xkcd: Earth-Moon Fire Pole

Many are familiar with the popular webcomic xkcd, but its spin-off blog, What If?, is lesser known. Randall Munroe takes the science to a whole new theoretical realm. The premise of the blog is that fans send Munroe absurd hypothetical questions, such as the one in the post called "Earth-Moon Fire Pole" that's featured in the image. A viewer questioned, “if there were a kind of a fireman's pole from the Moon down to the Earth, how long would it take to slide all the way from the Moon to the Earth?” Although there is no practical way of answering the question, Munroe nonetheless breaks the components down step by step and analyzes them in a scientific manner. Most of his musings stem from his background as an engineer, programmer, and roboticist for NASA [1]. Drawing from his preexisting knowledge, he takes on the role of “researcher” in his blogs, and the graph paper background of the blogs solidifies his identity and purpose. As seen in the image, Munroe demonstrates his knowledge on the topic through his consideration of planetary motion, gravitational forces, and supersonic winds. His scientific lingo conveys a sense of credibility, and he couples such analysis with sarcasm and exaggeration to show that he is not only contemplative and imaginative but also playful and witty [2]. For example, he illustrates the hypothetical effects of supersonic winds on the cartoon participant, showing him nearly flying off the pole. His rudimentary and often absurd visual analogies hint toward a smug sense of humor and demonstrate that such complex questions cannot be easily simplified (even by experts like himself).

Munroe has said that he takes requests when he wants to and only for topics that interest him. The way he regulates the What If? blog is much more elastic than how he treats the main webcomic. The side blog is a means for him to further explore his own interests, and it’s no surprise that fans of his main work come here to see what he has to produce. After all, they’re a part of the same niche audience [3]. "Earth-Moon Fire Pole" is a classic example of how Munroe uses his blog to be silly while still addressing the scientific inquiries of the world.

1. Jason McDermott, Matthew Partridge, and Yana Bromberg, "Ten simple rules for drawing scientific comics," Public Library of Science, Comput Biol 14(1) (2018), 1-10: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1005845

2. Rebecca Black, "Online Fan Fiction, Global Identities, and Imagination" in Research in the Teaching of English (Irvine: National Council of Teachers of English, 2009), 400.

3. Koen Leurs. "Voices from the Margins on Internet Forums." In Digital Passages: Migrant Youth 2.0: Diaspora, Gender and Youth Cultural Intersections, (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2015), 103-40. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt16d69vg.6.