809: Los Alamos

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
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Los Alamos



The joke part at the end is a reference to a common Mnemonic device for basic Trigonometric functions, namely identifying the relationships of sine, cosine, and tangent with respect to the lengths of a right triangle's edges: sin = opposite over hypotenuse, cos = adjacent over hypotenuse, and tan = oposite over adjacent (in other words, SOH CAH TOA.) "Steve" becomes concerned by the seriousness of the situation, and wants to make sure that he has not made a mistake. (On stuff that should be very elementary to a scientist in his position.)

It could easily be just a coincidence, but the choice of the name "Steve" for the scientist may be a reference to Project Steve.

"Now I am become Death, destroyer of worlds." -- Robert Oppenheimer (Lead scientist on bomb project, quoting Hindu scripture after the successful test)


Los Alamos, 1945...
Left figure: Wow. Um. Question: Just to double-check - although I'm 99% sure -
Left figure: Is it "SOH CAH TOA" or "COH SAH TOA"?
Middle figure: Oh, for the love of... can someone redo Steve's work?
Right figure: I don't want to do the test anymore.


How does trigonometry come into it?



Removed the following sentence from the explanation. Also, Steve says that he is 99% sure that it is "SOH CAH TOA, or COH SAH TOA," he is asking a question that doesn't work, since you can't be 99% sure that it is SOH CAH TOH or COH SAH TOA. It seems to stem from the explainer not understanding the comic. The "Although I'm 99% sure" is not a part of the question that follows, although it is part of the same sentence. Dashes are used to insert one sentence into another--like this--without changing the original sentence's meaning. Steve's comment could be rephrased as "I have a question, although I'm 99% certain that I know the answer. Is it SOH CAH TOA, or COH SAH TOA? 08:29, 28 May 2015 (UTC)

The comic also might be referencing a legend about how Trinity scientists came to Oppenheimer with their concern that the bomb might explode the world. He told them to run the math and if probability of destruction was under 1% they should still do the test (it was.) The comic implies then that the 1% probability has nothing to do with physics and is simply based on Steve's certainty about what Sine is. 12:57, 1 June 2015 (UTC)

I feel that the comment is both about Steve being "99% sure" of the SOHCAHTOA, and the test being "99% sure" of not destroying the world, since Steve seems to be a mathematician behind the explosion size and effects of "The Gadget". Drcrazy102 (talk) 00:09, 3 June 2015 (UTC)

I'd say that destroying the world is more of a 'make us as god' action than just making a big bomb. Mountain Hikes (talk) 23:10, 1 January 2016 (UTC)

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