Editing 3061: Water Balloons

{{comic
| number    = 3061
| date      = March 10, 2025
| title     = Water Balloons
| image     = water_balloons_2x.png
| imagesize = 578x713px
| noexpand  = true
| titletext = Update: The physics department has recruited an astronomer who studies meteor fireballs.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT SHORT CIRCUITING DUE TO A WATER BALLOON - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
The comic graphs the mass vs the lifetime of three objects: {{w|meson}}s, {{w|water balloon}}s and {{w|planet}}s. Mesons, which are subatomic fundamental particles, have a very low mass and a very short lifetime, since they naturally decay into other fundamental particles.{{Actual citation needed}} "Flying water balloons" are depicted as having a mass centered around 1 kilogram, but the area outlined covers a very broad range of mass (from grams to hundreds of kilos), and a lifetime centered around 1 second (but the area outlined covers from fractions of a second to a couple of hours), indicating the approximate amount of time that the a water balloon survives after being thrown through the air. (Not all water balloons break on impact, and some are thrown directly into someones face, thus flight time would be very short). Finally, planets have a very large mass and a very large lifetime, since they tend to exist for billions of years.

This comparison is somewhat absurd because the objects being compared: mesons, water balloons and planets do not have much in common.

The text below the image states that meson particle physicists and planetary scientists are usually evenly matched in water balloon fights, since water balloons are outside of the area of expertise of both departments. In real life, water balloon fights are completely unrelated to particle physics or planetary science. They may also be not directly related to various other academic disciplines, though one might assume that more generalised physicists might study similar objects with the mass and lifetime of water balloons (if not water balloons themselves!), and other topics of education might also confer an 'advantage' (for example, biologists may study similarly-sized bodies of creatures, whilst chemists may monitor chemical reactions could take an equivalent time to complete). This all suggests that deep specialisation in a field of study deprives a normal person of their basic aptitude to perform in more 'everyday' activities, but at least it equally disadvantages each of the two teams of researchers and makes for a more satisfyingly [[1819: Sweet 16|competitive match-up]] than with one team clearly far more proficient than the other.

The title text overturns this by stating that "The physics department has recruited an astronomer who studies meteor fireballs". This could allude to the idea of using meteors as a weapon in a water balloon fight. It could, however, just be referring to the fact that meteors are closer to water balloons in terms of their mass and lifetime, so having an astronomer with this area of expertise might be advantageous in a water balloon fight against particle physicist, that have nothing close to the weight range of a water balloon. The lifetime of meteors may also be consistent. While "space rocks" that become meteors may have been around for approximately the age of the solar system (and longer than at least some planets), and may then sit on/beneath the ground for anything up to geologically significant lengths of time, being an actual meteor (and a flaming one, at that) implies we're only talking about the period of time the space-rock is traveling through the Earth's atmosphere, specifically ending before it becomes a meteorite. This is a period of time that may be anything from few seconds (the normally upper limit to the visible 'fireball' stage) to ''possibly'' a minute or two (starting from its first shallow-angle grazing to the atmosphere until it finally lands/burns up/passes back out of the atmosphere). Thus, by one team bringing in a more capable player (especially one arguably more closely aligned to their opponents), they apparently now have an {{wiktionary|ringer#Noun 4|unfair advantage}}.

Other absurd uses of linear regression are seen in [[605: Extrapolating]], [[1204: Detail]] and [[2893: Sphere Tastiness]].

==Transcript==
:[Graph with Y axis using an arrow indicating mass from 10<sup>-30</sup> kg to 10<sup>30</sup> kg on a logarithmic scale and X axis, also on a logarithmic scale labeled "Lifetime" running from 10<sup>-20</sup>  to 10<sup>20</sup> seconds.]

:[There are three elliptical blobs on the graph, one on the lower left corner labeled "Mesons" another on the upper right corner labeled "Planets", and the last one in the middle (1kg mass, 1s lifespan) labeled Flying water balloons. There are two bidirectional arrows pointing from the center blob to the two other blobs.]

:[To the left of the chart are Cueball and Ponytail. Ponytail is throwing a water balloon, and Cueball is dodging from one. To the right are Megan and Hairy. Megan is preparing to throw a water balloon, and Hairy is slipping in a puddle of water, with a water balloon having landed near his foot with a "Sploosh!".]

:[Caption below the panel:]
:In the annual water balloon fight, meson particle physicists and planetary scientists are usually evenly matched, since they're both equally far outside their areas of expertise. 

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Line graphs]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Extrapolation]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Games]]