2012-04-10
Original: 2012-04-10 on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1:
A young man with curly hair and glasses, holding a calculator/device, speaks to a balding man with a dark beard.
Young man: "First, the minimum possible area is the Planck area, P_A, which is 2.6 · 10^-70 square meters."
Panel 2:
Young man (alone, looking at his device): "Second, the area of the head of a pin (A_p) is 7.6 · 10^-6 square meters."
Panel 3:
Young man: "Third, A_p / P_A is about 3 · 10^64."
Panel 4:
The bearded man sits in the foreground; the young man (partially visible) holds his device.
Young man: "Q.E.D., between one, and... 30 vigintillion angels could dance on the head of a pin."
Panel 5:
The young man, smiling smugly with hand on chest.
Young man: "Q.E.D. Another bullshit philosophy problem falls before the might of the engineering mind."
Panel 6:
Close on the young man's face (foreground) and the bearded man.
Bearded man: "You know there's no historical evidence that people ever seriously debated that question."
Panel 7:
Young man: "Can you build a spaceship out of history?"
Bearded man: "No."
Young man: "Then history is bullshit too."
Votey:
Bearded man: "You can't build a spaceship out of all those Orson Scott Card novels you read!"
Young man: "Yet."
A young man with curly hair and glasses, holding a calculator/device, speaks to a balding man with a dark beard.
Young man: "First, the minimum possible area is the Planck area, P_A, which is 2.6 · 10^-70 square meters."
Panel 2:
Young man (alone, looking at his device): "Second, the area of the head of a pin (A_p) is 7.6 · 10^-6 square meters."
Panel 3:
Young man: "Third, A_p / P_A is about 3 · 10^64."
Panel 4:
The bearded man sits in the foreground; the young man (partially visible) holds his device.
Young man: "Q.E.D., between one, and... 30 vigintillion angels could dance on the head of a pin."
Panel 5:
The young man, smiling smugly with hand on chest.
Young man: "Q.E.D. Another bullshit philosophy problem falls before the might of the engineering mind."
Panel 6:
Close on the young man's face (foreground) and the bearded man.
Bearded man: "You know there's no historical evidence that people ever seriously debated that question."
Panel 7:
Young man: "Can you build a spaceship out of history?"
Bearded man: "No."
Young man: "Then history is bullshit too."
Votey:
Bearded man: "You can't build a spaceship out of all those Orson Scott Card novels you read!"
Young man: "Yet."
Alt text
A seven-panel comic. A young man with glasses, holding a calculator, lectures a bearded man. He works through a numbered proof: the minimum possible area is the Planck area (2.6 x 10^-70 square meters); the area of the head of a pin is 7.6 x 10^-6 square meters; their ratio is about 3 x 10^64. He concludes "Q.E.D., between one, and 30 vigintillion angels could dance on the head of a pin," then declares triumphantly, hand on chest, "Another bullshit philosophy problem falls before the might of the engineering mind." The bearded man replies that there's no historical evidence anyone ever seriously debated that question. The young man retorts, "Can you build a spaceship out of history?" The bearded man says "No." The young man: "Then history is bullshit too." In the votey (a small black-and-white extra panel), the bearded man says "You can't build a spaceship out of all those Orson Scott Card novels you read!" and the young man answers, "Yet."
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.