https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/api.php?action=feedcontributions&user=141.101.98.23&feedformat=atomexplain xkcd - User contributions [en]2024-03-29T07:07:28ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.30.0https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1437:_Higgs_Boson&diff=3357501437: Higgs Boson2024-02-26T10:02:01Z<p>141.101.98.23: Template makup is {{}}. ([[]] Is for wiki-defined link, for reference, [] is for URI-defined one.) Not sure you'll see this comment, and remember in future. If in doubt, find another example's source and copy(+edit) it into where you want it?</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1437<br />
| date = October 22, 2014<br />
| title = Higgs Boson<br />
| image = higgs_boson.png<br />
| titletext = 'Can't you just use the LHC you already built to find it again?' 'We MAY have disassembled it to build a death ray.' 'Just one, though.' 'Nothing you should worry about.' 'The death isn't even very serious.'<br />
}}<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete| - Created by a DEATH-RAY BUILDER AT THE LHC - Add an in-depth explanation to what Cueball was gonna say at panel 3. Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
[[Cueball]] and [[Ponytail]] are applying for a large amount of grant money to find the {{w|Higgs boson}}. Under scrutiny, they have been forced to admit that they have "lost" the particle which had been previously "found". This is a humorous play on the term "finding" when applied to fundamental particles. The common usage means to discover or observe the existence of a class of particles, rather than to know the current location of an individual particle.<br />
<br />
''The Higgs boson'' is an {{w|elementary particle}} that is predicted by a physical model of the universe (the '{{w|Standard Model}}'). Observing evidence that Higgs bosons really exist is a key test of this model: if a search for the Higgs boson had failed to find evidence confirming its existence then the Standard Model would have been shown to be an incorrect description of reality. Finding the Higgs boson was one of the main reasons why the {{w|Large Hadron Collider}} (LHC) was built: to create energies high enough for the Higgs boson to become manifest. The point is, once evidence for its existence has been observed it is not possible to 'lose' the Higgs boson in a way implied by Cueball and Ponytail.<br />
<br />
In the title text, the off-screen questioner wonders why Cueball and Ponytail can't use the LHC to find the particle again. The implication is that this would avoid spending another $3 billion. Their responses imply that the pair have already dismantled the LHC and converted its components into a {{w|death ray}} (most likely a {{w|particle-beam weapon}} to be exact). The ostensibly reassuring platitudes offered mimic those used to placate those who were worried about possible apocalyptic consequences of commissioning the LHC, for instance the creation of {{w|black hole}}s, {{w|strange matter}}, a {{w|vacuum bubble}} or proton-eating {{w|magnetic monopole}}s.<br />
<br />
The comment that "The death isn't even very serious" in the title text may be a reference to Isaac Asimov's "I, Robot." Robopsychologist Dr. Susan Calvin tells supercomputer The Brain not to worry about death, that it wasn't a "big deal," when the robot is working on an equation relating to hyper drive. The Brain was able to deliver the solution, since anyone using the hyperdrive would be briefly "dead" (no longer exist), but in the end, they would arrive safe and sound.<br />
<br />
This also implies that the death ray was only able to produce one death, as opposed to the many deaths such a weapon could be expected to cause, just as it is implied that the LHC only produced a single Higgs boson, which was subsequently misplaced. In [[401: Large Hadron Collider]] the proton stream from the LHC was used to give a helicopter cancer.<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:Offscreen: Tell us about your proposal.<br />
:Ponytail: We're requesting $3 billion in funding to find the Higgs boson.<br />
<br />
:Offscreen: ...wait. Didn't you already find it a year or two ago?<br />
:Cueball: Yes, well, um.<br />
<br />
:Ponytail: ...OK, this is embarrassing.<br />
:Cueball: See, the thing isβ<br />
<br />
:Offscreen: Don't tell us you lost it already.<br />
:Ponytail: Look.<br />
:Ponytail: In our defense, it's ''really'' small.<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]<br />
[[Category:Physics]]</div>141.101.98.23https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2779:_Exoplanet_High-5&diff=3139012779: Exoplanet High-52023-05-23T11:43:15Z<p>141.101.98.23: /* Explanation */ Remnant of original pre-post-edit mention of "Earth-year"</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 2779<br />
| date = May 22, 2023<br />
| title = Exoplanet High-5<br />
| image = exoplanet_high_5_2x.png<br />
| imagesize = 515x582px<br />
| noexpand = true<br />
| titletext = Tau Ceti is farther away, so it took me 36 years to start the war over updog.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT, 21 YEARS AGO - More on the Updog joke for people not familiar with it. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
<br />
''Up high, down low, too slow'' is a {{w|High five#Too_slow|prank variant of a High five}}. In the comic, Earth has established communications with aliens living on Proxima Centauri b, the nearest exoplanet to Earth according to current knowledge, and [[Randall]] has taught them about a High five.<br />
<br />
Instead of physically shaking hands, the High five is executed by transmitting messages, as in a {{w|Handshake (computing)}}. The diagram in the comic is thus similar to a {{w|sequence diagram}}, one usually employed for describing network communication in computing. As the messages travel at the speed of light and Proxima Centauri b is over 4 light years away, the times in the diagram are measured in (Earth-)years. This is a very slow method of communication β a perfect setup for a "too slow" prank. We can also see that they are taking around <sup>1</sup>/<sub>50</sub>th of a year (approximately an Earth-week) to cue up their considered response, yet clearly Cueball seems quite ready to respond in about half that time (though any quicker would get lost, and appear simultaneous, at that precision of decimal places).<br />
<br />
Having found this way of exchanging a high five with aliens, Randall successfully pranks the aliens by sending the "too slow" message before their "Low-5" message ''can'' even arrive on Earth, and over an Earth-month until it actually does. This is similar to how in the original prank the prankster anticipates the provoked reaction and pulls their hand away after the victim started to move but before the "Low-Five" can taken place.<br />
<br />
The aliens do not take kindly to being pranked and start an interstellar war, intending to invade Earth. It is not known at which speed the Centaurians' invasion fleet travels and, therefore, when it will reach Earth.<br />
<br />
The title text refers to another prank, in which the prankster gets the victim to ask "What's updog?" (which sounds like "What's up, dawg?"). Tau Ceti is a star almost 12 light years away. The exchange might have gone like this:<br />
* t=0y: ''Randall:'' Hey, do you think it smells like updog in here?<br />
* t=12y: ''Aliens:'' What's updog?<br />
* t=24y: ''Randall:'' Nothin', what's up with you?<br />
* t=36y: ''Message received, Aliens start war''<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
<br />
:Earth:<br />
* t=0.0y - "Up high" message sent<br />
:Proxima Centauri B:<br />
* t=4.25y - Message received - discussion -<br />
* t=4.27y - High-5 reply sent<br />
:Earth:<br />
* t=8.52y - Reply received<br />
* t=8.53y - "Down low" message sent<br />
:Proxima Centauri B:<br />
* t=12.77y - Message received - discussion -<br />
* t=12.79y - Low-5 reply sent<br />
:Earth:<br />
* t=16.94y - "Too slow" message sent<br />
* t=17.03y - Reply received<br />
:Proxima Centauri B:<br />
* t=21.19y - Message received<br />
* t=21.26y - Invasion fleet launched<br />
<br />
<br />
:[Caption below the panel:]<br />
:21 years and 3 months after I taught the aliens about high-5s, the war began.<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Aliens]]</div>141.101.98.23https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2754:_Relative_Terms&diff=3094812754: Relative Terms2023-03-31T08:32:00Z<p>141.101.98.23: /* Explanation */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 2754<br />
| date = March 24, 2023<br />
| title = Relative Terms<br />
| image = relative_terms_2x.png<br />
| imagesize = 425x442px<br />
| noexpand = true<br />
| titletext = Small sewing machines are sewing machines that are smaller than a sewing machine. A sewing machine is larger than a small sewing machine, but quieter than a loud sewing machine.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT THAT IS LARGER THAN A BOT - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
The terms "small" and "big" are used to refer to size; the terms "loud" and "quiet" are used to refer to (audial) volume.<br />
<br />
While these terms are relative, they are often used even when there is nothing obvious being compared against (e.g. "A windmill is a big thing" or "An ant is a small thing"). This comic humorously suggests that the item defined to be in the middle of all four terms ("neither small nor big; neither quiet nor loud") is a sewing machine, as a sewing machine seems (at least in comparison to the other items on the graph) to be neither particularly big nor particularly small, neither particularly quiet nor particularly loud.<br />
<br />
An alternative argument may be that the in the center would be the average adult human (as this is the perspective from which most people use language), though this observation would lose some of the comic's comedic value.<br />
<br />
The center of the chart is a sewing machine, and the comic is claiming that the scales of "loud and quiet" and "big and small" are measured in comparison to a standard size sewing machine. A standard sewing machine is roughly 60dB in volume and approximately 42β X 21β, although this is for industrial machines, and those in the home would be both smaller and quieter.<br />
<br />
Many of the items appear to have been placed in the wrong quadrant for their actual attributes; locations seem to reflect more how people generally think of these things, as opposed to their real-life relationship to a sewing machine.<br />
<br />
The title text is humorously tautological because it compares the standard against those things that are themselves defined against the standard. <br />
<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|+ Small and quiet (upper left)<br />
|-<br />
! Item !! Description<br />
|-<br />
| Ant ||<br />
|-<br />
| Balloon || a party balloon is quite loud when it pops; a hot-air balloon is big enough to carry a few humans.<br />
|-<br />
| Book ||<br />
|-<br />
| Bun (rabbit or pastry) || "Bun" is an informal term for a rabbit and a loaf of bread, this comparison was made in [[1871: Bun Alert]]<br />
|-<br />
| Butterfly || Butterflies are used as an exemplar of something small, unnoticeable and seemingly insignificant in the metaphor of the Butterfly Effect.<br />
|-<br />
| Hat ||<br />
|-<br />
| Mouse || A mouse is a very small, quiet animal. This might also be a reference to the expression "quiet as a mouse", meaning very quietly.<br />
|-<br />
| Newt ||<br />
|-<br />
| Pin drop || The expression "hear a pin drop" is used to indicate that an area is exceptionally quiet; the idea is that the space is so silent that even something as insubstantial and tiny as a pin can be heard hitting the ground.<br />
|-<br />
| Snow globe || A {{w|snow globe}} is much smaller than a sewing machine. Some snow globes have a small music box that can be wound up to play a melody. Snow globes without a music box are silent.<br />
|}<br />
<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|+ Small and loud (upper right)<br />
|-<br />
! Item !! Description<br />
|-<br />
| Baby || Babies are usually considered small, and can be quite loud when they cry.<br />
|-<br />
| Blender || Blenders make a lot of noise when in use. Most household blenders are smaller than a sewing machine.<br />
|-<br />
| Cricket || Given that it is in the small/loud quadrant, this would refer to the insect, which is pretty small and can be quite loud; the sport of cricket or a cricket game would be much larger (though potentially much louder).<br />
|-<br />
| Fire alarm || The primary purpose of a fire alarm is to notify people of fire, so fire alarms are usually very loud, but ideally take up little space.<br />
|-<br />
| Firecracker || A {{w|Firecracker}} is a small explosive firework that makes a very loud bang when lit.<br />
|-<br />
| Flute || An example of a small musical instrument that can nevertheless be audibly quite dominant.<br />
|-<br />
| Harmonica || See Flute.<br />
|-<br />
| Popcorn || A snack that is known for being annoyingly loud in a cinema setting. However, this is largely due to the otherwise low volume environment, and arguably a sewing machine might be equally or more annoying. Also, some helpings of popcorn in some cinemas may actually be larger than a sewing machine.<br />
|-<br />
| Songbird ||<br />
|-<br />
| Whistle || This is of course the device known as a whistle, as it is small. The act by humans to whistle has no size (other than that of the whistler). A whistle is used functionally in place of a human that whistles. The loudest human whistle ever recorded was 8372 Hz and roughly 110 DB, which is a C9 in the standard musical scale and is roughly as loud as a jackhammer[https://www.vnews.com/West-Lebanon-man-sets-a-world-record-for-whistling-24480844#:~:text=Guinness'%20website%20says%20Stanford%20reached,in%20the%20standard%20musical%20notation.]. Since a whistle should be able to beat this it must be seen as loud.<br />
|}<br />
<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|+ Big and quiet (lower left)<br />
|-<br />
|-<br />
! Item !! Description<br />
|-<br />
| Anaconda ||<br />
|-<br />
| Giraffe || Giraffes can be quite loud, but they usually vocalise using frequencies well below the range of human hearing. So, to a human, giraffes are quiet.<br />
|-<br />
| Northern lights || "In 2016, a Finnish study confirmed that the Aurora Borealis does produce a sound that can be heard" [https://www.techexplorist.com/listen-sound-aurora-borealis/47421/]<br />
|-<br />
| Shark ||<br />
|-<br />
| Statue || Most statues are larger than a sewing machine. Most statues are silent, but some have fountains or other devices that make sound.<br />
|-<br />
| The Moon || Lower left corner; the Moon is very, very big{{fact}}, but it is also completely silent{{fact}} as sound cannot travel through the vacuum of space.<br />
|-<br />
| Tree ||<br />
|-<br />
| Windmill ||<br />
|}<br />
<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|+ Big and loud (lower right)<br />
|-<br />
! Item !! Description<br />
|-<br />
| Airplane ||<br />
|-<br />
| Cannon ||<br />
|-<br />
| Riding mower ||<br />
|-<br />
| [[wikipedia:Calliope_(music)|Steam calliope]] || A large musical device which functions by sending steam (or more recently compressed air) through attached whistles.<br />
|-<br />
| Train ||<br />
|-<br />
| Tuba ||<br />
|-<br />
| Volcano || Lower right corner. Volcanic eruptions can be extremely loud. The {{w|1883 eruption of Krakatoa}} made a pressure wave of 180 dB, the loudest sound ever recorded.<br />
|-<br />
| Waterfall ||<br />
|-<br />
| Whale ||<br />
|}<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
<br />
:[A chart, with "Quiet" to "Loud" on the X-axis, and "Small" to "Big" on the Y-axis. It is split into four quarters, with "Sewing machine" in the center.]<br />
<br />
:[Upper left quadrant (Small & Quiet items):] Butterfly, Pin drop, Mouse, Ant, Bun (rabbit or pastry), Snow globe, Newt, Balloon, Book, Hat<br />
<br />
:[Upper right quadrant (Small & Loud items):] Popcorn, Cricket, Songbird, Whistle, Baby, Harmonica, Flute, Fire alarm, Blender, Firecracker<br />
<br />
:[Lower left quadrant (Big & Quiet items):] Shark, Tree, Anaconda, Giraffe, Statue, Windmill, Northern lights, The Moon<br />
<br />
:[Lower right quadrant (Big & Loud items):] Tuba, Riding mower, Cannon, Airplane, Train, Waterfall, Steam calliope, Whale, Volcano<br />
<br />
:[Caption below the panel:]<br />
:''Big'', ''Small'', ''Loud'', and ''Quiet'' are relative terms. The thing they're relative to is a sewing machine.<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Charts]]<br />
[[Category:Aviation]]<br />
[[Category:Animals]]<br />
[[Category:Buns]]<br />
[[Category:Sharks]]<br />
[[Category:Music]]<br />
[[Category:Volcanoes]]<br />
[[Category:Food]]</div>141.101.98.23https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2451:_AI_Methodology&diff=2103512451: AI Methodology2021-04-17T03:22:13Z<p>141.101.98.23: /* Explanation */ It really doesn't *need* changing to be topical.</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 2451<br />
| date = April 17, 2021<br />
| title = AI Methodology<br />
| image = ai_methodology.png<br />
| titletext = We've learned that weird spacing and diacritics in the methodology description are apparently the key to good research; luckily, we've developed an AI tool to help us figure out where to add them.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT. TRAINED BY AN ADVERSARIAL AI, Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
<br />
:[Cueball stands in front of a projection on a screen and points with a stick to a histogram with a bell curve to the left and one bar to the far right marked with an arrow]<br />
:Cueball: Despite our great research results, some have questioned our AI-based methodology.<br />
:Cueball: But we trained a classifier on a collection of good and bad methodology sections, and it says ours is fine.<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}</div>141.101.98.23https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:483:_Fiction_Rule_of_Thumb&diff=118465Talk:483: Fiction Rule of Thumb2016-04-22T01:03:27Z<p>141.101.98.23: </p>
<hr />
<div>Also, you get minus points if you have to add a totally reading-flow rupturing explanation.<br />
And if the words which supposedly come from one language have completely different linguistic structure.<br />
And for random apostrophes.<br />
And if you cannot read the book without a wordlist for constant reference next to you.<br />
Rule of thumb #2: if it's not clear from the context or from a smooth, unobtrusive explanation* and/or if the reader has to go back the second time it is mentioned to remember what it was, don't use it.<br />
:Exception to this: Terry Prachett. How the hell can that guy make funny literature out of annoyingly large footnotes?? [[Special:Contributions/132.187.20.160|132.187.20.160]] 09:14, 25 June 2013 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I know an author who made up words and still turned out well! His name is Andrew Hussie, creator of Homestuck. Captchalogue, Sylladex, Alchemiter, Cruxite, Respiteblock, Recuperacoon, Cookalizer, Fenestrated Wall, you name it! {{unsigned ip|108.162.219.47}}<br />
:Well one, that's a webcomic, not a book. Two, most of these words are portamntus (Captcha + Catalogue = Captchalogue, Recuperate + Cocoon = Recuperacoon). And while this is certainly a nice observation, it doesn't really contribute to the discussion since the page is not really about Homestuck.--[[User:Edrobot|Edrobot]] ([[User talk:Edrobot|talk]]) 19:42, 23 May 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
''Dune'' comes to mind... [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.71|199.27.128.71]] 07:07, 15 April 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Interesting that Randall omitted Shakespeare from the list of people allowed to make up words. Shakespeare used 17,677 different words in all of his known works. About 10% of those words are words that he made up and are now technically official English (includes changing parts of speech for existing words)[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.100|108.162.216.100]] 21:45, 25 September 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:I believe that Shakespeare didn't invent 1700 words, although they were at one point attributed to him as earliest known use - especially in the days when searches for early examples were done by hand. Today in many cases earlier examples have since been found. IO9 has an article about it http://io9.gizmodo.com/no-william-shakespeare-did-not-really-invent-1-700-eng-1700049586<br />
:There is also the fact that while some of his plays are the earliest (surviving) example of a word, most of those words must have been known to the public. I can't imagine people going to a performance where they don't recognise a tenth of the words. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.23|141.101.98.23]] 01:03, 22 April 2016 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:What's the problem?<br />
:If you can make up a story you should be able to make up words. A much worse problem is when an author thinks describing scenery is part of the story. And when women stop in mid paragraph to describe clothing... Feck that!<br />
:Making up a word or two to get around shit like that is OK. It is only hand-waving a ghost out from the machine. Asimov was terrible for that crap in his early work. He grew out of it, in a manner of speaking, recognising there was a time and place.<br />
<br />
there are many exceptions to this rule... Jhereg, for example.[[Special:Contributions/173.245.51.116|173.245.51.116]] 10:43, 6 July 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I'm surprised that {{w|A Clockwork Orange}} by Anthony Burgess hasn't been mentioned. It is regularly featured in 'Top 100 Books' lists, but features its own language, Nadsat. --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 11:28, 6 July 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I think a lot of comments here are based on missunderstanding. The CHANCE that the book is good is lower. It doesn't mean "more made up words" -> "worse book". [[Special:Contributions/108.162.228.41|108.162.228.41]] 21:48, 23 December 2015 (UTC)</div>141.101.98.23