Location Sharing
Location Sharing
[Megan is holding her phone. Above her is the text she can see on the screen:] This website wants to know your location. [Two buttons are below this text. The first is white with a black frame and black text. The second (the chosen button) also has a black frame, but inside the frame is a black rectangle with white text. Around the chosen button are small lines indication rays.] Deny Allow
[Megan is holding her phone.]
[Megan is holding her phone. Above her is again the text she can see on the screen.] This website wants to know your momentum. [Two buttons are below this text. The first (the chosen button) has a black frame, but inside the frame is a black rectangle with white text. The second is white with a black frame and black text. Around the chosen button are small lines indication rays.] Deny Allow
Megan: Nice try.

In this comic, Megan is visiting a website on her mobile phone. After loading it, the website asks for her location . The choice between allowing or denying a website or app access to certain information is common among smartphones. The term "location sharing" specifically refers to when a smartphone user shares their location with such an entity. An example is a weather app which would need your location in order to automatically find the correct forecast.
Megan is then asked her momentum , which she denies. The joke is based on the Heisenberg uncertainty principle , which, in quantum mechanics, states that some pairs of values cannot be known precisely and simultaneously. The most famous examples of such values, especially in jokes, are location and momentum.
The ramifications of the uncertainty principle being violated in this context are unknown, but the comic might be alluding to security problems that appear if an untrusted application is given access to momentum data generated by the gyroscope. Access to gyroscope data can be used for reading passwords entered into the on-screen keyboard or even guessing keyboard strokes on a keyboard lying on the same table as the phone.
It could also be an attempt to get Megan to unknowingly reveal her weight (mass to be more exact), as the mass can be inferred by dividing the momentum by velocity (the velocity in turn can be obtained by observing the change of the location over time). In order to be feasible, the location must be polled at least twice, as at least two location points are necessary to compute the velocity. It is a stereotype in many Western cultures that women tend to keep their weight secret. The stereotype implies that women tend to obsess about controlling (and not revealing) their weight in order to conform to societal and sexual pressure.
On the other hand, it could just be a joke about the fact that Heisenberg's uncertainty principle is typically observed only at sub-atomic scales, and not at macroscopic scales (it is possible to measure both the position and momentum of a large object). By saying "Nice try", it's clear that Megan knows about the principle, but funny that she would think it applies to herself at macroscopic scale.
The title text refers to the inclusion of gyroscopes in modern cell phones that measure angular momentum, mostly to detect when the phone is tilted, but also used in a few mobile games. Randall suggests the poor accuracy of the compasses in mobile phones (measuring the angular position) is due to the gyroscopes being too good. If both the gyroscope and the compasses were completely accurate to a subatomic scale, it would violate the uncertainty principle. Modern phones also include varied technologies (such as GPS) to pinpoint the user's location, with varying degrees of accuracy.
The uncertainty principle has previously been referenced in 824: Guest Week: Bill Amend (FoxTrot) . It has also been discussed in relation to the two comics 1404: Quantum Vacuum Virtual Plasma and 1416: Pixels .
[Megan is holding her phone. Above her is the text she can see on the screen:] This website wants to know your location. [Two buttons are below this text. The first is white with a black frame and black text. The second (the chosen button) also has a black frame, but inside the frame is a black rectangle with white text. Around the chosen button are small lines indication rays.] Deny Allow
[Megan is holding her phone.]
[Megan is holding her phone. Above her is again the text she can see on the screen.] This website wants to know your momentum. [Two buttons are below this text. The first (the chosen button) has a black frame, but inside the frame is a black rectangle with white text. The second is white with a black frame and black text. Around the chosen button are small lines indication rays.] Deny Allow
Megan: Nice try.
