Difference between revisions of "Talk:1053: Ten Thousand"
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Yesterday I did just this! My mother had mentos and I had diet coke, and asked her if we should try to mix them (so I could show it to my children). And it turned out she'd never heard about it. So after we tried it with some success, I showed her this comic as well ;-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:20, 11 March 2016 (UTC) | Yesterday I did just this! My mother had mentos and I had diet coke, and asked her if we should try to mix them (so I could show it to my children). And it turned out she'd never heard about it. So after we tried it with some success, I showed her this comic as well ;-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:20, 11 March 2016 (UTC) | ||
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| + | To explain the math...In a given year the age of people under 30 is 4 million/yr * 30 yrs. Each of these people have a 1/30 chance of learning "it" in a given year: 4 000 000/yr * 30yr * 1/30yr * 1yr/365day = 4 000 000 / 365day ~= 10 959/day [[User:Zelcon|Zelcon]] ([[User talk:Zelcon|talk]]) 23:37, 7 September 2016 (UTC) | ||
Revision as of 23:37, 7 September 2016
Regarding: "This also assumes that 10,000 people learn of something every day from the day they are born." That's not accurate. Whatever the any distribution of "age you learn" is, the average will hold. For example, if everybody learns some particular fact on their 21st birthday, it holds simply becuase there are roughly 10,000 people having their 21st birthday each and every day.
I think it also may be referring, in a tongue-in-cheek manner, to the fact that people who call people idiots because they don't know something, and yet fail to explain it, are creating ignorance to criticise it.
Person A says, "What is x?"
Person B responds, "You're an idiot for not knowing x."
Person B is now responsible for the idiocy he claims Person A to have, thus making Person B the real idiot. In this comic, he makes this point by refusing to be Person B, while at the same time making subtle references to still having the sadistic glee person B has.76.29.225.28 22:37, 24 June 2013 (UTC)
I think he's getting the pleasure of seeing the look on Person A's face when Person A learns/sees something incredible! I think it's more of a positive. -- Theo (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
I wonder which relative came back to life?Pennpenn (talk) 05:02, 30 January 2014 (UTC)
Would someone care to explain the math behind this comic? 108.162.219.10 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
- I did a try. The age is unimportant, it's only the birth rate. I'm happy about a feedback. --Dgbrt (talk) 20:18, 13 May 2014 (UTC)
Looks like there might be a callback to this comic in the latest What-If. http://what-if.xkcd.com/135/ 108.162.210.177 10:14, 6 April 2015 (UTC)
Yesterday I did just this! My mother had mentos and I had diet coke, and asked her if we should try to mix them (so I could show it to my children). And it turned out she'd never heard about it. So after we tried it with some success, I showed her this comic as well ;-) --Kynde (talk) 13:20, 11 March 2016 (UTC)
To explain the math...In a given year the age of people under 30 is 4 million/yr * 30 yrs. Each of these people have a 1/30 chance of learning "it" in a given year: 4 000 000/yr * 30yr * 1/30yr * 1yr/365day = 4 000 000 / 365day ~= 10 959/day Zelcon (talk) 23:37, 7 September 2016 (UTC)
