2010-12-17
Original: 2010-12-17 on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1:
Man: GO TO YOUR ROOM!
Girl: WHY?
Panel 2:
Man: BECAUSE I'M UPSET WITH YOU!
Girl: WHY?
Panel 3:
Man: BECAUSE YOU CHEATED ON YOUR HOMEWORK.
Girl: WHY?
Panel 4:
Man: BECAUSE PHOTONS WERE EMITTED FROM A LAMP, THEN BOUNCED OFF YOU, ENTERED MY EYES, AND FORMED AN IMAGE.
Girl: WHY?
Panel 5:
Man: BECAUSE MY PHOTORECEPTOR CELLS RESPOND TO ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION.
Girl: WHY?
Panel 6:
Man: BECAUSE ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION PHASE-STIMULATES AN 11-CIS RETINAL.
Girl: WHY?
Panel 7:
Man: BECAUSE PHOTONS CARRY ENERGY!
Girl: WHY?
Panel 8:
Man: BECAUSE ENERGY IS PROPORTIONAL TO FREQUENCY.
Girl: WHY?
Panel 9:
Man (furious): GO TO YOUR ROOM!
Final panel: A graph titled with two y-axes. The first curve, labeled "POTENTIAL LENGTH OF THESE CONVERSATIONS," rises over "HUMAN HISTORY." The second curve, labeled "HUMAN PATIENCE FOR THEM," falls sharply over "HUMAN HISTORY."
Votey:
Caption: LATER...
Man (smiling): AND IF YOU SPEND 70 YEARS STUDYING PHYSICS, YOU CAN ANSWER ONE "WHY" DEEPER!
Man: GO TO YOUR ROOM!
Girl: WHY?
Panel 2:
Man: BECAUSE I'M UPSET WITH YOU!
Girl: WHY?
Panel 3:
Man: BECAUSE YOU CHEATED ON YOUR HOMEWORK.
Girl: WHY?
Panel 4:
Man: BECAUSE PHOTONS WERE EMITTED FROM A LAMP, THEN BOUNCED OFF YOU, ENTERED MY EYES, AND FORMED AN IMAGE.
Girl: WHY?
Panel 5:
Man: BECAUSE MY PHOTORECEPTOR CELLS RESPOND TO ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION.
Girl: WHY?
Panel 6:
Man: BECAUSE ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION PHASE-STIMULATES AN 11-CIS RETINAL.
Girl: WHY?
Panel 7:
Man: BECAUSE PHOTONS CARRY ENERGY!
Girl: WHY?
Panel 8:
Man: BECAUSE ENERGY IS PROPORTIONAL TO FREQUENCY.
Girl: WHY?
Panel 9:
Man (furious): GO TO YOUR ROOM!
Final panel: A graph titled with two y-axes. The first curve, labeled "POTENTIAL LENGTH OF THESE CONVERSATIONS," rises over "HUMAN HISTORY." The second curve, labeled "HUMAN PATIENCE FOR THEM," falls sharply over "HUMAN HISTORY."
Votey:
Caption: LATER...
Man (smiling): AND IF YOU SPEND 70 YEARS STUDYING PHYSICS, YOU CAN ANSWER ONE "WHY" DEEPER!
Alt text
A father (a man with wavy hair) tells his young daughter to go to her room. She keeps asking "WHY?" after every answer, and he responds with an increasingly deep scientific chain: he's upset because she cheated on her homework, which he knows because photons bounced off her into his eyes, because his photoreceptor cells respond to electromagnetic radiation, which phase-stimulates an 11-cis retinal, because photons carry energy, because energy is proportional to frequency. Each panel pairs his ever-more-technical explanation with her flat, unchanging "WHY?" Finally, exasperated, he just yells "GO TO YOUR ROOM!" again. The strip ends with a graph: one curve (the potential length of these why-conversations) rises over human history while another curve (human patience for them) plummets. In the votey, the same father smiles and adds: "And if you spend 70 years studying physics, you can answer one 'why' deeper!"
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.