21: Kepler

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
Revision as of 01:35, 14 June 2013 by 114.179.18.35 (talk) (Explanation)
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Kepler
Science joke. You should probably move along.
Title text: Science joke. You should probably move along.

Explanation

Johannes Kepler was a German mathematician, astronomer and astrologer, best known for his laws of planetary motion. By using Tycho Brahe's observations of our solar system, Brahe gave Kepler the job of observing and explaining the motion of the planet Mars, Kepler was able to deduce that planets in the system do not move in a circular orbit around the Sun, but rather in an elliptical one. (The suspicious nature of Tycho Brahe's death in 1601, and Johannes Kepler's possible role in his end, constitutes one of history's greatest unsolved murder mysteries - some wonder whether Kepler may have killed him to obtain his data.) According to Kepler's Second Law, "A line joining a planet and the Sun sweeps out equal areas during equal intervals of time."

In the comic, the janitor Kepler also sweeps the same area, although in this case "area" is used in the sense of "surface" (of floor) rather than in the purely mathematical sense.

Transcript

[Two people stand in an aisle in a store.]
Person 1: Nice store. How do you keep the floors so clean?
Person 2: Oh, we hired this dude named Kepler, he's really good. Hard worker. Doesn't mind the monotony. Sweeps out the same area every night.

Trivia

  • [Original Randall quote]: "Another one which, if you don't get, you're probably better off."
  • This is the twentieth comic posted to livejournal. The previous was 20: Ferret. The next was 44: Love.


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Discussion

Rikthoff (talk) The date of issue of this comic is off. Does anybody have the correct issue date?

It appears to be accurate; it's the date from Randall's xkcd LiveJournal entry. Blaisepascal (talk) 02:21, 16 August 2012 (UTC)

Sorry, I fixed the date (to livejournal date) on August 8, 2012 but did not see/update talk page.--B. P. (talk) 18:39, 17 August 2012 (UTC)

I thought it was a reference to the Kepler telescope being pointed in the same direction for a long time, but I don't really know enough to be sure about that 198.41.230.81 02:14, 17 April 2015 (UTC)

It could be, Kepler was planned to be launched around the time this comic was originally published, but it was delayed due to budget cuts. While I think Kepler's Second Law explanation seems more relevant to the joke in the comic, I have updated the explanation and trivia sections to include Project Kepler. 172.68.78.70 18:40, 16 February 2017 (UTC)

There is a community portal discussion of what to call Cueball and what to do in case with more than one Cueball. I have added this comic to the new Category:Multiple Cueballs. Since the store manager Cueball has the interesting part of this comic, I have listed him as Cueball. Just made a note that the other guy also looks like Cueball.--Kynde (talk) 18:13, 16 March 2015 (UTC)

Need title text explanation.162.158.58.123 23:38, 21 October 2017 (UTC)