this post was submitted on 09 Dec 2023
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xkcd

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https://xkcd.com/2865

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The phantom found Edward Everett Hale a century too early; by the time we invented satellites, the specifics of his 'brick moon' proposal were dismissed as science fiction.

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[–] teft@startrek.website 42 points 11 months ago

So that's how we got the Weinermobile.

[–] Anticorp@lemmy.world 19 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Why the Trojan horse? It was made out of what they had available.

[–] ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de 11 points 11 months ago

That's what I came in here to know about. Like, wasn't it wood? Didn't it do a great job?

[–] Decoy321@lemmy.world 6 points 11 months ago

Usually horses aren't giant, nor are they made out of wood and Greeks.

[–] randomaccount43543@lemmy.world 18 points 11 months ago (1 children)
[–] bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de 17 points 11 months ago (4 children)

Does Randall also work on explainxkcd? Because the explanation for the Trojan Horse seems to be pretty far fetched. Although I can't think of a better explanation either.

[–] Kusimulkku@lemm.ee 25 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Trojan Horse - A mythological, giant wooden horse, supposedly used by the Greeks to invade the city of Troy. Actual horses are composed, like any other animal, out of meat, bone, and other tissues and bodily fluids.[citation needed] In addition, the interior of the Trojan Horse was composed of Greek warriors rather than horse innards.

Lmao

[–] threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works 9 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I love the variety of places explainxkcd editors find to slip in a "citation needed".

[–] Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz 4 points 11 months ago

You can find those in the what if series too.

“Outer space is a lot higher up than Niagara Falls,[citation needed] so the plunge down into the atmosphere at the bottom of Earth's gravity well adds a lot more than 0.1 degrees worth of heat.”

Source

[–] threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works 12 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I think explainxkcd is unofficial and crowdsourced?

[–] Decoy321@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Correct. I won't say that Randall has no input, but we can check the revision history to see all the different people that made edits.

[–] kbal@fedia.io 6 points 11 months ago

I guess the idea is that if a competent engineer had been in charge of the Trojan Horse project, the ancient Greeks would've used an aluminum frame with a mylar fabric covering.

[–] pruwybn@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

That was the same explanation I came up with.

[–] caseyweederman@lemmy.ca 14 points 11 months ago

Edward Everett Hale has been taken by a fey mood!