Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for February 23, 2010

Gee. I would think that the “floooom” could be heard for miles. One would think that there would be quick response from the police, fire, and rescue units! Tess murmers, “Someone get help–quick!”. Perhaps there is a phone in the remains of the embassy… or, does anyone have a cell phone?

“Gurgle”? Is that the Dick Tracy we know and respect?

There’s a first for everything. This is the first time in quite a while I’ve seen Dick do something halfway heroic. Sure beats hiding in the bushes and screaming.

Now, all that water that got blown out of the pool— where did it go? When does it come back?

Richard looks like he could be seriously injured.

I’m using the politically correct term of “Richard” so we all don’t have our comments erased again.

I certainly hope the prudes appreciate the efforts we go to in order to make them happy. :-)))

Was that gurgle a death rattle?

Look, Dick’s smoking, he must be on fire! ‘Morning, VistaBill.

Get over there Tess and give him some mouth to mouth.

Look at the bright side: After several months of standing around in a circus tent with no shower or bathroom breaks, I’m sure this torrential floom has done wonders for Dick’s cleanliness.

G’morning, margueritem. Wasn’t the same without you yesterday! Hope you are feeling better.

Michael McMillan said, “Now, all that water that got blown out of the pool— where did it go? When does it come back?”

At the pace this strip moves, it’ll fall to the ground sometime next year!

leakysqueaky712 said, “I’m using the politically correct term of “Richard” so we all don’t have our comments erased again.”

I’m sure most of us didn’t misunderstand what you said.

Leaky, see all the trouble you started? ;-)

Tess, does look quite sexy in Panel 2. Wonder if she is on the prowl for another man now that Dick is incapacitated.

Hi Liam

I am pretty sure you are checking our comments today. What happened to Brewster Rockit? It’s been missing for 2 days.

Regards Charl

It looks like someone is gurgling in the bushes.

First word, OUCH!

\\//_

Her Richard lay wet and spent His mighty form going limp Tess was in an exhausted state Concerned as she was about his fate Would he ever rise again Or was her hope to be in vain “….!” she said “Speak to me” Would he hear her worried plea Someone said there was a crime Such an obvious thing to opine The pool was made of cinder block That’s how it withstood the shock The water was now outside Making the walkway a slip ’n’ slide Tess stood in the shallow end What aid there was she sought to wend In the background they heard a gurgle Could that be the ambassadors gerbil The gala now was a mess Providing fodder for the press To the prudes and prigs who hover here Passing their judgment with a leer If you find these verses to be obscene Then your mind is just like a latrine

Lools like the water went UP … but never came DOWN ?

Michael asked - “when it will come back”?

Seems it never will ! - Perhaps Chris Shendo got his “technology” from the Moon People and it’s half way there already. What with a water shortage up there, when it lands in will be the start of Lake Floooomm …. exploding “sound” even artistically choreographed to match.

Notice Tess, “shaken” but still Dry as a James Bond Martini (and except for a ‘gurgling’ Tracy) _No_ other character got a drop of WET (?)

Is Tess asking US to get help? She ought to know we are too busy “magpie’ing!”

It’s possible that the energy of the explosion, dissipated as it was in the water rather than in the ambassador’s body, has turned most of the water to steam. It’s hard to tell how much liquid water and how much steam was in the FLOOOOM. The heat of vaporization of water is about 2000 kJ/kg. If someone would care to estimate how much water was in the pool, and how much energy a pound of C-4 releases, we’d know if my theory “holds water.”

WW

That is worthy of a Pulitzer. :-))

Ray C -

My head hurts from reading your comment. Now you want someone else to do the calculations?

No math this early in the morning. My calculator hasn’t had its 2nd 64oz of coffee yet

The water came to Atlanta and it has been raining ever since.

After days of screaming, it’s good to see Tess talk in a regular voice and calmly say “Someone get help - quick!”

Ray C - Never ask a guy who sometimes teaches physics.

I found an analysis (from a college course!) of RDX, the active ingredient in C4. RDX’s chemical formula is C3H6N6O6, giving a molar weight of about 210g. So a pound of C4 would be about two moles. A mole of RDX releases about 10MJ of energy, so that pound of explosive in the Strad would release 20MJ–only enough to vaporize about 10Kg of water.

But explosives release energy in kinetic form. So, given that E(k)=0.5mV**2, we can plug in this 20MJ of energy, make a rough guess as to the mass of water in the pool, and solve for the final velocity of the ejected water.

Figure the pool’s round, 10m in diameter, maybe 2m deep; this gives a volume of 50(pi) or about 160 cubic meters, for a mass of 160,000kg.

So, V(water)=sqrt(2E7/8E4)=sqrt(250)=18m/s as it leaves the pool.

We can speculate that the water’s ejected mostly upwards due to the shape of the pool, so another calculation we can do is to determine how high the water will be lifted against gravity. The formula for this is E(g)=mgh, where g is the gravitational constant and h is the height it’s raised.

So, h=E(g)/mg=2E7/1.6E6=12.5m or about 39 feet. Better be a high ceiling in there…

(Calculations done on my 1972-vintage Faber-Castell slide rule. I almost went upstairs to get my father-in-law’s WWII Manhattan Project slipstick, but was too lazy to get off the couch.)

The call for help goes out but the entire force is still splitting their time between a circus tent and a casino

I should add that military C4 is usually found in 500g blocks (about 1.1 pounds), but since C4 is only about 90% RDX (the rest is binder, plasticizer and such), my calculations should still be pretty close.

See, she’s making the same hand signal today.

After the first violin exploded (Saturday) Dick didn’t seem to be hurt. He was able to run and get another violin to throw in the pool. The second explosion didn’t seem to hurt him any either. He was able to run and get a third violin. He wasn’t visibly affected at all. The third explosion knocked him down. Why?

Maybe it was a more powerful violin. Or maybe he got overconfident after the first two explosions and was too close to the pool for the third. Or maybe the first two explosions did hurt him – he was just too stoic to show it. Now he’s disposed of all the bombs he can lie down and rest (and smoke) a minute before going after the bombers.

-Cougar :{)

Great one BB, And thank you Leakysqueaky. From yesterday, thanks Margueritem, and to those who got caught up in my vulgarities, I apologize.

WW, you know that I was laughing at what you wrote yesterday. Another fine one today!

BB, you’re in fine form!

Always better to check on someone by yelling at them from 50ft away instead of running up to their side and checking for a pulse from this nearly dead strip.

puddleglum1066 - Thanks for the physics lesson! Good Stuff. You went the extra mile.

Hey watcha, and anyone else concerned about Brewster Rockit. Yesterday’s and today’s strips are finally up. Sorry for the delay - we had some bad files that had to be replaced.

R_Noonan63 said, 4 minutes ago: “Who’s that beind the bush going Gurgle?”

Ah, this is subtle… but if you look closely at yesterday’s strip, you’ll see that in addition to the column of water blasting out of the pool (at 18 meters per second) during the “FLOOOOM!” there are also what look like to very big, very slimy hands grabbing the edge of the pool. So, obviously, the “Gurgle” in today’s strip is the Pool Slime Monster, awakened from its long sleep, getting ready to devour Tracy, the Ambassador, and eventually everybody in Nurpleburg. Run for your lives!!

(But don’t worry; the Pig On Wheels will come to the rescue)

It’s alive! It’s aliveeee!!!

puddleglum1066, your analysis was superb. I hereby declare you the official Dick Tracy Physicist. We can talk compensation and benefits later. Maybe someday you can tell us how those “magnetic air cars” work.

Is Tracy down to two panels?

The pace was too fast at three panels per day. Readers couldn’t keep up!

-Cougar :{)

puddleglum1066 said, “I almost went upstairs to get my father-in-law’s WWII Manhattan Project slipstick, but was too lazy to get off the couch.)”

You have one of those, too! I got mine in a box of Wheaties back in 1946!

Ray C: “Maybe someday you can tell us how those “magnetic air cars” work.”

They didn’t. It was all an elaborate scam. Very sad story, really. Involved drugs, mass hypnosis, very, very fine wires and very transparent helium balloons. The whole thing was uncovered when “Moon Maid” (played by an actress from Cincinnati who’d undergone extensive cosmetic surgery) was inadvertently beheaded by one of the support wires for the Space Coupe. Diet Smith went to jail for life for negligent homicide and fraud. To maintain public confidence in the American industrial R&D empire, the judgment was hushed up. The “Milk Baby Diet Smith” who sometimes pops up in the strip these days is the original Diet’s idiot twin. You might have guessed that from the Robot storyline…

What, no FLOOM today??? Had it for three days, kinda miss it!!!!!!!!!!!!!

R_Noonan63 said, “Why are they supposing someone tried to kill the Ambassador? Maybe Pruneface is back from the Dead?”

No. It’s Cueball! But in reality it’s Virgil Ohso, remember?

Thanks, again, puddleglum1066. You know, I kinda suspected something like that.

Admirably rendered , wndrwrthg .

I don’t know why the newspaper doesn’t have a group of people , like yourselves, checking out each days strips. Like in the movies and tv, there are people who are in charge on “Continuity” If a re-shoot is needed, then the clock on the wall is still the same time and if there was a candle on the table, stays the same size. In this comic, they could watch outout for flaws in the drawings, keep track of the storyline. for a big city newspaper they could do better.

Puddleglum, doesn’t that put the volume of the pool somewhere close to 16,000 L, and my question to you is this: can 1 kg of C-4 lift a column of water of the equivalent mass 21 M? I think not! Shame on Locher!

morrow: Actually, according to the math I did, the answer is yes; 1 pound (1/2 kg, actually) of C4 would give 160,000 kg of water (the pool appears to be about 160 cubic meters, at 1000 kg/cubic meter) enough kinetic energy to lift it 12 meters. That’s the whole E(g)=mvh computation. It is dependent upon the estimate that a mole (220g) of RDX explosive releases 10 MJ of kinetic energy, and of course on the assumption that the shape of the pool directs that energy in a way that lifts the water more or less uniformly (as it was drawn yesterday). I’m not surprised by this–RDX is a pretty potent explosive. A 1/2kg block of it is (according to military sites on the web) enough to pretty much reduce a standard size van to scrap metal.

Ain’t physics fun? I should save these strips and use ‘em in class next year.

safeway674: movies and TV shows have “continuity editors” who do exactly that job. Book publishers also do this job (boy, do they… I spent a couple months answering editors’ questions on continuity for my first novel). Technically, that job should be done for a comic strip by the syndicate, which has (at least in theory) appointed an editor to oversee the strip. One gets the feeling that in the case of DT, the editor’s more overlooking it.