The bottom ones are also potentially bad news for any other planets in our solar system that have been counting on Earth having a stable orbit.

https://explainxkcd.com/3049/

As a first step, they can put in a secondary deck, to help drivers try it out and find out how fun the jumps are. After a while no one will use the old flat deck and they can remove it.

https://explainxkcd.com/3048/

It was great until my thumb slipped and I accidentally launched my telescope into the air at Mach 8.

https://explainxkcd.com/3047/

Title text:

If only my ancestors had been fortunate enough to marry into the branch of the bacteria family that could photosynthesize, like all my little green cousins here.

Transcript:

[Cueball and Beret Guy, seen from afar in silhouette, are walking up a grassy hill.]

[They continue walking up the hill, reaching its grassy summit. Now with normal lighting. Beret Guy is a bit ahead of Cueball.]
Beret Guy: I learned something today.
Beret Guy: I went on one of those family tree sites and kept clicking back, and it turns out I'm related to stromatolites!

[Closeup on Cueball. Beret Guy's reply comes off-panel from a starburst on the right edge of the panel.]
Cueball: The bacterial mats?
Beret Guy [off-panel]: Yeah! A few billion years back, on my mitochondria's side.

[Cueball and Beret Guy standing on the top of the grassy hill facing each other. Berety Guy holding a hand out towards Cueball.]
Beret Guy: My Archaean ancestors absorbed some bacteria that were cousins of stromatolites. That's how I got mitochondria.
Beret Guy: Cell nuclei, too.

[Cueball is standing behind Beret Guy who is now sitting down in the grass leaning back on one arm with the other arm resting on his bent knee.]
Cueball: I think there are still living stromatolites. You could get in touch.
Beret Guy: Nah, they're probably busy. I don't want to bother them.

[Cueball is sitting behind Beret Guy who is now lying down, both again shown in silhouette from a far, revealing they are on the top of the grassy hill.]
Cueball: So what are you going to do with this knowledge? Nothing?
Beret Guy: Lying on a hill in the warm sun is an old family tradition.

Source: https://xkcd.com/3046/

explainxkcd for #3046

It struggles a little with complex positions, like when there are an even number of moves and it has to round down, but when run against itself it's capable of finding some novelties. At one point I saw six knights on the board at once; Stockfish rarely exceeds four.

https://explainxkcd.com/3045/

They should add a little sticker that certifies that the humidifier supports water conservation, but in the sense of energy conservation or momentum conservation.

https://explainxkcd.com/3044/

apparently the brief trend of users other than me posting new comics here has ceased again

Update: I've been banned from the physics department for the way I pronounce "Doppler effect."

https://explainxkcd.com/3043/

Unfortunately, body size and bite force continue to increase.

https://explainxkcd.com/3042/

Title text:

They're continuing to search for a square with the same area as the circle, as efforts to construct one have run into difficulties.

Transcript:

[In a single panel, White Hat, Ponytail, Miss Lenhart, Cueball, and Megan are standing in a field. Ponytail is holding a notebook and taking notes, Miss Lenhart is kneeling and holding her hands on a circular object with the radius marked on it, Cueball is holding a large caliper-like measuring instrument, and Megan is taking a photo with her phone sideways.]

[Caption below the panel:]
Math breakthrough: Dimensional analysts have discovered a real unit circle. Once they measure it, units can finally be added to all our geometry textbooks.

Source: https://xkcd.com/3041

explainxkcd for #3041

Title text:

Can you pass the nackle?

Transcript:

[Cueball is holding a pointer and gesturing towards a whiteboard that shows the chemical formulas HCOOH and CH₃COOH. Below these, respectively, are classic diagramatic representations of formic/methanoic acid [with an apparently accidental doubled bond between the carbon and the hydroxy group] and acetic/ethanoic acid; being, in turn, a single- and double-carbon chain molecule with a double-bonded oxygen (carbonyl group) plus an oxygen-hydrogen (hydroxy) upon one carbon of each, to form the full carboxyl grouping, and hydrogens completing all other expected bonds.]
Cueball: The two simplest carboxylic acids are hakoo and chuckoo.
Off-panel voice: No!!

[Caption below the panel:]
How to annoy chemists

Source: https://xkcd.com/3040/

explainxkcd for #3040

Alt text:
I wonder what surviving human held the record before balloons (excluding edge cases like jumping gaps on a mountain bridge). Probably it was someone falling from a cliff into snow or water, but maybe it involved something weird like a gunpowder explosion or volcano.

Explainxkcd: https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/3039:_Human_Altitude

Edit: Alt Text: Speed limit c arcminutes^2 per steradian.

You don't want the nitrogen percentage to be too high or you run the risk of eutrophication.

https://explainxkcd.com/3035/

I don't dig pit traps and cover them with sticks and a thin layer of leaves nearly as much as I expected; I find a chance to do it barely once a month.

https://explainxkcd.com/3034/

You may notice the first half of these instructions are similar to the instructions for a working nuclear fusion device. After the first few dozen steps, be sure to press down firmly and fold quickly to overcome fusion pressure.

https://explainxkcd.com/3033/

The most important quantity for meteorologists is of course the product of latent pressure and temperostrophic enthalpy, though 'how nice the weather is' is a close second.

https://explainxkcd.com/3032/

Inside is a third box, labeled DO NOT OPEN UNLESS YOU ARE IN THE TIME ZONE WHERE YOU OPENED BOTH PREVIOUS BOXES.

https://explainxkcd.com/3031/

I still don't know how the police found my compound where I ran an illegal searchlight depot/covert blimp airfield/fireworks testing range.

https://explainxkcd.com/3030/

C'mon, ESA Solar Orbiter team, just give the Parker probe a LITTLE nudge at aphelion. Crash it into the sun. Fulfill the dream of Icarus. It is your destiny.

https://explainxkcd.com/3029/

Original static webpage version: https://what-if.xkcd.com/124/

Under some circumstances, if you throw a D8 and then a D12 at an enemy, thanks to the D8's greater pointiness you actually have to roll a D12 and D8 respectively to determine damage.

https://explainxkcd.com/3028/

Fermions are weird about each other in a standoffish way. Integer-spin particles are weird about each other in a 'stand uncomfortably close while talking' kind of way.

https://explainxkcd.com/3027/

The best case is O(n), and the worst case is that someone checks why.

https://explainxkcd.com/3026/