explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:3184: Funny Numbers

2025-12-23T05:34:45Z

PotatoGod: Format fix for real this time

It should be"The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy".
: In response to above unsigned post: fixed! You could've edited it too :)
[[User:PotatoGod|PotatoGod]] ([[User talk:PotatoGod|talk]]) 05:33, 23 December 2025 (UTC)

Talk:3184: Funny Numbers

2025-12-23T05:33:57Z

PotatoGod: Format fix try 2

It should be"The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy".
> In response to above unsigned post: fixed! You could've edited it too :)
[[User:PotatoGod|PotatoGod]] ([[User talk:PotatoGod|talk]]) 05:33, 23 December 2025 (UTC)

Talk:3184: Funny Numbers

2025-12-23T05:33:34Z

PotatoGod: Format fix

It should be"The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy".

In response to above unsigned post: fixed! You could've edited it too :)
[[User:PotatoGod|PotatoGod]] ([[User talk:PotatoGod|talk]]) 05:33, 23 December 2025 (UTC)

Talk:3184: Funny Numbers

2025-12-23T05:33:12Z

PotatoGod: Explain s/universe/galaxy

3184: Funny Numbers

2025-12-23T05:31:55Z

PotatoGod: s/universe/galaxy

{{comic
| number = 3184
| date = December 22, 2025
| title = Funny Numbers
| image = funny_numbers_2x.png
| imagesize = 360x453px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = In 1899, people were walking around shouting '23' at each other and laughing, and confused reporters were writing articles trying to figure out what it meant.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created recently. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
This comic refers to the recent brainrot meme {{w|6-7 meme|"6 7"}}, often accompanied by moving your hands up and down.

While many people think this is a novel activity of the latest generation of kids, the comic points out that there's a long history of young people finding ways to have fun with certain numbers.

The other numbers listed:
* {{w|23 skidoo|23}} originated about 1899, and was later combined with the nonsense word "skidoo" into the phrase "23 skidoo". It relates to leaving quickly.

* 42 probably refers to {{w|Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy}}, in which this number is the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything.

* {{w|Leet|1,337}} is leet-speak for the word "elite".

* {{w|69 (sex position)|69}} -- if you have to ask, you're not old enough.

* {{w|Calculator spelling|58,008}} spells "BOOBS" if you put it into a calculator and turn it upside down.

* {{w|420 (cannabis culture)|420}} is slang for smoking {{w|marijuana}}.

The title text claims that the media reaction to "23" around the turn of the 20th century was very similar to the current reaction to "67".

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
:[According to the sign, the comic takes place at the "Mathematical society 2025 meeting." Below, four characters are talking to each other. That is, from left to right, Hairbun, Cueball, Megan, and Ponytail. Ponytail is standing next to a whiteboard, holding a marker. The board contains, in order: 23 (skidoo!), 42, 1,337, 69, 58,008, 420, 6 7. Ponytail has circled "6 7".]
:Hairbun: Any other new developments from the year to cover before we wrap?
:Cueball: Oh, the teens picked a new funny number.
:Megan: Aww, I'm glad to hear they're still doing that.
:Ponytail: I'll add it to the list.
{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

Talk:3142: (City)-Style Pizza

2025-09-21T17:47:22Z

PotatoGod: Comment on generic-ness of new-york pizza, and Altoona/all tuna

Altoona-style is listed first in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pizza_in_the_United_States#Variations but that's because the list is alphabetical. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 21:12, 15 September 2025 (UTC)

I prefer +style pizza. [[User:SDSpivey|SDSpivey]] ([[User talk:SDSpivey|talk]]) 21:16, 15 September 2025 (UTC)
: Not a fan of electrons as a topping then? [[Special:Contributions/82.13.184.33|82.13.184.33]] 08:37, 16 September 2025 (UTC)
:: Imo, positron pizza is far better. Some people won’t appreciate it though, as it disintegrates [in] your mouth. [[User:Logalex8369|Logalex8369]] ([[User talk:Logalex8369|talk]]) 15:28, 16 September 2025 (UTC)

Altoona-style most literally looks like a sandwich except cheese instead of a top bun《プロキシ》(XKCD中毒者) 21:54, 15 September 2025 (UTC)
:Yeah, a bunch of open-faced sandwiches side-by-side. [[Special:Contributions/47.248.235.170|47.248.235.170]] 22:07, 15 September 2025 (UTC)Pat
: It looks most like a heart attack in waiting. [[Special:Contributions/82.13.184.33|82.13.184.33]] 09:42, 16 September 2025 (UTC)
Wildly accurate description《プロキシ》(XKCD中毒者) 21:40, 16 September 2025 (UTC)
: ">sandwich" not a dealbreaker ">too much cheese" well that can be balanced if ">american cheese" ruined [[Special:Contributions/158.91.163.43|158.91.163.43]] 19:59, 16 September 2025 (UTC)
::Isn't that similar to French bread pizza? It's just one half of a French bread bun with sauce, cheeze, and toppings on the top. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 16:40, 17 September 2025 (UTC)

On a related note, locally (hint: absolutely nowhere near the place mentioned), there's a business advertising "genuine New York-style bagels". The juxtaposition of the "genuine" claim and yet the acknowledgement that they are only of the given ''style'' always makes me wonder what worth the genuineness truly has, with an ocean's-width of distance between any physical manifestation of New Yorkification and what we have here. [[Special:Contributions/92.17.62.87|92.17.62.87]] 23:12, 15 September 2025 (UTC)

I thought he was talking about Altoona Iowa (less than half the size of Altoona Pennsylvania). Look up “Altoona Iowa pizza” and one of the top hits will tell you it’s ranked one of the worst in the nation. You see, in Iowa, they lay out the dough, put on the ‘toppings’ (ahem) then dump on so much cheese that you can’t see any of the ‘toppings’ (ahem) anymore. When I came home from college in another state, I had to teach my mother how to make good pizza. [[Special:Contributions/2607:FB91:1D15:883A:11:B0B6:84B2:3C0C|2607:FB91:1D15:883A:11:B0B6:84B2:3C0C]] 23:49, 15 September 2025 (UTC)

: Yes. It is truly amazing how many people eat pizza, but when making pizza themselves they put the cheese on top. My mom did this and i did this until my girlfriend (now wife) asked me "how many pizzas have you ever eaten at an italian restaurant where the cheese was on top and you could not see the toppings?" A question that left me baffled. And convinced me. But I remember vividly the night where us and a bunch of friends met to make pizza, and my wife and me got into heated arguments with our friends about where to put the cheese, until everybody did it their own way (of course, our pizza was better). --[[Special:Contributions/2A02:8071:B84:FE60:20AE:FA46:3981:11E|2A02:8071:B84:FE60:20AE:FA46:3981:11E]] 19:27, 16 September 2025 (UTC)
:: If I feel the need to ''add'' extra cheese to a pizza (c.f. the other day, some Blue Shropshire...yum!), I never put it on prior to cooking. Either entirely after or ''just'' before I've finished heating/reheating it. 'Base cheese' (the good stuff) and lesser 'cheese toppings' (usually less so) can get melted into oblivion and still do their job, but adding a little thinly slice Stilton (or even some generousy gloops of extra-creamy, and crawling-off-the-plate, Somerset Brie, which doesn't even ''need'' heating to be semiliquid) is best done after the fact. And still-chilled cheese atop hot pizza conveys its own particular culinary delights, just as with my prefered "bacon-and-brie" part-toasted smörgåsbord. [[Special:Contributions/82.132.246.186|82.132.246.186]] 15:36, 17 September 2025 (UTC)
::: Oh, definitely. Like there is a ''huge'' difference between a toasted cheese sandwich (make a sandwich, toast it, the aim being to have slightly melted cheese (and various other constituents as might be chosen) between toasted bread) and cheese on toast (do ''not'' grill your bread-and-cheese, unless you either do not value the roof of your mouth vs. the molten cheese or are content to let it cool down enough to no longer be tastily warm throughout). [[Special:Contributions/92.17.62.87|92.17.62.87]] 22:06, 19 September 2025 (UTC)

Well at least THIS one was about a kind of pi. I guess pi does round to 3.142. [[Special:Contributions/138.88.96.2|138.88.96.2]] 00:16, 16 September 2025 (UTC)

Shame he missed out on Pittsburgh's 'specialty' with this... since they had the sheer audacity to call it 'Ohio Valley Pizza'... Which I hadn't even *heard* of, let alone actually seen, in 40 years of living in Cincinnati! -Edit: Turns out it originates from Steubenville, which had he named it 'Steubenville style pizza' would've put it way down on the bottom left somewhere. -Tiron [[Special:Contributions/2600:2B00:934E:6200:2186:FE87:5D5E:1AB7|2600:2B00:934E:6200:2186:FE87:5D5E:1AB7]] 01:18, 16 September 2025 (UTC)

Wikipedia has a way of displaying article titles that have non-standard characters in them. Could something similar be done here? [[User:Dogman15|Dogman15]] ([[User talk:Dogman15|talk]]) 04:05, 16 September 2025 (UTC)
:they do, but it doesn't work. {{w|WP:DISPLAYTITLE|DISPLAYTITLE}} doesn't support <> symbols. [[user:lett‪herebedarklight|raeb]] 13:29, 16 September 2025 (UTC)
::Not even with <nowiki><</nowiki>nowiki<nowiki>></nowiki> tags? [[User:Dogman15|Dogman15]] ([[User talk:Dogman15|talk]]) 09:52, 17 September 2025 (UTC)

The article is describing the Altoona style pizza, but Randall is calling on the viewer to look it up on Google images because the picture is likely more offensive than the description. I don't know what the wiki policy is but a picture in the article would do a much better job at explaining than anything Randall may or may not like about the ingredients. [[Special:Contributions/46.144.8.194|46.144.8.194]] 06:43, 16 September 2025 (UTC)

Surely it's no coincidence that XKCD 3142 is about pie. [[User:Gmcgath|Gmcgath]] ([[User talk:Gmcgath|talk]]) 11:43, 16 September 2025 (UTC)
:I hope it ''is'' a coincidence, because I'd like to think that Randall knows better than to call a pizza – a dish that isn't a pie – a "pie". [[User:Yorkshire Pudding|Yorkshire Pudding]] ([[User talk:Yorkshire Pudding|talk]]) 12:53, 16 September 2025 (UTC)
:: Says the person whose name is a pancake that calls itself a pudding. [[Special:Contributions/82.13.184.33|82.13.184.33]] 13:54, 16 September 2025 (UTC)
:::A [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yorkshire_pudding yorkshire pudding] is made similarly to a pancake, but it ends up more like a bun. And the British just call any dessert a "pudding", though I don't see how a yorkshire pudding could be a dessert... [[User:PDesbeginner|PDesbeginner]] ([[User talk:PDesbeginner|talk]]) 17:22, 16 September 2025 (UTC)
:::: Not like anything that I would call a 'bun'. I would give you 'halfway between a pancake and a frittata'. 'Pudding' doesn't just mean dessert - it can refer to a thing more like a sausage that is boiled/steamed (black pudding, white pudding, etc.) which is the older meaning of the word. Even then, though, Yorkshire pudding is nothing like that either. [[Special:Contributions/82.13.184.33|82.13.184.33]] 13:28, 17 September 2025 (UTC)
:::: https://bubbablueandme.com/delicious-filling-ideas-sweet-yorkshire-pudding-recipes/
:::: ...just the first of many links found when looking for YPs being used as the base for a sweet dish. (Though I'm more of a traditionalist than that, myself.)
:::: And perhaps wander south a bit, into Derbyshire, and have a discussion about Bakewell and its famous pudding/tart/pie/flan thing(s)! ;) [[Special:Contributions/82.132.246.186|82.132.246.186]] 15:36, 17 September 2025 (UTC)

Randall suggests that pizza quality correlates with city size. That means Brazilians were right all along, and the best pizza is from São Paulo. [[User:MCBastos|MCBastos]] ([[User talk:MCBastos|talk]]) 14:01, 16 September 2025 (UTC)
: No - it's completely outclassed by Chongqing Pizza. [[Special:Contributions/82.13.184.33|82.13.184.33]] 14:43, 16 September 2025 (UTC)

I had never heard of pizza styles "being named after a city" when I was living in Europe or South America. Is that just a USA thing? [[User:Ralfoide|Ralfoide]] ([[User talk:Ralfoide|talk]]) 17:31, 16 September 2025 (UTC)
: No, several regions in Italy also have pizza styles named after them (e.g. Naples, Sicily & Rome) --[[User:Btx40|Btx40]] ([[User talk:Btx40|talk]]) 19:07, 16 September 2025 (UTC)
::Some examples of the more popular 'City'-Style pizza types I know of in the US:
::;New York Style : Huge, round, thin, floppy crust cut into a small number of huge slices. Pretty much have to fold the pieces lengthwise in order to get enough rigidity to eat them.
::;Chicago Style : Aka 'deep dish'. Thick, round crust. Almost like an actual pie, but open top.
::;Detroit Style : Rectangular rather than round, cut into squares. Medium Crust.
::;St. Louis style : Round, thin, firm-to-crisp crust. Cut into squares... Ish(it's round!) Toppings go nearly to the edge, and the outer crust is approximately the same thickness as it is under the toppings.
::-Tiron [[Special:Contributions/2600:2B00:934E:6200:327C:A6EE:BDF7:E40F|2600:2B00:934E:6200:327C:A6EE:BDF7:E40F]] 19:44, 16 September 2025 (UTC)
:::Feel the need to add here an Australian translation/interpretation, having been to two of those cities so far. New York Style Pizza is a huge wheel of pita bread with grease spots on it they call "cheese" and circles of cardboard they call "sausage", everything flat as a tack and tasteless as well as floppy. Chicago Style Pizza, on the other hand, is tomato soup in a bread crust, and quite tasty. And all the American pizzas rarely have more than two toppings, which is a bit weird, but it's what they do... Sort of like their hamburgers, I guess. [[Special:Contributions/124.150.67.115|124.150.67.115]] 05:16, 17 September 2025 (UTC)

Currently the explanation describes the "<City>" glitch as an encoding error, and that doesn't strike me as quite correct. The problem is that it's not supposed to be "encoded" at all, but because it appears to be an HTML tag, it's being ''treated'' as encoded. [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 20:30, 16 September 2025 (UTC)
:Changed it to "invokes" the error, unless you can think of a better word. Also added a few extra bits. And ''also'' also moved it over into Trivia, for not being an explanation to the comic; only the way the comic page may have been inadvertently presented to us. [[Special:Contributions/82.132.247.226|82.132.247.226]] 16:44, 17 September 2025 (UTC)

Please don't take it badly, but you should start calling it something else. Because it's not, well, _pizza_. --[[Special:Contributions/2001:16B8:CC2E:B600:ECF3:65DF:9AC4:63E6|2001:16B8:CC2E:B600:ECF3:65DF:9AC4:63E6]] 20:30, 18 September 2025 (UTC)
[[Special:Contributions/2604:2D80:DA83:DE00:5547:BA7B:AF4A:454E|2604:2D80:DA83:DE00:5547:BA7B:AF4A:454E]] 00:21, 19 September 2025 (UTC)

No mention of New Haven Pizza? Sacrilege.
[[Special:Contributions/2604:2D80:DA83:DE00:5547:BA7B:AF4A:454E|2604:2D80:DA83:DE00:5547:BA7B:AF4A:454E]] 00:21, 19 September 2025 (UTC)

==Incorrect page name==
I’m pretty sure this comic is intended to be titled “<City>-Style Pizza”, as it is labeled in the HTML of xkcd.com (notably, xkcd.com itsel uses “-Style Pizza” for the <title> elements and the rss/atom feeds, but not for the visible title. (But there, the “<city>” gets swallowed by the browser)--[[User:Nleanba|Nleanba]] ([[User talk:Nleanba|talk]]) 21:49, 15 September 2025 (UTC)

What about moving this page to [[3142: (City)-Style Pizza]] or similar? --[[User:Birdlover32767|Birdlover32767]] ([[User talk:Birdlover32767|talk]]) 16:25, 16 September 2025 (UTC)
:I agree that [[3142:(City)-Style Pizza]] would be appropriate. I don't have an exact analogy from Wikipedia, which also can't include < or > symbols in an article title, but they would use a similar substitution in a similar situation. See {{w|Wikipedia:Naming conventions (technical restrictions)#Forbidden characters}}. --[[Special:Contributions/208.59.176.206|208.59.176.206]] 15:52, 17 September 2025 (UTC)
:I was tempted to go ahead and do this move, but I'm not sure what might break. Will previous and next navigation break, or the link in the "All comics" page? Or would those recover after a short time, like an hour? I guess one way to find out is to just do it... [[User:Orion205|Orion205]] ([[User talk:Orion205|talk]]) 21:40, 18 September 2025 (UTC)
::The previous/next links point at [[3142]], which currently redirect to [[3142: -Style Pizza]] (as does the jump-off of [[-Style Pizza]]).
::Changing "3142: -Style Pizza" to something else would of course need the changing of the redirect from the number-only (and title-only) page. Anything that just used the number would get here if you do that. Anything going to the full "number: title"-style pagename (e.g. the two "&D" pages, that someone linked here) would need editing. As would anything (though I don't know of any, off-hand) that link via the title-only intermediary, because you'd want to change/move that to being the 'correct'-title-only as well, as well as update where it redirects.
::Alternately, make sure the correctly titled page has the contents and (replacement) wrongly-titled page redirects to the correct one, but that's a messy half-arsed solution that's not ideal. Or necessary as a backstop time-saving answer to all the thousands of 'links inward' it ''doesn't have''. So don't do that.
::Oh, and remember to move this Talk: page, too! [[Special:Contributions/82.132.246.204|82.132.246.204]] 23:02, 18 September 2025 (UTC)

:::{{Done}} --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 12:59, 20 September 2025 (UTC)

The current description for New York and Chicago style pizza just sounds like a description of pizza in general, aside from the specific crust thickness. "topped with tomato sauce, followed by various toppings, then topped with mozzarella cheese" that's just a normal pizza, and "various toppings" is so vague that again, almost any pizza qualifies. Never heard people describing the simplest and most common pizza type there is as being a New York style in particular, are there really no other distinct characteristics to it?

Also I'm relieved but also disappointed that the Altoona-style pizza isn't an all-tuna pizza. THAT would qualify as a true audacity! [[User:PotatoGod|PotatoGod]] ([[User talk:PotatoGod|talk]]) 17:47, 21 September 2025 (UTC)

Talk:3135: Sea Level

2025-08-31T19:09:49Z

PotatoGod: Contemplate other things all known planets with intelligent life have

Holy crud empty page! F1RST P0ST! [[User:RadiantRainwing|RadiantRainwing]] ([[User talk:RadiantRainwing|talk]]) 01:38, 30 August 2025 (UTC)
:2038: Last of the original Star Wars cast dies. —megan [[user talk:megan|talk]] [[special:contribs/megan|contribs]] 02:18, 30 August 2025 (UTC)
::What? If you're trying to get back at me because I was being useless and just "first posting", it's a reference to [[269: TCMP]], and I also, by the way, wrote the whole first paragraph of this explanation. [[User:RadiantRainwing|RadiantRainwing]] ([[User talk:RadiantRainwing|talk]]) 02:50, 30 August 2025 (UTC)
:::Alright, sorry, just realized what you did is a reference to [[493: Actuarial]]. Sorry about that! [[User:RadiantRainwing|RadiantRainwing]] ([[User talk:RadiantRainwing|talk]]) 02:53, 30 August 2025 (UTC)
::::I guess you're one of today's lucky [[Ten Thousand]]...
::::Wait, no, not everyone has read comic 493 by the time they're adults. I'm too lazy right now to calculate how many people learn about comic 493 each day, so I'll leave it as [[356|an exercise for the reader]]. —megan [[user talk:megan|talk]] [[special:contribs/megan|contribs]] 01:01, 31 August 2025 (UTC)

This one is related to the [https://xkcd.com/2809/ Moon] comic. [[User:Pgn674|Pgn674]] ([[User talk:Pgn674|talk]]) 01:39, 30 August 2025 (UTC)
:Clearly. [[User:RadiantRainwing|RadiantRainwing]] ([[User talk:RadiantRainwing|talk]]) 01:49, 30 August 2025 (UTC)

::it's almost a repeat. is he running out of ideas? [[user:lett‪herebedarklight|raeb]] 09:54, 30 August 2025 (UTC)
:::Hope not. [[User:RadiantRainwing|RadiantRainwing]] ([[User talk:RadiantRainwing|talk]]) 16:56, 30 August 2025 (UTC)
:::Why do people talk about running out of ideas? That is something I can't imagine. The world throws ideas and absurdities at you all the time. Running out of time to execute an idea - sure. Seems much more likely to be filtering error (have to check current idea against 3000 previous strips). [[Special:Contributions/107.77.205.64|107.77.205.64]] 19:42, 30 August 2025 (UTC)

Larry Niven had a story about alien-made indestructible spaceship hulls, except the makers didn't account for tidal effects when grazing a star. The test pilot was nearly ripped apart, but figured a way to survive. He sued their butts off against the guarantee. He concluded that their home planet did not have a large moon, a Clue. --[[User:PRR|PRR]] ([[User talk:PRR|talk]]) 02:41, 30 August 2025 (UTC)

I think I finally figured out the common thread. All the items here are here because they are elements of Life on Earth. The way the explanation was written kind of buried that important part of the comic.

Overall, if you just look at them as unrelated phenomena, then Lightning seems quite common. Islands made by microskeletons, and life-forms which change their form during development seem like they would be pretty common where there is life. Large tides - thought to be uncommon, but don't have much data, and models are hard. [[Special:Contributions/2600:387:4:803:0:0:0:A0|2600:387:4:803:0:0:0:A0]] 18:04, 30 August 2025 (UTC)

All planets with intelligent life we know have tides. In fact one could argue that tides play an important role in the development in life. Thus any intelligent observe is arguably familiar with tides. Thus the text is wrong in arguing that tides are surprising based on the observation that most known planets likely do not have large tides. --[[Special:Contributions/2A01:599:114:9E35:D827:C56:FF88:1858|2A01:599:114:9E35:D827:C56:FF88:1858]] 19:09, 30 August 2025 (UTC)

:Argument has problems - insufficient sample size, selection bias. Nothing in the comic talked about intelligent life.
:The role of tides in development of life certainly makes sense to add.
:Tides are strange in that they are very complex and hard to explain in detail. Fluid dynamics in a very complex, non-ridgid vessel, involve gravitational forces from multiple bodies. [[Special:Contributions/107.77.205.64|107.77.205.64]] 20:00, 30 August 2025 (UTC)

:: Sample size is definitely a problem. Nothing in the comic talks about tides being strange in a cosmic sense. They are just very weird for one of the two observers from earth. --[[Special:Contributions/195.63.76.62|195.63.76.62]] 20:39, 30 August 2025 (UTC)

:All planets with intelligent life that we know of also have microwave ovens and television cameras and rubber ducks. Perhaps those are also essential for the long-term continued existence of intelligent life? [[User:PotatoGod|PotatoGod]] ([[User talk:PotatoGod|talk]]) 19:09, 31 August 2025 (UTC)

I'm shocked that Randal didn't include some sort of reference to climate change- and how tides effectively, at least in 2025 and for the foreseeable future, dwarf sea rise due to melting ice. [[User:Seebert|Seebert]] ([[User talk:Seebert|talk]]) 20:18, 30 August 2025 (UTC)
:On a (twice-)daily basis, yes. But that's like saying an unseasonal/hyperseasonal cold snap belies the possibility of global warming. (If that's the point you're trying to make.)
:And I'm not sure if you're saying that Randall "is the sort of person who would go on and on about climate change, but for soe reason he surprisingly didn't do so here" or "he really ought to be mentioning climate change at every opportunity, but he missed the opportunity to convey the concept"..? I'd disagree with ''both'' of those assessments of his (non-)inclusion here, though, and perhaps you're even coming from a completely different third direction that I might or might not understand. But really not the place to discuss it, as he obviously hasn't made that part of the joke/message in this comic. [[Special:Contributions/92.17.62.87|92.17.62.87]] 23:27, 30 August 2025 (UTC)

Lightning should be common throughout the universe, as the ingredients for it (planetary atmospheres containing things like dust that can build up differential static charges through agitation) appear to be. It's still a very weird phenomenon, with many aspects not understood (how does the triboelectric effect work, can breakdown patterns be predicted, wtf is going on with sprites and ball lightning, etc) but it really isn't likely to be rare. --[[Special:Contributions/81.96.108.67|81.96.108.67]] 05:48, 31 August 2025 (UTC)

Ten feet tidal range on a remote island - isn't this too much? I thought it should be less, with stronger tides only in some gulfs where an amplification exists. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tide figure 15 shows 5 feet tidal range maximum
: In the channel tides can get pretty high and some parts of it would be remote islands by European standards. Also the comic doesn't mention remoteness. --[[Special:Contributions/195.52.138.253|195.52.138.253]] 18:42, 31 August 2025 (UTC)

Talk:3101: Good Science

2025-06-13T16:18:07Z

PotatoGod: Note that many of the good science factors are in use

Should I find it comforting that, faced with "ammonium hydroxide", the student(?) decodes that as basically just "ammonia"? I mean, there are differences between anhydrous and hydrated versions, but it implies a certain amount of relevent scientific knowledge. If I mentioned "whateverium phlobotomide", the uninitiated would (as well as maybe stumbling over any unfamiliar parts of the name) probably be blind to it potentially being just a technical variation of the ''essential'' part of the name. Or, to put it another way, the technobable involved if you were to be told that all the dangerous dihydrogen monoxide had been swapped out for hydrogen hydroxide. (Or that it had been even more dangerous by introducing some trace amounts of nullanol.) [[Special:Contributions/92.23.2.228|92.23.2.228]] 22:49, 11 June 2025 (UTC)
:When I studied chemistry, you would get an earful from the professor if you ever dared to utter the phrase "ammonium hydroxide", because ammonium hydroxide does not exist. It's not a molecule, and there's no crystalline ammonium hydroxide, either; what you have is aqueous ammonia, a small fraction of which gets protonated by water, forming some ammonium ions and some hydroxide ions. Calling that ammonium hydroxide would be akin to calling aqueous acetic acid "hydronium acetate". Perhaps that's why ''ammonia'' is in italics in the comic: to emphasize that the reply is meant as a correction. --[[User:Itub|Itub]] ([[User talk:Itub|talk]]) 11:03, 12 June 2025 (UTC)

I'm thinking that there are two uses for rigour without curiosity. The explanation covers the professional motive: to have a career in producing good-looking results. There is also a political motive: to block a line of research, to prevent its results from gaining traction. Table 1 of this: [http://burawoy.berkeley.edu/PS/Introduction.Going%20Public,%20Going%20Global.pdf] covers a variety of kinds of sociology, most of which could have opponents. [[Special:Contributions/112.213.42.56|112.213.42.56]] 02:06, 12 June 2025 (UTC)

Hi, I think there's an alternative reading for this one in the last panel, the first time I read it as dismissing the student's question and continuing her statement, which is a quite common move in other comics and always implied with ....... This way, the research became a meta-critique of bad science and somewhat links to rigor vs curiosity. First time commenting here, idk what to do now. [[Special:Contributions/2A11:3:200:0:0:0:0:2004|2A11:3:200:0:0:0:0:2004]] 03:21, 12 June 2025 (UTC)?

Miss Lenhart has made the mistake common among many scientists of failing to include repeatability among her factors to be tested. Had she done so, ammonia would have disappeared from the results. [[Special:Contributions/82.13.184.33|82.13.184.33]] 08:28, 12 June 2025 (UTC)
:It's on the list, right below "adequate sample size" and "whether the lab has a lucky mascot" [[Special:Contributions/185.177.139.23|185.177.139.23]] 10:00, 12 June 2025 (UTC)

I think there's a potential spin on the title text that I don't currently see addressed, but it might be in line with Randall's seeming attitude towards such matters: Rigour without curiosity doesn't need to be *wrong*, it's just that it's *joyless*. Or maybe *soulless*? The idea being that if you do rigorously correct but completely incurious science, you're doing it wrong even if the results themselves are technically correct. (Which they probably would be, given all that rigour.) Viewed this way, it's a critique of a particular kind of science that often comes in for criticism: endless variations on some (seemingly) unimportant experimental theme, for example, might be viewed as a way to generate publications without generating any actual advancement of science. {{unsigned ip|45.74.123.106|19:07, 12 June 2025}}

I'd argue that the student's response isn't only demonstrating good science by way of skepticism, as the current explanation suggests, but in fact demonstrating the first 5 factors all at once! Collaborating in the lesson, rather than it being purely a lecture, skepticism of other's claims (as mentioned already), questioning her own beliefs (is ammonia more important in science than I realized?), trying to falsify hypothesis (the hypothesis that ammonia is essential in science, in this case), checking citations (wait, what is this claim based on?). Plenty of good science being done! [[User:PotatoGod|PotatoGod]] ([[User talk:PotatoGod|talk]]) 16:18, 13 June 2025 (UTC)

Talk:3097: Bridge Types

2025-06-05T19:04:31Z

PotatoGod: Mention Leonardo da Vinci's Pivot Bridge

For budget overrun, see olympic stadium of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.126.202|162.158.126.202]] 01:23, 3 June 2025 (UTC)

Very disappointed there's no bridge card game reference, but I guess that's not one of Randall's types of nerdiness :( [[Special:Contributions/172.71.254.203|172.71.254.203]] 01:45, 3 June 2025 (UTC)

I would like to note that cable stayed bridges, budget overrun here, are much cheaper than equivalent suspension bridges. It because they use less materials and can be built faster meaning less labor. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.58.51|172.69.58.51]] 01:50, 3 June 2025‎
:Tru dat in general, but I think that this is a reference to the {{w|Leonard_P._Zakim_Bunker_Hill_Memorial_Bridge|Zakim Bridge}} in downtown Boston, part of the {{w|Big_Dig|"Big Dig"}} project that became notorious for its budget overruns and related shenanigans. Given that Randall M. lives in Boston, that makes this panel something of an inside joke. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.147.224|172.71.147.224]] 03:15, 3 June 2025 (UTC)

The [[wikipedia:St. Louis Arch|St. Louis Arch]] is a repurposed-elevator-suspended-arch-but-without-the-base-and-wires bridge if you squint hard enough. The elevator is also fun. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.67.214|172.69.67.214]] 01:57, 3 June 2025 (UTC)

Nothing about a a [[wikipedia:Bridge circuit|bridge circuit]] or these [[Wikipedia:Bridges (disambiguation)|many]] [[wikipedia:other|other]] bridges either. Sigh. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.67.214|172.69.67.214]] 01:57, 3 June 2025 (UTC)
:And where, oh where, are Lloyd, Beau, Jeff, and Jordan? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.41.84|162.158.41.84]] 03:19, 3 June 2025 (UTC)

The L'Engle is a take off on a Wrinkle in time? But this one is in space? -- [[User:162.158.91.124|162.158.91.124]] ([[User talk:162.158.91.124|talk]]) 02:26, 3 June 2025‎ ''(please sign your comments with <nowiki>~~</nowiki>~~)''
:There's some space-warping in L'Engle's books. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.174.63|162.158.174.63]] 02:44, 3 June 2025 (UTC)

The "budget overrun" bridge doesn't really look like the Zakim bridge to me. It looks a lot like the Samuel Beckett Bridge in Dublin. I don't know what the budget of that bridge was, but according to wiki it cost 60 million euros, which sounds like a lot given that the bridge isn't all that long or wide. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.126.87|172.70.126.87]] 03:24, 3 June 2025 (UTC)
: Perhaps if Randall M. drew too close a likeness to the Zakim Bridge, he feared a visit from officials with lawyers and/or cement shoes. ("Only the paranoid survive ...") It seems, from a quick tour of the Internet, that words like "grandiose and overblown" are easily applied to cable-stayed bridge designs/aesthetics. I wasn't easily able to find information on budget overruns for these bridges, and see the commentator above who pointed out the lower costs overall of cable-stayed ''vs'' suspension bridges. But as a former resident of Greater Boston, I can report the pervasiveness of the Big Dig and its challenges, budgetary and otherwise, in local life and lore. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.22.108|172.68.22.108]] 04:32, 3 June 2025 (UTC)
::The cable-stayed bridge is the current darling of artists that accidentally went to engineering school, who are notorious for running over budget and behind schedule. [[User:RegularSizedGuy|RegularSizedGuy]] ([[User talk:RegularSizedGuy|talk]]) 04:40, 3 June 2025 (UTC)
: I can see the suggestion of the Beckett bridge, but in my eyes the obvious template would be [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erasmusbrug Rotterdam's Erasmus Bridge] [[User:Nachtvogel|Nachtvogel]] ([[User talk:Nachtvogel|talk]]) 06:00, 3 June 2025 (UTC)
: Could "budget overrun" be a reference to Polybridge and other similar "Bridge Architect" games where player has a very limited budget for building materials? [[Special:Contributions/37.47.135.196|37.47.135.196]] 02:58, 5 June 2025 (UTC)

I think the repurposed elevator should be considered a dig at Elon Musks The Boring Company, even though they tunnel rather then bridge
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.182.138|162.158.182.138]] 04:37, 3 June 2025 (UTC)

Added a bunch of explanations [[Special:Contributions/162.158.8.132|162.158.8.132]] 07:31, 3 June 2025 (UTC)

The Repurposed Elevator is actually a real thing! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schmid_Peoplemover It's not as strange as you think. It's a space effective, but too expensive solution to the problem of not making cramped railway crossroads more cramped. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.172.112|162.158.172.112]] 07:39, 3 June 2025 (UTC)
: I've added it to the list. Feel free to do such changes yourself if you know something that can contribute. --[[Special:Contributions/172.71.183.12|172.71.183.12]] 08:07, 3 June 2025 (UTC)
:: The Vizcaya Bridge in Bilbao (Spain) is a good example of elevator bridge. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vizcaya_Bridge [[Special:Contributions/90.173.49.42|90.173.49.42]] 15:23, 5 June 2025 (UTC)
::: That's a Transporter Bridge, which (as someone mentioned below) is a separate thing that's surprisingly not really covered in the comic. It bears some operational similarities to a sideways-elevator, arguably more so than the Peoplemover that combines directions of travel rather than just changes that travel, but the hanging (suspension) element from the (truss-)supported carriage adds in other things that surely could have attracted parody (as a 'real type of bridge, possibly abnormally named) if it was within Randall's radar. [[Special:Contributions/82.132.235.191|82.132.235.191]] 17:51, 5 June 2025 (UTC)

For the "Google Earth Bridge" remark, [https://www.fastcompany.com/90186315/the-strange-art-of-the-melting-bridges-of-google-earth this article] might work as a citation. [[User:Conster|Conster]] ([[User talk:Conster|talk]]) 07:57, 3 June 2025 (UTC)
: Do we have to single out Google for this? Apple maps did a fantastic job of melting bridges as well... :D [[Special:Contributions/162.158.42.38|162.158.42.38]] 19:47, 3 June 2025 (UTC)

There seem to be stick figures on each bridge, except for the Arch. Is that on phone? Maybe he's saying nobody uses arch (Linux)? Or does anyone has any other idea as to why? [[Special:Contributions/172.69.128.184|172.69.128.184]] 08:21, 3 June 2025 (UTC)

Is there a reason for the trestle bridge to have a raised deck? They were iconically used for railways, where that would not work. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.110.59|162.158.110.59]] 09:56, 3 June 2025 (UTC)

The jump in particular feels a lot like polybridge and I love it [[Special:Contributions/172.71.167.160|172.71.167.160]] 11:27, 3 June 2025 (UTC)

Alas, no love (or even any acknowlegement) for the {{w|Transporter bridge}}, it seams... [[Special:Contributions/172.69.79.165|172.69.79.165]] 16:11, 3 June 2025 (UTC)

I live in Montreal, and the "budget overrun" immediately made me think of our Olympic Stadium, which we affectionately call "The Big Owe".
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.126.10|162.158.126.10]] 20:38, 3 June 2025 (UTC)

The closest thing to a "repurposed elevator" I know is a bus in Tirana in Albania, which accidentaly crashed off the road and over a river, and served as ab impromptu bridge for a while.

Suspended arch - tied-arch vs. through arch: The "suspended arch" bridge may or may not be a tied-arch bridge. Something has to stop the ends of the arch sliding outwards when there's a large load in the middle, but you can't tell what that something is from the image.

If that something is the bridge deck, being connected to the ends of the arch and under tension, than it's a tied-arch bridge (the deck ties the ends of the arch together). If that something is the arch foundations, and the deck is not under tension, then it's not a tied-arch bridge; it's just a simple through-arch bridge.

For more info on (real) bridges, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DX_zkaK5PaI| Practical Engineering] --DW [[Special:Contributions/162.158.187.69|162.158.187.69]] 13:24, 3 June 2025 (UTC)

'Drawbridge' to me means a defensive bridge that crosses the moat of a castle, and can be pulled up when defending it. See, eg., my favourite castle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodiam_Castle [[Special:Contributions/172.69.224.115|172.69.224.115]] 15:05, 3 June 2025 (UTC)
:Agreed. What they have there is a lift bridge. [[User:Yorkshire Pudding|Yorkshire Pudding]] ([[User talk:Yorkshire Pudding|talk]]) 15:55, 3 June 2025 (UTC)
::Well, as an abbreviated version of the {{w|vertical-lift bridge}}, I might quibble about even ''that'' descriptor. (But "bascule" became current, in-description, for which the main complaint might be only that it's a less known and more obscure name.) [[Special:Contributions/82.132.234.190|82.132.234.190]] 13:18, 5 June 2025 (UTC)

This is great timing, I was just today made aware of what I initially assumed to be a poor translation of "draw bridge", before realizing it was indeed its own distinct thing! It was [https://www.leonardodavincisinventions.com/civil-engineering-inventions/leonardo-da-vinci-swing-bridge/ Leonardo Da Vinci's Pivot Bridge] [[User:PotatoGod|PotatoGod]] ([[User talk:PotatoGod|talk]]) 19:04, 5 June 2025 (UTC)

Talk:3080: Tennis Balls

2025-04-28T05:40:10Z

PotatoGod: /* Vegetative Electron Microscopes */ new section

feels more like a macroscope to me [[User:GreyFox|GreyFox]] ([[User talk:GreyFox|talk]]) 23:53, 23 April 2025 (UTC)

Weirdly, Wikipedia has pages for pitching machines, bowling machines, and squash ball launchers, but doesn't appear to have one for tennis ball machines. (And no, I'm not going to create one specially for this comic.) [[Special:Contributions/172.71.241.89|172.71.241.89]] 08:42, 24 April 2025 (UTC)
:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squash_ball_machine Similar? -Anon [[Special:Contributions/172.69.208.203|172.69.208.203]] 13:31, 24 April 2025 (UTC)

:OTOH, Wikimedia has a photo and a couple of diagrams of tennis ball machines: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Tennis_ball_machines and 3 photos of "Tenniskanon" https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?search=Tenniskanon&title=Special:MediaSearch&type=image . I checked and the nobody has yet created the Tenniskanon page in nl.wikipedia.org [[User:Rps|Rps]] ([[User talk:Rps|talk]]) 13:15, 24 April 2025 (UTC)

I added the comments on even smaller forms of microscopy to the article. I found these in an article I read in a friend's Nature magazine, I've almost never read Nature and this article was so interesting. There was further similar content that I wanted to add but I haven't found the article again to reference it -- there's a kind of microscopy where the energy of the probe is turned way up, so that the sample is actually immediately destroyed by the probe, but by collecting the resulting scattering it can then be reconstructed. This is relevant to the paragraph on the observer effect. There is also some kind of microscopy (pump probe?) that can collect very high-time-resolution imagery. I asked for this article at https://www.reddit.com/r/Scholar/comments/1k6vfcr/article_miao_j_computational_microscopy_with because as an ex-hobby-software-engineer I found it so interesting that simple computer algorithms could be so powerful somewhere. I think it is sad however that this comic models detached nerds harming a passerby as humor. People who are extensively exposed to a mode of research do indeed tend to apply it to other domains, because it's what they understand, but we also want them to apologize if somebody is injured :) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.154.192|162.158.154.192]] 16:00, 24 April 2025 (UTC)

== Vegetative Electron Microscopes ==

With amusingly coincidental timing, I was recently made aware of a growing number of scientific papers that describe "''vegetative electron microscopes''", instead of "''scanning electron microscopes''", and I figure others here would also find it amusing: https://www.sciencealert.com/a-strange-phrase-keeps-turning-up-in-scientific-papers-but-why
The predominant theories to explain it are either that AI was trained on a pair of poorly-digitized papers from the 50s, or a translation error from Farsi, where a single dot makes the difference between "vegetative" and "scanning". Personally I find the latter explanation more likely, or perhaps a combination of the two factors.

Not sure how this concept would translate to implementing a ''vegetative tennis ball microscope''. Maybe replace the tennis balls with brussel sprouts or cabbages. [[User:PotatoGod|PotatoGod]] ([[User talk:PotatoGod|talk]]) 05:40, 28 April 2025 (UTC)

Talk:1835: Random Obsessions

2025-04-03T01:18:30Z

PotatoGod: Note both anecdata and data for how the predict matched reality

I feel like it's worth noting that the internet fixations mentioned on the chart - robot, monkeys, pirate, ninja, zombies, bacon - were all mentioned in #856 Trochee fixation https://xkcd.com/856/ and that sandwich is also a trochee. [[User:Necroleopard|Necroleopard]] ([[User talk:Necroleopard|talk]]) 20:01, 12 May 2017 (UTC)

I'm clearly behind on some things here. I know about all of these except "sandwiches" and "bacon". [[User:Djbrasier|Djbrasier]] ([[User talk:Djbrasier|talk]]) 04:51, 12 May 2017 (UTC)
:Some reference to a rise in "sandwich debate" online (Google trends or something) would be very helpful. [[User:Djbrasier|Djbrasier]] ([[User talk:Djbrasier|talk]]) 04:53, 12 May 2017 (UTC)
http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/is-a-hot-dog-a-sandwich is one of the threads of this meme but the meme does go further than just hotdogs --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.2.4|162.158.2.4]] 07:36, 12 May 2017 (UTC)

I added some description of the bacon fad, I wasn't sure if/where the Know Your Meme entry fits but here it is (http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/cultures/bacon) in case some other editor wants to put it in[[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.11|108.162.238.11]] 13:09, 12 May 2017 (UTC)
:Bacon is never a fad though. It has always been and will always be. [[User:OldCorps|OldCorps]] ([[User talk:OldCorps|talk]]) 16:30, 12 May 2017 (UTC)
:: Yes, but as a common meme it was though. Though I remember it back in 2006 by 2010 it was already mainstream and fading.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.114.70|162.158.114.70]] 13:47, 15 May 2017 (UTC)

The current incomplete explanation asking about the bacon.... Are you kidding? This was the one I was most comfortable with! It's the quite current trend of singing the praises of bacon, memes shared around Facebook that say things like "Everything's better with bacon", "When in doubt, bacon", "Like if you love bacon, Comment if you love bacon, Share if you love bacon, ignore if you hate puppies". I even have a Facebook friend who put their middle name as "bacon", LOL! - NiceGuy1 [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.16|108.162.219.16]] 21:42, 12 May 2017 (UTC) I finally signed up! This comment is mine. [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 05:57, 13 June 2017 (UTC)
:I added that tag. The question is what about bacon started to rise in 2010 and is peaking now? [[User:Djbrasier|Djbrasier]] ([[User talk:Djbrasier|talk]]) 02:24, 13 May 2017 (UTC)
::Here is the google trend for "Bacon": https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=bacon [[User:Jona|Jona]] ([[User talk:Jona|talk]]) 07:22, 13 May 2017 (UTC)
:::Looking at the graph, there appears to be a regular uptick in December or January. Interesting. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.166|108.162.245.166]] 22:27, 13 May 2017 (UTC)
::What started to rise? Ummmm, this stuff I already named. :) This graph is suggesting that Bacon memes, jokes, references, etc. started to rise in 2010. This being Google, it would probably mean people searching for these jokes and memes on Google, plus the people creating such things increasing the Google results. And thanks for the more specific answer, Jona, LOL! Even though my iPad is being a brat and won't show anything, the URL sounds quite the comprehensive answer, much better than anything I could say. - NiceGuy1 [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.64|108.162.219.64]] 03:27, 26 May 2017 (UTC) Also mine! [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 05:57, 13 June 2017 (UTC)

I believe this comic might be talking about the Burger King commercials that set off Google Homes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_O54le4__I -An anonymous person [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.88|108.162.219.88]] 12:51, 13 May 2017 (UTC)
:By that, I meant "What is the definition of a sandwich?" part. -Same anonymous guy [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.88|108.162.219.88]] 12:53, 13 May 2017 (UTC)

Why has nobody helping to edit these pages tried Googling a few key words? Nobody could figure out "robot monkeys;" I literally Googled the exact pair of words and limited the results to 2001 to 2011. It really does work. --[[User:OriginalName|OriginalName]] ([[User talk:OriginalName|talk]]) 03:51, 20 May 2017 (UTC)

I made the transcript complete by adding the caption and title text. --[[User:JayRulesXKCD|'''JayRules''XKCD''' ]][[User talk:JayRulesXKCD|what's up?]] 11:29, 23 May 2017 (UTC)

I fixed the article so it's not incomplete anymore, but it still says "The current incomplete explanation in the spotlight is 1835: Random Obsessions, please help us fix it", even thought I already fixed it. Is it something with the site? --[[User:JayRulesXKCD|'''JayRules''XKCD''' ]][[User talk:JayRulesXKCD|what's up?]] 22:03, 23 May 2017 (UTC)
:I was wondering this myself... Usually the comic chosen as the "Incomplete Explanation Of The Week" or whatever is one of the juggernauts I won't touch with a ten foot pole (other than some comments I've made which have clearly been lost in the flood, LOL!) but when I hit this one it seems complete, the tag is gone... IDK, maybe the site is programmed to pick a new one once a week or something, but it doesn't re-check to see if it's been completed in the meantime? - NiceGuy1 [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.64|108.162.219.64]] 03:34, 26 May 2017 (UTC) I finally signed up! This comment is mine. [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 05:57, 13 June 2017 (UTC)

TITS
:I see. [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 05:57, 13 June 2017 (UTC)

Is the "Pirates vs Ninjas" a reference to [https://brickipedia.fandom.com/wiki/Pirates_vs._Ninja#]?

Was he right? Is the sandwich conversation over? Did we reach a satisfactory conclusion or at least an acceptable compromise? I don't know the answers, but somebody who does should update the explanation for the new year. [[User:Ijpete98|Ijpete98]] ([[User talk:Ijpete98|talk]]) 13:00, 3 January 2024 (UTC)

2024 is here! Are we done with this sandwich thing? What's the metric to define if we are done? We saw an earth sandwich last year, but is that the same meme? So many questions
--[[Special:Contributions/172.71.122.170|172.71.122.170]] 17:48, 14 July 2024 (UTC)

:Well, it is still talked about occasionally, but it seems to have died down considerably. {{unsigned|Willintendo|17:27, 25 October 2024}}

:Hello from the near future! As of 2025, Subjectively, I think the comic's timeline was pretty accurate, I feel like sandwich identification mania has subsided. It'll still come up occasionally, but not often, probably pretty comparable in ranking to bacon. Oddly, google trends seems to show a different view, in which interest reached an all-time high in January 2022, and has only dropped by 1% between then and the start of this year (though it did drop somewhat lower in the intervening years). So perhaps the original batch of sandwich-contemplators have outgrown it, but the next generation continues to consider this conundrum. Here's the Google trends results: https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=Definition%20of%20a%20sandwich&hl=en-US [[User:PotatoGod|PotatoGod]] ([[User talk:PotatoGod|talk]]) 01:18, 3 April 2025 (UTC)

Talk:1012: Wrong Superhero

2025-02-07T07:34:46Z

PotatoGod: Explain removal of unsubstantiated "adam-ology" claim

Maybe they wanted to know what the plural form of mantis is, if more were to show up? Looks like a job for etymology man. [[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]][[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>(talk)</tt>]] 14:30, 30 October 2012 (UTC)

So what is the title text referring too? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.98|108.162.221.98]] 14:54, 6 April 2015 (UTC)

The title text is referring to Genesis 2:20: "And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field." In Biblical terms, this verse explains how all names of creatures (including praying mantises) came to be. Apparently Etymology-Man has studied this. {{unsigned|Npsych}}

adam-ology make more sense than the other guesses[[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.65|173.245.56.65]] 07:48, 1 November 2015 (UTC)

Didn't Portal 2 make a reference to giant mantises in one of cave johnson's prerecorded messages? maybe the comic is a bit of a reference to that. --[[User:Flamewolf|Flamewolf]] ([[User talk:Flamewolf|talk]]) 19:50, 19 February 2016 (UTC)

Maybe the title text is a pun on arthropodology[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthropodology] and (theological) anthropology[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_anthropology]? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.69.184|162.158.69.184]] 18:20, 27 October 2016 (UTC)

I suggest they asked for another hero fighting the mantis, but who came was "man-theology-man" (not manteology-man).

Perhaps the alt-text references Ethnology-Man? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnology

Ok, I'm making etymology man a minor character. [[User:Beanie|Beanie]] ([[User talk:Beanie|talk]]) 11:12, 13 May 2021 (UTC)

They should have called Eschatology Man, student of the book of Revelation. Eschatology is the study of stories about the end of the world. [[User:Nitpicking|Nitpicking]] ([[User talk:Nitpicking|talk]]) 01:57, 23 September 2021 (UTC)

I removed the reference to "Adam-ology" man, as that makes no sense, and someone who takes Etymology as seriously as Randall clearly had one of the other options in mind. [[User:PotatoGod|PotatoGod]] ([[User talk:PotatoGod|talk]]) 07:34, 7 February 2025 (UTC)

1012: Wrong Superhero

2025-02-07T07:32:02Z

PotatoGod: Remove absurd claim of "Adam-ology" man

{{comic
| number = 1012
| date = February 3, 2012
| title = Wrong Superhero
| image = wrong_superhero.png
| titletext = Hi! Someone call for me? I'm a superhero who specializes in the study of God's creation of Man in the Book of Genesi-- HOLY SHIT A GIANT BUG!
}}
==Explanation==
This is the second of the two comics in the series about the [[:Category:Etymology-Man|Etymology-Man]]. The first came two comics before with [[1010: Etymology-Man]].

The superhero, Etymology-Man, returns. And just like in his first appearance, Etymology-Man is explaining the origination of words instead of actually helping. {{w|Etymology}} is the study of the history of words, their origins, and how their form and meaning have changed over time.

In this comic, a group of scientists is in a lab, fighting off a giant mantis and some smaller mantises (which are nonetheless much larger than a typical praying mantis. Compared to the size of the people in this comic, the smaller mantises appear to be 8-12 inches long). One [[Cueball]] is firing a gun and [[Ponytail]] is brandishing a baseball bat, while the giant mantis grabs one Cueball by the leg, dangling him upside down. Behind the table, another Cueball is listening to Etymology Man speak. The joke here is that the scientists called the wrong hero for help. They instead wanted Entomology-Man. {{w|Entomology}} is the study of insects. Instead of calling Entomology-Man, who could probably help with fighting off the mantises, they have accidentally called Etymology-Man, due to the similarities in their names. Etymology-Man can only explain the origin of words, making him useless in this current situation.

In the title text, we find out the scientists accidentally call another superhero focused on {{w|Adam}} in the Biblical book of Genesis. This might be {{w|Etiology}}-Man (the study of causation and attribution), {{w|Ontology}}-Man (the study of being and existence), {{w|Ethology}}-Man (the study of human character, with a focus on its formation and evolution). Or perhaps {{w|Anthropology}}-Man or {{w|Anthropogeny}}-Man.

==Transcript==
:[A giant praying mantis attacks a team of scientists, along with its legion of smaller-but-still-unusually-large mantises. Two of the scientists fight back, with a gun and a baseball bat respectively, while a third is in the mantis' clutches, held aloft by his foot, his goggles falling off his face. Bullets whiz by the giant mantis' head and a fourth scientist hides behind a desk, on which rests a microscope and an Erlenmeyer flask. A man in a cape approaches the hiding scientist.]
:Etymology-man: Ah, no—you wanted '''''ENTO'''''mology-Man, spelled with an "N". See, it's from the Greek ''entomon'', meaning "insect," which is itself the neuter form of ''entomos'', meaning "segmented" or...
:'''BLAM BLAM BLAM'''

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Etymology-Man]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]

Talk:3044: Humidifier Review

2025-01-30T20:42:31Z

PotatoGod: Negative review from BButton

Somehow, the text here makes me think of the air-source heat pump equivalent, i.e. ''Why shouldn't it be the case that humidifiers condense outside air and suck the water out of it, and then pump that water into the conditioned space and re-disperse it?'' Of course, the obvious answer is that doing so would be frightfully expensive and entirely unnecessary given the cost of that kind of condensation compared to the cost of water. And, of course, the capital cost for the minor plumbing to install a domestic water line to the humidifier is going to be far smaller than the capital cost of a heat pump apparatus (or whatever) to generate condensation outdoors and then pump it into the conditioned space. [[User:JohnHawkinson|JohnHawkinson]] ([[User talk:JohnHawkinson|talk]]) 00:13, 30 January 2025 (UTC)
:Also it would still need that amount of water, just that the operator doesn't need to add it manually. --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 12:43, 30 January 2025 (UTC)

This reminds me of the whole thing with the VTuber Sakura Miko where she was using a humidifier without knowing she had to fill the tank with water for at least a year [[Special:Contributions/172.70.223.184|172.70.223.184]] 01:10, 30 January 2025 (UTC)

Related to that, just a week ago Sharp announced a humidifier collaboration with Sakura Miko, and as part of the PR they made a formal apology for "Not being able to use magic to make a waterless humidifier" {{unsigned ip|198.41.236.162|02:01, 30 January 2025}}

I'm waiting for the HydroPro High-Efficiency Electric Kettle™ which is connected to a heat pump to heat your tea water. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.170.192|172.71.170.192]] 04:39, 30 January 2025 (UTC)

: ''High-Efficiency Electric Kettle™ which is connected to a heat pump to heat your tea water'' You jest; but in the US we get hot water at the sink faucet. There is a push to do it all with heat-pumps, save a hundred bucks a year! (They say more, but I've compared our use.) But the heatpumps are $2K. A dumb resistor tank is $500. Payback is well in excess of 5 years. And it would make my cold cellar even colder, thus damper. --[[User:PRR|PRR]] ([[User talk:PRR|talk]]) 06:17, 30 January 2025 (UTC)

:: Just install a dehumidifier. And feed the water that the dehumidifier into the water heater. Infinite hot water! Also, enormous electric bills. Also legionnaire's disease. [[User:RegularSizedGuy|RegularSizedGuy]] ([[User talk:RegularSizedGuy|talk]]) 06:22, 30 January 2025 (UTC)
::: All dehumidifiers and all humidifiers must be connected together for the ultimate harmony! (If there turns out to be a net need/excess, we can work out what to do... We probably have a whole load of piping leading all over the planet, by this time, so we can find the most optimal source/sink.) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.33|172.70.162.33]] 13:32, 30 January 2025 (UTC)

Another device which is often getting negative reviews for not breaking laws of physics is car. Not only that, EU laws for 2035 are basically making against the EU law for a new car to not break laws of physics. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 09:08, 30 January 2025 (UTC)
: The only two transportation options that do not either break the laws of physics or ultimately prove either unfeasible or useless against carbon dioxide spiking and resulting anthropogenic climate change have five toes on each one. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.42.87|162.158.42.87]] 15:34, 30 January 2025 (UTC)
:: Cycling burns about half the calories per mile as walking. Which one has the lower overall carbon footprint depends on a lot of factors, including the carbon created for food production, bicycle production, the lifetime and maintenance requirements for the bike, the health benefits leading to a longer life (and hence more carbon production) for the walker/rider, etc. But if you already have a bike, it's probably more efficient to ride than it is to walk. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.169|162.158.62.169]] 17:59, 30 January 2025 (UTC)

Zero stars:

Dried out my house when I was already dehydrated

- BButton1869
[[User:PotatoGod|PotatoGod]] ([[User talk:PotatoGod|talk]]) 20:42, 30 January 2025 (UTC)

Talk:3038: Uncanceled Units

2025-01-16T09:53:03Z

PotatoGod: Note that unit misuse is common and likely an inspiring factor

DUDE I'M STILL IN SCHOOL RN, WHAT?
(also, the joke is that energy is power*time, so kWh is kJ/s... in an hour [[User:CalibansCreations|'''Caliban''']] ([[User talk:CalibansCreations|talk]]) 13:27, 15 January 2025 (UTC)

I guess not every comic can be a winner. Talking about an appliance using a certain amount of kWH per day is clear and normal. Power gets billed by the kWh, not the Joule. While technically not wrong, wanting "cancel" a sub-part of the commonly-used energy unit kWh and leaving it in deliberately-obscured units most people are less familiar with is the sort of insanity I'd more expect from White Hat than Cueball. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.35.171|172.70.35.171]] 13:39, 15 January 2025 (UTC)
:Maybe that is a meta-joke? To frame kWh/day as something crazy by giving that line to whitehat --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 13:52, 15 January 2025 (UTC)
:There's a difference between instantaneous power draw, and the total "volume"(/area, really) of power over time. Though a fridge is "always on", it is still only irregularly at full-draw. But, to the power company (or to the gas company, who will generally give a kWh measure of 'energy taken from the network'), they don't (generally) care whether you used twice as many kW over half the time or half as many over twice the time, within any given total billing period, even if it affects what you think. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.163.46|172.70.163.46]] 14:39, 15 January 2025 (UTC)
::Using joule as if it was an everyday unit of energy would be weird but I don't agree that watt is crazy. It's a normal unit of energy consumption that does mean something to people, e.g. 1000W microwave, 100W (incandescent) light bulb. Don't get me wrong kWh/day is also useful to translate it to your energy bill, but I do feel slightly uncomfortable every time I see that time divided by time :-) [[User:Mtcv|Mtcv]] ([[User talk:Mtcv|talk]]) 14:40, 15 January 2025 (UTC)
:I don't think the complaint is that it's unclear, it's that Cueball/Randall instinctively wants units simplified - as they would be in a science context rather than a useful-for-normal-people's-everyday-needs context. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.183|108.162.238.183]] 02:40, 16 January 2025 (UTC)

This is especially funny with US units. My car needs about 5l/100km, or 0.05mm². Now I am wondering how many ft^(-2) my car does... --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 13:49, 15 January 2025 (UTC)
: You make a good point about the units (at least in one instance). Shouldn't the reduced units for fuel economy be inverse area? Effectively, it is a measure of the distance the vehicle could travel while consuming a column of fuel with a specific height and specific top (or bottom) surface area. Or, The better the fuel economy, the less the surface area that is necessary to move a specific distance. [[User:SammyChips|SammyChips]] ([[User talk:SammyChips|talk]]) 20:41, 15 January 2025 (UTC)
::It depends on what the original unit is. In my country (Germany) we measure it in volume/distance, which would reduce to area. North American convention is in distance/volume which would reduce to inverse area. Good thing about distance/volume is that "high number = good". However I think outside of escaping from a nuclear disaster or in a zombie apocalypse it isn't a really helpful thing to know. Because how often do you know "I got x amount of fuel. Wonder how far I can get." But you will likely be in the situation where you quickly want to see "How much fuel do I need to get to place x which is y distance from here". --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 21:57, 15 January 2025 (UTC)
::: how often do you know "I got x amount of fuel. Wonder how far I can get." Quite often, because the question I'm really asking is whether I can get where I'm going with some margin built in before I need to refuel my car. When I do refuel or recharge the car, I'll go to 100% of capacity. I just want to know whether I have to do that now or if I can wait and do it later because later would be more convenient. The only time I want the number the other way is when I'm buying a car and want to make it as efficient as possible. Once I have it, the amount of fuel I need isn't going to change.[[User:Yttrium|Yttrium]] ([[User talk:Yttrium|talk]]) 09:02, 16 January 2025 (UTC)
:: More usefully imagined as the front (or back) end of a horizontal column (or, twisting as it may, a pipeline) that traverses the journey made by the vehicle. As if (instantaneous variations excepted) you consume precisely the fuel that your vehicle passes 'through/around'. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.76.92|141.101.76.92]] 20:45, 15 January 2025 (UTC)
::: Yeah. Maybe we should express fuel consumption in terms of the speed fuel needs to be drawn through a standard fuel line. [[User:SammyChips|SammyChips]] ([[User talk:SammyChips|talk]]) 21:01, 15 January 2025 (UTC)

fridge [[Special:Contributions/172.70.126.147|172.70.126.147]] 14:22, 15 January 2025 (UTC)

The late [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_J._C._MacKay Sir David MacKay] wrote an excellent book, [http://www.withouthotair.com/ Sustainable Energy – without the hot air] (which is available free online).
On [http://www.withouthotair.com/c2/page_24.shtml this page] he talks about the units he uses in the book: kWh for energy ("one unit") and kWh/day for power - becuase it's simple for lay-people to understand - how many units does this appliance use per day.
It's a good book if any of you are interested in sustainable energy (although it was written in 2008, so some bits might be out of date by now) {{unsigned ip|172.70.85.33|14:33, 15 January 2025}}

If anyone's curious, I found an online gallons per square foot calculator: https://www.omnicalculator.com/construction/gallons-per-square-foot [[Special:Contributions/172.71.223.6|172.71.223.6]] 15:54, 15 January 2025 (UTC)

The answer to Cueball's question is likely NO in the US and YES in the UK, due not just to gallon size but also fridge size (a model like that is a particularly large fridge, when I bought one 10 years ago going for the smallest available I had to modify my cabinet above the fridge as there wasn't one less than 6'8"- the fridge hole was 6' previous).[[User:Seebert|Seebert]] ([[User talk:Seebert|talk]]) 16:02, 15 January 2025 (UTC)

I disagree with this comic, and I think the final paragraph in the explanation about Hubble's constant best explains why. [[User:Beanie|Beanie]] [[User talk:Beanie|talk]] 15:57, 15 January 2025 (UTC)
:It doesn't make any sense to 'disagree' with an observation.[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.245|141.101.98.245]] 09:36, 16 January 2025 (UTC)

Technically, kWh should be written as kW⋅h or kW h, because it literally means "kilowatts multiplied by one hour", not "kilowatts per hour" as many people assume. However, almost nobody writes it correctly. (kW/h is sometimes also seen, but egregiously incorrect.) Also, particularly now that electric vehicles are becoming more popular, people often get confused between kW and kW h. The car can charge at a peak or average rate expressed in kW, but energy billed by a charging service provider is expressed in kWh. People frequently either add or remove the "h" incorrectly because they don't understand the difference. In some places like India, a kilowatt-hour is simply referred to as a "unit" to avoid confusion. In my opinion, it was an enormous mistake to use kWh when we could be using mJ instead, which I think is probably something close to the point Randall may have been trying to make. Anyway, I wasn't sure if there was a place for any of this random trivia in the article itself, but feel free to use it. [[User:Equites|Equites]] ([[User talk:Equites|talk]]) 17:11, 15 January 2025 (UTC)

Relevant XKCD… I mean relevant YouTube video: "Cursed units" 1 and 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkfIXUjkYqE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zg7xe8MkJHs [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 17:31, 15 January 2025 (UTC)

: Highly relevant, in fact. The first video referred to the kilowatt-hour as "cursed", which became a highly polarizing issue in the comments, something that was addressed at the beginning of part 2. Assuming these responses weren't cherry-picked, I get the impression that there are a lot of people on both sides of this. It seems like the same kind of thing we're seeing in this very comment section. [[User:ISaveXKCDpapers|ISaveXKCDpapers]] ([[User talk:ISaveXKCDpapers|talk]]) 18:10, 15 January 2025 (UTC)

I always wonder why people here prefer liter/m^2 for the amount of rain. Where the same number as mm is way easier to imagine. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.50.99|172.68.50.99]] 18:14, 15 January 2025 (UTC)
: At first, I was wondering if you would have rather had it in microliters/mm^2, but you meant the column height of the rain, like inches are used in the US. Along the line of L/m^2, something like mL/cm^2 might be nice considering the density of water, although the value also would be different by a factor. [[User:SammyChips|SammyChips]] ([[User talk:SammyChips|talk]]) 20:51, 15 January 2025 (UTC)
: That's the neat thing about the metric system, they are trivially simple to convert. 1l/m² is exactly 1mm. The fact that the meteorology uses the former just stems from the fact that that's how they measure it. The catch the rain on an area of 1m² into a beaker that contains some volume which is measured in liters. What annoys me though, is that noone seems to be talking about how terribly inefficient the fridge in the comic is. Mine only needs a tenth of the one that Whitehat tries to sell, and that's not even particularly good. --21:21, 15 January 2025 (UTC)
:: UK measurements, once it gets to weather reports/forecasts, tend to be in millimetres (or centimetres, where more for the layperson who don't need mm-resulution; or occasionally recast as 'old money' inches, with ''really'' bad rain events summarised in relation to whole feet), which is implicitly the depth to which ''any'' area would be filled (in a case where large catchment + funnelling valley situation is concerned, suffering from the run-off, might be ''reported'' as "equivalent to ''N'' feet of rain", down where the bad effects get concentrated, but this is not a meteorological measure as such).
:: Not sure I've ever seen volume/area as an end-result figure (might be relevent as an intermediate for measurement/calculation, especially when discussing the funelling effects of the given local geography), but of course it's trivially relatable.
:: Density of water would only figure in from replacing litres with kilogrammes (litres are 1/1000th of metres³ and any m² is 10,000 times the cm² (or millilitre), so a factor of 10 between L/m² and mL/cm²; divide L to mL by 1000, times m² to cm² by 10,000, => 10x) but I always find it useful to know that three 2L bottles of pop are (very close to, going by the nominal water content alone) 6kg... makes me feel better about lugging the weekly shopping home, where these might be the single most significant part of the weight. More usefully than cross-converting into length-cubed measure. ;) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.69|141.101.98.69]] 21:42, 15 January 2025 (UTC)

Isn't the point that KwH/day can be simplified to Watts (an average perhaps, but still) {{unsigned ip|162.158.41.72|21:24, 15 January 2025}}
: Yes, the joke seems pretty clearly about watts or kilowatts, not megajoules. Using megajoules doesn't result in any units being canceled; the denominator remains "/day". [[User:BatmanAoD|BatmanAoD]] ([[User talk:BatmanAoD|talk]]) 23:52, 15 January 2025 (UTC)

If the argument for kWh/day is that it's easy for the consumer to understand how it will affect their electricity bill – then kWh/month would be the right choice, because I doubt anyone receives an electricity bill every day. But the salesman prefers 3 kWh/day because it sounds like a smaller number than 90 kWh/month. And of course, if electricity bills were written in joules instead of illogical watt-hours, then MJ/month would be the easiest for the consumer. {{unsigned ip|162.158.134.90|22:31, 15 January 2025}}
:Per-month is tricky. You seem to assume month=30 days, when it can be 28-31 and is only 30 days a third of the time. Per quarter(-year) is a bit more consistent, less fractionally variant ''and'' closer to most utility bill frequencies as well, if you're looking for something not as eye-wateringly frightening as an annual estimate (which 'only' varies every 4.1237... years, on average). [[Special:Contributions/172.70.163.47|172.70.163.47]] 00:21, 16 January 2025 (UTC)
:: "''Per-month is tricky. You seem to assume month=30 days, when it can be 28-31...''" My electric bill for December 2024 is 33 days. The company closes the book when it is convenient, not per some calendar. --[[User:PRR|PRR]] ([[User talk:PRR|talk]]) 05:22, 16 January 2025 (UTC)
:::Which is why electric consumption per month is even more tricky. --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 06:33, 16 January 2025 (UTC)
:::It's still per some calendar. Just a calendar of the electric company, that you're not privy to.[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.245|141.101.98.245]] 09:36, 16 January 2025 (UTC)

I suspect this comic is inspired by the much more common pet peeve of incorrect/nonsensical units, frequently encountered in similar contexts. I'm so used to hearing kWh mistakenly written simply as kW, that I initially misread and assumed that's what the comic is about. That's a particularly common example, where you'll hear battery capacities listed in kW, or instantaneous power described in watt-hours. [[User:PotatoGod|PotatoGod]] ([[User talk:PotatoGod|talk]]) 09:53, 16 January 2025 (UTC)

3036: Chess Zoo

2025-01-13T08:07:53Z

PotatoGod: /* Trivia */ fix formatting

{{comic
| number = 3036
| date = January 10, 2025
| title = Chess Zoo
| before = [[#Explanation|↓ Skip to explanation ↓]]
| image = chess_zoo_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x1221px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = The zoo takes special care to keep kings separated from opposite-color pieces as part of their conservation program to prevent mating in captivity.
}}

==Explanation==

{{w|Zoo|Zoos}} are large encampments where various animals live in small enclosures. They're generally used as public exhibitions for amusement and education and as safe spaces for rescued and endangered animals.

[[Randall]] has here created a zoo for giant {{w|chess}} pieces, as if they were animals. In the [[#Trivia|Trivia]] section a color version of the zoo shows where different types of pieces can move.

There are many subtle "jokes" in the image that play on how chess pieces move:
* Bishops can only move diagonally. Enclosures containing them do not have diagonal walls or corners which would allow them to slip out, and orthogonal portals into their enclosures are only one square wide and at least two squares long so that they can't get through. One bishop enclosure even has a portal open to the visiting people, letting it serve as a {{w|petting zoo}}. Opposing bishops can safely mingle as long as they are on opposite colors, since a bishop can never move to a square of the opposite color than the one on which it currently stands. This is enforced by these mingling enclosures only having two openings, each on opposite colored squares (i.e. an enclosure only has an opening for black pieces on white squares and one for white pieces on black squares).
* Knights move in an "L" shape (two squares along a rank or file, then one square in an orthogonal direction), leaping over other pieces and presumably walls. The walls of their enclosures have been designed to prevent escape by placing blocks where they would land if they leapt over the wall, or using double-thick walls. They can also be blocked by the same portals that block bishops, although they would need to be four blocks long instead of two.
* Rooks can only move along ranks and files. They have free roam of several enclosures, though diagonal walls are able to stop them, preventing them from accessing the center mingling bishops.
* Queens and kings can move along ranks and files as well as diagonally, so their enclosures must have the same precautions as would be required for both bishops and rooks.
* Pawns can only move forward (or diagonally forward when capturing), but upon reaching the final rank (the opponent's back rank), they are "promoted," becoming a knight, bishop, rook, or queen. The pawns are in a double-walled enclosure with no doors to prevent escape after promotion.
* A special feature of the enclosure, mentioned in the sup caption, is that there is at least one room for every type of pieces where other pieces cannot enter (except the king is always in a room with the queens). This means that even though some of the pieces can mingle with some of the other pieces they can also always retreat to a room where the other pieces cannot disturb them. For instance the top and bottom room with rooks can not be entered by any other type of pieces. In the two rooms right above and below the middle room, the bishops of the same color have their personal room. And also the two rooms to the right where black and white bishops co-exist on different colors, cannot be entered by any other type. (This is of course needed, since else there could be captures). The pawns have their own rooms top and bottom right. The knights have a separate room from where they can jump out to the rooms with either rooks or king/queens, but no other piece can enter their personal space to the left. And the king and his queens can retreat top or bottom left where the knights cannot enter. No piece can encounter all the other (even of the same color) but all pieces can meet at least one other type of pieces, the pawns though only after promotion. But they could not meet a king. This is similar to real zoos where, for instance on a large savannah type enclosure, the smaller animals may have a place to retreat through smaller openings where the larger animals cannot follow. So in case they are being pursued they have a chance to escape even if closed inside a smaller enclosure.

Contrary to the comic's subtitle, there are a couple of "interaction" areas that could have been built into the zoo design while preventing piece capture or escape but have not. There is no reason bishops and knights of the same color couldn't occupy the same enclosure, so long as there are adequate walls to prevent knights from escaping their enclosure. Additionally, it would be possible to allow visitor access to the white-bishop-on-black and black-bishop-on-white enclosure, as well as allow visitor access to the knight enclosures, however it is not apparent whether this is a priority of the zoo.

Every visitor of the zoo is depicted as centered on a single square occupied only by themselves, just like a chess piece. This could perhaps imply an entire chess board "world", where humans and chess pieces coexist as separate species, both aligned to the grid.

The title text contains a clever chess joke. The phrase "mating in captivity" is typically used to refer to animals in zoos copulating, hopefully producing offspring. A reputable zoo will take care not to have too many unplanned cases of reproducing, for manageability and genetic diversity. In this case, however, "mating" is used in the chess context, meaning delivering an attack from which the opponent's king cannot escape. To prevent this from occurring, kings are not kept in the same enclosure as any piece of an opposing color. In fact, only opposing bishops on opposite colors are shown as unallied co-residents of an enclosure, in this zoo, thanks to their particular method of wall-free separation.

==Transcript==
:[A large panel is shown. It contains what appear to be a chessboard, but it is much larger than the usual 8x8=64 chess board squares. But it is divided into squares that are alternatingly white or gray. In the part shown 29x43 = 1247 squares are visible. Although for the outer rows and columns only less than half of each square there can be seen, so only 27x41 = 1107 squares are fully shown. On the "board" there are many details. Above the panel there is a large caption with a sub caption giving an explanation:]
:<big><big>Chess Zoo</big></big>
:<big>Designed to give different types of pieces their own enclosures while letting them interact as much as possible without allowing captures</big>

:[Upon the board there has been drawn an enclosure by drawing black squares on the white/gray squares. These black squares are smaller than the underlying squares but centered on the middle of their square. The outer parts of this enclosure covers 25x39 = 975 squares. It is not an entire rectangle of the black squares, but the top, the right side and bottom is a full line of 25, 39 and 25 black squares. The left line is only a normal line for the top and bottom 6 squares. Then for the next 12 rows (top or bottom), the "solid" line is moved one step in (to the right) and only on every second row is here a black square on the outer line. Above this there is a gap of 5 squares without black squares on either of the two left most squares (and 7 rows in a row with no black squares on the outer most line). This created a section inside the enclosure connected directly to the outside, but this part is still closed off, with black sqaures forming walls on this inner section, that closes it off from the rest of the enclosure.]

:[Inside this enclosure there are many other squares that have the black squares on top forming several rooms that are either closed of from other rooms or connected in some places. And on the white and gray squares that do not have black squares in top, there may bee drawn chess pieces or humans on them.]

:[The top part of the image has enclosures for black chess pieces and the bottom for white ones. Smaller black squares form enclosures around the chess pieces while the characters are outside of them. In the middle of the image, to the right, there are black and white bishops next to each other on squares of opposite colors. Humans are only on the outside of the enclosure, mainly above (eight) and below (six) with only three to the right. The the left people can stand either outside normal (three), or inside one of the indentations (two). But they can also walk into the open part and there are nine inside like this.]

:[Banner on top of smaller black squares on the top right, above an enclosure with a knight and four pawns:]
:Banner: ''Shh! Pawns promoting.''

:[Jill near the center, standing in front of Blondie and pointing forward:]
:Jill: Look, mommy! Bishops!

===Detailed description===
:[The humans outside the actual part of the enclosure are listed here, and the rooms they are looking into are also described:]

:[Top row from the left: Over the fifth black square a boy with what appears to be a cap. Next to him Hairbun. Two squares over Cueball. They look into the blacks King and Queens only section. There are four queens in this room and the king. One of the Queens are on her way down a hall to a room below, with a fifth queen and a knight. Over black square 14 there is another Cueball next to Hairy looking into the black rook only section. There are three rooks, one of which is moving in a hall to the room below. Over black square 19 is White Hat and two squares on Danish next to Ponytail looking into the black pawns only section, the two women over the banner. One of the pawns has promoted into a knight four others are still on their way to promote. This room has double thickness walls with two black squares all the way around.]

:[Down the right side from the top: To the right of black square 12 from the top another Cueball looking into the blacks bishops only section with three bishops, two on gray squares and one on a white square. To the right of black square 26 from the top another White Hat and another Hairy are looking into the white bishops only section with two bishops both on white squares. Above this room is a room with both white and black bishops, with the three white bishops on gray squares and the three black bishops on white squares.]

:[Bottom row from the right: Under the fourth black square from the right another Cueball looking into the White pawns only section, there are three pawns, none of them has promoted, bu their is also no banner- This room also has double thickness walls. Under the tenth black square to the 13th are four people in a row, from the right, another White Hat, another Hairy, another Hair Bun and another Cueball. They look into the white rooks only section. There are four rooks, one of them on the way into a hall towards the room above. Under the 21st black square from the right Megan is looking into the white King and Queens only section. There are three Queens with the King. A fourth queen is in a room above, where she is together with a knight.]

:[Up the left side from the bottom: The the left of black square three from the bottom another Hairy is looking into the white King and Queens only section. The seventh black square from the bottom it moved on space to the right. In the hole left there another Cueball is standing so he can see the passage where the white King and Queen can move into a room where also white knights can be, and there is one knight and one queen. To the left of outer wall 27 squares up, is Blondie, she is standing in the normal row left of the wall, but at a place where there is an indentation, so she is not next to the nearest black square. Se looks into the black knights only section with only one knight present. Four squares above her another Ponytail is standing in an indentation in the wall looking into the room where the black King and Queens can be together with the black knights, there is a queen and a knight. Four squares above this another Hairy is seen. He seems to have turned away from the wall walking to the left, so he is not looking into the black King and Queens only section behind him.]

:[The opening into the enclosure from the left to the end: Three squares in at the bottom over a black square one higher than the nearest another Megan walks to the right, next to her another Cueball walks the same way, he is not directly over a black square. And one further left below in one if the indentations another Ponytail. They are all above the white knights only section, with only one knight present. Above the first of the two Cueball's at the top of the opening in an indentation is Knit Cap looking into the black knights only section. At the bottom four squares further in than Ponytail is a person standing in an indentation with very large hair looking into a room where both white knights and rooks can be together, one of each is present. One further square in but two above him is another Blondie and next to her Jill pointing at the room with white and black bishops together, as she calls out. This room is the one where they are on their own color square, three white on white and three black on gray squares. Above them is the room where both black knight and black rooks can be together, with three knights and one rook. One square further in and one below them is another Cueball looking in to a section only accessible to white rooks next to the bishops room. There is one rook there. But below this part of the room it opens up and has both white rooks (3) and white bishops (5) with three bishops on white and two on gray squares. A similar room is above these last three persons with a black rook in the near part not accessible to bishops but then black rooks (1) and black bishops (3) can be together in the rest of that room. All bishops on gray squares.]

:[In total there are 9 Cueballs, 5 Hairys, 3 White Hats, 3 Ponytails, 2 Megans, 2 Hairbuns, 2 Blondies, 1 Knit Cap, 1 Danish, 1 Jill, 1 kid with a cap, 1 man with lots of hair, for a total of 31 humans.]

:[In total there are the following black pieces 1 king, 5 queens, 6 knights (one a promoted pawn), 5 rooks, 11 bishops and 4 pawns (together with the promoted knight). A total of 32 black pieces. There are the following white pieces: 1 king, 4 queens, 3 knights, 9 rooks, 13 bishops and 3 pawns for a total of 33 white pieces. 65 pieces in all. Similar number of each type of pieces as there are humans, 31, 32 and 33 for a total of 96 squares occupied by something that are "alive".]

===Visual-aspects-reliant representation of the comic===
:[Layout (H is a human; # is a smaller black square; chess pieces on the top half are black and below that white, unless otherwise noted):]
HH H HH H HH
#########################
# # #########
# Q Q # R ## ##
# K # R##P P##
H# #Q# Q##### ## P ##
### ### #R## P ##
## ###### # ## N ##
### # ##### # #########
H# Q # #### # ########
### N# ##### # #
# # R B # #
####### #### # B B#H
H # # N N## B R# #
### N # ## B# B #
# # ## # # # #
### # #N# ### ###B## ####
########### # B# B#
#H# # # # #R# # #
##B # B # [White bishops]
H HH B # B # [Black bishops]
HH H## B # B # [Left bishop: white, right bishop: black]
# #H# #H# # # B # B B#
########### R# # #
### # # # ### ## #### ###
# N# ## # #B # #
### # ##R R #B #H
# # ## R B # #H
####### R#### # B #
# # BB# #
###QN # N ##### B # #
# # #### # ########
### # ##### # #########
H## ###### # ## ##
### ### # ##P ##
# # # #####R## ##
# K Q# ## P P##
H# Q # RR ## ##
# Q # R #########
#########################
H HHHH H

==Trivia==
*User [[User:D5xtgr|D5xtgr]] made the [https://pasteboard.co/64VsBMA5af8l.png following depiction] of the board with colors showing which rooms the different pieces can enter by mixing colors.
**It was uploaded here with help, as D5xtgr could not at the time upload files:
[[File:3636 Chezz Zoo-with colors.png]]
*This is a version of xkcd 3036 "Chess Zoo" with partially-transparent coloured overlays illustrating the range of movement each piece has. Warm colours (red, brown, orange, yellow) are used for the black pieces, and cool colours (blue, teal , cyan, green) for the white pieces to show contrast. Because some regions are accessible to multiple pieces, these overlays overlap in places, producing colours that are combination or mixture of the originals.
**The text taken from the page where the original image was posted.
*Jake Oullette made an [https://cadencecode.com/play/zooofchess interactive simulation of the chess zoo].
{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Large drawings]]
[[Category:Chess]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairbun]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Blondie]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Jill]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Knit Cap]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Danish]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]

3036: Chess Zoo

2025-01-13T08:05:28Z

PotatoGod: Add link to interactive chess zoo

{{comic
| number = 3036
| date = January 10, 2025
| title = Chess Zoo
| before = [[#Explanation|↓ Skip to explanation ↓]]
| image = chess_zoo_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x1221px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = The zoo takes special care to keep kings separated from opposite-color pieces as part of their conservation program to prevent mating in captivity.
}}

==Explanation==

{{w|Zoo|Zoos}} are large encampments where various animals live in small enclosures. They're generally used as public exhibitions for amusement and education and as safe spaces for rescued and endangered animals.

[[Randall]] has here created a zoo for giant {{w|chess}} pieces, as if they were animals. In the [[#Trivia|Trivia]] section a color version of the zoo shows where different types of pieces can move.

There are many subtle "jokes" in the image that play on how chess pieces move:
* Bishops can only move diagonally. Enclosures containing them do not have diagonal walls or corners which would allow them to slip out, and orthogonal portals into their enclosures are only one square wide and at least two squares long so that they can't get through. One bishop enclosure even has a portal open to the visiting people, letting it serve as a {{w|petting zoo}}. Opposing bishops can safely mingle as long as they are on opposite colors, since a bishop can never move to a square of the opposite color than the one on which it currently stands. This is enforced by these mingling enclosures only having two openings, each on opposite colored squares (i.e. an enclosure only has an opening for black pieces on white squares and one for white pieces on black squares).
* Knights move in an "L" shape (two squares along a rank or file, then one square in an orthogonal direction), leaping over other pieces and presumably walls. The walls of their enclosures have been designed to prevent escape by placing blocks where they would land if they leapt over the wall, or using double-thick walls. They can also be blocked by the same portals that block bishops, although they would need to be four blocks long instead of two.
* Rooks can only move along ranks and files. They have free roam of several enclosures, though diagonal walls are able to stop them, preventing them from accessing the center mingling bishops.
* Queens and kings can move along ranks and files as well as diagonally, so their enclosures must have the same precautions as would be required for both bishops and rooks.
* Pawns can only move forward (or diagonally forward when capturing), but upon reaching the final rank (the opponent's back rank), they are "promoted," becoming a knight, bishop, rook, or queen. The pawns are in a double-walled enclosure with no doors to prevent escape after promotion.
* A special feature of the enclosure, mentioned in the sup caption, is that there is at least one room for every type of pieces where other pieces cannot enter (except the king is always in a room with the queens). This means that even though some of the pieces can mingle with some of the other pieces they can also always retreat to a room where the other pieces cannot disturb them. For instance the top and bottom room with rooks can not be entered by any other type of pieces. In the two rooms right above and below the middle room, the bishops of the same color have their personal room. And also the two rooms to the right where black and white bishops co-exist on different colors, cannot be entered by any other type. (This is of course needed, since else there could be captures). The pawns have their own rooms top and bottom right. The knights have a separate room from where they can jump out to the rooms with either rooks or king/queens, but no other piece can enter their personal space to the left. And the king and his queens can retreat top or bottom left where the knights cannot enter. No piece can encounter all the other (even of the same color) but all pieces can meet at least one other type of pieces, the pawns though only after promotion. But they could not meet a king. This is similar to real zoos where, for instance on a large savannah type enclosure, the smaller animals may have a place to retreat through smaller openings where the larger animals cannot follow. So in case they are being pursued they have a chance to escape even if closed inside a smaller enclosure.

Contrary to the comic's subtitle, there are a couple of "interaction" areas that could have been built into the zoo design while preventing piece capture or escape but have not. There is no reason bishops and knights of the same color couldn't occupy the same enclosure, so long as there are adequate walls to prevent knights from escaping their enclosure. Additionally, it would be possible to allow visitor access to the white-bishop-on-black and black-bishop-on-white enclosure, as well as allow visitor access to the knight enclosures, however it is not apparent whether this is a priority of the zoo.

Every visitor of the zoo is depicted as centered on a single square occupied only by themselves, just like a chess piece. This could perhaps imply an entire chess board "world", where humans and chess pieces coexist as separate species, both aligned to the grid.

The title text contains a clever chess joke. The phrase "mating in captivity" is typically used to refer to animals in zoos copulating, hopefully producing offspring. A reputable zoo will take care not to have too many unplanned cases of reproducing, for manageability and genetic diversity. In this case, however, "mating" is used in the chess context, meaning delivering an attack from which the opponent's king cannot escape. To prevent this from occurring, kings are not kept in the same enclosure as any piece of an opposing color. In fact, only opposing bishops on opposite colors are shown as unallied co-residents of an enclosure, in this zoo, thanks to their particular method of wall-free separation.

==Transcript==
:[A large panel is shown. It contains what appear to be a chessboard, but it is much larger than the usual 8x8=64 chess board squares. But it is divided into squares that are alternatingly white or gray. In the part shown 29x43 = 1247 squares are visible. Although for the outer rows and columns only less than half of each square there can be seen, so only 27x41 = 1107 squares are fully shown. On the "board" there are many details. Above the panel there is a large caption with a sub caption giving an explanation:]
:<big><big>Chess Zoo</big></big>
:<big>Designed to give different types of pieces their own enclosures while letting them interact as much as possible without allowing captures</big>

:[Upon the board there has been drawn an enclosure by drawing black squares on the white/gray squares. These black squares are smaller than the underlying squares but centered on the middle of their square. The outer parts of this enclosure covers 25x39 = 975 squares. It is not an entire rectangle of the black squares, but the top, the right side and bottom is a full line of 25, 39 and 25 black squares. The left line is only a normal line for the top and bottom 6 squares. Then for the next 12 rows (top or bottom), the "solid" line is moved one step in (to the right) and only on every second row is here a black square on the outer line. Above this there is a gap of 5 squares without black squares on either of the two left most squares (and 7 rows in a row with no black squares on the outer most line). This created a section inside the enclosure connected directly to the outside, but this part is still closed off, with black sqaures forming walls on this inner section, that closes it off from the rest of the enclosure.]

:[Inside this enclosure there are many other squares that have the black squares on top forming several rooms that are either closed of from other rooms or connected in some places. And on the white and gray squares that do not have black squares in top, there may bee drawn chess pieces or humans on them.]

:[The top part of the image has enclosures for black chess pieces and the bottom for white ones. Smaller black squares form enclosures around the chess pieces while the characters are outside of them. In the middle of the image, to the right, there are black and white bishops next to each other on squares of opposite colors. Humans are only on the outside of the enclosure, mainly above (eight) and below (six) with only three to the right. The the left people can stand either outside normal (three), or inside one of the indentations (two). But they can also walk into the open part and there are nine inside like this.]

:[Banner on top of smaller black squares on the top right, above an enclosure with a knight and four pawns:]
:Banner: ''Shh! Pawns promoting.''

:[Jill near the center, standing in front of Blondie and pointing forward:]
:Jill: Look, mommy! Bishops!

===Detailed description===
:[The humans outside the actual part of the enclosure are listed here, and the rooms they are looking into are also described:]

:[Top row from the left: Over the fifth black square a boy with what appears to be a cap. Next to him Hairbun. Two squares over Cueball. They look into the blacks King and Queens only section. There are four queens in this room and the king. One of the Queens are on her way down a hall to a room below, with a fifth queen and a knight. Over black square 14 there is another Cueball next to Hairy looking into the black rook only section. There are three rooks, one of which is moving in a hall to the room below. Over black square 19 is White Hat and two squares on Danish next to Ponytail looking into the black pawns only section, the two women over the banner. One of the pawns has promoted into a knight four others are still on their way to promote. This room has double thickness walls with two black squares all the way around.]

:[Down the right side from the top: To the right of black square 12 from the top another Cueball looking into the blacks bishops only section with three bishops, two on gray squares and one on a white square. To the right of black square 26 from the top another White Hat and another Hairy are looking into the white bishops only section with two bishops both on white squares. Above this room is a room with both white and black bishops, with the three white bishops on gray squares and the three black bishops on white squares.]

:[Bottom row from the right: Under the fourth black square from the right another Cueball looking into the White pawns only section, there are three pawns, none of them has promoted, bu their is also no banner- This room also has double thickness walls. Under the tenth black square to the 13th are four people in a row, from the right, another White Hat, another Hairy, another Hair Bun and another Cueball. They look into the white rooks only section. There are four rooks, one of them on the way into a hall towards the room above. Under the 21st black square from the right Megan is looking into the white King and Queens only section. There are three Queens with the King. A fourth queen is in a room above, where she is together with a knight.]

:[Up the left side from the bottom: The the left of black square three from the bottom another Hairy is looking into the white King and Queens only section. The seventh black square from the bottom it moved on space to the right. In the hole left there another Cueball is standing so he can see the passage where the white King and Queen can move into a room where also white knights can be, and there is one knight and one queen. To the left of outer wall 27 squares up, is Blondie, she is standing in the normal row left of the wall, but at a place where there is an indentation, so she is not next to the nearest black square. Se looks into the black knights only section with only one knight present. Four squares above her another Ponytail is standing in an indentation in the wall looking into the room where the black King and Queens can be together with the black knights, there is a queen and a knight. Four squares above this another Hairy is seen. He seems to have turned away from the wall walking to the left, so he is not looking into the black King and Queens only section behind him.]

:[The opening into the enclosure from the left to the end: Three squares in at the bottom over a black square one higher than the nearest another Megan walks to the right, next to her another Cueball walks the same way, he is not directly over a black square. And one further left below in one if the indentations another Ponytail. They are all above the white knights only section, with only one knight present. Above the first of the two Cueball's at the top of the opening in an indentation is Knit Cap looking into the black knights only section. At the bottom four squares further in than Ponytail is a person standing in an indentation with very large hair looking into a room where both white knights and rooks can be together, one of each is present. One further square in but two above him is another Blondie and next to her Jill pointing at the room with white and black bishops together, as she calls out. This room is the one where they are on their own color square, three white on white and three black on gray squares. Above them is the room where both black knight and black rooks can be together, with three knights and one rook. One square further in and one below them is another Cueball looking in to a section only accessible to white rooks next to the bishops room. There is one rook there. But below this part of the room it opens up and has both white rooks (3) and white bishops (5) with three bishops on white and two on gray squares. A similar room is above these last three persons with a black rook in the near part not accessible to bishops but then black rooks (1) and black bishops (3) can be together in the rest of that room. All bishops on gray squares.]

:[In total there are 9 Cueballs, 5 Hairys, 3 White Hats, 3 Ponytails, 2 Megans, 2 Hairbuns, 2 Blondies, 1 Knit Cap, 1 Danish, 1 Jill, 1 kid with a cap, 1 man with lots of hair, for a total of 31 humans.]

:[In total there are the following black pieces 1 king, 5 queens, 6 knights (one a promoted pawn), 5 rooks, 11 bishops and 4 pawns (together with the promoted knight). A total of 32 black pieces. There are the following white pieces: 1 king, 4 queens, 3 knights, 9 rooks, 13 bishops and 3 pawns for a total of 33 white pieces. 65 pieces in all. Similar number of each type of pieces as there are humans, 31, 32 and 33 for a total of 96 squares occupied by something that are "alive".]

===Visual-aspects-reliant representation of the comic===
:[Layout (H is a human; # is a smaller black square; chess pieces on the top half are black and below that white, unless otherwise noted):]
HH H HH H HH
#########################
# # #########
# Q Q # R ## ##
# K # R##P P##
H# #Q# Q##### ## P ##
### ### #R## P ##
## ###### # ## N ##
### # ##### # #########
H# Q # #### # ########
### N# ##### # #
# # R B # #
####### #### # B B#H
H # # N N## B R# #
### N # ## B# B #
# # ## # # # #
### # #N# ### ###B## ####
########### # B# B#
#H# # # # #R# # #
##B # B # [White bishops]
H HH B # B # [Black bishops]
HH H## B # B # [Left bishop: white, right bishop: black]
# #H# #H# # # B # B B#
########### R# # #
### # # # ### ## #### ###
# N# ## # #B # #
### # ##R R #B #H
# # ## R B # #H
####### R#### # B #
# # BB# #
###QN # N ##### B # #
# # #### # ########
### # ##### # #########
H## ###### # ## ##
### ### # ##P ##
# # # #####R## ##
# K Q# ## P P##
H# Q # RR ## ##
# Q # R #########
#########################
H HHHH H

==Trivia==
*User [[User:D5xtgr|D5xtgr]] made the [https://pasteboard.co/64VsBMA5af8l.png following depiction] of the board with colors showing which rooms the different pieces can enter by mixing colors.
**It was uploaded here with help, as D5xtgr could not at the time upload files:
[[File:3636 Chezz Zoo-with colors.png]]
*This is a version of xkcd 3036 "Chess Zoo" with partially-transparent coloured overlays illustrating the range of movement each piece has. Warm colours (red, brown, orange, yellow) are used for the black pieces, and cool colours (blue, teal , cyan, green) for the white pieces to show contrast. Because some regions are accessible to multiple pieces, these overlays overlap in places, producing colours that are combination or mixture of the originals.

Jake Oullette made an [https://cadencecode.com/play/zooofchess interactive simulation of the chess zoo].

**The text taken from the page where the original image was posted.
{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Large drawings]]
[[Category:Chess]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairbun]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Blondie]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Jill]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Knit Cap]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Danish]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]

Talk:2999: Bad Map Projection: The United Stralia

2024-10-17T22:03:00Z

PotatoGod: Mention similar map recently

He forgot the Idaho abbreviation. [[User:Danger Kitty|Danger Kitty]] ([[User talk:Danger Kitty|talk]])
hello[[Special:Contributions/172.68.54.64|172.68.54.64]] 19:49, 16 October 2024 (UTC)

:: And Mississippi has stolen Michigan's abbreviation! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.206.240|172.70.206.240]] 23:18, 16 October 2024 (UTC)

5 likes and I will make this a reality [[User:CalibansCreations|'''Caliban''']] ([[User talk:CalibansCreations|talk]]) 20:10, 16 October 2024 (UTC)

Probably this is because I'm more familiar with the map of Australia than of the US, but Melbourne seems to have moved quite a bit to the east and is now presumably in Gippsland? Oddly that's the most jarring change for me... [[User:Zoid42|Zoid42]] ([[User talk:Zoid42|talk]]) 20:26, 16 October 2024 (UTC)

:: Yep. {{w|Melbourne Florida}}. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.47.10|172.70.47.10]] 21:56, 16 October 2024 (UTC)
::: Yes, I guess that explains the location -- though I'd not heard of the Melbourne in Florida previously. The other jarring thing is (on the east coast at least) the climates don't match up. Florida is closer to Queensland in terms of climate (and maybe culturally), Tasmania is colder and I guess probably closer to the north-eastern US states. Plus I can't really see Adelaide as being that much like New Orleans...

An eight-legged gator with fangs the size of your arm, six eyes, and the ability to spin webs is truly a horrifying thought. [[User:Psychoticpotato|P?sych??otic?pot??at???o ]] ([[User talk:Psychoticpotato|talk]]) 21:07, 16 October 2024 (UTC)

:: At that point most of the NT would become to dangerous for people to live. [[User:SomeRandomNerd|SomeRandomNerd]] ([[User talk:SomeRandomNerd|talk]]) 23:21, 16 October 2024 (UTC)

If find it weird how tasmania is florida, as while they are in the same place, they are the least alike 2 places you could think of. [[User:SomeRandomNerd|SomeRandomNerd]] ([[User talk:SomeRandomNerd|talk]]) 22:35, 16 October 2024 (UTC)

:: Agreed. If cartoons and television have taught me anything, one is home to a bunch of snarling, slobbering, ravenous beasts, moving across the landscape as whirlwinds of wanton destruction. And the other is Tasmania. [[Special:Contributions/172.64.238.130|172.64.238.130]] 04:59, 17 October 2024 (UTC)

Part of the joke is that the contiguous 48 States plus DC have nearly the same area as Australia, though the US has a larger total area. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.109.166|141.101.109.166]] 01:00, 17 October 2024 (UTC)

As an Australian citizen, this map hurts my soul. This is amazingly painful and I kinda love it. [[User:OmniDoom|OmniDoom]] ([[User talk:OmniDoom|talk]]) 01:36, 17 October 2024 (UTC)

:: I apparently now live in Adelaide/Louisiana (or New Orleans/South Australia). [[User:FourW|FourW]] ([[User talk:FourW|talk]]) 06:32, 17 October 2024 (UTC)FourW

Environmentalists will be upset with Randal for finally finishing the {{w|Cross Florida Barge Canal}}. And just in time for the centennial!--[[User:The Mess|The Mess]] ([[User talk:The Mess|talk]]) 07:33, 17 October 2024 (UTC)
:I was wondering if it was a sidelong comment upon the effects of {{w|Hurricane Milton}}... [[Special:Contributions/172.70.160.188|172.70.160.188]]

:: No, no, no. It's the Gap Chasm.[https://xanth.fandom.com/wiki/Gap_Chasm]

The distortion of Washington State, where I live, is painful, but funny. Can't wait for comic 3000! [[Special:Contributions/172.71.146.58|172.71.146.58]] 16:00, 17 October 2024 (UTC)

Being about to shift to the right at an election next weekend, it is very prescient (and scary) that SE Queensland, where I live, is in North Carolina. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.64.212|172.68.64.212]] 18:53, 17 October 2024 (UTC)

==Request: Map Merge/Morph==
Could someone please post a simple map outline of the contiguous US and of Australia, and then try to merge / morph the two maps together? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.47.88|172.70.47.88]] 17:24, 17 October 2024 (UTC)
:could you please elaborate on how you want to merge these two maps? [[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]] ([[User talk:42.book.addict|talk]]) 18:22, 17 October 2024 (UTC)

Anyone else see a *very* similar map on social media recently? I think it might've been one of those "bad maps" X accounts that posted one that's almost identical but with different labeling a couple days ago, clearly the inspiration for Randall. Probably worth mentioning that in the explanation somewhere.
[[User:PotatoGod|PotatoGod]] ([[User talk:PotatoGod|talk]]) 22:03, 17 October 2024 (UTC)

2983: Monocaster

2024-09-15T05:18:33Z

PotatoGod: Note that radius vs diameter may be the mistake, rather than inches vs cms

{{comic
| number = 2983
| date = September 9, 2024
| title = Monocaster
| image = monocaster_2x.png
| imagesize = 536x673px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = My competitors say the tiny single tiny caster is unsafe, unstable, and offers no advantages over traditional designs, to which I say: wow, why are you guys so mean? I thought we were friends!
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a LAPTOP-CONTROLLED HAMSTER BALL - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
A caster, also spelled castor, is a small unpowered wheel, usually attached to a swiveling base. They are typically found on carts and office chairs to make them easy to move, and may be placed on heavy appliances to facilitate movement.

Randall has proposed a variant of the skateboard with only one caster on the bottom, the titular "monocaster", and devoted most of the comic to a {{w|Perceptual mapping|perceptual map}} showing the variety of wheeled vehicles. Market strategists and investors use such diagrams as a simple way of representing important differences between products or companies, but where a consumer might be more concerned with features like speed, cost, ease of use, or carrying capacity, this map focuses on the number of wheels (horizontal axis) and the diameter of those wheels (vertical axis).

Each axis uses a logarithmic scale, which is convenient for making the map look more evenly filled but also visually exaggerates the size of the "key gap" that the monocaster is filling, which can be described as "vehicle with a single wheel smaller than 25 cm". The nearest competitors appear to be a two-wheel skateboard sometimes called a {{w|caster board}} (wheel diameter under 8 cm) and a single-wheel self-balancing board resembling a {{w|Onewheel}} (diameter around 25 cm). The Onewheel is sometimes described as a {{w|monowheel}} (though these are traditionally larger like the "1920s monowheel" on the upper left). Randall appears to have combined these two names to create the monocaster. This gives up several of the competitors' features - the caster board's two wheels provide enough stability to propel the vehicle manually, while the Onewheel's single wheel is wide (assisting with sideways balance) and powered by a self-balancing mechanism.

The result resembles a {{w|Balance board#Sphere-and-ring|"Sphere-and-ring" balance board}}, or other types, though these provide limited locomotion potential. The joke depends on the caster's obvious impracticality in this role: the hole in the market was open ''for a reason''. The obvious drawback to any single-wheeled vehicle is that it's difficult to balance: the rider has to avoid falling forward or backward, as well as to either side. This is a major reason why one-wheeled vehicles are uncommon to begin with, but those vehicles which do exist compensate by using relatively large wheels, driven either by human power or a motor, which creates rotational inertia and allows the rider to balance simply by leaning forward.

A single, small, undriven wheel eliminates these balancing forces, meaning that the user would essentially need to balance on a single point. Also, most casters swivel, meaning that the balance point would move around under the rider's feet and make it even more difficult to balance. In addition, there's no apparent means of propulsion, which means the only way to move forward would be to either roll exclusively downhill, or use one foot to push off the ground. Either strategy would make retaining balance almost impossible.

Multiple wheeled vehicles greatly reduce the issue of balance simply by having multiple points of contact with the ground. The size of the wheels varies greatly; small, rigid wheels are generally suitable only for flat, smooth, rigid surfaces at relatively slow speeds, while vehicles expected to handle high speeds and varying road (and off-road) conditions will necessarily have larger wheels.

The "monocaster" design offers no advantages and would be nearly unrideable, making it obvious why such a vehicle has never been seriously proposed.

The title text extends the joke by listing the disadvantages mentioned above, but not providing a rebuttal. Instead it only attempts an emotional appeal by saying that the competitors are being mean and by commenting that Randall believed they were friends.

{| class=wikitable
! scope="col" | Vehicle
! scope=“col” | Number of wheels
! scope=“col” | Wheel Diameter
! scope="col" | Explanation
|-
| 1920s Monowheel || 1 || 3 meters || A monowheel is a vehicle in which the rider sits inside a single, large, hollow wheel. Versions have existed which were hand- or pedal cranked, but the "1920s" version portrayed here is apparently motor-driven. These vehicles have generally been seen as novelties, as their stability and practicality issues limit their usefulness for actual transport.
|-
| Unicycle || 1 || 45 centimeters || Probably the best known single-wheeled form of transport, a unicycle consists of a single wheel, directly drive by pedals, with a seat mounted on top. Due to their difficulty, they're generally been used as novelties and for comic performances more than as practical transport.
|-
| OneWheel || 1 || 20 centimeters || A one-wheeled electric skateboard in which the user stands on both sides of a large, central wheel. The design self-balances by increasing the velocity as the user leans forward. This allows balancing and speed control to operate in a single motion.
|-
| Bicycle || 2 || 45 centimeters || A two-wheeled, pedal-driven vehicle. The relatively simple, inexpensive and efficient design of these vehicles makes them practical for transport in a variety of situations. As a result, they've long been among the most popular and widely produced vehicles in the world.
|-
| Scooter || 2 || 8 centimeters (*) || A two-wheeled vehicle driven either by pushing with a foot or by an electric motor or fuel-powered engine. Scooters are ridden both for recreation and as a form of transportation in cities.
|-
| {{w|Roller shoe}} || 2 || 1 centimeter (*) || Shoes with small wheels built into the back end of the soles, putting them underneath the wearer's heels (which is what the brand-name "{{w|Heelys}}" is derived from). They allow the user access to wheeled movement by pushing off the ground and balancing on the slightly protuding wheels. This is not as fast or comfortable as a dedicated wheeled vehicle, their rolling action is limited to sufficiently flat surfaces and they are not as easy as regular shoes to simply walk in. But such shoes allow for some degree of both walking ''and'' rolling without having to carry a seperate wheeled vehicle, nor necessarily having the baseline difficulty of other 'fuller' versions of wearable skates.
|-
| Tricycle || 3 || 20 centimeters || Appears to be a {{w|Big Wheel (tricycle)|"Big Wheel" type}} child's toy, which actually have smaller 'trailing wheels', rather than either {{w|Tricycle#Upright|upright}} or {{w|Tricycle#Recumbent|recumbent}} style cycles for adults which ''usually'' match the wheel-sizes of their bicycle equivalents.
|-
| Scooter (three-wheeled) || 3 || 3 centimeters (*) ||
|-
| Monster Truck || 4 || 2.5 meters || Monster trucks are very large vehicles with four large wheels. They are almost always driven as part of events where specifically trained drivers that use them to perform dangerous stunts and crush smaller vehicles. Because of their size, the danger to other vehicle, often very poor mileage, and design choices that can be in violation of local laws and regulations regarding motorized vehicles monster trucks are not driven on public roads and have to be transported in dedicated trailers, making them poor choices for transport where one has to leave private property.
|-
| Car || 4 || 50 centimeters || Cars are motorized vehicles designed to move one or more people and an amount of goods around fast. While almost all cars have four wheels (discounting reserve wheels), there are a few that have more than four (certain limousines) or fewer (the Reliant Robin only has one wheel in the front). Cars are more expensive than most options on the chart due to their higher cost, the use of fuel and maintenance requiring specialized knowledge (and sometimes replacement parts), they make up for this with their speed, access to (at least in most of the world) an extensive system of roads and refueling stations, the ability to move a number of people and goods (how much depends on the exact type of car and how much of either the car is already carrying), and the comfort of being in what is almost always an enclosed and air conditioned compartment. Because of the potential danger of an object of a car's size and speed, drivers are required to perform a test of their ability to both control the vehicle and be aware of other traffic to obtain a license to drive one. Cars are a common source of leisure, with interests ranging from driving them normally, driving them as part of a race, maintaining them or enjoying luxury cars.
|-
| ATV || 4 || 20 centimeters (*) || ATV's or "all-terrain vehicles" are unenclosed, handlebar-steered vehicles designed for off-road riding. They have four, large, low-pressure tires and a robust suspension system to accommodate rough terrain. They generally aren't designed to carry passengers, and have limited cargo capacity, which limits their usefulness for regular transport. They're generally used either for recreation or for transport in areas without well-maintained roads.
|-
| Skateboard || 4 || 2 centimeters (*) ||
|-
| Three-Wheel Skates|| 6 || 4 centimeters (*) || Three-wheeled skates are a type of inline skate (shoes with a line of wheels affixed underneath the shoe) that differ from the more commonly used four wheeled inline skates by having three larger wheels. They are inexpensive and easy to maintain, but they require significant skill to use effectively and the user is reliant on smooth surfaces to skate around on. Another downside is that the wheels cannot be removed from the shoes, requiring the user to either carry an extra pair or have an extra pair at their destination.
|-
| Roller Skates|| 8 || 2 centimeters (*) || Roller skates are shoes with small wheels underneath them in a rectangular pattern. This makes roller skates much more stable than inline skates, allowing users to stand on them with more ease. Like inline skates they are cheap and low maintenance, but in order to move any significant distance without support they require a skilled user, smooth surfaces and the user needs backup shoes when taking them off (though there exist strap-on roller skates).
|-
| Semi-Trailer Truck (Articulated Lorry) || 10-18 || 1 meter || A semi-trailer truck is a motorized vehicle designed to pull trailers that can be easily decoupled from the truck itself. This allows the truck to switch trailers and move a different cargo without having to unload the trailer. The name in brackets that was used here (articulated lorry) is a name most commonly used in British English (or "artic", for short), with articulation meaning that the truck can swivel at the point where the truck connects to the trailer. This allows for the truck to make much tighter turns than if it were one long vehicle, which is another advantage of this configuration, with typically more stability than with a {{w|Drawbar (haulage)|drawbar}} attachment. Trucks are designed to haul cargo for long distances, with the cargo in question being either too heavy or too large to carry with a smaller hopper, tanker, hard-/soft-sided container or flatbed placed entirely upon a single truck chassis. They are driven either by drivers employed by a transport company, or by self-employed individuals who haul cargo for a living. A specialized license is required to drive one, and because of their size (even without a trailer), trucks have more limitations on where they can drive and park than normal cars. Like cars, trucks are a source of leisure, but because of the higher cost to purchase, maintain and drive them, they are more often enjoyed for their aesthetics rather than actually driving them for leisure. There are events like races for trucks, and trucks can be given elaborate paint jobs to have them stand out.
The number of wheels is for both the {{w|Tractor unit#Axles|truck}} and a {{w|Semi-trailer#Types|trailer}}, which can each differ vastly between vehicle configurations. The truck in the comic has five ''obvious'' axle-sets (thus at least ten actual wheels): a single pair of front wheels, two pairs of trailer-bearing rear wheels and two pairs of wheels on the trailer itself. The drawing of the truck actually spans the axis range of three wheels (unlikely to be true, and the minumum for a tractor-trailer would normally be six) all the way up to 16, so it's not entirely clear which number (≥10) Randall intends this one to portray.
|}

(*) It seems that Randall has made some mistakes in regards to the wheel sizes especially in the centimeter range of the diagram. Most of the vehicles have bigger wheels and the number would suggest hat he meant inches instead of centimeters. Alternatively, he may have mistakenly recorded the wheels' radius instead of its diameter, as intended.

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

:[A chart picturing many wheeled vehicles with a caption below the chart window. The vertical axis is labeled "Wheel Diameter", logarithmic from 1cm to 5m. The horizontal axis is labeled "Number of wheels", logarithmic from 1 to 16. From top left to bottom right, there is a person with a cap, seated in a circle, labeled "1920s monowheel", a monster truck with a skull and a lightning bolt on the side, a lorry (truck), a Cueball on a unicycle moving back and forth, a Cueball on a bicycle, a car, a Cueball using a Onewheel, a Cueball on a child's "Big Wheel" tricycle, a Cueball on a quad, a Cueball standing on a scooter, a Cueball standing on a board with one small wheel bellow, circled and labeled with two question marks, a three-wheel scooter, a skater, a Cueball using three-wheel skates, labeled "three-wheel skates", a Cueball crouching and using skates, and a small Cueball using shoes with wheels (Heelys) moving forward.]
:Caption: My new monocaster board fills a key gap in the wheeled vehicle market.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Characters with hats]]
[[Category:Skateboard]]

Talk:2967: Matter

2024-08-05T12:14:24Z

PotatoGod: Goofy commentary

This one is a head-scratcher. Do skateboarders call "anti-" things goofy? What's the deal with that Dirac statistic? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.154.31|162.158.154.31]] 23:47, 2 August 2024 (UTC)
:It's like being a 'southpaw' boxer (or at least being able to stand the opposite way, maybe in order to flip/spin the board the opposite way from what you would end up kicking it normally).
:The Dirac thing is... well, quantum physics has various uses/restrictions upon spin (and colour, etc) that isn't really physical spin (or colour) as we know it, but sort of means a kind of particle-based rotational momentum, which has to be conserved/transfered/agree in various quantum interactions (and is a quantised state, meaning that only certain spin-values can exist in a given situation).
:Both the skateboarding and the elementary physics issues are (in their own way) rather technical matters, and I know a lot more about one than the other (but think I understand the other a lot more, from just reading up on it, than I know I actually understand the original one based on what I actually was taught). [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.186|172.70.162.186]] 00:03, 3 August 2024 (UTC)
:''"Do skateboarders call "anti-" things goofy?"'' FWIW, I first heard 'goofy' in the 1960s skateboard fad, using your left foot where the right foot normally goes. It appears this was 2 or 3 years before Mr Hawk was born, so it isn't his invention. I would wonder if surfers (Hawaii and California) got goofy even earlier. [[User:PRR|PRR]] ([[User talk:PRR|talk]])
:: Looks like a fair summary: [https://www.surfertoday.com/surfing/where-does-the-term-goofy-footed-surfer-come-from Goofy Foot] --[[User:PRR|PRR]] ([[User talk:PRR|talk]]) 02:21, 3 August 2024 (UTC)
::: I first heard the term "goofy foot" back in Skate or Die on the NES. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.212.133|162.158.212.133]] 07:59, 3 August 2024 (UTC)

I'm way over the hill, and that linked 20 minute video on spin was the first explanation of that quantum number which seemed fully satisfactory and didn't leave me feeling like I was missing something crucial. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYeRS5a3HbE&t=18m30s "The spin number characterizes how fast the state of a particle changes when we rotate it in space." WHERE HAS THAT EXPLANATION BEEN ALL MY LIFE?!?! [[Special:Contributions/172.68.22.90|172.68.22.90]] 04:56, 3 August 2024 (UTC)
:Spin is a terrible name, it should be "twist factor" for example. It's a derivative unit error, like calling acceleration in terms of speed. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.90.198|162.158.90.198]] 07:58, 3 August 2024 (UTC)

Problem loading previous comic, I get MediaWiki error. [[User:SDSpivey|SDSpivey]] ([[User talk:SDSpivey|talk]]) 17:15, 3 August 2024 (UTC)
:Can't replicate that, and doesn't sound like the kind of errors I might get (504s, "sorry too busy"-style message, etc). Is it still happening for you? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.18|172.70.85.18]] 19:23, 3 August 2024 (UTC)
::I get this
----
MediaWiki internal error.

Original exception: [Zq_L66Th-kkFBgrsnjHznwAAAEQ] 2024-08-04 18:43:55: Fatal exception of type "MWException"

Exception caught inside exception handler.

Set $wgShowExceptionDetails = true; at the bottom of LocalSettings.php to show detailed debugging information.
----
::Only on Firefox, Opera loads fine. Other pages seem to load fine also. It only happens on 2966, whether I go from 2967 or 2965, or if I try to manually enter URL. The letters in the brackets do change each time.[[User:SDSpivey|SDSpivey]] ([[User talk:SDSpivey|talk]]) 18:52, 4 August 2024 (UTC)
:::A quick search for the error indicates old errors that (ten years ago) say "I know this is an old issue, but...", and it looks like we need a server admin to add the detailed debugging thing to work for you.
::: Tested here with Chrome (Android), Firefox (Android) and Firefox (Windows). No problem when going to [[2966]] through the respective Previous/Next buttons from neighbours. No problem with going there 'directly', in several different ways, to 2966 (which redirects). Nor [[Exam Numbers]] (which also redirects) nor [[2966: Exam Numbers]] (to which everything redirects). Do any of these non-Next/Previous links work/not work if you jump off from here?
:::This is just from my basic 'no login' connection. Does it error if you aren't logged in to your SDSpivey account? (Maybe you don't login through Opera, but do in Firefox? You'd know that better. If that's the case, it's maybe something funny within in your own profile configuration, like a server-stored 'skin' or 'filter' error/incompatibility of some kind.) The fact that nobody else is reporting trouble makes me think it's you-specific, but it doesn't ''sound'' like it's a browser-side issue. Grasping at straws here, but covering my best ideas at this time. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.43.227|172.69.43.227]] 20:36, 4 August 2024 (UTC)

This part doesn't make any sense to me; was this section AI generated? "That is why it is very difficult to compress matter based on fermions and even to get goofy matter (which are not identical particles), as they should be brought in contact with in the comic, near enough or mixed enough with the normal matter."
[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 21:15, 3 August 2024 (UTC)
:Reverted as an incorrect and confusing attempt to extend the panel joke into the title text explanation. That never goes well. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.150.237|172.71.150.237]] 21:47, 3 August 2024 (UTC)

So in skateboard, does goofy just mean "left foot" or does it mean "non-dominant foot". Like, would a left handed skater be skating goofy "normally", or is goofy for them, using right foot?
:Left, because it's described in the frame of reference of observers. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.214.34|172.70.214.34]] 07:35, 4 August 2024 (UTC)
::So if I'm a left-handed observer, then are right-handed skaters goofy? [[User:PotatoGod|PotatoGod]] ([[User talk:PotatoGod|talk]]) 12:14, 5 August 2024 (UTC)

Have made a new [[:Category:Skateboard]]. There have for a long time been one for Electric Skateboard but I found 10 with regular skateboards being referenced. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 09:08, 4 August 2024 (UTC)

The extra spacing in the Feynman diagram on the blackboard explains why most antimatter was annihilated. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.135.89|172.69.135.89]] 10:00, 4 August 2024 (UTC)
:Given an initial universe with equal parts matter and antimatter plus a slight asymmetry (50% + e), the mutual annihilation of matter and antimatter would leave behind a residual amount of matter proportional to the asymmetry e. In the extremely dense early universe, this annihilation would be nearly complete, ensuring that almost all antimatter and a corresponding amount of matter would be annihilated into energy, leaving an excess of matter. Thus, the observed baryon asymmetry today can be explained by this initial slight asymmetry, as even a minuscule e would result in a predominantly (anti)matter-filled universe post-annihilation. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.210.52|172.70.210.52]] 10:33, 4 August 2024 (UTC)
::It does mean that mass-energy conservation (or ways to feed that energy into other things, e.g. the expansion of space itself?) gives us a different initial distribution to the kind of initial universe where the imbalance was never just a residual (anti-particals just naturally being rarer to find/be created), and still begs the question of where such an imbalance came from (however small) from a spontaneously created universal 'seed' that one would imagine ought to be 'property neutral' in combining all essentially symmetric measures. But I added a little something about this to my own edit. (My edit being an attempt to stop huge run-on sentences with comma asides (and other dubious usages of comma), in a key section. So much so that I gave up trying to work out what some of it was intended to mean and just gave my own version. Still with plenty of commas, but not relying quite so heavily upon them alone.) [[Special:Contributions/172.69.195.231|172.69.195.231]] 11:53, 4 August 2024 (UTC)
:::No, it does not. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.207.39|172.70.207.39]] 14:22, 4 August 2024 (UTC)
::::What is wrong there? (I can see some messy understanding, but there's also some practical correctness.) What (especially with the changes to remove, loads, of, long, comma-ey, back, and, forth, sentences; it definitely does need rewriting, as it now is again!) required the whole lot reverting? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.38|172.70.86.38]] 18:12, 4 August 2024 (UTC)

I reverted https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2967:_Matter&diff=348077&oldid=348076 because reality. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.22.196|172.69.22.196]] 13:06, 4 August 2024 (UTC)

2948: Electric vs Gas

2024-08-01T10:44:51Z

PotatoGod: Correct typo and add one more detail

{{comic
| number = 2948
| date = June 19, 2024
| title = Electric vs Gas
| image = electric_vs_gas_2x.png
| imagesize = 284x385px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = An idling gas engine may be annoyingly loud, but that's the price you pay for having WAY less torque available at a standstill.
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Internal combustion engine|Internal combustion engines}} (ICEs) have long been the most common technology used to propel motor vehicles (usually in the specific form of reciprocating "piston" engines). In US vernacular, the most common vehicle fuel is known as "{{w|gasoline}}", or "gas" for short, leading to these engines being referred to as "gas engines". Gasoline is a product of petroleum refinement, leading to the name "petrol" being used in other dialects.

{{w|Traction motor|Electric motors}} would seem the more well-suited method for propelling a vehicle, and as early as 1885 were an actual form of motor car engine with which the fledgling internal combustion engine had to compete. Despite this early popularity, over most of the 20th century electric motors were sidelined in everyday car design, as supplying the electricity was considered to be impractical for most forms of transportation. Modern forms are rapidly rising in popularity, and [https://www.iea.org/reports/global-ev-outlook-2024/trends-in-electric-cars now constitute 18% of all global vehicle sales]. [[Randall]] is a strong proponent of {{w|electric vehicle}}s (EVs).

In this strip, [[White Hat]] claims to be comparing the pros and cons of electric motors and gas engines. The joke is that every point he makes goes in favor of electric motors. Despite it being posed as a dilemma, it may be very clear which side of the debate White Hat is promoting. On the other hand, it may indicate that one of the things we might consider a pro in electric motors (the instantaneous power now available, exceeding that of many non-electric engines) he would consider a problem — perhaps more accurately, a problem with the ''drivers'' of such vehicles — recklessly using the enhanced capabilities to accelerate to high speeds at all opportunities, whether safe to do so or not.

The strip offers the following points in favor of electric motors:

* "Cleaner and more efficient". ICEs produce and vent harmful combustion products and toxic chemicals, while electric motors produce no emission byproducts at the point of use. The efficiency of both gas and electric motors vary, but the typical ICE vehicle in the US converts around 25% of available energy into motion, while the typical electric vehicle is in the neighborhood of 80%. Even when considering inefficiencies in the source production and transmission and storage and release of energy, battery-driven electric vehicles are generally more efficient than internal combustion propelled vehicles[https://www.factcheck.org/2024/02/electric-vehicles-contribute-fewer-emissions-than-gasoline-powered-cars-over-their-lifetimes/].
** It should be noted that all of this refers to the motors only, and ignores how the fuel and electricity are produced, or the wider environmental impact of the vehicle. Electric vehicles are also more environmentally friendly in this aspect, as many renewable power sources are available (including solar, wind, hydro, nuclear, etc), and that grid-scale power production even with fossil fuels is much more efficient than individual small engines in every vehicle.

* "More powerful". Electric motors are able to deliver a lot of power from a small motor ''if'' an ample energy supply is available, and can do so 'on demand', often far quicker than a fuel-powered engine that has to put its power through a gearbox in order to service a wide range of road velocities, from standstill to the eventual top speed. Due to battery limitations, short or partial runtime use cases (such as dragsters, hand tools, yard tools, toys and electric scooters) net the most benefit from the small size of a high-powered electric motor.

* "Annoyingly loud". ICEs, by their nature, produce significant noise. Despite noise attenuation measures such as mufflers, they contribute significantly to urban noise. Properly designed electric motors are nearly silent (even if the rest of the vehicle is not). In particular, {{w|blowoff valve|turbocharger blowoff valves}} make particular noises that are completely lacking in an all-electric vehicle being driven at a similar performance level. This might legitimately be considered a problem, though, when everyone is used to a rapidly approaching vehicle providing a very noisy warning of its approach. EV makers have sometimes added [https://www.businessinsider.com/electric-car-ev-fake-engine-sound-hyundai-dodge-toyota-2023-7 fake ICE noises] to appeal to older drivers, and in the U.S. and some other countries, EVs are required to have {{w|Electric vehicle warning sounds|warning sounds}} at low speeds for pedestrian safety.
** At highway speeds, the noise of tires against the road is much louder than a properly muffled ICE, so the intrinsic quietness of an EV's motor is close to irrelevant in that context.

* "WAY less {{w|torque}} available at standstill". ICEs need to continually operate within a specific range of rotational speeds for best power and fuel efficiency (although the reciprocating engines used in most motor vehicles are still better than some others, such as {{w|gas turbine}} engines, in this regard), which means that a complex system of {{w|transmission|transmission gearing}} is needed to convert this motion into the specific speeds needed at the wheels. When starting from a standstill, this means that torque must be applied to the wheels relatively gradually to avoid stalling the engine. In addition, when a vehicle is standing still, the motor is typically idling at (very) low speed and must be sped up before it produces significant acceleration. Electric motors, in contrast, generally produce their peak torque when at a standstill. This results in electric vehicles having significantly better acceleration and engine responsiveness. Again, this could cause a legitimate problem with drivers changing from ICE to electric motors, because the new cars accelerate more than the driver is used to and provide different feedback. The audible clues of gear changes, whether from automatic or manual systems, are part and parcel of what many people have grown up with and come to rely on in anticipating what might need paying attention to.

It should be noted that White Hat is deliberately confining his arguments to electric vs gas ''motors'' rather than electric or gas-powered ''vehicles''. Doing so ignores the basic reason why internal combustion vehicles have long dominated transportation in certain specific countries: hydrocarbon fuels are a very dense and fairly easy to handle form of energy ''storage''. Providing electrical power to a moving vehicle requires either that the vehicle remain in contact with a power line (as with an electric train or a tram) or else to carry a high-capacity battery (and the ability to recharge that battery in a reasonable amount of time, while stationary). More popular in the USA is a hybrid system, where a combustion engine provides at least some of the power to an electric motor, which was impractical until comparatively recently. Other methods, such as hydrogen fuel cells (a form of "combustion" that can be used more directly to form electricity), have been proposed, but remain experimental or niche, due to various barriers to adoption.

A more comprehensive comparison would include many more factors, both against and in favor of electric cars.

Issues raised with electric vehicles typically include:
* Higher cost of purchase (primarily due to the cost of batteries and, in the USA, now a 100% tariff on Chinese EVs), although partially offset by lower costs of operation
* Long charging times compared to refilling a gas tank (there are some approaches which mitigate this by operating either very high-powered chargers or a battery swap model, rather than charging in-car, but these are not widely adopted)
**It's important to note, however, that for most human people that occasionally need food or to use the bathroom, the charging times are a non-issue, as most drivers will welcome a short 5-15 minute break after several hours of driving as their car charges.
* Relatively limited range ([https://ev-database.org/compare/electric-vehicle-longest-range 200-500 miles per charge] as of 2024, though this limitation applies to most gas vehicles as well, where 300 mile range is typical)
* Shortened range in hot weather and significantly shortened range in cold weather (while all vehicles have this problem, it's more pronounced in EVs compared to ICEs)
* Limited charging infrastructure compared to the prevalence of fuel stations
** Because many drivers can charge at home, fewer public chargers are needed than for gas cars.
* Higher vehicle weight, and resulting higher particulate emissions (from tires, but not brakes, because EVs use of regenerative braking reduces wear on their traditional brakes)
* Reliance on some mineral and metal extraction industries (e.g., lithium) with capacity that lags the recent increased demands for EVs
* Increased demand on electricity production
* [https://archive.is/6xmJV Lower reliability](data possibly skewed by the [https://community.cartalk.com/t/should-i-still-avoid-the-first-model-year-of-a-new-vehicle/118110 newness of EV models]).

Other real pros of electric cars are also not mentioned:
* Lower total cost of ownership (TCO)[https://www.edf.org/sites/default/files/2023-0/WSP%20Total%20Cost%20of%20Ownership%20Analysis%20July%202023.pdf]
* Can "fill" them at home or while parked without having to stay with them (partially negates the "long charging times" con)
* Lower carbon footprint, and reduced dependence on the fossil fuel industry

Rapidly evolving technologies, government policies, and economic realities are changing the relevance and seriousness of these points over time. As of the publication of this strip, the "pros" of EVs do not seem to be universally convincing, as ICEs remain far more popular than EVs in most countries (EVs constitute a majority of new vehicle sales in only four countries: Norway, Iceland, Sweden and Finland). That said, EVs didn't exist as a viable industry 20 years ago, so the current reality reflects rapid and ongoing growth, suggesting that the advantages of EVs are gaining increasing recognition and understanding.

The degree of adoption is also likely to impact the viability of different vehicle types. Infrastructure in most countries has long been built around an assumption of ICEs, so things like fueling stations and ICE-qualified mechanics have traditionally been widely accessible. As EVs becoming increasingly dominant, this could shift, with EV charging infrastructure becoming easier to find than ICE fueling stations, and ICE mechanics potentially becoming more difficult to find. There's typically a certain level of inertia in the adoption of any new technology.

In the EU, [https://www.europarl.europa.eu/topics/en/article/20221019STO44572/eu-ban-on-sale-of-new-petrol-and-diesel-cars-from-2035-explained the sale of new ICE cars is banned from 2035] in an effort to move to EVs, and other jurisdictions are adopting similar policies.

Especially in the United States, this topic is highly contentious for political, economic, engineering, and {{w|Rolling coal|tribal}} reasons (as a quick look at the edit history of this page will confirm).

==Trivia==
The etymology of "gasoline" (commonly abbreviated to "gas") is disputed: it may refer to the gaseous {{w|state of matter}} as, though gasoline itself is generally liquid, it readily emits volatile vapours. Otherwise, it has been suggested to have derived from "Cazelin"/"Cazelline", originally a lamp-oil, sold by a man called {{w|John Cassell}} in the 19th century and much copied (including by the "Gazeline" brand) as the market and supply of such fuels expanded. In non-American english, the octane form of motor-fuel (i.e. non-diesel and excluding aviation fuel) is called "petrol" (derived from "petroleum", or 'oil of the rock'), with similar "electric vs petrol (vs {{w|Hybrid electric vehicle|hybrid}})" comparisons. The registered brand name "Petrol" (sold as a solvent, before being repurposed for use as vehicle fuel) could not be trademarked as it was already the common generic term for equivalent products. The unrefined crude mineral oil from which many different hydrocarbon products can be refined is still more widely known as petroleum. Vehicle fuel may now be partly or wholly composed of non-fossil-fuels to distance them from some of the traditional arguments against petrol/gas consumption, leave other considerations unchanged but possibly introduce {{w|Biofuel#Issues|further issues}}.

While ICE vehicles have, to date, proven more popular than electric equivalents, worldwide, bicycles have been outselling cars [https://www.bikeradar.com/features/bike-vs-car-the-sales-race since at least WWII].

==Transcript==
:[White Hat, with his palm raised, is talking to Cueball.]
:White Hat: Electric motors and gas engines each have their pros and cons.
:White Hat: On one hand, electric motors are cleaner and more efficient. On the other hand, electric motors are more powerful.
:White Hat: So it's hard to say which is better overall.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Engineering]]
[[Category:Climate change]]

2948: Electric vs Gas

2024-08-01T10:40:29Z

PotatoGod: More corrections to misinformation

{{comic
| number = 2948
| date = June 19, 2024
| title = Electric vs Gas
| image = electric_vs_gas_2x.png
| imagesize = 284x385px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = An idling gas engine may be annoyingly loud, but that's the price you pay for having WAY less torque available at a standstill.
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Internal combustion engine|Internal combustion engines}} (ICEs) have long been the most common technology used to propel motor vehicles (usually in the specific form of reciprocating "piston" engines). In US vernacular, the most common vehicle fuel is known as "{{w|gasoline}}", or "gas" for short, leading to these engines being referred to as "gas engines". Gasoline is a product of petroleum refinement, leading to the name "petrol" being used in other dialects.

{{w|Traction motor|Electric motors}} would seem the more well-suited method for propelling a vehicle, and as early as 1885 were an actual form of motor car engine with which the fledgling internal combustion engine had to compete. Despite this early popularity, over most of the 20th century electric motors were sidelined in everyday car design, as supplying the electricity was considered to be impractical for most forms of transportation. Modern forms are rapidly rising in popularity, and [https://www.iea.org/reports/global-ev-outlook-2024/trends-in-electric-cars now constitute 18% of all global vehicle sales]. [[Randall]] is a strong proponent of {{w|electric vehicle}}s (EVs).

In this strip, [[White Hat]] claims to be comparing the pros and cons of electric motors and gas engines. The joke is that every point he makes goes in favor of electric motors. Despite it being posed as a dilemma, it may be very clear which side of the debate White Hat is promoting. On the other hand, it may indicate that one of the things we might consider a pro in electric motors (the instantaneous power now available, exceeding that of many non-electric engines) he would consider a problem — perhaps more accurately, a problem with the ''drivers'' of such vehicles — recklessly using the enhanced capabilities to accelerate to high speeds at all opportunities, whether safe to do so or not.

The strip offers the following points in favor of electric motors:

* "Cleaner and more efficient". ICEs produce and vent harmful combustion products and toxic chemicals, while electric motors produce no emission byproducts at the point of use. The efficiency of both gas and electric motors vary, but the typical ICE vehicle in the US converts around 25% of available energy into motion, while the typical electric vehicle is in the neighborhood of 80%. Even when considering inefficiencies in the source production and transmission and storage and release of energy, battery-driven electric vehicles are generally more efficient than internal combustion propelled vehicles[https://www.factcheck.org/2024/02/electric-vehicles-contribute-fewer-emissions-than-gasoline-powered-cars-over-their-lifetimes/].
** It should be noted that all of this refers to the motors only, and ignores how the fuel and electricity are produced, or the wider environmental impact of the vehicle. Electric vehicles are also more environmentally friendly in this aspect, as many renewable power sources are available (including solar, wind, hydro, nuclear, etc), and that grid-scale power production even with fossil fuels is much more efficient than individual small engines in every vehicle.

* "More powerful". Electric motors are able to deliver a lot of power from a small motor ''if'' an ample energy supply is available, and can do so 'on demand', often far quicker than a fuel-powered engine that has to put its power through a gearbox in order to service a wide range of road velocities, from standstill to the eventual top speed. Due to battery limitations, short or partial runtime use cases (such as dragsters, hand tools, yard tools, toys and electric scooters) net the most benefit from the small size of a high-powered electric motor.

* "Annoyingly loud". ICEs, by their nature, produce significant noise. Despite noise attenuation measures such as mufflers, they contribute significantly to urban noise. Properly designed electric motors are nearly silent (even if the rest of the vehicle is not). In particular, {{w|blowoff valve|turbocharger blowoff valves}} make particular noises that are completely lacking in an all-electric vehicle being driven at a similar performance level. This might legitimately be considered a problem, though, when everyone is used to a rapidly approaching vehicle providing a very noisy warning of its approach. EV makers have sometimes added [https://www.businessinsider.com/electric-car-ev-fake-engine-sound-hyundai-dodge-toyota-2023-7 fake ICE noises] to appeal to older drivers, and in the U.S. and some other countries, EVs are required to have {{w|Electric vehicle warning sounds|warning sounds}} at low speeds for pedestrian safety.
** At highway speeds, the noise of tires against the road is much louder than a properly muffled ICE, so the intrinsic quietness of an EV's motor is close to irrelevant in that context.

* "WAY less {{w|torque}} available at standstill". ICEs need to continually operate within a specific range of rotational speeds for best power and fuel efficiency (although the reciprocating engines used in most motor vehicles are still better than some others, such as {{w|gas turbine}} engines, in this regard), which means that a complex system of {{w|transmission|transmission gearing}} is needed to convert this motion into the specific speeds needed at the wheels. When starting from a standstill, this means that torque must be applied to the wheels relatively gradually to avoid stalling the engine. In addition, when a vehicle is standing still, the motor is typically idling at (very) low speed and must be sped up before it produces significant acceleration. Electric motors, in contrast, generally produce their peak torque when at a standstill. This results in electric vehicles having significantly better acceleration and engine responsiveness. Again, this could cause a legitimate problem with drivers changing from ICE to electric motors, because the new cars accelerate more than the driver is used to and provide different feedback. The audible clues of gear changes, whether from automatic or manual systems, are part and parcel of what many people have grown up with and come to rely on in anticipating what might need paying attention to.

It should be noted that White Hat is deliberately confining his arguments to electric vs gas ''motors'' rather than electric or gas-powered ''vehicles''. Doing so ignores the basic reason why internal combustion vehicles have long dominated transportation in certain specific countries: hydrocarbon fuels are a very dense and fairly easy to handle form of energy ''storage''. Providing electrical power to a moving vehicle requires either that the vehicle remain in contact with a power line (as with an electric train or a tram) or else to carry a high-capacity battery (and the ability to recharge that battery in a reasonable amount of time, while stationary). More popular in the USA is a hybrid system, where a combustion engine provides at least some of the power to an electric motor, which was impractical until comparatively recently. Other methods, such as hydrogen fuel cells (a form of "combustion" that can be used more directly to form electricity), have been proposed, but remain experimental or niche, due to various barriers to adoption.

A more comprehensive comparison would include many more factors, both against and in favor of electric cars.

Issues raised with electric vehicles typically include:
* Higher cost of purchase (primarily due to the cost of batteries and, in the USA, now a 100% tariff on Chinese EVs), although partially offset by lower costs of operation
* Long charging times compared to refilling a gas tank (there are some approaches which mitigate this by operating either very high-powered chargers or a battery swap model, rather than charging in-car, but these are not widely adopted)
**It's important to note, however, that for most human people that occasionally need food or to use the bathroom, the charging times are a non-issue, as most drivers will welcome a short 5-15 minute break from driving as their car charges.
* Relatively limited range ([https://ev-database.org/compare/electric-vehicle-longest-range 200-500 miles per charge] as of 2024, though this limitation applies to most gas vehicles as well, where 300 mile range is typical)
* Shortened range in hot weather and significantly shortened range in cold weather (while all vehicles have this problem, it's more pronounced in EVs compared to ICEs)
* Limited charging infrastructure compared to the prevalence of fuel stations
* Higher vehicle weight, and resulting higher particulate emissions (from tires, but not brakes, because EVs use of regenerative braking reduces wear on their traditional brakes)
* Reliance on some mineral and metal extraction industries (e.g., lithium) with capacity that lags the recent increased demands for EVs
* Increased demand on electricity production
* [https://archive.is/6xmJV Lower reliability](data possibly skewed by the [https://community.cartalk.com/t/should-i-still-avoid-the-first-model-year-of-a-new-vehicle/118110 newness of EV models]).

Other real pros of electric cars are also not mentioned:
* Lower total cost of ownership (TCO)[https://www.edf.org/sites/default/files/2023-0/WSP%20Total%20Cost%20of%20Ownership%20Analysis%20July%202023.pdf]
* Can "fill" them at home or while parked without having to stay with them (partially negates the "long charging times" con)
* Lower carbon footprint, and reduced dependence on the fossil fuel industry

Rapidly evolving technologies, government policies, and economic realities are changing the relevance and seriousness of these points over time. As of the publication of this strip, the "pros" of EVs do not seem to be universally convincing, as ICEs remain far more popular than EVs in most countries (EVs constitute a majority of new vehicle sales in only four countries: Norway, Iceland, Sweden and Finland). That said, EVs didn't exist as a viable industry 20 years ago, so the current reality reflects rapid and ongoing growth, suggesting that the advantages of EVs are gaining increasing recognition and understanding.

The degree of adoption is also likely to impact the viability of different vehicle types. Infrastructure in most countries has long been built around an assumption of ICEs, so things like fueling stations and ICE-qualified mechanics have traditionally been widely accessible. As EVs becoming increasingly dominant, this could shift, with EV charging infrastructure becoming easier to find than ICE fueling stations, and ICE mechanics potentially becoming more difficult to find. There's typically a certain level of inertia in the adoption of any new technology.

In the EU, [https://www.europarl.europa.eu/topics/en/article/20221019STO44572/eu-ban-on-sale-of-new-petrol-and-diesel-cars-from-2035-explained the sale of new ICE cars is banned from 2035] in an effort to move to EVs, and other jurisdictions are adopting similar policies.

Especially in the United States, this topic is highly contentious for political, economic, engineering, and {{w|Rolling coal|tribal}} reasons (as a quick look at the edit history of this page will confirm).

==Trivia==
The etymology of "gasoline" (commonly abbreviated to "gas") is disputed: it may refer to the gaseous {{w|state of matter}} as, though gasoline itself is generally liquid, it readily emits volatile vapours. Otherwise, it has been suggested to have derived from "Cazelin"/"Cazelline", originally a lamp-oil, sold by a man called {{w|John Cassell}} in the 19th century and much copied (including by the "Gazeline" brand) as the market and supply of such fuels expanded. In non-American english, the octane form of motor-fuel (i.e. non-diesel and excluding aviation fuel) is called "petrol" (derived from "petroleum", or 'oil of the rock'), with similar "electric vs petrol (vs {{w|Hybrid electric vehicle|hybrid}})" comparisons. The registered brand name "Petrol" (sold as a solvent, before being repurposed for use as vehicle fuel) could not be trademarked as it was already the common generic term for equivalent products. The unrefined crude mineral oil from which many different hydrocarbon products can be refined is still more widely known as petroleum. Vehicle fuel may now be partly or wholly composed of non-fossil-fuels to distance them from some of the traditional arguments against petrol/gas consumption, leave other considerations unchanged but possibly introduce {{w|Biofuel#Issues|further issues}}.

While ICE vehicles have, to date, proven more popular than electric equivalents, worldwide, bicycles have been outselling cars [https://www.bikeradar.com/features/bike-vs-car-the-sales-race since at least WWII].

==Transcript==
:[White Hat, with his palm raised, is talking to Cueball.]
:White Hat: Electric motors and gas engines each have their pros and cons.
:White Hat: On one hand, electric motors are cleaner and more efficient. On the other hand, electric motors are more powerful.
:White Hat: So it's hard to say which is better overall.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Engineering]]
[[Category:Climate change]]

Talk:2956: Number Line Branch

2024-07-09T21:46:38Z

PotatoGod: Letters are symbols too

Is it significant that the branch point is close to the value of π? [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 20:28, 8 July 2024 (UTC)
:I was thinking the same thing, but decided it was probably nothing worth mentioning - probably just an arbitrary starting point. *Possibly* referencing the strange appearance of π but I doubt it. Anything can be significant if you believe hard enough, anyway.--[[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.60|162.158.158.60]] 20:30, 8 July 2024 (UTC)
How does adding a new branch to a railway line reduce congestion? Isn't this more like a highway? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.105.47|141.101.105.47]] 23:30, 8 July 2024 (UTC)
:Read about the 2nd avenue subway. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.111.168|172.70.111.168]] 02:22, 9 July 2024 (UTC)

What is "thrembo"? [[User:AndroidTheLucario|Your favorite aura doggo]] ([[User talk:AndroidTheLucario|talk]]) 04:12, 9 July 2024 (UTC)
: I think the whole section can be removed. The point is to explain the comic, not to describe what is seen (unless it's relevant for the explanation, which, so far, seems not be the case). "Various symbols" should cover it. [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 06:35, 9 July 2024 (UTC)

The symbols seem well chosen TBH, I can totally see how they substitute for 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 [[Special:Contributions/162.158.146.32|162.158.146.32]] 14:42, 9 July 2024 (UTC)
:Except that, according to the title text, they should be 4, 8, 16, 32, 64. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.242.159|172.71.242.159]] 15:59, 9 July 2024 (UTC)

Mathematicians been there, done that: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-standard_model_of_arithmetic
Although a nonstandard model of the integers can't branch by Peano axioms. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.160.71|172.71.160.71]] 15:08, 9 July 2024 (UTC)

Personally I would have branched off between 9 and 10, and had single character symbols for 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, and 15 so that you could do base 16 without having to use letters. Randell just lacks vision. [[User:Andyd273|Andyd273]] ([[User talk:Andyd273|talk]]) 15:12, 9 July 2024 (UTC)
:Letters are single character symbols! I think he should extend the number line with all the letters, getting to 36 (z) before needing any new symbols[[User:PotatoGod|PotatoGod]] ([[User talk:PotatoGod|talk]]) 21:46, 9 July 2024 (UTC)

Talk:2943: Unsolved Chemistry Problems

2024-06-10T19:47:19Z

PotatoGod: Parts hydrogen

P stands for poncentration, SMH my head 😒 --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.211|172.70.162.211]] 21:22, 7 June 2024 (UTC)
:You may find this helpful: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAS_syndrome RAS syndrome] [[User:Trogdor147|Trogdor147]] ([[User_talk:Trogdor147|talk]]) 22:25, 8 June 2024 (UTC)
::Oh, that was intentional, my friend. (Also, I believe you meant {{w|RAS syndrome}}.) --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.48|162.158.74.48]] 07:34, 10 June 2024 (UTC)
I think p stands for "pitch", because people start pitching random numbers when they are supposed to calculate a pH (or even an pOH) from given concentrations.[[User:Tier666|Tier666]] ([[User talk:Tier666|talk]]) 09:54, 10 June 2024 (UTC)

Is 'depolymerization' in this context referring to means of chemically recycling plastics? As I understand it, we basically just do recycling of thermoplastics at the moment by physically melting them, whereas being able to split a plastic apart into its component monomers would in principle enable a completely closed loop lifecycle for plastics, easing the strain on dwindling oil reserves and landfills and whatnot. Since these are supposed to be important unsolved problems, I feel like it probably is a reference to this, but I'm not a chemist and there may be something else which makes more sense. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.33.134|162.158.33.134]] 22:37, 7 June 2024 (UTC)
:In a chemistry context, depolymerization is simply the process of breaking down polymers into monomers. Plastic recycling is one potential application. Another is production of biofuels. It's a well understood process (usually just heat it up enough and/or apply the proper chemical treatment). Getting the desired outputs in an efficient manner is, in some cases, an unsolved problem. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.246.150|172.69.246.150]] 16:05, 8 June 2024 (UTC)

i've always been taught that the p stood for "parts". [[user talk:lettherebedarklight|youtu.be/miLcaqq2Zpk]] 04:01, 8 June 2024 (UTC)

:In chemistry, I was taught that it was "potential". I didn't even know this was in dispute. [[User:L-Space Traveler|L-Space Traveler]] ([[User talk:L-Space Traveler|talk]]) 04:54, 8 June 2024 (UTC)

P does not stand for anything. Originally, it was contrasted with q. Sørensen was performing electrochemical experiments and contrasted the reference electrode q with the hydrogen electrode p. Using p and q like this is common, like using x and y, u and v, or m and n. It's not an abbreviation, just a variable name. He recommended normalizing the concentration of hydrogen ions (i.e. dividing it by 1 mol/l) and calling the result Cₚ or C_q (depending on the electrode). Then each of these tends to be a small number, which we could write as 10^(-p) or 10^(-q). The number p⁺_H then represented the negative log of the normalized concentration of hydrogen cations at the hydrogen electrode. You can read about it in "The origin and the meaning of the little p in pH" by Jens G. Nørby, published in Cell. The associations with words like "power" and "potential" are now widely considered urban legends. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.134.39|172.70.134.39]] 04:55, 8 June 2024 (UTC)

My chemistry teacher at school taught us that pH stands for Latin "pondus hydrogenii", meaning "weight of hydrogen". I never questionned this, until today. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.111.178|162.158.111.178]] 19:20, 8 June 2024 (UTC)

:My high school chemistry teacher, who was also a French teacher, told us it was for ''pouvoir hydrogène'', meaning “to be able to hydrogen”—I think? I never questioned this, until today. At least it's close to the ''puissance'' theory in the article—it's the infinitive-verb form. [[User:P1h3r1e3d13|P1h3r1e3d13]] ([[User talk:P1h3r1e3d13|talk]]) 17:18, 10 June 2024 (UTC)

Added some stuff concerning the biochem part, since that's my field of expertise. I recently personally felt the problem of the protein folding problem trying to get supercomputer time to simulate a protein I was studying! Also, given that antibody-antigen generation is still extremely faulty I highly highly doubt arbitrary enzyme design will be solved anytime soon, even though great leaps in protein folding have been made. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.39.40|172.70.39.40]] 02:13, 9 June 2024 (UTC) caffeinated biochemist

THe issue with loose protons is not ib being or not being atoms. Loose protons have no electrons at all, and thus cannot do Pauli repulsion, and thus cannot do regular chemistry - "should" burrow too much into electron density. The former, however, is not true, because loose protons attach themselves to lone pairs and thus get eletrons and thus can do regular chemistry. This duality is the source of the "proton controversy". In water, for instance, lone H+ do not exist and form H3O+ and H5O2+ /(H2O--H--OH2)+. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.172.4|162.158.172.4]] 09:25, 9 June 2024 (UTC)

I've always heard it described as "parts hydrogen", which seems simple enough. Surprised this isn't yet mentioned in the explanation. [[User:PotatoGod|PotatoGod]] ([[User talk:PotatoGod|talk]]) 19:47, 10 June 2024 (UTC)

== "ρ operator" ==

I'm not finding any mention of the "ρ operator" in a Google search. Is this section just fiction? The author has no prior contributions to this wiki. [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 22:42, 9 June 2024 (UTC)
:As this operator isn't even mentioned in the comic the section is irrelevant, fiction or not. Trivia at best. I removed that part [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 09:52, 10 June 2024 (UTC)
::I assume that it was intended to "explain" the origin of the 'p', as derived from 'ρ'. But I'm reasonably certain that the whole thing was just made up. [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 15:55, 10 June 2024 (UTC)

Talk:2911: Greenland Size

2024-03-25T22:37:15Z

PotatoGod:

Anyone else really wanting to know the radius for which the title text is true? I got [[356]]'d
[[User:Rxy|Rxy]] ([[User talk:Rxy|talk]]) 20:28, 25 March 2024 (UTC)

New life goal: Go to the poles, find the ring that is mapped to-scale, and color it. Require all satellite maps to be modified to add this stripe of color. [[User:PotatoGod|PotatoGod]] ([[User talk:PotatoGod|talk]]) 22:37, 25 March 2024 (UTC)

Talk:2887: Minnesota

2024-01-30T05:50:22Z

PotatoGod: Another question

Does NGS's request about "supple" have to be "rather than" commenting on the data? It could be in addition to it. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 19:38, 29 January 2024 (UTC)

Where do I find the latitude and longitude gain or loss of arbitrary points not relative to the African Plate but to the rotation axis and whatever is the official longitude? Does the official prime meridian move every time the European plate moves or is it fixed to Greenwich Observatory? {{unsigned|Oxygen|19:46, 29 January 2024}}
:Based on {{w|IERS Reference Meridian}} article, I think I can answer that with definitive "maybe". I mean, it's not fixed to Greenwich (is actually 100m apart of it) but I wasn't able to decipher what exactly they are doing regarding tectonic shifts, just that they were thinking about it. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 20:39, 29 January 2024 (UTC)

Personally, my go-to "other question" is "what is the square root of pi?". Tends to get a fun mix of answers. [[User:PotatoGod|PotatoGod]] ([[User talk:PotatoGod|talk]]) 05:50, 30 January 2024 (UTC)

Talk:2842: Inspiraling Roundabout

2023-10-17T14:37:11Z

PotatoGod: Repetition fix

First edit. I'm unfamiliar with the road rules in the comic so I just added the transcript in it's most basic form. [[User:OmniDoom|OmniDoom]] ([[User talk:OmniDoom|talk]]) 02:00, 17 October 2023 (UTC)

:don't worry, even a wrong explanation is better than no explanation because it tricks people into being correct for you [[User:Certified_nqh|Me]][[[285: Wikipedian Protester|''citation needed'']]][[Category:Pages using the "citation needed" template]] 03:15, 17 October 2023 (UTC)
: New here, not sure of the procedure for discussing interpretation: I disagree with the interpretation that this is navigable by entering all the way into the center then driving out in a clockwise direction - that would be driving against traffic, which would be illegal and seem to violate the assertion that this is "technically navigable" (anything is "technically navigable" if you have a big enough vehicle and disregard for other people's property, but I'm assuming that we want to stay legal). I believe that the "correct way" to navigate this would be to signal and change to the right-lane until you get to your exit. The inward spiral may give cars a circuit or two to wait for a clear lane to the right, but the deeper you get, the faster you have to change lanes to get out again? --[[User:Candu|Candu]] ([[User talk:Candu|talk]]) 14:37, 17 October 2023 (UTC)

added longer explanation [[User:Certified_nqh|Me]][[[285: Wikipedian Protester|''citation needed'']]][[Category:Pages using the "citation needed" template]] 03:05, 17 October 2023 (UTC)

Could we create a category for these "traffic" or "driving" related comics? This would include this comic and the previous, and others that relate to driving/cars/traffic. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.37|172.70.211.37]] 04:02, 17 October 2023 (UTC)

in left lane driving countries this would work pretty well as a roundabout

I've heard the Spanish and British road authorities are planing to implement this for roads going to France. [[Special:Contributions/172.64.236.144|172.64.236.144]] 06:39, 17 October 2023 (UTC)

Actually, the correct solution is an out-spiraling roundabout, which if properly designed means that if you start in the correct lane, you end up at the correct exit without changing lanes. [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 07:37, 17 October 2023 (UTC)

Well if it spiralled the other way it would be a great roundabout design.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.203.28|162.158.203.28]] 08:14, 17 October 2023 (UTC)

Out-spiraling roundabouts are getting more popular in the UK - they recently repainted the Wandsworth Bridge Roundabout as an out-spiral, and it's gone from one being one of the worst roundabouts in the area to one of the best. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.153|172.70.90.153]] 10:04, 17 October 2023 (UTC)

About driving in circles for hours: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAgX6qlJEMc --[[User:Itub|Itub]] ([[User talk:Itub|talk]]) 11:32, 17 October 2023 (UTC)

Uzumaki??? [[Special:Contributions/172.71.22.99|172.71.22.99]] 12:24, 17 October 2023 (UTC)Bumpf

I think the author of the explanation completely misunderstood the design. This is the turbo roundabout, except instead of getting everybody out it pulls everybody into the center, just like the highway supercollider from early xkcd. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.242.239|172.70.242.239]] 12:29, 17 October 2023 (UTC)

Alternative ending/version - there is a singularity at the center of the roundabout [[User:Dllahr|Dllahr]] ([[User talk:Dllahr|talk]]) 12:42, 17 October 2023 (UTC)

== Magic Roundabouts ==

See these two "unusual" roundabouts in England

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_Roundabout_(Hemel_Hempstead)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_Roundabout_(Swindon)

Actually, they are (no longer) roundabouts, but Ring Junctions. Effectively mini Ring Roads. [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 07:37, 17 October 2023 (UTC)

In France at least this design would not create any conundrum because roundabout rules are clearly stated and independent of ground markings. It could still be somewhat confusing.

I think the explanation as currently written is way overcomplicating the situation, it seems clear to me that this roundabout is designed (much like in the recent comic #[[2728]]), to require lane changes for some paths, and the inward spiral is simply to guide anyone that's indecisive or otherwise missing their exist out of the way of other drivers, and forcing them to make a decision rather than circling indefinitely to avoid a collision. The current description of having you go backwards out the spiral after reaching the end seems ridiculously over complicated and doesn't match any of the design elements of the path. [[User:PotatoGod|PotatoGod]] ([[User talk:PotatoGod|talk]]) 14:36, 17 October 2023 (UTC)

Talk:2842: Inspiraling Roundabout

2023-10-17T14:36:14Z

PotatoGod: Forgot to sign

First edit. I'm unfamiliar with the road rules in the comic so I just added the transcript in it's most basic form. [[User:OmniDoom|OmniDoom]] ([[User talk:OmniDoom|talk]]) 02:00, 17 October 2023 (UTC)
:don't worry, even a wrong explanation is better than no explanation because it tricks people into being correct for you [[User:Certified_nqh|Me]][[[285: Wikipedian Protester|''citation needed'']]][[Category:Pages using the "citation needed" template]] 03:15, 17 October 2023 (UTC)

added longer explanation [[User:Certified_nqh|Me]][[[285: Wikipedian Protester|''citation needed'']]][[Category:Pages using the "citation needed" template]] 03:05, 17 October 2023 (UTC)

Could we create a category for these "traffic" or "driving" related comics? This would include this comic and the previous, and others that relate to driving/cars/traffic. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.37|172.70.211.37]] 04:02, 17 October 2023 (UTC)

in left lane driving countries this would work pretty well as a roundabout

I've heard the Spanish and British road authorities are planing to implement this for roads going to France. [[Special:Contributions/172.64.236.144|172.64.236.144]] 06:39, 17 October 2023 (UTC)

Actually, the correct solution is an out-spiraling roundabout, which if properly designed means that if you start in the correct lane, you end up at the correct exit without changing lanes. [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 07:37, 17 October 2023 (UTC)

Well if it spiralled the other way it would be a great roundabout design.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.203.28|162.158.203.28]] 08:14, 17 October 2023 (UTC)

Out-spiraling roundabouts are getting more popular in the UK - they recently repainted the Wandsworth Bridge Roundabout as an out-spiral, and it's gone from one being one of the worst roundabouts in the area to one of the best. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.153|172.70.90.153]] 10:04, 17 October 2023 (UTC)

About driving in circles for hours: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAgX6qlJEMc --[[User:Itub|Itub]] ([[User talk:Itub|talk]]) 11:32, 17 October 2023 (UTC)

Uzumaki??? [[Special:Contributions/172.71.22.99|172.71.22.99]] 12:24, 17 October 2023 (UTC)Bumpf

I think the author of the explanation completely misunderstood the design. This is the turbo roundabout, except instead of getting everybody out it pulls everybody into the center, just like the highway supercollider from early xkcd. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.242.239|172.70.242.239]] 12:29, 17 October 2023 (UTC)

Alternative ending/version - there is a singularity at the center of the roundabout [[User:Dllahr|Dllahr]] ([[User talk:Dllahr|talk]]) 12:42, 17 October 2023 (UTC)

== Magic Roundabouts ==

See these two "unusual" roundabouts in England

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_Roundabout_(Hemel_Hempstead)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_Roundabout_(Swindon)

Actually, they are (no longer) roundabouts, but Ring Junctions. Effectively mini Ring Roads. [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 07:37, 17 October 2023 (UTC)

In France at least this design would not create any conundrum because roundabout rules are clearly stated and independent of ground markings. It could still be somewhat confusing.

I think the explanation as currently written is way overcomplicating the situation, it seems clear to me that this roundabout is designed to require (much as in the recent comic #[[2728]]), the design is intended to require lane changes for some paths, and the inward spiral is simply to guide anyone that's indecisive or otherwise missing their exist out of the way of other drivers, and forcing them to make a decision rather than circling indefinitely to avoid a collision. The current description of having you go backwards out the spiral after reaching the end seems ridiculously over complicated and doesn't match any of the design elements of the path. [[User:PotatoGod|PotatoGod]] ([[User talk:PotatoGod|talk]]) 14:36, 17 October 2023 (UTC)

Talk:2842: Inspiraling Roundabout

2023-10-17T14:35:47Z

PotatoGod: Propose a much more sensible interpretation of correct use

First edit. I'm unfamiliar with the road rules in the comic so I just added the transcript in it's most basic form. [[User:OmniDoom|OmniDoom]] ([[User talk:OmniDoom|talk]]) 02:00, 17 October 2023 (UTC)
:don't worry, even a wrong explanation is better than no explanation because it tricks people into being correct for you [[User:Certified_nqh|Me]][[[285: Wikipedian Protester|''citation needed'']]][[Category:Pages using the "citation needed" template]] 03:15, 17 October 2023 (UTC)

added longer explanation [[User:Certified_nqh|Me]][[[285: Wikipedian Protester|''citation needed'']]][[Category:Pages using the "citation needed" template]] 03:05, 17 October 2023 (UTC)

Could we create a category for these "traffic" or "driving" related comics? This would include this comic and the previous, and others that relate to driving/cars/traffic. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.37|172.70.211.37]] 04:02, 17 October 2023 (UTC)

in left lane driving countries this would work pretty well as a roundabout

I've heard the Spanish and British road authorities are planing to implement this for roads going to France. [[Special:Contributions/172.64.236.144|172.64.236.144]] 06:39, 17 October 2023 (UTC)

Actually, the correct solution is an out-spiraling roundabout, which if properly designed means that if you start in the correct lane, you end up at the correct exit without changing lanes. [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 07:37, 17 October 2023 (UTC)

Well if it spiralled the other way it would be a great roundabout design.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.203.28|162.158.203.28]] 08:14, 17 October 2023 (UTC)

Out-spiraling roundabouts are getting more popular in the UK - they recently repainted the Wandsworth Bridge Roundabout as an out-spiral, and it's gone from one being one of the worst roundabouts in the area to one of the best. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.153|172.70.90.153]] 10:04, 17 October 2023 (UTC)

About driving in circles for hours: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAgX6qlJEMc --[[User:Itub|Itub]] ([[User talk:Itub|talk]]) 11:32, 17 October 2023 (UTC)

Uzumaki??? [[Special:Contributions/172.71.22.99|172.71.22.99]] 12:24, 17 October 2023 (UTC)Bumpf

I think the author of the explanation completely misunderstood the design. This is the turbo roundabout, except instead of getting everybody out it pulls everybody into the center, just like the highway supercollider from early xkcd. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.242.239|172.70.242.239]] 12:29, 17 October 2023 (UTC)

Alternative ending/version - there is a singularity at the center of the roundabout [[User:Dllahr|Dllahr]] ([[User talk:Dllahr|talk]]) 12:42, 17 October 2023 (UTC)

== Magic Roundabouts ==

See these two "unusual" roundabouts in England

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_Roundabout_(Hemel_Hempstead)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_Roundabout_(Swindon)

Actually, they are (no longer) roundabouts, but Ring Junctions. Effectively mini Ring Roads. [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 07:37, 17 October 2023 (UTC)

In France at least this design would not create any conundrum because roundabout rules are clearly stated and independent of ground markings. It could still be somewhat confusing.

I think the explanation as currently written is way overcomplicating the situation, it seems clear to me that this roundabout is designed to require (much as in the recent comic #[[2728]]), the design is intended to require lane changes for some paths, and the inward spiral is simply to guide anyone that's indecisive or otherwise missing their exist out of the way of other drivers, and forcing them to make a decision rather than circling indefinitely to avoid a collision. The current description of having you go backwards out the spiral after reaching the end seems ridiculously over complicated and doesn't match any of the design elements of the path.

2126: Google Trends Maps

2023-09-22T05:07:41Z

PotatoGod: /* Explanation */ point out reference to 1845, make fun of Florida

{{comic
| number = 2126
| date = March 20, 2019
| title = Google Trends Maps
| image = google_trends_maps.png
| titletext = It's early 2020. The entire country is gripped with Marco Rubio fever except for Alaska, which is freaking out. You're frantically studying up on etiquette and/or sexting.
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Google Trends}} is a website for visualizing {{w|Google}} search activity by date and region. Used properly, it can give a picture of what topics people are interested in (as evidenced by what they search for) at particular times and in different places. Used improperly, it can simply [[1845:_State Word Map|amplify random noise]].

[[Randall]] has created several Google Trends maps of search activity in the US. Each map colors in states according to which of two (or more) search queries was more popular. As noted at the top of the comic, all of these based on real queries (though not reflecting the same time period across all maps). However, none of them seem to show any especially ''useful'' comparisons. States in gray did not return enough data for Google Trends to consider it significant.

* '''"Frostbite" vs "heat stroke":''' This is probably the most sensible comparison of the lot, showing which of these two risks of exposure people search up more often. However, the results are fairly obvious: in the colder northern and eastern states, "{{w|frostbite}}" is the more common search, while across the south and west, it's "{{w|heat stroke}}". In the map, a tiny part of North Carolina (specifically on the Outer Banks) is miscolored red compared to the rest of the state being blue.

* '''"Best church" vs "best strip club":''' This map would seem to indicate people in Nevada (and only in Nevada) are more interested in strip clubs than religion. This may have something to do with the fact that Las Vegas is in Nevada.

* '''"Bigfoot" vs "Mike Pence":''' Apparently, everywhere except for Indiana, people in the US are more interested in a mythical hairy creature than in the current (at the time of this comic's release) Vice President of the United States. Since {{w|Mike Pence}} was once the governor of Indiana, this makes more sense if the time period covered precedes his nomination as Trump's running mate.

* '''"Etiquette" vs "sexting":''' Similar to the church/strip club example, this map contrasts search interest in polite behavior (etiquette) against risqué behavior ({{w|sexting}}).

* '''"Little dog" vs "big cat":''' The Trend map contrasts two searches for either oddly-sized pets (in particular, "little dog" probably refers to small domestic dog breeds such as the {{w|Chihuahua}}; "big cat" could refer to large domestic cat breeds such as the Maine Coone, but is somewhat more likely to refer to large wildcat species) or unidentified and briefly glimpsed wildlife that often snatch household pets left outside. The smallest canid in the wilds of America is the kit fox, ''Vulpes macrotis'', which is smaller than the American wild dog, ''Canis lupus familiaris''. By contrast, "big cat" is a term for the largest members of the cat family (''Felidae''). Except for the jaguar, which is a roaring cat of the ''Panthera'' genus that inhabits Mexico and sometimes Arizona, the largest wild cat in North America is the mountain lion, ''Puma concolor''. It is also known as cougar, puma, catamount, ghost cat, over seventy other regional names, and the misnomer panther. (The cougar is ironically of the Felinae subfamily, all of which purr, and not Pantherinae, which roar. Black panthers in Africa are black-coated leopards, while black panthers in the Americas are black-coated jaguars, and both are Pantherinae. No black-coated pumas have been verified, leading zoologists to believe such sightings are misidentified.) "Little Dog" is also a Canadian television series, set in Newfoundland and Labrador, which explains the larger number of searches for Little Dog in Maine, the state closest to Newfoundland and Labrador. Interestingly, there mainly seems to be an inverse relationship between the range of coyotes and cougars and the respective searches.

* '''"Shark attack" vs "childbirth":''' While both of these things might be considered risky, there is not much of a relationship between them. As might be expected, the "shark attack" search is more common in most coastal states (and, for some reason, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Nevada, despite being landlocked). Just like Frostbite vs. heat stroke, a tiny part of North Carolina is miscoloured.

* '''"Snakes" vs "ants" vs "bees" vs "alligators":''' These are all dangerous animals that cause occasional human fatalities (mainly from allergic reactions for ants and bees). There is no noticeable pattern in which animal is searched most often, though only Florida has alligators as the most common search of the four. Florida presumably has Alligators as the most searched item on this list as it is where the Everglades are located, a vast area of swamp and marsh that, aside from maintaining the ecosystem and the water supply of Florida, also is home to an obscene number of alligators. This may also be a reference to comic #[[1845]], as Randall yet again chose a map embedding that draws attention to (and arguably makes fun of) Florida. The search volume for bees in Utah may be erroneous because Salt Lake City is home to the minor league baseball team "The Bees" and thus Utah would have a large number of searches looking for the baseball team rather than the animal.

* '''"Retirement planning" vs "bungee jumping":''' The implication here is that people in some states are more concerned with short-term fun rather than long-term planning. The contrast is more striking since {{w|bungee jumping}} is a potentially dangerous activity and people practicing it might be seen as likely to die young enough not to need a retirement plan. Bungee jumping is actually a quite safe activity, due to most operators following rigorous safety procedures, but habitual thrill-seekers may then end up putting themselves at greater risks in other ways.

* '''"Super Bowl" vs "funeral home":''' This is an attempt to contrast interest in a popular sports (and media) event against a rather somber topic.

* '''"Resume tips" vs "skateboard tricks":''' Another comparison between learning a "serious", goal-oriented skill (career advancement) and a "silly", fun skill (skateboarding). It is also an imperfect rhyme. Interestingly, of the states with enough data for a result, only Arizona had more hits for "skateboard tricks".

* '''"Donald Trump" vs "What do I do":''' The implication here seems to be that people in some states are more likely to ask Google "what do I do?", either in panic or in ignorance, than they are to look up the latest doings of the US President. The split shown is not too different from the actual split between states voting for [[Donald Trump]] and for his opponent, {{w|Hillary Clinton}}, with those voting ''against'' Donald Trump being more likely to search for him.

* '''"Existential crisis" vs "Marco Rubio":''' Senator {{w|Marco Rubio}} was a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016. Everywhere but Alaska, people were more likely to look up his name than to search for "existential crisis". This may be due to {{w|Cabin Fever}}, which is common in Alaska due to the long, dark winters and frequent isolation.

The title text uses two of these maps to paint a picture of the year 2020 (implying that these search patterns are both meaningful and likely to continue into the future). In this scenario, most of the country continues to read about Marco Rubio (except for Alaskans, still searching for help with their existential crises), and individuals are trying to learn about etiquette, sexting, or both, depending on their location.

==Transcript==
:The least informative
:'''Google Trends Maps'''
:I've created over the years

:(All are real but not all cover the same date range)

:[12 maps of the United States are shown with the states colored. There are labels for the colors.]

:[Map 1]
:[Blue:] Frostbite
:[Red:] Heat stroke
:[Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Washington are red. All other states are blue.]

:[Map 2]
:[Blue:] Best church
:[Red:] Best strip club
:[Nevada is red. Alaska, North Dakota, and Wyoming are gray. All other states are blue.]

:[Map 3]
:[Blue:] Bigfoot
:[Red:] Mike Pence
:[Indiana is red. All other states are blue.]

:[Map 4]
:[Blue:] Etiquette
:[Red:] Sexting
:[Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Delaware, Hawaii, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Tennessee, Vermont, and West Virginia are red. All other states are blue.]

:[Map 5]
:[Blue:] Little dog
:[Red:] Big cat
:[Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Maine, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, and Wyoming are blue. All other states are red.]

:[Map 6]
:[Blue:] Shark attack
:[Red:] Childbirth
:[California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia are blue. All other states are red.]

:[Map 7]
:[Blue:] Snakes
:[Red:] Ants
:[Yellow:] Bees
:[Green:] Alligators
:[Florida is green. Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin are red. Alaska, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, New Hampshire, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont, Washington, and Wyoming are yellow. All other states are blue.]

:[Map 8]
:[Blue:] Retirement planning
:[Red:] Bungee jumping
:[Alaska, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming are gray. Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia, and Wisconsin are blue. All other states are red.]

:[Map 9]
:[Blue:] Super Bowl
:[Red:] Funeral home
:[Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, and Washington are blue. All other states are red.]

:[Map 10]
:[Blue:] Resume tips
:[Red:] Skateboard tricks
:[Arizona is red. Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming are gray. All other states are blue.]

:[Map 11]
:[Blue:] Donald Trump
:[Red:] What do I do
:[California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin are blue. All other states are red.]

:[Map 12]
:[Blue:] Existential crisis
:[Red:] Marco Rubio
:[Alaska is blue. All other states are red.]

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:US maps]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Ants]]
[[Category:Bees]]
[[Category:Sharks]]
[[Category:Politics]]
[[Category:Comics featuring politicians]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Donald Trump]]
[[Category:Google Search]]

2126: Google Trends Maps

2023-09-22T05:02:34Z

PotatoGod: /* Explanation */ Clarifying that states voting for Donald Trump aren't the ones searching for him.

{{comic
| number = 2126
| date = March 20, 2019
| title = Google Trends Maps
| image = google_trends_maps.png
| titletext = It's early 2020. The entire country is gripped with Marco Rubio fever except for Alaska, which is freaking out. You're frantically studying up on etiquette and/or sexting.
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Google Trends}} is a website for visualizing {{w|Google}} search activity by date and region. Used properly, it can give a picture of what topics people are interested in (as evidenced by what they search for) at particular times and in different places. Used improperly, it can simply [[1845:_State Word Map|amplify random noise]].

[[Randall]] has created several Google Trends maps of search activity in the US. Each map colors in states according to which of two (or more) search queries was more popular. As noted at the top of the comic, all of these based on real queries (though not reflecting the same time period across all maps). However, none of them seem to show any especially ''useful'' comparisons. States in gray did not return enough data for Google Trends to consider it significant.

* '''"Frostbite" vs "heat stroke":''' This is probably the most sensible comparison of the lot, showing which of these two risks of exposure people search up more often. However, the results are fairly obvious: in the colder northern and eastern states, "{{w|frostbite}}" is the more common search, while across the south and west, it's "{{w|heat stroke}}". In the map, a tiny part of North Carolina (specifically on the Outer Banks) is miscolored red compared to the rest of the state being blue.

* '''"Best church" vs "best strip club":''' This map would seem to indicate people in Nevada (and only in Nevada) are more interested in strip clubs than religion. This may have something to do with the fact that Las Vegas is in Nevada.

* '''"Bigfoot" vs "Mike Pence":''' Apparently, everywhere except for Indiana, people in the US are more interested in a mythical hairy creature than in the current (at the time of this comic's release) Vice President of the United States. Since {{w|Mike Pence}} was once the governor of Indiana, this makes more sense if the time period covered precedes his nomination as Trump's running mate.

* '''"Etiquette" vs "sexting":''' Similar to the church/strip club example, this map contrasts search interest in polite behavior (etiquette) against risqué behavior ({{w|sexting}}).

* '''"Little dog" vs "big cat":''' The Trend map contrasts two searches for either oddly-sized pets (in particular, "little dog" probably refers to small domestic dog breeds such as the {{w|Chihuahua}}; "big cat" could refer to large domestic cat breeds such as the Maine Coone, but is somewhat more likely to refer to large wildcat species) or unidentified and briefly glimpsed wildlife that often snatch household pets left outside. The smallest canid in the wilds of America is the kit fox, ''Vulpes macrotis'', which is smaller than the American wild dog, ''Canis lupus familiaris''. By contrast, "big cat" is a term for the largest members of the cat family (''Felidae''). Except for the jaguar, which is a roaring cat of the ''Panthera'' genus that inhabits Mexico and sometimes Arizona, the largest wild cat in North America is the mountain lion, ''Puma concolor''. It is also known as cougar, puma, catamount, ghost cat, over seventy other regional names, and the misnomer panther. (The cougar is ironically of the Felinae subfamily, all of which purr, and not Pantherinae, which roar. Black panthers in Africa are black-coated leopards, while black panthers in the Americas are black-coated jaguars, and both are Pantherinae. No black-coated pumas have been verified, leading zoologists to believe such sightings are misidentified.) "Little Dog" is also a Canadian television series, set in Newfoundland and Labrador, which explains the larger number of searches for Little Dog in Maine, the state closest to Newfoundland and Labrador. Interestingly, there mainly seems to be an inverse relationship between the range of coyotes and cougars and the respective searches.

* '''"Shark attack" vs "childbirth":''' While both of these things might be considered risky, there is not much of a relationship between them. As might be expected, the "shark attack" search is more common in most coastal states (and, for some reason, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Nevada, despite being landlocked). Just like Frostbite vs. heat stroke, a tiny part of North Carolina is miscoloured.

* '''"Snakes" vs "ants" vs "bees" vs "alligators":''' These are all dangerous animals that cause occasional human fatalities (mainly from allergic reactions for ants and bees). There is no noticeable pattern in which animal is searched most often, though only Florida has alligators as the most common search of the four. Florida presumably has Alligators as the most searched item on this list as it is where the Everglades are located, a vast area of swamp and marsh that, aside from maintaining the ecosystem and the water supply of Florida, also is home to an obscene number of alligators. The search volume for bees in Utah may be erroneous because Salt Lake City is home to the minor league baseball team "The Bees" and thus Utah would have a large number of searches looking for the baseball team rather than the animal.

* '''"Retirement planning" vs "bungee jumping":''' The implication here is that people in some states are more concerned with short-term fun rather than long-term planning. The contrast is more striking since {{w|bungee jumping}} is a potentially dangerous activity and people practicing it might be seen as likely to die young enough not to need a retirement plan. Bungee jumping is actually a quite safe activity, due to most operators following rigorous safety procedures, but habitual thrill-seekers may then end up putting themselves at greater risks in other ways.

* '''"Super Bowl" vs "funeral home":''' This is an attempt to contrast interest in a popular sports (and media) event against a rather somber topic.

* '''"Resume tips" vs "skateboard tricks":''' Another comparison between learning a "serious", goal-oriented skill (career advancement) and a "silly", fun skill (skateboarding). It is also an imperfect rhyme. Interestingly, of the states with enough data for a result, only Arizona had more hits for "skateboard tricks".

* '''"Donald Trump" vs "What do I do":''' The implication here seems to be that people in some states are more likely to ask Google "what do I do?", either in panic or in ignorance, than they are to look up the latest doings of the US President. The split shown is not too different from the actual split between states voting for [[Donald Trump]] and for his opponent, {{w|Hillary Clinton}}, with those voting ''against'' Donald Trump being more likely to search for him.

* '''"Existential crisis" vs "Marco Rubio":''' Senator {{w|Marco Rubio}} was a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016. Everywhere but Alaska, people were more likely to look up his name than to search for "existential crisis". This may be due to {{w|Cabin Fever}}, which is common in Alaska due to the long, dark winters and frequent isolation.

The title text uses two of these maps to paint a picture of the year 2020 (implying that these search patterns are both meaningful and likely to continue into the future). In this scenario, most of the country continues to read about Marco Rubio (except for Alaskans, still searching for help with their existential crises), and individuals are trying to learn about etiquette, sexting, or both, depending on their location.

==Transcript==
:The least informative
:'''Google Trends Maps'''
:I've created over the years

:(All are real but not all cover the same date range)

:[12 maps of the United States are shown with the states colored. There are labels for the colors.]

:[Map 1]
:[Blue:] Frostbite
:[Red:] Heat stroke
:[Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Washington are red. All other states are blue.]

:[Map 2]
:[Blue:] Best church
:[Red:] Best strip club
:[Nevada is red. Alaska, North Dakota, and Wyoming are gray. All other states are blue.]

:[Map 3]
:[Blue:] Bigfoot
:[Red:] Mike Pence
:[Indiana is red. All other states are blue.]

:[Map 4]
:[Blue:] Etiquette
:[Red:] Sexting
:[Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Delaware, Hawaii, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Tennessee, Vermont, and West Virginia are red. All other states are blue.]

:[Map 5]
:[Blue:] Little dog
:[Red:] Big cat
:[Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Maine, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, and Wyoming are blue. All other states are red.]

:[Map 6]
:[Blue:] Shark attack
:[Red:] Childbirth
:[California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia are blue. All other states are red.]

:[Map 7]
:[Blue:] Snakes
:[Red:] Ants
:[Yellow:] Bees
:[Green:] Alligators
:[Florida is green. Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin are red. Alaska, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, New Hampshire, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont, Washington, and Wyoming are yellow. All other states are blue.]

:[Map 8]
:[Blue:] Retirement planning
:[Red:] Bungee jumping
:[Alaska, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming are gray. Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia, and Wisconsin are blue. All other states are red.]

:[Map 9]
:[Blue:] Super Bowl
:[Red:] Funeral home
:[Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, and Washington are blue. All other states are red.]

:[Map 10]
:[Blue:] Resume tips
:[Red:] Skateboard tricks
:[Arizona is red. Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming are gray. All other states are blue.]

:[Map 11]
:[Blue:] Donald Trump
:[Red:] What do I do
:[California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin are blue. All other states are red.]

:[Map 12]
:[Blue:] Existential crisis
:[Red:] Marco Rubio
:[Alaska is blue. All other states are red.]

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:US maps]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Ants]]
[[Category:Bees]]
[[Category:Sharks]]
[[Category:Politics]]
[[Category:Comics featuring politicians]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Donald Trump]]
[[Category:Google Search]]

Talk:2824: Abstract Pickup

2023-09-06T23:00:35Z

PotatoGod:

... nobody has anything to say? -- [[User:Dtgriscom|Dtgriscom]] ([[User talk:Dtgriscom|talk]]) 02:34, 5 September 2023 (UTC)
: self explanatory [[Special:Contributions/172.69.22.144|172.69.22.144]] 02:54, 5 September 2023 (UTC)
: we just dont like pickup artists, not much more to say - [[User:Vaedez|Vaedez]] ([[User talk:Vaedez|talk]]) 03:01, 5 September 2023 (UTC)

: I do: I think it is weird it is White Hat who performs the pickup-artistry on the abstract painting. Given the character traits, shouldn't we expect Black Hat? --[[Special:Contributions/172.64.238.101|172.64.238.101]] 12:52, 5 September 2023 (UTC)
:: I get the impression that, while Black Hat has terrifying and misanthropic tendencies, mere pickup artistry is beneath him. He is, after all, a ''classhole''. I think White Hat (also rarely a sympathetic character) is being used because the casual jerkiness and disrespect (even in a slightly surreal scenario) would cheapen Black Hat's brand.[[User:Dextrous Fred|Dextrous Fred]] ([[User talk:Dextrous Fred|talk]]) 15:03, 5 September 2023 (UTC)
::(Got an Edit Conflict with Fred, above, who seems to have said much of what I do, below but snappier..! But resubmitting mine anyway.) I can't see Black Hat trying to ''neg a painting''. And though BH's SO is notably familiar with and skillful in negging, I don't see it as being BH's MO. Even to make people's life a misery (and it seems a different kind of misery-making thing to nerdsniping or otherwise messing with everyone's heads... somewhat ''too'' personal, at least when not already personally provoked by the target of his actions).
::I'm less clear in my head about whether it's actually a White Hat thing, as I don't relate so much to him in any clear way (even as a counter-example), but I think it's his kind of equivalent to White Beret's misunderstanding of the 'sciences' (the whole gamut of soft-to-hard, from how to conduct a businesses to quantum effects), but in the field of the 'arts' or otherwise performance-related fields. (I really must check WH's profile/prior comics, to refresh my opinion on him, see if I'm remembering his general role in xkcd correctly enough.)
::In short, though the negging might be thought to deserve to 'dark-shade' the hat of the character, a little, it's actually a victimless aggression (against an abstract target, in more ways than one, which cannot suffer ill effects from any of this verbal psychdrama) and overwhelmingly it's a basic misunderstanding incarnated into an odd (but not 'impossible') behaviour. In neither BH nor WB 'territories' of wrongness. But I could perhaps imagine seeing a generic Cueball doing it, however, or even Rob in his odder moments... [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.2|172.70.85.2]] 15:13, 5 September 2023 (UTC)
:::Sounds like we need a grey hat character...[[Special:Contributions/172.69.70.151|172.69.70.151]] 16:26, 5 September 2023 (UTC)
: I suspect the US holiday on Monday had a large portion of editors busy with festivities. Editing will likely pickup today! (See what I did there?) [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 12:54, 5 September 2023 (UTC)

Should we add a "pickup artist" category? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.241.217|108.162.241.217]] 15:57, 5 September 2023 (UTC)

I too aspire to be a cute dizzying swarm [[User:PotatoGod|PotatoGod]] ([[User talk:PotatoGod|talk]]) 23:00, 6 September 2023 (UTC)

Talk:2823: Fossil

2023-09-02T07:53:20Z

PotatoGod: Boop!

Boop! [[User:PotatoGod|PotatoGod]] ([[User talk:PotatoGod|talk]]) 07:53, 2 September 2023 (UTC)

User:PotatoGod

2023-08-18T01:50:51Z

PotatoGod: Got tired of the red links

Hi. Potato.

Talk:741: Blogging

2023-08-18T01:50:13Z

PotatoGod: Viral eye transplant

This explanation seems backwards to me. As I see it, on the literal level the audience member is focused only on content, however, they don't actually get any content from Cueball. Instead, a small reporté is build between the two, which makes the audience member happy with whatever arbitrary content Cueball promises.--[[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.163|108.162.238.163]] 14:10, 28 July 2015 (UTC)

You mean "rapport"? Fixed the explanation[[Special:Contributions/172.68.79.81|172.68.79.81]] 20:15, 13 November 2016 (UTC)

The viral nature of eyeball harvesting could also be referencing the fact that once your eyes are harvested, you'll be inclined to recruit others to the service, as you now are in need of eyes to transplant! [[User:PotatoGod|PotatoGod]] ([[User talk:PotatoGod|talk]]) 01:50, 18 August 2023 (UTC)

1537: Types

2023-08-14T17:33:35Z

PotatoGod: /* Explanation */ Clarify how unrecognized html color codes are interpreted

{{comic
| number = 1537
| date = June 12, 2015
| title = Types
| image = types.png
| titletext = colors.rgb("blue") yields "#0000FF". colors.rgb("yellowish blue") yields NaN. colors.sort() yields "rainbow"
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is a series of programming jokes about a ridiculous new programming language, perhaps inspired by {{w|Mathematica}} and {{w|Wolfram Language}} — the latter was used by [[Randall]] many times before. Maybe it's also inspired by [https://www.destroyallsoftware.com/talks/wat Gary Bernhardt's CodeMash 2012 lightning talk] on JavaScript's unpredictable typing. In the talk, the highly technical audience was unable to correctly guess the results of adding various JavaScript types and roared with laughter when they were revealed. The programming language shown in this comic has types even more unpredictable than JavaScript.

Most regular programming languages distinguish types, e.g. integers, strings, lists… all of which have different behaviours. But for instance, the operation "+" is usually conventionally defined over more than one of these types. Applied to two integers, it returns their sum. Applied to two strings (denoted by being enclosed in quotes) it concatenates them:

<pre>> 2 + 3
5

> "123" + "abc"
"123abc"</pre>

While these behaviours are standard, conventional, and intuitive, there is a huge amount of variation among programming languages when you apply an operation like "+" to different types. One logical approach is to always return an error in all cases of type mixing, but it is often practical to allow some case mixing, since it can hugely simplify expressions. Variation and lack of a clearly more intuitive behaviour leads some languages to have weird results when you mix types.

Weird results abound in the new XKCD programming language:
# <code>2 + "2"</code> uses the <code>+</code> operator on a number and a string. In some programming languages, this might result in the number <code>4</code> in math addition, or <code>"22"</code> in string concatenation; however, the new language converts the string to an integer, adds them to produce <code>4</code> and converts back to a string. Alternatively, it may instead be adding 2 to the ASCII value of the character <code>"2"</code> (50), resulting in the character <code>"4"</code> (52). This is (somewhat) consistent with the behavior for item 4.
# <code>"2" + []</code> adds a string to an array or list. This first inexplicably converts the string to a number again, and then it literally adds the number to the list by prepending it. And then the result (the entire array) is converted to a string again. (Possibly, this is meant to be read as 'adding brackets to the string "2" produces the string "[2]"?')
# <code>(2/0)</code> divides <code>2</code> by <code>0</code> and quite reasonably results in <code>NaN</code>, meaning "Not a Number", though in most languages, as prescribed by the IEEE 754 standard for floating point numbers, dividing a nonzero number by zero would instead return an infinity value.
# <code>(2/0)+2</code> adds <code>2</code> to <code>NaN</code>. <code>2</code> Is "added" to the string <code>"NaN"</code> as again, the number is converted to a string for apparently no reason, which produces <code>"NaP"</code>. If the language's convention is to add to the ASCII value of a character or string, then in this case it added 2 to the character <code>"N"</code> (78), resulting in <code>"P"</code> (80). How the string "NaP" is converted into a bare NaP with undefined meaning is not clear. It is possible the "NaP" means "Not a Positive" as opposed to "Not a Negative". It could also mean "Not a Prayer", as you're taking a "NaN" condition and trying to do more with it.
# <code>""+""</code>: In many languages, two consecutive double-quote characters denote an empty string, so this expression would concatenate two empty strings, resulting in an empty string. However, it appears that this language treats only the outermost quotes of the expression as the string boundary, so all of the characters between them become part of the literal string, producing '<code>"+"</code>' (In many programming languages, you can use both <code>"</code> or <code>'</code> to delimit strings and both behave similarly if not identical). Alternately, these two consecutive double quotes may be treated similarly to the way that consecutive single quotes are treated in a SQL string, with the first quote escaping the 2nd. This would result in a string that contains the value <code>"+"</code>. It is also possible to read this expression as <code>'"'+'"'</code>, which would usually be <code>'""'</code>.
# <code>[1,2,3]+2</code> seems to test whether it's sound to append <code>2</code> to the list <code>[1,2,3]</code>, and concludes that it doesn't fit the pattern, returning the boolean value <code>false</code>. It could conceivably also be the result of an attempt to add <code>2</code> to the ''set'' <code>[1,2,3]</code>, which already contains that element (although <code>{1,2,3}</code> would be a more common notation for sets).
# <code>[1,2,3]+4</code> returns <code>true</code> for much the same reason.
# <code>2/(2-(3/2+1/2))</code> is a floating point joke. Floating point numbers are notoriously imprecise. With precise mathematics, <code>(3/2+1/2)</code> would be exactly 2, hence the entire thing would evaluate to <code>2/0</code> or <code>NaN</code> in Randall's new language. However, the result of <code>(3/2+1/2)</code> is "just slightly off," which makes the result "just slightly off" of <code>NaN</code>, which would be ridiculous in a real language. The ironic thing is that fractions with 2 in the denominator are ''not'' the kind of numbers that typically suffer from floating point imprecision. Additionally, if there had indeed been a rounding error, the actual calculation would become something like <code>2/0.000000000000013</code>, which should not return a <code>NaN</code> since it is not division by zero. It is most likely not a coincidence that there are 13 zeros before the "13" at the end of the "decimal".
# <code>RANGE(" ")</code> normally wouldn't make any sense. However, the new language appears to interpret it as ASCII, and in the ASCII table, character #32 is space, #33 is <code>!</code>, and #34 is <code>"</code>. So, instead of interpreting <code>" "</code> as a string, it seems to be interpreted as <code>34, 32, 34</code> (in ASCII), and then <code>range</code> appears to transform this into <code>34, 33, 32, 33, 34</code> (the "ranges" between the numbers), which, interpreted as ASCII, becomes <code>('"','!',' ','!','"')</code>.
# <code>+2</code> adds 2 to the ''line number'', 10, and returns the result, 12.
# <code>2+2</code> would normally be <code>4</code>. However, the interpreter takes this instruction to mean that the user wishes to increase the actual value of the number <code>2</code> (aka the "literal value") by <code>2</code> for the remainder of the program, making it <code>4</code> and then reports that the work is "Done". The result can be seen in the subsequent lines where all <code>2</code>s are replaced by <code>4</code>s. This could be a reference to languages like Fortran where [http://everything2.com/title/Changing+the+value+of+5+in+FORTRAN literals could be assigned new values]. This would normally be <code>2+=2</code>.
#<code>RANGE(1,5)</code> would normally return <code>(1,2,3,4,5)</code>; however, because the value of <code>2</code> has been changed to <code>4</code>, it returns <code>(1,4,3,4,5)</code>. This also affects the line number by changing the "2" in 12 to "4" resulting in the line number 14.
#<code>FLOOR(10.5)</code> should return <code>10</code> (the "floor" of a decimal number is that number rounded down); however, it instead returns {{w|ASCII art}} of the number on a "floor." The floor is also five lines down and ten characters long (if you count the number as part of the floor), making it look like the "10.5" was taken as two separate arguments to the "floor" function. Normally, multiple arguments for a function are separated by commas, not periods. This could be a reference to different decimal notation conventions in different cultures.

The title text contains three further examples relating to color. <code>color.rgb("blue")</code> returns the hexadecimal code for pure blue (as would be used in HTML, for example), which is how a real programming language might work. The lookup for "yellowish blue" returns "NaN" (Not a Number) again, which makes sense at one level because there is no such color as "yellowish blue" (yellow and blue are opposites on the RGB {{w|color triangle}}, making yellowish-blue an {{w|impossible colour}}, which can only be perceived with great difficulty through contrived figures). However a more typical result would have been a failure indicating that the color database does not include the name, in the same way that a typo such as "bluw" would. (Note that HTML does [http://stackoverflow.com/q/8318911/256431 explicitly attempt] to handle all "color names", though unrecognized ones like "yellowish blue" just interprets them as numbers (with zeros replacing invalid hexadecimal digits). For the record, "yellowish blue" is a dark blue with an imperceptible amount of red — <code style='background-color: #0e00b0; color: white'>#0E00B0</code>.) Similarly sorting the colors would normally produce some defined ordering, such as alphabetical, but in this language it generates the string "rainbow". It seems that Randall's new language understands color theory in an unusually deep way.

==Transcript==
:[Caption above the black part of the comic:]
:My new language is great, but it
:has a few quirks regarding type:

:[The rest of the comic is written in a black rectangle. All text to the left of ">" is written in gray. Text to the right of the ">" on the lines with numbers are in white, and then gray text on the other lines. There seems to be a missing ">" after line no. 3.]
:  [1]> 2+"2"
:    => "4"
:  [2]> "2"+[]
:    => "[2]"
:  [3] (2/0)
:    = > NaN
:  [4]> (2/0)+2
:    = > NaP
:  [5]> "" + ""
:    = > ' "+" '
:  [6]> [1,2,3]+2
:    = > False
:  [7]> [1,2,3]+4
:    = > True
:  [8]> 2/(2-(3/2+1/2))
:    = > NaN.000000000000013
:  [9]> Range("   ")
:    = > (' " ',"! "," ","!",' " ')
:[10]> + 2
:    = > 12
:[11]> 2+2
:    = > Done
:[14]> Range(1,5)
:    = > (1,4,3,4,5)
:[13]> Floor(10.5)
:    = > |
:    = > |
:    = > |
:    = > |_ _ _10.5_ _ _

==Trivia==
*There is an inconsistency in the comic after [3] where the ">" is missing.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:  Programming]]
[[Category:  Language]]

2804: Marshmallow

2023-07-20T05:08:53Z

PotatoGod: /* Explanation */ grammar fix

{{comic
| number = 2804
| date = July 19, 2023
| title = Marshmallow
| image = marshmallow_2x.png
| imagesize = 670x334px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = The increasing number of graham crackers and chocolate bars in orbit has created a growing risk of Kessler s'mores.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a CELESTIAL S'MORE - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic shows the atmospheric re-entry process of a capsule similar to that used in the Apollo moon landing program in the late 1960s and early 1970s. This capsule features a fictional Reentry Marshmallow Toasting Module, with a marshmallow on a deployable stick, which is exposed to airflow during reentry.

During reentry, the capsule would presumably be going at orbital speeds, which for Earth are in excess of 8 km/s. This high velocity heats up the air around the capsule as the kinetic energy is dissipated.{{Actual citation needed}} This has the effect of heating the marshmallow. Additionally, reentry heating effects typically look like flames covering the bottom of the reentering object. This is very similar to a common practice on the Earth's surface of holding a marshmallow on a stick over a static fire on the ground, like a campfire, which also heats the marshmallow, improving its taste{{citation needed}}.

At the start of the panel, the capsule is approaching atmospheric entry, so any aerodynamic forces would not have begun yet. "All systems nominal" is an aerospace phrase that means all systems (including life support, navigation and stability systems) are performing as expected. However, once the atmospheric effects begin then something goes wrong.

Having a long, thin extension to the airflow will disrupt the aerodynamics, as air starts pushing up against the roasting stick, creating an unbalanced torque that pushes the marshmallow further back into the airflow, rotating the entire capsule. This angular acceleration continues until the aerodynamic design of the rest of the capsule plays a significant factor, rotating the capsule back to its original position, and starting the uncontrollable cycle of oscillations anew. Hence, the astronaut on board reports some oscillations to Houston.

This prompts the unnamed astronaut to tell his colleague, Smith, to put away the marshmallow roaster. This would clean up the aerodynamic profile and stop the oscillation. This is met with resistance that the marshmallow is not cooked yet. This may be expected, as due to the design of the module, it appears as though the marshmallow has been on the outside of the capsule for the entire journey, exposed to the vacuum of space. In this situation, it would have radiated all its heat energy away, reaching temperatures near absolute zero (approximately -273.15 degrees Celsius, the absolute coldest temperature physically achievable). A very brief moment of shock heating from atmospheric effects may not have bought the marshmallow up to a consumable temperature, or even affected the internals of the marshmallow at all. The goal of roasting marshmallows is often to melt the inside of a marshmallow completely, so if this is still frozen, that defeats the entire purpose of the module.

Houston is a city in Texas, United States, where Mission Control for NASA is established. Astronauts in space would communicate with "Houston", as the specific person on the other end would vary with which shift was working. These communications are established via radio. During reentry, the superheated air forms a plasma phase and disrupts radio wave signals. Hence, it is doubtful that Mission Control would have received this communication from the capsule, and it is very unlikely Mission Control would have received further updates from the capsule until the reentry process was largely finished. This would make the Mission Control operators very concerned over the success of the reentry.

The caption for the panel muses that maybe the concept of the module was a mistake, which is a fair assessment given the number of flaws in the design. It would indeed be far better to have ''two'' such units, set upon opposing sides of the module and operated in conjunction, to balance rotational forces. Or even three of them, set 120° apart from each other, perhaps automatically and independently actuated to tune out all ''other'' undesired aerodynamic effects – with the added advantage of simultaneously preparing snacks for all three of the astronauts that typically inhabit an Apollo capsule, not just Smith.

The title text refers to a popular snack of s'mores, made by placing a marshmallow roasted over a fire with some chocolate between two crackers, similar to a sandwich. It also refers to a problem in rocketry known as Kessler syndrome, where vast amounts of space junk in low earth orbit reduce the chance of successful rocket launches, as new launches may crash into existing space junk, causing a rapid unplanned disassembly. These two concepts are combined in a ridiculous way, whereby instead of space junk, it is Graham crackers and chocolate bars that are polluting space. These, combined with the marshmallow from the toasting module, would create celestial s'mores, a novel and frankly whacky concept, as our space program does not primarily consist of chocolate and Graham crackers.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
[as follows, left to right, top to bottom]
:[Capsule begins reentry.]
:Smith: We're approaching atmospheric entry.
:Smith: All systems nominal.
:Fwip
:[Marshmallow roasting rod deployed]
:Smith: Houston, we're experiencing some oscillations. Vehicle is becoming difficult to control.
:Mission control: Smith, retract that stupid arm.
:Smith: No! It's not ready yet!

:[Caption below the panel:]
:In retrospect, the reentry marshmallow toasting module was a mistake.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Space]]
[[Category:Food]]

2804: Marshmallow

2023-07-20T05:08:24Z

PotatoGod: Remove unfounded reference to graham's number

{{comic
| number = 2804
| date = July 19, 2023
| title = Marshmallow
| image = marshmallow_2x.png
| imagesize = 670x334px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = The increasing number of graham crackers and chocolate bars in orbit has created a growing risk of Kessler s'mores.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a CELESTIAL S'MORE - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic shows the atmospheric re-entry process of a capsule similar to that used in the Apollo moon landing program in the late 1960s and early 1970s. This capsule features a fictional Reentry Marshmallow Toasting Module, with a marshmallow on a deployable stick, which is exposed to airflow during reentry.

During reentry, the capsule would presumably be going at orbital speeds, which for Earth are in excess of 8 km/s. This high velocity heats up the air around the capsule as the kinetic energy is dissipated.{{Actual citation needed}} This has the effect of heating the marshmallow. Additionally, reentry heating effects typically look like flames covering the bottom of the reentering object. This is very similar to a common practice on the Earth's surface of holding a marshmallow on a stick over a static fire on the ground, like a campfire, which also heats the marshmallow, improving its taste{{citation needed}}.

At the start of the panel, the capsule is approaching atmospheric entry, so any aerodynamic forces would not have begun yet. "All systems nominal" is an aerospace phrase that means all systems (including life support, navigation and stability systems) are performing as expected. However, once the atmospheric effects begin then something goes wrong.

Having a long, thin extension to the airflow will disrupt the aerodynamics, as air starts pushing up against the roasting stick, creating an unbalanced torque that pushes the marshmallow further back into the airflow, rotating the entire capsule. This angular acceleration continues until the aerodynamic design of the rest of the capsule plays a significant factor, rotating the capsule back to its original position, and starting the uncontrollable cycle of oscillations anew. Hence, the astronaut on board reports some oscillations to Houston.

This prompts the unnamed astronaut to tell his colleague, Smith, to put away the marshmallow roaster. This would clean up the aerodynamic profile and stop the oscillation. This is met with resistance that the marshmallow is not cooked yet. This may be expected, as due to the design of the module, it appears as though the marshmallow has been on the outside of the capsule for the entire journey, exposed to the vacuum of space. In this situation, it would have radiated all its heat energy away, reaching temperatures near absolute zero (approximately -273.15 degrees Celsius, the absolute coldest temperature physically achievable). A very brief moment of shock heating from atmospheric effects may not have bought the marshmallow up to a consumable temperature, or even affected the internals of the marshmallow at all. The goal of roasting marshmallows is often to melt the inside of a marshmallow completely, so if this is still frozen, that defeats the entire purpose of the module.

Houston is a city in Texas, United States, where Mission Control for NASA is established. Astronauts in space would communicate with "Houston", as the specific person on the other end would vary with which shift was working. These communications are established via radio. During reentry, the superheated air forms a plasma phase and disrupts radio wave signals. Hence, it is doubtful that Mission Control would have received this communication from the capsule, and it is very unlikely Mission Control would have received further updates from the capsule until the reentry process was largely finished. This would make the Mission Control operators very concerned over the success of the reentry.

The caption for the panel muses that maybe the concept of the module was a mistake, which is a fair assessment given the number of flaws in the design. It would indeed be far better to have ''two'' such units, set upon opposing sides of the module and operated in conjunction, to balance rotational forces. Or even three of them, set 120° apart from each other, perhaps automatically and independently actuated to tune out all ''other'' undesired aerodynamic effects – with the added advantage of simultaneously preparing snacks for all three of the astronauts that typically inhabit an Apollo capsule, not just Smith.

The title text refers to a popular snack of s'mores, made by placing a marshmallow roasted over a fire with some chocolate between two crackers, similar to a sandwich. It also refers to a problem in rocketry known as Kessler syndrome, where vast amounts of space junk in low earth orbit reduce the chance of successful rocket launches, as new launches may crash into existing space junk, causing a rapid unplanned disassembly. These two concepts are combined in a ridiculous way, whereby instead of space junk, it is Graham crackers and chocolate bars that are polluting space. These, combined with the marshmallow from the toasting module, would create celestial s'mores, a novel and frankly whacky concept, as our space program does not primarily consist of chocolate, Graham crackers.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
[as follows, left to right, top to bottom]
:[Capsule begins reentry.]
:Smith: We're approaching atmospheric entry.
:Smith: All systems nominal.
:Fwip
:[Marshmallow roasting rod deployed]
:Smith: Houston, we're experiencing some oscillations. Vehicle is becoming difficult to control.
:Mission control: Smith, retract that stupid arm.
:Smith: No! It's not ready yet!

:[Caption below the panel:]
:In retrospect, the reentry marshmallow toasting module was a mistake.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Space]]
[[Category:Food]]

Talk:2804: Marshmallow

2023-07-20T05:05:39Z

PotatoGod: Graham crackers are not referencing graham's number

Made a start, not sure if the heating up science is completely correct though [[User:MrCandela|MrCandela]] ([[User talk:MrCandela|talk]]) 13:54, 19 July 2023 (UTC)

Because I'm a nitpicker, I kind of want to see some mention in this blurb about how reentry is usually a communications blackout period, due to the plasma sheath blocking all radio waves and so talking with Houston *during* reentry is unrealistic. I strongly suspect Randall knew this, though and ignored it for the sake of the joke. [[User:Trimeta|Trimeta]] ([[User talk:Trimeta|talk]]) 14:08, 19 July 2023 (UTC)

:In the case of the space shuttle it was possible to circumvent the problem of radio blackout by relaying the radio through satellites (the plasma blocks the radio waves downwards, but there was be a window upwards). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communications_blackout#Spacecraft_reentry [[User:Rps|Rps]] ([[User talk:Rps|talk]]) 15:39, 19 July 2023 (UTC)

:The current explanation suggests that Mission Control would be concerned by the lack of communication from the capsule, but given that they would be aware of the effects of reentry, there's no particular reason why this should cause them concern.[[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.134|141.101.99.134]] 15:58, 19 July 2023 (UTC)

Some things that should probably be added:
The comic was likely published in anticipation of the 54th anniversary of the first moon landing on the 20th of July 1969
In reality, the marshmallow, exposed to the vaccum of space, would expand due to the internally trapped gasses until its structural integrity failed https://youtu.be/MYAmPRQ4eWo?t=285
The title text should probably direct reference to {{w|Kessler syndrome}}, in which a single collision of orbiting objects causes a chain reaction filling low earth orbit with debris, in this case, tasty stacks [[Special:Contributions/162.158.155.71|162.158.155.71]] 14:30, 19 July 2023 (UTC)

IMO, "Reentry Marshmallow Toasting Module" refers only to the Marshmallow arm and any necessary associated parts (covers, actuators, etc.), not the whole spacecraft (as the way it is currently written suggests). That is, as for instance, Apollo had a command module, a service module, etc.(?) in this case, there is this extra module. I think it is not unusual to have experiments or sensors piggy-backing in a existent spacecraft or probe. [[User:Rps|Rps]] ([[User talk:Rps|talk]]) 15:55, 19 July 2023 (UTC)
:Agreed - I'd just amended the article to that effect before coming down here and reading this. :o) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.134|141.101.99.134]] 15:59, 19 July 2023 (UTC)

"the marshmallow has been on the outside of the module for the entire journey, exposed to the vacuum of space. In this situation, it would have radiated all its heat energy away, reaching temperatures near absolute zero" I think this is incorrect: the side of the spacecraft in the shadow gets quite cold, although probably not ~3ºK (cosmic background temperature), since in low-earth orbit you have a warm body (the Earth) radiating some heat some (most?) of the time. But the sun side gets quite hot. Apollo used "Passive Thermal Control" (informally, it was called “barbecue roll”) to even out the temperature. [[User:Rps|Rps]] ([[User talk:Rps|talk]]) 16:11, 19 July 2023 (UTC)

I wonder if Randall played Outer wilds recently. [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 17:00, 19 July 2023 (UTC)

I don't think the specific choice of graham crackers is a reference to anything scientific. That's the usual cracker used to make s'mores. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 02:35, 20 July 2023 (UTC)

:I completely agree. I'm sure that the S'mores Randall is familiar with would have been made with Graham crackers and that's what he's referring to. [[User:MAP|MAP]] ([[User talk:MAP|talk]]) 04:46, 20 July 2023 (UTC)

:Also agreed, graham crackers are the normal recipe for s'mores, there's no reason to expect any reference to Graham's number. I'll remove that from the explanation.[[User:PotatoGod|PotatoGod]] ([[User talk:PotatoGod|talk]]) 05:05, 20 July 2023 (UTC)

An Apollo capsule returning from a lunar mission would be traveling at approximately escape velocity. If you think about it, how would it lose all the velocity it gained falling from lunar orbit, except by atmospheric friction? (Luna is at approximately infinity in terms of velocity needed to reach L1. [[User:Nitpicking|Nitpicking]] ([[User talk:Nitpicking|talk]]) 02:55, 20 July 2023 (UTC)

Talk:2238: Flu Shot

2023-07-19T06:23:14Z

PotatoGod: Prophetic of covid

I don't know why, but the buttons above the comic are all outta wack on my phone. I don't know if they look bad on a desktop, and I don't know how to fix it, so if someone could figure that out, could they tell me so I can fix it in the future?--[[User:TaperingBirch|EightofspadeS]] ([[User talk:TaperingBirch|talk]]) 02:30, 7 December 2019 (UTC)
:ditto[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.24|108.162.219.24]] 17:53, 7 December 2019 (UTC)
::The buttons have always displayed poorly on mobile for me: The text is cut off at the top of the button (at default text size, default zoom) & the buttons don't display all on one line. Looks that way across most, if not all, mobile devices I've used.
::[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 22:09, 7 December 2019 (UTC)
:::The buttons have only ever looked odd with this one comic for me, though. That must be a pain to have the buttons like that all of the time. --[[User:TaperingBirch|EightofspadeS]] ([[User talk:TaperingBirch|talk]]) 05:43, 8 December 2019 (UTC)
Is it really necessary to include mention of the "untreated/unfiltered probiotic" water fad? It doesn't really say anything about the content in the comic. [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 17:50, 7 December 2019 (UTC)
: I thought it might be relevant to mention why Megan might want to leave her water unboiled. --[[User:NotaBene|NotaBene]] ([[User talk:NotaBene|talk]]) 18:15, 7 December 2019 (UTC)
:: Well I thought it was because she thought she was immune from any contaminants, not that she thought it was healthier for her! lol [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 18:35, 7 December 2019 (UTC)
:::Ironically (relative to this comic, anyway) people who drink "raw" unpurified water are probably much more likely to _avoid_ vaccination. I do find the topic relevant enough to be worth mentioning, though.
:::[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 21:50, 7 December 2019 (UTC)
'Bitten by bats'.. From a future perspective, turns out the real problem is biting bats, or perhaps biting things that have bitten bats. [[User:Davidgro|davidgro]] ([[User talk:Davidgro|talk]]) 18:12, 15 April 2021 (UTC)
:Is there a category about comics that seem to have somewhat predicted the future? Or one with comics that contain what could be later misinterpreted as references to events happening after the release of the comic?[[Special:Contributions/172.69.54.202|Joe Mamma]] 09:20, 4 November 2021 (UTC)
:Yeah at this point my brain just skimmed over the comic and assumed it was about the Covid shot, not the flu shot. Strangely prophetic comic! [[User:PotatoGod|PotatoGod]] ([[User talk:PotatoGod|talk]]) 06:23, 19 July 2023 (UTC)

Talk:2775: Siphon

2023-05-12T19:54:28Z

PotatoGod: /* Potential inspiration */ new section

My understanding was that siphoning can essentially be explained by the Bernoulli equation? There is a difference in potential energy between the upper and lower container so it flows. The weight of water in the downhill part of the tube pulls water up the uphill section of the tube (think like a vacuum), and so on until there's either no difference in head or no more water. Siphoning will work with any diameter tube. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.151|172.70.91.151]] 15:43, 12 May 2023 (UTC)
:That's right. The only mention of capillary action in the siphon wikipedia article is when talking about phenomenon that *isn't* a siphon. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 16:15, 12 May 2023 (UTC)

Agree, capillary action does not seem to be referenced or implied in the comic, presenting only the (not "functioning") siphon phenomenon. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.134.142|172.68.134.142]] 16:23, 12 May 2023 (UTC)
:Seconded/thirded. Capillary action isn't even what they were expecting. The small amount of water in the lowe receptical indicates they correctly ''filled'' the tube, but then as the longer length drained it did not then induce further flow up and over through the shorter length. e.g. nature no longer abhored the resulting vacuum (or there was increased negative-pressure vapourisation, beyond that previously expected, or other method of seepage 'airlock'-breaking) and thus the short-end also drained straight back out again instead of becoming a potentially self-sustaining inflow to the whole siphoning setup.
::If the upper end got restricted (say by touching the side of the bucket) the loss of flow would allow air to enter the bottom end and drain out the tube. I've done this. :-( [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 19:07, 12 May 2023 (UTC)
:While the capilliary action element ''could'' induce the start of a rather limited 'empty' siphon setup to start (maybe, I'd have doubts about the 'fluid friction' actually acting against the gravity-feed part, once the surface-tension bit has "climbed the mountain" and started to merely seep out of the other end, almost incidentally, for a sufficiently thin tubing where CA is a significant factor), this suddenly failing for whatever reason (surface-tension effects being nullified) wouldn't then send a token amount of water into the low bucket, nor particularly stop unrelated siphon-flow from continuing properly (in fact, suddenly 'interaction-free' liquid and tubing might siphon ''faster'', with effectively zero fluid boundary effects dragging on the induced flow).
:But perhaps someone with more QFD experience could explain where my assessment is wrong. So not going to personally rewrite the current Explanation intro just now. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.161|172.70.162.161]] 16:21, 12 May 2023 (UTC)
:I'd like to contribute as one more data point. I also don't see capillary action as being relevant. In particular, as another commenter said, the water in the lower bucket quite clearly supports the idea that the siphon effect was the subject of the characters' confusion. How else is Randall supposed to depict the siphon effect anyway? I agree that the drawing alone ''could'' also suggest capillary action is what's being investigated, but I don't think it suggests that the caption has ''incorrectly'' referred to it as the siphon effect. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.254.100|172.71.254.100]] 18:44, 12 May 2023 (UTC)

== Potential inspiration ==

One potential source of inspiration for this comic is the Twitter [https://twitter.com/earth_updates account @Earth_Updates], which produces a lot of similar content. [[User:PotatoGod|PotatoGod]] ([[User talk:PotatoGod|talk]]) 19:54, 12 May 2023 (UTC)

Talk:1869: Positive and Negative Reviews

2023-05-03T21:03:19Z

PotatoGod: Claim my old unsigned comment

This page is now available for discussions. Sorry for the delay. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 14:42, 28 July 2017 (UTC)

About the Trivia item "The use of the phrase 'physics tells us...' may be alluding to the way people use 'physics' or 'science' to justify nonsense.", I seriously doubt it. If there were no connection to real physics, this comic would be pretty devoid of content. And lacking much of a joke! I've been figuring that this is referencing SOME aspect of physics and applying it to real life in a silly way. I've been wanting to read about it. There must be something, maybe theorizing about time travel, maybe saying something is measured backwards? I'm reminded of the British sitcom, Red Dwarf, the episode Backwards, where they visit a future Earth where time has turned backwards, so everybody speaks backwards and everything is done backwards (where I learned that "Bitter" backwards sounds like "Erskib"). [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 05:05, 30 July 2017 (UTC)

Am I the only one that would likely agree with the "backwards" reviewers? Those sorts of sports drinks like Gatorade, etc taste terrible to me, and would likely result in me drinking much more water to rinse out the flavor! The same is true of soda for me. I feel like this comic might also be referencing that aspect, and an absurd attempt to justify considering even the negative reviews positive. [[User:PotatoGod|PotatoGod]] ([[User talk:PotatoGod|talk]]) 18:54, 30 July 2017 (UTC)

Fridge genius: First I thought if they live backwards, how come they have no numbers attached to their username? It should be something like Merlin99999999999999, just try to register your first name at any popular website even today. Then of course I realized that they would simply create their account as soon as the site goes up (shortly before it goes down, from their perspective), remembering that it was a popular site and having posted there.[[User:Ruffy314|Ruffy314]] ([[User talk:Ruffy314|talk]]) 19:06, 30 July 2017 (UTC)

Um... wouldn't Merlin and Benjamin Button perceive it as regurgitating the drinks? I mean, they perceived the reverse results, so ingesting things should have the same effect. [[User:OriginalName|OriginalName]] ([[User talk:OriginalName|talk]]) 16:52, 25 August 2017 (UTC)
: Merlin in ''Once and Future King'' perceives individual "scenes" in his life normally, but they're in reverse order. I haven't read "Benjamin Button". [[User:Nitpicking|Nitpicking]] ([[User talk:Nitpicking|talk]]) 20:05, 15 April 2022 (UTC)

Talk:2748: Radians Are Cursed

2023-03-15T06:30:21Z

PotatoGod: Pi day

how do transcript [[Special:Contributions/172.70.127.37|172.70.127.37]] 19:23, 10 March 2023 (UTC)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Square_degree may be of some help with this one. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.166.124|162.158.166.124]] 19:44, 10 March 2023 (UTC)

The comic isn't actually correct. A radian is not equal to the length of a circle's radius; it is equal to the length of the radius, multiplied by 2π, divided by the perimeter, which is why it has no units, while the length does. In other words, radian/2pi=length of radius/length of perimeter. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.46.84|172.70.46.84]] 19:51, 10 March 2023 (UTC)

As suggested by the above Wikipedia link, square degrees are in fact often used in astronomical contexts. Also, it's quite standard to say that radian=1; see for example [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SI_derived_unit SI derived unit]. An angle is the ratio between the arc length and the radius, and we just optionally append "radian" for clarity. So 1 = 57.3 degrees is correct; Randall simply used the wrong argument to obtain it. [[User:Aseyhe|Aseyhe]] ([[User talk:Aseyhe|talk]]) 20:57, 10 March 2023 (UTC)
:I always understood radian to be the name of the unit, so by definition 1 radian=1. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 21:17, 10 March 2023 (UTC)
:It is a shame that astronomers don't use the proper unit for such things: the steradian. It is literally there for describing the 3D equivalent of angle. Oh well... --[[Special:Contributions/172.69.79.137|172.69.79.137]] 04:16, 11 March 2023 (UTC)
::It is a shame that astronomers don't use the proper for length, preferring ad-hoc units based on the solar system. But if you use a different ad-hoc unit based on the properties of the solar system they throw a hissy fit.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.38.150|172.70.38.150]] 06:51, 12 March 2023 (UTC)
:::Indeed, what ''is'' the "proper [distance unit?] for length"? Light-year, based on Earth's orbital period. AU, based upon Earth's orbital radius. (Kilo)metre, based (approximately, and quartered) upon Earth's circumpolar circumference. Parsec, based upon Earth's orbital radius and a notionally arbitrary subdivision of angle. (Which can be avoided by mathematically more pure "paradians"???) Planck-lengths, might be not solar-/geo-centric but creates horribly huge numbers even at the human scale. ;) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.128|172.70.86.128]] 16:07, 12 March 2023 (UTC)

Someone fix the vandalism, how do you upload images? --[[User:Purah126|Purah126]] ([[User talk:Purah126|talk]]) 03:06, 11 March 2023 (UTC)
:I'm doing it but that user needs to be blocked.
:To revert images, scroll down and click the revert link next to the last good version.
:And do not feed the trolls. ~ [[user:megan|Megan]] she/her [[user talk:megan|talk]]/[[special:contribs/megan|contribs]] 03:10, 11 March 2023 (UTC)

On reading this I vividly remembered a maths teacher once asking our class "What's 10% of a straight line?", and the looks of disgust and bewilderment when he said the answer was 18 degrees. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.147|172.70.86.147]] 08:31, 11 March 2023 (UTC)
:I just hope that was Celsius degrees (or Kelvin), rather than Fahrenheit(/Rankine). ;) [[Special:Contributions/172.71.242.190|172.71.242.190]] 10:51, 11 March 2023 (UTC)
::If you use Kelvin with degrees you have already lost...[[Special:Contributions/172.68.51.178|172.68.51.178]] 13:29, 11 March 2023 (UTC)

So the volume of the sky is 4/3 π r³ = 7,092,429 cubic degrees

I remember in the quantum mechanics class we figured that if \hbar is defined to be h/2π, then we might as well introduce the notation \pibar as an alternative for 1/2. [[User:Captain Nemo|Captain Nemo]] ([[User talk:Captain Nemo|talk]]) 11:08, 12 March 2023 (UTC)

The logic is fine once you recall the formula s = r x theta. The arc length subtended by an angle is equal to the radius times the angle. On the unit circle, the radius is 1 (no unit). Therefore, the subtended arc length of 1 radian is s = 1 x 1 radian = 1 radian. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.22.117|172.71.22.117]] 21:45, 12 March 2023 (UTC)
:"...the radius is 1 (no unit)." There's definitely a unit. It's whatever the unit the unit circle is reflecting (even if that's mathematical Unity). And in the case of dimensional analysis, it's a particular dimension that you'd need to account for, and the difference between this radians thing and the degrees thing is only the inclusion of dimensionless pi-based constant of conversion. Doesn't change the understanding of the issue, but I believe that some explanations/comments aren't then conveying it onwards accurately. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.79.184|172.69.79.184]] 22:15, 12 March 2023 (UTC)
::I mean, I'm sorry, but respectfully, you are wrong. The unit circle is *by definition* a circle of radius 1. There is no unit attached to that. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.82.41|172.71.82.41]] 01:55, 13 March 2023 (UTC)
:::Correction: The unit is that of the radius, ''by definition''. It is one of that unit, whatever that unit may be. You attach whatever unit you want to it, when you want to, but it isn't actually a unitless value when you start comparing it with othe values whose relationship and own unit are known. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.207|172.71.178.207]] 03:59, 13 March 2023 (UTC)

There is actually some dispute about whether angles should be measured using units. I can't find it now, but there was an article by someone arguing that the current SI definition of the radian as 1 rad = 1 m / 1 m was flawed. He felt that units of angle should have a dimension, A, and rewrote several formulae slightly to accommodate this. But more often today, the radian is considered dimensionless with a value of exactly 1, making it not actually a "unit" so much as a hint telling how the angle was measured. In this definition, an angle has a measure of x (radians) iff the circular arc it intercepts as a central angle has an arclength of x times the circle's radius. Under this definition, the following become mathematically correct:
:rad = 1
:° = π/180
:Radius of unit circle = 1 = (180/π)(π/180) = (180/π)° = 57.29577...°
:(1°)² = π²/32400
There is really nothing mysterious about it. Here, we are just defining the radian and degree as real numbers. This is how we treat them in Calculus. For instance, d/dx sin(2x rad) = 2 cos(2x rad), not (2 rad) cos(2x rad) as the chain rule implies. This is because 2 rad = 2. This also helps explain why Phil Plait's bizarre dimensional analysis actually does work. In particular, the last equation above would normally be written with "rad" on the right-hand side, giving a conversion between square degrees and square radians. Using the fact that the area of a sphere is 4πr², we see that the area of the unit sphere must be 4π square radians, and thus 4π * (32400/π²) * (1°)² = (129600/π)°² = 41252.961...°². Note that a "square radian" is also equal to a "steradian" by definition, which is the solid angle that subtends 1/(4π) of the surface of the sphere. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.127.38|172.70.127.38]] 02:56, 13 March 2023 (UTC)
: In complex analysis we defined the exponential function as a power series. Pure complex numbers, no units or even a hint that there is such a thing as an angle in the definition. Many theorems and lemmas about the properties of exp(z) follow, including derivatives, integrals, Eulers formula, Eulers identity. Sin() and cos() are defined as the real and imaginary parts of exp(); pi is defined as a number via Eulers identity. No circles or angles involved. In the last lecture the properties of the exponential combine in a few lemmas to show that it can trivially solve a bunch of problems such as the simple harmonic oscillator and trigonometry.
: The point is we can define exp(), hence sin() and cos(), without using angles. There is no need for a unit for angles until you start working with angles, just as there is no need for a unit for elephants until you start counting elephants. You could reorder the textbook, put the trigonometry chapter before complex analysis and define angles first, but you'd have to be a masochist or a high school teacher to do it that way.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.174.160|172.70.174.160]] 05:24, 13 March 2023 (UTC)

:: Sure, but in the same way "number of elephants" is dimensionless, "measure of angle" is also dimensionless. That's not true of physical quantities like distance or area. And in this convention, we do have radian = 1. (The SI even defines the radian as 1 m / 1 m, so clearly it has to equal 1.) [[Special:Contributions/172.71.254.135|172.71.254.135]] 19:18, 13 March 2023 (UTC)

:::2 pi is a full circle, also in another galaxy, or in another universe. All real units contain (are, in fact) some arbitrarily chosen factor. --[[Special:Contributions/172.71.246.11|172.71.246.11]] 08:07, 14 March 2023 (UTC)
::::They {{w|Natural units|needn't be}}... [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.135|172.70.162.135]] 13:16, 14 March 2023 (UTC)

Anyone else surprised Randall didn't save this comic for Pi Day? It would've been a perfect fit, and just 4 days later! [[User:PotatoGod|PotatoGod]] ([[User talk:PotatoGod|talk]]) 06:30, 15 March 2023 (UTC)

Talk:2732: Bursa of Fabricius

2023-02-03T23:26:28Z

PotatoGod: Only Broca can name things

One of the reasons for the success of humans is that the tools of humans do not depend on the structure and strength of the human body. Using fire as an example, a single person with a fire stick can burn down an entire forest in a matter of hours. Fire is not limited by the person who started it. The same goes for any other tool we make. ~ [[user:megan|Megan]] she/her [[user talk:megan|talk]] [[special:contribs/megan|contribs]] 18:35, 1 February 2023 (UTC)

Here's the wiki for Bursa of Frabricius: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bursa_of_Fabricius 
And the wiki for Hieronymus Fabricius: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hieronymus_Fabricius [[User:Mr. I|Mr. I]] ([[User talk:Mr. I|talk]]) 18:51, 1 February 2023 (UTC)

So ''that's'' why I can't find the Gräfenberg spot! [[User:LunarNapolean|LunarNapolean]] ([[User talk:LunarNapolean|talk]]) 20:34, 1 February 2023 (UTC)
:Perhaps you should have met {{w|R. G. Waldeck|Frau Gräfenberg}}? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.96|172.70.85.96]] 22:10, 1 February 2023 (UTC)

At first I thought the top character was swinging on a rope like in https://xkcd.com/208/, but now I see he's actually flying. So is he supposed to be Fabricius? [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 22:15, 1 February 2023 (UTC)
:Yes - seems kind of obvious given that the comic is about the fact that Fabricius could fly... ;-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:02, 2 February 2023 (UTC)

Perhaps the presence of the organ in avian dinosaurs prevented their demise after the asteroid. [[User:KingPenguin|KingPenguin]] ([[User talk:KingPenguin|talk]]) 23:33, 1 February 2023 (UTC)

omg return of safari hat guy from [[603]]!! [[Special:Contributions/172.69.67.54|172.69.67.54]] 00:44, 2 February 2023 (UTC)Bumpf
:Uhm no. Not drawn the same way at all. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:02, 2 February 2023 (UTC)

Adam's apple is named for the legend that a piece of forbidden fruit was stuck in the biblical Adam's throat. I guess you could call him the discoverer, but that's a stretch. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.35.49|172.68.35.49]] 06:21, 2 February 2023 (UTC)
:'Adam's Apple' isn't named after its 'discoverer', but after the Biblical Adam, because it resembles having a piece of the 'forbidden fruit' stuck in one's throat. The earliest use of the name occurs in a 1662 English translation of Thomas Bartholin's 1651 work 'Anatomia', but the Latin phrase translated, 'pomum Adami', had been in use in medical texts across Europe from at least 1600AD.
[[Special:Contributions/172.69.79.159|172.69.79.159]] 06:31, 2 February 2023 (UTC)
::Yes the start of the explanation makes no sense at all. Will rewrite --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:02, 2 February 2023 (UTC)

"Sometimes, anatomical sections are named after their first discoverer in a similar fashion: Broca's area, Adam's apple, Achille's tendon, and so on." 
Broca's area, yes. Adam's apple, as per above, refers to a Biblical story, Achilles tendon (not "Achille's tendon") refers to the Illiad. Terrible, terrible examples. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.94.139|172.71.94.139]] 06:33, 2 February 2023 (UTC)
:No the entire top section is BS. Also it has nothing to do with gaming. Will delete any ref to that and rewrite. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:02, 2 February 2023 (UTC)

So was Paul Langerhans the only resident of his own private archipelago, the islets of Langerhans? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pancreatic_islets[[Special:Contributions/162.158.79.193|162.158.79.193]] 19:10, 2 February 2023 (UTC)

Should we a link to the list of lots of parts. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_human_anatomical_parts_named_after_people

It's worth noting that if Mr. Broca indeed was the sole owner of Broca's area, he'd also be the only one able to name the area (after himself, evidently). [[User:PotatoGod|PotatoGod]] ([[User talk:PotatoGod|talk]]) 23:26, 3 February 2023 (UTC)

2727: Runtime

2023-01-24T20:20:10Z

PotatoGod: /* Explanation */ mention that doctor who watching is often recommended to start at season 5, not 1

{{comic
| number = 2727
| date = January 20, 2023
| title = Runtime
| image = runtime_2x.png
| imagesize = 399x389px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = At least there's a general understanding all around that Doctor Who is its own thing.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by THE XKCD CINEMATIC UNIVERSE - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

The comic presents two separate conversations, which boil down to the same premise and yet differing conclusions. In one, a particular TV show is being watched, in the other a film franchise.

While it is finding its feet, a new season of a television show (perhaps commissioned, on the back of some perceived interest in the story it will tell, for a dozen or so episodes of around 50 minutes - i.e. about ten hours) is not necessarily going to get everything right in the writing style, the slant it puts on the subject matter, the cast of characters or other production values. Or at least not for mass appeal to the everyman, for whom [[Cueball]] is the archetypal representative. Nevertheless, many series ''do'' get further seasons and greatly improve. [[White Hat]] (the optimist, and clearly won over by the production) is on the way to successfully convincing Cueball to view a particular series, or perhaps to continue to watch it after becoming jaded by its early failure to live up to its hype. It sounds reasonable to Cueball, just from his friend's recommendation, to get over the hump and appreciate it "when it gets good".

On the other hand, many television shows achieve their highest popularity in their first season. The first season is usually when unknown stars achieve their breakout and become popular, when mysteries and cliffhangers that capture the imagination are introduced, and when interesting plotlines that engender viewer interest develop (often which two members of a love triangle will fall for each other). While the next few seasons are often considered the "golden age" of such series (as all of the interest is fresh, plot lines and mysteries are not yet resolved, and actors and writers are in their stride and not yet burned out) it is rare for a popular or well regarded TV series to have a first season that is considered bad.

A series of films, however, is seemingly a different matter. By substituting 10+ hours of filmed-for-television with something more cinematic, the prospect of getting over the exact same scale of 'hump' in a long-running set of sequels (eight films at a not unreasonable average length of 85 minutes each would ''also'' require a bit more than ten hours of commitment), is not at all enticing. However, since the average movie runs about 131 minutes, 10 hours of TV run time (about 15 episodes each with 40 minutes of show - the 40 minutes being the one hour time slot minus commercials) would only last the same as about four and a half movies, not eight. TV shows on modern streaming services such as Netflix tend to be longer (55 minutes per episode) but also fewer episodes per season (10-13) and so are still only as long as four to five movies. Watching four or so movies seems much less of a burden, many modern film franchises (among them the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Star Wars, Star Trek and the Harry Potter series) have successfully gone well beyond four films.

The real reasons for this difference are that:
* A television series that gets good can be expected to run for at least five seasons, whereas nine movies is already quite long for a movie series. Sitting through eight bad movies in order to understand two or three good ones is not a worthwhile tradeoff.
* The longer run-time of a movie generally means that a film series will focus on one specific plotline in each entry, whereas televised series are or can be more episodic (the characters are involved in a different situation each time) and can also interweave plotlines throughout individual episodes or episode arcs, so that less time per episode is spent on plots viewers dislike.
* In the US, a film typically begins shooting from a completed script with only minor revisions conducted once filming starts; whereas in television, writers are usually engaged throughout most of a series' season and can more quickly change unpopular elements in future episodes.

The mention of “after the first 8 movies” might be a reference to the long-running Fast and the Furious franchise, which now has 9 movies (plus a couple of spin-offs) at the time of this comic’s publication. The more recent movies are well-reviewed (rated “fresh” on Rotten Tomatoes), even though the first four were widely panned by critics. Someone like Randall, who may have ignored the franchise when it first came out in 2001, may be wondering if he should watch the more recent ones that critics generally like; and, if so, does he need to catch up on the initial movies first?

The title text talks of the long-running British TV series that is {{w|Doctor Who}}. The original Doctor Who, running from 1963-1989 was typically low budget, for its time and locality, though initially considered cutting edge in many ways. Compared to more modern classics, and especially Hollywood sci-fi, it would be noticeably not as good. The revived series (2005-present) has a much higher production budget and is typically much more aligned to modern viewers, who may wilfully ignore or not even know of the older episodes. Someone just starting to watching Doctor Who sequentially from the ''very'' first season (broadcast in 1963) would have to watch hundreds of episodes (26 'seasons', by some counts) before the series "gets good" to modern eyes, if the {{tvtropes|GrowingTheBeard|"good" point}} is the 2005 series revival, or even quite a few to reach any given key point in the original run. Thus Doctor Who is considered to be its own thing, and unlike other shows where the fans recommend you suffer through a poor first season to enjoy improvement in subsequent seasons, {{w|Whovians}} might recommend potential new fans to begin with the 2005 reboot (technically the 27th season), which was produced to appeal to all new-comers without even necessarily any cultural knowledge of what had been broadcast up until the long hiatus a decade and a half before.

Furthermore, it is not uncommon to recommend that even within the 2005 reboot of Doctor who, that new viewers don't start at the beginning (season 1 or 27 if counting the original series), but instead start at season 5 (or 31 including the originals), when the Doctor regenerated to his 11th incarnation (due to higher budgets and production values by that point, and the start of a new story arc with new characters being introduced), and later on go back to watch the earlier seasons.

There is also the wrinkle that anyone wishing to start with the original run would be out of luck, seeing as many early episodes - before the late-70s - were {{w|Doctor Who missing episodes|lost forever}}. ([https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/MissingEpisode/DoctorWho TV Tropes link]).
The BBC didn't see any value in keeping them as they couldn't rerun them, so random episodes would be disposed of or recycled for various reasons, and those episodes are gone, making many stories incomplete. Some have been recovered because fans recorded them, or because tapes were sent to overseas stations for rebroadcast and never discarded (in fact, the ''audio'' for every single episode has been preserved) but most lost episodes remain lost.

It is vague about Randall's precise opinion, but even the most dedicated fan would acknowledge that it has had a varying quality/charm/consistency/etc, according to one's personal tastes for such things. Comparing the original run (pre-Millenium, featuring seven key actors sequentially taking on the title role over more than four decades, and another for a standalone TV-movie) with the revived series (continuing the pattern with a similar number of additional title-actors in just half the time), and any number of 'show-runners' (producers, main writers, etc) is one possible point of contention, probably more suited to British viewers. Possibly, in Randall's case, it is just the (perceived) ups and downs in the more recent era, which has been more consistently screened in the US.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Two situations are depicted between White Hat and Cueball.]
:[Situation 1:]
:White Hat: You should keep watching! After the first season it gets really good.
:Cueball: Oh yeah, I've heard that!
:[Situation 2:]
:White Hat: You should keep watching! After the first 8 movies, they get really good.
:Cueball: Haha, what? I'm not going to sit through '''''eight''''' bad movies!
:[Caption below the panel:]
:It's weird how it's way more normal and socially acceptable to suggest someone spend 10-15 hours watching something when it's TV rather than movies.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Fiction]]
[[Category:Doctor Who]]

Talk:2557: Immunity

2021-12-21T21:15:03Z

PotatoGod: laboratory created

well, if you look at society as a whole it makes more sense. the reason we have so many mutations is that we have a significant portion of the populous with no immunity [[Special:Contributions/172.68.110.125|172.68.110.125]] 20:49, 20 December 2021 (UTC) mark ifi
:But the mutations come about from the virus replicating a lot, i.e in people with the virus. It still doesn't make sense to catch it, because you have a chance of your infection being the one that produces a terrible mutation [[Special:Contributions/141.101.77.130|141.101.77.130]] 22:02, 20 December 2021 (UTC)
::That isn't how mutations work. Mutations are able to propagate strongly only in environments where there is something killing off the parent species, and where the mutation provides better survivability. Like a functioning immune system attacking the parent virus, but a mutation allows something to slip by. Thus, people with the partial immunity provided by either vaccines or infection, are the ones more likely to create a mutation than new patients with no inherent immunity, or people with natural immunity from previous bouts with related diseases.[[User:Seebert|Seebert]] ([[User talk:Seebert|talk]]) 14:11, 21 December 2021 (UTC)

I can see this one annoying a lot of people. It's the lot of people who can already be annoying, so I don't think that's a big problem. (A few, who misread it as about ''vaccination'' giving immunity, may actually think it supports them. I'm not sure we can do anything about that either.) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.85|162.158.159.85]] 21:51, 20 December 2021 (UTC)

Would you kindly provide a link to the "Mount Stupid" comic for reference.{{unsigned|172.70.174.119}}

To be fair, if the vaccination would only protect you for ONE infection it wouldn't be worth it. The idea about immunity is that immunity trained by either vaccination or infection will then protect you from '''multiple''' following infections. The problem with it is that in case of covid (or flu), the immunity wanes off with time AND the virus mutates into new variants the immunity doesn't work as well against. Sure, it still makes sense to vaccinate, but just because the virus spread so much you are very likely to catch it. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 22:32, 20 December 2021 (UTC)
:Are you making the mistake (without the other baggage) I mentioned above about misreading the comic? This comic isn't about the vaccination at all. It's about infection. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.22|172.70.86.22]] 22:51, 20 December 2021 (UTC)
::Infection is the normal method of vaccination. Until recently with mRNA vaccines, almost all vaccines were about infection- either with the disease itself, a weakened version of the disease, or a related disease.[[User:Seebert|Seebert]] ([[User talk:Seebert|talk]]) 14:11, 21 December 2021 (UTC)
:(And, to add, if the vaccine just protected against ONE infection, where that one infection was sufficiently dangerous, it would indeed be worth it. Better than chancing the infection on a naïve immune system and hoping to come out the other side with a similarly infection-specific immune effect (c.f. annual flu waves) but without the QC and care given to the vector.) ((See, I knew it'd spark response, didn't intend to say much. Maybe I should just stay out of this until it blows over.)) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.79|172.70.85.79]] 23:01, 20 December 2021 (UTC)
::Of course it is about the vaccination - this supports Randall's earlier statements for being pro vaccine, that you should get the immunity from vaccination and not from infection! --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:24, 21 December 2021 (UTC)
:::Hmmm, no. It's about COVID (and that by inference). It doesn't mention the vaccine. The conversation ''might'' have been about the vaccine, but the comic (and its discussion of what it is sensible to do, or not) is vaccine free. It's "anti-infection", but not directly "pro-vaccine". (He, I and you ''are'' all sensibly pro-vaccine, I think. The comic itself is only vocal on that subject by omission and a chain of logic that will never occur to those stuck at the original fallacy.) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.73|172.70.85.73]] 13:06, 21 December 2021 (UTC)

People who know a lot about the immune system could also be referring to people who are aware of possibilities like the varicella zoster virus which causes chickenpox, but stays dormant in your body after you recover and can come back later as shingles. This is less likely to happen if you get the vaccine to prevent chickenpox in the first place. --[[User:Norgaladir|Norgaladir]] ([[User talk:Norgaladir|talk]]) 00:32, 21 December 2021 (UTC)

A vaccination doesn't necessarily give you immunity, e.g. with the Covid or influenca vaccines, so you still can get infected. But being vaccinated reduces the risk of suffering complications like death that can ruin your and other peoples' life.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.94.229|162.158.94.229]] 07:59, 21 December 2021 (UTC)
:...''significantly'' reduces the risk, in fact. It likely also (though it's a harder thing to establish) reduces the catch-and-transmit rate, thus yet another thing to do to help others, even those you'll never meet directly, who are unable or (ugh!) unwilling to think this far ahead. Unmitigated (and, especially, sought-after) 'natural' infection as represented in the comic just helps spread the thing further and faster and does a gross disservice to onward contacts, contacts-of-contacts, etc, etc. Excuse my preaching to the choir here, but it needs to be said. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.73|172.70.85.73]] 13:06, 21 December 2021 (UTC)
::You're not preaching to the choir exclusively, plenty of lurkers (like me) are reading along. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.241.143|108.162.241.143]] 17:01, 21 December 2021 (UTC)

While trying to update the explanation for 'neutrality of tone' and address some infectious disease history, I came across this [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7120728/#!po=44.6721|Highly Infectious Diseases in Critical Care] article
from the NIH published January 3 of 2020 which includes a comparison of smallpox, measles, SARS-1, and MERS-cov illustrating how significantly vaccination has reduced global infections. Check out the graph of measles from 1980. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.110.227|172.70.110.227]] 13:46, 21 December 2021 (UTC)

My hero is the person who added the citation needed to "Diseases are bad", as well as those who realize that vaccination is largely a form of infection on purpose (within one of the following five options: infection by the disease itself, infection by a weakened disease, infection by a killed and inactive version of the disease, infection by a related less dangerous disease that shares some characteristics with the original disease, infection by a laboratory created RNA strands that mimic the disease being attacked). Therefore, catching the disease on purpose, is a form of vaccination. Israel did a study on infection by the disease itself and found 6.7 times stronger immune response than other forms of COVID-19 vaccination. [https://www.science.org/content/article/having-sars-cov-2-once-confers-much-greater-immunity-vaccine-vaccination-remains-vital] [[User:Seebert|Seebert]] ([[User talk:Seebert|talk]]) 14:11, 21 December 2021 (UTC)
:This should indicate that a better (at preparing your immune system to resist future infection) vaccine (process) may be possible. Without saying that current vaccines are ineffective. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.241.97|108.162.241.97]] 17:06, 21 December 2021 (UTC)
:I like how you make sure to use the "laboratory created" modifier for the RNA vaccine, but not the other types. As if they all grew on trees or something. Here's a hint: all vaccines were created in a lab, though many were created more directly by modifying an existing virus, in that lab. [[User:PotatoGod|PotatoGod]] ([[User talk:PotatoGod|talk]]) 21:15, 21 December 2021 (UTC)
I would like to add that the comic criticizes only a part of ''anti-vaxxers'' population that show the circular logic presented. There are other parts, e.g. those who are not quite sure if the cost/benefit (or rather risk/risk) calculus is right for the rapidly developed and hastily officially approved (in comparison to long-established vaccines against other diseases) and/or novel (mRNA) vaccine products, fearing long-time side effects of the vaccine. On the other hand, long-term effects of the disease itself are also not known yet, even if some middle-term ones are known or being investigated already. There are still other parts like those who oppose governmental obligations or pressure to vaccinate against covid and related restrictions, and take the refusal as a personal freedom stance. There may be others. -- [[Special:Contributions/198.41.242.219|198.41.242.219]] 15:09, 21 December 2021 (UTC)

This very much feels like a straw man. I get that it's a webcomic, but can we talk about this? The description says that natural immunity is "short lived" (as in, how short-lived, and how much compared to vaccination?) but meanwhile I hear like one in five COVID hospitalizations were vaccinated patients. Are there studies on reinfection with COVID in vaccinated vs non-vaccinated patients? It seems to me from the latest comics that Randall is frustrated. I think everyone is frustrated. Citation needed, haha. But I get tired of reading "haha the other side is dumb" from both sides of every damn issue these days, and the bigger the impact an issue has, the more furious the mudslinging. One could, for example, make the same "circular argument" jab at trusting the FDA in this example, or in a more agnostic case, the value of a college degree or a certification: Ex. "we're qualified to make decisions about what's right or smart for the populace because we're a bunch of people who say so, and we have a pretty looking seal to prove it, and also please keep giving us a lot of money." I mean, for those of us who have been to college, haven't we all churned our way through that just to get into the workforce and discover that it's completely different than what we actually needed to know? Would we call people "anti-uni's" and laugh at their incompetence for questioning the system? Even at the unlikely minimum of "anti-vaxxers (or x-person who disagrees with me) are 100% dumb and wrong and that's a fact", isn't the discourse important? I understand that the opposite extreme is "I'd rather let my child die of Polio than trust another human being", but isn't that just another straw man? When are we going to stop polarizing? Thoughts?[[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.147|108.162.237.147]] 16:28, 21 December 2021 (UTC)
:It might be Randall is (intentionally or accidentally) touching on your point by making this comic's thesis ambiguous. People who aren't thinking deeply about the topic on both sides will initially think it confirms their worldview, until they see more discussion on the matter. So the comic's ambiguity might prompt more discussion by and between both sides. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.241.143|108.162.241.143]] 17:18, 21 December 2021 (UTC)
:Re: "I hear like one in five COVID hospitalizations were vaccinated patients." ....if less than one in five people are vaccinated, this is a problem. Either it means there is a problem with the vaccine (unlikely) or that the vaccinated are putting themselves more at risk thinking they are more 'virusproof' than they are. If more (and hopefully significantly more) than 20% of the populace are vaccinated then this is actually a positive sign for the whole issue - even if there's still social hubris underestimating the precautions they still may need to take.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.73|162.158.159.73]] 17:34, 21 December 2021 (UTC)
::At least in the US, significantly more than 1 in 5 people are vaccinated. It's a little over 3 in 5 fully vaccinated. But I would suggest that even that isn't necessarily the statistic to look at - pretty sure covid is still more likely to be serious for older people and folks with preexisting conditions, all else being equal, and those populations have an even higher vaccination rate. 78% of folks 50-64 are fully vaccinated, and 84% 65+, per the CDC. So that makes the 1 in 5 represent *even less* risk.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.110.45|172.70.110.45]] 18:30, 21 December 2021 (UTC)

(Re: The "Why does my IP keep changing?" asked as an Edit-comment (see page history)... Because your gateway/pathway between yourself and the site goes through a limited and shared ''set'' of possible IPv4s. There's no guarantee you'll get the same IP (or even obvious range!) between edits, nor that your current IP won't be used by someone else in a few minutes. It's just a technical thing that greases the wheels of the Internet, even if it has funny repurcussions for some things like this.) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.73|162.158.159.73]] 17:34, 21 December 2021 (UTC)

"However, what Cueball (and by extension Randall) fail to note is that bad or not, there are plenty of instances where someone has already recovered, and therefore already in possession of natural immunity." - Isn't that what the comic is about? I'm confused as to why this is on the explanation page? --[[User:Enchantedsleeper|enchantedsleeper]] ([[User talk:Enchantedsleeper|talk]]) 19:45, 21 December 2021 (UTC)

Talk:2446: Spike Proteins

2021-04-06T07:08:47Z

PotatoGod: Comment on why existing explanation is in accurate

I got my 1st dose today. My apartment is swarming with spike proteins. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 01:17, 6 April 2021 (UTC)

Can someone here create a "COVID-19 vaccine" category (as a subcategory of COVID-19)? Randall has been posting a lot of vaccine-related comics recently. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.35.113|172.69.35.113]] 02:11, 6 April 2021 (UTC)

I don't think the description as it is right now is very accurate. It seems to be stating that the spike protein is a normal protein normally produced by humans, rather than a protein used by SARS-CoV-2 (and likely other similar viruses (virii?) to aid in their infection. In this case, beret guy has gotten an MRNA vaccine (either Moderna or Pfizer), so has given his cells the recipe to make this spike protein for themselves, until the immune system realizes it shouldn't be there. [[User:PotatoGod|PotatoGod]] ([[User talk:PotatoGod|talk]]) 07:08, 6 April 2021 (UTC)

2440: Epistemic Uncertainty

2021-03-23T01:12:18Z

PotatoGod: Minor tampering

{{comic
| number = 2440
| date = March 22, 2021
| title = Epistemic Uncertainty
| image = epistemic_uncertainty.png
| titletext = Luckily, unlike in our previous study, we have no reason to believe Evangeline the Adulterator gained access to our stored doses.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by GEORGE THE DATA TAMPERER. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT tamper with this tag too soon.}}

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

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Statistics]]
[[Category:Research Papers]]
[[Category:Biology]]

Talk:2407: Depth and Breadth

2021-01-05T04:58:16Z

PotatoGod: Breakfast search

where did the quality go
[[Special:Contributions/172.69.34.24|172.69.34.24]] 19:34, 4 January 2021 (UTC)
: I noticed this too. As discussed at [[User:DgbrtBOT]] there are two sizes of each comic. The default (smaller) size of [https://xkcd.com/2407/ 2407] looks much worse than the original, which you can find at [https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/depth_and_breadth_2x.png https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/depth_and_breadth_2x.png] I suggest we use the larger version for this comic. [[User:Alchemistmatt|Alchemistmatt]] ([[User talk:Alchemistmatt|talk]]) 20:18, 4 January 2021 (UTC)
: I tried to upload the higher quality PNG but I do not have permission; we'll have to wait for an editor to provide their opinion. [[User:Alchemistmatt|Alchemistmatt]] ([[User talk:Alchemistmatt|talk]]) 20:35, 4 January 2021 (UTC)
It would appear that the first version of the picture of this day's cartoon presents artifacts due to an unusual export method.
The image seems to have been exported using the 'nearest neighbor' resampling method, which would explain the jaggy edges.
Usually, the images appear to be exported using bilinear downsampling from an white-grey-black original, resulting in a published version with a larger color palette.
[[Special:Contributions/162.158.111.161|162.158.111.161]] 20:17, 4 January 2021 (UTC)
: Randall has uploaded a new image: [https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/depth_and_breadth.png], which I uploaded to explainxkcd. [[User:Natg19|Natg19]] ([[User talk:Natg19|talk]]) 21:48, 4 January 2021 (UTC)
In the breadth-first, for the second node on the right, the right branch is searched first, while everywhere else, the left branch is.
And in deadth-first, the nodes are searched multiple times (e.g. left-most node of layer 3 is search 3 times, assuming a search is at the end of a continuous line). Alternatively, maybe the search goes up first sometimes (it's not actually clear when a node is being looked at), but that doesn't explain the order of the left-most node of layer 2. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.142.201|172.68.142.201]] 22:15, 4 January 2021 (UTC)
:I noticed that. With perhaps two reasons: 1) aesthetics - drawn to go to nodes .2, .2.1, (.2), .2.2, then .1.1.1 (via .1.1, crossing .2.1, .1.2) would look a bit worse than this (crossing just .1.2); or 2) there's no absolute sorting order vs choice, it's just chance (or aesthetic choice) that .1s take priority over .2s in every other case - 3 out of the four choices is well within explorative chance.
: I favour the latter (with maybe an aesthetic bias) as often when I run a tree-searching algorithm I like to randomly splice the next option out of the list of options (rather than run from first to last or last to first) where I am not aware of any advantageous link (maybe in ruling out 'dead' branches early to prune off useless branches early) and thus whatever natural sort-order the structure imposes would create biases.
: Alternately, if continued it would definitely prioritise .2s down every .2(-dominant) branch, for a nicely symmetric 'wide-breadth first' pattern (.2.2.2 over .2.2.1, etc) for a pattern only visible once continued beyond the step currently shown. The root choice ''cannot'' be anything other than symmetry-breaking, but could as easily be a coinflip. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.68|141.101.98.68]] 00:32, 5 January 2021 (UTC)

The top two drawings for "depth" and "breadth" are legitimate methods of listing out a tree structure. The next two drawings substitute the "d" and "br" from "depth" and "breadth" to get "brepth" and "deadth". The fifth drawing removes the "th" from "breadth" to get "bread". And the title text substitutes the "p" from "depth" with an "a" to get "death". [[User:Rtanenbaum|Rtanenbaum]] ([[User talk:Rtanenbaum|talk]]) 22:32, 4 January 2021 (UTC)

After the bread-first search, the next logical variant is the breakfast search! [[User:PotatoGod|PotatoGod]] ([[User talk:PotatoGod|talk]]) 04:58, 5 January 2021 (UTC)

Talk:2396: Wonder Woman 1984

2020-12-10T02:23:32Z

PotatoGod: sites -> media

Is it really "common" as the explanation reads, to block "all news media" to avoid spoilers? Wouldn't most people just block the relevant keywords, or perhaps movie review sites and channels in particular? Blocking the entirety of news sources is rather absurd, in a fitting way for xkcd, but not a realistic way for real-world people to behave, as the explanation currently implies it is.
[[User:PotatoGod|PotatoGod]] ([[User talk:PotatoGod|talk]]) 02:22, 10 December 2020 (UTC)