explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2331: Hamster Ball 2

2020-07-12T00:22:23Z

Paralyzoid: Brought the "got a hamster ball all those years ago" comics to the front of the article

{{comic
| number = 2331
| date = July 10, 2020
| title = Hamster Ball 2
| image = hamster_ball_2.png
| titletext = The worst is being teased by responsible, mask-wearing teens. They even spritz the hamster ball with disinfectant before rolling it, carefully avoiding the filter vents.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a HAMSTER BALL. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

A {{w|hamster ball}} is a small, transparent sphere in which a hamster or other pet rodent can run around (reasonably) safely, without being in its cage. Cueball had [[152: Hamster Ball|previously]] [[211: Hamster Ball Heist|obtained]] a "{{w|zorbing|human-sized hamster ball}}" for himself.

Cueball relates that, once upon a time, he was teased for this seemingly-frivolous pursuit, but he feels that now, in the midst of a worldwide [[:Category:COVID-19|coronavirus pandemic]], having his own bubble to be inside is a smart move. He is contrasted to White Hat, who is wearing a {{w|Surgical mask|facemask}} for protection.

"Who's laughing now" is a common phrase that you know better than others who originally laughed at you, or that the "tides have turned" and you have a control over the situation. However, as White Hat notes, the same people who laughed at Cueball before are still laughing at him, for the same reasons as before: even though his hamster ball has some practical utility now (enforcing social distancing), it still looks ridiculous and is lots of fun to roll around.

In the title text, Cueball says that he feels worst about being teased by "responsible, mask-wearing" teens, who treat the outside of his hamster ball as a potentially-contaminated surface (which it is, if it has previously been rolled around by ''ir''responsible teens who might have contracted and spread the coronavirus) and disinfect it before rolling him around. It's not clear why he doesn't like being rolled around by irresponsible teens; it could be that he vindictively wishes that they ''would'' catch the coronavirus from the outside of his hamster ball, thus proving that he was correct to use it, or it could be that his ego is injured by the fact that even responsible and otherwise well-mannered and socially-conscious teenagers (who are not likely to be particularly harmed themselves by COVID-19, but conscientiously follow guidance to reduce transmission and protect those who are at-risk) find his hamster ball so ridiculous that they have to have fun at his expense.

As the title indicates, this is the second comic specifically devoted to hamster balls; the first was [[152: Hamster Ball]], in which Cueball wished for a genie to give him a human-sized hamster ball (and then had no other wishes he wished to wish). A human hamster ball also features prominently in [[211: Hamster Ball Heist]].

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
: [Cueball is inside a transparent human-sized sphere, evidently "rolling" forward. Ahead of him is White Hat, wearing a facemask.]
: Cueball: They laughed at me, all those years ago, when I got this human-sized hamster ball.

: [Frameless panel with just Cueball rolling forward, with his hand in a fist.]
: Cueball: But who's laughing now?!?

: [Cueball and White Hat have stopped. White Hat is pointing into the distance.]
: White Hat: Sounds like the same people.
: White Hat: See? There's some of them over there.

: [Cueball turns around to roll backwards while White Hat stands next to him still.]
: Cueball: Yeah, neighborhood kids.
: Cueball: At least they've stopped trying to roll me into soccer goals.
: Cueball: No, here they come.
: Cueball: Run!

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:COVID-19]]
[[Category:Comics sharing name|Hamster Ball 2]]
[[Category:Hamster Ball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]

Talk:2091: Million, Billion, Trillion

2019-07-29T17:49:49Z

Paralyzoid:

I actually think we have ''too many names'' for large numbers. It's really only necessary to introduce a new name when you reach the ''square'' of the previous name. So, we'd still have tens and hundreds, but there's no need for "one thousand, one hundred" when you can just have "eleven hundred". We'd be better off just naming 10^4, 10^8, 10^16, 10^32, and that's already well beyond anything needed for normal usage, with only a handful of names. None of this "quattuordecillion" stuff that no-one can remember without sitting down and working it out. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.86.64|172.68.86.64]] 05:32, 28 December 2018 (UTC)
: And what you get is a super-weird "double-log" scale! The British (and other nations') usage is correct. Anything above thousand is completely abstract for a human being and intuitively nonlinear (some nations - ancient Greeks and others - go as far as ten thousands, a myriad, but this is it). A thousand squared is already far beyond intuition so it is a good candidate for a new unit representing A BIG NUMBER, plus log scale is a good abstraction allowing for rapid expansion in magnitude. So taking Latin numerals and adding an -illion suffix (except the irregular million) for subsequent powers of 10^6 is a really convenient system. Of course, it goes only as far as ordinary Latin numbers go, then you need to invent something else, but at this point it's only for entertainment. For anything physical you probably would never need a number much larger than a googol. -- [[Special:Contributions/162.158.90.90|162.158.90.90]] 09:26, 28 December 2018 (UTC)

: I think we should refrain from saying one usage is correct over the other - that's just arrogant and mean. That said, the current explanation states that usage is different between American and British English, but my reading on Wikipedia (which is already hyperlinked in the explanation) states that in recent decades Britain has declared their use of short units and therefore British English is now the same as American English. The only regions where it appears there is still usage of the long system is in French and Spanish speaking regions, as well as some special cases around the world. Don't shoot the messenger - I'm just repeating what it states on the Wikipedia page. [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 10:15, 28 December 2018 (UTC)

:: Rereading the Wikipedia page, it was in 1974 that Britain declared their use of the short scale for large numbers. [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 10:19, 28 December 2018 (UTC)

::: Actually, Germany also uses the "long" (i.e. natural) scale to this day, and I remember how much trouble I had understanding the American system. As the second comment above states, the long scale is (prefix)-llion = 10^(prefix*6), or (prefix)-lliard''e'' = 10^(prefix*6+3); whereas in the short system, (prefix)-llion = 10^(prefix*3+3), which is rather less obvious, if you have any intuition for numbers (and a little Latin). [https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lange_und_kurze_Skala German Wikipedia] tells me that the long scale was invented 1484/1550 by French mathematicians, and the short one in the 17th century in Italy and France by some geniuses that thought when grouping the digits on paper by three instead of six, they should change the group names to make confusion complete. Also, they claim official usage of the short variant is in USA, Brazil, and English-language finance. The names for the systems, however, are from 1975, from yet another French mathematichan, Geneviève Guitel. --[[User:Khms|Khms]] ([[User talk:Khms|talk]]) 10:59, 28 December 2018 (UTC)

::: East Asian languages such as Japanese actually do use the power-4 scale, with the naming being ten, ten x ten = hundred, hundred x hundred = big'ousand, big'ousand x big'ousand = morebiggienoughty, morebiggienoughty x morebiggienoughty = superbiggienoughty, etc.

::: Not quite--at least not nowadays. There's a word for "ten-thousand ('man' in Japanese)", so a million is "100 ten-thousands", a 10 million is "1000 ten-thousands", and 100 million goes to the new word "1 hundred-million ('oku' in Japanese)" The scale goes by 10^4, with a new word for 10^8, 10^12, 10^16, etc. though most people won't encounter anything much higher than that. Correspondingly, old Japanese text would put the commas every 4 digits. Modern practice is to put the comma every 3 digits to match Western practice, which actually makes it harder to read in Japanese. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.141.148|172.68.141.148]] 20:49, 2 January 2019 (UTC)

:::: Crore. Weird word unless you are in or from India. [[User:Snezzy|Snezzy]] ([[User talk:Snezzy|talk]]) 11:48, 28 December 2018 (UTC)

: The "named power-of-two power-of-ten" system you propose already exists, in the form of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/-yllion Donald Knuth's -yllion system]. 10^2 = hundred, 10^4 = myriad, 10^8 = myllion, 10^16 = byllion, 10^32 = tryllion, etc. 10^63 would be written as "ten hundred myriad myllion byllion tryllion", and the next power of 10, 10^64, is one quadryllion. 10^100 (i.e. googol) is one myriad tryllion quadryllion. It's quite efficient, as you point out, and were I to rewrite our number system from scratch, it's the system I would use. Unfortunately, nobody alive grew up with -yllions, so we're stuck with the inefficiency of named multiple-of-three powers-of-ten. Although apparently [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_numerals#Large_numbers some parts of East Asia at some points in time] used a similar system, with specific characters for the -yllions up to 10^4096. I find myself severely disappointed that those characters are now used to represent different (and much smaller) numbers. --[[User:Someone Else 37|Someone Else 37]] ([[User talk:Someone Else 37|talk]]) 01:38, 30 December 2018 (UTC)

I said this earlier, and I'm going to say it again - the split between use of the short scale and the long scale is NOT a U.S. thing, nor an Atlantic Ocean thing! Just navigate to the hyperlinked page on Wikipedia, and scroll down to the graphic map showing who uses which system to see this very clearly. The majority of the globe uses the short scale except for the following regions: Europe other than Britain, Iran, some countries in Africa, and some countries in Latin America and South America, as well as French speaking regions in otherwise short-scale countries. Notable non-U.S. short-scale countries include Russia and Australia, along with Eastern South America and most of Africa. It's frustrating when people insist on making something about those U.S.A. people that has nothing to do with us. [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 14:51, 28 December 2018 (UTC)

: Even the line containing the "In Britian" hyperlink does NOT say what the linked page actually states - that Britain uses the short-scale now, although they used the long-scale quite some time ago (before 1974). [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 14:58, 28 December 2018 (UTC)

Russian is a weird hybrid of short and long scale. We use milliard like long scale, then trillion like short scale. Not confusing at all :) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.92.34|162.158.92.34]] 11:43, 3 January 2019 (UTC)

The line that includes "Though people in Britain often use the American definition as of the past few decades" is a bit misleading. In fact, the government of Great Britain announced, proclaimed, and declared that they will officially use the short-scale scheme in 1974. If you live there and are still using the long-scale system, then per your countries leadership you are wrong! The short-scale system is YOUR definition, not the American definition. Interestingly, we didn't invent the short-scale system because it was brought to the Americas by Europeans before the United States of America was even founded! We just continued to use it because it's all we knew until Randall came along and pointed out how screwed up the rest of the world is! [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 15:46, 28 December 2018 (UTC)

Long live scientific / exponential notation! 16:19, 28 December 2018 (UTC)~

Set the first tick on the y-axis to have value 0, and set the last tick to have value 5. Then, the y-values of all the y-axis ticks are 0, 1.0053, 1.9973, 3.0127, 3.9947, and 5, approximately as expected. (The x-axis is at y-value -0.9903.) Now, setting the x-axis as the base-10 logarithm, the points' coordinates are as follows: (6, 0.5388); (7, 2.4800); (8, 3.7672); (9, 1.8009); (10, 3.3622); (11, 4.2860); (12, 3.2495); (13, 4.1125); (14, 4.5939). [[User:LegionMammal978|LegionMammal978]] ([[User talk:LegionMammal978|talk]]) 16:24, 28 December 2018 (UTC)

I'd even say that 999,999,999 (especially when worded in full) seems like a way bigger number than 1 billion, despite being one less. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.28|108.162.229.28]] 16:42, 28 December 2018 (UTC)

The graph reminded me of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synesthesia#Number_form number-form synaesthesia], which I have. My number shape (and most people's) is different though, and much more curly. [[User:Cosmogoblin|Cosmogoblin]] ([[User talk:Cosmogoblin|talk]]) 17:20, 28 December 2018 (UTC)

The way I keep track of this is to remember that 1 trillion is 1 million millions. So if the US current national debt (counting neither debt by the states nor unfunded future liabilities) is 23 trillion dollars, then you would need a million dollars from 23 million people to pay it off. The US total population is roughly 327 million. So you would need a million dollars from every 14th person (counting adults, children and babies). Considering that there are only 11 million millionaires in the US and only 172 thousand people with net worth over 25 million, we are in deep doo-doo. Clearly, not even the fantasy "tax the rich" is not going to help pay the future. Lack of number appreciation is going to kill us. [[User:Rtanenbaum|Rtanenbaum]] ([[User talk:Rtanenbaum|talk]]) 22:23, 30 December 2018 (UTC)

Many of you may be too young to remember the nuclear reactor incident at Three Mile Island [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Mile_Island_Nuclear_Generating_Station]. There was a news broadcast at the time that stated that radiation of less than 5 rem (Roentgen Equivalent Man) was not considered biologically significant. He then went on to say that measurements at the plant showed 3,000 milli-REM, which was obviously (in his mind) much higher and extremely scary. In case you don't realize it, 3,000 milli-rem is 3 rem. In addition, some style guides recommend that you avoid the words billion and trillion. [https://www.sciencestyle.com.au/billion-trillion-illion Australian scientific style guied.] [[User:BradleyRoss|BradleyRoss]] ([[User talk:BradleyRoss|talk]]) 03:11, 31 December 2018 (UTC)

Comic No. 558, https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/558:_1000_Times is directly related to this one.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.154.133|162.158.154.133]] 08:29, 9 January 2019 (UTC)

Something not mentioned, and I think is relevant, is that part of the problem with the dashed regions is HOW you say the number. "500 million" might feel like more than 1 billion, because of the stated 500-vs-1 phenomenon, but someone might also say it as "half a billion", which would clearly feel like less (half is less than 1). And these dual terms don't appear until after the 100 mark - nobody would say "a tenth of a billion" or any smaller fraction. I'll leave this here a while, and if I think of it later I may add it to the description. [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 03:59, 26 January 2019 (UTC)

[https://xkcd.com/1162/ Log scales are for quitters who can’t find enough paper to make their point ''properly''.]
[[User:Paralyzoid|Paralyzoid]] ([[User talk:Paralyzoid|talk]]) 17:49, 29 July 2019 (UTC)

2144: Adjusting a Chair

2019-05-01T22:11:32Z

Paralyzoid: Statistics matches this much better than mechanics does.

{{comic
| number = 2144
| date = May 1, 2019
| title = Adjusting a Chair
| image = adjusting_a_chair.png
| titletext = When I was looking at the box, I should have thought more about what "360 degrees of freedom" meant.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a HUMAN WHO HAS DIFFICULTY ADJUSTING CHAIRS. First edit. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic shows [[Cueball]]'s attempts to adjust a swivelling chair. As many people have experienced, these chairs can be quite difficult to raise, lower, or manoeuvre if one does not know how. This comically culminates in a massive chair with a big central seat and several other chairs branching off of it as Cueball continues trying to adjust it.

Each step gets farther away from what real-life office chairs could do. In sequence, Cueball finds his chair:

1. Being able to recline the seat back. Most chairs do have this ability, which one can use for sitting comfort or perhaps to take a nap.

2. Being able to raise or lower the seat. Most chairs have this ability, but the comic departs from real chairs in two ways. First, it's much higher than any real chair. Second, he can raise the height while sitting on it; under normal design, pressing the raise/lower lever while sitting on the chair is how one ''lowers'' the seat, using one's own weight to depress the spring or hydraulic piston.

3. Being able to have the seat inflate. Although this could be useful (e.g. to help people who need to use extra seat cushions because of hemorrhoids or coccyx injury), it is not a typical office chair capability. However, in addition to simply inflating, Cueball's chair appears to actually make the seat longer and wider. This doesn't seem to have a lot of useful application in office chairs.

4. Putting out branches and growing extra seats and backs. Chairs definitely cannot do this in real life {{Citation needed}} and use cases are doubtful.

The title text makes a joke on a common claim on such chairs, that the chair offers 360 degrees of freedom. This is a double entendre depending on if "360 degrees" or "360" is interpreted as an object. However, here it means there are 360 statistical {{w|Degrees of freedom (statistics)|degrees of freedom}}, which are ways that the statistical object can vary; in other words, the chair has 360 different levers and options.

An alternate explanation is that although this normally refers to the chair's ability to rotate 360 degrees around the swivel, the chair in the comic has, literally, 360 different {{w|Degrees of freedom (mechanics)|degrees of freedom}}, i.e. axes on which to rotate or extend the chair.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Cueball is shown adjusting a chair.]
:Caption: Adjusting a chair:
:[Cueball presses a button on the bottom of his chair.]
:Chair: CLUNK
:[The seat back of the chair swings backward.]
:[Cueball presses another button.]
:Chair: HISS
:[The chair extends to several times its previous height.]
:[Another button]
:Chair: POOF
:[The seat has expanded greatly.]
:Caption: Two hours later:
:[Cueball attempts to press yet another button on his now-massive chair. It now has 5 bases, two full chairs branching from underneath the seat, two poles coming up from the seat, each with a new seat and two back-to-back seat backs. Yet another seat is supported by a thin rod connecting the two top seats.]
{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]

Talk:2130: Industry Nicknames

2019-04-01T04:03:48Z

Paralyzoid:

While I understand the humor value of using "big" as part of each nickname, "Detroit" would be a more realistic choice instead of "Big Car" (or even "Big Auto") for the car companies. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.208|108.162.216.208]] 16:04, 29 March 2019 (UTC)
:I’ve never heard that referred to as Detroit or big Detroit, thought you’re right about big auto. [[User:Netherin5|“That Guy from the Netherlands”]] ([[User talk:Netherin5|talk]]) 16:22, 29 March 2019 (UTC)
::"Detroit" (not big) was a very common way to refer to the automobile industry as a whole, long after the 1980s when most car manufacturing exited Michigan. And mining is referred to by sector, e.g., "big oil," and, "big coal," primarily. Anyway, [https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=pocket+of+big&year_start=1940&year_end=2008&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cpocket%20of%20big%3B%2Cc0 the idiom didn't come into widespread use until the late 1970s.] [[Special:Contributions/162.158.255.142|162.158.255.142]] 20:29, 29 March 2019 (UTC)

Real estate works too and rates pretty high: big house. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.210.16|172.69.210.16]] 17:24, 29 March 2019 (UTC)
:Big House often refers to prison. [[User:Nutster|Nutster]] ([[User talk:Nutster|talk]]) 19:13, 29 March 2019 (UTC)
::Big Money: banking industry? own the mortgages. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.65.24|172.68.65.24]] 04:38, 31 March 2019 (UTC)

I, for one, welcome our new big horse overlords [[Special:Contributions/162.158.255.22|162.158.255.22]] 18:59, 29 March 2019 (UTC)
:Belgians or Percherons? [[User:Nutster|Nutster]] ([[User talk:Nutster|talk]]) 19:13, 29 March 2019 (UTC)

Thinking of the phrase "In the pocket of," I get thinking of clothing manufacturers: Being in the pocket of big shirt, or being in the pocket of big jeans. Mind you, you could look at the genetic analysis and manipulation industries, being in the pocket of big genes. That could work best phonetically. [[User:Nutster|Nutster]] ([[User talk:Nutster|talk]]) 19:13, 29 March 2019 (UTC)
:Those are certainly lost opportunities for this one. Similarly billiards. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.255.142|162.158.255.142]] 20:36, 29 March 2019 (UTC)
:Is billiards "big pockets" or "big balls"?
[[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 06:37, 30 March 2019 (UTC)

The Big Cheese in the Big Apple obviously spent Big Bucks persuading Randall to avoid a mention [[User:Kev|Kev]] ([[User talk:Kev|talk]]) 08:35, 30 March 2019 (UTC)
: Some could interpret this comment as noting that Randall is in the pocket of Big Energy corporations, as he put them as "Big Hole" way over on the right near groups that have little coercive power. Communities have been devastated in conflict with energy corporations, with many many deaths, see for example {{w|Coal Wars}}. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.65.24|172.68.65.24]] 04:59, 31 March 2019 (UTC)

Little disappointed, here, that no one is in the pocket of Big Bird.
: Or Big Kanga! [[Special:Contributions/172.68.65.24|172.68.65.24]] 04:59, 31 March 2019 (UTC)
: For those FF fans out there, I would say that a considerable amount of the protagonists are in the pocket of Big Baha. Try to start up a rival company and either you gotta join him or BAM dualcast Gigaflare to the face. You think the Warriors of Light are legitimately good people? Take a sec and think about how big of a competitor Tiamat was in the industry. Kraken? Owed Bahamut money for the set up. Chaos never paid Bahamut back for the class changes. Its a nasty world out there. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.78.40|172.68.78.40]] 03:25, 1 April 2019 (UTC)

Big Egg -> Big testicles -> Big balls -> Big baller -> big balla

Barefoot running enthusiasts on reddit/r/barefootrunning and r/barefoot regularly and non-humorously refer to the shoe industry as "Big Shoe". From this perspective, the Board of Podiatric Medicine should be termed "Big Orthotics" or "Big Foot Surgery".
: I'm partial to "Big Ortho".

Why'd Randall go with "Big Horse"? In my opinion, that isn't even as silly as "Big Car". I'd say that it's quite easy to stand up for the equestrian federation and call them "Big Eq" in the spirit of Big Ag.
Big Ped, though, has nothing going for it.
[[User:Paralyzoid|Paralyzoid]] ([[User talk:Paralyzoid|talk]]) 04:03, 1 April 2019 (UTC)