explain xkcd - New pages [en]

3238: Soniferous Aether

2026-04-28T04:16:49Z

192.112.253.25: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 3238
| date = April 27, 2026
| title = Soniferous Aether
| image = soniferous_aether_2x.png
| imagesize = 290x466px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Imagine you could ride alongside a sound wave. It would probably be pretty cool, right? We're putting in a departmental budget request to buy a really fast plane so we can check it out.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created recently by a BOT THAT BREATHES SONIFEROUS AETHER. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

Beginning in the late 1690s, scientists posited a {{w|luminiferous aether}} to explain properties of light (especially its ability to travel in a vacuum) which should not be possible for a wave. This theory was disproven by the 1887 {{w|Michelson–Morley experiment}}, which demonstrated that the {{w|speed of light}} was constant, regardless of relative movement through the supposed aether. (If the luminiferous aether ''did'' exist, light would move at a set speed ''relative to that aether'', and therefore would appear, from a human perspective, to move slower in the direction the Earth was currently traveling, and faster in the opposite direction- but this did not occur.)

In this comic, [[Cueball]] and [[Ponytail]] have noticed that the {{w|speed of sound}} is ''not'' constant, and therefore have concluded, following a similar line of reasoning, that sound ''does'' travel through a medium. They then coin the term 'soniferous aether', following the same naming scheme, as the name for this 'newly-discovered' medium. Although their conclusion is, strictly speaking, entirely correct, it overlooks the fact that this medium has already been discovered and named. Sound is widely known to travel through physical media, such as air or water, and cannot exist in a vacuum. Since these substances are already known to modern science{{citation needed}}, it is clearly unnecessary for new scientists to discover or name them.

The comic's caption states that the physicists are specifically reinventing air from first principles. Although sound ''can'' be carried by any form of matter, a human would likely identify air as the primary form of soniferous aether, since humans generally experience sounds that travel through air, rather than other mediums like water or metal. As air has very little viscosity and density, is almost entirely invisible to light, and is very familiar to humans, its presence is often overlooked in many situations, and this comic takes that to the humorous extreme of physicists forgetting it exists even while creating a new theory to explain its effects.

By analogy with the theory of luminiferous aether, soniferous aether would logically be an otherwise unobtrusive medium which is primarily observable through its interactions with sound waves. This is a somewhat reasonable description of air, hence why the physicists are stated to have 'reinvented air' (although air does have many other effects that humans generally take for granted, such as the presence of oxygen and the ability for scents to diffuse through 'empty' space).

The title text references {{w|Albert Einstein|Albert Einstein's}} thought experiment where he imagined riding alongside a light particle/wave (which was referenced in [[2959: Beam of Light]]), but with a sound wave instead. Travelling at the speed of sound can be accomplished with a fast airplane. Usually these would be military aircraft, though the {{w|Tu-144}}, {{w|Concorde}}, and (briefly) [https://www.smithsonianmag.com/air-space-magazine/i-was-there-when-the-dc-8-went-supersonic-27846699/ a DC-8] were commercial aircraft that did achieve supersonic flight, and the {{w|Boom Overture}} is in the process of being tested as of the comic's publication.

Reinventing things from first principles has previously [[2834|been discussed]] [[2724|multiple times]] on [[xkcd]].

==Transcript==
:[Ponytail is addressing an unseen audience in front of her while she holds her hand out towards them. She is standing on a podium with Cueball behind her. Cueball holds an arm out behind him indicating a screen behind him showing a graph with three sine waves with different wavelengths. The top has two cycles, the middle four cycles and the bottom one cycle.]
:Ponytail: We all know the speed of light is constant for all observers.
:Ponytail: But our experiments show that the speed of sound '''''changes''''' based on the observer's motion.
:Ponytail: Thus, we posit the existence of the '''''soniferous aether''''', a medium that fills the space between us and carries sound waves.

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Sometimes physicists forget that air exists and rediscover it from first principles.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Physics]]

3237: Husband and Wife

2026-04-24T15:18:01Z

82.13.184.33: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 3237
| date = April 24, 2026
| title = Husband and Wife
| image = husband_and_wife_2x.png
| imagesize = 586x292px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Borat came out twenty years ago this year--closer to the breakup of the Soviet Union than to today--but it honestly feels like it's been even longer, somehow.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created recently by MAH BAAT. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

[[Megan]] and [[Cueball]], who are married in this strip, are discussing the phrases that married couples use to refer to each other. Traditionally, in English, married couples refer to their partners as "my husband" and "my wife", though many euphemistic or 'cutesy' alternatives have gained currency. Megan finds the phrase "my husband" odd and perhaps a little archaic, comparing it to a "Victorian gossip" (a subject that was previously referenced in [[2660: Gen Z]]).

The specifics of Megan's objection aren't clear, and there are a number of possible angles. It could be due to the possessive phrasing (though similar phrasing is very common in English, and generally doesn't imply ownership). Possibly, the old and and gendered roots of the word itself feel odd to her, as the 17th-century roots meant of "master of the house" or "husbandman" (farmer). American norms around relationships, gender and marriage have changed significantly over the last several decades, and phrases associated with traditional and rigid concepts of relationships and gender roles might naturally feel outdated to the younger generations.

Cueball, on the other hand, isn't bothered as much by this implication as by the association with 2006 film ''{{w|Borat}}''. Borat, a fictional character from {{w|Kazakhstan}}, had a distinct, cringy way of saying [https://youtu.be/Zw16aew4Pt0 "my wife"], which has been frequently referenced, quoted, replayed and incorporated into memes ever since the film came out. Even though the film was released 20 years prior to this strip, Cueball can't get the reference out of his head when he uses the phrase. (Depending on their cultural touchpoints, there are a number of other associations readers may make. For example, “My wife; I think I’ll keep her” was used as a commercial for a tonic to keep women looking young and/or feeling energetic. This was certainly not the author’s intent, but it certainly fits with the comic, if not the title text.)

The title text points out that the 20 years from the movie's release to the publication of this comic is longer than the 15 years from the {{w|dissolution of the Soviet Union}} to the movie (Kazakhstan was briefly the last-remaining member of the USSR). In contrast to [[Randall]]'s usual [[:Category:Comics to make one feel old|attempts to make people feel old]], the title text claims that ''Borat'' actually seems '''older''' than it really is. The implication is that the memes have become so ubiquitous that they feel like they've been part of American culture for a very long time.

==Transcript==
:[Megan and Cueball are talking, standing next to each other.]
:Megan: I still feel a little weird saying the phrase "my husband".
:Megan: It makes me feel so traditional, like a Victorian gossip.

:[Megan and Cueball still standing next to each other.]
:Cueball: Yeah, well, '''''my''''' plight isn’t much better.
:Megan: What do you mean?
:Cueball: What’s the most salient cultural reference for the phrase "my wife"?

:[In the 3rd panel, Cueball has his hands raised.]
:Megan: Ughhhh, true.
:Cueball: Even now, after two decades, when I speak of you I hear his voice, echoing through the halls of memory like a cringey ghost.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Romance]]
[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Movies]]
[[Category:Comics to make one feel old]]

3236: Border Message

2026-04-22T20:41:56Z

BunsenH: /* Explanation */ might as well be explicit about comic page name

{{comic
| number = 3236
| date = April 22, 2026
| title = Border Message
| image = border_message_2x.png
| imagesize = 736x316px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Thanks to differences in logging regulations, the messages actually turned out to be visible from the air.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created by a bored legislator. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

Many US states, counties, and smaller local administrative regions have long, straight borders. Regions whose borders evolved over time often reflect natural geographic features (such as bodies of water or mountain ranges), customary (pre-survey) tradition, or piecemeal growth (a city annexing selected nearby areas based on landowner requests or economic factors). Straight lines tend to be the result of a survey or administrative process that is more concerned with defining a boundary than optimizing for local conditions. However, this may be boring for legislators or surveyors who have the power to set the boundary. In this comic, the legislators in charge of the boundary between two geographic areas ("Southlake" to the southwest and "East Valley" to the northeast) livened up the process by arranging for the boundary to spell out a message when viewed on a map. It's unknown what kind of local areas (municipal regions, counties, etc.) are involved here. The boundary definition includes multiple discontinuities — such as the bottoms of the W and other letters with gaps at the bottom, the interior of the "O"s and other letters with "holes", the apostrophe, and so on — that are {{w|Enclave and exclave|either exclaves}} (probably of the northern territory, that are surrounded by the southern one, in most cases) or (unlabeled) {{w|Enclave and exclave#True_enclaves|enclaved territories}} in their own right that are associated with no other disconnected area (possibly regarded as ''{{w|terra nullius}}''). This would be very inconvenient for both tourists and locals, since they would have to constantly consult the map if they want to know whether they are in East Valley or Southlake. This would mean that, artistically (or [[2008|ironically]]) enough, the message with a nice positive saying would almost certainly annoy people, defeating the purpose. [[2519: Sloped Border]] is about negotiations regarding another bizarre border.

The title text implies that the area around the border is forested. Due to the different logging regulations in the two areas, the densities or types of trees on each side of the border are so different that one can see the border, and hence the messages, when looking down on the land. What logging would happen in the land within the exclaves is unclear (possibly none?), but evidently is sufficiently different to make these visible.

This comic may have been inspired by {{w|gerrymandering}}: defining voting districts to favor a particular group. This often results in districts with very unusual shapes. The comic was published on the day after Virginia voters passed {{w|2026 Virginia redistricting amendment|a referendum approving redistricting}} that favored the Democratic Party. See also the {{w|Belgium-Netherlands border}} and the Google Maps outlines of many western land divisions, which can both be chaotic in places. This comic also happens to have been published on {{w|Earth Day}}.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

:[A section of a map showing the border between two geographic areas, East Valley and Southlake (marked on the map). The border is shown as a dotted line, and it spells out a message, followed by a small diagonal part:]
:WE HOPE YOU'RE ENJOYING THIS MAP

:[Caption below comic:]
:When local legislators get bored

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

[[Category:Maps]]

3235: Types of Board Game

2026-04-21T04:01:56Z

69.196.161.154: Roll-and-move

{{comic
| number = 3235
| date = April 20, 2026
| title = Types of Board Game
| image = types_of_board_game_2x.png
| imagesize = 501x1161px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = I can't believe Candles of Vienna caved to commercial pressure and added the Goku expansion.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created by ROLLING A DOUBLE WHILE HOLDING THE 'LIGHT OF EXPLANATION' AND USING 'COLLABORATE' TO LINK THE GROUP. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

There are a lot of different types of board games in the world. Some are very simple, some are very complicated. This comic illustrates various types, with rather extreme examples.

; Boring
This is a very simplistic and boring board game style, often known as roll-and-move, where the players simply move around the board at the dictates of chance. The simplest examples (such as {{w|Snakes and Ladders}}, {{w|Mouse Trap (board game)|Mouse Trap}}, and {{w|Candy Land}}) involve no player choices at all, can get frustrating when dice rolls don't want to line up late in the game, and are thus viewed as boring, at least for adults. {{w|Pachisi}} variants (like {{w|Ludo}}) also fall into this structure while still needing some amount of skill and strategy, but it may feel frustratingly difficult to influence the outcome. It is unclear whether the described game has no end condition at all or whether it is so dull that the group involved are unable to complete it without getting bored and giving up.
; Abstract
This board game has more abstract tones, involving the arrangement of geometric shapes for reasons that may not be immediately clear, perhaps similar to something like {{w|Hive (game)|Hive}} or {{w|Tantrix}}. Some people may find that this kind of game, without a relatable framing they can use as a starting point for understanding it, is quite hard to get to grips with.
; Hyperspecific Theme
This board game has a weirdly specific backstory, being centred around a very specific historical event, and a specific task within that. Lengthy backstories that have to be explained before you get to the actual gameplay can feel contrived and be off-putting to some players, but can be an attempt to contextualize gameplay that might otherwise fall into the Abstract category. The {{w|Congress of Vienna}} was a gathering of diplomats from many different countries at the end of the Napoleonic Wars. There exist [https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/256170/schonbrunn multiple] [https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/296578/congress-of-vienna actual board games] about the Congress of Vienna, but none that have to do with lighting candles (yet). The candles might be a reference to {{w|Cluedo}} (known in North America as Clue), in which one of the possible weapons is a candlestick.
; Overcomplicated
{{w|Twilight Imperium}} is widely regarded as being an extremely complex board game (especially the later 3rd and 4th editions). Cones of Dunshire is a joke board game (first shown on the TV show ''{{w|Parks and Recreation}}''), which was eventually turned into a real game where the aim is to accumulate cone tokens. Its extreme complexity is key to the joke. Combining them would likely result in a game that is far more complex than either. {{w|Category theory}} is a branch of mathematics famous for its layers of abstractions, and is notoriously difficult to understand. {{w|Cone (category theory)|Cones}} are a concept from category theory (unrelated to those in the Cones of Dunshire game), as are {{w|Monad (category theory)|monads}}, which have the famous [https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3870088/a-monad-is-just-a-monoid-in-the-category-of-endofunctors-whats-the-problem definition] of "a monad is simply a monoid in the category of endofunctors", which to many people may seem like exactly the kind of baffling thing they might encounter in the instructions to an overcomplicated board game.
; Cooperative
Cooperative board games center around players attempting to reach a common goal, winning or losing together. Many feature impediments to communication that make this more challenging; for instance, players may be restricted from saying certain words, or have secret cards they are unable to reveal before playing. The game in this panel appears to forbid all communication between players except for hand gestures. The punchline likens it to a very mundane activity, sorting a junk drawer, made artificially more difficult due to silence, and suggests the game is just as boring. It also raises suspicions that [[Megan]] has organised or hijacked this games night to trick her friends into doing chores she can't be bothered with, similarly to the way that Cueball [[1566: Board Game|once did for his taxes]]. The game described in the comic makes it seem like a (rather pointless) extension of {{w|Charades}}, and is also reminiscent of cooperative game {{w|The Mind (card game)|The Mind}}.
; Branded
Some board games are published and marketed as tie-ins to other forms of media, using settings, characters, or events from the source to appeal to its fans and get them to buy a game they might otherwise not have done. The theming often has little to nothing to do with the gameplay, as the many branded variants on Monopoly can attest. The game in this panel is themed after the sitcom {{w|Friends}}, with the unlikely addition of {{w|Goku|Son Goku}} from {{w|Dragon Ball}}. Dragon Ball's producers seem to be trying to expand into various board games (see the title text below). Interestingly enough, while the characters of the game are mentioned, the gameplay itself is unmentioned. Indeed, the gameplay itself could be Simple, Overcomplicated, Cooperative, or any of the others.
; Party
It can be hard to determine what makes a party game, other than it generally doesn't have the kinds of gameplay and strategy in other kinds of board games. Such games (like {{w|Pictionary}} or {{w|30 Seconds (game)|30 Seconds}}) are often aimed at creating humorous or mildly embarrassing situations. However, party games marketed as "for adults" (such as the well known {{w|Cards Against Humanity}}) do tend to have one thing in common — swearing or references to sex. The content of the game described here (dealing cards and screaming whatever is on them) seems not to require a lot of critical thinking, which may make it appealing in social situations where drinks (or other substances) may have been taken. [[Ponytail]]'s decision to start the game "on the count of three" will no doubt annoy [[Randall]], judging by [[3232: Countdown Standard]].
; Social Deduction
{{w|Social deduction game|Social deduction games}}, such as variations upon {{w|Mafia (party game)|Mafia/Werewolf}} (like the derived computer game ''{{w|Among Us}}''), revolve around the players attempting to deduce the roles or allegiances of other players, based on both special abilities provided by the game and the players' native abilities to tell which of their fellow players are being dishonest. Commonly, they involve an 'uninformed majority,' who do not know the allegiances of other players, attempting to discover the 'informed minority,' who know the members of their team. The minority is often framed as 'evil,' with the ability to 'kill' other players and remove them from the game; their victory condition often revolves around killing most or all of the 'good' players. The game in this panel revolves around finding a 'secret murderer', as per these kinds of game, but evidently has required clarification that discovering a ''real'' murderer does not count, implying that one or more of the previous week's participants, possibly [[Black Hat]], had actually killed someone in real life. Although Black Hat is not shown in this comic's game night, it stands to reason that after admitting to murder he would not be invited back the following week. This situation might be a reference to the [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-59258857 case of Tiernan Darnton] who admitted, during a game of Truth or Dare, to killing his step-grandmother.
; Title text
"Candles of Vienna" is presumably the game described under "Hyperspecific Theme". An expansion pack is an additional set of playing equipment that can be combined with an existing game to add new gameplay possibilities. It appears that the rights holders for Goku have decided on a strategy of getting the character included in multiple board games. The character would arguably be even more out of place in Napoleonic Vienna than lounging on the sofas at Central Perk.

The setting, with the characters round a table playing games, is rather similar to that in the [[:Category:Dungeons & Dragons|D&D comics]].

==Transcript==
:Types of Board Game
:[Under this header text, the comic contains 8 panels. Each of them is labeled at the top with a short description of the board game being played and features (from left to right) Cueball, Ponytail, Megan, and White Hat sitting on chairs around a table trying to play it.]

:Boring
:Megan: Each turn, roll a die and move your token. Turns proceed clockwise around the table until we get bored and go home.

:Abstract
:Cueball: Each turn, you can place any number of red triangles or blue squares on a hexagon, or move any hexagon to a...

:Hyperspecific Theme
:Ponytail: It's October 2, 1814. The Congress of Vienna convenes. You are each in charge of distributing and lighting candles for the opening ball, which was held at these three locations...

:Overcomplicated
:White Hat: It's a cross between ''Twilight Imperium'' and ''Cones of Dunshire'', but implemented entirely in category theory. Every cone is a monad, and...

:Cooperative
:Megan: We're working together to sort these decks of cards using only hand gestures. After that, we'll silently organize my junk drawer.

:Branded
:Cueball: You can play as Phoebe, Chandler, Monica, Rachel, Ross, Joey, or, due to an ill-advised tie-in, Goku.

:Party
:Ponytail: Each of the cards in your hand has a bad word on it. On the count of three, yell the...

:Social Deduction
:Megan: Remember, per our ''Find the Secret Murderer'' house rules from last week, discovering that a player had committed a real-life murder does ''not'' count.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Board games]]
[[Category:Games]]

3234: Europa Missions

2026-04-18T00:31:21Z

81.179.199.253: /* Explanation */ Some minor grammar/spelling/context changes. And clarifying that the water (that is supposed to freeze, eventually) would not remain liquid while that still is necessary.

{{comic
| number = 3234
| date = April 17, 2026
| title = Europa Missions
| image = europa_missions_2x.png
| imagesize = 515x274px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Before resurfacing, they promise to inspect the ice for any evidence of hockey-playing life.
}}

==Explanation==
In recent years, multiple space agencies have sent spacecraft to observe Jupiter’s moon {{w|Europa (moon)|Europa}}. In part, this is because, according to {{w|NASA}}, the moon could be a candidate for life due to the presence of a subsurface ocean and (possibly) {{w|hydrothermal vents}}. The first two craft — the {{w|Europa Clipper}} and {{w|Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer}} (Juice), respectively — will investigate the ocean, topography and chemistry of the moon, to help in searching for signs of life. Europa's ocean is frozen on top — the whole surface being solid ice with no exposed liquid, except perhaps at the bottom of any transient deep crevasses — which is why it described as a "subsurface ocean".

A {{w|Zamboni}} is a vehicle that is meant to quickly resurface ice rinks that have been worn down — not a scientific mission or a transport for other scientific missions. The comic describes a non-existent spacecraft known as the ''Zamboni Voyager'', operated by the {{w|National Hockey League}} (NHL). The spacecraft is carrying a Zamboni because the NHL is trying to 'expand the league'. Normally, expanding a sports league would involve, at the very least, forming a new team in a city which did not have one. In this scenario, they appear to be more literally trying to expand the available space for play, by resurfacing Europa to make it viable for hockey-playing. (Although Europa is the {{w|Europa (moon)#Surface environment|smoothest known body}} in the solar system, it's probably not smooth enough for playing hockey.) Hockey in reduced gravity — Europa's gravity is less than 1/7 that of Earth — would be {{What If|124|an interesting idea}}. However, it would be ridiculous to, even if the plan succeeded, ferry spaceships to and from Europa simply to get hockey players and fans over just to see a game of Hockey.{{Citation needed}}

The title text talks about finding hockey-playing life on Europa, which would be unlikely, as any life on Europa would exist underwater, where it's difficult to play hockey.{{cn}} In addition, any conceivable culture(s) there would almost certainly be extremely different from Earth's, so even if the lifeforms on Europa do have entertainment similar to sports, it's unlikely that they have even {{w|Convergent evolution|remotely similar}} rules or equipment. If, though, there were intelligent non-hockey-playing life on Europa, the NHL may consider them fair game as a virgin market for their product.

On top of that, making a spacecraft to send a Zamboni to Europa would be very difficult, as 14,000 m/s of delta-v (a measure of the total change in velocity required to transfer between orbital or 'ground' locations) is needed. With a typical Zamboni weighing five tons, a very heavy rocket would be needed. Europa clipper weighs about six tons, which is comparable to a heavy Zamboni. That particular spacecraft will not perform an orbital insertion or a landing, but only a fly-by to save fuel. Even then, it needs a fully expendable Falcon Heavy, the largest commercially available rocket (as of the comic being published), to achieve the fly-by. A landing would need much more available delta-v for the final approach.

If whoever was talking (e.g. NASA) tried to stop them, something like an SLS launch (which is ludicrously expensive on top of not being commercially availible) with more payload capacity may not even be possible. SpaceX’s Starship might be viable in the future, but again, if an agency tried to stop them they would likely not get a contract. On top of that, many of the critical technologies for Starship are ''not yet'' (good luck, SpaceX) available. Even with an SLS/Starship, successfully achieving a propulsive landing would be very difficult, as demonstrated by {{w|IM-1}} and {{w|IM-2}}, which both failed to land on our own Moon (and more landers from other agencies). A normal Zamboni is probably not hardened against Jupiter’s intense radiation environment and, unless adapted for robotic remote control, the life support system for the operator would greatly increase the total weight of the mission. Also, the water in a Zamboni would freeze long before it was applied.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball's upper body is shown; he is in front of an image of a spacecraft.]
:Cueball: There are now three spacecraft headed to Europa:
:Cueball: NASA's ''Europa Clipper'', which investigate Europa's subsurface ocean,

:[In a longer shot, Cueball, Ponytail, and Hairy are all shown standing in front of another spacecraft image, with Cueball gesturing at it.]
:Cueball: ESA's ''Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer'', which will study the topography and chemistry of Europa and the other moons,

:[Another closeup on Cueball, who is in front of an image of a Zamboni with a firing rocket nozzle on its bottom.]
:Cueball: And the NHL's ''Zamboni Voyager'', which plans to resurface Europa.
:Voice out of frame: Oh no.
:Cueball: We tried to stop them, but the league is set on an expansion.

==Trivia==
* The [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/archive/f/fd/20260418170145%21europa_missions_2x.png original version of the comic] incorrectly referred to the "Jupiter Icy Moons ''Orbiter''" rather than "Jupiter Icy Moons ''Explorer''."

* This comic was created at around the time of the start of the season's NHL playoffs.

* This comic was posted 10 days after April 7, 2026, a pivotal date in ''{{w|17776}}'' — a space-probe related and sports-related webcomic which features Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer ("Juice"), the space probe mentioned in this comic, as a main character. (While the webcomic began in 2017, it received another wave of popularity in the lead-up to April 7, 2026, the date on which humans stopped being born (and essentially stopped dying and aging) within the story's fiction.)

* Kerbal Space Program is a great way to learn the basics of orbital mechanics.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

[[Category:Comics edited after their publication]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Space probes]]
[[Category:Sport]]

3233: Make It Myself

2026-04-15T21:21:46Z

GSLikesCats307:

{{comic
| number = 3233
| date = April 15, 2026
| title = Make It Myself
| image = make_it_myself_2x.png
| imagesize = 284x438px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = It's not as big a loss as it looks, because now I have leftover supplies, which will help me talk myself into doing this all over again with a new project!
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created BY A BOT MADE WITH 20 MINUTES OF CODING, 30 MINUTES OF TROUBLESHOOTING, ANOTHER HOUR OF CODING, AND A SUBSCRIPTION TO CURSOR. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

This strip lampoons people (commonly {{w|do it yourself}} enthusiasts) who scoff at the price of manufactured goods, insisting that they could build them more cheaply, only to end up spending more time and money than the product would cost in the first place.

In this case, [[Cueball]] starts by appearing to play the cliché straight, insisting that he could make an $80 product himself, using $10 worth of parts and an hour of work (which, for most people, would be financially advantageous). However, he subverts this by immediately adding on additional costs and time commitments, before ultimately admitting that he'd ''also'' have to actually buy the product when his homemade one breaks. Rather than the typical pattern of finishing the project and realizing he'd overextended himself, he is predicting ways the project will go wrong from the start, but seems determined to do it anyway.

When building something yourself, a relatively small amount of raw materials may go in to the final product, and some people fail to recognise other costs involved and assume they can assemble them into a finished project in short order. However, once the project begins, additional expenses often pile up. More supplies might be needed, sometimes in small quantities, but you still have to purchase larger packages. Specific tools and equipment that you don't already have may be needed, and this may not be obvious at first, explaining the multiple trips to the hardware store. If errors are made during the assembly process, material may be ruined, requiring additional purchases. Projects often become more involved and take more time than originally expected. All together, Cueball calculates that he'll spend $60 on parts, multiple hours (which are, themselves, likely to have a value greater than the price of the item), and multiple trips to the hardware store (with associated costs of fuel, etc.) trying to avoid paying $80 for the item, and that his homemade version will then break, requiring him to spend another $80 in addition to all that.

The title text attempts to justify the money he spent, by pointing out that he has leftover supplies. If only part of the purchased supplies were needed, or if the supplies included tools, then he might not assign all the cost to one project, because they can be reused. However, his prediction about "doing this all over again with a new project" sounds ominous in light of the comic. If his DIY projects don't ultimately save money, then being encouraged to start another may not be beneficial. He also has no guarantee that the supplies he has will be suitable for a future project. This may encourage him to use them in suboptimal ways instead, potentially compounding his problems. And even if he did have all the correct parts for a second project, [[Cueball]] would likely end up with an endless loop of the first problem (at least until all the leftover parts fall apart from all the continued use).

This is a common source of tension in DIY projects. While the costs of manufactured projects are generally significantly higher than the costs of materials and labor to make them (due to costs of storage, overhead, transport, and profits for all the businesses involved), they also have the advantage of economies of scale, amortized research and development, mass-manufacturing techniques and low-cost labor. For an individual to attempt to replicate that manufacturing process for a single item often involves additional costs, may not be worth the time that was spent, and may not be up to the quality standards of manufactured goods.

Of course, there are various non-cost reasons why people might choose to do home projects, such as self-satisfaction, learning, ability to make a bespoke solution, and so on, so a negative cost analysis doesn't necessarily mean that the DIY approach is always inadvisable. However, since Cueball's primary motivation appears to be financial, it doesn't seem to have much to recommend it in this case.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and White Hat stand together looking at two boxes on the right side of the frame. Each box has labels saying "Sale" and "$80" on one of the visible sides of the box, and 3 boxes of illegible text on the other visible side of the box. Cueball is holding his arms out toward the boxes.]

:Cueball: They want $80 for this?
:Cueball: I could make one myself for $10 in parts, an hour of work, a trip to the hardware store, another $30 in parts, another few hours of work, two more trips to the store for $20 more in parts, another hour to redo the first hour of work because I messed up, and $80 to buy this when the one I made breaks.
{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
[[Category: Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category: Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category: Comics edited after their publication]]

3232: Countdown Standard

2026-04-13T22:16:24Z

121.45.199.149: Added a little bit about how only eating NIST food would be expensive

{{comic
| number = 3232
| date = April 13, 2026
| title = Countdown Standard
| image = countdown_standard_2x.png
| imagesize = 474x222px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Anyone who is caught counting 'three ... two ... one ... zero ... GO!' will be punished with a lifetime of eating only ISO standard food samples.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page WILL BE CREATED IN TWO...THREE...ONE...ZERO...NEGATIVE ONE...NOW! Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
This comic reflects the common {{tvtropes|OnThree|trope}} of people preparing for a synchronized action as a group (such as lifting something heavy, or [[:Category:The Race|having an electric skateboard race]]) counting to get everybody to start the action at the same time, without first having agreed at what point in the count they will act. Two of the ways that people often count up can be confusing: the action can be either performed just as the speaker says 'three', or a second later ('four' if the speaker was still counting). If the people involved do not all have the same understanding, and so end up acting out of sync, this could result in undesirable outcomes, such as damage, injury, or just a dispute over the interpretation of the instruction (not the least those who might jump the gun or perhaps intentionally start on '{{tvtropes|ILied|two}}').

This comic alleges that, if [[Randall]] gained control of the {{w|International Organization for Standardization}} (ISO), he would standardize counting to go ''down'' from three and have the 'go'-point be at zero. However, this proposal would be no better than counting up, as some people may expect to act on the 'one' or, as the title text suggests, to have a 'zero' before the 'go!', leading to exactly the same problems. Moreover, most people are unlikely to refer to the ISO before starting a countdown, and this is likely to simply lead to the problem outlined in [[927: Standards]].

"Deprecated" is a term applied to something that is no longer recommended for use, so you should fix things so as not to use it anymore. It is commonly used when a standard is replaced by a newer version or an alternative approach, but may still be in use in legacy applications. In this case, it is hard to imagine where there would be a situation where a need to maintain a deprecated standard would arise, since such countdowns tend to be short-lived affairs, so any starting before the publication of the new standard would be unlikely to continue running for appreciable periods after it.

The fact that these are called "countdowns", yet the ones being complained about are counts that go ''up'', is probably intentional, and cause for additional irritation among those who are bothered by the inherent inconsistencies.

The ISO is an international organization that is responsible for standardizing many things (such as technology and safety standards) to allow for smooth interoperability between countries, manufacturers, and so on. However, it doesn't standardize everyday actions like countdowns. Other standards organizations that have somewhat similar functions include the [https://www.nist.gov/ National Institute of Standards and Technology] (NIST) and the [https://www.ansi.org/ American National Standards Institute] (ANSI), which are technically American but have considerable international influence.{{acn}}

The title text refers to "ISO standard food samples". The ISO doesn't offer such samples, but does have documents which describe how food samples should be prepared for standardized analysis. For example, [https://www.iso.org/standard/29628.html ISO 16050:2003] documents how "cereals, nuts and derived products" are to be analyzed for aflatoxins. If your punishment were to repeatedly test cereals and nuts for toxins, that would probably be quite unpleasant, especially if one of your bowls happened to contain said toxins. {{w|ISO 3103}} describes a standardized method for {{What If|71|brewing tea}}. It's unclear why such samples would be considered particularly unpleasant or inappropriate for consumption. Perhaps they would be assumed to be unimaginably bland because they would be 'lowest common denominator' illustrations of the base definition of each food. There ''are'' NIST Standard Reference Materials for food, such as [https://shop.nist.gov/ccrz__ProductDetails?sku=2387 peanut butter] and "[https://shop.nist.gov/ccrz__ProductDetails?sku=1548b typical diet]". These samples are incredibly expensive to purchase, so eating only NIST Standard Reference Materials would be a significant financial drain if you were forced to eat them. Hacker lore describes a supposed [http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/A/ANSI-standard-pizza.html "ANSI-standard pizza"].

Apparently eating these food samples is, in Randall's opinion, suitable punishment for doing “3, 2, 1, 0, Go!” for a countdown. In this he is likely to be disappointed, as he will discover that punishment for non-compliance with standards is not within the remit of the ISO. The possibility of including 0 in such a countdown would be an example of an off-by-one error, as described in [[3062: Off By One]].

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
:[The comic shows three different ways of counting down]

:One ... Two ... '''''Three!''''' [red X, followed by red text] Deprecated
:One ... Two ... Three ... '''''Go!''''' [red X, followed by red text] Deprecated
:[These first two both followed by a red curly bracket followed by red text:] Too easy to mix up

:Three ... Two ... One ... '''''Go!''''' [green tickmark, followed by green text] ISO Standard

:[Caption below the comic:]
:If I were in charge of ISO, the first thing I'd do would be to standardize the way people count out loud before doing something in sync.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
[[Category:Comics with color]]

3231: Lightning

2026-04-10T20:44:51Z

Megan: lightning category

{{comic
| number = 3231
| date = April 10, 2026
| title = Lightning
| image = lightning_2x.png
| imagesize = 328x364px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Maybe you should wear one too? I guess I'm taller than you, so as long as I have one we're fine.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created by a GROUNDED BOT. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

An {{w|anti-static wrist strap}} is a device worn by people working with sensitive electronic devices. The strap is connected to a {{w|Ground (electricity)|"ground"}}, so any static charge will be neutralized rather than accumulating and discharging to the device, potentially causing damage. Many electrical devices are grounded by conductors in their power cords, protecting the devices (and their users) from electrical faults.

{{w|Lightning}} is a release of static electricity that occurs when there's a large charge difference between a cloud and the Earth or between two clouds. In the comic, [[Cueball]] has [[649|once again]] confused how anti-static devices work — rather than protecting a device from static in the person, he thinks it will protect the person from static in the lightning. In fact, wearing a strap that conducts electricity will make it fractionally ''more'' likely that he will be struck by lightning (by bringing the typical 'ground' anode marginally closer to the cloud's cathode, bypassing the usually greater electrical impedance of his body), and then the strap is far too small to protect him from the electricity in the lightning strike once this happens.

He may think that the anti-static device works like a {{w|lightning rod}}, attracting the lightning that would have struck his body, and diverting it away from it. The reason they work is because lightning takes the easiest path. If a tall structure is going to be hit by a lightning strike, it's better to have that strike not go via more resistive materials that can be easily damaged or destroyed. A proper lightning conductor is designed to conduct the large amount of energy of lightning safely to the bottom, unlike a wrist-strap cable that is only made to leak away much smaller static buildups and could not contain a sudden cloud-to-ground surge of electricity.

This is further echoed by the title text, in which he thinks that [[Ponytail]] should be safe because he's taller than she is (plus also higher up in the hill in the comic — although she could at some time easily move further up the hill than him, so relative tallness is only part of the issue), and lightning tends to be attracted to the most prominent conductor in its vicinity (e.g., lightning rods that extend above the roof of the building they're protecting). While it is true that Ponytail is less likely to be struck by lighting directly she is by no means safe: If lighting hits the ground a very large current is discharged into the earth, and will spread outwards from the impact point. Since Ponytail (like all humans) has a lower resistance than the ground, this current will travel through her feet and legs upon reaching her. Since Cueball has (by an extension of his own logic) made himself more likely to be struck he has increased the risk for Ponytail even if the grounding would protect him. (Obviously, there are better ways to be protected during a thunderstorm; see the What If on {{What If|16|lightning}}.)

[[Randall]] also shows [[Cueball]]'s incorrect views on lightning in [[795: Conditional Risk]], in that case confusing statistics.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
:[Most of the panel is black, with Cueball and Ponytail (holding a walking stick) on the side of a hill shown in all white. A bolt of lighting, also all white, is in the sky above them and accompanied by a booming sound.]

:[Lightning:]
:<big>BOOOOM</big>

:Cueball: Don't worry, I'm wearing an anti-static wrist strap

==Trivia==
There was indeed a {{w|Lightning rod fashion|brief period}}, starting in France in 1778, when lightning rods were incorporated into clothing. Its effectiveness is debatable. One would need data about how many people wearing such clothing were struck by lightning but unhurt because of the rods, and there's no way to know how many people wearing such clothing weren't struck at all, but ''would'' have been struck if they hadn't been wearing it.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Lightning]]
[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Comics with inverted brightness]]

3230: Overton

2026-04-08T18:23:38Z

147.219.84.214: modified reinsertion of my addition while removing the just. completely untrue part i was mistaken about

{{comic
| number = 3230
| date = April 8, 2026
| title = Overton
| image = overton_2x.png
| imagesize = 242x268px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = I think I accidentally installed an Overton window in my bedroom. A few months ago, the sun wasn't in my face in the morning, but now it is.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created by JOSEPH PAUL OVERTON, BACK FROM THE DEAD. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

{{w|Joseph Paul Overton}} was a political scientist who created the concept of the {{w|Overton window}}, which is the range of subjects that are politically appropriate to raise during a period of time. The first set of dates, 1960 and 2003, are the years that Overton was born and died.

It is common for political commentators to state that the Overton window has "moved," meaning that the standard for which political positions are "moderate" or "extreme" has changed. In the comic, the "Overton window" refers to the time span in which Joseph Paul Overton was alive. The dates on Overton's grave have been repeatedly crossed out and replaced as this 'window' has moved. This creates the ridiculous implication that Overton was living at least four overlapping lives, or that history has repeatedly changed so that the dates of his life shifted, either of which is impossible.{{cn}} Alternatively, it could reflect changes in the frame of reference the keepers of the grave are using to date events.

Notably, the gravestone doesn't have an updated death year, implying that Overton actually came back from the dead the last time the window updated, and is still alive to this day, which is untrue.{{cn}}

In the title text, the speaker notices that the sunlight is now being let in earlier in the morning, and attributes this to it coming through an "Overton window" that can physically move. This is unlikely, since the Overton window is an abstract concept, not an architectural feature, and sunlight is not generally influenced by social attitudes.{{cn}} It is more likely that the phenomenon is due to the seasonal movement of the Sun in the sky, where its apparent path across the sky moves further north or south between the {{w|summer solstice}} (highest arc) and {{w|winter solstice}} (lowest arc), changing the place it falls at a given time of day, and therefore its angle of entry through any given window. This shift is caused by the Earth's tilt relative to its orbit. The Sun's position at a certain clock time may also be perceived to change suddenly due to the beginning or end of {{w|daylight saving time}}, as occurred in most US states and many other countries shortly before this comic was published. (This is an issue that Randall has covered [[:Category:Daylight saving time|multiple times]], although apparently ''not'' (unless this is a subtle reference) this year.)

==Transcript==
:[A gravestone is shown on some grass. On the inscription, all of the years except the last one are crossed out in red, and all except the first pair of years have the years themselves in red. The inscription is as follows:]
:Joseph Paul Overton
:<s>1960</s> - <s>2003</s>
:<s>1965</s> - <s>2011</s>
:<s>1973</s> - <s>2018</s>
:1982 -

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
[[Category:Politics]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Comics with red annotations]]

3229: Grammar

2026-04-06T21:53:46Z

2603:6011:1F0:2A40:DC22:1F47:2399:3124:

{{comic
| number = 3229
| date = April 6, 2026
| title = Grammar
| image = grammar_2x.png
| imagesize = 227x312px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Communication is one of the most popular ways to transmit information, ahead of rivals such as
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Explanation of the second method should focus on language structure rather than communication.}}

[[Miss Lenhart]] is shown teaching a classroom about {{w|grammar}}, which is a system of rules describing how a certain language is structured. This is useful to make communication and meaning standardized and clear, with little to no difficulty in parsing. However, due to having many rules and structures to learn, the grammar of some languages can be viewed with annoyance by some people who wish it were 'simpler'. Miss Lenhart claims that grammar is "''one'' of the most popular ways to structure a language" and presents two alternative methods, but this is odd, as grammar ''is'' how we structure a language. Also, if the names of these 'rivals' illustrate their use, they reflect their own rules, and thus imply their own grammar. She also presents two alternative methods (though it could be interpreted as a list of four items without commas to split it up) that competed to substitute grammar, yet evidently never took off to be implemented for practical use. Despite seeming nonsensical, they've gained their own linguistic terminology:

;Words order words random words words random good
:This alternate to grammar likely has very loose rules around structure, as it consists of simply stating words that relate directly to the idea being conveyed (as opposed to normal grammar, which focuses on linking together many words to form a single coherent idea). This is superficially similar to some languages, like Ukrainian, where word order does not matter. However, in these languages, its role in the sentence is simply replaced with more in-depth conjugation, which is also a form of grammar. The provided sentence, conversely, appears to have neither conjugation nor any meaningful ordering, which would make it difficult to convey more complex concepts.

;EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
:This proposes a very narrow method of structuring language consisting of only the capital letter "E". It could be argued that this method of structuring language is able to form a coherent idea, but the number of distinct ideas that may be formed using this method is only one, being a string of "E"s, which may represent an attempt to draw another's attention, unless the precise number of "E"s represents a raw {{w|Unary numeral system|value}} which can be indexed to distinct messages. Messages could also be encoded by fluctuation of the volume or pitch of the scream. A different scream-based method of communication was mentioned in [[3054: Scream Cipher]]. It has also been postulated that more complex ideas may be transferred through the use of encoding patterns such as Morse code or with other vowels. One of the questions recorded in [[Randall]]'s ''[[What If? 2]]'', in the {{what if|2-58.5|Short Answers #5 chapter}}. The "question", posted by Nate Yu, was a string of 960 letter "E"s, to which Randall replied: "I feel you, Nate".

;Communication is one of the most popular ways to transmit information, ahead of rivals such as
:The title text continues Lenhart's lecture, as she moves on to {{w|communication}} and its rival alternatives, similar to the subject of grammar, but seems to cut off before naming the first one. Lenhart is self-demonstrating non-communication, as the sudden stop in the middle of the sentence could be a joke for how there are no other ways to convey information without communication, since communication is literally the act of conveying information. Still, this doesn't rule out at least one other 'rival' to communication, as Lenhart implies that at least one more method exists. If communication is defined as successful transmission of information, it is possible she is referring to some sort of method(s) that attempts, but fails to transmit information. Nonetheless, demonstrating lack of communication would not be useful in this setting without further explanation, as abruptly ceasing to provide more information could cause confusion in her students.

==Transcript==
:[Miss Lenhart is teaching in a classroom. Two students can be seen sitting at desks in front of her, Cueball in the first row and Megan in the second row.]
:Miss Lenhart: '''Grammar''' is one of the most popular ways to structure a language, ahead of rival methods such as '''''words order words random words words random good''''' and '''''EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE'''''.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

[[Category:Comics featuring Miss Lenhart]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Language]]

3228: Day Counter

2026-04-03T11:41:08Z

2A01:119F:2A5:8D00:1C5B:89A5:6E78:4C59:

{{comic
| number = 3228
| date = April 3, 2026
| title = Day Counter
| image = day_counter_2x.png
| imagesize = 319x287px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = It has been −2,147,483,648 days since our last integer overflow.
}}

==Explanation==

{{incomplete|The calculations by DL Draco Rex et al. in the Talk should be included in the explanation. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

A common feature of an industrial setting is a prominent sign announcing how many days have elapsed since the last workplace accident. The sign is typically updated each day to a number one higher — or back to zero, if there ''has'' been an accident. Such signs are intended to foster a culture of safety among the workers in the facility, since presumably no one wants to suffer the embarrassment of being the one to have caused an accident that resets the number to 0. (However, it may also lead workers to cover up or conceal accidents, for the same reason, which would tend to increase future accidents, because they do not report the need to correct hazardous conditions that are causing accidents.)

Evidently, in the programming facility shown in the comic, a floating-point error has occurred today, and an attempt has been made to update the sign to say "It has been 0 days since...". But the number 0 is displayed incorrectly, as the very small negative value −0.00000000000000044. Perhaps the error that was made today was the very error that occurred in updating the sign! (This would of course violate {{w|causality}}, but in comedy, self-referential humor beats causality every time, and is at least self-consistent, like with [[363: Reset]])

Floating-point errors occur because computers can devote only a finite amount of storage for each {{w|Floating-point arithmetic|floating point number}} or other fraction. However, many {{w|real numbers}} and {{w|rational numbers}} theoretically require an infinite number of digits to represent them. For example, the ordinary fraction ⅓ is represented in decimal as 0.3333333333…, where the 3s repeat forever. When a number is truncated to fit in the finite amount of space, precision is inevitably lost, resulting in a slight rounding error. Unless carefully controlled, these rounding errors can accumulate, significantly degrading the accuracy of floating-point computations. For example, although ⅓ + ⅓ + ⅓ should obviously equal 1, a finite-precision calculation like 0.333 + 0.333 + 0.333 might show a misleading result of 0.999, which might not trigger the code to do what it should do when three thirds have been accumulated (it can be mitigated by allowing a match for a value which is within a suitably very small difference to the test value, but this must be considered carefully to not be over-/under-sensitive). The amount of required space for rational numbers is not universal, it depends on the base used (⅓ in base 3 requires just two digits: 0 as the units and 1 after the {{w|Decimal separator#Radix point|radix (ternary) point}}). Floating point arithmetic standards, like the popular IEEE 754, define how and when an approximation should take place, leading to predictable results, but they don't respect some basic properties of common arithmetic operations, which someone may take for granted, e.g. in floating point arithmetic addition and multiplication are commutative (a+b=b+a; a*b=b*a), but aren't guaranteed to be associative ((a+b)+c≈a+(b+c)); (a*b)*c≈a*(b*c)).

This issue is exacerbated on computers which use binary arithmetic (i.e., virtually all computers today), since in binary, the ordinary fraction 1/10 is represented as the infinitely-repeating base-2 fraction <tt>0.000110011001100110011</tt>…. A classic example is that, depending on circumstances, the calculation 0.1 + 0.2 might [https://stackoverflow.com/questions/588004/is-floating-point-math-broken seem to give an answer of 0.30000000000000004].

Floating point errors are particularly common in programming, especially in languages that implicitly convert decimal numbers to binary floating point, so an approximation is already made at conversion leading to unexpected results. The title text cites another common programming problem, integer overflow. When a value gets bigger than the biggest integer that can be represented in a certain format, it may "wrap around" to the smallest/most negative value (if the system is not instead set to catch this as an overflow error). In case of 32-bit signed integers it may wrap from 231−1 (2,147,483,647) to −231 (−2,147,483,648).

Integer overflow was the topic of [[571: Can't Sleep]], with yet another example of a 'days since' sign being [[3140: Biology Department]] (two examples, in both the comic and its title text).

It should be noted that computers displaying things like "-1 seconds until the next [blank]" is a glitch that actually happens.

==Transcript==
[White Hat, Ponytail, Cueball, and Megan are all below a large sign, which appears to be attached to the wall at its four corners. White Hat and Ponytail appear to be discussing something, while Cueball is sitting at his desk working on a laptop and Megan is walking away. The sign has text on it, as well as a large display presumably meant to show a number.]

:[Sign:] It has been
:[Display:] -0.00000000000000044
:[Sign:] days since our last floating point error

==Trivia==
As an example of how the number −0.00000000000000044 could have arisen when 0 was intended, consider this simple {{w|C (programming language)|C}} program:

#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
double d = 19;
for(int i = 0; i < 10; i++) d -= 1.9;
printf("%.17f\n", d);
}

The program starts with the number 19, and subtracts 1.9 from it, ten times. Mathematically, we would expect the result to be 0. However, the number 1.9 cannot be represented exactly in binary, nor can the intermediate results 17.1, 15.2, 13.3, etc. The cascading roundoff errors conspire to produce a result of −0.00000000000000044 instead of the expected 0.

Another possibility is that the timestamps were rounded to an intermediate lower precision that ended up rounding above the actual time value:

#include <stdio.h>
float last_fp_error=0;
int main(){
double time = 0.00000000745058193;
int a=3; int b=-2; double f=10;
if(a/f+b/f!=(a+b)/f) last_fp_error=time;
printf("It has been %.17f days since our last floating point error",time-last_fp_error);
}

In the comic, such an error creates the ridiculous illusion that −0.00000000000000044 days have passed, which implies a 'negative' number of days, which is impossible{{cn}}. It also, even if it were a positive number, would mean that much less than a nanosecond had passed since the last error, which would be an unfeasably short amount of time. Of course, the joke is that in making the sign showing the amount of time since a floating point error was last made, they are creating a floating point error, meaning the sign maintains its own "error state" in a self-referential way. Also, if they tried to reset the sign, they might make the same error again, repeating the cycle over and over, which would not be ideal.

Coincidentally enough, [[Cueball]] is also floating — off his seat in this case, but this is an art style choice that ended up being apparent, as [[919|many]] [[1682|past]] [[1411|chair]] [[2362|sitters]] [[2382|are]] [[1088|shown]] [[1121|to]] [[3198|levitate]].


{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>[[Category:Interactive comics]][[Category:Dynamic comics]]
[[Category:Programming]]
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]

3227: Creation

2026-04-01T20:09:59Z

LandmineFlipFlop: a line to make it more clear where the april fools settings were and are available

{{comic
| number = 3227
| date = April 1, 2026
| title = Creation
| image = creation_2x.png
| imagesize = 567x198px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = This xkcd.com update introduces a variety of new reading modes which can be activated through the menu.
}}
{{series
| series = April
| number = 18
| date = April 1, 2026
| days_late =
| day_category = Wednesday
| prev_title = 3074: Push Notifications
| prev_date = April 9, 2025
| next_title =
| next_date =
}}
To experience the interactivity of the web page, visit the {{xkcd|3227|original comic}}!

==Explanation==
In this {{w|April Fool's Day}} comic, several new viewing modes have been added to the xkcd website, accessible through a {{w|drop-down list}} beneath the comic (not visible on Explain xkcd). This was the first time in 15 years that the xkcd site itself had been redesigned, with the previous site redesign coming in 2011 with [[880: Headache]]. This allows various different viewing experiences for the entire website (this included other comics until 15 April 2026; since then it only works on this comic). Some are "normal" viewing modes, like the typical "light" and "dark" modes, but others take such things further and/or in more esoteric ways. This includes an "airplane mode" (see below) that parodies and subverts the {{w|Airplane mode|normal implementation}}.

The accompanying comic references one of the first lines of the {{w|Bible}} (Genesis 1:3), wherein God creates light. Here, though, before God has a chance to fully appreciate their work, a person on Earth immediately requests an implementation of {{w|dark mode}}. Dark mode is a feature on many websites and devices which displays text in white against a black background instead of the default black text on a white background. In low ambient light this makes for a less intense viewing experience that is easier on the eyes, so many people who spend a lot of time looking at screens prefer dark mode (whereas casual users often find light mode easier to read). On OLED screens, another benefit is that less battery life is consumed because of the primarily low brightness of the screen, which makes it useful for those who want to be energy-efficient or extend their battery life.

This demand represents a common experience for web and app designers, who spend a lot of time creating something that looks beautiful to them, and in their particular use case, only to find when it is put out into the wild that it doesn't suit the needs of many of their actual users, who don't particularly care about the effort they've put in.

Dark mode is not usually implemented on planets,{{cn}} although one could argue that night-time is effectively Earth's "dark mode", which could have been created by God as a response to the person. (That seems likely, in fact, given that the very next words in Genesis 1:4 are "and he separated the light from the darkness".) The comic deviates somewhat from traditional Judeo-Christian theology, as in Genesis the day/night cycle was created on the first day, but humans were created on the sixth day - thus, the "dark mode" (night-time) would already have been implemented by the time humans existed. Possibly the person is actually requesting a dark mode that can be toggled at will, rather than one which occurs automatically each day.

Unlike most comics, the title text contains no jokes, but rather explains the update and gives basic instructions.

The comic credits the "Excellent Design Team", consisting of Amber, Benjamin Staffin, and Kevin who helped create the modes.

This credit was also implemented as the new [[Header text]], so that the explanation for the new mode would be visible when viewing all other comics on xkcd, as well as the credit to the design team, see more details [[Header_text#2026-04-07_-_Reading_Modes|here]].

When the comic first released the veiwing modes were available on every comic, but currently the settings are only available on the original comic.

===List of Modes===
; Light Mode
: The usual site experience. Typically, where sites have light and dark modes, light is the default option, so as to mimic ink on paper (such as printed {{w|newspaper comic strip}}s).

; Lighter Mode
: The entire web page is filtered to look {{w|Exposure (photography)#Overexposure and underexposure|overexposed}}, making colors wash out and reducing the contrast.

; Dark Mode
: A standard "white content on black background" dark mode. Specifically, Dark Mode inverts the colors of the page (which makes a {{w|Negative (photography)|colour-negative}} and then hue-rotates it by 180 degrees (to make hue return to normal, only brightness-reversed. (For example, see comic [[556: Alternative Energy Revolution|556]], with dark mode enabled, to see how the hue is maintained.) The background of the page, normally light blue, becomes a dark blue; (near-)whites become (near-)blacks, and vice-versa, only mid-tones staying the same. This inversion makes the content of this particular comic, with the original transition from a dark pane to "let there be light" panes and the subsequent request for this very feature, particularly nonsensical, as it seems to start fully bright, then darken as God creates light.

; Darkest Mode
: Everything on the webpage turns completely black (severely 'underexposed', in effect, the opposite to "Lighter mode" but also even more extreme). The exception is the drop-down menu widget, which may appear as merely a dark gray — and depending upon the browser itself, the dropped-down menu may be its 'natural' appearance when it becomes fully active — which is of course extremely helpful for navigating back out of this mode or onward onto others.

; Blurry Mode
: {{w|Blur (photographic effect)|Blurs}} the entire webpage. This is not conventionally desirable as it makes it harder to read text and interpret visuals. Whereas light and dark mode support can improve {{w|Web accessibility|accessibility}} for certain vision conditions, this mode makes already poor vision even worse.

; Grayscale Mode
: Applies a standard {{w|grayscale}}/{{w|Colorfulness#Saturation|desaturation}} conversion filter to the entire webpage. Many devices provide a grayscale mode as one of their color filter settings, which can simulate different {{w|color vision deficiencies}}. Grayscale specifically can also help improve focus by preventing colors from catching the eye and making distractions less visually appealing.

; Greyscale Mode
: Operates identically to Grayscale Mode, but also changes the spelling of "math" in the slogan at the top of the page to "maths" (to go along with the respective {{w|American and British English spelling differences|British English}} use of ''{{wiktionary|gray}}/{{wiktionary|grey}}'').

; Dorian Greyscale Mode
: Makes the webpage slowly turn grey, including darkening/fading-to-grey 'white' areas. This refers to ''{{w|The Picture of Dorian Gray}}'', in which the titular character has a portrait that slowly ages and fades out while the character stays young and handsome. The transformation finishes after 5 minutes.

: Of note is that the surname of the titular character is "{{w|Grey (disambiguation)#People|Gray}}" (as is still common, if not dominant, in Britain), but the mode itself is named for the primary British/non-American standard English version of the word for such a hueless shade.

: No relation to the {{w|Dorian mode}}, a musical scale.

; Space Opera Mode
: Turns the entire page into a ''{{w|Star Wars}}''-style opening scroll, which loops round until you change the mode. Scrolling the mouse scrolls up or down through the page content. {{w|Space opera}} is a genre of sci-fi that ''Star Wars'' falls under. Opera is the name of a web browser, though it does not usually display content in this way.

; 3D Mode
: Makes the comic render in {{w|Anaglyph 3D|anaglyphic stereoscopy}}. [[Randall]] has used 3D space before for [[848|another joke comic]]. He has also utilized a similar joke for the 2011 xkcd redesign, which was released along with [[880: Headache]].

; Origami Mode
: Rotates and folds various pieces of the webpage, as if it were {{w|origami}}-folded.

; Ink Mode
: Recolors the webpage as if drawn in blue ink, which is often used for the initial roughing-out of a drawing.

; Spring Mode
: Gives the comic a simple physics simulation, making it slightly rotate around an axis when the page is scrolled, and giving it a {{w|springboard}} look, hence the name. The axis around which the page precesses is perpendicular to the axis the user scrolls on. This means that when the page is scrolled vertically (the usual direction), the comic wobbles around a horizontal axis, but when scrolled horizontally (if your screen size or zoom allows it), the comic precesses about the vertical axis.

; Antipodes Mode
: Turns the entire webpage upside down. An {{w|antipodes|antipode}} is the point on the Earth's surface directly opposite of another, but "The Antipodes" is also a term used to refer to {{w|Australia}} and {{w|New Zealand}} by inhabitants of the northern hemisphere. Note: When the comic was first published this was labeled "Southern Hemisphere Mode".

; Hacker Mode
: Recolors the entire webpage in the stereotypical green-on-black coding environment color scheme often used by {{w|hacker}}s in film and TV. This visual shorthand is a holdover from early {{w|monochrome monitor}}s that used P1 phosphor. (Modern terminal software has no such limitations, and many programmers today use {{w|syntax highlighting}} to color-code operators and keywords.)

; Screensaver Mode
: Makes the comic float around on the webpage, bouncing as it hits the edges. A common type of {{w|screensaver}} has some text or other element drifting around the screen in this way. Many people ended up watching such screensavers, waiting for the bouncing graphic to hit the corner of the screen. Like with Hacker Mode, there is an element of nostalgia to this; screensavers are less necessary on modern LCD screens, so fewer setups use them.

; Modem Mode
: Slowly reveals the comic from top to bottom, as if slowly loading (but [[598: Porn|only in approximation]]) the way images often used to have to be progressively rendered from a low-rate stream of image data in the days of more limited dial-up connections and also a lower-performance {{w|internet backbone}} in general. This is accompanied by audio of the sound of a {{w|modem}} communicating over such a connection. NB - this mode does not appear to function correctly/reliably for some viewers.

; Stained Glass Mode
: Fills each closed area of the comic with a separate color to mimic the look of {{w|stained glass}} imagery. The colors vary each time this mode is selected or the page is reloaded in this mode, which works by flooding a single pseudorandom hue over all areas of near-white, each flood bounded only by any sufficiently dark or saturated drawn line/border. Strangely enough, on this mode you can't see the title text. This is because the canvas used to apply the hues is functionally covering the image: the javascript used to do this should have been made to copy the comic image's title attribute and make it apply to the overlaid canvas for the benefit of the browser.

; Airplane Mode
: Makes the comic fly around on the page, with the {{w|onomatopoeia}} "NYOOM!" written next to it, as if it were an {{w|airplane}}. This is unlike the usual use of {{w|airplane mode}} to refer to disabling the cellphone (or all {{w|radio frequency}}) features of a mobile device, as required on most flights. Of course, the website's "Airplane Mode" does no such thing, and would be pointless to enable on an airplane.{{cn}}

; Boat Mode
: Makes the entire webpage tilt back and forth, emulating the way a boat rolls on the water. While [[165: Turn Signals|extremely unlikely]], this could theoretically counteract the rocking motion of a boat, stabilizing the page content. In practice, it is unlikely to help with {{w|seasickness}}. (As of 2024, some smart devices started offering a "vehicle motion cues" feature that is meant to reduce motion sickness, although it is designed for road vehicles rather than watercraft.)

: This mode is a reference to the longstanding mention of a Boat Mode in the [[footnote]], which says "Remove your device from Airplane Mode and set it to Boat Mode".

==Transcript==
:[Black background with white caption boxes.]
:Caption: And God said,
:Caption:"Let there be light,"

:[A bright explosion of light from a star in the center, with a white caption box.]
:Caption: And there was light.

:[The star with bright rays of light is shown against the horizon of a planet.]
:[The same planet horizon is shown with a clear sky above.]
:Caption: God saw that the light was-
:Voice from the planet: Can you add support for dark mode?

<noinclude>{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Interactive comics]]
[[Category:Dynamic comics]]
[[Category:April Fools' Day comics]]
[[Category:Religion]]
[[Category:Comics with custom header texts]]
</noinclude>

3226: Home Solar

2026-03-30T21:39:24Z

Tromag:

{{comic
| number = 3226
| date = March 30, 2026
| title = Home Solar
| image = home_solar_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x258px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = "While I try to do my part to destroy the environment, I try not to focus too much on individual responsibility. By pushing for broad policy changes, we can collectively do far more damage to the biosphere than any of us could on our own."
}}

==Explanation==
This strip portrays [[Black Hat]] and [[Cueball]] discussing {{w|solar panel}}s that Black Hat has recently installed.

Photovoltaic solar panels generate electricity without the use of any fuel, and therefore produce no carbon dioxide or other emissions, and consume no resources, other than what's involved in the initial manufacture and installation. Individuals can install panels on their own roofs for their own use, and often are able to sell any excess back to the grid. This reduces the load on power plants, and therefore reduces emissions of CO2 and other pollutants. Importantly, this is a move that individuals can make to reduce their carbon footprint, rather than relying on governments or corporations to make changes (which can face a great deal of resistance).

Ever since photovoltaic panels became commercially available, people who are concerned about pollution have been encouraged to install them as a move toward environmental protection. The cost of such panels, however, was initially prohibitive, leading to many people ''wanting'' to install solar panels, but arguing that it didn't make financial sense to do so. Over the last few decades, however, [https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/solar-pv-prices the price of solar cells has fallen dramatically]. Depending on specific conditions (including weather factors, installation costs, local price of electricity, regulation, and government subsidies), home solar panels can often save money over their lifetime, when compared to the costs of grid power.

This strip plays on that, with Black Hat inverting the role of the traditional environmentalist. Being a [[72: Classhole|classhole]], Black Hat, isn't merely indifferent to environmental damage, he professes to "hate the environment" and tries to maximize his negative impact. Yet he installed solar panels because it "makes more financial sense". He expresses his desire to have an oil-burning furnace (a notoriously dirty source of home heat), but "the technology just isn't there and the costs are too high".

The joke is that, where environmentalists once felt they had to accept polluting power sources because alternative technologies like photovoltaics cost too much, the situation has flipped and the financials now often favor alternative power. This means that someone who was actively malicious toward the environment might find themselves reluctantly using cleaner technology, solely to save money.

In the last panel, he argues that he burns industrial waste in his yard "to make up for it." This is a play on the idea of {{w|Carbon offsets and credits|carbon ''offsets''}} and other programs that are intended to allow both people and companies to pay for programs that reduce carbon emissions and/or increase carbon capture. People sometimes argue that such credits allow them to reduce carbon emissions more cheaply than changing their own lifestyle, and so make more sense (though the effectiveness of such programs is subject to debate). Black Hat is sufficiently malicious that he feels the need to burn industrial waste, increasing air pollution with no benefits to anyone (even himself) to offset any accusations of environmental responsibility.

The title text continues this theme by reversing a standard argument about personal responsibility in tackling environmental issues. Many people argue that the effects of individual action are of limited effectiveness in protecting the environment, and we should focus more on broad changes to government and corporate policies that can make changes on a more fundamental level. Black Hat argues that the same is true for efforts to ''harm'' the biosphere.

This strip may also be a reference to recent high oil/gasoline prices, going up over 30% in the past two weeks prior to this comic's publication, overwhelmingly due to {{w|2026 Strait of Hormuz crisis|military activity}} disrupting fuel (and other) trading, and its knock-on effects globally. As with falling prices for solar cells, rising prices for fossil fuels shifts the calculation around energy prices, making it more likely that installing solar panels would be in someone's best financial interests.

==Transcript==
:[Black Hat and Cueball stand next to a house with solar panels on the roof.]
:Cueball: Wait, you got solar panels?
:Cueball: I thought you were against renewables.

:[Zoom to show only Cueball and Black Hat.]
:Black Hat: Oh, definitely. I hate the environment and want to harm it as much as possible.
:Black Hat: I'd '''''love''''' to have an oil furnace.

:[Zoom in on Black Hat; only his head and shoulders are visible.]
:Black Hat: But the technology just isn't there and the cost is too high.
:Black Hat: I despise solar, but it makes more financial sense in my situation.

:[Zoom out to show Cueball and Black Hat again.]
:Black Hat: But with the money I'm saving, I can buy and burn industrial waste in my yard to try to make up for it.
:Cueball: Ah, yeah, carbon onsets.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]

3225: Satellite Pollution

2026-03-27T21:10:54Z

2A04:7F80:51:6695:8114:7B6:8E76:AEC: /* Explanation */ further grammar fixes

{{comic
| number = 3225
| date = March 27, 2026
| title = Satellite Pollution
| image = satellite_pollution_2x.png
| imagesize = 400x334px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = We're working to make sure the images are as up-to-date and accurate as possible, with a minimum number of sponsored galaxies.
}}

==Explanation==
A common concern with new satellite constellations like {{w|Starlink}} is that, because that they rely on large numbers, they make ground-based astronomy more difficult by adding more noise, such as disruptive {{w|satellite flare}} producing something like {{w|star trail}}s during normal observations. They may also possibly obscure targets, but the background stars (or even most other astronomical objects) have less apparent motion than most artificial satellites (especially those in {{w|low Earth orbit}}), this would be a momentary {{w|occultation}} at best, and longer term observations should at least give some opportunities to salvage some decent data.

This comic satirizes this, by talking about a hypothetical satellite company that knowingly launches large inaccurate star maps to be overlaid across the night sky. This would not only obscure a fair amount of astronomical bodies from view, but also potentially show some that don't actually exist or are in the wrong position, thus causing confusion for an astronomer who fails to identify the interference, and annoyance for any that can.

Of course, implementing such a plan would face many problems, such as the pure size and strength needed for the banner to survive in space while being large enough to be noticed by casual observers. Ensuring it maintained its intended shape and orientation would be challenging. Also, the banner would need to have its own light source, powerful enough to be seen from Earth (although, depending on the distance the banner is from the Earth, it would be easy to make lights capable of being visible from our planet: see the {{What If|13|laser pointer "What-If"}}) or rely upon reflected sunlight. Furthermore, the banner would only provide a convincing star map for observers located on a small area of the Earth's surface; observers outside this small area would see {{w|foreshortening}} of the star map, and experience strong {{w|motion parallax}} effects when travelling across the Earth's surface, making for an unconvincing "sky". These being satellites, they would also be orbiting the Earth. Unless stationed in {{w|geostationary orbit}} (which would place them significantly further away than most satellites and thus need to be made far larger for the same visual effect), even for a single unmoving observer they would move across the sky, and so would have to have dynamic appearance to even ''try'' to match the background starfield semi-consistently.

The title text provides one potential reason for the inaccuracies in the banners (and possibly for the banner project as a whole). It seems that certain parties have been sponsoring the project, paying money in exchange for having galaxies added to the star maps on these banners, or to change their appearance to promote the sponsors' interests. Possibly these sponsors were disappointed by the relative lack of galaxies visible to the naked eye in the night sky; aside from the {{w|Milky Way}} itself, portions of which can be seen from the Earth as a band stretching all the way across the night sky. Only the {{w|Large Magellanic Cloud|Large}} and {{w|Small Magellanic Cloud}} (two of the Milky Way's {{w|Satellite galaxies of the Milky Way|many satellite galaxies}}) and the {{w|Andromeda Galaxy}} are visible without at least using binoculars. All are easily obscured by {{w|light pollution}}, with even the Milky Way itself being invisible in the washed-out night skies of populated urban and suburban areas where most humans live. Even in dark rural skies, although the Milky Way itself can provide a breathtaking view, the Magellanic Clouds appear as irregular blotches and are primarily visible from the less-populated Southern Hemisphere, while the Andromeda Galaxy is visible as a tiny, easy-to-miss oval. The sponsors may have agreed to sponsor the project in order to add additional visible "galaxies" to the night sky and thus make the sky "more beautiful". Fortunately, it seems that the people in charge of the project have realized the problem, and have resolved to cut down on the number of sponsored galaxies in order to present a more accurate star map not as cluttered by fake space objects (although they do not ''completely'' remove them, implying that some level of sponsored embellishment to the star map is still required to keep the project running).

The title (satellite pollution) might be a pun on light pollution, which is a phenomenon in urban areas where the light generated by the light sources, such as lampposts, obscures the stars in the sky, the situation presented in this comic also shows stars being hidden from view, but with banners in the sky rather than light.

The situation here could perhaps be considered a rough inversion of the scenario as portrayed in [[3173: Satellite Imagery]], though with apparently vastly different motivations.

This comic may have a connection to the "collapse" of Google Image Search, where trying to find a real picture of a historical event or scientific phenomenon will now produce an overwhelmingly intrusive quantity of results produced by generative AI and easily mistaken as fact.

==Transcript==
:[White Hat and Ponytail are standing on the left, Cueball is on the right, in front of a poster on the wall. The poster has a portion of the Earth at the bottom, with outer space above it. The space scene has lots of stars, along with a few nebulae and galaxies. Part of the space scene is enclosed in a quadrilateral (apparently a rectangle skewed by perspective) which is attached at the middle of its left side to a much smaller object. Its upper edge shows that it has a little thickness, or at least a parallel stiffening frame, rather than being two-dimensional.]
:Ponytail: Aren't you worried these will be disruptive for ground-based astronomy?
:Cueball: No, why?
:[Caption below comic:]
:My new company is being criticized for our satellites that deploy 100-mile-wide banners painted with inaccurate pictures of the night sky.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Space]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]

3224: Centimeter Wavelengths

2026-03-26T03:30:54Z

82.13.184.33: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 3224
| date = March 25, 2026
| title = Centimeter Wavelengths
| image = centimeter_wavelengths_2x.png
| imagesize = 381x335px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Yes, the cosmic microwave background is great, but what about the earthly microwave foreground?
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Cosmic microwave background radiation}} is {{w|Microwave|microwave radiation}} which permeates throughout the entire observable universe. It originated from light released during proton-electron recombination shortly after the {{w|Big Bang}}, which has since grown less energetic due to {{w|cosmological redshift}}, becoming background microwave radiation which we see today. This radiation is not visible to the naked eye, but can be detected using specific radio instruments, including {{w|Super high frequency|centimeter wavelength}} antennas, which are antennas designed to detect signals in the 1~10 cm wavelength range (from 30GHz down to 3GHz); the core range of the wider {{w|microwave}} band of radio waves.

In 1978, American astronomers and physicists {{w|Arno Allan Penzias}} and {{w|Robert Woodrow Wilson}} were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics "for their discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation". During routine experiments with the {{w|Holmdel Horn Antenna}}, a centimeter wavelength antenna, Penzias and Wilson discovered that they were detecting a static background noise that they could not explain. After "debugging" the antenna and removing all potential sources of noise, including the 'removal' of nesting pigeons and their droppings, they found that this background noise was still present. This led to their accidental discovery of the cosmic microwave background radiation, and thus provided a key confirmation of the Big Bang hypothesis itself. (In the world of xkcd, this could explain [[2199: Cryptic Wifi Networks|this phenomenon]].)

{{w|Wi-Fi}} networks also transmit their signals using electromagnetic waves at similar wavelengths. [https://study-ccnp.com/wifi-frequency-phase-wavelength The common frequency bands currently used] are 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz, and 6 GHz is seeing more use recently. The three ranges would roughly correspond to wavelengths of 12.5cm (4.92in), 6cm (2.36in), and 5cm (1.97in) respectively. Many other sources (notably [[654: Nachos|microwave ovens]]) can also produce emissions in the same wavelengths, which can interfere with those signals, they can interfere with each other, and intervening structures, etc., can obstruct signals (or [[2886: Fast Radio Bursts|create spurious ones]]), all of which can cause annoying loss of function necessitating investigation and intervention to stabilise the signals. Less technically capable workers may need extra support to properly set up their networks, while [[:Category:Cueball's computer problems|too capable ones]] could also risk breaking things in [[:2949: Network Configuration|more profound ways]]...

[[Randall]] is bemoaning the fact that none of the efforts of people working in the IT sector, who may be spending even more time troubleshooting issues related to Wi-Fi connectivity on their site, have been recognised in the way that Penzias and Wilson have been.

This comic is something of an inverse of the sentiment expressed in [[3154: Physics Insight]].

The title text may be a reference to {{w|Peryton (astronomy)|Perytons}}, a signal first seen by astronomers in the early 2000s. Perytons looked similar to {{w|Fast Radio Burst|fast radio bursts}}, which are very energetic astronomical signals, the origin of which is still not understood. Perytons, on the other hand, were found to be the result of opening the door of a microwave oven in the radio observatory, which let out a short burst of microwave radiation as the magnetron in the oven turned off.

==Transcript==
:[A scatter plot graph with the Y axis of "time spent debugging centimeter-wavelength antennas" and X axis of "Nobel prizes awarded as a result". The X axis has the numbers 0 and 1 marked, while the Y axis has no numbers marked. Many dots arranged vertically appear at 0 on the X axis (zero Nobel prizes), collectively labeled as "I.T. people troubleshooting WiFi issues". A single dot appears at 1 on the X axis, vertically about 1/3 of the height of the graph up, labeled "Penzias & Wilson".]
:[Caption below the panel:]
:I just think the other people working in the field deserve at least a ''little'' recognition.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Scatter plots]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Nobel Prize]]

3223: Inflation Timeline

2026-03-23T18:30:34Z

2603:8083:3AF0:1080:E950:753F:B6C5:BCAC:

{{comic
| number = 3223
| date = March 23, 2026
| title = Inflation Timeline
| image = inflation_timeline_2x.png
| imagesize = 423x213px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Depending what corners of the internet you hang out on, 'regular' may at times awkwardly coexist with 'sexy.'
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created by an INFLATIONARY BOT. Don't pop this notice too soon.}}

{{w|Cosmic inflation}} is the theory that the very early universe briefly expanded at an enormous rate. This explains the "clumpiness" of the early universe, which is necessary to explain the formation of large-scale structures (e.g., {{w|galaxies}}, {{w|galaxy clusters}}, {{w|galaxy filaments}}, etc.) as the universe evolved. "Regular" {{w|price inflation}} refers to the economic process in which the average price of goods and services increases over time. This is usually gradual, but can be very rapid during times of economic distress.

The comic puts both of these on the same {{w|Chronology of the universe|timeline of the universe}}. Cosmic inflation occurred very shortly (~10-34 s) after the {{w|Big Bang}}. Regular inflation has only occurred during the time after money started being used, perhaps {{w|History of money|7,000 years ago}}. Because of the logarithmic scale of the graph, the cosmic inflation period, which is only a tiny fraction of a second, looks much larger than regular inflation, which has existed for at least a few thousand years. This misinterpretation is likely [[Randall]]'s intention in the comic, along with conflating two wildly different kinds of "inflation".

The title text refers to a third meaning, that of {{w|body inflation}} as a sexual fetish or kink, which has no direct relationship to cosmology or economics.{{Citation needed}} [[Randall]] points out that body inflation happens at the same time as economic inflation, presumably because both arise from human activities. The suggestion that this coexistence may be "awkward" perhaps implies that people are paying to indulge in the fetish, and that those prices are subject to economic inflation. The "inflation" might also refer to something akin to a {{w|Sex doll|blow-up doll}}.

Another comic illustrating cosmic inflation is [[2240: Timeline of the Universe]].

==Transcript==
:[Label of timeline]: Timeline of Inflation
:[A log-scale timeline labeled "Age of the Universe (seconds)" ranging from 10-44 to about 1025, with labeled tick marks at 10-40, 10-30, and so on until 1020 s. An arrow points from the text "Cosmic" to a bar that begins off-panel to the left and continues up to roughly 10-33 seconds. Another arrow points from the text "Regular" to a second, much thinner bar that covers another period between roughly 1016.9 and 1017.3 seconds.]

==Trivia==
Assuming regular inflation started with the {{w|History of money|first use of money 7,000 years ago}}, the "regular" inflation bar, if accurately displayed, would go from 1017.63856460 to 1017.63856482 seconds, with a difference in the exponents of 0.00000022. Depending on your display resolution, this would make the graph's "regular" bar on the order of a millionth of a pixel wide.

Given that there are only seven secondary tick marks between the primary (labeled) tick marks, these denote not increments of 1 order of magnitude but 1.125 orders of magnitude.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
[[Category:Timelines]]
[[Category:Cosmology]]
[[Category:Sex]]

3222: Star Formation

2026-03-20T20:06:10Z

82.132.237.127: Undo revision 408889 by GSLikesCats307 (talk) Not true. No awareness shown of 'anyone' else, or indication of third-parties involved.

{{comic
| number = 3222
| date = March 20, 2026
| title = Star Formation
| image = star_formation_2x.png
| imagesize = 676x272px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = It's ok, I still have some nice, cool gas clouds that aren't collapsing. As long as nothing ionizes them, I can continue to enjoy their ... HEY! NO!!!
}}

==Explanation==
This comic depicts a simplified model of how structure forms in the universe, then pushes it to an absurd extreme. In cosmology, small density variations in the early universe grow over time: regions with slightly higher density attract more matter via {{w|gravity}}, eventually forming {{w|gas cloud}}s, stars, and galaxies. Pressure, driven by temperature, resists collapse, so the evolution of a cloud depends on the balance between gravitational attraction and internal pressure; this is often described by the {{w|Jeans instability}} criterion.

In the first panel, the on-screen narrator (with a passing resemblance to the [[:Category:Time-Traveling Sphere|time-travelling sphere]] and other speaking dots used in xkcd), an apparent creator of the universe, describes pressure waves moving through gas and causing it to clump. In the second, the clouds begin to collapse under gravity as more gas falls in. The third panel sees the outcome: as collapse proceeds, the gas heats up (via compression and radiation processes), increasing pressure and eventually sparking fusion. The comic depicts the formation of stars, something that we know this universe has done,{{cn}} with the implication that this was a totally unforeseen outcome for the {{w|Demiurge|manipulator}} or {{w|Creator deity|creator}} of this universe.

The final panel frames this as the narrator lamenting the destruction of their "beautiful clouds", as the process has gone out of their control and produced a star instead of the desired (and perhaps, to their mind, more aesthetically pleasing) gently pulsating clouds. This might be at odds with most human experience, as stars are often thought of as being beautiful, but that's only from our own perspective, without the same opportunity to directly appreciate the same early-universe phenomena they disrupted. Likewise, we don't know if the entity ever learnt to admire the stars, once {{w|star formation}} has became more the norm than a single anomalous 'spoiling' of the cloudy universe.

The title text continues this joke by referencing the importance of ionization. "Cool" gas clouds (low temperature, neutral gas) can remain stable or collapse slowly. If they are ionized (for example, by nearby stars emitting {{w|ultraviolet}} radiation), the gas heats up, increasing pressure and preventing or disrupting collapse. The narrator hopes to preserve some of their own calm, neutral clouds but then reacts in horror as the radiation from the newly formed star ionizes them, ruining the delicate balance and ending their ability to "enjoy" stable gas clouds. But this is a natural result of star formation within and around a {{w|nebula}}, again unforeseen by the being who apparently set up the circumstances that led to all the cosmic evolution we see.

==Transcript==
:[A black dot with star burst all around it is speaking, as indicated with a line from one of the burst lines to the text above it. Around the dot there are four larger and three small clouds. The one to the top right is somewhat larger than the other bigger ones.]
:Dot: I think I did a good job with this universe.
:Dot: Pressure waves dance through gas clouds.
:Dot: They clump together and then pressure pushes them apart.

:[In a frame-less panel the dot comments on the development as the largest cloud from seems to be gathering several other smaller clouds together. The other three larger clouds are still there, but there now seems to be some larger clouds stuck together in the upper right part, with more than ten smaller cloud either on top of these or moving in from all angles.]
:Dot: Oh weird, that big clump of clouds is staying together.
:Dot: Their gravity is overcoming the pressure and more gas is falling in.

:[The dot keeps commenting as the increasingly fragmentary clouds start to fall in streaks towards the original large cloud, which has now been compressed so it is smaller than before, but obviously are many more clouds stuck together. The larger clouds from before have begun to be drawn out and moving towards the larger.]
:Dot: It's not stopping!
:Dot: The heat is rising but the collapse is only accelerating!
:Dot: I messed up. I messed up '''''bad.'''''

:[The dot comments on the final result. There is now a shining star in place of the dense field of clouds, radiating strongly in all directions, blowing the few remaining smaller clouds around it, eight in total, away from it.]
:Dot: <big>'''''Noooooooo!!!'''''</big>
:Dot: My beautiful clouds!
:Dot: Ruined! It's all ruined!

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

[[Category:Cosmology]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]

3221: Landscape Features

2026-03-18T17:20:57Z

2607:F598:B76B:840:E8AE:FCE5:6E3F:3E18: /* Table of regions */

{{comic
| number = 3221
| date = March 18, 2026
| title = Landscape Features
| image = landscape_features_2x.png
| imagesize = 537x454px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = 'Well, there's speculation that it's due to a mantle hotspot.' --a geologist who's trying to cover up the fact that they didn't hear your question
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is a map of the United States, purporting to explain some of the most significant elements of the landscape in each region. For each area it names one major geological or human mechanism (plate tectonics, erosion, farming, etc.) which it claims is responsible for the majority of interesting formations and features.

Many of these causes are summarized in a single word answer, which is overly-simplistic when trying to explain a complex landscape. A few phrases are longer, but still don't actually explain much, and some areas are just labeled "geology", which while lacking in explanatory power, is often solely responsible for some of the most striking landscape features. "Geology" is in fact poor label here, since almost all of the other causes (volcanos, glacial erosion, plate tectonics, etc.) are all elements of geology. Randall appears to default to "geology" as the cause in areas where the landscape is largely made of metamorphic or igneous rocks (mountainous areas) instead of some alteration of base rock features via volcanos, earthquakes, etc. However, the actual landscapes in these areas do have specific causes, as shown by the fact that the Appalachians are labeled as "continents colliding" not "geology". Similar more detailed explanations could have been given for other areas, for instance {{w|Laramide_orogeny|"one continent sliding under another"}} for the Rocky Mountains compared to "continents colliding" for the Appalachians.

The title text plays off the fact that a large part of geology is concerned with activity in the mantle, so explaining some geologic feature by saying "there's speculation that it's due to a mantle hotspot" does not give much information. The suggestion is that this would let a distracted geologist buy time while responding to a missed question. Many of Earth's seemingly out-of-place features (e.g., {{w|Hawaii hotspot}}, {{w|Iceland}}, the {{w|Snake River Plain}} in Idaho, etc.) form from such mantle hotspots, so it's an easy go-to explanation for many of the geological features people are often most curious about. This idea was explored recently in [[3141: Mantle Model]].

This map with subdivisions follows up on a number of prior maps representing supposed geographical splits of some conversational outcome or other, such as [[1407: Worst Hurricane]] and [[2108: Carbonated Beverage Language Map]].

===Table of regions===
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Location
! Description
! Explanation
|-
| {{w|Adirondack Mountains}}
| ???
| The Adirondack Mountains are made of billion-year-old rock but were uplifted relatively recently, within the last 5–10 million years. They are still rising today despite being far from any plate boundary, forming a dome with no clear tectonic cause.
|-
| Most of northern conterminous U.S.
| glaciers
| During the {{w|Last Glacial Period}}, this area was covered by {{w|Laurentide Ice Sheet|an ice sheet}} that left its marks on the landscape, in the form of {{w|moraines}}, {{w|eskers}}, {{w|glacial erratics}}, etc. This is most notable in Wisconsin where bluffs were formed due to the glacier movement.
|-
| {{w|Appalachian Mountains}}
| continents colliding
| {{w|Geology of the Appalachians|The Appalachian Mountains formed roughly 480 to 300 million years ago}} through a series of continent-continent collisions, culminating in the assembly of the supercontinent Pangaea. The primary collision involved ancestral North America (Laurentia) crashing into Gondwana (Africa/South America), resulting in a Himalayan-scale mountain range.
|-
| Mississippi and Ohio River Basins
| rivers
| The {{w|Mississippi River}}'s geology has a complex, 70 million year history involving massive sediment deposition, glacial activity, and tectonic shifting. Formed mostly by melting glaciers ~12,000 years ago, it drains a vast, shifting basin, depositing millions of tons of sediment in a massive delta and creating a vast, shifting alluvial plain. The {{w|Ohio_River#Geology|Ohio River's geology}} is similar.
|-
| Southeastern U.S.
| farming
| Landscape changes from {{w|cotton production in the United States}}, due to the presence of the {{w|Black Belt (geological formation)|Black Belt}}. From the perspective of landscape features, it would be more accurate to say that they were caused by "erosion" not "farming". The Atlantic Coastal Plain is made up of sediments and sedimentary rock eroded from the Appalachian Mountains over millions of years. The relatively flat landscape and loose fertile soils make farming both easy and productive respectively. Thus farming is a result of the landscape features, not a cause of them.
|-
| Southern Florida
| ongoing disputes between limestone and water
| Florida is a vast {{w|karst}} landscape formed by the dissolution of underground limestone and dolostone bedrock by acidic rainwater, resulting in a terrain characterized by sinkholes, springs, caverns, and disappearing streams. This soluble bedrock, formed from ancient marine deposits, covers much of the state, directly connecting surface water to the Floridian aquifer system.
|-
| Southern Missouri / Northern Arkansas
| geology
| The {{w|Ozark Mountains}}, which are composed primarily of ancient limestone and {{w|dolomite}}, form a rugged landscape characterized by hills, caves, and springs. Prolonged erosion of these soluble rocks has produced extensive karst features, including sinkholes and underground rivers.
|-
| {{w|Great Plains}}
| farming
| The lack of other major events left the terrain relatively level; as with the Southeastern U.S./Atlantic Seaboard (see above), the cause of the landscape here is erosion of the Rocky Mountains, with the sediments carried by rivers towards the Mississippi basin and creating a flat, even landscape. Areas were historically shaped by either herds of bison or indigenous agriculture, both limiting the growth of forests. "Farming" is likely a reference to the more recent mix of large-scale crop farming (especially staples like wheat and corn) and herding (bison replaced by cattle). European plowing techniques unsuited for the dry plains ultimately resulted in the {{w|Dust Bowl}}, a period of intense erosion and dust storms which reshaped the landscape, and as a response led to the {{w|Great Plains Shelterbelt}}.
|-
| Central Idaho / Yellowstone
| a supervolcano
| The {{w|Snake River Plain}} is an area of high-elevation flat plain in the otherwise contiguous Rocky Mountains. It was formed by the movement of the continental plate over the {{w|Yellowstone Hotspot}}.
|-
| American West surrounding Idaho / Yellowstone
| geology
| [[3162: Heart Mountain]]
|-
| Immediately off of West coast up to the Four Corners
| volcanoes
| A combination of various {{w|volcanic field}}s of different origins, including {{w|Cascade Volcanoes}} in the Pacific Northwest, {{w|Albuquerque volcanic field}} in New Mexico, {{w|San Francisco volcanic field}} in Arizona, and {{w|San Juan volcanic field}} in Colorado.
|-
| Eastern Washington
| megafloods
| Most likely a reference to the {{w|Missoula floods}} and the {{w|Bonneville flood}}, a series of floods caused by glacial ice dam failures causing massive lakes to flood large regions of present-day eastern Washington. These floods actually continued all the way to the Pacific Ocean, altering the shape of the {{w|Columbia River Gorge}} and flooding much of the {{w|Willamette River}} in western Oregon. The comic may have simplified these to avoid bisecting the adjacent zones along the coast.
|-
| West Coast
| a plate tectonic speedrun
| Most likely a reference to the significant tectonic activity on the western coast of the US, caused by the collisions of the {{w|Juan de Fuca plate}}, {{w|Pacific plate}}, and the {{w|North American plate}}, as part of the {{w|Ring of Fire}}. Could also be a reference to [[2061: Tectonics Game]].
|-
| Southwest Desert
| water and time
| The sedimentary rock layers exposed in the {{w|geology of the Grand Canyon area}} range in age from about 200 million to nearly 2 billion years old. Uplift of the region started about 75 million years ago during the mountain-building event creating the Rocky Mountains. The opening of the Gulf of California around 6 million years ago enabled a large river to cut its way northeast from the gulf. The new river captured the older drainage to form the ancestral Colorado River, which started to form the Grand Canyon. Wetter climates from ice ages starting 2 million years ago greatly increased excavation of the Grand Canyon, which was nearly as deep 1.2 million years ago as it is now.
|-
| Northern Alaska
| geology
| Northern {{w|Geology of Alaska|Alaska geology}} is dominated by the Brooks Range (a major Paleozoic mountain belt) and the Arctic Slope sedimentary basin, containing rich Paleozoic-Mesozoic rock sequences. The region is part of the Arctic Alaska–Chukotka Microplate, shaped by Mesozoic tectonic shifts, including the Arctic Ocean opening and the Brooks Range uplift.
|-
| Aleutian Islands
| volcanoes
| The Aleutian Islands are a continuation of the Alaskan {{w|Aleutian Range}}, and form part of the {{w|Ring of Fire}}. Most of the islands in the chain bear signs of being formed by volcanoes, and many volcanic cones still exist on the islands today.
|-
| Southeast Alaska
| glaciers
| This part of Alaska (including {{w|Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve|Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve}}) and western Canada has many glaciers that are still carving the landscape.
|-
| Hawaiian island chain
| volcanoes
| Hawaii, including the {{w|Northwest Hawaiian Islands}}, and seamounts northwest of it were formed by a tectonic plate moving over a hotspot, with volcanoes erupting and forming land as it went. The entire chain can be seen [https://www.google.com/maps/@34.0555574,-176.5939317,4904085m/data=!3m1!1e3?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI2MDMxNS4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D here]. Volcanic fog from the {{w|List of volcanoes in the Hawaiian–Emperor seamount chain|three active volcanoes on the Big Island}} can often be seen on neighboring islands.
|}

===Features of each state, alphabetically===
* Alabama: continents colliding, farming, rivers
* Alaska: geology, glaciers, volcanoes
* Arizona: water and time, volcanoes
* Arkansas: geology, farming, rivers
* California: a plate tectonics speedrun, volcanoes, water and time
* Colorado: volcanoes, geology, farming
* Connecticut: glaciers
* Delaware: farming
* District of Columbia: either farming or plates colliding
* Florida: farming, ongoing disputes between limestone and water
* Georgia: continents colliding, farming
* Hawaii: volcanoes
* Idaho: a super volcano, geology
* Illinois: glaciers, rivers
* Indiana: glaciers, rivers
* Iowa: glaciers, farming, rivers
* Kansas: farming
* Kentucky: rivers, continents colliding
* Louisiana: farming, rivers
* Maine: glaciers
* Maryland: plates colliding, farming
* Massachusetts: glaciers
* Michigan: glaciers
* Minnesota: glaciers, farming, rivers
* Mississippi: farming, rivers
* Missouri: farming, geology, rivers
* Montana: geology, glaciers
* Nebraska: farming
* Nevada: volcanoes, geology, water and time
* New Hampshire: glaciers
* New Jersey: glaciers, farming
* New Mexico: volcanoes, geology, water and time, farming
* New York: glaciers, ???, continents colliding
* North Carolina: continents colliding, farming
* North Dakota: glaciers, farming
* Ohio: glaciers, rivers
* Oklahoma: farming, geology
* Oregon: a plate tectonics speedrun, volcanoes, megafloods, a supervolcano, geology
* Pennsylvania: glaciers, rivers, continents colliding, farming
* Rhode Island: glaciers
* South Carolina: continents colliding, farming
* South Dakota: glaciers, farming
* Tennessee: continents colliding, rivers
* Texas: farming, geology, water and time
* Utah: geology, volcanoes
* Vermont: glaciers
* Virginia: continents colliding, farming
* Washington: megafloods, a plate tectonics speedrun
* West Virginia: rivers, continents colliding
* Wisconsin: glaciers, rivers
* Wyoming: a supervolcano, geology, farming

==Transcript==
:[A small panel showing Cueball pointing toward the left and Ponytail standing to his right overlaps the top of a much larger panel containing a map.]
:Cueball: What's up with this weird landscape?
:Ponytail: Oh, it was caused by ...

:[The larger panel shows a map of the United States, with southern Canada, northern Mexico, and most of Cuba and the Bahamas visible as well. An inset at lower left shows Alaska along with part of northwest Canada, with a smaller inset showing Hawaii. International borders and coastlines are indicated in black, and state borders are indicated in gray. Red lines divide the United States into irregularly shaped zones (the red lines indicating zones do not cross into the neighboring countries, except in the Alaska inset), with each zone being labeled with red text. Each text label begins with "..." to indicate that it is the conclusion of Ponytail's sentence. The following are the labels used:]
:[Main map:]
:... a plate tectonics speedrun
:... volcanoes
:... megafloods
:... a supervolcano
:... geology
:... water and time
:... glaciers
:... rivers
:... continents colliding
:... ???
:... ongoing disputes between limestone and water
:[On the main map, the label "... glaciers" appears three times in various places in the same contiguous zone that runs from Washington state to Maine. The label "... farming" appears twice, representing two separate zones, one that runs from Montana to Louisiana and the other that runs from New Jersey to Mississippi. The label "... geology" appears twice on the main map, representing two separate zones, one that runs from Washington state to Texas and the other being a roughly circular region mostly in southern Missouri and northern Arkansas.]
:[Alaska inset:]
:... geology
:... volcanoes
:... glaciers
:[Hawaii inset:]
:... volcanoes

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:US maps]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Geology]]
[[Category:Volcanoes]]

3220: Rotational Gravity

2026-03-17T03:01:34Z

27.96.196.236: /* Explanation */ Insert {{cn}} tag where citation is obviously [not?] needed.

{{comic
| number = 3220
| date = March 16, 2026
| title = Rotational Gravity
| image = rotational_gravity_2x.png
| imagesize = 303x325px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = I don't get it. The peak acceleration for passengers was WAY lower than in the giant-waterslide-loop-the-loop incident the other cruise line fired me for.
}}

==Explanation==
Low-gravity environments can cause humans and other animals to lose muscle mass, a serious problem for people staying for extended periods on the {{w|International Space Station}}.

[[Cueball]] at first appears to be describing his experience operating a spaceship, creating {{w|Artificial_gravity#Centrifugal_force|artificial gravity by rotating the ship}} so as to preserve the passengers' muscle mass.

However, the caption to the panel indicates that the "ship" Cueball was operating was a cruise ship, not a spaceship. Since cruise ships that travel upon the seas and oceans of the Earth experience the same gravity that they would experience at sea level on land, there is no need for "artificial gravity" aboard a cruise ship.{{cn}}

Furthermore, Cueball's rotation of the ship along its longitudinal axis would involve capsizing the ship (and then righting it again). This would likely result in many people aboard drowning if not the outright sinking of the vessel. Anything on the outside of the ship that wasn't firmly attached would be lost, by the combination of drag from the water and being flung away by the centrifugal force. There's no indication of ''how'' the rotation would be created, which would be a significant undertaking, given that cruise ships are generally built with some priority given to keeping them [https://www.imo.org/en/OurWork/Safety/Pages/ShipDesignAndStability-default.aspx#:~:text=Intact%20Stability%20Code,75(69)). right-side-up] via things like concentrations of mass at the bottom of the hull. In contrast, objects in outer space do not need continuous force to continue rotating because they don't have to overcome significant drag from their environment in the way that a cruise ship partially immersed in water does. (If they are in orbit, they do experience a ''very small'' amount of drag from effects such as tidal forces, which slowly reduce their rotation rates until their rotation is synchronized with their orbital period. There's also a potential {{w|YORP effect|effect on rotation}} caused by light received from any light sources; this, too, is minuscule.)

The title text references the earlier comic [[2935: Ocean Loop]], where Cueball made a loop-the-loop water slide like {{w|Action_Park#Cannonball_Loop|Action Park's Cannonball Loop}}, but for cruise ships, and was also fired as a result. This is thus the second comic where Cueball has been fired by a cruise line for his hazardous actions. In the first comic he similarly complains about the decision of the cruise line in the title text. Such loops for people can subject riders to [https://www.wired.com/2012/04/g-forces-in-a-looping-water-slide/ over 10g] of acceleration, but it's unknown exactly how much the ship-sized one would impart. Cueball seems to think that since his new idea is less bad than the original one, it should have been acceptable, which implies that he has not understood how catastrophically bad that first proposal was.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball stands facing Hairbun and White Hat. Hairbun has a "steaming" symbol above her head indicating anger, and her hands are in fists, while White Hat is facepalming.]

:Cueball: I was able to produce artificial gravity by rotating the ship along its longitudinal axis, helping passengers maintain muscle mass on the long-duration voyage!

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Well, the cruise line fired me.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairbun]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Physics]]

3219: Planets and Bright Stars

2026-03-13T19:38:55Z

2600:8801:E821:4500:DD48:A092:58EC:C619:

{{comic
| number = 3219
| date = March 13, 2026
| title = Planets and Bright Stars
| image = planets_and_bright_stars_2x.png
| imagesize = 374x265px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = An old astronomer trick for distinguishing the Sun from other stars is to take multiple photos a few minutes apart and overlay them, making the Sun stand out due to its high proper motion.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic shows an identification chart for some of the planets and bright stars visible at night from Earth. Bright shiny objects in the sky are often confused with each other by people without astronomical experience. The chart is supposed to make identification easier by placing them adjacent to one another to highlight the differences. However, all 12 dots are nearly identical, making the chart useless.

The real way of distinguishing these objects is by their relative position in the sky. In particular, stars can be found using constellations, which are an apparent pattern of bright stars that make different regions of the sky distinguishable from one another. The planets can be distinguished by not belonging to the constellations, and further differentiated by their color, brightness and movement relative to the stars (on the scale of weeks or months).

The stars and planets do indeed look similar to one another in reality, but they are not identical. Some of them (in particular, the star Betelgeuse and the planet Mars) have a distinct reddish color, which can be seen in good conditions. The brightness is also different, and it can serve as a guide, but it's difficult to precisely judge brightness by eye, and the planets don't have a constant brightness over time. The differences are actually visible in the comic to a degree (e.g., the spots for {{w|Venus}} and {{w|Jupiter}} are slightly larger than the others — Venus is an Earth-sized planet that is relatively close at the times we can actually see its brightly lit sunward side — the much more distant Jupiter because it's the ''largest'' planet in the solar system), but they're subtle enough to not be recognizable at first glance.

Each 'object' in the comic also has a color, albeit ''extremely'' desaturated (very nearly white). If deliberately exaggerated, the comic's planets and stars are all notably non-white, as can be seen in the picture in the [[#Trivia|trivia section]] below..
*Planets:
**{{w|Venus}}: the yellowy-orange hue of its cloud layers.
**{{w|Mars}}: the red of its surface (given more muted saturation, in the comic, for the joke to work?).
**{{w|Jupiter}}: the general orange hue of its combined cloud layers.
**{{w|Saturn}}: a more 'peachy' orange of its clouds (no obvious hint of its ring system).
**{{w|Mercury (planet)|Mercury}}: a yellow surface (not typically noted, in true-hue images, perhaps artistic license from its proximity to the {{w|Sun}}).
*Stars
**{{w|Sirius}} (binary system, primarily a {{w|main sequence}} A-type star): light blue.
**{{w|Procyon}} ({{w|subgiant}} F-type star): more light green, or yellowy-blue/cyan.
**{{w|Antares}} (M-type star, {{w|red supergiant}}): orange.
**{{w|Altair}} (A-type, main sequence): light blue.
**{{w|Betelgeuse}} (M-type, {{w|red supergiant}}): relatively dark red (usually visible as such in real eyes-only observations).
**{{w|Vega}} (A-type, main sequence): light blue.
**{{w|Polaris}} (ternary star-system, dominant member being an F-type {{w|yellow supergiant}}): ''extremely'' unsaturated cyan.

Using even a small telescope would make it easy to distinguish the planets by their brightness, size, and surface features. Additionally, using a spectroscope would allow for a measurement of the star's spectrum, which coupled with its brightness would allow an astronomer to distinguish the mentioned stars.

The title text suggests a "trick" for recognizing the Sun among other stars, suggesting measuring its {{w|proper motion}} by overlaying several images. Proper motion is a measure of the change in apparent position against the more distant 'fixed' background of stars, as an {{w|angular rate}} (like degrees/second). This {{w|Time-domain astronomy#History|astronomically useful}} trick is similar in principle to a {{w|blink comparator}}. It would indeed differentiate it from other stars, but there are much easier methods, such as its extreme brightness and large angular size.{{cn}} A disadvantage of the proposed method is that it distinguishes the Sun from other stars, but it cannot distinguish the Sun from planets. A further disadvantage is that pointing any ordinary camera at the Sun could damage the imaging part of the camera (which could be used as a form of identification, as no other star does as such from Earth), and pointing a typical wide-aperture astronomical telescope at it would be very likely to do so. It is also completely unnecessary, except during a {{w|solar eclipse}}, because other stars are not usually visible during the day, when the Sun is out.

Additionally, "proper motion" is not a term usually applied to the Sun, which ''from the Earth'' moves entirely round the sky either once a year (according to the background of stars, albeit obscured by its daylight) or once a day (relative to the Earth's surface — but then so do the stars, over {{w|Sidereal time|''almost'' the same period}}, and this is not at all treated as proper motion). A more technically accurate reference would relate to the motion compared to itself (i.e. zero and meaningless) or the more {{w|International Celestial Reference System and its realizations|precisely applied}} gravitational centre of the solar system (which it wobbles around once in roughly twelve years, due to mainly co-orbiting with Jupiter). With objects for which proper motion is typically measured, the choice of using the any of these 'origins' (that do not rotate with the Earth's surface) is not significantly different, but {{w|parallax}} from Earth's orbit (or even a space telescope's own orbit) may still need to be accounted for in precisely tracking the closest stars, and plays a large part in the apparent movement of all other potential targets in the solar system itself.

==Transcript==
:[An array of four columns and three rows of white dots are displayed on a black background. Above them there is caption in white text. Below each white dot there is a label in white. The dots are almost identical, slightly fuzzy and 'white'. There are ''very'' slight color hues to the dots, and very minor differences in size, but they are not clearly visible unless the image is enhanced.]
:[Caption text:] Planets and Bright Stars identification chart
:[Dot labels, in reading order:]
:[Top row:]   Venus     Mars     Jupiter     Saturn
:[Middle row:]   Mercury     Sirius     Procyon     Antares
:[Bottom row:]   Altair     Betelgeuse     Vega     Polaris

==Trivia==
*[[User:Rumbling7145]] made this picture enhancing the colors of the dots in the original comic:
[[File:3219_planets-and-bright-stars-2x-saturation.png]]

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]

3218: Subduction Retrieval

2026-03-12T02:45:55Z

216.125.50.226:

{{comic
| number = 3218
| date = March 11, 2026
| title = Subduction Retrieval
| image = subduction_retrieval_2x.png
| imagesize = 502x347px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Aww, the oceanic crust and the continental crust are getting married!
}}

==Explanation==

This comic is a {{w|public service announcement}} (PSA) telling the reader to stay out of the {{w|Pacific Ocean}} on the current day. The reason for this is explained to be that someone has lost their wedding ring in a {{w|subduction zone}}. This is a boundary where two {{w|tectonic plates}} in the Earth's crust collide, and one plate dives beneath the other into the {{w|Earth's mantle}}. The ring can be seen glimmering on the upper surface of the subducted oceanic plate, in the {{w|accretionary wedge}} below the continental plate. Given that the rate at which this occurs is of a few centimetres per year at most, and assuming that the characters shown are drawn to scale and are of average human stature, it can be estimated that the ring has been in the subduction zone for about 200 years. Possibly this time has been needed to localise it and then deploy the heavy engineering displayed.

As a result, the {{w|United States Geological Survey}} (USGS) is "pulling the plate back up" to retrieve the ring. This would be a ridiculous idea, since no man-made machine is capable of moving entire tectonic plates.{{cn}} Even if it were possible, it is unlikely that the USGS, a national organization, would invest the time and effort required for such an operation for the relatively trivial purpose of retrieving a wedding ring, particularly for people who are presumably long since dead. If they did, though, staying out of the ocean would be a good idea, as it would be liable to cause tsunami over a wide area, as well as other dangers.

The title text jokes that since the wedding ring lies on the lower (oceanic) plate, the oceanic crust and continental crust are "getting married". Of course, [[Beret Guy|most]] humans wouldn't be able to see the wedding ring itself, due to it being underground, and in the {{w|mantle}}, where no human could reach anyway — assuming that it hadn't already been mechanically deformed (crushed, mangled and/or broken apart) by the process of being sandwiched between two continental masses, and eventually melted.

==Transcript==

:[A large {{w|gantry}} has been positioned over the intersection of two tectonic plates, one under the ocean and one forming a jagged, mountainous coast, with one "foot" on each plate. A winch is hanging from the center of the bridge, connected to a chain which is hooked into the oceanic crust. The winch is pulling up the crust, causing it to fold and wrinkle. Cueball and Ponytail are standing on one large fold next to where the chain is hooked to the crust, and another Cueball is standing on the continental crust. Oceanic Cueball has his arms up. On a portion of subducted oceanic crust, far below the ground, a small shining lump is visible.]

:Winch: click click click

:[Caption below panel:]
:PSA: Please stay out of the Pacific Ocean today. Someone lost their wedding ring in a subduction zone and USGS is pulling the plate back up to retrieve it.

==Trivia==
[[1388: Subduction License]] is about [[Beret Guy]]'s mysterious power to subduct like an oceanic plate.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Subduction]]

3217: Home Remedies

2026-03-10T07:30:47Z

82.132.238.193: /* Explanation */ Adding a link, in case of further confusion...

{{comic
| number = 3217
| date = March 9, 2026
| title = Home Remedies
| image = home_remedies_2x.png
| imagesize = 364x249px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = As always, you are permitted to call one person for guidance, but that person must be a grandparent.
}}

==Explanation==
Many household problems have a range of commonly-circulated supposed solutions using easily available items and ingredients, such as using salt to lift a stain out of a carpet. Sometimes, when one of these problems presents itself, several competing remedies may be offered by those present. This comic imagines this as a competitive sport, in which the final test is to combine several of these problems into one grand challenge to be solved. Specifically, the contestants in this case are presented with:
* removing unpleasant odours (in this case, that of a {{w|skunk}})
* {{w|Hangover_remedies|curing a hangover}}
* [https://www.wikihow.com/Get-Gum-Out-of-Your-Hair removing chewing gum stuck in hair]
and possibly
* removing a wild animal from the premises

The contest appears to be set up such that strategy plays a role. While a hungover skunk is highly likely to spray when chewing gum is being removed from its fur (thus forcing the contestant to fix all 3 problems), a hangover cure that makes use of a restorative deep sleep could, if administered properly, completely remove the need to remedy the smell of skunk spray. Offering contestants a longer yet easier path versus a quicker yet riskier path is a common trope in {{w|reality television}}. Putting the skunk to sleep could be seen as risky due to the complexity of the remedy, the risk of disqualification (killing the skunk) and the risk of failure (getting sprayed anyway, not actually curing the hangover, or running out of time). White Hat may be at an unfair advantage in implementing a strategy that prevents the skunk from spraying since the other two contestants' boxes are vibrating, indicating their skunks are agitated and thus liable to spray as soon as the box is opened, and his is not.

The title text's requirement that any assistance must come from a grandparent may reference the fact that such treatments are often described as "something my {{w|Grandparent#Titles|(granpappy/grandmaw/etc)}} told me", perhaps having reportedly been something that they themselves learnt from their own grandparent (and possibly even further back), deferring to the implied {{w|Wise old man|authority and experience}} behind them. These tidbits of information are rarely used enough to be among any of the life lessons that direct parents may teach to an individual, but still useful knowledge to {{w|Grandmother hypothesis#The grandmother effect|pass down the generations}}.

Other people, not so emotionally invested in the ramblings of someone else's grandparent, may be more skeptically considering such 'advice' as more of an {{w|old wives' tale}} that isn't being passed on (or even remembered) entirely reliably, but then this is at least partly what the featured competition seems to be testing, and presumably those who have reached this final stage have already proven themselves as being more aptly critical than most of the various home remedies that they've potentially been told by their various (especially more elder) family members.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball, holding a microphone, is addressing 3 contestants (Megan, White Hat & Hairbun), each standing at desks. Each desk has a lidded box on top and two drawers below. Megan and Hairbun's boxes are shaking, with their lids slightly open, due to containing (while not seen in the image) skunks.]
:Cueball: And now, for the final round, you have each been given a skunk with a hangover and chewing gum stuck to its fur.
:Cueball: You have 30 minutes. Good luck.

:[Caption below the image:]
:The Home Remedy World Championships

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairbun]]
[[Category:Animals]]

3216: Bazookasaurus

2026-03-06T14:29:03Z

Nerd1729:

{{comic
| number = 3216
| date = March 6, 2026
| title = Bazookasaurus
| image = bazookasaurus_2x.png
| imagesize = 315x274px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = In contrast to the deep booming sound associated with the cannon in pop culture depictions, recent studies show it actually made more of a 'toot toot!' noise.
}}

==Explanation==
As with [[3185: Sauropods]], this comic relates to the reinterpretation of fossil remains on the basis of new evidence, resulting in radical new understandings of the creatures involved.

Various dinosaurs developed impressive-looking {{w|Thagomizer|spikes}}, plates, and the like, and the historical assumption has tended to be that these were used as offensive or defensive measures in conflicts with other dinosaurs. However, in some cases, later evidence has cast doubt on this, suggesting that the structures would have been too fragile or immobile to serve the purpose. Instead, it has been proposed that they may have been developed as a means of display, perhaps through a process of {{w|Fisherian runaway|runaway selection}}. These new discoveries may be viewed as disappointing, revealing that "awesome" dinosaurs did not actually possess the combat prowess they were assumed to have.

This comic parodies this trend by showing a Bazookasaurus, a fictitious{{Citation needed}} dinosaur, which apparently developed a structure that bears a remarkable resemblance to a {{w|bazooka}} mounted on its back. (The "bazooka" depicted is a somewhat stylized representation that is rather more intricate than its real-life namesake, including the addition of various additional bone growths.) Supposedly, paleontologists initially believed that this was an actual functioning bazooka that was used by the animal, despite some rather obvious problems that would be presented to it in terms of acquiring, loading, and firing ammunition. Further study has apparently shown that the structure would not have been robust enough to stand up to the forces involved in firing a bazooka, so could not have served any combat purpose. As with the real life cases, this has led to a revision of understanding, and it is now thought that the "bazooka", despite its appearance, served as {{w|Advertising in biology|ornamentation}}.

{{w|Vascularisation}} is the way in which veins form through tissue. Study of this can give clues to the type of tissue that would have surrounded the structures. In some cases it may indicate that they would have been highly susceptible to damage, rupture, leakage or hemorrhage, and therefore unsuitable for use as a weapon or a defense. A bazooka wouldn't typically have veins in it,{{Citation needed}} so a vascularization study would show that there isn't enough blood flow.

The title text is referencing the fact that the calls of dinosaurs have been reappraised in recent years. Traditionally, and particularly in popular culture, they have been represented as having a deep roar or growl. This is probably through analogy with the majority of large fearsome animals that exist today, which have a tendency to make such noises. However, studies of the vocal apparatus available to them has suggested that they were more likely to make higher, more fluting sounds, similar to today's birds. The weapon bazooka was named for a loose resemblance to a {{w|Bazooka_(instrument)|musical instrument of the same name}}, which produced a tooting-type sound.

==Transcript==
:[Megan and Cueball stand in front of a dinosaur fossil exhibit, with Megan gesturing at the fossil on display. The fossil is of a ceratopsian with what looks like a giant ray gun on top of its back.]
:Megan: Although Bazookasaurus's distinctive structure was long assumed to be a weapon, vascularization studies show that it was very fragile and could only have been used for display.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Dinosaurs]]

3215: Solar Warning

2026-03-04T14:43:19Z

GSLikesCats307:

{{comic
| number = 3215
| date = March 4, 2026
| title = Solar Warning
| image = solar_warning_2x.png
| imagesize = 304x333px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = This replaces the previous solar activity watch, which was issued last month when the sun took off its sunglasses.
}}

==Explanation==
Children's drawings and cartoon representations may stereotypically personify objects that are not living, including planets and stars. Often, the {{w|Sun}} is drawn with a smiling face or other expression. Cartoonized representations are also often used as an easily-recognized and interpreted schema for reporting and prediction services, such as weather forecasts.

This comic pretends this smile is an actual feature of the real Sun. However, the Sun cannot smile as it does not have a mouth.{{cn}} Apparently, the emotion that the Sun is expressing can give an indication of {{w|space weather|solar weather}}, including events such as {{w|solar flare}}s and {{w|coronal mass ejection}}s. They are caused by the Sun’s magnetic field getting into a knot, which can be a metaphor for uneasiness. The Sun changing its expression has triggered this official announcement of a warning. [https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/alerts-watches-and-warnings Similar warnings] are produced by NOAA's [https://www.swpc.noaa.gov Space Weather Prediction Center] because such solar activity can affect communications, power grids, satellites, etc.

The title text indicates that the prior change that provoked a warning was the removal of the Sun's sunglasses. The Sun wearing sunglasses is a further (possibly paradoxical) element of personification often added to images of the Sun. [[Randall]] has previously referred to the Sun's sunglasses in comics including [[1733: Solar Spectrum]] and the ''What If?'' articles {{What If|115|Into the Sun}} and {{What If|129|Black Hole Moon}}. (Note that in normal weather forecasting, a watch indicates that activity is ''possible.'' However, a warning means that activity is confirmed.)

The removal of eyewear is used in the "Deal With It" visual meme and as part of {{tvtropes|TheGlassesComeOff|various other tropes}} that reflect a change in attitude. Another interpretation could be that it is referencing the video game {{w|Minesweeper (video game)|Minesweeper}}, in which the Sun puts on sunglasses when the game is won and takes them back off when the game is reset (i.e., there is more danger).

==Transcript==
:[News Anchor Blondie stands at a table with her hands together, resting her arms on the table. Behind her are two pictures of the sun: one with a smiling face, labeled "Last week," and one with a frowning face labeled "Today."]
:Blondie: A warning for solar flares and geomagnetic storms has been issued after new images from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory show that the big smiley face on the sun has turned into a frown.
{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
[[Category:Comics featuring Blondie]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Weather]]
[[Category:News anchor]]

3214: Electric Vehicles

2026-03-03T03:31:46Z

2A06:61C1:795F:0:53D8:A96B:A044:B192:

{{comic
| number = 3214
| date = March 2, 2026
| title = Electric Vehicles
| image = electric_vehicles_2x.png
| imagesize = 209x389px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Now that I've finally gotten an electric vehicle, I'm never going back to an acoustic one.
}}

==Explanation==
Many potential customers of {{w|electric vehicle}}s have "{{w|range anxiety}}", and are concerned about the ability of the vehicle batteries to allow the same freedom of travel as with those using the {{w|internal combustion engine}}. No one wants to be stuck on the side of the road, having run out of power, and finding a {{w|filling station}} for fuel ({{w|gasoline|gasoline/petrol}} or {{w|diesel fuel}}) to refill a motor vehicle is more likely than finding an electric vehicle recharging station. (An EV ''can'' be recharged from a "standard" electrical socket, albeit slowly, quite apart from specialized home setups as seen in [[3211: Amperage]].) Manufacturers have been trying to ease these fears by developing longer-lasting batteries, along with more recharging stations being set up.

This comic exaggerates this concern to an absurd degree: [[Cueball]] had apparently believed that electric cars were powered by single-use, non-rechargeable batteries (this comic being a flashback to some conversation before he was corrected). Practical electric vehicles, since {{w|History of the electric vehicle#First full-scale electric cars|their very early days}}, have pretty much always had {{w|rechargeable battery}} technology of some kind or other. He should indeed feel incredibly silly about this, given that rechargeable batteries are very common in many other devices.

Commercially available rechargeable polymer-electrolyte batteries have not always been common, however. The proliferation of Alkaline, NiMH, and Lithium-ion batteries happened during the late 1990s and early 2000s (during Randall's lifetime), although the {{w|lead–acid battery}} first appeared in the mid 19th-century and later became the staple (rechargable) electrical storage medium in both fully-electrical and IC-powered vehicles of all kinds. Rechargeable cells are still the minority of sales for household-use size batteries (AA, AAA), perhaps in part because they get [[https://www.rdbatteries.com/blog/post/how-many-times-can-you-recharge-rechargeable-batteries.html?srsltid=AfmBOopDQfsdCmfha-x95r8snSTCV8SIHi6S02PcMReOZyJlWa0ENY6w re-used many times]] rather than needing to be entirely replaced by a further purchase after they are first drained. Battery operated devices and toys for most of the 20th-century (e.g. tamagotchis) did not generally have recharging capabilities and required replacing the battery entirely, rather than (as with many modern devices, e.g. phones) having built-in batteries enabling the user to recharge them by plugging a suitable power-carrying cable into a port. For other devices that {{w|Batteries Not Included|may or may not}} have originally come with single-use cells prepackaged, households may have eventually decided to buy reliable rechargable equivalents to be charged as needed. It's not reasonable to completely throw away the batteries that power electric vehicles, every time they are discharged, or even throw away (or abandon) whole vehicles due to difficulties in replacing them. But, in assuming that an EV's battery is not rechargeable, [[Cueball]] is concerned that this is what he would be forced to do..

All types of vehicle can only be driven so far, or even idled for so long, without refilling their energy storage, be that liquid fuel or electrochemical potential. Because of this, any vehicle (other than perhaps a {{w|solar car}}, or similar) will require occasional top-ups at roadside facilities or even through a direct feed ({{w|overhead line}}s can provide electricity to {{w|Rubber-tyred tram|suitable road or rail vehicles}}, and a {{w|third rail}} is an additional option for the latter type, along some or all of their prepared routes). As of 2021, a modern electric car commonly had [https://www.iea.org/data-and-statistics/charts/evolution-of-average-range-of-electric-vehicles-by-powertrain-2010-2021 a range above 300 km/200 miles,] and this is continuing to expand. Combustion engine cars usually reach [https://energynow.ca/2022/10/visualizing-the-range-of-electric-cars-vs-gas-powered-cars/ at least twice this range] on a full fuel tank.

Many countries now have vast networks of public charging infrastructure, to echo the almost ubiquitous presence of refuelling stations across the road network. The spacing of these in all but the most sparsely populated areas usually permits any electric vehicle (even one with an unusually low range of <100km) to recharge before it runs out of energy, and fast charging capabilities of 400kW and greater makes the current waiting time to recharge more and more like the quick topping-up process people are used to in liquid refuelling. As an alternative, {{w|battery swapping}} is also a possibility in some places, for suitably designed EVs, and has been [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNZy603as5w commercialized]. In these cases, replacing the battery does not substitute charging it, but it reduces the “refill” time from a possible thirty minutes stop-over to just a few minutes (the time needed to pull out the discharged battery pack from the vehicle and put in a fully charged one). The prior batteries are then charged by the facility, and later used to directly replace some other vehicle’s battery when it requires it. Most electric vehicles will provide a recharge warning (equivalent to a low fuel warning) well in advance of the battery being depleted, to prevent vehicle stranding.

The title text imagines that electric cars are distinct from others in a similar way as electric instruments are from other instruments. In particular, {{w|electric guitar}}s are contrasted with {{w|acoustic guitar|non-electric (aka acoustic) ones}}. In the case of instruments, though, the 'electric' and 'acoustic' don't refer to how they're powered (the latter isn't even 'powered' at all), but how they transmit and amplify the sound produced by the player. There's no such thing as an acoustic vehicle, though sound ''can'' be used to [https://hackaday.com/2025/02/21/acoustic-engine-harnesses-the-power-of-sound/ generate propulsion] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=je7eLZS6GG0 on a small scale][https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCnxsoXtlmY in a variety of ways]. It has become a common practice to refer to ''bicycles'' without a motor by the misnomer 'acoustic bicycle', but this does not seem to be much the case with cars. (Bicycles are sometimes also referred to as 'analog bicycles' — this is even more of a misnomer, being borrowed from the distinction between mechanical and digital devices, where the latter are sometimes misnamed as 'electric'.) When particular bicycles were developed to supersede the "ordinary" type (later) known as {{w|penny-farthing}}s, the ''new'' bicycles with wheels of the same size were called "{{w|safety bicycle}}s", to promote the idea of their being less tricky to ride, a term that later fell out of use as the new design became more standard (and, in its own way, 'ordinary').

Electric vehicles are {{w|Electric vehicle warning sounds|commonly designed}} to emit sound, sometimes like an electronic instrument, to give an audible warning of their presence for the purpose of safety, particularly when traveling at lower speeds. Several jurisdictions around the world {{w|Electric vehicle warning sounds#Regulations|require}} them to emit a minimum sound level. In some cases, electric vehicle sounds are designed by [https://abcnews.com/Business/famed-composer-hans-zimmers-score-giving-sound-electric/story?id=69242502 renowned composers]. Though it is not their intended use,{{Citation needed}} motorised vehicles can be used as music instruments. Composer Ryoji Ikeda has composed a [https://www.dazeddigital.com/music/article/37885/1/building-a-synth-orchestra-out-of-one-hundred-cars symphony for 100 thermal ("acoustic") cars].

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is standing to the left side of the panel with his arms out, and [[Megan]] and [[White Hat]] are standing to his right, facing him.]

:Cueball: I would never get an electric vehicle.
:Cueball: Sure, they sound great, but what do you do if the battery runs out of charge?

:[Caption below the image:]
:I felt pretty silly when someone finally explained to me that EVs are rechargeable.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
[[Category: Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category: Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category: Comics featuring Megan]]

3213: Dental Formulas

2026-02-27T21:33:09Z

82.132.185.62: /* Explanation */ No you couldn't dental formulae are used for mammals

{{comic
| number = 3213
| date = February 27, 2026
| title = Dental Formulas
| image = dental_formulas_2x.png
| imagesize = 212x337px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = I mean, half of these are undefined. And your multiplication dots are too low; they look like decimal points.
}}

==Explanation==
A {{w|dental formula}} specifies the typical number and location of teeth of each type for a given species. There are two rows, representing the upper and lower jaw, separated by a horizontal line. On each row, the number of each type of tooth is given for one side of the jaw, with dots separating the numbers. The number of {{w|incisors}} is indicated first, {{w|canine teeth|canines}} second, {{w|premolars}} third, and finally {{w|molars}}. The formula in the comic would represent 3 incisors, 1 canine, 3 premolars, and 1 molar on each side of the upper jaw, and equal numbers in the lower jaw, with the exception that there are only 2 premolars; this is the dental formula for the {{w|Felidae|cat family}}. The adult human dental formula is 2.1.2.3 for both the upper and lower jaw.

Cueball is mistakenly treating a dental formula as an arithmetic expression, with the line indicating division and the dots indicating multiplication: 3⋅1⋅3⋅1 divided by 3⋅1⋅2⋅1, giving 9/6 = 3/2. Since the numbers involved are always small natural numbers, calculating the results when treating them this way would be fairly trivial, which is why he is surprised at the effort given to studying them.

In the title text, his statement that half the formulae are undefined refers to animals that lack one of the four types of teeth in the lower jaw, leading to a zero in the lower part of the dental formula. Cueball is attempting to multiply all terms in that lower part, giving a result of zero, and then treat that as a mathematical denominator, resulting in an {{w|Division_by_zero|undefined division expression}}. He also notes that the "dots are too low", as the dots in a dental formula are {{w|Full stop|period characters}}, whereas multiplication in mathematical formulae uses {{w|Interpunct#In_mathematics_and_science|middle dot}} characters (except in the Commonwealth, where this is sometimes reversed).

The word '{{wiktionary|mammologist}}' is an alternate spelling of '{{wiktionary|mammalogist}}', meaning one who studies {{w|mammals}} (or, in some cases, specifically studying the mammaries (i.e. breasts) which mark out mammals in general). Unlike odontology (dentistry, not to be confused with {{w|odonatology}}), which studies the ''health'' of a patient's teeth, mammalogy studies teeth as a means to identify species and what they eat.

The comic's number, 3213, could also be interpreted as (part of) a dental formula, due to having 4 digits, like the four tooth types in the mouth, and having low digits, like a reasonable amount of teeth to find in a mouth. It is missing the lower row though, making it only like half a dental formula.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and Megan are standing in front of a whiteboard, on which is written
::3.1.3.1 3.1.2.1
:along with a drawing of a tooth and some other scribbles, two of which look like the letters 'h' & 'j', respectively.]

:Cueball: Do mammologists think these are hard?
:Cueball: I mean, this one just evaluates to 3/2.

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Mathematicians encounter dental formulas

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Math]]

3212: Little Red Dots

2026-02-26T02:46:11Z

82.132.239.130: /* Explanation */ Clarify that the astronomers have a fairly good idea whether or not they're looking at bad sensor data. (And can rule that out.)

{{comic
| number = 3212
| date = February 25, 2026
| title = Little Red Dots
| image = little_red_dots_2x.png
| imagesize = 634x306px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = After a lot of analysis, I've determined that they're actually big red dots; they're just very far away.
}}

==Explanation==
The {{w|Little red dot (astronomical object)|little red dot}}s that the comic refers to are something of an astronomical mystery, discovered by the {{w|James Webb Space Telescope}} (a.k.a. "JWST"). They may be powered by [https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/astronomers-detect-oldest-black-hole-ever-observed very, very old black holes] from 400-700 million years after the Big Bang, with the light from when they were young. The comic purports to give the responses of several different experts in unrelated fields when asked to identify them:
* According to the {{w|Entomology|entomologists}} (scientists who study insects and related arthropods) [represented by [[Megan]]], they are {{w|Clover mite | clover mites}} (''Bryobia praetiosa'') — very small [[Red Spiders|red arachnids]].
**[[Red Spiders]] were a common theme in early ''xkcd''.
* According to the {{w|Computer_science|computer scientists}} [represented by [[Knit Cap]]], they are {{w|defective pixel|stuck pixels}} — pixels that do not work properly, and are stuck to one single color (red in this case). This is {{w|Hot pixel (telescopes)|a plausible concern}}, but presumably should already be handled through calibration processes. Interestingly enough though, this answer is the one most likely of all the possible explanations in the comic, ignoring the true conclusion of being actual distant objects.
* According to the {{w|Dermatology|dermatologists}} (doctors who specialize in skin disorders) [represented by [[Ponytail]]], they are {{w|Cherry angioma|cherry angiomas}} — harmless, non-cancerous skin growths made of clusters of dilated capillaries, appearing as bright red, smooth, or slightly raised spots.
* According to the {{w|Graphic_design|graphic designers}} [represented by [[Hairy]]], these are not "red dots" but are colors of type [https://www.colorhexa.com/d73b3e Jasper] (● #d73b3e) or [https://www.colorhexa.com/e34234 Vermillion] (● #e34234, sometimes called Cinnabar).

Quite obviously, all of these, if not completely incorrect, are fully unrelated to astronomy, and instead represent instances of the {{w|law of the instrument}}.

Part of the punchline is the shift in focus: instead of trying to identify the object, the designer is nitpicking the description of "red dot." Additionally, the graphic designer is also requesting [[Cueball]]'s {{w|Color_calibration|color settings}}, implying they believe the reason Cueball calls them "red" is due to poor display settings, and not due to using the common term for the color. There is a certain amount of insight here, as the JWST only observes orange to far-infrared light. This is to enable it to see very distant objects, whose blue and ultraviolet emissions have been {{w|redshift|redshifted}} into longer wavelengths. Converting observed wavelengths into rest-frame wavelengths is a process subject to error, as is {{w|false color|falsely-coloring}} the object so that it may be visualized by human eyes.

In the title text, Randall claims to have analyzed the "little red dots" and determined that they are actually very large but distant objects. This is not a startling revelation, since the JWST telescope is mostly only used to look at very distant objects in space, and just to be visible at all at these distances these 'dots' would need to be very large (due to the [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMiKyfd6hA0 phenomenon] of [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvnKXOGYKM8&t=30s relative perceived size], where larger objects that are further away appear to be the same size as smaller ones that are closer to the viewer). The punchline here is that someone who has performed a lot of analysis would be expected to have a result that was not already obvious, but anyone looking at a telescope image of deep space would already be assuming that it depicts large objects very far away, not small objects close to the telescope. The theme of astronomers unsure of the size of objects spotted in a telescope was previously mentioned in [[2359: Evidence of Alien Life]].

The (possible) issue of a 'stuck pixel', except of a different hue, was previously visited in [[1246: Pale Blue Dot]].

A comic with a similar theme of specialists giving an answer relating to their field is [[3127: Where Babies Come From]].

==Transcript==
:[Caption above all the panels:]
:Astronomers asking researchers from different departments to help them identify the "little red dots" in JWST images:

:[In each panel, Cueball stands at the left of an easel displaying a black image with three red dots on it. At the right of the easel in each panel is a different character looking at the image on the easel and commenting on it. At the top of each panel is a caption indicating the type of researcher commenting on the image.]

:Caption: Entomologists
:Megan: Clover mites.

:Caption: Computer scientists
:Knit Cap: Stuck pixels.

:Caption: Dermatologists
:Ponytail: Cherry angiomas.

:Caption: Graphic designers
:Hairy: No, those are vermillion, or maybe jasper.
:Hairy: Can I see your color settings?

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Knit Cap]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Telescopes]]
[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Computers]]
[[Category:Medicine]]
[[Category:Graphic designers]]

3211: Amperage

2026-02-24T05:46:01Z

131.215.220.51: Clarify that 10000A service would only cause those effects in a fault

{{comic
| number = 3211
| date = February 23, 2026
| title = Amperage
| image = amperage_2x.png
| imagesize = 299x410px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Oh, and do you have any tips on how to vacuum up copper that's melted into your carpet?
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created by a SMOKE ALARM POWERED BY A 1.2 MEGAWATT SIMILE. Don't remove this notice too soon please.}}
[[Cueball]] explains to [[Ponytail]] how he has modified some parts of his house's wiring to avoid having power to his appliances interrupted on account of overcurrent conditions from running too many appliances at once. In many places around the world, a main breaker limits the maximum current available to each property, with common limits for single-unit residences being 60 A, 100 A or 200 A. Individual circuits will then have breakers limiting the maximum current, usually to something between 10 and 50 amperes (the higher end is reserved for electricity-intensive appliances like dryers, vehicle charging stations, or air conditioning systems). 15-20 A is a common breaker size for circuits powering regular outlets in the US, 32 A is common in the UK, while 10-16 A is standard in mainland Europe.

However, Cueball has somehow managed to obtain a supply of up to 10,000 amps. This scale of service is more appropriate for large apartment towers with 100 or more apartments, major offices, and industrial facilities. It generally requires the building to run its own transformer to convert from medium to low voltage (one transformer would normally be shared by up to dozens of single-unit residences). Such a power plan and the infrastructure to manage it would be prohibitively expensive and a comical overkill for most individual homeowners. The purpose of this massive upgrade was to allow a similarly oversized electrical panel, with a 500-ampere circuit breaker for each wall socket. Multiple outlets in one room or several nearby rooms usually share a circuit, so this may have required some rewiring to move each outlet to a separate circuit. Both numbers are absurdly high — far more than any consumer appliance could need.

Cueball's reasoning for this is equally absurd: he is frustrated by his {{w|circuit breaker}}s. Circuit breakers exist to prevent currents from exceeding a level that would damage the wires or equipment along the path. A tripped breaker is caused by either a short circuit (unlikely here since this could produce currents well over 500 amps) or by the user trying to draw too much power at once (such as by plugging in many large appliances in one room, or even into one outlet, using power strips). A tripped circuit breaker caused by coincidental overloads can be reset easily, but constant overloads would require other solutions. Preventing a circuit breaker from tripping, such as by soldering wire into the {{w|fusebox}} in place of the fuses or installing breakers with limits higher than the physical rating of the wires, defeats this safety mechanism, making fires and other damage more likely. The usual safe approach to overload issues is to move some devices to different outlets that are on separate circuits. If needed, one can increase the number of circuits in the house, each with its own breaker (as Cueball has done), but it is still important to '''match the outlet types to the circuit capacities and follow manufacturer's instructions about equipment power limits'''.

Cueball's subsequent queries indicate the problems that allowing such excessive amounts of current in a domestic setting would cause in a fault (although if the breakers were appropriately sized for the circuits, this shouldn't ever happen, and appliances operating normally would draw the same current). The internal wiring, outlets, and power cords would not be up to the job of carrying the full short circuit current, as he has discovered by starting fires and melting copper from the wires into his carpet. Rather than treat this as a sign that his plan was ill-conceived and simply put up with normal levels of power per outlet, though, he is now trying to find more durable cords and wires that can handle the excessive load.

Typical wires for outlets in the US are between 14 and 10 AWG, rated between 15 and 30 amps. In the UK, it would likely be a Twin Core and Earth 2.5 mm² cable rated for 32 A. Drawing anywhere near 500 amps through these would most likely melt them and start a fire, even if there is no fault. (Pure copper melts at 1085 °C (1984 °F), and the copper in electrical wiring is fairly pure, so Cueball has evidently produced temperatures in excess of that. Such temperatures are well above what's necessary to ignite {{w|Fahrenheit 451|common household items}}.) Furthermore, regular consumer power cords are not designed to carry the kind of load he is attempting to pass through them, and would equally encounter dangerous problems. If he upgraded all wiring and power cords to sizes sufficient for the electricity that they carry, the system might be technically safe. However, electrical inspectors would still flag the mismatched outlets, and any modified power cords would likely fail various other safety standards enforced by governments or insurance companies.

The amount of electrical power you can use in your house depends on both the voltage and the maximum current you're allowed to draw. The latter is usually protected and limited by multiple breakers both in your home and at the local substation. For example, in the US, where the nominal voltage is 120 V, a 15 A breaker would get you a maximum of 1800 watts of power (current multiplied by the voltage). In countries where 230 V is more common, a similarly sized breaker would get you a maximum of around 3500 watts. If you decrease the voltage you can still get the same power by increasing the current drawn. For example, to get 3500 watts in the US on 120 V, you would need to draw around 30A - double the original amount. Higher currents induce higher voltage drops as a function of resistance in lines, which causes heat to generate as the square of current [V = IR; P = IV; therefore P = I × (IR) = I²R], meaning they would need a larger wire to reduce the resistance in the line and allow more surface for heat to dissipate in order to safely draw the power without them overheating and catching fire. Transmission lines solve the problem by transforming the power to a higher voltage (a 400 kV (400,000 volts) line transmitting a maximum of 10 amps can still theoretically give out 4 million watts of power without needing excessively thick cables). Conversely, decreasing the voltage means that you need more current drawn for the same amount of power (for example, to get 3500 watts from a 12 V car battery you need to draw almost 300 amperes, something that would need really thick wires not to overheat, though note that this is a reasonable current draw from a car battery). Assuming Cueball lives in the US with 120 V mains voltage, his 10,000 A will draw 1.2 megawatts of power, equivalent to the usage of a factory or other large facility.

The comic might be a reference to a [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OC7sNfNuTNU recent video posted by youtuber styropyro], who connects 400 car batteries and does various experiments, including [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYtCJYhCyzs popping a 6,000 amp fuse]. While the voltage on car batteries is only 12 V (or 24 V in some cases), they allow drawing very high amounts of current to provide enough power for the starter engine to turn. Drawing 500 amps and more for a short period of time is not uncommon. While these would only amount to around 6kW of power (12V * 500 A), the higher current requires the cabling to be thick enough to not overheat even in the short amount of time this draw is used (until the starter engine has turned on the main engine — on a modern car in warm weather this should be around a second at most). In the video, styropyro connects 400 of these into 80 parallel 65 V cells, reaching peak currents in excess of 160 kA. His setup requires very thick cables and large pieces of solid metal to handle the extremely high current.

==Transcript==

:[Cueball and Ponytail are standing near the corner of a room, with Type B outlets on either wall surrounding the corner at about knee height. Cueball has raised one hand slightly to gesture to one of the outlets.]
:Cueball: I got 10,000 amp service and put each outlet on its own 500 amp breaker, so I never have to worry about overloading a circuit again!
:Ponytail: Clever.
:Cueball: Oh, that reminds me- do you know where to buy cords that don't catch fire?
{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

[[Category:Engineering]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]

3210: Eliminating the Impossible

2026-02-20T19:59:36Z

GSLikesCats307:

{{comic
| number = 3210
| date = February 20, 2026
| title = Eliminating the Impossible
| image = eliminating_the_impossible_2x.png
| imagesize = 675x349px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = 'If you've eliminated a few possibilities and you can't think of any others, your weird theory is proven right' isn't quite as rhetorically compelling.
}}

==Explanation==
The discussion in this comic plays upon the [https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/1196-when-you-have-eliminated-all-which-is-impossible-then-whatever phrase] originating from the fictional detective {{w|Sherlock Holmes}} (and therefore also his author, {{w|Arthur Conan Doyle}}) that "When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." This describes the {{w|abductive reasoning}} Holmes uses to solve the crimes and mysteries set before him. The point of the original statement is that {{tvtropes|RealityIsUnrealistic|something being ''unlikely'' does not make it ''untrue''}}, and ignoring reality because it is "unlikely" is both absurd and counterproductive to the process of solving a problem. However, Holmes' statement is a [https://motleybytes.com/w/HolmesianFallacy fallacy], because nobody is omniscient,[{{w|omniscience|no citation needed}}] so it is impossible to rule out all alternatives.

In the real world, it is ''never'' true that eliminating the impossible leaves only a single possible outcome. There are always vast numbers of events that are technically possible, but so vastly improbable that they would be unlikely to ever be observed, even if every subatomic particle in the universe were a universe itself, and were to be observed from Big Bang to heat death. An example would be {{w|quantum tunnelling}} of a macroscopic object over a long distance... such as a set of keys from inside a house out to a car. In practice, such events are usually dismissed from consideration.

[[White Hat]] is expounding this principle to [[Cueball]] as a logical step for some undisclosed purpose. Cueball argues that human error - namely, making a mistake in the 'elimination' process - is also possible, and claims that the logic is faulty on this premise. When White Hat points out that the logic is just a guideline for problem-solving, Cueball criticizes this, arguing that the possibility of human error when operating on this logic makes the approach unsound. If there is one true version of events, then finding it by this process requires classifying all other possibilities as impossible. While that might be possible for a constrained problem, like a detective story or multi-option question, many daily situations require eliminating vast numbers of possibilities, while lacking sufficient information to be truly sure that the possibilities have been exhausted.

In the final panel, Cueball demonstrates a practical example of human error causing this issue. When a person is looking for their possessions, their first instinct may be to search the house in which they presently are. Having seemingly exhausted this search, their assumption may be that it must be in their mode of transportation (especially in the case of possessions that are regularly brought to and from other locations). White Hat agrees that he himself has been in the situation where he has searched the entire house, not found what he is looking for, and assumed it is in the car, but that assumption has always proved to be wrong. There are other possibilities, but the tendency to jump to conclusions (possibly by misuse of the quote) can lead to those being ignored. Additional possibilities:
* The house has not been fully searched, with the item left in some obscured corner, a clothing pocket that is in the laundry, or even a vent or pipe that one could not practically access.
* The searcher forgets that they took the item to some other location, or wishfully ignores that possibility because it is far away and/or inconvenient to search.
* The searcher never brought the item home in the first place, but mistakenly thought that they did.
* The searcher has never taken the item anywhere other than the house or car, but is unaware that someone or something else moved it.
* It is common for people to fail to see a thing even though it is present, sometimes even clearly in view, because of momentary cognitive glitching, {{w|The Purloined Letter|poor assumptions}}, or more fundamental cognitive failures such as {{w|visual agnosia}}. Another Holmes quotation is relevant: "[https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/205730-you-see-but-you-do-not-observe You see, but you do not observe.]"
* The item may have been destroyed or altered in a way that makes it unrecognizable when found.

The title text goes further in deconstructing how the quote might result in a logically incorrect {{w|argument from ignorance}}. In fiction, there is a {{tvtropes|TheoryOfNarrativeCausality|Law of Narrative Causality}}, by which events are successfully resolved in the way that the plot requires them to be resolved. Stating this approach as a logical rule would normally be {{tvtropes|LampshadeHanging|narratively unsatisfying}}. When Sherlock Holmes first uses the phrase in ''{{w|The Sign of the Four}}'', he "deduces" that {{w|Dr._Watson|Watson}} had sent a telegram at the post office instead of doing anything else by observing that he had not written a letter and that he already had a good stock of postcards and stamps. Holmes neglects the possibility that Watson had sent a letter that he had written some time previously, or any other possibility, yet he happens to be right because it would be unsatisfying were he to be wrong. As has been pointed out elsewhere in Holmesian works, however, Holmes knows Watson very well, and when it comes to a matter as narrow in scope as "Watson's behaviour", Holmes is better-equipped than most to eliminate impossibilities, even if these should strictly be considered ''improbabilities''.

Sherlock may have more accurately, yet less memorably, phrased the maxim as "When you have eliminated what is likely, the truth must be a more improbable outcome".

In ''{{w|The Long Dark Tea-time of the Soul}},'' Douglas Adams commented on this Holmesian maxim:<blockquote>'The impossible often has a kind of integrity to it which the merely improbable lacks. How often have you been presented with an apparently rational explanation of something that works in all respects other than one, which is just that it is hopelessly improbable? Your instinct is to say, "Yes, but he or she simply wouldn't do that." '

'Well, it happened to me today, in fact,' replied Kate.

'Ah, yes,' said Dirk, slapping the table and making the glasses jump, 'your girl in the wheelchair [who was constantly mumbling stock prices from the day before]—a perfect example. The idea that she is somehow receiving yesterday's stock market prices out of thin air is merely impossible, and therefore ''must'' be the case, because the idea that she is maintaining an immensely complex and laborious hoax of no benefit to herself is hopelessly improbable. The first idea merely supposes that there is something we don't know about, and God knows there are enough of those. The second, however, runs contrary to something fundamental and human which we do know about. We should therefore be very suspicious of it and all its specious rationality.'</blockquote>

This time Cueball might have a point, since, if one really investigates Sherlock Holmes' cases, they often contain obvious logical leaps, like most of "{{w|The Hound of the Baskervilles}}" or the solution of "{{w|The Adventure of the Speckled Band}}". In the latter he claims that the only solution is that someone trained a snake to be controlled by music to bite and kill someone without being attacked, claiming to have eliminated all other solutions in a real-world scenario which is too complex to allow for that, without even having taken a closer look at the bigger picture. {{tvtropes|TheoryOfNarrativeCausality|Miraculously}}, he is right in both situations.

Knowing [[Randall]]'s work, the title text may be a jab at people who are overly quick to conclude that established results in physics are wrong, as he has done previously in [[955: Neutrinos]] and [[1621: Fixion]] (concerning a since-disproven finding that neutrinos can travel faster than the speed of light) and in [[2113: Physics Suppression]] and [[3155: Physics Paths]] (more generally).

==Transcript==
:[Across 4 Panels, White Hat and Cueball are standing together and talking. In the first panel, White Hat has one hand slightly raised.]
:White Hat: As Sherlock Holmes said,
:White Hat: When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.

:[The second panel. Close-up of Cueball's head.]
:Cueball: What about the possibility that you forgot to eliminate a possibility?
:Cueball: Or that you eliminated one incorrectly?
:Cueball: Both of those remain, too.

:[3rd Panel zooms back out to show both. Cueball holds his arms out.]
:White Hat: You're being pedantic.
:White Hat: It's just a general rule for deduction.
:Cueball: But it's a '''''bad rule.'''''

:[Cueball holds up one finger in the 4th Panel.]
:Cueball: How often have you thought, "I can't find this thing, and I've searched the whole house. The only place I haven't looked is the car, so it '''''must''''' be there."
:White Hat: ...and then it's never in the car.
:Cueball: '''''It's never in the car!'''''

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
[[Category:Pedantic]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Logic]]
[[Category:Fiction]]

3209: Plums

2026-02-19T03:01:39Z

2A06:61C1:795F:0:53D8:A96B:A044:B192:

{{comic
| number = 3209
| date = February 18, 2026
| title = Plums
| image = plums_2x.png
| imagesize = 251x409px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = My icebox plum trap easily captured William Carlos Williams. It took much less work than the infinite looping network of diverging paths I had to build in that yellow wood to ensnare Robert Frost.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created by a rebellious icebox. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
This is a reference to the {{w|William Carlos Williams}} poem [https://poets.org/poem/just-say This Is Just to Say], in which the narrator gives an apology (possibly [https://poemanalysis.com/william-carlos-williams/this-is-just-to-say/ sincere], possibly [https://www.litcharts.com/poetry/william-carlos-williams/this-is-just-to-say insincere]) for eating the plums in the icebox. In this comic, the joke is that [[Cueball]] (not likely intended to actually be William Carlos Williams given the laptop) learns that the person out of view has left themselves some plums in the refrigerator for tomorrow, and cannot resist eating them as a direct reference/inspiration to the poem.

The title text is another joke about trapping poets with situations based on their own poems. It is about another well-known poem, [https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44272/the-road-not-taken The Road Not Taken] by Robert Frost, which was referenced in another comic, [[3076: The Roads Both Taken]]. Of course, constructing a network of infinitely branching paths seems physically impossible [[:Category:Strange powers of Beret Guy|for Cueball]], though some kind of circular or looping arrangement might work. Of course, the choice that Frost makes would change over time in such an arrangement, if he always takes the path least-travelled, so this could prove complex.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is sitting at a desk with a laptop on it. He is looking backward towards someone offscreen.]
:Out of view: I got you the ingredients for dinner tonight.
:Out of view: Oh, and the plums in the fridge drawer are for my yogurt tomorrow; you should just leave them.
:Out of view: Be back later!
:Cueball [thinking]: Oh no.
:[Caption below the panel]:
:Help. It actually happened. I shouldn't. But how can I not!?

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]] 
[[Category:Food]]

3208: SNEWS

2026-02-16T21:37:07Z

BunsenH: death is not sleep

{{comic
| number = 3208
| date = February 16, 2026
| title = SNEWS
| image = snews_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x321px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = People say setting of fireworks indoors is dangerous, but I looked at their energy release and it's like 10^-40 foe; totally negligible.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Ponytail]] is 'showing [[Hairy]] her bedroom'. Hairy asks about the large device on the ceiling, and Ponytail explains that it is part of the {{w|SNEWS}} (SuperNova Early Warning System). This provides advance notice of {{w|supernova}}e by detecting {{w|neutrino}}s (tiny particles that travel near the speed of light, rarely interacting with matter). Neutrinos are produced in large quantities during the collapse of the star core, which occurs hours before the brightness of the star surface starts to increase (drastically). Neutrinos from a supernova can be distinguished from those generated by the Sun: the latter are relatively steady in their flux (1010–1011 cm-2s-1) with energies < 20 MeV, while the former come in a much higher flux for a few seconds and have energies of 10–50 MeV. She explains this gives {{w|astronomer}}s warning, allowing them to observe the event with telescopes and other instruments.

Hairy reasonably assumes that the device is either a detector, forming part of the SNEWS, or some kind of telescope to be used in the event the SNEWS goes off. However, Ponytail explains that it is a {{w|fireworks}} launcher — presumably linked into the detection network and triggered if it registers an observation — for the purposes of waking her up so she can witness the supernova herself. This is a '''very''' bad idea, for a multitude of reasons. Reckless use of fireworks is known for causing significant property damage and personal injury, even when used outdoors; launching fireworks inside the house means causing an explosion in a confined area, guaranteeing that it will hit the building, maximizing the opportunity to ignite something flammable on the structure, and containing, and therefore amplifying, the sound of the burst (which can already deafen people who are too close). Understandably, Hairy {{tvtropes|ScrewThisImOuttaHere|leaves to sleep at his own house}}.

Some people aren't easily woken up by a simple {{w|alarm clock}}, especially if it is in reach and has a "snooze" function where a button will silence the alarm for several minutes before it beeps again. The similar sounds of "snooze" and SNEWS may be part of the joke.

Ponytail is being {{w|hyperbole|hyperbolic}}, because even if all astronomers were interested in supernovae, not every individual or observatory will be immediately situated to view a particular point in the sky. For example, they may need to wait for the Earth's rotation, causing the phenomenon to "rise" in the east. Others may be located at unfavorable latitudes where the object will never appear above the Earth's horizon. It may also take some time before the supernova reaches an apparent magnitude that is visible during the daytime. Which would be particularly disappointing for ''everyone'' with an interest (on Earth) if it all happens to a star currently too close to conjunction with the Sun to see, in spite of the advanced neutrino warning.

Since historical supernovae have been visible from 6 months to nearly 2 years, it would be unlikely that Ponytail sleeps through a new one in its entirety, although there would still be significant cachet for any astronomer lucky enough to be able to legitimately say that they had seen the 'first light' at the earliest opportunity. It would have been difficult for her to ''not'' sleep through part of the supernova, for the same reason if she had not set up the fireworks; ironically, she has made that a more likely possibility, because injuries from the fireworks may leave her in a coma or under medical sedation (which might be considered "sleeping").

The title text is a play on the tremendous amount of energy released by a supernova. The {{w|Foe (unit)|foe}} is an unofficial unit of energy equal to 10^44 Joule (but named directly from initials in the original quantity of "ten to the fifty-one ergs", involving a {{w|Erg|pre-SI}} measurement of energy), which is approximately on the order of the usual amount of energy released by a supernova. In comparison, human-scale amounts of energy — even relatively significant ones such as firework detonations — are negligible. This ignores the fact that energy releases that are "negligible in comparison to a supernova" can still be easily fatal to humans; even the largest man-made nuclear explosion is approximately ''twenty-seven'' orders of magnitude less than the baseline 'foe' value. The described "10-40 foe" is equal to 10 kJ, the energy content of approximately 3.3 grams of pyrotechnic gunpowder (for instance, a string of sixty or so 50-mg firecrackers).

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
:[Ponytail is walking into her room. The room has a bed, a set of drawers and a large sci-fi device mounted on the ceiling. Hairy is standing in the room, pointing up at the device.]
:Hairy: What's that device?
:Ponytail: Part of the supernova early warning system.
:Ponytail: There hasn't been a Milky Way supernova in over a century.
:Ponytail: Astronomers don't want to miss the next one.

:[Close up of Ponytail, now sitting on the end of the bed]
:Ponytail: 20 years ago, we set up a supernova alert system using neutrino detectors.
:Ponytail: It should give us a few hours' advance notice.

:[In a frame-less panel the view zooms back out, showing Ponytail and Hairy.]
:Ponytail: If it ever goes off, every astronomer on earth will scramble to point their equipment at the sky.
:Hairy: Oh, OK. So is that a detector? Or some kind of telescope?

:[The panel moves to the right, showing Hairy walking away. Ponytail is still on the end of the bed, raising a clenched fist for dramatic effect.]
:Ponytail: Fireworks launcher.
:Ponytail: I '''''refuse''''' to sleep through a supernova.
:Hairy: I think I'll spend the night at my place instead.

==Trivia==
The word "off" is misspelled as "of" in the title text.

This comic was published on the eve of the {{w|Chinese New Year}} or Lunar New Year, which is reckoned by the new moon appearing at this time of year. Celebrations throughout Asia and communities worldwide include setting off firecrackers and launching fireworks.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]

3207: Bad Map Projection: Zero Declination

2026-02-14T02:30:45Z

GSLikesCats307:

{{comic
| number = 3207
| date = February 13, 2026
| title = Bad Map Projection: Zero Declination
| image = bad_map_projection_zero_declination.png
| imagesize = 740x544px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = 'The zero line in WMM2025 passes through a lot of population centers; I wonder what year the largest share of the population lived in a zone of less than 5° of declination,' he thought, derailing all other tasks for the rest of the day.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created recently by a misaligned map. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
This is the tenth comic in the [[:Category:Bad Map Projections|Bad Map Projections]] series, displaying Bad Map Projection #216: Zero Declination.

While the Earth's magnetic field is broadly aligned North-South, the actual alignment of the magnetic field varies over time and position. The difference between True North (the axis of Earth's rotation) and Magnetic North (the direction a compass will point) will vary depending on your position, and is known as the {{w|Magnetic Declination}} of that point.

The comic shows a map that has been distorted based on the Magnetic Declination so that Magnetic North for every point is pointed toward the top of the map. If this were reality, then Magnetic North would always be aligned with True North, or in other words, there would be Zero Declination at all points.

The red arrows indicate the distortions from the starting map required to make Magnetic North be at the top.

In the title text, "WMM2025" refers to the 2025 version of the {{w|World Magnetic Model}}, a representation of the Earth's magnetic field. You can see it [https://web.archive.org/web/20260212034745/https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/inline-images/D.jpg here]. The "zero line" is in green, which shows where in the world magnetic declination is 0°. [[Randall]] has presumably wasted a day trying to figure out what year has had the most population living in an area of less than 5° declination by searching through previous WMM maps. He appears to have not found the answer, but luckily explainxkcd user Ahogue [[356|finished the job]] and made a [https://awhogue.github.io/zero-declination/output/ beautiful interactive map] to let you see that the answer is 2000.

You can see magnetic declination [https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/maps/historical-declination/ historical data here].

In {{w|orienteering}}, the maps are printed in such a way that magnetic north is always up - but given that the maps rarely show more than a few square kilometers, Randall's problem of mapping the entire world doesn't occur.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

[An outline map of the world is shown, with all landmases rotated & extended about - shown by sets of three red arrows around each change. A title on top of the map reads as follows: 'Bad Map Projection #216:', then below that: 'zero declination', & finally below that 'A cylindrical projection distorted so up is magnetic north'.]

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

[[Category:Comics with red annotations]]
[[Category:Bad Map Projections]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]

3206: Installation

2026-02-12T02:45:17Z

GSLikesCats307:

{{comic
| number = 3206
| date = February 11, 2026
| title = Installation
| image = installation_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x272px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Do YOU remember the skylight being this big?
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created by a globe-spanning carpet. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
[[Megan]] and [[Cueball]] are installing wall-to-wall carpeting (also known as {{w|fitted carpet}}), which usually runs from the inner edge of one wall to the inner edge of a facing wall. Somehow, they have managed to mistakenly start laying the carpet against the outer edge of the wall without noticing. Despite encountering unfinished and uneven surfaces, plants, rocks, and other obstructions, they have not realized their error, and have simply continued laying carpet for an unknown distance. Presumably, they would continue doing so until they encountered the outer wall of another building. Alternatively, if they check whether the wall is actually the other end of their room, they may keep going even then. Provided they can overcome the various geographical obstacles they might encounter — including oceans — they could eventually reach the other wall of their building by {{w|Circumnavigation|circumnavigation}}. They may run into a more immediate problem that prevents either approach, though, as it appears their last roll of carpet is about to run out. One wonders whether Cueball and Megan are {{w|Topology|topologists}}, since the inside and outside of a room (a closed loop) on a sphere (Earth) are {{w|Equivalence_of_metrics#Topological_equivalence|topologically equivalent}}.

According to the title text they have failed to notice another rather large clue to their problem — that there is a big open sky above them. Instead, they have, rather improbably, interpreted this as an extremely large {{w|skylight}} — a window on the ceiling designed to add light to a space of a building.

==Transcript==
[Four side-by-side panels showing Megan and Cueball rolling carpet over rough, outdoors terrain]

[Panel one: Cueball is pushing a roll of carpet over rough terrain, including a small rock and plant. Megan is walking behind him, pulling a cart holding two more rolls of carpet.]

[Panel two: Now on a slight incline, Cueball and Megan continue rolling and pulling respectively. The roll of carpet is approximately half as big as before.]

[Panel three: Having gone over a medium-size rock, the carpet being pushed has run out, and Megan and Cueball are lifting a new roll off the cart. One remains.]

[Panel four: Megan and Cueball have stopped walking, and are now talking to each other. Meanwhile a small rock is underneath the carpet, & 3 small plants & another rock are ahead of the carpet.]

:Megan: You're ''sure'' we started installing the wall-to-wall carpet on the right side of the wall?
:Cueball: The other end of the room ''must'' be getting close by now.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]

3205: Carbon Dating

2026-02-10T04:30:21Z

Eelitee: not all

{{comic
| number = 3205
| date = February 9, 2026
| title = Carbon Dating
| image = carbon_dating_2x.png
| imagesize = 250x348px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = This dating is corroborated by the presence of stone tools at the site, rather than earlier and less effective helium ones.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created recently by a SPEAR MADE OF FREE ELECTRONS. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
{{w|Carbon dating}} is a method for determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of radiocarbon, a radioactive isotope of {{w|carbon}}. This method is commonly used by {{w|archaeology|archaeologists}} and is invaluable in terms of estimating the point in time a piece of organic matter (such as a fossil) died. It uses the fact that carbon in Earth's biosphere maintains a known ratio between the isotopes 12C, 13C (irrelevant for carbon dating) and 14C. Its intake by living organisms (by photosynthesis, in the case of plants, or by consumption in the case of non-plants, accounting for known {{w|Fractionation of carbon isotopes in oxygenic photosynthesis|fractionation}} differences) is also relatively stable, until the organism dies and stops taking in carbon compounds. From that point on, the relative concentration of 14C in the dead organism can only decrease through radioactive decay. By measuring the relative amount of 14C left in the organism's remains, archaeologists can determine how long ago that organism last actively replenished its carbon, and thus how long ago it died.

Here, however, [[Ponytail]], in the role of a {{w|cosmology|cosmologist}}, takes a rather different perspective on using carbon for dating. She is interested only in the mere ''presence'' of carbon, which tells her that the skeleton being studied was formed after the first carbon in the universe was created in the first round of stars fusing elements, 13.6 billion years ago. This is not useful information for differentiating artifacts originating on {{w|Earth}}, which is itself less than ''5'' billion years old, since it would apply to the vast majority of them.

The title text looks like the kind of statement that would provide corroborative dating evidence for an archaeological site. The type and composition of tools can help to place a site, relative to others, on a {{w|Tool#History|developmental timeline}}. Here, however, they claim that the presence of stone tools dates the site as later than a non-existent age of helium tools. Tools made out of stone, usually dating from the {{w|Stone Age}}, are often solid and durable, making them great choices for heavy duty tasks, and well-preserved in the archaeological record. {{w|Helium}} is a gas and is difficult to shape into a solid mass for use as a tool.{{Citation needed}} It would also be near impossible to identify such tools if they had existed, since they would tend to disperse easily. Helium was produced in great quantities after the {{w|Big Bang}}, accounting for about ~25% of the mass of atoms produced by the early universe, so would have been available before stone was, but there were no people around at the time to fashion tools from it.

14C is generated in the atmosphere by interactions between nitrogen and cosmic rays, and it is radioactive with a half-life of approximately 5,730 years. It decays over time even as it is replenished, leaving its relative concentration in the environment a matter of the balance between its creation (by cosmic rays, which vary slightly over time, but in a way that can be enumerated) and decay (a constant proportion). Carbon dating is a useful method only so long as the remaining concentration of 14C can be measured accurately, which extends to approximately 9 or 10 half-lives (50,000 to 60,000 years) until the continued halving of the remaining isotope becomes statistically or physically difficult to accurately determine, as well as for lengths of time that are significantly ''less'' than this isotope's half-life. Other forms of {{w|radiometric dating}}, based on other elements and isotopes, are used for different lengths of time, as well as situations where such carbon-chemistry is not a reliable component of a sample, or may further validate the result in situations where their respective useful scenarios overlap. Even the ratios between abundances of stable isotopes can vary, providing historical information about things such as temperatures and atmospheric mixing, via {{w|isotope geochemistry}}, as well as in a wider form of {{w|radiometric dating}} for which the presence of stable decay products in a sample can be used to show the original concentrations of subsequently decayed atoms for even better cross-comparison of how much samples such as this will have aged.

The themes of the comic are similar to [[2723]], which imagines a periodic table published just after the Big Bang, when most elements did not yet exist.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
:[Ponytail, standing, is pointing at a blackboard containing a drawing of a skull and some bones/bone fragments, as well as a graph and some lines of text. She is speaking to Cueball and Megan, who are standing beside her.]
:Ponytail: The high carbon content of the skeleton indicates that the individual lived less than 13.6 billion years ago, after the first round of stellar nucleosynthesis.
:[Caption below the panel:]
:Cosmologist carbon dating

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

[[Category:Cosmology]]
[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]

3204: Dinosaurs And Non-Dinosaurs

2026-02-06T19:20:47Z

DollarStoreBa'al: fixing wanted cat

{{comic
| number = 3204
| date = February 6, 2026
| title = Dinosaurs And Non-Dinosaurs
| image = dinosaurs_and_non_dinosaurs_2x.png
| imagesize = 370x283px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Staplers are actually in Pseudosuchia, making them more closely related to crocodiles than to dinosaurs.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created by a CHROME DINOSAUR; however, it is definitely not. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

This comic explores the seeming paradox that certain extinct prehistoric species which are popularly thought of as being "dinosaurs" are, from a strict {{w|taxonomy|taxonomic}} viewpoint, not. It also takes into account the fact that all {{w|bird}} species are descended from {{w|dinosaur}}s and thus - again, from a strict taxonomic viewpoint - are themselves dinosaurs as well (see [[1211: Birds and Dinosaurs]]). To illustrate this, [[Randall]] provides silhouettes of
* dinosaurs
* entities that are widely thought of as dinosaurs but are not
* entities that are ''not'' widely thought of as dinosaurs but ''are'' (i.e. birds)
* and, lastly, entities that are neither dinosaurs nor thought of as dinosaurs (which is funny because it's so all-encompassing as to be practically meaningless, just like it would be if you replaced the word "dinosaurs" by any other plural noun or adjective).

=== Creatures that seem like dinosaurs and are dinosaurs ===
* {{w|Stegosaurus}} was a herbivorous genus of dinosaurs from the {{w|Late Jurassic}} period with spikes on their tails and distinctive upright plates along their backs. The function of the spikes and plates is the subject of much speculation among scientists, with the current consensus being that the spikes were used for defense and the plates used for display. First identified during the {{w|Bone Wars}}, illustrations of Stegosaurus have been in popular media for over 150 years.
* {{w|Triceratops}}, named for the three horns on its face, was a {{w|Late Cretaceous}} dinosaur, living during the {{w|Maastrichtian}} age up until the K-PG extinction event. First displayed at the 1900 {{w|Paris Exposition}}, Triceratops has been one of the most popularly displayed dinosaurs, due to the abundance of fossils and distinctive appearance. Its appearance in {{w|The Lost World (1925 film)|various}} {{w|Fantasia (1940 film)|films}} {{w|The Lost World|over}} {{w|Jurassic Park|time}} has made Triceratops one of the most distinctive dinosaurs.
* {{w|Tyrannosaurus}} Rex, whose name literally translates to ''Tyrant-Lizard King'', was also a {{w|Late Cretaceous}} dinosaur, living during the {{w|Maastrichtian}} Age at the very end of the period. It was a contemporary of Triceratops and Mosasaurs, also listed in this comic. T-Rex is arguably the most well-known dinosaur, due to the recovery of intact skeletons, as well as successful marketing and pop-culture influences, such as ''{{w|Jurassic Park}}'', one of Randall's favorite films.
* {{w|Diplodocus}} was a herbavorous {{w|sauropod}} dinosaur that lived in the {{w|Late Jurassic}}. [[Randall]] has also discussed saurapods in [[3185|a different comic]].
* {{w|Velociraptor}} was another dinosaur found in the {{w|Late Cretaceous}} period, made famous for the Jurassic Park films, where they were major threats to the protagonists. [[Randall]]'s fear of Raptors is [[Category:Velociraptors|a recurring theme in his comics]].

=== Creatures that seem like dinosaurs, but are not ===
Dinosaur is a {{w|paleontology}} term which refers to a specific group of reptiles, based upon evolutionary lines, bone structure and living domain. However, non-experts may have difficulty distinguishing these from other extinct large reptiles/creatures and apply the term somewhat indiscriminately, hence the confusion between what is scientifically included and what is culturally assumed to be included.

The creatures listed are:
* {{w|Mosasaur}}s were aquatic reptiles that existed during the Cretaceous. Although mosasaurs appeared in ''{{w|Jurassic World}}'', they are not closely related to dinosaurs. They actually evolved from lizards and are most closely related to either snakes or varanoids (such as the Komodo dragon).
* {{w|Plesiosaur}}s were another group of Mesozoic aquatic reptiles. Their place in the reptile family tree is debated, as they are not closely related to dinosaurs or any extant reptile.
* {{w|Pteranodon}} belonged to the group of flying reptiles known as pterosaurs. While dinosaurs and pterosaurs are both archosaurs and are more closely related to each other than other archosaurs (such as crocodilians; see title text explanation below), they diverged around 250 MYA, and are distinct enough to be entirely separate lineages.
* {{w|Dimetrodon}} lived in the {{w|Paleozoic}}, well before dinosaurs first evolved. They are synapsids, which makes them more closely related to {{w|mammal}}s than to any living reptiles.
* {{w|Quetzalcoatlus}} was a genus of flying pterosaurs, like ''Pteranodon'', that lived in the Maastrichtian Age (the end of the Cretaceous) alongside mosasaurs, T-Rex and many others. They were some of the largest flying animals in history, with wingspans up to 36 feet (11m). They were not, however, dinosaurs, as they had pterosaur ancestry.

=== Creatures that don't seem like dinosaurs, but are ===
Due to the popular depiction of dinosaurs as prehistoric large reptiles, many people don't view modern birds as dinosaurs. However, as Randall [[1211: Birds and Dinosaurs|loves to remind people]], dinosaurs such as ''T-rex'' are more closely related (temporally, anatomically and phylogenetically) to birds than to some other dinosaurs such as ''Stegosaurus'', and therefore, birds '''are''' dinosaurs in their own right.
* {{w|Penguin}}
* {{w|Heron}}
* {{w|Ostrich}}
* {{w|Pigeon}}
* {{w|Falcon}} or {{w|Petrel}} (both of them qualify)

=== Things that don't seem like dinosaurs, and are not ===
* {{w|Squirrel}}: Squirrels are mammals, and dinosaurs are reptiles. Most people also think of dinosaurs as large and dangerous, while squirrels tend to be small, cute and relatively harmless (although their bites can transmit infection). Could also be made of [[2186: Dark Matter|dark matter]].
* {{w|Stapler}}: Staplers are inanimate objects, and dinosaurs are living creatures.
* {{w|Flowerpot|Potted plant}} or {{w|pineapple}}: Dinosaurs are animals, and plants are not.
* {{w|Human}} ([[Cueball]]): Humans are mammals, and dinosaurs are reptiles. In fact, the {{w|Jurassic Park (franchise)|''Jurassic Park''}} series often pits the two against each other.
* {{w|Bicycle}}: While they tend to be more mobile than staplers, and have {{w|Dandy horse|some relation}} to horses, bicycles are also not living creatures.

The title text is a further joke about taxonomy, seemingly predicated on the assumption that staplers are biological organisms (which they are not),{{Citation needed}} and can thus be sorted into taxa. ''{{w|Pseudosuchia}}'' is in fact the clade of archosaurs that includes crocodilians, and staplers bear a certain resemblance to the open mouth of a crocodilian. Also, "suchia" sounds a little like "suture," and in some sense staples are pseudo {{w|Surgical suture|sutures}}.

The original {{w|Linnaean taxonomy}} ''did'' at first have a top-level classification for "mineral" taxonomy, in addition to those for animal and plant, which {{w|Twenty questions#Popular variants|in its broadest sense}} might allow one to assign a stapler a taxonomic relationship with dinosaurs.

==Transcript==
:[A 2x2 chart where each of the four quadrants contains five silhouettes. These depict various animals, a few objects, and a human. Above each column and to the left of each row there are a label:]
:[Left column:] Are dinosaurs
:[Right column:] Are not dinosaurs
:[Upper row:] Seem like dinosaurs
:[Lower row:] Don't seem like dinosaurs

:[Here follows a list of what are in each of the four quadrants:]

:[Top left (seem like dinosaurs, are dinosaurs):]
:[Stegosaurus, triceratops, tyrannosaurus, diplodocus, and velociraptor.]

:[Top right (seem like dinosaurs, are not dinosaurs):]
:[Mosasaur, quetzalcoatlus, dimetrodon, plesiosaur, and pteranodon.]

:[Bottom left (don't seem like dinosaurs, are dinosaurs):]
:[Penguin, egret, falcon, pigeon, and ostrich.]

:[Bottom right (don't seem like dinosaurs, are not dinosaurs):]
:[Squirrel, stapler, bicycle, human (here depicted as Cueball), and potted plant.]

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
[[Category:Confusion matrices]]
[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Dinosaurs]]
[[Category:Velociraptors]]
[[Category:Squirrels]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]

3203: Binary Star

2026-02-05T04:45:44Z

81.179.199.253: It's got both a link *and* and an in-text explanation... Which makes the Citation Needed already well and truly covered and basically negates the humour of it.

{{comic
| number = 3203
| date = February 4, 2026
| title = Binary Star
| image = binary_star_2x.png
| imagesize = 353x365px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = The discovery of a fully typographical star system comes with a big asterisk.
}}

==Explanation==
This is one of the [[:Category:News|News]] comics, delivering space news.

{{w|Binary star|Binary star systems}}, where two stars orbit each other, are common throughout the universe. In some cases, these are made up of different types of stars, such as a {{w|neutron star}} co-orbiting with a {{w|main sequence}} star. Here, however, the comic depicts a system consisting of a real celestial object (just such a main sequence star), and a star which is instead a stylised five-pointed shape in which stars are often drawn, called a {{w|pentagram}}.

Pointed stars [https://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2015/06/16/4253961.htm do not actually exist] as astronomical bodies, as the spikes would quickly collapse under the effects of gravity. Stars seen in the night sky can sometimes appear as though they have spikes coming out of them, but these are just optical illusions caused by the {{w|diffraction spike|diffraction}} [[2762|spike]] effect, and not {{w|Inverted World|something far weirder}}. Although stars have {{w|Solar prominence|prominences}} and {{w|coronal mass ejections}}, which project from their surfaces, these are small relative to the stars themselves.

If an object was discovered that really did have that shape, emitting light consistent with the spectrum of a star, it would almost certainly have to be an enormous alien constructed device. In order to be of a size similar to that of a star but not collapse under its own gravitational attraction it could not be built solely of the kinds of materials we're familiar with, because we don't know of any substances that would be strong enough. Its ability to emit light intensity comparable with a star's is beyond our understanding, by many orders of magnitude, especially given the need for some power source, and that the heat and radiation would weaken its structure. Another possible, albeit even more implausible, explanation is that some alien technology has somehow forced a real star to assume that shape, while still undergoing fusion and emitting light consistent with a star's spectrum.

The title text puns on the * symbol (an {{w|asterisk}} - meaning little star), which is sometimes called a star, and is often used to indicate {{w|Note (typography)|footnotes}} in text. A "big asterisk" is used as a metaphor for a rather large caveat or significant reservations about the statement being made, suggesting that such qualifications would form a long footnote. This could be interpreted as meaning that the existence of the "typographical star system" is significantly doubtful. Alternatively, it could be read as meaning that the "big asterisk" is an actual physically very large (astronomical scale) symbol, which forms part of a system composed of other bodies in the form of typography.

Drawing a star as a pentagram, as shown in the comic, is referenced in [[1029: Drawing Stars]].

The orbital paths shown are anomalous. The main sequence star follows a path that's nearly circular, while the five-pointed star follows an elliptical path, and they're at different locations along their paths. If the two stars were the most massive objects in their system by a significant margin, approximating a two-body system, their paths should be the same shape (albeit at different sizes, if their masses differ) centered on opposite sides of the shared focal point of their {{w|Barycenter (astronomy)|barycenter}}, with all four of the ellipses' foci collinear. Their locations along those paths should be directly in (anti-)phase, and collinear with the barycenter. That this isn't true implies that there's at least one other massive object, which isn't shown, in the system. The much smaller path of the main sequence star suggests that it's in a (relatively) close orbit with the other massive object, with the five-pointed star being much less massive than either, and essentially orbiting them both at a greater distance. That the five-pointed star has much less mass makes sense, since it appears to consist only of five intersecting linear structures, with large empty spaces in between.

==Transcript==
:[Graphical depiction of a binary star system. The orbits are shown with dashed lines. One star is revolving circularly close to the center of mass and is shown as a filled circle. The other has a very elliptic orbit further out. It is currently close to its furthest point from the other star. This star is depicted as a pentagram.]
:[Caption below the image:]
:Space news: astronomers have found the first known system with a main-sequence star orbited by a five-pointed one.
{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

[[Category:Comics with inverted brightness]]
[[Category:News]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]

3202: Groundhog Day Meaning

2026-02-02T16:06:04Z

GSLikesCats307:

{{comic
| number = 3202
| date = February 2, 2026
| title = Groundhog Day Meaning
| image = groundhog_day_meaning_2x.png
| imagesize = 257x378px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Originally, the ceremony used a variety of rodents and mustelids, but over time most people agreed it made sense to standardize on a specific individual ground squirrel in Pennsylvania.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created by a bot on its 4,268th loop. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

This comic was posted on {{w|Groundhog Day}}, February 2nd. [[Cueball]] is shown explaining the holiday to [[Black Hat]].

Groundhog Day originates from German {{w|weather lore#Candlemas_and_animals|weather lore}} about the behaviour of {{w|European_badger|badgers}} (among other animals) on the {{w|Candlemas}} holiday observed on 2 February. This tradition was brought over to the new world by German emigrants and turned into a superstition regarding the behavior of a {{w|groundhog}} (a type of {{w|rodent}}). Supposedly, if the groundhog does not see its shadow, the spring thaw is predicted to happen shortly thereafter. If it does see its shadow, it is frightened and retreats into its burrow, and six more weeks of winter await. The most famous prediction each year, broadcast across the U.S., has come to rest on a specific individual groundhog, named {{w|Punxsutawney Phil}}, in Pennsylvania.

''{{w|Groundhog Day (film)|Groundhog Day}}'' is also the title of a 1993 film starring {{w|Bill Murray}}. In the film, Murray's character is trapped in a {{w|time loop}} centered on Groundhog Day; no matter how his day ends — whether by falling asleep at the end of the day or dying somewhere during the event — the world, and everyone around him, resets to that same morning. However, Murray's character retains all memories of the previous iterations of the day. In English-speaking cultures the movie has {{tvtropes|GroundhogDayLoop|become synonymous}} with the plot element of a time loop (and, by extension, tediously repetitive events). The film has previously been featured in [[1076: Groundhog Day]].

The overall joke of the comic is that Groundhog Day is the weirdest of all the holidays we recognize, at least by [[Randall]]'s measure. If one were to explain holidays to someone with no familiarity at all (represented here by Black Hat), most holidays would describe a feast in celebration or the observance of some solemn event. In contrast, Groundhog Day seems to be nothing more than watching a rodent running around its burrow and using that to try and predict the weather. Then, because of the film, the phrase has come to have a completely different, rather strange meaning in modern culture. It's the juxtaposition of two odd concepts that elevates Groundhog Day to its special status.

The title text refers to the process of {{w|System_of_units_of_measurement#History|standardizing measurement units}}, which typically involves forming a consensus among many people from a wide range of places. Basing a weather prediction on rodents (such as groundhogs) and {{w|mustelids}} (such as badgers) is ridiculous to start with, and basing it on a ''single individual'' (who may be thousands of miles / kilometres away) is even more so. As with [[927: Standards|most attempts to unify standards]], while most people may have settled on one (i.e. Punxsutawney Phil), there are still [https://countdowntogroundhogday.com/groundhogs-from-around-the-world many holdouts] who continue to cleave to their preferred system.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and Black Hat are standing next to each other, talking. Cueball has one arm up.]
:Cueball: Historically, it refers to a ceremony to predict the weather using a rodent.
:Cueball: But nowadays people often use it to mean "a time loop experienced by one person."
:Black Hat: ...what.

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Easily our weirdest holiday.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Movies]]
[[Category:Time travel]]

Kidball

2026-02-01T01:40:57Z

42.book.addict: we'll need someone to upload a Kidball image and flesh out the explanation

{{Infobox character
| image = Kidball.png
| imagesize = 200px
| caption = '
| first_appearance = [[38: Apple Jacks]]
}}

<noinclude>:''For a list of comics, see [[:Category:Comics featuring Kidball|Comics featuring Kidball]].''</noinclude>

'''Kidball''' is a [[stick figure]] character in [[xkcd]]. His appearance is like a [[Cueball]], but as a child.

==Name==
The name "Kidball" is derived from Cueball, taking the suffix of Cueball's name and adding "Kid" as a prefix. See [[explain xkcd:Community portal/Proposals#New Character Proposal for Kid Cueballs|Proposals § New Character Proposal for Kid Cueballs]] for more info.

{{navbox-characters}}
[[Category:Characters]]
[[Category:Minor characters]]

3201: Proof Without Content

2026-01-30T17:35:27Z

81.179.199.253: Trying too hard. It was already a decently funny faux-note as a *slight* amendment to the usual., before muddying the waters completely.

{{comic
| number = 3201
| date = January 30, 2026
| title = Proof Without Content
| image = proof_without_content_2x.png
| imagesize = 259x353px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = There's also a proof without content of a conjecture without content, but it's left as an exercise for the reader.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page IS THE PROOF OF ITS OWN CREATION. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

This comic refers to {{w|Proof without words|proofs without words}}, which rely on images or other geometric tools to visually demonstrate a concept without further explanation. However, this comic presents a proof with no content whatsoever inside the ''Proof:'' box, and is instead apparently proven by the existence of the proof itself. The comic additionally suggests that this proof is ''convincing'', which is subjective.

Note that this conjecture cannot be generalized and the proof only proves this special case: the vast majority of conjectures cannot be proven without content.[[[285: Wikipedian Protester|proof needed]]] This proof requires the conjecture to be stated, which could be construed as content.

This could be a parody on scientists sometimes creating empty papers as an inside joke, such as [https://ciencias.ulisboa.pt/sites/default/files/fcul/outros/Chemical-Free.pdf a comprehensive overview of chemical-free consumer products] – the point with that paper being that the {{wiktionary|chemical#Usage notes|lay meaning}} behind "chemical-free" can be considered technically nonsensical, given that anything physical contains chemical elements, so no products can be free of them. (And, even in the various more vague senses that may be intended, it {{w|Appeal to nature#Examples|isn't necessarily}} as good a selling point as it may try to suggest.) Another example of an academic article without words is {{w|The Unsuccessful Self-Treatment of a Case of "Writer's Block"}}.

The title text refers to another proof without content, that a conjecture without content could exist. This would imply a conjecture-proof pair with no content whatsoever. This could only be discussed indirectly, which is why it is mentioned and left as an {{w|Proof by Intimidation|exercise for the reader}}. Alternatively, the exercise could be forming the conjecture and proof itself if the conjecture-proof pair is interpreted as a blank sheet of paper.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

:[Within a panel, two boxes stacked vertically. Each one has a label above it.]
:Conjecture:
:[Within the box]
:It's possible to construct a convincing proof without words, pictures, or content of any kind.
:[The next label]
:Proof:
:[The box underneath this label is empty.]
:[Caption under the panel]
:Proofs without words are cool, but we can go further.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
[[Category:Math]]