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xkcd #2977: Three Kinds of Research (xkcd.com)

submitted 2 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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The secret fourth kind is 'we applied a standard theory to their map of every tree and got some suspicious results.'

https://explainxkcd.com/2977/

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Business as usual, just another day at the lab. People using actual real world samples instead of the expensive standards to produce a very messy calibration squiggle. Also, the machine probably requires some maintenance from time to time.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Should just assume a perfectly spherical cow in a vacuum for simplicity's sake 🤷

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Oddly enough, the lack of air pressure in a vacuum would have the effect of trying to turn a regular cow into a sphere.

(Do not do this. Not even if the cow is already dead. Thanks.)

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago

Do not do this.

Dammit, there goes my weekend! Oh well, guess I can still just eat that dead cow that's been taking up space in the lab 🤷