Why quantum mechanics?

[Joel S. Berson]

At 1/10/2014 08:21 PM, George Thompson wrote:
>I find "why Tuesday?" or "why pork chops?", &c. a perfectly natural,
>elliptical way of asking "why have you chosen Tuesday (instead of the day
>I'd prefer) or "why are you serving pork chops (when you know that they get
>stuck between my teeth)"

And Horace Lamb chose quantum mechanics instead of fluid turbulence
as the subject he expected would be explained by a higher authority.

Joel


>GAT
>
>
>On Fri, Jan 10, 2014 at 11:10 AM, Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Isn't a question like "Why turbulence?" natural in speech and a possible
> > source for the "Because X" pattern?
> >
> > DanG
> >
> >
> > On Fri, Jan 10, 2014 at 7:48 AM, Dave Wilton <dave at wilton.net> wrote:
> >
> > > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > > -----------------------
> > > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > > Poster:       Dave Wilton <dave at WILTON.NET>
> > > Subject:      Why quantum mechanics?
> > >
> > >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > >
> > > Today's xkcd comic contains a variant of the WOTY use of "because," a use
> > > of
> > > "why," as in "Why quantum mechanics?" and "Why turbulence?"
> > >
> > > http://xkcd.com/1315/
> > >
> > > (I haven't looked into whether Horace Lamb actually said anything of this
> > > nature.)
> > >
> > > --Dave Wilton
> > >    Doctoral Candidate, Department of English
> > >    University of Toronto
> > >    dave.wilton at utoronto.ca / dave at wilton.net
> > >
> > > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> > >
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
>
>
>--
>George A. Thompson
>Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
>Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much since then.
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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