2013-02-14
Original: 2013-02-14 on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
The comic is a single hand-drawn diagram on graph paper, presented as a chart relating two axes.
The two axes of the diagram (drawn as a large cross/coordinate system in the upper-right):
- The vertical axis is labeled (at bottom): "Desire not to actually work on a physics problem"
- The horizontal axis is labeled (at left): "Quality of diagram"
As the "Desire not to actually work on a physics problem" increases, the diagram becomes increasingly elaborate and artistic rather than a useful physics sketch.
Low on the desire axis (bottom-left): a simple, plain physics diagram of a small cylindrical container (a cup) with annotations:
Labels: "air", "r = 0.16", "h = 1", "water"
Middle: a more shaded, detailed drawing of the same cylinder floating, labeled:
"r = 0.16"
"h = 0.16"
Higher up: an even more rendered cup, labeled:
"r = 0.16 m"
"h = 0.16 m"
Top / most elaborate (highest desire to avoid the problem): a full atmospheric seascape drawing of waves crashing on rocks, a sailing ship, and birds, with an ornate hand-lettered scroll bearing a poem:
"Break, break, break
On the cold grey stones, O Sea!
And I would that my tongue could utter
The thoughts that arise in me
-Tennyson"
Votey:
Handwritten note: "This comic drawn while avoiding a simple fluid dynamics word problem.
-ZW"
The two axes of the diagram (drawn as a large cross/coordinate system in the upper-right):
- The vertical axis is labeled (at bottom): "Desire not to actually work on a physics problem"
- The horizontal axis is labeled (at left): "Quality of diagram"
As the "Desire not to actually work on a physics problem" increases, the diagram becomes increasingly elaborate and artistic rather than a useful physics sketch.
Low on the desire axis (bottom-left): a simple, plain physics diagram of a small cylindrical container (a cup) with annotations:
Labels: "air", "r = 0.16", "h = 1", "water"
Middle: a more shaded, detailed drawing of the same cylinder floating, labeled:
"r = 0.16"
"h = 0.16"
Higher up: an even more rendered cup, labeled:
"r = 0.16 m"
"h = 0.16 m"
Top / most elaborate (highest desire to avoid the problem): a full atmospheric seascape drawing of waves crashing on rocks, a sailing ship, and birds, with an ornate hand-lettered scroll bearing a poem:
"Break, break, break
On the cold grey stones, O Sea!
And I would that my tongue could utter
The thoughts that arise in me
-Tennyson"
Votey:
Handwritten note: "This comic drawn while avoiding a simple fluid dynamics word problem.
-ZW"
Alt text
A hand-drawn diagram on graph paper plotting "Quality of diagram" (horizontal axis) against "Desire not to actually work on a physics problem" (vertical axis). At the low end is a plain, useful physics sketch: a small cylindrical cup labeled with air, water, r = 0.16, and h = 1. As the desire-to-avoid-work increases, the drawings of the cup become progressively more shaded, detailed, and artistic (labeled r = 0.16 m, h = 0.16 m). At the top, fully avoiding the problem, the artist has drawn an elaborate, beautiful seascape with crashing waves, rocks, a sailing ship, and birds, plus an ornate scroll lettered with Tennyson's poem 'Break, break, break / On the cold grey stones, O Sea!'. The joke: the more you want to avoid a physics problem, the more gorgeous and useless your diagram becomes. Votey: a handwritten note reading 'This comic drawn while avoiding a simple fluid dynamics word problem. -ZW'.
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.