# Can someone explain today's XKCD to me? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 26, 2011, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-todays-xkcd-to-me/600886 "2011-10-26T18:27:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2011, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-todays-xkcd-to-me/600886/1 "2011-10-26T18:27:47Z")
Here’s the [permalink](http://xkcd.com/969/). I’m a huge C. S. Lewis fan, but I am utterly mystified. The White Queen’s death has nothing to do with anchors, the sea, or falling objects. ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2011, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-todays-xkcd-to-me/600886/2 "2011-10-26T18:30:13Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > Here’s the [permalink](http://xkcd.com/969/). > > I’m a huge C. S. Lewis fan, but I am utterly mystified. The White Queen’s death has nothing to do with anchors, the sea, or falling objects. It’s the wardrobe. The ocean is going to rush through the open door and drown her. (And presumably everything else in Narnia.) ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2011, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-todays-xkcd-to-me/600886/3 "2011-10-26T18:35:38Z")
He’s making the wardrobe into a water cannon by sinking it. The anchor will drag it to the ocean floor, 2km down, where the pressure will force water through the portal. The water will emerge from the other side at 200m/s. Whoever is on the other side will get hit with a wall of water moving at over half the speed of sound. ---
**Author:** ![Enderw24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba9def/32.png) [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2011, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-todays-xkcd-to-me/600886/4 "2011-10-26T18:38:53Z")
> [@Balance](#): > > He’s making the wardrobe into a water cannon by sinking it. The anchor will drag it to the ocean floor, 2km down, where the pressure will force water through the portal. The water will emerge from the other side at 200m/s. Whoever is on the other side will get hit with a wall of water moving at over half the speed of sound. Presumably more so if we also factor in the time-speed differential between Earth and Narnia, which I’d estimate to be in the range of 500:1. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2011, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-todays-xkcd-to-me/600886/5 "2011-10-26T18:45:01Z")
If the wardrobe falls to the very deepest part of the ocean - would much of the world’s water supply eventually drain away into Narnia? ---
**Author:** ![Heart\_of\_Dorkness](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/4bbf92/32.png) [@Heart\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heart_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2011, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-todays-xkcd-to-me/600886/6 "2011-10-26T18:45:16Z")
> [@MsWhatsit](#): > > It’s the wardrobe. The ocean is going to rush through the open door and drown her. (And presumably everything else in Narnia.) > [@Balance](#): > > He’s making the wardrobe into a water cannon by sinking it. The anchor will drag it to the ocean floor, 2km down, where the pressure will force water through the portal. The water will emerge from the other side at 200m/s. Whoever is on the other side will get hit with a wall of water moving at over half the speed of sound. Yes. And as noted on the [discussion thread](http://forums.xkcd.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=75640), there are numerous problems with this premise, including: “Talk about collateral damage,” “what if the pressure of the water destroy the wardrobe?” and “And I’m not even going to mention that the wardrobe only … oh, you know.” > [@Malthus](#): > > If the wardrobe falls to the very deepest part of the ocean - would much of the world’s water supply eventually drain away into Narnia? At the bottom of the Mariana Trench, say? ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2011, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-todays-xkcd-to-me/600886/7 "2011-10-26T18:47:03Z")
> [@Enderw24](#): > > Presumably more so if we also factor in the time-speed differential between Earth and Narnia, which I’d estimate to be in the range of 500:1. I think the passage must compensate for that, somehow. Otherwise, I imagine traversing it would have severe deleterious effects on living people. (Numb extremities, possible unconsciousness or even death in one direction, chunky salsa in the other.) ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2011, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-todays-xkcd-to-me/600886/8 "2011-10-26T18:53:16Z")
> [@Enderw24](#): > > Presumably more so if we also factor in the time-speed differential between Earth and Narnia, which I’d estimate to be in the range of 500:1. There’s no uniform time-speed differential between England’s Earth and Narnia’s Earth. (Narnia is, properly, the name of the country inhabited largely by Talking Beasts and sundry mythological creatures, not of the entire world.) The Pevensies spend about one year in England between _The Lion, the Witch, & the Wardrobe_ and its immediate sequel, _Prince Caspian_, and find several hundred years have passed; but after Edmund and Lucy spend a year in England and return to Narnia’s Earth again in _Dawn Treader_, only five years have passed for Caspian. Eustace spends less than a year in England after DT, but when he goes back to Narnia’s Earth for _The Silver Chair_, fifty or sixty years have passed for Caspian. Not to mention the Telmarines, who lived in England’s Earth before Digory (Professor Kirke) was born, yet left EE and arrived in the NE island of Telmar (from which they migrated to Narnia) long after Digory’s visit at the beginning of that world. There’s simply no correlating the clocks and calendars of the two Earths. They’re independent of one another. ETA: Also, despite what Peter claims in the first book to rationalize stealing the coats from the wardrobe, neither Narnia or its world is contained within the wardrobe. There’s an aperture between the two worlds within the wardrobe, but it only works when Aslan so wills. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2011, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-todays-xkcd-to-me/600886/9 "2011-10-26T20:36:42Z")
This isn’t even the first time XKCD has addressed the question of the Wardrobe. [Prudence](http://xkcd.com/665/) ---
**Author:** ![tanstaafl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ba8739/32.png) [@tanstaafl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tanstaafl)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2011, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-todays-xkcd-to-me/600886/10 "2011-10-26T21:04:18Z")
Or [this one](http://xkcd.com/821/). (The Narnia one is at the bottom-left) ---
**Author:** ![Covered\_In\_Bees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7ab992/32.png) [@Covered\_In\_Bees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Covered_In_Bees)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2011, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-todays-xkcd-to-me/600886/11 "2011-10-26T21:05:02Z")
Where’s the poll? ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2011, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-todays-xkcd-to-me/600886/12 "2011-10-26T21:08:46Z")
> [@Covered\_In\_Bees](#): > > Where’s the poll? No poll. I started the thread because I didn’t get the joke. ---
**Author:** ![Covered\_In\_Bees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7ab992/32.png) [@Covered\_In\_Bees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Covered_In_Bees)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2011, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-todays-xkcd-to-me/600886/13 "2011-10-26T21:14:57Z")
And apparently you didn’t get mine either. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2011, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-todays-xkcd-to-me/600886/14 "2011-10-26T21:42:53Z")
> [@Covered\_In\_Bees](#): > > And apparently you didn’t get mine either. I have no sense of humor. No Rhymer ever has. Well, no adult Rhymer. We have our senses of humor surgically removed at puberty, along with our capacities for mercy and compassion. It’s in the RhymerFaq. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2011, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-todays-xkcd-to-me/600886/15 "2011-10-26T22:09:36Z")
As an FYI- the XKCD has a forum that discusses each day’s cartoon. Some very interesting perspectives, especially about the very technical ones. ---
**Author:** ![JSexton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@JSexton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JSexton)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2011, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-todays-xkcd-to-me/600886/16 "2011-10-26T22:38:14Z")
> [@tanstaafl](#): > > Or [this one](http://xkcd.com/821/). (The Narnia one is at the bottom-left) I wonder if black hat guy came along, saw that set up, and immediately cornered the market on BitCoins forever? ---
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2011, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-todays-xkcd-to-me/600886/17 "2011-10-26T22:39:20Z")
> [@Enderw24](#): > > Presumably more so if we also factor in the time-speed differential between Earth and Narnia, which I’d estimate to be in the range of 500:1. I think this would lessen the effect. The same amount of water taking 500 times longer to get there would be less destructive. ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2011, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-todays-xkcd-to-me/600886/18 "2011-10-26T23:08:38Z")
“can someone explain today’s xkcd for me” must be the most often repeated thread title on this boards. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2011, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-todays-xkcd-to-me/600886/19 "2011-10-26T23:26:01Z")
I only just now noticed, incidentally, that **Skald** ’s currently-listed location is Camazotz. This makes me very, very worried, on multiple levels. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2011, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-todays-xkcd-to-me/600886/20 "2011-10-26T23:39:54Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I only just now noticed, incidentally, that **Skald** ’s currently-listed location is Camazotz. This makes me very, very worried, on multiple levels. It’s been Camazotz since 2003. I only just this week took _writer_ off as occupation, though I haven’t written for pay in about two years, I think. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-explain-todays-xkcd-to-me/600886.md?page=2)