302
p is for pHunky (mander.xyz)
submitted 5 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[-] [email protected] 65 points 5 days ago

Why is there a random watermark on an xkcd? The original is here, for anyone who wants the alt text: https://xkcd.com/2943/

[-] [email protected] 49 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

I scrape the bottom of the internet barrel through a special firefox container. It's like growing memes on agar. Sometimes there's a little contam.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

Fair, but also, you could look up XKCD comics by their name or transcript and link to them directly when you come across them.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

My goal is to spend less time online, if I did this for everything I would not be able to keep up with this. I do it for fun.

[-] [email protected] 62 points 5 days ago
[-] [email protected] 10 points 4 days ago

I'm french, what does this say?

[-] [email protected] 10 points 4 days ago
[-] [email protected] 6 points 4 days ago

Je crois que il a besoin de VPN pour voir ce méme

[-] [email protected] 16 points 5 days ago
[-] [email protected] 70 points 5 days ago
[-] [email protected] 28 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Søren Sørensen, who came up with the concept of pH, wasn't clear on what the letter "p" meant. It does involve powers of 10 and can be measured using electrical potentials, so the best guesses are "potential" or "power", or several words that mean "power" in other languages and also happen to start with "p". Bottom line, we don't know, and unless somebody discovers more of Sørensen's notes or a way to speak with the dead, we never will.

[-] [email protected] 21 points 5 days ago

We can all speak to the dead. The problem is that they can't answer.

[-] [email protected] 12 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

That's why I was careful to say, "speak with dead," (after the D&D spell) implying a conversation.

[-] [email protected] 7 points 4 days ago

It's power of Hydrogen. We should've been using Watts to measure it this whole time.

[-] [email protected] 20 points 5 days ago

Protons. As in protons, How many. On a weird logarithmic scale with 7 in the middle, of course.

[-] [email protected] 6 points 5 days ago

The p is for potential, as in potential Hydrogen. pH can be used to establish a concentration of protium (H+) in solution. When learning about pH in school, we used pOH (potential hydroxide) as well to speak about bases.

[-] [email protected] 27 points 5 days ago

That's actually an interesting one.

The 'p' could have a different meaning for a variety of languages. 'Puissance' in French, 'Potenz' in German, 'potential' or 'power' in English, 'pondus' or 'potentia' in Latin, or 'Potens' in Danish (probably the Danish one originally, since it was a Danish chemist who first introduced the measurement).

It's very fun that because of the vagueness, various languages can have its meaning directly translated to their own.

[-] [email protected] 10 points 5 days ago

All those words have the same meaning.

[-] [email protected] 9 points 5 days ago

And the same origin, it's not a coincidence they all start with P

[-] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago

There's also pico-, prefix for 10^-12

[-] [email protected] 15 points 5 days ago

Easy. Pico Henry. Not sure why chemists are so concerned with such a small amount of magnetism though...

[-] [email protected] 18 points 5 days ago

Oh we're going to pHight today, is that it?

[-] [email protected] 10 points 5 days ago
[-] [email protected] 1 points 4 days ago
[-] [email protected] 4 points 5 days ago

I was taught potenz in my school textbooks. potenz Hydrogen

[-] [email protected] 6 points 5 days ago
[-] [email protected] 4 points 5 days ago

Phat-ass hydrogen

[-] [email protected] 3 points 5 days ago

Potencial de hidrógeno

[-] [email protected] 3 points 5 days ago

Negative log of the concentration of…(Hydrogen ions, in pH).

[-] [email protected] 1 points 5 days ago

I don't get what the joke is

[-] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Nobody actually knows what the p means but we keep using it anyway. The guy who coined it is long dead.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 5 days ago

Doesn't it mean "potential" ?

[-] [email protected] 2 points 4 days ago

Potentially

[-] [email protected] 3 points 5 days ago
[-] [email protected] 1 points 5 days ago
[-] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago

Yes, and also, whoosh

[-] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago

I thought it was "power". That's probably wrong though.

this post was submitted on 11 Jun 2025
302 points (97.5% liked)

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