xkcd

Sibbo , in xkcd #2897: Light Leap Years
@Sibbo@sopuli.xyz avatar

Why not redefine lightyears to include a leap year every four years. Except when the number ends on 00, but only if it is not divisible by 400. Physics would be so much easier!

Kecessa , (edited )

Well it's in fact easy to calculate...

To make it easier to visualize we'll start with year 400. From year 400 to year 799 you've got a leap year every 4 years except for years 500, 600, 700 and including year 400, so that's 25 leap years for the first century and 24 for the others.

So you've got 25 + (3x24) = 97 leap years

And 75 + (3 x 76) = 303 non leap years

(97 x 366) + (303 x 365) = 146097 days every 400 years which means a year is 365.2425 days long on average.

365.2425 x 24 = 8765.82 hours on average

8765.82 x 60 x 60 = 31 556 952 seconds per year on average

31 556 952 x 299 792 458 (speed of light per second) = a light year is 9460536207068016 meters long or 9460536207068.016 km long when adjusted to take leap years into consideration.

Sibbo ,
@Sibbo@sopuli.xyz avatar

Okay, but now whenever you state one light year, it's just a normal year. When you state four, it is three normal ones and one leap year. So four times one light year would not equal four light years.

Kecessa , (edited )

You asked for a lightyear adjusted based on leap years, I provided the number. It's a bit more than 365 light days and a bit less than 366 light days, it's closer to the real distance covered by light during the time the earth goes around the sun.

Edit: Don't know why anyone would downvote me for providing what OP asked for in the first place, especially when their reply didn't really make sense in the context...

p1mrx OP , in xkcd #2888: US Survey Foot

Shout out to Carl Edvard Johansson for fixing this problem by defining the industrial inch at exactly 25.4 mm.

Turun , in xkcd #2940: Modes of Transportation

This is wildly dependent on infrastructure. Both for the convenience and danger axis.

cucumber_sandwich ,

But hardly for hot air balloons

Turun ,

Yeah, the joke and alt text are delivered quite nicely.

Swedneck ,
@Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

motorcycles should 100% be in the zone of practicality, especially with modern sleek electric ones.

skateboards should be the bridge between practical and recreational, provided you have sensible infrastructure and short distances they have distinct benefits.

skis and sleds just need snow to make sense

Shialac ,

I think the existence of car drivers increases their danger level massively

brbposting OP ,

Apparently alcohol as well as it is involved in something like 50% of motorcycle fatalities.

Swedneck ,
@Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

it annoys me to no end how motorcycles and mopeds are viewed as dangerous, when every single time you hear about people being hurt on them it's because they're fucking idiots who tried to do a backflip infront of a semitruck

Jentu ,

Horses are technically more dangerous to ride than motorcycles. It’s just that motorcycles attract a kind of people who like doing backflips in front of a semi truck.

Swedneck ,
@Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

sure but that applies to everything, if you want to be safe then the only time you should ever be on a road is inside a bus.

Dagwood222 ,

You can be a skilled rider and still and a fall. More likely is that an unsafe car driver will do something that causes an accident.

thebestaquaman ,

I'm here to say that if there's snow, skis win on practicality. Almost every winter, there's at least one day when you will have some people skiing to work in Oslo, a city of 700 000 inhabitants, with a metro system. Because when there's 10 cm of snow in the streets, skis are the quickest and easiest way to get anywhere.

outer_spec , in xkcd #2922: Pub Trivia
@outer_spec@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

number 10 is Ringo

ivanafterall ,

Debatable.

outer_spec ,
@outer_spec@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar
Carvex ,

"Is Ringo the best drummer in the world?"

"Ringo isn't even the best drummer in the Beatles"- The Beatles

techt ,
joe_cool ,

If your fact checker is caught stealing by Buzzfeed: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/13/business/media/snopes-plagiarism-David-Mikkelson.html

And considered unreliable by among others Harvard: https://misinforeview.hks.harvard.edu/article/fact-checking-fact-checkers-a-data-driven-approach/

You might want to double check. I didn't. I just want to caution people about blindly trusting Snopes. So they might very well be right on this topic.

WhiskyTangoFoxtrot ,
DaMonsterKnees ,

Are you a dozen or so thoughts down? Yes? Do you deserve love for the perfect share? Very yes!

joe_cool ,

Brilliant, thanks.

AnalogyAddict ,

I mean... Snopes warns against blindly trusting Snopes. (After reading, make sure to click on "Additional Information" at the bottom.

uriel238 ,
@uriel238@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

I've heard from multiple sources (all dubious) that Ringo was the adhesive that held the band together during contentious times. Usually that role is appointed to the heart but in this case it was appointed to the Ringo. The drummer.

captainlezbian ,

Alternatively he was the adult in the room

Swedneck ,
@Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

he was.. the skin?

ImplyingImplications ,

John? Is that you?

Leviathan , in xkcd #2932: Driving PSA

Another thing that enrages me is people who think driving slowly is safer for whatever reason.

Getting on the highway? Let's SLOWLY merge at 60% the speed of oncoming traffic.

Changing lanes from stationary traffic into a full speed lane? I won't wait for the lane to clear, I'll just turn signal and move into the lane REAL SLOW because that's safe.

Turning right? Let's slow down to a complete stop and force traffic to a halt so I can turn right.

As a delivery truck driver I can't tell you how many people think that everyone else can just stop on a dime for them and they're being safe because they move over at a snail's Pace.

BigBananaDealer ,
@BigBananaDealer@lemm.ee avatar

fucking hate getting stuck behind some slow driver when trying to get on a highway. like fucker we are supposed to be reaching highway speed on this ramp not when we reach the highway🤬

JonEFive ,

There is an on-ramp for the highway near me that's pretty long. It's long because it's a very straight fast-moving section of highway. In other words, the on-ramp is designed to give you adequate space to get up to highway speed. The number of people who immediately merge into the first lane without getting up to speed is too damn high.

Everythingispenguins ,

I used to have a job where I drove a box truck. It was slow empty and painfully slow full. It was also speed limited to 75mph. So I would tend to hang out with the semis on the hwy. One time I was driving down the hwy and this guy in a pretty new Volvo( so the fast ones) was coming down the on ramp. I could see he was going to merge right in front of me so I slowed down to give him some space. I figured he would want to be in front of the slow box truck. As he got close to the merge he slowed down so he was even with me. I gave him a little more space to merge in front of me and slowed down again. He had plenty of room left in the on merge lane if just used the skinny pedal. Instead he waited until was almost out of room then started honking at me. I did my best to speed up my painfully slow box truck but I am sure he has to slow down to the point he was merging at 45mph as everyone was doing 75-80mph. I am sure he was cursing me too because he wasn't willing to get up to hwy speed before merging.

stalfoss ,

I was taught it was the responsibility of the car getting on the highway to match the speed of the cars on the highway. If you’re already on the highway, keep a constant speed so the people getting on can match you. So he kept having to slow down because you were also slowing down. Just like the assassin pretending to be nice in the diagram, I think you were technically in the wrong here.

Everythingispenguins ,

He never got up to hwy speed if he had he would have easily merged in front of me. I only slowed down by 5 to 10 mph.

AngryMob ,

Right, but its not your responsibility to slow down at all. Its kind of you to do so when the merging vehicle picks up on your intention, but when they don't, it makes a miscommunication like you describe.

Basically, i'd just describe it as being predictable. And bending the rules (even to be kind) is not predictable, usually.

biddy ,

I have a question on this. Let's assume everyone is a perfect driver and must have at least a 2 second following distance at all times. If there's a free flowing queue of traffic on the highway with 2-4 second gaps between, merging in is impossible without someone slowing down and letting you in. Every time I merge this situation stresses me out.

stalfoss ,

Merge into the gap, then slow down slightly to extend the space in front of you, and let the guy behind you slow down to extend the space in front of him. It’s not complicated

Leviathan ,

At 100 km/h (low-end highway spreed), or 1,666 m/minute, or 27.7 m per second, a 2 second gap leaves approximately 56.6 m (185.6 feet) between cars. With the average car length being ~4.9 m (~16 feet), even the absolute worst driver can merge in a space ten times the size of the average car, assuming they're matching highway speed.

Most people have no actual concept of how long 2 seconds actually is or how much space it would leave in reality.

biddy , (edited )

Yeah, obviously you "can" merge, but in doing so you insert yourself into the middle of a 2 second gap creating 2 × less than 1 second gaps. Like I said, in this hypothetical everyone is a perfect driver that always follows the rules, so that's not an option.

For that matter, the driver behind should see that you are about to merge into a gap that's too small and slow down to leave a space that's at least 4 seconds big.

I'd also like to point out that your attitude to driving is terrible, the size in meters of anything on a highway is irrelevant, 2 seconds is not a lot of time to react and slow down a car at 100, and that just because you "can" do something doesn't mean you should.

MajorHavoc ,

Instead he waited until was almost out of room then started honking at me.

People who haven't learned the physics of large trucks spend a surprising portion of their driving time competing for Darwin awards.

I want to will this not to be a problem anymore, but still see it all the time. I'm thankful that I've seen a lot of truckers react in surprisingly aware ways that save lives.

But every time I see it, I can't help but think that driver's luck isn't too likely to hold through too many more times making that move.

Jolteon ,

Getting into the fast moving lane from slow traffic is difficult no matter how you do it. The best way I found is to actually go slightly slower than the person in front of you to get a gap, then use that gap to accelerate.

Leviathan ,

Yeah, that's because you know how to drive. I can't tell you how many people just turn in front of a truck and expect it to slow down for them. Playing with their lives.

Anticorp ,

People are fucking stupid. People behind the wheel of a car are even more stupid.

BaumGeist , in xkcd #2893: Sphere Tastiness

"Hyperbolic" this, "logarithmic" that, I'm here to propose a radical new theory: all spheres are tasty, your mouth just isn't big enough to have the right tastebuds for the larger ones

Rakonat ,

Found Galactus.

Smurfi ,
@Smurfi@lemmy.zip avatar

Devourer of worlds for the uninitiated

OlinOfTheHillPeople , in xkcd #2888: US Survey Foot

Alt text: Subway refuses to answer my questions about whether it's an International Footlong or a US Survey Footlong. A milligram of sandwich is at stake!

p1mrx OP ,

oops, I was supposed to put that in the post body. Fixed.

bjoern_tantau , in xkcd #2883: Astronaut Guests
@bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de avatar

Ok, now we start patiently waiting for the website where you enter an address and then get back your astronaut visit date.

fraksken ,

Is it there yet?

LostXOR ,

I'm not sure if there's any publicly available orbital data for the ISS with enough precision.

jaybone ,

Isn’t there an app that shows you exactly where that thing is, and when it will be visible over your location?

auekay ,

https://stuffin.space/ should show you a decent percentage of objects tracked in Earth's orbit.

LostXOR ,

Yeah, but that's not to the precision of a few meters that would be required.

TootSweet , in xkcd #2949: Network Configuration

Someone needs to bundle up that network misconfiguration and put it on Steam as an indie game.

pennomi ,

Brilliant! You could have an overarching storyline of brief dialogues interrupted by full games of Civilization.

TootSweet ,

Yes! It could be like Assassin's Creed where most of the story takes place in Civilization, but then there are interludes that take place in the modern world.

LSNLDN , in xkcd #2897: Light Leap Years

Alt text lol

ZDL , in xkcd #2896: Crossword Constructors
@ZDL@ttrpg.network avatar

Imma need "xkcd explained" for this one!

Deebster OP ,
@Deebster@programming.dev avatar

These are all short words full of the most common letters, so will make designing crosswords easier because they'll be useful "crossers".

ZDL ,
@ZDL@ttrpg.network avatar

Oh, I see! Thanks!

stoly ,

But why references to musicians?

Deebster OP ,
@Deebster@programming.dev avatar

I assume it's just an example of how to create new topical words since it's a lot easier to name an album than to get a word well-known enough to be eligible for the dictionary.

The artists all seem to be big names so I assume it's their popularity rather than any history of quirky album names that's decided the list.

Soup ,

These specific musicians are referenced a lot by crosswords. NYT loves them, at least. Very “hip and with it”.

It’s kinda an inside joke, but that’s XKCD for ya.

stoly ,

Thanks, that’s what I needed

shneancy ,

I assumed it was because those musicians are popular enough that even if they released songs/albums with the title scheme akin to svnahshfhfbduj people would still buy them and know about them.

moistclump ,

Are we called crossers?

moistclump ,

Oh the crossword cross-er. Thought it was a cool new “puzzle head” term I hadn’t heard. Misread. I’m dumb at crosswords too.

randomaccount43543 ,
halloween_spookster , in xkcd #2932: Driving PSA

When driving don't be nice. Be predictable.

GladiusB ,
@GladiusB@lemmy.world avatar

I'm taking a Smith system training and this is said constantly.

Gestrid ,

When driving, being predictable is being nice. Being nice is an accident waiting to happen.

... That sounded better in my head.

Anticorp ,

Half the people who wave you through have weird little control fetishes. They're not being polite, they're pursuing feelings of power. They're the same people driving 5 mph under the speed limit in the passing lane to "keep other people from speeding".

sebinspace ,

Well that’s certainly one of the takes of all time

Anticorp ,

I didn't just pull it out of my ass, it's a perspective I've seen espoused on this very platform, and also on Reddit.

LazaroFilm , in xkcd #2886: Fast Radio Bursts
@LazaroFilm@lemmy.world avatar

WOW!

magic_lobster_party ,

For those who don’t know: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wow!_signal

ECB , in xkcd #2908: Moon Armor Index

Interesting mix of kilometers and inches...

Agent641 ,

When do we get to start using kiloinches?

idiomaddict ,

I heard Everest is actually exactly 348 KI, they just thought 348.324 KI sounded more accurate

Frozengyro ,

I've heard that in feet they originally measured it to 29000 exactly. But they added 2 feet so people didn't think they were estimating the height.

systemglitch ,

As a Canadian, this just seems normal to me.

Drusenija , in xkcd #2929: Good and Bad Ideas

So soup sounds like an idea and is actually an idea. Checks out.

general_kitten ,

I dont know, soup has always been a better idea than it first seemed to me

captain_aggravated ,
@captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works avatar

Depends on the soup I find.

general_kitten ,

At least when you make soup yourself it good

captain_aggravated ,
@captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works avatar

Canned french onion soup? meh.

Homemade french onion soup? Yeah!

flerp ,

YMMV. For me soup sounds like a good idea but I find it annoying to eat so for me personally it is a bad idea.

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