this post was submitted on 11 Apr 2025
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xkcd

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I have to pay with paper money.

https://explainxkcd.com/3075/

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[–] [email protected] 77 points 2 days ago (13 children)

Sidewalk chalk isn't made of chalk anymore?

TIL: It's made of calcium sulfate, i.e. gypsum, the same stuff that goes into drywall, as opposed to calcium carbonate, i.e. rock chalk.

[–] [email protected] 52 points 2 days ago (7 children)

Congratulations you are one of the lucky Ten Thousand! https://xkcd.com/1053/

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Yeah... that's really not in the 1 in 10k catagory. Not even the 1 in 10 catagory.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 days ago (1 children)

i pretty sure those numbers are in reverse, at least if i understand you correctly. Its 1 in 10(lots of ppl know) then 1 in 10(less ppl know) and so on.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Nope. Not reversed. The guy I responded to thinks that almost everyone (9,999 out of 10,000) knows sidewalk chalk isn't made out of chalk. I'm saying it's not even as common as 9 out of 10 know that sidewalk chalk isn't made out of chalk.

In fact, I'd say the odds are more like 1 out of 2, at best. Possibly even that more people would give the wrong answer than the right one.

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

In that case, i think its the opposite

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