explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2682: Easy Or Hard

2026-03-03T01:26:02Z

Pie Guy: approximate answer for the eiffel tower deflection based on a straight-line distance of ~3400 miles, typical baseball weight of 145 grams, Eiffel Tower mass of 11,000 tonnes

{{comic
| number = 2682
| date = October 7, 2022
| title = Easy Or Hard
| image = easy_or_hard_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x400px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = "Friction-driven static electrification is familiar and fundamental in daily life, industry, and technology, but its basics have long been unknown and have continually perplexed scientists from ancient Greece to the high-tech era. [...] To date, no single theory can satisfactorily explain this mysterious but fundamental phenomenon." --Eui-Cheol Shin et. al. (2022)
}}

==Explanation==
This comic uses a table to compare the perceived difficulty of various questions with how easily they're answered in real life. [[Randall]] has a long history of comics with similar themes, comparing perceptions to reality. In this case, both the perception and the reality are divided into three levels of difficulty, giving a total of nine categories. Accordingly three of the problems listed are effectively as difficult as one would expect, and the remaining six are not. All three of the questions whose answers are "actually pretty easy to find out" relate to the Eiffel Tower, though there's no apparent theme among the other six questions.

It's likely that this comic was at least partially inspired by writing the books ''[[How To]]'', ''[[What If? (book)|What If?]]'', and ''[[What If? 2]]'', the latter of which was published just a few weeks before this comic. These books involve answering very elaborate questions from a scientific point of view. This process likely emphasized that some really strange questions are actually relatively easy to answer, while some questions that seem simple continue to confound scientific knowledge. ''What if? 2'' mentions the fact that no one understands why static charges separate.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Question !! Perceived Difficulty !! Real Difficulty !! Explanation
|-
|How tall is the Eiffel Tower?||Easy||Easy||The Eiffel Tower was constructed to be the centerpiece of the {{w|1889 World's Fair}}. At the time of its construction, it was the tallest man-made structure on earth, which meant that its height was widely publicized since it was first constructed (312m when constructed, and now 330 meters, or 1083 feet, with the antenna added later on). This number is widely published, and easily confirmed with trigonometry.
* albeit with a ±6 inch differential depending on local air temperature; as the Eiffel Tower is built out of cast steel, it expands according to how much heat builds up in the metal, which in turn is derived from the intensity and daily duration of the Sun's energy. It can also be argued that the number given above is due to rounding, and at sub-millimetrical lengths, the tower's exact height is fluctuating constantly as a result of the aforementioned thermal expansion.
|-
|Where was Mars in the sky from Paris on the day the Eiffel Tower opened?||Difficult||Easy||The date of the opening of the tower to the public is well known (May 6, 1889). Since the motions of the planets are predictable, it's clear that calculating the answer should be possible, but it involves enough factors that one might expect it to be very difficult. However, thanks to the existence of [https://in-the-sky.org/skymap.php?no_cookie=1&latitude=48.85&longitude=2.35&timezone=1.00&year=1889&month=5&day=6&hour=9&min=0&PLlimitmag=2&zoom=182&ra=3.78242&dec=20.26465 online tools], which automatically calculate exactly this sort of thing, finding the answer is quite easy. (It was in the constellation of Taurus, and extremely close to where the Sun also was in the sky during that time so probably not easily directly observable). Alternately, to use the tools available at the time, one might check a nautical almanac for 1889, which gives the position of the major planets (and various other celestial bodies) in the sky throughout the year.
|-
|How much does the {{w|Eiffel Tower}}'s gravity deflect baseballs in Boston?||Near Impossible||Easy||This problem sounds extremely specific and esoteric, concerning an effect far too small for direct experimentation. But in theory, it's actually a very simple physics problem. {{w|Newton's law of universal gravitation|Gravitational acceleration}} is determined entirely by masses and distance, and here even the mass of the baseball can be ignored. Since the mass of the Eiffel Tower and the geographic details of both the tower in Paris and any given location in Boston (perhaps {{w|Fenway Park}}, a famous baseball stadium) are easy to look up, the calculation is quite simple; a typical baseball would be deflected by ~22 attometers per second of flight time.
|-
|How does {{w|general anesthesia}} work?||Easy||Difficult||While biology is always complex, inducing unconsciousness seems relatively simple. In fact, keeping a person unconscious and insensate without causing permanent damage or death is a difficult proposition, requiring a medical specialist. Despite this field being well-established, it might surprise people to know that {{w|Theories of general anaesthetic action|the mechanism of general anesthesia}} is still the subject of research, and recent studies have revealed things that we didn't previously understand.
|-
|How many ants are there?||Difficult||Difficult||While the existence of ants is a mundane part of life for many people, there are so many of them that coming up with a total number of ants in the whole world sounds exceedingly difficult. It is, in fact, a difficult problem, but experts have done a significant amount of work and have come up with well-founded estimates [https://phys.org/news/2022-09-ants-earth-quadrillion.html in the range of 20 quadrillion ants on earth].
|-
|What time of year did the Cretaceous impact happen?||Near Impossible||Difficult||The "Cretaceous impact" (the {{w|Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event}}) happened approximately 66 million years ago. The margins of error on calculating something that ancient are necessarily thousands of years wide at least, so the notion of determining the time of year seems far-fetched. In fact, the problem is a difficult one, but many of the animals killed in the impact were fossilized, and comparing those fossils to modern-day animals at different points in their seasonal growth cycles has led to [https://www.science.org/content/article/springtime-was-season-dinosaurs-died-ancient-fish-fossils-suggest the suggestion that the impact happened in the northern-hemisphere spring.]
|-
|Why does your hair get a static charge when you rub it with a balloon?||Easy||Near Impossible||Inducing a {{w|Static electricity|static charge}} by {{w|Triboelectric effect|rubbing together two materials}} is a method that's been known since ancient times. Since human hair has a marked tendency to develop a positive charge, and the latex commonly used in balloons tends to develop a negative charge, rubbing the two together is a very simple way to create an electric field. This process is so simple that it's used for both party tricks and as a fun demonstration of electrical phenomena. Because of this simplicity, most people would assume that the phenomenon is well understood. So it's surprising that the actual mechanism remains an unsolved problem in physics. This also has previously been mentioned in [[1867: Physics Confession]]. The title text quotes [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/360674587_Derivation_of_a_governing_rule_in_triboelectric_charging_and_series_from_thermoelectricity a recent paper] explaining that, as common as this phenomenon is, there's still no theory that can adequately explain what we observe.
|-
|How does {{w|Tylenol (brand)|Tylenol}} work?||Difficult||Near Impossible||Tylenol is a brand name for {{w|Paracetamol|paracetamol, also known as acetaminophen}}, a drug commonly sold without prescription for pain relief and fever reduction. This drug has been widely used since 1950, and has been well established as being both effective and safe when used properly. Although one would expect the biological mechanism for any drug to be complicated, most people would assume that a drug that's been widely used and studied for so long to be well-documented. Surprisingly, however, the precise action still isn't fully understood. [https://medicine.tufts.edu/news-events/news/how-does-acetaminophen-work Tufts University]
|-
|How can {{w|Theory of relativity|relativity}} be reconciled with {{w|quantum mechanics}}?||Near Impossible||Near Impossible||This remains one of the {{w|Theory of everything|great unsolved questions}} in physics. The problem sounds almost unsolvable to laypeople, and remains unsolved even to experts in the field.
|}

==Transcript==
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Actually pretty easy to find out !! Very hard, but there have been recent breakthroughs !! Extremely hard, currently unsolved
|-
! Sounds borderline unsolvable
|How much does the Eiffel Tower's gravity deflect baseballs in Boston?||What time of year did the cretaceous impact happen?||How can relativity be reconciled with quantum mechanics?
|-
! Sounds pretty hard, but you'd assume someone knows
|Where was Mars in the sky from Paris on the day the Eiffel Tower opened?||How many ants are there?||How does Tylenol work?
|-
! Sounds like it would be easy to look up
|How tall is the Eiffel Tower?||How does general anesthesia work?||Why does your hair get a static charge when you rub it with a balloon?
|}

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Ants]]
[[Category:Medicine]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]

Talk:3211: Amperage

2026-02-26T04:58:31Z

Pie Guy: my comment

Seems like this would be at least tangentially related to the Cursed Connectors series, although it's just the outlets and cords this time. [[User:Zakator|Zakator]] ([[User talk:Zakator|talk]]) 05:51, 24 February 2026 (UTC)

I would assume that this is related to styropyro's latest video? [[Special:Contributions/142.126.42.193|142.126.42.193]] 05:59, 24 February 2026 (UTC)
: I’ll second the comment about the new styropyro video; it seems very likely that it inspired Randall to make this comic and is probably worth a mention. [[Special:Contributions/2607:FB91:829C:47BD:C826:B8DB:5A5E:913A|2607:FB91:829C:47BD:C826:B8DB:5A5E:913A]] 07:50, 24 February 2026 (UTC)
: I think that's very likely - in literally every single group of nerds (eg xkcd-adjacent) I've seen people talking about it. I'd be very, very surprised if he hasn't at all seen it[[User:R128|R128]] ([[User talk:R128|talk]]) 17:28, 24 February 2026 (UTC)

200 amps is NOT "an amount of electricity power"; The amp is a unit of electrical current, from which power can be derived by multiplying by voltage.[[Special:Contributions/2001:8003:7087:E602:3CBE:B25:5BFC:61BD|2001:8003:7087:E602:3CBE:B25:5BFC:61BD]] 07:41, 24 February 2026 (UTC)

The current explanation seems to assume that Cueball is aware in advance of some of the problems his scheme is likely to cause, and is trying to forestall them. That seems unlikely - it's Cueball after all. It's far more likely that he has ''already'' melted all his wiring (and ruined his carpet), but just considers that a new engineering challenge to overcome. [[Special:Contributions/82.13.184.33|82.13.184.33]] 09:28, 24 February 2026 (UTC)

It is amusing or instructional to consider how residential wiring would be engineered if the equipment and circuits were designed with a system that supplied constant current rather than constant voltage. Long ago carbon-arc streetlights were all wired in series and run at perhaps 6 or 8 amps. The "failure" mode is not a short circuit but an open circuit. Protective devices close the offending open. Perhaps Cueball would like to explore such a system, running megavolts at 500 amps, unless he already has. [[Special:Contributions/173.188.198.217|173.188.198.217]] 12:56, 24 February 2026 (UTC)

I understand the theory of it, and it clearly doesn't cause any more electrical fires than home run circuits, but the UK's 32A ring circuits on 14 gauge wire will always make me raise an eyebrow. [[Special:Contributions/64.135.140.145|64.135.140.145]] 13:36, 24 February 2026 (UTC)
:The US's pathetically wimpy system always raises an eyebrow for me. No wonder Cueball felt the need to upgrade his house. I would also be frustrated by not being able to run a kettle and a toaster on the same circuit simultaneously. No tea and no toast?? Sacrilege! [[User:Martin|Martin]] ([[User talk:Martin|talk]]) 22:21, 24 February 2026 (UTC)
:: >"frustrated by not being able to run a kettle and a toaster on the same circuit simultaneously." Why must it be the same circuit? The US NEC code calls for TWO 20A circuits in kitchen/pantry. US market kettles are, in your opinion, underpowered, 1500 Watts (or less!), so as to run comfortably on even legacy 15A circuits. The toaster goes on the other kitchen circuit. --[[User:PRR|PRR]] ([[User talk:PRR|talk]]) 00:52, 25 February 2026 (UTC)
:::Wow, two circuits are mandated?! That goes to show how dire the situation is with their limited available power. [[User:Martin|Martin]] ([[User talk:Martin|talk]]) 05:52, 25 February 2026 (UTC)
::::Just use the stove for your Tea and Toast [[Special:Contributions/66.210.7.66|66.210.7.66]] 16:01, 25 February 2026 (UTC)
:::::Just microwave the lot and be done with it. [[Special:Contributions/176.138.186.7|176.138.186.7]] 21:31, 25 February 2026 (UTC)
: 2.5mm2 is actually more closer to a 13 gauge (which corresponds to 2.6mm2), and with it being in a ring so electricity has two ways to go it's more closer to what a 12 gauge (3.3mm2) would be able to hold. [[User:Sztupy|Sztupy]] ([[User talk:Sztupy|talk]]) 22:48, 24 February 2026 (UTC)

xkcd is a good distractor from everything that's going on with the world. Thanks, Randall! --'''''[[User:DollarStoreBa'al|DollarStoreBa'al]][[User Talk:DollarStoreBa'al|Converse]] (BLM) 13:57, 24 February 2026 (UTC)

Retired electrical engineer from a power distribution manufacturer here... The resistance in the wires doesn't increase all that much with increasing current. The increase in heat generated is proportional to the amount of current flowing through the wires squared. Double the current and the heat generated quadruples. Go from 15 amps to 500 amps and the heat generated by the resistance in the wires increases about 1100 times. [[Special:Contributions/2600:1702:7A0:8230:9DBF:A415:F8AF:7799|2600:1702:7A0:8230:9DBF:A415:F8AF:7799]] 17:10, 24 February 2026 (UTC)
:Isn't heat generated proportional to current squared? or is that resistance. maybe im tripping[[User:R128|R128]] ([[User talk:R128|talk]]) 17:28, 24 February 2026 (UTC)
::Power lost as heat is determined by voltage drop in the line times current [P=IV] and since voltage drop equals current times resistance [V=IR] then heat is determined by resistance times current-squared [P=I*(IR)], so half current makes one quarter of the heat.[[Special:Contributions/57.140.28.40|57.140.28.40]] 18:19, 24 February 2026 (UTC)

120V AC at 15A would not be 1800W. 120V DC would, but the AC power is a sine wave, so to get the overall average power you need to divide by the square root of two. [[Special:Contributions/2600:1009:B1AC:BBBB:1D51:D689:1D5F:6A11|2600:1009:B1AC:BBBB:1D51:D689:1D5F:6A11]] 17:50, 24 February 2026 (UTC)
: To commenter above: 120V in the US is RMS voltage, so it's already divided.
: To original poster: "and inside his appliances and start a fire, even if there is no fault". Unless the appliance itself is drawing more than it's rated for (e.g. 15 or 20A (unlikely)) there's no reason the appliance's internal wiring would disintegrate because it's on a 500A circuit.
:I'm assuming the "cords" cueball refers to are extension cords (which are themselves overloaded) vs. appliance cords which shouldn't have any problem unless the appliance was already suffering some kind of short. [[Special:Contributions/74.76.64.197|74.76.64.197]]
::Absolutely correct. Appliances are designed with appropriate internal wiring, so if the appliance is drawing 500A the appliance can handle 500A. The cord from outlet to appliance is the issue here, as Cueball has already mentioned. [[User:Martin|Martin]] ([[User talk:Martin|talk]]) 22:21, 24 February 2026 (UTC)

Could this perhaps be a reference to [[3198: Double-Pronged Extension Cord]]? [[User:Logalex8369|Logalex8369]] ([[User talk:Logalex8369|talk]]) 21:06, 24 February 2026 (UTC)

There is nothing in the comic to suggest the internal wall wiring is melting or catching fire. I think we can assume Cueball has upgraded the internal wall wiring to match the breaker upgrades. Cueball is only enquiring about cords which don't catch fire, and "cords" are the external extension leads. Cueball doesn't say anything about internal wall issues. [[User:Martin|Martin]] ([[User talk:Martin|talk]]) 22:30, 24 February 2026 (UTC)

TL;DR this is a setup that would make Tim Taylor (from the sitcom {{w|Home Improvement (TV Series)|Home Improvement}}) jealous. [[Special:Contributions/2603:6011:853A:4DDA:3F9A:6297:AF9E:2340|2603:6011:853A:4DDA:3F9A:6297:AF9E:2340]] 04:43, 25 February 2026 (UTC)

I think 1000 MCM copper wire would be sufficient for the cords: https://www.cerrowire.com/products/resources/tables-calculators/ampacity-charts/ https://nassaunationalcable.com/products/1000-mcm-thhn-thwn-2-stranded-copper-building-wire [[Special:Contributions/2600:6C54:4E00:99C:67B7:D578:30ED:2471|2600:6C54:4E00:99C:67B7:D578:30ED:2471]] 04:42, 25 February 2026 (UTC)

Yet another example of the absolutely heinous overexplanation problem on modern exkcd. A comic whose joke boils down to "guy gets rid of electrical safety equipment and is surprised by the creation of serious electrical hazards as a result of this" has exploded to ''nearly 1400 words'' across 7 gigantic paragraphs with long extraneous tangents, in just ''two DAYS'' after the comic went up. This entire comic could be explained in 4 sentences for the main joke and an extra sentence for the title text. [[User:Pie Guy|Pie Guy]] ([[User talk:Pie Guy|talk]]) 04:58, 26 February 2026 (UTC)

Talk:3202: Groundhog Day Meaning

2026-02-02T17:28:16Z

Pie Guy:

I guess it's weirdest because it has two silly associations. But Talk Like a Pirate Day is arguably weirder than either of them. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 16:50, 2 February 2026 (UTC)

Even Stargate SG-1 had a timeloop episode and dropped a Groundhog Day reference in.

: Malikai: Once I've correctly deciphered the symbols on the altar, I will be able to master the time device.

: Jack O'Neill: Why, so you can be king of Groundhog Day?

Damn I miss that show. [[Special:Contributions/135.84.57.36|135.84.57.36]] 17:06, 2 February 2026 (UTC)

third [[Special:Contributions/164.58.172.158|164.58.172.158]] 17:12, 2 February 2026 (UTC)

It’s curious to see Black Hat being the one who is nonplussed here. Usually he’s the one shocking everyone else with surreal statements and antics. [[User:Pie Guy|Pie Guy]] ([[User talk:Pie Guy|talk]]) 17:28, 2 February 2026 (UTC)

3169: EPIRBs

2025-11-18T17:10:41Z

Pie Guy: slightly more succinct sentence at the end

{{comic
| number = 3169
| date = November 17, 2025
| title = EPIRBs
| image = epirbs_2x.png
| imagesize = 317x386px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = 'Oh no, the box is drifting out into the harbor!' 'Yeah, I wouldn't worry about losing it.'
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created BY AN UNATTENDED DISTRESS BEACON. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

An {{w|emergency position-indicating radiobeacon}} (EPIRB) is a maritime safety device that, when it comes in contact with water, sends a distress signal via satellite. This signal is detected by search and rescue organizations such as the {{w|United States Coast Guard}} so that they can dispatch a rescue team. An EPIRB's purpose is to automatically notify such authorities of emergencies at sea, such as a ship sinking when it is out of range of normal radio communications and/or where those affected may not be able to reliably communicate their plight and correct location.

In the comic [[Megan]] and [[Cueball]] accidentally drop a box {{w|CT#Other uses|containing}} 1,600 EPIRBs into the water while moving it across a gangway between a ship and a dock. Because EPIRBs automatically activate when immersed in water, and apparently the crate contains fully enabled units not otherwise held within waterproof packaging, the result would be 1,600 simultaneous signals of a ship sinking. The text beneath the comic is them calling the Coast Guard to apologize for the overwhelming flood of signals. It appears this is not the first such call they have made, though it is unclear whether they have called multiple times to apologise for the same incident, or they are habitually careless in their handling of these packages.

The automatic nature of EPIRBs could allow such an overload if a package of them were dropped in water, and it would cause difficulty for a search and rescue group to receive so many signals at once. Not only that, but Cueball and Megan would likely be fired for gross negligence, causing severe financial penalties (which can be as much as $5,000 an hour for rescue assets, potentially reaching hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars for a major incident), safety violations, disruption of operations and legal consequences like significant civil fines and even criminal penalties if the actions were deemed wilful or due to a reckless disregard for safety and the law.

While the Coast Guard may see the 1,600 simultaneous signals at the same geographic location and conclude that it was a likely unintended activation, they still have a bias for action and would begin mobilizing rescue assets until they could verify the false alarm through on-scene verification or successful contact with the owner and "stand down" the full search and rescue response. In reality, though, EPIRBs usually require some sort of pre-activation and would not be in an operable state when packaged in transit and prior to sale or installation on a vessel.

The title text notes that, because EPIRBs continuously broadcast their location (particularly modern GPIRBs with a GPS feature to provide an actual location and not just a signal to home in on), there is no reason to worry about the box floating out of the harbor and getting lost, because (even if it ''does'' float out of the harbor) there is no risk of "losing" it - the box is essentially a {{w|N+1 Redundancy|1600N-redundant}} self-locator.

==Transcript==
:[Megan and Cueball are on a plank between the edge of a ship and the edge of a dock. Only part of the ship can be seen to the left and on the right a single wooden pole can be seen supporting the dock. Megan is near the ship and Cueball near the dock, and there is a rolling cart between them. A large box is tumbling through the air beneath the plank, with motion lines indicating that it has fallen off the cart. The side of the box contains a picture of an image of an EPIRB. The front of the box (facing the reader) has text on it:]
:EPIRB
:Water-activated distress beacons
:1600 CT

:[Caption below the panel:]
:"Hello, Coast Guard? We'd like to apologize once again for the 1,600 simultaneous false alarms this morning..."

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]

3158: Shielding Chart

2025-10-23T04:19:36Z

Pie Guy: the bot joke should be capitalized!

{{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.

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.

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.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
[[Category:Confusion_matrices]]

Talk:3082: Chess Position

2025-04-29T18:01:33Z

Pie Guy:

This is very nearly the core plot conceit of the movie ''Π'' (1998). [[Special:Contributions/172.70.130.190|172.70.130.190]] 22:36, 28 April 2025 (UTC)
:I believe you want lower-case Pi: π not Π. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pi_(film) --[[User:PRR|PRR]] ([[User talk:PRR|talk]]) 22:54, 28 April 2025 (UTC)
::Unless they're talking about an obscure spinoff where the protagonist becomes weirdly obsessed with the products of sequences of numbers. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.195.180|172.69.195.180]] 14:47, 29 April 2025 (UTC)

Does anybody know whether Randall has taken up chess as a hobby? 5 of the 82 comics in the 3000s have been related to chess and only 2 in the 2000s were. If so, this should be included in the explanation. [[User:BobcatInABox|BobcatInABox]] ([[User talk:BobcatInABox|talk]]) 23:11, 28 April 2025 (UTC)
:3000s? [[Special:Contributions/172.71.190.236|172.71.190.236]] 23:40, 28 April 2025 (UTC)
:Oh right comic number not decade/millennium. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.43.157|172.70.43.157]] 23:41, 28 April 2025 (UTC)
:Wouldn't surprise me, there's a three year gap in between chess comics 2465 (May 2021) and 2936 (May 2024), then the aforementioned 5 in 5 months. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.114.251|172.70.114.251]] 00:46, 29 April 2025 (UTC)

I really suspect that the full explanation has something to do with this: https://www.kasparov.com/the-implacable-logic-of-the-vortex-of-history/ [[Special:Contributions/172.68.7.206|172.68.7.206]] 23:34, 28 April 2025 (UTC) Dan
: Doubtful, that article was written in 2013, and it is unlikely that Randall came upon it just now to make this comic. Vortex is a general term for something that sucks you in. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.214.66|172.70.214.66]] 00:38, 29 April 2025 (UTC)
: Quite possible, since simple web search on Garry Kasparov reveals the aforementioned article about Kasparov's theories of the "vortex of history'. And there is a PlayStation game called "Virtual Kasparov" which is reviewed on the PlayStation review site [https://www.gamevortex.com/psillustrated/soft_rev.php/748 Virtual Kasparov on GameVortex.com]. So, there are at least two places where Kasparov and the word vortex are connected. The term "vortex" would be very tempting for Randall to exploit for comic effect. [[User:Rtanenbaum|Rtanenbaum]] ([[User talk:Rtanenbaum|talk]]) 16:15, 29 April 2025 (UTC)

I sure hope that it stays as not a real thing [[User:Commercialegg|Commercialegg]] ([[User talk:Commercialegg|talk]]) 01:32, 29 April 2025 (UTC)
: It might not be, but it's easy enough to make: Train an adversarial network on human chess games. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.22.41|172.68.22.41]] 04:56, 29 April 2025 (UTC)

The part about losing the ability to play chess even after building a resistance feels familiar. Isn't that how the Elder Scrolls worked in Skyrim, at least. Even highly trained sages would lose the ability to see for a time after reading an Elder Scroll. And the Oblivion remaster just released the other day... --[[User:Ragashingo|Ragashingo]] ([[User talk:Ragashingo|talk]]) 01:54, 29 April 2025 (UTC)

This comic has serious classic SCP energy. I feel like I'd read about this in an old Series I - II article, back when it was still good. [[User:Pie Guy|Pie Guy]] ([[User talk:Pie Guy|talk]]) 18:01, 29 April 2025 (UTC)

----
Cf Von Gom's Gambit by [Victor Contoski](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Contoski) published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, December 1966:

And what of Von Goom's Gambit? Chess is a game of logic. Thirty-two pieces move on a board of sixty-four squares, colored alternately dark and light. As they move they form patterns. Some of these patterns are pleasing to the logical mind of man, and some are not. They show what man is capable of and what is beyond his Take any position of the pieces on the chessboard. Usually it tells of the logical or semi-logical plans of the players, their strategy in playing for a win or a draw, and their personalities. If you see a pattern from the King s Gambit Accepted, you know that both players are tacticians, that the fight will be brief but fierce...
Now suppose someone discovers by accident or design a pattern on the chessboard that is more than displeasing, an alien pattern that tells unspeakable things about the mind of the player, man in general and the order of the universe. Suppose no normal man can look at such a pattern and remain normal. Surely such a pattern must have been formed by Von Goom’s Gambit.

I wish the story could end here, but I fear it will not end for a long time. History has shown that discoveries cannot be unmade. Two months ago in Camden, New Jersey, a forty-tliree year old man was found turned to stone staring at a position on a chessboard... {{unsigned ip|162.158.217.38|05:22, 29 April 2025}}

: ''"Cf Von Gom's Gambit"'' https://archive.org/details/Fantasy_Science_Fiction_v031n06_1966-12_PDF/page/n63/mode/2up?view=theater --[[User:PRR|PRR]] ([[User talk:PRR|talk]]) 17:46, 29 April 2025 (UTC)

----

<q>When you stare into the vortex, the vortex also stares into you</q>, a famous quote from Kasparov. [[User:Ralfoide|Ralfoide]] ([[User talk:Ralfoide|talk]]) 17:49, 29 April 2025 (UTC)

206: Reno Rhymes

2025-02-18T14:46:18Z

Pie Guy: added details on the My Lai massacre and a wikipedia link. wow it was bad

{{comic
| number = 206
| date = January 5, 2007
| title = Reno Rhymes
| image = reno rhymes.png
| titletext = Did you shoot a man in Reno? Now, I don't mean to pry.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic starts with a line from the song {{w|Folsom Prison Blues|"Folsom Prison Blues"}} by Johnny Cash. Cash is noted as saying, "I sat with my pen in my hand, trying to think up the worst reason a person could have for killing another person, and that's what came to mind," which fits pretty well with the personality of [[Black Hat]]. Rather than react badly, [[Cueball]] starts a rhyming game, which they continue until Black Hat refers to the horrifying {{w|My Lai Massacre}}, which is apparently going too far for Cueball.

;You know, I once shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die.
:Black Hat starts with the original line from the song.

;Really? Well I once shot a man in Reno but I couldn't tell you why.
:Cueball then begins the rhyming game by saying that he can't tell the reason why he killed the man.

;I once shot a man in Reno then I went home to cry.
:Black Hat continues by saying that he got emotional after killing the man... Unlikely, given that he's ''Black Hat'', and it could be him trying to continue, or he could be being sarcastic.

;I once shot a man in Reno then I watered his cacti.
:An unlikely action after you have just killed someone, unless you're elaborately trying to cover up your actions. More likely, Cueball is just trying to continue the rhyme.

;I once shot a man in Reno 'cause they cancelled Firefly.
:{{w|Firefly (TV series)|Firefly}} was a TV series that aired on Fox during 2002. Its cancellation was a source of much annoyance to its fans, a fact frequently referenced in xkcd. In this case, Black Hat goes as far as to murder someone for this.

;I once shot a man in Reno, him and all his succubi.
:Cueball says he shot a man and all the succubi that he owned/was attached to ("his succubi"). A {{w|succubus}} is a demon or spirit which seduces men via sexual intercourse and subsists off their semen, though it is also used euphemistically for promiscuous (human) women or prostitutes (in fact, this was the word's origin in ancient Latin).

;I once shot a man in Reno and a bunch more in My Lai.
:The {{w|My Lai massacre}} was an atrocity committed by US soldiers in Vietnam during the Vietnam war, which resulted in between 347 - 504 civilian deaths, almost all being women, children, and elderly men. Here, Black Hat says he not only shot a man in Reno, '''he shot a bunch more in My Lai''', meaning that he was actually a perpetrator of the massacre. Cueball is obviously horrified by this, and he ends the rhyme with a "I think we're done," signifying his horror at Black Hat's words.

The title text continues the rhyme, but changes the roles: now the speaker is asking someone else if they shot a man in Reno. It may be a reference to The Princess Bride (Inigo says the "I don't mean to pry" part to Westley).

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and Black Hat stand facing one another. Black Hat is on the left.]
:Black Hat: You know, I once shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die.
:Cueball: Really? Well, I once shot a man in Reno, but I couldn't tell you why.

:Black Hat: I once shot a man in Reno, then I went home to cry.
:Cueball: I once shot a man in Reno, then I watered his cacti.

:Black Hat: I once shot a man in Reno 'cause they cancelled Firefly.
:Cueball: I once shot a man in Reno, him and all his succubi.

:Black Hat: I once shot a man in Reno and a bunch more in My Lai.
:Cueball: I think we're done.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Firefly]]
[[Category:Music]]
[[Category:Rhymes]]
[[Category:Demons]]

Talk:3029: Sun Avoidance

2024-12-26T02:26:21Z

Pie Guy: added my comment

My first time editing the BOT name. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 01:39, 26 December 2024 (UTC)

Nothing for Christmas? xkcd has fallen [[User:Pie Guy|Pie Guy]] ([[User talk:Pie Guy|talk]]) 02:26, 26 December 2024 (UTC)

Talk:3022: Making Tea

2024-12-10T16:36:57Z

Pie Guy: commented about the tumblr thread

I wonder where [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Tea_Party making it in Boston Harbor, at ambient temperature, at scale] would fit on this scale. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.206.162|172.70.206.162]] 04:38, 10 December 2024 (UTC)
: A little to the left of the microwave thing. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.186.252|162.158.186.252]] 05:14, 10 December 2024 (UTC)
:: Oh, no, much further to the right. You stole our colony from us, set up some tinpot, pretended 'country' in its place, and you didn't even have the class to make a decent cup of tea first. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.205.93|12.68.205.93]] 06:24, 10 December 2024 (UTC)
::: Soyuz nyerushimyy respublik svobodnik... [[User:DollarStoreBa'al|DollarStoreBa'al]] ([[User talk:DollarStoreBa'al|talk]]) 14:13, 10 December 2024 (UTC)
:::: Well maybe if you didnt force us to buy discounted tea from you after fighting a war for us, we wouldn't be in this situation. [[User:Apollo11|Apollo11]] ([[User talk:Apollo11|talk]]) 15:43, 10 December 2024 (UTC)
: I would like to as a british person to corroborate this, in the 80's my Dad visited the USA (he did go to florida) and still is complaining that the freshly boiled water wasn't poured directly onto the tea bag but was instead the tea bag and the hot water(now luke warm water) and bag was delivered separately!!! The delivery of freshly boiling water on to the bag is the major issue with microwaves, not the nucleation thing in my experience. Bear in mind I don't even actually like tea, still care enough to right this, but i'll be signing this anonymously to avoid shame being bought on my family and my family's familys. Murderous royals are a lot less popular the tea [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.227|108.162.245.227]]
:: I first visited the US in 1980. A friend who was with hate coffee and was horrified when he ordered tea that he got the water and the tea bag separately. When he suggested they add the water as soon as it was boiled, the wait staff thought he was joking. Many years later in Texas, a waiter asked me why I, a Brit, was drinking coffee, not tea. "You don't know how to make it," I replied. (In my house, the electric kettle and teapot sit next to each other on the kitchen worktop.)--[[Special:Contributions/172.70.160.135|172.70.160.135]] 09:22, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

:: And, even if [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-68085304 this guy] is right, ''way'' too much salt... [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.130|172.70.91.130]] 07:03, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

When I make ramen, I put the measuring cup in the microwave. Fight me. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.167.87|162.158.167.87]] 05:35, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

"...to the point virtually every home has an electric tea kettle as a standard appliance". If I'm reading it correctly, this and the comic suggests we (though not I, as I'm not a tea-drinker) make tea ''in the electric kettle''. Electric tea-urns, yes, or maybe a setup like a samovar. But, generally, the kettle itself (and, so far as I'm aware, always with an electric kettle) is used to heat the water, which you then pour into the tea''pot'' into which the requisite number of tealeaves/teabags are also put to steep. (Or, for the lazy way, into the mug-with-teabag.) I wouldn't be able to use my electric kettle to (for example) make my instant mashed-potato into the actual mash, if I'd have regularly used it to mash tea. Or top up the boiling saucepan that I'd realised I'd not quite enough water in to cover the pasta/vegetables/whatever. Or to easily add nust a little more heat (with less new water) to the washing-up bowl than would be possible from the hot tap, back to as hot as possible without scalding me. – Whether intentional or not, I suspect Randall has the role of kettle and teapot mixed up, and so (without the intent to parody) has the editor who wrote the above. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.160.135|172.70.160.135]] 05:49, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

I don't think the section on 'Boiling the water in a pot' refers to a teapot - I think it means boiling the water in a pot on the hob, and then making tea with it (in a pot/mug). [[Special:Contributions/172.69.195.27|172.69.195.27]] 07:53, 10 December 2024 (UTC)
:I agree, but I also think there's a language issue with the use of pot vs. pan that makes things more confusing. I think there are several types of cookware that Americans call pot and British call pan. So British would not say they boil water in a pot but rather in a saucepan (if there's no kettle available of course). [[User:Mtcv|Mtcv]] ([[User talk:Mtcv|talk]]) 09:03, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

I (as Brit) am uncommon in using an electric filter coffee machine to make tea (two bags in what is supposed to be the coffee filter). Set up, press the button and come back to a not jug of fresh tea which is not stewed. If later, the hot plate has shut off and it is cold, you can zap it in a mug in the microwave. [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 08:11, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

: As another brit, what? I do not understand the mechanics of this, please elaborate. Additionally, my understanding is that the water would be *briefly acquainted* with the tea, thus would be a poor facsimile of "tea" and would rather be closer to something the americans would attempt. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.126|141.101.99.126]] 11:46, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

Thanks, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yMMTVVJI4c Technology Connections]! [[Special:Contributions/141.101.109.167|141.101.109.167]] 09:51, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

You Westerners have literally no idea how to make proper, good tea! SMH [[User:TPS|TPS]] ([[User talk:TPS|talk]]) 13:00, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

As a Brit who grew up in sight of the Yorkshire Tea factory – and worked there on occasion – and having travelled very widely around the world – including in the US – I feel I'm supposed to have an opinion. However, I have ''never'' encountered the microwaving of water as mentioned here, and I would not object to it as supposedly problematic for tea-quality reasons. I'd object for reasons of common sense. What mystifies me is the idea that kettles are tea-specific. They are for heating water, not making tea. Coffee uses hot water. Pasta, rice and potatoes use hot water. Peas, carrots, cabbage, sweetcorn...

Baking bread often involves a pan of steaming water in the oven.

"But I can boil water in a pan for cooking pasta or vegetables."

Yes, but you'll be waiting a l-o-o-o-ng time. I'll heat my water in the kettle, pour it into the now-hot pan, cook my pasta, and I'll be eating before your water is boiling.

A kettle is not a tea-making item any more than a frying pan is an omelette-making item; tea is simply one of the things you can make with water from a kettle. Hot water is a basic civilised human commodity, predating recorded history. That we should live in a mechanised world, and the Consumer Nation doesn't have water-boiling appliances as standard (saying instead "I don't have a kettle because I don't drink tea") is ludicrous.

Using a microwave rather than buying a kettle is a bit like not buying a hammer for driving in nails because you've got a big pair of pliers that will do. Sure, they're heavy lumps of metal than live in your toolbag, but they're not the right thing.

The Brits, incidentally, are not tea lovers. They are prolific consumers of awful tea that actual tea lovers wouldn't use for cleaning their drains. The most enthusiastic tea enthusiasts I've ever met were from Maryland.

It's all just social ceremony in the UK. Milk first, tea first, must use a saucer, must use a pot...tea is a British religion, not a British drink.[[User:Yorkshire Pudding|Yorkshire Pudding]] ([[User talk:Yorkshire Pudding|talk]]) 14:23, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

I wonder what the Brits would feel about repurposing a single-cup coffee maker. These days, I usually put a tea bag in a mug and place it in a Keurig machine and run it (without a K-cup, of course) to deliver the hot water. Probably the wrong temperature, but fast and easy and the result is good enough. [[User:Shamino|Shamino]] ([[User talk:Shamino|talk]]) 14:52, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

Would any British person care to evaluate my tea making practices? Boil water in electric kettle. Pour water over teabag, allow to steep, remove teabag. Add sugar and ice cubes. [[User:RegularSizedGuy|RegularSizedGuy]] ([[User talk:RegularSizedGuy|talk]]) 15:54, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

I can confirm (by inadvertent experiments conducted on flatmates) that they indeed do not like tea being make in the kettle. What really makes them angry though is making coffee in the teapot. It ruins the taste of the teapot forever apparently. There is also a faction that insists that a teapot should never be washed, and washing it invokes a lesser anger.[[User:Gopher|Gopher]] ([[User talk:Gopher|talk]]) 15:56, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

On rare occasions where I don't have a kettle available, I use a microwave oven to boil water for tea. But it doesn't look and taste quite the same, and often leaves an ugly foam at the surface when the tea bag is added. This phenomenon is investigated here: https://cooking.stackexchange.com/a/22264. So the British might be right... Disclaimer: I'm neither from the UK nor from the US. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.68.126|172.69.68.126]] 16:16, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

There is a [https://www.tumblr.com/elodieunderglass/669449994039853056/wizardlyghost-silverjirachi-pidoop tumblr thread] about the topic of teamaking in microwaves, kettles, etc. Funnily enough it showed up in my Instagram reels feed just a few hours before this comic was posted. I was thinking perhaps Randall saw it too and was inspired by it? Both of them have to deal with the different ways of making tea and how "absurd" or "unconventional" (etc.) they are. Even if Randall didn't have it in mind, it's certainly a funny little coincidence. [[User:Pie Guy|Pie Guy]] ([[User talk:Pie Guy|talk]]) 16:36, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

== Dangers of Boiling Water on a Microwave ==

Perhaps it's worth to mention how dangerous it is to boil water in a microwave. https://tastecooking.com/dangerous-microwave-water/
[[User:Mestafais|Mestafais]] ([[User talk:Mestafais|talk]]) 15:22, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

==Scales and Units?==
There are several comics with unmarked scales. It would be interesting if the descriptions started using pixels to point where each mark is along the line. As a rough estimate, the four points mentioned here are at X-values: 90px, 115px, 345px, and 645px, indicating that the pot method is 10% as infuriating as the chalice method - or that making tea in a pot ten times would be equally as infuriating as making it once in a chalice (at least, assuming the kettle method causes zero furons. I know of {{w|hedons and dolors}}. I guess 'furons' are a unit of fury, right? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.46.236|172.70.46.236]] 16:11, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

3022: Making Tea

2024-12-10T16:34:14Z

Pie Guy: I can't be the only one who is fairly confident that this comic is a reference to that one tumblr thread

{{comic
| number = 3022
| date = December 9, 2024
| title = Making Tea
| image = making_tea_2x.png
| imagesize = 690x291px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = No, of course we don't microwave the mug WITH the teabag in it. We microwave the teabag separately.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Microwaved by a TUMBLR THREAD FULL OF LUNATICS - Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
Tea is exceptionally popular in the United Kingdom (although [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4gpll9l535o decreasingly so]). Virtually every home has an electric kettle as a standard appliance with teapots and other related crockery being found in many cupboards, or even on a shelf in full display. British people are perceived as taking tea seriously, having very specific and strongly held opinions on the proper way to make tea. In contrast, tea is less commonplace in the United States of America (Randall's native country) and owning separate devices for tea-making is probably far less common than having coffee-makers of various kinds. While some households have kettles that can be put on a stove top, many do not have any specific device to boil water. As a result, when Americans need a cup of hot water — for tea or otherwise — the options are usually to use a pan on the stove or to simply microwave a mug of water (the latter probably being more common in modern times). Instant hot water taps {{w|Instant hot water dispenser}} are also common in many homes, water coolers, and public drinking fountains in the US.

British people are stereotyped as taking genuine offense to microwaved water, believing it to be an objectively incorrect way to make tea. Randall mocks this stereotype through exaggeration, saying British people would be significantly less offended someone stealing {{w|Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom}} and using those for tea-making than they would be by a cup of microwaved water.

===Methods mentioned===
;Making it in a kettle
:Perhaps an intentional misnomer. Water may be ''boiled'' in a kettle, but the tea itself is made in a separate {{w|teapot}}, with loose or bagged tea-leaves, ready for pouring into any number of {{w|teacup}}s, {{w|mug}}s or {{w|vacuum flask|thermos flask}} as required. Alternatively, the water is poured directly from the kettle into a mug or cup, where the teabag is allowed to steep directly. Making tea actually ''in'' the kettle, by placing the tea in with the water and then boiling it, would be considered ''very'' bad form (and likely void your warranty).

;Boiling water in a pot, steeping in a mug
:Identical to the above, except using a pot (or more commonly in the UK, a 'pan') on the stove, rather than a kettle. This is slightly less convenient than using a kettle, since the pan lacks a dedicated spout for pouring and an alert whistle to notify when the water is boiling, but is otherwise functionally identical. Nonetheless, the comic suggests that Brits would take mild offense, considering it to be inferior to using a kettle.

;Making it in a chalice and ampulla stolen from the Crown Jewels
:A chalice is an ornate type of cup, and an ampulla is a glass vial.
:The {{w|Crown_Jewels_of_the_United_Kingdom|Crown Jewels}} are a set of items belonging the British monarchy, including ceremonial items and clothing using in royal coronations. These items have both major cultural significance, due to their historical connection with the monarchy, and major objective value, as many of them are heavily jeweled and/or made of precious metals. To steal items from these collection for the purpose of tea-making would obviously be both highly criminal and highly disrespectful. The ampulla referenced is used to anoint the monarch with oil during the coronation ceremony and the chalice may refer to a {{w|Eucharist|Communion vessel}}, giving them religious significance as well. In addition, this would be incorrect tea-ware. The precious stone chalice and gold ampulla are doubtful as being of suitable materials for British tea-making (as opposed to using cast iron, stainless steel, silver-plate, robust ceramics and/or fine china, for various stages of the process) and there'd definitely be some complaints that it does not taste like a proper cuppa. To use such objects to make tea would simply {{wiktionary|not be cricket}}.

;Microwaving a mug
:As mentioned above, heating water in a microwave, for any purpose, considered acceptable and common in the US. To do so to make tea is considered uncommon and borderline heretical in the UK. The reasons for this are difficult to pin down. Some argue that the microwave doesn't allow proper control over the water temperature (which is considered vital for proper tea-making), but this position is questionable at best. Others raise the danger of superheating water which might boil over when the tea bag is added, but this is likely a highly overblown concern. Some people even argue that microwaving changes the quality or composition of the water in some way, but there's very little science to back that up. Most likely, the preparation of tea simply has a sense of tradition and ritual in Britain, and using a microwave feels crass, modern, and completely disconnected from the cultural associations of tea.
:The title text continues with this theme, by reassuring us that the microwaved mug doesn't have a teabag in it (analogous to the 'boiling tea-kettle' version). Instead, it is separately microwaved. In typical Randall fashion, this is pure farce: there is no reason to microwave a teabag. Microwave ovens heat water molecules almost exclusively, and tealeaves (and bag) should normally be dry and would receive little to no heating. The wrongheadedness of this claim does little but provoke a skeptic's doubts about how utterly perverse this colonial variation on tea-making has become.

==Transcript==
:[A line chart is shown. Above the chart are, from top to bottom, a heading, a subheading, and an arrow pointing right with a label above. On the line there are four labeled tick marks, with the labels written beneath the line. A small curved line is going from each label to below their tick. The first two ticks are close together on the far left side of the graph, the third is approximately in the center, and the fourth is on the far right side of the graph.]
:<big>Ways of Making Tea</big>
:By how angry British people get when Americans do them
:More angry

:Making it in a kettle
:Boiling water in a pot, steeping in a mug
:Making it in a chalice and ampulla stolen from the Crown Jewels
:Microwaving a mug

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Food]]
[[Category:Rankings]]

3019: Advent Calendar Advent Calendar

2024-12-02T18:36:31Z

Pie Guy: capitalized the bot message joke

{{comic
| number = 3019
| date = December 2, 2024
| title = Advent Calendar Advent Calendar
| image = advent_calendar_advent_calendar_2x.png
| imagesize = 482x324px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = The growth rate of items per day may may seem absurd, but it's actually much less than the acceleration in the 12 Days of Christmas song.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by 3 NERDS A-EDITING, 2 TURTLE BOTS, AND A FUNNY NEW XKCD - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
Advent calendars are a form of countdown where you get a small present (traditionally, just a thematic picture or chocolate) every day until Christmas. While the religious season of {{w|Advent}} traditionally begins four Sundays before Christmas, most Advent calendars begin on December 1st for simplicity.

In this comic, Randall has devised an Advent calendar that contains multiple smaller Advent calendars, each of which contains the same number of items as there are days left until Christmas. By the time he reaches Christmas, he will have 325 different items, or 350 if counting the sub-calendars. The calendar is shown as it might be on December 2nd, the date of publication of this strip. The "window" for December 1st, in the upper left, has 25 sub-windows, of which 2 are open. (One was opened on December 1st and the other on the 2nd.) The "window" for December 2nd, 5th from the left in the bottom row, has 24 sub-windows, of which 1 is open.

For the Advent calendar Advent calendar, each day a number of items equal to the number of days left until christmas are added. Once we reach the 8th day of Christmas, the song’s growth rate exceeds the calendar’s. There are 364 items total in the 12 Days of Christmas, more than the 325 in these nested calendars.

It is not clear what is inside each sub-calendar. The usual filling would be chocolate, however it could also be possible that the advent calender advent calendars had even more advent calendars within.

The title text refers to {{w|The_Twelve_Days_of_Christmas_(song)|The Twelve Days of Christmas}}, a traditional Christmas carol in which the singer receives many gifts from their paramour for each day of the Twelve Days of Christmas. On day one, they receive one gift, and on day ''n'', they receive again all the gifts they received on day ''n-1'', plus ''n'' copies of a new gift. The exact gifts given each day vary by version of the song, but the result is that the number of gifts given each day follows the {{w|triangular number}} sequence ''(n+1)n/2'': 1, 3, 6, etc., receiving 78 gifts on day 12, for a total of 364 gifts.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[On a grey board, are 23 advent calendars behind large windows, numbered from 3 to 25, plus two open calendars.]
:[Each calendar numbered n has 26-n squares in it.]
:[One open calendar has 25 squares, 2 of which are black. The other open calendar has 24 squares, one of which is black.]
:[Caption below the comic:]
:I like advent calendars, so I got an advent calendar that gives me a new one every day until Christmas.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Christmas]]

3018: Second Stage

2024-11-30T22:16:45Z

Pie Guy: Whole-page restructuring and cleanup; detail consolidation, organization

{{comic
| number = 3018
| date = November 29, 2024
| title = Second Stage
| image = second_stage_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x272px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Hmm, they won't do in-flight delivery, so let's order a new first and second stage to our emergency landing site and then try to touch down on top of them to save time.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BLUE ORIGIN DELIVERY DRIVER - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

In this comic, two people have lifted off in a staged launch vehicle without their second stage installed. This is unlikely to happen in real life, because rocket launches are thoroughly planned and checked, and the lack of an entire stage would be glaringly obvious to anyone who is part of the project.

Staging in rocketry refers of the segmentation of a launch vehicle into distinct, separable modules, each one with an independent engine and fuel supply. This is practiced for two critical reasons: firstly, different engine designs work better at different altitudes, so you'd want to use one engine type deep in the atmosphere and a different engine once you get to space; and because, since you only need one of those engines at once, it'd be better to simply expend the first engine(s) and its fuel tank once you no longer need it. By getting rid of that useless mass, you can go farther using the same amount of fuel. A launch vehicle that does not employ staging is called an SSTO (Single-Stage-To-Orbit), but none of them have been successful due to the technical challenges.

As Pilot 1 calls to fire the second stage, Pilot 2 is initially confused and asks if a second stage was needed. Pilot 1 confirms that there was supposed to be a second stage, and thought that it was the Pilot 2's responsibility to install and confirm there was a second stage. When both pilots realize there is no second stage, Pilot 2, naturally, thinks he can order one on Amazon with same day delivery (though Amazon typically doesn't sell space ship stages - at least not with same day delivery). He then has difficulty picking an address zip code as they are likely traveling too high above the ground and too fast to be in a single postal area for long enough for the delivery to take place. The joke is likely poking fun at people whom forget to pack certain items when going on road trips or vacation, and rely on Amazon to deliver replacements to them. There is also humor to be found in this rocket apparently being designed, built, and piloted by only two people-- in real life, the construction of a rocket, especially a manned one, involves thousands of people, and the pilots do not do the designing themselves.

The comic also alludes to a not-so-distant future when space travel is a much more mundane endeavor. If companies such as SpaceX succeed in their mass-production and launch cadence goals, one could imagine a scenario where rocket parts become standardized and easily replaceable-- similarly to how it is easy today to replace a car's tire or fill its fuel tank if you get stranded on a highway.

This is not the first time Randall discusses the idea of a mid-flight delivery. This [https://what-if.xkcd.com/149/ What If?] explanation attempts to answer if it possible to have pizza delivered to you, by a bird, while flying on a commercial airliner.

== Trivia ==
*The rocket, though apparently at least one segment short, appears to be substantially taller than the launch tower of the pad, which is a strangely incongruous detail. Unless the real rocket support is an angled back "hard spine" structure that has been rotated out of the way and down into the exhaust-flume/flame-trench quenching system. Since the voices are coming from what appears to be a separate module at the top of the rocket, it may be that the ''shell'' of the second stage is present, but not the hardware or fuel. Alternatively, propellant may have been loaded into the second stage, but engines were never installed.


==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[A multi-stage rocket, with a capsule on top, is lifting-off the ground from a launchpad, at least two rocket nozzles are visibly producing a flame, and the pad is surrounded with smoke and/or steam from the blast suppression system. A voice comes from the capsule at the top.]
:We have liftoff.

:[The first stage separates from the rest of the rocket, part way through the roll-program. There are no obvious engines standing out from the 'second stage' (or extended payload trunk) lower shroud.]
:Main engine cutoff.
:Stage separation confirmed.
:We are go for second stage burn.

:Second stage?

:Yes.
:...What?

:[The first stage and the rest of the rocket are drifting apart in apparent freefall. No rocket is firing and the background does not seem to indicate that this view is beyond the atmosphere.]
:We were supposed to have a second stage?

:...Yes!

:Did '''''you''''' set up a second stage?

:I thought '''''you''''' were handling staging!

:Oh no.

:[They continue to drift apart slowly.]
:Okay, don't panic.
:Lemme see if we can order a stage online for same-day delivery.

:''Sigh''.

:Hey, what zip code should I put? Ours keeps changing.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Space]]
[[Category:Rockets]]

3017: Neutrino Modem

2024-11-28T09:34:58Z

Pie Guy: removed this paragraph in the middle that talks about bandwidth and latency because it doesn't seem to add anything to the explanation

{{comic
| number = 3017
| date = November 27, 2024
| title = Neutrino Modem
| image = neutrino_modem_2x.png
| imagesize = 461x537px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Our sysadmin accidentally won a Nobel Prize while trying to debug neutrino oscillation error correction.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a 1978 neutrino fax machine - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

Neutrinos are tiny, chargeless, ghostly particles that barely interact with solid matter at all. Despite trillions of neutrinos passing through your body every second, one will hit you only once every 10 years or so.

In this comic, Randall gives a helpful tip to networking companies: in order to avoid latency issues with their servers, simply relocate their networking node to the Earth's core and use neutrinos to communicate with the surface, rather than radio waves, electrical impulses, photons in fiber-optic cables, etc. Since the core of the Earth is approximately equidistant from every point on Earth's surface, and nearly all neutrinos pass through solid matter unaffected, this allows communication with any server or network node anywhere on Earth, all with the same near-light-speed latency and without having to install wires, fiber optic cables, or anything else along the way. However, the cost is an unbelievable amount of lost data, since only a teeny teeny teeny teeny tiny (teeny4 tiny) fraction of the neutrinos sent from the modem will actually be received by the servers on the surface, and the same again for those neutrinos that make the return journey: the specified packet loss amounts to 1 in 100 trillion packets being detected, with the rest missed (for reference: the lower threshold for acceptable packet reception is 98 in 100). A time delay of 45 ms is the approximate round-trip time for light (or neutrinos, which move nearly as fast) to travel the distance from the center of the Earth to the surface and back. Visible light, of course, couldn't make this journey through the rock at all. Perhaps only ''very'' long wavelength electromagnetic radiation could reliably penetrate half the Earth.

There are also, of course, the practical problems of constructing a facility at Earth's core, which is extremely far away (~6400 km / 4000 mi underground), extremely hot (~6000°C / 6273K / 11292°Ra / [[1923: Felsius|8400°⋲]] / [[3001: Temperature Scales|−5900°''real'' C]]) and under extremely high pressures (~3½ million atmospheres / 50 million PSI).

Ponytail and Cueball are shown floating because a hollow space in the center of a body experiences near-zero gravity. This is because all the mass of the object is evenly distributed in all directions. While there is 4,000 miles of rock "above" you pulling you "up," there is also 4,000 miles "below" you pulling you "down", with much the same amount left, right, front, back and every other direction, so you experience net-zero gravitational acceleration.

The title text refers to neutrino oscillation, which is a phenomenon in which neutrinos change between three different "flavors" - electron, muon, and tau neutrinos. A Nobel Prize was in fact awarded for the [https://www.nature.com/articles/nphys3543 discovery of neutrino oscillation], which implied that neutrinos have mass, albeit an extremely tiny amount (< 2.14×10−37 kg for the sum of the three flavors). The "neutrino oscillation error correction" could refer either to a way to correct for errors in the signal introduced due to neutrinos oscillating, as above, or for the method of error correction that cleverly ''uses'' neutrino oscillation to its advantage. Either of these could perhaps be considered such extraordinary developments as to make the {{w|system administrator}} involved deservedly elegible of a {{w|Nobel Prize}}, or perhaps {{w|List of prizes known as the Nobel or the highest honors of a field|one or other close equivalents}}.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Cueball and Ponytail are inside a large white circle on a black background. Cueball is at a workstation typing on a computer keyboard, floating above a wheeled desk chair behind him. Ponytail is floating in the air up and to the right of him. Attached to Cueball's computer by cables are a second monitor or a tower unit floating to the left, and a large device labeled "''Neutrino'' Modem®" below and to its left.]
:Cueball: Check it out—45ms ping times to every server on Earth!
:Ponytail: That 99.999999999999% packet loss is pretty bad, though.

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Networking tip: You can minimize worst-case latency by locating your node at the center of the Earth and communicating with the surface using neutrinos.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Tips]]
[[Category:Sysadmins]]
[[Category:Nobel Prize]]
[[Category:Physics]]

3017: Neutrino Modem

2024-11-28T02:41:02Z

Pie Guy: /* Explanation */ some very helpful and super useful temperature conversions after "extremely hot"

{{comic
| number = 3017
| date = November 27, 2024
| title = Neutrino Modem
| image = neutrino_modem_2x.png
| imagesize = 461x537px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Our sysadmin accidentally won a Nobel Prize while trying to debug neutrino oscillation error correction.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a 1978 neutrino fax machine - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

Neutrinos are tiny, chargeless, ghostly particles that barely interact with solid matter at all. Despite trillions of neutrinos passing through your body every second, one will hit you only once every 10 years or so.

In this comic, Randall gives a helpful tip to networking companies: in order to avoid latency issues with their servers, simply relocate their networking node to the Earth's core and use neutrinos to communicate with the surface, rather than radio waves, electrical impulses, photons in fiber-optic cables, etc. Since the core of the Earth is approximately equidistant from every point on Earth's surface, and nearly all neutrinos pass through solid matter unaffected, this allows communication with any server or network node anywhere on Earth, all with the same near-light-speed latency and without having to install wires, fiber optic cables, or anything else along the way. However, the cost is an unbelievable amount of lost data, since only a teeny teeny teeny teeny tiny (teeny4 tiny) fraction of the neutrinos sent from the modem will actually be received by the servers on the surface, and the same again for those neutrinos that make the return journey: the specified packet loss amounts to 1 in 100 trillion packets being detected, with the rest missed. A time delay of 45 ms is the approximate round-trip time for light (or neutrinos, which move nearly as fast) to travel the distance from the center of the Earth to the surface and back. Visible light, of course, couldn't make this journey through the rock at all. Perhaps only ''very'' long wavelength electromagnetic radiation could reliably penetrate half the Earth.

Low latency is one possible desirable quality of a network connection. In online gaming, for example, your expectations are that your running game does not lag too far behind the events that the game server, and other players, are experiencing and enacting. Very high latency links (such as {{w|IP over Avian Carriers}}) would be difficult to use in playing a {{w|first-person shooter}}. The other aspect is bandwidth, which is primarily related to the quantity of data that can be passed in any given network transaction, and the {{w|Bit rate#Information rate|net bit-rate}} should be high enough to fulfil the needs of the messages be sent. We aren't actually told what bit-rate Cueball's connection tries to provide, but the overly frequent need to resend data (including the very frequent need to resend the ''requests'' to resend data) would greatly reduce the overall effectiveness of even the most packed network packets.

There are also, of course, the practical problems of constructing a facility at Earth's core, which is extremely far away (~6400 km underground), extremely hot (~6000°C / 6273°K / 11292°R / [[1923: Felsius|8400°⋲]]) and under extremely high pressures (~3½ million atmospheres).

Ponytail and Cueball are shown floating because a hollow space in the center of a body experiences near-zero gravity. This is because all the mass of the object is evenly distributed in all directions. While there is 4,000 miles of rock "above" you pulling you "up," there is also 4,000 miles "below" you pulling you "down", with much the same amount left, right, front, back and every other direction, so you experience net-zero gravitational acceleration.

The title text refers to neutrino oscillation, which is a phenomenon in which neutrinos change between three different "flavors" - electron, muon, and tau neutrinos. A Nobel Prize was in fact awarded for the [https://www.nature.com/articles/nphys3543 discovery of neutrino oscillation], which implied that neutrinos have mass, albeit an extremely tiny amount (< 2.14×10−37 kg for the sum of the three flavors). The "neutrino oscillation error correction" could refer either to a way to correct for errors in the signal introduced due to neutrinos oscillating, as above, or for the method of error correction that cleverly ''uses'' neutrino oscillation to its advantage. Either of these could perhaps be considered such extraordinary developments as to make the {{w|system administrator}} involved deservedly elegible of a {{w|Nobel Prize}}, or perhaps {{w|List of prizes known as the Nobel or the highest honors of a field|one or other close equivalents}}.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Cueball and Ponytail are inside a large white circle on a black background. Cueball is at a workstation typing on a computer keyboard, floating above a wheeled desk chair behind him. Ponytail is floating in the air up and to the right of him. Attached to Cueball's computer by cables are a second monitor or a tower unit floating to the left, and a large device labeled "''Neutrino'' Modem®" below and to its left.]
:Cueball: Check it out—45ms ping times to every server on Earth!
:Ponytail: That 99.999999999999% packet loss is pretty bad, though.

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Networking tip: You can minimize worst-case latency by locating your node at the center of the Earth and communicating with the surface using neutrinos.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Tips]]
[[Category:Sysadmins]]
[[Category:Nobel Prize]]
[[Category:Physics]]

3017: Neutrino Modem

2024-11-27T22:20:39Z

Pie Guy: /* Explanation */

3017: Neutrino Modem

2024-11-27T22:19:52Z

Pie Guy: Preliminary explanation, including impracticalities of this comms method and the microgravity

3014: Arizona Chess

2024-11-22T00:01:18Z

Pie Guy: reference to 673

{{comic
| number = 3014
| date = November 20, 2024
| title = Arizona Chess
| image = arizona_chess_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x315px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Sometimes, you have to sacrifice pieces to gain the advantage. Sometimes, to advance ... you have to fall back.
}}

==Explanation==

[[White Hat]] and [[Cueball]] are playing a timed game of tournament-style chess. At the start of the comic White Hat has the advantage because, as well as having one more pawn than Cueball, he has more time left to play his remaining moves — 6 minutes and 35 seconds, versus Cueball's 28 seconds, as shown on the {{w|chess clock}} display above them.

However, Cueball has an unexpected advantage. The building is sited across the border of Arizona with another state, with White Hat on the Arizona side, and the game is being played at a very particular time of year, when (most of) the United States exits {{w|Daylight Saving Time}}, which happens at 2:00 AM on the morning of the first Sunday in November. As Arizona doesn't observe Daylight Saving Time (DST), unlike neighboring US states, only one clock gains an hour. White Hat's time remains normal, but Cueball's time "falls back" one hour, as his departure from daylight saving time occurs, giving him 60 additional minutes of play time. White Hat immediately protests, likely trying to communicate that such is not how chess clocks work. Chess clocks are simple timers, tracking how much time each player has used since the beginning of the match. They're not based on local time, and changing the time remaining during play would certainly be a violation of the rules. Even clocks that do track local time are generally not so carefully calibrated that they would reliably switch times so close to a state line.

Cueball ignores these protests, and now seems confident of victory, since he has far more play time remaining. Daylight Slaying Time is a pun on Daylight Saving Time, but note that the comic takes place as the non-Arizona clock stops observing DST and joins the Arizona clock in Standard Time. A pun on Daylight Saving Time was also made in [[673: The Sun]].

The title text makes use of a pun. To "fall back" in a strategic sense means to withdraw from an attack, or even to retreat. This can be part of a valid strategy, as withdrawing from an engagement can allow you to press the attack elsewhere, at a more advantageous time and place, or can draw enemy forces into an attack under circumstances that you control. [https://www.timeanddate.com/time/dst/spring-forward-fall-back.html "Spring forward, fall back"] is a mnemonic used for daylight saving time; we advance the clock forward when entering DST in the spring, and move it backward when leaving it in the fall (autumn).

There are buildings in the US that are built across state lines (and county and city boundaries), and even some buildings that extend across international boundaries (these are known as {{w|line house}}s). The existence of these buildings can result in eccentric situations when laws and ordinances vary substantially between the locations. For example, a casino might be built on a state border where gambling is legal in one state but illegal in the other. In such a case, the gaming can only happen on one side of the building (the other side being reserved for other services and functions). It's not uncommon for businesses and tourist attractions to lean into the novelty of this by demarking the boundary inside the building and specifically encouraging things that are legal only on one side of the line. Such situations are likely the inspiration for this strip, but using such a line to manipulate a competition based on time zone is highly unlikely.

Ongoing state-level efforts to end time changes could also increase the number of places where this situation could happen, as more DST/non-DST boundaries arise.

The comic was published five days before the start of the {{w|World Chess Championship 2024}} in Singapore.

==Transcript==

:[White Hat and Cueball are sitting across from each other playing chess. The time, shown above them in white on a black screen, reads 6:35 for White Hat, and 0:28 for Cueball.]
:White Hat: It’s late, I’m up a pawn, and you’re out of time. It’s over.
:Cueball: Ah, you’re forgetting something.

:[Cueball gestures with one hand above the chessboard. His time now reads 0:19.]
:Cueball: Did you know this building straddles the Arizona border?
:Cueball: It actually runs right through the table. You're on the Arizona side.

:[Cueball raises his hand further to gesture at his time. It beeps and is now blank and white.]
:Cueball: This tournament started Saturday, November 2nd. Now it's almost 2AM on the 3rd.
:Cueball: And there's something you should know about Arizona.
:Chess clock: BEEP

:[White Hat raises his head slightly to look at the timer. Cueball's time now reads 60:07. Cueball lowers his hand to make a move.]
:White Hat: '''''What?!''''' No! That's not how... '''''No!!'''''
:Cueball: Looks like it's daylight '''''slaying''''' time.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Chess]]
[[Category:Daylight saving time]]

3012: The Future of Orion

2024-11-15T18:43:09Z

Pie Guy: Cmon guys this is too easy

{{comic
| number = 3012
| date = November 15, 2024
| title = The Future of Orion
| image = the_future_of_orion_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x300px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Dinosaur Cosmics
}}

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

Stars in the night sky change over time. Some, like {{w|Betelgeuse}} (a star in the constellation {{w|Orion (constellation)|Orion}}), are expected to go {{w|supernova}} in less than about 100,000 years, and then disappear from the night sky. All stars are moving, some faster than others; the fastest is {{w|Barnard's Star}}, which has moved a noticeable distance across the sky since it was first photographed in 1888. This comic shows some changes in Orion from the stars moving and recommends revising the constellation from depicting a hunter to depicting a dinosaur from Ryan North's [https://www.qwantz.com Dinosaur Comics]. There are no dinosaur constellations, because dinosaur fossils had not yet been discovered when constellations were first being named in around 3000 BCE. The first dinosaur fossil was found in 1676. (There is, however, a constellation of another large, fearsome reptile, albeit mythological - a {{w|Draco (constellation)|dragon}}.)

The title text is another joke regarding Dinosaur Comics, replacing "comics" with "cosmics" because we're talking about a dinosaur in the sky.

Orion is also mentioned in [[1020: Orion Nebula]].

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:Orion Today:
:[Star map of Orion constellation 2024]
:
:Predicted Changes:
:Scribbled on: Star movement
:Scribbled on: Star Death(Beatlejuice)
:[Star Map's predicted changes over next couple centuries]
:
:Orion in the future:
:Scribbled on: Suggested lines
:[New lines are drawn overlaying the future changes]
:
:[[https://www.qwantz.com/ Dinosaur Comics] dinosaur overlayed]

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Dinosaurs]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Space]]

3008: Proterozoic Rocks

2024-11-08T22:24:40Z

Pie Guy: Added trivia: he used the wrong "farther/further"

{{comic
| number = 3008
| date = November 6, 2024
| title = Proterozoic Rocks
| image = proterozoic_rocks_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x272px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = These rocks are from a time before eyes, brains, and bones, pieces of a land warmed by an unseen sun.
}}

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

{{w|Proterozoic eon}} rocks such as the 1.1 billion-year-old rocks in the comic were formed 2500 to 538.8 million years ago, some of them surviving {{w|plate tectonics|tectonic movements}} until today. Proterozoic rocks which were formed from sediment at the bottom of an inland sea such as the former {{w|Western Interior Seaway}} would be in North America today.

The first animal eyes are believed to have [https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1716824114 developed on trilobites] half a billion years ago, around the transition between the proterozoic and {{w|phanerozoic eon}}s at the start of the {{w|Cambrian}} period. This transition began a great proliferation of biological diversity known as the {{w|Cambrian Explosion}}.

In the next panel Cueball talks about feeling a connection to the rock, which spans "a vast abyss of time that stretches back as far as the eye can see." This could be interpreted as expressing the need to connect to something that exists vastly beyond the current turbulent era, to put it into perspective and to find strength in knowing that nature transcends human troubles. The title text extends this theme.

The distant past, before the emergence of complex eye-bearing life, is illustrated by the final panel in black. This is purely figurative, as light existed{{citation needed}} and would have made the Earth's surface visible, had there been eyes to see it. The dark far past may also be an analogy for the darkened far future, as there may be [https://www.euronews.com/green/2023/09/26/triple-whammy-of-extreme-heat-scientists-pinpoint-when-earth-could-become-uninhabitable no human life on Earth in around 250 million years]. This timeline is far beyond the immediate cares of the current world, applying perspective to any and all present worldviews.

The sketch might also serve the purpose of comforting some after the 2024 election results.

[[2013: Rock]] also compares the age of rocks to milestones in the development of life.

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

:[Cueball is seen at a distance, walking amid a rocky landscape.]
:I love being near Proterozoic rocks.
:These ones are 1.1 billion years old.
:That's so, '''''so''''' old.

:[Cueball standing next to a rock.]
:Eyes evolved half a billion years ago. The first time a rock was ever looked at, these rocks were already 500 million years old.

:[Cueball sitting atop a large rock.]
:People say geologic time makes them feel small. But when I touch this rock, it's like I'm a part of it, spanning a vast abyss of time that stretches back as far as the eye can see.

:[A completely black panel except for text in white lettering.]
:And then 500 million years farther.

== Trivia ==

*This comic was published on the day when {{w|Donald Trump}}'s re-election as president of the USA was announced. Randall was vocal in his support for the opposing candidate {{w|Kamala Harris}}; the xkcd homepage featured [https://web.archive.org/web/20241106175959im_/https://imgs.xkcd.com/news/harris_news@2x.png a drawing with a "Vote for Harris" sign] [https://web.archive.org/web/20241106215812/https://xkcd.com/ during the run-up to the election].

*The use of "farther" in the final panel is erroneous; "further" is the preferred word for metaphorical usage (e.g. for stretches of time).

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Geology]]
[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Comics with inverted brightness]]

3007: Probabilistic Uncertainty

2024-11-04T21:46:28Z

Pie Guy: to reflect political conflict

{{comic
| number = 3007
| date = November 4, 2024
| title = Probabilistic Uncertainty
| image = probabilistic_uncertainty_2x.png
| imagesize = 474x385px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = "One popular strategy is to enter an emotional spiral. Could that be the right approach? We contacted several researchers who are experts in emotional spirals to ask them, but none of them were in a state to speak with us."
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a PAIR OF BOTS ARGUING WHETHER TO BE HOPEFUL OR PESSIMISTIC - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic is about the difficulty of dealing with 50/50 odds, and is likely inspired by the 2024 American Presidential election, as this comic was released the day prior. The odds of the election as shown by many media sources are close to 50/50, which is the third scenario shown in the comic.

{| class="wikitable"
!Odds
!How to think about it?
!Explanation
|-
| Good outcome more likely || Recognize that the bad outcome is possible, but be reassured that the odds are in your favor ||
|-
| Bad outcome more likely || Prepare for the bad outcome while remembering that the future isn't certain and hope is justified ||
|-
| Precisely 50/50 || ????? N/A ???? || {{w|N/A}} stands for "not available", "no answer", "not applicable" or "not assessed".
|}
The title text is a joke about emotional spirals - naturally, the emotional spiral experts would be emotionally spiralling. Or, they could be experts that are in an emotional spiral.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
[A table titled "Coping With Probablistic Uncertainty", with two columns labeled "Scenario" and "How to think about it in an emptionally healthy way". The boxes in the Scenario column contains text followed by a rectangle split into two parts; the left part is a smiley face, the right part is a frowny face.]

Row 1, column 1: "Good outcome more likely". The smiley face portion of the rectangle is about 75%.
Row 1, column 2: "Recognize that the bad outcome is possible, but be reassured that the odds are in your favor".

Row 2, column 1: "Bad outcome more likely". The smiley face portion of the rectangle is about 25%.
Row 2, column 2: "Prepare for the bad outcome while remembering that the future isn't certain and hope is justified".

Row 3, column 1: "Precisely 50/50". The rectangle is split in half.
Row 3, column 2: "????? N/A ????"
{{comic discussion}}

3004: Wells

2024-10-28T19:47:29Z

Pie Guy: magic!

{{comic
| number = 3004
| date = October 28, 2024
| title = Wells
| image = wells_2x.png
| imagesize = 306x402px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = You do have to be careful, though--sometimes, instead of water, you hit this free fuel that you can sell for a lot of money instead.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a MAGICALLY WATERLOGGED OIL DRILL - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
A water {{w|well}} is a hole dug in the ground, deep enough to reach underground {{w|aquifers}}. They have been used for thousands of years as a source of water by people who don't live close to usable surface water sources like rivers and lakes.

This comic pokes fun of the seemingly improbable characteristics of wells; talking about how water "randomly" forms below the surface of the ground and how they "magically" refill themselves. In reality there are complex systems (the {{w|water cycle}}) that dictate the formations of the underground pools that the wells take from and the underground rivers that refill them.

The title text points out that in some cases, people intending to drill water wells instead found oil beds. Oil is a very valuable energy source, so they became very wealthy as a result<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCfGVLKr5oM</ref>. This is the source of the idiom "struck oil" to mean receiving a windfall as a result of a lucky occurrence. But you have to be careful -- if you blindly "drink whatever you find at the bottom", as Megan says, you'll get very sick if it's oil rather than water<ref>https://www.merckmanuals.com/home/injuries-and-poisoning/poisoning/hydrocarbon-poisoning</ref>. Oil tends to be buried much deeper than water.

This comic bears similarity to a [https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1993/06/11 Calvin and Hobbes comic from 1993] that was popular in Randall's area, in that it points out properties of a common natural drink that can appear disgusting when the underpinnings are left out.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Megan is on the left hand side and is facing Cueball who is on the right side and facing her. Megan has her left hand raised.]
:Megan: I need water, so I think I'll dig a deep hole and drink whatever liquid I find at the bottom.
:Cueball: What will you do after you drink it all? Dig another hole?
:Megan: I dunno. Hopefully it magically refills itself or something.

:[Caption below the panel:]
:It's ridiculous that wells work.

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Geology]]

Talk:3000: Experimental Astrophysics

2024-10-24T19:49:41Z

Pie Guy: responded to FrankHightower

== Moaning about ''this'' being the 3000th comic ==
I really thought he would do something special for the 3000th comic :( i was so hyped [[Special:Contributions/172.68.64.207|172.68.64.207]] 03:48, 19 October 2024 (UTC)
:Saaame:( but maybe he will do something at 3072[[User:SomeRandomNerd|SomeRandomNerd]] ([[User talk:SomeRandomNerd|talk]]) 03:57, 19 October 2024 (UTC)
:It's about blowing up the Sun and likely destroying the Solar System. That's not special enough for you? [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 04:01, 19 October 2024 (UTC)
::It doesn't reference its three-thousandness, unlike comics [[1000]] and [[2000]]; it could've been released any other day. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.90.25|162.158.90.25]] 04:22, 19 October 2024 (UTC)
:::Maybe we got the pattern wrong: 1000, 2000, 4000, 8000, ... [[User:Ruffy314|Ruffy314]] ([[User talk:Ruffy314|talk]]) 19:44, 21 October 2024 (UTC)
::::And then it goes 16000, 31000 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtkIWDE36qU], right? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.39.165|162.158.39.165]] 23:05, 21 October 2024 (UTC)
:::::Patterns fool ya... [[User:Poxy6|'''Poxy6''']] ([[User talk:Poxy6|talk]]) 01:02, 24 October 2024 (UTC)
:I was expecting xkcd 3000 for long but very busy today. I found this comic seemingly not too long after its publication, but not rather upset now [[User:物灵|物灵]] ([[User talk:物灵|talk]]) 06:40, 19 October 2024 (UTC)
:SAME! :( [[User:B_for_brain|B for brain]] ([[User_talk:B_for_brain|talk]]) ([https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCg4bo-hj-mDyOOUp_Yp0pug youtube channel] [https://bforbrain.weebly.com/ wobsite (supposed to be a blag)]) 09:22, 19 October 2024 (UTC)
:ugh me too! why didn't he do it it's so special! {{unsigned ip|172.71.151.4|01:51, 20 October 2024}}
:I was so hyped but couldn't check because I went camping-now I'm just disappointed. [[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]] ([[User talk:42.book.addict|talk]]) 22:06, 20 October 2024 (UTC)
Randall really did fall off 😭 [[User:CalibansCreations|'''Caliban''']] ([[User talk:CalibansCreations|talk]]) 10:23, 19 October 2024 (UTC)

xkcd 4000 is coming out on 10 march 2031 unless randall uploads inconsistently during those 1000 comics (very likely) unrelatedly i pronounce TŻO as /tiː ʐɛd oʊ/. is that normal? [[User:MinersHavenM43|MinersHavenM43]] ([[User talk:MinersHavenM43|talk]]) 04:10, 19 October 2024 (UTC)

:You (as I) seem to be rightpondian (or have a smattering of ¿polish? culture still within your leftpondian upbringing). I suspect it would be more /ʐi/ for Randall and most of his countrypeople (or straight /zi/, if not a different attempt at the dot-diacritic). It might more correctly be pronounced as /ˈʐɛt/, however, if I have the correct origin. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.2|172.70.162.2]] 06:12, 19 October 2024 (UTC)
::actually i am brazillian, my english is a mix of primarily american and british english. my understanding of polish came from when i was really into linguistics a few years ago. [[User:MinersHavenM43|MinersHavenM43]] ([[User talk:MinersHavenM43|talk]]) 12:34, 19 October 2024 (UTC)

That’s it? That’s 3000? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.154.245|162.158.154.245]] 04:20, 19 October 2024 (UTC)

3000th comic! Yay? [[User:Beanie|Beanie]] [[User talk:Beanie|talk]] 10:29, 19 October 2024 (UTC)
sad[[Special:Contributions/172.68.54.32|172.68.54.32]] 11:01, 19 October 2024 (UTC)

4096 is the next big release by standard XKCD counting? {{unsigned ip|172.69.71.190|13:54, 19 October 2024}}

wow, that's it? c'mon Randall, you made all those neat April fools comics, and you cant make something special for this [[Special:Contributions/172.69.71.130|172.69.71.130]] 16:18, 19 October 2024 (UTC)
:Even worse. He did something special for comic #[[1000]] & #[[2000]]. I was '''''SO''''' hyped! [[User:B_for_brain|B for brain]] ([[User_talk:B_for_brain|talk]]) ([https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCg4bo-hj-mDyOOUp_Yp0pug youtube channel] [https://bforbrain.weebly.com/ wobsite (supposed to be a blag)]) 18:37, 19 October 2024 (UTC)

Damn. Ever since February of this year I've been waiting with bated breath for today to see what awesome and neat thing Randall will have cooked up for 3000. Talk about a disappointment. Hopefully this is just a mistake or a misdirection, and he'll either replace this comic with the real 3000 comic or maybe release the cool comic tomorrow for 3001. [[User:Pie Guy|Pie Guy]] ([[User talk:Pie Guy|talk]]) 17:25, 19 October 2024 (UTC)
:{{w|3001: The Final Odyssey|3001}} is a much more geeky number than 3000, anyway... (or maybe 3072). I ''shall'' definitely be anticipating something good for 4096, though. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.205.178|172.68.205.178]] 19:13, 19 October 2024 (UTC)
::There wasn't anything particularly special for 1024 or 2048. I'm not sure why you expect 4096 to be special.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.110.93|172.70.110.93]] 19:36, 21 October 2024 (UTC)

And the disappointment of the year award goes to… [[Special:Contributions/172.70.110.93|172.70.110.93]] 02:35, 20 October 2024 (UTC)

Perhaps Comic 3141 could have some reference to being the first 4 decimal digits of pi? Disappointed nonetheless. {{unsigned ip|172.70.127.139|17:36, 20 October 2024}}

Perhaps we're not looking hard enough. Is there a numbering system where TZO means 3000? Or maybe the "Ż" symbol? The little dot is U+0307, which is just off by 7...
Or perhaps the "little circle pointing into a mirrored C shape" means 3000 in some kind of diagram...
--[[User:FrankHightower|FrankHightower]] ([[User talk:FrankHightower|talk]]) 17:09, 21 October 2024 (UTC)
:Cheap cope. I think he either forgot completely about it or just didn't care to make something special. Now pass me the hopium, I need to convince myself this is a galaxy-brain scheme that'll tie in with a later comic [[User:Pie Guy|Pie Guy]] ([[User talk:Pie Guy|talk]]) 19:49, 24 October 2024 (UTC)

It kinda sucks that there wasn't a big "WOW!!! 3000!!!" celebration, but he also could've just forgotten and he's cooked up something amazing for us! There's always a chance. [[User:Psychoticpotato|P?sych??otic?pot??at???o ]] ([[User talk:Psychoticpotato|talk]]) 17:27, 21 October 2024 (UTC)

==Actual comments about this comic==

Randall's "Comic 3000" joke is... that he's actually ''found'' the funding, as we're soon to discover. (Any guesses where the neutron star came from?) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.58.30|172.70.58.30]] 10:03, 20 October 2024 (UTC)
:Luckily for us, the nearest neutron star is at least 200 light years away. Getting there to capture it and bring it back is going to be at least another 400 years (maybe more like a few thousand) in the making. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.134.22|172.70.134.22]] 15:25, 21 October 2024 (UTC)

This is probably gonna get deleted in a minute but, it’s my birthday and my 10th year on dice, also today is comic 3000, I just want to express how much I enjoyed the comics, there isn’t one comic that I haven’t read. Thank you XKCD and thank you Randall for making this the best birthday ever. Also congratulations on 3,000 comics! {{unsigned ip|162.158.91.92|09:36, 21 October 2024 (UTC)}}

Talk:3001: Temperature Scales

2024-10-22T03:42:34Z

Pie Guy: added my comment

Shouldn't Rankine say "0ºR is set to absolute zero"? {{unsigned ip|172.70.230.29|22:58, 21 October 2024 (UTC)}}

yo,i thought comic 300 was anticlimactic so randall would make this one COOL but sadly not
Same. Hope he does something cool for 3072.[[Special:Contributions/172.69.134.225|172.69.134.225]] 23:44, 21 October 2024 (UTC)

really he didn't do anything special for this either? come ON randall if you don't do something cool for comic 3072 i will come to your house personally and yell at you [[User:RadiantRainwing|RadiantRainwing]] ([[User talk:RadiantRainwing|talk]]) 23:57, 21 October 2024 (UTC)

 
What's random about Fahrenheit? (Answer: nothing.) 0F is the freezing point of brine, 100F (or 98.7) is the human body temperature. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.54.65|172.68.54.65]] 00:00, 22 October 2024 (UTC)
:What concentration of brine? (And which specific salt... No, not NaCl, as you might presume but NH4Cl!)
:And body temperature varies a lot ('typically' 36.5–37.5°C or 97.7–99.5°F, though even this range is thought to be too small), across genders, individuals, time of day ''and'' which orifices/surfaces you try to measure it from. (Originally, it was set so that '''90°F''' was to be the 'best guess' of human body temperature. It gradually changed, including via various {{w|Human body temperature#Historical understanding|compounded misunderstandings}} so that the best you can say is that 100°F is arbitrarily ''slightly above'' most afebrile human body temperature measurements.)
:Celsius might be a bit off (arguments about triple-point or STP freezing, etc), but it still has far more physical logic to it. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.160.188|172.70.160.188]] 01:14, 22 October 2024 (UTC)

Personally, I'm most disappointed that {{w|Delisle scale}} was not represented... [[Special:Contributions/172.70.160.188|172.70.160.188]] 01:14, 22 October 2024 (UTC)
: I was so hoping for a {{w|Planck temperature}} quip. Like: "Water freezing point: 0; Water boiling point: 0; Notes: 1 = highest possible temperature (1.4E32K) where thermal radiation creates black holes; Cursedness: 0/0" [[Special:Contributions/162.158.164.184|162.158.164.184]] 01:27, 22 October 2024 (UTC)
:: Same here. Freezing is 0.000000000000000000000000000001928 and boiling is 0.0000000000000000000000000000026338. [[User:DanielLC|DanielLC]] ([[User talk:DanielLC|talk]]) 03:38, 22 October 2024 (UTC)

I guess I was wrong in my comment on the last comic. sigh. -[[User:Psychoticpotato|P?sych??otic?pot??at???o ]] ([[User talk:Psychoticpotato|talk]]) 01:16, 22 October 2024 (UTC)

It's actually spelled {{w|Wedgwood scale}}, not Wedgewood. [[User:Wilh3lm|Wilh3lm]] ([[User talk:Wilh3lm|talk]]) 01:17, 22 October 2024 (UTC)

I still call the modern version of the "Celsius" scale "centigrade", but if people start nitpicking, I'm happy to switch to "Carolus" to avoid ambiguity. For some reason that tends to annoy people more though. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.22.191|172.68.22.191]] 01:32, 22 October 2024 (UTC)

Every temperature scale is equally "random" as every other scale. People always say that Celsius is so much better because it's defined by the phase changes of water. Okay, cool...why should THAT of all things be what we use as the base for a system of temperature measurement? And, who cares? I'm a ''Homo sapiens'', not a water molecule. If anything we should use the freezing and melting points of humans as our two reference points for temperature (which, I must say, Fahrenheit approximates better than Celsius, assuming 0 and 100 are your points "A" and "B"). [[User:Pie Guy|Pie Guy]] ([[User talk:Pie Guy|talk]]) 03:42, 22 October 2024 (UTC)

Talk:3000: Experimental Astrophysics

2024-10-19T17:25:33Z

Pie Guy: added my comment

== i really thought he would do something special for the 3000th comic :( i was so hyped ==
[[Special:Contributions/172.68.64.207|172.68.64.207]] 03:48, 19 October 2024 (UTC)

:Saaame:( but maybe he will do something at 3072[[User:SomeRandomNerd|SomeRandomNerd]] ([[User talk:SomeRandomNerd|talk]]) 03:57, 19 October 2024 (UTC)
:It's about blowing up the Sun and likely destroying the Solar System. That's not special enough for you? [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 04:01, 19 October 2024 (UTC)
::It doesn't reference its three-thousandness, unlike comics [[1000]] and [[2000]]; it could've been released any other day. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.90.25|162.158.90.25]] 04:22, 19 October 2024 (UTC)
:I was expecting xkcd 3000 for long but very busy today. I found this comic seemingly not too long after its publication, but not rather upset now [[User:物灵|物灵]] ([[User talk:物灵|talk]]) 06:40, 19 October 2024 (UTC)
:SAME! :( [[User:B_for_brain|B for brain]] ([[User_talk:B_for_brain|talk]]) ([https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCg4bo-hj-mDyOOUp_Yp0pug youtube channel] [https://bforbrain.weebly.com/ wobsite (supposed to be a blag)]) 09:22, 19 October 2024 (UTC)
Randall really did fall off 😭 [[User:CalibansCreations|'''Caliban''']] ([[User talk:CalibansCreations|talk]]) 10:23, 19 October 2024 (UTC)

xkcd 4000 is coming out on 10 march 2031 unless randall uploads inconsistently during those 1000 comics (very likely) unrelatedly i pronounce TŻO as /tiː ʐɛd oʊ/. is that normal? [[User:MinersHavenM43|MinersHavenM43]] ([[User talk:MinersHavenM43|talk]]) 04:10, 19 October 2024 (UTC)

4096 is the next big release by standard XKCD counting?

:You (as I) seem to be rightpondian (or have a smattering of ¿polish? culture still within your leftpondian upbringing). I suspect it would be more /ʐi/ for Randall and most of his countrypeople (or straight /zi/, if not a different attempt at the dot-diacritic). It might more correctly be pronounced as /ˈʐɛt/, however, if I have the correct origin. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.2|172.70.162.2]] 06:12, 19 October 2024 (UTC)
::actually i am brazillian, my english is a mix of primarily american and british english. my understanding of polish came from when i was really into linguistics a few years ago. [[User:MinersHavenM43|MinersHavenM43]] ([[User talk:MinersHavenM43|talk]]) 12:34, 19 October 2024 (UTC)

That’s it? That’s 3000? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.154.245|162.158.154.245]] 04:20, 19 October 2024 (UTC)

3000th comic! Yay? [[User:Beanie|Beanie]] [[User talk:Beanie|talk]] 10:29, 19 October 2024 (UTC)
sad[[Special:Contributions/172.68.54.32|172.68.54.32]] 11:01, 19 October 2024 (UTC)

wow, that's it? c'mon Randall, you made all those neat April fools comics, and you cant make something special for this [[Special:Contributions/172.69.71.130|172.69.71.130]] 16:18, 19 October 2024 (UTC)

Damn. Ever since February of this year I've been waiting with bated breath for today to see what awesome and neat thing Randall will have cooked up for 3000. Talk about a disappointment. Hopefully this is just a mistake or a misdirection, and he'll either replace this comic with the real 3000 comic or maybe release the cool comic tomorrow for 3001. [[User:Pie Guy|Pie Guy]] ([[User talk:Pie Guy|talk]]) 17:25, 19 October 2024 (UTC)

2999: Bad Map Projection: The United Stralia

2024-10-16T19:13:49Z

Pie Guy: Preliminary explanation

{{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.}}

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.

The blending was done by roughly combining the shapes of the two countries, with American states becoming subdivisions of Australian provinces. Cities from both countries are present on the map, e.g. Perth, AU and Los Angeles, USA.

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.

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

{{comic discussion}}

2997: Solar Protons

2024-10-12T13:24:18Z

Pie Guy: corrected this sentence not to use "I"

{{comic
| number = 2997
| date = October 11, 2024
| title = Solar Protons
| image = solar_protons_2x.png
| imagesize = 647x783px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = If any of you want to meet some cool local oxygen atoms, I can introduce you!
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT RUNNING ON PROTONS INSTEAD OF ELECTRONS. Educational comment about aurora added 10/11 (MM/DD) - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic is referencing the solar storm that hit the earth on Thursday night before the comic. A result of the storm was that {{w|northern lights}} were visible across much of the northern United States ([https://i.hypercone.us/?f=41e91d plus London]), including Massachusetts where [[Randall]] lives. The northern lights normally occur much farther north, making this a rare and spectacular occurrence. The rare color background of this panel is an idealized depiction of the northern lights.

The solar protons referenced are hydrogen nuclei ejected from the sun after their electrons were stripped. Since a hydrogen nucleus is just a single proton, once its electrons are removed the resulting ion is just a proton. These protons, being positively charged, interact with earth's magnetosphere, and the resulting excitation of atoms in the atmosphere causes them to emit light in the form of aurora. In the northern hemisphere the aurora is called aurora borealis (Latin for "northern dawn") and in the southern hemisphere it is called aurora australis (Latin for "southern dawn").

[[Beret Guy]] here takes on the task of giving the protons a cordial welcome to Earth, where they will spend the foreseeable future. He has set up a sign to welcome them, presumably because he normally does not see the northern lights. His sign notes that they will love being part of the atmosphere, since if the light of the aurora is being emitted it means that the protons are interacting with other atoms in the atmosphere. The sign also invites them to try creating water. Water consists of one oxygen atom and two hydrogen atoms sharing an electrons each with the oxygen. Since the solar protons are just hydrogen nuclei, they can form water by interacting with oxygen atoms or hydroxide ions (OH-). Scientists believe that solar wind [https://physicsworld.com/a/did-the-solar-wind-create-earths-water/ frequently creates water] by interaction of the hydrogen nuclei with oxygen. However, the mechanism proposed involves solar wind first creating hydroxide from compounds in asteroids and space dust, and then another proton joining to make water. As most of the oxygen in Earth's atmosphere consists of O2 molecules (two bound oxygen atoms) it is not clear if solar protons could create water in the atmosphere with the northern lights as opposed to later, but only via various other intermediate atmospheric/geological/biological interactions which might take up hydrogen (ionised or otherwise).

Beret Guy is repeating two common misconception about aurora: that they are created directly by solar energetic particles, and that they are dominated by protons. [https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/content/aurora-tutorial Most aurora are caused by electrons, and these electrons are mostly already trapped over the long term in Earth's magnetosphere] (although many of them originated in the solar wind at some point). The interaction of the solar wind's magnetic field with Earth's magnetosphere can create strong electric fields parallel to the magnetic field lines near the poles, and these electric fields energize the electrons and accelerate them into the atmosphere, where their interactions with oxygen and nitrogen molecules create the emission lines of the aurora. It's not apparent if the misconceptions are Beret Guy's or Randall's.

The title text references water formation by saying that Beret Guy can introduce the solar protons/hydrogen nuclei to cool oxygen atoms. In reality hydrogen nuclei from the solar wind do not need an introduction,{{Citation needed}} but instead form bonds with oxygen when they impact oxygen or hydroxide due to their great speed.

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

:[Colorful aurora in the starry night sky, with colors ranging from red at the top to green at the bottom]
:[Black silhouette of Beret Guy standing on a grassy field, next to a sign to the right that reads (in light-greenish text on black):]
:Welcome Solar Protons!
:You'll love being part of our atmosphere!
:There's so much to do here. Try forming water!

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Chemistry]]

2990: Late Cenozoic

2024-09-25T19:45:02Z

Pie Guy: Wrote transcript

{{comic
| number = 2990
| date = September 25, 2024
| title = Late Cenozoic
| image = late_cenozoic_2x.png
| imagesize = 303x396px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Our nucleic acid recovery techinques found a great deal of homo sapiens DNA incorporated into the fossils, particularly the ones containing high levels of resin, leading to the theory that these dinosaurs preyed on the once-dominant primates.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a ONCE-DOMINANT BOT - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
Many Science Museums contain fossils, which are often reconstructed into full skeletons.
In the comic, aliens discovered the reconstructed fossils from our museums and misidentified them as coming from actual dinosaurs living at the time, and have made thus made their timeline of events accordingly.
the title text says that a high amount of resin and human DNA has led to them theorizing that dinosaurs ate humans.
==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

[Three squid-like aliens in a classroom; one alien stands in front of a board covered with minute text and a drawing of a T-Rex skeleton. Two aliens sit on chairs watching the teacher-alien. The teacher-alien points at the board with one tentacle. The image is encapsulated in a box, and there is a caption beneath it.]

Teacher-alien: Species such as triceratops and tyrannosaurus became more rare after the cretaceous, but they survived to flourish in the late Cenozoic, 66 million years later.
Many complete skeletons have been discovered from this era.

[Caption beneath the panel:]
It's going to be really funny when our museums get buried in sediment.

{{comic discussion}}

2977: Three Kinds of Research

2024-08-27T18:32:57Z

Pie Guy: it's probably the entire world, I mean this is xkcd we're talking about but I'll just add this as a possibility

{{comic
| number = 2977
| date = August 26, 2024
| title = Three Kinds of Research
| image = three_kinds_of_research_2x.png
| imagesize = 501x306px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = The secret fourth kind is 'we applied a standard theory to their map of every tree and got some suspicious results.'
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a DEPTH-FIRST TREE RE-SEARCHER - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
In this comic, three types of research are presented. First, Cueball presents an analysis of an existing theory, testing to see if it holds up under unusual circumstances. Second, Lenheart presents a new theory, presumably an alternative to Cueball's. This new theory must first be proven to have merit, so it's tested on "standard" circumstances, presumably older data that the existing theories have already been tested on.

The punchline is a disheveled Hairy presenting the third kind of research: not a theory, but a survey that collects the data to test theories on. Rather than sit around his laboratory crunching numbers, Hairy has gotten deep in the weeds — literally, judging by the leaves stuck to his body — to somehow map out "every tree." How far his survey of "every tree" reaches isn't clear but it's implied to be a massive area such as most of the country or continent (possibly the entire world), raising his arms in exhausted triumph over the fact he's finally finished.

The comic thus presents a message about science: while it's perceived to be a high-minded affair with lots of very smart people performing calculations well over most people's heads, it still relies on getting down and dirty — again, literally in Hairy's case — with the rather basic challenges of measuring what the problems are to begin with.

The title text brings everything together by testing theories on the tree map. Though the reading has multiple interpretations: the "map of every tree" was manipulated or simply inaccurate, someone is messing with trees on a global level, or the tree survey methods and/or mapping techniques are challenged by this type of researcher.

For example, the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lambda-CDM_model|Lambda-CDM standard model of cosmology] could be 
1) confirmed or challenged by new empirical data on the distribution of galaxies, new simulations, or a mathematical thought experiment based on that model 
2) challenged by a new model that is better at explaining some oddities of the model, such as [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_energy dark energy] 
3) complemented with a survey of the timeline of everything in the universe :-) 
In this case the fourth kind of researcher would apply the cosmological standard model to the map of everything and find something suspicious.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[A single panel with three separate drawings.]
:[Caption above the drawings:]
:The Three Kinds of Scientific Research:
:[Cueball is pointing to a scatter plot with a best-fit curve.]
:Cueball: We applied a standard theory to novel circumstances and got some surprising results.
:[Miss Lenhart is pointing to a similar scatter plot.]
:Miss Lenhart: We applied a novel theory to standard circumstances and got some intriguing results.
:[Hairy, with leaves in his messy hair and on his body, is pointing to another chart that is covered in random dots and unidentifiable shapes, while having both arms raised. Leaves are falling from him and are scattered on the ground at his feet. A stick is stuck in his hair.]
:Hairy: ''Finally, a map of every tree.''

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Miss Lenhart]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Scientific research]]

2574: Autoresponder

2024-08-20T16:37:21Z

Pie Guy: They aren't necessarily going to a show; since this is about vacation autoresponders they may very well be going to the airport

{{comic
| number = 2574
| date = January 28, 2022
| title = Autoresponder
| image = autoresponder.png
| titletext = I ADMIRE HOW YOU SET BOUNDARIES AND I HOPE YOUR COLLEAGUES RESPECT THEM! PLEASE SPARE MY LIFE!
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] and [[White Hat]] are going somewhere in need of tickets (a concert, the airport, etc.), and Cueball asks White Hat if he is ready to go, who affirms this but asks for Cueball to email him the tickets before they go.

When Cueball does this he apparently opts to send them to White Hat's work email address. When White Hat is not at work, he has an {{w|autoresponder}} activated that tells people to not disturb him as he is not at work. Usually this means that his email server sends an automatic response telling the sender of the mail that he is not at work, and not to expect an immediate reply.

But in this comic, White Hat has a physical autoresponder standing behind him, drawn as a human with thicker/rougher lines as if clad in bulky clothing, wearing spiky knee and elbow guards and a spike-embossed and notably scarred crash-helmet upon its head. It holds a glinting, sharp sword in its hand. When Cueball inadvertently activates it, it plunges forward to 'defend' White Hat from being disturbed by work related things during his spare time. It is so aggressive that it even violently pushes White Hat out of the way, with a blow to the face so that he falls back and dislodges his hat, as it prepares to confront the perpetrator, Cueball.

In the caption below, [[Randall]] states that he feels bad when he activates his friends' autoresponders. It is unclear if this is because he thinks he disturbs them with what they might think is work, because he then knows he will not get a reply or if he feels attacked (like Cueball in the comic) by their "aggressively worded" auto-replies.

In the title text Cueball shouts out (in all caps) to the autoresponder "I admire how you set boundaries and I hope your colleagues respect them! Please spare my life!" He therefore thinks it is a ''good'' idea to have time away from work where you cannot be contacted by your colleagues.

It is unclear if the autoresponder is a human or a robot, but the open-faced helmet reveals the fringe and neck-length hair generally seen on female characters, although for instance [[Megan]]'s hair is usually longer and not so messy as this creature. This would be reminiscent of the [[:Category:Android|Android series]], especially [[600: Android Boyfriend]], where one of the androids moves past its owner. It may also be a reference to ''Homestuck'', a webcomic which features an autoresponder as a real, living being.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and White Hat are talking to each other while Cueball is typing on his smartphone. A dark-haired figure stands behind White Hat, drawn with thicker/rougher lines as if clad in bulky clothing; wearing spiky knee and elbow guards, a spike-embossed and notably scarred crash-helmet upon its head; and is holding a glinting sharp sword in its hand.]
:Cueball: Ready to go?
:White Hat: Yup! Can you email me the tickets before we leave?
:Cueball: Sure, one sec.

:[The next panel is nested inside the first, although at first it just looks like two individual panels. This could indicate the second panel is an immediate response to the first. The armored figure aggressively moves forward towards Cueball, who drops his phone in surprise. The armored figure has its sword-arm raised, the other hand pushing White Hat behind it, by pushing him in the face which causes him to stumble backwards so his hat starts to fall off.]
:Cueball: Okay, I sent it to-
:Armored figure: ''It is outside work hours!''
:Armored figure: ''Prepare to die!''
:Cueball: ''Augh!''

:[Caption below the panel:]
:I always feel bad when I trigger my friends' work autoresponders.

==Trivia==
This was the ninth comic to come out after the [[Countdown in header text]] started and the one on the front page when it ended!

{{comic discussion}}

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

2962: President Venn Diagram

2024-07-26T05:32:47Z

Pie Guy: This last sentence in the warning adds nothing to the warning's substance, but made it sound somewhat hostile and condescending

{{comic
| number = 2962
| date = July 22, 2024
| title = President Venn Diagram
| image = president_venn_diagram_2x.png
| imagesize = 445x398px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Hard to imagine political rhetoric more microtargeted at me than 'I love Venn diagrams. I really do, I love Venn diagrams. It's just something about those three circles.'
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by 2,382,203 Massachusetts write-in ballots for Randall Munroe - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
{{notice|This comic contains just one opinion as interpreted by [[Randall|the comic's author]].
Please take care to not add anything to the main article that might be your own personal political opinion. |image=warning!!.png|**NB. This warning could remain as long as Harris is a candidate in the election. Once this process concludes, we might need a different warning.}}

On the Monday that this comic was published, US Vice President {{w|Kamala Harris}} became the new presumptive {{w|Democratic_Party_(United_States)|Democratic Party}} nominee for the 2024 presidential election, having received verbal endorsements from a majority of Democratic state delegations; the day before, President {{w|Joe Biden}} had {{w|Withdrawal_of_Joe_Biden_from_the_2024_United_States_presidential_election|suspended his re-election bid}} and endorsed Harris. These major events resulted in Harris replacing Biden as one of the top two candidates for {{w|President of the United States|President}} in the 2024 election.

This comic features a three-way {{w|Venn diagram}} (which [[2721: Euler Diagrams|is also an Euler diagram]]). The three circles represent eligibility for US presidency, ability to do a good job as the US president, and love for Venn diagrams:

# '''Good President:''' The dominant Internet topic of conversation on the day this comic was published was Harris and people's opinions about her, and [[Randall]] personally thought she'd be a good president but that he himself would not be.
# '''Eligibility:''' According to Article II of the {{w|US Constitution}}, someone is {{w|President_of_the_United_States#Eligibility|eligible for the presidency}} if they are a natural-born citizen of the United States, are at least 35 years old, and are a resident in the United States for at least 14 years. Both Randall Munroe and Kamala Harris meet these qualifications.
# '''Vocal Venn diagram affection:''' Harris' affection for Venn diagrams is something of a meme, and has been used by her in her campaign [https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/kamala-harris-campaign-memes-gen-z-b2583802.html]. Randall is also known for his love of Venn diagrams, which feature heavily in xkcd. Randall especially loves Venn diagrams ABOUT Venn diagrams, like this one. While Harris frequently uses Venn diagrams with three intersecting circles as props, she also has [https://www.c-span.org/video/?c5125622/user-clip-circle-venn-diagram discussed them in the abstract, without reference to any physical diagram, even when discussing more than three intersecting categories.]

Part of the humor arises from the contrast of putting on a level playing field three characteristics that range widely from the momentous to the quirky, as well as the implication that Randall and Harris are quite similar in all but one area: their fitness to serve as US President, per Randall's opinion.

The diagram does not indicate anyone who Randall would include in the six other areas (categories) of the Venn diagram besides the two in which he listed himself and Harris.

The title text [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWR2uTfrh-k quotes Kamala Harris on her affection for Venn diagrams], and implies that the best way to target Randall with political ads is to mention how amazing Venn diagrams are.

Randall seems to express support for a Democrat Presidential candidate every 8 years, including in a 2016 comic [[I'm With Her]] endorsing {{w|Hillary Clinton}} and in [https://blog.xkcd.com/2008/01/28/obama/ a 2008 blog post] endorsing {{w|Barack Obama}}. In 2032 he will endorse [attention time-travelers/future editors, please edit this part to fill in whoever is running for president, and whether [[1688|the spiders are able to vote]].], followed by [same here] in 2040, Gabriele Cirulli in 2048, and X Æ A-12 Musk in the 2056 United States of America and Mars (USAM) election.
:[A Venn diagram with three circles.]
:[Upper left circle:] Eligible to be President
:[Upper right circle:] Would be a good President
:[Lower circle:] Unusually vocal about love of Venn diagrams
:[Intersection of all three circles:] Kamala Harris
:[Intersection of the upper left and lower circles:] Me

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category: Venn diagrams]]
[[Category: Politics]]
[[Category: Elections]]
[[Category: Comics featuring politicians]]

2961: CrowdStrike

2024-07-19T20:15:43Z

Pie Guy: explained what ponytail and cueball found that is more entertaining

{{comic
| number = 2961
| date = July 19, 2024
| title = CrowdStrike
| image = crowdstrike_2x.png
| imagesize = 322x384px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = We were going to try swordfighting, but all my compiling is on hold.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by an UNAFFECTED BOT - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic is about the {{w|2024 CrowdStrike incident}} occurring on the day of the comic's release. CrowdStrike makes security software to protect computers from malware, ransomware and other cyberattacks. The software is sold to businesses and large enterprises like hospitals, airlines and retailers. CrowdStrike frequently releases updates to their software to handle new types of malware they know about.

A faulty update for one of their software products caused computers with the software installed to crash (a {{w|Blue Screen of Death}}) very early on when booting up. This meant the computers could not be quickly or automatically fixed. Because many large businesses with large numbers of computers used CrowdStrike's software, the resulting disruption was very widespread and very visible, preventing those businesses from operating and, in many cases, preventing their employees from working while their computers were affected. Apparently, Cueball and Ponytail's company had chosen to use CrowdStrike to secure their computers. Without being able to work, they have found something more entertaining to do -- Cueball, using a rope tied around his waist, is towing Ponytail, who is sitting on a swiveling chair, around their office. The editors of explainxkcd advise against performing this activity in real life without adult supervision.

Of course, CrowdStrike itself is a software company. As the caption suggests, its employees don't have the luxury of slacking off while their computers are broken: they have to address the faulty update, and help the businesses using their software to fix their computers. In the event, CrowdStrike had released a patch for the software around six hours after it came to light.

The title text refers to [[303: Compiling]], in which Cueball also found a good way to spend time at work when he couldn't use his computer, albeit for a more mundane reason.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[White Hat is addressing Ponytail, who is crouched on a moving office chair, holding onto a rope tied to Cueball, who is riding an electric scooter.]
:White Hat: Hey, aren't you supposed to be working on the—
:Ponytail: Sorry, that's all on hold today because of the CrowdStrike thing.

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Protip: as long as you're not actually in charge of ''fixing'' the CrowdStrike thing, you can use this excuse for pretty much anything you want to do today.
{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Protip]]

2953: Alien Theories

2024-07-02T06:42:24Z

Pie Guy: explained chemtrails

{{comic
| number = 2953
| date = July 1, 2024
| title = Alien Theories
| image = alien_theories_2x.png
| imagesize = 352x308px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = They originally came here to try to investigate our chemtrail technology, and got increasingly frustrated when all their samples turned out to just be water ice with trace amounts of jet exhaust.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created IN A GALAXY FAR FAR AWAY THAT'S SPYING ON US - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

A cultural phenomenon on Earth is based on the concept that unidentified flying objects (UFOs) - now, at least in the USA, officially termed "unidentified anomalous/aerial phenomena" (UAPs) - represent visitors from extraterrestrial civilizations (aliens). Those who believe that UFOs/UAPs are extraterrestrial may respond to those who reject this idea with the line, "These objects have capabilities superior to ours, it would be foolish not to investigate."

This comic attributes the "foolish not to investigate" line to bona fide flying saucers (an absurdity) who are in direct communication with Earth, represented by Cueball (compounding the absurdity). Whereas skeptical humans may confront UFO believers with evidence that aliens do not exist, and therefore argue that it is pointless to continue to promote theories (conspiracy or otherwise) about them, Cueball confronts the flying saucers with evidence that aliens do exist (namely, in the form of Cueball), and therefore it is pointless to continue to promote unsubstantiated theories about them. Cueball is disappointed that the occupants of the flying saucers maintain their beliefs in the face of evidence.

The title text reports that the extraterrestrials have had no better luck finding evidence for conspiracy theories about "chemtrails" ({{w|Contrails|vapor trails}}) than have humans. "Chemtrails" are supposed clouds of gas deployed by commercial airplanes, which are used to mind-control the population or in some way alter the human population or the environment (depending on who you ask). They have [[966|been]] [[1677|mentioned]] [[2654|before]] on xkcd.

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

:[Cueball is standing. There are two spaceships in the sky above him. A voice comes from the spaceship on the right.]
:Cueball: But you '''''know''''' aliens exist!
:Voice from spaceship: Yeah, but these reports describe fast-moving objects with capabilities far beyond anything we possess!
:Voice from spaceship: It would be foolish not to investigate!
:[Caption below panel:]
:Annoyingly, the aliens turned out to be really into UFO conspiracy theories.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Aliens]]
[[Category:Conspiracy theory]]

User talk:Pie Guy

2024-05-09T18:11:12Z

Pie Guy: /* 'Extending' cables */

== Welcome ==

{| style="width:100%"
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| valign="top" xalign="left" colspan="2" |
:<big><big>Welcome, [[User:Pie Guy|🥧👦]], to [[explain xkcd]]!</big></big>
| valign="top" xalign="right" rowspan="2" |[[File:Dialog-information on.svg|50px|link=https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/explain_xkcd:Community_portal/Proposals]][[File:Preferences-system.svg|50px|link=https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/explain_xkcd:Community_portal/Technical]][[File:Edit-find-replace.svg|50px|link=https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/explain_xkcd:Community_portal/Coordination]][[File:Tools-hammer.svg|50px|link=https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/explain_xkcd:Community_portal/Admin_requests]][[File:Help-browser.svg|50px|link=https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/explain_xkcd:Community_portal/Miscellaneous]]
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*If you are interested in editing the wiki, you can reduce the number of incomplete [[:Category:Incomplete explanations|explanations]] and [[:Category:Incomplete transcripts|transcripts]].
*See the Wikipedia {{w|Help:Editing|pages on editing}} if you are new to editing wikis in general.
*Browse all the [[xkcd]] food comics by navigating the category tree at [[:Category:Food]].
*Check out our [[explain xkcd:Community portal|community portal]] for general chit-chat about the [[explain xkcd|site]] and [[xkcd]].
*You can welcome another [[User talk:Billstz|new user]] with the template <nowiki>{{</nowiki>[[Template:Welcome|Welcome]]<nowiki>}}</nowiki>.
*Feel to visit the [[User:While False/explain xkcd museum|museum]].
*You have a [[User:Pie Guy|user page]]. Why not write something or upload some pictures?


|}
—[[User:While False|While False]] ([[User:While False/explain xkcd museum|'''museum''']] | [[User talk:While False|talk]] | [[special:Contributions/While_False|contributions]] | [[special:Log/While_False|logs]] | [[Special:UserRights/While_False|rights]]) 18:45, 4 November 2022 (UTC)

== The Sun and other suns... ==

No problem with [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1071:_Exoplanets&curid=61&diff=328984&oldid=323586 this edit] (it turns out valid), except for the stated reasoning. By convention, only our star is "The Sun" (or Sol/Helios/etc, according to culture being used), but a distant planet can and will orbit "a sun" (unless it's a rogue, or complicated by being in a (stable?) N-ary system!) with "the stars" acting as the relative background scenery for both (possibly mostly shared, but each one's sun otherwise only a star to the other, at best).

I would, and do, aggressively recalitalise "sun" to (The) "Sun" - as necessary - without bothering on the more poetic/relational uses. Unless, of course, it needs to be ''lowercased''; and "our sun" preferential to "our Sun", but that would highly depend upon context, i.e. acceptably done in the following example style-usage from [https://history.nasa.gov/styleguide.html NASA]:
Capitalize the names of planets (e.g., “Earth,” “Mars,” “Jupiter”). Capitalize “Moon” when referring to Earth’s Moon; otherwise, lowercase “moon” (e.g., “The Moon orbits Earth,” “Jupiter’s moons”). Capitalize “Sun” when referring to our Sun but not to other suns. Do not capitalize “solar system” and “universe.” Another note on usage: “Earth,” when used as the name of the planet, is not preceded by “the”; you would not say “the Neptune” or “the Venus.” When “earth” is lowercased, it refers to soil or the ground, not the planet as a whole. Do use “the” in front of “Sun” and “Moon” as applicable. See the list below for capitalization of words containing “sun” and “moon.”

Obviously there are many standards, and you made it ''at least'' as correct, but a simple "rephrasing" reason would perhaps have been better and not have then brought out my inner-pedant... ;) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.46.40|172.70.46.40]] 23:26, 14 November 2023 (UTC)

== 'Extending' cables ==

No problem with the [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2534:_Retractable_Rocket&curid=24512&diff=341760&oldid=304108 alternative wording], as it becomes, but I'm a bit concerned that you think we 'extend' undersea cables. They are laid down. Unrolled from spools (or similar windings), and might be multiple lengths of cable (whether copper or fibe-optic) spliced together as necessary for handling and other logistical purposes (before spooling or between spools, or both, depending upon practical considerations). [[Special:Contributions/172.69.195.171|172.69.195.171]] 14:47, 9 May 2024 (UTC)
:I was merely providing an example. I assumed that "extend" also included the "extension" of cables and other similar long, thin objects from spools or other holders. The first thing that jumped to my mind was a space elevator; would it not be appropriate that a space elevator's tether would be ''extended'' from the station in geostationary orbit to the surface below? In such a case, it would be a thing extended more than 400 km, making the original wording factually invalid. That's what I was thinking when I made the edit. But yeah, I knew undersea cables were rolled out in sections. [[User:Pie Guy|Pie Guy]] ([[User talk:Pie Guy|talk]]) 18:10, 9 May 2024 (UTC)

User talk:Pie Guy

2024-05-09T18:10:31Z

Pie Guy: /* 'Extending' cables */

== Welcome ==

{| style="width:100%"
|-
! valign="center" xalign="left" width="0%" rowspan="2" | [[File:Logo.png|left|140px]]
| valign="top" xalign="left" colspan="2" |
:<big><big>Welcome, [[User:Pie Guy|🥧👦]], to [[explain xkcd]]!</big></big>
| valign="top" xalign="right" rowspan="2" |[[File:Dialog-information on.svg|50px|link=https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/explain_xkcd:Community_portal/Proposals]][[File:Preferences-system.svg|50px|link=https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/explain_xkcd:Community_portal/Technical]][[File:Edit-find-replace.svg|50px|link=https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/explain_xkcd:Community_portal/Coordination]][[File:Tools-hammer.svg|50px|link=https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/explain_xkcd:Community_portal/Admin_requests]][[File:Help-browser.svg|50px|link=https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/explain_xkcd:Community_portal/Miscellaneous]]
|-
| colspan="2" |
*Be sure to give our [[explain xkcd:Editor FAQ|FAQ]] a read so that you can learn to participate as effectively as possible.
*If you are interested in editing the wiki, you can reduce the number of incomplete [[:Category:Incomplete explanations|explanations]] and [[:Category:Incomplete transcripts|transcripts]].
*See the Wikipedia {{w|Help:Editing|pages on editing}} if you are new to editing wikis in general.
*Browse all the [[xkcd]] food comics by navigating the category tree at [[:Category:Food]].
*Check out our [[explain xkcd:Community portal|community portal]] for general chit-chat about the [[explain xkcd|site]] and [[xkcd]].
*You can welcome another [[User talk:Billstz|new user]] with the template <nowiki>{{</nowiki>[[Template:Welcome|Welcome]]<nowiki>}}</nowiki>.
*Feel to visit the [[User:While False/explain xkcd museum|museum]].
*You have a [[User:Pie Guy|user page]]. Why not write something or upload some pictures?


|}
—[[User:While False|While False]] ([[User:While False/explain xkcd museum|'''museum''']] | [[User talk:While False|talk]] | [[special:Contributions/While_False|contributions]] | [[special:Log/While_False|logs]] | [[Special:UserRights/While_False|rights]]) 18:45, 4 November 2022 (UTC)

== The Sun and other suns... ==

No problem with [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1071:_Exoplanets&curid=61&diff=328984&oldid=323586 this edit] (it turns out valid), except for the stated reasoning. By convention, only our star is "The Sun" (or Sol/Helios/etc, according to culture being used), but a distant planet can and will orbit "a sun" (unless it's a rogue, or complicated by being in a (stable?) N-ary system!) with "the stars" acting as the relative background scenery for both (possibly mostly shared, but each one's sun otherwise only a star to the other, at best).

I would, and do, aggressively recalitalise "sun" to (The) "Sun" - as necessary - without bothering on the more poetic/relational uses. Unless, of course, it needs to be ''lowercased''; and "our sun" preferential to "our Sun", but that would highly depend upon context, i.e. acceptably done in the following example style-usage from [https://history.nasa.gov/styleguide.html NASA]:
Capitalize the names of planets (e.g., “Earth,” “Mars,” “Jupiter”). Capitalize “Moon” when referring to Earth’s Moon; otherwise, lowercase “moon” (e.g., “The Moon orbits Earth,” “Jupiter’s moons”). Capitalize “Sun” when referring to our Sun but not to other suns. Do not capitalize “solar system” and “universe.” Another note on usage: “Earth,” when used as the name of the planet, is not preceded by “the”; you would not say “the Neptune” or “the Venus.” When “earth” is lowercased, it refers to soil or the ground, not the planet as a whole. Do use “the” in front of “Sun” and “Moon” as applicable. See the list below for capitalization of words containing “sun” and “moon.”

Obviously there are many standards, and you made it ''at least'' as correct, but a simple "rephrasing" reason would perhaps have been better and not have then brought out my inner-pedant... ;) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.46.40|172.70.46.40]] 23:26, 14 November 2023 (UTC)

== 'Extending' cables ==

No problem with the [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2534:_Retractable_Rocket&curid=24512&diff=341760&oldid=304108 alternative wording], as it becomes, but I'm a bit concerned that you think we 'extend' undersea cables. They are laid down. Unrolled from spools (or similar windings), and might be multiple lengths of cable (whether copper or fibe-optic) spliced together as necessary for handling and other logistical purposes (before spooling or between spools, or both, depending upon practical considerations). [[Special:Contributions/172.69.195.171|172.69.195.171]] 14:47, 9 May 2024 (UTC)
:I was merely providing an example. I assumed that "extend" also included the "extension" of cables and other similar long, thin objects from spools or other holders. The first thing that jumped to my mind was a space elevator; would it not be appropriate that a space elevator's tether would be ''extended'' from the station in geostationary orbit to the surface below? In such a case, it would be a thing extended more than 400 km, making the original wording factually invalid. That's what I was thinking when I made the edit. [[User:Pie Guy|Pie Guy]] ([[User talk:Pie Guy|talk]]) 18:10, 9 May 2024 (UTC)

2553: Incident Report

2024-05-09T13:40:58Z

Pie Guy: reference to 2548

{{comic
| number = 2553
| date = December 10, 2021
| title = Incident Report
| image = incident_report.png
| titletext = Increasing-precision timestamps are the Jaws theme of incident reports.
}}

==Explanation==

An {{w|incident report}} describes the sequence of events when something goes wrong, including the lead-up as well as the aftermath. This usually involves describing at what time related events happen. In this comic, a report at a {{w|nuclear power plant}} on the day of the comic's publishing starts with particularly vague timestamps (that a package of fireworks arrived "roughly 18 hours prior" to it), then uses approximate minute-level precision ("14:00" and "14:20", which could reasonably be five minutes off in either direction), then minute-level precision ("14:28"), then second-level precision ("14:29:22" and "14:29:26").

This suggests that the ''clock'' time is really a proxy for the ''amount'' of time before one specific moment where everything falls apart, and when seconds start appearing, it implies that the recollection is within a few minutes of the disaster. Normally the increased level of precision reflects close monitoring capabilities of the affected systems, reviewing monitoring equipment, such as surveillance camera and microphone recordings, and/or detailed analysis by incident investigators. It may have been sufficient for the resulting inquiry to merely note the prior arrival of the original package, and possibly then read off (whatever remains of) the signing-in logs for the approximate times each member of staff arrives on the scene. At some point, though, the investigation will refer to fully timestamped security recordings, perhaps even eventually frame-by-frame with particular interest in exactly which things touched exactly what other things, in sequence, in order to hopefully learn all the necessary lessons about the incident.

Synchronization of events is important in [https://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/process/Pages/default.aspx incident investigations], so often systems are required to take input from common, relatively precise time references, such as {{w|GPS_disciplined_oscillator|GPS}}, {{w|WWV_(radio_station)|WWV broadcast}}, or cellular telephone systems. For example, an aircraft crash needs {{w|Airport_surveillance_radar|radar}} positioning data synced with [https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/publications/atpubs/foa_html/chap3_section_4.html voice communications] and {{w|Flight_recorder|flight recorder data}}. Lack of correlation between these is a potential source of conspiracy theories, for example one of the {{w|United Airlines Flight 93#Crash 9-11|hijacked planes on 9/11}} crashed into Pennsylvania either at 10:03 or 10:06 depending on two different information sources.

In many situations, incident reports are anonymized as shown to protect the identities of those people involved in the incidents. This is often done to prevent unnecessary blaming of certain individuals, particularly when it hasn't yet been determined whether the incident was negligence or just an accident.

Examples of real-life incident reports with second-level precision timestamps showing the increasing precision around critical moments include:
* [https://spaceflightnow.com/challenger/timeline/ Explosion] of the Space Shuttle Challenger
* [https://world-nuclear.org/information-library/safety-and-security/safety-of-plants/appendices/chernobyl-accident-appendix-1-sequence-of-events.aspx Chernobyl explosion]
* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Mile_Island_accident Three Mile Island Accident]
* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_2021_United_States_Capitol_attack January 6]

The report shown cuts off before reaching the actual incident, leaving it to the reader to imagine what happened next. If the birthday cake has lit candles, one possible sequence of events is that a dropped or badly thrown juggling pin could have hit one of them and then rolled over to the fireworks package, thus igniting the package. This would have caused the fireworks to go off underneath the reactor control's console.

Although the comic refers to {{w|Juggling club|juggling "pins"}}, jugglers commonly call those props "clubs." It is possible Randall is confusing the {{w|Bowling pin|similarly shaped objects}} in 10-pin bowling to juggling clubs. "Pins" are another name for a component of Uranium Carbide type {{w|Nuclear fuel#Uranium carbide|nuclear fuel rods}}, which are involved in the safe control of the nuclear reaction within a nuclear power plant. No sane reactor staff would juggle these complex, heavy and expensive pieces of equipment.{{citation needed}}

The title text refers to the [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvCI-gNK_y4 theme music] from the 1975 film ''{{w|Jaws (film)|Jaws}}'', which has come to represent impending danger. Movies use music to create the correct emotional tone; suspenseful music indicates that something bad is about to happen. The ''Jaws'' theme is an iconic example, famously used to create a sense of foreboding, then uses increasingly rapid tempo to build a sense of imminent danger, culminating in a dramatic moment of disaster (a shark attack, in the film). As with the increasing tempo of this theme, the increasing precision with which events are recorded in an incident report build the increasing sense that something terrible is imminent.

9603120071 is an actual accession number for an [https://adamswebsearch2.nrc.gov/webSearch2/main.jsp?AccessionNumber=9603120071 incident] at San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station in 1996. Four slightly contaminated stray kittens were found, cleaned, and adopted. No clock times were mentioned in the report.

Real-world nuclear power stations have strictly regulated control rooms which would prevent the simultaneous presence of fireworks, juggling and birthday celebrations.<ref>U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Regulatory Guide 1.114, "Guidance to Operators at the Controls and to Senior Operators in the Control Room of a nuclear Power Unit." (https://www.nrc.gov/docs/ML0823/ML082380236.pdf)</ref><ref>U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Regulatory Guide 1.189, "Fire Protection for Nuclear Power Plants." (https://www.nrc.gov/docs/ML1734/ML17340A875.pdf)</ref> There is no [[2548|East Valley]] nuclear power plant, but there are two reactor units at the nuclear power plant in Beaver Valley, Pennsylvania.

==Transcript==
:Facility: East Valley Nuclear Plant
:Date: 12/10/2021
:Report ID: 9603120071
:Event description: Roughly '''18 hours''' prior to the incident, an Amazon package containing fireworks was mistakenly delivered to the reactor control room and left under the console.
:The next day, at approximately '''14:00''', Technician A arrived at the facility with a bag containing four juggling pins. At '''14:20''', Technician A entered the control room, and joined Technician B at the console.
:At '''14:28''', Technician C exited the elevator and approached the control room holding a birthday cake intended for Technician B.
:At '''14:29:22''', Technician A said "Hey [Technician B], check out this cool trick I learned" while taking out the juggling pins. Technician B turned to look just as, at '''14:29:26''', Technician C entered holding the cake.

:[Caption below the panel]:
:You know things are about to get bad when the incident report starts including seconds in the timestamps.

{{comic discussion}}

2534: Retractable Rocket

2024-05-09T13:22:59Z

Pie Guy: Plenty of things have been extended beyond 400 km; e.g. undersea fiber-optic cables

{{comic
| number = 2534
| date = October 27, 2021
| title = Retractable Rocket
| image = retractible_rocket.png
| titletext = Hard to believe that for so many years once they were fully extended we just let them tip over.
}}

==Explanation==

This comic documents another of [[Beret Guy]]'s [[:Category:Strange powers of Beret Guy|absurdist ventures]]. He explains to [[Megan]] that "we" (possibly [[:Category:Beret Guy's Business|his company]]) are testing their new "retractable" rocket.

{{w|Reusable launch system|Reusable rockets}} are a growing industry, as they are more economically viable in the long run – though technically much more difficult to operate – than rocket boosters that are just discarded after use (which have been standard throughout the majority of space-faring history). Thus, Megan is understandably confused about Beret Guy's assertion that theirs is "retractable", asking if he misspoke. In typical fashion, he assures her that he did not misspeak, with a single "No" without further explanation.

They proceed to watch the rocket "launch", proving that it is indeed ''retractable''. In fact the rocket does not launch, but merely ''extends'' – apparently all the way to the {{w|International Space Station}} (ISS), a height of over 400 km (over 250 miles) – before retracting, as promised, to its original position. The top part, with the astronauts in it, has been left in space. Presumably, it is docked to the ISS, as the crew onboard the ISS say hello to them in panel 4.

Of course, it would not be possible to magically extend a rocket this far.{{Citation needed}} The top would need to be moving very fast compared to the bottom part, or it would bend westwards and break, and even with the strongest material a fully extended, very thin, presumably, hollow structure with a payload on top would {{w|buckling|buckle}} very soon after extension began. Also, the ISS moves at 27,600 km/h (17,100 mph) compared to the ground under it, making an orbit in about one and a half hours. So making the tip follow this long enough to dock would be even more impossible.

Beret Guy's retractable rocket has more than a few similarities to a {{w|space elevator}} which has been discussed in real life. The chief difference is, a space elevator is only extended once (and most likely this would be down from space, not extended upwards), and never retracted unless it needs to be dismantled. Randall has referenced space elevators in [[697: Tensile vs. Shear Strength]]. A more similar theoretical means to attain orbit is that of the {{w|space fountain}}. He has also examined the problems of a solid metal object extending through the atmosphere [https://what-if.xkcd.com/157/ in a what-if].

The current method of sending rockets into space requires huge amounts of fuel, and the more fuel you attempt to carry, the heavier the rocket, leading to more fuel being required, etc. ({{w|Tsiolkovsky rocket equation}}), which makes the current method inefficient. Alternate methods are being explored, such as using a slingshot ({{w|SpinLaunch}} had a successful test flight of a smaller scale launcher just days before this comic was published, probably the influence for this comic), theoretical {{w|space elevators}}, or this comic's impossible retractable rocket idea, all of which would leave the majority of the "fuel" requirements on Earth or elsewhere rather than having to carry heavy fuel with the rocket. The only fuel carried might be minimal amounts for course adjustments once in space rather than large amounts used to get there. However, many of these methods are less flexible than rockets; the space elevator, for instance, operates on the basis of constant angular velocity relative to the Earth's axis of rotation, meaning that it cannot launch payloads directly into low-earth orbit, polar orbits, or many other orbits frequently used by satellites for their desirable characteristics, and satellites intended for these orbits might still need to carry considerable amounts of fuel, even if less than that required to launch directly from the ground.

The title text parodies the 'old' single-use boosters. It appears that the predecessors to the 'retractable rockets' were capable of controlled extension only. Once they had lofted the payload to orbit, they were then allowed to fall over, destroying them in the process so they could not be used again just like booster rockets. However, if a 250 mile/400 km high construction just fell over, it would be much more difficult to avoid other damage, than to the rocket (booster), than for just a few small booster rockets falling out of the sky.{{Citation needed}}

This comic was released four days before (and possibly refers to) SpaceX's {{w|SpaceX Crew-3|Crew-3 mission}} to send astronauts to ISS with a reusable rocket on 31 October 2021.

==Transcript==
:[Beret Guy and Megan is talking. Behind them near the horizon is a tall rocket on a launchpad.]
:Beret Guy: We're testing our new retractable rocket.
:Megan: You mean reusable?
:Beret Guy: No.

:[A zoom in on the launchpad and rocket. It has the appearance of having a long first stage, a second stage with slightly wider fairing and an Apollo-style capsule with escape-tower atop it all. There is a directionless speech-bubble at the top depicting a count down voice.]
:Count down: Three...Two...One...Liftoff!

:[Same view as before, but while the base of the rocket-stack remains stationary, the first stage is apparently elongated, with a hint of a bend to the right, to raise the total height to which the upper-stage and capsule assembly reaches almost to the top of the panel.]

:[In a wider panel, with the base to the left, the first stage is now elongated far enough to disappear off the top of the center of the frame, thus clearly bending to the right. Two peoples voices are indicated as coming from the space capsule far above, as it reaches it destination.]
:Voice 1: Hi, welcome to the ISS!
:Voice 2: Hello!

:[The final panel shows the same view as in the third panel. The first stage is now retracting, and has similar length as in the third panel, but the capsule is no longer atop the 'second stage' fairing. Four movement lines above the top of the retracting rocket indicates that it is returning back to the original position.]

==Trivia==
*The [https://web.archive.org/web/20211028014542/https://xkcd.com/ original comic] misspelled "retractable" as "retractible". Has been documented on the web archive.
**This was done both in the [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/archive/5/57/20211028040721%21retractable_rocket.png comic itself], and [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2534:_Retractible_Rocket&redirect=no the title].

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Beret Guy's Business]]
[[Category:Strange powers of Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Space]]

Talk:2927: Alphabetical Cartogram

2024-05-01T16:01:57Z

Pie Guy:

Is it me or is Hawaii strangely bigger than california. {{unsigned|172.70.100.40}}
:I think he's only counting the land area. The area between the islands may be creating an illusion that Hawaii is bigger. It's hard to tell just by looking, does anyone have the tech to measure this? P.S. remember to sign... [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 14:11, 1 May 2024 (UTC)

Im just wondering why Maine is still so big.... [[User:JushJosh|JushJosh]] ([[User talk:JushJosh|talk]]) 13:22, 1 May 2024 (UTC)Jush
:I know, right? That's what made me think it wasn't just a simple alphabetical listing. That, and Hawaii is bigger than Alaska, despite the fact that Alaska is substantially higher on the list. In fact, it even appears that Alaska is smaller than Maine! How did Randall decide on the sizes??? [[User:Pie Guy|Pie Guy]] ([[User talk:Pie Guy|talk]]) 16:01, 1 May 2024 (UTC)

The sad part is that Rhode Island grew. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.31.139|172.71.31.139]] 14:01, 1 May 2024 (UTC)

I believe it is some sort of ranking rather than swapping sizes as the chart suggests, as South Carolina appears to be smaller than normal (?) [[User:Primmy|Primmy]] ([[User talk:Primmy|talk]]) 14:56, 1 May 2024 (UTC)

Poor Utah :( [[User:Z1mp0st0rz|If you click on this you will get a fun surprise]] ([[User talk:Z1mp0st0rz|talk]]) 15:15, 1 May 2024 (UTC)

I believe the first paragraph is incorrect. I did a full comparison, and Texas shrank the most (dropping 41 places from size ranking to alphabetical ranking), while Connecticut as well as Delaware grew the most (each rising 41 places between the lists). [[Special:Contributions/172.71.255.28|172.71.255.28]] 15:40, 1 May 2024 (UTC)

2927: Alphabetical Cartogram

2024-05-01T13:19:17Z

Pie Guy: replaced incorrect explanation

{{comic
| number = 2927
| date = May 1, 2024
| title = Alphabetical Cartogram
| image = alphabetical_cartogram_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x548px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Poor Weeoming.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by an SUSPICIOUSLY SMALLER-THAN-USUAL BOT - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic shows a map of the United States, with every state resized based on how commonly the letters in its named are used in general language. States that have more commonly-used letters (e.g. Hawaii, with four common vowels) are larger, and states with fewer common letters (e.g. Wisconsin) are smaller.

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

{{comic discussion}}

1277: Ayn Random

2024-04-30T15:10:04Z

Pie Guy: I meant to just do a minor rewrite of what I felt was a biased sentence in the first section, but ended up rewriting the whole thing. I think this layout has better flow, anyway -- and has a more *objective* (hehe) tone

{{comic
| number = 1277
| date = October 14, 2013
| title = Ayn Random
| image = ayn random.png
| titletext = In a cavern deep below the Earth, Ayn Rand, Paul Ryan, Rand Paul, Ann Druyan, Paul Rudd, Alan Alda, and Duran Duran meet together in the Secret Council of /(\b[plurandy]+\b ?){2}/i.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is a satirization of {{w|Objectivism}}, a philosophy developed by {{w|Ayn Rand}}. Objectivism is a moral system which promotes the institution of complete, unregulated Lassez-Faire capitalism (capitalism with no regulation or governmental intervention of any kind). A core claim of Objectivism is that it is a perfectly fair way of distributing resources. Depending on how one defines fairness, Objectivism is not fair -- since those who have been externally elevated to an advantageous position (e.g. via nepotism) will be able to acquire more resources with the same level of effort as another person who does not benefit from similar advantages. In the comic, this juxtaposition between the claim that Objectivism is fair, and the unfairness seen in its practical implementation, is satirized in the form of an Ayn Random number generator (a pun on Rand's name) whose creator claims is perfectly fair but demonstrably is not.

A major ethical quandary Objectivists face is what is to be done about this unfairness; if Objectivism really is the perfect system for resource distribution, then why are resources distributed unequally under Objectivism? How one answers that question depends on a certain assumption -- that being, whether all humans are essentially equal in value (the accepted moral position in the West, c. 2024) or not. Some Objectivists disagree with the assertion of total human equality, concluding that if, under a hyper-aggressive survival-of-the-fittest system, people do not acquire equal levels of resources, then peoples' intrinsic values must be different. In the comic, this particular position is satirized with White Hat's cry of "Well, maybe those numbers are just intrinsically better!"

A more nuanced description is that Objectivists believe that the primary aim of life is to maximize personal happiness. In their view, if some humans are born more capable of satisfying their desires than other people, they deserve to reap greater rewards from life than others, no matter the cost to those others.

As an aside, "biased" random number generators exist. They're called weighted random number generators, and they have many practical applications when the programmer isn't lying about the number generator's function and output.

The title text identifies a group of people whose names match the {{w|regular expression}} <code>[https://www.debuggex.com/r/WsWV5ZSh8NTQL_JZ <nowiki>/(\b[plurandy]+\b ?){2}/i</nowiki>]</code>. A step-by-step explanation of the expression:
*\b is a word boundary, matching anywhere there is a 'word character' next to a non-word character—punctuation, digit, spacing, etc.
*[plurandy] is a character class, and will match any single character from the set inside the square brackets; [adlnpruy] means exactly the same
*the plus sign means ''one or more'' of the previous thing, so [plurandy]+ matches one or many of the characters in that class, one after the other
*" ?" - a space followed by a question mark: "?" means "0 or 1 of the previous thing", so a space is optional
*the whole section in parentheses (\b[plurandy]+\b ?) translates to "a word containing one or more letters, all of which are in the set [plurandy], followed by an optional space"
*the {2} on the end means to repeat the pattern, so it must match exactly twice
*The slashes at each end mark out the pattern, and the "i" at the end is an expression qualifier means it is "case insensitive" (uppercase and lowercase match interchangeably)

Overall, it matches two words separated by a space, composed entirely of the letters in [plurandy], which is what all the names listed have in common. This could suggest that those letters are, to quote White Hat, intrinsically better.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Person !! Brief Description
|-
| style=white-space:nowrap | {{w|Ayn Rand}} || Author, best known for her novels ''{{w|The Fountainhead}}'' and ''{{w|Atlas Shrugged}}''.
|-
| style=white-space:nowrap | {{w|Paul Ryan}} || US politician known to have been influenced by the writings of Ayn Rand.
|-
| style=white-space:nowrap | {{w|Rand Paul}} || US politician, also influenced by Ayn Rand's writings.
|-
| style=white-space:nowrap | {{w|Ann Druyan}} || Author, widow of {{w|Carl Sagan}}
|-
| style=white-space:nowrap | {{w|Paul Rudd}} || Actor, screenwriter, comedian
|-
| style=white-space:nowrap | {{w|Alan Alda}} || Actor, best known for the role of Hawkeye Pierce in the TV series ''{{w|M*A*S*H (TV series)|M*A*S*H}}''. Also played Arnold Vinick, a fiscally-conservative Republican presidential candidate, in ''{{w|The West Wing}}''.
|-
| style=white-space:nowrap | {{w|Duran Duran}} || New Wave/Rock band, named after the mad scientist antagonist in cult film ''{{w|Barbarella (film)|Barbarella}}'', who wishes to bring warfare back to civilization.
|}

As an aside, if the entirety of the title text is matched against the regular expression, it matches "and Duran" instead of "Duran Duran".

===Speculation===
Since the primary virtue in Objectivist ethics is rationality (or, at least, "rationality" as defined by Rand: her critics argue that the conclusions she reached do not actually derive inevitably from her premises and that additional, unstated assumptions are necessary to make the system work), the implication may be that the random number generator favors rational numbers (numbers that can be written as a fraction, i.e. a quotient p/q). On the other hand, given computers cannot store data of unlimited length, it is impossible for '''any''' real world computer random number generator to produce an irrational number in any of the usual integer or floating point representations—so probably not. (Although a computer could encode irrationals or generate them randomly if it uses another representation, one of the standard algebraic number representations, for instance.) Alternately, an Objectivist might argue that if the intent of the comic is to attack or mock Objectivism, then the comic inadvertently satirizes itself via the "rationality" interpretation.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball sitting at a laptop, White Hat behind him.]
:Cueball: This Ayn Random number generator you wrote '''''claims''''' to be fair, but the output is biased toward certain numbers.
:White Hat: '''''WELL, MAYBE THOSE NUMBERS ARE JUST INTRINSICALLY BETTER!'''''

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Programming]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Philosophy]]
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Puns]]
[[Category:Regex]]

2925: Earth Formation Site

2024-04-26T18:14:27Z

Pie Guy: preliminary transcript

{{comic
| number = 2925
| date = April 26, 2024
| title = Earth Formation Site
| image = earth_formation_site_2x.png
| imagesize = 478x521px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = It's not far from the sign marking the exact latitude and longitude of the Earth's core.
}}

==Explanation==
In this comic, Cueball stands in front of a sign that declares itself to be a historical location. Typically, these signs are placed at precise locations where historical events (such as where battles have been fought, or where people of note were born/died) happened. However, the event in question on the sign is the formation of the Earth, which cannot be pinned down to one precise location on Earth, and therefore this sign could be placed just as well anywhere on Earth.

It may also be of interest to note that due to the Sun's 225-million year long orbit around the center of the Milky Way galaxy, the sign is misleading, as the exact location at the time of formation within the galaxy is unclear.

The title text refers to the 'coordinates of the Earth's core'. Since all coordinates, when superimposed on a globe, converge at the Earth's core, this reinforces the idea that no singular location can be picked as the exact location where the Earth formed.

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

(Cueball is standing in front of a sign in a field of grass. The sign reads:)

HISTORICAL MARKER

EARTH FORMATION SITE

~ 4,450,000,000 BCE ~

At this location in the year 4,450,000,000 BCE, a cloud of dust and gas gravitationally collapsed to form the Earth.

{{comic discussion}}

2919: Sitting in a Tree

2024-04-13T04:24:17Z

Pie Guy: we are nerds

{{comic
| number = 2919
| date = April 12, 2024
| title = Sitting in a Tree
| image = sitting_in_a_tree_2x.png
| imagesize = 591x320px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = First comes blood / Then we perish / Then comes Death in his Eternity Carriage.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a PAIR OF NERDS E-D-I-T-I-N-G - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

“[name] and [name], sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G” (or some other seven-letter word, almost always ending in “ing”), is a common taunt chanted among young children in the US, making fun of the romances of others, which are often seen as “gross” at that age.

This comic takes the variety of things which could be chanted to an unrealistic extreme, starting with relatively normal ones such as “hugging” and “reading” and progressing through increasingly disturbing ones. In each frame, the last possibility is pictured.

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

{{comic discussion}}

2918: Tick Marks

2024-04-11T05:50:33Z

Pie Guy: Preliminary explanation

{{comic
| number = 2918
| date = April 11, 2024
| title = Tick Marks
| image = tick_marks_2x.png
| imagesize = 292x276px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = If you're really savvy, you can hide an entire set of illicit transactions by timing them to draw what looks like a graph inset.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT WORKING IN SECRET - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic provides the reader with a suggestion on how to "conceal activity" that is going to be graphed over time; by timing bursts of activity with the ticks on the time axis. This is assuming that the scale of the time axis is known, and that the "bottom" of the graph coincides with the line on which the ticks are drawn, rather than the "peak" of the largest tick.

Theoretically, the graphed "activity" would be concealed behind the ticks, meaning anyone reading the graph would perceive activity as having ceased at the deadline, even though it had continued in time-axis-tick-sized bursts afterwards.

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

{{comic discussion}}

666: Silent Hammer

2024-03-25T19:12:05Z

Pie Guy: Specifcity on comic number

{{comic
| number =666
| date =November 23, 2009
| title =Silent Hammer
| image =silent_hammer.png
| titletext ='I bet he'll keep quiet for a couple weeks and then-- wait, did you nail a piece of scrap wood to my antique table a moment ago?'
}}
==Explanation==
[[Black Hat]] has created a set of tools that work in complete silence so that he can go to the house of the chairman of the {{w|The Skeptics Society|American Skeptics Society}} late at night, do some rearranging of walls and moving of windows, just to screw with him in typical Black Hat fashion. Imagine how surprised the person must be when they wake up and discover their whole house has been rearranged! A {{w|skeptic}} is someone who questions knowledge, facts and beliefs, especially of supernatural phenomena like the existence of {{w|poltergeists}} which Black Hat is trying to imitate with his rearranging and scratching noises.

The American Skeptics Society is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting skeptical and critical thinking in education and public discourse. The executive director and chief editor of the {{w|Skeptic_(U.S._magazine)|Skeptic Magazine}}, {{w|Michael Shermer}}, is a leading proponent of skepticism, and has written many books and articles debunking pseudoscience, fringe science, quack medicine, alien abductions, conspiracy theories and [[373|supernatural phenomena]]. The [http://www.skeptic.com Skeptic Society website] and Skeptic magazine feature a lot of material debunking anecdotal accounts of these phenomena, explaining how events like "hauntings" could have occurred without supernatural intervention.

One of the premises of modern skepticism is that the supernatural is not rejected out of hand; if someone came up with a proper scientific hypothesis that predicted something supernatural and that hypothesis was proven beyond reasonable doubt, a skeptic would accept that the supernatural thing in question was probably correct.

In the title text [[Cueball]] realizes that Black Hat has (probably intentionally) ruined his antique table by demonstrating his silent hammer on it in the first panel.

Black Hat's tools are seen in two boxes labeled "Drills" and "Non-Drills", likely a reference to the phrase "this is not a drill", used to differentiate an emergency situation from a practice of procedure for such.

Note that this comic is numbered {{w|666 (number)}}, the number of the beast in {{w|Christian theology}}, which is often associated with the evil and supernatural.

==Transcript==
:[Black Hat is hammering something on a table.]
:Cueball: What—
:Black Hat: Silent hammer. I've made a set of silent tools.
:Cueball: Why?
:Hammer: ''woosh woosh woosh''

:Black Hat: Stealth carpentry. Breaking into a house at night and moving windows, adjusting walls, etc.
:[He takes his silent hammer over to a tool bench with other things on it. Two boxes underneath are labeled "Drills" and "Non-Drills."]

:Black Hat, narrating: After a week or so of questioning his own sanity, the owner will stay up to watch the house at night. I'll make scratching noises in the walls, pipe in knockout gas, move him up to his bed, and never bother him again.
:[The events he's describing are shown in two mini-panels below.]

:[Zoom in on Black Hat, with Cueball off-panel to the left.]
:Cueball, off-panel: Nice prank, I guess, but what's the point?
:Black Hat: Check out the owner's card, on the table.
:Cueball, off-panel: Chair of the American Skeptics Society? Oh, god.
:Black Hat: Yeah, this doesn't end well for him.

==Trivia==
This comic, along with its title text, is used on TV Tropes as the image for {{tvtropes|Gaslighting}}.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]

1611: Baking Soda and Vinegar

2024-03-05T17:11:16Z

Pie Guy: Discussed possibility that the supervolcano is just a model baking soda/vinegar supervolcano; moved Campi Flegrei to trivia section

{{comic
| number = 1611
| date = December 2, 2015
| title = Baking Soda and Vinegar
| image = baking_soda_and_vinegar.png
| titletext = Sure, it may not meet science fair standards, but I want credit for getting my baking soda and vinegar mountain added to the Decade Volcanoes list.
}}

==Explanation==
In popular fiction (and maybe in part in fact) the "{{w|Sodium bicarbonate|Baking Soda}} and {{w|Vinegar}}" {{w|volcano}} is often a staple image of the science nerd at the science fair (see [https://sciencebob.com/the-erupting-volcano/ example here]), unless all the science nerds are doing ''real'' imaginative science and the student(s) with the volcano exhibit are dragging out the old hackneyed stereotype. It may also be age-dependent, this being something that is relatively advanced science for the lower grades but rather a childish experiment in the hands of older students.

[[Ponytail]] is about to point out any one of a number of flaws with the trope. For one thing, while the project may exhibit interesting physical phenomena of the sort that some scientists study, the project itself doesn't actually teach anything about the scientific method. {{w|Science fair|Actual science fairs}} are usually intended to teach students about the scientific method by exercising it firsthand: subjecting hypotheses to appropriately rigorous experimentation and reporting on the results. The cliché volcano exhibit doesn't teach any of this and may instead reinforce the idea that science is about cool explosions and not a system of inquiry. Further, the exhibit doesn't (usually) actually demonstrate anything about volcanic activity: it is relatively simple chemistry involving the reaction of acetic acid in vinegar and sodium bicarbonate in baking soda to produce sodium acetate and (notably) a vigorous froth made up of bubbles of carbon dioxide. It is often dressed up to look more impressive, such as by using dye or other additives to make the 'eruption' look more 'realistic,' but it often fails to replicate important features of actual volcanic eruptions, such as the flow of lava, associated seismic events or the collapse of part of the volcanic crater. Most people doing soda volcano projects don't even explain what's happening.

[[Jill]] has made a little more of her volcano, however, as it seems to go beyond simple chemistry. The model replicates many of the dangers (aside from the pure lava) of a volcano and appears to have been given scaled-down vehicles (not visible in the comic) trying (and failing) to escape the dangers of the resultant mud-flows (a.k.a. {{w|lahar|lahars}} in professional terminology) being modeled. Ponytail contradicts her early reaction by also not liking the more realistic model, although it is the carnage she dislikes, not that it has more correct details of the eruption itself.

Even more, this is not an isolated 'model volcano' but a vinegar-powered representation of a geological 'hot spot', such as with the islands of Hawaii, in which the spot moves with respect to the Earth's crust (or vice-versa) and generates a new volcano some way off. Despite this model being supported on a table, it appears that the 'project' extends some way beyond that and has somehow contrived further eruptions away from the table, the room and probably even the building.

The 'project' seems to be turning into a very thorough model of a much larger geological process (a {{w|Supervolcano}} like {{w|Yellowstone Caldera|the one}} under {{w|Yellowstone National Park|Yellowstone}}) and destined to produce a ''very real'' {{w|volcanic winter}}. Where a magma-powered volcano could produce vast clouds of dust, preventing the sun's energy from warming the Earth, in this case it's the airborne salt (probably sodium acetate) from the chemical reaction that appears to be in danger of causing crop failure. There's no mention of the corresponding environmental effects of the vast amounts of carbon dioxide (and/or aqueous carbonic acid) necessarily released in proportion to the ejected salt (presumably itself not left in solution).

It is especially troubling that the child even mentions that her model volcano is an offshoot of a baking soda ''super''volcano. Supervolcanoes are massive volcanoes, far larger than even those on the list of {{w|Decade Volcanoes}} (mentioned in the title text), whose eruption would likely trigger species-level extinction events comparable to the dinosaur extinction. The best hope humanity has here is that the baking soda supervolcano is as small compared to supervolcanoes as the girl's baking soda volcano is to real volcanoes; the ratio is about 1:600 (for a cinder cone volcano), implying that the baking soda supervolcano, if modeled after Yellowstone, would only be about 80 meters by 120 meters in size. Unfortunately, the climatological and economic symptoms witnessed outside and on the grain market suggest that the model supervolcano is not very small.

When someone (presumably the dark-haired woman) says she wants to stop learning, Jill grimly states that "Soon, we all will", alluding to their impending doom.

[[Randall]] has mentioned supervolcanoes before in [[1053: Ten Thousand]] (title text) and [[1159: Countdown]], making it a recurring interest of his. The volcano [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/6/6a/Entire_Volcano_zoom_out.png Mount Doom] was depicted to the far left in the game [[1608: Hoverboard]] released a week before this comic. It may not be a supervolcano, but quite potent anyway... Later this comic was directly referenced in the seventh panel of [[1714: Volcano Types]], where it is up to the reader to decide it, this is Jill's model people or what happens outside on her supervolcano.

In the title text the student expects extra credit for getting her model volcano added to the Decade Volcanoes list, a list maintained by {{w|International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth's Interior}} of the world's most dangerous volcanoes (currently 16). It is either an absurd notion or a very troubling achievement that a science fair project could achieve the threat level posed by the likes of {{w|Mount Vesuvius}} (which destroyed ancient Pompeii in Italy, and threatens modern-day Naples in the same manner), {{w|Mount Rainier}} (whose lahars could potentially destroy parts of Seattle) or {{w|Mauna Loa}} (which could create a massive landslide, triggering a major tsunami that would threaten all of Hawaii). But if the volcano erupting outside is scaled down to match the scale of her original model volcano, at least that means that it was only a "local" volcano event and not a supervolcano event that she created, so it would only doom the local area.

==Transcript==
:[Ponytail is standing behind Jill who has one hand up. They are looking at a table with a model volcano.]
:Jill: My science project is a baking soda and vinegar volcano!

:[A larger frame that includes Megan who stands to the right. Ponytail is a little further back and Jill has taken her hand down. The baking soda volcano erupts in a small upwards explosion.]
:Ponytail: Why do people make these? It isn't really even a science project. It doesn't teach anything about-
:Volcano: '''''Foom!'''''

:[Smaller frame again. Ponytail has moved closer to the table, Jill moves around the table to the right, pointing at the volcano while Megan walks closer. The "lava" flows down the volcano on both sides.]
:Jill: See how the baking soda and vinegar mix with mud and ice to form deadly flowing lahars?

:[Zoom in on Jills head close to the stream of lava going down the lower part of the volcano's right slope.]
:Jill: You can see the tiny cars trying to flee.
:Jill: Whoops! Too slow.

:[Zoom in on Ponytail.]
:Ponytail: Um. This is a bit grim.
:Jill (off panel): Learning!

:[Jill stand to the right of the table looking at the now still volcano. Shaky lines surround a sound effect written over the top of this slim frame:]
: ''Rumble''

:[Back to showing all three as before. Jill lifts a finger in the air.]
:Jill: And now we're learning that this volcano is an offshoot of a vinegar hotspot rising from deep within the earth.
:Jill: ''Annnd...''

:[Jill turns away from the table looking right as a loud noise can be heard off-panel, depicted in white text on a wavy black bubble:]
:<big>''Boooom''</big>

:[Megan has walked over to a window to the right. It has the blinds drawn down. She opens a hole in the blinds by pulling down in the middle. It is dark outside. The other two are outside the frame to the left.]
:Jill (off panel): The baking soda supervolcano erupts, injecting clouds of salt into the stratosphere.
:Megan: Why is it getting dark outside?
:Jill (off panel): Learning is fun!

:[We see Jill standing close to the table, of which only the right leg can be seen. She holds up a tablet with a graph showing a rising trend. The other two are both out of the frame.]
:Jill: Sunlight dims. The earth cools. Summer frosts form. Crops die. We check the markets. Grain prices are rising.
:Megan (off panel): I want to stop learning now.
:Jill: Soon, we all will.

==Trivia==
{{w|Campi Flegrei}} is a real-life example of her project.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Jill]]
[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Geology]]
[[Category:Volcanoes]]

2900: Call My Cell

2024-03-01T15:02:36Z

Pie Guy: 841 reference

{{comic
| number = 2900
| date = February 28, 2024
| title = Call My Cell
| image = call_my_cell_2x.png
| imagesize = 509x222px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = 'Hey, can you call my cell?' '...I'm trying, but it says this number is blocked?' 'Ok, thanks, just checking.'
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by ''THIS'' GUY'S 12 KBPS CELL PHONE CODEC - feel free to elaborate on any and all points. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

When a person cannot find their {{w|cell phone}}, it is not uncommon to ask a friend to call the phone in question. This will activate the device's ring tone and/or its haptic actuator, assuming the device is not off or silenced, making it easier to find (this is also called [[207: What xkcd Means|being xkcd]]).

At first, [[Black Hat]] appears to have misplaced his cell phone, as he asks [[Cueball]] to call it. However, when Cueball does call Black Hat's cell, it is revealed to be in Black Hat's (supposed) pocket. He then makes a show of ''annoyance'' that Cueball ("''this'' guy") is calling him, sends the call to {{w|voicemail}}, and leaves. From this, it can be inferred that Black Hat was simply trying to demonstrate that he doesn't ''want'' Cueball to call him, showing another of his ''[[72: Classhole|classhole]]'' tendencies.

The title text is a similar situation. Cueball calls Black Hat, but instead Black Hat demonstrates that he was only checking that he had {{w|Call blocking|blocked Cueball's number}} so Cueball is unable to reach his cell, making an even stronger point that he does not want to be called by Cueball.

==Transcript==
:[Black Hat walks in from the right approaching Cueball. Black Hat has his finger raised.]
:Black Hat: Hey, can you call my cell?

:[Cueball has taken his phone up and is pressing the screen, presumably dialing Black Hat's number. Black Hat looks down at his back pocket, which is ringing. He reaches for the pocket, which has his phone in it.]
:Black Hat: Oh, one sec.
:''Ring''

:[Cueball, still holding his phone, looks at Black Hat. Black Hat has turned his back to Cueball and is looking at his phone which he is holding in both hands. Above his head is both his one line of speech but also a separate jagged speech bubble indicating what is written on his phone screen.]
:Black Hat: Ugh, it's '''''this''''' guy.
:Phone: ''Send to voicemail''

:[Cueball, holding his phone down, watches Black Hat walk away from him, already partly outside the right frame of the panel.]

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Phones]]

2900: Call My Cell

2024-02-29T15:46:31Z

Pie Guy: punctuation

{{comic
| number = 2900
| date = February 28, 2024
| title = Call My Cell
| image = call_my_cell_2x.png
| imagesize = 509x222px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = 'Hey, can you call my cell?' '...I'm trying, but it says this number is blocked?' 'Ok, thanks, just checking.'
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by ''THIS'' GUY'S BOT - feel free to elaborate on any and all points. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

When a person cannot find their cell phone, it is not uncommon to ask a friend to call the phone in question. This will activate the device's ring tone and/or its haptic actuator, assuming the device is not off or silenced, making it easier to find (this is also called [[207: What xkcd Means|being xkcd]]).

At first, [[Black Hat]] appears to have misplaced his cell phone, as he asks [[Cueball]] to call it. However, when Cueball does call Black Hat's cell, it is revealed to be in Black Hat's (supposed) pocket. He then makes a show of ''annoyance'' that Cueball ("''this'' guy") is calling him, sends the call to {{w|voicemail}}, and leaves. From this, it can be inferred that Black Hat was simply trying to demonstrate that he doesn't ''want'' Cueball to call him, showing another of his ''[[72: Classhole|classhole]]'' tendencies.

The title text is a similar situation. But instead Black Hat demonstrates that he has {{w|Call blocking|blocked Cueball's number}} so Cueball is unable to reach him.

==Transcript==
:[Black Hat, with his finger raised, walks in from the right approaching Cueball.]
:Black Hat: Hey, can you call my cell?

:[Cueball has taken his phone up and is pressing the screen. Black Hat holds out his left arm as he looks down at his back pocket which is ringing.]
:Black Hat: Oh, one sec.
:''Ring''

:[Cueball, still holding his phone, looks at Black Hat. Black Hat has turned his back to Cueball and is looking at his phone which he is holding in both hands. Above his head is both his one line of speech but also a separate jagged speech bubble indicating what is written on his phone screen.]
:Black Hat: Ugh, it's '''''this''''' guy.
:Phone: ''Send to voicemail''

:[Cueball, holding his phone down, watches Black Hat walk away from him, already partly outside the right frame of the panel.]

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Phones]]

1623: 2016 Conversation Guide

2024-02-22T19:06:49Z

Pie Guy: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1623
| date = December 30, 2015
| title = 2016 Conversation Guide
| image = 2016_conversation_guide.png
| titletext = The real loser in an argument about the meaning of the word 'hoverboard' is anyone who leaves that argument on foot.
}}

==Explanation==
As each year turns (or other milestone dates, perhaps set out in popular fiction) it is common enough to remember that what is now the present was once considered ''the future!''

This [[:Category:New Year|New Year comic]], published just prior to the start of the {{w|New Year}}, 2016, aims to clarify a number of the things one might have expected by now. (Another New Year comic followed on New Year's Day: [[1624: 2016]], making it two in a row with titles beginning with 2016...) The classic target of personal futurology is the ability to levitate or fly, to varying degrees. This topic was discussed before in [[864: Flying Cars]], where [[Megan]] suggests that the real advances in futuristic technology are in computers and electronics, rather than methods of flying.

;Flying car
Various forms of {{w|Flying_car_(aircraft)|flying car}} have had varying {{w|AVE_Mizar|degrees}} of {{w|Moller_M400_Skycar|success}} (although it's debatable whether these examples are actually cars or just small airplanes), but the comic points out that the regular {{w|helicopter}} is as close as most of us would ever get to levitating personal vehicles.

;Jetpack
"Where's my {{w|jet pack}}?" is one of the {{tvtropes|IWantMyJetPack|tropes}} addressed here, and has actually been developed in a somewhat workable fashions and {{w|Astronaut propulsion unit|analogues}}, but is dismissed as being too personally dangerous to have a {{w|The_Jetsons|Jetson}}-like ubiquity.

;Moon colony
It might be considered more reasonable to build a {{w|Space:_1999|settlement of some kind}} on the Moon. The basic {{w|Apollo_program|engineering}} {{w|International Space Station|exists}}, but the comic blames financial pressures for it not yet having come into existence. Arguably political pressures, or perhaps the lack of them, are also a factor.

;Self-driving car
Randall notes that these are "coming surprisingly soon." As of 2024 (9 years after the release of this comic), there are various forms of self-driving with various degrees of advancement. Perhaps the most well-known is [https://www.tesla.com/support/autopilot Tesla's full self-driving beta], which is capable of performing acceptably in pretty much everything except for parking lot navigation (though still requires a human driver present). Other than Tesla, companies such as Google, Waabi, and Euler Motors are working on self-driving vehicles, though Tesla remains the [https://electrek.co/2023/07/13/tesla-most-wanted-car-brand-us-study/ most well-known amongst the general public].

;Floating sky city
A much bigger challenge in levitation is the 'sky city', with various forms from fiction (e.g. {{w|Bespin}}, {{w|Mortal Engines Quartet}}). In reality, this seems highly unlikely to ever come to pass while there is perfectly good ground to lay the buildings down upon, due to the sheer mass.

;Hoverboard
The {{w|Hoverboard|levitating Hoverboard}} has been popularised by the {{w|Back_to_the_Future_Part_II|''Back To The Future'' franchise}} of films, with several attempts to fully emulate such a device with air-blast or magnetic levitation, but the ''term'' "Hoverboard" has ended up being applied to a {{w|Segway}}-like {{w|Self-balancing_two-wheeled_board|personal transport system}} that has at least become a mass-produced device (albeit with a number of {{w|Self-balancing_two-wheeled_board#Safety|safety concerns}}) even if it doesn't fly or levitate. The very concept of the hoverboard is therefore predicted to be reduced mostly to arguments between opposing camps of opinions; and then, in the title-text, the conclusion that giving up and resorting to old-fashioned walking is inferior to ''any'' of the possible alternatives.

;Robot butler
Meanwhile, the long-held science-fantasy aim to create a robot that can do odd tasks, like {{w|Robby the Robot}} or {{w|List_of_The_Jetsons_characters#Rosie|Rosie}} from ''The Jetsons'' has been {{w|Roomba|limited}} or {{w|Amazon Alexa|differently implemented}}. The ''fully'' [http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Omnicapable omnicapable] version is probably almost as far out of reach as it always was considered to be. "Jeeves" as a less than superb robot butler presumably refers to the early search site {{w|Ask Jeeves}}, and may be a reference to the robot of that name that can be "built" by characters in the popular {{w|Massively multiplayer online role-playing game}} {{w|World of Warcraft}}. "Jeeves" as a stereotyped butler name goes back to {{w|P.G. Wodehouse}} in 1915.

Self-driving cars has become a [[:Category:Self-driving cars|recurring topic]] on xkcd and they were mentioned again already in the title text of [[1625: Substitutions 2]] just two comics after this one.

==Transcript==
:[A chart with three columns of text with only one entry to the left - which is written in the middle of the panel. Then there is one line going right from this text but soon it splits into seven lines going either up (3), almost straight (2) or down (2) ending in arrows that points to the next column with seven entries for different possible future inventions. From each of these entries a horizontal arrow continues to the last column at the right with seven more entries commenting on these inventions.]

:It's 2016 – Where's my...

::Flying car → They're called "helicopters"

::Jetpack → Turns out people are huge wimps about crashing

::Moon colony → No one has put up the cash

::Self-driving car → Coming surprisingly soon

::Floating sky city → Turns out cities are heavy

::Hoverboard → This question is now ambiguous thanks to a new scooter thing (and will lead to an argument about the meaning of "hoverboard" which is way less interesting than either kind of hoverboard)

::Robot butler → He was called "Jeeves" and he wasn't that great

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:New Year]]
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Robots]]
[[Category:Self-driving cars]]
[[Category:Back to the Future]]

1623: 2016 Conversation Guide

2024-02-22T19:06:14Z

Pie Guy: /* Explanation */ updated self-driving car section

{{comic
| number = 1623
| date = December 30, 2015
| title = 2016 Conversation Guide
| image = 2016_conversation_guide.png
| titletext = The real loser in an argument about the meaning of the word 'hoverboard' is anyone who leaves that argument on foot.
}}

==Explanation==
As each year turns (or other milestone dates, perhaps set out in popular fiction) it is common enough to remember that what is now the present was once considered ''the future!''

This [[:Category:New Year|New Year comic]], published just prior to the start of the {{w|New Year}}, 2016, aims to clarify a number of the things one might have expected by now. (Another New Year comic followed on New Year's Day: [[1624: 2016]], making it two in a row with titles beginning with 2016...) The classic target of personal futurology is the ability to levitate or fly, to varying degrees. This topic was discussed before in [[864: Flying Cars]], where [[Megan]] suggests that the real advances in futuristic technology are in computers and electronics, rather than methods of flying.

;Flying car
Various forms of {{w|Flying_car_(aircraft)|flying car}} have had varying {{w|AVE_Mizar|degrees}} of {{w|Moller_M400_Skycar|success}} (although it's debatable whether these examples are actually cars or just small airplanes), but the comic points out that the regular {{w|helicopter}} is as close as most of us would ever get to levitating personal vehicles.

;Jetpack
"Where's my {{w|jet pack}}?" is one of the {{tvtropes|IWantMyJetPack|tropes}} addressed here, and has actually been developed in a somewhat workable fashions and {{w|Astronaut propulsion unit|analogues}}, but is dismissed as being too personally dangerous to have a {{w|The_Jetsons|Jetson}}-like ubiquity.

;Moon colony
It might be considered more reasonable to build a {{w|Space:_1999|settlement of some kind}} on the Moon. The basic {{w|Apollo_program|engineering}} {{w|International Space Station|exists}}, but the comic blames financial pressures for it not yet having come into existence. Arguably political pressures, or perhaps the lack of them, are also a factor.

;Self-driving car
Randall notes that these are "coming surprisingly soon." As of 2024 (9 years after the release of this comic), there are various forms of self-driving with various degrees of advancement. Perhaps the most well-known is [https://www.tesla.com/support/autopilotTesla's full self-driving beta], which is capable of performing acceptably in pretty much everything except for parking lot navigation (though still requires a human driver present). Other than Tesla, companies such as Google, Waabi, and Euler Motors are working on self-driving vehicles, though Tesla remains the [https://electrek.co/2023/07/13/tesla-most-wanted-car-brand-us-study/ most well-known amongst the general public].

;Floating sky city
A much bigger challenge in levitation is the 'sky city', with various forms from fiction (e.g. {{w|Bespin}}, {{w|Mortal Engines Quartet}}). In reality, this seems highly unlikely to ever come to pass while there is perfectly good ground to lay the buildings down upon, due to the sheer mass.

;Hoverboard
The {{w|Hoverboard|levitating Hoverboard}} has been popularised by the {{w|Back_to_the_Future_Part_II|''Back To The Future'' franchise}} of films, with several attempts to fully emulate such a device with air-blast or magnetic levitation, but the ''term'' "Hoverboard" has ended up being applied to a {{w|Segway}}-like {{w|Self-balancing_two-wheeled_board|personal transport system}} that has at least become a mass-produced device (albeit with a number of {{w|Self-balancing_two-wheeled_board#Safety|safety concerns}}) even if it doesn't fly or levitate. The very concept of the hoverboard is therefore predicted to be reduced mostly to arguments between opposing camps of opinions; and then, in the title-text, the conclusion that giving up and resorting to old-fashioned walking is inferior to ''any'' of the possible alternatives.

;Robot butler
Meanwhile, the long-held science-fantasy aim to create a robot that can do odd tasks, like {{w|Robby the Robot}} or {{w|List_of_The_Jetsons_characters#Rosie|Rosie}} from ''The Jetsons'' has been {{w|Roomba|limited}} or {{w|Amazon Alexa|differently implemented}}. The ''fully'' [http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Omnicapable omnicapable] version is probably almost as far out of reach as it always was considered to be. "Jeeves" as a less than superb robot butler presumably refers to the early search site {{w|Ask Jeeves}}, and may be a reference to the robot of that name that can be "built" by characters in the popular {{w|Massively multiplayer online role-playing game}} {{w|World of Warcraft}}. "Jeeves" as a stereotyped butler name goes back to {{w|P.G. Wodehouse}} in 1915.

Self-driving cars has become a [[:Category:Self-driving cars|recurring topic]] on xkcd and they were mentioned again already in the title text of [[1625: Substitutions 2]] just two comics after this one.

==Transcript==
:[A chart with three columns of text with only one entry to the left - which is written in the middle of the panel. Then there is one line going right from this text but soon it splits into seven lines going either up (3), almost straight (2) or down (2) ending in arrows that points to the next column with seven entries for different possible future inventions. From each of these entries a horizontal arrow continues to the last column at the right with seven more entries commenting on these inventions.]

:It's 2016 – Where's my...

::Flying car → They're called "helicopters"

::Jetpack → Turns out people are huge wimps about crashing

::Moon colony → No one has put up the cash

::Self-driving car → Coming surprisingly soon

::Floating sky city → Turns out cities are heavy

::Hoverboard → This question is now ambiguous thanks to a new scooter thing (and will lead to an argument about the meaning of "hoverboard" which is way less interesting than either kind of hoverboard)

::Robot butler → He was called "Jeeves" and he wasn't that great

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:New Year]]
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Robots]]
[[Category:Self-driving cars]]
[[Category:Back to the Future]]

2897: Light Leap Years

2024-02-21T18:52:23Z

Pie Guy: light leap second --> slightly faster photon

{{comic
| number = 2897
| date = February 21, 2024
| title = Light Leap Years
| image = light_leap_years_2x.png
| imagesize = 288x389px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = When Pope Gregory XIII briefly shortened the light-year in 1582, it led to navigational chaos and the loss of several Papal starships.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a PHOTON MOVING AT 300,601,898 M/S - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

A {{w|light year}} is a unit of distance, commonly used in astronomy, equal to the distance light travels in a vacuum in one year; the year used is the {{w|Julian year (astronomy)|Julian year}}, or 365.25 days. The joke of this strip is based on the fact that "one year" isn't a precise unit of measurement: there have been different definitions, evolving over time, of what what constitutes a year. The Gregorian calendar (the one most commonly used in modern times) includes a system of {{w|leap year|leap years}} in which an additional day is added every fourth year (with some exceptions) to make up for incompatibilities between day and year cycles. This temporarily changes the length of a year from 365 to 366 days, which could be taken to change the length of a light year. In this comic, [[Randall]] assumes that a light year is based on the length of the ''current'' year, which means that during leap years, it's based on 366 days, and during non-leap years, 365 days. That means that at the start and end of leap years, databases with astronomical distances have to be adjusted.

2024 is a leap year in the {{w|Gregorian calendar}} used in most parts of the world, and leap day (Feb. 29) was just over one week away when this comic was released. The comic portrays [[Cueball]] and [[Ponytail]] updating astronomical distances in some sort of database, noting how long and unpleasant the process is; the caption reveals that the reason is that leap years "make light-years 0.27% longer" (366/365 = 1.0027397...). This makes the distance to Alpha Centauri "0.27% shorter".

Standardized systems of measurement naturally don't change continually. As the comic points out, the difficulty in having to regularly update every reference to these units would be enormous and pointless. In real life, a light year is defined by the {{w|Julian year (astronomy)|Julian year}}, defined as 365.25 days, with each day being 86,400 SI seconds in length. This results in a light year which is standardized at 9,460,730,472,580.8 km, no matter how long the calendar year may be.

The title text jokes that {{w|Pope Gregory XIII}}, the originator of the Gregorian calendar, "briefly shortened the light-year in 1582." In reality he shortened the year, as he decided to advance the Julian calendar by 10 days to make up for excess past leap days, leading to "navigational chaos and the loss of several Papal starships". This is of course ludicrous, as there were no starships in the 16th century, there's never been a "Papal starship",{{Citation Needed}} and the light-year wasn't developed as a unit of measurement until 1838. The joke is that the evolving and somewhat loose and changing definitions of early calendars had significant impacts on the units of measurement we still use today. Such changes were of only minor significance at the time, but as technology has advanced and become increasingly reliant on precise and consistent measurements, such changes could be disastrous.

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

:[Cueball is sitting at his laptop and leaning to the back of his office chair, while having his other hand on the laptop. He is looking at Ponytail standing behind him. The text from the laptop screen is shown above it, indicated with a zigzag line.]
:Cueball: It took until February, but I finally got all the distances updated!
:Ponytail: I really wish we didn't have to do this.
:[Laptop screen:]
:Proxima Centauri
:Distance: [in red, crossed out] <s>4.2493 ly</s>
:[in green] 4.2377 ly/
:[Caption below the panel:]
:Astronomers hate leap years because they make light-years 0.27% longer.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Time]]
[[Category:Calendar]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]

206: Reno Rhymes

2024-02-07T14:36:03Z

Pie Guy: edited succubi entry to describe succubi

{{comic
| number = 206
| date = January 5, 2007
| title = Reno Rhymes
| image = reno rhymes.png
| titletext = Did you shoot a man in Reno? Now, I don't mean to pry.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic starts with a line from the song {{w|Folsom Prison Blues|"Folsom Prison Blues"}} by Johnny Cash. Cash is noted as saying, "I sat with my pen in my hand, trying to think up the worst reason a person could have for killing another person, and that's what came to mind," which fits pretty well with the personality of [[Black Hat]]. Rather than react badly, [[Cueball]] starts a rhyming game, which they continue until Black Hat refers to the horrifying {{w|My Lai Massacre}}, which is apparently going too far for Cueball.

;You know, I once shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die.
:Black Hat starts with the original line from the song.

;Really? Well I once shot a man in Reno but I couldn't tell you why.
:Cueball then begins the rhyming game by saying that he can't tell the reason why he killed the man.

;I once shot a man in Reno then I went home to cry.
:Black Hat continues by saying that he got emotional after killing the man... Unlikely, given that he's ''Black Hat'', and it could be him trying to continue, or he could be being sarcastic.

;I once shot a man in Reno then I watered his cacti.
:An unlikely action after you have just killed someone, unless you're elaborately trying to cover up your actions. More likely, Cueball is just trying to continue the rhyme.

;I once shot a man in Reno 'cause they cancelled Firefly.
:{{w|Firefly (TV series)|Firefly}} was a TV series that aired on Fox during 2002. Its cancellation was a source of much annoyance to its fans, a fact frequently referenced in xkcd. In this case, Black Hat goes as far as to murder someone for this.

;I once shot a man in Reno, him and all his succubi.
:Cueball says he shot a man and all the succubi that he owned/was attached to ("his succubi"). A {{w|succubus}} is a demon or spirit which seduces men via sexual intercourse and subsists off their semen. It is likely that Cueball is just making this up to continue the rhyme, but who knows?

;I once shot a man in Reno and a bunch more in My Lai.
:The My Lai Massacre was an atrocity committed by US soldiers in Vietnam during the Vietnam war. Here, Black Hat says he not only shot a man in Reno, '''he shot a bunch more in My Lai''', meaning that he was actually part of the massacre. Cueball is obviously horrified by this, and he ends the rhyme with a "I think we're done," signifying his horror at Black Hat's words.

The title text continues the rhyme, but changes the roles: now the speaker is asking someone else if they shot a man in Reno. It may be a reference to The Princess Bride (Inigo says the "I don't mean to pry" part to Westley).

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and Black Hat stand facing one another. Black Hat is on the left.]
:Black Hat: You know, I once shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die.
:Cueball: Really? Well, I once shot a man in Reno, but I couldn't tell you why.

:Black Hat: I once shot a man in Reno, then I went home to cry.
:Cueball: I once shot a man in Reno, then I watered his cacti.

:Black Hat: I once shot a man in Reno 'cause they cancelled Firefly.
:Cueball: I once shot a man in Reno, him and all his succubi.

:Black Hat: I once shot a man in Reno and a bunch more in My Lai.
:Cueball: I think we're done.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Firefly]]
[[Category:Music]]
[[Category:Rhymes]]