Editing 2217: 53 Cards
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In this comic, [[Cueball]] claims that he has found a way to manipulate a {{w|Standard 52-card deck|52-card deck}} into a 53-card deck by shuffling and rearranging the cards, presenting a complex-looking diagram to support his claim. [[Ponytail]] naturally disputes the claim immediately, which Cueball counters by challenging Ponytail to prove that his math is wrong. | In this comic, [[Cueball]] claims that he has found a way to manipulate a {{w|Standard 52-card deck|52-card deck}} into a 53-card deck by shuffling and rearranging the cards, presenting a complex-looking diagram to support his claim. [[Ponytail]] naturally disputes the claim immediately, which Cueball counters by challenging Ponytail to prove that his math is wrong. | ||
β | The comic is a satire of the way that conversations tend to go between physicists and perpetual motion enthusiasts | + | The comic is a satire of the way that conversations tend to go between physicists and perpetual motion enthusiasts. {{w|Perpetual motion}} is the idea that it could be possible for a mechanical system to work indefinitely without any external input of energy. The {{w|laws of thermodynamics}} absolutely prohibit this, so the only way that this could be possible is if the laws of thermodynamics are wrong. Unfortunately, the laws of thermodynamics are some of the most foundational and well-tested laws in science, so perpetual motion is considered to be a {{w|pseudoscience}}, pursued only by ignorant or quixotic cranks. |
One of the things that you could do with a perpetual motion machine is to violate the {{w|law of conservation of energy}} - that is, you could create free energy out of nothing, simply by building a mechanical device. This is likely what Randall is satirizing with the idea of a process that can generate an extra card out of nowhere - it makes no physical sense, but nonetheless Cueball is convinced that he has found a way to do it. | One of the things that you could do with a perpetual motion machine is to violate the {{w|law of conservation of energy}} - that is, you could create free energy out of nothing, simply by building a mechanical device. This is likely what Randall is satirizing with the idea of a process that can generate an extra card out of nowhere - it makes no physical sense, but nonetheless Cueball is convinced that he has found a way to do it. |