Yep, the last two comics are quite fundamentally wrong. It’s as though he didn’t fact check them in the most basic way. Slightly disappointing
Comment on xkcd #3161: Airspeed
Rivalarrival@lemmy.today 1 day ago
Randall isn’t a hot air balloon pilot.
Most balloons are about 100’ tall. The difference in wind speed between the surface and 200’ AGL can be 15kts. It is not at all unusual to descend through a shear such that the envelope is in 20kt winds, while the basket is in 5kt winds. It’s rather scary, actually, because our aerostatic aircraft start experiencing aerodynamic effects: “False Lift”. These forces only exist while the balloon is crossing the shear. Once it passes through the shear, all that lift disappears, and the balloon starts sinking like a rock.
balsoft@lemmy.ml 1 day ago
chatokun@lemmy.dbzer0.com 23 hours ago
The document forgery one? Isn’t that just a joke? What exactly do you fact check about a hypothetical forged document?
balsoft@lemmy.ml 19 hours ago
Ah sorry, I meant the one before that with the continents and space.
chatokun@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 hours ago
Ok… Plate techtonics were widely accepted in the late 1960s according to my search, which is exactly what the previous comic claims (make sure to read the image text).
What did he get wrong?
MyNameIsRichard@lemmy.ml 20 hours ago
I think it was just meant to be a joke although I did learn something about hot air balloons…