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You're doing it wrong! |
Here at the Virtuosi, we have a very specific way of asking a very specific type of question that sounds anything but specific. These are the "How come [blank]?" questions [1]. These are very simple questions that just about every four year old asks, but likely never get sufficiently answered. To get a feel for what I mean by these questions I provide the following translations of problems we have either considered or will consider:
Q: How come trees?
Translation: How tall can trees be?
Q: How come plants?
Translation: Why are plants green?
These are my very favorite types of questions because they are completely understandable by everyone and promise to have very interesting physics working behind the scenes. So I've been thrilled to see two such questions considered by scientists lately that have also had a good run in popular media. They are:
Q: How come cats?
Translation: How do cats drink?
and
Q: How come dogs?
Translation: How do dogs shake?