan|talk]]) 15:00, 5 April 2024 (UTC)

explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

3038: Uncanceled Units

Talk:2915: Eclipse Clouds