Talk:2702: What If 2 Gift Guide

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
Revision as of 21:58, 24 November 2022 by 172.71.154.156 (talk) (Psychology: hi)
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The puzzle is almost certainly a reference to the Monty Hall problem, since that's usually framed in terms of 3 doors: behind 2 are goats (bad prizes), behind the third is a new (the desirable prize). While the other puzzles share some attributes, I doubt they're intended. Barmar (talk) 21:55, 23 November 2022 (UTC)

Who says goats are a bad prize? If you want to make goat's milk cheese, they are quite necessary. Whereas a car may be a burden, most states still require the recipient to pay sales tax, which can be thousands of dollars. SDSpivey (talk) 01:58, 24 November 2022 (UTC)
Maybe figuring out how to transport the goats in the new car without the goats ruining it would also be a puzzle.172.71.102.215


The goat can be left on its own, but not with the fox or the cabbage. 172.70.162.135 00:12, 24 November 2022 (UTC)


Another problem with the James Webb photo is that, from its orbit, the Earth appears too close to the Sun to be safe to photograph. So, the recipient of the gift would have to travel into deep space, well past the orbit of the Moon, for the shoot. 172.70.111.29 22:22, 23 November 2022 (UTC)

Wasn't Bobcat in a Box inspired by xkcd #576 and its title text, which wasn't even the first boxed bobcat in xkcd? Feels weird to say that the boxed bobcat is a reference to an external brand and not xkcd's rich internal history of mailing people bobcats. GreatWyrmGold (talk) 06:14, 24 November 2022 (UTC)

I assume that even if the platinum (or platinum-iridium) cylinder used to define kilogram was recreation, rather than original, it would still be very expensive ($31,965 per kg). --JakubNarebski (talk) 11:40, 24 November 2022 (UTC)

"Katherine and Brandon"

Could someone explain those Names in the "Chemistry" entry to me? It would be very atypical for Randall to make a mistake in that place, but both seem to be impossible to spell with the periodic table of elements. Potassium, Astatine and Helium would give K-At-He- (and some radiation posioning) and Iodine and Neon -Id-Ne. But neither Rubidium (Ru), nor Radium (Ra), nor Ruthentium (Ru), nor Rhodium (Rh) nor Radon (RN) give you a pure "R" and likewise there is no Element Ri or Er, so it is impossible to put the "R" into "Katherine". Likewise "Brandon" could be started with Boron (B), Radon (Ra), Nitrogen (N) and finished with Oxygen (O) and again Nitrogen (N), but there are only two "D"s in the whole peridoic table and both are fixed to other letters, that would not fit: Paladium (Pd) and Gadolinium (Gd). P.S.: 3 full Minutes of Captcha-solving for a Wiki? WTF??? 172.70.247.13 (talk) 23:40, 23 November 2022 (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Potassium-Astatine-Hydrogen-Erbium-Iodine-Neon 172.69.79.184 23:59, 23 November 2022 (UTC)
As for Brandon, you seem to have missed Neodymium (Nd). So, Boron-Radon-Neodymium-Oxygen-Nitrogen TurZ (talk) 07:00, 24 November 2022 (UTC)

Could he be limiting himself to rendering only the capital letters of each element? 172.71.160.43 00:17, 24 November 2022 (UTC) But Astatine is so radioactive that no one has ever seen it. A lump big enough to physically see would instantly sublimate with its own heat of radioactivity. 172.68.210.7 00:08, 24 November 2022 (UTC)

Due to the prior comic, I actually bought a Cybiko (I'm into older computer collecting). Now that he's mentioned it again, I'm thankful I got it quick, before the inevitable price rise. 108.162.221.106 01:00, 24 November 2022 (UTC)

Is it good? —While False (museum | talk | contributions | logs | rights | printable version | page information | what links there | related changes | Google search | current time: 17:39) 05:28, 24 November 2022 (UTC)
I got one, long ago. I think it has a serial connection (RS232?) as well as a radio of whatever kind, and there was reasonably good SDK support for writing your own software, on PC, to download to the Cybiko. I had and have an RSI problem with my hands, and what I tried to do is to use it as a one-handed PC keyboard - so I had to do some pretty simple programming for that, to transmit keys. On the PC end, I think that a serial keyboard was or is a standard supported disability aid option. It might wear out, thought. But currently I do better with a touch screen PC and the "FITALY" on-screen typing program - the man who wrote that died, though. Robert Carnegie [email protected] 172.70.162.222 13:03, 24 November 2022 (UTC)

Psychology

Hi, this is my first edit, I hope I'm doing it right. The psychology example is most likely about the norm of reciprocity (see Wikipedia). It's a very strong norm. Violations of this norm can indeed cause distress to a point where people express anger if they can't reciprocate (which seems somewhat irrational at times). I'm a psychology student from Germany, I might do some errors when writing in english :) 198.41.242.85 06:15, 24 November 2022 (UTC)

Welcome! 172.71.154.156 21:58, 24 November 2022 (UTC)

Baby Shoes

Has nobody mentioned the xkcd comic that references this yet? https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/1540:_Hemingway

Artinum 172.71.178.186 09:45, 24 November 2022 (UTC)