explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

701: Science Valentine

2014-02-16T23:58:48Z

Sidereal: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 701
| date = February 12, 2010
| title = Science Valentine
| image = science_valentine.png
| titletext = You don't use science to show that you're right, you use science to become right.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] is taking a scientific approach to creating a valentine card. Based on the first chart, the recipient may be his fiancée or spouse. However, his rigorous approach makes him realize that the happiness he derives from the relationship is declining, which presents him with a choice. Will he be a true scientist by accepting data that he doesn't like, or will he be romantic and just make a cute card. He decides that he is a scientist, resulting in a sort of anti-valentine.

==Transcript==
:I wanted to make you a science valentine
:with charts and graphs of my feelings for you.
:[A graph shows romance and happiness. Romance cuts off, indicating a breakup before the meeting of Cueball and his current significant other, and happiness dips accordingly.
:A line indicates where the couple first met; romance is jagged thereafter, initially upwards but later down.
:Happiness climbs slightly more steadily and then dips again.
:More lines indicate a period of dating and then one of engagement.]
:and the happiness you've brought me.

:But the more I analyzed
:[Cueball works at a computer.]
:r0 = 0.20
:r1 = -0.61
:r2 = -0.83
:the harder it became to defend my hypothesis.

:In science, you can't publish results you know are wrong
:and you can't withhold them because they're not the ones you wanted.

:So I was left with a question: do I make graphs because they're cute and funny,
:[Cueball sits, looking at a sheet of paper.]
:or am I a *scientist*?

:Enclosed are my results.
:I hope you can find somebody else
:[A jagged, declining graph is superimposed over a red heart.]
:to be your valentine.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Valentines]]
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Statistics]]
[[Category:Science]]

635: Locke and Demosthenes

2014-02-12T14:57:04Z

Sidereal:

{{comic
| number = 635
| date = September 11, 2009
| title = Locke and Demosthenes
| image = locke_and_demosthenes.png
| titletext = Dear Peter Wiggin: This letter is to inform you that you have received enough up votes on your reddit comments to become president of the world. Please be at the UN tomorrow at 8:00 sharp.}}

==Explanation==
This comic reimagines a scene from {{w|Ender's Game}}, by {{w|Orson Scott Card}}. In the book, Ender is an above-average-intelligence boy who is selected to become a potential leader of Earth's "Defense" Forces in the event of another {{w|Formics|Bugger}} (For those wondering about the Wikipedia link, in future books the Buggers are renamed to the Formics to avoid having a slur referring to gay men/English swear word as the name of a race) invasion. Meanwhile, Ender's two older siblings, Peter and Valentine decide to save the world from itself. They do this by asserting themselves as wise demagogues who comment on political events on what are known as the "free nets" which are nets open to comment by anyone in the world. They choose pseudonyms to write under, as no one would take the words of children seriously, they choose Locke (Peter's pseudonym), and Demosthenes (Valentine's) and begin work. Eventually they gain enough respect to be invited to participate in moderated political debates in the higher class nets. By the end of the book, Peter has become the leader of the world, as Valentine runs away to the former Bugger homeworld with Ender to live out their lives in peace.

The whole thing is eerily reminiscent of what blogging has become, without the becoming-the-head-of-government outcome, obviously. [[Randall]] is suggesting that if the book was set with today's technology, Locke and Demosthenes would be getting extremely low exposure with their wordpress blogs as evidenced by the 0 comments on each post; the title text sarcastically invites Peter to be head of the UN. Also note that the sarcastic note is addressed to "Peter" rather than "Locke"; Peter's attempt to remain anonymous has failed miserably.

If you happen to be wondering about the squirrel, Peter Wiggin is portrayed as a sadistic sociopath. There is a scene in the book where Valentine stumbles across a skinned squirrel still twitching in pain.

==Transcript==
:[Valentine is laying on her back on the ground. Peter is feeding a squirrel.]
:Valentine: Ender's up there saving the world, but down here it's falling apart politically. What can we do?

:Peter: I know — we get on the nets and anonymously post political opinions. People reading our articles will see our intelligence, recognize how clear and logical our arguments are, and insist that we be put in charge, so we can fix everything!
:Valentine: Brilliant!
:[The squirrel is vomiting.]

:[A blog.]
:LOCKE
:Powered by Wordpress

:[Articles, partly scrolled down.]
:[...] which is why we must reach out to the Russian leadership.
::Posted at 3:15AM by Locke
::Comments (0)

:[In a larger font]
:The Problem with China
:In recent months much has been made of [...]

:[In a sidebar]
:Recent posts:
:>> A few thoughts on...
::Comments (0)
:>> Russian Aggression...
::Comments (1)
:>> Trade policy and the...
::Comments (0)
:>> And one more thing...
::Comments (0)
:>> Everyone's wrong about...
::Comments (1)

:[A list of links to other websites.]
:Blogroll:
:>> Demosthenes
:>> FiveThirtyEight

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Ender's Game]]

635: Locke and Demosthenes

2014-02-12T14:53:44Z

Sidereal:

{{comic
| number = 635
| date = September 11, 2009
| title = Locke and Demosthenes
| image = locke_and_demosthenes.png
| titletext = Dear Peter Wiggin: This letter is to inform you that you have received enough up votes on your reddit comments to become president of the world. Please be at the UN tomorrow at 8:00 sharp.}}

==Explanation==
This is from {{w|Ender's Game}}, by {{w|Orson Scott Card}}. Ender is an above-average-intelligence boy who is selected to become a potential leader of Earth's "Defense" Forces in the event of another {{w|Formics|Bugger}} (For those wondering about the Wikipedia link, in future books the Buggers are renamed to the Formics to avoid having a slur referring to gay men/English swear word as the name of a race) invasion. Meanwhile, Ender's two older siblings, Peter and Valentine decide to save the world from itself. They do this by asserting themselves as wise demagogues who comment on political events on what are known as the "free nets" which are nets open to comment by anyone in the world. They choose pseudonyms to write under, as no one would take the words of children seriously, they choose Locke (Peter's pseudonym), and Demosthenes (Valentine's) and begin work. Eventually they gain enough respect to be invited to participate in moderated political debates in the higher class nets. By the end of the book, Peter has become the leader of the world, as Valentine runs away to the former Bugger homeworld with Ender to live out their lives in peace.

The whole thing is eerily reminiscent of what blogging has become, without the becoming-the-head-of-government outcome, obviously. [[Randall]] is suggesting that if the book was set with today's technology, Locke and Demosthenes would be getting extremely low exposure with their wordpress blogs as evidenced by the 0 comments on each post; the title text sarcastically invites Peter to be head of the UN. Also note that the sarcastic note is addressed to "Peter" rather than "Locke"; Peter's attempt to remain anonymous has failed miserably.

If you happen to be wondering about the squirrel, Peter Wiggin is portrayed as a sadistic sociopath. There is a scene in the book where Valentine stumbles across a skinned squirrel still twitching in pain.

==Transcript==
:[Valentine is laying on her back on the ground. Peter is feeding a squirrel.]
:Valentine: Ender's up there saving the world, but down here it's falling apart politically. What can we do?

:Peter: I know — we get on the nets and anonymously post political opinions. People reading our articles will see our intelligence, recognize how clear and logical our arguments are, and insist that we be put in charge, so we can fix everything!
:Valentine: Brilliant!
:[The squirrel is vomiting.]

:[A blog.]
:LOCKE
:Powered by Wordpress

:[Articles, partly scrolled down.]
:[...] which is why we must reach out to the Russian leadership.
::Posted at 3:15AM by Locke
::Comments (0)

:[In a larger font]
:The Problem with China
:In recent months much has been made of [...]

:[In a sidebar]
:Recent posts:
:>> A few thoughts on...
::Comments (0)
:>> Russian Aggression...
::Comments (1)
:>> Trade policy and the...
::Comments (0)
:>> And one more thing...
::Comments (0)
:>> Everyone's wrong about...
::Comments (1)

:[A list of links to other websites.]
:Blogroll:
:>> Demosthenes
:>> FiveThirtyEight

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Ender's Game]]

357: Flies

2014-01-18T19:40:21Z

Sidereal: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 357
| date = December 14, 2007
| title = Flies
| image = flies.png
| titletext = I don't know about houseflies, but we definitely caught a lot of fruit flies with our vinegar bowl. Hooray science!
}}

==Explanation==
The saying "you catch more flies with honey than vinegar" means that people are more likely to be won over with persuasion than hostility.

When [[Cueball]]'s friend tells him this after he replies to a "{{W|noob}}" using swear words, he then says that the saying is literally false by saying that {{w|balsamic vinegar}} attracts more flies than honey. He then tells his friend to try it with his own fruit flies.

When Cueball's statement is found true (because balsamic vinegar has a higher sugar content than white vinegar or honey), his friend complains to his mother that she lied to him. He then says that another saying, "a watched pot never boils", is also literally false. That saying means that an event that is monitored with impatient attention will seem to take longer.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is typing on a computer, and his friend is lying on the floor.]
:Cueball: *$@#!
:Friend: Hey, ease up on the noobs. Like my mom always said, you catch more flies with honey then with vinegar.

:[Cueball has turned his chair around.]
:Cueball: No, you don't.
:Friend: You don't?
:Cueball: Nope, set out a bowl of balsamic and a bowl of honey. The vinegar gets more.

:[Cueball's friend is now sitting on the floor.]
:Friend: ...Seriously?
:Cueball: You have fruit flies. Try it yourself.

:Later:
:[Cueball's friend is standing in front of a table, talking into a phone, and on the table, there are two bowls, and the bowl on the left seems to be surrounded by flies.]
:Friend: Mother! You ''lied'' to me! And it gets worse. I was watching a pot yesterday, and guess what it did? It ''boiled,'' mother.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Science]]

1061: EST

2014-01-18T02:10:10Z

Sidereal: /* Other Features */

{{comic
| number = 1061
| date = May 28, 2012
| title = EST
| image = est.png
| titletext = The month names are the same, except that the fourth month only has the name 'April' in even-numbered years, and is otherwise unnamed.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic pokes fun of attempts to "fix" the calendar by making it simpler or more rational, which inevitably result in a system just as complicated. This is an example the paradox in complexity theory that if you attempt to simplify a system of problems by creating a new system of evaluation for the problems you often have instead made the problem more complex than it was originally.

===Length of Year===

Because there are approximately 365.2422 days in a {{w|solar year}}, various calendars use different means to keep the calendar year in sync with the solar year and the seasons. The Julian Calendar, for example, has leap days every four years, giving it an average day length of 365.25 years. The most widely used system is the {{w|Gregorian Calendar|Gregorian Calendar}}, which also has leap days every four years, but skips leap days in years divisible by 100 unless the year is also divisible by 400. This gives it an average day length of 365.2425 days, which is very close to the length of a solar year.

{{w|Calendar reform|Other calendars}} have been proposed, such not counting leap days and special "festival days" as a day of the week, in order to make every date fall on the same day of the week every year.

[[Randall]] advertises his idea for an "Universal Calendar for a Universal Planet". He combines {{w|calendar#Calendars in use|calendar}} definitions with {{w|Time zone|time zone}} definitions. The abbreviation ''EST'' is a joke on the American {{w|Eastern Time Zone|Eastern Standard Time}}.

*At "24 hours 4 minutes", EST days are longer, though there are only 360 of them in the year. The extra 4 minutes over the course of 360 days adds up to one standard day, so Randall's EST calendar would at this point have a day that is 361 standard days long.

*Running the clock backwards for 4 hours after every full moon gives 8 additional hours at each full moon, twelve or thirteen times in a year. Because a thirteenth full moon will occur once every 2.7 solar years on average, this modification adds 4.1228 standard days to an EST year, bringing it to 365.1228 days.

*The doubling of the non-prime numbers of the first non-reversed hour after each solstice and equinox is a final, very complicated way to bring Randall's EST year in extremely close sync with the solar year. There are 17 prime numbers between 0 and 59 and 43 non-primes. There are 2 equinoxes and 2 solstices each year, so a total of 172 minutes will occur twice. This brings the average length of Randall's EST year to 365.2422 standard days, equal to the solar year to four decimal places.

===Claimed Benefits===
Many of the claimed benefits for the calendar are highly dubious:
*While it is fairly ''simple'' to describe, EST is far from simple to understand or put in practice. Clocks in particular would have to regularly undertake very complicated processes like running backwards or duplicating non-prime minutes.
*EST does appear to be fairly ''clearly defined''.
*EST fails completely to be ''unambiguous''. Following each full moon, four hours occur three times, twice forward and once backward. Several minutes are also duplicated, making times during those periods ambiguous.
*The only way EST is ''free of historical baggage'' is that it breaks free of any sensible bits of historical baggage; it keeps such things as the 30-day month and 12-month year, but adopts a different (and variable) length of day that would make it wildly out of sync with the Earth's day-night cycle.
*EST is ''compatible with old units'', as far as seconds, minutes, and hours are concerned, though not for days, months, or years.
*EST is indeed very ''precisely synced with the solar cycle''.
*EST is ''free of leap years'', though some EST years are 8 hours longer than others on account of having an extra full moon.
*A calendar ''amenable to date math'' makes it easy to find the length of time between two dates and times by having standardized periods of time. The complex variability of the length of EST years, days, and hours mean it is only ''intermittently'' amenable to date math, which is to say not at all.

===Other Features===

The features of the calendar get increasingly bizarre as the description proceeds:

*The {{w|Epoch (reference date)|Epoch}} for EST is set by reference to the {{w|Julian calendar}}, which was superseded by the {{w|Gregorian calendar}}. The Julian calendar is currently 13 days behind the Gregorian calendar.

*The different zone for the United Kingdom is a reference to 1 yard being equal to 0.9144 meters, a pun on using {{w|imperial units}} instead of the {{w|metric system}}.

*Randall does not like {{w|Daylight Savings Time}} very much, as mentioned later in [[1268: Alternate Universe]].

*{{w|Narnia (world)|Narnian time}} is a reference to the fictitious world of Narnia in CS Lewis's {{w|The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe}} and its sequels. In Narnia, time passes much more quickly than in the real world. You could be in Narnia for several days and only a few minutes would have passed in the real world. However, synchronizing this effect would be impossible because it is not a consistent rate; it fluctuates wildly based on the whims of drama and magic.

*The Gregorian calendar does not include the year "0", after "1" BC the next year is "1" AD. Randall's invention fixes this according to correct Mathematics... only to reintroduce the problem immediately by arbitrarily omitting the year 1958. The year 1958 is significant because January 1, 1958 is the epoch (time zero) in {{w|International Atomic Time}} (TAI), which is part of the basis for {{w|Coordinated Universal Time}} (UTC). (The main difference is that TAI doesn’t add leap seconds).

*The title text may be a reference to the ancient (Pre-Babylonian Exile) [http://www.jewfaq.org/calendar.htm Jewish Calendar], which did not name the months, rather assigning them numbers from 1 to 12. The names used by Jews today are the names of the Babylonian months, derived from various Babylonian deities.

==Transcript==
:XKCD{{sic}} Presents
:'''EARTH STANDARD TIME'''
:(EST)
:A Universal Calendar for a Universal Planet
:EST is...
:Simple * Clearly Defined * Unambiguous
:Free of Historical Baggage * Compatible with Old Units
:Precisely Synced with the Solar Cycle * Free of Leap Years
:Intermittently Amenable to Date Math

:UNITS
:Second: 1 S.I. Second
:Minute: 60 seconds
:Hour: 60 minutes
:Day: 1444 minutes (24 hours 4 minutes)

:Month: 30 Days
:Year: 12 months

:RULES
:For 4 hours after every full moon, run clocks backward.
:The non-prime-numbered minutes of the first full non-reversed hour after a solstice or equinox happen twice.

:[Epoch]
:00:00:00 EST, January 1, 1970 = 00:00:00 GMT, January 1, 1970 (Julian calendar)
:[Time Zones]
:The two EST time zones are
:''EST'' and ''EST (United Kingdom)''. These are the same except that the UK second is 0.9144 standard seconds.

:Daylight saving: Countries may enter DST, but no time may pass there.
:Narnian Time: Synchronized.
:Year Zero: EST ''does'' have a year 0. (However, there is no 1958.)

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]

1061: EST

2014-01-18T02:08:19Z

Sidereal: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1061
| date = May 28, 2012
| title = EST
| image = est.png
| titletext = The month names are the same, except that the fourth month only has the name 'April' in even-numbered years, and is otherwise unnamed.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic pokes fun of attempts to "fix" the calendar by making it simpler or more rational, which inevitably result in a system just as complicated. This is an example the paradox in complexity theory that if you attempt to simplify a system of problems by creating a new system of evaluation for the problems you often have instead made the problem more complex than it was originally.

===Length of Year===

Because there are approximately 365.2422 days in a {{w|solar year}}, various calendars use different means to keep the calendar year in sync with the solar year and the seasons. The Julian Calendar, for example, has leap days every four years, giving it an average day length of 365.25 years. The most widely used system is the {{w|Gregorian Calendar|Gregorian Calendar}}, which also has leap days every four years, but skips leap days in years divisible by 100 unless the year is also divisible by 400. This gives it an average day length of 365.2425 days, which is very close to the length of a solar year.

{{w|Calendar reform|Other calendars}} have been proposed, such not counting leap days and special "festival days" as a day of the week, in order to make every date fall on the same day of the week every year.

[[Randall]] advertises his idea for an "Universal Calendar for a Universal Planet". He combines {{w|calendar#Calendars in use|calendar}} definitions with {{w|Time zone|time zone}} definitions. The abbreviation ''EST'' is a joke on the American {{w|Eastern Time Zone|Eastern Standard Time}}.

*At "24 hours 4 minutes", EST days are longer, though there are only 360 of them in the year. The extra 4 minutes over the course of 360 days adds up to one standard day, so Randall's EST calendar would at this point have a day that is 361 standard days long.

*Running the clock backwards for 4 hours after every full moon gives 8 additional hours at each full moon, twelve or thirteen times in a year. Because a thirteenth full moon will occur once every 2.7 solar years on average, this modification adds 4.1228 standard days to an EST year, bringing it to 365.1228 days.

*The doubling of the non-prime numbers of the first non-reversed hour after each solstice and equinox is a final, very complicated way to bring Randall's EST year in extremely close sync with the solar year. There are 17 prime numbers between 0 and 59 and 43 non-primes. There are 2 equinoxes and 2 solstices each year, so a total of 172 minutes will occur twice. This brings the average length of Randall's EST year to 365.2422 standard days, equal to the solar year to four decimal places.

===Claimed Benefits===
Many of the claimed benefits for the calendar are highly dubious:
*While it is fairly ''simple'' to describe, EST is far from simple to understand or put in practice. Clocks in particular would have to regularly undertake very complicated processes like running backwards or duplicating non-prime minutes.
*EST does appear to be fairly ''clearly defined''.
*EST fails completely to be ''unambiguous''. Following each full moon, four hours occur three times, twice forward and once backward. Several minutes are also duplicated, making times during those periods ambiguous.
*The only way EST is ''free of historical baggage'' is that it breaks free of any sensible bits of historical baggage; it keeps such things as the 30-day month and 12-month year, but adopts a different (and variable) length of day that would make it wildly out of sync with the Earth's day-night cycle.
*EST is ''compatible with old units'', as far as seconds, minutes, and hours are concerned, though not for days, months, or years.
*EST is indeed very ''precisely synced with the solar cycle''.
*EST is ''free of leap years'', though some EST years are 8 hours longer than others on account of having an extra full moon.
*A calendar ''amenable to date math'' makes it easy to find the length of time between two dates and times by having standardized periods of time. The complex variability of the length of EST years, days, and hours mean it is only ''intermittently'' amenable to date math, which is to say not at all.

===Other Features===

The features of the calendar get increasingly bizarre:

*The {{w|Epoch (reference date)|Epoch}} for EST is set by reference to the {{w|Julian calendar}}, which was superseded by the {{w|Gregorian calendar}}. The Julian calendar is currently 13 days behind the Gregorian calendar.

*The different zone for the United Kingdom is a reference to 1 yard being equal to 0.9144 meters, a pun on using {{w|imperial units}} instead of the {{w|metric system}}.

*Randall does not like {{w|Daylight Savings Time}} very much, as mentioned later in [[1268: Alternate Universe]].

*{{w|Narnia (world)|Narnian time}} is a reference to the fictitious world of Narnia in CS Lewis's {{w|The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe}} and its sequels. In Narnia, time passes much more quickly than in the real world. You could be in Narnia for several days and only a few minutes would have passed in the real world. However, synchronizing this effect would be impossible because it is not a consistent rate; it fluctuates wildly based on the whims of drama and magic.

*The Gregorian calendar does not include the year "0", after "1" BC the next year is "1" AD. Randall's invention fixes this according to correct Mathematics... only to reintroduce the problem immediately by arbitrarily omitting the year 1958. The year 1958 is significant because January 1, 1958 is the epoch (time zero) in {{w|International Atomic Time}} (TAI), which is part of the basis for {{w|Coordinated Universal Time}} (UTC). (The main difference is that TAI doesn’t add leap seconds).

*The title text may be a reference to the ancient (Pre-Babylonian Exile) [http://www.jewfaq.org/calendar.htm Jewish Calendar], which did not name the months, rather assigning them numbers from 1 to 12. The names used by Jews today are the names of the Babylonian months, derived from various Babylonian deities.

==Transcript==
:XKCD{{sic}} Presents
:'''EARTH STANDARD TIME'''
:(EST)
:A Universal Calendar for a Universal Planet
:EST is...
:Simple * Clearly Defined * Unambiguous
:Free of Historical Baggage * Compatible with Old Units
:Precisely Synced with the Solar Cycle * Free of Leap Years
:Intermittently Amenable to Date Math

:UNITS
:Second: 1 S.I. Second
:Minute: 60 seconds
:Hour: 60 minutes
:Day: 1444 minutes (24 hours 4 minutes)

:Month: 30 Days
:Year: 12 months

:RULES
:For 4 hours after every full moon, run clocks backward.
:The non-prime-numbered minutes of the first full non-reversed hour after a solstice or equinox happen twice.

:[Epoch]
:00:00:00 EST, January 1, 1970 = 00:00:00 GMT, January 1, 1970 (Julian calendar)
:[Time Zones]
:The two EST time zones are
:''EST'' and ''EST (United Kingdom)''. These are the same except that the UK second is 0.9144 standard seconds.

:Daylight saving: Countries may enter DST, but no time may pass there.
:Narnian Time: Synchronized.
:Year Zero: EST ''does'' have a year 0. (However, there is no 1958.)

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]

1061: EST

2014-01-17T19:54:21Z

Sidereal: /* Explanation */ added headings

{{comic
| number = 1061
| date = May 28, 2012
| title = EST
| image = est.png
| titletext = The month names are the same, except that the fourth month only has the name 'April' in even-numbered years, and is otherwise unnamed.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|The jokes in grey text after "EST is..." could use an explanation. I started it, but...}}
This comic pokes fun of attempts to "fix" the calendar by making it simpler or more rational, but ultimately result in a system just as complicated. This is an example the paradox in complexity theory that if you attempt to simplify a system of problems by creating a new system of evaluation for the problems you often have instead made the problem more complex than it was originally.

===Length of Year===

Because there are approximately 365.2422 days in a {{w|solar year}}, various calendars use different means to keep the calendar year in sync with the solar year and the seasons. The Julian Calendar, for example, has leap days every four years, giving it an average day length of 365.25 years. The most widely used system is the {{w|Gregorian Calendar|Gregorian Calendar}}, which also has leap days every four years, but skips leap days in years divisible by 100 unless the year is also divisible by 400. This gives it an average day length of 365.2425 days, which is very close to the length of a solar year.

{{w|Calendar reform|Other calendars}} have been proposed, such not counting leap days and special "festival days" as a day of the week, in order to make every date fall on the same day of the week every year.

[[Randall]] advertises his idea for an "Universal Calendar for a Universal Planet". He combines {{w|calendar#Calendars in use|calendar}} definitions with {{w|Time zone|time zone}} definitions. The abbreviation ''EST'' is a joke on the American {{w|Eastern Time Zone|Eastern Standard Time}}.

*At "24 hours 4 minutes", EST days are longer, though there are only 360 of them in the year. The extra 4 minutes over the course of 360 days adds up to one standard day, so Randall's EST calendar would at this point have a day that is 361 standard days long.

*Running the clock backwards for 4 hours after every full moon gives 8 additional hours at each full moon, twelve or thirteen times in a year. Because a thirteenth full moon will occur once every 2.7 solar years on average, this modification adds 4.1228 standard days to an EST year, bringing it to 365.1228 days.

*The doubling of the non-prime numbers of the first non-reversed hour after each solstice and equinox a final, very complicated way to bring Randall's EST year in extremely close sync with the solar year. There are 17 prime numbers between 0 and 59 and 43 non-primes. There are 2 equinoxes and 2 solstices each year, so a total of 172 minutes will occur twice. This brings Randall's year to 365.2422 of our days, equal to the solar year to four decimal places.

Randall's calendar is more closely in line with the solar year than the Gregorian Calendar, but has some drawbacks, such as days being wildly out of sync with the natural day/night cycle. It would also require clocks to perform some rather complicated processes.

===Other Features===

The features of the calendar get increasingly bizarre:

*The {{w|Epoch (reference date)|Epoch}} for EST is set by reference to the {{w|Julian calendar}}, which was superseded by the {{w|Gregorian calendar}}. The Julian calendar is currently 13 days behind the Gregorian calendar.

*The different zone for the United Kingdom is a reference to 1 yard being equal to 0.9144 meters, a pun on using {{w|imperial units}} instead of the {{w|metric system}}.

*Randall does not like {{w|Daylight Savings Time}} very much, as mentioned later in [[1268:_Alternate_Universe]].

*{{w|Narnia (world)|Narnian time}} is a reference to the fictitious world of Narnia in CS Lewis's {{w|The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe}} and its sequels. In Narnia, time passes much more quickly than in the real world. You could be in Narnia for several days and only a few minutes would have passed in the real world. However, synchronizing this effect would be impossible because it is not a consistent rate; it fluctuates wildly based on the whims of drama and magic.

*The Gregorian calendar does not include the year "0", after "1" BC the next year is "1" AD. Randall's invention fixes this according to correct Mathematics... only to reintroduce the problem immediately by arbitrarily omitting the year 1958. The year 1958 is significant because January 1, 1958 is the epoch (time zero) in {{w|International Atomic Time}} (TAI), which is part of the basis for {{w|Coordinated Universal Time}} (UTC). (The main difference is that TAI doesn’t add leap seconds).

===Claimed Benefits===

It should probably be noted that the list of claims made for it after "EST is..." are jokes in themselves. It is not actually that simple; it is dubiously "clearly defined"; it actually fails to be "unambiguous" as the adjustment rules it repeats minutes or hours after full moons or solstices, making times during those periods ambiguous; the only ways it is "free of historical baggage" is that it breaks free of any sensible bits of historical baggage; it keeps such things as the 30-day month and 12-month year. '''Finish this up'''

*The title text may be a reference to the ancient (Pre-Babylonian Exile) [http://www.jewfaq.org/calendar.htm Jewish Calendar], which did not name the months, rather assigning them numbers from 1 to 12. The names used by Jews today are the names of the Babylonian months, derived from various Babylonian deities.

==Transcript==
:XKCD{{sic}} Presents
:'''EARTH STANDARD TIME'''
:(EST)
:A Universal Calendar for a Universal Planet
:EST is...
:Simple * Clearly Defined * Unambiguous
:Free of Historical Baggage * Compatible with Old Units
:Precisely Synced with the Solar Cycle * Free of Leap Years
:Intermittently Amenable to Date Math

:UNITS
:Second: 1 S.I. Second
:Minute: 60 seconds
:Hour: 60 minutes
:Day: 1444 minutes (24 hours 4 minutes)

:Month: 30 Days
:Year: 12 months

:RULES
:For 4 hours after every full moon, run clocks backward.
:The non-prime-numbered minutes of the first full non-reversed hour after a solstice or equinox happen twice.

:[Epoch]
:00:00:00 EST, January 1, 1970 = 00:00:00 GMT, January 1, 1970 (Julian calendar)
:[Time Zones]
:The two EST time zones are
:''EST'' and ''EST (United Kingdom)''. These are the same except that the UK second is 0.9144 standard seconds.

:Daylight saving: Countries may enter DST, but no time may pass there.
:Narnian Time: Synchronized.
:Year Zero: EST ''does'' have a year 0. (However, there is no 1958.)

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

1061: EST

2014-01-17T19:52:16Z

Sidereal: /* Explanation */ add explanation, copy edit

{{comic
| number = 1061
| date = May 28, 2012
| title = EST
| image = est.png
| titletext = The month names are the same, except that the fourth month only has the name 'April' in even-numbered years, and is otherwise unnamed.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|The jokes in grey text after "EST is..." could use an explanation. I started it, but...}}
This comic pokes fun of attempts to "fix" the calendar by making it simpler or more rational, but ultimately result in a system just as complicated. This is an example the paradox in complexity theory that if you attempt to simplify a system of problems by creating a new system of evaluation for the problems you often have instead made the problem more complex than it was originally.

Because there are approximately 365.2422 days in a {{w|solar year}}, various calendars use different means to keep the calendar year in sync with the solar year and the seasons. The Julian Calendar, for example, has leap days every four years, giving it an average day length of 365.25 years. The most widely used system is the {{w|Gregorian Calendar|Gregorian Calendar}}, which also has leap days every four years, but skips leap days in years divisible by 100 unless the year is also divisible by 400. This gives it an average day length of 365.2425 days, which is very close to the length of a solar year.

{{w|Calendar reform|Other calendars}} have been proposed, such not counting leap days and special "festival days" as a day of the week, in order to make every date fall on the same day of the week every year.

[[Randall]] advertises his idea for an "Universal Calendar for a Universal Planet". He combines {{w|calendar#Calendars in use|calendar}} definitions with {{w|Time zone|time zone}} definitions. The abbreviation ''EST'' is a joke on the American {{w|Eastern Time Zone|Eastern Standard Time}}.

*At "24 hours 4 minutes", EST days are longer, though there are only 360 of them in the year. The extra 4 minutes over the course of 360 days adds up to one standard day, so Randall's EST calendar would at this point have a day that is 361 standard days long.

*Running the clock backwards for 4 hours after every full moon gives 8 additional hours at each full moon, twelve or thirteen times in a year. Because a thirteenth full moon will occur once every 2.7 solar years on average, this modification adds 4.1228 standard days to an EST year, bringing it to 365.1228 days.

*The doubling of the non-prime numbers of the first non-reversed hour after each solstice and equinox a final, very complicated way to bring Randall's EST year in extremely close sync with the solar year. There are 17 prime numbers between 0 and 59 and 43 non-primes. There are 2 equinoxes and 2 solstices each year, so a total of 172 minutes will occur twice. This brings Randall's year to 365.2422 of our days, equal to the solar year to four decimal places.

Randall's calendar is more closely in line with the solar year than the Gregorian Calendar, but has some drawbacks, such as days being wildly out of sync with the natural day/night cycle. It would also require clocks to perform some rather complicated processes.

The features of the calendar get increasingly bizarre:

*The {{w|Epoch (reference date)|Epoch}} for EST is set by reference to the {{w|Julian calendar}}, which was superseded by the {{w|Gregorian calendar}}. The Julian calendar is currently 13 days behind the Gregorian calendar.

*The different zone for the United Kingdom is a reference to 1 yard being equal to 0.9144 meters, a pun on using {{w|imperial units}} instead of the {{w|metric system}}.

*Randall does not like {{w|Daylight Savings Time}} very much, as mentioned later in [[1268:_Alternate_Universe]].

*{{w|Narnia (world)|Narnian time}} is a reference to the fictitious world of Narnia in CS Lewis's {{w|The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe}} and its sequels. In Narnia, time passes much more quickly than in the real world. You could be in Narnia for several days and only a few minutes would have passed in the real world. However, synchronizing this effect would be impossible because it is not a consistent rate; it fluctuates wildly based on the whims of drama and magic.

*The Gregorian calendar does not include the year "0", after "1" BC the next year is "1" AD. Randall's invention fixes this according to correct Mathematics... only to reintroduce the problem immediately by arbitrarily omitting the year 1958. The year 1958 is significant because January 1, 1958 is the epoch (time zero) in {{w|International Atomic Time}} (TAI), which is part of the basis for {{w|Coordinated Universal Time}} (UTC). (The main difference is that TAI doesn’t add leap seconds).

It should probably be noted that the list of claims made for it after "EST is..." are jokes in themselves. It is not actually that simple; it is dubiously "clearly defined"; it actually fails to be "unambiguous" as the adjustment rules it repeats minutes or hours after full moons or solstices, making times during those periods ambiguous; the only ways it is "free of historical baggage" is that it breaks free of any sensible bits of historical baggage; it keeps such things as the 30-day month and 12-month year. '''Finish this up'''

*The title text may be a reference to the ancient (Pre-Babylonian Exile) [http://www.jewfaq.org/calendar.htm Jewish Calendar], which did not name the months, rather assigning them numbers from 1 to 12. The names used by Jews today are the names of the Babylonian months, derived from various Babylonian deities.

==Transcript==
:XKCD{{sic}} Presents
:'''EARTH STANDARD TIME'''
:(EST)
:A Universal Calendar for a Universal Planet
:EST is...
:Simple * Clearly Defined * Unambiguous
:Free of Historical Baggage * Compatible with Old Units
:Precisely Synced with the Solar Cycle * Free of Leap Years
:Intermittently Amenable to Date Math

:UNITS
:Second: 1 S.I. Second
:Minute: 60 seconds
:Hour: 60 minutes
:Day: 1444 minutes (24 hours 4 minutes)

:Month: 30 Days
:Year: 12 months

:RULES
:For 4 hours after every full moon, run clocks backward.
:The non-prime-numbered minutes of the first full non-reversed hour after a solstice or equinox happen twice.

:[Epoch]
:00:00:00 EST, January 1, 1970 = 00:00:00 GMT, January 1, 1970 (Julian calendar)
:[Time Zones]
:The two EST time zones are
:''EST'' and ''EST (United Kingdom)''. These are the same except that the UK second is 0.9144 standard seconds.

:Daylight saving: Countries may enter DST, but no time may pass there.
:Narnian Time: Synchronized.
:Year Zero: EST ''does'' have a year 0. (However, there is no 1958.)

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

1061: EST

2014-01-17T15:18:17Z

Sidereal: Update analysis to show Randall's year is designed to equal solar year. There are 43 non-prime minutes in an hour.