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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[–] zabadoh@ani.social 78 points 6 days ago (4 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.

[–] candler33w@lemmy.world 53 points 6 days ago (3 children)

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

[–] bonn2@lemm.ee 13 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I guess count me in that 10,000 as well

[–] zabadoh@ani.social 10 points 6 days ago

Wow, so 20,000 people read this?

Lemmy's more popular than I thought.

[–] ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 6 days ago (1 children)

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

[–] cactus_head@programming.dev 0 points 6 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.

[–] ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 5 days 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.

[–] cactus_head@programming.dev 1 points 5 days ago

In that case, i think its the opposite

[–] Bgugi@lemmy.world 3 points 6 days ago

I would say it's probably a lot less than ten thousand - I doubt this is something "everybody knows"

[–] thenextguy@lemmy.world 21 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Well, it certainly isn't made of sidewalk.

[–] zabadoh@ani.social 5 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Unless your sidewalks are made of gypsum.

[–] thenextguy@lemmy.world 7 points 6 days ago

If there are, they won't be for very long.

[–] Zoomboingding@lemmy.world 9 points 6 days ago

It's not made of sidewalk anymore either

[–] rickyrigatoni@lemm.ee 10 points 6 days ago

No wonder it doesn't taste good anymore.