https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/api.php?action=feedcontributions&user=173.245.62.105&feedformat=atomexplain xkcd - User contributions [en]2024-03-29T05:05:32ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.30.0https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1466:_Phone_Checking&diff=81716Talk:1466: Phone Checking2014-12-29T17:52:21Z<p>173.245.62.105: </p>
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<div>''No comments yet.''<br />
I'll keep refreshing. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.217.125|108.162.217.125]] 06:40, 29 December 2014 (UTC)BK201<br />
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What's a 'webite'? [[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.178|199.27.128.178]] 08:51, 29 December 2014 (UTC)<br />
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:I think it's a term related to the [[148: Mispronouncing|"wobsite"]]. --[[User:Koveras|Koveras]] ([[User talk:Koveras|talk]]) 09:41, 29 December 2014 (UTC)<br />
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He first refreshed the web(s)ite and thén woke up? [[User:NGLN|NGLN]] ([[User talk:NGLN|talk]]) 14:38, 29 December 2014 (UTC)<br />
: I believe it is possible to check one's phone while sleeping (i.e. partly asleep) and not remember having done so in the morning. Research is needed into this matter. [[User:Mrob27|Mrob27]] ([[User talk:Mrob27|talk]]) 14:54, 29 December 2014 (UTC)<br />
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The title text implies that checking the phone is an even more fundamental resting state for her than sleeping. As an analogy, you may subconsciously play with a sharp object while watching TV. You don't notice it until it pricks you. Same way, she was checking her phone while sleeping. Noticing that she'd won made her wake up. -quantumfrost</div>173.245.62.105https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=526:_Converting_to_Metric&diff=80499526: Converting to Metric2014-12-10T04:32:16Z<p>173.245.62.105: /* Length */ Corrected wrong unit</p>
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<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 526<br />
| date = January 5, 2009 <br />
| title = Converting to Metric<br />
| image = converting to metric.png<br />
| titletext = According to River, "adequate" vacuuming systems drain the human body at about half a liter per second.<br />
}}<br />
==Explanation==<br />
Most people will eventually develop an intuitive feel for how big certain measurements are (e.g., how long an inch or a foot is, how much a pound weighs). This comic points out that people who were brought up using the {{w|Imperial measurement|imperial system}} probably don't have the same intuitive understanding for metric units and attempts to provide some benchmarks for these people. Most of the benchmarks are common sense, highly-useful ones (e.g., if it's 30 degrees centigrade [86&nbsp;°F], you'd be quite comfortable outside dressed for the beach) but some of the benchmarks are humorous and/or completely useless. Benchmarks include:<br />
<br />
===Temperature===<br />
* {{w|Extremes on Earth|Earth's Hottest}}: 60°C [140&nbsp;°F]: The hottest temperature recorded on earth is actually {{W|List_of_weather_records#Heat|"only" 56.7}}. There have been reports of ten-twenty degrees higher (70-80°C) but these measurements are not verified or accepted as world records.<br />
* Various heat waves: {{w|Dubai}} is a city in the United Arab Emirates, and is smack-dab in the middle of an equatorial desert, so their heat waves can get ''hot!''. The southern Unites States will typically be a few degrees hotter than the northern United States simply because it's closer to the equator, but as mentioned they're both above "Beach Weather".<br />
*30°C [86&nbsp;°F]: A little too hot so perfect for a trip to the beach.<br />
*20°C [68&nbsp;°F]: Is defined as room temperature in many experimental settings. For some this would feel a little cool. But 25°C [77°] would as mentioned be too warm for room temperature...<br />
*10°C [50&nbsp;°F]: Definitely wear a jacket. Especially if there is just a little breeze.<br />
*0°C [32&nbsp;°F]: The freezing point of water (32°F)<br />
*-5 to -10°C: In Moscow -10°C is not really that cold - it can go "spit goes clink" cold in {{W|Moscow#Climate|Moscow}}, whereas -5°C [23&nbsp;°F] in {{W|Boston#Climate|Boston}} may be very cold...<br />
*-20°C: FuckFuckFuckCold and -30°C - Fuuuuuuuuuuuuck!: This is implied to be basically what some people would say when they step outside at this temperature. In reality, it would be best to keep ones's mouth firmly closed. At -30°C, without taking wind chill into account, exposed skin will feel painful in under a minute and frostbite could begin in as little as ten minutes [http://www.ec.gc.ca/meteo-weather/default.asp?lang=En&n=5FBF816A-1]. <br />
*-40°C: Spit goes "clink": As shown in the drawing your spit would freeze ''before'' it hits the ground. This is the crossing point of the two temperature scales i.e. -40°C = -40&nbsp;°F.<br />
<br />
===Length===<br />
*1&nbsp;cm [.4 inch] : Width of microSD card and 3&nbsp;cm - Length of SD card: Refers to the {{w|MicroSD card|memory cards}} used in cell phones, digital cameras, etc.<br />
*12&nbsp;cm [almost 5 inches]: CD rom are a common object so nice to know it is a dozen centimeters.<br />
*14&nbsp;cm [5 1/2 inches]: Most males would probably exaggerate the size of their penis, but 14–15&nbsp;cm is very average.<br />
*15&nbsp;cm [almost 6 inches]: A Bic Pen<br />
*80&nbsp;cm [31 1/2 inches]: A typical doorway is also of standard size. This is barely over the minimum size typically required by codes for buildings [30 inches or 76.2&nbsp;cm], but more than 50% over the size required for aircraft emergency exits. (It may seem illogical that larger doors are required in buildings than in airplanes, given airplanes are arguably more dangerous. However, there is no real disadvantage to using larger doors in buildings, which are not significantly pressurized, but using larger doors in aircraft would increase the force on the door caused by cabin pressure proportionally.)<br />
*1 m [39.37 inches]: {{w|Lightsaber|Lightsaber Blade}}: Refers the weapon used in the {{w|Star Wars}} movie franchise. Canonically, the length of a Lightsaber's blade varies greatly depending on the setting of the weapon, but "one meter" is by no means a bad approximation.<br />
*170&nbsp;cm [5 feet, 7 inches]: {{w|Summer Glau}}: Refers to the height of the actress who portrays the character River Tam on the TV show {{w|Firefly (TV series)|Firefly}}.<br />
*200&nbsp;cm [6 feet, 6 and 3/4 inches]: Darth Vader: Refers to the height of the main antagonist from Star Wars.<br />
*2.5 m [almost 10 feet]: Ceiling - of course very much depending on which type of building you are in!<br />
*5 m [almost twenty feet]: Car Length - also very much depending on the car...<br />
*16 m 4&nbsp;cm: Human tower of Serenity crew: Again, this refers to the Firefly TV show, which takes place mostly on a space ship called Serenity. <br />
**Presumably, if all the crew of Serenity were stacked on top of each other, this would be their combined height. <br />
**The comic depicts four characters from the show standing on top of each other; the bottom figure is the crew's captain, {{w|Malcolm Reynolds}} in his signature coat. Judging from the other drawing of Summer Glau from the volume section, she is standing on top of the captain. <br />
**The other five members of the crew should also be stacked on top of these four to reach the 16m height - giving them an average height of 1.82&nbsp;m (12&nbsp;cm more than Summer Glaus height!)<br />
<br />
===Speed===<br />
:Here both the SI unit m/s as well as the more used unit kph (km per hour) is given.<br />
*5 kph [3&nbsp;mph] - 1.5&nbsp;m/s: Walking at a normal pace<br />
*13-25 kph [8-15&nbsp;mph]: Jogging to sprinting.<br />
*35 kph [21.75&nbsp;mph] - 10&nbsp;m/s: Fastest human: As of 2009, the fastest a human has been recorded to run in a single sprint is actually 45 kph, a record set by {{w|Usain Bolt}}.<br />
*45-55 kph: Both cats and rabbits go much faster than normal people.<br />
*75 kph [46.6&nbsp;mph] - 20&nbsp;m/s: Raptor: It's a comic written by [[Randall]], of course a reference to the {{w|velociraptors}} from ''{{w|Jurassic Park (film)|Jurassic Park}}'' was going to be here.<br />
*100 kph - 25&nbsp;m/s: A slow highway (62&nbsp;mph).<br />
*110 kph [68.35&nbsp;mph] - 30&nbsp;m/s: Interstate (65&nbsp;mph): Refers to the {{w|Interstate|American highway system}}. (65&nbsp;mph would actually be only 104.6 kph.)<br />
*120 kph - 35&nbsp;m/s: Speed you actually go when it says "65": People routinely break the aforementioned speed limit, and the police typically don't mind as long as it's not posing any danger. For the record, 120 kph is 74&nbsp;mph.<br />
*140 kph - 40&nbsp;m/s: Raptor on Hoverboard: The {{w|hoverboard}} is probably a reference to the ''{{w|Back to the Future Part II}}'', though it's a fairly common trope in older science fiction stories. Randall obviously did a lot of google searching on this subject the week before - see [[522: Google Trends]].<br />
<br />
===Volume===<br />
*3 ml: The amount of blood in a fieldmouse.<br />
*5 ml: A teaspoon - a very common measure.<br />
*30 mL: Nasal Passages and 40mL - Shot Glass: The comic points out that you could just about fill a shot glass using the mucus from your nose. Since shot glasses are usually used for mixed drinks, the comic jokes that this mucus could constitute a new, disgusting drink - and this is depictured in the drawing.<br />
*350 ml: Soda can (this is roughly correct for the cans used in the U.S., which hold 12 fluid ounces; in Europe, soda cans commonly hold 330ml or 500 ml).<br />
*500 ml: Water bottle (this is the also the volume of a European water bottle).<br />
*3 L: Two-liter bottle: Refers to a bottle which contains two liters (in the US usually soda). There is debate as to the reason for the discrepancy in volume.<br />
*5 L: An adult male has about 5 L of blood in his body (An ''adequate'' vacuuming system could drain this blood out in 10 s - as per the title text!)<br />
*30 L: Milk Crate: Refers to a {{w|Milk crate|type of small box}} originally used to transport milk but now often in demand to be used as bicycle basket, storage spaces, etc.<br />
*55 L: Summer Glau: Again, this refers to the actress from Firefly.<br />
*65 L: {{w|Dennis Kucinich}}: An American politician belonging to the {{w|Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic party}}, noted for his relatively strong (for the US) leftist views.<br />
*75 L: {{w|Ron Paul}}: An American politician belonging to the rival {{w|Republican Party (United States)|Republican party}}, noted for his strong rightist views. <br />
*200 L: Volume of refrigerator. <br />
*As shown in the drawing of this part of the comic, the three persons mentioned above - Glau, Kucinich and Paul (summing up to 195 L) - could in principle all fit inside a standard refrigerator. Cueball thus attempts to push them all inside of one - though it would obviously be very uncomfortable for all parties involved to be trapped in such a small space with not much room between them.<br />
<br />
===Mass===<br />
*3 g: {{w|M&M's|Peanut M&M}}: A small chocolate candy with a peanut inside<br />
*100 g: Cell phone - this very much depends on the age of the cell phone, and the type etc.<br />
*500 g [1&nbsp;lb.]: A bottle of water contains 500 ml according to the volume section and thus have mass of 500 g.<br />
*1–3&nbsp;kg: Different types of laptops. The newest and the best is the lightest...<br />
*5&nbsp;kg [11&nbsp;lb.]: {{w|Lcd monitor|LCD Monitor}}: A modern flat-screen-style monitor.<br />
*15&nbsp;kg: {{w|CRT monitor|CRT Monitor}}: An older-style, cathode ray tube-based monitor.<br />
**This ends the section on computer screens, which overrode the normal sequence by weight as the next two feline inspired entries are lighter than the two before.<br />
*4&nbsp;kg: Cat and 4.1&nbsp;kg - Cat (With Caption): Refers to the internet's love of putting {{w|Lolcat|captions on cats}}. Usually, this is done in a graphics program, but here the cat is actually physically carrying around his caption. The "with caption" part is most likely a reference to [[262: IN UR REALITY]], where [[Black Hat]] glues captions to cats, after running out of staples.<br />
*60&nbsp;kg [130&nbsp;lb.]: Lady - for instance if she is Summer Glau - could be her again depicted in the comic - average weight of an adult woman.<br />
*70&nbsp;kg [150&nbsp;lb.]: Dude - here depicted as Cueball who is the average guy, and 70&nbsp;kg is average weight for an adult man.<br />
*150&nbsp;kg: Shaq: {{w|Shaq|Shaquille O'Neal}}, a famously tall basketball player.<br />
*200&nbsp;kg [440&nbsp;lb.]: Your Mom<br />
*220&nbsp;kg: Your Mom (incl. 20&nbsp;kg of cheap jewelry) and <br />
*223&nbsp;kg: Your Mom (also incl. 3&nbsp;kg of Makeup)<br />
*These last refers to a common type of {{w|Your mom}} joking insult whereby someone insults someone else's mother in a creative way. Here, the comic slyly calls your mom fat, then implies she wears way too much jewelry and finally also almost 7 pounds of makeup. This is a common theme in [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Category:Your_Mom xkcd]. (Twenty kg of "cheap" jewelry has several times the volume than 20 kg of gold jewelry, because of the difference in density.)<br />
<br />
==Title text==<br />
The title text refers once again to Summer Glau's Firefly character, River, who (after being subjected to a long series of medical experiments) is severely mentally ill and often comes out with macabre — though scientifically accurate — pronouncements.<br />
<br />
==Transcript==<br />
:Guide to Converting to Metric<br />
:The key to converting to metric is establishing new reference points. When you hear "26 degrees centigrade", instead of thinking "That's 79 degrees fahrenheit" you should think, "that's warmer then a house but cool for swimming." Here are some helpful tables of reference points:<br />
<br />
:Temperature:<br />
:60 degrees centigrade - Earth's Hottest<br />
:45 degrees centigrade - Dubai Heat Wave<br />
:40 degrees centigrade - Southern US Heat Wave<br />
:35 degrees centigrade - Northern US Heat Wave<br />
:30 degrees centigrade - Beach weather<br />
:25 degrees centigrade - Warm Room<br />
:20 degrees centigrade - Room Temperature<br />
:10 degrees centigrade - Jacket Weather<br />
:0 degrees centigrade - Snow!<br />
:-5 degrees centigrade - Cold Day (Boston)<br />
:-10 degrees centigrade - Cold Day (Moscow)<br />
:-20 degrees centigrade - FuckFuckFuckCold<br />
:-30 degrees centigrade - Fuuuuuuuuuuck!<br />
:-40 degrees centigrade - Spit goes "clink"<br />
:[Stick figure next to last three lines.]<br />
:Man: ''Pthoo'' [Man spits.]<br />
:Spit: ''Clink!'' [Spit bounces off ground.]<br />
<br />
:Length<br />
:1cm - Width of microSD card<br />
:3cm - Length of SD card<br />
:12cm - CD Diameter<br />
:14cm - Penis<br />
:15cm - BIC pen<br />
:80cm - Doorway width<br />
:1m - Lightsaber Blade<br />
:170cm - Summer Glau<br />
:200cm - Darth Vader<br />
:2.5m - Ceiling<br />
:5m - Car-length<br />
:16m4cm - Human tower of Serenity crew<br />
:[Human tower of Serenity crew stick figures depicted taking up from second line of panel to bottom.]<br />
<br />
:Speed<br />
:5 kph - 1.5 m/s - Walking<br />
:13 kph - 3.5 m/s - Jogging<br />
:25 kph - 7 m/s - Sprinting<br />
:35 kph - 10 m/s - Fastest Human<br />
:45 kph - 13 m/s - Housecat<br />
:55 kph - 15 m/s - Rabbit<br />
:75 kph - 20 m/s - Raptor<br />
:100 kph - 25 m/s - Slow Highway<br />
:110 kph - 30 m/s - Interstate (65 MPH)<br />
:120 kph - 35 m/s - Speed you actually go when it says "65"<br />
:140 kph - 40 m/s - Raptor on Hoverboard<br />
<br />
:Volume<br />
:3mL - Blood in a fieldmouse<br />
:5mL - Teaspoon<br />
:30mL - Nasal Passages<br />
:40mL - Shot Glass<br />
:So when it's blocked, the mucus in your nose could about fill a shot glass.<br />
:[Image of a shot glass.] Related: I've invented the worst mixed drink ever.<br />
:350mL - Soda Can<br />
:500mL - Water Bottle<br />
:3L - Two-Liter Bottle<br />
:5L - Blood in a Human Male<br />
:30L - Milk Crate<br />
:55L - Summer Glau<br />
:65L - Dennis Kucinich<br />
:75L - Ron Paul<br />
:200L - Fridge<br />
:[Cueball shoving Ron Paul, Summer Glau, and Dennis Kucinich into fridge.]<br />
:[Above fridge, circled, is 55+65+75<200]<br />
<br />
:Mass<br />
:3g - Peanut M&M<br />
:100g - Cell Phone<br />
:500g - Bottled Water<br />
:1kg - Ultraportable Laptop<br />
:2kg - Light-Medium Laptop<br />
:3kg - Heavy Laptop<br />
:5kg - LCD Monitor<br />
:15kg - CRT Monitor<br />
:4kg - Cat [Drawing of cat.]<br />
:4.1kg - Cat (With Caption) [Drawing of cat, going "Mrowl?", and holding a caption.]<br />
:60kg - Lady<br />
:70kg - Dude<br />
:150kg - Shaq<br />
:[Stick figure of Megan and Cueball beside previous 3 lines.]<br />
:200kg - Your Mom<br />
:220kg - Your Mom (incl. cheap jewelry)<br />
:223kg - Your Mom (also incl. Makeup)<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Charts]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Velociraptors]]<br />
[[Category:Your Mom]]<br />
[[Category:Firefly]]</div>173.245.62.105