Movie Narrative Charts

Explanation:
These charts show movie character interactions. The horizontal axis is time. The vertical grouping of the lines indicates which characters are together at a given time.
A mass of colored lines weaves back and forth across the chart, representing various characters. Sauron is represented by a red bar at the bottom contained within a huge black bar with branches, that in turn represents his army of nazgul, orcs, etc. Major locations (Moria) and plot points (the breaking of the fellowship) are marked. Gandalf, especially at the beginning, jumps all over the map in a short time. Eagles appear and then disappear a couple of times. Treebeard's line is flat except for the march to Isengard. At the end, the ship to the West drifts off into a corner. The hobbits start off in the top left with Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin with Bilbo with them for a short time because of the party at the beginning.  They go off on their adventure and briefly encounter Gandalf.  They are then split up for a short time but meet back up at Weathertop when the Nazgul attack and they meet Aragorn (Strider at that point). They meet up with the rest of what becomes the fellowship of the ring at the council of Elrond at Rivendell. The newly formed fellowship must then venture into the mines of Moria which is referenced in comic 760 and comic 1218 . After encountering the Balrog and the later death of Boromir the fellowship splits up. Frodo and Sam take the ring and go off on their own to destroy it and sneak into Mordor with the help of Gollum. Merry and Pippin are captured by the Uruk-hai but are rescued by Eomer and his army. Eomer and his army then briefly reunite with Legolas, Gimli, and Aragorn while Merry and Pippin find Treebeard and flood Isengard. While Merry, Pippin and Treebeard are flooding Isengard Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas fight at Helm's Deep with Gandalf and Eomer and Theoden.  Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas go to wake the army of the dead while Pippin goes with Gandalf and Merry goes with the Rohirrim.  All of these people rejoin for the battle of the Pelennor fields where Eowyn kills the witch king after Theoden dies along with Denethor.  The orcs, men and oliphants are all destroyed and Aragorn releases the army of the dead.  All the surviving members of that battle go to the Black Gate except Eowyn and Faramir.  Sam and Frodo destroy the Ring, Gollum dies and everyone who is still alive is there for Aragorn's coronation. Everyone goes back to their respective homes except for Frodo, Gandalf, Elrond, Galadriel, and Bilbo who get on a ship to the west.
As the title text points out, most of the plot of The Lord of The Rings occurs on a rough northwest to southeast axis, with the Fellowship of the Ring traveling from the Shire near the top of chart to Mordor at the bottom of the chart (and back again.)  The most significant exception to the northwest-southeast axis is the area of the chart between "The Breaking of the Fellowship" and "Isengard Flooded."  Helm's Deep and Isengard are southwest from the overall northwest-southeast axis of the movies.
Luke, mostly accompanied by R2-D2, joins and parts from other sets of characters. There's a dotted alternative path on Jabba's line for the special edition. A dark line representing Vader, travels through the duel where he kills Obi-Wan and proceeds to the Death Star to meet with the main charcters for the first time. Vader travels to Hoth where all the characters escape and goes to Cloud City where Han is frozen. He then duels Luke before going for a long time alone and confronts Luke for a short time before taking him to the Death Star II where the climatic duel happens and he is killed. Leia at first with C-3PO is captured and placed on the Death Star before being rescued and proceeds to Hoth, Cloud City, the Sail Barge and finally to the Battle of Endor before reuniting with all the survivors. R2D2 and C-3PO are mostly together save for when Luke is attacking the Death Star and Luke's Jedi training. Luke's line swerves through most of the scenes, breaking away from the other characters during the Jedi Training, the duel on Cloud City and the duel on the Death Star II. Han and Chewie are always together as they go through all the scenes. Greedo, Lando and Boba all appear in their respective scenes. Yoda appears about halfway through (where Luke's Jedi training is marked). All the surviving lines group up at Endor except for Vader, the Emperor, Luke, and Lando; after the climactic duel, the latter two join the rest.
The human characters are in black; dinosaurs are in red. Dilophosaurus appears briefly to eat Nedry and then fades out again. the T-Rex appears at the start and swoops down on the cars and eats Gennaro. It then weaves out until the end where it eats the raptors. The three raptors are together at the beginning, but split up about halfway through. One has a dotted portion of line between "locked up" and "escapes." In the meantime, they cut off the lines of Arnold and Muldoon. Malcolm, Grant, Sattler, Hammond and the kids all weave in and out of their respective scenes. The raptor lines all end when t-rex's swoops down to meet them at the end, and all the surviving humans leave together.
This is a very famous trial film that tells the story of a jury made up of 12 men as they deliberate the guilt or acquittal of a defendant on the basis of reasonable doubt. Only one of these angry men believe the defendant may be innocent and he argues this against the other 11, eventually convincing them that there is reasonable doubt in the case.
The lines are labeled Juror 1 through Juror 12. They are all perfectly horizontal and parallel.
The joke in the 12 Angry Men graphic is that in the movie all 12 jurors (the angry men) are in the same room for the entire duration of the movie. They never move and they all always interact with each other, hence their lines stay straight and close to each other.
This is actually not entirely true. The movie begins in the court room; a couple of times during the proceedings, a few jurors go into the washroom and have a brief discussion there; and finally, in the very last scene, two jurors have a brief exchange in front of the courthouse. In fact, this chart would actually become a useful reference to the film if each of the jury's votes sessions was shaded as battles/events, and each juror's vote shown on their line, tracking when each juror's vote switches from 'guilty' to 'not guilty'. But as far as the characters' locations, there is no need for such a narrative chart, and that is the joke.
The last box is a movie called Primer from 2004, which became a cult classic.  It is about a group of engineers who discover a way to travel through time, but only in one direction (backwards) and only at the speed of regular time (i.e. you have to stay in the time machine for one hour to move an hour back in time). Because of this, the story ends up having multiple versions of the same person existing at the same time; the plot and time-travel mechanics are notoriously hard to follow, so that it is almost impossible to figure out where each character is at one time, as the comic illustrates.
Three lines start on the left labeled Abe, Aaron, and Granger. They enter a mass of scribbling. Somewhere vaguely towards the end, three lines emerge and fade out, all labeled with question marks.
The chart for Primer is referenced in the title text of the fourth image in the what if? Plastic Dinosaurs .
These charts are a reference to " Napoleon's March , " the map and statistical infographic by cartographic pioneer Charles Joseph Minard . It details the movements and losses of Napoleon's troops on his failed conquest of Russia.  The size and location of Napoleon's army are represented by tapering streams similar to the design used for Sauron's and Saruman’s troops in the LotR Chart. Minard's chart is extensively discussed by Edward Tufte in his book The Visual Display of Quantitative Information , and he summarizes some of that on his website .

[colors given approximately in HEX at first appearance]
These charts show movie character interactions.
The horizontal axis is time. The vertical grouping of the
lines indicate which characters are together at a given time.
Lord of the Rings
[yellow line (fff500)] ring
[thin line, here dark green (467120)] ringbearer
[grey colored area (e9e9e9)] battle/event
[line ending with a dot, here black] death
[bar, here light brown (daccae)] army
[line, here brown (9d7929), in a bar, here light brown] character leading army
[grey line (b7bfb6)] wizards
[brown line (9d7929)] men
[blue line (4a89a8)] elves
[dark brown line (6c411b)] dwarves
[dark turquoise line, 143035] ents
[green line (4e7629)] hobbits
[signs and colors not explained by the legend]
[Characters entering the chart on the left, from top to bottom]
[Characters leaving the chart on the right side, from top to bottom]
[The five characters leaving off the top border of the chart]
[text next to the group of five] Ship to the West
[other characters leaving on the right side]
[characters starting or leaving in the middle the chart]

Star Wars (original triology)
[Characters entering the chart on the left, from top to bottom]
[Characters leaving the chart on the right side, from top to bottom]
[Characters starting or leaving not in battle/event-areas and not on the left/right side of the chart]
Jurassic Park
[all dinosaurs are represented by red, all men by black lines]
[for dinosaurs locked up, there is a donut-sign.]
[Characters entering the chart on the left, from top to bottom]
[Characters leaving the chart on the right side]
12 angry men
[All lines go parallel, start and end at the borders of the chart. There are no areas of battle/event.]
Juror 1 --------- Juror 1 ----------- Juror 1 ------------ Juror 1
Juror 2 --------- Juror 2 ----------- Juror 2 ------------ Juror 2
Juror 3 --------- Juror 3 ----------- Juror 3 ------------ Juror 3
Juror 4 --------- Juror 4 ----------- Juror 4 ------------ Juror 4
Juror 5 --------- Juror 5 ----------- Juror 5 ------------ Juror 5
Juror 6 --------- Juror 6 ----------- Juror 6 ------------ Juror 6
Juror 7 --------- Juror 7 ----------- Juror 7 ------------ Juror 7
Juror 8 --------- Juror 8 ----------- Juror 8 ------------ Juror 8
Juror 9 --------- Juror 9 ----------- Juror 9 ------------ Juror 9
Juror 10 --------- Juror 10 ----------- Juror 10 ------------ Juror 10
Juror 11 --------- Juror 11 ----------- Juror 11 ------------ Juror 11
Juror 12 --------- Juror 12 ----------- Juror 12 ------------ Juror 12
[Three characters enter the chart on the left side, all represented by black lines]
[The lines come to a giant scribble and end up with dotted lines and question marks in the right area. One cannot see which line leads to which end.]


Orbitals

Explanation:
When determining where to place electrons in atoms, three rules are generally used: the Pauli exclusion principle , the Aufbau principle , and Hund's rule . The Pauli exclusion principle, from which the pun is derived, states that no two electrons (or indeed any fermion ) can occupy the same atomic state. Therefore, any electron orbital is limited to two electrons: one with a ½ spin, and the other with a −½ spin. The Aufbau principle states that lower energy orbitals are occupied previous to high energy orbitals. Hund's rule states that electrons will try to fill orbitals individually, and only pair up when every orbital has a lone electron in it.
In the comic, electrons are being equated to people, and rooms (or couches) are equated to orbitals. The reverse of Hund's rule is then followed: people will try to pair up in a room first, and only when all the couples have done so will rooms be allocated to single people. The Pauli exclusion principle here means that only two people can occupy a room at a time (should those people be romantically involved). The Aufbau principle therefore means that more restful rooms are filled previous to less restful rooms.
The title text jokes about drunken party-goers, who ignore the Pauli principle perhaps out of inebriation . They then end up partying and sleeping together with many people in the living room, leaving the roommate stuck in the third desirable location, the hall lounge.
[Cueball is holding up a pointer in front of a diagram of a dorm apartment. On the diagram, there are two connected pairs of dots in each bedroom, and one dot on the couch.] Cueball: Thus, once all the dorm bedrooms are occupied by romantic pairs, additional roommates are forced into less restful "living room couch" orbitals. [Caption below the panel:] The Pauli Sexclusion Principle


Lego

Explanation:
Lego blocks are a popular building toy, which Cueball here uses to describe a philosophical conundrum: the distinction between a composition, and the collection of parts that make up that composition. For example, the Lego blocks he and his daughter, Ponytail , used to make a house are still around; they were put back into the bin, and can be used on future designs. However, the house itself, as a specific combination of those blocks, is gone. It ceased to exist when they took it apart. In essence, they "killed" the house. Those blocks could be used to build a car or an airplane, so if there is still a house in the box after it has been dismantled, then there is also a car in the box and a plane in the box, and a large number of other objects in the box: making it a very crowded box. Thus, it is more logical to consider the house to be one possible arrangement of the lego blocks that only exists when the blocks are put in that arrangement.
Later in her life, Ponytail extends this thinking to humans and organ donation . The US has an opt-in system for organ donation; in the event that you die, any of your organs or tissues that remain functional after your death can be donated for transplantation or medical research, provided you've opted into the organ donor registry. Ponytail compares her organs to the Lego blocks she's carrying - even if she (the composition) dies, her organs (the pieces) can continue to serve another. As such, she is compelled to register as an organ donor.
The title text is the same question asked in the first panel, from this new perspective - instead of asking where the Lego house went, the questioner (presumably a young child, possibly still Ponytail) is asking where their Grandpa went. Humans are a composition of many parts; the parts are usually buried or cremated when we die, but the composition is something else entirely. What exactly happens to a human composition after death is a question for religious debate, but we know for sure it doesn't stay here . Alternatively, if Grandpa chose to donate his organs (or, because the final decision is actually made by the deceased individual's family, if Cueball and Grandpa's other relatives choose to have Grandpa's organs donated), Grandpa would be in multiple other people, assuming that at least some of his organs were fit to be donated when he died.
[Ponytail and her father Cueball are putting away Lego bricks.] Cueball: When you take apart a Lego house and mix the pieces into the bin, where does the house go? Ponytail: It's in the bin.
Cueball: No, those are just pieces. They could become spaceships or trains. The house was an arrangement. The arrangement doesn't stay with the pieces and it doesn't go anywhere else. It's just gone.
[Ponytail, older, is standing at a desk. She's holding a couple of Lego bricks.]
[She looks at the bricks.]
[She checks off a box next to the words "Organ Donor" on a paper on the desk.]


Sympathy

Explanation:
This comic plays at the lack of social skills physicists and other people in heavily scientific disciplines are stereotypically believed to have. The example displayed is a case of condolence, in which the appropriate behaviour would of course be to express compassion with the bereaved, as shown in the second panel.
In the third panel, the physicist fails to display the endorsed demeanour. Instead, he takes a scientific approach towards the statement of his friend. He points out that the transmission of the pain the latter believes to have felt, is in fact limited by the speed of light and could therefore not have been 'instant'. By saying so, he betrays an absence of feeling towards his friend, as well as his inability to understand the figurative sense of the words.
In the last panel, the physicist takes the previous to a bizarre extreme and reflects on the consequences that would follow if the statement of his friend were indeed literally true. According to special relativity , any object travelling faster than at the speed of light would in fact move backwards in time. The physicist therefore plans to utilize this effect in order to construct a tachyonic antitelephone , a device that allows sending information to the past. To confirm the initial condition, he makes the utterly inappropriate proposal to start a series of measurements with other family members of his friend.
A correction of the misdemeanour is suggested in the title text: The antitelephone might be used to change causality and save the original brother from dying in the first place. Of course, saying the latter would not be of much help in the given scenario, although it does serve a noticeable improvement over the last two panels.
Note how he says 'original brother', noting that although he would have saved his brother, another family member would have to have been killed to do so.
The use of right/wrong/very wrong is also presented in 803: Airfoil .
Sympathy Tips for Physicists [Cueball and friend are talking.] Friend: The moment my brother died, I felt a searing pain in my heart.
Right: [Cueball places his hand on the friend's shoulder.] Cueball: I'm so sorry.
Wrong: Cueball: Was it instant, or was there a speed-of-light delay?
Very Wrong: [Cueball thoughtfully puts his hand on his chin.] Cueball: If it was instant, with the right arrangement of moving reference frames, we could use this to send signals back in time and violate causality! How many remaining siblings do you have?


Two-Party System

Explanation:
Ponytail is running for class president , but gets shouted down by Billy the Political Activist (or at least, he thinks he might become one some day). Someone on the Internet must have told Billy that all he has to know about politics is that America's two-party system is broken. Because we all know the problem with believing what you read on the Internet .
The United States uses Plurality voting , where each voter may make one vote per office. In most democratic countries, this system tends to reinforce the top two political parties and marginalize smaller ones (such as the Bull Moose Party , which only lasted from 1912 to 1916) though this is greatly pronounced in the United States, where the Democratic and Republican parties have passed many barriers to entry , making things much more difficult for parties other than themselves to gain any traction.
Approval voting (AV) and Instant-runoff voting (IRV) are alternative voting schemes that allow support for multiple candidates. Such systems might make it easier for 3rd parties to field viable candidates. AV is a simple extension of plurality voting where each voter "approves" as many of the candidates as they wish. The winner is the candidate with the most votes. Approval voting tends to favor moderate candidates with broad appeal. IRV is a form of Ranked choice voting where a voter is allowed to select multiple choices, but must assign a rank or weight to each choice. If a candidate receives more than 50% of all 1st choice votes, they win as in a traditional election. If no candidate has a majority of 1st choice votes, the candidate with the fewest 1st choice votes is eliminated, and those 1st choice votes are replaced by their respective 2nd choice option and the resulting totals are compared for a 50%+ winner. This process is repeated until a winner is determined.
[Ponytail stands at a podium behind a lectern, giving a speech.] Ponytail: And if I'm elected, I'll try to fix some of these problems. Billy, off-panel: Yeah, right!
[A boy in the audience is standing on his chair.] Billy: The real problem is the corporate-run two-party system. Until we fix that , we'll have no real change!
Ponytail: Billy, I'm running for class president. We don't even have political parties. Billy: That's because the two-party, uh... estab... uh.
Ponytail: Billy, did you learn about politics from the internet? Billy: I thought that one reply was all I ever needed!


iPhone or Droid

Explanation:
The comic starts to set up a joke about the "phone wars" between the iPhone and phones that run the Android system (in this case the Motorola Droid ), but instead just brings up a serious point criticizing the consumerism this "war" stems from. In the last line of panel 2, Cueball refers to the slogan "There's an app for that" from Apple's iPhone marketing.
Then the third panel makes a joke anyway, at Apple's expense: apparently, this "enlightenment app" was rejected from Apple's app store, which is the only supported way to put software on an iPhone. Apple has become infamous for rejecting apps from their app store without adequately explaining why. Android devices, on the other hand, are not limited to an app store and can install software from any origin. Many, however, use the Google Play Store as a primary repository for apps.
In the title text Cueball succumbs to the consumerism and marvels at the Motorola Droid's high (at the time) Pixel density . Apple responded 9 months later by releasing the iPhone 4 with a 326 ppi Retina Display . (Higher pixel densities are now standard for smartphones.)
[Megan sitting at her computer is talking to Cueball standing behind her.] Megan: Well, it depends what you want. The iPhone wins on speed and polish, but the Droid has that gorgeous screen and physical keyboard.
Cueball: What if I want something more than the pale facsimile of fulfillment brought by a parade of ever-fancier toys? To spend my life restlessly producing instead of sedately consuming? Cueball: Is there an app for that ?
Megan: Yeah, on both. Megan: Wait, no, looks like it was rejected from the iPhone store. Cueball: Droid it is, then.


Sagan-Man

Explanation:
Carl Sagan was an advocate for science, space and SETI (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence). He wrote the book Contact , which was later made into the movie by the same name. While Sagan did not emit anomalous radiation in his lifetime [ citation needed ] , he did receive acclaim in the field of radiology, namely for using radiation to synthesize amino acids from simpler chemicals.
This comic is parodying Spider-Man , in which Peter Parker is bitten by a radioactive spider to become Spider-Man. In this comic "a radioactive Carl Sagan" turns the person into "Sagan-Man". Apparently, Sagan-Man is able to stop thieves in their tracks by blowing their minds with inspiring scientific facts.
The title text implies that Sagan-Man's vivid imagery inspires the entire "criminal class" to give up their anti-social ways and turn to space research.
[A yellow box extends across the top of the first 3 of 5 panels, introducing Sagan-Man:] Bitten by a radioactive Carl Sagan in 1995, Sagan-Man possesses the powers and abilities of Carl Sagan. [A Cueball-like character is standing on the left side of the panel, with a victim off-panel to the right.] Victim (off-panel): Help! Thief! [The Cueball-like character spins around, turning into Sagan-Man with a blue cape appearing on his back.] [Sagan-Man runs to the right towards the direction of the victim.] [Sagan-Man encounters the thief, who is holding a purse.] Sagan-Man: Hey, you! Thief: What? [Sagan-Man and the thief are now standing facing each other.] Sagan-Man: Do you realize just how crazy it is that we've BEEN TO THE MOON?


Academia vs. Business

Explanation:
Cueball has solved some tricky and very important problem in computer science, related to queueing theory .
The comic splits into two timelines. Showing the brilliant computer code he'd written to somebody who actually knows computer code allows the academic to see the programmer's true brilliance and get him much-earned plaudits from the academic community.
In the alternate timeline – implied to be what actually happens – the boss, not possessing that knowledge, simply sees the results and not the means Cueball used to attain them. He then gives Cueball another assignment. This, sadly, is the usual course of events in bureaucracy, which only seems to care about your results, not how you came about them. To drive in the point, the boss asks Cueball to do something as simple as setting up email on the office phones, a stark contrast to the skill and creativity Cueball would have needed to write his code in the first panel.
The references in the title text are to the P versus NP problem , a famous unsolved problem in computer science, and the "magical constant" (0x5f375a86) used in finding the fast inverse square root , i.e. solving y=1/√x as fast as possible through a program – no-one knows quite who came up with this very useful bit of code (Now believed to be devised by Greg Walsh at Ardent Computer in consultation with Cleve Moler, the creator of MATLAB. see wikipedia), but it was discovered hiding in the graphics code of the video game Quake III Arena . Note that the actual constant used in the Quake III source code is 0x5f375 9df , but the constant in the title text works also, and is actually slightly more accurate as shown in this paper: Fast inverse square root by CHRIS LOMONT (Purdue university, 2003) .
The title text may be a reference to Stephen Jay Gould 's quotation: “I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein’s brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.” originally about how great minds are suppressed due to racism and their genius go unknown, but could be interpreted as general exploitation by the commercial world.
[Cueball sits at a desk in front of a computer, leaning back in his chair with both hands down to his side. There are cans on the desk and more crushed ones on the floor.] Cueball: I just wrote the most beautiful code of my life.
[Zoom in on Cueball and top half of desk.] Cueball: They casually handed me an impossible problem. In 48 hours and 200 lines, I solved it.
[Curved lines with arrows divide the comic into two possible end panels, labeled "Academia" and "Business."]
Academia: Professor: My god... this will mean a half-dozen papers, a thesis or two, and a paragraph in every textbook on queuing theory!
Business: Boss: You got the program to stop jamming up? Great. While you're fixing stuff, can you get Outlook to sync with our new phones?


Prudence

Explanation:
This comic references the fantasy novel series The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis . In the first published book (second chronologically), The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe , Lucy discovers the fictional world of Narnia which can be accessed through a wardrobe, and she walks into it without ever considering the risks. Her three older siblings do not believe her, so she travels back alone again. But this second time her brother Edmund follows her, and he is seduced by the White Witch in order for her to be able to kill him and his three siblings (see title text explanation below). Thus proving that it was a rather dangerous move to just walk into the wardrobe.
The comic mocks the imprudent behavior shown by the protagonist Lucy of the novel, who enters the world of Narnia without knowing anything about its dangers. In the comic, Lucy (drawn as a child version of Megan , clearly not adult as she only just reaches the wardrobes handles with her head), discovers the magical wardrobe while playing hide-and-seek , like in the book. Unlike in the original book, Lucy does not precipitately set foot into Narnia. Instead, she fetches her technical equipment and sends a remote-controlled probe through the wardrobe door in order to sound the situation first.
The probe encounters Mr. Tumnus the faun with his umbrella at a lamppost in a snowy wood on the last panel. This picture is the first impression of Narnia in the novels and was apparently Lewis' original idea for the series.
The probe is clearly modeled after Mars rovers like Spirit and Opportunity, which Randall depicted for the first time only a few comics later in 681: Gravity Wells and then in 695: Spirit . The probe looks even more like the one in 1504: Opportunity . This also explains the title of the comic, as it is the name of Lucy's probe. The naming scheme is similar to the two probes mentioned above that were already on Mars at the time of this comics release. And even more so like the upcoming Curiosity rover which was first launched two years after this comic, but had been named earlier in the year this comic was released. Lucy was curious in the first Narnia book, but in this comic she is prudent .
The White Witch mentioned in the title text is the main antagonist in the novel. She originally lures Edmund with a hot drink and magical Turkish delight after her sleigh passes right by him. In the scenario mentioned in the title text, she is confused when she rolls up to the rover and then tries to tempt the probe with a firmware update accordingly.
The procedure of sending a probe first through a portal has also been used in the early Stargate episodes.  This draws a parallel between the wardrobe in Narnia and the Stargate, both connecting two distant worlds.  The stargate probe can be seen here .
Megan (or Lucy) also takes a scientific approach to Narnia in one of the comics of 821: Five-Minute Comics: Part 3 . In that comic she uses the different passage of time in Narnia to her advantage (it usually runs much faster than on Earth). That effect would have been a problem with controlling the rover in this comic.
[A small girl, with hair like Megan, is running towards a closed wardrobe.] Voice (off-panel): Everyone hide! 99... 98... 97...
[The girl opens one of the two doors on the wardrobe.] Wardrobe: click
[The girl is looking inside the wardrobe through the fully opened door.] Girl: !!!
[The girl puts a hand to her chin.]
[The girl walks away.]
[The girl returns with an armful of electronics including lots of wires and a rover with wheels.]
[The girl is kneeling, typing on a laptop, which has a cord extending into the wardrobe.]
[In a forest with many tall leafless trees the Mars rover is approaching a lamppost with a lit candle. Behind it stands a faun with horns, goatee beard and hooves holding an umbrella.]


Silent Hammer

Explanation:
Black Hat has created a set of tools that work in complete silence so that he can go to the house of the chairman of the American Skeptics Society late at night, do some rearranging of walls and moving of windows, just to screw with him in typical Black Hat fashion. Imagine how surprised the person must be when they wake up and discover their whole house has been rearranged! A skeptic is someone who questions knowledge, facts and beliefs, especially of supernatural phenomena like the existence of poltergeists which Black Hat is trying to imitate with his rearranging and scratching noises.
The American Skeptics Society is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting skeptical and critical thinking in education and public discourse. The executive director and chief editor of the Skeptic Magazine , Michael Shermer , is a leading proponent of skepticism, and has written many books and articles debunking pseudoscience, fringe science, quack medicine, alien abductions, conspiracy theories and supernatural phenomena . The Skeptic Society website and Skeptic magazine feature a lot of material debunking anecdotal accounts of these phenomena, explaining how events like "hauntings" could have occurred without supernatural intervention.
One of the premises of modern skepticism is that the supernatural is not rejected out of hand; if someone came up with a proper scientific hypothesis that predicted something supernatural and that hypothesis was proven beyond reasonable doubt, a skeptic would accept that the supernatural thing in question was probably correct.
In the title text Cueball realizes that Black Hat has (probably intentionally) ruined his antique table by demonstrating his silent hammer.
Black Hat's tools are seen in two boxes labeled "Drills" and "Non-Drills", likely a reference to the phrase "this is not a drill", used to differentiate an emergency situation from a practice of procedure for such.
Note that this comic is numbered 666 (number) , which is often associated with supernatural things due to it being consider the "number of the beast" by some people.
[Black Hat is hammering something on a table.] Cueball: What— Black Hat: Silent hammer. I've made a set of silent tools. Cueball: Why? Hammer: woosh woosh woosh
Black Hat: Stealth carpentry. Breaking into a house at night and moving windows, adjusting walls, etc. [He takes his silent hammer over to a tool bench with other things on it. Two boxes underneath are labeled "Drills" and "Non-Drills."]
Black Hat, narrating: After a week or so of questioning his own sanity, the owner will stay up to watch the house at night. I'll make scratching noises in the walls, pipe in knockout gas, move him up to his bed, and never bother him again. [The events he's describing are shown in two mini-panels below.]
[Zoom in on Black Hat, with Cueball off-panel to the left.] Cueball, off-panel: Nice prank, I guess, but what's the point? Black Hat: Check out the owner's card, on the table. Cueball, off-panel: Chair of the American Skeptics Society? Oh, god. Black Hat: Yeah, this doesn't end well for him.


SkiFree

Explanation:
SkiFree is a video game released in 1991 which enjoyed popularity on the desktop computers of the time. In the game, you're a downhill skier who attempts to ski down a hill while avoiding obstacles which cause you to crash (which slows you down). At the start of the game, you can choose to go down three different timed/scored courses, or ignore them all and ski freely. Beyond the end of the courses you can continue skiing downhill. You can also move (slowly) uphill and sideways.
If you ski too far down the hill a monster similar to one in the comic will begin to chase you; contact with the monster ends the game. Since it's much faster than you normally, you'll get caught. The monster also appears if you travel too far in the sideways or upwards directions.
One of the lesser known commands in SkiFree is the 'F' key, which speeds you up, even faster than the monster. A second monster appears slightly further down the hill but by skiing downhill diagonally with the F key it is possible to evade both.
The joke here is that Megan has thought long and hard about the concept of the monster, relating it to the inevitability of death, and is nonplussed by the revelation that there is a simple mechanism that may allow her to escape it, thus ruining the poetic metaphor.
The title text refers to pendants or talismans that are worn to protect oneself from harm or to remind oneself of an important truth. Megan, seeing that the F key allowed her to evade inevitable death in the game, comes to believe that the F key confers some sort of immortality.
Alternatively, it may be symbolic as the monster in SkiFree seemed insurmountable (just like death) but might have a discovery in the future (the 'F' key) that can overcome it.
[A screenshot of SkiFree, with the abominable snowman running towards the player.]
[Megan is sitting at her computer with her hands on the keyboard and thinking to herself:] Megan (thought bubble): I've always thought of the SkiFree monster as a metaphor for the inevitability of death.
[Cueball comes up behind her in a frameless panel.] Cueball: SkiFree, huh? You know, you can press "F" to go faster than the monster and escape.
[The screenshot again. The player is zooming away from the monster.]
[Megan sits at her computer in silence, with her hands now down to to her side.]


Pandora

Explanation:
Pandora is a website which automatically plays songs of a certain genre based upon the user's previous musical selections. Unlike normal radio, it adapts itself to each individual user's preferences, producing playlists that the user should find enjoyable based on the user's taste in music. In other words, Pandora plays music you will probably like.
One may not want friends to find out that one enjoys certain songs and/or certain kinds of songs ("embarrassing music"), for fear of looking childish, sentimental, etc. A recent example is the soundtrack to the 2013 film Frozen : although enjoying popularity and critical acclaim, it is considered by many to be embarrassing music, because they do not want others to know that they like a soundtrack to a Disney animated film.
One certainly does not want one's embarrassing music to be played on Pandora when others are around. The frequency of this depends on individual circumstances, but generally one's embarrassing music is a small fraction of all music one likes. However, due to biased memory , people remember cases where embarrassing music is played in others' presence far better than those where "acceptable music" is played. So it appears that when others are around Pandora only plays embarrassing music.
The title text presents an example of this, the music in question being the soundtrack to Enchanted , a fantasy romantic comedy film produced by Walt Disney Pictures.  Despite the user proclaiming that the Pandora algorithm is terrible to explain why it's playing the Enchanted soundtrack, after a short period of silence the user quietly begins singing along to the song " That's How You Know " from the soundtrack, which is apparently the song currently playing.
[There is a venn diagram of two circles. The left circle is labeled "Music You Like." The right circle is labeled "Deeply Embarrassing Music." The segment on the left is labeled "What Pandora Plays," and the intersection is labeled "What Pandora Plays If Anyone Is Around."]


Experiment

Explanation:
Problems in the study of kinematics often idealize the environment of the problem for the sake of simplicity. Specifically, it is assumed that objects are moving in a vacuum and that there is no friction . Then the complicated effects of air resistance and surface frictions can be ignored, and the more basic principles of momentum and energy can be explored. In more advanced physics, it is often easier or necessary to ignore friction if the process being studied is very complicated. So it could be said that "physics professors like working in a frictionless vacuum".
In the comic, Black Hat and Danish have interpreted that statement to mean that physics professors like doing their work while they are in a frictionless vacuum, instead of liking to work with problems which are set in a frictionless vacuum. Apparently, they have drugged a physics professor and put him in a glass dome (with his laptop so he can work) which they can evacuate and make frictionless. The professor wakes up confused from the drugs, and as the air is pumped out to make a vacuum (presumably slowly enough to prevent explosive decompression from coming into play), his words fade to silence because sound waves requires a substance such as air to travel through. As he starts to panic, he tries to run, presumably for the door we see in the last panels. However, without friction on the floor, he cannot exert any force to move forward, and his feet skate uselessly on the ground until he loses balance and falls. At this point he is probably suffering from asphyxiation . Black Hat and Danish are observing from outside the dome, and decide that physics professors have lied about liking to work in frictionless vacuums.
The title text refers to another common idealization, of an infinite plane of uniform density . An infinite plane extends forever in two dimensions, which makes calculations easier because surface-related properties are identical everywhere. "Uniform density" could refer to the mass density of the plane, or more likely an electric charge density, which makes a common problem in basic electromagnetism involving calculating the electric field . The "other two physicists" that Black Hat and Danish are experimenting on are lost on the infinite plane, since there are no edges or landmarks anywhere to give them direction.
It should be noted that, although a vacuum can be approximated using a vacuum pump , frictionless surfaces and infinite planes are only imaginary constructs and do not exist in our universe. [ citation needed ]
[Darkness.]
[Cueball is standing next to a laptop, looking groggy.] Cueball: Ugh... Cueball: What happened?
[Cueball begins to regain some awareness, with his speech eventually fading out.] Cueball: Where am I? FWOOOOOOSH Cueball: Help! Someone help me (unintelligible speech due to loss of air in dome)
[Cueball holds his hands to his mouth.]
[Cueball looks shocked.]
[Cueball tries to run, but has no traction against the ground.]
[Cueball falls down.]
[Cueball lies prone and motionless.]
[Black Hat and Danish watching from outside the dome, with Black Hat holding a clipboard as if to take notes.]
[Black Hat and Danish outside the dome. Black Hat is now holding the clipboard down to his side.] Black Hat: Huh. Looks like physics professors don't like working in frictionless vacuums after all. Danish: They're such liars.


Spinal Tap Amps

Explanation:
This comic is in reference to the 1984 mock documentary This Is Spinal Tap about the tour of the fictional rock band Spinal Tap. Here we see lead guitarist Nigel Tufnel (a character portrayed in the movie by Christopher Guest ) explaining to Cueball how the volume dial on his amp goes all the way up to eleven . This is impressive to Nigel since guitar amplifiers generally only have ten as the maximum setting. This leads him to believe his amp is "one" louder than other amplifiers .
In reality, the loudness of an amplifier is largely dependent on how much power is supplied to its electronics.  Markings on the volume dial are merely an aspect of appearance and has no influence on the maximum achievable loudness.  The highest mark could just as easily be labelled 'Maximum', which would then accurately describe the meaning of that setting.  Thus, the phrase "goes to eleven" is often used sarcastically to mock people or statements that rely on arbitrary numbers without comparable units or context.
The comic then extends the joke by presenting three types of reactions from different people:
The title text further plays on the fact that the amp's levels are on an arbitrary scale. Many products are sold at a certain price per unit weight, volume, etc. (e.g., $2.99/lb for grapes). Nigel calculates that the $2000 cost for going up to 12 would equal to $2000 / 12, or less than $200 per unit of something, but he is unable to articulate what that "something" is, confirming the third panel observation of the normal engineer. Also, he already has an amplifier that goes up to eleven, so the one additional unit would cost him $2,000 unless he sells the old amplifier. However, he decides that it's a good deal anyway, and it looks like the smart engineer has made a sale.
[Nigel Tufnel of Spinal Tap is showing off his amplifier to Cueball.] Nigel: These amps go to 11. Cueball: Is that louder? Nigel: It's one louder.
Normal Person: Cueball: Why not make 10 louder and make 10 the highest?
Engineer: Cueball: But 11 doesn't have any units. It's an arbitrary scale mapping outputs— Nigel: Zzzz
Smart Engineer: Cueball: For $2,000 I'll build you one that goes to 12.


Stephen and Me

Explanation:
This is a reference to the 1989 documentary Roger & Me , in which director Michael Moore attempted to confront General Motors CEO Roger E. Smith over the company's closure of factories in his home town of Flint, Michigan. Moore uses the documentary to demonstrate his belief that the factory closures had a crippling effect on the local economy, and his objective is to ask the CEO pointedly about GM's disregard for the lives affected by their business decisions.
In this strip, Beret Guy mirrors Moore's determination to speak with the CEO of the auto company Volvo Cars , only to reveal that his burning question is actually trivial and juvenile in nature, comparing the company name with the outer parts of the female genitals. "Stephen" is probably Steve Odell , the CEO of Volvo Cars in 2009, a subsidiary of Ford by that time, and later taken over by the Chinese company Zhejiang Geely Holding Group .
As for Beret Guy's question itself, the two words are related: Volvo is Latin for 'I roll', and is at the root of volva, vulva 'wrapper, covering' . However, the similarity that Beret Guy (or Randall) hears is likely due to American English, which strongly approximates the pronunciation of u and a in vulva to that of the o' s in Volvo . Volvo was founded and is headquartered in Sweden, where the similarity would not be as striking.
[Beret Guy is speaking into a microphone standing in front Ponytail who is filming him with a camera, a coiled wire from the camera going down her bag and in front of her feet there is a sign. Megan is walking towards them with a briefcase looking down.] Beret Guy: I'm documenting my quest to meet with the CEO of Volvo. Megan: Get lost. Sign: Volvo Cars
[In a frame-less panel two security guards/police officers with peaked caps with white emblems are attempting to restrain Beret Guy and taking the camera away from Ponytail, or at least lifting it up in the air. Beret Guy is leaning to the right standing like a bow trying to get to the CEO. There is no sign of the sign.] Beret Guy: Wait! I've come so far! Just let me see him!
[They've reached the CEO, Cueball, sitting in an office chair behind his desk, which has the Volvo logo on it with the arrow up and out to the right of the circle around the word. He is sitting leaning his elbows on the table top where there is a round item on a foot as at the front of the desk as well as a box for the intercom. Ponytail is filming with the camera, and Beret Guy stand with the microphone down.] CEO: All right, you've reached me. What is it you want to talk about? Logo: Volvo
[Same setting with Beret Guy talking into the microphone and the CEO leaning forward, pushing the bottom of the intercom. The other small item has disappeared.] Beret Guy: Do you realize how much your company's name sounds like "vulva"? CEO: Security? Logo: Volvo


Suggestions

Explanation:
Social networking site Facebook routinely suggests reconnecting with Facebook friends whom you haven't interacted with on the website for a while. This is taken to its logical extreme in this comic when that Facebook feature repeatedly, in an increasingly voyeuristic fashion, tries to get Cueball to hook up with his occasional friend-with-benefits Susie, despite the fact that Cueball knows she's falling for him and doesn't want to lead her on.
According to the title text, Cueball and Susie (who is drawn as a sexy version of Megan ) do end up hooking up, even against Cueball's better judgement, as so often happens between people who're physically attracted to one another. And he apparently left the webcam on as well, because the Facebook feature is now giving suggestions on what Cueball should do to her, mid-coitus. Obviously, this is not something that Facebook, a social networking site, can do, yet. [ citation needed ]
[Cueball is sitting at his computer. Facebook sidebar messages appear on the top of each panel, with a user photo of Susie (looking like Megan leaning forward so her hair hangs down the sides of her face) and a few lines of text.] Facebook: Susie Reconnect with her [Phone icon] Send her a text Cueball: Come on, Facebook. I know I shouldn't.
Facebook: Susie She'd come over [Bed icon] You don't have to fall asleep alone. Cueball: It's been so hard to stop. But she's falling for me, and I can't keep getting her hopes up like this.
Facebook: Susie Life is complicated [Icon of stick figures embracing] She's so warm against you. You both want it. Cueball: (pulling out phone) Maybe if I just make it clear it's not going to be a thing... Cueball: Yeah, we'll just have a talk.
Facebook: Susie Oh yeah. Mmm... [Webcam icon] Leave your webcam on so I can watch. Cueball: Okay, this feature is getting creepier and creepier.


The Sun

Explanation:
This comic makes fun of science fiction disaster movies , especially the 2003 film The Core in which a group of scientists travel through the Earth's mantle to place a series of nuclear devices in order to speed up the slowing rotation of the Earth's core and prevent a complete collapse of Earth's magnetic field. The comic is also a pun on "Daylight Saving Time", using it to mean saving the sun's light rather than its usual meaning of the semi-annual shift in clocks to "save" daylight for a more useful part of the day.
This comic presents the next film from the makers of The Core . In this case an astronomer, Ponytail , discovers that the Sun's fusion is failing. The two Cueball -like guys behind her are not impressed; one is disbelieving and the other is not interested ("whatever"). But then Ponytail rallies them by pointing out the impeding doom for Earth and they call NASA . A group of astronauts at NASA takes the call and the leader (another Cueball-like guy) describes what could happen in trailer-like fashion:
Then he tells his team of astronauts - a fourth Cueball-like guy, Megan and another Ponytail - to "saddle up", and the comic finishes with the poster (a copy of the one for The Core with the Sun in place of the Earth's mantle) of this new movie called The Sun (hence the title of the comic) with two taglines:
The movie describes a scenario in which "the sun's fusion is failing". This is in fact the exact plot of the British science fiction film Sunshine from 2007, released two years before this comic, which was about a group of astronauts sent on a mission to reignite a dying Sun with a battery of nuclear bombs.
The sun 's energy comes from nuclear fusion reactions among the extremely hot, dense hydrogen nuclei in its core. The idea of the sun's fusion failing is rather ridiculous from a scientific perspective, because the fusion reactions are well understood and the sun has enough hydrogen to fuel it for about 5 billion more years. Even if the sun's hydrogen was getting low, it would start fusing helium and begin expanding into a red giant . This would then make the Earth uninhabitable. In other words, if the sun stopped fusing, we wouldn't have to worry about less sunlight, we would have to worry about more.
In any case, it appears to be failing and the solution is to send a team of astronauts to the sun to restart the fusion. The team leader is motivated by concern that if the sun's fusion stops, there will be no more light, and so the earth will be in perpetual darkness.
The poster in the final panel gives the movies two taglines, both puns. Daylight saving time (DST) refers both to the policy of changing clocks and to the scenario in this movie in which it is time for the team to literally save the sun's daylight from being extinguished. "Never fall back" is an additional word play on the mnemonic used (in the States at least) to remember the direction to change clocks. The mnemonic, "spring forward, fall back" indicates that in the springtime, clocks get set ahead by an hour, while in fall the clocks are set backwards an hour. The phrase "fall back", however, can also mean to retreat from a battle.
Randall seems to believe that DST makes little sense today and he has made it clear in several comics that he is not a fan — or at least not a fan of the twice-yearly transitions between the two semi-arbitrary time standards. As DST is the main joke of the comic (and the title of the next movie), the comment from the astronaut about this not happening "on my watch" may be a pun relating to his wristwatch. He would not wish to have DST on his watch! This meaning is made clear in the title text (see below).
The comic makes fun of these disaster movies in a couple of ways. The characters in the first panel acknowledge that the scenario doesn't make sense scientifically, but are prepared to sacrifice scientific value for the plot. Also, in the second panel, the team is to be composed of NASA 's "hottest astronauts", which makes fun of the fact that the characters in movies are much more attractive than average, and the fact that they will be much hotter when they reach the sun. The team leader expresses his concern with a few buzz phrases often used in such films.
An alternative explanation, which would make sense scientifically, is that the sun had never stopped working, and Ponytail merely assumed that something was wrong with the sun when the sunrise did not occur at its normal time, but that was only because the clocks had been sent an hour ahead for DST, and not because of anything wrong with the sun, which continued working properly, oblivious to earth clocks.
The title text continues the lunacy (solacy?) of the situation with the cliché of the "obligatory bad guy" — a person in the plot who acts antagonistic, often for the flimsiest of reasons. There is also the common complaint, especially among the technologically inept, that he can't figure out how to change the time, relating back to DST, and using the phrase "on my watch" as a pun here (if you interpret "watch" in the sense of a wristwatch). The phrase "on my watch" was used in the comic itself, but it isn't clear whether it was intended as a pun. It's possible that Randall realized he missed his chance to make a great pun with that phrase, inspiring the title text.
Note that while four different Cueballs in a comic is not uncommon , it is rare that two different Ponytails are shown in one comic.
[Caption above the first panel, which is lower than the rest:] Coming this March from the makers of The Core ... [Ponytail is standing on a raised platform looking through a huge telescope (exiting the panel to the left) in an observatory. To her right is a large station with three screens and two Cueball-like guys are standing on the floor to the of that right. Behind them is another station with a large panel showing two circles with an arrow pointing from the top left to the bottom right.] Ponytail: The sun's fusion is failing! Man 1: Does that make sense? Man 2: Whatever.
[Zoom in on the scene where Ponytail throws up her arms as she turns towards the two Cueball, still standing on the platform, but the rest of the background is white. The first Cueball turns around and points to the other Cueball who has also turned around and has taken a phone of the hook, the curled cord disappearing at the panels right edge.] Ponytail: If we don't send a ship to restart it, it could go out completely! Man 1: Call NASA! Man 2 (into the phone): Assemble our hottest astronauts.
[Another Cueball-like guy has taken the call, and still stands with the phone in hand, the cord attached to the phone hook on the panels left edge. He stands with the helmet of a space suit under his other arm, obviously being an astronaut. Behind him is a fourth Cueball-like guy, Megan and another Ponytail.] Astronaut: The earth bathed in eternal darkness? A night without a dawn? Not on my watch! Astronaut: Saddle up.
[The same four characters are shown in silhouette on gray background (still only one with helmet under arm), casting huge shadows towards the bottom of the panel from the dim sun in the top center of the panel. Above the sun is written a tagline (for the movie) and at the bottom of the panels with shadows falling over it is a second smaller tagline:] It's Daylight saving time. Never fall back.


Natural Parenting

Explanation:
This comic relates to the anxiety of having a first child, particularly an unplanned child, and is a play on the double meaning of the expression "do what comes naturally".
Doing what comes naturally is a euphemism for couples pairing off and forming intimate relationships, including sex. It is also advice given to new parents, advising them not to second guess themselves so much, to alleviate the stress that comes with parenting.
The couple Cueball and Megan find themselves as unexpected parents. Both parents experience anxiety over how to manage their life with the child. The new father defuses the situation and states that parenting can not be that hard and they should just do what comes naturally. Naturally the couple find themselves with a second child. This adds insult to injury as now they have two children and still no idea about how to parent. As the first child was an "accident" the birth of the child was because of instinctual urges. Therefore, assuming nothing has changed in their relationship it would be natural if they produced another child.
The title text claims that parenting can't be too hard because, up to the present, all of your ancestors have produced an unbroken line of children who figured out how to raise at least one child that is able to continue this unbroken chain. Randall jokes that this is the "mother" of all sampling biases : Had anyone of one's ancestors completely failed at being parents, that person would never exist. Therefore, this sampling is heavily skewed by sampling only those that were all successful in at least one instance. It does not take into account the number of people in the past who do not have any lineage today to speak of, or the number times our ancestors failed at being parents to children we are not directly descended from.
The baby says, "Baby!", either copying Cueball, or saying its name, Pokémon-style. This is also the topic of 441: Babies and 1384: Krypton .
[Cueball and Megan are looking down at a baby, throwing its arms in the air, standing between them.] Cueball: Oh man, we made a baby. Megan: Don't panic. Don't panic. Baby: Baby!
[Cueball looks at Megan, who still look down at the baby, which now looks down at her feet.] Cueball: Parenting can't be that hard. Let's just do what comes naturally.
[In a frame-less panel they all three just stand there, they look down and the baby has spread it's arms out. Beat frame.]
[A caption is in a frame at the top of the panel. Cueball and Megan are looking down between them. There are now two babies, one larger looking at Cueball's feet the smaller looking at Megan's feet.] Soon: Megan: Aw, crap.


Revolutionary

Explanation:
The comic contrasts brilliant revolutionary scientific thought with the simplistic arrogance of assuming one understands the current scientific theory enough to correct it (see the Dunning Kruger effect ). The character with the goatee has a degree in philosophy , and perhaps has certain ideas of his own about how the world should fundamentally be described by physics. He has studied Einstein's theory of special relativity for less than an hour and thinks he has found a flaw. When confronted about this, he considers the objection as based in dogma , and remains so confident that he wants to email the "president of physics". His ignorance of the field is emphasized by thinking that the entire field of physics has a president - although certain important organizations such as the American Physical Society do have presidents.
Cueball concedes that it is possible for such a revolutionary idea to come from a relative outsider. One example is Albert Einstein 's own formulation of special relativity , which came while he was working at a patent office in Switzerland, although he did already have a Ph.D in physics. A thought experiment considers some hypothesis, theory, or principle for the purpose of thinking through its consequences.
The "racecar on a train" idea alludes to thought experiments involving frames of reference , which are important in relativity. Special relativity was famously established using some thought experiments about moving objects. However, some searchers elaborated more complicated thought experiments and claimed they had proven relativity was self-contradictory. Examples include twin paradox (both of the twins are younger than the other, until you stop assuming acceleration phases can be neglected) or ladder paradox (ladder is both smaller and larger than the garage, until you consider seriously the problems with defining simultaneity for remote locations in relativity). Apparently the philosopher complicated Einstein's train thought experiment by adding a racecar, and found contradictions which prove special relativity is inconsistent. However, most likely scenario is that the "racecar on a train" is too complicated for goatee man to find correct conclusions.
A too complex case may be impossible to prove consistent with relativity using intuition alone: complete solving involves calculation using Lorentz transformations.
The title text is posing a question about the likelihood of two scenarios (possibly to the person with the philosophy degree):
This might be a self-referential title text as this question could be considered a simple thought experiment. The philosopher should be able to overturn his theory using this simple thought experiment which reflects the second panel. While his theory is not widely believed the joke is that the philosopher could overturn his first thought experiment (racecar on train) with this thought experiment.
Randall hints that believing you have found fundamental flaws in a theory is much easier than doing more research on it. This is possibly a statement about using Occam's Razor in arguments, which says the simpler answer is the more likely one, which is commonly brought up in philosophy . Usually, when someone with little understanding of the subject thinks that they have found a flaw, it takes only a little bit more reading to discover that the flaw is in fact completely explained already.
Cueball: Yes, science is an open process in which a good idea can come from anybody.
Cueball: Yes, widely-believed theories are on occasion overturned by simple thought experiments.
Cueball: And yes, your philosophy degree equips you to ask interesting questions sometimes.
[Cueball is talking to a philosopher with a goatee, who is sitting at a computer.] Cueball: But you did not just overturn special relativity, a subject you learned about an hour ago, with your "racecar on a train" idea. Philosopher: You just don't like that I'm turning a rational eye to your dogma. Hey, what's the email for the president of physics?


Abstraction

Explanation:
The comics points out the large number of levels of abstraction working together at any given time in today's computers.
Programs on current computers do not run "directly on hardware". Instead, the hardware (in this case, a processor of the x86-64 architecture) is controlled by the operating system kernel (in this specific case, XNU is the kernel used in Apple-branded devices). Many operating systems offer a standardized interface called POSIX , which wraps the services offered by the different operating systems so that applications do not need to cope with the differences between the operating systems. Darwin is the name of the core set of components on which the Apple's OS X operating system runs. And using this operating system, the user runs the Firefox web browser. However, the browser itself contains further abstraction layers: Gecko is the engine handling the display of web pages on the screen, but in this case, it only allows a separate software, Adobe Flash Player , to render a video requested by the user.
And all of this work is, in this case, done only because the user wanted to watch a funny cat Flash video on the Internet; which makes the user feel like he is a god.
The title text refers to Maru the cat , a cat who became very popular on YouTube for, among other things, jumping into a box. Cueball questions his god-like capabilities by wondering why can't he own Maru.
Flash was discontinued at the very beginning of 2021 . Flash was a video player that was used to make videos play without having a dedicated website for it. It was used in games and videos, as demonstrated by Cueball watching a Flash video of a cat jumping into a box.
[Cueball is sitting at a computer.] An x64 processor is screaming along at billions of cycles per second to run the XNU kernel, which is frantically working through all the POSIX-specified abstraction to create the Darwin system underlying OS X, which in  turn is straining itself to run Firefox and its Gecko renderer, which creates a Flash object which renders dozens of video frames every second
because I wanted to see a cat jump into a box and fall over.
I am a god.


Asshole

Explanation:
SUVs are large personal vehicles with big engines and a huge amount of cargo space, and are notorious gas-guzzlers and therefore emblematic of pollution caused by cars. Stereotypically, SUV owners drive them because they're compensating for failures in other parts of their lives, and as an example of conspicuous consumption. Upon hearing Cueball call him an asshole for driving an SUV, Beret Guy , not wanting to appear to be such, trades his SUV in at the dealership for a hybrid subcompact.
Hybrid cars are vehicles that are powered by both gasoline and electrical motors, allowing them to consume less fuel and therefore pollute less. But stereotypically, people drive them so that they can feel superior to others about having reduced their emissions, and that's exactly what Megan says, this time, when Beret Guy happens to drive past them again.
Quite annoyed now, Beret Guy trades in his car again, this time to get an excavator (a large construction vehicle) and smack them with it. After doing this, he actually does appear quite smug and pleased with himself.
In the title text we hear some crashing sounds and then we hear a report by an eyewitness to a police officer. Beret Guy apparently used the excavator to smash into a bakery and steal scones, one of Beret Guy's beloved bakery products - see 452: Mission and the title text of 1030: Keyed .
See also 434: xkcd Goes to the Airport where Beret Guys obsession with bakeries was first mentioned.
[Cueball and Megan watch Beret Guy drive by in an SUV.] Cueball: Look at that asshole in his SUV, thinking he's so badass while he guzzles gas driving around suburbia. Beret Guy: Oh no! Am I an asshole? I hope not!
[Beret Guy trades in his keys at the dealership.]
[Now he is driving by in a hybrid sedan. Cueball and Megan are still there.] Megan: Look at that smug asshole thinking he's better than us because he drives a hybrid. Beret Guy: ...
[He trades in his keys again.]
[Cueball and Megan is standing.] Off-panel: RUMBLE
[Beret Guy drives a backhoe in and smacks Cueball and Megan out of the panel with the digger.]
[He drives off, whistling.]


Researcher Translation

Explanation:
This comic suggests a translation from the statements of the researcher of a potential new technology . For example, these statements might be found in an article in a popular science magazine which highlights some cutting-edge research. It reflects the idea that researchers tend to be too optimistic about the future of their research project.
"The fourth quarter of next year": Even if a technological development seems very close to completion, it could still be canceled by some authority other than the lead researcher. This might be due to poor management, or a poor business plan, or even a poor scientific basis which the researcher is hiding or ignoring.
"Five years": The researcher has solved the interesting scientific problems, and assumes that the concept could be picked up by a business, developed to be usable outside of a research lab, designed into a prototype, have a manufacturing process, marketed, and made available to consumers, in only five years. In reality, a lot of exciting-sounding technology may not reach consumers for many years because of difficulties in the business side of things.
"Ten years": Not only does the researcher assume that the business end of things will go smoothly, they also assume that the rest of their research will go smoothly. In reality, a lot of unforeseen problems could arise during research.
"25+ years": "It has not been conclusively proven impossible" indicates that it has been proven impossible in some context. The researcher simply refuses to accept the impossibility until the proof is conclusive.
"We're not really looking at market applications right now.": In contrast to the above chain of assumptions, in this case the researcher has a working technology but wants to keep it to themselves.
Title text: "20 years away indefinitely": Sometimes the technological or engineering challenges for a certain application seem like they could be overcome in 20 years, but in reality the challenges are very difficult. The more the challenges are studied, the harder they are found to be, although there is always hope that a few more advances will do it. An example is fusion power , which has been conceptualized since at least 1946 as a potentially unlimited source of clean energy, but remained an elusive achievement despite projects such as the National Ignition Facility and ITER . The first commercial plant is still indefinitely 20 years away.
A similar table was shown in 1497: New Products .
If a researcher says a cool new technology should be available to consumers in... What they mean is... The fourth quarter of next year The project will be canceled in six months. Five years I've solved the interesting research problems. The rest is just business, which is easy, right? Ten years We haven't finished inventing it yet, but when we do, it'll be awesome. 25+ years It has not been conclusively proven impossible. We're not really looking at market applications right now. I like being the only one with a hovercar.


Christmas Plans

Explanation:
This comic centers around a joke about Quantum superposition in physics - if you don't observe something, it has all possible states, not a specific one. It is a double-entendre with the word observe meaning both "look at" (physics sense) and "celebrate" (a holiday). One of the most famous examples on this is the Schrödinger's cat paradox.
In this comic, a Jewish physicist does not know when Christmas is. Being a physicist, he believes that since he doesn't observe Christmas, it therefore has no definite date.
Adding to the joke, the physicist's observation is actually valid for certain other holidays (such as Easter) that don't have a definite (i.e. annual) date. Because Easter's date seemingly bounces around at random, it could be said to exist in a superposition of all possible Easter dates, and as he doesn't observe (celebrate) Easter, the physicist would be unlikely to check which date it falls this year. Thus, he would be unsure of when the holiday is celebrated.
The title text refers to another principle in physics where the act of measuring something must also change it in some way.  If one drops a thermometer into a mug of water, energy spent (or released) when heating (or cooling) the mercury in the thermometer changes the temperature of the water in the mug by a small amount.  The only way not to interfere with the temperature of the water in the mug is not to measure it.
[Cueball is standing behind a friend, who is sitting at a computer.] Cueball: Hey, will you be in town the day after Christmas? Friend: Couldn't say— Friend: I'm Jewish.
Cueball: But... how does being Jewish keep you from knowing your plans? Friend: I know my plans— Friend: I just don't know when Christmas is.
Cueball: Really? Why not look it up? Friend: Well, I'm also a physicist.
Cueball: So? Friend: I believe that since I don't observe Christmas, it can't have a definite date.


December 25th

Explanation:
On Christmas Day, most kids whose families celebrate the holiday get Christmas presents. And kids who were actually born on the 25th may feel a little put off because they don't get a special day all to themselves like their siblings and friends do. A lot of families alleviate this by celebrating the child's birthday on a day other than the 25th, so the kid will still get their own party. Unfortunately, the child may not get double presents, but may instead end up getting one gift per gift-giver as both a Christmas gift and a birthday gift.
In the title text, Randall provided a "lovely" image for the people turning 27 on this date (Christmas Day, 2009) that would surely have them reaching for the brain bleach.
[On one side, a family of four gathered around a Christmas tree, the daughter and son looking excitedly at the presents under the tree; on the other, a character wearing a party hat, sitting dejectedly before a birthday cake. The panel edges are decorated with holly and a wreath.] Happy Birthday to those of you born on the 25 th !
Sorry you get kinda shafted by the overlap with Christmas.


Gravity Wells

Explanation:
The comic shows the gravitational potential (energy transferred per unit mass due to gravity) for the positions of each planet in the solar system — including some moons and Saturn's rings. An object traveling along an upward slope loses energy, while an object traveling along a downward slope gains energy.
Escaping a planet or moon's orbit requires enough energy (e.g. by walking, jumping, or rocket) to reach the top of either peak that defines the edge of the well. The peak to the left indicates the minimum energy required to exit orbit. The peak to the right indicates the maximum energy required to exit orbit. In order to exit orbit with the minimum amount of energy, you would have to travel towards the center of the solar system; to exit orbit with the maximum amount of energy, you would have to travel away from the center of the solar system (the Sun). In reality, the strength of gravity decreases with distance from the planet. However, a comparison of energy expended to escape the gravitational pull allows for a simpler comparison between the objects.
The height of the graph is scaled to kilometers via the gravitational potential an object has at the given height assuming at a constant acceleration due to Earth's surface gravity. The Sun's gravity well is not shown in its entirety, but is just indicated on the far left as "Very very far down" . Had it been shown in its full extent it would have made the rest of the drawing so small in comparison that it would have been unreadable. As the gravitational potential increases with distance from the sun, the graph has a general upward slope. To rise out of each well on the diagram, and therefore escape the planet's gravity, it would require the same energy required to rise out of a physical well of that depth at Earth's surface gravity.
The length of each gravity well is scaled to the diameter of the planet and the spacing between the planets is not to scale with distance from the sun. This is necessary to make the graph readable. Because the distances between the planets are condensed, the gravitational potential - from the gravity pulling toward the sun - accumulates quicker. This is the reason for the large peaks between the planets. The moons shown in the chart are at the appropriate distance from their respective planets' gravity wells for their orbits.
Each planet is shown cut in half at the bottom of its well, with the depth of the well measured down to the planet's flat surface.
The following items are listed from top to bottom and left to right.
The text near the bottom of Jupiter's gravity well explains that the depth of the well is mass-of-planet over radius-of-planet with Newton's constant and 9.81 m/s² as constants, where 9.81 m/s² is the acceleration of a free falling body at Earth's gravity.
The calculation for a gravity well is:
depth = (G * Planet-mass ) / (9.81 m/s 2 * Planet-radius) where G is Newton 's gravitational constant , and 9.81 m/s 2 is the acceleration rate of a free falling body on earth at sea level (g).
The title text indicates that the planets motion can affect the amount of energy for escape velocity. It is possible to change speed by using the planets orbital speed and gravity. This is known as a performing a slingshot or a gravity assist , and is done to gain speed or to brake when needed. The use of rocket engines are more effective when used at a high speed slingshot maneuver, which is known as the Oberth effect , where most energy is going into moving the rocket as opposed to moving the exhaust — conserving the maximum useful energy.   On earth the same principle is used when launching rockets. Rockets are always launched in an eastward direction to make maximum use of the rotational energy of the earth. Launching rockets in a westward direction would require significant additional energy. Because of this most artificial satellites are flying east around the globe.
The size of the gravity-well as described in this comic is not accounting for these factors. Therefore, leaving the solar system (or any of the gravity wells of the planets) could require less energy than described by the graph, assuming that the launch and slingshots are properly designed and executed.
The following table was adapted from the table in Escape velocity , using h = V_e ^2 / 2 g :
Main Text Gravity Wells scaled to Earth surface gravity This chart shows the "depth" of various solar system gravity wells. Each well is scaled such that rising out of a physical well of that depth — in constant Earth surface gravity — would take the same energy as escaping from that planet's gravity in reality. Each planet is shown cut in half at the bottom of its well, with the depth of the well measured down to the planet's flat surface. The planet sizes are to the same scale as the wells. Interplanetary distances are not to scale. Depth = (G × PlanetMass) / (g × PlanetRadius) G = Newton's constant g = 9.81 m/s 2

Planetary Descriptions To Sun, very very far down Mercury Venus Earth - 6379 km [originally 5,478 km] Moon - 288 km Mars - 1,286 km Ganymede Io Jupiter [A drawing of a "very deep" gravity well, "Your mom" at the bottom, several member of "local football team" falling down towards her.] Jupiter is not much larger than Saturn, but much more massive. At its size, adding more mass just makes it denser due to the extra squeezing of gravity. If you dropped a few dozen more Jupiters into it, the pressure would ignite fusion and make it a star. Europa Titan Two alarms: Weeoooeeoooeeooo Saturn Rings Uranus Neptune Megan: An even more glorious dawn awaits!

Mars Inset [Mars gravity well, with one of the Mars rovers on its surface, with its moons Deimos and Phobos as smaller gravity wells.]
[Figure of a man (to scale) in Deimos's gravity well.] You could escape Deimos with a bike and a ramp.
[Figure of a man (to scale) in Phobos's gravity well.] A thrown baseball could escape Phobos.

Earth Inset [Zoomed-in view of Earth/moon gravity well, featuring the relative locations of the atmosphere, Low Earth Orbit, the International Space Station, the Space Shuttle, GPS satellites, and satellites in geosynchronous orbit.] Cueball: This is why it took a huge rocket to get to the moon but only a small one to get back.
It takes the same amount of energy to launch something on an escape trajectory away from Earth as it would to launch it 6,000 km upward under constant 9.81 m/s 2 Earth gravity.
Hence, Earth's well is 6,000 km deep.


Force

Explanation:
This comic features Darth Vader , the main antagonist from the original Star Wars trilogy.
Autoerotic asphyxiation is a sexual practice in which lack of oxygen is induced to enhance sexual stimulus. The technique is considered extremely dangerous, especially without supervision, as loss of consciousness can result in continued strangling which can quickly be fatal.
In the films, Vader possesses the ability to restrict the airway of anyone without having to touch them, using only the so-called " force ". This practise has therefore been called force-choking. The comic assumes that Vader used this technique against himself, with the help of a mirror, in order to become sexually aroused.
Lord Vader has apparently force-choked himself to the point of unconsciousness (or possibly even death) and is being transported from his house on a stretcher by two Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs).
The title text is a pun on the term "choking the chicken", a colloquial expression referring to male masturbation . "Force-choking the chicken" might mean a technique of self-gratification by use of the "force" without having to apply one's hands.
[Two EMTs are rushing Darth Vader away from a front door on a stretcher.]
[There is a room with a desk in the foreground and a full-length mirror in the corner. On the desk is a laptop displaying the Wikipedia page for autoerotic asphyxiation.]
The sexual potential of the force choke was already explored in the title text of 307: Excessive Quotation .


Science Montage

Explanation:
This comic makes fun of the artificially dramatized and simplified depiction of science in movies. The unstated premise seems to be that the scientists are trying to get information about a murderer based on a sample obtained from his clothing. The movie version of events involves the two scientists Cueball and Ponytail doing exciting things with a control console, lab rats , a device with some kind of beam (perhaps a laser), and a complicated chemical apparatus. The scientists quickly arrive at the firm conclusion that paint on the clothes is from an " antimatter factory" in Belgrade , Serbia .
While not directly used in the study, a Newton's cradle in motion can be seen in the first panel, a device notoriously useless in any serious scientific study, but very often used in movies, for instance as a prop in the office of a professor. There is also a hamster wheel . According to the official transcript it is a hamster ball but it is clearly not a ball as it has spokes, and thus resembles a hamster running wheel, probably for the rats shown in the next panel.
The actual science version shows the same scientists putting a sample into a device (likely a mass spectrometer or a centrifuge ). The device apparently takes about 1 hour and 20 minutes to analyze the sample (according to the clock on the wall moving from about 10:05 to 11:25). At the end of this process, the only thing learned is that there is probably no barium or radium in the sample. This conclusion is not very helpful on its own, and is not even very certain.
There are several major concepts about science and technology that movies tend to distort for the purposes of a more exciting plot, both illustrated here. One is that the work involves a lot of different exciting-looking gadgets. Another is that the analysis can be done very quickly, and results in very certain and significant conclusions. Besides this, the scientists often seem to have access to a database full of trivial information from around the world. In reality, a scientific analysis of some sample or data often only requires a single boring-looking machine, takes quite some time, and provides a limited result that must be interpreted very carefully to have any meaning at all.
The title text further illustrates a movie science scene, depicting someone deducing the presence of nanobots simply by observing the behavior of a perturbed lab rat. The Helvetica Scenario is a fictional experiment, presented in Switzerland (Helvetia is the Latin name for the country), which assumes that removing only the nucleus (the center of an atom) of a "calcium molecule" in one's skin, but still leaving the electron shell at its position, would cause a massive reaction ending up in heavy mutations. The Helvetica scenario was made up by the BBC comedy show Look Around You in the pilot episode, which can be seen here . "Code grey" may refer to Grey goo , a hypothetical doomsday scenario involving nanobots. In 1242: Scary Names Grey goo is on the chart and the Helvetica scenario is mentioned in the title text.
Antimatter is also referenced in 826: Guest Week: Zach Weiner (SMBC) , 1621: Fixion and 1731: Wrong as well as being the subject of the what if? Antimatter . It was also mentioned in another what if? : Lake Tea .
[Two columns of four panels are shown below two captions.] Left: Movie Science Montage Right: Actual Science Montage
[Below the four rows of panels in the two montages will be described, Movie first then Actual as the two are synchronized in time.]
[ Movie : Cueball passes a test tube to Ponytail sitting at a large control console to the left looking at it's glowing screens at the bottom. At the top there is a flashing lamp. Both are wearing lab coats and goggles. A a hamster ball and a Newton's cradle stand on a shelf above them.]
[ Actual : Cueball stand behind Ponytail, also here both are in lab coats with goggles. Ponytail place a sample from a test tube into a small device standing on a table. An analog clock on the wall above them is at five minutes past ten.]
[ Movie : A small glowing sample has been placed next to a rat inside a cage standing on a table. Ponytail, is holding a glowing implement up towards the cage; she has another rat in her hand and also a rat sitting on top of her head. Cueball is speaking into a device with a curled wire going to the wall.] Caged Rat: Squeak!
[ Actual : Cueball is behind Ponytail standing in front of the machine which is working on the sample. The clock on the wall above them is at ten minutes past ten.] Machine: ...whirrrrrr...
[ Movie : Zoom in on Ponytail who pulls on two levers on a machine, which is shooting a beam of some sort downwards onto a sample, possibly the same as in the cage with the rat.]
[ Actual : Cueball and Ponytail still waits for their sample to be analyzed in the small device. The clock on the wall above them is at twenty five minutes past eleven. Cueball has removed his goggles and is holding them in his hand.] Machine: ...whirrrr... Machine: Bing!
[ Movie : Zoom in on Cueball who is operating a complicated-looking chemical apparatus with a scope, flasks, coils, and bubbles.] Cueball: Paint flecks from the killer's clothing match an antimatter factory in Belgrade! Ponytail (off panel): Let's go!
[ Actual : Cueball look over Ponytail's shoulder while she examine the sample she has just taken out of the small device. He has put his goggles back on. The clock is hidden behind their spoken text. Presumably this occurs right after the bing .] Cueball: Okay, we've determined there's neither barium nor radium in this sample. Ponytail: Probably.


We Get It

Explanation:
Avatar is a 2009 movie that was very popular in theaters, becoming the highest-grossing at that time before being overtaken by Avengers: Endgame in 2019.
The comic illustrates how someone in a new relationship tends to be overly eager and giddy to let everyone know about it, while others tend to not be all that interested. The character on the left is so excited to let everyone know, that he goes off panel to get a ladder and a loudspeaker. The second character thinks it should be legal to murder (or at least wound) him for this annoyance if he acts like this for more than a week. The first character is so giddy that he doesn't notice what he has done and even tries to mention his girlfriend again.
The title text describes a very harsh way to respond to this annoyance. Since someone in the position of the first character is so excited about the new romantic commitment in their life, their friend brings up the much greater and more serious commitment of marriage. If they have only been dating for a week or less, it is probably much too early for them to seriously think about marriage. The friend then implies that if they aren't already excited to marry her, then he doesn't really love her. The end result is that the first character doesn't want to talk about his relationship anymore.
[Cueball and a friend are talking.] Cueball: Avatar? Yeah, I saw it last week with...
[Cueball walks out of the panel.]
[Cueball returns with a ladder and megaphone.]
[Cueball stands on top of the ladder, shouting through a megaphone.] Cueball: ...MY GIRLFRIEND.
Friend: You know, if this phase of your relationship lasts more than a week, I'm legally allowed to stab you both. Cueball: What phase? Cueball: So, did I mention I'm seeing someone?


G-Spot

Explanation:
The G-Spot is, as the BBC has quoted saying in the title text, an elusive erogenous zone some women claim to have that can be stimulated to enhance their sexual experience.
In this comic, a live press conference has been held due to a peer-reviewed study suggesting the G-Spot may not exist. But the press have entered the wrong meeting where Cueball (the researcher) has performed a study on solar cells. So initially he tries to claim that he has not been researching the G-Spot. But he also ends up shamefully admitting that he has tried but failed finding it anyway. That is, he has had difficulty making his lover orgasm through the use of G-spot stimulation.
In the title text Randall notes that he could not read the lead from the BBC story: The elusive erogenous zone said to exist in some women may be a myth, say researchers who have hunted for it. with a straight face. This is probably because Randall assumes that "hunted for it" means the researchers had frequent sexual intercourse.
[To the left of the main comic there is an explanation text without a frame around it:] A study published in the journal of sexual medicine suggests that the g-spot may not actually exist. We go live to the researchers' press conference:
[Two reporters with microphones, Ponytail and a Cueball-like guy, stand below a podium where Cueball stands behind a lectern. Ponytail reach out with her microphone towards Cueball:] Ponytail: Is it true you've been unable to find evidence that the G-spot exists?
[Zoom in on Cueball and the top of the lectern:] Cueball: My research is in solar cells. I think you have the wrong press conference.
[Beat panel with the same view as before.]
[Same view but now Cueball hangs his head.] Cueball: But... yes.


Admin Mourning

Explanation:
The background images show the output from the ps command of Unix-like computer systems, which lists all running processes including all interactive users logged in to the server. If a user did not log out, their processes would continue to run until stopped by a reboot. If some specific user dies while logged in, the running sessions still appear in the ps output and be a reminder to other users. This comic depicts an administrator unwilling to reboot a machine that has still running processes from a deceased user named "sam".
When a session is closed its descendent processes sent the HUP (Hang-up) signal, which normally causes them to terminate. However, the popular utility screen enables a user to detach and reattach that output, thus surviving over sessions.
The final joke refers to the command line interface being called a shell , and to a particular type of shell called zshell ( /bin/zsh in the final panel), making a pun with the expression " Ghost in the Shell ", which is the title of a popular manga series, originally derived from the expression " ghost in the machine ", used by philosopher Gilbert Ryle to describe Descartes' theory of mind-body dualism.
The phrase "su to the user" refers to the ability of a system administrator — i.e. the superuser, aka root — to switch to another user account (using the su command , which stands for s ubstitute u ser) without needing the target user's password, as would normally be necessary, which in this case would give the impression that sam's ghost were using the account.
[The text is over a white-on-black terminal showing a bit of output from ps -el | grep sam, with processes running from root and sam.] When a user dies, their connections time out, but their screen sessions linger.
[The end of the command line is a |grep sam.] The server's uptime grows because you can't bring yourself to reboot
and wipe out their last earthly presence
[The processes listed are screen, zsh, irssi, and grep sam.] the ghost in zshell.


Dimensional Analysis

Explanation:
Cueball has a hobby — showing correct calculations according to the dimensional analysis — but with ridiculous correlations of uncorrelated events and measurements. Here Cueball is giving a talk and uses this trick to convince his listeners that the Toyota Prius combined EPA gas mileage is somehow connected to the constant π via the Planck energy , the pressure at the Earth's core and the width of the English Channel .
Scientists — often physicists — use dimensional analysis to quickly check if a given formula can possibly relate to a physical system, because if you end up with an equation claiming that Joules are meters, something is clearly wrong. Dimensional analysis here refers to the check if both sides of the equation arrive at the same physical unit when the units of all variables get plugged into the equation. This requires knowledge of the system of units and the relation between different physical units.
Cueball uses the following equation to make a mockery of the practice:

The right hand side is dimensionless, it's the constant π = 3.14... which is defined by the relation of two lengths, the circumference and the diameter of a circle. The left hand side requires to plug in the dimensions of the named physical quantities:
When plugged into the left hand side this amounts to:

Using the following unit relations (this does not reduce units to the seven SI base units, but does use some derived units for cancelation):
Note that for dimensional analysis constant factors are not taken into account. Here square brackets are used to denote dimensional analysis. In the above equation the unit of energy (joule) as well as all the unit of volume (cubic meter) cancel out each other.
Another aspect of the comic is, that sometimes dimension analysis of equations that were not derived but rather "made up" can provide insight. However, in reality such an equations would have to be somehow "motivated", which is more of an art than science and requires great experience in the field the equation should relate to. The presented equation combines values that have no immediate causal relation with each other, so it does not make sense. Furthermore, since the values have absolutely no causal relation to each other, the ratios presented are simple coincidence; despite Cueball's claim, building a better Prius would not cause any changes to the English Channel. [ citation needed ]
The title text also refers to this, as a higher pressure at Earth's core could also balance the equation, keeping the result constant equal to π . The Planck energy is an absolute, however, so it is not mentioned as a way to balance the next version of Prius.
The Planck energy is the only nearly exact value we do have. Compared to other Planck values it is very large (macroscopic).
Pressure at the core of the Earth ranges from 330 to 360 gigapascals.
Using a simple value like this:
Prius combined EPA gas mileage :
For the third generation (from 2010) the City mileage is 51 mpg and the Highway mileage is 48 mpg. But it is the combined EPA gas mileage which is used in the equation and that is 50 miles per gallon.
Minimum width of the English Channel is about
Calculating from these values you will get π = 3.54... that is pretty close to π = 3.14... while using a Planck value. According to Cueball this will be within the experimental error (the combined error for all four numbers - none are exact numbers). For instance if you tried the ePrius you would probably get closer to that target — as the mileage in real life usually is somewhat lower than the value given — and that would reduce the result.
Wolfram|Alpha can find most of the statistics and do the calculations.
My Hobby: Abusing dimensional analysis
[On a blackboard.] (Planck energy/Pressure at the Earth's core) x (Prius combined EPA gas mileage/Minimum width of the English Channel) = π
[Cueball indicates this equation with a pointer in front of a class.] Cueball: It's correct to within experimental error, and the units check out. It must be a fundamental law. Student: But what if they build a better Prius? Cueball: Then England will drift out to sea.