How to Find the Distance Between Two Objects Funny Math Rage Comics

Explain xkcd: It'south 'crusade y'all're dumb.

Explanation [edit]

Cueball awakens to find himself trapped for eternity in an endless area of sand and rocks. At first, he uses this time to derive all of mathematics and physics, plus more, including quantum mechanics and general relativity. Side by side Cueball creates a computer that can process any possible function, out of rocks and rules for the interaction between rocks. He then simulates a particle followed past the interactions between particles, followed by the entire universe. The amount of time it takes to simulate the alter in the universe simply from one instant to the next takes an extremely long fourth dimension, every bit the time information technology takes to update just one row of rocks would be eons, assuming a realistic time to place each rock.

Cueball is using the rocks to build a cellular automaton, a computational model based on elementary rules to advance from ane state to the adjacent. Certain cellular automata are Turing-complete, which means that they can be used to correspond whatever conceivable algorithm if expanded infinitely, including simulating the physics of the universe. He specifically seems to exist running Wolfram'southward Rule 110, which is capable of universal computation. When using Dominion 110 for universal computation, one builds a groundwork pattern, which tin can be seen in the comic equally the pattern of smaller triangles, and then performs computation by sending out "rockets" to collide and interact with each other. Cueball can simulate the functioning of an entire universe considering he has unlimited fourth dimension and space (and rocks).

Cueball then apologizes for whatsoever flaws we run across in the simulation. This implies that the audition is living in Cueball's simulation, making Cueball substantially God, and that he might brand mistakes along the way.

The final frame cuts to a classroom where a bored educatee stares at his easily waiting for form to end. Cueball admonishes the pupil for thinking that course is lasting forever, the joke beingness that the boredom felt in a classroom is null compared to the boredom that inspires Cueball to spend his endless fourth dimension toiling to keep the universe moving. Indeed, the minutes of lecture really took many "billions and billions of millennia" for Cueball to simulate. Another possible caption is that the entirety of this comic is a fantasy in Cueball's mind as he zones out during a math lecture.

The title text suggests that Rule 34 should be called on Wolfram's Rule 34. Rule 34 (see 305: Dominion 34) is a humorous dominion of the Net that states, "If you tin imagine it, at that place is porn of information technology. No exceptions." Wolfram's Rule 34 is a cellular automaton. Therefore, the title text says that either someone has fabricated pornography featuring the cellular automaton in question, or someone has used the cellular automaton to produce pornography.

Graphs [edit]

The three diagrams in the "Physics, too. I worked out the kinks..." panel are, from left to right:

1. The Normal distribution of the Gaussian bend marker the points that represent a standard departure of σ and 2σ. This is one of the fundamental edifice blocks of statistics. In quantum mechanics, particles are viewed every bit inherently random, therefore the time at which a particle volition decay, the position of a particle, and its velocity are all calculated using similar curves. A deviation of at least σ occurs 32% of the time, while a deviation of 2σ or more occurs near 5% of the time.
2. The Epitaph of Stevinus, an caption of the mechanical advantage of using an inclined plane. The inclined airplane is i of the six classical simple machines, ane of the fundamental building blocks of mechanical and civil technology.
3. The terminal graph is unknown. Information technology may represent coupled pendulums, length wrinkle, or a hypothetical solution to something nosotros haven't derived nonetheless.

The graph that represents particle interaction is a Feynman Diagram. This shows the interaction of subatomic particles that collide and exchange some momentum via a photon. The slope of the middle line represents the distance moved and the time lost/gained during the interaction.

Transcript [edit]

[Cueball is standing in a desert with lots of rocks lying around. He is narrating his own situation. The first panel spans the entire width of the comic. The first line of text is written to the left of him, the second line to the right.]

Then I'm stuck in this desert for eternity.

I don't know why. I just woke upwardly here ane solar day.

[The next four panels take up the second line of the comic.]

[Cueball stand up in the desert.]

I never experience hungry or thirsty.

[Cueball walks in the desert.]

I just walk.

[Zooming out while Cueball continues to walk in the desert.]

Sand and rocks

[Zooming far out equally Cueball once again but stands in the desert. Showtime line of text, higher up him, is a continuation of the text in the previous console. The 2nd line is below him.]

stretch to infinity.

As best as I can tell.

[The next three panels accept upwards the tertiary line of the comic. The final takes up half the width.]

[Cueball is sitting in the desert, in a contemplative position. First line of text above him, the second beneath.]

There's plenty of time for thinking out here.

An eternity, really.

[Cueball is sketching stuff in the sand. Beginning line of text to a higher place him, the second below.]

I've rederived mod math in the sand

and so some.

[Three different graph types are depicted. Offset line of text above them, the second below.]

Physics too. I worked out the kinks in quantum mechanics and relativity.

Took a lot of thinking, but this identify has fewer distractions than a Swiss patent office.

[The next eight panels accept up the fourth and fifth lines of the comic. All pictures are the same size.]

[Cueball is walking forth the desert, laying out rocks on a line. 4 have been deployed. He is laying downwardly the fifth and has a sixth in his other paw.]

One day I started laying down rows of rocks.

[Cueball, with a rock in his hand, continues to deploy stone sixteen, in a more intricate blueprint. There are filigree-lines in the sand (5 rows, six columns), with each intersection either empty of filled with a stone. No rocks lay anywhere only at an intersection on the grid.]

Each new row followed from the last in a unproblematic pattern.

[Zooming out showing even more than laid out rocks. Cueball is seen directly from in a higher place, and we encounter his shadow falling on the grid of rocks (7 rows, fourteen columns).]

With the right fix of rules and enough space,

[Continues to zoom further out showing clear triangular patterns (with no rocks) in the laid out grid of rocks. Cueball is not seen. (8 rows, 42 columns). Beginning line of text above the grid, the second line beneath.]

I was able to build a figurer.

Each new row of stones is the next iteration of the computation.

[Zooming far out (no Cueball) with rows intersected by five clear V lines on top of them. The V's are drawn within each other, with the smallest V at the peak right, and the other V'southward starting just to the right of the previous 1, and so continuing the same distance past the previous V, equally the full length of the first V. The "*" in the starting time line of text to a higher place this filigree references to the footnote beneath written in a smaller font.]

Sure it's rocks instead of electricity, but it's the same* thing. But slower.

*Turing-complete

[Cueball stands in a contemplative pose (on a make clean white groundwork - i.e. no dessert).]

After a while, I programmed information technology to exist a physics simulator.

[A black panel with white drawings and text. A pocket-size white dot (a particle) is labeled past two arrows coming of two binary strings.]

Every piece of information nearly a particle was encoded as a string of bits written in the stones.

00101010

00101010

[A Feynman diagram showing two particles interacting. Two arrows going in and out with a snaking line between them.]

With enough time and space, I could fully simulate two particles interacting.

[The next two panels accept upward the 6th line of the comic. The second console takes upwardly 3-quarters of the width.]

[Cueball standing before the vastness of the desert, with his programmed lines of rock stretching to infinity.]

Merely I accept infinite time and infinite.

[A black panel with white drawings and text. Depiction of two large galaxies, 1 with four jets coming out of its center, the other a apartment disc. Several smaller galaxies and/or stars are shown around them.]

So I decided to simulate a universe.

[The side by side iv panels take up the seventh line of the comic. They are of like widths.]

[Cueball is walking by his grid of rocks, lines signal he has just thrown some other rock down in its place. Information technology falls so hard it sinks into the sand that splashes out around information technology. The 14 rocks above him lie on the grid, four others beneath this grid have not been used nevertheless.]

The eons blur past as I walk downwards a single row.

[Zoom far far out to prove multiple rows of rocks. It is not very clear that there are several triangular patterns (with no rocks) in different sizes in the laid out filigree of rocks. There are about 50 rows and 90 columns. There are six large triangles on top of each other at the left border. To the right, there are three even larger triangles from peak to bottom, the one in the middle farther to the left than the one higher up, but further correct than the lesser 1.]

The rows blur past to compute a single pace.

[Shows the placement of two particles in the simulation.]

And in the simulation...

[The 2 particles have moved merely long plenty every bit to not overlap with their previous positions, shown as an after-image with faint grayness lines. The text continues directly the one from the previous panel.]

some other instant ticks by.

[The next 2 panels accept up the eighth line of the comic. They each take up half the width.]

[A Cueball-similar person (you) observes a mote of dust vanish.]

And then if you run across a mote of dust vanish from your vision in a little flash or something

[Cueball is standing between two rocks on the ground, while holding two rocks, ane lifted up to his head. The beginning line of text is above him. It is a direct continuation of the text in the previous panel. The second line stands beneath to the right of him.]

I'1000 sorry. I must accept misplaced a rock

erstwhile in the last few billions and billions of millennia.

[Cueball stands in the "clean" function of his infinite desert, in front end of the vastness of his infinity of infinite lines or rocks.]

Oh, and...

[A Cueball-like student sits in a classroom with his head in his hands, Megan sits backside him, and a teacher points to the blackboard. A clock shows the time at five minutes to x.]

If you lot think the minutes in your morning lecture are taking a long fourth dimension to laissez passer for y'all ...

Trivia [edit]

• This comic is bachelor equally a signed print in the xkcd shop.
• The Swiss patent office line refers to Albert Einstein, who was employed as a Swiss patent clerk while coming up with his theory of special relativity. This joke is also referenced in 1067: Pressures. Likewise, at that place is a standing joke that very few important inventions have come from Switzerland, since the country hadn't been involved in the world wars, and thus has non been part of the weapons race, nor was information technology a driving force in the preceding Industrial Revolution.
• In the center of the comic, the binary numbers pointing to the particle are both 42. This is a reference to the comedic answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything from the The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series.
• Cueball mentions that if we run across an artifact flutter in and out of reality, he must have made a mistake in the last "billions and billions of millennia." This implies that the small period of time the artifact is nowadays in his time is much longer than our universe has existed. That is a very long time. However, because it was a really long time, the difference could be more than just a small mote of dust disappearing.
• The line "I've rederived mod math in the sand and then some," is perhaps referring to "Surreal Numbers: How 2 ex-students turned on to pure mathematics and constitute total happiness" past Donald Knuth. The Surreal numbers are a system of numbers that includes the familiar real numbers, merely are infinitely more dense. Knuth wrote a novelette about a young couple who finds themselves stranded on a deserted island (much like Cueball), and spend much of their time deriving the properties of this number organisation from a few base axioms.

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Discussion

Weird thing with lines in it

Could it have something to do with fourth dimension dilatation? something like "real" fourth dimension vs "observed" time (my first comment, hope I did it correct) 108.162.241.82 20:49, 18 May 2017 (UTC)108.162.241.82

probably has something to do with relativity -- two objects moving, arriving at different points at the same fourth dimension, or maybe a diagram of spacetime. 66.202.132.250 sixteen:44, 10 June 2013 (UTC)

Information technology'southward a Feynman Diagram 206.174.12.203 19:24, ten June 2013 (UTC) Toby Ovod-Everett

I did add the incomplete tag considering this comic and also the explain is still really complex. More important: People without a proper physics background never will understand. --Dgbrt (talk) 21:01, 10 June 2013 (UTC)

At that place is a short story called "SOLE SOLUTION" by Eric Frank Russell which is quite similar to the one in the story. Just in example that matters. -- Maob (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Re Rule 34 - the bespeak is that this comic _is_ cellular automaton porn (as are the YouTube videos of Minecraft calculators and the like). Rule 34 works, bitches! 141.101.98.241 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Not sure what'due south incomplete most the explain. 0100011101100001011011010110010101011010011011110110111001100101 (talk folio) 22:56, 11 February 2014 (UTC)

Yo calculus is the latin discussion for pebble! I learned this and had to come straight to this page! ahhh connections! 173.245.50.88 Sawyer Biddle

As it turns out, Rule 110 seems to be a really bad way to simulate a universe- you would be much better off using a Circadian tag system, since Dominion 110 takes dozens of generations and potentially hundreds of cells to simulate ane pace in such a system, or a more sophisticated cellular automaton, such as Wireworld. --Someone Else 37 (talk) 05:12, 9 March 2014 (UTC)

To whoever objected to panel number references, does what I did with outset words gear up that? 199.27.128.99 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Well, that's a pretty unfair comparing in the last panel, the protag is immortal later on all, if I'm immortal I might do the same thing, but hey nosotros got a much shorter life to live 103.22.201.168 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

The diagram to the correct of the Epitaph of Stevinus looks like a system of coupled pendula, often used in math physics courses to illustrate Lagrangian mechanics. Besides may relate to elasticity theory. See for example hither: http://demonstrations.wolfram.com/ThreePendulumsConnectedByTwoSprings. 108.162.221.96 03:23, 12 November 2014 (UTC)

If this is true (which seems like the nigh probable solution so far) then what do the symbols inside the boxes represent? 108.162.216.209 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Spring constants, masses, lengths, etc 108.162.221.220 xviii:11, 12 November 2014 (UTC)

The symbols on the top seem to be Thousand and the lesser W. W is often used for athwart momentum and Thou for potential energy. If you are not exactly right you are very close to being so.108.162.216.209 13:45, 1 December 2014 (UTC)

The "diagram to the right of the Epitaph of Stevinus", also described as "A weird diagram with lines in it", or "segmentation of phase space into central cells", or " system of coupled pendula, often used in math physics courses to illustrate Lagrangian mechanics", can be described more literally: There is are 2 horizontal rulers with divisions 13 pixels apart and 17 pixels apart, respectively; and diagonal lines showing the correspondence between the first four markings of the upper ruler with those on the lower. The intervals seem to be labeled. Returning to speculation, I think this suggests an illustration of Length contraction (Lorentz coordinate transformation) in Special Relativity. Mrob27 (talk) 20:22, 28 Nov 2014 (UTC)

That seems highly unlikely due to the top labels on this graph. In your explanation they tin't represent anything relevant. Also if this diagram is used to represent spatial wrinkle, information technology does not do a good job of it. 108.162.216.209 13:45, 1 December 2014 (UTC)

I imagined the labels were, top row: O', x', (2x)'; bottom row: O, 10, 2x, Δv; or perhaps top row: Δx₁', Δx₂', Δx₃'; bottom row Δx₁, Δx₂, Δx₃, 0.7c. I don't think Randall put enough thought into those tiny squiggles for u.s. to be able to utilise pixel-counting every bit a hint to which labels interpretation is more likely… but what of it? We tin make up labels that fit any interpretation. I did say "Length contraction (Lorentz...)" was merely speculation. I exercise like the "iv pendulums coupled past springs" idea, though the horizontals look too ruler-like to me. It might be better only to say "two horizontal ruled lines linked by some diagonals" ! Mrob27 (talk) 17:00, 1 December 2014 (UTC)

Y'all are totally right, this ane may always be pure speculation. Though I am pretty certain the lesser points are labeled w, the top is past no means articulate. 108.162.216.209 20:46, 1 December 2014 (UTC)

I suggest that we modify information technology once more, from (electric current text: "A depiction of length contraction, with two lines of the same length locally but unlike lengths as ane is viewed in motion") to something like "A depiction of length contraction with two rulers in relative motility, or of several pendulums coupled by springs". Or mention the pendula idea first, I don't desire to make up one's mind. Mrob27 (talk) 02:xx, 2 December 2014 (UTC)

Though it's in panel before that one, there's the text "and and so some" referencing going beyond what we currently know in a field - could it possibly exist that this is supposed to represent something we haven't derived nevertheless? -- Brettpeirce (talk) x:44, 2 December 2014 (UTC)

Likewise, I'd like to point out that all three diagrams unify the theme of "working out the kinks in breakthrough mechanics and relativity": The starting time illustrates a region of the bell curve where a particle might occasionally fall if it is about to exhibit quantum tunneling; the second relates to perpetual motility, thus hinting at full general questions like "does breakthrough mechanics or relativity allow us to violate the laws of thermodynamics in any mode?", and the tertiary is from special relativity. Mrob27 (talk) twenty:22, 28 Nov 2014 (UTC)

Having studied (and knowing the fundamentals virtually what profile is needed to create a device that performs breakthrough tunneling) I take never seen this graph as a representation of this, and frankly information technology makes no sense. If this diagram was an energy band the hole or electron would have no need to tunnel to go upwardly or downwards the energy band as it is a gradual slope. If a device had a profile like this, it would non outcome in a significant number of tunneling events, especially at the positions that are marked on the diagram. For this to occur at that place would demand to be a elevation betwixt the ii points, and the points would need to be at similar heights (energy levels). 108.162.216.209 13:06, one Dec 2014 (UTC)

Yep, you're right: all we know is that information technology's a bell curve (normal distribution), and mentioning "tunneling" might make the reader retrieve nosotros were saying it is a potential office. I was reading a bit much into it. Why are there 2 vertical dotted lines at roughly +σ and +2σ? I idea they indicated a "range" as if the graph were illustrating some discussion of things that fall within that range. I also incorrectly remembered what the Epitaph of Stevinus was about, and then thanks for the corrections :-) Mrob27 (talk) 16:57, ane December 2014 (UTC)

I think we could reasonably add that the part represents a probability distribution of a partial, therefore tying in the quantum aspects. with a minor explanation of the probibility of 1 and two sigma. 108.162.216.209 20:46, i December 2014 (UTC)

I do recollect it was okay without the extra text referencing quantum mechanics. I was just trying to find a style to relate the image to the words… just there are so many ways to relate the normal distribution to annihilation in scientific discipline :-) Mrob27 (talk) 02:20, 2 December 2014 (UTC)

The bigger picture that's missing on this explains information technology that this comic seems to advise that Cueball is God, as in being stuck in Eternity who happened to build a simulated universe, which we all alive in. Seeing how he addresses the reader "Then if y'all encounter a mote of dust vanish from your vision in a little flash or something I'yard sorry. I must have misplaced a stone sometime in the last few billions and billions of millennia." {{141.101.105.238 10:25, 12 Nov 2014 (UTC)}}

I empathise that English might not exist your first language, but please clarify. The caption covers Cueball being godlike. How tin nosotros add something that is already covered? Do you crave further detail? Are you disagreeing with this assessment? Are y'all because this observation irrelevant as your summary for your first comment "added not about Cueball being God" seems to imply? If so why?108.162.216.209 17:57, 12 November 2014 (UTC)

nm. I blatantly overlooked the exisiting sentence in the explanation. i blame the layout of this page. inline text that spans the whole available screen width is non pleasant to read on large displays ;) ...as for my English... the confusion stems from my bad keyboard/typing. information technology was meant to read "added notation well-nigh Cueball" for case, or "as in A existence stuck". 141.101.105.233 08:15, xiii Nov 2014 (UTC)

you lot could compress your window and brandish narrower lines of text(?) -- I gauge it comes down to preference for masochism(?)... idunno. I recollect i of the most confusing parts of your question (and which may have contributed most to the ESL idea) is "missing on this explains information technology that...". Also, "as in beingness stuck" makes more sense than "as in a being stuck", though it seems you lot're suggesting otherwise (?) and I don't run across any text mentioning added not(E) about Cueball) -- oh look; is this a troll? -- Brettpeirce (talk) 15:fourteen, 14 November 2014 (UTC)

Who or what is Nugui and why is information technology relivent.108.162.216.209 17:57, 12 November 2014 (UTC)

is randall not assuming that his universe (and by implication ours) is finite? if non, ane iteration of the machine would yet take space time. --141.101.98.201 12:42, 26 November 2014 (UTC)

I call up it's good plenty to assume that the universe is finite, but actually really huge. Hypothesizing that adding i particle to the model requires twice every bit many cells in the cellular automaton, that means that Cueball'due south cellular automata rows could be most 2^(x^80) cells long, allowing simulation of a physics system containing ten^80 particles. Of course, each planck-fourth dimension would require 2^(10^80) steps of simulation in the CA. If x^lxxx isn't big enough for you, and then but brand information technology 10^1000 or Graham'southward number, or anything finite. Mrob27 (talk) sixteen:57, one December 2014 (UTC)

Don't forget that Rule 110 has 000 -> 0. Cueball tin can simply add columns on either side every bit his universe expands, consequently taking more than and more time to compute steps as the number of columns increases. 108.162.216.42 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Did anyone discover that the binary numbers pointing to the particle are both 42? 108.162.241.sixteen nineteen:26, 27 November 2014 (UTC)

I did now. :) Only, somewhere, he left out the towel. Jarod997 (talk) 14:33, 1 December 2014 (UTC)

Just as a curiosity -- at that place is a somewhat similar concept in "Permutation City", a volume by Greg Egan. 141.101.88.211 (talk) (delight sign your comments with ~~~~)

And dust is probably a reference to Grit Theory: http://gregegan.customer.netspace.net.au/PERMUTATION/FAQ/FAQ.html 141.101.98.187 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

I don't understand how information technology'southward possible to simulate a universe this mode. Assuming that quantum mechanics is correct, and some forms of particle decay are truly random, wouldn't information technology be impossible to simulate this with a purely deterministic organisation? KingSupernova (talk) 15:30, 1 Dec 2015 (UTC)

The universe Cueball is simulating would take to accommodate to digital physics. I can't speak about the fine points of quantum mechanics, but observably random events in a simulated universe could be the result of a pseudorandom number generator with a very large country. Srimech (talk) 23:37, xvi February 2016 (UTC)

This is definitely my favorite comic. I just really love it - I wish at that place was a book or something about it that was more in depth. --108.162.219.5 14:32, 5 June 2016 (UTC)

Yeah. Wow. Just... Wow. I would be then interested if this were somehow truthful. I just wish he could occasionally effigy out how to mess with our retinas by spontaneously flipping bits in order to brand us see a representation of him. That would be awesome, right? If I can make my own universe, well... I would do that. Also, I love this guy, real or not. That's correct, Jacky720 merely signed this (talk | contribs) xvi:ten, 5 January 2017 (UTC)

---

I was thinking the whole "eternity in a wasteland" was just a Calvin and Hobbes type fantasy that the bored student conjured up to describe how he felt near this class. ~~ Jelsemium

This still isn't anywhere near as large as 3^^^iii. Mathematicians are very good a making large ass-numbers. ~~ Schrodinger's Wolves

There should be a short story about this. Fav comic by far, and got me interested in philosophy lol --162.158.62.181 nineteen:thirteen, 17 July 2020 (UTC)

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Source: https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/505:_A_Bunch_of_Rocks

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