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Why is the Sky Blue and Other Questions Answered

2010-04-09 · Q&A · Hank · 3:57 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Science & nature (also: Personal life, Internet & YouTube) · mode: Explainer · tags: song or performance

Hank, claiming John is bad at science, makes a video for John's baby son Henry that pre-emptively answers a child's questions (rainbows, the blue sky, night, clouds, pain, flight) with real explanations mixed with jokes.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Greeting to baby Henry; John is not good at science, so Hank pre-emptively answers his questions; Hank plays Henry in a hat

  • ★★★ Hank tells baby Henry that his dad John is not good at science and worries he can't answer Henry's questions, so they are answering them pre-emptively. (playful) — 00:00:09 · Henry Green, John Green

00:00:31 — What are rainbows? Why is the sky blue?

  • ★★ Hank explains that white light is many colors mashed together, which separate when light passes through water droplets, giving a rainbow. — 00:00:33
  • ★★ Hank explains the sky is blue because blue light, on hitting oxygen and nitrogen, bounces all around the atmosphere. — 00:00:47

00:01:02 — How does the internet work? (no idea beyond uploading to YouTube)

  • ★ Asked how the internet works, Hank says they upload videos to YouTube, people watch and sometimes email, and beyond that he has no idea. (playful) — 00:01:02 · YouTube

00:01:11 — Where does the sun go at night (Obi-Wan Kenobi's head as Earth)? How do clouds stay up?

  • ★★ Using Obi-Wan Kenobi's head as Earth and his lightsaber as the sun, Hank explains night: the Earth spins while the sun stays put, so we turn out of its light. — 00:01:11
  • ★★ Hank explains clouds are tiny water droplets blown around by air currents; a drop that grows big enough falls as rain. — 00:01:43

00:02:03 — Comic answers: hamburgers, babies, trees, dark hair, daddy screaming at cameras

  • ★★ With dark comic delivery, Hank says hamburgers come from calves taken from their mothers young, raised in confined animal feeding operations, then killed and ground up. (playful) — 00:02:03

00:02:42 — Why does fire hurt? Daddy's puffy hair; Horcrux; how do planes stay up?

  • ★★ Hank explains fire hurts because too much energy breaks the chemical bonds in your hands, and the body signals something is wrong, which is pain. — 00:02:42
  • ★★ Hank explains planes stay up because air over the curved top of the wing must travel faster than below, giving low pressure on top and high pressure underneath. — 00:03:11
    • check: the air across the top has to travel faster than the air on the bottom — doubtful

00:03:31 — Why people do bad things; 'knocked up'; question time over; hope Henry becomes a scientist; sign-off

  • ★ Asked why people do bad things, Hank says it is not a science question, then answers: because their parents weren't as kind and loving as Henry's. (playful) — 00:03:31 · Henry Green
  • ★ Hank hopes Henry learned a lot and becomes a little scientist like him; the genes must be in there somewhere. (playful) — 00:03:50 · Henry Green

Humor (significant)

  • Hank explains to baby Henry why he, not John, will answer his questions. — 00:00:19

    “I am smart in the ways that your dad is stupid.”

  • Asked where hamburgers come from, Hank describes calves taken from their mothers, fattened in feedlots, killed and ground up. — 00:02:03

    “'Cause it's delicious.”

  • Henry (Hank in a hat) asks what a Horcrux is. — 00:03:09

    “Young man, where did you hear that word?”

  • Henry asks what 'getting knocked up' means. — 00:03:39

    “It's the- it's the opposite of getting knocked down.”

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Henry Green

Also: Organizations: YouTube

Concepts: cloud · concentrated animal feeding operation · Earth's rotation · lift (force) · pain · rainbow · Rayleigh scattering

Characters: Horcrux · Obi-Wan Kenobi

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