xkcd

Title text:

Can you pass the nackle?

Transcript:

[Cueball is holding a pointer and gesturing towards a whiteboard that shows the chemical formulas HCOOH and CH₃COOH. Below these, respectively, are classic diagramatic representations of formic/methanoic acid [with an apparently accidental doubled bond between the carbon and the hydroxy group] and acetic/ethanoic acid; being, in turn, a single- and double-carbon chain molecule with a double-bonded oxygen (carbonyl group) plus an oxygen-hydrogen (hydroxy) upon one carbon of each, to form the full carboxyl grouping, and hydrogens completing all other expected bonds.]
Cueball: The two simplest carboxylic acids are hakoo and chuckoo.
Off-panel voice: No!!

[Caption below the panel:]
How to annoy chemists

Source: https://xkcd.com/3040/

explainxkcd for #3040

Alt text:
I wonder what surviving human held the record before balloons (excluding edge cases like jumping gaps on a mountain bridge). Probably it was someone falling from a cliff into snow or water, but maybe it involved something weird like a gunpowder explosion or volcano.

Explainxkcd: https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/3039:_Human_Altitude

Edit: Alt Text: Speed limit c arcminutes^2 per steradian.

You don't want the nitrogen percentage to be too high or you run the risk of eutrophication.

https://explainxkcd.com/3035/

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://explainxkcd.com/3034/

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://explainxkcd.com/3033/

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://explainxkcd.com/3032/

Inside is a third box, labeled DO NOT OPEN UNLESS YOU ARE IN THE TIME ZONE WHERE YOU OPENED BOTH PREVIOUS BOXES.

https://explainxkcd.com/3031/

I still don't know how the police found my compound where I ran an illegal searchlight depot/covert blimp airfield/fireworks testing range.

https://explainxkcd.com/3030/

C'mon, ESA Solar Orbiter team, just give the Parker probe a LITTLE nudge at aphelion. Crash it into the sun. Fulfill the dream of Icarus. It is your destiny.

https://explainxkcd.com/3029/

Original static webpage version: https://what-if.xkcd.com/124/

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://explainxkcd.com/3028/

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://explainxkcd.com/3027/

The best case is O(n), and the worst case is that someone checks why.

https://explainxkcd.com/3026/

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.

https://explainxkcd.com/3025/

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://explainxkcd.com/3024/

It works because a nautical mile is based on a degree of latitude, and the Earth (e) is a circle.

https://explainxkcd.com/3023/

No, of course we don't microwave the mug WITH the teabag in it. We microwave the teabag separately.

https://explainxkcd.com/3022/

And even when they're not distracted, they usually get kicked out for illegal under-the-net 'subduction spikes'.

https://explainxkcd.com/3021/

Stockfish 16 suggests the unconventional opening 1. RuntimeError: Out of bounds memory access

https://explainxkcd.com/3020/

A followup to the previous.

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://explainxkcd.com/3019/