Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for June 25, 2024

And so we ponder what exactly Dad taught us all.

Dad, you’ve got me confused…..

And that’s why Dad always makes up fake answers.

I’d hate to see a grown-up Calvin after the way he was raised.

Staying awake all night trying to comprehend a tough math problem builds character.

Calvin’s dad would elicit a “yeah, and?” response from me. The radial velocity is the same.

A clear indication of the age of the comic. Like, “Umm… what’s THAT thing going around and around??”

And that is why we weigh approx. 0.5% more at the poles than at the equator.

groovy

“…so the music gets faster and faster with time.”

Surprising that Calvin didn’t fall asleep from Dad’s empty bathering!

Okay, that’s gonna keep me up tonight.

Wait until you learn about Relativity, Calvin. You’ll look back on this moment fondly.

He went on record to say that……..

Angular speed can be hard to get your head around.

Is there anything that revolves not like that?

Spin a rope around your head. The end of the rope goes much faster than the part you are holding, yet the rope is connected and doesn’t fall apart. Therefore, things that are connected can travel at different velocities and remain connected. There’s nothing mysterious here.

Aristotle’s Wheel Paradox

any possibility that record was Turn, Turn, Turn by the Byrds?

OK, but …what’s a record?

I had more fun with my mother’s Zenith Cobra. It held ten records and could play at any speed up to 100 RPM by adjusting a sliding scale with 16, 33, 45, and 78 marked on it. It had vacuum tubes, bought in 1948 for $100, and this was 1962.

I’m pretty sure all of the “what’s that thing there” comments here are made by people who know very well what a record player is!!

I remember in marching band forming a rotating wheel. The kids in the hub barely moved while those of us on the outside had to practically run. Try doing that with a sousaphone!

Another fun fact: A DVD has more bits on the outside tracks than the inside ones. So the player needs to adjust the rotation speed to adjust for where the laser is.

You spin me right ‘round, baby, right round, like a record, baby, right ‘round, round, round – Dead or Alive

Judging by the last panel, that wasn’t interesting, it was mean.

Poor Calvin…that is enough to keep any six year old awake.

Being nervous builds character.

While not the same thing, this fact comes to mind: the planets have SLOWER orbital speeds the further they are from the sun. But a line between any planet and the sun sweeps out an equal area, during a given time interval, compared to any other planet in the solar system. (Kepler’s 2nd law of planetary motion.)

It’s still better than Hamster Huey, dad.

I remember this strip from years ago, did this to my kids.

The word “interesting” can cover so much ground….

I think Calvin’s brain broke!

My father explained that to me when I was Calvin’s age.

I’m with Calvin.

I suppose as the spin approaches the speed of light, the record disappears!

Actually dad is right, but Calvin cannot ponder why. Strictly physics.

Sad, if the child’s mind can’t work up any interest in that. Hopefully in ten years or so. Like when my dad tried to introduce me to jazz when I was maybe five. It was too early and I was too immature, just a glorified pre-schooler. Ehh…around ten years later when I got my first CD player and started rummaging through the CD bins at the library, the first bin I went to was jazz.

Dad’s pretty smart. He even made Calvin zone out completely.

Their whole family is too smart! Calvin is six – yet is as smarter then probably past elementary and his dad just explained him….I don’t even know.

I wonder if the fidelity of the music degrades as the needle moves slower and slower as it moves inward?

Still trying to figure out why my house has all Southern exposure.

I am guessing that Calvin’s dad thought this tidbit of information could help Calvin “build character”.

“She Blinded Me With Science. . .” – Thomas Dolby

This blew my mind too when I saw it demonstrated on a globe when I was Calvin’s age!!!

Math guy. Love it.

Be under no illusions: dads fouque with their kids!

Dad, let me introduce you to a little thing called “angular velocity”.

Of course, Spaceman Spiff already knew that.

See, I’m not a math person but that makes perfect sense to me. It’s like if two cars are racing around the same circle track, one on the far inside and one on the far outside,. Obviously the car on the outside needs to go much faster to get around the circle at the same time as the car on the inner track. Right? Or is there more to it?

Maybe Cal wouldn’t have been as freaked out if Dad showed him how to experiment with the concept. Put some light object on the turntable very close to the center so that, as it spins, the object stays put. But when moved farther and farther out, it begins to move. And by the time it gets to the very outer edge, it gets flung off…

Somewhere else, Jason Foxtrot is doing the same thing, but to his father.

And the Flat Earthers’ minds explode

You’re giving your son nightmares.

that’s why it’s harder to spin a bigger wheel

Now I know why I failed Algebra but not Geometry

“But what does that have to do with the song I’m listening to?”

Physics will NOT be one of Calvin’s best subjects in High School…

And maybe that’s why Calvin switched from records to cassettes. (Given the Dad was not a fan of then-current technologies, they likely never had a CD player.)

fathers teaching their son?? not today, that’s for sure!

Just wait until you have to take calculus, Calvin.

Reminds me of our solar system diagrams.

“Now, imagine a record as large as The Milky Way Galaxy … "

I had to go WAAAAY back to figure out what he was talking about and came to the conclusion it does not matter at all!!! I don’t need or want to know all that “stuff”.

He should have told Calvin that when they are riding in the car, the spot on the surface of the tire where the tire contacts the road as it rotates around the axle has a forward speed of zero MPH despite the fact that the car is moving forward at whatever speed they are driving.

Ok, this didn’t inspire him. Better stick to horror films

When I was that age, I think I explained that to my dad.

Same angular speed, different linear speed. The end!

Ah! But then turn the record backwards and what does it say? “Turn me on deadman, turn me on deadman…” You want to see Calvin’s head spin?

The outer point is like adults, seeing much higher distance as compered to the kids which see the minimum distance but both moving at same angular speed. I guess life goes that way.

Ive commented to this subject before in more than one site and meeting of minds. The mathematical theorymn makes me crazy, too, until I just say “O well, I’m confused, here, so guess I’ll just listen to the music play….”

So, Calvin; you’re confused. Just listen to the music play….

Roll away – the dew. The music never stopped!

An ex-President will be along shortly to explain it so that even the dimmest bulb can understand it.

Messin’ with the kids head using geography…

Ain’t science grand ! ;-)

If I ever understand this, I may never listen to another vinyl again.

To us adults, and perhaps to a child past fifth grade or at least in Middle School: dad’s referring to what the teacher was talking about in Physics class. To a six year old First Grade Student, and particularly in Kalvin’s case: Did Dad just mention a revolution! (please add as backdrop music Revolution by The Beatles).

And it doesn’t affect the sound. Hmmm.

The concept of the radian might be helpful, here.

Angular velocity and the other kind.

It is pretty astonishing.

And the same thing applies to us! Someone standing at the Equator travels further than someone further north (or south) to complete the same 24 hour rotation.

This has always been one of my favorite C&H cartoons.

This is why streaming services have replaced records and discs.

If Dad told that to a robot on Star Trek, it would say “Norman, coordinate. All units relate.”

Back around the turn of the century, we were visiting friends when their teenage son showed up with a friend carrying an old portable record player and a couple of LPs that they’d found at a second-hand shop. They were fascinated. We could hear them playing the records at different speeds and basically doing all the things we had done as little kids with phonographs.

I really feel sorry for the kids I teach these days. They grew up in a magical world, and most of them don’t have the faintest idea how any of it works. When we build some gadget and one of them wants to take it to the next level, I know there is some hope for that kid. Sadly, the majority seem content to live in ignorant bliss concerning the workings of their magical world. Sometimes the phrase “twilight of the gods” comes to mind…

For once Dad tells Calvin something that isn’t ridiculous.

Ah yes, a “Jimmy cracked corn” moment.

Ever sit on one of those spinning platters at the Fun House? You learn about relative velocities real fast when you’re flung off at the speed of sound.

It’s called surface speed. In the US it’s measured in surface feet per minute or sfm most of the rest of the world surface meters per minute or smm. Highly important in the metal cutting industry.