# ­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:** 264
**Author:** ![Ponderoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponderoid/32/19221_2.png) [@Ponderoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponderoid)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2025, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/5263 "2025-12-06T17:40:11Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > So did you do the calc, or find it already done by somebody else over at _explain_? 😉 I asked both ChatGPT and Grok and their answers agreed. They showed their work, and all the algebra/trig steps looked legit. In the process I learned a new math term, “[sagitta](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagitta_(geometry))” which isn’t just a constellation. ---
**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 6, 2025, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/5264 "2025-12-06T17:47:09Z")
Cool. Now I learned something too; never heard the term before. Thank you. My comment about a long table dragging the ground in the middle is an example of a saggita viewed from the perspective of outside the arc. ---
**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 6, 2025, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/5265 "2025-12-06T17:48:01Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Of course the real motivation for the tolerance is to make the occurrence so rare that none of us has ever heard of it, much less seen it. Millimeters would flunk the unexpected test. Which is an essential element of humor. Even weak humor. While microns, though requiring an anal-retentive level of precision relative to the task at hand, would not be inconceivable using precision measurement tools. ETA: I regularly do a cardboard craft project that requires surprisingly high precision in order for pieces to fit properly– down to about 1/64 inch or about 0.4 millimeters. ---
**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 6, 2025, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/5266 "2025-12-06T17:54:56Z")
I assume you use a laser cutter for that? I can’t see getting that kind of precision using any sort of hand tools. ---
**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 6, 2025, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/5267 "2025-12-06T17:58:35Z")
Fortunately it involves folding not cutting; but yes a fold a mere 1/64" off will make the difference between two edges meeting cleanly versus leaving a gap. I end up faking it by hand-adjusting the fold until it’s good enough. ---
**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:** [December 6, 2025, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/5268 "2025-12-06T22:41:18Z")
Has anyone (more chess-learned than I) looked at the actual chess situations depicted? In particular the right board has a white pawn on row 8 that has apparently _not_ been made a queen? No wonder middle-bottom guy is intrigued! ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2025, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/5269 "2025-12-06T22:46:30Z")
I believe that is a bishop, and the yellow squares indicate the path it took across the boards. That’s why they have to be so precisely aligned, otherwise it does not work. ETA: And middle bottom guy is not intrigued: he just played that bishop into the other board. He is playing there too, not only on the middle board. He loses one bishop in his original board, but helps white in the other board. I think it is a bad move. He weakens himself with no gain in the other board. The bishop can now be taken by the rook. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2025, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/5270 "2025-12-09T02:17:55Z")
> **[Hyperacute Interdynamics](https://xkcd.com/3178/)** [![](https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/hyperacute_interdynamics.png) ](https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/hyperacute_interdynamics.png) “Our models fall apart where the three theories overlap; we’re unable to predict what happens when a nanometer-sized squirrel eats a grapefruit with the mass of the sun.” ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2025, 9:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/5271 "2025-12-09T09:59:30Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > “Our models fall apart where the three theories overlap; we’re unable to predict what happens when a nanometer-sized squirrel eats a grapefruit with the mass of the sun.” They should have asked me, I would have told them that they become a black hole. In fact, the sun mass grapefruit already was a black hole. ducks and squirrels away ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2025, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/5272 "2025-12-11T19:32:41Z")
> **[Fishing](https://xkcd.com/3179/)** [![](https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/fishing.png) ](https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/fishing.png) “‘That’s definitely above the catch-and-release size minimum for planetesimals.’ ‘I’m going to throw it back anyway.’” ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2025, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/5273 "2025-12-11T20:21:38Z")
You should have seen the one that got away! ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2025, 8:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/5274 "2025-12-12T08:37:58Z")
[Theia?](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant-impact_hypothesis) ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2025, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/5275 "2025-12-13T06:28:09Z")
> **[Apples](https://xkcd.com/3180/)** [![](https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/apples.png) ](https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/apples.png) “The experimental math department’s budget is under scrutiny for how much they’ve been spending on trains leaving Chicago at 9:00pm traveling at 45 mph.” Can they divert attention by pointing out how much the Physics Department’s budget is spent on spherical cows? ---
**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 13, 2025, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/5276 "2025-12-13T13:31:10Z")
Of course, there is such a thing as experimental mathematics. It deals with things like testing the Collatz Conjecture or the Goldbach Conjecture for ever-larger numbers (we think that both are true for all numbers, but nobody’s ever been able to prove it, and some suspect that proof is actually impossible). ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2025, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/5277 "2025-12-16T16:27:48Z")
> **[Jumping Frog Radius](https://xkcd.com/3181/)** [![](https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/jumping_frog_radius.png) ](https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/jumping_frog_radius.png) “Earth’s r\_jf is approximately 1.5 light-days, leading to general relativity’s successful prediction that all the frogs in the Solar System should be found collected on the surface of the Earth.” ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2025, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/5278 "2025-12-16T18:19:35Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > “Earth’s r\_jf is approximately 1.5 light-days, leading to general relativity’s successful prediction that all the frogs in the Solar System should be found collected on the surface of the Earth.” Prediction checks out. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2025, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/5279 "2025-12-16T19:27:30Z")
Without doing any math, I’m going guess that 1.5 light-days is somewhere around the orbit of Sedna. Which means you’d actually have to compute the r\_fj for the Sun. Not that that would make a lot of difference. ---
**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, 2025, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/5280 "2025-12-16T19:29:18Z")
Damned few (unboiled) frogs on the surface of the Sun though. 😉 That one is an interesting concept, but the execution falls apart as soon as you consider the Sun, or Jupiter, or … ---
**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 16, 2025, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/5281 "2025-12-16T22:12:40Z")
Doesn’t it depend on how much lead shot the frog has eaten? ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2025, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574/5282 "2025-12-16T22:51:49Z")
That’s only in Calaveras County. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574.md?page=263) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-thread/854574.md?page=265)