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submitted 1 week ago by xkcdbot@lemmy.world to c/xkcd@lemmy.world

xkcd #3248: 182.8 Meters

Title text:

They rounded down to 182.8 instead of rounding up to 182.9 because 182.9 might make the statement incorrect.

Transcript:

Transcript will show once it’s been added to explainxkcd.com

Source: https://xkcd.com/3248/

explainxkcd for #3248

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[-] deltapi@lemmy.world 11 points 1 week ago

Seems silly to me, if it's a bay, there's silt flowing into it, time itself could pile 10cm of detritus into the deepest parts and make it more shallow.

[-] polotype@lemmy.ml 12 points 1 week ago

That's the whole point. 100 phatoms is really imprecise. But on translation, they didn't bother keeping the significant digit count equal, and since 182.8 m= 100 f , they just left it like that. I mean, it's the only reason he could guess there was a unit change...

[-] Tar_alcaran@sh.itjust.works 8 points 1 week ago

Or currents might deepen a hole too. Putting silt in one place can cause other places to change too.

And if it were more shallow, shipping would have a big impact too.

this post was submitted on 21 May 2026
180 points (99.5% liked)

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