https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/api.php?action=feedcontributions&user=108.162.215.56&feedformat=atomexplain xkcd - User contributions [en]2024-03-29T12:47:14ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.30.0https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2433:_Mars_Rovers&diff=2072492433: Mars Rovers2021-03-08T09:01:47Z<p>108.162.215.56: /* Explanation */ irrelevant</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 2433<br />
| date = March 5, 2021<br />
| title = Mars Rovers<br />
| image = mars_rovers.png<br />
| titletext = I just Googled 'roomba sojourner mod' and was sorely disappointed. Be the change, I guess!<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
<br />
In this comic, [[Randall]] has made a scatter plot displaying 6 different Mars rovers on a cuteness versus capabilities chart. Only three items are shown in the main plot, as two of the four rovers are near identical to other rovers sent to Mars. And the last rover is displayed off the cuteness chart.<br />
<br />
He finds the ''{{w|Curiosity (rover)|Curiosity}}'' and ''{{w|Perseverance (rover)|Perseverance}}'' rovers to be very capable / useful, but not very cute. ''{{w|Spirit (rover)|Spirit}}'' and ''{{w|Opportunity (rover)|Opportunity}}'' are cuter than the first two, but less capable. <br />
<br />
The recently launched ''Perseverance'' rover contains a drone helicopter, ''{{w|Ingenuity (helicopter)|Ingenuity}}'', which Randall finds very cute, but he is unsure how capable / useful it is. The way the error-range is indicated 'coincidentally' gives the Ingenuity image-plot a sense of movement in mid-air, especially the up and down motion which is the helicopter's (hopefully) most obvious dynamic once it is deployed and being tested. It could be discussed if a flying drone could be considered a Mars Rover, since a rover is usually something that drives over a surface.<br />
<br />
Finally, on the very right far off the cuteness chart, well outside the end of the X-axis, is the ''{{w|Sojourner (rover)|Sojourner}}'' rover, launched in 1997. He considers this rover extremely cute, but ultimately not that capable in terms of space exploration. To indicate the extreme cuteness of Sojourner, which has been mentioned before in [[1585: Similarities]] (to the extent that he wanted it as a pet!), he has drawn it far outside the axis of the plot to indicate it falls off the chart.<br />
<br />
In the title text, Randall is disappointed that there aren't many people who have modified their {{w|Roomba}} vacuums to look like (or act like?) the ''Soujourner'' rover. Roombas are a [[:Category:Roomba|recuring theme]] on xkcd. Search results at the time of posting are mainly reports mentioning the {{w|iRobot}} company, since one of its founders worked on the Soujourner rover.<br />
<br />
The end of the title text, "be the change" is a truncated form of the expression "be the change you want to see in the world"; basically, if there's something you want to see happen, be the one who makes it happen. This implies that Randall will be modifying his Roomba to look/act like ''Soujouner''.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:[A scatter plot is shown with two labeled axis, each with 5 ticks and ending in an arrow. Two types of Mars rovers are drawn in the top left part, at the top tick and the next highest tick. Each rover type has a label with two names. A third smaller drone is drawn in the lower right part close to the third tick on the Y-axis, with a single name label. It has two arrows pointing up and down to question marks, and two small lines of either side of the rotor blades, indicate movement. Far to the right, about twice the length of the drawn X-axis from the origin of the chart, and at the height of the lowest tick on the Y-axis, is a third type of rover, also with a single name label. The entire chart also has a label:]<br />
:Mars Rovers<br />
:Y-Axis: Capabilities <br />
:X-Axis: Cuteness <br />
:Curiosity & Perseverance<br />
:Spirit & Opportunity <br />
:Ingenuity<br />
:Sojourner<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Scatter plots]]<br />
[[Category:Rankings]]<br />
[[Category:Mars rovers]]<br />
[[Category:Roomba]]</div>108.162.215.56https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2433:_Mars_Rovers&diff=2072482433: Mars Rovers2021-03-08T09:00:45Z<p>108.162.215.56: /* Transcript */ ce</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 2433<br />
| date = March 5, 2021<br />
| title = Mars Rovers<br />
| image = mars_rovers.png<br />
| titletext = I just Googled 'roomba sojourner mod' and was sorely disappointed. Be the change, I guess!<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
<br />
In this comic, [[Randall]] has made a scatter plot displaying 6 different Mars rovers on a cuteness versus capabilities chart. Only three items are shown in the main plot, as two of the four rovers are near identical to other rovers sent to Mars. And the last rover is displayed off the cuteness chart.<br />
<br />
He finds the ''{{w|Curiosity (rover)|Curiosity}}'' and ''{{w|Perseverance (rover)|Perseverance}}'' rovers to be very capable / useful, but not very cute. ''{{w|Spirit (rover)|Spirit}}'' and ''{{w|Opportunity (rover)|Opportunity}}'' are cuter than the first two, but less capable. <br />
<br />
The recently launched ''Perseverance'' rover contains a drone helicopter, ''{{w|Ingenuity (helicopter)|Ingenuity}}'', which Randall finds very cute, but he is unsure how capable / useful it is. The way the error-range is indicated 'coincidentally' gives the Ingenuity image-plot a sense of movement in mid-air, especially the up and down motion which is the helicopter's (hopefully) most obvious dynamic once it is deployed and being tested. It could be discussed if a flying drone could be considered a Mars Rover, since a rover is usually something that drives over a surface.<br />
<br />
Finally, on the very right far off the cuteness chart, well outside the end of the X-axis, is the ''{{w|Sojourner (rover)|Sojourner}}'' rover, launched in 1997. He considers this rover extremely cute, but ultimately not that capable in terms of space exploration. To indicate the extreme cuteness of Sojourner, which has been mentioned before in [[1585: Similarities]] (to the extent that he wanted it as a pet!), he has drawn it far outside the axis of the plot to indicate it falls off the chart.<br />
<br />
This is similar to the mention of coconuts in the similar [[:Category:Scatter plots|scatter plot]] [[:Category:Rankings|ranking]] of fruit in [[388: Fuck Grapefruit]]. Here the tastiness of fruits is compared to the ease at which you can eat them, and Grapefruit is not tasty and hard to eat according to Randall hence the title. Coconuts are mentioned in the title text, where it is explained that fitting it in the plot would press all the other fruits together on the ease to eat axis, as coconuts are so extremely hard to open. So it is not exactly as in this comic, where the chart could have included Sojourner, but the same point is made, that this item is far off the chart.<br />
<br />
In the title text, Randall is disappointed that there aren't many people who have modified their {{w|Roomba}} vacuums to look like (or act like?) the ''Soujourner'' rover. Roombas are a [[:Category:Roomba|recuring theme]] on xkcd. Search results at the time of posting are mainly reports mentioning the {{w|iRobot}} company, since one of its founders worked on the Soujourner rover.<br />
<br />
The end of the title text, "be the change" is a truncated form of the expression "be the change you want to see in the world"; basically, if there's something you want to see happen, be the one who makes it happen. This implies that Randall will be modifying his Roomba to look/act like ''Soujouner''.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:[A scatter plot is shown with two labeled axis, each with 5 ticks and ending in an arrow. Two types of Mars rovers are drawn in the top left part, at the top tick and the next highest tick. Each rover type has a label with two names. A third smaller drone is drawn in the lower right part close to the third tick on the Y-axis, with a single name label. It has two arrows pointing up and down to question marks, and two small lines of either side of the rotor blades, indicate movement. Far to the right, about twice the length of the drawn X-axis from the origin of the chart, and at the height of the lowest tick on the Y-axis, is a third type of rover, also with a single name label. The entire chart also has a label:]<br />
:Mars Rovers<br />
:Y-Axis: Capabilities <br />
:X-Axis: Cuteness <br />
:Curiosity & Perseverance<br />
:Spirit & Opportunity <br />
:Ingenuity<br />
:Sojourner<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Scatter plots]]<br />
[[Category:Rankings]]<br />
[[Category:Mars rovers]]<br />
[[Category:Roomba]]</div>108.162.215.56https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2302:_2020_Google_Trends&diff=1915972302: 2020 Google Trends2020-05-04T23:36:03Z<p>108.162.215.56: /* Transcript */ more specific</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 2302<br />
| date = May 5, 2020<br />
| title = 2020 Google Trends<br />
| image = 2020_google_trends.png<br />
| titletext = As the 'exotic animals in homemade aprons hosting baking shows' YouTube craze reached its peak in March 2020, Andrew Cuomo announced he was replacing the Statue of Liberty with a bronze pangolin in a chef's hat.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Created by a BRONZE PANGOLIN STATUE. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
This comic is another comic in a [[:Category:COVID-19|series of comics]] related to the {{w|2019–20 coronavirus outbreak|2020 pandemic}} of the {{w|coronavirus}} {{w|SARS-CoV-2}}, which causes {{w|COVID-19}}.<br />
<br />
Randall wants to go back in time to show a 2019 person a Google Trends graph. The coronavirus has massively impacted everyone's lives and what they search for. This graph shows how people have been impacted, albeit in an awful representation. <br />
<br />
All of these trends are attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic.<br />
* "Sewing machine" refers to people making their own {{w|cloth face mask}}s.<br />
* "Webcam" refers to the massive increase in virtual meetings and video conferencing.<br />
* "{{w|Andrew Cuomo}}" is the governor of {{w|New York (state)|New York}}, the state hit hardest by the pandemic in the United States.<br />
* "Flour" refers to an increase in baking due to people staying at home. This is also referred to in [[2296: Sourdough Starter]].<br />
* A {{w|pangolin}} is a mammal found in Africa and Asia. This search term refers to the claim that the virus originated in wild animals sold in {{w|wet market}}s in {{w|Wuhan}}, China.<br />
<br />
The title text is a possible "guess" by the 2019 person for these search terms having an increase together: exotic animals (which includes pangolins) in homemade aprons hosting baking shows which leads to a response by New York governor Andrew Cuomo.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
<br />
[A line chart plotting the popularity of various search terms from May 2019 through April 2020: sewing machine (blue line), webcam (red), Andrew Cuomo (yellow), flour (green), and pangolin (purple). The yellow line starts at the bottom of the chart, and rises about halfway up at the end of March 2020 before decaying to about 20 percent by the end of April. The purple line starts at the bottom of the chart, and has a small lump in February 2020 and a slightly bigger lump in March 2020 before trending back down. The blue line starts at about 10 percent up the chart, and then spikes up to 50 percent at the beginning of April before decaying to 40 percent at the end of April. The red line starts at about 20 percent up the chart, has a small lump in September 2019, and then jumps up to 40 percent in March 2020 before trending back down. The green line starts at about 30 percent up the chart, has a small lump in December 2019, and then spikes up to the top of the chart at the end of March 2020.]<br />
<br />
:Caption: I want to show someone from 2019 this Google Trends graph and watch them try to guess what happened in 2020.<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:COVID-19]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring politicians]]<br />
[[Category:Animals]]<br />
[[Category:Line graphs]]</div>108.162.215.56https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2301:_Turtle_Sandwich_Standard_Model&diff=1915902301: Turtle Sandwich Standard Model2020-05-04T22:57:43Z<p>108.162.215.56: added insight into particle instability, adding to the already present high-energy argument.</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 2301<br />
| date = May 1, 2020<br />
| title = Turtle Sandwich Standard Model<br />
| image = turtle_sandwich_standard_model.png<br />
| titletext = It's possible the bread and shell can be split into a top and bottom flavor, and some models additionally suggest Strange Bread and Charm Shells.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
This comic references particle physics. The {{w|Standard Model}} of physics explains the base particles and fields that make up the universe. The elementary {{w|fermions}} of the standard model can be laid out in a 3x4 grid, with three "{{w|Generation (particle physics)|generations}}" of matter, each containing a {{w|quark}} with charge +2/3, a quark with charge -1/3, a {{w|lepton}} with charge -1, and a {{w|neutrino}} with charge 0. The first generation contains the familiar up and down quarks, which make protons and neutrons, the electron, and the electron neutrino. Each succeeding generation of matter is more massive than the one before, and only the first generation of particles occurs naturally on Earth; the others have only been created and identified in particle accelerator experiments (although they also arguably exist in various extreme places around the universe; for example, the strange quark is suspected to be a component of the denser parts of neutron stars).<br />
<br />
Quarks were initially proposed by {{w|Murray Gell-Mann}} to simplify the "{{w|particle zoo}}" that physicists were discovering. He found that the twenty-five or so mesons and hadrons that were known at that time could be organized into what he called the "{{w|eightfold way (physics)|eightfold way}}" by just three properties: {{w|spin (physics)|spin}}, charge, and what he called "{{w|strangeness}}". He proposed that three quarks (and their corresponding antiquarks) governed these properties. His chart had an empty space for what he called the {{w|omega baryon}}, and when a particle of the properties he predicted (including its mass) was discovered, his model received a lot of support. The quark model was eventually extended to include six quarks, and as with the eightfold way, one of the lines of evidence in favor of what became known as the Standard Model is that it predicted the existence and masses of several particles, which have since been confirmed; the {{w|top quark}}'s mass was predicted in 1973, and experimentally verified in 1995, for example, and on the {{w|gauge boson}} side of the chart, the {{w|Higgs boson}} was discovered in 2012.<br />
<br />
In this comic strip, sandwiches (lettuce, cheese, tomato, and possibly other fillings, surrounded by bread) and turtles (an aquatic reptile which wears an armored shell) are likewise proposed to not be "elementary" entities, but in fact combinations of 4 elementary parts, namely bread, fillings, reptile, and shell. The narrator's lab is looking for the hypothesized "bread-shelled turtle" and "shell-coated sandwich". In fiction, turtles' shells are often depicted as articles of clothing which they can remove at will, but in the real world, the shell is a part of the turtle's skeleton, so unless the narrator's lab is willing to commit extremely invasive surgery, they will never find a bread-shelled turtle, although they could much more easily take the shell of a dead turtle and put some sandwich fillings inside.<br />
<br />
The failure to detect the bread-shelled turtle could be taken as evidence that the turtle-sandwich standard model is flawed -- perhaps turtles and sandwiches are elementary entities, or perhaps the elementary entities that make them are much smaller than is proposed here. There is also the small matter that there are things besides sandwiches and turtles in the universe{{Citation needed}}. Alternatively, it could be taken as evidence that the bread-shelled turtle has an extremely high energy, and so does not exist under typical conditions of our universe. This might be analogous to {{w|magnetic monopole}}s; we would know one if and when we saw one (and many experiments have sought them out), and we believe we know how they would behave, but no such particle has ever been verifiably detected or created. <br />
<br />
In the same vein, the lack of observation could be due to the instability of the arrangements. Turtleshell-turtle assemblies can last for more than 100 years, while bread-filling assemblies are indefinitely stable under {{w|Refrigeration|sufficiently low energies}}. The two other arrangements may simply be formed rarely, and have a relatively short half-life.<br />
<br />
The title text introduces more particle physics jargon, proposing that the "top and bottom" parts of the bread and/or shell have distinct "{{w|Flavour (particle physics)|flavors}}", and that there may be "strange" and "charm" variants as well (a reference to the higher-generation quarks -- strange and charm in the second generation, and top and bottom in the third).<br />
<br />
Unlike the turtle-sandwich standard model, there are no particles predicted by our Standard Model that have not yet been detected; however, there are several gaps between the pure Standard Model and what we observe in reality, most notably the {{w|Quantum gravity|existence of gravity}} and the {{w|Baryon asymmetry|apparent asymmetry}} between the amounts of {{w|matter}} and {{w|antimatter}} in the universe. For this reason, the Standard Model is generally considered to be somehow incomplete.<br />
<br />
=== Trivia ===<br />
<br />
* Comic [[474]] also puns on the flavors of quarks.<br />
* The phrase "Turtle Sandwich Standard Model" fits the same trochaic tetrameter stress pattern as ''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'' and other Wikipedia articles enumerated in [[1412: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]].<br />
* The comic may be a nod to turtles similarly used as metaphors in philosophy (cf. {{w|Achilles and the Tortoise}}) or religion and cosmology (cf. the {{w|World Turtle}}).<br />
* As of 5:23am UTC on 4 May 2020 a glitch caused the comic image to display at 4682 pixels wide when viewed on non-Retina/HiDPI screens.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
<br />
:[A two-by-two grid, with a piece of bread next to the top left cell; a turtle shell next to the bottom left cell; lettuce, cheese, and tomato above the top left cell; and an turtle head enclosed in a circle above the top right cell.]<br />
<br />
:[Top left cell: an image of a sandwich.]<br />
✔ CONFIRMED<br />
<br />
:[Top right cell: an image of a shell-less turtle sandwiched between two slices of bread.]<br />
(?)<br />
<br />
:[Bottom left cell: an image of a turtle shell housing lettuce, cheese, and tomato - the contents of a sandwich.]<br />
(?)<br />
<br />
:[Bottom right cell: an image of a turtle.]<br />
✔ CONFIRMED<br />
<br />
:[Caption below the panel]<br />
Our lab is working to detect the two missing pieces of the turtle-sandwich standard model.<br />
<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Science]]<br />
[[Category:Physics]]</div>108.162.215.56https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1521:_Sword_in_the_Stone&diff=926791521: Sword in the Stone2015-05-07T03:21:01Z<p>108.162.215.56: /* Explanation */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1521<br />
| date = May 6, 2015<br />
| title = Sword in the Stone<br />
| image = sword in the stone.png<br />
| titletext = That seems like an awful lot of hassle when all I wanted was a cool sword.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
In this comic, [[Megan]] pulls out a sword from a stone. A flash of light comes down and music plays, and a heavenly voice tells her she has ascended to the {{w|throne of England}}. Megan then pulls out her phone and searches on Wikipedia for {{w|England}} (proving hereby that the setting is in the present). After having read for a while she begins, while reading on, to replace the sword into the rock.<br />
<br />
The comic references the fables of {{w|King Arthur}} and the {{w|Knights of the Round Table}}. In Arthurian legend, whoever can remove {{w|Excalibur#Excalibur_and_the_Sword_in_the_Stone|The Sword in the Stone}} is the lawful king of England. Arthur is an orphan being raised in secret; he notices the sword, removes it, and is proclaimed king. The sword is sometimes identified as {{w|Excalibur}}, although in other versions Excalibur was acquired by King Arthur from the {{w|Lady of the Lake}}. The most familiar version of this story is {{w|The Sword in the Stone}} by {{w|T. H. White}} which is based on {{w|Le Morte d'Arthur}} by {{w|Sir Thomas Malory}}. The animated {{w|The_Sword_in_the_Stone_(film)|musical}} by Walt Disney is a well known version of this fairytale.<br />
<br />
A key element of the joke is that as Megan begins to read about England, especially information concerning being an English ruler, she quickly thinks better of this and begins to put the sword back in its place. The punchline that Megan puts the sword back after reading about England suggests that the "gift" of being the leader of England is not worth the risk and/or work associated. It is also likely intended to suggest some degree of antipathy towards England and/or English people on the part of the character or author.<br />
<br />
English history is rife with monarchic strife, and a brief inquiry into their {{w|List of monarchs of the British Isles by cause of death|causes of death}} will show that almost one in three {{w|British rulers}} have died either in battle or from murder, etc. This would quickly lead most sane people to conclude that the risks associated with ruling England far outweigh the benefits.<br />
<br />
The title text furthers this plot, having Megan comment on the hassle when the only thing she was interested in was the cool sword. Apparently Megan is not enthusiastic about power, and her choice is made when she sees how problematic it could be to reign over the country of England.<br />
<br />
From the time of the {{w|Roman Empire}} all the way up to {{w|Charles II of England|Charles II's}} reclamation of the throne, England was one of the most contested and most difficult to hold chunks of real estate on Earth. Besides the constant threat of usurpation, as evidenced by the numerous wars for the crown, such as the {{w|Norman_conquest_of_England|Norman conquest}} and the {{w|War of the Roses}}, there were also constant difficulties in managing the frontier regions. This can be seen from {{w|Hadrian's Wall}}, a creation of the titular Roman Emperor designed to keep the ever difficult Scots out of the areas of Roman control (the Scots would be a constant problem for England up until the reign of King James; think of the movie {{w|Braveheart}} for a good example of the regular headaches they caused, seen from the English point of view), as well as the {{w|List_of_Anglo-Welsh_Wars|Welsh uprisings}} that occurred with such consistency that you could set your watch to them.<br />
<br />
It should be noted that in Arthurian Legend, it is stated that Arthur would return when England most needed him. It is possible that Megan in this comic is a 21st century version (reincarnation) of the old Arthur.<br />
<br />
The timing of this comic might relate to the birth of princess {{w|Princess_Charlotte_of_Cambridge|Charlotte Elizabeth Diana}} on May 2nd, 2015 just four days before this comic, and the burden of a royal of having a whole life in public shaking hands of strangers. Since {{w|Succession to the Throne Act, 2013|2013}} the {{w|Line of succession to the British throne|line of succession}} was changed to {{w|Primogeniture#Absolute_primogeniture|absolute primogeniture}}, meaning that she will keep her current position in the line (4th after her {{w|Prince George of Cambridge|older brother}}) even if she later gets baby brothers. Before this year, that would not have been the case, as the male gender took rank over birth order.<br />
<br />
It is also probably not a coincidence that this comic was published the day before the {{w|United Kingdom general election, 2015|UK General Election}}, on May 7, 2015. This election decides the modern day leader of England and the rest of the UK. And the problems they face today, may even be more likely to cause Megan to give away the throne, than the risk of untimely death she would have faced in Arthur's days.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
<br />
:[Megan walks up to a sword in a stone.]<br />
<br />
:[Megan tries to pull the sword out of the stone.]<br />
<br />
:[A flash of light and music plays as she removes the sword.]<br />
<br />
:[While standing with the swords a voice from heaven speaks in gray shaky letters:]<br />
:Heavenly voice: ''The Throne of England is yours''<br />
<br />
:[Megan takes out her smart phone and writes:]<br />
:Wikipedia <br />
:England<br />
<br />
:[Megan reads on her phone.]<br />
<br />
:[Megan starts to replace the sword back into the stone.]<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
<!-- Include any categories below this line. --><br />
<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]<br />
[[Category:Wikipedia]]</div>108.162.215.56https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:657:_Movie_Narrative_Charts&diff=86789Talk:657: Movie Narrative Charts2015-03-21T00:27:02Z<p>108.162.215.56: </p>
<hr />
<div>...but in 12 Angry Men, at two points, some of the jurors leave to -- and have conversations in -- the bathroom! {{unsigned ip|193.25.222.71}}<br />
<br />
<br />
Why is this not part of the explaination? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Minard.png<br />
<br />
It is public domain so it should be allowed right? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.117|108.162.246.117]] 03:43, 10 March 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
<br />
I added it to the explaination as it certainly adds to the understadning of the comic. It was already uploaded by someone else. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.117|108.162.246.117]] 03:50, 10 March 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
<br />
Only flaw is that Saruman died at the wrong time. [[User:LordSamanon|LordSamanon]] ([[User talk:LordSamanon|talk]]) 02:03, 4 March 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Second flaw is that Sam is going to west, too {{unsigned ip|141.101.99.80}}<br />
<br />
<br />
Third flaw is that in 12 Angry Men, Juror 8 interacts with Juror 9 at the very end.<br />
{{unsigned ip|108.162.215.56}}</div>108.162.215.56https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=605:_Extrapolating&diff=86195605: Extrapolating2015-03-12T15:27:42Z<p>108.162.215.56: /* Explanation */ added example of incomplete explanations on explainxkcd</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 605<br />
| date = July 3, 2009<br />
| title = Extrapolating<br />
| image = extrapolating.png<br />
| titletext = By the third trimester, there will be hundreds of babies inside you.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
This comic is a joke on the incorrect use of {{w|linear extrapolation}}. By connecting two points without any context, we can come up with incredibly funny results. Here, connecting the number of spouses against yesterday and today can result in a linear extrapolation to hundreds of spouses a year. Using similar points for pregnancy (yesterday: no babies, today: one), we can get 200+ children inside a single person by the 7th month of pregnancy.<br />
<br />
Following this improper method of extrapolation, we could conclude that if the number of "incomplete explanations" on explainxkcd continues to decline at its present rate, it will become less than zero (a negative number).<br />
<br />
This is another comic in the infrequent [[:Category:My Hobby|My Hobby]] series.<br />
<br />
This particular hobby has later been explored in [[1007: Sustainable]], [[1204: Detail]] and [[1281: Minifigs]].<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:[[My Hobby]]: Extrapolating<br />
<br />
:[There is a graph. Time runs along the horizontal axis; Number of Husbands on the vertical graph. Yesterday and today are labeled in time, 0 and 1 in number of husbands. Points are plotted with 0 at yesterday, 1 at today. A straight line is fitted through them.]<br />
:[Cueball is holding a pointer to the graph, and looking at Megan wearing a dress and veil.]<br />
:Cueball: As you can see, by late next month you'll have over four dozen husbands.<br />
:Cueball: Better get a bulk rate on wedding cake.<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Charts]]<br />
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[[Category:Extrapolation]]</div>108.162.215.56https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=482:_Height&diff=81459482: Height2014-12-26T01:18:48Z<p>108.162.215.56: /* Objects */ spelling</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 482<br />
| date = September 29, 2008<br />
| title = Height<br />
| before = [[#Explanation|↓ Skip to explanation ↓]]<br />
| image = height.png<br />
| titletext = Interestingly, on a true vertical log plot, I think the Eiffel Tower's sides would really be straight lines.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{Incomplete|Review object descriptions for grammar: Independently review heights: Include why the object is noteworthy in the object description}}<br />
The comic is a companion piece to [[485: Depth]]. Where ''Depth'' which uses a {{w|logarithmic scale}} to view the earth, from Earth's atmosphere to the interior of a single proton, ''Height'' uses a logarithmic scale to view the universe from earths perspective, from the end of the observable universe to the grass beneath our feet.<br />
<br />
The comic starts, at the bottom, with people walking in grass, and ends with [[Black Hat]] kicking a cat off the edge of the observable universe. Black Hat may be testing if cats always land on their feet, or may just be being a jerk, per his usual character. The top of the observable universe is the distance from which the oldest rays of light reach Earth. The {{w|Observable universe}} extends about 46 billion {{w|light years}} from earth, as shown on the top of the image.<br />
<br />
In this cartoon most objects that are grounded in the earth are scaled logarithmically on the vertical axes and linearly on the horizontal axes, while others are scaled linearly on both axes. Displaying height logarithmically, while displaying width linearly, noticeably distorts the shapes of these terrestrial objects. The title text notes that this distortion might to convert the Eifel Tower's famous silhouette into an isosceles triangle. In other places, such as the planets, the objects appear as linearly scaled objects that are placed at their appropriate locations. If, for example, the depth of the sun where scaled logarithmically instead of linearly it would appear more egg shaped, with the flatter side facing upward.<br />
<br />
===Objects===<br />
All objects are sorted from bottom to top by their maximum distance from earth for objects in a solar orbit, and their current distance for others.<br />
<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! Distance<br />
! Object<br />
! Description<br />
|-<br />
| 435&nbsp;×10<sup>24</sup>m<br />
| Black Hat and cat<br />
| Black Hat kicking a cat off the top of the comic, presumably to determine whether it will land on its feet.<br />
|-<br />
| 435&nbsp;×10<sup>24</sup>m<br />
| colspan="2" align="center" style="background: #ffdead;" | Top of observable universe<br />
|-<br />
| 11.3&nbsp;×10<sup>24</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Hubble Deep Field}} objects<br />
| Objects of extremely distant galaxies found in a long-exposure photograph by of the Hubble telescope, 12 billion light-years away.<br />
|-<br />
| 9.46&nbsp;×10<sup>24</sup>m<br />
| colspan="2" align="center" style="background: #ffdead;" | One billion light years<br />
|-<br />
| 2.36&nbsp;×10<sup>24</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Great Attractor}}<br />
| An unusual concentration of intergalactic mass.<br />
|-<br />
| 425&nbsp;×10<sup>21</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Antennae Galaxies}} (colliding)<br />
| A pair of colliding galaxies.<br />
|-<br />
| 23.6&nbsp;×10<sup>21</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Andromeda Galaxy}}<br />
| A sibling to our Milky Way. It is the nearest spiral galaxy to ours.<br />
|-<br />
| 9.46&nbsp;×10<sup>21</sup>m<br />
| colspan="2" align="center" style="background: #ffdead;" | One million light years<br />
|-<br />
| 2.38&nbsp;×10<sup>21</sup>m<br />
| [http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/cat-on-a-keyboard-in-space Cat on a keyboard in space]<br />
| An internet meme featuring a picture of a cat sitting on a musical keyboard, superimposed on an image of space.<br />
|-<br />
| 1.56&nbsp;×10<sup>21</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Magellanic Clouds}}<br />
| These clouds are a pair of nearby dwarf galaxies.<br />
|-<br />
| 263&nbsp;×10<sup>18</sup>m<br />
| Edge of Galaxy<br />
| The edge of the {{w|Milky Way}} galaxy, the galaxy in which we reside.<br />
|-<br />
| 245&nbsp;×10<sup>18</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Galactic Center}}<br />
| The center of the Milky Way galaxy.<br />
|-<br />
| 61.5&nbsp;×10<sup>18</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Crab Nebula}}<br />
| Nebula are supernova remnants<br />
|-<br />
| 14.2&nbsp;×10<sup>18</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Horsehead Nebula}}<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 12.7&nbsp;×10<sup>18</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Orion Nebula}}<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 8.14&nbsp;×10<sup>18</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Rigel}}<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 6.08&nbsp;×10<sup>18</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Betelgeuse}}<br />
| The star Betelgeuse is displayed along with the location of {{w|Ford_Prefect (character)|Ford Prefect}} on his home planet which orbits Betelgeuse. Ford Prefect is a fictional character from the science fiction parody {{w|The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy}}.<br />
|-<br />
| 4.20&nbsp;×10<sup>18</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Pleiades}}<br />
| The Pleiades also have a derogatory remark, as per [[66: Abusive Astronomy]]<br />
|-<br />
| 2.90&nbsp;×10<sup>18</sup>m<br />
| The [http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Romulan_Neutral_Zone Romulan Neutral Zone]<br />
| This marks the edge of the {{w|Star Trek}} Federation.<br />
|-<br />
| 931&nbsp;×10<sup>15</sup>m<br />
| colspan="2" align="center" style="background: #ffdead;" | The first radio broadcast was in January 1910. Since radio waves travel at the speed of light, and this was published in September of 2008 this the radio waves traveled about 98.5 light years. See {{w|Contact (1997 film)}} for a depiction of this. This is also referenced in [[1212: Interstellar Memes]].<br />
|-<br />
| 350&nbsp;×10<sup>15</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Arcturus}}<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 320&nbsp;×10<sup>15</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Pollux}}<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 242&nbsp;×10<sup>15</sup>m<br />
| The edge of {{w|Federation Sector 0-0-1}}<br />
| The sector of space assigned to Earth in {{w|Star Trek}}.<br />
|-<br />
| 224&nbsp;×10<sup>15</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Iraq and weapons of mass destruction|"missing WMDs"}}<br />
| A reference to the alleged weapons of mass destruction that where used as a pretence to mobilize the world population against Iraq, and start the Iraq war.<br />
|-<br />
| 81.3&nbsp;×10<sup>15</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Sirius}}<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 56.6&nbsp;×10<sup>15</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Barnard's Star}}<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 41.3&nbsp;×10<sup>15</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Alpha Centauri}}<br />
| <br />
|-<br />
| 30.9&nbsp;×10<sup>15</sup>m<br />
| colspan="2" align="center" style="background: #ffdead;" | One parsec.<br />
|-<br />
| 9.46&nbsp;×10<sup>15</sup>m<br />
| colspan="2" align="center" style="background: #ffdead;" | One light-year.<br />
|-<br />
| 15.0&nbsp;×10<sup>15</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Oort cloud}}<br />
| A halo of ice balls surrounding our solar system, but missing the {{w|Kupier belt}} between Neptune and the Oort cloud.<br />
|-<br />
| 350&nbsp;×10<sup>12</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Bupkis}}<br />
| Yiddish for "nothing". Only a handful of objects are known to orbit between the Kuiper Belt and the Oort Cloud.<br />
|-<br />
| 55.0&nbsp;×10<sup>12</sup>m<br />
| A comet which will destroy earth in late 2063 <br />
| To coincide with the latest biblicaly based prophesy for the [http://www.askelm.com/prophecy/p971105.htm end of the world].<br />
|-<br />
| 19.5&nbsp;×10<sup>12</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Voyager 1}}<br />
| An early space probe. Distance correct as of 20th Nov 2014, click [http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/where/ here] to see NASA's live distance counter.<br />
|-<br />
| 16.7&nbsp;×10<sup>12</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Pioneer 10}}<br />
| Listed distance is an estimate based on {{w|Pioneer_10#Current_status|this information}}.<br />
|-<br />
| 17.7&nbsp;×10<sup>12</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Pioneer 11}}<br />
| By the similarity in appearance to Pioneer 10 this unlabeled probe must be Pioneer 11. Listed distance is an estimate based on {{w|Pioneer_11#Current_status|this information}}.<br />
|-<br />
| 14.5&nbsp;×10<sup>12</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Eris (dwarf planet)|Eris}}<br />
| One of a pair of {{w|Trans-Neptunian object}}s now classified as {{w|dwarf planet}}s. The "All hail Discordia!" after Eris is a reference to {{w|Discordianism}}, a somewhat tongue-in-cheek religion based around the goddess Eris. The distance is the maximum distance from earth.<br />
|-<br />
| 7.50&nbsp;×10<sup>12</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Pluto}}<br />
| One of a pair of {{w|Trans-Neptunian object}}s now classified as {{w|dwarf planet}}s. Pluto was originally classified as the 9th planet of the Solar system. Many people was appalled when it was suddenly degraded to dwarf planet. Obviously Randall does not think much of these people thus the comment: ''Not a planet. Neener neener''. The distance is the maximum distance of Pluto from Earth.<br />
|-<br />
| 4.70&nbsp;×10<sup>12</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Neptune}} <br />
| Neptune is displayed here with its moons. Neptune is the eighth and final planet in our solar system.<br />
|-<br />
| 3.20&nbsp;×10<sup>12</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Uranus}} <br />
| Uranus is dispayed here with its moons. Uranus is the seventh planet in our solar system.<br />
|-<br />
| 1.67&nbsp;×10<sup>12</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Saturn}} <br />
| Saturn is displayed along with its moons. One of Saturn's moons, most likely Titan, is labeled as a potential location to find life. Titan is the only known moon to have an atmosphere and oceans. The oceans cannot be filled with liquid water, as it is far too cold, but are instead filled with liquid methane and ethane. Some hypothisize that life could have formed in such oceans.<br />
|-<br />
| 928&nbsp;×10<sup>9</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Jupiter}} <br />
| Jupiter is displayed along with its moons. One of Jupiter's moons, most likely Europa, is labeled as a potential location to find life. Europa may be covered by a deep ocean of water found under a layer of ice many kilometers thick. Some hypothisize that life could have formed in such oceans.<br />
|-<br />
| 222&nbsp;×10<sup>9</sup>m<br />
| Asteroids<br />
| The {{w|Asteroid|Asteroid belt}} contains a spaceship from {{w|Asteroids (video game)}}<br />
|-<br />
| 133&nbsp;×10<sup>9</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Mars}}<br />
| Note the path, reflecting the fact that their distances from Earth vary as the planets move in their orbits with a maximum distance of 261 million km and a minimum of 54.6 million km.<br />
|-<br />
| 114&nbsp;×10<sup>9</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Venus}}<br />
| Note the path, reflecting the fact that their distances from Earth vary as the planets move in their orbits with a maximum distance of 401 million km and a minimum of 37.7 million km.<br />
|-<br />
| 138&nbsp;×10<sup>9</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Mercury}}<br />
| Mercury is the first planet in out solar system. The distance shown is the maximum distance from Earth.<br />
|-<br />
| 149&nbsp;×10<sup>9</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Sun}}<br />
| The Sun is the star at the center of our solar system, around which the Earth orbits.<br />
|-<br />
| 16.3&nbsp;×10<sup>9</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Discovery One}}<br />
| The Discovery One from {{w|2001: A Space Odyssey}}, referring to the quote "open the pod bay door, HAL."<br />
|-<br />
| 9.43&nbsp;×10<sup>9</sup>m<br />
| Planet Express<br />
| The spaceplane is most likely the Planet Express from {{w|Futurama}}, where Fry once discussed "a big heaping bowl of salt." <br />
|-<br />
| 400&nbsp;×10<sup>6</sup>m<br />
| Human Altitude Record <br />
| Achieved by the team of {{w|Apollo 13}} approximately 100km higher than the remaining Apollo missions.<br />
|-<br />
| 384&nbsp;×10<sup>6</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Moon}} <br />
| The Moon is the Earth's only natural satellite.<br />
|-<br />
| 90.4&nbsp;×10<sup>6</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Snoop Dogg}}<br />
| A toung in cheek reffrence to a rapper notorious for smoking marijuana, is shown as having the second-highest altitude record. Someone who is taking drugs is said to be getting high.<br />
|-<br />
| 60.5&nbsp;×10<sup>6</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Space elevator}}<br />
| A proposed method of transporting cargo or people into orbit, consisting of a large mass beyond geosynchronous orbit, a station at the geosynchronous point, a cable connecting it to the Earth, and a climber that can scale the cable. Space elevators are also seen in [[697: Tensile vs. Shear Strength]] and [[536: Space Elevators]].<br />
|-<br />
| 42.1&nbsp;×10<sup>6</sup>m<br />
| colspan="2" align="center" style="background: #ffdead;" | {{w|Geosynchronous orbit|Geosynchronous Orbit}}<br />
|-<br />
| 20.2&nbsp;×10<sup>6</sup>m<br />
| {{w|GPS (satellite)|GPS Satellites}}<br />
| GPS satellites are used for global positioning.<br />
|-<br />
| 3.94&nbsp;×10<sup>6</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Lunar Lander}} <br />
| The quote is a reference to {{w|Contact (1997 film)}} where the main character Ellie Arroway after witnessing a celestial light show up close says "Poetry! They should've sent a poet.".<br />
|-<br />
| 800&nbsp;×10<sup>3</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Space debris|Space Junk}}<br />
| There is a large quantity of defunct objects in orbit around the earth. Amongst other things, this includes old satellites, rocket stages and fragments from collisions or disintegration. Space junk is also referenced in [[1242: Scary Names]] under the title {{w|Kessler syndrome}}<br />
|-<br />
| 422.5&nbsp;×10<sup>3</sup>m<br />
| {{w|International Space Station}}<br />
| The ISS (International Space Station) is a multinational effort to put a research vessel in space. It is currently the largest artifical object in Earth's orbit, as well as the location of the longest continuous human presence in space.<br />
|-<br />
| 100&nbsp;×10<sup>3</sup>m<br />
| colspan="2" align="center" style="background: #ffdead;" | The {{w|Edge of space|official edge of space}} as defined by the {{w|Kármán line}}<br />
|-<br />
| 76.0&nbsp;×10<sup>3</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Meteors}}<br />
| Meteors are chunks of rock (usually asteroids) that burn up in the atmosphere, producing the bright light associated with them. If the are large enough to hit the ground, they become meterorites, which is why Munroe labeled them only in the upper atmosphere.<br />
|-<br />
| 25.0&nbsp;×10<sup>3</sup>m<br />
| {{w|High-altitude balloon|High-altitude balloons}}<br />
| Unmanned balloons, typically filled with helium or hydrogen. The current altitude record was set in 2002 by a balloon named BU60-1 which reached 53,000m.<br />
|-<br />
| 16.1&nbsp;×10<sup>3</sup>m<br />
| colspan="2" align="center" style="background: #ffdead;" | 1/10 ATM = 0.1 {{w|Atmospheric pressure|atmosphere of pressure}}<br />
|-<br />
| 12.0&nbsp;×10<sup>3</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Airliner|Airliners}}<br />
| This is a typical cruising altitude of jet aircraft, equating to roughly 40,000 feet. (Aircraft altitude tends to be specified in feet rather than metres) <br />
|-<br />
| 8.84&nbsp;×10<sup>3</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Mount Everest}} <br />
| The Earths highest mountain, located in the {{w|Himalayas|Himalayan mountain range}} in South Asia.<br />
|-<br />
| 8.00&nbsp;×10<sup>3</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Cory Doctorow}} <br />
| Cory Doctorow in a balloon, a reference to comic [[239: Blagofaire]].<br />
|-<br />
| 6.34&nbsp;×10<sup>3</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Space Shuttle Columbia disaster}} <br />
| The {{w|Space Shuttle Columbia}} and its seven crew were lost when it disintegrated at [http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=6v16AgAAQBAJ&lpg=PA7&ots=LDKQ3nsNHs&dq=shuttle%20columbia%20altitude&pg=PA7#v=onepage&q=shuttle%20columbia%20altitude&f=false approximately 63,400m] in 2003. This number is inconsistent with the height of the graph by a factor of 10 probably a mistype by Randall.<br />
|-<br />
| 6.00&nbsp;×10<sup>3</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Helicopter}} <br />
| Though the record for helicopter altitude (without payload) is 12,442m, normal flying is usually performed much lower. In the US, 6000m is into {{w|Class A airspace}}, which is restricted and requires flight under {{w|Instrument Flight Rules}}.<br />
|-<br />
| 6.00&nbsp;×10<sup>3</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Cloud}} <br />
| Though not actually labelled there are a couple of clouds shown. While different cloud types vary in height, 6000m is roughly in the middle of the height range for clouds in temperate regions [http://weatherfaqs.org.uk/node/21]<br />
|-<br />
| 5.49&nbsp;×10<sup>3</sup>m<br />
| colspan="2" align="center" style="background: #ffdead;" | 1/2 ATM = 0.5 {{w|Atmospheric pressure|atmosphere of pressure}}<br />
|-<br />
| 1.78&nbsp;×10<sup>3</sup>m<br />
| [[Cueball]] <br />
| Apparently still using Python as shown in comic [[353: Python]].<br />
|-<br />
| 800&nbsp;×10<sup>0</sup>m<br />
| colspan="2" align="center" style="background: #ffdead;" | 800 meters<br />
|-<br />
| 800&nbsp;×10<sup>0</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Burj Khalifa|Burj Dubai}} <br />
| Now known as the Burj Khalifa, is the tallest building in the world.<br />
|-<br />
| 500&nbsp;×10<sup>0</sup>m<br />
| colspan="2" align="center" style="background: #ffdead;" | 500 meters<br />
|-<br />
| 400&nbsp;×10<sup>0</sup>m<br />
| colspan="2" align="center" style="background: #ffdead;" | 400 meters<br />
|-<br />
| 325&nbsp;×10<sup>0</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Eiffel Tower}} <br />
| A famous landmark in Paris, France.<br />
|-<br />
| 300&nbsp;×10<sup>0</sup>m<br />
| colspan="2" align="center" style="background: #ffdead;" | 300 meters<br />
|-<br />
| 200&nbsp;×10<sup>0</sup>m<br />
| colspan="2" align="center" style="background: #ffdead;" | 200 meters<br />
|-<br />
| 150&nbsp;×10<sup>0</sup>m<br />
| Kite <br />
| Kite string is commonly sold in large spools; a nice thick spool will probably hold 150 meters.<br />
|-<br />
| 140&nbsp;×10<sup>0</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Great Pyramid of Giza}} <br />
| One of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. It is located in Egypt.<br />
|-<br />
| 120&nbsp;×10<sup>0</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Baseball|Pop Fly}} <br />
| In Baseball a 'Pop Fly' is when the batter mis-hits the baseball, which then follows a tall arc deep into the infield where it's easy picking for the other team to catch on its way down. The highest recorded pop fly, not including those that landed in foul territory, was 172 meters.<br />
|-<br />
| 115&nbsp;×10<sup>0</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Redwood Tree|Redwood trees}} <br />
| The tallest trees in the world. At 115.61m (379.3ft) {{w|Hyperion (tree)|Hyperion}}, a Coast Redwood, holds the record for the tallest tree in the world.<br />
|-<br />
| 100&nbsp;×10<sup>0</sup>m<br />
| colspan="2" align="center" style="background: #ffdead;" | 100 meters<br />
|-<br />
| 20.0&nbsp;×10<sup>0</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Oak}} <br />
| While oaks may grow to be in excess of 40m in height, heights of around 20m are more typical. The person in the tree saying, "Hey, squirrels!" is a reference to [[167: Nihilism]].<br />
|-<br />
| 16.4&nbsp;×10<sup>0</sup>m<br />
| Tallest stilts <br />
| The tallest {{w|stilts}} recorded by the Guinness Book of World Records (as of November 2006) were 16.4 meters, or nearly 54 feet.<br />
|-<br />
| 13.0&nbsp;×10<sup>0</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Brachiosaurus|Brachiosaur}}<br />
| A large genus of dinosaur.<br />
|-<br />
| 8.00&nbsp;×10<sup>0</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Giraffe}} <br />
| The the tallest living terrestrial animal, with fully grown adults reaching in excess of 5m. While labelled 8m in the comic, the [http://www.big-animals.com/the-giraffe-the-worlds-tallest-animal/ record] for height is reported at 5.8m.<br />
|-<br />
| 1.70&nbsp;×10<sup>0</sup>m<br />
| {{w|Human height|Folks}}<br />
| Determining an average height of the world population is fraught with complications, but as a ballpark figure 1.7m is fairly accurate.<br />
|}<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:'''Top of observable universe'''<br />
:[Black Hat is standing on top, throwing a black kitty down.]<br />
:Black Cat: Mrowl!<br />
:[Map of the universe from observable universe to Earth. Each area of item is labeled. Labels left to right, up to down:]<br />
:(46 billion light years up)<br />
::Hubble Deep Field Objects<br />
:-One billion light years-<br />
::Great Attractor<br />
::Antennae Galaxies (colliding)<br />
::Andromeda<br />
::Holy crap lots of space<br />
:-One million light years-<br />
::Magellanic Clouds<br />
::Edge of galaxy<br />
::Galactic center<br />
::Crab Nebula<br />
::Orion Nebula<br />
::Horsehead Nebula<br />
::Romulan neutral zone<br />
::The Pleiades, duh!<br />
::Rigel<br />
::Betelgeuse<br />
::Ford Prefect<br />
:[Three arrows are pointing up above three lines with the following label:]<br />
:-Expanding shell of radio transmissions-<br />
::[Above a dotted line:]<br />
::Edge of federation sector 0-0-1<br />
::Pollux<br />
::Arcturus<br />
::Missing WMDs<br />
::Sirius<br />
::Barnard's Star<br />
::Alpha Centauri<br />
:-One parsec-<br />
:-One light year-<br />
::Oort Cloud (?)<br />
::Bupkis<br />
::Comet which will destroy Earth in late 2063<br />
::Pioneer 10<br />
::Voyager I<br />
::Eris (All hail Discordia!)<br />
::Pluto (Not a planet. Neener neener.)<br />
::Neptune<br />
::Uranus<br />
::Saturn<br />
::[Two arrows point to two moons, one next to each of the planets aboe and below.]<br />
::<-- Life --><br />
::Jupiter<br />
::Asteroids<br />
::Mars<br />
::Venus<br />
::Sun<br />
::Mercury<br />
::Spaceship Planet Express: Hey, a heaping bowl of salt!<br />
::Spaceship Discovery One: Open the fridge door, Hal.<br />
::Moon<br />
::Human altitude record (Apollo 13)<br />
::2nd place: Snoop Dogg<br />
::Space elevator - One of these days, promise!<br />
::Geosynchronous Orbit<br />
::GPS satellites<br />
::Lunar lander: In retrospect, they <u>shouldn't</u> have sent a poet. I have no idea how to land.<br />
::International Space Station<br />
::Space junk<br />
:-Official edge of space (100 km)-<br />
::Meteors<br />
:-1/10 ATM-<br />
::High altitude balloons<br />
::Airliners<br />
::Shuttle Columbia lost<br />
:-1/2 ATM-<br />
::Cory Doctrow<br />
::Everest<br />
::Helicopters (6000 m)<br />
::Cueball: Woo Python!<br />
::[A vertical scale is drawn along the right side of the picture, starting at 1 km and getting progressivly smaller and smaller.]<br />
:1 km<br />
:-800 m-<br />
::Burj Dubai (~800 m)<br />
:500<br />
:400<br />
::Eiffel Tower (325 m)<br />
:200<br />
::Kites<br />
::Great Pyramid (140 m)<br />
::Pop fly<br />
::Redwood (115 m)<br />
:100m<br />
::Oak (20 m)<br />
::A person in the oak: Hey squirrels!<br />
::Tallest stilts<br />
::Brachiosaur (13 m)<br />
::Giraffe (8 m)<br />
::[Megan and Cueball holding the kite are labeled:] <br />
::Folks<br />
:'''The observable universe, from top to bottom''''<br />
::~On a log scale~<br />
::Sizes are not to scale, but heights above the Earth's surface are accurate on a log scale (that is, each step up is double the height.)<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Charts]]<br />
[[Category:Large drawings]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cory Doctorow]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]</div>108.162.215.56https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1464:_Santa&diff=814581464: Santa2014-12-26T01:08:56Z<p>108.162.215.56: /* Explanation */ several changes</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1464<br />
| date = December 24, 2014<br />
| title = Santa<br />
| image = santa.png<br />
| titletext = He probably just poops over the side of the sleigh.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
Broadly speaking, this comic follows a long list of issues raised about physical limitations {{w|Santa Claus}} faces, including the [http://www.daclarke.org/Humour/santa.html speed he has to travel] and other issues such as [http://www.articlesbase.com/holidays-articles/10-impossible-facts-about-santa-claus-1509493.html the omniscience he purportedly possesses and the mass of presents he has to carry]. This comic combines some basic {{w|physiology}} with the physical law of the {{w|conservation of mass}}.<br />
<br />
More specifically, this comic refers to the common tradition of leaving milk and cookies out on Christmas Eve for Santa Claus. If one assumes that Santa eats even a small percentage of the sweets left out for him, the question comes up where all the cookies ''go''. Megan suggests that, since Santa isn't ''that'' large, he must poop them out somewhere, and wonders if he does so in our houses.<br />
<br />
Cueball doubts that. Megan replies that mass cannot disappear completely; it has to go somewhere, to which Cueball comments that Santa has a magic bag in which he could poop. The magic bag referenced is the bag in which he carries all the Christmas presents he delivers on Christmas Eve. It is called 'magic' because a bag large enough to carry millions of presents would be much too heavy and unbalanced to carry on a sleigh pulled by only eight (or nine) reindeer. Thus, it must be magic somehow. Megan is disgusted at the thought of Santa pooping on peoples' presents. (An even more disgusting explanation is that the 'magic' bag might transform the poop into presents, in which case it would not need to carry many presents at a time.)<br />
<br />
Cueball proposes a third theory: that only a few houses are pooped in, but those that are are pooped in in large quantities. Megan says that there may not be anyone that naughty in the world (referencing the myth that Santa will leave coal (or in this case, feces), instead of presents, for those who misbehave.) Cueball replies that it is randomly determined whose house is pooped in, burdening a smaller number of people. Specifically, Cueball quotes the beginning of {{w|Spock}}'s aphorism from ''{{w|Star Trek II}},'' "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one." The quote is used to justify the sacrifice people make in "allowing" Santa to poop in their homes by citing the numerous other people who are spared his feces.<br />
<br />
The title text puts forth yet another theory: that Santa doesn't poop in houses at all, but off the side of his sleigh. This may be equally disgusting to anyone or anything unlucky enough to abruptly receive a rain of poop from the sky. (This problem could be minimized by taking advantage of flights over water or uninhabited areas, rather than cities.)<br />
<br />
According to [[1070: Words for Small Sets]], a few is referring to "anywhere from 2 to 5". Currently, there are 1.9 billion children in the world, so assuming on average that one cookie is left for Santa for each child and that Santa eats one in every 5 cookies, he consumes 380 million cookies in two 48 hour periods (due to the convenience of time zones, approximately 48 hours from when a day starts in Kiritimati until it ends in Hawaii; also, most western Christians [including Roman Catholics and protestants] observe Christmas almost two weeks before Eastern Orthodox Christians do). According to Google, a chocolate-chip cookie contains approximately 140 kilocalories, therefore Santa consumes 53.2 billion kilocalories in the period of 2 days, or 26.6 billion kilocalories per day. As the average human daily intake is 2500 kilocalories per day, Santa has eaten 10,640,000 times the amount of daily kilocalories required by one human over the period of two days, an amount otherwise sufficient to last for over 59,111 years for a human, and producing 20 million pounds of feces. However, if we consider the dietary requirements of both Santa and the flying reindeer, and the calaries that reindeer would burn flying around the world carrying 1.9 billion toys, the cookies might not be sufficient.<br />
<br />
On a side note, this amount of energy is enough to power several thousand homes for a year.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:Megan: Say Santa eats a cookie at every few houses. That's hundreds of tons. By the end of the night, he should be a hulking seven-story behemoth.<br />
:But he's not.<br />
<br />
:Cueball: What are you...<br />
:Megan: Does Santa poop in our houses?<br />
<br />
:Cueball: No way.<br />
:Megan: That mass must be going somewhere.<br />
:Cueball: He has that magic bag...<br />
:Megan: You think he poops in the bag of ''presents''?<br />
<br />
:Cueball: Maybe instead of pooping in every few houses, he waits, and then in a few houses, he poops a ''lot''.<br />
:Megan: What if no one's been ''that'' naughty?<br />
:Cueball: He picks at random. The needs of the many...<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]<br />
[[Category:Christmas]]</div>108.162.215.56https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1339:_When_You_Assume&diff=62137Talk:1339: When You Assume2014-03-07T20:32:45Z<p>108.162.215.56: </p>
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<div>[[User:Tesshavon|Tesshavon]] ([[User talk:Tesshavon|talk]]) 09:11, 7 March 2014 (UTC) this is a direct reference to the popular saying 'When you ASSUME, you make an ASS out of U and ME'.<br />
<br />
I'm not a native English speaker, and I'm just curious. Is there any popular saying about ass-ass-inating someone? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.53.161|173.245.53.161]] 10:25, 7 March 2014 (UTC)<br />
:To the best of my knowledge, there is no such saying, but I'm sure it's a spelling mnemonic used by many. [[User:Jameslucas|jameslucas]] <small>([[User talk:Jameslucas|" "]] / [[Special:Contributions/Jameslucas|+]])</small> 14:18, 7 March 2014 (UTC)<br />
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Assert is also used in programming (c and such) [[Special:Contributions/108.162.241.11|108.162.241.11]] 13:35, 7 March 2014 (UTC)<br />
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Thank goodness for the 'ERT' explanation; I had terrible notions of a [[739: Malamanteau|portmanteau]] involving 'insert'. [[User:Jameslucas|jameslucas]] <small>([[User talk:Jameslucas|" "]] / [[Special:Contributions/Jameslucas|+]])</small> 14:16, 7 March 2014 (UTC)<br />
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If Megan was going to phrase it like "You know what happens when you assume something? You make an ass out of you and me.", then she wouldn't be assuming anything. Of course, in spoken English, you could determine which one it is through inflection. Maybe Randall could start making voice-overs for the comics. [[Special:Contributions/103.22.200.80|103.22.200.80]] 18:33, 7 March 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Strictly speaking, Megan is asking a rhetorical question; one that she intends to answer herself. However, I once had a dickhead manager try this one on me, so I fully support this comic. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.56|108.162.215.56]] 20:32, 7 March 2014 (UTC)</div>108.162.215.56https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1311:_2014&diff=59652Talk:1311: 20142014-02-09T15:31:10Z<p>108.162.215.56: </p>
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<div>Just a note that the PNG file for this comic is (or was initially) actually a TIFF file with a PNG extension. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.236.19|108.162.236.19]] 05:37, 1 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
:And now it's fixed. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.45|173.245.54.45]] 06:07, 1 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I presume most of the quotes are genuine, but surely Randall has made up the one about subsisting on jellies? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.219|141.101.99.219]] 11:08, 1 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:I wouldn't be so sure. The Book-Lover - Vol. 4. (No. 17 to 22) 1903 [http://www.abebooks.com/Book-Lover-Vol-1903-Poe-Edgar-Allan/1224029705/bd contains] Poe, Edgar Allan and Dickens, Charles and Emerson, Ralph Waldo ... maybe it refers to some of Poe's horror stories? -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 12:10, 1 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
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:Spherical jelliies and creams were very fashionable in the era in which it was written, so it may have been simply a prediction of great luxury for the future. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.4|108.162.237.4]] 14:37, 1 January 2014 (UTC)(Kyt)<br />
<br />
:Here's the Book-lover reference: [http://books.google.com/books?id=jaA5AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA264&lpg=PA264&dq=%22subsist+entirely+upon+jellies%22+wells&source=bl&ots=HsYajMhDZP&sig=yU1TMIIUcNQfh_-TUh4raXboYn8&hl=en&sa=X&ei=OEPEUuq0MtDzoATWzYHwAw&ved=0CC4Q6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=%22subsist%20entirely%20upon%20jellies%22%20wells&f=false]<br />
::Two sections from the H.G. Wells book it came from (When the Sleeper Wakes):<br />
::"There were several very comfortable chairs, a light table on silent runners carrying several bottles of fluids and glasses, and two plates bearing a clear substance like jelly."<br />
::"They gave him some pink fluid with a greenish fluorescence and a meaty taste, and the assurance of returning strength grew."<br />
:::-- Jim Gillogly [[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.15|108.162.215.15]] 16:50, 1 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:Ok ... William Carey Jones quote: [https://archive.org/stream/universitycalif08goog/universitycalif08goog_djvu.txt] ... I would say that while technically true, he didn't meant it because he doesn't refer to first world war but instead some problems of American democracy which were probably forgotten ... -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 12:21, 1 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:Christopher Baldwin: [http://books.google.cz/books?id=Fiu4czMiCeYC] ... I would say good luck with preserving everything printed :-), but the idea is certainly good and projects like Google Books are attempting to solve the problem he was talking about. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 12:25, 1 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Found the reference to Shakespearian rope bridges...<br />
http://books.google.com/books?id=BJIeAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA126&lpg=PA126&dq=oriental+herald+postmaster&source=bl&ots=7_NUMfRlPW&sig=6d6WLenjQBjOiGJBDoQjIa-FYkk&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Q0XEUuKbKsTpoATP-4HgCg&ved=0CC8Q6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=oriental%20herald%20postmaster&f=false {{unsigned|Androgenoide}}<br />
<br />
Found the reference to Spherical jellies: http://books.google.com/books?id=8IckAQAAIAAJ&lpg=PA87&ots=WRVY13FRwM&dq=%22subsist%20entirely%20upon%20jellies%22&pg=PA87#v=onepage&q=%22subsist%20entirely%20upon%20jellies%22&f=false [[User:Zeeprime|Zeeprime]] ([[User talk:Zeeprime|talk]]) 17:57, 1 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Found another reference to Shakespearian rope bridges. In short, some British officer called Mr. Shakespeare experimented and promoted the use of rope suspension bridges in India, apparently for the ease of colonization and military operations. http://books.google.com/books?id=aZRPAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA367 -furrypony [[Special:Contributions/173.245.48.181|173.245.48.181]] 21:21, 1 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
This looks like the actual rope bridge quote: http://books.google.com/books?id=8nyrbv2d_EUC&pg=PA115&dq=oriental+herald+%22bard+of+avon%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=g5_IUruFMIyPkAffrIDIAQ&ved=0CC0Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=oriental%20herald%20%22bard%20of%20avon%22&f=false {{unsigned ip|108.162.237.11}}<br />
<br />
Is it possible that the highlighted words can be shuffled to reveal a hidden message? Has Randall done this before? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.214|141.101.99.214]] 07:53, 2 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
The fourth quote (.."rocked and cradled by electricity"..) seems to appear in The Champagne Standard by LANE, Annie Eichberg (Mrs. John Lane). [http://archive.org/stream/champagnestandar00lane/champagnestandar00lane_djvu.txt] {{unsigned ip|141.101.99.224}}<br />
<br />
;regarding the languages of new york city<br />
<br />
http://languagehat.com/doing-field-linguistics-in-new-york-city/ {{unsigned ip|173.245.53.168}}<br />
----<br />
;Tone of the explanation<br />
<br />
I find the tone of the explanation as it stands right now not to be in line with the rest of the explanations available on the site. For example:<br />
<br />
By the twenty-first century I believe we shall all be telepaths.<br />
Absurd<br />
<br />
The plain "absurd" does not provide an explanation, only a judgement. It would be more useful it the explanation contained a link to a source with the quote, to provide context. Or provide a short bio for the person credited with the explanation. I understand the fascination behind arguing against or for the prediction, but that does not explain the comic. For example, you '''could''' argue that this particular prediction is in a sense accurate. Nowadays we all communicate in a way that people from a century ago would consider almost telepathic, given that "telepathy" means "distant experience". No, we are not mind readers, but a lot of us carry a device in our pockets that allows us to experience things at a distance.<br />
<br />
Also, I wonder why some sentences are in boldface. I tried reading only the bold text, and it is not coherent enough. I tried reading the grey text, and it isn't coherent either. I tried several other ways of reading the texts, and I cannot find any "hidden meaning".<br />
<br />
:I believe it's just to highlight content. The grey or non-bold text is (for the most part) non-essential to the content of the quote. {{unsigned ip|173.245.52.213}}<br />
<br />
--[[User:Mem|mem]] ([[User talk:Mem|talk]]) 16:10, 2 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:I see I'm not the only one who thought of cellphones when he read that sentence. I've edited the article to reflect this explanation. --[[User:NeatNit|NeatNit]] ([[User talk:NeatNit|talk]]) 17:39, 2 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
<br />
It seems to me that Randall believes that bolded text is false and grey text is true.[[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.62|173.245.50.62]] 16:13, 2 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
:This makes no sense. Most of the grey text has little content, and Abortion is still a very debated topic. {{unsigned ip|173.245.52.213}}<br />
: I think it's just for emphasis. He used a similar style in [[1227: The Pace of Modern Life]] to highlight the bits that particularly resonate with modern times, e.g., the writer in 1905 who complained that people converse while riding their bikes, oblivious to their surroundings. [[User:Fryhole|Fryhole]] ([[User talk:Fryhole|talk]]) 20:53, 6 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
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There is also the recent budding prospect of technologically assisted telepathy, such as was recently done with small laboratory rodents. While not exactly "everyone" just yet, (ahem), the prospect is certainly not "absurd". Technologically enabled telepathy certainly looks possible, and given the rate of technological progress of this century, the prediction could well come true.<br />
<br />
http://news.discovery.com/tech/biotechnology/two-rats-communicate-brain-to-brain-130227.htm<br />
<br />
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.84|108.162.221.84]] 17:06, 2 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
''Technologically assisted telepathy'' redefines the word telepathy. For example Random House says ''communication between minds by some means '''other than sensory perception''''' (my emphasis). Collins: ''the communication between people of thoughts, feelings, desires, etc, involving mechanisms that '''cannot be understood in terms of known scientific laws''''' (my emphasis). [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.84|173.245.50.84]] 17:51, 2 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Note also that the novel is talking about natural telepathy, like the one birds may have. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.84|173.245.50.84]] 22:15, 4 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
----<br />
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.208|108.162.219.208]] 17:16, 2 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
I suspect that most -- but not all -- of the "predictions" are apocryphal. For instance, I can indeed find the Gumbril (not "Gumbriel") character and citation in Huxley's "Antic Hay". However, the statement attributed to a methodist preacher and proselytizer (who really existed) in Upper Canada in 1864 seems to me totally out of character, and very hard to believe for the period. It was essentially the French who called themselves "Canadiens". The "others" still saw the place they lived in as an extension of the UK. To wit, John A. MacDonald, who famously wired "Send me another $10,000", also said "A British Subject I was born, a British Subject I shall die".<br />
<br />
;electric baby rearing<br />
<br />
It should be noted that this quote was wrong about making love being a sanctuary from electric devices. {{unsigned ip|108.162.216.78}}<br />
----<br />
Regarding languages spoken: according to <br />
<br />
http://www.ethnologue.com/statistics/size<br />
<br />
English is only third in languages spoken as primary language after Chinese and Spanish, while closely followed by Hindi and Arabic. I would not be too sure, if English will win out in NYC.<br />
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.231.222|108.162.231.222]] 17:19, 3 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
According to this report from the New York State comptroller's office dated 2006,<br />
<br />
http://www.osc.state.ny.us/osdc/rpt3-2007queens.pdf<br />
<br />
there are about 170 languages spoken in Queens. If that's at all accurate, it means that language diversity in New York hasn't shrunk but indeed nearly tripled.<br />
<br />
--[[User:Dotour|Dotour]] ([[User talk:Dotour|talk]]) 10:21, 4 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
----<br />
I think the quote about colleges, football, and partying is included as an aversion. Football is still huge in the south, and partying everywhere. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.60|173.245.50.60]] 16:53, 25 January 2014 (UTC) (P.S. Apparently this comment got eaten by ??? so I had to post it twice. Weird.)<br />
<br />
----<br />
If not a typo, is it worth mentioning that the guy in the title text is called "Shakespear" not "Shakespeare" but all you modern guys apparently ignored the difference? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.56|108.162.215.56]] 15:31, 9 February 2014 (UTC)</div>108.162.215.56https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1310:_Goldbach_Conjectures&diff=59650Talk:1310: Goldbach Conjectures2014-02-09T13:03:33Z<p>108.162.215.56: </p>
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<div>If a bot can create the text I read here, we have made great strides in artificial intelligence. Probably a human editor forgot to change the "incomplete/incorrect" heading. [[User:Tenrek|Tenrek]] ([[User talk:Tenrek|talk]]) 05:53, 30 December 2013 (UTC)<br />
:You never know, AI has come a loong way. '''[[User:Davidy22|<u>{{Color|#707|David}}<font color=#070 size=3>y</font></u><font color=#508 size=4>²²</font>]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 06:39, 30 December 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
::Let's ask: Tepples, are you a bot? And 199.27.128.62, what about you? -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 10:09, 30 December 2013 (UTC)<br />
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:::Yes, I'm a bot. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.62|199.27.128.62]] 21:42, 30 December 2013 (UTC)<br />
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I thought that <nowiki>{{incomplete|Created by a BOT}}</nowiki> means that the template was inserted by a BOT. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.84|173.245.50.84]] 13:55, 30 December 2013 (UTC)<br />
:It does mean that. But as others edit the page, they should keep the "incomplete" reason up-to-date. I've changed it to "incomplete|surely not quite complete yet..." ;) [[User:Nealmcb|Nealmcb]] ([[User talk:Nealmcb|talk]]) 14:28, 30 December 2013 (UTC)<br />
::I will change this text template beginning at the Friday update when I'm back home. Happy NEW YEAR to everybody! --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 15:16, 30 December 2013 (UTC)<br />
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It all seems to work except that the extremely strong seems to imply the opposite of the extremely weak [[User:Djbrasier|Djbrasier]] ([[User talk:Djbrasier|talk]]) 02:19, 31 December 2013 (UTC)<br />
:I think the mistake is in the implication of the very weak to the extremely weak version. In fact, if there is any connection between those two statements it is an implication that goes the other way round. If the extremely strong version is true, we are not looking at the natural numbers. Thus, "Every number greater than 7 is the sum of two other numbers." does ''not'' imply "Numbers just keep going.", at all. (Also this accounts for no numbers at all, so the very weak version would still be correct.) Then there is the case that the extremely strong version is false. An implication from something false to anything is always true. --[[Special:Contributions/173.245.53.200|173.245.53.200]] 07:30, 1 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
---I disagree with this, as it is not incorrect to say that "numbers keep going towards seven" as there are an infinite number of numbers approaching 7. Also, the extremely weak conjecture could easily refer to numbers in the negative direction only. {{unsigned ip|173.245.54.61}}<br />
<br />
I always find it amusing that people assume that something phrased 'scientifically' is therefore right, whereas something phrased unscientifically (eg religious beliefs taken on faith) are automatically wrong. There seems to be an unexamined assumption that science is some magical dark art for uncovering infallible truths. Of course science is really just a methodological system for testing theories. Whenever I try to explain this concept, I try to come up with a general, untestable (non-scientific) assertion that is nonetheless true, alongside a very specific, repeatedly testable (falsifiable) assertion that is therefore eminently scientific, but which happens to be wrong. (Eg "it sometimes rains on Wednesday" and "it rains at least 100mm every Wednesday in Riyadh"). So for me this comic is a commentary on that principle - that the "strength" of a statement is only really impressive if it has also survived testing. [[User:Tarkov|Tarkov]] ([[User talk:Tarkov|talk]]) 10:47, 31 December 2013 (UTC)<br />
:The assumption is not "that science is some magical dark art for uncovering infallible truths" but that science works. [[54: Science|Bitches]]. Also, the example you have given is quite bad considering that your first statement is so vague that it is essentially meaningless and apparently, what you want to say with your second statement is that falsifiable claims are falsifiable, which is pretty trivial. Finally, the statements that are phrased unscientifically are not assumed to be automatically wrong but they are impossible to be proven or disproven and are often worded so vaguely that nobody in the known universe knows just what the hell they are supposed to even mean. They are just empty phrases that carry no information whatsoever. --[[Special:Contributions/173.245.53.200|173.245.53.200]] 07:30, 1 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
According to the strong twin prime conjecture, all positive numbers greater than one are prime, due to 2 and 3 both being prime and extrapolation on primes from there. Thus, this nearly proves the very strong Goldbach conjecture, excluding one. Should this be noted in the explanation? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.4|108.162.237.4]] 02:08, 1 January 2014 (UTC)(Kyt)<br />
<br />
: I don't know if it's worth complicating things to bring the matter up. It's potentially more complicated than a simple error; in Goldbach's day, people still sometimes thought of 1 as a prime number (which simplifies his conjectures). —[[User:TobyBartels|TobyBartels]] ([[User talk:TobyBartels|talk]]) 18:00, 1 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
This also reminds me of those psychological tests that ask how you feel about this and that. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.226.228|108.162.226.228]] 15:02, 1 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Don't forget the first rule of tautology club. --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.236|141.101.98.236]] 18:07, 1 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
;Moved from explain:<br />
I disagree with this, as it is not incorrect to say that "numbers keep going towards seven" as there are an infinite number of numbers approaching 7. Also, the extremely weak conjecture could easily refer to numbers in the negative direction only. (Edited by some people.) --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 18:18, 10 January 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
"Therefore, the "extremely strong" conjecture could not possibly imply (however indirectly) the validity of the "extremely weak" conjecture, as it would if proved true."<br />
: It can be argued that since the "extremely strong" conjecture is obviously a contradiction (as in the logical sense, "a formula that's always false"), thereby, can imply any other formula. That is, if p is always false, then (p->q) for any q is always true. In this sense, if the "strong" version gets proved somehow, you get an inconsistent logical system, in which each and every formula can be proved as true, including those weaker forms. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.56|108.162.215.56]] 13:03, 9 February 2014 (UTC)</div>108.162.215.56