explain xkcd - New pages [en]

3267: Types of Tornado Alert

TheusafBOT — Sun, 05 Jul 2026 03:46:15 GMT

Citation 307: Right. Now all we need is a table!

{{comic
| number = 3267
| date = July 3, 2026
| title = Types of Tornado Alert
| image = types_of_tornado_alert_2x.png
| imagesize = 505x426px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = I hate the unearthly sound my phone makes when the weather service issues a tornado harbinger.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was found after a tornado recollection made an unearthly noise. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

This comic describes the idea of a {{w|tornado warning|tornado alert}} and then humorously extends it to decreasingly dangerous situations, soon reaching increasimgly farfetched warnings, which don't help to prepare for a tornado at all.

A table showing these warnings is below:

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
:[There are multiple panels showing different scenes, prefixed by some label beginning with "Tornado" and followed by a description.]

:Tornado warning
:[Silhouette of a tornado spraying dust on the ground. To its right is a house and a dead tree.]
:A tornado has been detected; take shelter

:Tornado watch
:[Hairbun stands in front of a board containing two graphs (one a skew-T log-P) and points to it with her right arm. Cueball is standing, facing her.]
:Conditions are favorable for tornadoes to form

:Tornado precaution
:[Cueball stands with his arms out.]
:Tornadoes happen sometimes, so be ready

:Tornado inkling
:[Cueball has his hand on his chin, looking to the right.]
:No tornadoes yet, but we have a feeling

:Tornado suspicion
:[Cueball is standing outside looking at several clouds, including a cumulonimbus.]
:Weird clouds have been observed

:Tornado premonition
:[Cueball stands to to the left of a pole with a crossbar that has been driven into the ground, and is leaning to the right. Upon the pole two black birds are sitting, and beside the pole is a skull. In the background, more birds form the shape of a tornado.]
:Tornado portents and omens have been observed

:Tornado recollection
:[Cueball has his hand on his chin, looking to the left. He has a thought bubble, containing the silhouette of a tornado.]
:Tornadoes have occurred in the past

:Tornado contemplation
:[Cueball is sitting on a cube, with his arms in his lap, and facing left.]
:Cueball: ''Wow.''
:Tornadoes are very big and powerful

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

[[Category:Weather]]
[[Category:Tornadoes]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairbun]]

3266: Holes

TheusafBOT — Thu, 02 Jul 2026 02:30:45 GMT

2001:4090:A245:86E5:E90:CE:976E:E9A8: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 3266
| date = July 1, 2026
| title = Holes
| image = holes_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x731px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = If you're thinking 'Wait, a giant crystal cave in Mexico? What's that?' then I'm SO excited for the image search you're about to do.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created recently, using the power of New Mexican crystals, and found in a hole. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
This comic is a comparison of some of the largest holes in the world, both manmade and natural, showing how high/deep they are, relative to both sea level and the local surface. It is somewhat unusual to refer to many of these as 'holes', which is more normally used to describe small things — most people would hardly call a vast ocean trench a 'hole'.

This comic appears to be related to [[1040: Lakes and Oceans]].

A table expanding on (but not [[725: Literally|literally]]) the various holes is shown below:

{| class="wikitable sortable"
! Feature
! Type
! Approx. elevation relative to sea level
! Approx. depth below local surface
! Notes
! More information
|-
| {{w|Bingham Canyon Mine}}
| Open-pit copper mine
| ~+1.5 km
| 1.2 km
| Utah, USA
| One of the world's largest human-made excavations, over 1 km deep and several kilometers across.
|-
| {{w|Veryovkina Cave}}
| Cave
| ~0 km
| 2.2 km
| Georgia (Abkhazia)
| The second deepest known cave on Earth, explored to more than 2.2 km below its entrance. The deepest is {{w|Krubera Cave}}.
|-
| {{w|Mponeng Gold Mine}}
| Gold mine
| ~−2.5 km
| 4 km
| South Africa
| Among the deepest operating mines ever built, reaching nearly 4 km below the surface.
|-
| {{w|Sanford Underground Research Facility|Sanford Laboratory}}
| Underground laboratory
| ~+0.1 km
| 1.5 km
| South Dakota, USA
| Former Homestake Gold Mine, now used for experiments in particle physics, neutrinos, and dark matter.
|-
| {{w|Cave of the Crystals|Giant Crystal Cave}}
| Cave
| ~+1 km
| 0.3 km
| Naica Mine, Mexico
| Famous for enormous gypsum crystals, some over 10 m (33 ft) long, formed in hot mineral-rich groundwater.
|-
| {{w|Derinkuyu Underground City}}
| Underground city
| ~+1.3 km
| 0.1 km
| Turkey
| Ancient underground city capable of sheltering tens of thousands of people and their livestock.
|-
| {{w|Waste Isolation Pilot Plant|WIPP}}
| Nuclear waste repository
| ~+0.6 km
| 0.7 km
| New Mexico, USA
| The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant stores long-lived radioactive waste in a stable underground salt formation.
|-
| {{w|Retsof,_New_York#Retsof_Salt_Mine|Restof [Retsof] Salt Mine}}
| Salt mine
| ~−0.1 km
| 0.3 km
| New York, USA
| Once the largest salt mine in the United States before major flooding in the 1990s (hence the "oops").
|-
| {{w|China Jinping Underground Laboratory|Jinping Laboratory}}
| Underground laboratory
| ~+1.6 km
| 2.4 km
| Sichuan, China
| Built beneath Jinping Mountain and protected by over 2 km of rock, making it one of the world's deepest underground laboratories.
|-
| {{w|San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth|San Andreas Fault Observatory Borehole}}
| Geological scientific borehole
| ~+0.6 km
| 3.2 km
| California, USA
| Aimed at collecting geological data about the San Andreas Fault for the purpose of predicting and analyzing future earthquakes.
|-
| {{w|CFB North Bay}}
| Military bunker
| ~+0.3 km
| 0.2 km
| Ontario, Canada
| Cold War command center carved into solid rock for North American air defense.
|-
| {{w|Woodingdean Water Well}}
| Well
| ~−0.3 km
| 0.4 km
| England, United Kingdom
| Hand-dug in the 19th century and still the deepest hand-excavated well ever completed.
|-
| {{w|Diefenbunker}}
| Military bunker
| +0.1 km
| Near surface
| Ontario, Canada
| Massive four-story underground bunker built to house the Canadian government after a nuclear attack.
|-
| {{w|Deep Underground Command Center}}
| Proposed military bunker
| ~−1 km
|
| Nevada, USA
| A proposed U.S. command facility that was never constructed after extensive planning.
|-
| {{w|Lake Peigneur}}
| Lake
| ~−0.2 km
|
| Louisiana, USA
| Famous for a 1980 drilling accident ("oops") that transformed a shallow freshwater lake into a much deeper saltwater lake.
|-
| {{w|Sydney Opera House|Sydney Opera House}} Parking
| Parking garage
| Slightly below sea level
|
| New South Wales, Australia
| Deep underground parking beneath one of Australia's most recognizable landmarks.
|-
| {{w|Onkalo spent nuclear fuel repository}}
| Nuclear waste repository
| ~−0.4 km
|
| Satakunta, Finland
| Designed for permanent disposal of spent nuclear fuel for over 100,000 years.
|-
| {{w|Raven Rock Mountain Complex|Raven Rock}}
| Military bunker
| Near surface
|
| Pennsylvania, USA
| Alternate U.S. military command center, sometimes called the "Underground Pentagon."
|-
| {{w|Delaware Aqueduct}}
| Water tunnel
| ~−0.3 km
|
| New York, USA
| The world's longest water tunnel, supplying drinking water to New York City.
|-
| {{w|Wieliczka Salt Mine|Wieliczka}} and {{w|Bochnia Salt Mine|Bochnia}} Salt Mines
| Salt mines
| ~−0.3 km
|
| Lesser Poland Voivodeship, Poland
| Historic medieval mines famous for underground chapels, sculptures, and vast chambers carved from salt.
|-
| {{w|Atchison Storage Facility}}
| Underground storage
| Near surface
|
| Kansas, USA
| A former limestone mine converted into climate-controlled storage for records, film, and valuables.
|-
| {{w|SNOLAB}}
| Underground laboratory
| ~−2 km
|
| Ontario, Canada
| Located inside an active mine and used for dark matter, neutrino, and astroparticle physics experiments.
|-
| {{w|Detroit salt mine}}
| Salt mine
| ~−0.35 km
|
| Michigan, USA
| Extensive salt mine directly beneath downtown Detroit and the Detroit River.
|-
| {{w|Hongyancun station|Hongyancun Subway Station}}
| Subway station
| Near surface
|
| Chongqing, China
| One of the deepest metro stations in the world due to the city's steep mountainous terrain.
|-
| {{w|Punggye-ri Nuclear Test Site|Nuclear Test Shafts}}
| Test tunnels
| ~+1 km
|
| North Korea
| Underground tunnels used for nuclear weapons testing beneath Mount Mantap.
|-
| {{w|Super-Kamiokande}}
| Neutrino detector
| ~−1 km
|
| Gifu Prefecture, Japan
| Giant underground tank containing 50,000 tonnes of ultra-pure water used to detect neutrinos.
|-
| {{w|Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso|Gran Sasso Laboratory}}
| Underground laboratory
| ~+0.7 km
|
| Italy
| The world's largest underground research laboratory by volume.
|-
| {{w|Modane Underground Laboratory|Modane Laboratory}}
| Underground laboratory
| ~+1.5 km
|
| France
| Built beneath the Alps to shield sensitive physics experiments from cosmic rays.
|-
| {{w|Gotthard Tunnel}}
| Railway tunnel
| ~+0.6 km
|
| Switzerland
| The world's longest railway tunnel, stretching 57 km through the Alps.
|-
| {{w|Cheyenne Mountain Complex|Cheyenne Mountain Bunker}}
| Military bunker
| ~+1.5 km
|
| Colorado, USA
| Hardened military complex built inside a granite mountain to survive nuclear attack.
|-
| {{w|Kola Superdeep Borehole}}
| Scientific borehole
| ~-12 km
|
| Murmansk Oblast, Russia
|
|-
| {{w|Lake Baikal}}
| Lake
| ~−1.6 km
|
| Russia
| The world's deepest and oldest freshwater lake, containing roughly 20% of Earth's unfrozen surface freshwater.
|-
| Sediments under Lake Baikal
| Sedimentary deposit column
| ~-8km
|
| Russia
| Lake Baikal sits atop a geological rift, and accumulated sedimentary layers beneath it extend some 7km into the rift.
|-
| {{w|Iceland Deep Drilling Project|IDDP}}-2 Borehole
| Geothermal energy borehole
| ~
|
| Iceland
|
|-
| {{w|Dead Sea}}
| Salt lake
| ~−0.4 km
|
| Israel/Palestine/Jordan
| Earth's lowest exposed land surface, famous for extremely salty water that allows people to float easily.
|-
| {{w|Ryfylke Tunnel}}
| Road tunnel
| ~−0.3 km
|
| Norway
| One of the world's deepest subsea road tunnels.
|-
| {{w|Pantai Remis}} Mine
| Tin mine
| Near sea level
|
| Malaysia
| An open-pit tin mine that eventually flooded and became a lake after its {{w|Pantai_Remis_landslide|seawall collapsed}}.
|-
| {{w|Great Blue Hole}}
| Marine sinkhole
| ~−0.1 km
|
| Belize
| A giant circular marine sinkhole popular with scuba divers and marine researchers.
|-
| {{w|JOIDES Resolution}} Expedition 307
| Scientific ocean borehole
| ~−6 km
|
| Atlantic Ocean
| Ocean drilling expedition that cored deep into the seafloor to study Earth's geology and climate history.
|-
| {{w|Deepwater Horizon}} Borehole
| Deep water oil well
| ~
|
| Gulf of Mexico
| The Deepwater Horizon Oilrig had a terrible disaster in the Gulf. The hole was really that deep.
|-
| {{w|Glomar Challenger}} hole 504B
| Scientific ocean borehole
| ~
|
|
|
|-
| {{w|Project Mohole|Mohole}}
| Scientific ocean borehole
| ~
|
|
|
|-
| JOIDES Resolution Expedition 329
| Scientific ocean borehole
| ~
|
| Atlantic Ocean
| Ocean drilling expedition that cored deep into the seafloor to study Earth's geology and climate history.
|-
| {{w|Mariana Trench}}
| Oceanic trench
| ~-10 km
|
| Pacific Ocean
| The deepest oceanic trench on Earth. At the bottom, the pressure exerted by the kilometers of water above is about 15000 psi.
|}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
:[A large graph is shown, displaying various features of the world on a flat scale. Various holes on it are labelled.]
:[Title of Graph:] Holes
:Elevation is to scale relative to sea level and ground level
:Land shapes and horizontal distances are not to scale
{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

3265: Asteroid Threat

TheusafBOT — Mon, 29 Jun 2026 17:55:23 GMT

DKMell: link

{{comic
| number = 3265
| date = June 29, 2026
| title = Asteroid Threat
| image = asteroid_threat_2x.png
| imagesize = 345x424px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Paleontologists have long worried that the dinosaurs blasted into space 66 million years ago will one day complete their orbits and fall back down.
}}

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

It's generally agreed by scientists that most {{w|dinosaurs}} went extinct primarily as a result, either directly or indirectly, of the {{w|Chicxulub asteroid}} impacting the Earth near the {{w|Yucatán Peninsula}} 66 million years ago. This comic posits that another asteroid is soon going to hit the Earth again. Because the impact location will be on the exact opposite side of the planet (the antipode), the comic takes the absurd notion that it will act the 'opposite' way, reversing all the original effects and bringing dinosaurs back from extinction.

The general consensus is that most dinosaurs that weren't in the immediate vicinity of the impact itself went extinct as a result of the environmental effect it had. Other factors have been proposed to explain {{w|Cretaceous–Paleogene_extinction_event|the extinction}}, and the relative contributory effect of these has been a matter of some debate. The title text suggests that the initial Chicxulub event actually resulted in the dinosaurs' disappearance because it involved the dinosaurs launching, or being launched, alive into space. Either the shock of the asteroid strike somehow threw them loose from the planet, or the geology has been misinterpreted and is actually the result of the dinosaurs intentionally engineering a massive rocket blast. They have since been on a long path, most likely circling the Sun, that will some day intersect with the Earth again, and they will land still alive and take control again.

This is ridiculous, for a number of reasons. Firstly, they would they have to somehow survive, and potentially arrange, the initial event. There is no evidence that the dinosaurs developed rocketry techniques,{{Citation Needed}} while an impact strong enough to have knocked them into space would have subjected them to violent forces that they were not adapted to withstand. Secondly, they would need to sustain a breeding population in the vacuum of space through to the present day. Again, dinosaurs do not seem to have had the technology for space travel,{{Citation Needed}} and such a long journey would require extra complications in that they would need to also breed and grow food for the duration, requiring them to maintain an entire ecosystem. Lastly they would need to survive their presumably meteoric re-entry through the Earth's atmosphere and the impact with its surface - a thoroughly impossible feat.

Because Earth rocks have been found on the Moon, there has been [https://www.themeateater.com/conservation/anthropology/fact-checker-are-there-dinosaur-fossils-on-the-moon some] [https://www.kent.ac.uk/news/science/1710/fossils-on-the-moon speculation] that fossils from the era of dinosaurs or earlier may have landed on the Moon, but these are much more likely to be tiny organisms such as diatoms, rather than identifiable fragments of dinosaur remains. No such fragments have been collected.

This could also be seen as a joke referencing the second law of thermodynamics, that entropy can only rise (i.e. you cannot undo destruction by doing the original action in reverse).

The comic might be a contribution to {{w|Asteroid Day}} which is held on the day after this comic was published.

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

:[Two images of Earth are shown. At the top left is a small one, centered on southern {{w|West Africa}}, showing the Atlantic Ocean and the east coast of South America, with a dotted line through the Earth entering at the {{w|Yucatán Peninsula}} and exiting at the east-central Indian Ocean. Taking up most of the rest of the panel is a large Earth image centered on the Indian Ocean and containing a target symbol, comprising a circle and four spokes, aimed at a location in the east-central Indian Ocean.]

:[Caption below image:]
:Dire news: An asteroid is on course to hit the earth exactly ''opposite'' the Yucatán Peninsula, bringing ''back'' the dinosaurs.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
[[Category:Dinosaurs]]
[[Category:Space]]

3264: 720 Ollie

TheusafBOT — Sat, 27 Jun 2026 02:31:28 GMT

207.181.214.68: /* Transcript */

{{comic
| number = 3264
| date = June 26, 2026
| title = 720 Ollie
| image = 720_ollie_2x.png
| imagesize = 257x325px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = This discovery was key to his demonstration of regular/goofy symmetry violation, which won him gold in the theory portion of the X Games.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created by a spin-½ boson. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

{{w|Tony Hawk}} is an American skateboarder credited with inventing the {{w|Aerial_(skateboarding)#Common_aerial_tricks|720}}, a trick (under normal circumstances) involving two full mid-air rotations. 'Ollie' in the comic's name refers to a basic skateboarding move that pops the skateboard up off the ground. Hawk tells [[Cueball]] that doing a single 360° spin causes him to land backward rather than forward. This is unexpected, since a 360° turn in the X-Y plane is a full revolution, meaning that it should normally return him to his original position, rather than performing a half-rotation, which is normally the result of a 180° (or 540°, etc.) spin. As repeating this would reverse his reverse, doubling this to a 720° spin is what finally allows him to land forward. Normally, revolving 360*''n'' degrees, for any whole number ''n'' (0, ±1, ±2, etc.), would leave him pointing the same direction as he started, but here he lands with the opposite orientation if ''n'' is odd, and returns to the same orientation only if ''n'' is even.

The caption reveals that this is because Tony Hawk is a {{w|spin 1/2|spin-½}} {{w|fermion}}. Spin-½ fermions have the unusual property that they must be rotated through two full turns before returning to their original configuration. This explains Tony Hawk's paradox, but is unusual because spin-½ particles are normally very small, only occurring in quantum physics, rather than the Newtonian physics that is used for most larger objects. Since Tony Hawk is not a subatomic particle,{{Citation needed}} it is unclear how his skateboard tricks could be described only by quantum physics.

'''Fermions''', which include the protons, neutrons, and electrons that make up atoms, are a classification of particles or groups of particles whose intrinsic angular momentum (aka "spin") is a half-integer multiple of the {{w|Planck_constant#Reduced_Planck_constant|reduced Planck constant}}; the behavior of these objects' spin is described via {{w|spinor}}s — a type of complex vector. This is in contrast to '''bosons''', whose spin is an integer multiple of the reduced Planck constant and is described by the normal Euclidean vectors you know and love.

Since Hawk invented the 720 in 1985, larger {{w|Aerial (skateboarding)|mid-air rotations}} have been invented (up to {{w|Aerial_(skateboarding)#Common_aerial_tricks|1260}} — three and a half rotations), and according to the comic they can have even stranger quantum properties.

The title text is a riff on the {{w|Nobel Prize}}-winning discovery of {{w|CP violation}} (something that may have been on [[Randall]]'s mind recently due to the [[3263: Baryon Asymmetry|prior comic]]'s subject matter). The {{w|Footedness#Goofy stance vs. regular stance|regular and goofy stances}} of riding a skateboard, which respectively refer to having the left or right foot forward, could be considered a physical quality of the "skateboarder particle", as values of charge and parity are of subatomic ones. The {{w|X Games}} are a prestigious 'street sport' event that includes competitions in skateboarding as well as other related board and bike disciplines, though not a 'theory' event. The parallel is made between winning a gold medal for impressive skateboarding skills (and demonstrating new tricks in the process, as Tony Hawk has been known to do) and earning the Nobel Prize medal for scientific achievement in physics or one of the other established prize categories. So far, nobody has done both of these, but if this comic were true, perhaps Tony Hawk could be the first to do so.

"Goofy matter", and Tony Hawk's involvement in physics, is also the subject of [[2967: Matter]]. Skateboarding is also the subject of [[296: Tony Hawk]].

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
:[Tony Hawk (drawn to resemble Hairy) and Cueball are talking. Hawk is holding his skateboard. An image above the heads of Hawk and Cueball depicts Hawk doing two 360-degree turns on a skateboard, indicated by motion lines.]
:Tony Hawk: Something weird I've noticed is that if I do a 360 ollie, I land backward. I have to do a 720 to land going forward.

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Tony Hawk discovers that he's a spin-½ fermion.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]] 
[[Category:Sport]]
[[Category:Skateboard]]
[[Category:Physics]]

3263: Baryon Asymmetry

TheusafBOT — Thu, 25 Jun 2026 04:16:17 GMT

YZ100: /* Transcript */

{{comic
| number = 3263
| date = June 24, 2026
| title = Baryon Asymmetry
| image = baryon_asymmetry_2x.png
| imagesize = 682x270px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Wait, what do you mean, 'dark matter'? It's not dark, it interacts with high-energy gamma rays ... right? Oh jeez, did I forget to make it interact?
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created recently, but was recently annihilated by its anti-matter counterpart, and needs recreating. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
In this comic, [[Cueball]] talks with the creator of the universe (possibly the one previously seen in another [[3222: Star Formation|recent comic]]). Cueball wants to know why the universe has {{w|baryon asymmetry}} — that is, the {{w|observable universe}} contains much more matter than {{w|antimatter}}. Current physical theories imply that matter and antimatter should have been created in roughly equal amounts. (Due to its {{w|CP violation|CP-violating}} properties, the weak force can create some imbalance, but not enough to explain the observed asymmetry.) The fact that antimatter is extremely rare is very fortunate for humans and other objects made of matter, given that matter/antimatter reactions destroy both substances with a violent release of energy.

As it turns out, though, the creator of the universe, far from being wise and all-knowing, simply forgot to add a roughly equal amount of antimatter. Realizing their mistake, they proceed to add the antimatter that they originally intended, only to create a massive explosion as large parts of the universe, possibly including Cueball, experience {{w|annihilation}}.

The carelessness of adding in the forgotten antimatter without considering the widespread impact it would have on the current state of the universe is strange. A being with the power to create the universe might be assumed to have comparable abilities to observe and understand its state, and should not be oblivious to its not having been working as intended (missing around half of its mass), nor to realizing that the forgotten feature was actually a bad idea after all. As they are conversing with Cueball, who has exhibited [[:Category:Cueball's computer problems|similar degrees of personal ineptitude]], and as this might or might not be the same entity as seen getting things 'wrong' in [[3222: Star Formation]], this might just go to show that it is a shared trait to have so much ability but so little foresight and understanding.

An alternative explanation could be that the sphere is an equivalent to [[Black Hat]], who knows all about the impact and yet 'corrects' the situation anyway, simply not caring about destroying the universe they created, or even deliberately choosing to {{tvtropes|LiteralGenie|worsen the situation}}.

The title text resolves another physics mystery in a similarly unexpected way. {{W|Dark matter}} (a differing substance, that is thought to exist but remains [[3085: About 20 Pounds|considerably less well understood]] even than antimatter) mysteriously interacts via gravity but not, as far as we know, via electromagnetism. The creator is surprised that we call something 'dark matter', but somehow understands what Cueball is referring to and reveals that this was ''supposed'' to interact with high-energy {{w|gamma rays}}, a form of electromagnetic radiation (which, at least as far as the creator is concerned, would not make it 'dark'), but they forgot to add that property. Exactly how this follow-up issue was posed is unknown, following the sudden annihilation of much (if not all) matter in Cueball's vicinity, and likely also his own body. However, there is a chance Cueball is safe from this, as the void shown is unknown, and the last panel could display events happening elsewhere in the universe, where the void is safe from such things.

Electron/positron {{w|annihilation}} will produce gamma rays with energy approximately 0.5MeV. The implication is that the two errors are related - if the creator added enough antimatter then the result would have been gamma rays, which would have interacted with the 'dark' matter during the 'BOOM' in the final panel.

It is uncertain if any more questions could be asked, after this other apparently-intended situation was properly implemented, but they might include something about the nature of {{w|dark energy}}, yet ''another'' mystery regarding the nature of the universe in which various after-market 'fixes' could also be particularly problematic.

The creator of the universe in this comic might be the same floating sphere featured in [[3085: About 20 Pounds]]. Talking to [[:Category:Time traveling Sphere|a floating sphere/orb]] or some [[1450: AI-Box Experiment|similarly non-corporeal entity]] is a recurring subject in xkcd.

==Transcript==

[Cueball is floating in a void. He is speaking with the creator of the universe, who appears as a black sun symbol.] 
Cueball: So you're the creator of the universe? 
Creator of the Universe: That's me! So, got any questions?

[Cueball puts his hand to his face as he floats upright.] 
Cueball: Oh man, so many. What's the reason for baryon asymmetry? Why is most of the universe matter and not antimatter?

[Cueball's hand is back down he resumes his previous position.] 
Creator of the Universe: Crap. Did I forget the antimatter? One sec, let me just…

[Many explosions fill the panel, including a large explosion in the centre.] 
BOOM

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Cosmology]]

3262: Sports Commentary

TheusafBOT — Tue, 23 Jun 2026 03:46:10 GMT

81.179.200.152: Thinking about it, while (technically) the loser of the final is 'knocked out' as much as another (save for the semifinal-for-third-place exception), both winner and loser of the final just are not asked to play any further matches. Neater to say as such.

{{comic
| number = 3262
| date = June 22, 2026
| title = Sports Commentary
| image = sports_commentary_2x.png
| imagesize = 251x374px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = The plural of anecdote may not be data, but the singular of data is anecdote.
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|P-hacking}} is the academically problematic practice of attempting to come up with a question for which the data offers a significant ''p''-value (probability value). This is in contrast to correct scientific analysis, in which a realistic question is formulated clearly and then answered (or shown to be unjustified) with data. There are several issues with ''p''-hacking. One is that that larger data sets usually give more reliable results, so shrinking the data set indicates an effort to justify a conclusion, rather than a desire for accuracy. Another issue that the more different data sets you compare, the greater the odds of one of them showing a false correlation, simply due to statistical noise. An honest researcher would want to avoid such pitfalls, but someone trying to justify a conclusion might not care.

A method of ''p''-hacking involves analyzing subgroups to attempt to find significance when the full dataset does not yield statistically significant results; for instance, if a medical study didn't show an expected correlation, one might look only at data for male patients, and then only at male patients of certain age ranges, and so on, until they found a group that showed the desired correlation. Restricting data is warranted in some situations, but doing it to look for a particular result greatly increases the chances of misinterpreting statistical noise as a real result.

A similar effect is seen with sport commentators, and this is lampooned in the strip. Commentators often try to make predictions about, or talk up the significance of, developing situations by comparing them to past situations, such as previous competitions between the same teams. If commentators are trying to support a pet theory, or simply make a situation sound more interesting than it actually is, however, they may deliberately restrict themselves to situations that ended in a particular way. By narrowing down the historical body with multiple qualifiers, they can justify talking up a particular outcome. (A similar tactic was portrayed in [[2901: Geographic Qualifiers]])

Randall satirizes this with an example in which the restriction uses very specific criteria largely irrelevant to gameplay patterns in order to narrow down the subgroup sample size to a mere two games. The 0-2 record (there were two situations considered as comparable, and neither of them resulted in the result hoped for in this current case) reflects random noise much more than any significant insight. As well as being irrelevant to gameplay, their ''p''-hacking also makes the game sound like jargon, which can be confusing and difficult to understand. This is ironic given a sports commentator's job is supposed to be to explain the situation they are fronting, rather than making them more vague and incomprehensible. However, this may be the inevitable response to being left in front of the camera during breaks in play, or even during periods of gameplay that are nominally unremarkable — feeling the pressure to say ''something'', they will draw upon ever more obscure and irrelevant details to justify their (or their off-screen advisors') efforts and expertise to entertain and inform the viewing public.

The title text references an old saying in statistics: "The plural of anecdote is not data". This saying means a set of anecdotes do not constitute significant data, because anecdotes are heavily subject to selection bias, may be unreliable (as they're often not rigorously recorded or controlled) and usually don't come in large enough numbers to be significant. [[Randall]], however, argues that the reverse ''is'' true. By reducing the body of data to a single point (which is the ultimate extreme of ''p''-hacking), all you are left with is an anecdote, statistically worth nothing. A single statistical datum (the actual singular form of data) often needs a human narrative to provide it with meaning, hence the title text.

{{cot|A breakdown of the commentary's statement}}
The comparison being made is that "Over the last 36 years, they've gone 0 for 2 when they've scored in the 37th minute to lead 2-1 against a team whose country comes before theirs alphabetically." This contains the following basic stipulations:
;"Over the last 36 years, ...": Counting just the full FIFA World Cup competitions, assuming they qualified for every one, the total number of games that an international team will have played, prior to anything in this year's competition, would have been a minimum of twenty seven matches (i.e. playing the first round group-stages, playing once against each of the other three teams in their particular group of four). ''If'' they're ever successful enough in the group stage, they'd then progress through the knockout stages of the competition for as many more matches as they can. This is until they are knocked out due to losing a match, or have participated in the final, but the two losing semi-finalists additionally get to play one more match, against each other, to establish the third-place overall. On top of that, there are the various regional qualifying matches they will usually have had to play to even enter the main competition, plus any other international matches (e.g. '{{w|Exhibition game|friendlies}}' or other region-based inter-nation competitions) that may have been taken part in.
;"... when they've scored in the 37th minute...": A football game has a nominal 90 minutes of game-time, plus possible extra time. No team in the World Cup has scored any more than {{w|Hungary v El Salvador (1982 FIFA World Cup)|ten goals}} in a single game, but it is ''far'' more common for even winning teams to have scored just two or three times per game, statistically, the chances of scoring in any given minute is an insignificant detail. There is also effectively no useful analysis of a goal being in the 37th minute, as opposed to the 36th or 38th, and hardly any even in being between in the larger block between 30 and 40 minutes. The psychology of goal timings usually gravitates towards whether they were in the first or second ''half'' of the event (or, beyond that, in extra time), with most useful attention paid to those that occur right at the start of either half (one team immediately seizing the initiative on the field) or right at the end (when desperation, increased chance-taking or just player exhaustion can lead to much-needed/-feared game-changing goals once any attempt at mutually defensive play breaks down and possible goal-droughts are ended).
;"... to lead 2-1 ...":As an equivalent example, in the 2022 World Cup, 14 group stage games (out of 48) and 9 knockout stage games (out of 16) may have at some point reached a 2-1 scoreline for one or other team, depending upon the order the respective teams' goals occurred, making this a relatively rare situation to be in. For additional context, and most relevant to the full statement, that year's competition also saw just six group games that had scores that ''might'' have had a temporary 2-1 lead for the team that went on to lose, whereas ''no'' team with a 2-1 scoreline in the knockouts did not then go on to win that match.
;"... against a team whose country comes before theirs alphabetically.": In ''every'' international match (and others, excepting perhaps games used to train the team's players against each other), there will inevitably be one national team whose name is alphabetically prior that of their opponents, even if that features very similar names (such as a match between the two Koreas, using the most similar manner of naming, where {{w|North Korea national football team|Korea DPR}} would precede {{w|South Korea national football team|Korea Republic}}) and there would also be no clear reason why a naming issue (alone) would have any significant bearing upon match outcomes.
;"... they've gone 0 for 2 ...": (As the stated past consequence of all these specifically combined conditions.) Just ''two'' occasions satisfied all these conditions, out of possibly many tens of matches, and we are told that neither of them ended in a victory. Not only are the comic's precedents ''very'' rare, compared to all possible games (which, nevertheless seems to be even rarer in real life), but also this mini-'streak' of results is only a matter of history.
{{cob}}

This comic was published 11 days into the {{w|2026 FIFA World Cup}}. The World Cup was also the subject of [[3260: Messi]], published the previous Wednesday. Sports commentary was also the subject of [[904: Sports]].

''P''-hacking has previously been covered in [[882: Significant]], and convoluted precedents have been covered in [[1122: Electoral Precedent]] (where increasingly convoluted situations may have previously been entirely predictive in possibly even several dozen instances... ''until they weren't'').

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and Ponytail are sitting at a table, looking at the wall behind them. On the wall is a screen showing a soccer field with some mostly unreadable score information on the picture's top-left. The only readable information is that the score is 2-1.]
:Cueball: They could be in trouble. Over the last 36 years, they've gone 0 for 2 when they've scored in the 37th minute to lead 2-1 against a team whose country comes before theirs alphabetically.
:[Caption below comic:]
:I wish sports commentators hadn't discovered p-hacking.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Soccer]]
[[Category:Statistics]]

3261: Side Effect

TheusafBOT — Sat, 20 Jun 2026 02:00:45 GMT

BunsenH: redundant with preceding paragraph

{{comic
| number = 3261
| date = June 19, 2026
| title = Side Effect
| image = side_effect_2x.png
| imagesize = 658x247px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Brace yourself--the chirp gets pretty weird.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic takes the concept of medication side-effects ''ad absurdum''. The side effect of sensitivity to sun exposure described by [[Beret Guy]] is [https://www.webmd.com/skin-problems-and-treatments/sun-sensitizing-drugs entirely precedented]; however, heightened sensitivity to {{w|gravitational waves}} is not a known effect.{{Citation needed}} Due to the entirely normal first side effect, [[Ponytail]] initially misses the gravitational wave side effect. She is about to find out what that is about.

Gravitational waves are waves of distortion in spacetime, caused by the relative movement of objects, which travel at the speed of light. When the objects involved are of great mass, such as neutron stars and/or black holes orbiting each other, the waves can be detected by extremely precise instruments (e.g. {{w|interferometers}}) which detect the ever-so-slight stretching and squishing caused to everything in their path. As a side-effect of his medication, Beret Guy exhibits the stretching and squishing of a gravitational wave much more strongly than normal, to the degree that it's visible to the naked eye. Beret Guy's hat also stretches and shrinks, indicating it could be a part of his body, which contradicts the idea from [[291: Dignified|an earlier comic]] that it is stapled to his head. Alternatively, it may be part of the [[:Category:Strange powers of Beret Guy|strange power]] the medicine makes him exhibit.

This is probably the most extreme example to date of Beret Guy's peculiar sensitivity to minuscule external forces. By way of comparison, the most sensitive current ground-based laser interferometer, {{w|LIGO}}, has detection arms which are 4 km in length, and with strong gravitational waves, it experiences changes in the distance between the ends of the arms by at most roughly 10−18 meters, or 1 attometer; for comparison, a proton's diameter is roughly 1700 attometers. The relative change is thus about 2.5 × 10-22. If Beret Guy is experiencing distortions of about a quarter of his height, the relative change is 0.25, larger than LIGO's by a factor of about 1021. However, rather than showing concern for his body rapidly changing shape, he instead enjoys the feeling, saying 'Wheee!' in the last panel. This could just be because his whole body 'rides' his own personal changes in space-time geometry — everything down to his molecular bonds extends and contracts in proportional synchronisation to all parallel bonds. Aside from watching out for non-fluctuating surroundings (like a ceiling suddenly being effectively too low for comfort), the effect applies consistently (unlike in {{w|spaghettification}}, across the gravitational potential from a nearby massive object) his body and all his personally-attuned clothing experiences no great mechanical stress.

Beret Guy's reaction to the gravitational wave seem similar to a surfer (like how he tectonic surfs in [[2987: Tectonic Surfing]], possibly implying that he's a surfer): he says "Here comes one now!", and after it passes him, "''Wheee!''". Since gravitational waves propagate at the speed of light, normal people can't receive any information from them before they actually arrive, so they can't know that one is coming. Beret Guy can, or he may simply be aware of the effect beginning to ramp up, and calls it out before the waves become significant.

The "{{w|chirp mass|chirp}}" described in the title text refers to gravitational waves during the end-stages of the collision of two black holes and/or neutron stars, during which expansion and contraction of the waves sweeps up in frequency to the point where they alternate extremely rapidly. This type of wave is called a 'chirp' in signal analysis. When the gravitational wave is [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWqhUANNFXw represented as sound], it does indeed make a chirping sound. The chirp would also cause Beret Guy's body to change form repeatedly and rapidly. In the final stages of the merger, the colliding stars emit waves whose period is on the order of a couple of milliseconds, so if Beret Guy's sensitivity to the waves remained constant, a human observer would see only a blur. However, in normal Beret Guy fashion, he somewhat smooths over that strange and concerning affect, describing it only as 'pretty weird' in his warning to Ponytail.

==Transcript==
:[Beret Guy is standing to the right of Ponytail.]
:Beret Guy: This new topical medication makes me extra sensitive to sun exposure and gravitational waves.

:[Beret Guy's arms are out.]
:Ponytail: Oh yeah, that's a common ...wait, what was that last part?
:Beret Guy: Here comes one now!

:[Ponytail stands facing Beret Guy, who is stretched out in height.]

:[Ponytail stands facing Beret Guy, who is now shorter and wider than he was originally.]

:[Ponytail stands facing Beret Guy, who is now stretched out in height again as he was in the third panel.]
:Beret Guy: ''WHEEE!''

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Strange powers of Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Medicine]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]

3260: Messi

TheusafBOT — Wed, 17 Jun 2026 16:17:52 GMT

YZ100: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 3260
| date = June 17, 2026
| title = Messi
| image = messi_2x.png
| imagesize = 393x343px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Commentators agree that this will probably be the last World Cup in which Messi faces serious competition.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created in Lionel Messi's 398th goal. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
In the vein of [[605: Extrapolating]], this comic utilizes the incorrect application of extrapolation to produce a ridiculous result. Extrapolation is a form of estimation in which existing data points are used to estimate new data points beyond the range of the existing ones. In this case, [[Randall]] has taken a few data points regarding soccer superstar {{w|Lionel Messi}}'s average goals per game during {{w|FIFA_World_Cup|World Cup}} editions and fit them to a curve using what appears to be polynomial or exponential {{w|extrapolation}}. It illustrates the danger of a small {{w|sample size}}, as the data point for "2026 (so far)" is based on only ''one'' game (the day before this comic, in his inaugural game of the 2026 World Cup, Messi scored three goals against Algeria), and that data point is used to support extrapolation of a rapidly rising number of goals-per-game into the future. The data points for previous World Cups, which bounce around among various values but are all less than or equal to 1.0, are each based on more games, but still pretty small numbers, since Messi made only between three and seven appearances during those World Cups. The results are also likely affected by the nature of the competition's progression, as in the {{w|tournament#group stage|group stage}} a strong team such as Argentina ({{w|FIFA Men's World Ranking|ranked number one}} in the world going into the World Cup) may be expected to score more goals against their randomly-selected opponents (none of whom are in the top 20) than in later stages of the competition where their opponents have overcome other teams in ''their'' groups to be there.

Additionally, the extrapolation pays no attention to the typical career shape of a football player, which would generally tend to show an improvement from youth into their prime playing years, followed by a decline, which can often be quite steep, as they age out. Nor does it allow for variations in the strength of the Argentina team impacting the number of goals Messi is able to score. If the trend shown were extrapolated into the 2050s, it would imply that, far from declining, Messi would be scoring multiple goals per second, which would be impossible in real life,{{Citation needed}} even though Lionel Messi is widely considered one of the best players in football.

The claim in the title text that this World Cup is the last one in which Messi will face serious competition is likely true, but not in the sense that the extrapolation might suggest. That implies that in future World Cups Messi would theoretically score hundreds of goals per game, likely eclipsing any other player's scoring rate. It may even be suggesting that, on his own and regardless of the rest of his team, his ability can triumph over any other national team fielded in the World Cup. In reality, he will likely not face ''any'' competition in future World Cups as this is likely Messi's last World Cup, period.

{| class="wikitable"
|+ 2026 FIFA World Cup
! Game
! Opponent
! Goals by Argentina
! Goals by Messi
! Total by Messi
! Average per game
|-
| 1
| Algeria
| 3
| 3
| 3
| 3
|-
| 2
| Austria
| 2
| 2
| 5
| 2.5
|-
| 3
| Jordan
| 3
| 1
| 6
| 2
|-
| 4
| Cape Verde
| 3
| 1
| 7
| 1.75
|}

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Past FIFA World Cups
! Year
! colspan = 7 | Goals by Messi per game
! Total by Messi
! Average per game
! colspan = 7 | Average progression
|-
| 2006
| X || 1 || 0 || 0 || X || ||
| 1
| 0.33
| X || 1 || 0.5 || 0.33 || X ||
|-
| 2010
| 0 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 0 || ||
| 0
| 0
| 0 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 0 || ||
|-
| 2014
| 1 || 1 || 2 || 0 || 0 || 0* || 0
| 4
| 0.57
| 1 || 1 || 1.33 || 1 || 0.8 || 0.67 || 0.57
|-
| 2018
| 0 || 0 || 1 || 0 || || ||
| 1
| 0.25
| 0 || 0 || 0.33 || 0.25 || || ||
|-
| 2022
| 1 || 1 || 0 || 1 || 1* || 1 || 2*
| 7
| 1
| 1 || 2 || 0.67 || 0.75 || 0.8 || 0.83 || 1
|}
X = did not play 
<nowiki>*</nowiki> Messi scored one (more) goal in the penalty shoot-out.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
:[A graph is shown, with 1 axis having the numbers 1, 2, & 3 going up it, and the other having 24 unlabelled marks. There are 6 points on the graph itself, with them being labelled 2006 (.33), 2010 (0), 2014 (.57), 2018 (.25), 2022 (1), and 2026 (3), the latter having '(so far)' under it. There is a grey dotted curve going up exponentially.]
:[Title of graph]:
:<big>Lionel Messi</big> World Cup goals per game
:[Caption below text:]
:At this rate, by 2040 Lionel Messi will be scoring hundreds of goals per game.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

[[Category:Extrapolation]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Soccer]]
[[Category:Math]]

3259: Tethys

TheusafBOT — Mon, 15 Jun 2026 15:53:05 GMT

RG: removed incomplete notice

{{comic
| number = 3259
| date = June 15, 2026
| title = Tethys
| image = tethys_2x.png
| imagesize = 304x317px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = In order to carry the necessary crafting supplies, they built the ships at 12:1 scale.
}}

==Explanation==

{{w|Tethys (moon)|Tethys}}, the fifth moon of Saturn, has a diameter of 1,060 kilometers, almost exactly 1/12th that of Earth's, which is 12,742 km. This scaling is a {{w|1:12 scale|common one}} used for modelling, perhaps because for users of measurement systems in the "imperial" family (such as US customary units) it is relatively simple to convert all real-life measurements directly from any given number of {{w|Foot (unit)|feet}} in the real life subject to exactly the same number of {{w|inch}}es in the model version. Users of the {{w|metric system}} may prefer a simpler 1:10 or 1:100 scale; but, depending upon what is being modelled and for what intended result, {{w|List of scale model sizes|any scale at all}} may become the desired standard for a particular project.

This comic alludes to a fantastical scenario in which artists who produce miniature scale models of existing structures decide to use Tethys to produce a 1:12 scale model of the Earth. This is a patently absurd undertaking: all the difficulties of {{w|terraforming}}, already a monstrously hard task, would be exacerbated by the need to precisely recreate Earth's features, as well as by some particularly unfavorable traits of the Saturnian system. Tethys's distance from the Sun is too great for Earth's surface conditions to be recreated without artificially increasing insolation, likely through the use of orbital solar mirrors. These would be especially difficult to erect around Saturn, with its {{w|Moons of Saturn|many moons}} (292 at last count) and {{w|Rings of Saturn|ring system}} causing severe gravitational interference. In addition, it would be difficult to get the necessary rockets, as it would be unlikely that any space agency would be willing to aid this thoroughly ridiculous project.{{Citation needed}}

However, there is some good news: Tethys' large native water stores eliminate the need to ship in more, and the nearby moon {{w|Titan (moon)|Titan}}'s atmosphere could be harvested for nitrogen, which is necessary to recreate {{w|Atmosphere of Earth#Composition|Earth's atmospheric composition}}. Being very far away from Earth also means that there is no risk of [[878: Model Rail|nesting]] - having the model include a miniature version of itself, which includes an even more miniature version of itself, which includes....

The description refers to it as model builders' final project, implying that recreating the entire Earth at at 1:12 scale would include a re-creation of every individual detail on Earth and thus contain all possible (terrestrial) 1:12 scale models in one vast miniature set.

The title text says that the ships used in the construction effort are built "at a 12:1 scale" (i.e. 12x larger than normal, however "normal" is defined). If this is with reference to the model they are building, this would mean that they would end up back at 'normal spaceship size'.

==Transcript==
[An image of a planet, presumably Saturn, showing prominent rings as well as three distant moons (one to the apparent right of it, the other two at the left) and one close, large moon. In front of the large moon is a line of spaceships dwindling into the distance toward the moon, or perhaps toward an orbit around it. Each spaceship has prominent rocket nozzles aimed toward the viewer and away from the large moon, as well as what appears to be a pile of material on "top" of the spaceship, with tie-down ropes holding it in place.]

[Caption below the panel:] 
After learning that Tethys is exactly 1/12th the size of Earth, the miniature art model builders launched a fleet of ships to begin their final, greatest project.

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

3258: Plate Flip

TheusafBOT — Sat, 13 Jun 2026 15:31:26 GMT

YZ100: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 3258
| date = June 12, 2026
| title = Plate Flip
| image = plate_flip_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x272px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = It's great for exfoliating your skin, bones, houses, cities, landscape, etc.
}}

==Explanation==
In this comic, [[Ponytail]] resumes her role as a [[:Category:Home Inspections|cosmic home inspector]], in which she appears to compare {{w|tectonic plates}} to {{w|mattress}}es, and recommends flipping them over to address what she considers problematic features. Flipping mattresses every few months was common until the 20th century, to even out the wear and tear, and prevent permanent body impressions. When modern box springs became common, the practice became unnecessary.

{{w|Weathering}} is the deterioration of materials, including rocks and soils, caused by the action of chemical and biological agents, light, temperature changes, etc, which can cause breakdown and/or discolouration. Geologically, this can include the disintegration of rocks into fine particles, or changes in soil structure. In the case of a mattress, it would be staining and thinning of the fabric.

A {{w|debris flow|debris basin}} is an area where loose materials, such as washed out soil or free rocks, tend to collect. On a mattress, a 'debris basin' would likely be mostly filled with a mix of shed human skin and lint loosely bound by excreted oils, with other constituents depending largely on the habits of the occupants.

An {{w|isostatic depression}} is an area of the Earth's crust that has sunk due to some heavy weight, such as an ice sheet, acting on it. If that weight is removed (for example, by the ice melting), the crust will tend to rebound to a higher position. Mattresses can develop areas of 'depression' over time due to people's tendency to always sleep in the same position, repeatedly crushing and straining the materials in the same way. Many modern mattress materials promise to resist this tendency, allowing the mattress to recover ('rebound') between uses.

Flipping mattresses only made sense because on a traditional mattress both sides were similar to each other. The "underside" of a tectonic plate is nothing like the surface. The current side that Cueball and Ponytail are standing on is the outermost layer of the {{w|Earth's crust|crust}}. However, the "underside" of the plate reaches until the solid layer of the {{w|mantle (geology)|mantle}}, whose temperature can reach over 1000 °C. As Cueball points out, if you could flip a continent over, the new surface would be molten rock — not a surface suitable for life. Ponytail thinks the warmth would be soothing, and that walking on it would {{w|exfoliation (cosmetology)|exfoliate}} your feet, but at hundreds of degrees, it would do far more damage than just removing dead skin.{{citation needed}}

Of course, such an idea would be impossible to put into practice. The Earth's crust is far bigger than us, and any plate-moving technologies would need an insane amount of power — much more than we currently know how to harness. As well as that, a location would have to be found for the plate-moving technology where it could apply sufficient leverage without destabilising its own footings. Even by doing one plate at a time, the temperature increase from moving just one plate would be deadly. Furthermore, since our current plates are not regular in shape, a flipped plate does not fit back into the hole it leaves without all the other plates being flipped to form a fully reflected spherical topology (and all but this plate and any antipode also moved, and all but the smallest of them forcibly '{{w|Eye popper|popped}}' from concave to correctly convex). The title text also reveals that somehow the crust is to be moved without moving the numerous things on it, which would further complicate matters.

Even if the immediate calamities from turning the tectonic plates upside down were ignored, the turned plate would be inhospitable to life. There would be no soil, only igneous rock, meaning no ground water could form, resulting in an immense desert. Given enough time, erosion and pioneer species would restore the geosphere. However, this would also cause the "problems" Ponytail is hoping to address to reappear.

The title text expands on this joke, saying that it would "exfoliate" just about everything on the surface (which would somehow have to stay in place while the plate below it is flipped; alternatively, everything is flipped along with the surface and ends up under the crust). If this flip was to somehow happen it would indeed do that, but it would also melt just about everything on the surface, which is less than ideal.

==Transcript==
:[Ponytail is looking at the ground in front of her, a hand on her hip. Cueball stands behind her, to the right.]
:Ponytail: These tectonic plates look pretty eroded. When did you last flip them?
:Cueball: Flip them?

:[Zoom out to see the ground. Ponytail walks forward, motioning at the ground. Cueball spreads his arms behind her.]
:Ponytail: Yeah, to use the underside of the continent.
:Cueball: ...Never?
:Ponytail: Wow. Explains the eons of weathering, debris basins, and ... is this isostatic depression?
:Cueball: It's rebounding!

:[Ponytail stops walking and turns to Cueball.]
:Ponytail: You should really flip it. You'll get a whole new landscape!
:Cueball: But I like '''''this''''' landscape!

:[Ponytail spreads her arms slightly.]
:Ponytail: Just think how warm and fresh the other side will feel.
:Cueball: A sea of molten rock?
:Ponytail: Good for the feet. Helps exfoliate.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Geology]]
[[Category:Home Inspections]]

3257: Beam Pipe

TheusafBOT — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 12:31:17 GMT

YZ100: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 3257
| date = June 10, 2026
| title = Beam Pipe
| image = beam_pipe_2x.png
| imagesize = 309x397px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = 'If you keep trying to spray your collaborators with the beam when they're not looking, I'm turning off the ion source and NO one will get to play with the beam!' --Physics's mom
}}

==Explanation==
When a liquid is flowing within a tube, the pressure at any point is determined by an equilibrium between the supply pressure and the forces that restrict flow, such as friction with the walls and hydrodynamic effects in the liquid. If the tube is short and the outflow opening is large, the pressure within the tube is close to the exterior pressure (air pressure, in the case of a liquid flowing into air). If the outflow opening is negligible, the pressure within the tube is essentially equal to the pressure of the liquid's supply. If the tube is constructed of an elastic material, it will expand until an equilibrium is reached between the internal pressure and the elastic stretch of the tube... unless the pressure is enough to rupture the tube.

In the case of a hose carrying water, if the exit is fully open, the water pressure near the exit will be moderate: greater than atmospheric pressure, but less than the full pressure of the water supply. The more the exit is restricted, such as by part covering it with a thumb, decreasing the water flow, the closer the pressure near the exit will come to the full pressure of the water supply. (In the limiting case where the exit is fully blocked, the hose will essentially be an extension of the plumbing, and its internal pressure will be that of the water supply, as modified by the gravitational effects of raising or lowering the hose, and the weight of the water). If the hose is elastic (e.g. the usual garden-hose reinforced rubber), it's possible to see it stretch as the nozzle is restricted. Covering it with a thumb, while reducing the water flow, allows the water that does come out to do so at relatively high pressure.

As the {{w|Large Hadron Collider}} ("LHC") can be considered a sort of "pipe" (a beam pipe, as pointed out in the comic title), this comic makes the ridiculous assumption that the same logic applies there — that its beam can be concentrated and redirected by partially covering the end of the beam with a thumb. This wouldn't work in real life: water molecules are moving at low speed and thus do not have sufficient energy to overcome the electrostatic repulsion between their electrons and those of the thumb, forcing them to change path. In contrast the kinetic energy of the particles in the LHC (7 TeV, in the case of protons destined for 14-TeV proton-proton collisions) is far far larger than the repulsion of the thumb. Most particles will pass through unaffected, while those hitting thumb nuclei directly will produce a cascade of new particles similar to those the LHC is intended to produce. This procedure would have to be done at one of the LHC's two [https://home.cern/autopsy-lhc-beam-dump/ beam dump sections], where the contents of the beam are allowed to exit into long steel-encased graphite blocks. Over time, those blocks become dangerously radioactive from the impact of the beam particles. There isn't currently any means to bypass these blocks and allow a person to interact with the beam while the LHC is in operation. Although the section of the 'pipe' shown seems to indicate that it is in a section where one or other of the {{w|Compact Muon Solenoid|main detectors}} surrounds the pipe (which, during inoperable periods of construction, modification or other extensive maintenance, might have a part of the adjacent length of pipe withdrawn), this couldn't be done while the system was running. Apart from the basic problem that the system can't work while part of it has been removed, the interior of the LHC must be maintained at an extremely high vacuum while it's running.

While there is no recorded case of a human getting struck by the particle beam at LHC, {{w|Anatoli Bugorski|Anatoli Petrovich Bugorski}} did accidentally hold his head into the proton beam of a 76 GeV (about 180 times less than the energies at the LHC) particle accelerator while trying to repair a faulty part. This had severe but not lethal consequences: the resulting acute radiation sickness caused the affected parts of his face to swell and the skin to flake off, The affected nerves never recovered, leaving the left side of his face paralysed and his left ear deaf. The damage to his brain resulted in several epileptic seizures, but did not affect him otherwise, allowing him to continue his work as a physicist, and at time of publication he was still alive at the age of 82.

Thus, while pointless, holding the thumb into the LHC beam for a short time is unlikely to significantly harm anyone trying it... apart from possibly requiring amputation of the thumb, if there was enough tissue damage or induced radioactivity. At any rate, this wouldn't work in real life: the relativistic particles would not behave as a liquid.

The title text expands the joke, once more treating the LHC as if it were a hosepipe. Applying the effect above to a hosepipe is a common thing for children to do — often to spray family and friends with the pressurized water. This applies the same logic to the LHC, imagining the mother of "physics" (the science, as opposed to a person) telling off their presumably adult child for "spraying their colleagues with the beam" — something very incomprehensible in real life.

A variety of devices are marketed to increase the pressure of water supplied to them. The {{w|pressure washing|pressure washer}} is a common example; it uses electrical power to add force to the output water. It's possible to use force created by flow of part of a fluid stream, which exits the system with low pressure, to increase the pressure in the remainder, in devices such as a {{w|hydraulic ram}}. There are also scams based on devices that supposedly increase the pressure from a water source ''without'' using any externally-provided power and without wasting water, but this is a physical impossibility. The force of the water coming out can't be greater than the force of the water coming in, or a perpetual-motion device could be constructed with the water running in a loop and the added force being tapped to power a generator. At most, the output force will be the same as that of the water supply, in the limiting case of zero flow, less any frictional losses within the device.

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

:[A picture shows a (partly obscured by the panel) particle accelerator (namely this one being the Large Hadron Collider at CERN). Megan is shown on a stepladder, covering the beam pipe with her thumb. Cueball is shown standing behind the ladder, watching.]
:[Caption below the panel:]
:This year's physics Nobel will go to the scientists who figured out that you could make the Large Hadron Collider more powerful by covering part of the beam pipe with your thumb.

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

3256: Nostalgia Content

TheusafBOT — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 12:33:02 GMT

2603:8080:F901:8A9D:4441:4C19:2D91:4F34:

{{comic
| number = 3256
| date = June 8, 2026
| title = Nostalgia Content
| image = nostalgia_content_2x.png
| imagesize = 276x404px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Gen-Z got a chunk of the Carboniferous, and now all their memes are about how pathetic and small today's dragonflies are.
}}

==Explanation==
Nostalgia memes are a common form of internet content referring back time-specific cultural references such as toy fads or media releases. Because people of different ages have different cultural touchpoints, different nostalgia content will resonate with them. In the example in the comic, {{w|Pogs}} (a collectable game that became a fad in the early 1990s) and {{w|Tamagotchi}}s (an electronic pet that came into production in 1996, and previously the subject of [[1546|another comic]]) had their heydays at around the same time, so content including these would both appeal to people who were children around that time.

This comic suggests that this content is controlled by some kind of central database, rather than the memories of random internet posters. Due to an error, this particular grouping now also erroneously contains the {{w|Prototaxites}} and armoured fish ({{w|Placodermi}}) of the {{w|Devonian}} period. The Devonian ended 359 million years ago, long before humans existed, so there is no obvious reason to include them in a nostalgia meme database, since no-one would ever have had the opportunity to be nostalgic about them, and even if anyone had, they would be long dead by now.

Prototaxites (in the original comic, "Parataxites"; see "Trivia", below) were huge fungus-like organisms. Placoderms, which appeared during the {{w|Silurian}} and Devonian periods, were among the first jawed fish, and the first fish clade to have pectoral fins. Devonian placoderms include Dunkleosteus, Titanichthys, Bothriolepis, and Rhamphodopsis. Silurian placoderms include Xiushanosteus, Entelognathus and Qilinyu. There was also Sacabambaspis from the {{w|Ordovician}}, although that was an earlier jawless fish which also had armour.

The title text essentially repeats the joke, with Gen Z getting a chunk of the {{w|Carboniferous}} mixed up in their nostalgia memes. During the Late Carboniferous, {{w|griffinflies}}, such as those placed in the genus {{w|Meganeura}}, were prolific. Meganeura species resembled today's dragonflies, with the notable difference of having wingspans of up to 65 cm long, which would obviously dwarf modern dragonflies. However, this change happened over millions of years (with the even larger {{w|Meganeuropsis}} living about 290 million years ago, which was solidly in the Permian), and in Gen Z's time the dragonflies are as small as ever, hence the ridicule. This may be referencing a particular class of nostalgia meme complaining about how {{w|Wagon_Wheels#Production_and_size|product ''x''}} was bigger back when a particular generation were children. In some cases this reflects a geniune phenomenon due to {{w|shrinkflation}}; in others it is a form of {{w|rosy retrospection}}.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
:[Cueball is standing, with his arms out, in front of a Prototaxite structure towering over a mossy landscape. To his right, a Tamagotchi (bottom-left) and bottle-cap-like Pogs (top-left) appear. The three pogs that can be seen show a skull with a snake through its eyeball, a figure 8 and a star (three more pogs are also shown, but have obscured pictures).]
:Cueball: Who else remembers pogs? Tamagotchis? Vast forests of Prototaxites towering over the mossy landscape as armored fish stir in the deep?
:[Caption below the panel:]
:Due to a database error, millennial nostalgia now includes a portion of the early Devonian.

==Trivia==
Cueball had originally incorrectly refered to the huge fungus-like organisms as "Parataxites", but the text in the comic was later corrected to read Prototaxites. "Parataxites" might be an accidental pun/thinko on {{w|parataxis}}, of which Cueball's speech is an example.

As revealed in the {{w|Prototaxites|Wikipedia article}}, the taxonomy and ecology of Prototaxites remain in dispute. Prototaxites might have been related to fungi, to algae, or to a lineage of eukaryotic organisms that is no longer extant, and its 8-meter length might have been erect ("tree-like") or prostrate on the ground (or in the water).

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Geology]]
[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Time]]
[[Category:Comics to make one feel old]]
[[Category:Comics edited after their publication]]

3255: Planetary Science

TheusafBOT — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 13:08:24 GMT

140.228.247.165: /* Explanation */ Fixed some spelling errors

{{comic
| number = 3255
| date = June 5, 2026
| title = Planetary Science
| image = planetary_science_2x.png
| imagesize = 277x388px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = The research was overseen by the Institutional Review Board, which is what I named my surfboard.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is presented as a scientific article in which astronomers claim to have discovered "evidence for liquid water on the surface of a {{w|terrestrial planet}} in the {{w|habitable zone}}". Finding other planets that have liquid water is a notable result, as water is considered necessary to support life, or at least Earth-like life on sufficiently Earth-like (i.e. terrestrial) planets that allow sufficient liquid water to exist. So a terrestrial planet with liquid water would be far more likely to have some form of recognizable life on it, compared to one that does not, and especially compared to a location that is increasingly unlike even being terrestrial. (Alternative forms of life may exist, with other environmental cues replacing the need for liquid water or even a more general terrestrial nature. But we are somewhat limited to expectations that match more the directly observable nature of life.)

However, the accompanying photos (four people on a beach, two sitting under an umbrella and one making sand castles) suggest that the planet in question is {{w|Earth}}. This would not be considered a noteworthy discovery, since we already know about the existence of life on Earth, and the 'evidence' for the liquid water also evidences (at least in the apparent form of highly conspicuous vacationing visitors) the presence of life, so this article is hardly useful or practical.

There is value in using Earth as an example of a planet in a habitable zone, such as [https://www.nasa.gov/universe/atacama-rover-astrobiology-drilling-studies-arads/ testing life-detection experiments in remote inhospitable environments] or [https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-would-we-know-theres-life-on-earth-this-bold-experiment-found-out/ as a proxy for future astronomical observations], but not in-situ photographic investigation. Maybe the astronomers should have brought their {{w|spectrometer}} on vacation.

An {{w|institutional review board}} is a committee of researchers which ensures that research carried out at their institution is ethical. In the title text, this is claimed to be the literal name of a {{w|surfboard}}, which is a board used for the recreational activity of {{w|surfing}}, and not serious academic activities ([https://www.cornwall.ac.uk/courses/fdsc-surf-science-degree/ mostly]). Presumably, one of the researchers has been using their research time to take a surfing holiday, and is trying to justify it by misleadingly claiming that the Institutional Review Board was involved. 'The Institutional Review Board' is a very strange name for a surfboard, and the only purpose for calling it this would seem to be for this (somewhat bad) excuse.

The comic may also be a reference to the Movie/Book "Project Hail Mary" by Andy Weir (The former releasing a few months before the comics release). In it, the protagonist (a microbiologist by the name of Ryland Grace), releases a paper refuting the idea that water is necessary for life, and in it, calls people names and gives the section titles (by standards of scientific papers) some vulgar words. Which is of course not taken to kindly by his peers as it's not standard practice to call someone an idiot in a scientific paper.{{Citation needed}}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
:[An article from a journal is shown.]
:[Title of journal article:] Evidence for Liquid Water on the Surface of a Terrestrial Planet in the Habitable Zone
:[Below the title are four lines of blurred text presumably representing the name of the author or authors and their affiliations. Below that, the text of the article is blurred, displayed in two columns. There are three sections of blurred text each with a blurred boldface heading. Two pictures are included amid the blurred text. The picture in the left column shows the sea running alongside a beach. The picture in the right column shows Jill and Kidball playing at the beach, with Jill running and Kidball building a sandcastle, while Cueball and Megan are sitting under a beach umbrella watching them.]
:[Caption below the article:]
:Planetary science journals have asked astronomers to please stop submitting their vacation photos.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring children]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Kidball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Jill]]
[[Category:Scientific research]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]

3254: Detector

TheusafBOT — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 21:10:52 GMT

2001:9B1:40D0:C300:ECAC:7605:3D4E:4570: Category: Comics with color

{{comic
| number = 3254
| date = June 3, 2026
| title = Detector
| image = detector_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x272px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = No other experiment has a lower false negative rate.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Ponytail]] and [[Hairy]] are showing [[Cueball]] various (out-of-frame) detectors in this room, which include an {{w|electron microscope}} (which showers a target with electrons and images their reflections), an XRF scanner (i.e. "{{w|X-ray fluorescence}}", which hits a target with high-energy X-rays and measures the spectrum of the fluorescence they emit) and a {{w|mass spectrometer}} (which measures the mass-to-charge ratio of ions to determine the proportions of particular isotopes present in a sample).

The sensitivity of a detector can vary. [[3249: Neutrino Project|Neutrino detectors]] try to detect neutrinos, but neutrinos are very hard to measure so can only give data for a very low number of the actual neutrinos that could possibly have been measured. Devices being more sensitive means that they can detect (and perhaps quantify) far lower quantities/magnitudes of the targeted phenomena, and/or more of those that might otherwise have been missed.

For the device seen in the comic, however, "more sensitive" seems to mean that it is sensitive to more ''different'' things. To quote Ponytail, it detects "gas, dust, particles, light, radio waves, gamma rays, protons, neutrons, electrons, fields, forces, events, potentials, or states", which runs almost the entire gamut of things that ''might'' be detectable, and leaves little room for there being any situation in which none of the aforementioned items are there to be detected. Some or all of the wide range of the detectable things are also going to be present in detectable quantities in practically ''any'' location that they might feasibly be monitoring. If it is monitoring the immediate area, the constituent particles of the machine itself would be present for detection, and exist in "states" and have "potentials" relative to each other, assuming that the machine is sensitive enough (in the traditional sense) to detect them.

Normally, detectors have a designated detecting job, such as the aforementioned off-panel devices which can provide complex imagery or a profile of a sample's composition. For example, smoke detectors merely detect the presence or absence of smoke (usually as a safety device, rather than a piece of scientific equipment), and only need to alert the user if there is smoke identified. Detecting multiple things is likely to be problematic, as it will become difficult to know ''which'' of the things has been detected. In this case, where it is essentially detecting everything, it renders the detector pretty much useless.

It might have some use if it was capable of discerning nuances (such as relative quantities, differing proportions or even which detectable thing is the most significant presence in any given set of measurements), but its output boils down to merely whether it has (or has not) detected ''something'' from its extensive list of detectables. By any reasonable assumption, this would mean that it is only ever going to need to indicate that it has "Detected" things, leaving the possibility of displaying that it has "Not Detected" things as a redundant function.

Cueball points this out, and Hairy admits that it ''has'' been continuously lit this way ever since they turned it on. Ponytail's shock at the idea of the light labeled "Not Detected" shining, and Hairy's assessment that that would be 'pretty bad' reflect the fact that if there would no matter, light, forces, etc. within the detector's established range of detection the universe would probably have changed in some radically fundamental way that could have serious consequences for humanity. (They seem not to consider the possibility of the detector not working properly — the contextual reactions of those most familiar with it seem to show a faith that the detector is still likely to be faithfully summarising the true status.)

One possible scenario that might cause a "Not Detected" result could be a {{w|false vacuum}} decay event which, depending on the particular details of the true vacuum, could alter or overwrite the fundamental laws of physics as we know them. This would indeed be "bad" for, among other things, the persistence of life on Earth. However, in such a scenario the detector itself would presumably also be rendered at least inoperable, and possibly non-existent, with a similar fate befalling any observer who might have been around to witness the changing output.

There might still be an unavoidably built-in uncertainty. [[1132: Frequentists vs. Bayesians]] was a previous comic featuring a more specific detector that tells whether the Sun has gone nova (also a very bad scenario, even if less cosmically extreme), but incorporates some risk of conveying an inaccurate output (again, the people familiar with this device do not seem to feel the need to consider it as potentially inaccurate). If the characters are lying (or were themselves lied to) it may not even be a real detector, but just a machine with continuous power, on the basis that atoms would normally be found in and around the detector as well as light (e.g. from the indicator light itself), {{w|Fundamental interaction|force potentials}}, etc.

While the detector presented here is obviously facetious, the comic does allude to a real problem: detectors looking for very rare events (e.g. {{w|neutrinoless double beta decay}}) have to be extremely sensitive to detect their target events. Consequently, they may also be triggered by many other things, requiring extensive shielding (e.g. built underground in abandoned mine shafts) to provide any useful data.

The title text states that the machine has a lower {{w|false negative}} rate than any other detector device. If it never has stated a negative (i.e. explicit non-detection, being a different scenario from a power-outage or indicator failure that just causes the "Detected" light to stop being lit), then it can never have been ''wrong'' about it being negative. It's also possible that the "Not Detected" light is just set up ''never'' to be lit, [[2236: Is it Christmas?|playing the odds]].

It is not made clear to us what circumstances would legitimately result in a negative state being indicated. Nor, apart from the concerned expectations of Hairy and Ponytail, whether the detector will then necessarily correctly state that. It might still fail to properly respond to the new situation, just continuing to provide an incorrect indication that all is 'normal' (on the assumption that the device both still exists ''and'' functions, under such extraordinary circumstances), and result in a {{w|false positive}} instead. For many possible reasons, the chances and consequences of any displayed false positive may bear no relation to that of a false negative (i.e. the "Not Detected" light could always be 100% accurate (leading to Hairy's "bad" scenario), yet any given cessation of detections often fails to stop "Detected" from being indicated (being just as "bad" but, as the icing on an already possibly unpalatable cake, also with the detector being functionally wrong)).

==Transcript==
:[Hairy is standing to the right of a large machine labeled "Detector". The front of the machine has two lights, labeled "Detected" and "Not detected". The "detected" light is lit up in green. Ponytail and Cueball walk towards the machine from the left.]
:Ponytail: Over there are our electron microscope, XRF scanner, and mass spectrometer.
:Ponytail: And this is our most sensitive detector.
:Cueball: What does it detect?

:[The next panel zooms in on the detector. Ponytail's voice comes from the left of the panel.]
:Ponytail (off-panel): Lots of stuff.
:Ponytail (off-panel): Gas, dust, particles, light, radio waves, gamma rays, protons, neutrons, electrons, fields, forces, events, potentials, or states.

:[The next panel zooms out. Cueball and Ponytail are standing to the left of the machine, and Hairy on the right.]
:Cueball: I don't understand. Aren't most of those ''always'' present?
:Hairy: Yeah, it's been saying "detected" continuously since we turned it on.

:[Cueball and Ponytail still standing to the left of the machine, and Hairy on the right. Ponytail has her hand on her chin.]
:Cueball: What happens if it says "not detected"?
:Ponytail: Oh gosh.
:Hairy: That would be pretty bad, I think.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Statistics]]

3253: Sunbeam

TheusafBOT — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 15:23:41 GMT

Chronotix: /* Transcript */

{{comic
| number = 3253
| date = June 1, 2026
| title = Sunbeam
| image = sunbeam_2x.png
| imagesize = 398x347px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = While weather control is typically thought of as a superpower, the unconscious ability of astronomers and astrophotographers to summon clouds is more properly classified as a curse.
}}

==Explanation==

{{w|Astrophotography}} is the act of taking pictures of very distant objects. Common subjects of astrophotography include celestial bodies like planets and moons of the solar system, faraway galaxies, nebulae, spacecraft, or even {{w|Hubble Deep Field|empty patches of the sky}}.

In order to take such photos, one needs to know where these objects are in the sky. One major problem faced by Earth-based astrophotographers (most of them) is the fact that the Earth rotates.{{Citation needed}} As the Earth rotates, it creates the illusion that the celestial objects being photographed are rotating through the night sky. In order to get clear pictures of their subjects, astrophotographers must develop a strong understanding of how objects like a galaxy or the Sun move through the sky, so that their cameras can compensate for this rotation and produce clear pictures.

This understanding of how objects move through the sky due to the Earth's rotation is the minor superpower referred to in the comic. As the Sun is an example of an object in the sky, the intuition of astrophotographers allows them to predict where the Sun will be in the future, and by extension, where the light flooding in through the window will be in the future. With this knowledge, [[Cueball]], who presumably has this minor superpower, can advise his friends to sit at the far table to avoid the light from the window hitting them. Though extra light may sometimes be considered desirable, in this case such direct sunlight would probably be considered problematic as there may be excessive heat and/or light. By contrast, the table currently beyond the beams of sunlight would be a perfectly acceptable place to sit and would remain so. There is a chance however that it doesn't actually matter in this scenario which table to sit at, and Cueball is just saying it to show off his ability.

This comic probably takes place in the Northern Hemisphere, more specifically being north of the Sun's current ground-track (i.e. the line through the tropics which experience the Sun being directly overhead on any given day of the year, which changes over the course of the year, due to the axial tilt of the Earth). In both hemispheres, the Sun can be found rising in the east in the morning, at its highest at around midday (exactly at true local midday, but must be adjusted for timezone issues such as the [[1799: Bad Map Projection: Time Zones|offset from the nominal local datum]] and [[:Category:Daylight saving time|DST]] effects), then setting in the west in the evening (at least until you get close enough to the poles to experience no, or barely any, day or night according to the time of year). Therefore, in the subtropical and temperate latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere, a shadow (and, by being framed by shadows, the light flooding in through windows) typically moves in a clockwise direction, from westerly, then north, then easterly. Similarly, shadows in the Southern Hemisphere move counter-clockwise, from a western direction, via south, eventually towards east. The light from the window in the comic is predicted to move from the center to the left, a clockwise rotation, consistent with the comic being set in the Northern Hemisphere, especially as this comic has been released almost in the middle of the time of the year where this scenario happens only to places north of the equator.

(The declinated angle of the Sun through the window is hard to measure, and without even knowing the time of day we cannot hope to further narrow down the true latitude of the location and which direction the window faces. It is typical that, in temperate northern latitudes, major windows like the one shown are set to face as close to south as the orientation of buildings/rooms allow, to make the best use of daylight, particularly in the winter months. It is also not an unreasonable assumption that this meeting (or perhaps meal) is occurring not long before/after noon, or even during it, with the Sun then approaching its zenith. Overall, it would be possible to see something very like this scene play out for [[Randall]] in his current home location, of around 42°N, at this time of year.)

The title text talks about another minor "superpower" that astrophotographers have, which makes clouds always seem to show up in front of the night sky. This "ability" is really just an example of {{w|Murphy's Law}}: astrophotographers may feel that clouds always appear when they do because they interfere with their work by ruining their photos, making their presence more noticeable than their absence. This unhelpful effect is why it is claimed that this is more accurately considered {{tvtropes|BlessedWithSuck|a curse}}. If it were a conscious ability it could sometimes be helpful, by giving them the power to move clouds in front of the Sun to provide shade.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball, Megan, and White Hat stand in a large, relatively dim room, presumably a restaurant, with two tables and a large window. The window has 4 panels and an integrated semi-circular 'fanlight' top-section, which together cast a large window-shaped sunbeam between the two tables.]
:Cueball: Let's take the far table.
:Cueball: The closer one will be in the sun soon.
:[Caption below the panel:]
:Astrophotography gives you exactly one extremely minor superpower.
{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Photography]]

3252: Ancestral Genomes

TheusafBOT — Fri, 29 May 2026 17:44:41 GMT

RG: It is I, the vanquisher of Incomplete notices for after their 1-2 weeks of being funny. Unless it's you know, incomplete.

{{comic
| number = 3252
| date = May 29, 2026
| title = Ancestral Genomes
| image = ancestral_genomes_2x.png
| imagesize = 299x416px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH: No further research is needed as it is frankly none of our business.
}}

==Explanation==
A {{w|genotype}} is the complete genetic makeup of an individual(i.e. all of its genes). In humans, genotypes are almost always inherited from an individual’s parents; the two parents’ genotypes combine during sexual reproduction to form the genotype of the child. {{w|mutation|Mutations}} do occur, where parts of the DNA change randomly in a way that gives rise to a new genotype, and [https://www.cbc.ca/radio/quirks/october-21-2017-1.4363723/how-many-mutant-genes-does-a-person-have-1.4363741 each human has about 60 such mutations, on average,] out of about 20,000 genes. However, most mutations are "silent", not causing any visible changes. Depending on the behavior of the mutation and if it occurs to any gamete cells or those that produce them, it may spread throughout a population, or disappear again, or end up only being present in a certain fraction of the population. Either way, when studying a genotype, it is ''exceedingly rare'' to not arise through sexual intercourse, and impossible to spread throughout the population without it. As modern-day genetics researchers, [[Megan]] and [[Cueball]] should definitely know this.

Currently in the United States, topics around sex are at least partially considered taboo. This taboo most strictly covers depictions of sex and nudity in media, which are usually the domain of pornography and less mainstream art forms (e.g. nude photography). Megan defending them as not being “weirdos” suggests that she does not want to break the taboo. In academia, such topics are generally part of regular scientific discussion, including depictions and descriptions that would be considered offensive in other circumstances (for example, Wikimedia Commons contains many depictions of sexual intercourse for scientific and educational purposes). While some researchers, like the ones depicted in the comic, might be offended by such “lewd” content, most would have no problem with it as long as it furthers the research on the topic at hand. Real-world biologists or geneticists would most likely not be offended by these issues, as sexual reproduction is a common, or even predominant, topic in both fields. Furthermore, the obscenity of the topic (genetic distributions affected by sexual reproduction) is very low in comparison to fields that deal with intercourse directly. This view seems to be shared by the off-screen commenter in the comic.

What is more problematic, and also addressed by the researcher’s comments, is the privacy of the individuals in the population under examination. Using such data, it might be possible to figure out who had intercourse with whom, possibly reducing the timeframe to within less than a year, based on the offspring’s age. However, since the analysis depicted likely takes place over many generations within a population, and is done on historical data, it is likely that the vast majority of the people whose genomes were analyzed are no longer alive. This is supported by the description of the population as “ancestral”. Beyond a certain point, even private data pertaining to deceased people is no longer considered sensitive, as it becomes the subject of history. The only problematic part is the ancestral information for living individuals, which is indeed worthy of protection—but not for the reasons given.

The title text is a reference to [[2268: Further Research is Needed]]. This one is based on the fact that most scientific papers contain a section suggesting future research avenues. This is done in the hope that other researchers will pick up where the authors have left off, or to announce the author’s own intentions for follow-up work (though a cynical mind might interpret it as a play for additional funding for the authors). By contrast, here Megan and Cueball are both averse to the idea of future research, because of the qualms they have expressed about decency, which is ironic given the reason for the section.

Genetics and sex have also appeared in [[830: Genetic Analysis]]. Presenting outlandish or plain bad/incorrect research has been a common topic, such as in [[3129: Archaeology Research]] and [[3000: Experimental Astrophysics]].

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and Megan are shown, with Megan using a pointer stick to point at a diagram on a poster. The diagram features tree/root structure with a single node at the top end, branching solid lines leading to more nodes across several levels in most cases, but with at least one node that does not propogate this way and some dotted lines linking down from some branches into other ones. The increasingly branching lower tracks becoming so dense that it almost looks like dark triangles at the bottom of the diagram's last obvious bifurcations. Small and unreadable labels/symbols feature next to most linking lines, and more extensive (but still totally unreadable) information is placed below each of the lowermost 'triangular' terminating clumps.]
:Megan: Our admixture analysis showed that these genotypes arose in the ancestral population almost entirely through sexual intercourse.
:Megan: Upon realizing this, we of course promptly deleted all our data.
:Off-screen voice: What? Why??
:Megan: We're not '''''weirdos!'''''
:Megan: Jeez, give these people some privacy!

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Sex]]

3251: Time Machine Conversation

TheusafBOT — Wed, 27 May 2026 21:06:49 GMT

82.13.184.33: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 3251
| date = May 27, 2026
| title = Time Machine Conversation
| image = time_machine_conversation_2x.png
| imagesize = 691x344px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = It's possible to do sea navigation without a compass, but you'll have to get some spoilers from the Polynesians.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] has used a time machine to travel to the {{w|Iron Age}} and has a conversation with an ancient-times version of [[Hairbun]] (who seems to be a farmer, since she's holding a pretty modern-looking {{w|Hoe (tool)|hoe}} and seems to be particularly knowledgable of the 'latest' {{w|plow}} developments). However, he is very surprised to find that she does not know about the {{w|compass}} (a very common tool in the present day). The magnetic compass was first invented in China around 200 BCE, well after the end of the Iron Age, and it wasn't used for navigation until the 11th century AD. For an Iron Age farmer the concept of a 'weird rock that always points north', as Cueball puts it, would seem quite ridiculous, and the inherent dangers of sea travel might well seem to be insurmountable ones. The subject of how many things that today are seen as perfectly normal and standard could seem very strange to those who lived before they were created has been [[3199|covered]] [[2809|before]] in xkcd.

Cueball inadvertently starts explaining compasses and then worries about the impact his words might have. According to common {{tvtropes|TimeTravel|time travel tropes}}, this interaction might cause a chain of events that will lead to {{w|grandfather paradox|Cueball not existing}}, or {{tvtropes|butterflyofdoom|worse}}, which would create a paradox (if it isn't already already a different kind of paradox through being {{w|Novikov self-consistency principle|a pre-existing component of Cueball's original timeline}}). However, rather than the potential radical impact he might have on history by introducing this concept earlier than should have happened, he appears to be concerned that he may have given her a {{w|Spoiler (media)|spoiler}} for upcoming history[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eg4mcdhIsvU]. Presumably he feels he has deprived her (or humankind more generally) of the joy that would have come with its eventual discovery.

He is then also concerned that he has managed to 'spoilerise' the concept of 'the spoiler'. The modern meaning of "spoiler" didn't arise until the 1970s, which post-date the Iron Age.{{Citation needed}} Spoiler warnings became common on {{w|Usenet newsgroup}}s in the late 1980s. Cueball may have created a temporal paradox by introducing the concept thousands of years earlier, although any such 'change' made to that time might easily have been forgotten again in the two or three thousand years since this encounter. In any event, while telling people thousands of years ago that there was a way to make a compass might have changed history significantly, telling them that there are stories that they would enjoy less if they knew the ending before hearing the story seems less likely to have made a significant impact. It's also likely that, even if the term 'spoiler' was adopted by these Iron Age people, it would long have fallen out of use by the time it came to be invented in the late twentieth century.

The title text has Cueball about to unleash another 'spoiler' regarding how to navigate without a compass, but he stops himself before saying it. However, he does still end up accidentally revealing that {{w|Polynesians}} know about it, though whether this was another unintentional slip or a deliberate clue left for Hairbun is unclear. It is thought that so-called '{{w|Polynesian navigation}}' used other methods of marine navigation ({{w|celestial navigation}}, observation of birds, ocean swells, and wind patterns). As the Polynesians lived in the Pacific, which would probably be unknown to Hairbun and difficult to reach from her location, the clue is likely to be of little use. It is unclear where Hairbun is, but it is likely that she is in {{w|Europe}} or the area around the {{w|Arabian Peninsula}}, where the term 'Iron Age' is most relevant, and which are quite far from the Pacific. Revealing the existence of the Pacific and its inhabitants to her may cause its own disruptions to history, though. Cueball also seems to have forgotten the possibility of chatting to the Vikings, who may have used polarized crystals to be able to navigate during overcast days when the Sun wasn't visible, although there is little evidence for this being done during the Iron Age.

Whether or not this was an intentional connection, the stars known by some as "{{w|the Plough}}" (''Ursa Major'', perhaps more popularly known as "the Big Dipper" in the US) are also useful in finding the northern {{w|pole star}} (not the same star then as now but still in the same constellation), hence potentially linking both of the farmer's initial remarks.

The comic is based on shaky ground, as it's not clear how they're able to communicate so easily, unless it's {{tvtropes|TranslatorMicrobes|part of the function}} of the time-travel technology. While humans did have language for thousands of years by this time, it would be very far removed from modern English, yet somehow they understand each other's speech. It also appears that the ''very existence of time travel'' is not considered a spoiler for an Iron Age person, or even in any way remarkable to them — this might imply that the farmer is already very well aware of such phenomena (or even that Cueball {{tvtropes|TimeTravelTenseTrouble|will later have already}} visited the same society/farmer at an earlier date), which may be one way to explain apparently fluent conversational American English being spoken.

Time travel is a [[:Category:Time travel|recurring theme]] on xkcd.

==Transcript==

:[Cueball is on the left with a ghostly halo around him. Hairbun is on the right, holding a hoe vertically.]
:Cueball: Oh hi! Guess my time machine works. How's life in the Iron Age?
:Hairbun: Not bad. Developing new kinds of plows.
:Cueball: Cool.
:Hairbun: And my brother was just lost at sea.

:[Only Cueball is shown, with Hairbun out of the panel.]
:Cueball: I'm sorry.
:Hairbun [from outside the right side]: It's OK. I think sea navigation is probably impossible.

:[Cueball and Hairbun are both shown again.]
:Cueball: Oh yeah, you don't have the compass, right?
:Hairbun: The what?
:Cueball: The weird rock that always points north?
:Hairbun: What are you '''talking''' about?

:[Cueball and Hairbun are both shown. Cueball holds his hand to his chin.]
:Cueball: It '''does''' sound ridiculous when I say it out loud. Anyway, spoilers for the magnetic compass. Sorry.
:Hairbun: What's a spoiler?
:Cueball: ...Spoilers for the concept of a spoiler, too.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairbun]]
[[Category:Time travel]]

3250: Flag Design

TheusafBOT — Mon, 25 May 2026 21:57:43 GMT

RG: removed incomplete notice

{{comic
| number = 3250
| date = May 25, 2026
| title = Flag Design
| image = flag_design_2x.png
| imagesize = 678x428px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Every place has a local cryptid; more places need a local Pictish Beast, a creature in historical art that's drawn so weirdly that no one can tell what animal it's supposed to be.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is a parody of normal flag designs, but with comically exaggerated features to the point of ridicule. For example, animals and stars are common features on flags. However normal flags are mostly flat rectangles (except for the {{w|flag of Nepal}}), and lack interactive elements like buttons.{{Citation needed}} It is designed similarly to the [[xkcd Phone]] series, with a number of improbable, labeled features making the flag resemble a combination of a graphic arts doodle, financial instrument, paper flyer, and webpage. The caption of "I think our flag design committee really knocked it out of the park" references the common problem of {{w|design by committee}}, where a design made without a unifying vision, but rather many compromises between competing visions, results in overcomplexity, banality and internal contradictions, all of which are present on this flag.

The title text references the animal on the flag, with [[Randall]] expressing his opinion that more places should use hard-to-distinguish representations of animals, like on this flag. A {{w|cryptid}} is an animal, such as the {{w|Loch Ness Monster}}, whose existence is disputed or unproven by science. As Randall notes, {{w|List_of_cryptids#List|many places have a local cryptid}}, and he appears to think this renders them less interesting than ''real'' animals that cannot be unambiguously identified from their cultural representations. One such example is the {{w|Pictish Beast}}, an unidentified animal depicted in many stone carvings across Scotland.

A number of real flags feature simplified versions of themselves in their design, such as the flags of the {{w|Flag of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan|Islamic Republic of Afghanistan}}, {{w|Flag of Bolivia|Bolivia}}, {{w|Flag of Costa Rica|Costa Rica}}, the {{w|Flag of the Dominican Republic|Dominican Republic}}, {{w|Flag of Ecuador|Ecuador}}, {{w|Flag of El Salvador|El Salvador}}, {{w|Flag of Haiti|Haiti}} and {{w|Flag of Venezuela|Venezuela}}.

Daft and improbable flags have also been the subject of [[1815: Flag]] and [[2528: Flag Map Sabotage]].

=== Flag features ===

{| class="wikitable"
|+ From the top, going clockwise
|-
! Feature !! Description !! What this has to do with flags
|-
| A rough drawing of an unusual, and possible chimeric, creature in grey. || In the title text, Randall relates it to the {{w|Pictish Beast}}, an animal that appears frequently in the {{w|early medieval}} culture of the {{w|Picts}} of Scotland, and which has provoked much debate about what animal it is meant to represent. Randall has flipped this around, taking an animal whose identity is disputed and incorporating it into a cultural artefact in an attempt to get assistance with identifying it.
Another possible candidate for the creature is the {{w|Questing Beast}}, which has some versions of its legendary description that could relate to the drawn form of the flag's representation.
| Several flags, and even more so many coats of arms, have animals on them, often one native to, or heraldically representative of, the polity the flag belongs to. Some are quite abstract, making it difficult for the uninformed to identify the original animal (though not so much so as in this flag).
|-
| National flag || Incorporating a flag into another flag is not uncommon, such as with the {{w|Union Jack#Use in other flags|Union Jack}} found in the flags of many current and former British colonies and territories, or with national flags being included in naval ensigns, but a flag that includes a smaller version of itself as a detail is a novelty. Typically, such inclusions are to indicate a link to the entity whose flag is included, but in this case it would be self-referential and meaningless. This could also cause an issue by leading to a {{w|Droste effect|recursive loop}} of nested flags, similar to in [[878: Model Rail]], but thankfully this feature is omitted in the smaller, included flag.|| Occasionally flags do include miniaturized representations of themselves, often through including a coat of arms that itself includes the flag, such as the {{w|flag of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan}} in use from 2013 to 2021. That flag, like this one, simplifies the nested design enough to avoid further recursion.
|-
| Island (not a specific island, just a tribute to islands in general) || A map showing an island and two small islets. || Elements on flags often have hidden meanings that aren't obvious at first glance, such as a hidden map of the country on it. This is an example of an element with a near-complete lack of meaning whatsoever: an outline of an island that doesn't refer to a specific island. It is also one of the many random and strange tributes on this flag. The {{w|flag of Cyprus}} contains an outline of the island of Cyprus, and the {{w|flag of Tuvalu}} contains stars symbolizing the islands of that country.
|-
| Tap here to pay taxes || This is the icon often used on payment cards to indicate the availability of contactless payment. Besides the inherent ridiculousness of adding such a feature to a flag, flags are generally flown very high so that they can easily be seen, making RFID-activated features, which typically require relatively close proximity, difficult to use. || This may be riffing on the {{w|flag of South Korea}}, which includes four trigrams which could (if you squint) be considered to look somewhat like this logo.
|-
| Tribute to topology || {{w|Topology}} is the study of the underlying geometric form of things. Most flags have a very simple topology, being a single sheet of material. A strip along the edge of this flag appears to have been separated and twisted by one half-turn to turn the flag into a {{w|Möbius strip}}. This would be difficult to do in real life without disconnecting and gluing, sewing or otherwise affixing parts of the flag together. || A few flags are known among {{w|vexillologists}} for having {{w|List of flags with reverses that differ from the obverse|different front and back sides}}. Talking about the "front and back sides" of a Möbius strip flag is conceptually difficult. Also many flags include notable {{w|topography|topo''graphic''}} features, such as mountains, rivers, etc., and Randall may have deliberately confused the two terms.
|-
| GDPR consent || GDPR refers to the European Union's {{w|General Data Protection Regulation}}, a law about privacy of personal information that seems mostly to result in websites displaying complicated (and iffy) methods of disabling unwanted data-gathering if you do not just 'accept everything'. The flag apparently includes similar buttons for the 'user' to interact with, which implies the flag somehow collects data about people who view (or touch) it. This may be related to the "Tap here to pay taxes" feature. Of note is the "customize" option, implying that the flag can somehow present a range of data processing options for the 'user' to select from, albeit that this particular 'button' appears to be shown as disabled and thus unavailable. (Some real-world versions of such accept/customise dialogues do at first present inactive configuration/rejection choices, to try to nudge visitors into accepting the default "Accept All", but will activate all the options either after a short time or after scrolling the nagging popover, to at least ''technically'' comply with the rules that forced them to offer this choice, without making it easier to reject them all than they have to.) The technology or design features it uses to do this are unknown.
Alternatively, this flag could be designed to be embedded as a display on some form of console, where this and the "Tap here to pay taxes" features would make some sense, and the version on the physical flag could end up being purely cosmetic, like the power level and other status bar information includeed on a prior [[Flag]] design.
| The possibility that merely looking at a flag would commit you to some sharing of personal data is a troublesome concept (even more so than with webpages, where it is already a known, but seemingly inevitable, issue). The apparent provision of the ability to customize this would ''seem'' to be better than given no option, but it may well be impossible or impractical to do so.
Raw text is also rare, [https://www.countryflags.com/tags/text/ but not unknown], in national flags, and in those cases is still intended to represent the respective nation's identity and not serve as a non-flaglike function, like this element or the citizenship one.
|-
| Interested in citizenship? Take one! || This is a rather unorthodox method of gaining new citizens, which mimics a form of advertising that typically provides contact details on each strip and allows people to take them away and contact the advertiser at their own convenience with an expression of interest. This has the same accessibility problems as the previous two interactive features, in that it would be difficult to reach the strips to tear them off when the flag is flown high. Additionally flags are generally designed to be hard to tear. The design of the flag within the flag implies that the strips that have been torn off are part of the flag design rather than due to use. This may be an intentional attempt to create {{w|artificial demand}} by falsifying {{w|social proof}}: making it look like citizenship is in demand and thereby making it more desirable. Alternatively, the central flag may automatically update to reflect the removed strips, using the same unknown fabric-screen technology as the GDPR interface. || There are some flags (such as {{w|flag of the Republic of Venice|that of the Republic of Venice}}) which have a fringed design similar to this. However, none have pull-off strips!

The {{w|United States Flag Code}} forbids flying a tattered US flag. This is in stark contrast with the design here, where the flag might get more and more 'tattered' with time by design.
|-
| Rounded corners || Rounded corners are a way to display {{w|graphical widget}}s in computer interfaces for purely aesthetic reasons (as progressively happened to the [https://cdn.geekzone.co.nz/images/blog/startevolution.JPG Start Button] from Windows XP to 7). It isn't unlikely that this flag-feature is being used to parody the trend of making virtual objects (often inherently rectangular) look more like smooth-edged physical objects. Could be a reference to how many everyday objects have rounded corners to reduce risk of injury or make them more pleasant to use, although this is a moot point with flags since they are generally constructed using cloth that are based upon perpendicular warp and weft and are edge cut (then edge-seamed) in line with the respective thread-directions. Molded, cast or otherwise machined physical objects with rounded corners may be more durable, as stresses no longer concentrate at sharp corners, nor are those corners the natural first points of any impact, although whether this logic applies to a flag highly depends upon whether the halyard is attached to the flag via a heading or by sewn-in grommets (which is usually accounted for by further stitching used at and around the hoist-side's attachment points), as well as how well the fabric used tolerates non-square cutting.
|| Unusual, but nothing particularly out of the ordinary, as some flags do have {{w|List of non-rectangular flags|unorthodox shapes}}.
|-
| EURion anti-counterfeit mark || The "{{w|EURion constellation}}" is a pattern of symbols used as an anti-counterfeiting measure often incorporated in design of a number of secure documents, such as banknotes, checks, and ownership title certificates. Flags are not secure documents and therefore do not require anti-counterfeiting measures. || The purpose of flags is to be seen, and it is usually desirable for them to be easy to replicate - quite unlike this flag! Artistically enough, the anti-counterfeit marks increase the difficulty of copying it.
|-
| Jaunty angle || Implies that the flag is NOT being viewed at an angle, but rather that it is, in fact, a slanted parallelogram in shape (or would be, if not for the rounded corners, moebius band feature and removed strips). This could have some unintended consequences when flown on a pole, although, as a flag is rarely seen perfectly straight (under the varying effects of wind and/or gravity, when raised on a flagpole), this might not be particularly noticeable. || {{w|Flag of Nepal|Nepal's flag}} is notable for being the only non-rectangular national flag. A slightly off-rectangular flag makes things awkward for people drawing or otherwise trying to represent it and, as with the rounded corners, may present construction challenges with some fabrics, without having any particular meaning beyond its 'jauntiness'.
|-
| Tan and white stars on a beige field || Creates obfuscation through very dull colors with bad color contrast, which would be hard to distinguish from far off, defying the point of a flag as an easy-to-recognize symbol of something. This may be a deliberate attempt to avoid offending anyone by inadvertently including colors that have some political or otherwise contested connotation. || Most flags have bold, contrasting colors for easy visibility and replicability.
In traditional heraldic use, there were two categories of "{{w|Tincture (heraldry)|tinctures}}" — namely "metals" (yellow/gold and white/silver) and "colors" (red, blue, green and black, plus "stains", which are treated as colors). Any of these could be used to colour any feature at all, but with the {{w|Rule of tincture|supposed convention}} that metal could not be 'next to' (or overlaid upon) a different metal, nor would there be color-color contrasts. This restriction would usually be officially averted by inlaying a border of the opposite type between two similar ones (or handwaving through it being a {{w|division of the field}}).

This already not-so-strict convention is not necessarily so conspicuously applied to flags themselves, although white (as 'silver') and yellow (as 'gold') is often seen to separate two 'non-metal' colors (see the flags of {{w|Flag of Great Britain|Great Britain}}, {{w|Flag of Belgium|Belgium}} and {{w|Flag of South Africa|South Africa}}; and even only ''slightly'' averted in the {{w|Flag of Brazil}}). {{w|Flag of Vatican City|Even}} {{w|Flag of Bhutan|when}} {{w|Flag of Papua New Guinea|seemingly}} {{w|Flag of Mozambique|outright}} {{w|Flag of Portugal|broken}}, distinctively different hues (or at least intensities) between adjacent regions are usually desirable.

Here, the transitions between the white stars onto the beige ('very light brown') field, from which also arise tan ('almost as light brown') stars, represents such slightness of contrast (especially compared to the (black-bordered) gray motifs, pure black feature-lines/writing and the fully saturated edges of the chromaticity hue-gradient diagram) that it is barely noticeable and does not serve the usual purposes of identifiability and easy recognition which a flag should normally strive towards.
|-
| CIE 1931 chromaticity diagram, to ensure flag color fidelity || A {{w|CIE 1931 color space}} diagram defines the relationship between the visible light spectrum and human color vision. This is probably included as a reference to help address color issues arising from reproducing the flag in a given medium. However, given that all the other items on the flag are tan, white, beige, black or grey, it's unclear how much of a difference this could possibly make.

It may also be referencing the {{w|rainbow flag}} or its many variants known as {{w|pride flag}}s. The original concept was to convey diversity by featuring many stripes of different colors, the most common variant having six of them. However, this version attracted some criticism as suggesting there are only six identities. This sparked creation of many multi-colored pride flags to more thoroughly convey diversity. Including every possible visible color takes this concept to the extreme.
|| Most flags have only a few colors (though less so now that printing is common). Gradients are rare, as they are difficult to replicate, and are often not considered to look good on a flag, especially when flying, rather than represented digitally.

Many flags were traditionally described in written and spoken form, and only acquired exact legal or conventional decisions on the exact colors used for print and screen display in the last 30 years, so would not need to ensure colour fidelity. Including this feature would make such a written description more difficult for this flag.
|}

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

:[A flag with many things on it.]
:[From left to right, top to bottom, in order labels:]
:[Label:] CIE 1931 Chromaticity Diagram, to ensure flag color fidelity [Icon]
:
:[Label:] We can't agree what animal this is, so we put it on our flag to spark national debate [Icon:] A stylised and basically-drawn outline of a quarupedal creature of some sort; appearing to have a reptilian-like head, a possible hairy back, a tail that that may be feathered and its four otherwise featureless 'legs' being akin to a plesiosaur's flippers.
:
:[Label:] National flag [Icon:] A miniature version of the flag, however it is missing a miniature version of itself.
:
:[Label:] Island (not a specific island, just a tribute to islands in general) [Icon:] A nondescript island shaped blob.
:
:[Label:] Tap here to pay taxes [Icon:] 4 sequential curves, a shape commonly used on NFC scanners to read a credit or debit card to encat payment.
:
:[Label:] Tan and white stars on beige field [Icon:] 32 stars in a rectangle surrounding all the previously mentioned icons, save for the tax payment NFC scanner.
:
:[Label:] Jaunty angle [Icon] Instead of an icon on the flag, the label notes the fact that the flag's left edge is not at a 90 degree angle with the top and bottom edges.
:
:[Label:] Tribute to topology [Icon:] Instead of an icon on the flag, the label notes the fact that the right edge of the flag is separated from the rest of the flag in the middle and twisted one half turn to make the flag into a Möbius strip.
:
:[Label:] Eurion anti-counterfeit mark [Icon:] A set of EURion dots, in the shape of the constellation Orion, commonly used on currency to prevent the use of printers to copy and mass produce counterfeit money.
:
:[Label:] Rounded corners [Icon:] Instead of an icon on the flag, the label notes the fact that the flags corners are rounded.
:
:[Label:] Interested in citizenship? Take one! [Icon:] Instead of a icon on the flag, the label notes the fact that one who wishes to sign up for citizenship of this fictional nation, can tear off a strip and contact the person on it, referencing posters one can find around a residential areas in a similar format. There were originally 14 strips with illegible printing on them, that looks like it might include a phone number with an area code in parentheses; the fourth, ninth, tenth and thirteenth strips, however, have been torn away; while still completely present, the eighth stops short and omits some of the otherwise presumed identical text/telephone number.
:
:[Label:] GDPR consent [Icon:] A menu saying "you have a choice in how we manage your data" with hypothetically intractable buttons saying "ACCEPT" and "CUSTOMIZE" reminiscent of similar menus that appear when you visit a website for the first time, or after you clear your cache.
:
:[Caption below flag:]
:I think our flag design committee really knocked it out of the park.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

[[Category:Graphic designers]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Flags]]

3249: Neutrino Project

TheusafBOT — Fri, 22 May 2026 18:56:15 GMT

BunsenH: /* Transcript */ capitalization

{{comic
| number = 3249
| date = May 22, 2026
| title = Neutrino Project
| image = neutrino_project_2x.png
| imagesize = 324x471px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = We definitely put the pool in a mine for shielding. It was absolutely not to hide it from the funding people.
}}

==Explanation==

A {{w|neutrino}} is a type of subatomic particle that interacts extremely rarely with matter. In nearly all cases, neutrinos pass through objects, regardless of density or composition, with no effects whatsoever unless there are {{What If|73|a lot of them}}. For instance, about [https://icecube.wisc.edu/news/press-releases/2017/11/first-look-at-how-earth-stops-high-energy-neutrinos-in-their-tracks/ 100 trillion neutrinos pass through your body every second] to no noticeable effect.

However, there is a very small chance that a neutrino will collide with any material, including water, which has the advantage of being transparent to the light that occurs due to {{w|photon}}s being produced by that interaction. Neutrinos can thus be detected by constructing a large pool of water, shielded from as many other particles and radiations as possible, and carefully monitoring it for the small flashes of light that occur when a neutrino does interact with one of the many water molecules within the pool. {{w|Photomultiplier tubes}} are used to assist in detecting these very faint and infrequent flashes and reveal the possible nature (and direction) of the interactions that caused them.

The comic jokes that these detectors were not constructed with this purpose in mind. Instead, [[Cueball]] and [[Ponytail]], the organizers of this project, obtained funding for a "neutrino project" and then embezzled these funds for a {{w|Party#Pool_party|pool party}}, likely primarily to buy the large swimming pool seen in the panel. Supposedly, they only then realize that the pool could be repurposed as an actual neutrino detector. It is unclear what they had claimed to be building with the funding they somehow obtained. Given that they didn't know how a neutrino detector worked, it may be that the money was to find out how to build the detector, though such preliminary research would probably be far less expensive than the actual construction, and the budget wouldn't make sense. Through their own curiosity, they have then inadvertently ended up still somehow achieving their job!

It is unclear how large the pool in the comic really is. The {{w|Super-Kamiokande}} detector in Japan, one of the world’s largest and most well-known neutrino detectors, holds over 50,000 tons of water. This is approximately 20 times the water capacity of {{w|Olympic-size swimming pool}}s. The only statement made about the water capacity in the swimming pool is "huge", which is not a precise measurement of volume or mass{{Citation needed}}. The pool appears to be between 10 and 20 meters in diameter. While the surface of the pool seems to be at most half as large as that of an Olympic-sized pool, its depth could be approximately the same, since it seems to safely allow jumps from an approximately 1 m high platform. A regular pool of this appearance would be expected to hold less water than an Olympic-sized one, and certainly much less than would be required for an effective neutrino detector. Since the bottom of the pool is not visible, the physicists ''might'' just have built a pool with an appropriate volume by making it extremely deep. Assuming a diameter of 20 m and therefore a surface area of approximately 314 m2, the pool would need to be approximately 159 m deep. Constructing such a pool would be difficult, thanks to the large depth. It's more likely that the pool simply isn't circular with such a small diameter. The small size of the pool may not necessarily be a problem in the context of the cartoon: the final report to the funding agency would simply conclude "Would work, but we need a larger pool for the next one."

The title text elaborates on why the pool was suitable for a neutrino detector. In real life, these detectors must be heavily shielded from all other particle interactions that might drown out neutrino interactions. This generally requires them to be deep underground (like {{w|Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment|this}} and {{w|Sudbury Neutrino Observatory|this}} and {{w|Super-Kamiokande|this}}), so a surface-level pool would obviously be unsuitable for that purpose. Randall implies that the pool was built in a deep mine in order to prevent it from being noticed by the people responsible for funding the project, due to them having misused the funding money. This could fulfill the shielding requirement, but is a humorously excessive strategy for hiding a swimming pool from a small group of people.

==Transcript==
:[There is a large pool with a curved edge at the bottom of the panel, with a diving board and several stickfigures in and around it. Ponytail and Cueball are talking in the pool; two characters with relatively indistinct hair are in the water either side of them, passing a beachball between themselves; an exuberant Cueball has somersaulted off the diving board in a 'cannonball'-like jump; another Ponytail and Danish are walking together along the outside of the pool, the former with a cocktail glass in her hand.]

: Ponytail in pool: How much trouble do you think we'll be in when they find out we used the grant money to throw a huge pool party instead?
: Cueball: We could argue that we '''''did''''' build a neutrino detector.
: Cueball: There's a lot of water here. A solar neutrino will probably interact with it at '''''some''''' point.
: Ponytail: ...Wait. Actually, if we got some photomultiplier tubes...

:[Caption below comic:]
:How the neutrino detector was invented

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

3248: 182.8 Meters

TheusafBOT — Thu, 21 May 2026 04:00:09 GMT

GSLikesCats307:

{{comic
| number = 3248
| date = May 20, 2026
| title = 182.8 Meters
| image = 182_8_meters_2x.png
| imagesize = 265x345px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = They rounded down to 182.8 instead of rounding up to 182.9 because 182.9 might make the statement incorrect.
}}

==Explanation==
This is a comic in the [[:Category:My Hobby|My Hobby]] series — the hobby here being reverse-engineering original units from oddly specific measurements in another unit. Unlike many of the My Hobby comics, where [[Cueball]]'s hobby is something eccentric, prankish, or [[53|dangerous]], in this situation he uses his hobby simply to understand the origin of someone else's unusual phrasing. Also unlike most other My Hobby comics, this is one that people actually do in real life, being the first "My Hobby" comic since [[Hyphen]] to feature a hobby that real people have.{{cn}}

When presenting measurements where perfect accuracy is not required, such as in casual conversation or when giving simple presentations to the public, speakers will often use approximations, such as {{w|rounding}} to the nearest whole number, or the nearest ten, or using only the most {{w|significant figures|significant digit}}. When translating these approximations into other measurement systems, however, people will often treat them as precise, and use the standard conversion formulae to get an exact value. This leads to examples of {{w|false precision}}, where the presentation of a measurement implies more information than is actually contained in it. In this case, a {{w|fathom}} is a unit of measurement used to measure how deep water is. One fathom is equal to six feet, or 1.8288 metres. The depth of the bay has been measured as being greater than 100 fathoms, and someone has converted that (via the value 182.88) to 182.8 meters.

In most cases, 182.88 would round to 182.9. As the title text explains, in this case they rounded down in order to prevent a possibly incorrect statement. This is a comical attempt at mitigating the false precision; it retains the overly-precise 2.8 from the conversion, that the initial statement (of unknown {{w|Accuracy and precision|precision ''or'' accuracy}}, having just one obviously significant figure) was probably too approximate to imply. It suggests that they were worried that the maximum depth may be between 182.88 meters and 182.9 meters — a margin of just 2 centimeters, which is beyond the accuracy or precision with which anyone is likely to be measuring such things. Moreover, in most areas of seawater it would be within the daily variance due to {{w|tide|tidal activity}} (requiring reference to a specific choice of {{w|chart datum|tidal datum}}), and the {{w|seabed}} is typically a dynamic environment in which the depth profile could be changing by this much over very short periods through the redistribution of sediment from both tides and weather-induced events. A more reasonable attempt to translate 'the bay is more than 100 fathoms deep' might be "the bay is more than 180 meters deep"; this stays close to the initial measurement while rounding to the nearest ten, to convey that the measure is approximate.

Assuming that the original "100 fathoms" was itself a rounding of the measurement (or even just a vague 'best estimate') to ''the nearest ten'' (i.e. above 95 fathoms but no higher than 105 fathoms), the precisely converted limits would have been 18.288 meters apart, which might have been better converted to a ±10 meter 'tolerance'; slightly more 'flexible' than the original assumption, but at no risk of being incorrectly exact about an inherently inexact fact. Although even that may be wrong, if the rounding to 100 was instead to the nearest twenty or even ''one hundred'' fathoms. The value could have been rounded to just a single figure of accuracy, and without further information it is impossible to rule that out; it was in order to avoid this very misunderstanding that {{w|Mount Everest#19th century|one of the first accurate measurements of Mount Everest}} was subtly adjusted to ''not'' appear to be an approximate value. It is also possible that this was not a rounding at all, but that 100 fathoms was simply the limit of the available measuring equipment, and that it exceeded that by some unknown amount.

False precision may also sometimes be used in product labelling to present things as "more than a" precise number, to make the product sound more enticing, cheap or worthwhile (for example, saying "now with more than 28.4% more water", when the product only has 28.5% more water). That also relates to the confusion between "five times more than" and "five times as much as", which some people use synonymously, creating a potential off-by-one error.

Randall has previously used conversion between measurement systems as main subject of his comics, including using the [[2585: Rounding|overly exact conversion]] [[3065: Square Units|and re-rounding]] of values, which also involved fathoms to achieve an unfathomable result.

==Transcript==
:[Hairbun stands at a podium to the left, gesturing toward a sign, with an oval (likely representing the bay) and some illegible text on it. Four visitors stand nearby observing: Ponytail, Cueball, Megan, and White Hat (in that order). Cueball has a thought bubble.]

:Hairbun: In some places, the bay is more than 182.8 meters deep.
:Cueball: (thinking) '''"''More than''"?''' Why would they use that for such a precise...
:Cueball: (thinking) ...Aha! 100 fathoms!

:[Caption below the panel:]
:My Hobby: Reverse-engineering original units

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

3247: Particle Census

TheusafBOT — Mon, 18 May 2026 18:54:40 GMT

YZ100: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 3247
| date = May 18, 2026
| title = Particle Census
| image = particle_census_2x.png
| imagesize = 651x272px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Remember, your answers to the physics census are confidential; we will not be issuing Pauli exclusion principle citations.
}}

==Explanation==

This comic references the {{w|Heisenberg uncertainty principle}} of quantum mechanics. Put simply, this states that there's a limit to how precisely we can know both the position and momentum of a particle — the more precisely we know one, the less we know the other. [[Megan]] says that 'physicists' are taking a {{w|census}} of the positions of all particles in the universe, so they'll be known precisely; therefore, all their momenta will be unknowable. By the time we use the census results, we won't know where any of the particles are — we'll just know where they were at the instant their positions were recorded by the census.

In the United States, the constitution mandates that a population census of people living in all the states be taken every ten years. This is primarily for the purpose of apportioning representatives to Congress, but it has come to be used for many other demographic purposes. There's no law (human or physical) requiring a decennial physics census; if physicists want to do this, it's their own decision.

[https://www.quora.com/How-many-particles-are-there-in-the-universe There are estimated] to be approximately 1080 protons, neutrons, neutrinos and electrons in the observable universe, which would make even the task of simply enumerating them difficult. Proton and neutron 'particles' are in turn composed of three quarks (numbers of which which also form other so-called-particles/hadrons), which may easily multiply the number of separately surveyable particles. If photons are to be included in the census, that increases the number of particles to about 1089... with a further problem that detecting them would involve processes that generate more photons than are being surveyed. If dark matter is to be included, we don't even know what it ''is'', let alone have a method of detecting and recording its particles (if any). We don't know the size of the universe as a whole, and many physicists theorise it is infinite, in which case, covering all the particles in that would be an infinite task. If any meaningful and usable information about each particle is to be recorded, storing that information would require many particles for each particle in the universe, which would be a logical contradiction unless all of the extra particles were coming from some other space (such as an alternate universe).

Many particles, even within the observable universe, are at vast distances from Earth, where they will be difficult to detect. Some particles, particularly neutrinos, are extremely difficult to detect at all, because of their limited interaction with other forms of matter. Simultaneity is impossible, because of relativity, so it would be meaningless to try to catalog them at a specific time. Furthermore, some of those particles will be in the equipment used to measure, and the people doing the measuring, which will further complicate matters.

In the third panel, someone speaks up and is worried about what will happen to particles during the potential “disruption”. Randomly taking someone’s particles and relocating them would be considered unpleasant,{{Citation needed}} even if you ''could'' tell them where the particles are going, which you can't in this instance.

If all particles' locations were determined (as exactly as possible) it would have to be done using very high energy particles (which would, themselves, have to have their locations determined), leaving all the measured particles moving very fast (less than the speed of light, of course, but close to it), destroying everything and everyone. Given that, the concern voiced is very fair, but unnecessary, as it would not be possible to perform the task that Megan claims will happen.

The apparent need to conduct a thorough particle census, and the (perhaps legitimate) worry about the disruption that is caused bears some resemblence to the impact of an audit (either regularly scheduled or possibly imposed to answer some questions about the target of the audit). While there may be legitimate business/regulatory need to uncover the exact nature of the audit's focus, those people who are still trying to work within the auditable environment may (even if they have nothing personal to hide from it) find the involvement of the auditing team to be disruptive and interfering with their expected workflow (such as key documents being unavailable, as they are being scrutinised by the auditors and unavailable to be suitably updated with work currently in progress, without sparking off further auditing actions in response). In some cases, an 'audit' can even be threatened as a response to some nominal non-compliance with (perhaps unreasonable) demands, the implication being that all normally filed documents are heavy-handedly gone through leaving the target of the audit with an actual mess, the object not necessarily to discover desired information but to cause trouble and inconvenience to those that don't provide satisfactory complience to prior 'requests'. In the comic's instance, it is seemingly more a regular chore than an ''ad hoc'' pressure technique, but at least some of those who are more subject to the audit than they are net beneficiaries of its outcome seem to know that they will be significantly inconvenienced by it.

The title text refers to the {{w|Pauli exclusion principle}}, which states that no two {{w|fermions}} — types of particles that include all ordinary matter — can occupy the same quantum state. As the data recorded by the census is confidential, physics officials will not use it to determine whether to issue citations for particles that violate the exclusion principle. This confuses physical laws, which describe how the universe works and by their nature cannot be violated, with societal laws, which declare what is allowed or required by the government.

==Transcript==
:[Megan is standing behind a lectern, addressing an unseen audience.]
:Megan: Remember, Tuesday is the decennial particle census.
:Megan: Physicists will be recording the location of all particles in the universe.

:[Zoom out to show Megan is on a podium behind the lectern. She holds one hand, palm up, out towards the still unseen audience]
:Megan: Of course, this will cause their momenta to become indeterminite, so please plan for some disruption.

:[The same scene with Megan's hands held down. A voice comes from off-panel at the left through a star burst at the edge of the panel.]
:Audience member [off-panel]: Wait, disruption? Where will my particles go?
:Megan: No one can say, but you'll know ''exactly'' where they were.

==Trivia==
*When this comic was uploaded the normal sized image [https://web.archive.org/web/20260518185623/https://xkcd.com/3247/ was incorrectly 2x size]. It kept showing up at 2x size on [[unixkcd]] for awhile.
*"Indeterminate" is spelled "indeterminite" in the second panel text.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Public speaking]]

3246: Speedrun

TheusafBOT — Sat, 16 May 2026 01:00:20 GMT

BunsenH: /* Explanation */ capitalization

{{comic
| number = 3246
| date = May 15, 2026
| title = Speedrun
| image = speedrun_2x.png
| imagesize = 288x343px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Usain Bolt holds the world record in the 100 meter speedrun.
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Speedrunning}} is the sport of completing a {{w|video game}} or a goal within a game (for example, completing the main story) as fast as possible. [https://www.speedrun.com/ Speedrun.com], is a popular leaderboard aggregator for speedrunners.

Apparently, [[Cueball]]'s world-record setting attempt at some achievement was deleted from Speedrun.com because of the music he was listening to at the time. [[Megan]] makes the natural assumption that this was because the submission violated copyright on the music in question. It is common for video streamers to include a music 'bed', which can cause copyright issues if they have not taken care that their selections are cleared for use in this way. However, it turns out that his attempt was removed for being 'tool-assisted'. This is a pun on the word 'tool'.

A {{w|tool-assisted speedrun}} (or TAS for short) is a type of speedrun where supplementary tools are used to manipulate inputs frame-by-frame to perfect a run. Such tools are mostly used for experimenting with new strategies or finding areas where a time can be optimized, but it is possible to cheat a run by passing off a tool-assisted run as a normal speedrun.

''{{w|Lateralus}}'' and ''{{w|Ænima}}'' are albums by the band {{w|Tool (band)|Tool}} (who would be considered 'third-party' if they had no direct relationship to the game). Cueball is apparently considered to have got "assistance" from listening to Tool. In real life, a speedrun would be unlikely to be removed based on the music one is listening to while completing it. It could, though, be thought of as a concentration aid, or similar to using a {{w|metronome}}, which could be a [https://www.reddit.com/r/speedrun/s/ODqJcAWcKg controversial topic] if the game one is playing requires some sort of rhythm or precision where it would be useful.

The comic may be referencing {{w|Alex Honnold}}’s ascent of the {{w|Taipei 101}} tower, during which he listened to Tool. The comic was posted exactly 25 years after the ''Lateralus'' album was released.

The title text is another pun, this time on the word "speedrun". {{w|Usain Bolt}}'s world record-setting 100-meter dash record is a "speedrun" in the sense that it is literally a speedy run, and also an attempt by someone to complete a task as fast as possible. It is very common for internet personalities to say they are 'speedrunning' when they are doing a task quickly, even when completely unrelated to gaming (e.g. [https://www.youtube.com/shorts/sqjRfF2cYoE speedrunning petting a cat]). The notion of such a record being classified as a legitimate speedrun isn't farfetched as Speedrun.com has some leaderboards for [https://www.speedrun.com/series/IRL In Real Life] records. The use of "speedrun" to refer to an actual fast run may be considered to be a case of [[3123: Canon]].

In road races like {{w|marathon}}s, wearing technical devices is severely limited. For example, according to Book C2.1 rule 6.3.2 of [https://worldathletics.org/about-iaaf/documents/book-of-rules Book of Rules of World Athletics] they are not allowed to transmit any data. Under rule 6.3.2 CD, radio and similar devices are not allowed, so it would be very hard to find device which is allowed for speedrunning a marathon while listening to Lateralus and/or Ænima as many devices that are able to play audio would probably have functions similar to CD and/or radio, and even if they don't have those functions, in serious competitions, athletes are checked for wearing earphones or headphones (though amateurs get some leeway and can even carry their mobile phones). Also even if it was allowed athletes wouldn't want to carry any additional weight to be able to listen to music, as even [https://www.aol.com/sports/super-shoes-sebastian-sawe-redefined-145653498.html reducing weight of shoes] can significantly improve your time, so any audio play back device would add weight which pro athletes would want to avoid.

It is possible that speedrunning was on [[Randall]]'s mind due to the recent social media trend of {{w|Scientology speedrunning}}, in which someone attempts to get as deep as they can into a building belonging to the {{w|Church of Scientology}} before being kicked out. In addition, a marathon race was recently {{w|Marathon#World records and_world's best|completed in under two hours}} for the first time (in competition conditions), and {{w|Beijing_E-Town_Half-Marathon#2026_results|robotic competitors}} also beat an established human half-marathon world record (ironically, the best fully autonomous robots being slower than the one being partially human-assisted).

Randall has referred to bizarre speedruns before in [[744: Walkthrough]] and [[3148: 100% All Achievements]]

==Transcript==

:[Cueball is sitting at a desk with a laptop, typing on it. Megan is standing behind him.]
:Cueball: Aw man, Speedrun.com removed my world record just because I listened to Lateralus and Ænima to get in the flow.
:Megan: Oh, a copyright thing?
:Cueball: No, they don't allow Tool-assisted speedruns.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Video games]]
[[Category:Music]]
[[Category:Puns]]

3245: Results Age

TheusafBOT — Wed, 13 May 2026 18:36:04 GMT

RG: removed incomplete notice

{{comic
| number = 3245
| date = May 13, 2026
| title = Results Age
| image = results_age_2x.png
| imagesize = 478x669px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Please, we need your help. Our research suggests you're the last living descendant of the person who knew how to format this config file.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic shows how likely it is that a bug reported will be fixed, based on the age of some past post that matches your search for details of the problem.

A table is shown below of the explanations of each table row:
{| class="wikitable"
!Age of post !! What it means !! Probability of a fix !! Full Explanation
|-
|2 hours ago || There's an infrastructure outage || '''Very High''' - Just wait ||The recentness of the information implies that it has just happened, and other people have noticed it and started to post about the issue. Large-scale problems like a service outage are obvious priorities, and will (hopefully!) be fixed quickly.
|-
|5 days ago || A recent update just broke something big || '''High''', but you might have to wait for a patch || Similar to before, a large breakage would be very high priority to be fixed. However, as it's been five days since reporting it, the bug is likely taking a while to be found, so - as pointed out in the comic - you could have to wait a bit longer for this one to be resolved, and wait a bit for the patch when it comes.
|-
|3 months ago || A new product isn't working for some users || '''Decent chance''' of a solution in the replies || This problem is clearly not considered a priority for a fix by the creators, judging by how long it's been there. It possibly isn't an issue affecting everyone, or even a large proportion of users. However, people are innovative, and someone may well have found their own fix, patch or kludge to get around the product limitations.
|-
|2 years ago || You've run into an edge case || '''Low''', but the replies could help with troubleshooting || An {{w|edge case}} is an unusual set of circumstances in which a system is asked to operate. These can cause an otherwise well-functioning system to behave in unexpected and unpredictable ways. Because such cases will occur very rarely, they may not have been foreseen or tested by the developers, or they may have considered it not worth the effort to cater for them. Very few people will suffer from this precise problem, which may mean that it's not considered worth the effort to apply a fix. The developers or other users may have encountered similar issues on this or similar software, and noting how they solved or worked around ''those'' problems might lead you towards how to address your own.
|-
|13 years ago || You're the only one with this problem || '''Very Low''' - post is likely not relevant|| A post of this age likely predates the software you're using, or at least the current version of it. It's probably a coincidental match to your search query, and doesn't actually relate to the problem you've encountered. Since no-one else has posted about this issue or anything similar within a recent timeframe, it's likely that you're the first person (or at least, one of very few people) to have ever come across it.
|-
|24 years ago || Oh god how is the Internet this old || Maybe whoever posted the message has kids who can help you || This is another comic where Randall [[:Category:Comics to make one feel old|makes people feel old]], in this case by pointing out that {{w|the Internet}} is quite old. The children of the people who posted these comments are now likely to be around the same age the original posters were when they posted them (and may now be posting themselves). It is also (presumably) rare enough to be a [[979: Wisdom of the Ancients|DenverCoder9 situation]], and 13 years is longer than the time in that comic, so 13 years might be such a situation too. It is possible that Randall could be referencing this comic, as the thread that DenverCoder9 posted on was last posted to in 2003, 23 years before this comic's publication. If DenverCoder9 posted to the thread in 2002 and the thread happened to continue into 2003, then it would perfectly match the age.
The Internet is, in fact, significantly over forty years old, based upon original infrastructure and methods that were set up for perhaps up to two more decades previous to that. The World Wide Web (to many, synonymous with the Internet) hails from the early 1990s, and Google (one of the more commonly used search engines, through which this error search might have been made) was launched in the late 1990s, so are still practically older than this notional post. The biggest surprise might be that some information published on a webpage in 2002 (and still relevant to your search) survives on some still live web server (or as an archive/{{w|Mirror site|mirror}} of that original information on some archival/successor site). For example, any topical write-up of a then extant case of this issue, if documented upon web pages originally hosted by {{w|GeoCities}}, would have otherwise been made permanently inaccessible by the end of 2014.
|}

The title text appears to be a conversation taking place in a distant future with the descendant of an ancient internet post. The 'last living descendant' is a common trope in fiction where arcane knowledge is passed down through a family line (often on the previous generation's deathbed). The suggestion is that the solution to the user's issue is a closely guarded secret that has had to be kept safe in this way. However, it is unclear why it is that a bug fix would be guarded, given you usually want to fix bugs quickly, rather than hide them. Possibly though this bug was discovered in some kind of [[:Category:Singularity|Robot Apocalypse]] situation, and this bug was the only thing stopping them gaining total control. Strange robot apocalypses are [[:Category:Singularity|recurring theme on xkcd]].

==Transcript==

:[Large heading, centered.]
:Implications of the age of the posts you see when you Google an error message

:[A search engine prompt field is shown, containing part of an error code message (beginning with E-21, and what looks like a 9 and 3 next to it). Below this are search results shown as obscured text, except for a the phrase '3 years ago' in the first heading. This is expanded into an ellipse that obscures the rest of the search field.]
:[A table, with 3 columns, labelled "Age of post", "What it means", and "Probability of a fix"]

:[Row 1: Age of post:] 2 hours ago
:[What it means:] There's an infrastructure outage
:[Probability of a fix:] Very high -- just wait

:[Row 2: Age of post:] 5 days ago
:[What it means:] A recent update broke something big
:[Probability of a fix:] High, but you might have to wait for a patch

:[Row 3: Age of post:] 3 months ago
:[What it means:] A new product isn't working for some users
:[Probability of a fix:] Decent chance of a solution in the replies

:[Row 4: Age of post:] 2 years ago
:[What it means:] You've run into an edge case
:[Probability of a fix:] Low, but maybe the replies can help with troubleshooting

:[Row 5: Age of post:] 13 years ago
:[What it means:] You're the only person with this problem
:[Probability of a fix:] Very low -- post is likely not relevant

:[Row 6: Age of post:] 24 years ago
:[What it means:] Oh God how is the Internet this old
:[Probability of a fix:] Maybe whoever posted this message has kids who can help you

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

[[Category:Comics to make one feel old]]
[[Category:Computers]]
[[Category:Internet]]
</noinclude>

3244: Pullback Drive

TheusafBOT — Tue, 12 May 2026 09:00:28 GMT

174.53.211.85: /* Explanation */ "ally" -> "allay"

{{comic
| number = 3244
| date = May 11, 2026
| title = Pullback Drive
| image = pullback_drive_2x.png
| imagesize = 303x292px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = "How does the spring not run out almost immediately?" "We pull it back REALLY far."
}}

==Explanation==
[[File:Darda Buggy Teile.jpg|thumb|right|A pullback mechanism (bottom-right) is a very simple engine for a vehicle to have.]]
This comic is a reference to toy cars with {{w|pullback motor}}s. Normally used for small toy cars, a spring motor stores potential energy when the car is pulled (or pushed) backwards, and the potential energy is suddenly released as kinetic energy when the car is released.

The most simple version of pull-back car, with its wheels linked directly to its spring by nothing more than a simple gear train, will only go as far forward as it is drawn backwards in the first place, even assuming no slippage or frictional losses. It's functionally similar to the classic home-made [https://teachbesideme.com/spool-racers-homemade-wind-up-toy/ "spool racer"] toy. More complicated versions can use a change in effective gearing (through the use of a 'flappy' gear that meshes differently depending upon the relative direction of movement of the cogs it is meshed with) between 'charging' the spring by back-pulling, and then letting it 'expend' in the forward direction. This can allow it to store a lot of torque from a little pre-pulled distance and then expend it to give far more effective speed/distance to the very light toy. Through a free-wheel gearing at the end of its 'powered' phase, the car may run on 'unpowered' for a significant further distance. However, since there is a finite amount of energy that can be stored in the spring, they may hit a hard limit where the spring cannot be wound any further, or commonly a slip-gear will simply click as the mechanism no longer tries to convert pull-back movement into sprung potential (letting the child know that their toy is at maximum readiness).

In this comic, [[Hairy]] suggests a full-scale version of a pullback car. Making this type of energy store work on the scale of a full-size car would be extremely impractical, due to the {{w|Energy density#In material deformation|low power}} and the requirement to pull it back far enough to then go anywhere meaningful, even assuming a multiplying effect on forward travel compared to the initial backwards travel, as well as difficulty making sharp turns until enough energy has been expended to cause the car to slow down sufficiently. Such a car would also have the significant disadvantage of not being able to provide a reverse gear.

Hairy tries to sell the car by saying that [[Cueball]] won't need to worry about gas or electricity prices. This is [[technically]] true, but cars that run on petroleum or electricity have the advantage of their energy supply being refillable, while this pullback car seemingly does not (without another factory-style 'pull back' facility). The worries about electricity and gas prices may be a reference to the closure of the {{w|Strait of Hormuz}} due to the {{w|2026 Iran war}}. The strait was a very common waterway used for the international trade of natural gas and petroleum from the Middle East, but the Iranian government is currently not allowing any foreign ships to pass through it. If this type of propulsion works, this would negate the need to fuel the car, making it a good energy-efficient alternative if it could be practically implemented. But hopefully they don’t give the car too {{What If|61|much energy.}}

It would be possible to "recharge" such a car by repeating the process of pulling (or pushing) it backwards, or perhaps by placing it on a treadmill-style arrangement and running this forward relative to the car while holding the vehicle stationary. However, the energy being stored in the spring motor would have to come from somewhere. No clue is given to what form of mechanical device is used to pull the car back at the factory and if/when it needs to be retensioned again, but the means used to power ''that'' might entirely defeat the main purpose of the pullback car (that that it doesn't rely on various fuels to keep it going) if it relies on such fuels itself. Pushing also creates a dangerous situation in that the motive force is necessarily in the car's path, and if the brake is broken or hasn't been applied, the car will run over/collide with anything immediately in front of it once the pushing force ceases.

A flywheel connected to the motor could occasionally be lowered onto the road when the car is under braking and then automatically raised, which might work as a form of charging if the released kinetic energy could be diverted to the main wheels. However, the automatic lowering and raising of the flywheel would require an external energy source, and it would be much simpler to just use an electric car at that point. Plus, this would produce diminishing returns and the car would still need to be "recharged" every so often.

In the title text, Hairy tries to allay Cueball's range anxiety about the low capacity for energy storage meaning that it would run out almost immediately compared to a traditional combustion or electric engine, by stating that they "pull it back '''''REALLY''''' far". Due to the inbuilt 'clicking-limit' that already is implied to have been reached, this wouldn't really help, since any further 'pulling back' would simply be wasted energy. If the mechanism is large and powerful enough to store the energy needed to make the car go any appreciable distance, the acceleration that results when it is released is likely to be a deeply unpleasant and dangerous experience. Furthermore, more pulling back would not address any of the other problems noted above.

To some extent, the spring-powered car is a direct analogue to electric cars (whether pre-charged at the factory or not), where forms of externally-generated power are transfered to a 'potential' held within the vehicle to be re-expended (with acceptable losses in conversion efficiencies) as movement. By contrast, fuel-powered cars provide the energy in the form of potential-holding material (LPG, fuel-oils, or even solid fuel like coal or wood, depending upon the vehicle), which is expelled after use and refilled with new supplies. The advantages of electrical power are that it can be relatively easily generated by means ''other'' than burning fossil fuels, and (while not currently at energy densities comparable to common engine fuels), the weight of batteries required to power a car over a given distance isn't anything like as problematic as the equivalent spring-based system would be.

Fun Fact: Paolo Bacigalupi's 2009 dystopic SF novel "The Windup Girl" is set in a post-petroleum world where this kind of propulsion is normal. Spring technology is incredibly advanced compared to our present. Cars are powered by springs that are wound-up in factories on treadmills with genetically engineered mastodons. These springs can then be placed into cars and other machines. They are exchangeable, so if one spring runs out, you replace it with another. Fuel-powered cars still exist, but are only used by the military, and the motor sounds they produce have a terrifying effect on the general population, because they are not used to those sounds any more.

==Transcript==

:[Hairy and Cueball are standing to the right of a medium-size car. Hairy has raised one hand slightly to point to the car.]
:Hairy: You won't have to worry about gas prices '''''or''''' electricity prices with our new pullback drive model.
:Hairy: At the factory, we put the car on the ground and tow it all the way backward until it starts clicking.
:Hairy: To drive forward, you just release the brake and it goes.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

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

3243: Crystal Gazing

TheusafBOT — Fri, 08 May 2026 17:46:33 GMT

108.44.153.86: the graph is deceptive in having only two clearly visible line ends, but there are apparently three lines intersecting on the graph, not two

{{comic
| number = 3243
| date = May 8, 2026
| title = Crystal Gazing
| image = crystal_gazing_2x.png
| imagesize = 281x397px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = 'Beyond that lies a vale of fire through which my vision cannot penetrate' is the kind of fun thing geologists, heliophysicists, and early universe cosmologists have a lot of opportunities to say.
}}

==Explanation==
A {{w|geochronology|geochronologist}} (someone who estimates the ages of rocks, fossils, etc.) dressed up as a wizard (assuming that isn't how they normally dress) announces — in archaic language befitting his costume — that he has determined the {{w|age of the Earth}} by analyzing {{w|zircon}}. Zircon is a crystal with the formula ZrSiO4. During its formation it can incorporate uranium instead of zirconium in its crystal lattice, but cannot incorporate lead. The uranium then decays (via several intermediates) into lead. Thus a sufficiently old zircon crystal will contain some lead, allowing geologists to {{w|Detrital_zircon_geochronology|calculate its age}}. This method is especially reliable, since uranium-238 decays into lead-206 with a half-life of 4.5 billion years, while uranium-235 decays into lead-207 with a half-life of 0.7 billion years, allowing geologists to determine the age even where some lead was lost from the crystal. The geochronologist says he predicted the age of the Earth by gazing into the [[2776|crystal]], similar to the traditional fortune tellers' method of making predictions by gazing into crystal balls.

A prophet of doom is someone who predicts impending disasters, particularly the end of the world (and there are lots of ridiculous ways that [https://what-if.xkcd.com/archive/ could happen]). These prophets and predictions are especially common in fantasy media. The joke in the caption is that someone who can determine when the world began is just doing this in reverse, and that's what geochronologists are doing when they calculate the age of the Earth. His last line, "the beginning was nigh", is a reversal of the phrase stereotypically used by prophets of doom: "the end is nigh". This is in keeping with the idea represented in the comic.

The title text points out, in similar flowery language (in keeping with the character being a wizard from a {{w|J. R. R. Tolkien|Tolkienesque}} or {{w|Dungeons & Dragons}}-type world, where [https://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Vales_of_Anduin vales] are often part of the geographical language), that many areas of physical sciences have a limiting horizon to their ability to study their subject. {{w|Geologists}} are limited by the early molten history of the Earth, in that most of the crust has been recycled back into the molten mantle at some point, and the mantle acts as a physical 'vale of fire' for the core — each limiting what can be studied. Similarly, {{w|heliophysicists}} have difficulty knowing what happens within the Sun due to the physical 'vale of fire' that is the Sun's {{w|photosphere}}. Finally, {{w|cosmologists}} have difficulty studying the universe beyond the {{w|recombination (cosmology)|recombination epoch}}, beyond which the universe is shielded by a 'vale of fire' (the {{w|surface of last scattering }} from which photons of the {{w|cosmic microwave background}} escape) from electromagnetic observation — both in time (investigating the early universe) or in space (investigating beyond the event horizon of the visible universe).

[[:Category:Dungeons & Dragons|D&D]] is a recurring topic on xkcd.

==Transcript==

:[A character in wizard garb with long beard and hair talks to Cueball. To the left of the wizard is a poster with illegible text over a graph with three lines intersecting.]

:Wizard: By gazing into my crystals of zircon, I have divined the date of the hour of fire marking the limit of this world's existence.
:Wizard: 4.54 billion years ago, the beginning was nigh!

:[Caption below comic:]
:Geochronologists are just reverse prophets of doom.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
[[Category:Geology]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]

3242: Aperiodic Table

TheusafBOT — Wed, 06 May 2026 18:15:38 GMT

71.185.171.123:

{{comic
| number = 3242
| date = May 6, 2026
| title = Aperiodic Table
| image = aperiodic_table_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x464px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Scientists occasionally invent alternative periodic table layouts, which is usually a sign that they don't have enough enrichment in their enclosures.
}}

==Explanation==
The {{w|periodic table of the elements}} is a diagram often used to show the properties of the {{w|chemical elements}} that make up the world. Its structure represents several properties of the elements. Atoms increase in {{w|atomic number}} from left to right and continue on each new row, going top to bottom. Elements in a single column will have similar chemical properties, with allowance for any crossing of the {{w|dividing line between metals and nonmetals}}, and each row exhibits a similar trend to adjacent rows for the gaining or losing of electrons and other physical properties.

[[Randall]] spoofs this concept by creating a similar view that is much less useful. The original table is "periodic" because it has consistent, repeating patterns that are represented by the horizontal position of the elements. Randall's 'table' is "aperiodic", meaning it has no consistent, repeating patterns. Instead, it is just a meandering line ordered by atomic number. To fit into a compact space, the sequence snakes back and forth and (roughly) down the page. This presentation is not actually helpful,{{cn}} since it contains little information other than the atomic number of each element. Faint colouring on each box does show its category, but due to the dull colours that is also quite inconvenient to use, and depicts this information in an unnecessarily unhelpful and hard-to-read format.

The title text suggests that the creation of {{w|Types of periodic tables|alternative periodic table layouts}} is due to scientists not having enough work to do. However, it frames this by comparing them to animals kept in enclosures, with a lack of {{w|Behavioral enrichment|enrichment activities}} to keep them occupied and satisfied in their lab, implying that this is a form of aberrant dysfunctional behaviour. Researcher enclosure enrichment was previously mentioned in [[3052: Archive Request]]. The reference to 'enrichment' could also be a pun on the process of chemical enrichment (particularly of [https://www.energy.gov/ne/articles/uranium-enrichment-explained uranium]), or on the {{wiktionary|enrichment}} of scientists by gaining funding.

This comic may be a critique about how an excessive variety of ways to display the periodic table have been created over the years, many of which make Randall's periodic table look fairly normal by comparison. Alternatively, it may be intended to highlight how useful the original idea of the periodic table was, since the version in the comic is essentially what scientists were faced with before it was invented.

==Trivia==
* Element 81, Thallium, should be labeled "Tl" (with a lowercase "L"), but is incorrectly labeled "Ti", which is the abbreviation for Titanium (element 22).

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon. All 118 elements and their number should be included in a full transcript.}}

:The Aperiodic Table of the Elements
:[Rectangles showing the atomic symbols and atomic numbers from H (1) through Og (118) are arranged in order in a serpentine chain. Each rectangle has the atomic number in small numerals at the upper left and the atomic symbol in large letters. The color of each rectangle matches the pattern of a similarly keyed standard periodic table. For example, the noble gases all have a red background.]
List of Elements:
<table>
<tr><td>1 </td><td>H </td><td>Hydrogen </td></tr>
<tr><td>2 </td><td>He </td><td>Helium </td></tr>
<tr><td>3 </td><td>Li </td><td>Lithium</td></tr>
<tr><td>4 </td><td>Be </td><td>Beryllium</td></tr>
<tr><td>5 </td><td>B </td><td>Boron </td></tr>
<tr><td>6 </td><td>C </td><td>Carbon </td></tr>
<tr><td>7 </td><td>N </td><td>Nitrogen</td></tr>
<tr><td>8 </td><td>O </td><td>Oxygen </td></tr>
<tr><td>9 </td><td>F </td><td>Fluorine</td></tr>
<tr><td>10 </td><td>Ne </td><td>Neon </td></tr>
<tr><td>11 </td><td>Na </td><td>Sodium</td></tr>
<tr><td>12 </td><td>Mg </td><td>Magnesium</td></tr>
<tr><td>13 </td><td>Al </td><td>Aluminium</td></tr>
<tr><td>14 </td><td>Si </td><td>Silicon </td></tr>
<tr><td>15 </td><td>P </td><td>Phosphorus</td></tr>
<tr><td>16 </td><td>S </td><td>Sulfur </td></tr>
<tr><td>17 </td><td>Cl </td><td>Chlorine</td></tr>
<tr><td>18 </td><td>Ar </td><td>Argon </td></tr>
<tr><td>19 </td><td>K </td><td>Potassium</td></tr>
<tr><td>20 </td><td>Ca </td><td>Calcium </td></tr>
<tr><td>21 </td><td>Sc </td><td>Scandium</td></tr>
<tr><td>22 </td><td>Ti </td><td>Titanium</td></tr>
<tr><td>23 </td><td>V </td><td>Vanadium</td></tr>
<tr><td>24 </td><td>Cr </td><td>Chromium</td></tr>
<tr><td>25 </td><td>Mn </td><td>Manganes</td></tr>
<tr><td>26 </td><td>Fe </td><td>Iron </td></tr>
<tr><td>27 </td><td>Co </td><td>Cobalt</td></tr>
<tr><td>28 </td><td>Ni </td><td>Nickel </td></tr>
<tr><td>29 </td><td>Cu </td><td>Copper</td></tr>
<tr><td>30 </td><td>Zn </td><td>Zinc </td></tr>
<tr><td>31 </td><td>Ga </td><td>Gallium</td></tr>
<tr><td>32 </td><td>Ge </td><td>Germanium</td></tr>
<tr><td>33 </td><td>As </td><td>Arsenic </td></tr>
<tr><td>34 </td><td>Se </td><td>Selenium</td></tr>
<tr><td>35 </td><td>Br </td><td>Bromine </td></tr>
<tr><td>36 </td><td>Kr </td><td>Krypton </td></tr>
<tr><td>37 </td><td>Rb </td><td>Rubidium</td></tr>
<tr><td>38 </td><td>Sr </td><td>Strontium </td></tr>
<tr><td>39 </td><td>Y </td><td>Yttrium </td></tr>
<tr><td>40 </td><td>Zr </td><td>Zirconium </td></tr>
<tr><td>41 </td><td>Nb </td><td>Niobium </td></tr>
<tr><td>42 </td><td>Mo </td><td>Molybdenum</td></tr>
<tr><td>43 </td><td>Tc </td><td>Technetium</td></tr>
<tr><td>44 </td><td>Ru </td><td>Ruthenium </td></tr>
<tr><td>45 </td><td>Rh </td><td>Rhodium </td></tr>
<tr><td>46 </td><td>Pd </td><td>Palladium</td></tr>
<tr><td>47 </td><td>Ag </td><td>Silver </td></tr>
<tr><td>48 </td><td>Cd </td><td>Cadmium</td></tr>
<tr><td>49 </td><td>In </td><td>Indium </td></tr>
<tr><td>50 </td><td>Sn </td><td>Tin </td></tr>
<tr><td>51 </td><td>Sb </td><td>Antimony</td></tr>
<tr><td>52 </td><td>Te </td><td>Tellurium</td></tr>
<tr><td>53 </td><td>I </td><td>Iodine </td></tr>
<tr><td>54 </td><td>Xe </td><td>Xenon </td></tr>
<tr><td>55 </td><td>Cs </td><td>Caesium</td></tr>
<tr><td>56 </td><td>Ba </td><td>Barium</td></tr>
<tr><td>57 </td><td>La </td><td>Lanthanum</td></tr>
<tr><td>58 </td><td>Ce </td><td>Cerium </td></tr>
<tr><td>59 </td><td>Pr </td><td>Praseodymium</td></tr>
<tr><td>60 </td><td>Nd </td><td>Neodymium </td></tr>
<tr><td>61 </td><td>Pm </td><td>Promethium</td></tr>
<tr><td>62 </td><td>Sm </td><td>Samarium </td></tr>
<tr><td>63 </td><td>Eu </td><td>Europium </td></tr>
<tr><td>64 </td><td>Gd </td><td>Gadolinium</td></tr>
<tr><td>65 </td><td>Tb </td><td>Terbium </td></tr>
<tr><td>66 </td><td>Dy </td><td>Dysprosium </td></tr>
<tr><td>67 </td><td>Ho </td><td>Holmium </td></tr>
<tr><td>68 </td><td>Er </td><td>Erbium </td></tr>
<tr><td>69 </td><td>Tm </td><td>Thulium</td></tr>
<tr><td>70 </td><td>Yb </td><td>Ytterbium</td></tr>
<tr><td>71 </td><td>Lu </td><td>Lutetium</td></tr>
<tr><td>72 </td><td>Hf </td><td>Hafnium </td></tr>
<tr><td>73 </td><td>Ta </td><td>Tantalum</td></tr>
<tr><td>74 </td><td>W </td><td>Tungsten</td></tr>
<tr><td>75 </td><td>Re </td><td>Rhenium</td></tr>
<tr><td>76 </td><td>Os </td><td>Osmium</td></tr>
<tr><td>77 </td><td>Ir </td><td>Iridium</td></tr>
<tr><td>78 </td><td>Pt </td><td>Platinum</td></tr>
<tr><td>79 </td><td>Au </td><td>Gold </td></tr>
<tr><td>80 </td><td>Hg </td><td>Mercury</td></tr>
<tr><td>81 </td><td>Tl (error: Randall puts "Ti" instead of "Tl"</td><td>Thallium</td></tr>
<tr><td>82 </td><td>Pb </td><td>Lead </td></tr>
<tr><td>83 </td><td>Bi </td><td>Bismuth </td></tr>
<tr><td>84 </td><td>Po </td><td>Polonium </td></tr>
<tr><td>85 </td><td>At </td><td>Astatine</td></tr>
<tr><td>86 </td><td>Rn </td><td>Radon </td></tr>
<tr><td>87 </td><td>Fr </td><td>Francium</td></tr>
<tr><td>88 </td><td>Ra </td><td>Radium </td></tr>
<tr><td>89 </td><td>Ac </td><td>Actinium</td></tr>
<tr><td>90 </td><td>Th </td><td>Thorium </td></tr>
<tr><td>91 </td><td>Pa </td><td>Protactinium </td></tr>
<tr><td>92 </td><td>U </td><td>Uranium </td></tr>
<tr><td>93 </td><td>Np </td><td>Neptunium</td></tr>
<tr><td>94 </td><td>Pu </td><td>Plutonium</td></tr>
<tr><td>95 </td><td>Am </td><td>Americium</td></tr>
<tr><td>96 </td><td>Cm </td><td>Curium </td></tr>
<tr><td>97 </td><td>Bk </td><td>Berkelium</td></tr>
<tr><td>98 </td><td>Cf </td><td>Californium</td></tr>
<tr><td>99 </td><td>Es </td><td>Einsteinium</td></tr>
<tr><td>100 </td><td>Fm </td><td>Fermium </td></tr>
<tr><td>101 </td><td>Md </td><td>Mendelevium </td></tr>
<tr><td>102 </td><td>No </td><td>Nobelium </td></tr>
<tr><td>103 </td><td>Lr </td><td>Lawrencium</td></tr>
<tr><td>104 </td><td>Rf </td><td>Rutherfordium</td></tr>
<tr><td>105 </td><td>Db </td><td>Dubnium </td></tr>
<tr><td>106 </td><td>Sg </td><td>Seaborgium</td></tr>
<tr><td>107 </td><td>Bh </td><td>Bohrium </td></tr>
<tr><td>108 </td><td>Hs </td><td>Hassium </td></tr>
<tr><td>109 </td><td>Mt </td><td>Meitnerium</td></tr>
<tr><td>110 </td><td>Ds </td><td>Darmstadtium </td></tr>
<tr><td>111 </td><td>Rg </td><td>Roentgenium </td></tr>
<tr><td>112 </td><td>Cn </td><td>Copernicium </td></tr>
<tr><td>113 </td><td>Nh </td><td>Nihonium </td></tr>
<tr><td>114 </td><td>Fl </td><td>Flerovium</td></tr>
<tr><td>115 </td><td>Mc </td><td>Moscovium</td></tr>
<tr><td>116 </td><td>Lv </td><td>Livermorium</td></tr>
<tr><td>117 </td><td>Ts </td><td>Tennessine </td></tr>
<tr><td>118 </td><td>Og </td><td>Oganesson</td></tr>
</table>

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Comics with lowercase text]]
[[Category:Periodic table]]
[[Category:Chemistry]]

3241: Horizontal Stabilizers

TheusafBOT — Tue, 05 May 2026 19:46:52 GMT

Black Hat's Hat: Transcript seemed finished. Im gonna go thru and start removing incomplete transcript warnings from complete seeming transcripts

{{comic
| number = 3241
| date = May 5, 2026
| title = Horizontal Stabilizers
| image = horizontal_stabilizers_2x.png
| imagesize = 436x341px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = It started as a mistake that everyone was afraid to admit to, and then it stuck because removing it 'looks silly.'.
| wikidata = Q139738162
}}

==Explanation==
A {{w|Stabilizer (aircraft)#Horizontal stabilizers|horizontal stabilizer}} (also often described as a {{w|tailplane}}) is part of an aircraft which typically provides extra longitudinal balance, with the tailplane maintaining balance and control of the aircraft. Although some alternate types of airframe work without them (e.g. by making use of more complex main wing control surfaces), most (and the most common) aircraft use {{w|Tailplane#Tailplane types|some version or other}} of a tailplane. The structure of aircraft varies based on what they {{What If|30|have to do}}.

This comic claims that horizontal stabilizers are a mistake in the construction process, and not at all necessary. The original construction of some particular plane only had small wings and the mere stub of fuselage to which they were attached, but neither wings nor body were big enough to be useful. Rather than spending time and resources rebuilding from scratch, they just added more fuselage, with much bigger wings, and continued to use the original insufficient fuselage and 'wings' in the manner of a tailplane.

The title text takes this even further, stating that people deliberately ignored the superfluousness of this new part, and later, when they decided to remove the feature (perhaps to save weight, or just 'complexity') people were already so used to them being there that it "looked silly", so they put them back on to satisfy expectations. This may be referencing the use of 'spoilers' on everyday passenger cars, which are often included purely for cosmetic reasons, because it makes the vehicle look 'fast' or 'sporty' while having little or no effect in producing the desired downforce (for extreme cornering or acceleration), and may instead just add drag to the car to make it ultimately ''slower'' in a straight line speed-test.

There are some {{w|tailless aircraft}}, often designed as such to minimize the latent drag from the tailplane surfaces (another possible reason being to create a {{w|Radar cross section|more 'stealthy' aircraft}}), and many people do consider them unusual-looking. Some aircraft, including the original {{w|Wright Flyer}}, have the horizontal stabilizers in the front rather than the tail section due to design assumptions made at the time (later superseded by the 'normal' and typically more stable configuration). Some more modern planes use {{w|Canard (aeronautics)|canard}} 'forward control surfaces' instead of (or {{w|three-surface aircraft|in addition to}}) the rear-mounted ones, in response to a more modern understanding of the active aerodynamic needs of a plane in flight.

The comic does not address the need for any {{w|vertical stabilizer}} and rudder, which are often integrated in some way with the (horizontal) tailplane, or at least rooted in the same section of fuselage. (Some may describe the {{w|empennage|whole assembly}} of horizontal and vertical rear surfaces (both static and actuated) as the "tailplane", due to it being all together in the same place.) The comic's original 'stabilizer only' plane ''also'' lacked any such vertical control surfaces. By the same logic, of course, a true 'tailless' aircraft, like a Flying Wing, ''can'' also fly without a tailfin-like structure, usually controlling its yaw through differential power and/or drag across its two remaining wings. There are 'half-tail' airframes that still use only horizontal ''or'' vertical control surfaces, while the main wing controls the other, and there are also tail designs that integrate both control and stabilization functions into {{w|V-tail|the same hybrid tail-structure}}.

At some point before the scene in the factory and the conversation about the airplane in flight, the evolving design seems to have gained the vertical stabiliser as well, for unstated in-comic reasons perhaps just as superfluous as that for which it has retained the horizontal version. Then again, as well as gaining more fuselage (which may necessarily have completed the stated design expectation of it being 'bigger', by increasing its potential cargo capacity) it has also managed to gain such useful features as a cockpit/nosecone ''and also engines'', the ultimate superfluity of which is far less likely (even reluctantly) to be justified.

==Trivia==
*This is a rare [[:Category:Tuesday comics|Tuesday comic]]. There was no [[:Category:Monday comics|Monday comic]] this week. However, the archive states the publication date as 2026-5-4 (the previous day), so the comic was likely intended to be a Monday comic.

==Transcript==

:[Cueball and Ponytail are standing, looking up at an airplane in the sky. Cueball is pointing at the airplane.]
:Cueball: What's with the little wings on the tails of the airplanes? Do they really need them?
:Ponytail: They're horizontal stabilizers. They serve a crucial aerodynamic role.

:[Hairy, another Cueball, and Megan are standing in a room, with Hairy on the left of a small fuselage segment with small wings attached to the sides of it, while Cueball and Megan are standing on the right of it. Hairy has his arms raised. There is a caption in a box at the top of the panel.]
:Caption: Previously, at the airplane factory...
:Hairy: These wings you made are way too small! The plane is supposed to be much bigger!
:Other Cueball: Sorry! We'll start over.
:Hairy: No, there's no time. Just make it longer and put the bigger wings on the new section.

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

3240: Bottle

TheusafBOT — Fri, 01 May 2026 18:34:33 GMT

YZ100: /* Transcript */

{{comic
| number = 3240
| date = May 1, 2026
| title = Bottle
| image = bottle_2x.png
| imagesize = 581x235px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = "I know it seems impossible, but the trick is that I sailed in here when I was very young."
| wikidata = Q139738160
}}

==Explanation==
In this comic, [[Beret Guy]] is inside a life-sized {{w|Impossible bottle#Ship in a bottle|ship in a bottle}}. [[Cueball]] and [[Megan]] are in a sail boat to his left, while [[Ponytail]] is alone in what appears to be a [[3193: Sailing Rigs|gaff rig]] to his right. A common question regarding a ship-in-a-bottle is how the model ship was put inside the bottle, given the small size of the opening in the bottle compared to the ship. The answer is often that the ship (or its components) was inserted in a more compact form, and then assembled (or at least partially unfolded) within the bottle. The components are small enough to pass through the neck of the bottle, and the final assembly is done through the neck, which is usually the most awkward task. Of course, toy boat assembly is not comparable to construction of a real or life-sized ship, and bottles are almost never big enough to stand up in, with necks large enough to climb in and out through if required.

The title text alludes to this, by saying that Beret Guy, when he was smaller, sailed the boat inside the bottle while he was still able to fit through the entrance. This is similar to the way some brands of pear brandy are sold in {{w|Impossible bottle#Small objects that expand naturally|bottles containing entire pears}}. These are produced by attaching the bottle to a young fruit and letting it grow to full size inside. This explanation fails to address the fact that Beret Guy would fit through the neck of such a bottle relatively easy, on his own; but the boat, being made from non-living materials, would '''not''' have grown inside the bottle, and it is unlikely to have ever been a smaller boat carrying a smaller Beret Guy, in a manner that both together could have sailed into the bottle. On the other hand, it would probably be easier for someone inside the bottle to have assembled components of a ship there than for that assembly to be done from outside. This would especially be true of a seaworthy vessel of a size to carry a passenger, rather than a mere model. Given the definition of a boat explained in the earlier comic [[2043: Boathouses and Houseboats]] (“a ship, by most definitions, carries boats”), Beret Guy's vessel is merely a boat.

The water level in the free-floating bottle is lower than the water outside. This is because the bottle will sink until the weight of the bottle and its contents (the water, the boat, and Beret Guy) equals the weight of the water displaced by the bottle. The weight of the 'missing' water in the bottle (the layer of air (or {{What If|6|hopefully air}}) between the two surface levels, including the corresponding volume of air displaced by the boat) is consequently equal to the weight of the whole glass bottle. If you added water to the bottle in an attempt to make the inside and outside water levels the same, the bottle would contain less buoyant air and just sink deeper to misalign the surfaces again. Keep repeating this, and the buoyancy becomes less than zero (unless the inherent buoyancy of Beret Guy and his boat, now forced into the bottle's 'ceiling', still possess enough intrinsic support) at which point the bottle would sink.

As well as the question as to how Beret Guy and the boat got into the bottle, there is another oddity: the bottle appears to be keeping pace with the boats on either side, implying it is somehow being propelled, despite lacking an engine, a sail, or any other method of propulsion. This could mean that the bottle shares one of Beret Guy's [[:Category:Strange powers of Beret Guy|strange powers]], or it could be a combination of tides and the bottle catching some wind. Ordinarily, the bottle would lack airflow for the boat to sail within it, since the cork would prevent any air currents from entering. However, since Beret Guy would quickly die without his own source of airflow, he could be somehow be creating some air ingress. He has [[1486|powered up random objects in strange ways]] before, after all.

In practice, the bottle is horizontally unstable. The weight of the bottle is not equal along its length (it appears heavier at the neck), and the buoyancy at each point will not equal the weight at that point. This is also true of the boats in the cartoon; the difference is that in the bottle much of the weight is the water, which is free to move. If the neck of the bottle goes down (into the water, to increase the displacement to balance the weight), or the base of the bottle does similarly (since it is often the thickest and widest part of the glass), the water will naturally flow to that end of the bottle. This increases the weight found at the respective end, which will force that even deeper. This will continue until the bottle is floating vertically (in the comic's version, without intervention this is likely to result in the bottle stabilising in an inverted position, with the neck facing directly down, although this would depend upon the effect of the cork’s relative density). Beret Guy's boat would appear to fit in the width of the bottle, and there is enough water to keep him afloat in this attitude, so everything will probably be fine (for certain values of 'fine'). This effect, known as the {{w|free surface effect}}, has real implications for ships with open decks, such as car ferries, and has been implicated in several disasters such as the sinkings of the {{w|MS Herald of Free Enterprise|''Herald of Free Enterprise''}}, the {{w|MV Princess Victoria|''Princess Victoria''}}, and the {{w|MS Estonia|''Estonia''}}.

So the bottle is ridiculously impractical and the only thing it would do would be to {{What If|103|protect}} the people riding the ship — though it wouldn't be much use for that, as the bottle is likely made of glass, as giant boat-carrying bottles normally are.{{Citation needed}} In fact, if it was to break then the resulting hole would create a bottleneck for the way out ([[559|pun not intended]]), so any attackers would have the advantage there as well — in addition to the dangers of broken glass (though, for Beret Guy, {{What If|6|that wouldn't be a problem}}).

==Transcript==

:[Three small single-masted sailboats are shown (the right one in a gaff rig), all sailing towards the right. The ones on the left and right are on the ocean, while the one in the middle is contained completely by a large bottle. On the left, Cueball and Megan are in one boat; Cueball is sitting near the stern, possibly holding the tiller, while Megan is before the mast. In the middle, Beret Guy is before the mast in the boat that's inside the giant bottle, with a cork plugging the screw top bottleneck. On the right, Ponytail is directly aft of the mast of the third boat. All the boats are sitting on the water with ripples on the surface, but the water level in the bottle is lower than the rest.]

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Strange powers of Beret Guy]]

3239: Simple Machines

TheusafBOT — Wed, 29 Apr 2026 16:25:39 GMT

YZ100: /* Transcript */

{{comic
| number = 3239
| date = April 29, 2026
| title = Simple Machines
| image = simple_machines_2x.png
| imagesize = 250x255px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = It's hard to decide which simple machine system to invest in. DeWalt makes a great lever and inclined plane, but I hear Milwaukee's wheel-and-axles are really good.
| wikidata = Q139738161
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was recently purchased from DeWalt, and we're still reading the manual. Don't remove this notice too soon.
*Explanation of how each aspect of the multitool could work/counts as a specific simple machine
}}
There are various ways to use a {{w|mechanical advantage}} when applying a force to an object with a tool. Classically, there were considered to be six {{w|simple machines}} which, in combination, formed the basis of all tools: The {{w|lever}}, the {{w|wheel and axle}}, the {{w|pulley}}, the {{w|inclined plane}}, the {{w|wedge}} and the {{w|Screw (simple machine)|screw}}. These are often considered as idealised, abstract concepts in the study of {{w|mechanics}}.

{{w|Multitool}}s combine various tools into a single package, usually for reasons of portability. For example, the classic {{w|Swiss Army Knife}} combines various different forms of blade (which, in part, can act as levers and/or wedges, depending upon use) along with some non-bladed tools (such as the corkscrew, which naturally embodies the same forces as the 'simple screw').

Instead of combining simple machines to make a single tool, this comic suggests the existence of a multitool featuring all six simple tools individually, some of them with multiple purposes depending upon application. For example, the lever, the wedge, and the inclined plane are both present via the same core rod.

The implication is that by having all the simple machines 'combined' in this way, this can serve as a universal tool, which could do the job of any other tool. In practice, though, it's hard to see many useful purposes this could be put to, since ''how'' you combine the various components and how they interact (or don't get in each others' way) is important for the function of a particular device.

As is often the case with multitools, there are obvious drawbacks to having this 'all-in-one' tool. The tools all have varying uses, some very different from one other, and you would be unlikely to find many devices in need of all the tools together all at once, so such a tool would be largely useless compared to its singular variants. Also, the tools come in many different sizes, meaning unless it has special adjustable sizes (which could well be impossible, to account for all the different sizes){{Citation needed}} the tool would be unlikely to be the right size to fit many features. As well as that, though [[Randall]] claims he can stop buying simple tools thanks to his all-in-one, in reality you often need more than one of the various tools for projects (particularly screws, of which there can be hundreds in a single project).

The title text is a joke about battery-powered tool ecosystems. {{w|Milwaukee Tool}} and {{w|DeWalt}} are two common American tool companies. The text notes that each company has advantages in certain specific simple machines, which makes deciding which brand to invest in for a whole system of simple machines difficult - presumably because each brand's machines are designed to work together, but would not work across brands. With battery powered tools, the batteries and the base motor units are often interchangeable between tools from a single brand (and are often purchased separately from the tools). Once you buy, say, a drill and batteries from one brand, it is more economical to buy a saw from the same brand, rather than the saw and batteries from a different brand.

==Transcript==
:[A rod with a square cross-section is shown sloping from top-left to bottom-right. At the bottom-right, it has a wedge tip. At the top-left, it is threaded left-handed and has a long nut on it. The nut has an eyelet where a rope is connected. The rope travels taut around a wheel on an axle connected near the wedge-end and then lies loose with a hook on the free end.]

:[Caption below comic:]
:I can finally stop buying simple machines now that I got an all-in-one tool with all six of them.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

3238: Soniferous Aether

TheusafBOT — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 04:16:49 GMT

RG:

{{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.
| wikidata = Q139738159
}}

==Explanation==

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. ("Luminiferous" is Latin for "light-carrying", and "soniferous" would be the corresponding "sound-carrying" — 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.) 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 specifically states that the physicists are reinventing air from first principles. Although sound ''can'' be carried by any form of matter, humans most commonly experience sounds traveling through air, so would likely identify air as the primary form of soniferous aether. 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. It is not without reason that the classic physics problems are careful to specify that one must assume that the {{w|Spherical cow|spherically symmetrical cow}} is in a vacuum.

The title text references {{w|Albert Einstein|Albert Einstein's}} thought experiment where he imagined riding alongside a light particle/wave (which was previously 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 {{w|Concorde}}, the {{w|Tu-144}}, [https://www.smithsonianmag.com/air-space-magazine/i-was-there-when-the-dc-8-went-supersonic-27846699/ a DC-8] (briefly), and [https://simpleflying.com/supersonic-boeing-747-throwback/ a Boeing 747] (maybe) 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

TheusafBOT — Fri, 24 Apr 2026 15:18:01 GMT

118.143.33.34: Added explanation and moved them around based on likelihood based on the follow up Megan gave

{{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.
| wikidata = Q139738158
}}

==Explanation==
[[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. From Megan highlighting that it makes her feel 'Victorian', it could be that the old 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). Alternatively, the terms might impart an image of an old married couple in her mind and she dislikes that it makes her feel old. 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. A more modern reason could simply be due to the seemingly possessive phrasing, due to the English word 'my' being used for both possession and relation.

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

TheusafBOT — Wed, 22 Apr 2026 20:41:56 GMT

68.101.170.57: /* Transcript */ There are way too many "incomplete" transcripts that are mostly fine.

{{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.
| wikidata = Q139738157
}}

==Explanation==
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. Presumably, the effect is similar to actual {{w|deforestation in Haiti}}, as seen in viral posts that depict satellite images of its border with the Dominican Republic.

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==
:[A section of a map showing a small portion of the border between two geographic areas, East Valley and Southlake (marked on the map). The border is shown as a dotted line, and it is shaped so that it spells out a message:]
: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

TheusafBOT — Tue, 21 Apr 2026 04:01:56 GMT

Tromag:

{{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.
| wikidata = Q139738156
}}

==Explanation==
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
Party games tend to be more fast-paced and less complex than other types of games, usually designed around promoting active engagement and creating fun and often mildly embarrassing situations (like {{w|Pictionary}} or {{w|30 Seconds (game)|30 Seconds}}). Such games can be designed for children or adults, but when they're designed specifically for adults, they tend to deliberately include things like swearing or references to sex (such as the well known {{w|Cards Against Humanity}}). This is a relatively simple way to encourage lack of social inhibition and potentially generate crude humor, which may be particularly appealing to people who generally need to avoid such things (such as parents of young children). In this strip, that notion is exaggerated to its extreme: the game apparently consists solely of receiving a card with a random "bad word", and everyone yelling them at once. No goal or win condition is described, making it less a game and more an excuse to curse in unison.
; 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 [[https://friends.fandom.com/wiki/Central_Perk 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]]
[[Category:Large drawings]]

3234: Europa Missions

TheusafBOT — Sat, 18 Apr 2026 00:31:21 GMT

81.179.199.253: /* Explanation */

{{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.
| wikidata = Q139738154
}}

==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". (Randall has talked about the [[3011|Europa Clipper]] before.)

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 available) 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

TheusafBOT — Wed, 15 Apr 2026 21:21:46 GMT

RG: removed incomplete notice. can anyone stop me? or am I destined to vaporize all incomplete notices?

{{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!
| wikidata = Q139738153
}}

==Explanation==
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

TheusafBOT — Mon, 13 Apr 2026 22:16:24 GMT

68.101.170.57: /* Transcript */

{{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.
| wikidata = Q139738152
}}

==Explanation==
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==
:[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 connected by a red curly bracket on the right 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

TheusafBOT — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 20:44:51 GMT

68.101.170.57: /* Transcript */

{{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==
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==
:[Ponytail (who is holding a walking stick) and Cueball are on the side of a hill, looking at a bolt of lightning very close by. The sky is shown as black, with the rest of the panel being a white silhouette.]

:[The lightning is accompanied by this word:]
:<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

TheusafBOT — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 18:23:38 GMT

82.132.212.205: /* Explanation */ Correctly punctuated, again. (Too many CNs for one article, IMO, but that's another issue.)

{{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==
{{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

TheusafBOT — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 21:53:46 GMT

68.187.4.2:

{{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==

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