xkcd

[halfeye]

Yeah, definitely a T-Rex riding on an airplane so far.

Now it's sawing off the branch it's sitting on.

[IthilanorStPete]

Looks like the details got revealed ahead of time.

Spoiler

Show

Amazon has an entry for a What If? 2 book.

[halfeye]

Looks like the details got revealed ahead of time.

Spoiler

Show

Amazon has an entry for a What If? 2 book.

Well today xkcd also has an advert for a What if 2 book, released 13.9.2022.

[Ortho]

Looks like there's a new What If? on the horizon.

[IthilanorStPete]

I really enjoyed the first book, and it looks like this will have a good bit of content that hasn't been published online, so I went ahead and preordered. Looking forward to it!

[Dire_Flumph]

Just found out about this. Glad more What if is coming, but we couldn't have gotten a sampler? Really miss when the blog was updated semi-regularly.

[halfeye]

I like this one, there are far too many plug/PSU combos that want to stop you using to socket next to them.

[Rockphed]

I like this one, there are far too many plug/PSU combos that want to stop you using to socket next to them.

Typically having one on a powerstrip isn't too bad. However, I agree that it is too hard to use some. I like that lots of things in the US use the 3 prong male to 3 (slightly different) prong female cords like computers. I was really annoyed at work when a monitor used DC power and we couldn't find the supply.

[Maat Mons]

Here's a real-life Cursed Connector. If you don't understand why it's cursed, when you have something plugged into the socket, and one of the plugs in a wall outlet, but the other one dangling, the bare metal of the dangling plug is live at 120V AC.

[Keltest]

Here's a real-life Cursed Connector. If you don't understand why it's cursed, when you have something plugged into the socket, and one of the plugs in a wall outlet, but the other one dangling, the bare metal of the dangling plug is live at 120V AC.

Thats only cursed in the same way that a surge protector is cursed if you chew open the rubber casing and start eating the wires while its plugged in. Its intended that both plugs be in sockets for its normal function.

[Maat Mons]

Normal function isn't just when it's sitting plugged in. The process of plugging and unplugging is a part also part of normal function. This thing becomes unsafe for a period during plugging or unplugging, unless a specific order is followed. And people aren't going to do that.

Also, it won't work if you plug it into an outlet protected by GFI or GFCI. Current electrical code in the US requires that on all outdoor outlets. And this thing is marketed for use with RVs, which you would typically expect to plug into an outdoor outlet. That means you're limited to old outlets, or you have to run extension chords out a window.

I'm actually of the opinion that our electrical outlets here in the US aren't well designed, because there's a point between full plugged in and fully unplugged where it's possible to touch bare metal carrying 120V. This thing takes that issue and turns it up to 11.

I'm also of the opinion that GFCI should be required on all breakers. Based on how the code keeps getting updated to require it more places, I think my wish will come true one of these days.

[halfeye]

https://xkcd.com/2596/

There are way too many galaxies.

[hajo]

New april-special xkcd 'Instructions'

Spoiler: about turtles and coding in LOGO

Show

as a very long audio-recording.
The instructions also paint a nice picture

See also explainxkcd and github .

[Rockphed]

Normally I either get or don't the joke on my own. This is one of the few times where once I saw what was going on I just gave up and looked for an explanation.

[Maat Mons]

Today's strip makes me wonder if anyone's set up a webpage where you can create weird, non-standard maps by rotating the world relative to the projection. It'd be pretty easy to do, with the possible exception of an interrupted Goode homolosine projection. Though if they can get that working, I'd like to try creating one with the interruptions going through the continents to better preserve the shapes of the oceans.

[Radar]

Today's strip makes me wonder if anyone's set up a webpage where you can create weird, non-standard maps by rotating the world relative to the projection. It'd be pretty easy to do, with the possible exception of an interrupted Goode homolosine projection. Though if they can get that working, I'd like to try creating one with the interruptions going through the continents to better preserve the shapes of the oceans.

Now I kind of want to see and animation made from various map projections, where the center of perspective is rotated over time. Could be equally trippy as a lava lamp.

edit: I found this little website. Does not have all that many projections available and only the sane ones, but it is still quite fun to play around with.

[theangelJean]

Today's strip makes me wonder if anyone's set up a webpage where you can create weird, non-standard maps by rotating the world relative to the projection. It'd be pretty easy to do, with the possible exception of an interrupted Goode homolosine projection. Though if they can get that working, I'd like to try creating one with the interruptions going through the continents to better preserve the shapes of the oceans.

You did see the click-through to the comic, right? It only does Mercator, and I'm guessing you can't "rotate" by dragging the mouse, but it's a start.

[Maat Mons]

I hadn't noticed the comic was clickable. That's pretty cool, and you can simulate rotation with a combination of vertical and horizontal shifts.

[halfeye]

Today's strip makes me wonder

Today's? that was up on Saturday at the latest.

I do agree it's fun.

[Dire_Flumph]

Only found out because I clicked on the wrong bookmark, but he's posted the first What If? in almost exactly four years.

[theangelJean]

only found out because i clicked on the wrong bookmark, but he's posted the first what if? in almost exactly four years.

SLIPPERY WHEN DRY

Edit: aww, my original all-caps post got auto converted to lower case by the forum.

[Fyraltari]

SLIPPERY WHEN DRY

Edit: aww, my original all-caps post got auto converted to lower case by the forum.

OUTRAGEOUS!abcde

[137beth]

I'm a few updates late, but I want to go to whatever university has enough topologists to get us our own department.

[halfeye]

https://xkcd.com/2636/

Aren't some of these just wrong?

July 8th's for example?

pi ^ e would be something between pi ^ 2 and pi ^ 3, which isn't a huge number.

[IthilanorStPete]

https://xkcd.com/2636/

Aren't some of these just wrong?

July 8th's for example?

pi ^ e would be something between pi ^ 2 and pi ^ 3, which isn't a huge number.

July 8 is 2^(pi^e), which is about 5.8 million. 2^(pi^e) seconds is 66 days and 17 hours, per Wolfram Alpha, which is on the money.

[halfeye]

July 8 is 2^(pi^e), which is about 5.8 million. 2^(pi^e) seconds is 66 days and 17 hours, per Wolfram Alpha, which is on the money.

How does that work?

pi is not a big number, and nor is e.

2 is also not a big number.

2 ^ 2 is 4, 2 ^ 4 is 16, 2 ^ 16 is 65,536 (after some faffing), 2 ^ 24 = 16,777,216, 2 ^ 32 = 4,294,967,296. Okay, that looks as if it might work, but I stlll think he's taking the michael.

[georgie_leech]

How does that work?

pi is not a big number, and nor is e.

2 is also not a big number.

2 ^ 2 is 4, 2 ^ 4 is 16, 2 ^ 16 is 65,536 (after some faffing), 2 ^ 24 = 16,777,216, 2 ^ 32 = 4,294,967,296. Okay, that looks as if it might work, but I stlll think he's taking the michael.

pi^e is a little more than 22. You can check the numbers yourself. Google will happily calculate 2^(pi^e) if you type literally that into the search bar, for instance.

[TheStranger]

How does that work?

pi is not a big number, and nor is e.

2 is also not a big number.

2 ^ 2 is 4, 2 ^ 4 is 16, 2 ^ 16 is 65,536 (after some faffing), 2 ^ 24 = 16,777,216, 2 ^ 32 = 4,294,967,296. Okay, that looks as if it might work, but I stlll think he's taking the michael.

Exponents are fun and produce big numbers from small numbers quicker than intuition tells you (the wheat on a chessboard problem is a classic example). Pi^e is about 22.45. 2^22.45 is about 5.8 million. The math checks out.

[Radar]

How does that work?

pi is not a big number, and nor is e.

2 is also not a big number.

2 ^ 2 is 4, 2 ^ 4 is 16, 2 ^ 16 is 65,536 (after some faffing), 2 ^ 24 = 16,777,216, 2 ^ 32 = 4,294,967,296. Okay, that looks as if it might work, but I stlll think he's taking the michael.

Numbers can surprise you like that. This case here (stacked exponentiation) has even a specific notation and further extension. Some other cases are far less obvious and a bit tricky to see, why the numbers suddenly get larger than we can reasonably write down. For example Ackermann's function does not look so bad, but in actuality it reproduces the up-arrow notation linked earlier in this post. Of course there are plenty of procedures to get even more crazy numbers.

[Maat Mons]

Arguably, much of the universe is made of chemicals, so chemists should have a pretty big slice of that pie chart.