1190: "Time"

[ChronosDragon]

I got thinking about weirdly shaped hourglasses, and I thought about how the comic so far is 2D. A 2D hourglass looping on itself in 3D space is easy to visualize:


Gif'd:


In this model it becomes clear that if this were the case in the comic, there would be a constant rain of sand (which there isn't - or is there?)
A 3D hourglass looping on itself in 4D space would be a bit trickier to render, but it would be just about the same principle. To say nothing of a klein hourglass, which is difficult to even imagine much less make a renderable object out of...

[tman2nd]

For the first time in a long time I forgot to check for the new comic. Randall is now competing with himself for my attention.

Oh! That's right! It's Monday, so a new comic's up!

ikr. The upside is I finally get my wish of an xkcd fix 24.4286 times everyday.

FIFY

FTFY

Why .4286?

[Davidy]

Love these two frames.

Do the same thing with frames 392 and 393. Then tell me just what cueball is doing? It looks like he's building up energy to continue building.

[tman2nd]

Love these two frames.

Do the same thing with frames 392 and 393. Then tell me just what cueball is doing? It looks like he's building up energy to continue building.

That's What I do when I need energy. You don't?

[vvn]

What's poking out of the box?

Seems to be a toolbox to me. (Boring I know.)
But, what was sitting on it earlier. There was some stuff (455) that vanished (456).

[KarMann]

[htom]

it's a tiny sandcastle (with a tiny-tiny sandcastle) and now they're going to build the other sandcastles higher (moving them back from the sea and up.)

[Wnderer]

[HAL9000]

lookdown.png

Excellent.

[Exodies]

So: a thought about the "hourglass" theory. What if the "river" refers to the stream coming from the top chamber, and the "sea" is, in fact the level of sand in the bottom? This of course ignores the concept that an hourglass tends to create a rising cone-shaped pile of sand in the bottom chamber as the chamber fills, but then again, maybe our characters have affected some sort of engineering to keep it flowing around their area of habitation.

I also wonder if Megan is about to start constructing on a heretofore invisible ceiling, one which will be right-side up when the "glass" is turned. (i.e. a one-chambered hourglass-like system that defies rational physics in favour of the abstract, a la Lewis Carroll or M.C. Escher)

The level of confirmation bias in this thread is astonishing. Are some of you perhaps policemen/women? An hour glass has a vortex at one end and a conical hill at the other THE ONE COMIC IS ALMOST AS FAR AS IT IS POSSIBLE TO BE FROM HAVING A VORTEX AND A CONICAL HILL.

Point 2 (to avoid the newly discovered crime of double posting (new to me, that is)) the box is a tool box containing the bolts she is using to fasten the horizontal to the verticals.

[patzer]

[KarMann]

Point 2 (to avoid the newly discovered crime of double posting (new to me, that is)) the box is a tool box containing the bolts she is using to fasten the horizontal to the verticals.

I thought she was using the rope to fasten them together.

[partingLance]

So: a thought about the "hourglass" theory. What if the "river" refers to the stream coming from the top chamber, and the "sea" is, in fact the level of sand in the bottom? This of course ignores the concept that an hourglass tends to create a rising cone-shaped pile of sand in the bottom chamber as the chamber fills, but then again, maybe our characters have affected some sort of engineering to keep it flowing around their area of habitation.

I also wonder if Megan is about to start constructing on a heretofore invisible ceiling, one which will be right-side up when the "glass" is turned. (i.e. a one-chambered hourglass-like system that defies rational physics in favour of the abstract, a la Lewis Carroll or M.C. Escher)

The level of confirmation bias in this thread is astonishing. Are some of you perhaps policemen/women? An hour glass has a vortex at one end and a conical hill at the other THE ONE COMIC IS ALMOST AS FAR AS IT IS POSSIBLE TO BE FROM HAVING A VORTEX AND A CONICAL HILL.

Sure, but is this idea specially absurd, by the standards of this thread? It's here, after all, that the semencoffeecancerbaby was spawned.

I grant you, there's a difference between a falsifiable and a completely absurd theory (I'll grant in particular that the "beach" is not very like either half of an hourglass).

But the most important question hereabouts is whether any particular theory is crazy enough to be true.

(By the way, NO NEED TO SHOUT. We can read you just fine).

[Eternal Density]

Time is an essay on the futility of essays on futility.

[Exodies]

Point 2 (to avoid the newly discovered crime of double posting (new to me, that is)) the box is a tool box containing the bolts she is using to fasten the horizontal to the verticals.

I thought she was using the rope to fasten them together.

Neigh lad, the rope was used to hoist the crosspiece to the top.

[beargarden]

I got thinking about weirdly shaped hourglasses, and I thought about how the comic so far is 2D. A 2D hourglass looping on itself in 3D space is easy to visualize:


Gif'd:


In this model it becomes clear that if this were the case in the comic, there would be a constant rain of sand (which there isn't - or is there?)
A 3D hourglass looping on itself in 4D space would be a bit trickier to render, but it would be just about the same principle. To say nothing of a klein hourglass, which is difficult to even imagine much less make a renderable object out of...

But is spinning towards us or away from us? I must know!

[Eternal Density]

But is spinning towards us or away from us? I must know!

I thought I knew, until you asked.

[AUS]

But is spinning towards us or away from us? I must know!

That's not how spinning works. It's spinning facing us, meaning it spins toward us and then continuing the same direction it spins away from us.

[Actaeus]

semencoffeecancerbaby

I'm a late arrival (started lurking in the last few days of the Madness). WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?

[Exodies]

semencoffeecancerbaby

I'm a late arrival (started lurking in the last few days of the Madness). WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?

It's a universal panacea for the mysteries of life

[Elmach]

semëncöffeëcancërbabië

I'm a late arrival (started lurking in the last few days of the Madness). WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?

Semëncöffeëcancërbabiës be hwæt makës thë Kingdoï änd be hwæt rïses ön thë rïght.

[Eternal Density]

semëncöffeëcancërbabië

I'm a late arrival (started lurking in the last few days of the Madness). WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?

Semëncöffeëcancërbabiës be hwæt makës thë Kingdoï änd be hwæt rïses ön thë rïght.

Ïa Ran'dall! Ïa Chulhu!

[KarMann]

But is spinning towards us or away from us? I must know!

That's not how spinning works. It's spinning facing us, meaning it spins toward us and then continuing the same direction it spins away from us.

To put it properly, using the right-hand rule, its axis points to the left.

Added:

Exit, stage left.

[tman2nd]

I got thinking about weirdly shaped hourglasses, and I thought about how the comic so far is 2D. A 2D hourglass looping on itself in 3D space is easy to visualize:


Gif'd:


In this model it becomes clear that if this were the case in the comic, there would be a constant rain of sand (which there isn't - or is there?)
A 3D hourglass looping on itself in 4D space would be a bit trickier to render, but it would be just about the same principle. To say nothing of a klein hourglass, which is difficult to even imagine much less make a renderable object out of...

But is spinning towards us or away from us? I must know!

Yes

Also,

[Elmach]

semëncöffeëcancërbabië

I'm a late arrival (started lurking in the last few days of the Madness). WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?

Semëncöffeëcancërbabiës be hwæt makës thë Kingdoï änd be hwæt rïses ön thë rïght.

Ïa Ran'dall! Ïa Cthulhu!

Ïa Üm'laütës! Ïa Rekonïŋ!

[beargarden]

But is spinning towards us or away from us? I must know!

That's not how spinning works. It's spinning facing us, meaning it spins toward us and then continuing the same direction it spins away from us.

Sorry, to clarify, is it spinning towards us from the top, or towards us from the bottom?
I forget sometimes that ambiguity has no place in the xkcd forums. Someone will always pick you up on it

[XonqNopp]

lookdown.png

Wanna play Shift??

[Elmach]

But is spinning towards us or away from us? I must know!

That's not how spinning works. It's spinning facing us, meaning it spins toward us and then continuing the same direction it spins away from us.

Sorry, to clarify, is it spinning towards us from the top, or towards us from the bottom?
I forget sometimes that ambiguity has no place in the xkcd forums. Someone will always pick you up on it

If it were placed on a horizontal surface, with gravity being vertical, it would be rolling towards the viewer.

[XonqNopp]

I'm still watching, Waiting For It. Meanwhile, here's an updated water level analysis:

Oh thanks a lot, I just came here to see if you updated it

[ChronosDragon]

But is spinning towards us or away from us? I must know!

That's not how spinning works. It's spinning facing us, meaning it spins toward us and then continuing the same direction it spins away from us.

Sorry, to clarify, is it spinning towards us from the top, or towards us from the bottom?
I forget sometimes that ambiguity has no place in the xkcd forums. Someone will always pick you up on it

I...err...towards us from the bottom. I think. Which would contradict the "rolling towards us" thing, I believe.

[Actaeus]

But is spinning towards us or away from us? I must know!

That's not how spinning works. It's spinning facing us, meaning it spins toward us and then continuing the same direction it spins away from us.

Sorry, to clarify, is it spinning towards us from the top, or towards us from the bottom?
I forget sometimes that ambiguity has no place in the xkcd forums. Someone will always pick you up on it

If it were placed on a horizontal surface, with gravity being vertical, it would be rolling towards the viewer.

I disagree! The part in front is slightly enlarged from parallax. It's rolling away. (Which makes more sense -- it's scrolling to continually reveal the path of the falling sand.)

I...err...towards us from the bottom. I think. Which would contradict the "rolling towards us" thing, I believe.

Hyah! Vindicated

[Elmach]

But is spinning towards us or away from us? I must know!

That's not how spinning works. It's spinning facing us, meaning it spins toward us and then continuing the same direction it spins away from us.

Sorry, to clarify, is it spinning towards us from the top, or towards us from the bottom?
I forget sometimes that ambiguity has no place in the xkcd forums. Someone will always pick you up on it

If it were placed on a horizontal surface, with gravity being vertical, it would be rolling towards the viewer.

I disagree! The part in front is slightly enlarged from parallax. It's rolling away. (Which makes more sense -- it's scrolling to continually reveal the path of the falling sand.)

I...err...towards us from the bottom. I think. Which would contradict the "rolling towards us" thing, I believe.

Hyah! Vindicated

???
Placed beneath a flat horizontal surface, with vertical gravity, the bottom side approaching means the tube roles towards us.

[tman2nd]

But is spinning towards us or away from us? I must know!

That's not how spinning works. It's spinning facing us, meaning it spins toward us and then continuing the same direction it spins away from us.

Sorry, to clarify, is it spinning towards us from the top, or towards us from the bottom?
I forget sometimes that ambiguity has no place in the xkcd forums. Someone will always pick you up on it

I...err...towards us from the bottom. I think. Which would contradict the "rolling towards us" thing, I believe.

If you look at it right, it can look like it's rolling the other way.

[Vytron]

I've caught up to page 120!

The creepiest part is seeing this in Lucia's signature before getting caught up to the actual post. Or was the statement repeated? It's like seeing glimpses into the future.

I know! Right?

Yes, catching up to the context of some of these quotes has been fantastic. I specially liked patzer's

Wow...

...when I stumbled out of bed this morning, I had no idea I'd accidently a meme, let alone inadvertently a religion.

As I was reading that before even finding out about the comic itself. So it was awesome finding the source of the quote, and its context, in real time

That's something only someone that reads everything can appreciate. So, to all the people that skipped pages in order to catch up: Shame, shame on you! A wiki page has been advertized that gives a "summary" of all the pages in the thread, I'll really doubt it's the same experience, though I'll probably never know, since I'll read the wiki after catching up with the thread, and it's still outpacing me by a significant factor.

Feel free to leave me a time capsule by replying to this message, I'll read it once I catch up with page 274 ("current page") which should be about 2 weeks from now (which would make the "current page"... I don't know which one, let me check...)

TRIPLE NINJA'ED: Wow! And to think I won't read these three messages until a much later time! This is a new way of interacting with forums for me.

[Actaeus]

But is spinning towards us or away from us? I must know!

That's not how spinning works. It's spinning facing us, meaning it spins toward us and then continuing the same direction it spins away from us.

Sorry, to clarify, is it spinning towards us from the top, or towards us from the bottom?
I forget sometimes that ambiguity has no place in the xkcd forums. Someone will always pick you up on it

If it were placed on a horizontal surface, with gravity being vertical, it would be rolling towards the viewer.

I disagree! The part in front is slightly enlarged from parallax. It's rolling away. (Which makes more sense -- it's scrolling to continually reveal the path of the falling sand.)

I...err...towards us from the bottom. I think. Which would contradict the "rolling towards us" thing, I believe.

Hyah! Vindicated

???
Placed beneath a flat horizontal surface, with vertical gravity, the bottom side approaching means the tube roles towards us.

Sneaky bastid.

Actually, I'm changing my response to "it is a superposition of forward-rolling and backward-rolling cylinders", which better reflects the odd experience of watching it. ChronosDragon can't veto this interpretation, because Death of the Author.

[KarMann]

But is spinning towards us or away from us? I must know!

That's not how spinning works. It's spinning facing us, meaning it spins toward us and then continuing the same direction it spins away from us.

Sorry, to clarify, is it spinning towards us from the top, or towards us from the bottom?
I forget sometimes that ambiguity has no place in the xkcd forums. Someone will always pick you up on it

I...err...towards us from the bottom. I think. Which would contradict the "rolling towards us" thing, I believe.

If you look at it right, it can look like it's rolling the other way.

Not really. Unlike The One True Comic, when a dark line overlaps another, there's definitely a white border that reveals which one is closer to the viewer. As I said, the axis points left, not right. That's nice & unambiguous.

[Flotter]

What's Cueball doing? He hasn't done very much in the last few frames, perhaps because he had to take a dump?

[ChronosDragon]

But is spinning towards us or away from us? I must know!

That's not how spinning works. It's spinning facing us, meaning it spins toward us and then continuing the same direction it spins away from us.

Sorry, to clarify, is it spinning towards us from the top, or towards us from the bottom?
I forget sometimes that ambiguity has no place in the xkcd forums. Someone will always pick you up on it

I...err...towards us from the bottom. I think. Which would contradict the "rolling towards us" thing, I believe.

If you look at it right, it can look like it's rolling the other way.

Not really. Unlike The One True Comic, when a dark line overlaps another, there's definitely a white border that reveals which one is closer to the viewer. As I said, the axis points left, not right. That's nice & unambiguous.

That's because I was clumsy with texture alpha masks. If I still had the source file (photoshop crashed after rendering the gif >:|) I'd go back and "fix" that to make it more ambiguous, heh.

[tman2nd]

I've caught up to page 120!

The creepiest part is seeing this in Lucia's signature before getting caught up to the actual post. Or was the statement repeated? It's like seeing glimpses into the future.

I know! Right?

Yes, catching up to the context of some of these quotes has been fantastic. I specially liked patzer's

Wow...

...when I stumbled out of bed this morning, I had no idea I'd accidently a meme, let alone inadvertently a religion.

As I was reading that before even finding out about the comic itself. So it was awesome finding the source of the quote, and its context, in real time

That's something only someone that reads everything can appreciate. So, to all the people that skipped pages in order to catch up: Shame, shame on you! A wiki page has been advertized that gives a "summary" of all the pages in the thread, I'll really doubt it's the same experience, though I'll probably never know, since I'll read the wiki after catching up with the thread, and it's still outpacing me by a significant factor.

Feel free to leave me a time capsule by replying to this message, I'll read it once I catch up with page 274 ("current page") which should be about 2 weeks from now (which would make the "current page"... I don't know which one, let me check...)

TRIPLE NINJA'ED: Wow! And to think I won't read these three messages until a much later time! This is a new way of interacting with forums for me.

I plan on reading the parts I missed when activity has died down alot

[descor]

I plan on reading the parts I missed when activity has died down alot

Do you really think that will happen?