Editing 3040: Chemical Formulas

{{comic
| number    = 3040
| date      = January 20, 2025
| title     = Chemical Formulas
| image     = chemical_formulas_2x.png
| imagesize = 275x335px
| noexpand  = true
| titletext = Can you pass the nackle?
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BORON-OXYGEN-TANTALUM-URANIUM-TITANIUM-MOLYBDENUM-TITANIUM-CARBON-ALUMINUM-LITHIUM - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This is another comic on [[:Category:How to annoy|How to annoy]] people, in this case chemists.

In this comic, Cueball humorously mispronounces the chemical names of {{w|carboxylic acid}}s. Instead of pronouncing "HCOOH" (for what is technically methanoic acid, or named {{w|formic acid}} from its association with {{w|Formicinae#Identification|ants}}) and "CH3COOH" (ethanoic acid, also known as {{w|acetic acid}}, most often encountered in vinegar) according to their standard chemical names, he says them phonetically as "hakoo" and "chuckoo," which Randall describes in the caption as "How to annoy chemists".

The title text continues this trend to the humor by referencing the phrase "Can you pass the salt?" but, instead of referring to the commonly understood "salt", Cueball uses "nackle". This is an apparent attempt to pronounce "NaCl", the chemical formula for {{w|sodium chloride}} (the primary constituent of ordinary {{w|table salt}}, as well as {{w|rock salt}}). As well as being an actual request for the {{w|condiment}} (which is not entirely in context with the comic, though may be linked to the prior interest with vinegar), the request may also be used to rhetorically reinforce a previous statement (having metaphorically 'put it on a plate', one is now fully prepared to 'dine' on it). Alternatively, it could be an expression of ''someone else's'' incredulity, as a variation upon "taking <some dubious detail> with {{w|a grain of salt}}".

Incidentally, there ''are'' three Pokémon whose names contain the letters "nacl" pronounced roughly as in the title text, introduced in ''Scarlet and Violet'': [https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Nacli_(Pok%C3%A9mon) Nacli], [https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Naclstack_(Pok%C3%A9mon) Naclstack], and [https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Garganacl_(Pok%C3%A9mon) Garganacl].

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

[Cueball is gesturing towards a whiteboard that show the chemical formulas: HCOOH, CH₃COOH]
[Below these, respectively, are classic diagramatic representations of formic/methanoic acid [with an apparently accidental doubled bond between the carbon and the hydroxy group] and acetic/ethanoic acid; being, in turn, a single- and double-carbon chain molecule with a double-bonded oxygen (carbonyl group) plus an oxygen-hydrogen (hydroxy) upon one carbon of each, to form the full carboxyl grouping, and hydrogens completing all other expected bonds.]

Cueball: The two simplest carboxylic acids are hakoo and chuckoo.

Off-Panel Voice: No!!

Caption: How to annoy chemists

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Chemistry]]
[[Category:How to annoy]]