Original static webpage version: https://what-if.xkcd.com/25/

Original static webpage version: https://what-if.xkcd.com/94/

Title text:

If only my ancestors had been fortunate enough to marry into the branch of the bacteria family that could photosynthesize, like all my little green cousins here.

Transcript:

[Cueball and Beret Guy, seen from afar in silhouette, are walking up a grassy hill.]

[They continue walking up the hill, reaching its grassy summit. Now with normal lighting. Beret Guy is a bit ahead of Cueball.]
Beret Guy: I learned something today.
Beret Guy: I went on one of those family tree sites and kept clicking back, and it turns out I'm related to stromatolites!

[Closeup on Cueball. Beret Guy's reply comes off-panel from a starburst on the right edge of the panel.]
Cueball: The bacterial mats?
Beret Guy [off-panel]: Yeah! A few billion years back, on my mitochondria's side.

[Cueball and Beret Guy standing on the top of the grassy hill facing each other. Berety Guy holding a hand out towards Cueball.]
Beret Guy: My Archaean ancestors absorbed some bacteria that were cousins of stromatolites. That's how I got mitochondria.
Beret Guy: Cell nuclei, too.

[Cueball is standing behind Beret Guy who is now sitting down in the grass leaning back on one arm with the other arm resting on his bent knee.]
Cueball: I think there are still living stromatolites. You could get in touch.
Beret Guy: Nah, they're probably busy. I don't want to bother them.

[Cueball is sitting behind Beret Guy who is now lying down, both again shown in silhouette from a far, revealing they are on the top of the grassy hill.]
Cueball: So what are you going to do with this knowledge? Nothing?
Beret Guy: Lying on a hill in the warm sun is an old family tradition.

Source: https://xkcd.com/3046/

explainxkcd for #3046

Title text:

They're continuing to search for a square with the same area as the circle, as efforts to construct one have run into difficulties.

Transcript:

[In a single panel, White Hat, Ponytail, Miss Lenhart, Cueball, and Megan are standing in a field. Ponytail is holding a notebook and taking notes, Miss Lenhart is kneeling and holding her hands on a circular object with the radius marked on it, Cueball is holding a large caliper-like measuring instrument, and Megan is taking a photo with her phone sideways.]

[Caption below the panel:]
Math breakthrough: Dimensional analysts have discovered a real unit circle. Once they measure it, units can finally be added to all our geometry textbooks.

Source: https://xkcd.com/3041

explainxkcd for #3041

Title text:

Can you pass the nackle?

Transcript:

[Cueball is holding a pointer and gesturing towards a whiteboard that shows the chemical formulas HCOOH and CH₃COOH. Below these, respectively, are classic diagramatic representations of formic/methanoic acid [with an apparently accidental doubled bond between the carbon and the hydroxy group] and acetic/ethanoic acid; being, in turn, a single- and double-carbon chain molecule with a double-bonded oxygen (carbonyl group) plus an oxygen-hydrogen (hydroxy) upon one carbon of each, to form the full carboxyl grouping, and hydrogens completing all other expected bonds.]
Cueball: The two simplest carboxylic acids are hakoo and chuckoo.
Off-panel voice: No!!

[Caption below the panel:]
How to annoy chemists

Source: https://xkcd.com/3040/

explainxkcd for #3040

Alt text:
I wonder what surviving human held the record before balloons (excluding edge cases like jumping gaps on a mountain bridge). Probably it was someone falling from a cliff into snow or water, but maybe it involved something weird like a gunpowder explosion or volcano.

Explainxkcd: https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/3039:_Human_Altitude

Edit: Alt Text: Speed limit c arcminutes^2 per steradian.

Original static webpage version: https://what-if.xkcd.com/124/

https://xkcd.com/3025/

A followup to the previous.

Original static webpage version: https://what-if.xkcd.com/13/

Original static webpage version: https://what-if.xkcd.com/67/

"It's a real accomplishment to mess up a ravioli recipe badly enough that the resulting incident touches all four quadrants of the NFPA hazard diamond."

explainxkcd.com/2998/

Hover text:

Our nucleic acid recovery techinques found a great deal of homo sapiens DNA incorporated into the fossils, particularly the ones containing high levels of resin, leading to the theory that these dinosaurs preyed on the once-dominant primates.

Transcript:

[Three squid-like aliens in a classroom; one alien stands in front of a board covered with minute text and a drawing of a T-Rex skeleton. Two aliens sit on stools watching the teacher alien. The teacher alien on the left is on a raised platform and points at the board with one tentacle.]
Left alien: Species such as triceratops and tyrannosaurus became more rare after the Cretaceous, but they survived to flourish in the late Cenozoic, 66 million years later.
Left alien: Many complete skeletons have been discovered from this era.

[Caption below the panel:]
It's going to be really funny when our museums get buried in sediment.

https://www.xkcd.com/2990/
explainxkcd.com for #2990

Original static webpage version: https://what-if.xkcd.com/6/

Title text:

You'd think the most expensive part would be the quark-gluon plasma chamber, but it's actually usually the tube to the top of the atmosphere to carry the cosmic rays down.

https://explainxkcd.com/2982

Original static webpage version: https://what-if.xkcd.com/115/

Original static webpage version: https://what-if.xkcd.com/54/

This comic is inspired by XKCD and recent events and observations in my life. Disclaimer: I have no artistic ability and blatantly rip off the XKCD style and artwork, however the idea is mine and I feel it fits.

Original static webpage version: https://what-if.xkcd.com/59/

xkcd.com/2962

Title text:

Hard to imagine political rhetoric more microtargeted at me than 'I love Venn diagrams. I really do, I love Venn diagrams. It's just something about those three circles.'

Explain xkcd

Context (2023):