explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

3121: Kite Incident

2025-07-30T09:35:35Z

Nomentz: added section about legal limits.

{{comic
| number = 3121
| date = July 28, 2025
| title = Kite Incident
| before = [[#Explanation|↓ Skip to explanation ↓]]
| image = kite_incident_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x1610px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Detectives say the key to tracking down the source of the kites was a large wall map covered in thumbtacks and string. 'It's the first time that method has ever actually worked,' said a spokesperson.
}}

==Explanation==
In this comic [[Megan]] is setting up a kite as [[Cueball]] arrives. Megan sets up the kite using a fishing line, which is unorthodox but not unheard of. Because the connection between the holding point and the lofted kite will form a {{w|catenary}} hanging down, after paying out sufficient line toward a kite increasingly far downwind, the line starts to dip and possibly touch the ground. Cueball suggests adding another kite at that point, after which they can then pay out more line and keep the line raised off the ground for additional distance.

They then get into a loop of adding more line to accommodate a stock of kites, and then more kites to support the line, until the kite chain reaches ludicrous proportions. The kites become so numerous and high-flying that they eventually blow in a circle around a significant part of the planet, following a {{w|jet stream}}. A circle on the surface of the Earth that follows the line of latitude where Randall lives is about 18,500 miles long, though a circumpolar jet-stream would curve into higher and lower latitudes to possibly add a lot more distance (as well as being at a higher altitude, which would add a more predictable fraction to its length). Alternatively, the kites may have been dragged into a circle as the result of a kite and/or its string getting caught by an airplane. Modelling the line as a straight line stretching 15 degrees above the horizon, Megan has spent over 38km of fishing line by the time the first kite reaches the jet stream at 10km high.

The sirens in the second-to-last panel refer to a visit by some law-enforcement agency. The string of kites circling the Earth has interfered with international air travel. Although the mass of any given kite and the presence of such a relatively light and fragile tether should not cause too much difficulty for the majority of airliners if their wing or body collides with the kite-chain, the danger of a kite being ingested into the engine would ''preferably'' be avoided out of an abundance of caution. This is true even if the presence of kites is known to be not a more solid danger rather than a mystery and/or {{w|2023 Chinese balloon incident|perceived threat}} which can lead to {{w|Air travel disruption after the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull eruption|air travel to be shut down}}. Regardless of the actual degree of danger, the authorities react accordingly, and events culminate in Megan and Cueball being forced to issue a formal apology. Having their lawyer there might indicate they won't get away with just an apology, but maybe this is to show they meant no harm, to decrease the penalty they will face.

The title text alludes to an investigation technique seen in many types of media where the investigator {{tvtropes|StringTheory|pins text and photo evidence to a board}}, connecting related evidence with string. This technique is also made fun of in [[2244: Thumbtacks And String]]. Though often good enough for fictional purposes, at least to the extent that the plot demands, the text indicates that real-world uses of 'string on a map' to discover a useful result have not actually been successful. But in this case, the string on the map would be there to indicate the actual extent to the string ''in the air'', probably from various reports received from around the world, and apparently it had successfully led to the discovery of the location from which the string originated on the ground and the subsequent intervention against the duo's excessive kite-deployment activity.

Kites have been a [[:Category:Kites|recurring topic]] on xkcd since the early days.

=== legal limitations on kites ===

==== Germany ====
line length: 100m; in addition there's an exclusion zone around airports.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|is this really incomplete?}}

:[Cueball approaches Megan from the left. Megan is flying a kite, with the line attached to a spool.]
:Cueball: Ooh, flying a kite?
:Megan: Yeah. I found this big spool of fishing line in a closet.

:[In a silent panel, Cueball and Megan are seen from further away, indicating that the kite is flying higher.]

:[Cueball and Megan are seen from yet further away, indicating that the kite is flying still higher.]
:Cueball: Are we allowed to fly a kite this high? Should we Google whether there are rules?
:Megan: Eh, it's probably fine.

:[The line held by Megan leaves her hand almost horizontally before curving up. Cueball stands a little way downwind his hand up to the string, above head-height, as if supporting/stabilising it or testing its tendency to stay up.]
:Megan: The string is really starting to sag.
:Cueball: Maybe we could attach another kite? I'll go get one.

:[A new kite is attached just above the line, supporting it higher in the air, Megan's held end now leading up to the point it is joined.]
:Cueball: It worked!
:Megan: Nice!

:[Megan is feeding out line from a partly depleted spool, via a peg/ground anchor, with a knot visible a short way up the rising cord. Two further empty spoole are seen on the ground. Cueball is approaching with a box.]
:Cueball: I bought another package of string.
:Megan: Oh good, these spools are almost empty.
:Megan: I think we're in the jet stream.

:[Three empty spools, one spool in use and one unused spool surround Megan and Cueball, with one supporting kite visible on the line that Megan is still feeding out.]
:Cueball: How many kites are on there now?
:Megan: I've lost count.

:[Another silent panel, zoomed out to see at least a half self-supporting "kite-length" about ready to have a new kite added at the ground end, and almost the same amount of curve leading off-panel to the next (previously attached) kite, unseen. There are flat items (presumably kites), spools (one being the current one being fed out) and boxes (assumed to contain more kite material and/or spools behind and around the two small figures.]

:[A much larger panel with the same ground details but a wider view. Above the ascending line of kites there is now a second, horizontal line of kites, dangling furves of connecting chord, leading from off-panel left to off-panel right.]
:Cueball: Uhh...

:[Some kites, spools and boxes are around the two figures, now seen again in close-up.]
:Cueball: ...Did it blow in a circle?
:Megan: I don't know. Lemme look at a map of where the jet stream goes.
:Cueball: Hey, do you hear sirens?

:[A CNN logo is at the upper right of the panel. Megan stands at a lectern, with Cueball on one side and Ponytail, holding a briefcase, on the other. Illegible subtitle/sub-banner text appears at the lower left, lower right, and below them.]
:[A banner with white text on a black background:]
:Breaking: Kite Incident Duo Speaks
:Megan: On the advice of our lawyer, we would like to apologize for the events that shut down global air travel last week...

==Trivia==
Kites have been a [[:Category:Kites|recurring topic]] on xkcd since the early days. It has been three years since the last comic with kites, [[2632: Greatest Scientist]], six years since Cueball put one up in [[2208: Drone Fishing]], and 10 years since Megan did so in [[1614: Kites]].

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Kites]]
[[Category:Aviation]]

Talk:2244: Thumbtacks And String

2025-07-30T09:08:16Z

Nomentz:

Per the title text: I've overheard various people mention, usually in arguments, tattooing information to prevent it being forgotten. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.68.147|172.69.68.147]] 22:06, 20 December 2019 (UTC) M.Striker

Reminds me of [https://www.ikea.com/se/sv/p/markerad-matta-kort-lugg-vit-svart-00434753/ this rug] (sold by IKEA), which looks like a giant receipt of the very same rug. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.111.187|162.158.111.187]] 23:09, 20 December 2019 (UTC)
: Getting all information on that receipt correct would be quite challenge even with pre-ordering ... -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 23:13, 20 December 2019 (UTC)
:The explanation suggests the actual receipt is printed on the rug, but it's not custom made. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.234.140|162.158.234.140]] 16:31, 23 December 2019 (UTC)
: Above ikea rug link shows generic models only. I assume it's no longer available. Better provide generic image search, as it actually returns the relevant item:
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=ikea+receipt+rug&iax=images&ia=images

The tattoo subtext makes me think it's referring to the 2001 film 'Memento', a film noir in which the main character tries to solve a mystery while suffering from amnesia so he carries a bundle of clippings from motel-room to motel-room and has the most important clues tattooed onto his body.
[[User:RimGreaper|RimGreaper]] ([[User talk:RimGreaper|talk]]) 23:55, 20 December 2019 (UTC)

Firesign Theater had a scene in their album, "Don't Crush that Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers," that has a mural named, "Heroic Struggle of the Little Guy to Finish the Mural." [[User:Cosumel|Cosumel]] ([[User talk:Cosumel|talk]]) 17:16, 23 December 2019 (UTC)

I'm disappointed that the bulletin board itself only counts as one of the generic office supplies. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.34.222|162.158.34.222]] 10:39, 21 December 2019 (UTC)

A quick search provided a real world example of the title text [https://www.eonline.com/news/528117/teen-tattoos-mcdonald-s-receipt-on-his-arm-a-week-later-tattoos-the-tattoo-receipt-on-his-other-arm "A tatoo if a tatoo parlour receipt"]. The exercise of string and tacks is left for readers of Pinerest [[User:Iggynelix|Iggynelix]] ([[User talk:Iggynelix|talk]]) 15:09, 21 December 2019 (UTC)
:This example should be added to the Explanation!
:[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 16:15, 21 December 2019 (UTC)

:: If only that bit of the Explanation could also serve as an example... [[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.93|162.158.158.93]] 20:24, 21 December 2019 (UTC)
:::Added it and other things here above to the explanation. Of course he was from Norway... (Said the Dane, next door neighbor to Norway, with almost the same written language :-). --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 23:08, 21 December 2019 (UTC)
:Note that none of the Norwegian guy's tattoos are actually self-referential. The first tattoo is the receipt for McDonalds, the second tattoo is the receipt for the first tattoo. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 00:46, 24 December 2019 (UTC)
:: Actually, the example is not valid. The title text does NOT imply that the receipt tattood on the customer is for the same tattoo used for the receipt. [[User:Nomentz|Nomentz]] ([[User talk:Nomentz|talk]]) 09:08, 30 July 2025 (UTC)

ROTFL because it reminds me of some program managers at a former company who thought they could organize tasks on a large project by putting them up on a board and sequence-ordering them with colored twine. Made for a nice piece of modern art and not much more. [[User:Cellocgw|Cellocgw]] ([[User talk:Cellocgw|talk]]) 15:06, 23 December 2019 (UTC)

I think that its a play on puting the cart before the horse. You can't make a Thumbtacks and string diagram without thumbtacks and string, you can't tattoo a receipt for the tattoo without having got the tattoo. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.63.213|172.69.63.213]] 16:58, 23 December 2019 (UTC)

== Transcript ==

Transcript needs a lot of work:

- Emojis, as visual elements, should probably be removed

- Figure out a way to describe everything on the board and the connections, including:
:- position of each item on the board and in relation to Beret Guy
:- relative size of each item
:- contents of each item - not all of them are clear/specific text or symbols
:- connections between items, some of which are to specific content elements within an item
- Describe Beret Guy's position

I plan to work on this later, but likely won't complete. River 05:17, 13 March 2021 (UTC)

2244: Thumbtacks And String

2025-07-30T09:06:28Z

Nomentz: /* Explanation */ the title text, as the example from Norway, is not self-referential.

{{comic
| number = 2244
| date = December 20, 2019
| title = Thumbtacks And String
| image = thumbtacks_and_string.png
| titletext = A tattoo of a tattoo parlor receipt
}}

==Explanation==
{{tvtropes|StringTheory|In many fictional media}}, crimes and conspiracy theories are solved on bulletin boards. "Leads" are attached to the board using {{w|Drawing pin|thumbtacks}}, and the leads are connected to each other using string/twine/yarn in order to sort out connections and possibilities. There are many systems for {{w|information mapping}} that show entities as nodes in a {{w|Graph (discrete mathematics)|graph}}, with relationships represented by connections between nodes.

[[Beret Guy]], eccentric as always, manipulates this by making just such a setup solely to determine where to buy the thumbtacks and string for use in it. The joke is that the bulletin board is entirely [[:Category:Self-reference|self-referential]] -- without a need for thumbtacks and string to hold and connect things on the bulletin board, there would be no need for the bulletin board itself, but because of the bulletin board's string and thumbtacks, Beret Guy needs the items advertised on it. An additional minor joke may be that the Office Depot store map near the bottom of the bulletin board has markers that are often called [https://www.perkinselearning.org/technology/blog/how-create-digital-pushpin-map "digital pushpins"].

Fictional characters (especially conspiracy theorists) tend to obsess over these boards, overanalyzing or staring at every little detail to try to make sense of them. Beret Guy may be so obsessed with these string boards that he has been driven to obsessing further over the details of making ''more'' of these boards.

The title text continues the self-reference theme: The receipt for a tattoo is tattooed to the person who orders the tattoo. This has happened for real [https://www.eonline.com/news/528117/teen-tattoos-mcdonald-s-receipt-on-his-arm-a-week-later-tattoos-the-tattoo-receipt-on-his-other-arm in Norway]. The idea of the receipt being the object you buy has been used in a rug that was once [https://www.ikea.com/rs/sr/files/pdf/1d/23/1d23ace8/01_markerad_pr_kit_rs.pdf sold by the home-furnishings store IKEA].

==Transcript==
:[Beret Guy is in front of a bulletin board covered in images, connected by thumbtacks and string. The below transcripts of each image are left to right, top to bottom.]
:<u>Sale</u> String and Twine
:Where to Buy Thumbtacks
:Scrapbooking Supplies (partially covered:) Call Now
:Sale
:
:???
:Great Deals YARN
:Office Supplies Thumbtacks Pushpins & More
:Office Depot
:?
:Office Supply Liquidation SALE

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Self-reference]]

Talk:2244: Thumbtacks And String

2025-07-30T08:53:17Z

Nomentz: Alas, not a valid example

Per the title text: I've overheard various people mention, usually in arguments, tattooing information to prevent it being forgotten. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.68.147|172.69.68.147]] 22:06, 20 December 2019 (UTC) M.Striker

Reminds me of [https://www.ikea.com/se/sv/p/markerad-matta-kort-lugg-vit-svart-00434753/ this rug] (sold by IKEA), which looks like a giant receipt of the very same rug. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.111.187|162.158.111.187]] 23:09, 20 December 2019 (UTC)
: Getting all information on that receipt correct would be quite challenge even with pre-ordering ... -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 23:13, 20 December 2019 (UTC)
:The explanation suggests the actual receipt is printed on the rug, but it's not custom made. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.234.140|162.158.234.140]] 16:31, 23 December 2019 (UTC)
: Above ikea rug link shows generic models only. I assume it's no longer available. Better provide generic image search, as it actually returns the relevant item:
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=ikea+receipt+rug&iax=images&ia=images

The tattoo subtext makes me think it's referring to the 2001 film 'Memento', a film noir in which the main character tries to solve a mystery while suffering from amnesia so he carries a bundle of clippings from motel-room to motel-room and has the most important clues tattooed onto his body.
[[User:RimGreaper|RimGreaper]] ([[User talk:RimGreaper|talk]]) 23:55, 20 December 2019 (UTC)

Firesign Theater had a scene in their album, "Don't Crush that Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers," that has a mural named, "Heroic Struggle of the Little Guy to Finish the Mural." [[User:Cosumel|Cosumel]] ([[User talk:Cosumel|talk]]) 17:16, 23 December 2019 (UTC)

I'm disappointed that the bulletin board itself only counts as one of the generic office supplies. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.34.222|162.158.34.222]] 10:39, 21 December 2019 (UTC)

A quick search provided a real world example of the title text [https://www.eonline.com/news/528117/teen-tattoos-mcdonald-s-receipt-on-his-arm-a-week-later-tattoos-the-tattoo-receipt-on-his-other-arm "A tatoo if a tatoo parlour receipt"]. The exercise of string and tacks is left for readers of Pinerest [[User:Iggynelix|Iggynelix]] ([[User talk:Iggynelix|talk]]) 15:09, 21 December 2019 (UTC)
:This example should be added to the Explanation!
:[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 16:15, 21 December 2019 (UTC)

:: If only that bit of the Explanation could also serve as an example... [[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.93|162.158.158.93]] 20:24, 21 December 2019 (UTC)
:::Added it and other things here above to the explanation. Of course he was from Norway... (Said the Dane, next door neighbor to Norway, with almost the same written language :-). --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 23:08, 21 December 2019 (UTC)
:Note that none of the Norwegian guy's tattoos are actually self-referential. The first tattoo is the receipt for McDonalds, the second tattoo is the receipt for the first tattoo. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 00:46, 24 December 2019 (UTC)
:: Actually, this example is not valid. The tattoo on the first arm is the receipt for a restaurant meal, the recept for that tattoo is tattood onto the other arm, so not self-referential. I'll remove the example end of this week. --time passes-- Oh, [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] complained about this over 6 years ago. I'll proceed now. [[User:Nomentz|Nomentz]] ([[User talk:Nomentz|talk]]) 08:53, 30 July 2025 (UTC)

ROTFL because it reminds me of some program managers at a former company who thought they could organize tasks on a large project by putting them up on a board and sequence-ordering them with colored twine. Made for a nice piece of modern art and not much more. [[User:Cellocgw|Cellocgw]] ([[User talk:Cellocgw|talk]]) 15:06, 23 December 2019 (UTC)

I think that its a play on puting the cart before the horse. You can't make a Thumbtacks and string diagram without thumbtacks and string, you can't tattoo a receipt for the tattoo without having got the tattoo. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.63.213|172.69.63.213]] 16:58, 23 December 2019 (UTC)

== Transcript ==

Transcript needs a lot of work:

- Emojis, as visual elements, should probably be removed

- Figure out a way to describe everything on the board and the connections, including:
:- position of each item on the board and in relation to Beret Guy
:- relative size of each item
:- contents of each item - not all of them are clear/specific text or symbols
:- connections between items, some of which are to specific content elements within an item
- Describe Beret Guy's position

I plan to work on this later, but likely won't complete. River 05:17, 13 March 2021 (UTC)

Talk:3053: KM3NeT

2025-02-21T15:34:10Z

Nomentz: added wikipedia link for cerenkov radiation

First groan! (Not that I don't appreciate it, but definitely the most groanworthy comic in a long while...) [[Special:Contributions/172.69.195.229|172.69.195.229]] 17:59, 19 February 2025 (UTC)
For future context, this array has risen in notoriety thanks to the recent [https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-00444-1 detection] of the highest energy neutrino yet, but sadly I need to take this occasion to note how the deadliest thing in the strait of Sicily are not superluminal alien fish, but human traffickers moving people on botched up vessels from the north African coast for the past fifteen years, often resulting in shipwrecks in the waters right above KM3NeT. --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.216.67|172.70.216.67]] 22:39, 19 February 2025 (UTC)

I heard about this last week from a BBC Podcast (Inside Science?). The telescope is only part complete*, and consists of photo-multipliers (can detect a single photon) in glass spheres on a string rising from the sea floor to create a 3D grid (as illustrated). As the decay results in further luminescent particles the direction can be determined and the muon was travelling tangentially to the surface. *As with LIGO, the observation was made when the facility wasn't fully commissioned, so they had to carefully check for other light sources (possible joke source) that they weren't being 'swallowed' by bioluminecence? [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 08:13, 20 February 2025 (UTC)

So... excuse my naivité, but how do they, in reality, ensure bioluminescent fish are not confusing the neutrino detectors? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.155.101|162.158.155.101]] 19:33, 20 February 2025 (UTC)
:As it depends upon a 'track' of light, you can work out how likely it is that a set of bioluminescent fish happened to spontaneously 'flash' (in a line, in sequence and at a superluminal velocity for the medium) that coincidentally looks like the non-fish detection signature that they're looking for. (That and/or other factors, looking for particular wavelengths, without known bioluminescent sources, etc.) [[Special:Contributions/172.69.195.229|172.69.195.229]] 20:54, 20 February 2025 (UTC)
:They just discount anything that looks a bit fishy.[[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.78|172.71.178.78]] 09:31, 21 February 2025 (UTC)
:[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerenkov_Radiation Cerenkov radiation], at any time, looks like a giant cone with the tip at the position of the generating particle. So I assume they can track the progress of the detections with time and dismiss anything that's not compatible with that geometry and time dependency. [[User:Nomentz|Nomentz]] ([[User talk:Nomentz|talk]]) 15:34, 21 February 2025 (UTC)

Please,[citation needed] for "undersea life does not move at the speed of light"? It's mildly humorous, but in contrast to the mission of this site to EXPLAIN xkcd and just sheer ignorance, we do not need a cite for any life, undersea or not, travelling at less than the speed of light! [[User:Cuvtixo|Cuvtixo]] ([[User talk:Cuvtixo|talk]]) 21:27, 20 February 2025 (UTC)
: you may find it was added by a bot. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.39.130|162.158.39.130]] 11:59, 21 February 2025 (UTC)

I feel that Randall missed a chance at a "Cherenkov Angle" pun in the title text [[Special:Contributions/172.70.134.237|172.70.134.237]] 23:40, 20 February 2025 (UTC)

Woah! Was that a Dad Joke? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.168.161|162.158.168.161]] 11:55, 21 February 2025 (UTC)

I don't think that the explanation of the title text is incomplete (but I'm a Physicist with a diploma); which part do you want to be explained further? [[User:Nomentz|Nomentz]] ([[User talk:Nomentz|talk]]) 15:25, 21 February 2025 (UTC)

Talk:3053: KM3NeT

2025-02-21T15:25:13Z

Nomentz: title text exp incomplete?

First groan! (Not that I don't appreciate it, but definitely the most groanworthy comic in a long while...) [[Special:Contributions/172.69.195.229|172.69.195.229]] 17:59, 19 February 2025 (UTC)
For future context, this array has risen in notoriety thanks to the recent [https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-00444-1 detection] of the highest energy neutrino yet, but sadly I need to take this occasion to note how the deadliest thing in the strait of Sicily are not superluminal alien fish, but human traffickers moving people on botched up vessels from the north African coast for the past fifteen years, often resulting in shipwrecks in the waters right above KM3NeT. --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.216.67|172.70.216.67]] 22:39, 19 February 2025 (UTC)

I heard about this last week from a BBC Podcast (Inside Science?). The telescope is only part complete*, and consists of photo-multipliers (can detect a single photon) in glass spheres on a string rising from the sea floor to create a 3D grid (as illustrated). As the decay results in further luminescent particles the direction can be determined and the muon was travelling tangentially to the surface. *As with LIGO, the observation was made when the facility wasn't fully commissioned, so they had to carefully check for other light sources (possible joke source) that they weren't being 'swallowed' by bioluminecence? [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 08:13, 20 February 2025 (UTC)

So... excuse my naivité, but how do they, in reality, ensure bioluminescent fish are not confusing the neutrino detectors? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.155.101|162.158.155.101]] 19:33, 20 February 2025 (UTC)
:As it depends upon a 'track' of light, you can work out how likely it is that a set of bioluminescent fish happened to spontaneously 'flash' (in a line, in sequence and at a superluminal velocity for the medium) that coincidentally looks like the non-fish detection signature that they're looking for. (That and/or other factors, looking for particular wavelengths, without known bioluminescent sources, etc.) [[Special:Contributions/172.69.195.229|172.69.195.229]] 20:54, 20 February 2025 (UTC)
:They just discount anything that looks a bit fishy.[[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.78|172.71.178.78]] 09:31, 21 February 2025 (UTC)

Please,[citation needed] for "undersea life does not move at the speed of light"? It's mildly humorous, but in contrast to the mission of this site to EXPLAIN xkcd and just sheer ignorance, we do not need a cite for any life, undersea or not, travelling at less than the speed of light! [[User:Cuvtixo|Cuvtixo]] ([[User talk:Cuvtixo|talk]]) 21:27, 20 February 2025 (UTC)
: you may find it was added by a bot. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.39.130|162.158.39.130]] 11:59, 21 February 2025 (UTC)

I feel that Randall missed a chance at a "Cherenkov Angle" pun in the title text [[Special:Contributions/172.70.134.237|172.70.134.237]] 23:40, 20 February 2025 (UTC)

Woah! Was that a Dad Joke? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.168.161|162.158.168.161]] 11:55, 21 February 2025 (UTC)

I don't think that the explanation of the title text is incomplete (but I'm a Physicist with a diploma); which part do you want to be explained further? [[User:Nomentz|Nomentz]] ([[User talk:Nomentz|talk]]) 15:25, 21 February 2025 (UTC)

1474: Screws

2015-01-16T08:35:12Z

Nomentz: /* Explanation */ typo

{{comic
| number = 1474
| date = January 16, 2015
| title = Screws
| image = screws.png
| titletext = If you encounter a hex bolt, but you only brought screwdrivers, you can try sandwiching the head of the bolt between two parallel screwdriver shafts, squeezing the screwdrivers together with a hand at either end, then twisting. It doesn't work and it's a great way to hurt yourself, but you can try it!
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|First draft. Needs expansion, possibly with origins of the various real screws}}

The comic features various real or imagined types of screws, listed below.

Phillips head: One of the most recognizable types of screws that is commonly used in construction.

Flat head: Slot head screws are VERY frquently erroneously reffered to as flat heads. A flat head screw refers, in fact, to the shape of the screw head, regardless of the shape of the driver needed to remove it. Screws with rounded heads are more common. The slot head is also commonly used in construction.

Star-shaped screw: Manufacturers sometimes used screws that require special heads in order to remove them, in order to prevent the customer tampering with the product and inadvertently break it. This is commonly seen in electronics. The reference to amazon is the speaker's suggestion to look on Amazon.com for the appropriate screwdriver. (Randall may have been attempting to draw a Torx head screw, but the Torx design utilizes a six-pointed star, like the Star of David, and Randall drew a five-pointed star. It may also be a reference to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentalobe_screw Pentalobe screw], which has been used by Apple in its products - it has five points, but they are a bit rounder.)

Cursed -1 phillips head: A screw can be stripped by overuse, tightening the screw too much, or other misuse. This results in the plus symbol of the phillips head becoming worn off, and the screw can no longer be removed easily using an ordinary phillips head screw driver. This is what is meant by the addition of "cursed" to the title, it denotes that the screw is extraordinarily hard to remove. The -1 is a reference to Dungeons and Dragons, where magical items have a rating of either a positive or negative integer. As this screw head is cursed, it has a negative integer rating.
Additionally, phillips bit sizes are numbered, with larger numbers denoting smaller bits. The most common sizes are #2, #1, and #0. There are no negative sizes; smaller bits than #0 are indicated by repeating zeroes, for example #00. The "-1" could refer to an imaginary size smaller than any real phillips bit that would now fit in the stripped out head.
A very common cause of stripped Phillips head screws is the use of the wrong driver. A #2 or larger Philips driver has a blunted tip, and #2 is the most common screw size found around the house. A #1 driver may appear to fit well into a #2 screw but the point is sharp, and so, will fail to make good contact with the surface of the screw head. If you are having trouble with a Philips head screw, try a larger driver.

Rivet: A rivet is not a screw - it is a permanent fastener which is secured by "bucking" (deforming the body of the fastener to create an interference fit with the material being fastened). Rivets cannot be removed with a screwdriver, they must be "drilled out".

Phillips head ruiner: A reference to the fact that hex screws can, in a pinch, be removed with a Phillips screwdriver, but will likely damage the driver in the process.

Uranium Screw: ???? perhaps [http://www.google.com/patents/US20060088457 this]

Phillip's head: This is a rather morbid interpretation of "phillips head". Rather than refer to the screw type, this "screw" is actually a bloody bag containing the severed head of someone named Phillip. It is also a reference to some people's tendency to apostrophize words ending in -s, disregarding grammatical rules.

==Transcript==

Phillips head

Flat head

Uh oh. Maybe it's on Amazon?

Cursed –1 Phillips head

Crap, it's a ''rivet''.

Phillips-head ruiner

Uranium screw (a real thing)

Phillip's head

{{comic discussion}}