Talk:3153: Hot Water Balloon

First time making the first draft, so hopefully I did a decent job. KelOfTheStars! (talk) 21:01, 10 October 2025 (UTC)

I know they're friends and sometimes spend time chatting in fields or hiking together, but has it ever been implied that Cueball and Megan are a romantic couple before? Barmar (talk) 21:38, 10 October 2025 (UTC)

Cueball and Megan have been stand-ins for Randall and his wife before, specifically during the cancer comics. Does that count? 199.247.247.123 22:18, 10 October 2025 (UTC)

How hot is the water? 2603:800C:1200:596A:67A8:C96F:56F6:2AE6 00:39, 11 October 2025 (UTC)

Water has a lower molar mass than air. So long as it's hot enough to actually boil the water, it might work better. Of course, it will also take a lot of energy to boil the water. And you'd need it significantly hotter than traditional hot air. DanielLC (talk) 01:56, 11 October 2025 (UTC)

If you heat air to the temperature at which water remains a vapor, it's going to give enormous lift, even if there is nitrogen in it. Nitpicking (talk) 12:41, 11 October 2025 (UTC)

NTSB? What NTSB?!? 2605:59C8:160:DB08:980B:60EB:D7DF:1DC0 04:07, 11 October 2025 (UTC)

I like to imagine XKCD takes place in a world that uses up their collective insanity on innocuous things like a hot water balloon instead of what we use it for. 209.52.88.167 18:23, 11 October 2025 (UTC)

I imagine the Germans in 1934 said similar things about their petty amusements. Those who were still alive in 1945 had a chance to reflect on their sentiments. Any who remain alive in 2025 have a chance to reflect on how their experiences have taught us exactly nothing. 205.175.118.102 23:08, 11 October 2025 (UTC)

Far more romantic if you think of the balloon as a giant water-bed... 203.123.67.147 (talk) 09:31, 11 October 2025 (UTC) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

I am imagining a submersible craft that flies through the ocean currents like a hot air balloon floats through air. A large bag of warm water with a bathysphere suspended beneath it, perhaps with some kind of flame apparatus between the two to heat the water in the bag, even though that sounds impractical. JohnHawkinson (talk) 22:55, 11 October 2025 (UTC)

The Hot Water Bottle comment feels a bit superfluous? If we started listing things that remind any of us of other things it will be a long list indeed. 2A0E:1D47:D400:6000:7967:640C:CD3A:2A84 07:23, 13 October 2025 (UTC)

Agreed. If anything, the 'hot water balloon' is more reminiscent of a water bed than a hot water bottle (which could, in some cases, provide a romantic ride...). 82.13.184.33 09:02, 13 October 2025 (UTC)

I think hot water bottles are germane because they are so very similar to hot water balloons, both in name and in form. But it's true that the comic really doesn't play with any of their other qualities. It also doesn't play with any of the other qualities of water balloons either, so if we take out hot water bottles then I'd suggest we also take out water balloons and have the comic simply be about hot air balloons that have been filled with a common hot substance that isn't air.

Water beds are just on the other side of the germane/non-germane line to me. The image does look like a water bed, and the word "romantic" does go well with the concept of beds, but there is nobody lying on top of the hot water balloon and the concept of romance is adequately explained by the fact that hot air balloon rides are commonly considered romantic. Jkshapiro (talk) 01:17, 9 October 2026 (UTC)