xkcd

#xkcd No. 3015
Date: 2024-11-22
Title: D&D Combinatorics
Alt text: Look, you can't complain about this after giving us so many scenarios involving N locked chests and M unlabeled keys.
https://xkcd.com/3015/

#xkcd No. 3013
Date: 2024-11-18
Title: Kedging Cannon
Alt text: The real key was inventing the windmill-powered winch.
https://xkcd.com/3013/

#xkcd No. 3014
Date: 2024-11-20
Title: Arizona Chess
Alt text: Sometimes, you have to sacrifice pieces to gain the advantage. Sometimes, to advance ... you have to fall back.
https://xkcd.com/3014/

#xkcd No. 3007
Date: 2024-11-4
Title: Probabilistic Uncertainty
Alt text: "One popular strategy is to enter an emotional spiral. Could that be the right approach? We contacted several researchers who are experts in emotional spirals to ask them, but none of them were in a state to speak with us."
https://xkcd.com/3007/

#xkcd No. 3017
Date: 2024-11-27
Title: Neutrino Modem
Alt text: Our sysadmin accidentally won a Nobel Prize while trying to debug neutrino oscillation error correction.
https://xkcd.com/3017/

#xkcd No. 3018
Date: 2024-11-29
Title: Second Stage
Alt text: Hmm, they won't do in-flight delivery, so let's order a new first and second stage to our emergency landing site and then try to touch down on top of them to save time.
https://xkcd.com/3018/

#xkcd No. 3021
Date: 2024-12-6
Title: Seismologists
Alt text: And even when they're not distracted, they usually get kicked out for illegal under-the-net 'subduction spikes'.
https://xkcd.com/3021/

#xkcd No. 3008
Date: 2024-11-6
Title: Proterozoic Rocks
Alt text: These rocks are from a time before eyes, brains, and bones, pieces of a land warmed by an unseen sun.
https://xkcd.com/3008/

#xkcd No. 3016
Date: 2024-11-25
Title: Cold Air
Alt text: We also should really have checked that the old water tower was disconnected from the water system before we started filling it with compressed air.
https://xkcd.com/3016/

#xkcd No. 3024
Date: 2024-12-13
Title: METAR
Alt text: In the aviation world, they don't use AM/PM times. Instead, all times are assumed to be AM unless they're labeled NOTAM.
https://xkcd.com/3024/

#xkcd No. 3022
Date: 2024-12-9
Title: Making Tea
Alt text: No, of course we don't microwave the mug WITH the teabag in it. We microwave the teabag separately.
https://xkcd.com/3022/

#xkcd No. 3009
Date: 2024-11-8
Title: Number Shortage
Alt text: "10 minutes ago we were down to only 2 0s!" "How many do we have now?" "I ... don't know!!"
https://xkcd.com/3009/

#xkcd No. 3019
Date: 2024-12-2
Title: Advent Calendar Advent Calendar
Alt text: The growth rate of items per day may may seem absurd, but it's actually much less than the acceleration in the 12 Days of Christmas song.
https://xkcd.com/3019/

#xkcd No. 3031
Date: 2024-12-30
Title: Time Capsule Instructions
Alt text: Inside is a third box, labeled DO NOT OPEN UNLESS YOU ARE IN THE TIME ZONE WHERE YOU OPENED BOTH PREVIOUS BOXES.
https://xkcd.com/3031/

#xkcd No. 3033
Date: 2025-1-3
Title: Origami Black Hole
Alt text: You may notice the first half of these instructions are similar to the instructions for a working nuclear fusion device. After the first few dozen steps, be sure to press down firmly and fold quickly to overcome fusion pressure.
https://xkcd.com/3033/

#xkcd No. 3025
Date: 2024-12-16
Title: Phase Change
Alt text: Even when you try to make nice, smooth ice cubes in a freezer, sometimes one of them will shoot out a random ice spike, which physicists ascribe to kiki conservation.
https://xkcd.com/3025/

#xkcd No. 3076
Date: 2025-4-14
Title: The Roads Both Taken
Alt text: When you worry that you're missing out on something by not making both choices simultaneously by quantum superposition, that's called phomo.
https://xkcd.com/3076/

ALT

#xkcd No. 3042
Date: 2025-1-24
Title: T. Rex Evolution
Alt text: Unfortunately, body size and bite force continue to increase.
https://xkcd.com/3042/

#xkcd No. 3040
Date: 2025-1-20
Title: Chemical Formulas
Alt text: Can you pass the nackle?
https://xkcd.com/3040/

#xkcd No. 3026
Date: 2024-12-18
Title: Linear Sort
Alt text: The best case is O(n), and the worst case is that someone checks why.
https://xkcd.com/3026/

#xkcd No. 3032
Date: 2025-1-1
Title: Skew-T Log-P
Alt text: The most important quantity for meteorologists is of course the product of latent pressure and temperostrophic enthalpy, though 'how nice the weather is' is a close second.
https://xkcd.com/3032/

#xkcd No. 3027
Date: 2024-12-20
Title: Exclusion Principle
Alt text: Fermions are weird about each other in a standoffish way. Integer-spin particles are weird about each other in a 'stand uncomfortably close while talking' kind of way.
https://xkcd.com/3027/

#xkcd No. 3034
Date: 2025-1-6
Title: Features of Adulthood
Alt text: I don't dig pit traps and cover them with sticks and a thin layer of leaves nearly as much as I expected; I find a chance to do it barely once a month.
https://xkcd.com/3034/

#xkcd No. 3036
Date: 2025-1-10
Title: Chess Zoo
Alt text: The zoo takes special care to keep kings separated from opposite-color pieces as part of their conservation program to prevent mating in captivity.
https://xkcd.com/3036/

#xkcd No. 3028
Date: 2024-12-23
Title: D&D Roll
Alt text: Under some circumstances, if you throw a D8 and then a D12 at an enemy, thanks to the D8's greater pointiness you actually have to roll a D12 and D8 respectively to determine damage.
https://xkcd.com/3028/