Italy 2010 for 2010-12-11

Comic Transcript

Text: Day 11: A Meterological Quandary

Drawing of a group of umbrellas in rain

Text: T = total rainfall, Ru = rainwater under umbrellas, Ro = rainwater outside umbrellas. Bizarrely, dRu > dRo as T increases

Graph of T (x axis) against R (y axis), with lines for T, Ru, and Ro. T is a straight 45 degree line, and the R lines are parabolic curves under it, with Ru increasing in slope and eventually overtaking Ro

Have you ever been in a crowded space with a lot of umbrellas? What ends up happening is that all of the rainwater slides down each umbrella's edge and bypasses the other umbrellas. The end result: rainwater everywhere and a lot of ducking to avoid getting stabbed in the face with an umbrella.

You could probably do an extended version of this graph that also takes into account the sudden, bizarre appearance of Dibbler-esque umbrella vendors out of nowhere as soon as the first drops of rain appear, but I suspect you'd need Riemann geometry to do so, so I will leave that as an exercise for the reader.