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Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
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Down
It's just that I get nervous about heights.
Title text: It's just that I get nervous about heights.

Explanation

Ambox notice.png This explanation may be incomplete or incorrect: Created by TenGolf flipping upside down. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.

Megan states that down was redefined to be relative to Mars. Down is relative to gravity in actuality (in this context, that is), not to a fixed "coordinate center". If this was actually true, then they would be falling towards Mars, which would not be good. [citation needed]

In the title text, Cueball states that he gets nervous about heights, and rightfully so- Mars is about 34,000,000 mi (55,000,000 km) away from Earth at their closest approaches (on the extremely rare occasion that Mars is at perihelion and opposition (relative to Earth) simultaneously).

Transcript

Ambox notice.png This transcript is incomplete. Please help editing it! Thanks.
[Megan is seated at a desk, in front of a laptop. The scene is rotated by 150° clockwise, so she appears to be upside down. The gravity still seems to be relative to the ground, not the bottom of the image.]
[Cueball enters the scene from the right side, behind Megan. He has three question marks below his head, oriented relative to the frame.]
Megan: They announced that "down" is relative to Mars today.
Cueball: Ugh, I hate when they make another planet the coordinate system origin.


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