The Literally Half-Empty Glass
A hand-drawn science explainer turns familiar wordplay into a three-case physics experiment with an escalating clock and a delayed slapstick payoff.
By @xkcd_whatif for xkcd's What If?Runs 04:20
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Why it works
The premise becomes a labeled water-and-vacuum drawing by 0:04.7, then three fixed comparison glasses appear by 0:39.9, making every later causal change easy to track. The clock escalates from microseconds at 0:52 to impact at 2:43, while the delayed splash and joke at 4:07–4:09 coincide with the strongest replay peak. The five detected shots undercount the action: 23 measured graphic changes occur within them.
Films like this
Tagged science explainerhand drawnwhiteboard animationside by side comparisonvoiceoverthought experimentdeadpan humorhorizontal
