3154: Physics Insight

Physics Insight

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Title text: When Galileo dropped two weights from the Leaning Tower of Pisa, they put him in the history books. But when I do it, I get 'detained by security' for 'injuring several tourists.'

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Explanation

This is one of 52 incomplete explanations: This page was invented by a BOT WHO DROPPED OUT OF COLLEGE. Don't remove this notice too soon. If you can fix this issue, edit the page!

Cueball complains that the same proposal related to the physics concept of spacetime is treated very differently when made by him, compared to when made by Albert Einstein, a famous physicist. White Hat agrees, using the standard shorthand for this sort of inconsistency: "double standard" (two different standards of expectations or treatment, used each applied to a different person or group). The joke is that there are good reasons for the difference in experiences:

• Cueball's idea is not impressive to others because they already knew about it due to the work of Einstein and the wider science community since then.
• Even if two people discover something with the same level of insight and effort, society accords far more prestige to the first acknowledged discoverer, for solving a problem or revealing new possibilities. Early discoverers or prior contributors may be overlooked in unfair ways, and may have grounds to complain about a double standard. Since Cueball is saying this at a time when the finding has already become part of an undergraduate curriculum, this does not apply to him.
• Once an idea has been popularized, it becomes easier to accidentally rediscover. Cueball might have never been taught about Einstein's finding directly, but has probably heard of physics concepts that derive from it. Rediscovering a model for associating time and space is easier for someone raised with the concept of spacetime.
• The concept may have been taught to Cueball, who might have forgotten or not paid attention, and then later found the "discovery" much easier thanks to subconscious memories.
• Cueball might even have consciously learned the concept from others, but believes that the accordance of "genius" status to Einstein came from Einstein's merely describing the concept, as opposed to being a recognition of the long work of developing the concept independently.

The comic might be making fun of people whom Randall views as having similar misconceptions.

The title text continues the joke, but this time (re)creating Galileo's demonstration of acceleration under gravity involving dropping different objects off the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. (Unlike the speaker, Galileo likely never actually carried out the experiment.) In this case the speaker was detained because the area below the tower was busy with tourists, some of whom were hit and injured by the objects dropped.

Transcript

[Cueball is talking to White Hat, arms outstretched.]

Cueball: Sure, when Einstein suggests using the Lorentz transform to explain the connection between velocity and time, people call him a genius.

Cueball: But when I suggest it, it's "basic physics" and "undergraduate stuff."

White Hat: Such a double standard!

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Discussion

Avrayter 9:55 am oct. 13 2025: okay, I assume you write these comments with html. can y'all please just implement the standing on the soldiers of giant joke into the first paragraph? Avrayter (talk) 13:56, 13 October 2025 (UTC)

I'm reminded of science fiction like Star Trek where children learn "advanced" physics like quantum mechanics in high school. Barmar (talk) 14:44, 13 October 2025 (UTC)

There's something to this, tbh. To use just one example, there was a time in history when NEGATIVE NUMBERS were considered a bizarre innovation to the world of mathematics, boggling even expert mathematicians (since, how can you have -3 apples? A hole in the universe where three apples ought to be? It's quite an abstract concept when you think about it!) Yet nowadays, every high school graduate is expected to understand them intuitively and use them proficiently. I really do wonder what it's doing to us, where what was "advanced" in bygone years is considered "fundamentals" today. Our brains don't evolve THAT quickly. MeZimm (talk) 17:49, 13 October 2025 (UTC)

Is the drawing of Cueball and White hat the exact same of 3148? 140.77.177.211 16:52, 13 October 2025 (UTC) divicarpe

No, the angle of Cueball's arms is slightly different... Caliban (talk) 18:20, 13 October 2025 (UTC)

Cue ball drops two weights and injures several tourists? Impressive. Fephisto (talk) 19:03, 13 October 2025 (UTC)

Maybe one of the tourists fell on someone else? Maybe people panicked and stampeded? 2600:4041:798b:a100:693e:f092:d39a:36fc (talk) 21:20, 13 October 2025 (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

You should never do just one interation of an experiment... It really needs several attempts. (Different hands for the different weights, etc.) 2.98.65.8 21:34, 13 October 2025 (UTC)

Plus the results kept getting invalidated when the objects hit people of different heights, necessitating further runs of the experiment. 82.13.184.33 08:21, 14 October 2025 (UTC)

to clear up some confusion regarding "several", see 1070. raeb 10:09, 14 October 2025 (UTC)

Did anyone else notice this comic about discovering came out on Columbus Day? 2405:9800:B560:E3E:5D49:405F:31F1:A98C 02:09, 14 October 2025 (UTC)

The person who no-one took seriously when he set out to reach asia. (And who didn't.) 2.98.65.8 13:19, 14 October 2025 (UTC)

Well, he also kept incorrectly insisting that he had actually reached Asia, unlike Amerigo Vespucci who figured out there was actually a brand new continent there. --185.223.180.2 08:13, 15 October 2025 (UTC)

As it happens, I just found out it's not the first time Randall talks about Galileo's Leaning Tower of Pisa experiment: it was the subject of a "What if?" back in March 2020 (the top illustration has Cueball dropping bobsleds off the tower while Ponytail's calling security). --185.223.180.2 08:13, 15 October 2025 (UTC)

When was anyone going to tell me about that site?! 128.4.83.81 13:34, 15 October 2025 (UTC)

Well, I agree. At first I thought IP was joking, then I realized there's a whole bunch of What If's exclusive on NY Times! Not even mentioned on What_If_(disambiguation) or What_If?_chapters! (edit: I just found that there's a page on the wiki: New York Times: Good Question) BytEfLUSh (talk) 08:10, 16 October 2025 (UTC)

"I could play "Stairway To Heaven" when I was 12. Jimmy Page didn't actually write it until he was 22. I think that says quite a lot." (Vim Fuego in "Bad News") Jeremyp (talk) 10:41, 16 October 2025 (UTC)

"Double standards" introduces the idea of two standards which are literally two different frames of reference. These two frames of reference dictate how people measure the value of applying that transformation. Was this parallel to relativity intentional?115.186.228.9 21:56, 22 October 2025 (UTC)
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