switch case - to require the break statements seems strange to me

Not that it is an issue, but just to understand the logic- Why do we have to use 'break' statements in each case? switch ($i) { case 0:

    echo "i equals 0";
    break;

case 1:

    echo "i equals 1";
    break;

case 2:

    echo "i equals 2";
    break;

} all 3 cases fire, even though $i only equals ONE of those case values (if I said that right). I mean if $i==1, then in other languages I don't expect the first or last case to fire! (?) Is the purpose just so one has the OPTION of letting them all fire, and turning that off with 'break'? Or is there a better reason? -G