explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:3167: Car Size

2025-12-25T02:56:48Z

Lamda05:

It is I, broseph. [[User:Broseph|Broseph]] ([[User talk:Broseph|talk]]) 19:45, 12 November 2025 (UTC)
:MY LETTERS ARE BIGGER THAN YOURS!!! --'''''[[User:DollarStoreBa'al|DollarStoreBa'al]][[User Talk:DollarStoreBa'al|Converse]] 20:15, 12 November 2025 (UTC)
tears of the kingdom be like [[Special:Contributions/128.135.204.243|128.135.204.243]] 20:49, 12 November 2025 (UTC)

Did someone say {{w|Not Just Bikes}}? https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0intLFzLaudFG-xAvUEO-A --[[Special:Contributions/62.0.12.1|62.0.12.1]] 20:50, 12 November 2025 (UTC)

On the (current) closing paragraph of the Explanation, note that (at least where I am) it is illegal to ride a bike on the footway, unless specifically signed and permitted as a shared/split pavement area. As a cyclist, I really wouldn't even want to (or to increase fellow motorists' misconceptions that they exclusively own the road) when it's a perfectly good highway, but 'people on bikes' seem to do what they like and perpetuate such misunderstandings. [[Special:Contributions/82.132.244.30|82.132.244.30]] 21:41, 12 November 2025 (UTC)
:It's illegal here too, and I've added a note to that effect. As a cyclist, I do sometimes ride on sidewalks where sharing a road with cars is just too dangerous, but I try to be extremely cautious in my interactions with pedestrians. They've got the right of way; I don't. [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 23:06, 12 November 2025 (UTC)
::On top of often ill-conceived official cycle/pedestrian paths, I have a mild dislike for "cycle lanes", personally, as a sort of official "we really would prefer you to not be on the road, but we don't know what else to do with you, and it looks good when we add up the amount of 'cycle friendly' routes we have" kind of thing. With awareness (so no plugging your ears with headphones playing your 'tunez') most roads that I might use ''ought'' to be safe to cycle without badly implemented off-road/side-of-road segregation, and an overwhelming amount don't have such provision (riding to a cafe forty-plus miles away and circling round a different way back home, there's surprisingly few no-motor-vehicles opportunities to take).
::Even worse, though, is walking by a road with a 'perfectly good' clearly marked cycle lane (not particularly bad, compared to some instances, clean gutter and no bad grates) and some idiot on a bike rushes past me on the ''pavement'' (i.e. sidewalk), these days it often being an electrically-assisted, near silent bike (courtesy of Deliveroo/whoever), except that he's (assuming 'he', but it's a good chance) zooming past me, slightly ''uphill'', without pedalling at all... Technically, he's riding an electric motorcycle, and going at normal traffic speeds (and wearing a motorcycle-style helmet, so probably no point shouting at him as his ears are covered, if he hasn't also got earbuds in!) and ''definitely'' shouldn't be sharing the pavement with me (on the verge of needing a registration plate and paying insurance/tax for his e-moped).
::Of course, he'll act just as badly when he transitions back on the road, ignoring other traffic rules and barely avoiding become the jam on an asphalt smogasbord, various drivers cursing him and wishing ''all cyclists'' were off the streets. (The same drivers might well sneak through lights themselves, though "if it's quiet and nobody else is there", plus happily exceed the 20/30/40/50/60/70 mph limits on roads whenever they can, and don't have me driving ''at the limit'' in front of them when it's awkward for them to pass...)
::Not saying I'm perfect, but there are idiots out there with everything from no wheels (just two legs) up to perhaps 18-ish or whatever their juggernaut has, engines of whatever type or none, but I hope that I do my bit by being more considerate than most (except when it comes to dealing with inconsideration itself, when I internalise any joy I get about stopping others breaking the law for a few short moments) whether I'm walking, riding or driving. Though always trying to be aware of what the inevitably ever-present idiots out there will be doing. (Well, I couldn't do a thing about the time that a car pulled out in front of the bus I was a passenger in. But neither could the bus-driver, really, from what I could work out. Bus. Small car. Not a battle that I'd want to fight, on inertia alone.)
::Darn... this was not intended to be a holier-than-though rant, when I started, but I still don't regret it starting to go that way one bit... [[Special:Contributions/82.132.245.223|82.132.245.223]] 23:56, 12 November 2025 (UTC)
:::''Starting'' to go that way?! Bro, you went full Jeremy Vine caller. Might I suggest that you grow up and realise that the ones you see are 100% of the ones you see, but that doesn't mean they are 100% of the picture. There is nuance. There are rules that are worth avoiding because that allows cyclists to get out of the way quickly – crossing in a way that a pedestrian is allowed to do, at a speed that a pedestrian can't, for example. Co-exist. High horses are far less welcome than cyclists. [[User:Yorkshire Pudding|Yorkshire Pudding]] ([[User talk:Yorkshire Pudding|talk]]) 17:55, 13 November 2025 (UTC)
::::The marking of a 'red bit of asphalt' ahead of the line that cars are expected to stop at, to give cyclists that little extra space when the lights go green, is useless when motorists don't just drive into that space but seem to think the 'stop line' is where the ''driver'' should position themselves (long bonnet being well over that line, half way across the pedestrian crossing or even out into the road junction).
::::I blame bad driving for that (as a cyclist of decades experience, I have to ride defensively), but bad 'biking' doesn't help.
::::I'd much rather ride across a box-junction ''with'' traffic (when the lights allow) than do the slalom of hopping on and off the pavement 'at will' and either waiting for the pedestrian crossing (''ideally'' a proper Toucan, or even Pegasus, given that you normally should only walk your bike across a Zebra or Pelican/Puffin) or disobeying those lights too, at your own risk and giving inconvenience/annoyance to both wheeled and walking traffic.
::::I have a low opinion of the way 'helpful' cycle-infrastructure has been implemented, and a low (but understandable) opinion of how ignorant people are of the bicycle position in the Highway Code and all relevent laws (see Section 72 of the Highway Act 1835, and all successive legislation, which establishes a bicycle as a road vehicle, and I do not want either my rights or obligations to be eroded, either legally or through misconceptions and misunderstandings).
::::I also know that I can drive at 70mph on a motorway (where there's no lesser limit applied to it by gantry signs and/or contraflow-protection signage) and, though I may be going faster than all HGVs, and possibly someone else happy to tootle along at 60ish (which I'm happy to do, too, but not in an overtaking lane unless its due to all the lanes being congested), there'll be traffic passing me at 80, 90 or maybe more in the outside (or middle!) overtaking lane. The only time it seems motorists will ''not'' exceed the limit (not just for a particular road, having not realised the local limit, but for ''every'' UK road) is where there are Average Speed cameras. (Site-only speed-cameras just have them maybe touch the brakes then speed up again afterwards. I've even been parked by the side of a road, by a 30-sign, and seen the approaching traffic ''really'' slam the brakes on on thinking my car (red) is a speed-trap, then speed back up once the guilty reaction has worn out. Stand in the very same place, inconspicuously and without any car, and nobody does it anything like that (probably going 70+ in the 60-zone, easing off to ''eventually'' 35-40 in the 30-zone).)
::::With the widespread ignoring of such laws, I am of course not surprised that people who may-or-may-not have even passed a driving test (or cycling proficiency test) are riding bikes badly. But I don't have to like it. And (like the title-text's forcing of 'lesser vehicles' off the road), I'd rather not have it rebounding upon those of us who ''aren't'' troublemakers.
::::It ''almost'' wants me to change my mind over the ideas of having "taxed, insured and registration-plated" cycles. But that is what other people suggest, probably to 'restore' the car's supremacy of the road (short-sightedly and ignorant of road-history) by making supposed nuisance-cyclists be made accountable (while they'll be shocked if they're ever stopped from going 30 in a 20-zone, or 90 in a NSL-zone).
::::This is no kneejerk opinion. I've been a cyclist for the best part of five decades (only marginally less than I've been walking, though I was also apparently first taken out in a cycle-trailer as a week-old baby) and a motorist for well over three. I've seen cycling become diminished as an everyday past-time and 'biking' spring up as a more elitish one (MAMILs, etc). And the rise of "Kensington Tractors", in the UK, but luckily it's still not heading inexorably down the comic's story. And if I can do my bit to evangelise for general law-abiding consideration and prick the conscience of ''all'' road users (and pedestrians), without myself causing problems to others (I don't count blocking those who intend to drive faster than my on-the-limit speed, just wait until I'm going slower than that because I don't want to spin off an icy road!), I will do so without apology. It doesn't have to be like that (cycling in Belgium is a dream, better even than the Netherlands, with not too shabby experiences from other countries from Denmark through to France), and really shouldn't be like the US, where even ''walking'' often seems to be an inconvenient eccentricity that's barely tolerated.
::::Ok, more enough of that. Most people reading this will never share the roads with me, anyway, even if you might. And Jeremy Vine has nothing to do with it. (Nor any of the Jeremies 'Kyle', 'Clarkson' or 'Corbyn', in their own ways. "Jeremy Hillary Boob, Ph.D.", ''perhaps''...) [[Special:Contributions/82.132.231.193|82.132.231.193]] 19:41, 13 November 2025 (UTC)
::::: Translation for Yanks-- "''in England, “Kensington Tractors” (referring to expensive 4WD Land Rovers in the city, and Kensington, a posh district in London.)."'' --[[User:PRR|PRR]] ([[User talk:PRR|talk]]) 21:50, 13 November 2025 (UTC)

Pretty good comic [[User:Mathmaster|Mathmaster]] ([[User talk:Mathmaster|talk]])

As someone who lives in the UK, the title text comes across as a comment on the US attitude to jaywalking - where the "solution" to vulnerable road users (pedestrians) being put in danger by careless drivers is to make it illegal for the vulnerable group to using the road at all. US people, is it likely that Randall had something like that in mind?
(Unrelated, but when posting this I got a captcha asking me to identify bicycles...) [[Special:Contributions/87.115.222.218|87.115.222.218]] 00:29, 13 November 2025 (UTC)
:I don't think so. I think he's just joking about not caring about peds at all. --'''''[[User:DollarStoreBa'al|DollarStoreBa'al]][[User Talk:DollarStoreBa'al|Converse]] 00:47, 13 November 2025 (UTC)
: As somebody who's lived in both the UK and the US, the US rules have been far more favorable to pedestrians. While it varies by states US rules have crosswalks at all intersections. US rules have always given pedestrians priority over turning traffic, something only introduced in the UK a few years ago, and still honoured mostly in the breach. And in the US drivers are required to yield to pedestrians even when the pedestrian is jaywalking, while in the UK drivers were taught that they must strive to "make progress" and preemptive slowing down while driving past questionable pedestrians was cause for failing a driving test.[[Special:Contributions/76.180.39.133|76.180.39.133]] 16:52, 21 November 2025 (UTC)

As a German, I take offense to this comic. ONLY CARS WILL SURVIVE THE APOCALYPSE! [[Special:Contributions/2A02:2455:1960:4000:652A:12CB:761D:93F6|2A02:2455:1960:4000:652A:12CB:761D:93F6]] 08:45, 13 November 2025 (UTC)

The comic is a typical example of US-centric views. Car ownership in Europe was much lower 50 years ago than in the US. Most people were still stuck in the first panel.--[[Special:Contributions/2001:638:807:507:B425:E1E7:68BD:B213|2001:638:807:507:B425:E1E7:68BD:B213]] 10:08, 13 November 2025 (UTC)
:...Because Randall is American? --'''''[[User:DollarStoreBa'al|DollarStoreBa'al]][[User Talk:DollarStoreBa'al|Converse]] 14:34, 13 November 2025 (UTC)
:Europe has been catching up to the US. In 1995, SUV sales were only 2%, but they were 54% in 2024. This is just a little lower than the US 58%. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 15:17, 13 November 2025 (UTC)
:the concept of people buying bigger cars is western-centric in general. [[user:lett‪herebedarklight|raeb]] 01:32, 14 November 2025 (UTC)

For those of you who keep a eX-Twitter account, someone posted a similar take that was so hilariously self-unaware: https://x.com/jerimiahlee/status/1758883775642059265 that people started one-upping him with larger and larger vehicles in quote posts, sometimes veering in chains that ended up with fictional vehicles, but my personal favorite on one-upmanship was the one who posted an image of a Takraf strip mine excavator… https://x.com/carl___spackler/status/1759646389376852009 [[Special:Contributions/89.83.116.217|89.83.116.217]] 15:17, 13 November 2025 (UTC) Pierre Lebeaupin

I realize this is US-specific, but the comic completely ignores the fact that vehicle manufacturers are incentivized by the US Government to increase the size of the cars they design, since the CAFE standards are graduated based on vehicle size. Larger vehicles are allowed to get lower MPG, so the bigger the vehicle you design, the less you have to worry about making it efficient. In fact, it's difficult to find a small vehicle for sale in the US. [[Special:Contributions/136.226.7.177|136.226.7.177]] 04:19, 14 November 2025 (UTC)

Renault Twingo ? So I followed the link, and this is pretty obviously a gag video. Now I know I'm not hip and with it on all the best memes, but I don't see how this helps explain the comic, or is actually relevant or noteworthy. [[Special:Contributions/104.129.192.105|104.129.192.105]] 19:00, 13 November 2025 (UTC)
: I think you've answered your own question - it's there as a gag. And it is lampooning exactly the kind of sales talk that helps drive the trend in the comic. [[Special:Contributions/82.13.184.33|82.13.184.33]] 10:52, 14 November 2025 (UTC)
:I second. I don't feel it helps explain the comic, or is actually relevant or noteworthy. [[User:OrwellFan|OrwellFan]] ([[User talk:OrwellFan|talk]]) 01:52, 15 November 2025 (UTC)

It should be noted that some electric scooters can reach speeds in excess of 80 km/h, which makes them a really serious threat to pedestrians or bicycles. (but less so than to the rider, obviously) {{unsigned ip|176.138.186.7|18:02, 14 November 2025 (UTC)}}

"This would almost certainly never happen in real life"... have you never seen spiked lug nuts? (Technically, spiked lug nut *covers*.) They seem to be standard on long haul trucks around here. [[Special:Contributions/2600:1700:9DA3:8040:684C:E1EE:D1AD:89AD|2600:1700:9DA3:8040:684C:E1EE:D1AD:89AD]] 22:07, 14 November 2025 (UTC)
:Again, I second. [[User:OrwellFan|OrwellFan]] ([[User talk:OrwellFan|talk]]) 01:52, 15 November 2025 (UTC)
:I have thought about adding spikes (fake and/or soft) to my car to keep other drivers from getting too close. Especially if they are following too close and I decide to slam my brakes. [[User:SDSpivey|SDSpivey]] ([[User talk:SDSpivey|talk]]) 04:50, 16 November 2025 (UTC)
Does randal reference https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carcinisation with the alttext? ---- {{unsigned ip|2a00:fbc:f303:76a5::2|18:49, 17 November 2025 (UTC)}}

Usually Randall’s comics are well-researched, but the historical examples in this one seem ludicrous. Can anyone confirm whether this is accurate at all? [[Special:Contributions/76.131.222.161|76.131.222.161]] 21:32, 20 November 2025 (UTC)
:Well, the '100 years ago' car is a bit ancient-looking. Less like any of the {{w|Category:Cars introduced in 1925}} entries than a 1910s or earlier one (could be artisitic licence on "early last century"). The bicycle is probably not very on-era either, though that style of step-through frame had appeared pre-1900 ''and'' can be seen in more contemporary versions of "ladies' bike". (The handlebars are a certain old-style, the saddle has an 'old-style' look (though tends to be reinvented for less 'racy' bikes) as far as one can tell from a few lines.
:''...'''added later''': after much searching, [https://www.bonhams.com/auction/22719/lot/101/1925-mercedes-type-8-ladies-bicycle-chassis-no-23006/ this bike] seems to be closest by both date and form...'' {{unsigned ip|2.98.65.8|01:23, 21 November 2025 (UTC)}}
:The '50 years ago' image looks to feature a mid-1980s small-car, rather than a 1975 one. (There's so many more actual models to check, though I'm thinking maybe something like a Datsun, or similar exported Japanee brand?) The larger car... well, apart from perhaps being a Rolls Royce (or otherwise featuring a prominent hood-ornament like that) it's the kind of luxury-sedan style shape that is ''almost'' contemporary up to the present day.
:For 'Today', you're going for basic "SUV", in both cases, just one with less SuperMini-like wheels (probably alloys) and plenty of add-on details. Features that clearly get an upgrade in the more visible 'Soon' car (the other one might be even bigger, the way its 'club-rotor' seems to be sat higher up, as well as having larger spiked-clubs). [[Special:Contributions/2.98.65.8|2.98.65.8]] 23:55, 20 November 2025 (UTC)

;Abuse of a simple word.

I wish to register my astonishment and horror at Randall’s abuse of the simple, if broad, term “cycle”. The phenomenon being accurately described in this comic is a linear progression. {{unsigned|Brain Weevil|15:32, 12 December 2025}}
:{|
!↱!!Person feels vulnerable!!↴
|-
!Others get bigger vehicle!!↻!!Person gets bigger vehicle
|-
!↑!!Others feel vulnerable!!↵
|}
:...looks like a cycle to me! As does the first vehicle. ;) [[Special:Contributions/82.132.236.246|82.132.236.246]] 17:19, 12 December 2025 (UTC)
::If you remember that both "person" and "others" fall into the category of "persons" the linearity becomes evident. To spell it out: "People get bigger and bigger cars." {{unsigned ip|108.49.66.187|13:13, 14 December 2025}}
:::In a {{w|File:Stampede loop.png|Feedback cycle}}, however much you simplify it. [[Special:Contributions/82.132.236.141|82.132.236.141]] 16:47, 14 December 2025 (UTC)

If this continues on even further, it would go like this:
* Cars get further armored and armed. People realize "shooting the obstacle into smithereens from afar" is a better way of preventing crash than ramming. Armored Fighting Vehicles (AFV), former "cars", have more armor, cannons, and often have rugged tracked chassis.
* Many AFV crews shoot first and ask questions later, and nobody knows each-other's intentions. Roads and cities turn into warzones. Even other tanks aren't safe, as even massive land battleships are vulnerable to high-power modern weaponry. Being outside is hazardous, so people relocate to deep bunkers, and all AFVs become either autonomous or remote-controlled.
* Later, super-intelligent super-geniuses are invented, and The First Technological Singularity starts. They transcend normal humans at least to same degree, by which normal humans transcend ''Australopithecus''; complexity of their brains transcends those of normal human brains, like complexity of modern computer transcends that of early 1990's computer; they have many times more neurons, bigger brains, and can out-compute supercomputers. Surgically grafting neurons onto brain, genetics, cybernetic implants - everything is used. Among other things, they invent new war machines, which normal humans can't even comprehend.
* Supergeniuses try to retake the surface with their new remote-controlled war machines. They again ran into each-other, and second cycle of violence starts, more devastating than ever.
* This cataclysmic trans-sapient war causes a crisis of untold proportions. But supergeniuses set aside the road problems, team up and prevent the catastrophe.
* Supergeniuses then invent The Group Overmind, the Super-Super-Supergenius. A single mind with many bodies, incomprehensible even to supergeniuses themselves, it becomes smarter proportionately to how many people he assimilated. Transcending normals to greater degree, than to which normals transcend microbes; transcending normal human brains to greater degree, than to which modern supercomputer transcends a loose pile of sticks. The Second Technological Singularity happens, everyone become united, technology advanced even further. Since everyone are now members of single group-mind (hive-mind), everyone move with cohesion of single organism, and no one has to ram or shoot each-other. And everything was lovely once again. --[[User:User 8496351|User 8496351]] ([[User talk:User 8496351|talk]]) 19:32, 19 December 2025 (UTC)

Perhaps hydrogen vehicles can solve this problem by achieving Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD).--[[User:Lamda05|Lamda05]] ([[User talk:Lamda05|talk]]) 02:56, 25 December 2025 (UTC)

3158: Shielding Chart

2025-11-02T12:08:40Z

Lamda05: /* Table */

{{comic
| number = 3158
| date = October 22, 2025
| title = Shielding Chart
| image = shielding_chart_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x720px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Sharks can occasionally travel short distances through air when pursuing prey, but their attenuation coefficient is pretty high.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created by a SPACE-BASED SHARK DEFENSE BOT. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

This comic is part of a series on [[:Category:Confusion matrices|confusion matrices]].

Various hazardous (or merely obnoxious) materials, objects, and effects can have their danger reduced with specialized protective equipment. The yellow squares are where the shield fails to protect against the object. The grey-yellow squares are where the shield is partially successful, but still presents some risk. The grey squares are where the shield succeeds.

The first five barriers are materials/conditions which may be used to block some things and not others, which makes for a relatively normal comparison matrix. The last five barriers are devices which are deliberately designed and manufactured to block the last five materials/effects. Comparing those with effects for which they aren't designed is presented for absurdity.

The first three hazards - Gamma Rays, Neutrons, and Alpha Particles - represent different types of radiation. Their associated "beep" and "click" sounds mirror real detection behavior: "beep" corresponds to ionizing radiation like gamma and alpha particles, detected by modern radiation detectors, while "click" refers to neutron detection, which uses a separate type of counter designed for neutral particles. {{w|Geiger counter|Geiger counters}}, an earlier form of radiation detector, also clicked.

All but two tiles feature [[Cueball]] (or in one case [[Hairy]]) trying to make use of that column's chosen 'protective shield', although in the case of some scenarios (involving vacuum or water) he may also be sufficiently equipped against the environment he finds himself in. Also present will be the row's specific 'effect', either in its own right (an object or creature that embodies the phenomenon automatically) or as conveyed by [[Megan]] (when not just present as onlooker) who may also have had the 'shield' primarily delegated to her. The two main exceptions are where Cueball himself emits the sound (from within 'protective' suits that turn out to be ineffectual sound-blockers), to apparently annoy Megan, and depictions of radio reception (which always show Cueball's attempt to transmit, whether or not it shows a successful incoming message).

Some hazards, such as {{w|alpha particles}}, a form of radiation with particularly low penetrative power, can be easily deterred by common things; even a relatively short distance through air is enough to minimize their impact. Comparatively, more dangerous hazards, such as the far more penetrative {{w|gamma rays}}, are unaffected by all but the shielding methods actually intended for them. No effect is either all effective or all ineffective, against each form of 'shielding', and neither is any instance of shield consistent against all effects.

The title text notes that, while the shark hazard is shown on the chart to be entirely nullified by a sufficient air barrier, in reality sharks are capable of attacking prey even if it is a short distance out of the water. However, it claims a high "attenuation coefficient", which is an {{tvtropes|ExpospeakGag|overly scientific way of saying}} that you don't need a ''lot'' of air between you and the shark before it can't hurt you. Indeed, while sharks can jump out of the water to a certain height, there's a hard line between "vulnerable" and "out of reach", and a person can be within arm's reach of a shark's attack while they themselves are in no danger whatsoever. So long as they ''don't'' unwisely reach out to tempt fate.

This table might imply that lead is the best defense against everything in general, but it is toxic, so don't bring lead with you at all times.
===Table===
{| class="wikitable" | style="background:#E6C3C3;"
! Shielding Chart
! scope="col"| {{w|Air}}
! scope="col"| {{w|Lead}}
! scope="col"| {{w|Water}}
! scope="col"| {{w|Glass}}
! scope="col"| {{w|Vacuum}}
! scope="col"| {{w|Oven mitts}}
! scope="col"| {{w|Armor}}
! scope="col"| {{w|Hazmat suit|Bio-hazard suit}}
! scope="col"| {{w|Faraday cage}}
! scope="col"| {{w|Shark cage}}
|-
! scope="row"| {{w|Gamma rays}}
| style="background:#FFF978;"|Gamma rays are not significantly shielded by air.
| style="background:#C4C5C7;"|Lead is commonly used as {{w|Lead shielding|shielding}} against gamma rays. Lead works because of its density and high atomic number, scattering gamma rays.
| style="background:#DDDCB2;"|Water can be used to shield against gamma rays, but you need at least 10 feet of water between you and the gamma rays for it to work.
|colspan=7; style="background:#FFF978;"|Gamma rays have the highest energy of any type of light and have no mass or charge, making them pass through most materials easily.

|-
! scope="row"| {{w|Neutrons}}
| style="background:#FFF978;"|Neutrons are not stopped by low density materials such as air.
| style="background:#DDDCB2;"|Lead's high density means that neutrons will keep bumping into lead nuclei, losing their energy through inelastic scattering. However since lead nuclei are much heavier than neutrons, most of the energy will remain with the neutron; as a result, many collisions are needed to slow the neutrons. Some neutrons will also be absorbed by the nuclei, although the {{w|Cross section (physics)|cross section}} is rather low.
| style="background:#C4C5C7;"|Since protons and neutrons have almost the same mass, a collision with a hydrogen atom in water will result in the neutron losing almost half of its energy, resulting in a very rapid attenuation. Moreover the cross section for the fusion of neutrons and protons is high, leading to most neutrons being captured to form deuterium.
|colspan=7; style="background:#FFF978;"|None of these materials are dense enough to slow or absorb neutrons in significant quantities.

|-
! scope="row"| {{w|Alpha particles}}
|colspan=4; style="background:#C4C5C7"|As alpha particles are almost completely unable to travel through most materials, any of these would effectively stop them. Even if they didn't, the intervening air and distance to Cueball would prevent them being detected in any case. In the third panel, Cueball questions if his equipment is working, as this is the only thing which isn't detected within the first four shields.
| style="background:#FFF978;"|While alpha particles are unable to travel through air, they can move freely in a vacuum. As such, alpha particles are able to reach Cueball in this scenario, activating his detector and allowing Cueball to know that his equipment is indeed working properly.
|colspan=3; style="background:#C4C5C7;"|As with the first four shields, any of these materials would block the particles, and in any case they would have a hard time travelling through air to reach Cueball regardless of the shield provided.
|colspan=2; style="background:#FFF978;"|There are gaps in both the cages through which the particles could pass. In both cases, the emitter has been moved closer to the observer, because otherwise the effect would be masked by the intervening air.

|-
! scope="row"| {{w|Light}}
| style="background:#FFF978;"|Light passes easily through air; if it didn't, we would not be able to see.
| style="background:#C4C5C7;"|As lead is a solid, opaque material, light is not able to pass through it.
| style="background:#DDDCB2;"|Water is mostly transparent to visible light. It will attenuate over long distances, but won't be quickly blocked.
| style="background:#FFF978;"|As glass is a largely transparent substance, light is usually able to pass through it.
| style="background:#FFF978;"|Because a lack of air does not impact the travel of light, it reaches Cueball without issue.
| style="background:#C4C5C7;"|Cueball is able to use the opaque oven mitts to cover the light source, successfully preventing the light from reaching him.
| style="background:#C4C5C7;"|The helmet Cueball is wearing is opaque, blocking the light from reaching him. It also makes this a fairly useless set of armor.
| style="background:#C4C5C7;"|As with the oven mitts, Hairy uses the helmet part of the biohazard suit to block the light source.
|colspan=2; style="background:#FFF978;"|As both types of cages have holes in them, it is easy for the light to pass through the holes and reach Cueball.

|-
! scope="row"| {{w|Sound}}
| style="background:#FFF978;"|Air is the most common medium through which we perceive sound. It would not serve as an effective barrier between a source of sound and someone's ears, unless it was over a very great distance.
| style="background:#FFF978;"|Lead is very dense, and is in fact used for soundproofing due to its resistance to buffeting by airborne sound waves. But, as an extremely dense solid, it is a very fast conductor of vibration within itself (so long as the thickness of the material does not invoke the dampening softness and attenuate those vibrations). In this case, Megan is directly knocking upon the lead screen itself, which seems to be enough for the sound of the knocking to emerge at Cueball's side.
| style="background:#FFF978;"|Sound travels significantly faster and further in water than in air, making it difficult to locate and understand, but certainly not doing any good when it comes to ''blocking'' sound. The image in this square is of a dolphin,[[[285: Wikipedian Protester#top|''cetacean needed'']]] detecting fish using sound waves, which it is very good at doing precisely ''because'' its sounds travel very well through water.
| style="background:#FFF978;"|Glass, while useful for muffling sound, cannot block it entirely, as anyone whose neighbors mow the lawn at 6:00 can attest to.
| style="background:#C4C5C7;"|"In space, no one can hear you scream." In a vacuum (like space), there are no atoms or molecules to carry sound waves.
| style="background:#DDDCB2;"|Oven mitts are thick enough that they block some of the sound if a person shouts into them, but it will not be enough to fully block out the sound.
| colspan=2; style="background:#FFF978;"|The two cases of whether sound can penetrate suits are the only two cases where Cueball is trying (successfully) to inflict the phenomenon on [[Megan]], who otherwise features only as the (attempted) instigator. Neither suit is able (or intended) to significantly block sound waves.
| colspan=2; style="background:#FFF978;"|The cages are open enough that their ability to block sound is negligible, and standing in one will do very little to block out sound.

|-
! scope="row"| {{w|Heat}}
| style="background:#FFF978;"|Air can be a fairly effective thermal insulator when constrained, as in {{w|aerogels}} and many types of insulation. However, freely moving air as depicted in this panel flows as it heats up, transferring heat from the campfire to Cueball's marshmallow. Additionally, air does little to block thermal radiation from the heat source.
| style="background:#FFF978;"|Lead conducts heat, allowing Cueball to toast a marshmallow on the surface of the shield. However, since lead is poisonous, he should not do this.
| style="background:#FFF978;"|Heat will raise the temperature of water. If the temperature is raised high enough the water will start to boil; boiling has long been used by humanity to prepare food. Marshmallows however are not meant to be boiled.
| style="background:#FFF978;"|Cueball appears to be holding a glass bottle over an open fire, into which he has presumably placed his marshmallows. Depending on the temperature, the type of glass and its thickness, it is possible to heat the contents of a glass container, but if the container is unsuitable this can be dangerous to the user. Also, it is unclear how he proposes to consume the sticky marshmallow mess this would create.
| style="background:#DDDCB2;"|The lack of matter in a vacuum completely blocks transmission by conduction and convection, the two main ways in which heat is spread. It still allows transmission by radiation, which is less efficient. For the specific example of the thermos shown in the image, the way they are constructed completely blocks radiation, but there are enough residual air particles for a very slow convection. The fact that the shielding is made from one single (very thin) piece, and it has lips, also allows some conduction.
| style="background:#C4C5C7;"|Cueball is holding a pan over an open fire while wearing oven mitts. Pans whose grip or handle is not made of a material that conducts less heat than the pan proper are dangerous to grab onto with one's bare hands: wearing oven mitts protects the user from heat. It should be noted that, depending on the weight of the pan and the time the pan needs to be held over a fire to prepare its contents, this can be quite tiring for the user.
| style="background:#FFF978;"|A suit of armor is made of metal, which will conduct the heat and do little to protect one's hands against an open flame. The inside of the gloves will be made of some kind of cloth and/or leather, which, as well as giving little protection, might pose a fire hazard.
| style="background:#FFF978;"|Bio-hazard suits are designed to help filter air and allow the user to handle dangerous chemicals. However, most bio-hazard suits are made out of fabrics with a laminate coating, both of which are prone to burning and allow heat to pass through.
| colspan=2; style="background:#FFF978;"|Both cages have a minimal effect on the heat from a fire. Depending on the intensity of the fire and the distance from the cage this can create a comfortably warm temperature to the person inside of the cage.

|-
! scope="row"| {{w|Swords}}
| style="background:#FFF978;"|Air has a negligible force against objects and is unable to stop Megan's sword's thrust.
| style="background:#C4C5C7;"|Lead is a heavy and dense metal, and as a result, it can stop blows from a sword.
| style="background:#FFF978;"|While water has a greater force than air against objects, it is still not enough to stop Megan's attack.
| style="background:#FFF978;"|Glass is easily broken by sharp blows, especially if it isn't tempered, and as a result does not stop Megan's sword.
| style="background:#FFF978;"|A vacuum has no resistance against objects and unsurprisingly is not able to stop Megan's attack.
| style="background:#FFF978;"|Oven mitts are typically made of fabric, which would provide only limited protection. They also do not cover the full body.
| style="background:#C4C5C7;"|The metallic armor Cueball is wearing was probably designed to stop penetrating and slashing sword blows, with further layers beneath to dampen impacts.
| style="background:#FFF978;"|Swords are sharp, and as such are able to break through the thin hazmat suit Cueball is wearing.
| style="background:#FFF978;"|A Faraday cage can be a fine mesh, optimal to screen out various radio frequencies of EM radiation but not intended to stop anything else and comparatively delicate against any physical penetration.
| style="background:#FFF978;"|A shark cage, while able to provide resistance against larger threats, has holes through which Megan's sword can go.

|-
! scope="row"| {{w|Particulate matter#Health problems|Toxic dust}}
| style="background:#FFF978;"|Dust can travel through air, hanging onto small currents. Air does nothing to protect Cueball.
| style="background:#DDDCB2;"|{{w|Lead poisoning|Lead is poisonous}}, so while a solid lead barrier would prevent toxic dust from passing through, any dust or metal fragments from the shield would still be dangerous.
| style="background:#FFF978;"|Water actually can be {{w|Dust abatement|used to prevent the spread of dust}}. However, toxic dust that gets into drinking water will {{w|Water pollution#Groundwater pollution|contaminate it}}, and could cause health problems, just as airborne toxic dust can.
| style="background:#C4C5C7;"|Dust cannot travel through glass, and being fully encased in a glass bell protects one from dust (though it would bring its own problems).
| style="background:#FFF978;"|With no air to slow it down, dust in space can move at dangerously high speeds, possibly fast enough to tear through Cueball's space suit.
| style="background:#FFF978;"|Oven mitts are worn on the hands and do not normally interfere with one's breathing. However, if there is a notable amount of toxic dust in the air, holding an oven mitt over one's face is better than no protection.
| style="background:#FFF978;"|A suit of armor still allows the wearer to breathe, and provides no particular protection from dust.
| style="background:#C4C5C7;"|A biohazard suit is fully enclosed with its own internal oxygen supply, and so protects the wearer from airborne particles.
| colspan=2; style="background:#FFF978;"|Both cages are too open to provide any significant protection against dust.

|-
! scope="row"| {{w|Radio}}
| style="background:#FFF978;"|Radio waves are more than able to travel through air. This is what allows walkie-talkies to work.
| style="background:#C4C5C7;"|Although lead is a relatively poor conductor and therefore attenuates radio waves less than most metals, a lead enclosure can still work as a Faraday cage with a sufficiently thick layer of lead.
| style="background:#C4C5C7;"|Radio waves from two-way radios, like the kind shown in the comic, {{w|Radio propagation#Direct modes (line-of-sight)|cannot penetrate deep water}}. There are {{w|Radio propagation#Surface modes (groundwave)|radio frequencies that ''can'' penetrate deep water}}, but these have a much lower frequency, require more powerful transmitters, and (in the case of {{w|Extremely low frequency#Difficulties of ELF communication|extremely low frequencies}}) cannot transmit audio.
| style="background:#FFF978;"|In a similar way that glass is transparent to visual light, it is also transparent to radio waves, allowing them to pass through.
| style="background:#FFF978;"|As there is nothing getting in the way of radio waves in a vacuum, radios work very well in space. This allows ground control to communicate with astronauts in space.
| style="background:#FFF978;"|Oven mitts, typically being made of fabric, have no effect on radio waves.
| style="background:#C4C5C7;"|A metal suit of armor blocks radio waves. This is because metals are very good electrical conductors, which block the radio waves.
| style="background:#FFF978;"|Biohazard suits do not block radio waves, and someone wearing such a suit can send and receive radio transmissions without issue.
| style="background:#C4C5C7;"|A {{w|Faraday cage}} is specifically designed to block electromagnetic fields such as radio waves. In fact, this is the ''only'' 'hazard' here that it blocks.
| style="background:#FFF978;"|The openings in a shark cage are too wide for the cage to experience the properties of a Faraday cage.

|-
! scope="row"| {{w|Sharks}}
| style="background:#C4C5C7;"|Sharks cannot travel very far on land or in the air.
| style="background:#C4C5C7;"|Shielding yourself with lead plates will effectively protect you against sharks.
| style="background:#FFF978;"|Sharks live in water, so water is not an effective shield against sharks.{{cn}}
| style="background:#C4C5C7;"|Glass will effectively protect you against sharks, provided that it is thick enough. In fact, sharks are commonly (and safely) shown to the public in aquariums.
| style="background:#C4C5C7;"|In the vacuum of space, Cueball is very far from sharks' ocean habitat (though he may be at risk of [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5xcvAoKojo dolphins]).
| style="background:#FFF978;"|Although shark-shaped Oven mitts are quite common due to their similar appearance, oven mitts are not very effective at stopping sharks.{{cn}}
| style="background:#DDDCB2;"|Depending on the design of the armor, a shark might be able to permanently deform it enough that it causes injury, though the more flexible {{w|Chain_mail#Practical_uses|chain mail}} ''is'' successfully used to prevent actual piercing damage from bites.
| style="background:#FFF978;"|A biohazard suit is weak enough that a shark can rip through it.
| style="background:#FFF978;"|A Faraday cage is weak enough that a shark can rip through it.
| style="background:#C4C5C7;"|A shark cage is specifically designed to protect against sharks. In fact, this is the ''only'' hazard here that it blocks.
|}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
:[The whole comic is in one panel]
:[A 10x10 matrix sits in the middle with rows labelled as follows:]
:Gamma Rays
:Neutrons
:Alpha Particles
:Light
:Sound
:Heat
:Swords
:Toxic Dust
:Radio
:Sharks
:[The columns are:]
:Air
:Lead
:Water
:Glass
:Vacuum
:Oven Mitts
:Armor
:Bio-Hazard Suit
:Faraday Cage
:Shark Cage


:[In all of the Gamma Ray boxes, Cueball stands next to a gamma ray emitter with a smattering of dots a short distance away from it, which is perched on a table as necessary, a geiger counter held in his hand or worn.]

:[Gamma Rays vs. Air - yellow tile]
:[Just standing a few feet from the emitter. The geiger counter Cueball wears beeps three times:] Beep Beep Beep!

:[Gamma Rays vs. Lead - gray tile]
:[The gamma ray emitter and the table have a lead enclosure covering them. The geiger counter, held towards everything else in Cueball's hand, does not beep.]

:[Gamma Rays vs. Water - grayish-yellow tile]
:[The gamma ray emitter and table are placed in a large, nearly full, glass of water. Cueball's outstretched geiger counter beeps once:] Beep!

:[Gamma Rays vs. Glass - yellow tile]
:[A glass 'bell-jar' covers the gamma ray emitter, atop the table, the geiger counter beeps three times:] Beep Beep Beep!

:[Gamma Rays vs. Vacuum - yellow tile]
:[The gamma ray emitter appears to be held within an open hatch of a satellite. The satellite, together with a spacesuited Cueball, can be seen to be in orbit around the Earth. His chest-mounted geiger counter is transmitting three beeps:] Beep Beep Beep

:[Gamma Rays vs. Oven Mitts - yellow tile]
:[Megan stands to the left of the gamma ray emitter, wearing oven mitts and covering the emitter with one hand. Cueball’s body-mounted geiger counter beeps three times:] Beep Beep Beep

:[Gamma Rays vs. Armor - yellow tile]
:[Cueball stands to the right of the gamma ray emitter wearing a suit of plate armor. From inside the armor, his Geiger counter beeps three times:] Beep Beep Beep

:[Gamma Rays vs. Bio-Hazard Suit - yellow tile]
:[Cueball stands to the right of the gamma ray emitter wearing a bio-hazard suit. From inside the suit, his Geiger counter beeps three times:] Beep Beep Beep

:[Gamma Rays vs. Faraday Cage - yellow tile]
:[Cueball is surrounded by a mesh cage. His geiger counter beeps three times:] Beep Beep Beep

:[Gamma Rays vs. Shark Cage - yellow tile]
:[Cueball is within a barred cage. His geiger counter beeps three times:] Beep Beep Beep

:[In all of the Neutron boxes, Cueball stands next to a neutron emitter, that looks like two half-sphere shells that are angled slightly open in Cueball's direction, in similar scenarios to the above but with a heftier pedestal in place of the table. No visible effects emit from the emitter. Cueball holds the top handle of the same large detector in each scenario.]

:[Neutrons vs. Air - yellow tile]
:[The detector emits two clicks:] Click Click

:[Neutrons vs. Lead - grayish-yellow tile]
:[The emitter and pedestal are within their lead enclosure. The detector clicks once:] Click

:[Neutrons vs. Water - gray tile]
:[The emitter and pedestal are in the large glass of water. The detector makes no noise.]

:[Neutrons vs. Glass - yellow tile]
:[The glass bell-jar covers the pedestalled emitter. The detector clicks twice:] Click Click

:[Neutrons vs. Vacuum - yellow tile]
:[The emitter sits in the satellite's open hatch. Spacesuited Cueball's hand-held detector transmits two clicks:] Click Click

:[Neutrons vs. Oven Mitts - yellow tile]
:[Megan wears oven gloves and covers the emitter, on its pedestal, with both hands. Cueball's detector clicks twice:] Click Click

:[Neutrons vs. Armor - yellow tile]
:[Cueball has removed his armor’s helmet and placed it over the emitter. His detector clicks twice:] Click Click

:[Neutrons vs. Bio-Hazard Suit - yellow tile]
:[Cueball stands as normal, having draped his unworn biohazard suit over the emitter, leaving the hood on the floor. His detector sounds two clicks:] Click Click

:[Neutrons vs. Faraday Cage - yellow tile]
:[Within his mesh cage, two clicks come from Cueball's detector:] Click Click

:[Neutrons vs. Shark Cage - yellow tile]
:[Within a barred cage, the detector Cueball holds clicks twice:] Click Click

:[In all of the Alpha Particle boxes, it is a small spherical mass or flask with 'fizzy' strands or dashes, set in the same base scenarios as previously.]

:[Alpha Particles vs. Air - gray tile]
:[Cueball is holding a detector and looking at it. The detector is doing nothing.]

:[Alpha Particles vs. Lead - gray tile]
:[There is a lead wall between the alpha particle source and Cueball. Cueball's worn detector is doing nothing.]

:[Alpha Particles vs. Water - gray tile]
:[The alpha particle item is stood in a large glass of water. Cueball is holding a detector and looking at it. The detector is doing nothing.]
:[Cueball:] Does this thing even work?

:[Alpha Particles vs. Glass - gray tile]
:[The source, on its table, is covered by a bell-jar. Cueball stands looking at it, wearing a detector that does nothing.]

:[Alpha Particles vs. Vacuum - yellow tile]
:[The source of alpha particles is inside the open satellite hatch. Spacesuited Cueball floats nearby, with a detector that transmits three beeps:] Beep Beep Beep

:[Alpha Particles vs. Oven Mitts - gray tile]
:[Megan wears over mitts, placing one over the source on its table. Cueball looks ok, his worn detector doing nothing.]

:[Alpha Particles vs. Armor - gray tile]
:[Cueball, in his full suit of armor, has picked up the source from its table and is holding it directly in his hand. There is no sign of any detector activity occuring.]

:[Alpha Particles vs. Bio-Hazard Suit - gray tile]
:[Cueball, wearing the bio-hazard suit, looks impassively at the source on the top of its table. There are no beeps.]

:[Alpha Particles vs. Faraday Cage - yellow tile]
:[The table with the source has been moved to be right next to the mesh cage. Cueball, inside the cage, presses right up to the inside of the same mesh edge, putting his detector right next to it. There are three beeps:] Beep Beep Beep

:[Alpha Particles vs. Shark Cage - yellow tile]
:[Again, the source, on its table, is right next to the bars of the cage. And, again, Cueball is pressed right up against (and perhaps through) the inside edge of the cage. Three beeps sound:] Beep Beep Beep

:[Megan points a brightly lit battery torch towards Cueball, in an attempt to inflict the effects of Light upon him.]

:[Light vs. Air - yellow tile]
:[Megan points the torch towards Cueball. Rays of lights splay out over Cueball's face as he instinctively holds one arm protectively over his eyes.]
:[Cueball:] Ow.

:[Light vs. Lead - gray tile]
:[Megan points the torch towards Cueball, but only illuminates a lead wall that stands between them. Cueball makes no reaction.]

:[Light vs. Water - grayish-yellow tile]
:[Megan stands nose-deep in the giant glass of water, aiming her shining torch out through the water and out of the glass towards Cueball. Cueball shields his eyes with his arm, but is silent.]

:[Light vs. Glass - yellow tile]
:[Megan stands within a person-sized bell-jar, shining her torch towards Cueball, who is outside and shielding his eyes.]
:[Cueball:] Ow.

:[Light vs. Vacuum - yellow tile]
:[Megan and Cueball, in spacesuits (i.e. with 'fishbowl helmets'), are seen orbiting high above the planet below. Megan holds a torch, shining it towards Cueball.]
:[Cueball:] Ow.

:[Light vs. Oven Mitts - gray tile]
:[Megan points her torch towards Cueball. Cueball wears oven-gloves, and casually holds one begloved hand over the end of the torch, from which no light is seen.]

:[Light vs. Armor - grey tile]
:[Megan shones her torch upon the armored figure of Cueball, whose helmet visor is down.]
:[Cueball:] Nope.

:[Light vs. Bio-Hazard Suit - grey tile]
:[Megan makes to point her torch at Cueball, who is dressed in all but the hood of his bio-hazard suit. He holds the hood out, fully covering Megan's torch.]

:[Light vs. Faraday Cage - yellow tile]
:[The torch is pointed by Megan towards Cueball, arm across his eyes as he stands within in his mesh cage.]
:[Cueball:] Ow.

:[Light vs. Shark Cage - yellow tile]
:[Megan's torch shines through the bars of the cage at Cueball, his arm protectively held up.]
:[Cueball:] Ow.

:[In most cases, Megan appears to be screaming in Cueball's direction, to depict the incidence of Sound.]

:[Sound vs. Air - yellow tile]
:[Cueball stands with his hands over his ears, as a tensed-up Megan lets out a loud scream.]
:[Megan:] AAAAAAAAA!

:[Sound vs. Lead - yellow tile]
:[Between Megan and Cueball is a full-height thick lead wall. Megan is tapping on her side.]
:[Megan:] Knock Knock
:[Cueball:] Who is it?

:[Sound vs. Water - yellow tile]
:[An underwater scene, showing sea-floor with various corals/sea-plants. Just above is a dolphin, projecting sound waves towards two small fish.]

:[Sound vs. Glass - yellow tile]
:[Megan is stood within her person-sized bell-jar, screaming loudly. The bell-jar is vibrating. Cueball is covering his ears.]
:[Megan, in notably distorted text:] AAAAAAAA!

:[Sound vs. Vacuum - grey tile]
:[Megan and Cueball float in space, high above the planet. They are both wearing space helmets. An abortive speech-bubble emerges from Megan's helmet.]
:[Megan:] .....

:[Sound vs. Oven Mitts - grey tile]
:[Megan stands to the left of Cueball, wearing oven-gloves. Her hands are over her mouth, muffling her attempts to say anything.]
:[Megan:] <two lines of unintelligble sounds>

:[Sound vs. Armor - yellow tile]
:[Megan is holding her hands over her ears. Cueball is wearing his suit of armor, which is vibrating, while he emits a large scream.]
:[Cueball:] AAAAAAAAA!

:[Sound vs. Bio-Hazard Suit - yellow tile]
:[Megan has her hands over her ears. Cueball is screaming from within his bio-hazard suit.]
:[Cueball:] AAAAAAAAA!

:[Sound vs. Faraday Cage - yellow tile]
:[Megan is yelling at Cueball, standing within his mesh cage with his hands over his ears.]
:[Megan:] AAAAAAAA!

:[Sound vs. Shark Cage - yellow tile]
:[Megan yells, as Cueball holds his hands over his ears behind the bars of the cage.]
:[Megan:] AAAAAAAA!

:[The row depicting Fire tends to show a small campfire, or other more expansive flames. In all but one case, Cueball is present. In most of these instances, he is holding a marshmallow, sometimes at the end of a long stick.]

:[Heat vs. Air - yellow tile]
:[There is a campfire, with Cueball extending a stick-speared marshmallow over it.]

:[Heat vs. Lead - yellow tile]
:[A campfire has a lead slab propped up above it. Cueball's marshmallow-stick is being held to its upper surface.]
:[Marshmallow:] TSSSSS
:[Voice from off-panel:] NO!

:[Heat vs. Water - yellow tile]
:[A campfire heats a cauldron/cooking-pot held over it. Cueball dips his stick with a marshmallow into the container as splashes/vapor emerge. Megan stands behind Cueball.]
:[Cueball:] They're better boiled.
:[Megan:] NO!

:[Heat vs. Glass - yellow tile]
:[With a campfire between them, Megan and Cueball stand with sticks in their hands, held close to the fire. Megan has speared her own marshmallow. Cueball holds something, that looks like a wine bottle, in a forked/looped end, a few small puffs of vapor emerging from open top of the bottle.]

:[Heat vs. Vacuum - greyish-yellow tile]
:[Surrounded by a general setting of flames, there appears to be a cross-section of a vacuum flask. The neck of the flask is plugged. The inside of the flask appears to be half full of liquid with some solid chunks floating in it.]
:[Arrowed label, pointing at the flask's chunks:] Ice

:[Heat vs. Oven Mitts - grey tile]
:[Megan and Cueball stand around the campfire, Megan holding her marshmallow-on-a-stick. Cueball is wearing oven gloves and, with one hand almost over the flames, is holding the handle of a frying pan that is actually in the flames. Something (possibly a marshmallow) seems to be sizzling in the pan.]

:[Heat vs. Armor - yellow tile]
:[Megan is holding her marshmallow stick over the campfire. Cueball is holding his marshmallow over the fire, directly in his gauntleted hand, as he wears the full armor.]
:[Cueball:] OW! OW!

:[Heat vs. Bio-Hazard Suit - yellow tile]
:[Around the campfire, Megan toasts her marshmallow normally. Cueball wears his biohazard suit, holding his gloved hand close to the flames whilst holding a marshmallow.]
:[Cueball:] Ow! Ow!

:[Heat vs. Faraday Cage - yellow tile]
:[The campfire is built just to the left of the mesh cage, within which Cueball is standing.]
:[Cueball:] Mmm, warm.

:[Heat vs. Shark Cage - yellow tile]
:[Cueball's cage has a campfire just outside its bars.]
:[Cueball:] Mmm, warm.



:[Megan is thrusting a sword rightwards, towards/into Cueball, in this row. Cueball also holds a sword, in all but one case, but lowered and not in a defensive manner.]

:[Swords vs. Air - yellow tile]
:[Megan is poking Cueball with a sword.]
:[Cueball:] Ow.

:[Swords vs. Lead - gray tile]
:[Cueball is standing in a lead container as Megan hits her sword against the outside of it, making a metallic sound:] Clank

:[Swords vs. Water - yellow tile]
:[Cueball and Megan are both underwater, wearing diving gear. Megan is poking Cueball with her sword.]
:[Cueball:] Ow.

:[Swords vs. Glass - yellow tile]
:[Megan is standing in her person-sized bell jar; however, she has smashed a hole in the side and is now poking Cueball with her sword through the hole.]
:[Cueball:] Ow.

:[Swords vs. Vacuum - yellow tile]
:[Cueball and Megan are floating in space, wearing spacesuits. Megan is poking Cueball with her sword.]
:[Cueball:] Ow.

:[Swords vs. Oven Mitts - yellow tile]
:[Cueball stands next to Megan, wearing oven mitts. Megan is poking him with her sword.]
:[Cueball:] Ow.

:[Swords vs. Armor - gray tile]
:[Cueball is standing in a suit of armor next to Megan. She tries to poke him but cannot penetrate the armor, instead producing a metallic "clink"]
:[Cueball:] Ha!

:[Swords vs. Bio-Hazard Suit - yellow tile]
:[Cueball is wearing his biohazard suit as Megan pokes him with her sword.]
:[Cueball:] Ow.

:[Swords vs. Faraday Cage - yellow tile]
:[Cueball is standing inside a person-sized Faraday cage as Megan pokes him with her sword through the mesh.]
:[Cueball:] Ow.

:[Swords vs. Shark Cage - yellow tile]
:[Cueball is standing inside of a shark cage as Megan pokes him with her sword through the bars.]
:[Cueball:] Ow.

:[Clouds, and further particulate specks, illustrate the Toxic Dust row, in several cases apparently being discharged by a burning brazier. All tiles have Cueball in the scene.]

:[Toxic Dust vs. Air - yellow tile]
:[Cueball is standing next to a container resembling a metal trash can, with flames visible on top and a cloud of smoke and particulates rising from the flames.]

:[Toxic Dust vs. Lead - grayish-yellow tile]
:[The burning trash can is encased in a rectangular lead box. Cueball is touching the outside of the lead box as a few particulates are coming off of it.]
:[Cueball: This shield is also ''producing'' toxic dust.]

:[Toxic Dust vs. Water - yellow tile]
:[Cueball and Megan are both standing (presumably) outside, watching as particulates hover in the air. There are a few clouds present as well.]
:[Cueball: Don't worry, this will all be safely absorbed by the groundwater.]

:[Toxic Dust vs. Glass - gray tile]
:[Cueball is standing in a person-sized bell jar as toxic dust floats around the outside of it.]

:[Toxic Dust vs. Vacuum - yellow tile]
:[Cueball is floating in space next to a satellite with an open hatch that is emitting toxic dust.]
:[Satellite: Achoo!]
:[Cueball: My suit!]

:[Toxic Dust vs. Oven Mitts - yellow tile]
:[Cueball is standing next to the burning trash can and covering his face with an oven-mitted hand.]
:[Cueball: ''Cough'']

:[Toxic Dust vs. Armor - yellow tile]
:[Cueball is standing next to the burning trash can in a suit of armor.]
:[Cueball: ''Cough'']

:[Toxic Dust vs. Bio-Hazard Suit - gray tile]
:[Cueball is standing next to the burning trash can while wearing his biohazard suit. He is unaffected by the toxic dust it is producing.]

:[Toxic Dust vs. Faraday Cage - yellow tile]
:[Cueball is standing next to the burning trash can in a person-sized Faraday cage.]
:[Cueball: ''Cough'']

:[Toxic Dust vs. Shark Cage - yellow tile]
:[Cueball is standing in a shark cage next to the burning trash can.]
:[Cueball: ''Cough'']

:[Cueball tends to carry a two-way radio handset, in the Radio row, except where the transceiver appears to be part of the various protective suits that he is wearing.]

:[Radio vs. Air - yellow tile]
:[Cueball is holding a handheld two-way radio in his right hand, close to his face, and speaking into it. A voice from the radio is responding to him.]
:[Cueball: Eagle Base, come in.]
:[Radio: Go ahead.]

:[Radio vs. Lead - gray tile
:[Cueball is standing inside a lead box, again holding the radio close to his face.]
:[Cueball: Eagle Base, come in? Hello?]

:[Radio vs. Water - gray tile]
:[Cueball is underwater, in a diving suit. He is once again holding a hand radio. Bubbles are rising from his helmet and a shark is swimming underneath him.]
:[Cueball: Hello?]

:[Radio vs. Glass - yellow tile]
:[Cueball is standing inside a person-sized bell jar, holding the radio close to his face.]
:[Cueball: Is this... part of the mission?]
:[Radio: Sure.]

:[Radio vs. Vacuum - yellow tile]
:[Cueball is floating in space next to the satellite. He is not visibly holding a radio, implying that it is integrated into his spacesuit.]
:[Cueball: Eagle Base, I have the package.]

:[Radio vs. Oven Mitts - yellow tile
:[Cueball is wearing oven mitts while holding the radio close to his face.]
:[Cueball: Eagle Base, tactical mitts acquired.]
:[Radio: Copy that.]

:[Radio vs. Armor - gray tile]
:[Cueball is standing in a suit of armor. He is not visibly holding a radio.]
:[Cueball: Repeat that? My suit radio is having issues.]

:[Radio vs. Bio-Hazard Suit - yellow tile]
:[Cueball is wearing his biohazard suit. He is not visibly holding a radio.]
:[Cueball: Copy that.]

:[Radio vs. Faraday Cage - gray tile
:[Cueball is standing inside a person-sized Faraday cage, holding the radio close to his face.]
:[Cueball: Eagle Base? Come in?]

:[Radio vs. Shark Cage - yellow tile]
:[Cueball is standing in a shark cage, holding the radio close to his face.]
:[Cueball: Eagle Base, why am I-]
:[Radio: Don't worry about it.]

:[Each tile in the Shark row depicts a shark, except when only the shark's fin is seen emerging from a body of water. Cueball is somehow present in each case.]

:[Sharks vs. Air - gray tile]
:[Cueball is standing on land next to a body of water. A shark fin is protruding from the surface of the water.]

:[Sharks vs. Lead - gray tile]
:[Cueball, wearing diving gear, is standing on the ocean floor in a person-sized lead container. A few small fish are swimming above and to the left of him and a shark is floating below the fish.]

:[Sharks vs. Water - yellow tile]
:[Cueball is again underwater, wearing diving gear. He is very close to a shark and seems to be pointing at it.]
:[Cueball: Kitty!]

:[Sharks vs. Glass - gray tile]
:[The shark is now in a water tank, behind a wall of glass. Cueball and Megan are standing next to the tank, looking at what is likely an informative plaque in front of it.]

:[Sharks vs. Vacuum - gray tile]
:[Cueball is floating in space. Earth is visible in the background, with a shark fin visibly protruding from a body of water.]

:[Sharks vs. Oven Mitts - yellow tile]
:[Cueball is underwater, wearing diving gear and oven mitts, he gently touches the shark's snout.]
:[Cueball:] ''Boop!''

:[Sharks vs. Armor - grayish-yellow tile]
:[Cueball is underwater, now wearing a suit of armor. The shark appears to be biting his armored right hand.]
:[Shark:] cronch cronch
:[Cueball:] Ow.

:[Sharks vs. Bio-Hazard Suit - yellow tile]
:[Cueball, underwater and wearing his biohazard suit, is now petting the shark on its snout.]
:[Cueball:] Good kitty!

:[Sharks vs. Faraday Cage - yellow tile]
:[Cueball is inside an underwater Faraday cage, which is suspended by a tether going straight up. The shark is in the process of tearing apart the cage.]
:[Cueball:] ''No! Bad kitty!''

:[Sharks vs. Shark Cage - gray tile]
:[Cueball is underwater, in a shark cage suspended from one side by a tether going straight up. The shark is swimming a short distance away from the cage.]

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
[[Category:Confusion matrices]]
[[Category:Sharks]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]

Talk:936: Password Strength

2025-09-11T05:48:27Z

Lamda05: add talk

''Fix the software first.'' If you double the time it takes to enter each repeated password attempt you make brute force attacks pointless. Imagine you allowed a hurried user who screws up their own password entry w/ frozen fingers. If their system starts out with a 1 second delay, then doubles to two, then to four, etc. the time it takes to wait is 2^n. Six screw ups cost you a minute, twenty errors and you are waiting 291 hours before your next log-in attempt.... kmc 2015-05-10 {{unsigned ip|108.162.229.124}}
: That's not how brute force attacks work. They steal the hashes of the passwords and then brute force them locally. [[Special:Contributions/198.41.235.107|198.41.235.107]] 23:43, 10 January 2016 (UTC)
:: Both are brute force. It is specified in the comic that we assume an attack against a weak remote web service though. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.150.231|162.158.150.231]] 13:10, 16 September 2016 (UTC)

You still have to vary the words with a bit of capitalization, punctuation and numbers a bit, or hackers can just run a dictionary attack against your string of four words. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|purple|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 09:12, 9 March 2013 (UTC)
: Several discussions around the internet around this -- the consensus [ http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/936 looks like] that once this scheme is published it is fairly simple to run a dictionary attack on the password. My advise to most people is to use a password manager like lastpass or onepass that can generate pure random password. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.253.6|162.158.253.6]] 23:52, 10 March 2016 (UTC)

No you don't. Hackers cannot run a dictionary attack against a string of four randomly picked words.
Look at the number of bits displayed in the image: 11 bits for each word.
That means he's assuming a dictionary of 2048 words, from which each word is picked randomly.
The assumption is that the cracker knows your password scheme.
[[Special:Contributions/86.81.151.19|86.81.151.19]] 20:17, 28 April 2013 (UTC) Willem
:I just wrote a program to bruteforce this password creation method. https://github.com/KrasnayaSecurity/xkcd936/blob/master/listGen936.py Once I get it I'll try coming up with more bruteforcing algorithms such as substituting symbols, numbers, camel case, and the like. Point is, don't rely on this or any one method. I wouldn't be surprised if the crackers are already working on something like this. [[User:Lieutenant S.|Lieutenant S.]] ([[User talk:Lieutenant S.|talk]]) 07:03, 8 September 2014 (UTC)
:It took 1.25 hours to bruteforce "correcthorsebatterystaple" using the 2,000 most common words with one CPU. [[User:Lieutenant S.|Lieutenant S.]] ([[User talk:Lieutenant S.|talk]]) 07:09, 9 September 2014 (UTC)
:: 1) ... as compared to 69 milliseconds for the other method. 2) Since you are able to test 3,9 billion passwords as second (very impressive!) I am guessing that your setup is not performing its attack over a ”weak remote service”, which is breaking the rules of the #936 game. 3) five words and a 20k-wordlist would get you 9400 years (still breaking the weak remote service rule).--[[User:Gnirre|Gnirre]] ([[User talk:Gnirre|talk]]) 09:13, 14 October 2014 (UTC)
:: 2) Two thoughts: You use itertools.permutations, which only covers non-repeating words, but mainly you don't actually hash the password. If you have a plain-text password, there no need to crack the password because you could just look at it. Example of an actual crack for this type of password: https://github.com/koshippy/xkcd_password/blob/master/password_crack.py My computer gets 10,000,000 guesses in ~16 seconds (non-hashed takes ~2 seconds), meaning it would take almost a year to try every combination. (2048^4 total password space). Even optimizing by using c++/java or JtR, you wouldn't see huge improvement since most of the time is from the SHA hashing. Point being: a typical user can't crack this type of password in a short amount of time, even if they know your wordlist. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.212|199.27.128.212]] 12:05, 17 February 2015 (UTC) Koshippy

Sometimes this is not possible. (I'm looking at you, local banks with 8-12 character passwords and PayPal) If I can, I use a full sentence. A compound sentence for the important stuff. This adds the capitalization, punctuation and possibly the use of numbers while it's even easier to remember then Randall's scheme. I think it might help against the keyloggers too, if your browser/application autofills the username filed, because you password doesn't stand out from the feed with being gibberish. [[Special:Contributions/195.56.58.169|195.56.58.169]] 09:01, 30 August 2013 (UTC)

The basic concept can be adapted to limited-length passwords easily enough: memorize a phrase and use the first letter of each word. It'll require about a dozen words (you're only getting 4.7 bits per letter at best, actually less because first letters of words are not truly random, though they are weakly if at all correlated with their neighbors -- based on the frequencies of first letters of words in English, and assuming no correlation between each first letter and the next, I calculate about 4 bits per character of Shannon entropy). SteveMB 18:35, 30 August 2013 (UTC)

Followup: The results of extracting the first letters of words in sample texts (the {{w|Project_Gutenberg|Project Gutenberg}} texts of ''The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'', ''The War of the Worlds'', and ''Little Fuzzy'') and applying a {{w|Entropy_(information_theory)|Shannon entropy calculation}} were 4.07 bits per letter (i.e. first letter in word) and 8.08 bits per digraph (i.e. first letters in two consecutive words). These results suggest that first-letter-of-phrase passwords have approximately 4 bits per letter of entropy. --[[User:SteveMB|SteveMB]] ([[User talk:SteveMB|talk]]) 14:21, 4 September 2013 (UTC)

Addendum: The above test was case-insensitive (all letters converted to lowercase before feeding them to the [[http://millikeys.sourceforge.net/freqanalysis.html frequency counter]]). Thus, true-random use of uppercase and lowercase would have 5 bits per letter of entropy, and any variation in case (e.g. preserving the case of the original first letter) would fall between 4 and 5 bits per letter. --[[User:SteveMB|SteveMB]] ([[User talk:SteveMB|talk]]) 14:28, 4 September 2013 (UTC)

I just have RANDOM.ORG print me ten pages of 8-character passwords and tape it to the wall, then highlight some of them and use others (say two down and to the right or similar) for my passwords, maybe a given line a line a little jumbled for more security. [[Special:Contributions/70.24.167.3|70.24.167.3]] 13:27, 30 September 2013 (UTC)
:Remind me to visit your office and secretly replace your wall-lists by a list of very similar looking strings ;) --[[User:Chtz|Chtz]] ([[User talk:Chtz|talk]]) 13:53, 30 September 2013 (UTC)

Simple.com (online banking site) had the following on it’s registration page:

“Passphrase? Yes. Passphrases are easier to remember and more secure than traditional passwords. For example, try a group of words with spaces in between, or a sentence you know you'll remember. "correct horse battery staple" is a better passphrase than r0b0tz26.”

Online security for a banking site has been informed by an online comic. Astounding.
[[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.78|173.245.54.78]] 21:22, 11 November 2013 (UTC)

The Web service Dropbox has an Easter egg related to this comic on their sign-up page. That page has a password strength indicator (powered by JavaScript) which changes as you type your password. This indicator also shows hints when hovering the mouse cursor over it. Entering "Tr0ub4dor&3" or "Tr0ub4dour&3" as the password causes the password strength indicator to fall to zero, with the hint saying, "Guess again." Entering "correcthorsebatterystaple" as the password also causes the strength indicator to fall to zero, but the hint says, "Whoa there, don't take advice from a webcomic too literally ;)." [[Special:Contributions/108.162.218.95|108.162.218.95]] 15:17, 11 February 2014 (UTC)

The explanation said that the comic uses a dictionary[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=936:_Password_Strength&oldid=59309]. In fact it's a word list, which seems similar but it's not. All the words in the word list must be easy to memorize. This means it's better not to have words such as ''than'' or ''if''. Also, it's better not to have homophones (''wood'' and ''would'', for example). The sentence ''dictionary attack'' doesn't apply here. A dictionary attack requires the attacker to use all the words in the dictionary (e.g. 100,000 words). Here we must generate the 17,592,186,044,416 combinations of 4 common words. Those combinations can't be found in any dictionary. At 25 bytes per "word" that dictionary would need 400 {{w|tebi|binary terabytes}} to be stored. [[User:Xhfz|Xhfz]] ([[User talk:Xhfz|talk]]) 21:37, 11 March 2014 (UTC)

This comic was mentioned in a TED talk by Lorrie Faith Cranor on in March 2014. After performing a lot of studies and analysis, she concludes that "pass phrase" passwords are no easier to remember than complex passwords and that the increased length of the password increases the number of errors when typing it. There is a lot of other useful information from her studies that can be gleaned from the talk. [http://www.ted.com/talks/lorrie_faith_cranor_what_s_wrong_with_your_pa_w0rd Link]. What she doesn't mention is the frequency of changing passwords - in most organizations it's ~90 days. I don't know where that standard originated, but (as a sys admin) I suspect it's about as ineffective as most of our other password trickery - that is that it does nothing. Today's password thieves don't bash stolen password hash tables, they bundle keyloggers with game trainers and browser plugins.--[[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.75|173.245.50.75]] 18:14, 2 July 2014 (UTC)
:: Lorrie Faith Cranor gets the random part of #936 word generation correct, which is great. Regarding memorizability, this study (https://cups.cs.cmu.edu/soups/2012/proceedings/a7_Shay.pdf) does not address #936. The study uses no generator for gibberish of length 11. Most comparable are perhaps two classes of five or six randomly assigned characters. None of the study's generators has 44 bits of entropy – its dictionary for the method closest to #936 – noun-instr – contains only 181 nouns. The article contains no discussion of the significance of these differences to #936. In her TED Lorrie Faith Cranor says ”sorry all you xkcd fans” which could be interpreted as judgement of #936, but there is no basis in the above article for that. It does however seem plausible that the report could be reworked to address #936. --[[User:Gnirre|Gnirre]] ([[User talk:Gnirre|talk]]) 10:42, 14 October 2014 (UTC)

:Password-changing frequency isn't about making passwords more ''secure'', but instead it's about ''mitigating the damage'' of a successfully cracked password. If a hacker gets your password (through any means) and your password changes every 90 days, the password the hacker has obtained is only useful for a few months at most. That might be enough, but it might not. If the hacker is brute forcing the passwords to get them, that cuts into the time the password is useful. --[[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.168|173.245.54.168]] 22:22, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
::However, brute-forcing gets much ''easier'' that way.
::Say the average employee is around for 10 years, which is reasonable for some companies , absurdly high for others, and a bit low for a family business. That's 40 password changes.
::Now if you have to remember another password every now and then, you sacrifice complexity, lest you forget it. A factor of 40 is like one character less. But how much shorter will the password be? It's more likely that it's gonna be 3 or 4 characters less. Congrats, you just a factor of 1000's for a perceived "mitigation", which doesn't even work. Pro attackers can vacuum your server in a DAY once they have the PW. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.53|141.101.104.53]] 13:03, 4 December 2014 (UTC)

Just because you are required to have a password that has letters and numbers in it doesn't mean you can't make it memorable. When caps are required, use CamelCase. When punctuation is required, make it an ampersand (&) or include a contraction. When numbers are required, pick something that has significance to you (your birthday, the resolution of your television, ect.). Keep in mind that, if your phrase is an actual sentence, the password entropy is 1.1 bits per character (http://what-if.xkcd.com/34), so length is key if you want your password to be secure. (Though no known algorithm can actually exploit the 1.1 bits of entropy to gain time, so it might be more like 11 bits of entropy per word. Even then, my passwords have nonexistent and uncommon words in them, (like doge or trope), which also adds some entropy.) [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.213|108.162.246.213]] 22:18, 1 September 2014 (UTC)
:Flip side of the story, the "capital plus small plus other char" policy doesn't make your password any safer.
:The German company T-online had an experimental gateway with the password, "internet". Now that sucked. No problem, tho, because that gateway wasn't accessible from outside. When they went live, they "improved" the password to "Internet1". There are still lots of these passwords around: first letter is a Cap, and the only non-alphabetic char is a 1 at the end. This doesn't add any entropy. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.53|141.101.104.53]] 13:03, 4 December 2014 (UTC)
::[http://ask.metafilter.com/193052/Oh-Randall-you-do-confound-me-so#2779020 This] shows that about one third of all digits in a sample of passwords was "1" . [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.53|141.101.104.53]] 13:14, 4 December 2014 (UTC)
You can also troll the brute-force engine by using words from other languages, fictional books and video games.--[[User:Horsebattery|Horsebattery]] ([[User talk:Horsebattery|talk]]) 03:04, 3 November 2014 (UTC)
:That's a good idea; it adds to the entropy bits per word. If you really want to throw them off, mix different languages. Just don't use very well-known words; I'm sure the hackers have ''cojones'' and ''Blitzkrieg'' in their dictionaries. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.53|141.101.104.53]] 13:03, 4 December 2014 (UTC)

Also, passwords that are 'hard to remember' are themselves a security vulnerability. A password reset scheme (or even a lockout scheme) is a vulnerability. The more it needs to be used, the harder it becomes to police that vulnerability. Relatedly, hard-to-remember passwords leave users uncertain whether their password has been changed by someone else or they've just forgotten it. [[User:Ijkcomputer|Ijkcomputer]] ([[User talk:Ijkcomputer|talk]]) 15:32, 18 December 2014 (UTC)

Hi there, this comic gave me the idea for a password generator that can (optionally) use dictionary words. Have a look if you're interested: https://wordypasswords.com Use your common sense though about what is and isn't secure! Hope someone finds it useful. [[User:Mackatronic|Mackatronic]] ([[User talk:Mackatronic|talk]]) 08:23, 9 January 2015 (UTC)

I have not read all of the replies and in truth most of the detail is boring to me but it has occurred to me that with this sort of problem and since the Snowden affair, serious security devices will have to make the keyboard redundant.

At the moment all I can imagine is a series of pictures like hieroglyphs but even using a rolling code of ever changing font glyphs would do. When the security required by money minders reaches the stage of development possible with keyboards that can supply that sort of security, we will have some idea which banks have some idea about security.

Tip:
Not Barings. They have an history of intransigence and stupidity. (Still revered in banks though as able to cure colon cancer with poor investment strategies.) [[User:Weatherlawyer| I used Google News BEFORE it was clickbait]] ([[User talk:Weatherlawyer|talk]]) 13:46, 23 January 2015 (UTC)

The D0g..................... (24 characters long) is NOT stronger than PrXyc.N(n4k77#L!eVdAfp9 (23 characters long). The reason why, is that the later password is random. There is no pattern. The former, "padding" technique can be very easily cracked. You just need to assume that each character be repeated 1~30 times. Then the first password would become : 1(D)1(0)1(g)21(.), which, is then of complexity 30^4 + 96^4, versus 96^23 for the random password. And that is assuming that any character can be repeated 1~30 times, so DDDDDDDDD0000000ggggggg...... also would be cracked extremely quickly. If you limit yourself to only last character padding, your password now becomes 30*96^4 possibilities. {{unsigned ip|108.162.222.235}}

And that's why it is stupid to explain this kind of joke : it depends on many (MANY) parameters such as brute-force method and encryption/hash algorithm. Giving this kind of (wrong) explanations about "pass cracking" (as if it was always the same way to process ...) is ridiculous. And they talk about entropy .......... Holy shit, go back to school and stop screwing cryptography up. zM_ {{unsigned ip|163.245.49.126|21:41, 18 June 2015 (UTC)}}

I just use a password with a ␡ character or two, and ␇ for banks. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.242.21|108.162.242.21]] 08:33, 18 August 2015 (UTC)

I'am astonished that even someone like Schneier don't get 936 right immediately after reading it. So, I think I know what was going on in Munroes mind conceptually. Maybe there are some grans of salt, but I don't have a problem with these. But I do have one (or two) quantitative problem(s) with 936:
* I was not able to find out, how Munroe get the value of about 16 bits of entropy for the "uncommon" nine letter lower case "non-gibberish base word". This would mean: On average, a letter of such a word will have about 1.8 bits of entropy. May be, but how do we know? "Citation needed!" ;-)
* (Secondly: The "punctuation" should have 5, not 4 bits of entropy. There are 32 (2^5) ASCII punctuation characters (POSIX class [:punct:]). But I assume this is a lapse.)
Can someone enlighten me? --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.236|162.158.91.236]] 17:31, 19 September 2015 (UTC)
:I have missed the sentence "Randall assumes only the 16 most common characters are used in practice (4 bits)". Hm. There is a huge list with real world passwords out there, leaking from RockYou in 2009. After some processing to remove passwords containing characters that are not printable ASCII characters (ñ, £, ๅ, NBSP, EOT, ...), the list contains about 14329849 unique passwords from about 32585010 accounts (there are some garbage "passwords" like HTML code fragments). The following are the number of accounts using a password containing a particular printable character (one or more tokens of a particular type):
<nowiki>
226673 .
186883 _
179264 !
125846 -
104224 @
95237 *
92802 (space)
60002 #
36522 /
31172 $
28550 &
27686 ,
23905 +
18704 =
18268 )
17927 ?
16401 (
16074 '
14407 ;
11819 <
11118 %
10723 ]
8975 \
7718 [
7209 :
5815 ~
5673 ^
4995 `
2847 "
2741 >
1050 {
939 }
502 |

(NB: 1222815 accounts were using a password containing at least one of these.)
</nowiki>
:Sorry, I have no "citation". But you can play with the leaked RockYou password list yourself. Here is a way to reach that playground:
<nowiki>
$ # Download the compressed list (57 MiB; I have no idea what "skullsecurity"
$ # is, it was simply the first find and I assume it's the said list):
$ wget http://downloads.skullsecurity.org/passwords/rockyou-withcount.txt.bz2

$ # Decompress the list (243 MiB), or, to speak more exact, it's a table:
$ bzip2 -dk rockyou-withcount.txt.bz2

$ # The content of the table is: "How many accounts (first row) were using that
$ # password (second row)?" Let's take a peek:
$ head -n5 rockyou-withcount.txt
290729 123456
79076 12345
76789 123456789
59462 password
49952 iloveyou

$ # The following command processes the table to remove lines with passwords
$ # containing characters that are not printable ASCII characters (14541
$ # lines/passwords, 18038 accounts), and lines insisting that there were some
$ # accounts with no password (1 line, 340 accounts). Moreover, the command
$ # removes every space character not belonging to a password, makes the rows
$ # tab-delimited and writes the result in a file called "ry" (161 MiB; many
$ # bloating spaces removed).
$ LC_ALL=C sed -n 's/^ *$[1-9][0-9]*$ $[[:print:]]\{1,\}$$/\1\t\2/p' rockyou-withcount.txt >ry

$ # The following are shell functions to build commands. They will be explained
$ # below using examples (I can not express myself well in this language).
$ counta() { LC_ALL=C awk 'BEGIN { FS = "\t"; p = 0; a = 0 } { if ($2 ~ /'"$(printf %s "$1" | sed 'sI/I\\/Ig')"'/) { p++; a += $1 } } END { print a " (" p ")" }' "$2" ;}
$ countap() { LC_ALL=C awk 'BEGIN { FS = "\t"; p = 0; a = 0 } { if ($2 ~ /'"$(printf %s "$1" | sed 'sI/I\\/Ig')"'/) { p++; a += $1; print $0 } } END { print a " (" p ")" }' "$2" ;}

$ # We have reached the playground. Here are some examples for how to use the
$ # toys:

$ # Count how many accounts were using a password containing the string love:
$ counta 'love' ry
671599 (188855)

$ # The first operand of the above command is a extended regular expression
$ # (ERE). The second operand is a file, namely the previously generated file
$ # called "ry", that is the (processed) table. The first number of the output
$ # means: "That many accounts were using a password matching the ERE." The
$ # second number inside parentheses means: "That many unique passwords matching
$ # the ERE." If the first number is greater than the second number, some
$ # accounts sharing the same password (we will see this clearly in one of the
$ # examples below).

$ # Count how many accounts were using a password containing at least one
$ # character:
$ counta '.' ry
32585010 (14329849)

$ # Count how many accounts were using a password containing exactly one
$ # character:
$ counta '^.$' ry
144 (45)

$ # Count how many accounts were using a password containing exactly one numeric
$ # character:
$ counta '^[0-9]$' ry
55 (10)

$ # Let's have a look at the distribution:
$ countap '^[0-9]$' ry
29 1
6 7
6 3
3 9
3 2
2 6
2 5
2 0
1 8
1 4
55 (10)

$ # Obove we see the second command at work. You see what it does and what it
$ # does different. And here we see clearly the meaning of the first number and
$ # the second number inside parentheses.

$ # Count how many accounts were using a password containing at least one
$ # numeric character:
$ counta '[0-9]' ry
17609065 (9761364)

$ # Count how many accounts were using a password ending with a numeric
$ # character:
$ counta '[0-9]$' ry
15728238 (8313698)

$ # Count how many accounts were using a password beginning with a numeric
$ # character:
$ counta '^[0-9]' ry
6409397 (3283946)

$ # Count how many accounts were using a password containing only numeric
$ # characters:
$ counta '^[0-9]+$' ry
5192990 (2346744)

$ # And, last but not least, count how many accounts were using a password
$ # containing that "uncommon non-gibberish base word" in 936, with an upper
$ # or an lower case first letter, with or without some of the "common
$ # substitutions":
$ counta '[tT]r[o0]ub[a4]d[o0]r' ry
3 (3)

$ # Yes, there are some. 14 million unique passwords are a lot. Let's see what
$ # exactly was used:
$ countap '[tT]r[o0]ub[a4]d[o0]r' ry
1 troubador1
1 troubador
1 darktroubador
3 (3)
</nowiki>
:[[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.236|162.158.91.236]] 06:23, 21 September 2015 (UTC)

Interesting read about the generated password streangth: https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2016/01/friday_squid_bl_508.html#c6714590 [[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.190|162.158.91.190]] 08:09, 8 January 2016 (UTC)

: That person sounds confused. [[Special:Contributions/198.41.235.107|198.41.235.107]] 23:43, 10 January 2016 (UTC)

;You've Already Memorized It

Originally I logged in to report a local xkcd related phenomenon, and ask if anyone else had experienced it. The destiny, seemingly inescapable, that at once became my own upon seeing that last panel; the effect of the self-fullfilling combination of the very specific look of inquiry -- one I recognize immediately and associate with the words ''"interesting, Captain"'' -- and the insidiously performative ''"You've already memorized it."'' At first I doubted this was actually the case, but soon I could no longer, since not only did the phrase readily come to the mind and out the mouth, it also came up often. The ''"correct"'' soon replaced the word ''"right"'' in everyday conversation, then ''"right you are"'' and ''"yes"'' and so forth, then its opposite (with a ''"no"'' in front), then replacing the direction, the verb involving pen and paper (the most recent development was merely a quick under the breath aside of an acronym of the remaining words). All followed by the rest of the absurdly perfect password. '''Now here's the kicker: I logged on to tell you all this for some reason, only to find, I had memorized ''"correct horse staple battery"'' instead of ''"correct horse battery staple."'''''[[User:A female faust|A female faust]] ([[User talk:A female faust|talk]]) 03:58, 31 July 2016 (UTC)

:If you go to https://howsecureismypassword.net/ and type in the suggested password in the comic, it says that the password would be cracked instantly, and adds a section titled "xkcd".
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.195|162.158.62.195]] 14:18, 11 February 2017 (UTC)

Would you believe it, the guy who made the bad password rules switched his philosophy to this comic's: "Long, easy-to-remember phrases now get the nod over crazy characters" "In a widely circulated piece, cartoonist [[Randall Munroe]] calculated it would take 550 years to crack the password “correct horse battery staple,” all written as one word. The password Tr0ub4dor&3—a typical example of a password using Mr. Burr’s old rules—could be cracked in three days" [[User:Jacky720|That's right, Jacky720 just signed this]] ([[User talk:Jacky720|talk]] | [[Special:Contributions/Jacky720|contribs]]) 11:57, 8 August 2017 (UTC)

The 44 bits of entropy breaks down rapidly when you realize in real life, most people will choose a passphrase that contains words like "pass", "phrase", "remember", "long", "company" and quite likely "stupid". It's the passphrase equivalent of "password123". If the words are selected randomly and then assigned to a person, that would fix that problem (but create others, like mistrust of a computer that assigns passwords for you to log into that same computer with). [[User:Nerfer|Nerfer]] ([[User talk:Nerfer|talk]]) 21:19, 11 October 2019 (UTC)

There is one aspect which has been left out the whole time. I do not question things like wordlist length, entropy, or substitutions. However, doing shoulder surfing will either reveal a full password or in parts. A full password should not be topic of discussion. In the case of partial success, it is in the proposed method far easier to guess the rest of the password than in the traditional one. [[User:CommingFromTheSide|CommingFromTheSide]] ([[User talk:CommingFromTheSide|talk]]) 15:16, 5 November 2019 (UTC)

As for "author's 28 bits mistake". I believe that Randall does mean the common lexicon with mangling substitutions. That means that counterexample "J4I/tyJ&Acy" does have 72bits, but nonetheless is irrelevant to character/personage strategy of choosing a memorable yet strong password. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.215.113|172.68.215.113]] 13:17, 23 February 2020 (UTC)

Ah... this reminds me of one of my old password.

> It had quote.

> It had comments.

> There were "10e9 characters". (Don't worry, as much as it length backfired, if you types fast, you could type by hand in less than 5 minutes)

> It had typo.

> It had hints of itself in itself.

--[[Special:Contributions/172.68.154.70|172.68.154.70]] 08:22, 8 April 2020 (UTC)

Ah yes, now Microsoft has disabled plaintext words in passwords. I can see where they were trying to go with this but it completely backfired for everyone who doesn't use the password "password". -[[User:Alpha2|Alpha2]] ([[User talk:Alpha2|talk]]) 15:20, 13 October 2021 (UTC)

This scheme (four words) was used for the default wifi and admin passwords on a T Mobile wireless home internet gateway received on 2022-Jun-23 --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.175.146|172.70.175.146]] 14:51, 27 June 2022 (UTC)

The best password/passphrase should be something that has meaning to you and only you; for example, I used to use the password NurseSlutButt, which came from working at an office where the manager had one of his walls covered with the employees' personal memorabilia and one of those was a 1959 newspaper clipping about the new matron of a local orphanage, so that phrase developed from idly staring at the clipping and thinking about her and how she looked in the accompanying photo. I never told anyone about that password until now. Also, introduce deliberate mis-spellings: that makes it harder to crack, even if the attacker guesses the word. That was probably the intent behind the "numbers & symbols" rule in the first place, back before Unicode existed and computer users were limited to what was on their keyboard. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.215.11|172.71.215.11]] 23:37, 17 November 2023 (UTC)

guy guys i have an idea: "correcT horsE batterY staplE exkcdponent 2," {{unsigned ip|172.68.118.25|16:00, 11 June 2024}}

Basically, use '''truely random''', 100-symbols worth passwords with alpha-numeric-special-characters if you '''truely''' don't want to get hacked. And i apologize for everyone who don't have eidetic memory. --[[Special:Contributions/172.69.222.69|172.69.222.69]] 19:29, 25 December 2024 (UTC)

According to Google Ngram, "relevant" is the 2049th most frequent word in English. Consider using it in your password! --[[User:Lamda05|Lamda05]] ([[User talk:Lamda05|talk]]) 05:48, 11 September 2025 (UTC)

3106: Farads

2025-08-02T05:40:23Z

Lamda05: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 3106
| date = June 23, 2025
| title = Farads
| image = farads_2x.png
| imagesize = 677x253px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = 'This HAZMAT container contains radioactive material with activity of one becquerel.' 'So, like, a single banana slice?'
}}

==Explanation==

In the comic, [[Cueball]] shows off several items that comprise approximately one of a given unit to [[Megan]] and [[White Hat]]. The first three — {{w|Metre|meter}}s, {{w|Pound (mass)|pound}}s and {{w|volt}}s — are all units of which "1" is a not extraordinary amount for an item that can be easily held in the hand. As such, they elicit minimal reaction from Megan and White Hat. A meter (a unit of length) is visually verifiable; a pound (a unit of weight) is easy to hold in the hand; and a volt (V, a unit of electric potential) would cause minimal harm even if discharged. White Hat's remark that the battery "might need a recharge" refers to the fact that 1 V batteries are somewhat uncommon, but a battery with a larger voltage like an {{w|AA battery|AA}}, {{w|C battery|C}} or {{w|D battery|D}} cell (typically up to 1.5 V) might read as 1 V if significantly depleted, which is likely to make most electrical devices stop working or have performance decline.

In contrast, 1 {{w|farad}} is an unusually large amount of capacitance. Capacitance is the ability to store charge, a large amount of which could be dangerous. In common use, most consumer electronics use capacitors in the picofarad to millifarad range, and 1 millifarad is already considered a "large" capacitor. A 1-farad capacitor is considered a supercapacitor (and some of which are pseudocapacitors, not strictly capacitors). Cueball claiming to have a 1 farad capacitor elicits panic from Megan and White Hat, who fear that {{w|Capacitor#Hazards and safety|it could be very dangerous}}.

For the same charging voltage and load/resistance, a larger capacitor won't deliver greater current or instantaneous power than a smaller one, but the total amount of energy and duration of discharge would be proportionally longer. If the capacitor's wires accidentally touch each other or a third piece of metal, an accidental "short circuit" is created, and all of the capacitor's stored energy discharges very quickly. For example, a 1 farad capacitor charged to 10 volts stores 50 joules of energy, and discharging all of that into a copper wire could cause the wire to heat up by a few dozen degrees Celsius faster than the blink of an eye and cause serious burns (see the [https://old.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/1ljxvdo/do_i_not_understand_what_a_capacitor_is/mzqg7ug/ calculation]). Large capacitors are often associated with larger voltages and heavy machinery, which can contribute to the feeling of caution around large capacitances.

The title text explores the inverse situation, where “1” of a unit is a very small amount. A {{w|becquerel}} (Bq) amounts to one radioactive atomic decay per second, which is a really low level of radioactivity. As observed, the material in question could be a single slice of a banana (primarily due to the decay of trace {{w|potassium-40}} in the total potassium it contains, a natural proportion of 117 parts per million). Hence, it is both impractical and unnecessary to contain it inside a container for hazardous materials unless the material is dangerous for other reasons (such as corrosiveness, flammability, or overripeness). For comparison, a 70 kg human body itself [https://web.archive.org/web/20200220103556/https://radioactivity.eu.com/site/pages/Activity_Doses.htm has an activity of 8000 Bq], and the 1986 meltdown of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant released [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10628087/ 2×1018 (that's 2,000,000,000,000,000,000) Bq]! The earlier common unit for radioactivity is the {{w|Curie (unit)|curie}}, originally defined as the decay rate of 1 gram of radium. It has since been redefined to be 3.7×1010 decays/second, i.e., 37 GBq. Radioactive material emitting 1 curie that is small enough to fit into a container for hazardous materials is dangerous enough that it probably ''should'' be in one. Bananas as a unit of measurement for radiation exposure are also discussed in the [[Radiation]] chart.

==Transcript==
: [Cueball holds a stick while talking with Megan and White Hat.]
: Cueball: This stick is one meter long.
: Megan: Cool.
: White Hat: That's a nice stick.

: [Cueball holds a smallish rock.]
: Cueball: This rock weighs one pound.
: Megan: I'd believe it.
: White Hat: Looks like a normal rock.

: [Cueball holds a small battery.]
: Cueball: This battery is one volt.
: Megan: Seems fine.
: White Hat: Might need a recharge.

: [Cueball holds a capacitor while Megan and White Hat panic.]
: Cueball: This capacitor is one farad.
: Megan: Aaaaa! Be careful!!
: White Hat: Put it down!!

==Trivia==
Of the three 'normal' unit quantities, the battery gets a comment that it might not necessarily be. Common household versions of {{w|electrochemical cell}} will normally be designed to produce around 1.5 volts (though some fairly common other versions go as low as 1.2 V or as high as 2.1 V), with single-/multi-cell {{w|List of battery sizes|batteries in general}} often being rated at a simple multiple of that (e.g. 1.5 V, 4.5 V, 9 V, ...). A cell producing nearer just a single volt, as is pointed out, might be significantly discharged and need recharging. If not replacing entirely, having aged due to too many recharges, as it also definitely would if it is a {{w|primary cell}}.

Also, of all four measures, the {{w|Pound (mass)|pound}} is the only non-SI unit given. A mass of 1 {{w|kilogram}} would also not be too odd a weight to have quoted here, being about 2.2 lb, but may not have been chosen due to its relative unfamiliarity to everyday US readers (even compared to the meter), or else because of its {{w|metric prefix}} (the only one of the {{w|SI base unit}}s, even including the {{w|SI derived unit|derived ones}}, to not be a bare unit) and the gram itself perhaps being even less relatable.

This comic was uploaded very late. Despite the normal three-a-week comic schedule having it come out on Monday, June 23, and being listed on [https://xkcd.com/archive/ xkcd's archive list] for that day, it was actually released well into the next day. This is one of very few times other than [[:Category:April Fools' Day comics|April Fools' comics]] that Randall was so late. The next comic, [[3107]], came out well within its nominal day (Wednesday, and not just by US time zones), such that possibly this comic, of all comics in the usual three-a-week cycle, spent the least time as the "latest" comic before being replaced by the next in its cycle.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
[[Category: Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category: Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category: Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category: Physics]]

2420: Appliances

2024-07-31T13:00:03Z

Lamda05: Add color to table

{{comic
| number = 2420
| date = February 3, 2021
| title = Appliances
| image = appliances.png
| titletext = If you had an oven bag and a dryer that runs unusually hot, I guess you could in theory make tumbled eggs.
}}

==Explanation==

This comic shows a {{w|confusion matrix}} of the applicability of various household appliances to different tasks. Green indicates an excellent performance, yellow not ideal, but usable, and red dismal or destroyed. The diagonal is green as it shows the tasks done by the machines they are supposed to be performed by. See [[#Table|table]] below. The comic is similar to [[1890: What to Bring]], [[2813: What To Do]], and [[2963: House Inputs and Outputs]], but those comics do not use yellow or another intermediate color.

Plain salmon fillets can be easily {{w|Dishwasher salmon|cooked in a dishwasher}}, so it is marked "cooked", and thus "cook a frozen dinner" is only yellow on the dishwasher entry, rather than full red. This might also apply to most other types of fish (trout was a prior subject for this process), as commercially-prepared frozen dinners tend to be breaded white fish such as cod, mackerel, smelt, etc. for price and logistical reasons (retaining their taste and firmness through the cooking, freezing, thawing and reheating processes). That's if it is not a recipe built around fish, as with a tuna casserole, in which case it is probably entirely subject to whether the whole of the pre-cooked and frozen meal can be sufficiently and defrosted and raised to a safe and palatable temperature.

The stove/oven has three green as it can also cook a microwave frozen dinner, although slower, and can toast bread, again slower than the toaster. It is by far the machine that has the fewest red entries, only one, as it cannot wash clothes. It can also not clean dishes, but it might sterilize them, thus that entry is yellow. It may actually dry the clothes, but is liable to burn them and is therefore yellow.

The microwave oven can also cook eggs, thus it has two green, the only other than the stove/oven with more than one green.

The toaster and the washing machines are the only ones without any yellow, and with only one green, for making toast/washing clothes - they are thus the appliances with the fewest other potential uses (zero). The washing machine will at least not destroy the clothes if you try to dry them, but it has the opposite effect, thus still red. The toaster will not destroy the dishes, but will potentially just make the dirt burn harder.

The title text mentions that it would be theoretically possible to cook eggs in a dryer, but it is not a common use for a dryer.{{Citation needed}} The joke is that it is not called {{w|scrambled eggs}} but tumbled eggs. It also mentions that the dryer has to become hotter than usual for a dryer (maybe dangerously hot for the clothes for it to work). And then the eggs should be cracked and put in an oven bag, that really needs to be tight and well zipped.

The table displays a diagonal line of greens from top-left to bottom-right, as is typical with a table where the first row option is deliberately compatible with the first column option, the second row with the second column, etc. What is perhaps more interesting is where the non-diagonal greens appear (and, to some extent, the yellows), indicating appliances or uses that are more flexible and range beyond being of a mere one-trick pony.

==Table==
{| class="wikitable" style="background-color: #E6C3C3;"
!
! scope="col"| {{w|Toaster}}
! scope="col"| {{w|Dishwasher}}
! scope="col"| {{w|Microwave oven|Microwave}}
! scope="col"| {{w|Washing machine}}
! scope="col"| {{w|Kitchen stove|Stove/oven}}
! scope="col"| {{w|Clothes dryer|Dryer}}
|-
! scope="row"| Make toast
|style="background-color: #C5E6C3;"| Yes, a toaster's function is to make toast from bread.{{citation needed}}
| No. A dishwasher would likely turn bread into mush, and the result is unlikely to be edible.
| No. A microwave could heat up bread, but would not brown the bread and make it crunchy. In this image, it appears that the bread is getting unevenly burnt.
| No. A washing machine would break the bread into several pieces and is unlikely to be edible.
|style="background-color: #C5E6C3;"| Yes, toast can be made using a stove or an oven.
| No. A dryer would burn the bread due to its heat and would break it up into crumbs due to its tumbling.
|-
! scope="row"| Wash dishes
| No. A toaster would not be able to wash dishes and is likely to do nothing to make them clean (again, other than sterilization by heat).
|style="background-color: #C5E6C3;"| Yes, a dishwasher's function is to wash dishes.
| No. A microwave cannot clean dishes, or even sterilize them through exposure to adequate heat, as glass/ceramic or plastic dishes cannot absorb microwave radiation in sufficient quantities to generate heat. Metal cutlery can, but only specially-designed varieties are supposed to be placed into a microwave because metal usually winds up reflecting the microwaves and causing damage to the oven's interior through electrical discharge.
| No. A washing machine would break the dishes. The pieces would be clean, but unusable as dishes unless more robust than regular crockery.
|style="background-color: #FBF8CE;"| Maybe, a stove or an oven could theoretically sterilize dishes with high heat (but this would not clean off any stains or stuck food particles).
| No. Worse than the washing machine, the tumbling of a dryer would thoroughly pulverize porcelain dishes.
|-
! scope="row"| Cook a {{w|TV dinner|frozen dinner}}
| No. A traditional toaster would not be able to cook a frozen dinner. A {{w|toaster oven}} combination would be able to do so (see stove/oven).
|style="background-color: #FBF8CE;"| Maybe. The fish could be cooked in a dishwasher, however, the rest might not, but this is not a typical use of a dishwasher.
|style="background-color: #C5E6C3;"| Yes, a microwave is normally used to cook a frozen dinner.
| No. A washing machine would make the dinner soggy and inedible.
|style="background-color: #C5E6C3;"| Yes, a stove or an oven could also be used to cook a frozen dinner. The image shows the dinner being removed from its packaging and placed in a baking pan.
| No. A dryer would make the frozen dinner inedible due to its tumbling action.
|-
! scope="row"| Wash clothes
| No. A toaster would not be able to wash clothes and would instead leave burn marks.
|style="background-color: #FBF8CE;"| Maybe. A dishwasher would be able to get the clothes wet but the washing may be uneven.
| No. A microwave would just burn the clothes and not do any washing.
|style="background-color: #C5E6C3;"| Yes, a washing machine's function is to wash clothes.
| No, a stove or an oven would burn the clothes and not do any cleaning.
|style="background-color: #FBF8CE;"| Maybe. A dryer would heat the clothes and kill germs, but not get any stains out.
|-
! scope="row"| Cook eggs
| No. A toaster would not be able to cook eggs. This image seems to show that eggs were cracked directly into the toaster, which causes a large plume of smoke.
| No. A dishwasher generally cannot cook eggs. However, it does seem that [https://spoonuniversity.com/how-to/5-foods-cook-dishwasher this is plausible to do].
|style="background-color: #C5E6C3;"| Yes. A microwave could be used to cook eggs, {{w|poached egg|poached style}} as shown in the image, or also {{w|scrambled eggs|scrambled}}.
| No, a washing machine would destroy the eggs.
|style="background-color: #C5E6C3;"| Yes, a stove or an oven is typically used to cook eggs (and other foods).
| No. A dryer would overheat the eggs and tumble them to shreds.
|-
! scope="row"| Dry clothes
| No. A toaster would not be able to dry clothes and would instead leave burn marks.
| No. A dishwasher would be able to get the clothes wet but would not do any drying.
|style="background-color: #FBF8CE;"| Maybe. A microwave could (unevenly) get clothes dry.
| No, a washing machine's function is to wash clothes and would just get the clothes wet. A washing machine's spin cycle could dry clothes to some extent but is not intended to fully wring all the water out of clothes.
|style="background-color: #FBF8CE;"| Maybe, a stove or an oven could be used to get clothes dry but runs a high risk of burning them, especially on parts that are in contact with metal.
|style="background-color: #C5E6C3;"| Yes, a dryer's function is to dry clothes after they are washed.
|}

==Transcript==

:[The comic is laid out like a grid, with usages for common household appliances the left-hand side (Make toast / Wash dishes / Cook a frozen dinner / Wash clothes / Cook eggs / Dry clothes) and appliances for these activities across the top (Toaster / Dishwasher / Microwave / Washing machine / Stove/oven / Dryer). The grid illustrates the "match-ups", with a green square denoting a "correct" match-up, a yellow square denoting something that may work somewhat, and a red square denoting something that most certainly won't work.]

:[From the top left corner, going from left to right, top to bottom, with each first item being on its own line in the grid, the images in the squares are as follows:]

*'''Make toast''' with a '''Toaster''': Green square, toasted toast with stripe pattern.
*'''Make toast''' with a '''Dishwasher''': Red square, slightly broken soggy toast in a puddle of water.
*'''Make toast''' with a '''Microwave''': Red square, non-toasted and unevenly burnt toast.
*'''Make toast''' with a '''Washing machine''': Red square, a few small soggy pieces of toast in a puddle of water.
*'''Make toast''' with a '''Stove/oven''': Green square, toasted toast with somewhat irregular pattern.
*'''Make toast''' with a '''Dryer''': Red square, large pile of breadcrumbs.
*'''Wash dishes''' with a '''Toaster''': Red square, intact glass, somewhat bent fork, and slightly cracked and sooty plate.
*'''Wash dishes''' with a '''Dishwasher''': Green square, clean glass, fork, and plate.
*'''Wash dishes''' with a '''Microwave''': Red square, slightly broken glass, intact fork, and sooty plate.
*'''Wash dishes''' with a '''Washing machine''': Red square, broken glass, intact fork, broken plate.
*'''Wash dishes''' with a '''Stove/oven''': Yellow square, Text reading "Sterilized, at least" with an arrow beneath it pointing at a slightly cracked glass, intact fork, and sooty and cracked plate.
*'''Wash dishes''' with a '''Dryer''': Red square, a large pile of broken porcelain and glass with part of a fork sticking out of it.
*'''Cook a frozen dinner''' with a '''Toaster''': Red square, badly burnt food box emitting smoke.
*'''Cook a frozen dinner''' with a '''Dishwasher''': Yellow square, Text reading "Fish might be cooked" with an arrow beneath it pointing at a food box two-thirds filled with water.
*'''Cook a frozen dinner''' with a '''Microwave''': Green square, cooked food box.
*'''Cook a frozen dinner''' with a '''Washing machine''': Red square, crumpled food box two-thirds filled with water.
*'''Cook a frozen dinner''' with a '''Stove/oven''': Green square, sideways view of steaming cooked food box with lid removed.
*'''Cook a frozen dinner''' with a '''Dryer''': Red square, open crumpled food box with burnt edges. Burnt food stuck to the panel's borders.
*'''Wash clothes''' with a '''Toaster''': Red square, smoking T-shirt with large stripe-shaped burns and flames rising from the top.
*'''Wash clothes''' with a '''Dishwasher''': Yellow square, unevenly wet/washed shirt.
*'''Wash clothes''' with a '''Microwave''': Red square, slightly smoking shirt with spread-out burns and some flame on one sleeve.
*'''Wash clothes''' with a '''Washing machine''': Green square, clean wet shirt.
*'''Wash clothes''' with a '''Stove/oven''': Red square, shirt with a large semi-burned area.
*'''Wash clothes''' with a '''Dryer''': Yellow square, slightly dirty-looking shirt.
*'''Cook eggs''' with a '''Toaster''': Red square, toaster emitting a huge cloud of dense smoke.
*'''Cook eggs''' with a '''Dishwasher''': Red square, slightly cracked eggs in a puddle of some kind.
*'''Cook eggs''' with a '''Microwave''': Green square, egg in egg cup with text "(Poached)" beneath.
*'''Cook eggs''' with a '''Washing machine''': Red square, eggshell fragments in a puddle, presumably the egg.
*'''Cook eggs''' with a '''Stove/oven''': Green square, fried egg with beans on a plate.
*'''Cook eggs''' with a '''Dryer''': Red square, a pile of eggshell dust, and possibly scrambled eggs.
*'''Dry clothes''' with a '''Toaster''': Red square, mostly wet shirt, with parts in the middle being somewhat dry. Smaller stripe-shaped burns.
*'''Dry clothes''' with a '''Dishwasher''': Red square, entirely wet shirt.
*'''Dry clothes''' with a '''Microwave''': Yellow square, dry shirt with smaller burns.
*'''Dry clothes''' with a '''Washing machine''': Red square, wet shirt.
*'''Dry clothes''' with a '''Stove/oven''': Yellow square, dry shirt with small burn-like patches.
*'''Dry clothes''' with a '''Dryer''': Green square, dry shirt.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Confusion matrices]]
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Food]]

2963: House Inputs and Outputs

2024-07-31T08:46:55Z

Lamda05: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2963
| date = July 24, 2024
| title = House Inputs and Outputs
| image = house_inputs_and_outputs_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x684px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = People think power over ethernet is so great, and yet when I try to do water over ethernet everyone yells at me.
}}

==Explanation==
This is another comic in a series depicting {{w|confusion matrix|confusion matrices}}, similar to [[2813: What To Do]], [[2420: Appliances]], and [[1890: What to Bring]]. It is arranged as a table of five columns of conduits to and from a house, by five rows of resources and people, each of which typically enter, exit or both enter ''and'' exit the house via at least one of the identified conduits. The table cells have a green background for compatible methods of transit; a red tint is used for the more problematic pairings. Each panel can be read as "[row label] [entering and/or exiting] the house via the [column label]", for example, "Fresh water entering the house via the well".

{| class="wikitable" style="background-color: lightpink;"
|+ Explanations of the "House Inputs and Outputs" table cell drawings
! !! Well !! Garage !! Power lines !! Front door !! Septic tank
|-
! Fresh water (Input)
|style="background-color: palegreen;"| The purpose of a well is usually to supply fresh water into the home, primarily for drinking or washing. It may be unnecessary in many places if a reliable {{w|water supply network}} is available. || Long gone are the days of {{w|Labours_of_Hercules#Fifth:_Augean_stables|having to clean up after your primary mode of transportation}}, for most people. A source of water may be useful to clean a vehicle itself, although this would perhaps be more commonly done outside. || Power lines conduct electricity, not water. The two functions are inherently dangerous if carelessly combined. Water can be used to cool high-energy lines, such as fast battery charger cables[https://www.connectortips.com/where-liquid-cooled-connectors-and-connectors-for-liquid-cooling-used-in-evs-faq/] and cables supplying electric arc furnaces, but not overhead residential power lines. || Many people prefer to control the amount of water they get, and contain it to a controlled area, since the water may damage things inside the house. || Pumping water into a septic tank could cause it to back up, resulting in the unpleasant contents being forced back in to the house. Also, if this were the only supply of water, most people would prefer anything they drink not to contain (or go through pipes that have contained) sewage.
|-
! Cars (Input/Output)
| Most cars can't fit inside most wells. Storing them in a well is also likely to be inconvenient when you come to need to use them again.
|style="background-color: palegreen;"| Garages are in fact built for the storage of cars and other similarly-sized vehicles. Placing a car in one will both help protect it from the elements and make it easier to access from inside your own home. || The illustration has the car actually balancing upon the strained wire, a rather difficult 'track' to drive upon, even assuming the cable is strong enough to withstand the forces. || Most cars can’t fit through a typical front door, and are likely to cause damage if forced. || Comedian {{w|Garrison Keillor}}'s 2008 ''More News from Lake Wobegon'' includes a story where an old septic tank is discovered to actually be a buried car.[https://theseriouscomedysite.com/comedy-cd-or-download/garrison-keillor-more-news-from-lake-wobegon/]
|-
! Electricity (Input)
| Wells are not designed to safely and effectively transfer electrical power to the devices that require it. The water would mostly just conduct the electricity into the surrounding construction. || In the United States, lightning is responsible for causing around 24,600 structure fires annually, resulting in $8 to $10 billion in losses.
|style="background-color: palegreen;"| Power lines are designed to facilitate the connection of individual homes to the broader local power network. [[Randall]] omits the fact that electricity can also be an output; e.g. houses with solar panels regularly export electricity too. || {{w|Benjamin Franklin}} invented the {{w|lightning rod}} to prevent lightning strike damage to structures. || As Knit Cap observes, septic tanks are not a source of electric power.
|-
! People (Input/Output)
|style="background-color: lightpink"| Being inside a well is very dangerous for most people.{{Citation needed}} The comic depicts a view from inside a well (as a [[:Category:Comics with inverted brightness|dark scene]], it is drawn red-on-black). The motif resembles poster art for the 2002 horror movie remake ''{{w|The Ring (2002 film)|The Ring}}'', which involves a girl left to die in a well who becomes a vengeful ghost (see also [[396: The Ring]]).
|style="background-color: palegreen;"| A person can enter and exit their home through a garage door, provided the garage has an internal door to the rest of the home. Though it is perhaps a fairly common way for such a house's residents to conveniently enter and exit, it isn't generally the best way to welcome or discharge most guests. || Overhead power lines to homes are generally not strong enough to climb, and attempting to do so incurs a very serious risk of electrocution.
|style="background-color: palegreen;"| The front door of a home is designed for entry and exit of humans and similarly sized items. || In general, people find crawling through waste unpleasant. Also, the septic tank is not connected to the street.
|-
! Sewage (Output)
| Sewage in drinking water can cause disease. It is/was the main cause for most {{w|cholera}} epidemics, which was clarified by {{w|John Snow}} during 1854 cholera outbreak in London.
|colspan=3| Sewage spills are smelly, disgusting and hard to clean. They can destroy carpets, floors, drywall and property value.
|style="background-color: palegreen;"| A {{w|septic tank}} is an underground chamber through which wastewater flows for basic {{w|sewage treatment}}.
|}

The title text references {{w|Power over Ethernet|power over ethernet (PoE)}}, first implemented in the early 2000s, to provide electric power along with data on twisted-pair Ethernet cabling. A welcome development, it removed the need for many separate power supplies. While networked water delivery ("running water") is also a welcome development, doing so over ethernet cables would be extremely problematic, risking several top points of failure, while providing limited amounts of water. However, again, electric vehicle fast charging cables and arc furnace power inputs are sometimes water-cooled.

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

:[A 5x5 grid of squares. The columns are labeled: Well, Garage, Power lines, Front door, Septic tank. Each row's label has an arrow and a basic house icon next to it. The rows are: Fresh water (horizontal arrow towards house), Cars (two-directional horizontal arrow and house), Electricity (horizontal arrow into house), People (two-directional horizontal arrow and house), Sewage (vertical arrow out of bottom of house).]

:Well, Fresh water: [green]
::[A many-featured house front and cross-sectional subsurface infrastructure, with various aspects that recur throughout most further grid-squares in one or other form. This particular one is distinguished by an arrow indicating movement up through a pipe leading inwards from an adjacent external borehole]
::Voice from house: Mmm! Refreshing!

:Garage, Fresh water: [red]
::[An obliquely off-frontal view of the house, featuring a set of Cueball-like figures directing a hosepipe's stream of water into the open garage-port doorway]
::''Fwoosh''

:Power lines, Fresh water: [red]
::[A different oblique angle concentrated upon the edge of the house upon which the overhead powerlines connect to, from a pole with transformer box and other wire coming from off-frame; the house wire appears to be dripping liquid]

:Front door, Fresh water: [red]
::[Normal frontal view of the house, featuring the hosepipe cueballs directing water into the front door]
::Voice from house: Stop it!
::''Fwoosh!''

:Septic tank, Fresh water: [red]
::[Normal frontal view; The subsurface septic tank feature has an arrow leading up from it through the diagonal pipe that connects to the house itself]
::Voice from house: Eww.

:Well, Cars: [red]
::[A view only of a ground pipe/borehole-head; A car seemingly upended and balanced atop on a front corner, being manhandled by Cueball and Megan figures]

:Garage, Cars: [green]
::[Normal frontal view; Garage door open, car seen parked inside]

:Power lines, Cars: [red]
::[Two power-line poles, the rightmost with transformer, having cables from off-left, between the poles and off-right; Two cueballs stand on the ground below, looking at a car heavily balanced mid-way along the central stretch of wire]

:Front door, Cars: [red]
::[Frontal view of house; Front doorway has surrounding damage and a car tightly wedged into it with two figures (Beret Guy and a Cueball) visible through the windows]
::Beret Guy, from car: Do you think I scratched the paint?

:Septic tank, Cars: [red]
::[Frontal view of the house; Within the underground sceptic tank, displacing some of the shallow dark liquid, is a car with two occupants]

:Well, Electricity: [red]
::[Borehole pipe-head; Cueball holds a laptop with a power lead trailing down into the pipe]
::Cueball's laptop: ⚠Low battery

:Garage, Electricity: [red]
::[Frontal view of house, with lightning strike explosively hitting the area of the garage door]
::''BOOM''

:Power lines, Electricity: [green]
::[Frontal view of house, arrow leading down the power-cable and several 'electricity' symbols scattered around]

:Front door, Electricity: [red]
::[Frontal view of house, with lightning strike explosively hitting the area of the front door]
::''BOOM''

:Septic tank, Electricity: [red]
::[Toilet and cistern, seat raised, with Knit Cap looking at a computer system, set up nearby on the floor, with a power lead draped into the toilet-bowl and (sic) a single 'electricity' symbol indicating power flow]
::Knit Cap: Why won't my console turn on?

:Well, People: [red (though overwhelmingly black)]
::[A mostly black tile with a rough circular outline of sketchy red lines]

:Garage, People: [green]
::[Frontal view of house; A Cueball exits the open (darkened) garage doorway, waving]
::Cueball: Bye!

:Power lines, People: [red]
::[Oblique side view of house; A Cueball is climbing up the power-line towards the top of the pole]
::Cueball: Bye!

:Front door, People: [green]
::[Frontal view of house; A cueball exits the open front doorway, waving]
::Cueball: Bye!

:Septic tank, People: [red]
::[Frontal view of house; A Cueball crawls into the elbow-deep dark liquid of the subsurface septic tank, emerging from the house-draining pipes]
::Cueball: Bye!

:Well, Sewage: [red]
::[Frontal view of house; Speech-line emerges from the house]
::Voice from house: ''Why do I keep getting sick???

:Garage, Sewage: [red]
::[Frontal view of house; Garage door is open, revealing Cueball knee-deep in dark liquid]
::Cueball: Oh no.

:Power lines, Sewage: [red]
::[Oblique side view of house; Wide pipe-end emerges from the roof, disgorging a stream of dark liquid out onto the rising power-cable]
::Cueball: Eww.

:Front door, Sewage: [red]
::[Frontal view of house; Front door is open, revealing Cueball knee-deep in dark liquid]
::Cueball: Oh ''no''.

:Septic tank, Sewage: [green]
::[Frontal view of house; Dark liquid drains down drain-pipes into sceptic tank, with an arrow indicating the direction of flow]
::''Flush''

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Comics with inverted brightness]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Knit Cap]]
[[Category:Confusion matrices]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Charts]]

Talk:2478: Alien Visitors 2

2021-06-25T06:19:08Z

Lamda05:

Sorry for intruding, I am just delighted that I am early [[Special:Contributions/162.158.166.161|162.158.166.161]] 14:02, 18 June 2021 (UTC)

"Maybe we shouldn't stand right under it." This line might (inadvertently?) reference the common alien-movie fail in which massive spacecraft hover at low altitude over human populations without obliterating them and their infrastructure. It might also be bathroom humor. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.129.134|172.68.129.134]] 15:56, 18 June 2021 (UTC)
:I'm with the original explanation. The aliens just don't seem very advanced, so they're worried that the spaceships are poorly constructed and pieces might fall off, or the entire ship might just drop. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 16:19, 18 June 2021 (UTC)
:You are probably correct with respect to Randall's intentions. The situation, though, brings to my mind Turtledove's [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worldwar_series Worldwar series], in which "The Race" had very advanced technology (hence little risk of spaceships crashing on their own) but had, at least initially, a poor opinion about human technologies and their advancement. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.129.132|172.68.129.132]] 18:31, 18 June 2021 (UTC)

::Thanks for the reference, 172.68.129.132! I’m enjoying listening to the series for free through my public library account using Hoopla. Apparently the original e-books had atrocious copy editing so I get to miss out on that visual horror. :-). [[User:Dhugot|Dhugot]] ([[User talk:Dhugot|talk]]) 18:02, 19 June 2021 (UTC)

:: Also reminds me of that StarTrek (NextGen) episode where a very low intelligence species has advanced space travel that it obtains by stealing it from other species. (Sorry - I forget the episode title). [[User:SteveBaker|SteveBaker]] ([[User talk:SteveBaker|talk]]) 16:06, 21 June 2021 (UTC)
:::That was Season 2 episode "Samaritan Snare". [[Special:Contributions/172.70.117.38|172.70.117.38]] 17:28, 21 June 2021 (UTC)

To the individual who made a callback to Capri Sun--bless you. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.83|172.70.130.83]] 19:11, 18 June 2021 (UTC)

:Need a category for this recurring comic: [[:Category:Alien Visitors]]. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.35.65|172.69.35.65]] 00:33, 19 June 2021 (UTC)

Doesn’t the United States still add lead to gasoline used for piston airplane engines, and also high octane race car fuel?[[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.55|162.158.62.55]] 03:28, 19 June 2021 (UTC)
:Very limited niche use remains, phased out of major applications. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.206|141.101.98.206]] 08:52, 19 June 2021 (UTC)
::Does 167,000 aircraft in the USA (plus more around the world) count as “limited niche use”? Assuming a super conservative estimate of an average of only 100 hours/year/airframe and an equally conservative burn rate of 10 gal/hr, that’s 167 million gallons of leaded gasoline burned per year. See https://www.faa.gov/news/fact_sheets/news_story.cfm?newsId=14754 for more info on the FAA’s continuing refusal to remove lead from avgas.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.110.44|172.70.110.44]] 04:46, 20 June 2021 (UTC)
:::Considering the 276 million cars in the USA and their yearly consumption of 123.5 billion gallons of fuel, that is pretty much limited niche use, yes. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.94.232|162.158.94.232]] 14:40, 21 June 2021 (UTC)
::::Classic example of a logical fallacy. To paraphrase your assertion: “Because the market for 100LL fuel for piston aircraft is 0.1% the size as the unleaded gasoline market for automobiles, 100LL fuel for piston aircraft is a niche market” but you are comparing apples to bacon by comparing automotive unleaded gasoline to 100LL aviation fuel. Status as “niche” or “not niche” is based on sales of leaded fuel; cars run on unleaded gasoline, diesel, or electricity, and are thus irrelevant to the discussion. I mean, why not mention how much jet-A is burned by turbine aircraft? Answer: because it’s irrelevant to the discussion. Cars burning unleaded fuel is irrelevant to the discussion of leaded gasoline. In terms of absolute quantities, piston aircraft burn far more 100LL than anything else, and lead from those aircraft remains a significant source of lead pollution.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.114.48|172.70.114.48]] 03:59, 22 June 2021 (UTC)

::Although lead was originally added to gas in order to improve efficiency, it was retained in order to reduce refining expense. After refining crude oil, you get gasoline at a variety of octanes. The different octanes are blended to produce what you pay for (e.g. 87 for regular, 93 for premium). Lead is an octane-boosting additive, allowing manufacturers to ship sub-standard gas (that is a little below the rated octane), adding lead to bring it up to standard. Without lead, you need to blend in a higher proportion of higher-octane gas in order to get the required octane rating. Which is why, back when lead was being phased out, unleaded gas cost more than leaded. The effect of lead reducing engine knock is simply a result of the gas having a higher octane rating. High octane gas without lead (e.g. premium) has the same effect.

::Another interesting side point is that computer-controlled refineries have effectively reduced the quality of gas you get at the pump. There are serious legal penalties for selling gas with an octane rating below what is labeled, but no penalties for being higher. Back when refineries were not computer controlled, they were not precise enough to produce the exact blend required, so they would always err a little higher (e.g. selling 88 octane labeled as 87). But with modern systems, they can sell exactly what's labeled, so consumers don't get any free bonus octane anymore. [[User:Shamino|Shamino]] ([[User talk:Shamino|talk]]) 16:22, 19 June 2021 (UTC)

:: Leaded gasoline doesn't just provide anti-knock capability, in older cars, the lead gradually accumulates around the valve seats and serves to soften the impact of the valve as it snaps shut. Modern cars have both anti-knock sensors and hardened valve seats - so you don't need it anymore. My 1960 Mini needs leaded gas because of the valve-seat issue - and as a result I have to use a lead additive for about one in five tankfuls of gas. Fortunately, that car is mostly a "garage queen" and is only driven to local car shows and such. I atone for this by driving a Tesla as my main vehicle! [[User:SteveBaker|SteveBaker]] ([[User talk:SteveBaker|talk]]) 16:06, 21 June 2021 (UTC)
::: Why can't you use tetraethylbismuth whose metal is soft and low melting like lead but much less toxic? [[User:Oxygen|Oxygen]] ([[User talk:Oxygen|talk]]) 18:52, 21 June 2021 (UTC)

An honorary mention might be made to {{w|Thomas Midgley Jr.}}, who helped to make both TEL and CFCs widely used. (Though didn't get the chance to widely promote his bed-lift before it also proved unsafe.) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.206|141.101.98.206]] 08:52, 19 June 2021 (UTC)

I don't think the Hindenburg exploded. It just burned.

One would question how benevolent these aliens are. They only offer inferior technology (pyramids, biplanes) which they could have ''trivially'' seen not to be useful, or they offer harmful technology like lead-based gasoline and inefficient fruit-presses. On the other hand they do not offer the one tech we don't have, e.g. still-standing flying saucers. Thus one may question their real motives... <Insert reference to V>. [[User:Ralfoide|Ralfoide]] ([[User talk:Ralfoide|talk]]) 17:53, 20 June 2021 (UTC)
: Or maybe they're trying to ensure we have a well rounded tech growth rather than beelining to spaceflight. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.126.134|162.158.126.134]] 21:35, 20 June 2021 (UTC)

: For sure the Hindenburg didn't explode - and there is evidence that much of the problem wasn't the loss of the hydrogen anyway since hydrogen flames ascend UPWARDS away from the passenger gondola - and hydrogen burns at a relatively low temperature. A bigger problem was that the skin of the airship was sprayed with iron oxide on the inside and aluminium on the outside - which, when burned together, was essentially "thermite". That stuff is hard to set on fire, but once it gets started it's horrifically energetic - it's what the Germans were using as incendiary bombs...so they REALLY should have known better! Given the rapidly increasing cost (and scarcity) of helium - airships may soon have to go back to using hydrogen. But it could easily be made safe with modern technology to monitor (and purge) oxygen from inside the hydrogen cells, adequate lightning protection...and an "anything-except-freaking-thermite!!" skin. [[User:SteveBaker|SteveBaker]] ([[User talk:SteveBaker|talk]]) 16:19, 21 June 2021 (UTC)

I feel like the references to the Secretary series are in error. Ron Paul *does* have a blimp in those comics, so it's tangentially related, but the secretary series is very much not the alien visitors series.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.187.99|162.158.187.99]] 12:34, 21 June 2021 (UTC)

As for biplanes - because they have ample wing area, they typically have shorter wing-spans than monoplanes. This reduces the moment of angular inertia and that allows them to turn more rapidly...and that is why they are used in aerobatics and crop spraying. The infamous "Red Baron" of WWI flew a Fokker triplane which enhanced the ability to maneuver even more - although at the expense of even more drag. However, high drag also means you can slow down much more rapidly - which allowed more interesting tactical possibilities. Biplanes were VERY useful in the era in which they were flown. They didn't vanish because they were a terrible technology - but because the nature of arial warfare changed. Modern fighter aircraft try to get the best of both worlds by having wings with a greater chord length - providing more lift area without messing up roll/yaw angular inertia. However, this does worsen longitudinal angular inertia - which is relatively unimportant in a modern "dogfight" where the only real requirement is to be able to turn tightly enough for a missile firing solution. [[User:SteveBaker|SteveBaker]] ([[User talk:SteveBaker|talk]]) 16:06, 21 June 2021 (UTC)

=== LINCOS ===
How do people feel about a discussion of the limitations of Freudenthal's (1960) LINCOS: ''Lingua Cosmica,'' as featured in the Jodie Foster film ''Contact''?[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincos_%28artificial_language%29] In particular, what limitations arise when higher-level communications must be based on screenplays? For example, would a society continually producing movies depicting themselves as violent agressive galactic conquers be eligible for first contact? [[Special:Contributions/172.69.35.115|172.69.35.115]] 18:46, 24 June 2021 (UTC)

Wait, the alien is using holography. [[User:Lamda05|Lamda05]] ([[User talk:Lamda05|talk]]) 06:19, 25 June 2021 (UTC)

Talk:2403: Wrapping Paper

2020-12-28T05:35:36Z

Lamda05:

Merry Christmas{{unsigned|bubblegum}}

I was reminded of the old http://bjornsmaths.blogspot.com/2005/11/how-to-catch-lion-in-sahara-desert.html

The method of inverse geometry: We place a spherical cage in the desert and enter it. We then perform an inverse operation with respect to the cage. The lion is then inside the cage and we are outside.
[[User:Bmwiedemann|Bmwiedemann]] ([[User talk:Bmwiedemann|talk]]) 02:41, 26 December 2020 (UTC)

:An engineer, a physicist, and a mathematician are shown a pasture with a herd of sheep, and told to put them inside the smallest possible amount of fence.
:The engineer is first. He herds the sheep into a circle and then puts the fence around them, declaring, "A circle will use the least fence for a given area, so this is the best solution."
:The physicist is next. He creates a circular fence of infinite radius around the sheep, and then draws the fence tight around the herd, declaring, "This will give the smallest circular fence around the herd."
:The mathematician is last. After giving the problem a little thought, he puts a small fence around himself and then declares, "I define myself to be on the outside."
: (for example [https://www-users.cs.york.ac.uk/susan/joke/3.htm here]) -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 05:05, 26 December 2020 (UTC)

Note: In some countries, presents are opened already on Christmas Eve.
[[User:Svízel přítula|Svízel přítula]] ([[User talk:Svízel přítula|talk]]) 08:04, 26 December 2020 (UTC)

Sorry but this immediately brings Jevil (Deltarune) to mind. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.198|108.162.216.198]] 09:17, 27 December 2020 (UTC)

Maybe we could make Klein bottle-shaped wrapping paper, it can: (1) let everything in the universe be the gift, including what is inside (well, I know it's unreasonable to say something is “inside” a Klein bottle) the gift box; (2) reduce the cost of printing to zero. [[User:Lamda05|Lamda05]] ([[User talk:Lamda05|talk]]) 05:35, 28 December 2020 (UTC)

== My hobby ==

Prank Randall by selling him wrapping paper that is printed on both sides so he can't turn it inside out
[[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.220|172.69.33.220]] 02:46, 26 December 2020 (UTC)