orbit
Original: orbit on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Title: HOW TO LEARN ORBITAL MECHANICS
Step 1: Gauge Difficulty
Green character (reading a red book): "It's Newtonian! Piece of cake. Just a bunch of circles and dots."
Step 2: Correction
Green character: "Okay, ellipses and dots."
Step 3: Concern
Green character (looking worried): "Oh, crap! Sometimes there are more than two dots."
Step 4: Pick an Easier Subject
Green character (walking out a door): "I'm gonna go study quantum computing."
Votey:
Handwritten text: "It's all just waves and dots. And dots. And dots."
Below the text is a drawing of a cat, with squiggly lines and dots scattered around and trailing off to either side of it.
Step 1: Gauge Difficulty
Green character (reading a red book): "It's Newtonian! Piece of cake. Just a bunch of circles and dots."
Step 2: Correction
Green character: "Okay, ellipses and dots."
Step 3: Concern
Green character (looking worried): "Oh, crap! Sometimes there are more than two dots."
Step 4: Pick an Easier Subject
Green character (walking out a door): "I'm gonna go study quantum computing."
Votey:
Handwritten text: "It's all just waves and dots. And dots. And dots."
Below the text is a drawing of a cat, with squiggly lines and dots scattered around and trailing off to either side of it.
Alt text
A four-panel SMBC comic titled "How to Learn Orbital Mechanics." Step 1, "Gauge Difficulty": a green blob-like character reading a red book says, "It's Newtonian! Piece of cake. Just a bunch of circles and dots." Step 2, "Correction": the character says, "Okay, ellipses and dots." Step 3, "Concern": the character looks alarmed and says, "Oh, crap! Sometimes there are more than two dots." Step 4, "Pick an Easier Subject": the character walks out a door saying, "I'm gonna go study quantum computing" — implying quantum computing is somehow the easier escape. Votey: handwritten text reads "It's all just waves and dots. And dots. And dots," above a sketch of a cat surrounded by squiggly wave lines and dots scattering off in both directions, a nod to quantum physics being just as overwhelmingly complicated.
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.