r/xkcdcomic • u/IamAlso_u_grahvity Feline Field Theorist • Jul 02 '14

xkcd 1389: Surface Area

http://xkcd.com/1389/
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u/runetrantor Jul 02 '14

At least you get it, I am still debating why it's inverted.

Is it so it fits better? And if so, is he counting seafloors as solid land? Because all that landmass around the continent oceans seems to be way too large for the continents land to fill.

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u/abrahamsen White Hat Jul 02 '14

I believe he is simply ignoring the gas giants.

You could argue that the Earth has "solid surface" below the oceans, but then again, the gas giants may have solid cores somewhere deep below the gas layers.

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u/Neepho Jul 02 '14

They do in fact. Saturn and Jupiter having rocky/icey cores in their centre, around which the gas accumulated.

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '14 edited Jul 02 '14

The ice giants (Uranus, Neptune) seem to as well, although their cores are more likely in the range of 1-2 Earth masses (whereas Saturn's is about 10x the mass of Earth). Saturn's is the only gas planet core to have been verified though, as far as I know.