Main Page

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
Revision as of 20:33, 9 August 2012 by Waldir (talk | contribs)
Jump to: navigation, search


Welcome to the explain xkcd wiki! We already have 12 comic explanations!

(But there are still 3159 to go. Come and add yours!)

Latest comic

Go to this comic

Chessboard Alignment
Luckily, the range is limited by the fact that the square boundary lines follow great circles.
Title text: Luckily, the range is limited by the fact that the square boundary lines follow great circles.

Explanation

this comic shows various chess boards, and a piece travelling between them, with the joke being if you align the boards, you can move across them. This is not legal in normal chess [citation needed], but is shown here




the title text refers to, how, due to the lines being great circles, the line will eventually come closer at far enough range and not be millimeter accurate.

Transcript

It doesn't happen often because it requires micrometer precision, but if two chess boards are perfectly aligned, it's actually legal to move pieces between them.


New here?

Feel free to sign up for an account and contribute to the explain xkcd wiki! We need explanations for comics, characters, themes, memes and everything in between. If it is referenced in an xkcd web comic, it should be here.

  • List of all comics contains a complete table of all xkcd comics so far and the corresponding explanations. The red links (like this) are missing explanations. Feel free to help out by creating them!

Rules

Don't be a jerk. There are a lot of comics that don't have set in stone explanations, feel free to put multiple interpretations in the wiki page for each comic.

If you want to talk about a specific comic, use its discussion page.

Please only submit material directly related to—and helping everyone better understand—xkcd... and of course only submit material that can legally be posted (and freely edited.) Off-topic or other inappropriate content is subject to removal or modification at admin discretion, and users posting such are at risk of being blocked.

If you need assistance from an admin, feel free to leave a message on their personal discussion page. The list of admins is here.

Explain xkcd logo courtesy of User:Alek2407.