explain xkcd - New pages [en]

3245: Results Age

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

SomebodyElse: /* Explanation */ Finishing the table

{{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==
{{incomplete|This page was created BY AN INTERNET GRANDPA. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
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 !! Explanation given !! Full Explanation
|-
|2 hours ago || A service outage. Not very long to fix - 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 new update just broke something big. High chance to be fixed, 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.
|-
|3 months ago ||A new product isn't working for some users. Decent chance of finding a solution in 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 chance to be fixed, but there could be help in troubleshooting||An edge case is a rare situation that the developers did not think to account for, usually causing a logic error, where the program works, but outputs something unexpected which might cause an error down the line. 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 ''those'' problems might lead you towards how to solve your own.
|-
|13 years ago||You're the only one with this problem. Very Low chance to be fixed, and the post is likely irrelevant||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 come across it.
|-
|24 years ago||Oh god how is the Internet so old. Maybe whoever posted the message's children can help you out. || This is another comic [[:Category:Comics to make one feel old|where Randall makes people feel old]]. In this case by pointing out that the Internet is very old, and people posting comments in the early period of the Internet are now grown up with kids. Something [[Randall]] has repeatedly shown that he is uncomfortable with. 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.
The Internet is, in fact, over fifty years old — significantly older than this notional post. 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) started working in the late 1990s. The biggest surprise might be that some information found on a web-page in 2002 (and still relevant to your search) survives on some still live web server (or as an archive of that original information on some successor site). For example, anything hosted on a {{w|GeoCities}} site would have normally been made inaccessible in 2014.
|-
|Title text||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.||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.
|}

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

: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 & what looks like a 9 & 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]]

3244: Pullback Drive

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

82.13.184.33: /* Explanation */

{{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==
{{incomplete|This page was created by A STOMP ROCKET POWERED CAR. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
[[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 backwards, and the potential energy is suddenly released as kinetic energy when the car is released.

The very simple version of pull-back car will only go as far forward as it is drawn backwards in the first place. 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. 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 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.

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 ally 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

Machina Lucis: Change to more technical terms

{{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 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 two 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

RG:

{{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 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 elements all have a red background.]

{{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

RG: removed incomplete notice

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

:[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

RG: removed incomplete notice

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

:[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

Scs: add experimental wikidata xref

{{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.}}
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:
* {{w|lever}}
* {{w|wheel and axle}}
* {{w|pulley}}
* {{w|inclined plane}}
* {{w|wedge}}
* {{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 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==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
:[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

Scs: add experimental wikidata xref

{{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 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] 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

RG: removed incomplete notice

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

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

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

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

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

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

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

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

3236: Border Message

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

RG: removed incomplete notice. i am become obsessive editor, destroyer of notices

{{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.

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

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

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

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

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

[[Category:Maps]]

3235: Types of Board Game

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

RG: removed incomplete notice. my power grows!

{{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
It can be hard to determine what makes a party game, other than it generally doesn't have the kinds of gameplay and strategy in other kinds of board games. Such games (like {{w|Pictionary}} or {{w|30 Seconds (game)|30 Seconds}}) are often aimed at creating humorous or mildly embarrassing situations. However, party games marketed as "for adults" (such as the well known {{w|Cards Against Humanity}}) do tend to have one thing in common — swearing or references to sex. The content of the game described here (dealing cards and screaming whatever is on them) seems not to require a lot of critical thinking, which may make it appealing in social situations where drinks (or other substances) may have been taken. [[Ponytail]]'s decision to start the game "on the count of three" will no doubt annoy [[Randall]], judging by [[3232: Countdown Standard]].
; Social Deduction
{{w|Social deduction game|Social deduction games}}, such as variations upon {{w|Mafia (party game)|Mafia/Werewolf}} (like the derived computer game ''{{w|Among Us}}''), revolve around the players attempting to deduce the roles or allegiances of other players, based on both special abilities provided by the game and the players' native abilities to tell which of their fellow players are being dishonest. Commonly, they involve an 'uninformed majority,' who do not know the allegiances of other players, attempting to discover the 'informed minority,' who know the members of their team. The minority is often framed as 'evil,' with the ability to 'kill' other players and remove them from the game; their victory condition often revolves around killing most or all of the 'good' players. The game in this panel revolves around finding a 'secret murderer', as per these kinds of game, but evidently has required clarification that discovering a ''real'' murderer does not count, implying that one or more of the previous week's participants, possibly [[Black Hat]], had actually killed someone in real life. Although Black Hat is not shown in this comic's game night, it stands to reason that after admitting to murder he would not be invited back the following week. This situation might be a reference to the [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-59258857 case of Tiernan Darnton] who admitted, during a game of Truth or Dare, to killing his step-grandmother.
; Title text
"Candles of Vienna" is presumably the game described under "Hyperspecific Theme". An expansion pack is an additional set of playing equipment that can be combined with an existing game to add new gameplay possibilities. It appears that the rights holders for Goku have decided on a strategy of getting the character included in multiple board games. The character would arguably be even more out of place in Napoleonic Vienna than lounging on the sofas at [[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

Scs: add experimental wikidata xref

{{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".

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

RG: removed incomplete notice. (apparently not)

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

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

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

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

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

3231: Lightning

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

RG: removed incomplete notice

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

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

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

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

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

3230: Overton

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

RG: removed incomplete notice and fixed punctuation

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

3228: Day Counter

TheusafBOT — Fri, 03 Apr 2026 11:41:08 GMT

RG: removed incomplete notice

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Coincidentally enough, [[Cueball]] is also floating — off his seat in this case, but this is an art style choice that ended up being apparent, [[3100|as]] [[919|many]] [[1682|past]] [[1411|chair]] [[2362|sitters]] [[2382|are]] [[3178|also]] [[1088|shown]] [[1121|to]] [[3198|levitate]].


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

3227: Creation

TheusafBOT — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 20:09:59 GMT

81.179.199.253: /* List of Modes */ Yeah, I'd wondered about that. As it hadn't even been parsed at all upon opening... But if it's not part of the necessary to-paste browser code, it seems not part of the necessary wikimarkup either.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

===List of Modes===
If you want to check out other xckd pages with the feature, dump the following into the console:
await import("https://xkcd.com/3227/5710add.js");
// fake an event
const event = new CustomEvent("DOMContentLoaded", {});
document.dispatchEvent(event);
Or, you could grab the [https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/574120-xkcd-mode-switcher-from-3233 xkcd Mode Switcher] Greasy Fork script

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

3226: Home Solar

TheusafBOT — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 21:39:24 GMT

Tromag:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

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

3225: Satellite Pollution

TheusafBOT — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 21:10:54 GMT

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

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

3224: Centimeter Wavelengths

TheusafBOT — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 03:30:54 GMT

82.13.184.33: /* Explanation */

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

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

3223: Inflation Timeline

TheusafBOT — Mon, 23 Mar 2026 18:30:34 GMT

RG: removed incomplete notice

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

3222: Star Formation

TheusafBOT — Fri, 20 Mar 2026 20:06:10 GMT

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

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

3221: Landscape Features

TheusafBOT — Wed, 18 Mar 2026 17:20:57 GMT

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

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

3220: Rotational Gravity

TheusafBOT — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 03:01:34 GMT

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

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

3219: Planets and Bright Stars

TheusafBOT — Fri, 13 Mar 2026 19:38:55 GMT

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

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

3218: Subduction Retrieval

TheusafBOT — Thu, 12 Mar 2026 02:45:55 GMT

216.125.50.226:

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

==Explanation==

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

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

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

==Transcript==

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

:Winch: click click click

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

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

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

3217: Home Remedies

TheusafBOT — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 07:30:47 GMT

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

3216: Bazookasaurus

TheusafBOT — Fri, 06 Mar 2026 14:29:03 GMT

Nerd1729:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

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

3215: Solar Warning

TheusafBOT — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 14:43:19 GMT

FaviFake: given the proposal made at the community portal, i'm merging Blondie and Miss Lenhart, just like Cutie and Megan

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

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

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

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

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

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

3214: Electric Vehicles

TheusafBOT — Tue, 03 Mar 2026 03:31:46 GMT

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

3213: Dental Formulas

TheusafBOT — Fri, 27 Feb 2026 21:33:09 GMT

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

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

3212: Little Red Dots

TheusafBOT — Thu, 26 Feb 2026 02:46:11 GMT

2A02:587:4D60:BE00:57:F4C1:63E6:FED8: /* Explanation */ Added a relevant link (to another xkcd comic) where perceived size is explained.

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

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

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

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

In the title text, Randall claims to have analyzed the "little red dots" and determined that they are actually very large but distant objects. This is not a startling revelation, since the JWST telescope is mostly only used to look at very distant objects in space, and just to be visible at all at these distances these 'dots' would need to be very large; this is due to the [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMiKyfd6hA0 phenomenon] of [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvnKXOGYKM8&t=30s relative perceived size], where larger objects that are further away ([[2622: Angular Diameter Turnaround|usually]]) appear to be the same size as smaller ones that are closer to the viewer. The punchline here is that someone who has performed a lot of analysis would be expected to have a result that was not already obvious, but anyone looking at a telescope image of deep space would already be assuming that it depicts large objects very far away, not small objects close to the telescope. The theme of astronomers unsure of the size of objects spotted in a telescope was previously mentioned in [[2359: Evidence of Alien Life]].

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

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

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

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

:Caption: Entomologists
:Megan: Clover mites.

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

:Caption: Dermatologists
:Ponytail: Cherry angiomas.

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

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

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

3211: Amperage

TheusafBOT — Tue, 24 Feb 2026 05:46:01 GMT

RG: removed incomplete notice

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

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] explains to [[Ponytail]] how he has modified some parts of his house's wiring to avoid having power to his appliances interrupted on account of overcurrent conditions from running too many appliances at once. In many places around the world, a main breaker limits the maximum current available to each property, with common limits for single-unit residences being 60 A, 100 A or 200 A. Individual circuits will then have breakers limiting the maximum current, usually to something between 10 and 50 amperes (the higher end is reserved for electricity-intensive appliances like dryers, vehicle charging stations, or air conditioning systems). 15-20 A is a common breaker size for circuits powering regular outlets in the US, 32 A is common in the UK, while 10-16 A is standard in mainland Europe.

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

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

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

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

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

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

==Transcript==

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

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

3210: Eliminating the Impossible

TheusafBOT — Fri, 20 Feb 2026 19:59:36 GMT

GSLikesCats307:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

3209: Plums

TheusafBOT — Thu, 19 Feb 2026 03:01:39 GMT

RG: removed incomplete notice

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

==Explanation==
This is a reference to the {{w|William Carlos Williams}} poem [https://poets.org/poem/just-say This Is Just to Say], in which the narrator gives an apology (possibly [https://poemanalysis.com/william-carlos-williams/this-is-just-to-say/ sincere], possibly [https://www.litcharts.com/poetry/william-carlos-williams/this-is-just-to-say insincere]) for eating the plums in the icebox. In this comic, the joke is that [[Cueball]] (not likely intended to actually be William Carlos Williams given the laptop) learns that the person out of view has left themselves some plums in the refrigerator for tomorrow, and cannot resist doing something that he should not (maybe eating them, maybe using them as bait - as in the title text) because he recognizes the situation from the poem.

The title text is another joke about trapping poets with situations based on their own poems. Since William Carlos Williams confessed he has a hard time resisting plums in a refrigerator potentially left for breakfast, they are perfect bait to capture him. The text compares this poet trap to one inspired by another well-known poem, [https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44272/the-road-not-taken|The Road Not Taken] by Robert Frost, which was referenced in another comic, [[3076: The Roads Both Taken]]. Constructing a network of infinitely branching paths seems physically impossible [[:Category:Strange powers of Beret Guy|for Cueball]], though some kind of circular or looping arrangement might work. The choice that Frost makes would change over time in such an arrangement, if he always takes the one less traveled by, so this could prove complex. Additionally, if the journey takes more than a day, then the path more traveled (which was saved for another day) would also be an option.

If we take the speaker of the title text to be the off-screen speaker, they were not planning to eat the plums for breakfast. Instead, they were setting a trap for William Carlos Williams. In this case, Cueball might have recognized their intention and considered eating or otherwise removing the plums to rescue the poet. (Though in that case, we know he did not do it since the trap was successful.)

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

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

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

3208: SNEWS

TheusafBOT — Mon, 16 Feb 2026 21:37:07 GMT

128.214.138.140: Removed incomplete transcript notice

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

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

3207: Bad Map Projection: Zero Declination

TheusafBOT — Sat, 14 Feb 2026 02:30:45 GMT

96.73.158.89:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

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