# ­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:** 190
**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:** [December 13, 2024, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3783 "2024-12-13T21:22:23Z")
We were already having fun with that one over in the omnibus Aviation thread. See here & subsequent: > [@The Great Ongoing Aviation Thread (general and other)](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-aviation-thread-general-and-other/600499/6988): > > The Great Ongoing Aviation / xkcd thread crossover we always wanted: [[image] ](https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/metar.png) Funny enough, in a sense the hoverover / caption is sorta true. From one POV typical 24-hour time designations (“military time” to Americans) are all assumed to be AM. If “everything is AM” means that “1100” is 11 hours after midnight, then it would also mean that “1300” is 13 hours after midnight. Which it really is. Hmmm. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_stainless_steel_rat/32/5727_2.png) [@The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stainless_Steel_Rat)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2024, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3784 "2024-12-16T01:47:57Z")
When we first meet George Garvey he is nothing at all. The Vintage Bradbury (story collection, this one is from the first story, _The Watchful Poker Chip of H. Matisse_ ---
**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:** [December 16, 2024, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3785 "2024-12-16T03:25:21Z")
Having what to do with XKCD? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_stainless_steel_rat/32/5727_2.png) [@The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stainless_Steel_Rat)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2024, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3786 "2024-12-16T13:46:39Z")
Arrrgghhh, I would have sworn this was the 'First sentence of the Book you are Reading" Thread. Brain power was on low last night I guess. Mea Culpa. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2024, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3787 "2024-12-16T19:01:00Z")
> **[Phase Change](https://xkcd.com/3025/)** > > 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. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2024, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3788 "2024-12-16T19:30:52Z")
Egad, this is obscure. Wikipedia on [Bouba/kiki](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bouba/kiki_effect) effect. In short bouba denotes words that “sound round” and kiki denotes words that “sound sharp.” ---
**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:** [December 16, 2024, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3789 "2024-12-16T20:39:09Z")
You just saved me a bunch of research. I had zero idea what the hell he was talking about. Thank you!! ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2024, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3790 "2024-12-18T16:42:05Z")
> **[Linear Sort](https://xkcd.com/3026/)** > > The best case is O(n), and the worst case is that someone checks why. ---
**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:** [December 18, 2024, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3791 "2024-12-18T19:35:20Z")
Strictly speaking, that’s still asymptotically O(n\*log(n)). Unless your implementation of sleep() invokes time travel when given a negative argument. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2024, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3792 "2024-12-18T19:51:57Z")
That’ll never happen on a real computer, though, since the constant is so high that you couldn’t actually build that much memory with all the matter in the universe. ---
**Author:** ![Chelonaut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9a140/32.png) [@Chelonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chelonaut)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2024, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3793 "2024-12-18T20:31:01Z")
I can’t make out what language it is. It looks most like Python, but then the declaration should start with _def_ rather than _function_. If we don’t know the language, we can’t be certain that the argument to _sleep_ isn’t in picoseconds. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2024, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3794 "2024-12-21T12:17:35Z")
> **[Exclusion Principle](https://xkcd.com/3027/)** > > 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. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2024, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3795 "2024-12-21T13:09:32Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > [xkcd: Making Tea](https://xkcd.com/3022/) Interestingly, “[Sun Tea](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_tea_culture#Sun_tea)” isn’t even on the graph (my mother made it fairly often so it occurred to me immediately). Although mentioned on [explainxkcd](https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/3022:_Making_Tea) as something British likely wouldn’t even think of due to not enough sun. So I guess that would make it eldritch horror tea by British standards. ---
**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:** [December 21, 2024, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3796 "2024-12-21T13:29:49Z")
If a fermion has no electric or strong force charge, then exclusion can’t be an indirect manifestation of those forces (do neutrinos have a “weak” charge?). ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2024, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3797 "2024-12-21T13:33:28Z")
It’s not a “charge” as such, but they do interact via the weak nuclear force. ---
**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:** [December 21, 2024, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3798 "2024-12-21T13:56:56Z")
What looks like a “Pauli exclusion principle force” is always a manifestation of some force or another, but it can be different forces in different situations. Two fermions can’t occupy exactly the same state, but what constitutes a “state”? It’s always a manifestation of some potential or other, and that potential is a result of one or more forces. ---
**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:** [December 21, 2024, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3799 "2024-12-21T14:54:53Z")
What would happen if you could assemble a ball of neutrinos whose gravity would exceed the limits of the exclusion between them? Presumably the energy potential would induce some sort of transformation that would remove the fermion limit, but what exactly? In stars the transformation is to convert electrons and protons into neutrons which can pack much more tightly before wavefunction overlap becomes an issue; but presumably that mechanism wouldn’t be available in the case of neutrinos. ---
**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:** [December 21, 2024, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3800 "2024-12-21T15:22:53Z")
The potential in that case would be due to a combination of the weak force and gravity. As the gravitational forces increased, the neutrinos would get closer together, which would change the weak potential, which would enable them to get closer together. I don’t know enough about the weak interaction to say if there would be some stable bound state, but regardless of whether there is or not, at some point you’d eventually overcome that and collapse into a black hole. ---
**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:** [December 21, 2024, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3801 "2024-12-21T17:21:52Z")
It’s a question that is way beyond my education, but I would suppose that since neutrinos have such a tiny rest mass even a moderate increase in energy levels would accelerate them to near light-speed, making gravitational confinement difficult at best. A “neutrino ball” if it is possible at all would probably have to hover on the very knife edge of collapsing into a black hole. ---
**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:** [December 22, 2024, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/3802 "2024-12-22T00:48:35Z")
Also: > **[Exchange interaction](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exchange_interaction)** > > In chemistry and physics, the exchange interaction is a quantum mechanical constraint on the states of indistinguishable particles. While sometimes called an exchange force, or, in the case of fermions, Pauli repulsion, its consequences cannot always be predicted based on classical ideas of force. Both bosons and fermions can experience the exchange interaction. > The wave function of indistinguishable particles is subject to exchange symmetry: the wave function either changes sign (for fermions)... So I gather that a lot hinges on the exact definition in physics of a “force”. I would have classically defined a force as that which can accelerate a mass; does this mean that Pauli repulsion can prevent the compaction of fermions but cannot actually accelerate them? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574.md?page=189) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574.md?page=191)