stuff is cool

Apparently it’s been a little over 10 years since Bill Watterson published the last Calvin and Hobbes comic strip, but over on Reddit I found a link to a collection of scientific explanations from Calvin’s dad, and for fans of the comic I think you’ll find them pretty funny. Here are my two favorites (C is Calvin, and D is his dad):

C: Dad, how come old photographs are always black and white? Didn’t they have color film back then?
D: Sure they did. In fact, those old photographs ARE in color. It’s just the WORLD was black and white then.
C: Really?
D: Yep. The world didn’t turn color until sometime in the 1930s, and it was pretty grainy color for a while, too.
C: That’s really weird.
D: Well, truth is stranger than fiction.
C: But then why are old PAINTINGS in color?! If the world was black and white, wouldn’t artists have painted it that way?
D: Not necessarily. A lot of great artists were insane.
C: But… but how could they have painted in color anyway? Wouldn’t their paints have been shades of gray back then?
D: Of course, but they turned colors like everything else in the ’30s.
C: So why didn’t old black and white photos turn color too?
D: Because they were color pictures of black and white, remember?

C: Dad, will you explain the theory of relativity to me? I don’t understand why time goes slower at greater speed.
D: It’s because you keep changing time zones. See, if you fly to California, you gain three hours on a five-hour flight, right? So if you go at the speed of light, you gain MORE time, because it doesn’t take as long to get there. Of course, the theory of relativity only works if you’re going west.

I sometimes wonder if I get a bit of my inquisitive nature from reading these strips growing up. I’m glad my parents didn’t disillusion me like this, though.