xkcd #3115: Unsolved Physics Problems
Title text:
‘Tin pest’ makes more sense to me. Tin just doesn’t want to be locked down in a shape like that. I get it. But why would any metal want to grow hair??
Transcript:
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Source: https://xkcd.com/3115/
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I thought long hair was a requisite for metal, especially headbanging.
That settles it. Nobel prize incoming.
It’s missing the mistery of why it’s necessary to try three or more times to insert an USB A, when it only has two possible positions.
That’s a mathematics problem. Current theory of probability doesn’t account for cases where the probabilities are actively fighting against you. Once you’ve formulated the axioms of antagonistic conditional probability, you should be able to understand how USB-A ports work.
I’m more inclined to blame gremlins.
In Nordic folklore, there’s a concept for a household spirit (nisse/tomte) that may do mischievous tricks if you don’t treat it appropriately. If mathematics can’t solve this puzzle, it has to be a computer tomte that isn’t happy with your taste in RGB or how infrequently you run software updates.
Or you haven’t poured enough milk and porridge into your computer. Depends on the tomte
If you see sparks and smoke coming from the computer, you can be pretty sure you’re doing something wrong.
So you’re saying that if I stop feeding my mogwai after midnight I should be able to plug in my USB devices on the first try?
USB A actually has three positions, right side up, wrong side up, and fuck you.
That’s important and accurate information, Richard. Thank you.
Similarly, ice spikes. You can make em at home, and we really don’t understand how or why they form.
I think it’s been figured out for a while now? Essentially most of the surface freezes, except for a small hole. The spike forms from that hole since the water is pushed out before freezing (on the outside) leaving a hollow spike.
The rate of freezing is similar to the rate of extrusion, a spike can form.
I thought there was a relatively good explanation for ice spikes having to do with the volumetric expansion of water as it transitions phases from liquid to solid. Basically as an ice cube freezes there is a shell formed over the top surface and under the right circumstances it forms from the outside edges in leaving a hole, but then instead of the hole closing over ice starts forming downward into the bulk of the cube, pushing liquid water out of the hole which is then frozen into a protrusion
Cursed unsolved math problems sounding like the beginning of a horror story:
You’re lost in a forest without a map and compass…
Does generalized moonshine exist?
What’s the longest snake you can jam into an n-dimensional hypercube?
