Editing 804: Pumpkin Carving
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==Explanation== | ==Explanation== | ||
− | This comic is a reference to the | + | This comic is a reference to the custom of carving {{w|pumpkins}} to set out on porches and front steps for the holiday of {{w|Halloween}}, which occurs on October 31. (This comic was released 20 days before Halloween in 2010, maybe trying to give people some great ideas for their pumpkins.) |
− | The | + | The pumpkin has the inside emptied out and a face or design carved in the side. Then a light is placed inside (usually a candle). These are called "{{w|Jack-o'-lantern|Jack-O'-Lantern}}s". The Jack-O'-Lantern in the 3rd frame is the typical and standard design for a carved pumpkin. |
− | In the | + | The comic is set up as a typical TV program where an off-screen interviewer asks four (very) different people what they have made out of their Halloween pumpkin. In the [http://xkcd.com/804/info.0.json official transcript] the interviewer that talks in three of the panels is called an [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/interlocutor Interlocutor]; "A person who takes part in dialogue or conversation." |
− | In the | + | In the '''1st frame''', [[Beret Guy]], naturally, stays oddly on-topic by physically carving an image of a pumpkin in his pumpkin. |
− | Black Hat | + | In the '''2nd frame''', [[Black Hat]] is shown with a box of {{w|nitroglycerin}} (a highly explosive liquid that may explode violently by just small bump) next to his pumpkin. He has not carved a hole for his lamp, but it seems he has emptied the inside of the pumpkin as the stem at the top has been removed. This will make it possible to fill up the pumpkin with nitroglycerin which would cause it to explode if agitated. Teenagers are a rather impulsive and rebellious lot{{Citation needed}}; as Halloween is a night with lots of meticulously erected decorations and more lax parental supervision, troublemaker teens see it as an enticing time to engage in rampant vandalism, including but not limited to pumpkin-smashing. Hence, the off-panel character presumes that Black Hat is setting up a trap to get back at these ne'er-do-wells. |
− | + | Black Hat, rather unconvincingly, insists that his pumpkin is suffering from chest pains, and that he is merely treating these pains with nitroglycerin. While it is true that this chemical is used to treat {{w|angina}} (chest pain due to blocked arteries in the heart), nitroglycerin used for this purpose is dispensed in small spray bottles and controlled by prescription. Also, pumpkins are a vegetable and do thus not contain nervous or circulatory systems of mammalian complexity; even if they did, the process of pumpkin carving involves hollowing them out, making it a moot point. | |
− | + | To top it off, Black Hat plans to put up a sign warning passers-by to not smash the pumpkin. This would only serve to tempt impulsive teenagers to disturb it, which is very likely what the sadistic and chaos-loving [[72: Classhole|Classhole]] is hoping for. If he succeeds with his plan, with a completely hollowed out pumpkin of the shown size filled with nitroglycerin it would seem likely that he would kill a teenager that stomped on it, or at least would blow off a leg. In either case a punishment that most people would not consider befitting of such a petty crime. | |
− | + | [[Randall]] was out in time with this comic for someone to try this out at home when Halloween fell 20 days later. It has been known (particularly by Randall) that people copy his ideas... See for instance this earlier [http://xkcd.com/chesscoaster/ post] on xkcd based on [[249: Chess Photo]]. Soon after he even made a comic, [[254: Comic Fragment]], that was supposed to be impossible to copy, which he mentioned him self later (see the explanation). So he must have been expecting someone to try this one out... | |
− | + | In the '''3rd frame''', [[Megan]] is our typical emotional xkcd comic character. She is projecting herself onto the typical jack-o'-lantern she has carved (as the only one of the four), which she has even named Harold. It (or she) has been using a lot of time daydreaming and she has just realized that she now uses that time for worrying. She(it) now tries to distract herself with holiday traditions, but she already knows that it won't work. An example of a typical holiday depression. | |
− | + | In the '''4th and frame''', [[Cueball]] is shown in front of two un-carved pumpkins exclaming that he carved and carved in one and sudenly had two. He is here referencing the {{w|Banach-Tarski paradox}} (which is made clear in the title text), a theorem which states that it is possible to carve a three-dimensional ball, in this case a pumpkin, into a finite number of "pieces," and then reassemble these "pieces" into two different balls identical to the original. This paradox has been proven for just about anything theoretically, but requires infinitely complicated pieces, which are impossible for anything made of physical {{w|atomic theory|atoms}} rather than mathematical {{w|point (geometry)|points}}. | |
− | The axiom of | + | The off-screen interviewer in that frame references the {{w|Axiom of Choice}} stating that Cueball should not have used that. The axiom says that given a set of buckets or bins, each containing one or more objects, it is possible to select exactly one object from each bucket. The Banach-Tarski rests on several axioms which are fairly well respected, but also requires the Axiom of Choice to work correctly. So a person who does not believe in the Axiom of Choice would not have been able to do what Cueball managed to do. |
− | This | + | The title text says that {{w|Solomon|King Solomon}} developed the Banach-Tarski theorem first. This is a reference to the story of two women being brought before him. Both were arguing that a particular child was their own. Solomon said that the solution was to cut the baby in half and give each woman one of the halves. One of the two women said that the other should have the baby whole. Solomon then knew she was the true mother, and gave her the child. The joke is that Solomon may have actually intended to cut the child, but, believing that two whole children could be made from the one, intended to give a baby to each woman, and the Banach-Tarski paradox states that, were the baby infinitely divisible, it should have been possible. As he of course failed completely in this process (so in Randall's version he actually did try to cut the baby), he set back the set theory for centuries, because he had "proved" the theorem wrong. The axiom of choice and set theory was later referenced in [[982: Set Theory]] and, much later, the axiom of choice was mentioned again in the title text of [[1724: Proofs]]. |
==Transcript== | ==Transcript== | ||
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:Interviewer (off-panel): ... | :Interviewer (off-panel): ... | ||
− | :[Black Hat stands behind a large orange pumpkin which has not been carved out as a lamp, but the stem at the top has been removed and is placed tilting on the side of the pumpkin. It is sitting on a table. A gray box stands next to and partly in front of the pumpkin. On the end of the box there is a label at the top with unreadable text and below that some kind of drawing with a circle at the top. The interviewer speaks from off panel.] | + | :[Black Hat stands behind a large orange pumpkin which has not been carved out as a lamp, but the stem at the top has been removed and is placed tilting on the side of the pumpkin. It is sitting on a table. A gray box with a labeled and a warning stands next to and partly in front of the pumpkin. On the end of the box there is a label at the top with unreadable text and below that some kind of drawing with a circle at the top. The interviewer speaks from off panel.] |
:Interviewer (off-panel): Taking on teen vandals, I see. | :Interviewer (off-panel): Taking on teen vandals, I see. | ||
− | :Black Hat: Heavens, | + | :Black Hat: Heavens, No. My pumpkin simply has chest pains. In fact, I'll leave a note ''warning'' them not to smash it. |
− | : | + | :Label: |
::Nitro- | ::Nitro- | ||
::glycerin | ::glycerin | ||
− | ::Do | + | :Waning: Do not shake |
− | |||
:[Megan stands next to a large orange pumpkin with the stem on top. It is sitting on a table. The pumpkin has been carved out as a typical Halloween lamp. The bottom part of a white candle stick is visible in the mouth shaped hole. The hole is in the shape of a typical jack-o' lantern, with two slanted eyes, double slit nose and a smiling mouth with a tooth sticking out from both upper and lower lip, on either side of the candle stick.] | :[Megan stands next to a large orange pumpkin with the stem on top. It is sitting on a table. The pumpkin has been carved out as a typical Halloween lamp. The bottom part of a white candle stick is visible in the mouth shaped hole. The hole is in the shape of a typical jack-o' lantern, with two slanted eyes, double slit nose and a smiling mouth with a tooth sticking out from both upper and lower lip, on either side of the candle stick.] |