https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/api.php?action=feedcontributions&user=172.70.86.62&feedformat=atomexplain xkcd - User contributions [en]2024-03-29T11:13:21ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.30.0https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2705:_Spacetime_Soccer&diff=300477Talk:2705: Spacetime Soccer2022-12-04T14:22:55Z<p>172.70.86.62: </p>
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<div><!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~ and don't delete this text. New comments should be added at the bottom.--><br />
Wow, that was fast {{unsigned ip|172.70.131.8|03:48, 1 December 2022}}<br />
:What was? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.46|172.70.162.46]] 04:27, 1 December 2022 (UTC)<br />
Does someone want to point out to Randall that it is the offside rule, not offsides rule [[Special:Contributions/172.70.134.122|172.70.134.122]] 04:57, 1 December 2022 (UTC)<br />
:It's often pluralized in American English, per Wikipedia: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Offside_(sport) [[Special:Contributions/172.71.151.44|172.71.151.44]] 05:22, 1 December 2022 (UTC)<br />
:That makes no sense, it's an adjective, not a noun. It can't be pluralised. Even that wikipedia article, despite its assertion at the top, doesn't at any point use "offside" as a noun.<br />
::Side is a noun. It's colloquial in the US because other games use the same word. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.206.92|172.70.206.92]] 12:03, 1 December 2022 (UTC)<br />
:::Interesting that the inherent pluralisation doesn't extend to "math(ematic)s"... ;) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.61|172.70.86.61]] 12:27, 1 December 2022 (UTC)<br />
::::That's because "math" is a contraction, just the first four letters, the rest of the word is dropped. :) The British "maths" is weird because it just drops several letters in the middle, not sure I've ever seen another contraction like that without an apostrophe to stand in for the missing letters like "can't", "won't", "cont'd"... [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 06:12, 3 December 2022 (UTC)<br />
:: Seems like a noun to me, it's the name of a place, isn't it? The part of the field you're not supposed to be? An "out of bounds" that's within the field? To be an adjective it would need a noun (besides "rule")... [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 06:23, 3 December 2022 (UTC)<br />
:::Adjectival rules without nouns? "Commutative rule", etc. No nouns needed.<br />
:::(I've no idea whether any of the other rules of football, from 1863 onwards, are named like that. Footie's not my sport, though I do at least inow what to be offside means, even if I couldn't tell at a glance whether any particular combination of players and ball might be in danger of invoking it.) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.173|172.70.90.173]] 22:11, 3 December 2022 (UTC)<br />
:I can only imagine that Randall used the less-preferred (more-despised?) term to troll some of us. Does he not like the beautiful game? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.214.252|172.70.214.252]] 01:15, 2 December 2022 (UTC)<br />
:I've never heard "offsides" plural, I don't think, but I don't exactly watch any sports. :) I can imagine such people think it's short for "off the sides", there's two sides to the field, thus plural. Never mind that if you understand the rule - and from me that is SAYING SOMETHING - there's only one side to be off of. :) [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 06:23, 3 December 2022 (UTC)<br />
:It feels like a deliberate joke to me, offside rule on a 2D pitch, but if space is bendy and there is an extra dimension, then more than one way to be offside makes sense, and offside rules doesn't sound as funny.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.62|172.70.86.62]] 14:22, 4 December 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I currently have no time to expand the explanation, but it should be pointed out that the gravity well drawing is a graph and not an actual surface. Also, people are perfectly fine with moving though 4 dimensional spacetime. We do it every day. [[User:Condor70|Condor70]] ([[User talk:Condor70|talk]]) 09:19, 1 December 2022 (UTC)<br />
[citation needed] [[Special:Contributions/198.41.242.83|198.41.242.83]] 09:59, 1 December 2022 (UTC)<br />
:...though note that I probably can't ever go back to where I was yesterday. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.61|172.70.86.61]] 12:27, 1 December 2022 (UTC)<br />
::That has more to do with the fact that you flooded the museum's basement than spacetime though [[Special:Contributions/172.69.22.62|172.69.22.62]] 15:24, 1 December 2022 (UTC)<br />
:::I did not! I flooded their second floor. It was ''their'' fault that the basement subsequently flooded (and gained a few new items/display cases/members of staff and also an improved influx of visitors to the "Dried Goods Through The Ages" exhibit that they already kept down there), but they still blamed me for some strange and probably erroneous reason... [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.30|162.158.159.30]] 16:36, 1 December 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I'm pretty sure it mocks the fact that in the rest of the world, "football" is the sport where you play the ball with your *feet*, with a particular obscure rule that you can't touch it with your hands (unless you are a goalkeeper). On the other hand, American "football" is the sport where you grab the ball with your hands and carry it around. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.160.43|172.71.160.43]] 16:35, 1 December 2022 (UTC)<br />
:In actuality, most of the native-English-speaking world (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Republic of Ireland, and South Africa) tend to refer to association football as "soccer" because another football game is more dominant (Australian football, gridiron football, Rugby union or league football, Gaelic football) and "association football" is a mouthful. This goes back at least to the 1882 founding of the South British Football Soccer Association in New South Wales. Football is not a game; it is a category of games played on grass, on and partly with the foot, without any sort of stick.[[Special:Contributions/172.71.154.41|172.71.154.41]] 09:49, 2 December 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
haha...I thought there actually was ''[more]'' [[Special:Contributions/172.71.182.155|172.71.182.155]] 22:10, 1 December 2022 (UTC)<br />
:Can we get a scoreboard here for everyone who clicked on "more" somehow expecting more... :) [[User:RandalSchwartz|RandalSchwartz]] ([[User talk:RandalSchwartz|talk]]) 04:54, 2 December 2022 (UTC)<br />
:This part of the title text is not currently mentioned in the explanation, but it is clearly intentional. I think it is suggesting that the editor/writer disappeared before finishing the thought, but I'm open to other interpretations. [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 02:27, 3 December 2022 (UTC)<br />
:Second this. Though being on firefox/XFCE, the popup disappeared for me when moving the mouse. I actually had a look at the source code to see if there is any magical link there... Possible interpretations could also include that the gravity well appears to be have more stuff in there but in the real world there is nothing there...or everything?...well, singularity! --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.86.253|162.158.86.253]] 10:55, 3 December 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Hey, there's a new [[what if]] post [[Special:Contributions/172.70.254.165|172.70.254.165]] 19:25, 2 December 2022 (UTC) <br />
<br />
Hi, slightly unrelated, but you might enjoy this view fom Nantes/France: https://www.google.de/maps/@47.2144483,-1.55127,3a,75y,9.78h,63.87t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipPNXGaLLRDirF9DunsP01gOMmOgkh3EIH2faAUk!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipPNXGaLLRDirF9DunsP01gOMmOgkh3EIH2faAUk%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-0-ya118.37107-ro-0-fo100!7i6080!8i3040</div>172.70.86.62https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2705:_Spacetime_Soccer&diff=300476Talk:2705: Spacetime Soccer2022-12-04T14:21:23Z<p>172.70.86.62: </p>
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<div><!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~ and don't delete this text. New comments should be added at the bottom.--><br />
Wow, that was fast {{unsigned ip|172.70.131.8|03:48, 1 December 2022}}<br />
:What was? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.46|172.70.162.46]] 04:27, 1 December 2022 (UTC)<br />
Does someone want to point out to Randall that it is the offside rule, not offsides rule [[Special:Contributions/172.70.134.122|172.70.134.122]] 04:57, 1 December 2022 (UTC)<br />
:It's often pluralized in American English, per Wikipedia: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Offside_(sport) [[Special:Contributions/172.71.151.44|172.71.151.44]] 05:22, 1 December 2022 (UTC)<br />
:That makes no sense, it's an adjective, not a noun. It can't be pluralised. Even that wikipedia article, despite its assertion at the top, doesn't at any point use "offside" as a noun.<br />
::Side is a noun. It's colloquial in the US because other games use the same word. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.206.92|172.70.206.92]] 12:03, 1 December 2022 (UTC)<br />
:::Interesting that the inherent pluralisation doesn't extend to "math(ematic)s"... ;) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.61|172.70.86.61]] 12:27, 1 December 2022 (UTC)<br />
::::That's because "math" is a contraction, just the first four letters, the rest of the word is dropped. :) The British "maths" is weird because it just drops several letters in the middle, not sure I've ever seen another contraction like that without an apostrophe to stand in for the missing letters like "can't", "won't", "cont'd"... [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 06:12, 3 December 2022 (UTC)<br />
:: Seems like a noun to me, it's the name of a place, isn't it? The part of the field you're not supposed to be? An "out of bounds" that's within the field? To be an adjective it would need a noun (besides "rule")... [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 06:23, 3 December 2022 (UTC)<br />
:::Adjectival rules without nouns? "Commutative rule", etc. No nouns needed.<br />
:::(I've no idea whether any of the other rules of football, from 1863 onwards, are named like that. Footie's not my sport, though I do at least inow what to be offside means, even if I couldn't tell at a glance whether any particular combination of players and ball might be in danger of invoking it.) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.173|172.70.90.173]] 22:11, 3 December 2022 (UTC)<br />
:I can only imagine that Randall used the less-preferred (more-despised?) term to troll some of us. Does he not like the beautiful game? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.214.252|172.70.214.252]] 01:15, 2 December 2022 (UTC)<br />
:I've never heard "offsides" plural, I don't think, but I don't exactly watch any sports. :) I can imagine such people think it's short for "off the sides", there's two sides to the field, thus plural. Never mind that if you understand the rule - and from me that is SAYING SOMETHING - there's only one side to be off of. :) [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 06:23, 3 December 2022 (UTC)<br />
:It feels like a deliberate joke to me, offside rule on a 2D pitch, but if space is bendy and there is an extra dimension, then more than one way to be offside makes sense, and offside rules doesn't sound as funny. <br />
<br />
I currently have no time to expand the explanation, but it should be pointed out that the gravity well drawing is a graph and not an actual surface. Also, people are perfectly fine with moving though 4 dimensional spacetime. We do it every day. [[User:Condor70|Condor70]] ([[User talk:Condor70|talk]]) 09:19, 1 December 2022 (UTC)<br />
[citation needed] [[Special:Contributions/198.41.242.83|198.41.242.83]] 09:59, 1 December 2022 (UTC)<br />
:...though note that I probably can't ever go back to where I was yesterday. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.61|172.70.86.61]] 12:27, 1 December 2022 (UTC)<br />
::That has more to do with the fact that you flooded the museum's basement than spacetime though [[Special:Contributions/172.69.22.62|172.69.22.62]] 15:24, 1 December 2022 (UTC)<br />
:::I did not! I flooded their second floor. It was ''their'' fault that the basement subsequently flooded (and gained a few new items/display cases/members of staff and also an improved influx of visitors to the "Dried Goods Through The Ages" exhibit that they already kept down there), but they still blamed me for some strange and probably erroneous reason... [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.30|162.158.159.30]] 16:36, 1 December 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I'm pretty sure it mocks the fact that in the rest of the world, "football" is the sport where you play the ball with your *feet*, with a particular obscure rule that you can't touch it with your hands (unless you are a goalkeeper). On the other hand, American "football" is the sport where you grab the ball with your hands and carry it around. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.160.43|172.71.160.43]] 16:35, 1 December 2022 (UTC)<br />
:In actuality, most of the native-English-speaking world (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Republic of Ireland, and South Africa) tend to refer to association football as "soccer" because another football game is more dominant (Australian football, gridiron football, Rugby union or league football, Gaelic football) and "association football" is a mouthful. This goes back at least to the 1882 founding of the South British Football Soccer Association in New South Wales. Football is not a game; it is a category of games played on grass, on and partly with the foot, without any sort of stick.[[Special:Contributions/172.71.154.41|172.71.154.41]] 09:49, 2 December 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
haha...I thought there actually was ''[more]'' [[Special:Contributions/172.71.182.155|172.71.182.155]] 22:10, 1 December 2022 (UTC)<br />
:Can we get a scoreboard here for everyone who clicked on "more" somehow expecting more... :) [[User:RandalSchwartz|RandalSchwartz]] ([[User talk:RandalSchwartz|talk]]) 04:54, 2 December 2022 (UTC)<br />
:This part of the title text is not currently mentioned in the explanation, but it is clearly intentional. I think it is suggesting that the editor/writer disappeared before finishing the thought, but I'm open to other interpretations. [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 02:27, 3 December 2022 (UTC)<br />
:Second this. Though being on firefox/XFCE, the popup disappeared for me when moving the mouse. I actually had a look at the source code to see if there is any magical link there... Possible interpretations could also include that the gravity well appears to be have more stuff in there but in the real world there is nothing there...or everything?...well, singularity! --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.86.253|162.158.86.253]] 10:55, 3 December 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Hey, there's a new [[what if]] post [[Special:Contributions/172.70.254.165|172.70.254.165]] 19:25, 2 December 2022 (UTC) <br />
<br />
Hi, slightly unrelated, but you might enjoy this view fom Nantes/France: https://www.google.de/maps/@47.2144483,-1.55127,3a,75y,9.78h,63.87t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipPNXGaLLRDirF9DunsP01gOMmOgkh3EIH2faAUk!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipPNXGaLLRDirF9DunsP01gOMmOgkh3EIH2faAUk%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-0-ya118.37107-ro-0-fo100!7i6080!8i3040</div>172.70.86.62https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=7:_Girl_sleeping_(Sketch_--_11th_grade_Spanish_class)&diff=3004717: Girl sleeping (Sketch -- 11th grade Spanish class)2022-12-04T07:19:37Z<p>172.70.86.62: Nope</p>
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<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 7<br />
| date = September 30, 2005<br />
| title = Girl sleeping (Sketch -- 11th grade Spanish class)<br />
| image = girl_sleeping_noline_(1).jpg<br />
| titletext = I don't remember her name at all, but she fell asleep on the floor in front of me.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
This comic does not present a particular point; it is just a picture drawn by Randall. It is just what the title says - a sketch of a girl sleeping drawn during a Spanish class.<br />
<br />
According to the title text, she is also on the floor.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:[Girl sleeping on her side, facing away from view.]<br />
<br />
==Trivia==<br />
*This was the 1st comic originally posted to [[LiveJournal]].<br />
**The next was [[4: Landscape (sketch)]]. <br />
*Original title: "Girl sleeping"<br />
*Original [[Randall]] quote: "I drew this in 11th-grade Spanish class. We were watching a movie and she was asleep on the floor in front of me."<br />
*This was one of the [[:Category:First day on LiveJournal|thirteen first comics]] posted to LiveJournal within 12 minutes on Friday September 30, 2005.<br />
*This comic was posted on [[xkcd]] when the web site opened on Sunday the 1st of January 2006.<br />
**It was posted along [[:Category:First day on xkcd|with all 41 comics]] posted before that on LiveJournal as well as a few others.<br />
**The latter explaining why the numbers of these 41 LiveJournal comics ranges from 1-44.<br />
*One of the original drawings drawn on [[:Category:Checkered paper|checkered paper]].<br />
*The drawing returns in [[1506: xkcloud]] as one of the [[1506: xkcloud/Pictures of other pages#Help! We lost the text|Help! We lost the text]] given images.<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Comics posted on livejournal| 01]]<br />
[[Category:First day on LiveJournal| 01]]<br />
[[Category:First day on xkcd]]<br />
[[Category:Checkered paper]]<br />
[[Category:Sketches]]</div>172.70.86.62https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1104:_Feathers&diff=3004701104: Feathers2022-12-04T07:18:30Z<p>172.70.86.62: Undo revision 300466 by 172.71.146.65 (talk) Nope</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1104<br />
| date = September 05, 2012<br />
| title = Feathers<br />
| image = feathers.png<br />
| titletext = Click to see a video of a modern bird using stability flapping during predatory behavior. It all fits! Also, apparently Microraptor had *four* wings? The past keeps getting cooler! (And there's more of it every day!)<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{w|Dinosaur}}s have been a fascinating topic in popular science and have captivated children's interest since the first fossils were discovered in modern times, around the 1700s; prior discoveries in China and elsewhere were thought to be the bones of dragons or other mythical creatures. The success of the ''{{w|Jurassic Park (film)|Jurassic Park}}'' movies perpetuated an erroneous understanding of the physical characteristics of dinosaurs. Since the first movie of that series, scientific evidence has emerged suggesting that {{w|Dromaeosauridae}}, or "[[:Category:Velociraptors|raptors]]", the main antagonists of that movie, looked quite different from their animatronic and CGI versions. In particular, they are now known to have been much smaller, and are believed to have had feathers and even wings, as evidenced by quill nobs observed on the arms of raptors.<br />
<br />
[http://denverfowler.com/ Denver W. Fowler] is among the scientists who support this hypothesis. (incidentally, a "{{w|Fowler}}" is a hunter of wildfowl/birds) The comic refers to [http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0028964 a publication by him and his colleagues] ("{{Wiktionary|et al.}}"), in the ''{{w|PLoS ONE}}'', an online scientific journal ("PLoS" stands for "Public Library of Science").<br />
<br />
[[Megan]] believes this new model of the appearance of raptors makes them much less cool, but the way in which [[Science Girl]] reformulates the facts to make them seem like even more vicious predators re-ignites her interest and makes the new raptors seem like at least as good a candidate for a good action thriller movie like the original version, if not better. Thus the phrase "the past keeps getting cooler". (Or that Megan, like Randall, has an irrational fear of raptors and is updating her knowledge of them.)<br />
<br />
Clicking on the original cartoon links to [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJKBPyavWlI&t=87s a YouTube video] of a bird of prey (in this case a {{w|Secretarybird}}) using its wings for stability while standing on top of a struggling prey, from which one can easily envision instead a raptor upon its prey—especially in case of some kind of "raptorphobia", as for [[Randall]] (see [[87: Velociraptors]] and [[135: Substitute]]). {{w|Microraptor}} was a small raptor with four wings, which lets you imagine even scarier scenes.<br />
<br />
The same idea is later explored from a different perspective in [[1527: Humans]].<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:[Megan is walking up to Science Girl with a bow in her hair bun. Science Girl has a stack of three books in front of her, is reading another book and a fifth book lies behind her on the floor.]<br />
:Megan: What are you reading about?<br />
:Science Girl: Dinosaurs!<br />
:Megan: Oh, yeah.<br />
<br />
:[Zoom out of the same scene, with Megan standing and Science Girl looking up at her.]<br />
:Megan: They've gotten all weird since when I was a kid.<br />
:Megan: They used to be awesome, but now they all have dorky feathers, right?<br />
:Science Girl: Yup!<br />
<br />
:[Same scene in a frame-less panel. Science Girl looks down and below the two characters there is a footnote.]<br />
:Science Girl: This says they now think raptors used their wings for stability, flapping to stay on top of their prey while hanging on with their hooked claws and eating it alive.<br />
:<small>*Fowler et. al., PLoS ONE 6(12), 2011</small><br />
<br />
:[Zoom in on the same scene, the book on the floor is outside the panel. Megan just stands staring at Science Girl who reads on. Beat panel.]<br />
<br />
:[Megan is now on the floor next to Science Girl flipping through the top book she has taken from the pile.]<br />
<br />
==Trivia==<br />
*In the comic it says "et. al." instead of the correct "et al.", this is a common mistake.<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Science Girl]]<br />
[[Category:Dinosaurs]]<br />
[[Category:Velociraptors]]<br />
[[Category:Science]]<br />
[[Category:Animals]] <!-- birds in the title text --></div>172.70.86.62https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2702:_What_If_2_Gift_Guide&diff=2999922702: What If 2 Gift Guide2022-11-29T00:32:54Z<p>172.70.86.62: /* Explanation */ Oxford comma works badly with other commas in sentence.</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 2702<br />
| date = November 23, 2022<br />
| title = What If 2 Gift Guide<br />
| image = what_if_2_gift_guide_2x.png<br />
| imagesize = 500x878px<br />
| noexpand = true<br />
| titletext = BABIES OR LITERATURE BUT NOT BOTH: Baby shoes<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Created by a PLATINUM CYLINDER FILLED WITH A KILOGRAM OF NEUTRINOS. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
<br />
[[Randall]] is again promoting his new book, ''[https://xkcd.com/what-if-2/ What If? 2]'', and starts by explaining the kind of recipient who might appreciate it, basically anyone who is into science or anything in the universe... So basically anyone.<br />
<br />
Then he also gives both direct and humorously indirect instructions of how to obtain the book for them, the latter method making a jocular (but not completely wrong) presumption that almost any text-input widget leads to some relevant search-engine result. Also the entire comic is a link to the ''What If? 2'' page on xkcd that's included in the comic. As always, clicking anywhere on the image will take you there (including actually clicking on the link).<br />
<br />
He also suggests some other tongue-in-cheek gift ideas for several other subtypes of gift-receiver, most of which are, in keeping with the ''What If'' ethos, somewhat dangerous or impractical. A number directly reference things previously mentioned or depicted by xkcd.<br />
<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|+ <br />
|-<br />
! Interest !! Gift Idea !! Explanation<br />
|-<br />
| Engineering || The {{w|International Prototype of the Kilogram|platinum cylinder}} formerly used to define the kilogram || This is an object of historical relevance of which only six exist, making it a very expensive or illegal gift. With the {{w|2019 redefinition of the SI base units|redefinition of the SI base units}} in 2019, {{w|2019_redefinition_of_the_SI_base_units#Kilogram|the kilogram}} is now defined using only natural constants rather than a physical standard. It took some time before this last SI unit was redefined, 3 years prior to this comic's release. The old prototypes are no longer as important as they were when they were actually used to define the kilogram. But they are still historical artifacts with enormous value, even apart from the value of a kilogram of platinum (about $32 000 at time of writing).<br />
|-<br />
| Biology || The genomes of the scientists who headed the human genome project || The "International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium," as the {{w|Human Genome Project}} team was known, involved scientists from twenty institutions in six countries. In the US, it was initially led by DNA structure co-discoverer {{w|James Watson}} who was succeeded by {{w|Francis Collins}}. In the UK, the project was led by {{w|John Sulston}}. The teams from other countries' institutions were less prominent and performed substantially less work on the initial sequencing. James Watson's genome was sequenced in 2007. The genome of {{w|Craig Venter}}, the CEO of {{w|Celera Genomics}}, was used as the exemplar for Celera’s sequence. While the “race” between Celera and NIH was declared a tie by then-President Clinton, in actuality, Celera had some 85+% coverage while NIH was about 50%. <br />
|-<br />
| Physics || A beam of neutrinos delivered through the earth by the LHC || {{w|Neutrino}}s interact very weakly with other particles, to the point that they almost always pass straight through matter completely unaffected. This means that particle accelerators can send neutrinos to any other point on Earth by aiming the particle beam into the ground, and the neutrinos pass straight through the Earth. This point is referenced in the What-If article "{{what if|73|Lethal Neutrinos}}". The low interactivity of neutrinos would also mean that the recipient would be unable to perceive their gift, making this a poor present for anyone except the small proportion of physics aficionados who already have a neutrino detector on-hand.<br />
|-<br />
| Animals || Surprise wildlife encounter (gift-wrapped box with a bobcat inside) || This is a reference to [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Category:Bobcats xkcd's rich history of mailing boxed bobcats to people]. This gift would place the recipient in a perilous situation, and, although definitely a wildlife encounter, is not a good gift.{{Citation needed}}<br />
|-<br />
| Law || A vacation to that area of Idaho where you can commit crimes with impunity due to a court district boundary error || This refers to the "{{w|Zone of Death (Yellowstone)|Zone of Death}}", a 50-square-mile area of Yellowstone National Park that is in the physical boundaries of Idaho, but in the legal jurisdiction of Wyoming. Because a jury in the United States must be composed of residents of the same district ''and'' state in which the crime was committed, but no one lives in this small area of a National Park, anyone who committed a crime here could not (according to a legal theory not fully tested in the courts) receive a trial, and thus could not legally be punished for said crime in any circumstance. This is an interesting legal loophole, but going to this area does not provide any more value than hearing about it, and could scare your law-enthusiast friend.<br />
|-<br />
| Chemistry || A necklace of element samples whose symbols spell out the recipient's name (note: names like "Katherine" and "Brandon" may cause radiation accidents.) || Novelty necklaces are a common and innocuous gift. Using element symbols to replace letters in a name is a common gimmick (famously used in the title and credits of {{w|Breaking Bad}}). Using real samples of the given elements could be difficult, as elements can be expensive, highly reactive, or toxic. Reactivity and toxicity can be dealt with by containing them in well-sealed containers (which would also be necessary for elements that are liquid or gas at room temperature), but those elements that are radioactive could be dangerous, even if fully contained, and and some have short enough half-lives that a sample wouldn't persist long enough to be used as a gift. "Katherine" would be made from Potassium (highly reactive), Astatine (rare, '''radioactive''' and has a short half-life), Hydrogen (gaseous at room temperature, flammable), Erbium, Iodine (sublimes into a gas at room temperature), and Neon (gaseous at room temperature). "Brandon" would be made from Boron, Radium ('''radioactive'''), Neodymium, Oxygen (gaseous at room temperature), and Nitrogen (gaseous at room temperature). The problems with element samples could be partially alleviated by allowing compounds rather than pure elements, but the radioactivity would still be a problem, and neon does not form compounds and as such is always gaseous. Additionally, the letters J and Q do not appear in the periodic table symbols, while M does not appear on its own (only followed by six other characters, with "o" as the only vowel amongst them), so a name like John, Quinn or Mike would be problematic.<br />
|-<br />
| Puzzles || Two goats and a new car || This is a reference to both the "{{w|Wolf, goat, and cabbage problem}}", involving a river crossing, and the "{{w|Monty Hall problem}}", in which a game show contestant has to choose between three doors, two of which conceal goats and one of which conceals a car, and wins whatever prize is revealed. (See [[2348: Boat Puzzle]] and [[1282: Monty Hall]], respectively, for other cartoons inspired by these problems.) This gift places the recipient within a puzzle which is typically discussed hypothetically rather than happening in real life. Although many people would consider a new car a ''great'' gift, those who would appreciate a gift of goats are less common.<br />
|-<br />
| Technology || Cybiko® wireless handheld computer for teens (2000) || This is a direct callback to [[2699: Feature Comparison|one of the previous week's comics]], which humourously suggested that this device is a better option than most of the current popular communication technologies. While an interesting example of the history of communication technology and coming from a time when experimentation was common and standards were few, it isn't very useful now, because it is no longer supported, has a communication range of 100 meters (sending text messages via radio) and one can only use it to communicate with users of the same device. However, technology enthusiasts could find it interesting as a collectors' item, so by all means it is one of the most plausible gift ideas on this list.<br />
|-<br />
| Space || Webb telescope personal photoshoot || The Webb telescope belongs to NASA, the ESA and the CSA, and is currently very far from Earth. It is designed to capture distant space objects in previously unseen detail. If the photoshoot implies photographing a nearby human, it is not designed to do this, even if the difficulties of sending a human about a million miles to its location could be overcome. On the other hand, if it means photographing the recipient on the earth's surface, Webb would have to point at the warm Earth and expose its optics to the Sun, permanently crippling the telescope ([https://webb.nasa.gov/content/about/faqs/faqLite.html Which is forbidden by NASA.]) and it would not have sufficient resolution to make out the subject in any case. These circumstances make it a highly impractical gift, to all intents and purposes to the point of impossibility. <br />
<br />
On the other hand, a gift experience of being allowed to take your own snapshot of Webb in position, perhaps with a [https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-10442913/James-Webb-Space-Telescope-seen-Earth-settles-orbit.html robotic telescope], might be an attractive gift to a space enthusiast! So might a chance to use the Webb telescope to take pictures of whatever celestial objects one chooses, as time on the Webb telescope is very carefully allocated.<br />
|-<br />
| Literature || Stephen King's writing desk (he's still using it so you'll have to fight him) || {{w|Stephen King}} is an author lucky enough to have legendary status while still alive. The desk of an author that has died would become an object of historic significance and would likely be either kept for exhibition or auctioned by their respective estate, but as Stephen King is still alive, he would probably object to his desk being subjected to the same.<br />
|-<br />
| Philosophy || Out-of-control trolley || This is another gift that places the recipient in the situations that they like discussing hypothetically. The {{w|trolley problem}} is a thought experiment in which one is asked to decide between allowing a trolley to kill five people or taking an action that causes it to kill one. Presenting someone with such a hypothetical problem may or may not be not a good gift, but [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sl5KJ69qiA forcing them to live through it in real life] is a terrible gift. (See [[1455: Trolley Problem]] for another cartoon inspired by this problem.)<br />
|-<br />
| Psychology || A nice gift with a note saying you don't expect anything in return || This is perhaps the most viable option on this list. This kind of gift giving could induce the Benjamin Franklin effect, causing the gift giver to like the recipient more. It could also be used to manipulate the recipient by increasing pressure to reciprocate. This would cause them stress, making it a bad gift, but a psychologist would hopefully understand it to be a joke. A psychologist could also think about the psychology of gift-giving and reciprocation, perhaps to their enjoyment.<br />
|-<br />
| (Title text) Babies or literature but not both || Baby shoes || This is a reference to the six-word story {{w|For sale: baby shoes, never worn}}, often attributed to Ernest Hemingway. Someone involved with babies, such as expecting or new parents, would find baby shoes a valuable gift for their child. Someone interested in literature would see the reference to a famous work. But someone who understands the reference and also enjoys babies might be sad, since the story implies the seller was expecting a baby but something went tragically wrong.<br />
|}<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
<br />
What If? 2 Gift Guide<br />
<br />
What if? 2 makes a good gift for anyone who's into science, absurd ideas, or just the universe in general. To order, go to xkcd.com/whatif2, or just type "what if 2" into some random box on your device; it will probably work.<br />
<br />
Here are some other gift ideas for hard-to-shop-for science enthusiasts:<br />
<br />
Interest - Gift Idea<br />
<br />
Engineering - The platinum cylinder formerly used to define the kilogram<br/><br />
Biology - The genomes of the scientists who headed the human genome project<br/><br />
Physics - A beam of neutrinos delivered through the earth by the LHC<br/><br />
Animals - Surprise wildlife encounter (gift-wrapped box with a bobcat inside)<br/><br />
Law - A vacation to that area of Idaho where you can commit crimes with impunity due to a court district boundary error<br/><br />
Chemistry - A necklace of element samples whose symbols spell out the recipient's name (note: names like "Katherine" and "Brandon" may cause radiation accidents.)<br/><br />
Puzzles - Two goats and a new car<br/><br />
Technology - Cybiko® Wireless Handheld Computer for Teens (2000)<br/><br />
Space - Webb telescope personal photoshoot<br/><br />
Literature - Stephen King's writing desk (he's still using it so you'll have to fight him)<br/><br />
Philosophy - Out-of-control trolley<br/><br />
Psychology - A nice gift with a note saying you don't expect anything in return.<br/><br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Book promotion]]<br />
[[Category:Science]]<br />
[[Category:Biology]]<br />
[[Category:Physics]]<br />
[[Category:Animals]]<br />
[[Category:Bobcats]]<br />
[[Category:Chemistry]]<br />
[[Category:Space]]<br />
[[Category:Telescopes]]<br />
[[Category:Photography]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]<br />
[[Category:Psychology]]</div>172.70.86.62https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2702:_What_If_2_Gift_Guide&diff=2997912702: What If 2 Gift Guide2022-11-24T21:49:00Z<p>172.70.86.62: /* Explanation */ bring up the explanation of the start of the comic</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 2702<br />
| date = November 23, 2022<br />
| title = What If 2 Gift Guide<br />
| image = what_if_2_gift_guide_2x.png<br />
| imagesize = 500x878px<br />
| noexpand = true<br />
| titletext = BABIES OR LITERATURE BUT NOT BOTH: Baby shoes<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Created by an OUT-OF-CONTROL HANDHELD NEUTRINO CYLINDER FOR TEENS. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
<br />
[[Randall Munroe]], author of xkcd, is promoting his new book, ''[https://xkcd.com/what-if-2/ What if? 2]''. He also suggests some other gift ideas, most of which are dangerous or impractical. Many reference past xkcd cartoons. <br />
<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|+ <br />
|-<br />
! Interest !! Gift Idea !! Explanation<br />
|-<br />
| Engineering || The {{w|International Prototype of the Kilogram|platinum cylinder}} formerly used to identify the kilogram || This is an object of historical relevance of which only six exist, making it a very expensive or illegal gift. With the {{w|2019 redefinition of the SI base units|redefinition of the SI base units}} in 2019, {{w|2019_redefinition_of_the_SI_base_units#Kilogram|the kilogram}} is now defined using only natural constants rather than a physical standard. It took some time before this last SI unit was redefined, but that is now 3 years past at the time of this comic's release, so it is not news. The old prototypes are no longer as valuable as they were when they were actually used to define the kilogram. But they are still historical artifacts with enormous value, even apart from the value of a kilogram of platinum (about $32 000 at time of writing).<br />
|-<br />
| Biology || The genomes of the scientists who headed the human genome project || The "International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium," as the {{w|Human Genome Project}} team was known, involved scientists from twenty institutions in six countries. In the US, it was initially led by DNA structure co-discoverer {{w|James Watson}} who was succeeded by {{w|Francis Collins}}. In the UK, the project was led by {{w|John Sulston}}. The teams from other countries' institutions were less prominent and performed substantially less work on the initial sequencing. James Watson's genome was sequenced in 2007.<br />
|-<br />
| Physics || A beam of neutrinos delivered through the earth by the LHC || [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutrino Neutrinos] interact very weakly with other particles, to the point that they almost always pass straight through matter completely unaffected. This means that particle accelerators can send neutrinos to any other point on Earth by aiming the particle beam into the ground, and the neutrinos pass straight through the Earth. This point is referenced in [https://what-if.xkcd.com/73/ What If? 73]. The low interactivity of neutrinos would also mean that the recipient would be unable to perceive their gift, making this a poor present for anyone except the small proportion of physics aficionados who already have a neutrino detector on-hand.<br />
|-<br />
| Animals || Surprise wildlife encounter (gift-wrapped box with a bobcat inside) || This is a reference to [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Category:Bobcats xkcd's rich history of mailing boxed bobcats to people]. This gift would place the recipient in a perilous situation, and, although definitely a wildlife encounter, is not a good gift{{Citation needed}}.<br />
|-<br />
| Law || A vacation to that area of Idaho where you can commit crimes with impunity due to a court district boundary error || This refers to the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zone_of_Death_(Yellowstone) "Zone of Death"], a 50-square-mile area of Yellowstone National Park that is in the physical boundaries of Idaho, but in the legal jurisdiction of Wyoming. Because a jury in the United States must be composed of residents of the same district ''and'' state in which the crime was committed, but no one lives in this small area of a National Park, anyone who committed a crime here could not possibly receive a trial, and thus could not legally be punished for said crime in any circumstance. This is an interesting legal loophole, but going to this area does not provide any more value than hearing about it, and could scare your law-enthusiast friend.<br />
|-<br />
| Chemistry || A necklace of element samples whose symbols spell out the recipient's name (note: names like "Katherine" and "Brandon" may cause radiation accidents.) || Novelty necklaces are a common and innocuous gift, and using element symbols in place of the same letter is a common gimmick, such as in the title of Breaking Bad. However, making an object out of whatever element sample corresponds to someone's name could have unpredictable results - some elements in their pure form are too brittle or have too low a melting point for such an application, and some are unsafe. "Katherine" would be made from Potassium (highly reactive), Astatine (rare, '''radioactive''' and has a short half-life), Hydrogen (gaseous at room temperature, flammable), Erbium, Iodine (sublimes into a gas at room temperature), and Neon (gaseous at room temperature). "Brandon" would be made from Boron, Radium ('''radioactive'''), Neodymium, Oxygen (gaseous at room temperature), and Nitrogen (gaseous at room temperature). The problems with element samples could be partially alleviated by allowing compounds rather than pure elements, but the radioactivity would still be a problem, and neon does not form compounds and as such is always gaseous. Additionally, the letter Q does not appear in the periodic table symbols, so a name like Quinn would be problematic.<br />
|-<br />
| Puzzles || Two goats and a new car || This is a reference to the the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monty_Hall_problem "Monty Hall problem"], in which a game show contestant can win only one of the three items. (See [[1282: Monty Hall]] for another cartoon inspired by this problem.) This gift places the recipient within a puzzle which is typically discussed hypothetically, rather than happening in real life. Although a new car is a ''great'' gift, goats are only useful to people with specific professions. <br />
The problem that the recipient would have would likely be how to transport the two goats - it'd be difficult to fit both into a compact car at once, but one can't be left behind unattended.<br />
|-<br />
| Technology || Cybiko® wireless handheld computer for teens (2000) || This device was referenced in [https://xkcd.com/2699/ one of last week's comics], so Randall seems to have a temporary fixation on it. While an interesting example of the history of communication technology and coming from a time when experimentation was common and standards were few, it isn't very useful now, because it is no longer supported, has a communication range of 100 meters (sending text messages via radio) and one can only use it to communicate with users of the same device. However, technology enthusiasts could find it interesting as a collectors' item, so by all means it is one of the most plausible gift ideas on this list.<br />
|-<br />
| Space || Webb telescope personal photoshoot || The Webb telescope belongs to NASA, the ESA and the CSA, and is currently very far from Earth. It is designed to capture distant space objects in previously unseen detail. It is not designed to photograph nearby objects of human size, assuming that that is what photoshoot implies. These circumstances make it both an impossible and impractical gift. Furthermore, unless the recipient of the gift is able to travel a long way from Earth, Webb would have to point at the warm Earth and expose its optics to the Sun, permanently crippling the telescope. [https://webb.nasa.gov/content/about/faqs/faqLite.html This is forbidden by NASA.]<br />
<br />
On the other hand, a gift experience of being allowed to to take your own snapshot of Webb in position, perhaps with a [https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-10442913/James-Webb-Space-Telescope-seen-Earth-settles-orbit.html robotic telescope], might be an attractive gift to a space enthusiast! So might a chance to use the Webb telescope to take pictures of whatever celestial objects one chooses, as time on the Webb telescope is very carefully allocated.<br />
|-<br />
| Literature || Stephen King's writing desk (he's still using it so you'll have to fight him) || {{w|Stephen King}} is an author lucky enough to have legendary status while still alive. The desk of an author that has died would become an object of historic significance and would likely be either kept for exhibition or auctioned by their respective estate, but as Stephen King still writes, his desk, while valuable, cannot be subjected to the same.<br />
|-<br />
| Philosophy || Out-of-control trolley || This is another gift that places the recipient in the situations that they like discussing hypothetically. This refers to the {{w|trolley problem}}, which places stress on the person forced to make the decision, and exists to make them examine their morals. Facing someone with the hypothetical problem is already not a good gift, but [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sl5KJ69qiA forcing them to live through it in real life] is a terrible gift. (See [[1455: Trolley Problem]] for another cartoon inspired by this problem.)<br />
|-<br />
| Psychology || A nice gift with a note saying you don't expect anything in return || This is perhaps the most viable option on this list. This kind of gift giving could induce the Benjamin Franklin effect, causing the gift giver to like the recipient more. It could also be used to manipulate the recipient by increasing pressure to reciprocate. This would cause them stress, making it a bad gift, but a psychologist would hopefully understand it to be a joke. <br />
|-<br />
| (Title text) Babies or literature but not both || Baby shoes || This is a reference to the six-word story [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/For_sale:_baby_shoes,_never_worn For sale: baby shoes, never worn] which is often attributed to Ernest Hemingway. Someone with babies, such as expecting or new parents would find baby shoes as a valuable gift for their child. Someone interested in literature would see the reference to a famous work. But someone who understands the reference would possibly also be sad if they simultaneously actually enjoyed babies or have children of their own (since the story implies the seller was expecting a baby but there was an accident).<br />
|}<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
<br />
What If? 2 Gift Guide<br />
<br />
What if? 2 makes a good gift for anyone who's into science, absurd ideas, or just the universe in general. To order, go to xkcd.com/whatif2, or just type "what if 2" into some random box on your device; it will probably work.<br />
<br />
Here are some other gift ideas for hard-to-shop-for science enthusiasts:<br />
<br />
Interest - Gift Idea<br />
<br />
Engineering - The platinum cylinder formerly used to define the kilogram<br/><br />
Biology - The genomes of the scientists who headed the human genome project<br/><br />
Physics - A beam of neutrinos delivered through the earth by the LHC<br/><br />
Animals - Surprise wildlife encounter (gift-wrapped box with a bobcat inside)<br/><br />
Law - A vacation to that area of Idaho where you can commit crimes with impunity due to a court district boundary error<br/><br />
Chemistry - A necklace of element samples whose symbols spell out the recipient's name (note: names like "Katherine" and "Brandon" may cause radiation accidents.)<br/><br />
Puzzles - Two goats and a new car<br/><br />
Technology - Cybiko® Wireless Handheld Computer for Teens (2000)<br/><br />
Space - Webb telescope personal photoshoot<br/><br />
Literature - Stephen King's writing desk (he's still using it so you'll have to fight him)<br/><br />
Philosophy - Out-of-control trolley<br/><br />
Psychology - A nice gift with a note saying you don't expect anything in return.<br/><br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Book promotion]]<br />
[[Category:Bobcats]]</div>172.70.86.62https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=User:While_False/Report/Notices/Conflicts/Conflict_of_interest&diff=298961User:While False/Report/Notices/Conflicts/Conflict of interest2022-11-17T20:55:46Z<p>172.70.86.62: </p>
<hr />
<div>I won’t pen a report about myself. No one would trust it and then no one would trust me. —[[User:While False|While False]] ([[User:While False/explain xkcd museum|'''museum''']] | [[User talk:While False|talk]] | [[special:Contributions/While_False|contributions]] | [[special:Log/While_False|logs]] | [[Special:UserRights/While_False|rights]] | [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=User:While_False&printable=yes printable version] | [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=User:While_False&action=info page information] | [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Special:WhatLinksHere/User:While_False what links there] | [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Special:RecentChangesLinked&days=30&from=&target=User%3AWhile_False related changes] | [https://www.google.com Google search] | current time: {{CURRENTTIME}}) 21:54, 16 November 2022 (UTC)<br />
:Not that my opinion matters (thanks for the answer to my 'comment', which I naturally found, as well as the other more direct reply), but I think you're 'ok'. Yet straining the bounds of credibility by continually inventing new ways to add irrelevent extra pages which I wouldn't be surprised to be Marked For Deletion at some point. I don't get the point of all this at all. Can't speak for anyone else, of course, this is just my own confusion.<br />
:...and the irony of my adding to the problem (creating updated versions when I pose my questions or otherwise reply) is not lost on me. But this is the only practical chain of communication I have so, when I ''can't'' bite my lip, I must use it. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.57|172.70.91.57]] 23:14, 16 November 2022 (UTC)<br />
::Updated versions are essential, so you’re doing an important job for which you sadly don’t get many thanks or digital balloons. —[[User:While False|While False]] ([[User:While False/explain xkcd museum|'''museum''']] | [[User talk:While False|talk]] | [[special:Contributions/While_False|contributions]] | [[special:Log/While_False|logs]] | [[Special:UserRights/While_False|rights]] | [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=User:While_False&printable=yes printable version] | [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=User:While_False&action=info page information] | [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Special:WhatLinksHere/User:While_False what links there] | [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Special:RecentChangesLinked&days=30&from=&target=User%3AWhile_False related changes] | [https://www.google.com Google search] | current time: {{CURRENTTIME}}) 07:58, 17 November 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
[[Category:Pages to delete]]</div>172.70.86.62https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=772:_Frogger&diff=298785772: Frogger2022-11-16T15:57:54Z<p>172.70.86.62: /* Explanation */ space</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 772<br />
| date = July 28, 2010<br />
| title = Frogger<br />
| image = frogger.png<br />
| titletext = I understand you and your team worked hard on this, but when we said to make it more realistic, we meant the graphics.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{w|Frogger}} is a classic video game introduced in 1981. The aim of the game is to safely get a frog across a busy road and a river to a lily pad at the top of the screen. <br />
<br />
The title text reveals that a team of programmers misinterpreted a task to make the game "more realistic", i.e. with better graphics, and instead made the trucks swerve to avoid the car-sized frog, causing another vehicle to crash into the truck resulting in a serious road accident. This is instead of the traffic just inexorably moving at a constant rate in their assigned lanes and disregarding the movements of the frog (as in typical Frogger gameplay), who is normally the only one who ever needs to take evasive action or suffer the consequences.<br />
<br />
The game continues to introduce increasing drama with the reactions of off-panel bystanders.<br />
<br />
This is similar to the idea behind the modification of the game in [[873: FPS Mod]], in which realism makes a video game much less enjoyable.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:[The dark green frog, Frogger, is standing in the middle of the panel on the green grass by the side of a light gray road with at least four tracks divided by black midlines. The last track being mainly outside the top frame of the panel. It is looking out into the traffic, which includes three trucks (two in the nearest lane one in the third) with different color of the cabin (one blue and two dark gray) and white behind the cabin. There is also a red car in the second lane. All four vehicles are driving towards left.]<br />
<br />
:[Lines behind the frog and sound indicates that Frogger hops, and it moves out right in front of the right truck which is now close to it. The left truck is partly outside the panel, and the other two have moved further left and a new gray car has entered from the right in the second lane.]<br />
:''Hop''<br />
<br />
:[The truck in the inner lane swerves into the second lane to avoid Frogger, which takes the truck out in front of the gray car. The other truck in the inner lane has exited the panel and the red car only shows the rear part. ]<br />
<br />
:[The truck and the car collide with a great noise displayed with shaky letters above them. The car and the cabin of the truck both crumples. Behind the car is two lines of skid marks. Frogger is left unharmed in the inner lane. The red car is gone and the third lane truck is leaving the panel to the left, the cabin just outside the frame.]<br />
:<big>''Boom''</big><br />
<br />
:[Only the two crashed vehicles are left on the road with smoke pouring out of their hoods. The trucks rear end also seems to have crumbled more than in the previous image, and strangely enough the skid marks of the car now stretches longer towards the right than before... Frogger turns around and hops back to the side of the road, again indicated with lines and sound. At the bottom of the panel three off-panel voices calls out:]<br />
:''Hop''<br />
:Off-panel voice 1: Oh god!<br />
:Off-panel voice 2: Someone call 911!<br />
:Off-panel voice 3: Mom!<br />
<br />
==Trivia==<br />
Randall made a mistake in the last panel, where the skid marks of the car stretches longer towards the right than in the panel before, even though the car and truck did not move (and the view has also stayed the same through out the comic.) However, this could just be smoke plumes.<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Comics with color]]<br />
[[Category:Video games]]<br />
[[Category:Animals]]</div>172.70.86.62https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1425:_Tasks&diff=298523Talk:1425: Tasks2022-11-10T20:21:00Z<p>172.70.86.62: </p>
<hr />
<div>the source of title text maybe is Szeliski, ''Computer Vision: Algorithms and Applications'' (2010), p. 10. --[[User:Valepert|valepert]] ([[User talk:Valepert|talk]]) 06:59, 24 September 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
[http://www.wired.com/2012/06/google-x-neural-network/ Google’s Artificial Brain Learns to Find Cat Videos] might be useful as a description of the problem [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.219|108.162.250.219]] 08:34, 24 September 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:Sorry for editing your comment but external links have different syntax that internal links so it wasn't working. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 11:21, 24 September 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Nice Superman joke there, Pudder! --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.49|141.101.99.49]] 10:26, 24 September 2014 (UTC)<br />
:It had been removed in an edit, so I shoehorned in back in :P --[[User:Pudder|Pudder]] ([[User talk:Pudder|talk]]) 12:25, 24 September 2014 (UTC)<br />
Isn't there an xkcd where the estimate of 5 years of work is equivalent to "might take forever?" [[User:Rtanenbaum|Rtanenbaum]] ([[User talk:Rtanenbaum|talk]]) 13:16, 24 September 2014 (UTC)<br />
:I'm pretty sure you're refering to 678. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.132|173.245.52.132]] 15:00, 25 September 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
The link in the description is to a document by {{w|Seymour Papert}} and the [http://books.google.com/books/about/The_Summer_Vision_Project.html?id=qOh7NwAACAAJ book] on the project is also by Papert. Is there any contemporary evidence that it was actually Minsky who assigned the project? I think he just got interested in it later. 14:17, 24 September 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
[http://xkcd.com/678/ 678: Researcher Translation] is probably what you're thinking of, Rtanenbaum. [[User:Ndgeek|Ndgeek]] ([[User talk:Ndgeek|talk]]) 17:44, 24 September 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Is it possible that Randall's selection of bird rather than another naturally occurring object is a subtle reference to the Birdsnap app (http://engineering.columbia.edu/it-crow-or-raven-new-birdsnap-app-will-tell-you-0) which has solved some of the aspects of this problem? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.48.137|173.245.48.137]] 22:02, 27 September 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Hopefully I can add that this also seems to make reference to the U.S. Forest Service intention to make everyone have a permit to take pics, etc., in national parks. https://www.yahoo.com/travel/dont-take-that-picture-the-u-s-forest-service-might-98484656432.html {{unsigned ip|108.162.216.21}}<br />
<br />
Post the picture to an online forum, say it's a bird, if it's not everyone will correct you as per http://xkcd.com/386/, so scrape forum and if there's a lot of attention it's not a bird, if there isn't much attention it probably is a bird. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.78|141.101.99.78]] 23:06, 3 October 2014 (UTC)<br />
<br />
A dev team at Flickr took this comic as a challenge, and set up a PoC at http://parkorbird.flickr.com/ (that seems to work fairly well). --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.210.135|108.162.210.135]] 20:08, 20 October 2014 (UTC)<br />
:I was duly impressed. It doesn't recognize big bird very well, though. ;) [[User:Suspender guy|Suspender guy]] ([[User talk:Suspender guy|talk]]) 20:26, 17 February 2016 (UTC)<br />
<br />
A 'picture of a bird' from a CS perspective is a reverse engineering problem. The picture is a 2 dimensional rendering of a 3-dimensional world and a 'bird' is a 3-dimensional object. It takes years for the mind of a newborn human to be able to recognize a majority of objects based on their 'first look' at a stereoscopic (two-eyes) image presented by their visual cortex. The software equivalency of this would be to create a 3 dimensional representation of objects and create a linear-algebra algorithm that can define the statistical probability that any given shape is within a certain degree of exclusion a matrix representation of the target shape (area) of the 3 dimensional object (bird) based on distance (using spacial reconstruction). It's not impossible, it's just really really hard. - nerd answer {{unsigned ip|173.245.54.166}}<br />
:To be honest I don't think it is impossible to replicate any function of human intelligence and mental capacity on a computer system. It just requires sufficient processing ability, appropriate hardware, and of course, an understanding of how humans do it in the first place. -Pennpenn [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.162|108.162.250.162]] 03:29, 17 September 2015 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Or just give Google a little less than two years, and they'll make [https://cloud.google.com/vision/ Google Cloud Vision API] for you [[User:Gpk|Gpk]] ([[User talk:Gpk|talk]]) 20:39, 13 June 2016 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I read somewhere that when you ask CS/IT specialist for a probable ETA for solving an interesting problem, you need to multiply the given time to the ETA by 4 and take the next larger unit (a minute becomes 4 hours, an hour becomes 4 days etc.). Can't find the source of that though. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.70.229|141.101.70.229]] 15:47, 12 September 2016 (UTC)<br />
<br />
== GIS being "easy" ==<br />
<br />
All these years later, I still struggle with the classification of "are we in a national park" as "easy"..<br />
<br />
It 'only' requires a functioning GPS-system. A military super-project, whose [https://nation.time.com/2012/05/21/how-much-does-gps-cost/ initial setup cost 12 billion], still costs ~2 million a day, and whose principles of operation depend on [https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/20230/does-gps-use-general-relativity both special '''and''' general relativity] for correctness.<br />
And that's ''before'' we add the record-keeping and (internet?)logistics involved with providing each phone an accurate GIS-database. The OpenStreetMap (most likely free/gratis source of this type of data, for a cheap app) is a massive undertaking!<br />
<br />
(sarcasm on) GIS-lookup sure is easy! Only took a minor Manhattan-project, a literal Einstein, and an army of internet volunteers to solve!(sarcasm off)<br />
<br />
(I'm leaving out mobile internet access while in said National Parks (Telecom operators are among the wealthiest companies in the world, and those phone-towers-disguised-like-trees don't come cheap...), because the App would probably be shipped with a hardcoded park-database, not do live queries.)<br />
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-- Jules @ [[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.77|162.158.91.77]] 08:13, 18 May 2020 (UTC)<br />
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:This is about implementation of something existing, not inventing it from scratch. The use of the word "app" implies, that this comic is happening in the smartphone area, so GPS on phones should be a regular thing. --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 09:57, 18 May 2020 (UTC)<br />
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:: "app" sets the real-world context, but the punchline is about the comparative hardness '''in CS'''.<br />
:: For the pragmatic app-developer, "previously solved" equals "easy"; for a doctorate in computational theory, it doesn't :-)<br />
:: -- Jules @ [[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.77|162.158.91.77]] 12:16, 18 May 2020 (UTC)<br />
:::That might be true, but this comic is definitely about developing an app, so it doesn't matter if GPS involves complicated hard- and software setups outside of the app or not. And unless you focus on the theoretical work also for a computer scientist, it is easy to use established GPS methods. --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 12:45, 18 May 2020 (UTC)<br />
<br />
now deep learning is common you not need research team and five years anymore<br />
<br />
:And it took about five years since the comic was posted to get to that point...<br />
<br />
This comic is referring to doing a GIS lookup which is a glorified sql Query which has nothing to do with GPS and the the USGS spatial data a GIS database is commonly populated with is not derived from GPS information anyway. A GIS Lookup IS easy. Gathering the spatial data is difficult, though as previously mentioned its already widely and freely available for use. --[[User:PlatterMonkous|PlatterMonkous]]<br />
:The GIS data is being looked at to determine if GPS-derived metadata lies within one of its boundaries, surely? Without GPS, the query has no sensible question to ask.<br />
:(Then again, none of my own pictures have that sort of EXIF information. Either they're taken on a 'dumb' digital camera, that doesn't have inbuilt GPS, or even ''if'' they're done via my GPS+Camera-equipped tablet (rare) I've likely not allowed the one to be fed data that the other one knows. If it's even turned on. But the comic scenario clearly assumes otherwise.) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.62|172.70.86.62]] 20:21, 10 November 2022 (UTC)</div>172.70.86.62https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2696:_Precision_vs_Accuracy&diff=2984582696: Precision vs Accuracy2022-11-09T14:34:09Z<p>172.70.86.62: /* Explanation */ Some effort to lay out the situation of precision vs. accuracy. And the identical digits.</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 2696<br />
| date = November 9, 2022<br />
| title = Precision vs Accuracy<br />
| image = precision_vs_accuracy_2x.png<br />
| imagesize = 501x462px<br />
| noexpand = true<br />
| titletext = 'Barack Obama is much less likely than the average cat to jump in and out of cardboard boxes for fun' is low precision, but I'm not sure about the accuracy.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT WITH FEWER LEGS THAN OBAMA'S CAT - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
This comic parodies the difference between 'accuracy' and 'precision' with a table. Accuracy and Precision are common concepts to be encountered in the scientific field and often students have issues with the differences between them. The comic explores this concept by comparing President Barack Obama, the former President of the United States with cats. Confusingly, he measures different statistics between Barack Obama and cats (sometimes measuring them in terms of cats) leaving the unwary reader just as confused as encountering accuracy vs precision for the 1st time.<br />
<br />
Being precise is typical of calculations that roll out an excess of significant digits, often in the form of trailing decimals. Precision is lowered by using more rounded figures, or merely being comparative but largely unaffected by whether the original values used were accurate or even correct. Accuracy is a cumulative function of the accuracy given to the intermediate values used for any calculation, and can be degraded by using figures that are themselves in some way inaccurate or imprecise. <br />
<br />
The numbers mentioned in the top row of the table all use exactly the same digits, those of the most accurate and precise quantity, dictating that a full five digits of precision are used in them all. For the medium accuracy the number is palindromic, giving a value that is reasonable but would be overly exact, whilst the low accuracy number is just a repeat of the first's digits with a shifted decimal but clearly at the wrong scale. For the latter, he replaces the thousands separator with the decimal point (perhaps as a visual pun) but, if Randall had ever intended ''any'' accuracy, he could have shifted the decimal point on further place to the left and been well within an order of magnituded of the true measurement.<br />
<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
!Precision<br />
!Accuracy<br />
!Statement<br />
!Explanation<br />
|-<br />
|High<br />
|High<br />
|Barack Obama was president for 70,128 hours<br />
|Within an hour, this is the official length of {{w|Barack Obama}}'s 8-year presidency, including 2 {{w|leap year|leap days}}.<br />
|-<br />
|High<br />
|Medium<br />
|Barack Obama weighs as much as 17.082 cats<br />
|The accuracy would depend on the mass of the cats in question. Also a human's mass can vary by a few pounds in a small amount of time as meals are consumed, resources are used in metabolism and wastes are eliminated, and thus this may be overly precise due the margin of error in both the mass of cats and the mass of Mr. Obama.<br />
|-<br />
|High<br />
|Low<br />
|Barack Obama is 70.128 feet tall<br />
|A highly precise (5 significant digits) measurement, but not that close to his actual height, published as 6'1".<br />
<br />
|-<br />
|Medium<br />
|High<br />
|Most cats have 4 legs<br />
|Like other mammals, cats are tetra-pods, which means "four feet". Unless there is a genetic or other developmental issue, or an an injury that causes the loss of a limb, then cats generally have 4 legs.<br />
|-<br />
|Medium<br />
|Medium<br />
|Barack Obama is 6'1"<br />
|While not very precise, that is the former president's published height.<br />
|-<br />
|Medium<br />
|Low<br />
|Barack Obama has 4 legs<br />
|Barack Obama, being a mammal, does qualify as a tetra-pod, but as a primate, his two forelimbs have been modified into arms and hands, and like other humans, he does not generally use them for locomotion, but to manipulate his environment.<br />
<br />
|-<br />
|Low<br />
|High<br />
|Most cats have legs<br />
|A true (high accuracy) statement without much information (low precision).<br />
|-<br />
|Low<br />
|Medium<br />
|Barack Obama has fewer legs than your cat<br />
|Again, this will depend on the cat, but in general, true.<br />
|-<br />
|Low<br />
|Low<br />
|Barack Obama's cat has hundreds of legs<br />
|Low precision. Barack Obama owns a four-legged dog named Sunny, but is not known to have owned a cat.<br />
|-<br />
|Low<br />
|Unsure<br />
|Barack Obama is much less likely than the average cat to jump in and out of cardboard boxes for fun<br />
|Barack Obama has never publicly jumped in and out of cardboard boxes for fun{{citation needed}}, but the possibility that he does in private exists<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
|}<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
<br />
:[A table with 3 rows and 3 columns]<br />
<br />
:;High precision<br />
::High accuracy: Barack Obama was president for 70,128 hours<br />
::Medium accuracy: Barack Obama weighs as much as 17.082 cats<br />
::Low accuracy: Barack Obama is 70.128 feet tall<br />
<br />
:;Medium precision<br />
::High accuracy: Most cats have 4 legs<br />
::Medium accuracy: Barack Obama is 6'1"<br />
::Low accuracy: Barack Obama has 4 legs<br />
<br />
:;Low precision<br />
::High accuracy: Most cats have legs<br />
::Medium accuracy: Barack Obama has fewer legs than your cat<br />
::Low accuracy: Barack Obama's cat has hundreds of legs<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}</div>172.70.86.62https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2693:_Wirecutter_Recommendation&diff=298402Talk:2693: Wirecutter Recommendation2022-11-08T13:30:28Z<p>172.70.86.62: </p>
<hr />
<div><!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~ and don't delete this text. New comments should be added at the bottom.--><br />
<br />
I'm glad the explanation (as of reading, at least) lept straight into reminding me about the website. I initially read the first panel as Cueball looking for a {{w|Diagonal pliers|specific item}} recomendation... [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.12|172.70.86.12]] 18:42, 2 November 2022 (UTC)<br />
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Soooo.... what sort of dreams would these be? Is Randal talking about the invasive "we control you while you sleep" dystopia, or is he referring to life goals? [[User:Cwallenpoole|Cwallenpoole]] ([[User talk:Cwallenpoole|talk]]) 18:44, 2 November 2022 (UTC)<br />
:I'm pretty sure he means life aspirations -- even if you could rate sleeping dreams ("Flying -- 5 stars"), how would you make use of them? There are some people who claim to be able to control their dreams, it's not something most people can do. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 23:01, 2 November 2022 (UTC)<br />
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Is this fitting for [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Category:Rankings Category:Rankings]? —[[User:While False|While False]] ([[User:While False/explain xkcd museum|'''museum''']] | [[User talk:While False|talk]] | [[special:Contributions/While_False|contributions]] | [[special:Log/While_False|logs]] | [[Special:UserRights/While_False|rights]]) 21:07, 2 November 2022 (UTC)<br />
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I totally misunderstood the first panel as "I just went with the one wirecutter *which was* recommended". Like, there was a comparison of different wire cutters, but only one of them was recommended, and that's the one Cueball went with. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.22.16|172.69.22.16]] 21:52, 2 November 2022 (UTC)<br />
: As did I. I had never, in fact, heard of the Wirecutter review website until I came here looking for an explanation.[[Special:Contributions/172.69.79.196|172.69.79.196]] 22:22, 2 November 2022 (UTC)<br />
::Ditto. I initially thought it might be another 1036-type idea.[[User:Yorkshire Pudding|Yorkshire Pudding]] ([[User talk:Yorkshire Pudding|talk]]) 22:55, 2 November 2022 (UTC)<br />
::Me too, but when I went to panel 2 I realized it must be a recommendation site that I hadn't heard of. Then I came here and got the confirmation. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 22:58, 2 November 2022 (UTC)<br />
::One of most confusing strips to date. Spent good couple minutes thinking just how applying wire cutters to your pet is merely weird but to a site for product recommendations is very bad. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.51.52|172.68.51.52]] 10:48, 3 November 2022 (UTC)<br />
:::Agreed. If "WIRECUTTER" was in italics, then it would have easier to understand it was a proper noun and not "wirecutter". [[Special:Contributions/172.68.70.108|172.68.70.108]] 18:59, 4 November 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Blood-type [[Special:Contributions/172.70.110.237|172.70.110.237]] 23:11, 2 November 2022 (UTC)<br />
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This was pretty confusing because being outside the US, I had never heard of wirecutter :P [[Special:Contributions/172.68.210.41|172.68.210.41]] 23:54, 2 November 2022 (UTC)<br />
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Specifically for neighborhoods, beyond the easy to compare numbers like property values and crime rates, there are websites that "review" them for less quantitative things like access to community services, traffic and noise, and reputation of nearby schools. It is still normally too complex a decision to reduce to "whichever the website recommends". [[Special:Contributions/172.70.134.13|172.70.134.13]] 00:48, 3 November 2022 (UTC)<br />
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The title text could be a reference to the regress argument. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.222.239|162.158.222.239]] 10:39, 3 November 2022 (UTC)<br />
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<br />
"Your college major will determine the rest of your life significantly." <- Clearly written by someone who has not gone through college. {{unsigned|172.70.131.85}}<br />
:Or someone who went to a college which taught in a language other than English, or who isn’t very careful when they write on Explain xkcd compared to when they wrote essays in college. In short: Please don’t be rude. —[[User:While False|While False]] ([[User:While False/explain xkcd museum|'''museum''']] | [[User talk:While False|talk]] | [[special:Contributions/While_False|contributions]] | [[special:Log/While_False|logs]] | [[Special:UserRights/While_False|rights]]) 17:39, 4 November 2022 (UTC)<br />
::You call me rude, yet you're the one making assumptions about me, assuming that my native language is English, or that I went to an English-speaking college. I have been through college, specifically, university. It's a waste of money unless you're going into medicine or law. Other degrees are meaningless pieces of paper and the only things that actually matter in the job market are personal connections.<br />
:::Well, I have assumed neither your language nor your college. To call someone uneducated is a common insult. —[[User:While False|While False]] ([[User:While False/explain xkcd museum|'''museum''']] | [[User talk:While False|talk]] | [[special:Contributions/While_False|contributions]] | [[special:Log/While_False|logs]] | [[Special:UserRights/While_False|rights]]) 19:03, 4 November 2022 (UTC)<br />
::::I think you're a bit off base here - pretty sure they weren't seriously calling anyone uneducated - simply making a half-joking observation that a college degree isn't anywhere near as valuable as that statement suggested.[[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.64|172.71.178.64]] 11:13, 7 November 2022 (UTC)<br />
:::::If so I’m sorry. –[[User:While False|While False]] ([[User:While False/explain xkcd museum|'''museum''']] | [[User talk:While False|talk]] | [[special:Contributions/While_False|contributions]] | [[special:Log/While_False|logs]] | [[Special:UserRights/While_False|rights]]) 11:53, 7 November 2022 (UTC)<br />
:...regardless of all that, a Wirecutter review would be useless, because we already know that [[1052: Every Major's Terrible]]! [[Special:Contributions/141.101.76.166|141.101.76.166]] 21:36, 4 November 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Had to come here to find out why in the world anyone would recommend using one wire cutter (as opposed to more?) on a vacuum cleaner, headphones, or scooter, let alone those other things. I supposed that if headphones stopped working, having one wire cutter might be useful. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.146.65|172.71.146.65]] 22:31, 4 November 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Why is there no reason why you shouldn't base your religious worldview off wirecutter? There (as of now) doesn't seem to be many consequences to your religious worldview, and current methods for choosing your religion are often misguided at best.{{unsigned|Rayrge|11:58, 8 November 2022}}<br />
:If a choice (as opposed to social inevitability) of religious worldview isn't directly consequential (dietry, time requirements, obligations in other ways) then it may still be problematic when interacting with others of another religion. Or of a ''slightly different'' skew of the religion (c.f. being declared "not a dwarf" in Discworld), though whether that's more an issue in 'natural' side-by-side sectarianism is debatable.<br />
:If you were to choose a religion (very few people do, I'd say, you either sit stewing in your 'natural' one, give or take, or get nudged into taking a leap over to whatever "something else" happens to pass by at the moment you've decided you don't like your own stew) then you have to know not only what the choice religions do directly to your life but also know how the rest of your world will react to you. (Different if you're in China, the US, various bits of the middle-east, Northern Ireland and almost everywhere will have 'less convenient' choices – albeit differently and to different degrees.)<br />
:Even within the US (with the primary Wirecutter-readership catchment) bible-belt/diasporic areas with particular trends to their religious philosophies are going to make it more advisable to account for that community, based upon expectations and perhaps also prejudices. And becoming sufficiently 'acceptaple' for one area's dominant creed might place you out of the norm in another neighbourhood. How a broad-brush review can successfully navigate all these issues (never mind if they covered the variations: can you be happily Jewish in Salt Lake City? Is Buddhism workable in the Projects? Exactly ''which'' subset of Evangelical Baptism works best in <wherever>...)<br />
:One who ''is'' a religion might be Ok in most (societally stable) places, but could still get the impression that you're more in the out-group. But as Pascal's Wager is bunk (for many reasons) there's mostly no way to choose to change to better fit in. Perhaps you can change to somewhere else where you can fit in without changing, but then you need to initially deal with being from elsewhere (with other prejudices), and never really know if you're even as good a fit as you thought before you move there. And Wirecutter isn't covering that under its Religion review, presumably, only a separate Neighbourhood one. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.62|172.70.86.62]] 13:30, 8 November 2022 (UTC)</div>172.70.86.62https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1624:_2016&diff=2982321624: 20162022-11-05T16:34:53Z<p>172.70.86.62: /* Transcript */ Sending formatting across comic line-wraps, that aren't transcript newlines, slightly more efficiently and consistently. (There's an Oxford Comma I'd not include, except that another *is*. I hate Oxford Commas, but they're there, so...)</p>
<hr />
<div><noinclude>:''This page refers to the comic named "2016". For comic #2016, see [[2016: OEIS Submissions]].''</noinclude><br />
{{comic<br />
| number = 1624<br />
| date = January 1, 2016<br />
| title = 2016<br />
| image = 2016.png<br />
| titletext = Want to feel old? Wait.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
This [[:Category:New Year|New Year comic]], the [[1623: 2016 Conversation Guide|second in a row]], is using a common genre of Internet humor, which [[Randall]] has used several times before, in an attempt at making [[:Category:Comics to make one feel old|people feel old]]. This is done by mentioning the ages of various things (often movies) which came into existence during their lifetime. Since many people tend to think of anything that they can remember a time before as "new", this often provokes a feeling of age and out-of-touchness.<br />
<br />
In this comic, [[Cueball]] has crashed through the roof into the bedroom of a sleeping [[White Hat]] (note the white hat on the bed) on {{w|New Year}}'s morning. This wakes White Hat up, and Cueball then asks him if he "want[s] to feel old". Without waiting for a reply he starts to make such a list of things that will turn 10 and 20 years old in 2016, before he is interrupted (as he was about to continue mentioning even older things).<br />
<br />
White Hat is clearly less interested in Cueball's attempts to make him feel old than he is in the fact that Cueball has apparently crashed through his ceiling and woken him early in the morning on New Year's Day. To which Cueball just replies that 2016 is already hours old and that time is passing. As it is New Year's morning, White Hat has probably not been in bed too long and may even be drunk/hung-over, so he is ''acutely aware'' that the New Year is only a few hours old, and also that time is passing.<br />
<br />
''{{w|Night at the Museum}}'' and ''{{w|Cars (film)|Cars}}'' are both children's films from December and June of 2006 respectively, ''{{w|Hips Don't Lie}}'' was an inescapable hit for {{w|Shakira}} released in February 2006, and the {{w|Wii}} is a Nintendo game console which was released in November 2006. If you were born in the early-to-mid nineties, these were probably cultural touchstones of your childhood - most people who enjoyed these are now adults.<br />
<br />
The films ''{{w|Twister (1996 film)|Twister}}'' and ''{{w|Independence Day (1996 film)|Independence Day}}'' are both disaster movies that were huge box office hits from May and July 1996. ''{{w|Twister (game)|Twister}}'' is also the name of a game introduced approximately 30 years earlier, so White Hat would feel young, but confused, if he misunderstood and thought he was being told that a game he remembers seeing as a small child is now only 20 years old. ''The Rock'' probably refers to the action film ''{{w|The Rock (film)|The Rock}}'' from June 1996, but it could also refer to the wrestler {{w|Dwayne Johnson|The Rock}}, who made his {{w|WWE|WWF/E}} debut in 1996 (he remains a celebrity to this day, although you may know him as Dwayne Johnson). The first games in the {{w|Pokémon (video game series)|''Pokémon'' series}} came out in Japan in February 1996 (though they would not come out in North America until 1998 and Europe until 1999). {{w|Wonderwall (song)|''Wonderwall''}} was perhaps the biggest hit for the band {{w|Oasis (band)|Oasis}} and remains a favorite of acoustic guitarists to this day. It was actually released in 1995 (mistake by Randall?) But it was probably first big in the US in 1996, and also an acoustic {{w|MTV Unplugged}} version was {{w|Wonderwall_(song)#Live_performances|recorded in 1996}}.<br />
<br />
Cueball entering a room hanging by a wire could also be a reference to an iconic scene in the film {{w|Mission:_Impossible_(film)|Mission: Impossible}}, also released in 1996.<br />
<br />
This strip is a joke about how common such memes are; Cueball is so eager to note what cultural items have reached major benchmarks of age that he feels the need to break into White Hat's house and announce it mere hours after 2016 begins.<br />
<br />
The title text adds a humorous alternative to suggested ways to feel old - by waiting, although one would have to wait for some time to experience noticeable results. It is only a couple of weeks ago that [[Beret Guy]] used this technique to travel forward in time in [[1617: Time Capsule]].<br />
<br />
There have been two previous New Year's comics with only the year used as the title: [[998: 2012]] in 2012 and [[1311: 2014]] in 2014. For some reason, this trend only seems to happen with the even-numbered years, but that ended in 2017 with [[1779: 2017]], making this the first of at least two years in a row with New Years comics using the new year as the title.<br />
<br />
A similar situation is seen in [[225: Open Source]] where two ninjas smashes through a skylight window hanging down from a rope, waking a person in a bed. In that case they are actually threatening the sleeping guy.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:[Cueball comes crashing through the ceiling suspended by a rope attached to a triangular contraption around his body. White Hat lies in his bed and appears to have been awoken by the noise, starting to sit up. At first glance it looks like Hairy, but White Hat's white hat can be seen hung on the back of the bed; he apparently doesn't sleep with it on.]<br />
:'''*Crash*'''<br />
:Cueball: Want to feel old?<br />
:Cueball: ''' ''Night at the Museum, Cars, Hips Don't Lie,'' ''' and the '''Wii''' all turn 10 this year.<br />
:Cueball: ''' ''Twister, Independence Day, The Rock, Pokémon,'' ''' and ''' ''Wonderwall'' ''' all turn 20.<br />
:Cueball: And-<br />
:White Hat: Oh my God, couldn't you at ''' ''least'' ''' have waited until morning?<br />
:Cueball: It's been 2016 for ''hours!'' ''' ''Time is passing!'' '''<br />
:White Hat: I am acutely aware.<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:New Year]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]] <!-- Note the hat on the bed - this is not Hairy!--><br />
[[Category:Comics sharing name|2016]]<br />
[[Category:Comics to make one feel old]]<br />
[[Category:Pokémon]]<br />
[[Category:Tornadoes]] <!-- twister --><br />
[[Category:Time]]</div>172.70.86.62https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2694:_K%C3%B6nigsberg&diff=2981862694: Königsberg2022-11-05T05:05:02Z<p>172.70.86.62: Sp. (Rushed to not be ECed!)</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 2694<br />
| date = November 4, 2022<br />
| title = Königsberg<br />
| image = konigsberg_2x.png<br />
| imagesize = 448x343px<br />
| noexpand = true<br />
| titletext = At first I thought I would need some gold or something to pay him, but then I realized that it was the 18th century and I could just bring a roll of aluminum foil.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Created by a FOX, TWO CHICKENS, AND THREE BAGS OF GRAIN. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
<br />
[[File:Konigsberg bridges.png|frame|right|{{w|Königsberg}} in Euler's time, showing the river Pregel and its seven bridges]]<br />
<br />
This comic is about the {{w|Seven Bridges of Königsberg}}, a seminal {{w|graph theory}} problem addressed by the famous mathematician {{w|Leonhard Euler}}. A popular pursuit, beforehand, was to attempt to devise a path through the city that would cross each of the seven bridges exactly once, without crossing the river forks any other way. In 1736, Euler proved that there was no actual solution possible. This result is considered to be the first theorem of graph theory and the first proof in the theory of networks[http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mejn/courses/2004/cscs535/review.pdf] — a subject now generally regarded as a branch of {{w|combinatorics}} — and presaged the development of {{w|topology}}. Combinatorial problems of other types had been considered since antiquity. <br />
<br />
[[Cueball]] attempts to cheat on the final exam in his algorithms class by traveling back in time to commission the construction of an eighth bridge before Euler could learn of the problem, granting it a trivial solution that would remove much impetus for mathematical analysis. He hopes that this would alter his present-day timeline in such a way that the test becomes easier because graph theory might never have been developed. With the addition of the eighth bridge, it becomes possible to create a path that crosses each bridge exactly once, starting at the north bank and ending on the eastern island (or vice-versa). However, there would remain no way to traverse each bridge exactly once and return to your starting point. (In the standard vocabulary of graph theory, the altered graph would have an {{w|Euler trail}} but not an {{w|Euler cycle}}.) Thus, the problem might still have been sufficiently interesting to spark Euler's curiosity. (Adding a ninth bridge connecting the north bank to the east island would render the problem completely trivial.)<br />
<br />
There is, of course, the possibility that without the Bridge Problem, the curiosity and genius of Euler would have refocussed upon yet another obscure theory, and developed it into a far more fiendish field of study to make for an even harder examination in Cueball's time.<br />
<br />
The title text alludes to the fact that ordinary {{w|aluminum foil}}, which was not commercially available until 1911, would have been a tremendously valuable curiosity in the 18th century, which didn't even have {{w|tin foil}}. Aluminium itself was a highly priced metal before the 1880s, when methods were developed to cheaply refine it. Famously, the {{w|Washington Monument}} was constructed with a tip made of pure aluminum due to its great value and conductive capacity. Aluminum had not even been extracted in its pure form at the time of Euler, and was only known in compounds such as {{w|alum}}, so it would have been rare and exotic indeed.<br />
<br />
{{clear}}<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
:[Cueball, standing next to two men wearing wigs, pointing with a pointer at a map showing the 7 bridges problem, with an extra bridge added in dashed lines]<br />
:Cueball: Lord mayor of Königsberg, I will reward you handsomely if you construct this bridge before my friend Leonhard arrives.<br />
<br />
:[Caption below the panel]<br />
:I tried to use a time machine to cheat on my algorithms final by preventing graph theory from being invented.<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]<br />
[[Category:Math]]<br />
[[Category:Programming]]</div>172.70.86.62https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2694:_K%C3%B6nigsberg&diff=2981842694: Königsberg2022-11-05T05:03:03Z<p>172.70.86.62: /* Explanation */ Warranted speculation...</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 2694<br />
| date = November 4, 2022<br />
| title = Königsberg<br />
| image = konigsberg_2x.png<br />
| imagesize = 448x343px<br />
| noexpand = true<br />
| titletext = At first I thought I would need some gold or something to pay him, but then I realized that it was the 18th century and I could just bring a roll of aluminum foil.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Created by a FOX, TWO CHICKENS, AND THREE BAGS OF GRAIN. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
<br />
[[File:Konigsberg bridges.png|frame|right|{{w|Königsberg}} in Euler's time, showing the river Pregel and its seven bridges]]<br />
<br />
This comic is about the {{w|Seven Bridges of Königsberg}}, a seminal {{w|graph theory}} problem addressed by the famous mathematician {{w|Leonhard Euler}}. A popular pursuit, beforehand, was to attempt to devise a path through the city that would cross each of the seven bridges exactly once, without crossing the river forks any other way. In 1736, Euler proved that there was no actual solution possible. This result is considered to be the first theorem of graph theory and the first proof in the theory of networks[http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mejn/courses/2004/cscs535/review.pdf] — a subject now generally regarded as a branch of {{w|combinatorics}} — and presaged the development of {{w|topology}}. Combinatorial problems of other types had been considered since antiquity. <br />
<br />
[[Cueball]] attempts to cheat on the final exam in his algorithms class by traveling back in time to commission the construction of an eighth bridge before Euler could learn of the problem, granting it a trivial solution that would remove much impetus for mathematical analysis. He hopes that this would alter his present-day timeline in such a way that the test becomes easier because graph theory might never have been developed. With the addition of the eighth bridge, it becomes possible to create a path that crosses each bridge exactly once, starting at the north bank and ending on the eastern island (or vice-versa). However, there would remain no way to traverse each bridge exactly once and return to your starting point. (In the standard vocabulary of graph theory, the altered graph would have an Euler trail but not an Euler cycle.) Thus, the problem might still have been sufficiently interesting to spark Euler's curiosity. (Adding a ninth bridge connecting the north bank to the east island would render the problem completely trivial.)<br />
<br />
There is, of course, the possibility that without the Bridge Problem, the curiousity and genius of Euler would have refocussed upon yet another obscure theory, and developed it into a far more fiendish field of study to make for an even harder examination in Cueball's time.<br />
<br />
The title text alludes to the fact that ordinary {{w|aluminum foil}}, which was not commercially available until 1911, would have been a tremendously valuable curiosity in the 18th century, which didn't even have {{w|tin foil}}. Aluminium itself was a highly priced metal before the 1880s, when methods were developed to cheaply refine it. Famously, the {{w|Washington Monument}} was constructed with a tip made of pure aluminum due to its great value and conductive capacity. Aluminum had not even been extracted in its pure form at the time of Euler, and was only known in compounds such as {{w|alum}}, so it would have been rare and exotic indeed.<br />
<br />
{{clear}}<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
:[Cueball, standing next to two men wearing wigs, pointing with a pointer at a map showing the 7 bridges problem, with an extra bridge added in dashed lines]<br />
:Cueball: Lord mayor of Königsberg, I will reward you handsomely if you construct this bridge before my friend Leonhard arrives.<br />
<br />
:[Caption below the panel]<br />
:I tried to use a time machine to cheat on my algorithms final by preventing graph theory from being invented.<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]<br />
[[Category:Math]]<br />
[[Category:Programming]]</div>172.70.86.62https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1698:_Theft_Quadrants&diff=2979811698: Theft Quadrants2022-11-02T14:02:03Z<p>172.70.86.62: /* Explanation */ Two-fold typo corrected. Using the primary template (if it's necessary), rather than a redirected one.</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1698<br />
| date = June 24, 2016<br />
| title = Theft Quadrants<br />
| image = theft quadrants.png<br />
| titletext = TinyURL was the most popular link shortener for long enough that it made it into a lot of printed publications. I wonder what year the domain will finally lapse and get picked up by a porn site.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
This is an {{w|Time management#The Eisenhower Method|Eisenhower box}} comparing how difficult it is to steal a specified object with the severity of the theft.<br />
<br />
It is very hard to steal {{w|Gold Codes|nuclear launch codes}}. They are protected by many layers of federal security. That's a good thing, too, since if they were stolen, they could be used to start a {{w|Nuclear warfare|nuclear war}}, which would cause untold death and destruction. It is generally not a good idea to give thieves nuclear codes.{{Citation needed}}<br />
<br />
It is also hard to steal the {{w|Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom|Crown Jewels}}, since they are protected by a complex security system. But if they were stolen, it wouldn't be so bad for most people; the only direct loss would be to its owners, the British royal family, who are well-insured for thefts and only use the Crown Jewels as a display piece for museumgoers. It would also be a loss to the public as a cultural and historical artifact, but would have little practical effect on the world.<br />
<br />
It wouldn't be too hard to steal the {{w|Wienermobile}}{{Citation needed}} (a car shaped like a hot-dog, advertising the Oscar Mayer brand). There are several versions of this car, and it would not be more difficult to steal than any other car, although harder to hide. [[Randall]] seems to consider that such a stolen vehicle would not be too bad, although he has previously referred to a stolen Wienermobile in [[935: Missed Connections]], which is driven recklessly, almost hitting someone. But it is not bad enough to consider it a big problem in a context when it is compared with stolen nuclear launch codes.<br />
<br />
It also wouldn't be hard (or at least, not as hard as stealing nuclear launch codes or the Crown Jewels) to steal the {{w|TinyURL|tinyurl.com}} domain name, but the consequences of that could be significant and is thus listed under very bad. The joke is of course that this is listed as just as bad as the risk of a nuclear war, and of course it is not as significant, but it could swiftly result in damage to a lot of important computers, and ruin references in journals etc.<br />
<br />
TinyURL offers a URL shortening service. They provide short URLs that redirect to long ones. This is useful if you want to write down a very long URL as it saves typing and is more accurate. Other companies, including [https://bitly.com/ bit.ly], [https://goo.gl/ Google] (ultimately fully discontinued March 30, 2019), and [https://t.co/ Twitter] offer a similar service. TinyURL was, for a while, the most popular of these URL shortening services. If their domain name were stolen, all the redirects from short URLs could be changed to forward traffic to sites hosting, for example, malware. This would have significant effects on a large number of people, because TinyURL is used in many places both online and (as the title text notes) even sometimes offline.<br />
<br />
In the title text Randall implies that stealing the tinyurl.com domain could happen when it next expires. A [https://reports.internic.net/cgi/whois?whois_nic=tinyurl.com&type=domain whois search] as of February 2021 finds that the tinyurl.com domain is next due for renewal in January 2029. However, [https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/expired-2013-05-03-en rule changes made by ICANN] (the organization in charge of domain name registrations) now make it effectively impossible to steal a domain name because the owner allowed its registration to lapse. Current rules for .com registrations now allow for the original owner to renew their domain name after it expires during a 0-45 day auto-renew grace period. The exact length of this grace period depends on what company the domain is registered with. All registrars are then required to give a 30 day redemption grace period during which the domain may be renewed with penalty. As a result, tinyurl.com would have a 30-75 day period after expiration during which the domain is not available for registration by a third party. ICANN rules state that DNS resolution must be stopped during the redemption grace period, which means that there will be a 30 day period during which tinyurl.com will no longer work but the company will have the ability to quickly restore ownership of their domain. It is very unlikely that any company that is still in business would not notice that their domain name has expired before the end of the 30 day redemption grace period.<br />
<br />
Another way to steal a domain name would be through {{w|Domain hijacking|domain name hijacking}}. There have been some high profile cases of domain name hijacking, with one of the more notable domains being [http://www.computerworld.com/article/2595655/networking/companies-point-fingers-over-nike-web-site-hijacking.html nike.com in 2000]. However, whether or not this is a risk for any particular domain name is difficult to estimate. Additional security mechanisms such as domain name locking and private registrations have been introduced to mitigate the threat of domain name hijacking. Further, domain name hijacking relies on situation-specific attacks such as hacking email accounts, spoofing emails, and social engineering attacks against either the company who owns the domain name or the company who registers the domain name. For security-conscious companies, such attacks can be impossible, or at least an attacker's success may require security failures in more than one area. A summary of domain hijacking examples including an analysis of how they succeeded and what steps could have prevented them can be found [http://archive.icann.org/en/announcements/hijacking-report-12jul05.pdf here]. In short though, there is no way to say for sure how vulnerable any particular domain name might be to hijacking.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:[A chart with an Eisenhower box, consisting of four labelled squares. To the left the rows are labelled hard and easy and two lines goes to from these labels to a description of what the labels refer to saying "how hard thing would be to steal". On the bottom the rows are labelled not that bad and very bad and two lines goes to from these labels to a description of what the labels refer to saying "how bad it would be if someone stole it". The top left box is labelled "the Crown Jewels". The top right box is labelled "the nuclear launch codes". The bottom left box is labelled "the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile. The bottom right box is labelled "the tinyurl.com domain name".]<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Charts]]<br />
[[Category:Nuclear weapons]]</div>172.70.86.62https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:2692:_Interior_Decorating&diff=297964Talk:2692: Interior Decorating2022-11-01T23:34:01Z<p>172.70.86.62: </p>
<hr />
<div><!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~ and don't delete this text. New comments should be added at the bottom.--><br />
what about occam’s razor?[[User:Anonymouscript|Anonymouscript]] ([[User talk:Anonymouscript|talk]]) 22:11, 31 October 2022 (UTC)<br />
:Isn’t ominous, not in itself. —[[User:While False|While False]] ([[User:While False/explain xkcd museum|'''museum''']] | [[User talk:While False|talk]] | [[special:Contributions/While_False|contributions]] | [[special:Log/While_False|logs]] | [[Special:UserRights/While_False|rights]]) 22:13, 31 October 2022 (UTC)<br />
:It sounds like it would be dangerous, since a razor is a sharp blade. Unless it's Occam's safety razor. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 22:27, 31 October 2022 (UTC)<br />
::It could be very hazardous to use, if you tried whilst sailing upon the Ship Of Theseus... [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.54|172.70.91.54]] 01:47, 1 November 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Siege Perilous is ominous and mythical, but what is it a metaphor for? [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 22:27, 31 October 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I don't think the Pelosi attack is relevant to this comic. At best, it could be trivia fodder, but I find it highly unlikely that it influenced the comic in any way. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.39|108.162.216.39]] 22:50, 31 October 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Isn't Chekhov's gun supposed to be on a mantelpiece? I don't know why I remember that. It's not in Wikipedia but is on plenty of other sites about it. Anyone know the origin of the mantelpiece angle? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.210.243|172.70.210.243]] 02:12, 1 November 2022 (UTC)<br />
:not necessarily, it's just the most common example of a superfluous detail in 'Why draw attention to an otherwise superfluous detail if it's not of importance?' that's at heart of Chekhov's Gun.[[Special:Contributions/198.41.242.217|198.41.242.217]] 07:45, 1 November 2022 (UTC)<br />
:Wikipedia has several quotes of Chekhov talking about it. One of them mentions a rifle hanging on a wall so it could be from that. [[User:Arcorann|Arcorann]] ([[User talk:Arcorann|talk]]) 23:19, 1 November 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
I was introduced to Chekov's gun when I was sad to my son that fiction has 1)Plot Premise, 2) Plot Plants 3) Plot Fixes. The Chekhov's gun would be 2), but a pistol drawn from a handbag sold be 3) unless mentioned in Act 1. Of course weapons on the wall could be 1) depending on the house.[[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 21:15, 1 November 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
"{{w|Pavel Chekov|Chekov}}'s Gun" would probably be a phaser set to 'stun'... [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.62|172.70.86.62]] 23:34, 1 November 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
This would go great with a dying ivy with only a single leaf, and a blue curtain. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.215.4|172.71.215.4]] 04:21, 1 November 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
This has one two many metaphors. That last one is the straw that broke the camel's back. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.175.116|172.70.175.116]] 05:48, 1 November 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
:It was perfectly ok until it tried to jump that shark! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.147|172.70.162.147]] 10:41, 1 November 2022 (UTC)<br />
::No need to jump Chekhov's gun here, sharks are fine, just watch out for those red herrings.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.246.209|172.70.246.209]] 13:05, 1 November 2022 (UTC)<br />
:::Can you shoot red herrings in a barrel with Chekhov's gun? [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 13:14, 1 November 2022 (UTC)<br />
<br />
img looks slightly blurry. is this because the 2x version is of an odd width (397 pixels) for some reason? --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.111.76|172.70.111.76]] 19:40, 1 November 2022 (UTC)</div>172.70.86.62https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2689:_Fermat%27s_First_Theorem&diff=2977122689: Fermat's First Theorem2022-10-27T20:23:48Z<p>172.70.86.62: /* Explanation */ I tend towards "proven" rather than "prooved" but, because this is always tricky, perhaps if we avoid that issue entirely...</p>
<hr />
<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 2689<br />
| date = October 24, 2022<br />
| title = Fermat's First Theorem<br />
| image = fermats_first_theorem_2x.png<br />
| imagesize = 280x248px<br />
| noexpand = true<br />
| titletext = Mathematicians quickly determined that it spells ANT BNECN, an unusual theoretical dish which was not successfully cooked until Andrew Wiles made it for breakfast in the 1990s.<br />
}}<br />
<br />
==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Created by a SPELLING ANT- Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}<br />
This is a reference to {{w|Fermat's Last Theorem}}, humorously implying that {{w|Pierre de Fermat}} created a similar theorem as a child. Fermat's Last Theorem states that no three positive integers ''a'', ''b'', and ''c'' satisfy the equation ''a''<sup>''n''</sup>+''b''<sup>''n''</sup>=''c''<sup>''n''</sup> for any integer value of ''n'' greater than 2. It is notable for having remained unproved for hundreds of years, despite many attempts to prove it. The Taniyama–Shimura conjecture (now known as the Modularity theorem) and the epsilon conjecture (now known as Ribet's theorem) together imply that Fermat's Last Theorem is true. The epsilon conjecture, proposed by Jean-Pierre Serre, became provable thanks to Ken Ribet in 1986. {{w|Andrew Wiles}}, with assistance from his former student {{w|Richard Taylor (mathematician)|Richard Taylor}}, succeeded in proving a special case of the Taniyama-Shimura conjecture for semistable elliptical curves in 1995, which finally established the proof of Fermat's Last Theorem. (The full Modularity theorem was subsequently established as correct by Wiles's former students Brian Conrad, Fred Diamond and Richard Taylor, and Christophe Breuil in 2001.)<br />
<br />
The young Fermat here didn't try to prove the mathematical equation, but simply tried to read it as words, treating the "+" sign as a "t" so that "A<sup>N</sup>+" can be read as "ANT". His interpretation was quickly disproved because there's no "A" between "B" and "C", and no "O" between "C" and "N".<br />
<br />
In the title text, the "words" are "ANT BNECN", treating the equals sign "=" as an "E"; while "=" doesn't look especially close to "E", it is similar in that it contains horizontal bars in a horizontally symmetrical arrangement (and of course, it can be read as "equals", which begins with "E"). If the letter E is written in sans-serif block text in white on a black background, the "negative space" between the Upper Bar, the Middle Bar and the Lower Bar of the E form a =. The comic shows a blackboard with white letters. The text then references Wiles, asserting that he proved this modified form of Fermat's First Theorem as well by cooking this "ant bnecn" (whatever "bnecn" is) as breakfast.<br />
<br />
[[2492: Commonly Mispronounced Equations]] also contains equations pronounced as if they were words in the ordinary sense.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
<br />
:[A Hairy-like boy, representing Pierre de Fermat as a child, stands at a blackboard holding a piece of chalk. To his right is Miss Lenhart. The following text is somewhat crudely written on the blackboard:]<br />
:A<sup>N</sup> + B<sup>N</sup> = C<sup>N</sup><br />
:SPELLS<br />
:ANT BACON<br />
<br />
:[Caption below the panel]: <br />
:Fermat's ''First'' Theorem was quickly disproved<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Math]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Miss Lenhart]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]</div>172.70.86.62