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3087: Pascal's Law

2025-05-12T17:29:35Z

Mstryda: Added TV Tropes link

{{comic
| number = 3087
| date = May 9, 2025
| title = Pascal's Law
| image = pascals_law_2x.png
| imagesize = 400x459px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Reductio ad absurdum fails when reality is absurd.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created by PASCAL’S HYDRAULIC PRESS. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

{{w|Pascal's law}} states that when a change in pressure occurs in confined incompressible fluid, it is transmitted throughout the fluid and the same change occurs everywhere. It was discovered by mathematician {{w|Blaise Pascal}} in 1653. This is the principle underlying {{w|hydraulics}}, and the diagram shows a hydraulic lift that allows a heavy weight to be lifted (on the right) by pressing with much less weight on a small amount of fluid (on the left).

''{{w|Ruina montium}}'' ("wrecking of mountains" in Latin) was an ancient Roman mining technique in which small tunnels were dug into the side of a mountain. When the tunnels were filled with high-pressure water, the rock adjacent to the tunnels would fracture, making it significantly easier to remove. Thus, Randall's attempted disproof of Pascal's Law by reducing it to an absurd statement failed to work, because that absurd statement was entirely true.

''{{w|Reductio ad absurdum}}'' ("reduction to absurdity" in Latin) in the title text is a form of argument in which something is assumed to be true and then this is shown to lead on to absurdity or falsehood, such that the original premise can't be true after all. In mathematics it's called {{w|proof by contradiction}}. In the title text, however, it is pointed out that some truly real things {{tvtropes|RealityIsUnrealistic|already ''are'' absurd}}, so it would be wrong to rely upon this method to {{tvtropes|AluminumChristmasTrees|conclude that they don't occur}}.

==Transcript==
:[At the left, a teacher is holding a pointer, pointing at a picture on the screen.]

:[The picture shows a hydraulic lift, with a small fluid vessel on the left connected to a tube at the bottom, which connects to a large vessel on the right. On top of the large vessel is a weight labeled 1000 and a Cueball. The fluid in the large vessel is labeled with an upward arrow. Megan's hand is over the small vessel, with a downward arrow indicating that she's pressing on it.]

:[Cueball, Hairbun, and Blondie are sitting at school desks going left to right.]
:Cueball: No, that can't be right.
:Cueball: If hydrostatic pressure worked that way, then you could use it to make machines that exert near-infinite force.
:Cueball: And ancient people could have demolished entire mountains just by drilling small tunnels and filling them with water.

:[Caption below comic:]
:When I first learned about Pascal's law, I tried to disprove it by showing that it would lead to absurd consequences, but it turns out hydraulic presses and ''ruina montium'' are both real things.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Jill]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Blondie]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Donald Knuth]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Engineering]]

3020: Infinite Armada Chess

2024-12-05T04:39:55Z

Mstryda:

{{comic
| number = 3020
| date = December 4, 2024
| title = Infinite Armada Chess
| image = infinite_armada_chess_2x.png
| imagesize = 282x497px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Stockfish 16 suggests the unconventional opening 1. RuntimeError: Out of bounds memory access
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by an infinite armanda of stockfish BOTS - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

{{w|Chess}} is a board game played between two players on an 8x8 chessboard. In standard chess, each player has 8 pawns and 8 pieces: 2 rooks, 2 knights, 2 bishops, a queen and a king. {{w|Chess variants}} are chess games in which the rules, board sizes, and/or piece behaviors are altered. In the chess game presented here, the standard chessboard is presented, however the board extends vertically past the original 1st and 8th ranks off the page to infinity in both directions. Each square beyond the 8 standard ranks is filled by an additional queen. The {{w|Queen (chess)|queen}} is the most powerful piece on the chessboard, having the powers of a {{w|Bishop (chess)|bishop}} and a {{w|Rook (chess)|rook}} combined. With an {{tvtropes|TitleDrop|infinite armada}} of queens, each player will be much stronger.{{citation needed}} Sometimes having a bunch of queens [https://x.com/chesscom/status/1841540380363211164 doesn't go very well], however.

In {{w|algebraic chess notation}}, chess moves are represented by the move number, the piece moved, and the destination square. For example, the sequence 1. e4 Nf6 indicates that White opened the game by moving their e-pawn to the e4 square and Black replied by moving their kingside knight to f6, the {{w|Alekhine Defence}}. In the title text, {{w|Stockfish_(Chess)|Stockfish}} is a {{w|chess engine}} designed to evaluate a chessboard and find the best move. However, it is limited by the processing power of the computer on which it runs.{{citation needed}} As there are infinitely many pieces to consider in the move evaluation, Stockfish will require an infinitely large amount of {{w|RAM|memory}} to evaluate the position. This has the problem of exceeding the maximum memory of the computer running Stockfish, returning a {{w|RuntimeError}} as the first move for White.

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

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Chess]]

2999: Bad Map Projection: The United Stralia

2024-10-16T20:01:59Z

Mstryda: Avoiding EC

{{comic
| number = 2999
| date = October 16, 2024
| title = Bad Map Projection: The United Stralia
| image = bad_map_projection_the_united_stralia_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x651px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = This projection distorts both area and direction, but preserves Melbourne.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a GIANT AUSTRALICAN SPIDER - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This is the eighth comic in the series of [[:Category:Bad Map Projections|Bad Map Projections]] displaying Bad Map Projection #102: The United Stralia. It follows [[2951|#45: Exterior Kansas]], released about three and a half months earlier. In this addition to the Bad Map Projections series, Randall has blended two different countries-- the United States of America and Australia-- into one. The primary joke is the naming of this conglomeration as a "map projection;" it does not quite fit the definition properly, and, additionally, describes a fanciful place which does not actually exist, and thus would be nearly-worthless for navigating either Australia or the USA. {{cn}}

The blending was done by roughly combining the shapes of the two countries, with American states becoming subdivisions of Australian states. Cities from both countries are present on the map, e.g. Perth, AU and Los Angeles, USA. Alaska and Hawaii aren't included, likely because the 48 contiguous US states better match the shape and size of Australia.

The Australian states are labeled with their full names, but the American states are only labeled with their postal abbreviations. And Idaho is not labeled at all.

The title text makes a joke that this map does not preserve area or direction (typically, a map projection sacrifices one to preserve the other), but does preserve the city of Melbourne as a feature located on the map, near the actual location of Melbourne, Florida. There are other city names shared between the US and Australia, but they're not located at similar geographic locations; e.g the location of Melbourne in the comic is based on the instance in Queensland, not California.

On the map, the [[wikipedia:States and territories of Australia|states and territories of Australia]] are depicted with black lines, while the [[wikipedia:States of the United States|U.S. states]] and cities of both nations are marked with gray.

From west to east, the Australian states and territories contain the following U.S. States; the positions of Australian cities on the map are also listed:

[[wikipedia:Western Australia|Western Australia]] contains the following U.S. states:
*Arizona
*California
** [[wikipedia:Perth, Australia|Perth]] appears on the California coast, about halfway between [[wikipedia:Los Angeles|Los Angeles]] and [[wikipedia:San Francisco|San Francisco]]. It is unclear what happened to [[wikipedia:San Luis Obispo, California|San Luis Obispo]], which is similarly geographically positioned.
* Colorado
* Idaho
* Montana
* Nevada
* New Mexico
* Oregon
* Utah
* Washington
* Wyoming

[[wikipedia:Northern Territory|Northern Territory]] contains the following U.S. states:

* Illinois
* Iowa
* Kansas
* Michigan ([[wikipedia:Upper Peninsula|Upper Peninsula]])
* Minnesota
** [[wikipedia:Darwin (Australia)|Darwin]] is positioned in northwestern Minnesota.
* Missouri
* Nebraska
* North Dakota
* South Dakota

[[wikipedia:South Australia|South Australia]] contains the following U.S. states:

* Arkansas
* Louisiana
** [[wikipedia:Adelaide, Australia|Adelaide]] is located in the [[wikipedia:Mississippi River delta|Mississippi River delta]] region of Louisiana.
* Oklahoma
* Texas

[[wikipedia:Queensland|Queensland]] contains the following U.S. states and territories:

* Connecticut
* Delaware
* District of Columbia
* Indiana
* Kentucky
* Maine
* Maryland
* Massachusetts
* Michigan ([[wikipedia:Lower Peninsula|Lower Peninsula]])
* New Hampshire
* New Jersey
* New York
* North Carolina
** [[wikipedia:Brisbane|Brisbane]] is located on the coast in southeast North Carolina. It is unknown what happened to [[wikipedia:Wilmington, North Carolina|Wilmington]], which is similarly geographically positioned.
* Ohio
* Pennsylvania
* Rhode Island
* Tennessee
* Vermont
* Virginia
* West Virginia

[[wikipedia:NSW|New South Wales]] contains the following U.S. states:

* Alabama
* Georgia
** [[wikipedia:Canberra|Canberra]], and presumably the rest of the [[wikipedia:Australian Capital Territory|Australian Capital Territory]], is located in southeastern Georgia.
* Mississippi
* South Carolina
** [[wikipedia:Sydney, Australia|Sydney]] is located along the coast of South Carolina, near the location of [[wikipedia:Charleston, South Carolina|Charleston]].

[[wikipedia:Victoria, Australia|Victoria]] and [[wikipedia:Tasmania|Tasmania]] combine to make up the U.S. state of Florida, which is now divided into two non-contiguous parts. [[wikipedia:Melbourne|Melbourne]] is located in the southeast corner of Victorian Florida. Alaska and Hawaii, the two non-[[wikipedia:Contiguous United States|contiguous states]] of the United States, do not appear in the projection. Other major geographic distortions include:
* The U.S. now has two [[wikipedia:Quadripoint|quadripoints]], with the intersection of Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico joining the existing [[wikipedia:Four Corners|Four Corners]].
* Indiana has a border with Arkansas.
* Alabama and Mississippi have lost Gulf Coast access, as Florida has a border with Louisiana.
* Missouri has a north-south border with Oklahoma.
* [[wikipedia:Miami, Florida|Miami]] is separated from the lower 48 states, as it is now located in the non-contiguous Tasmanian Florida.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
Above the map, in 3 paragraphs:
:Bad map projection #102:
:[In larger letters than the first or the third paragraph]: The United Stralia
:A 50/50 US/Australia blend

[A map whose left side looks like that of Australia and whose right side looks like that of the United States, with Tasmania swapped out for a supposed island that looks like South Florida. The modified subdivisions of Australia are bordered with black with their names also black, while those of the United States are bordered with the same grey the city names are written with, with the US state abbreviations being a brighter one]:

[[Category:Bad Map Projections]]
[[Category:US maps]]

{{comic discussion}}