# ­xkcd thread **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** comic-strips\ **Created:** [May 28, 2020, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574 "2020-05-28T00:57:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 168
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2024, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3343 "2024-09-03T14:40:45Z")
> [@Pleonast](#): > > It’s an interesting observation. If everyone thinks that a volcano has a crater full of lava, then that is what the word “volcano” has come to mean. Perhaps someday the word will mean the crater of lava itself. We’re not there yet, but this is how linguistic evolution works. ⁢ I think it’s more complicated than that. Most people think it means “mountain where lava has previously and likely will again erupt.” They are just mistaken in thinking that this means it will have a lava lake. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2024, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3344 "2024-09-04T00:34:10Z")
Agree w @BigT. Everyone agrees on generally what “volcano” means. A mountain of solidified lava. At least for right now. They’re just influenced a bit by fiction on the details. ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2024, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3345 "2024-09-04T00:38:11Z")
Let’s face it, volcanoes without a pool of lava are pretty boring (or they’re exciting for a relatively brief moment). ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2024, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3346 "2024-09-04T05:35:11Z")
How the hell are you supposed to sacrifice virgins properly without a lava pool? ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2024, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3347 "2024-09-04T05:42:24Z")
If I’m making my loco moko bento box, with a spam catamaran with pineapple strip outriggers and bacon sails; the rice volcano is going to have a lake of gravy lava, not some SO2 vent. ---
**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:** [September 4, 2024, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3348 "2024-09-04T21:36:42Z")
There’s a now-dead fantasy webcomic called Erfworld, where at one point the master-strategist main character ordered his earth-wizard and his necromancer to work together to reanimate the dead volcano their home base was on. He was surprised when the resulting lava lake never cooled and re-solidified, but was informed that “lava lake” was just the new terrain type for that hex, now. Meanwhile, the definition of “lava” has also shifted in popular usage: Under the old usage, all volcanoes are made of lava, which encompasses the re-solidified stuff as well as the molten. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2024, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3349 "2024-09-04T22:49:50Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Under the old usage, all volcanoes are made of lava, which encompasses the re-solidified stuff as well as the molten. Hmmm. I hadn’t thought about that until you said it, but as a kid the term was always “molten lava”, almost like a compound noun. Suggesting there was another kind: solid lava. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2024, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3350 "2024-09-04T22:53:16Z")
So all volcanic rock can also be called lava? ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2024, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3351 "2024-09-05T00:45:08Z")
And, what happens when the lava pupates? ---
**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:** [September 5, 2024, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3352 "2024-09-05T00:54:06Z")
I’m not a geologist, but I think that it’s only lava if it was at the surface as a liquid (and then re-solidified or not). Not all igneous rocks are lava. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2024, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3353 "2024-09-05T02:03:45Z")
I believe the term is “magma”. > [@Stratocaster](#): > > How the hell are you supposed to sacrifice virgins properly without a lava pool? If there isn’t a lava pool the volcano is quiescent enough that a sacrifice isn’t needed. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2024, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3354 "2024-09-05T02:11:13Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > If there isn’t a lava pool the volcano is quiescent enough that a sacrifice isn’t needed. Lots of volcanos errupt without having a lava pool. Mt St Helens, for example. Another problem with not having a lava pool is there’s no where to dispose of inconvenient Rings of Power. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2024, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3355 "2024-09-05T03:00:02Z")
I was really disappointed when my mom got some of this, and I excitedly opened it, and it was just a bar of soap. [![](https://c.media-amazon.com/images/I/81w6c2wHkqL._AC_UF894,1000_QL80_FMwebp_.jpg) ](https://c.media-amazon.com/images/I/81w6c2wHkqL._AC_UF894,1000_QL80_FMwebp_.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2024, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3356 "2024-09-05T03:00:45Z")
> **[Slingshots](https://xkcd.com/2981/)** > > In my reboot, Dennis the Menace was just trying to send Mr. Wilson a nice comet, but accidentally wiped out his dinosaur garden. ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2024, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3357 "2024-09-05T04:30:50Z")
Dude, you don’t wait until the gods are angry and spewing molten projectiles. Preemptive sacrifices. It’s expected. ---
**Author:** ![dasmoocher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dbc845/32.png) [@dasmoocher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasmoocher)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2024, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3358 "2024-09-06T13:00:58Z")
[![](https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/standards.png) ](https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/standards.png) I used to work at NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) and taped this one to the break room refrigerator door. I also found it slightly ironic that the two scales in the fitness room there would give you two different body weight measurements. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2024, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3359 "2024-09-06T14:59:32Z")
> [@dasmoocher](#): > > I also found it slightly ironic that the two scales in the fitness room there would give you two different body weight measurements. Well, if you _really_ needed to know your weight accurately, just walk down the hall and borrow the Standard Kilogram. ---
**Author:** ![dasmoocher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dbc845/32.png) [@dasmoocher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasmoocher)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2024, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3360 "2024-09-06T15:14:41Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > Well, if you _really_ needed to know your weight accurately, just walk down the hall and borrow the Standard Kilogram. That’s restricted access. It’s easier to get rid of one of the scales in the fitness room. As the saying goes: “The man with one watch always knows what time it is; the man with two is never sure.” ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2024, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3361 "2024-09-06T16:45:21Z")
Weren’t they going to define the kilogram as the mass of an exact countable number of atoms of silicon in a specially prepared sphere? What happened with that? ---
**Author:** ![Civil\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d78d45/32.png) [@Civil\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Civil_Guy)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2024, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3362 "2024-09-06T16:55:10Z")
"The kilogram is defined by taking the fixed numerical value of the Planck constant, ℎ, to be 6.626 070 15 × 10-34 when expressed in the unit J s, which is equal to kg m2 s−1, where the metre and the second are defined in terms of the speed of light, 𝒸, and the hyperfine transition frequency of the caesium-133 atom, ∆ν, respectively. This was a new definition in May 2019. " [https://www.npl.co.uk/si-units/kilogram](https://www.npl.co.uk/si-units/kilogram) I’d say the advice above is just a little bit facetious. Perhaps. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574.md?page=167) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574.md?page=169)