https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/api.php?action=feedcontributions&feedformat=atom&user=108.162.222.45explain xkcd - User contributions [en]2026-06-24T18:34:51ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.30.0https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Talk:1380:_Manual_for_Civilization&diff=69325Talk:1380: Manual for Civilization2014-06-11T08:50:36Z<p>108.162.222.45: </p>
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<div>Brian Eno is associated with Long Now foundation as a board member: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Long_Now_Foundation<br />
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[[Special:Contributions/108.162.222.45|108.162.222.45]] 08:50, 11 June 2014 (UTC)</div>108.162.222.45https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1315:_Questions_for_God&diff=572231315: Questions for God2014-01-10T16:42:33Z<p>108.162.222.45: /* Explanation */</p>
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<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1315<br />
| date = January 10, 2014<br />
| title = Questions for God<br />
| image = questions_for_god.png<br />
| titletext = What sins could possibly darken the heart of a STEAMBOAT? I asked The Shadow, but he says he only covers men.<br />
}}<br />
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==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|More detail needed.}}<br />
Megan is paraphrasing a famous quote from the British applied mathematician, and fellow of the Royal Society, {{w|Horace Lamb}}, who famously stated in 1932:<br />
<br />
:"I am an old man now, and when I die and go to heaven there are two matters on which I hope for enlightenment. One is {{w|quantum electrodynamics}}, and the other is the {{w|Turbulence|turbulent motion of fluids}}. And about the former I am rather optimistic."<br />
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This was referring to two phenomena in physics that, at the time, were poorly understood and difficult to explain. Lamb's prediction that quantum electrodynamics was easier to explain proved right; nowadays we have a much clearer understanding of QED, however our understanding of turbulence has improved little. ({{w|Richard Feynman}} famously described it as "the most important unsolved problem of classical physics").<br />
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Cueball, in response, indicates that if he were to gain divine elucidation his question would relate to the widespread schoolyard rhyme "{{w|Miss Susie}}", which typically begins with the stanza:<br />
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:"Miss Susie had a steamboat<br />
:The steamboat had a bell<br />
:Miss Susie went to heaven<br />
:The steamboat went to...<br />
<br />
:Hello operator<br />
:Please give me number nine<br />
:..."<br />
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The rhyming scheme between the second and fourth lines, and implied contrast with "heaven," causes the listener to fill in the word "Hell" instead of the innocuous "Hello".<br />
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Therefore, Cueball is wondering what a steamboat, an object lacking will, could have done to deserve divine punishment.<br />
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The Title Text is a reference to the 1930's pulp series "{{w|The Shadow}}" whose eponymous character is a psychic vigilante. The 1937 radio play's introduction began with the line ''"Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows!"'' Unfortunately, as the subject is a Steamboat and lacks a mind, heart, or Y chromosome, The Shadow would be unable to determine what heinous crimes it had committed to deserve damnation.<br />
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==Transcript==<br />
:Megan: Horace Lamb said he would have two questions for God: why quantum mechanics, and why turbulence?<br />
:Cueball: I'd have just one: ''What did Miss Susie's steamboat '''do?!'''''<br />
<br />
{{comic discussion}}<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]<br />
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]<br />
[[Category:Physics]]<br />
[[Category:Religion]]</div>108.162.222.45