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Why some (most?) people in America seem opposed to a national health service? | [
"It is important to remember that the United States *does* have a national health service, just not a universal one. It's called Medicare/Medicaid and it accounts for [around 21% of the federal budget](_URL_2_), which is around $732 billion U.S., or 467 billion British pounds. By contrast, the NHS costs [121 bill... |
What would happen if everyone in the US that has student loan debt just stopped paying? | [
"There is a group called Debt Collective which recently initiated a well publicized debt strike for debtors scammed by Corinthian Colleges. They plan to follow this up with a wider strike for all borrowers in the future.\n\nGo to _URL_0_ and show your support. You can also subscribe to /r/studentloandefaulters here... |
Why does 90 degree heat feel hot while a 90 degree swimming pool feels amazing? | [
"Water is way better at transferring heat than air is. First off, it's got a higher heat capacity (It takes 4.2 KJ to warm a kilogram of water by 1 degree, whereas for air, it takes about 1 KJ to do the same). It's also a more effective thermal conductor - water has a thermal conductivity of 0.6 W/mK, air has a th... |
Why do women have curvier butts than men? | [
"Curvy male ass right here. Fuck the rules.",
"Women have larger hips than men because they will have to carry and give birth to children. While that might seem like bigger asses, its actually the hips.\n\nThere's no reason why a women would have a fatter as than a man, maybe you just keep good company?",
"They... |
- What's happening in North Carolina? | [
"A couple days ago NC amended the state constitution (each state has a constitution separate from the national constitution) to define marriage within the state as \"one man + one woman\" (i.e. no homosexual marriages or polygamy.) Obviously, this has upset the people in favor of gay rights.\n\nThis is reminiscent ... |
Why are we able to put our hands through liquids but not solids? | [
"Liquids can be very complicated but are still liquids. The molecules in liquids are fairly short and do not bond much with each other. I am putting in these qualifiers. That is because water is special and has polar properties. Colloids can be very complicated.\n\nIn solids there is much more bonding going on. Mol... |
How do they put elevator cars in elevator shafts? | [
"I will try to sum it up the best I can!\n\nThe hoist-way (elevator shaft) is generally made of block wall or poured concrete. At the landing on each floor, the openings into the shaft are roughed-in oversized so that material can be 'flown' into the hoist-way with an electric cable hoist and set into place. \n\nEa... |
What is conclusive and what isn't regarding the effects of artificial sweeteners? | [
"Saying \"artificial sweeteners are bad for you!\" is a bit like saying \"liquids are bad for you!\" There are a number of different artificial sweeteners. No, they DO NOT \"TRICK YOUR BRAIN.\" Yes, they can cause weight gain and insulin resistance, chiefly through changing gut bacteria.\n\nUse _URL_0_ to search fo... |
What would happen if you were swallowed whole by a whale? | [
"Well, actually you'd die from hypoxia (lack of oxygen to the brain) before you'd even reach the stomach.",
"You would chill for a few days and then talk to God. Duh!!!!!"
] |
The Charlie Charlie Challenge. | [
"_URL_0_\n\nHere's an explanation for the Ouija board. I imagine that this is very similar. If you're playing the six pencil game then you're actually moving the pencils yourself.\n\nAs for the version with two pencils in a cross shape, it's just simply someone blowing on it - again not on purpose. Try it yourself,... |
When they 'sweep for bugs' in a room what are they actually doing? What all are they able to find? | [
"The purpose of a bug - which is a listening device (or video) - is electronic. Which means to operate it must either be on to record, which uses/sends signals. Or it must be sending what it's receiving back to someone or some thing. \n\nUsually there are two types. Ones that send information back to someone and on... |
why do kids cry when they get tired? | [
"Humans might just crave more attention from their parents than other animals. Consider that caring for children is veeery important for humans, it might be evolutionarily advantageous for babies to cry when they're tired, so that they are looked after more and aren't left to sleep where they can be eaten by preda... |
What does "integrated" or "dedicated" or "onboard" mean in reference to graphics cards? | [
"Integrated graphics cards use your computer's RAM and processing power and aren't very good for running 3D programs.\n\nDedicated cards don't because they have their own and are definitely better at running 3D programs. \n\nAlso, Integrated = Onboard; Dedicated = Discrete.\n\nIf I'm not mistaken, the 7560D is the ... |
Why are we so pleased with flattery even when we know it's being done to get us to do something? How does the brain understand that it's not true and yet still get so pleased? | [
"Just because it is prompted by an alterior motive doesn't mean the observation itself is invalid. As someone approaches you to decide how to break the ice they are still looking for some feature they can believably comment. If you have messed up shoes they aren't going to say nice shoes because it will come off as... |
How does a female paradise-bird decide if the performance of a male is good enough? | [
"Well how do **you** know someone is sexually attractive?\n\nIt's a mixture of instincts and experience. Does he look healthy and colorful? or is he injured or dirty? Does he look like someone you've had good experiences with? Is he the right species in the first place, or does he do the wrong dance? And how desper... |
Why adware and spyware makers and utilizers arn't prosecuted for unwarranted wiretapping or hacking. | [
"> Edit: BTW SpyHunter seems to be the best scan/removal tool around. Most others I tried, scans returned clean or very few threats.\n\nJust because it finds lots of errors does NOT mean it's good. A quick google search shows that Spyhunter has a history of deceptive advertising and other shenanigans. I would not ... |
Why are all adverts on porn sites of such poor quality? [NSFW] | [
"Sometimes advertisers purposely make their ads look like they're written by non-english speakers. I get spam on a daily basis with people pretending to be \"a young russian lady living in the boonies of ukraine. I love meeting your acquaintance on my profile\" and crap like that. \n\nThey're trying to make it seem... |
Why do people that "look" friendly, and have friendly facial features, generally end up being nice and friendly? | [
"[Roald Dahl had a theory.](_URL_0_)\n\nFrom \"The Twits\":\n\n > “If a person has ugly thoughts, it begins to show on the face. And when that person has ugly thoughts every day, every week, every year, the face gets uglier and uglier until you can hardly bear to look at it.\n\n > A person who has good thoughts can... |
What is the difference between blackheads and whiteheads? | [
"The oils in a blackhead are oxidized due to a hole in the skin. This changes the color to a translucent yellow-brown, which appears black when in the skin.\n\nA whitehead is not exposed to air, and the oil does not oxidize. Thus, it stays white."
] |
Why do many bullet effects in movies (Ex. Saving Private Ryan) look so much better than bullet effects in Tv shows? (they look like sparks) | [
"because there is both more time and money spent on details in films. Tv shows have to work quickly enough to produce 40+ hours of content in a year and turn a profit for each episode. film has a year to produce 2 hours of content with a giant profit margin."
] |
What is the ringing sound in our ears every once in a while, and why can no one but ourselves hear it when it happens to us? | [
"the sound is a fault in your ears commonly known as tinitus.\n\nThe reason no one else can hear it is because it is your ear that sends a faulty signal to your brain, thus you \"hear\" the ringing noise",
"This question has been answered, but there's an interesting complication in its premise in that there's a v... |
How gas masks work and their effectiveness. | [
"The round thing on the front is a filter. If you have a Brita water filter at home, you know how a filter works; stuff comes in, bad stuff stays in the filter, and purified stuff goes through. The gas mask does the same thing, except to air, and filters more compounds than a Brita does."
] |
What is the reason for making a throwaway account? | [
"So that when you admit to killing your drug addicted brother in law it can't be traced back to you and get you arrested. (Seriously this happened). Plenty of users use the same name across multiple sites and its possible to identify who they are if you try, sometimes you want to talk about stuff that you don't wan... |
Why does Spotify play so many ads for features on the application instead of payed ads by advertisers? | [
"If you subscribe for premium you pay a monthly fee. I think its more profitable for them to increase paying users than it is for other companies paying for add time.",
"I work mainly in TV and radio advertising and usually if you see something like that it is because they cannot sell the airtime.\n\nNow in those... |
How college scholarships work. (US) | [
"Scholarships are largely offered by a variety of organizations that are not standardized, so the rules vary from scholarship to scholarship. \n\nSometimes, you can win a scholarship as early as grade school to go toward your college education (this is rare). Most scholarships require proof that you are either cur... |
Why did coins use to have a hole? | [
"Some kinds of coins were produced by pouring metal into molds which were then broken apart and the rough coins stacked onto a rod where they were clamped and then the sides ground down to size in batches of hundreds at a time. Square holes were even more helpful in that they tended to resist twisting in this proce... |
Why does radio have more commercials than TV? | [
"Also consider radio's principle audience are drivers - literally captive audiences because they're stuck in their vehicle. If all the stations play their commercials all at the same time, you'll learn this flipping through the channels, eventually settling on a channel in defeat. Eventually, commercials will kick ... |
Why doesn't someone just make a new site like Youtube? | [
"There already *are* a lot of sites like Youtube. They're just not as big so many sites that like to embed the video files may not support them."
] |
What do blind people see, and how does it affect their sleep cycle? | [
"They don't, imagine what you see out of your elbow. Thats what blind people see."
] |
Why is it that when I'm in the drivers or the passengers seat and one of the back windows are open it makes this really annoying ringing feeling in my eardrums? | [
"It is a harmonic vibration caused by the inability of the air entering the open windows to find an easy way to escape. My 2004 Jetta Wagon vibrated and hummed very loudly if you rolled down all the windows at high speed. \n\nYour ears are very sensitive to vibration (and oscillating air pressure)."
] |
Why is there no thunder or lightning during snowstorms? | [
"I don't know the science behind it, but I know that I've heard thunder during a blizzard. Usually, thunder/lightning comes from lots of heat in the atmosphere where the weather front is.",
"[Good explanation](_URL_0_)\n\nTLDR: Warmer air holds more water and has stronger updrafts, both of which contribute to l... |
How come there aren't vitamins named after every letter in the alphabet? And why did they name vitamins after letters anyway? | [
"This [video](_URL_0_) explains it very well. It comes down to being historic, the people who discovered the vitamin named it, but some vitamins were actually two substances and some were the same substance with two names. This lead to this confusing system of vitamin names.",
"part of the issue is that some \"vi... |
Why are ants considered to be especially dangerous to other arthropods? | [
"They are heavily armoured, have jaws that can do damage, and tend to have tens of thousands of friends that could show up."
] |
What does a 'kernel' do? (computers) | [
"The kernel is like a traffic cop. It stands between your computer's hardware and the applications that you want to run. It allocates memory, keeps track of file systems on your disk drives, and it divides up time so that each program gets its turn to use your computer's resources.",
"In a sense, the kernel is ... |
Google Ultron | [
"It's 100% a joke, taken from a copy and paste story about a guy faking his way through tech support.\n\nThe story: _URL_0_\nedit: this album is apparently missing a few pages, best I could find though."
] |
How Can A Game Company Offer a Free Version? | [
"Pay to play games rely on regular monthly spending. Every month, they know they will get $15 from 100,000 people. Releasing expansions also give a big boost of money to the company.\n\nFree to play games make everything from an item mall. Here, people can spend real money for extra benefits in game. The most profi... |
What's the difference between ibuprofen, acetaminophen and Naxproxen? | [
"For those who are not in the US.\nAcetaminophen = Paracetamol",
"Yarr! Yer not alone in askin', and kind strangers have explained:\n\n1. [ELI5: The difference between ibuprofen, advil, and tylenol. ](_URL_7_) ^(_ > 100 comments_)\n1. [ELI5: The differences between aspirin, ibuprofen, and acetaminophen ](_URL_0_)... |
What is happening inside my body when my stomach growls? | [
"**When people hear their stomachs make noise, most of what they hear is gas and intestinal motility, the normal movement of the intestines. Even when you’re not eating, your gut is moving. If you have food in your intestine, it can muffle the sound, but if you have air in there, and that’s all you’re moving, that ... |
- why do we sweat when we eat really spicy food. | [
"You don't have a \"hot/spicy\" taste receptor. Capsaicin oil, the chemical that makes things taste spicy is actually doing so by triggering the heat receptors in your mouth that normally tell you if food is physically hot. The exact opposite of effect is triggered by Menthol, which chemically triggers the cold rec... |
How did colors come to be such an important source of symbolism? | [
"Colors have always been a source for feelings. Certain colors create certain feelings. For example:\n\n[Yellow and Red make you hungrier which is why McDonalds and countless others use those colors.] (_URL_0_)\n\n[Red is a powerful color that makes people more aggressive and attractive](_URL_1_)\n\nBlue is seen ... |
How can a state's economy be driven by domestic consumption? | [
"Domestic consumption is your own people buying your goods and services. It is better in that it is more reliable as well as improving the life of your people. \n\nExports can swing based on currency exchange rates as well as the economy of other countries. If the U.S. stops buying Chinese goods, their economy w... |
How is it possible to still be susceptible to chicken pox if you've already gotten an up to date immunization shot for it? | [
"No vaccine works perfectly for everyone. Some people don't develop a strong immune response for one reason or another. This is one of the reasons it's important to vaccinate everyone. When enough people are protected, it's harder for a virus to spread to the people who aren't protected."
] |
Why do you need a NASA lens to record candle lit scenes on film, yet the human eye is as small as a mobile phone camera and can see low lit scenes just fine? | [
"Our brain is incredibly powerful and can 'compute' the dynamic range and the white balance of everything we see. Even the the most expensive sensors on the best cameras available today can't recreate the wide dynamic range our eyes do for us, at least not without combining multiple images.\nExample. When driving t... |
How exactly do tinted windows work? | [
"It's basically a film that you put on the window, making it darker inside than outside.\n\nYou can see through glass-like things easy if the opposite side is better lit.\n\nThis is how 2-way mirrors work, and why you can see inside lit buildings at night, but not during the day."
] |
How is it you can legally stream a video game but not a real sports game? | [
"Actually, video game publishers *could* shut down streaming of their games if they wanted to, but (for the most part) they don't want to.\n\nThe legality of streaming a video game isn't set in stone yet. Game publishers own the performance rights to the characters, logos, music, and pretty much everything in the g... |
How do those bid one cent websites make money? | [
"Because:\n\n1. You pay something like $0.60 to place a bid and raise the price of the item by $0.01\n\n2. You lose that $0.60 forever, *even if you lose the auction*.\n\nSo if something raises in price from an initial $0.01 to $10, that's 999 bids, which, at $0.60 each, is $599.40 that the company has made in non-... |
Why do bombs squads blow up "packages" that they determine to not be a bomb? | [
"Maybe it was for fun. Maybe you can't be too careful. Either way, any time a threat is made, it has to be taken with utmost precaution. Even if a baby doll sounds like ticking is coming from its leg, it's a threat."
] |
Why do professional swimmers wear 2 caps when competing? | [
"So I was actually wondering this out loud the other day while I was watching the Olympics with my wife, and not 10 seconds later the commentator on the TV actually explained it. He said occasionally you will see some swimmers wear their goggles with the strap on the outside of their swimming cap, but most wear th... |
The compilation process for the 'C' programming language. | [
"Yikes, it's been a long time since I've used a compiler outside of an IDE where you press one button and everything just kind of magically happens!\n\nHere's what I remember, though. And although I'm answering specifically about C, because that's what you asked about, it won't be too different for other languages.... |
Why does google offer services such as Google Photos, how do they benefit from hosting my personal images online for free? | [
"Have you noticed how Google Photos groups your photos by who is in them? Like /u/leonardo_pothead pointed out, this uses Google's facial recognition software, and when you go through and mark results there as being incorrect, Google takes that into account in order to improve the software.\n\nAnd this doesn't just... |
Anarchy | [
"**TAKE THE COMMENT BELOW ME WITH A MAJOR PINCH OF SALT!**\n\nThere are many \"flavors\" of anarchism, some that look like Marx's idea of a stateless society where everyone shares (Anarco-Communism); some which believe in totally unrestrained free markets, probably the most literal interpretation of \"no government... |
(From my 6 year old Nephew) If mosquitoes suck blood out, why does your skin puff up? | [
"Our body doesn't like mosquito spit - it thinks it's going to make us sick - so it sends things called *antibodies* in our blood to go fight it, and that makes that part of the skin swell up. ([More info](_URL_0_))\n\nEdit: [Here's another good answer](_URL_1_), which goes into why the bites itch, if your nephew g... |
why is "colored people" offensive but "people of color" not? | [
"Such terms start out innocuous, and over time, are turned into insulting language via the buildup of chosen usage. \n\nFor example, over time, the word may itself be used as an insult or it may be commonly bundled into racist, hateful speech. \n\nSo, then, over time, it becomes necessary to shake off the old word ... |
How are microchips with millions or billions of transistors designed and validated? | [
"They are designed via VLSI (Very Large Scale Integration)... you might use a language like VHDL or Verilog to write down the large-scale architecture and the logic of each part of the chip, and that basically gets compiled into a map of the actual gates on a chip.\n\nOnce the chip is made, you can use the same Ver... |
How do electronics just 'die' all of a sudden or over a long period of time? | [
"Some electronics wear during use. For example, electrolytic capacitors have a limited life span - usually far beyond the expected use, but a capacitor which has been used longer than expected or is faulty can burst, which can cause damage to electronics since they are filled with a conductive liquid.\n\nWhen the c... |
The pros and cons of drinking coffee daily | [
"Pros: It is comforting, and energizing. Caffeine generally functions by inhibiting the enzyme that deactivates cyclic adenosine monophosphate, or cAMP, which is the second messenger in our cells that allow passage of 'adrenalin,' insulin, and glucagon (glucagon metabolizes glycogen in the liver for energy). And, i... |
Why do you sweat sometimes even if you feel really cold? | [
"You sweat to release the heat building in your core. You feel cold because on the surface you are but inside your body is still heating up and needs to release that heat through your pores.",
"Okay, you know that 98.6 degrees (37 degrees C if you are not from the USA) body temperature thing? That number is reall... |
Why do humans have to go out of their way to take care of their teeth compared to animals in nature? | [
"We live much much longer. We can take care of our teeth through knowledge gained. Our primate ancestors did not constantly regrow teeth as other species do. We only get two sets of teeth. Elephants constantly regrow teeth. \n\nMy teeth are disappearing due to bone loss which is not a dietary issue.",
"Modern hum... |
how does a digital camera/phone know it's in focus? | [
"Three main way: contrast detection, laser autofocus, and phase detection. \n \nContrast detection- the camera changes its focus until the object it thinks should be in focus has the greatest amount of contrast, where the biggest difference between black and white occur, this is where the object is its sharpest. ... |
If a body is interred in concrete, will it mummify or decompose - will it leave a big hole where it was like a fossil? | [
"[This experiment](_URL_0_) suggests that partial mummification happens, but yes, bodies still decompose (more slowly) because of the bacteria within our body eating us once our immune system ceases function.",
"The water in the body will eventually be absorbed by the concrete, leaving a mostly empty hole. That's... |
- Why do the sounds you make when trying to be quiet sound so much louder than when you aren't trying to be quiet? | [
"Because generally it's very very quiet in a room when you're trying to be quiet, so even small sounds are much louder than the rest of the room.\n\nWhen you aren't trying to be quiet, you aren't really paying attention to how much noise you're making, so you don't notice, and generally the room you're in is alread... |
Why does adding an 's' to 'http://' suddenly make it more secure? | [
"Adding the 's' makes your browser connect to the server in a totally different way, verifying that they server is the one it says it is, and scrambling all information sent to or from the server.",
"Adding the s makes the connection secure. You are telling your browser that this is how you want to connect to the... |
Why is harder to breathe when my whole body except my head is underwater? | [
"When you breath, your lungs expand like a balloon in your chest. When your torso is submerged, there is a lot of water pressure pushing on your body (a lot more pressure than the air pressure you experience above-water), so it makes it much harder for the lungs to inflate.",
"The pressure of the water makes it h... |
Why Does String Cheese taste better when pulled apart, rather than when just biting into it? | [
"Likely more surface area. Reminds me of Kramer from the meat slicer episode of Seinfeld. 'the flavour has nowhere to hide'",
"Because when you pull it apart it has a chance to warm up. Cheeses taste better \"not cold\".\n\nTry this next time you want a piece of string cheese: take it out of your fridge and put ... |
Why do a majority of women have long hair, and men have short hair? | [
"It used to be that men would cut their hair so it would not be a hindrance in battle, or while working jobs like blacksmithing (i.e., getting in their eyes, or getting pulled by their enemies). It became a cultural norm.",
"Cultural norms. No other reason. I would imagine it started with men working outside wher... |
Why do you still "see" a bright spot when you close your eyes after you have looked directly into the Sun or any other light source? | [
"There are several contributing factors, but mostly it's the effects of photobleaching.\n\nAnimals have several different types of receptor cells inside of their eyes. These all have different types of proteins sticking through their cell membranes which change shape if they get hit by the appropriate color photon.... |
if genetic diversity is a requirement for the propagation of a species then how did organisms propagate back when life first started? | [
"While generic variation is ideal for the long term continuation of a species, it is not 100% required. A lack of genetic variation would make it more likely that a single disaster or illness could wipe out the species, but the species would continue reproducing until then. Now onto the main question. Life bega... |
Why are mercury compounds more dangerous than elemental mercury? | [
"Many mercury compounds are more readily absorbed by the body. Even if you drink mercury metal, almost all of it will just pass through your digestive system. Inhaling elemental mercury vapor causes problems over time, though.\n\nOn the other hand, dimethyl mercury will readily pass through even the skin into the b... |
What is planet X, and is it real? | [
"To add, the reasons for why there might be a Planet X aren't too different from the reasons we were fairly sure Pluto and it's moon Charon existed: an observation of odd behaviour of other planetary bodies (in those cases, the orbit of Neptune has anomalies that lead to discovering Pluto and the orbit of Pluto has... |
If someone patents an "idea" which I later come up come up with, use, market, and sell that idea (with documentation) am I infringing? How? Why? | [
"You can't really patent an \"idea\" - patents are for actual *inventions*. A proper patent application requires a detailed description of *how* the invention works. You couldn't walk in and patent the idea of a \"flying machine\" - you actually have to design & detail how an aeroplane works. A patent only cov... |
Why does VLC work when DivX and QuickTime don't? | [
"VLC has a large number of codecs built-in to the program itself. It doesn't rely on your operating system being set up correctly. So, when a codec is missing or misregistered, other players simply fail but VLC uses its own internal copy of the codec.",
"Explaining this to a 5 year old: \n\nYou could maybe say th... |
How does someone escape from child pornography charges? | [
"If the police had a search warrant to go through his house and get his computers, then the most likely answer is that the search did not turn up enough evidence to satisfy the prosecutors that they would win at trial.\n\nProsecutors really don't like to lose, so they generally don't take on a losing case unless th... |
Why do you need to pee after sex? | [
"Don't know for certain but I always assumed it was to clean out your urethra, all that thrusting probably jams bacteria up there you know? Can someone who actually knows a thing confirm?",
"Yes. It cleans out your urethra in case any bacteria got in there.",
"Agree with the people who say it cleans out the ure... |
Why do parents need to refer to their toddler's age in months instead of years? (Example: 18 months, 24 months etc.) | [
"Because babies grow and change and learn stuff so quickly that years just aren't accurate enough. \n\nSource; I have a 13 month old son.",
"It's more useful to people to remember a toddler's age in months. I mean this in the sense that unlike say \"non-toddlers\" where our cognitive-social-psychological-biologic... |
Why are taxi drivers so against Uber? | [
"Because Uber is an incredibly threatening competitor and it's seriously cutting in on cab drivers' business.\n\nIn general, Uber offers *far* cheaper rides in significantly nicer cars, with the benefit of an online platform that lets you pay, track nearby rides, and check driver reviews.\n\nFor example, in my city... |
Drop Shipping. | [
"Let's say you have a business selling automotive parts online. In a normal business, you would order parts from a distributor, keep them in a warehouse, and when someone bought a part from you, you would ship it to them. But if you were drop shipping, you wouldn't have a warehouse. Instead when a customer places a... |
Why do power cord prongs have holes in them? | [
"Two main reasons: the outlets themselves contain a mechanism that grasps the plug by the prong holes, making it harder to remove (or accidentally fall out). Also, some manufacturers lockout their devices by putting plastic warning labels threaded through the prongs, in order to get your attention before you remove... |
In Oman, why is using Skype against the law, the Facetime not? | [
"The reason it's banned has less to do with encryption and more to with Oman trying to protect local telcos by forcing voice calls to at least go through registered (and approved) channels. The concern is that VoIP would hurt telco profits. \n\nOman does seem spotty in which VoIP they block and which they don't, I'... |
Why things are louder when I wake up? | [
"I'm just guessing here, but I like to think it's every animals instinct to be more sensitive to sound when being in a vulnerable state. We have this to sense possible danger or quickly perceive what's happening since we are suddenly analyzing are surroundings. \n\nThen again I'm just guessing. Some expert should g... |
When we are hot and sweaty after a workout, we want to take a hot shower but want to drink cold liquids | [
"Why would you want to take a hot shower after you work out? Just to be even more hot? I've never heard of that. I've always wanted to take cold showers to cool off.",
"Simply put: your body needs repair.\n\nWhen you perform (inefficient) strenuous activities, your body needs to get energy to specific areas of yo... |
What is happening when Sprayer bottles do that stupid thing where you squeeze the trigger and is just stays squeezed instead of releasing back into the squeezable position? | [
"Its created a vacuum. As it pulled the liquid out of the bottle....the bottle became emptier but the spray bottle doesnt have any way to get air in to fill the void created by the missing liquid.\n\nIf you loosen the cap a tiny bit might be enough to avoid that problem or put a tiny little hole in the bottom. Wont... |
Why are some people stupid? | [
"I personally believe (and have no evidence to back it up, it's just my opinion) that everyone has the same relative amount of mental capacity but somewhere in our lives we subconsciously decide what we're going to use it on and then do so for the rest of our lives. \r\rThe main reason I have this theory is because... |
How does _URL_0_ sell their items at such a low price? | [
"The catch is that you have to pay for each bid, whether or not you win the auction. If they get lots of people to bid, the fees add up to much more than the cost of the item, even if an individual person doesn't pay much.",
"Because Beezid charges you money to buy bids unlike ebay where you can bid for free.",
... |
How do smartphones and computers keep time when they're turned off? | [
"*disclaimer, I did my A+ a long time ago and haven't worked much on PC hardware for about 10 years, but the answer is:\n\nThere is a CMOS battery and it powers a clock time in the motherboard even when the power is off. \n\n\n*edit here is a link to an article discussing the reason for the CMOS battery. _URL_0_"... |
If a camera lens is a circle, then why is the picture a rectangle? | [
"The lens is a circle but bends light so that it hits a rectangular sensor (digital) or rectangular film in the desired way"
] |
In a reflective "corridor", why do the reflections get smaller? If they didn't get smaller, what would the reflections depict? | [
"It's difficult to wrap this in an ELI5 answer. Standard disclaimer applies, an ELI5 answer generally bends overall accuracy somewhat for the sake of simplicity but this should get the idea across. Anyway here goes...\n\n > So if you face two mirrors at each other, you get an endless \"corridor\" of mirrors. Great... |
why my nose gets runny when it's cold | [
"A runny nose from the cold weather, or from any cause other than allergies, falls under the blanket medical term \"vasomotor rhinitis.\" In the cold, a couple of different things are going on that lead to the runny nose. The nose is in charge of warming up air and adding moisture to it as it enters the body so tha... |
How does traffic work? | [
"Even without signals that stop traffic, there's a limit to how many cars can safely get through a stretch of highway at a given time. There's on/off ramps that don't have unlimited capacity, that *do* have traffic signals at the end of them. Sometimes punks just dart out into a lane and force the motorist behind... |
How did toddlers get over ear infections before antibiotics? | [
"Sad reality is, with any kind of infection, before antibiotics you'd probably just die, or in the case of your son, hopefully just lose hearing in that particular ear. It's as simple as that, really, which is why we experienced such a huge population growth since we came up with antibiotics.",
"Actually there is... |
Why is it safe to eat undercooked steak, but not undercooked chicken or fish? | [
"the thing with steak is that it's one solid chunk of meat, and as long as you sear the outside you've killed off the harmful stuff.\n\nwith chickens, there's much more processing, so higher risk of more bacteria. if the chicken was not exposed to bacteria you totally can eat it raw. same thing with fish. fish i... |
Ordering alcoholic beverages. | [
"This is more /r/answers-y. It's not something that needs a conceptual explanation, a good answer would just basically be a list of what drink names mean and stuff."
] |
What's the point of 'C' and 'K'? | [
"Most languages are not intelligently designed, but naturally grew out from older languages over time. Standardized spelling and grammar is pretty new, and it's quite extreme to start abolishing entire letters just because you think it's neater. For English, there is no single authority on proper spelling and gramm... |
What makes the differences between cells in the human body, even though they have the same DNA but have different functions? | [
"The DNA is the blue print for making an entire functioning human. But just like blue prints for a massive building, each worker might only be working on a small part of the structure and so only used certain pages. Cells don't use ALL of the DNA ALL of the time to know how to work. They only use small parts of ... |
Why can't I get to sleep if I'm tired and I want to? | [
"There are different possible reasons. For one thing, there are different components to tiredness. There's what's called a circadian rhythm in your body, which alternates between tired and awake in roughly 24 hour cycles (though it can be shifted), and a thing called \"homeostatic sleep propensity\", basically a ti... |
Why is the word 'number' abbreviated 'No.' when there is no "o" in it? | [
"It's the first and last letters in Latin \"numero\".\n\n_URL_1_\n\n_URL_0_"
] |
"It's in our nature to destroy ourselves." | [
"That quote is based on a Freudian concept. According to Freud, we are driven, at our very core, by two instincts: the life instinct (eros)--the need to live, create, procreate, experience pleasure etc; and the death instinct (thanatos)--the need to come to rest, to destroy, and to return to the state whence we cam... |
why can't we print/make more money to solve global problems? | [
"Money is just an abstract representation of the overall \"value\" of the economy. Printing more money does not make the economy contain more \"value\" (i.e. the number of goods and services do not increase). Thus printing extra money just makes the money itself worth less.",
"Money represents value. If you jus... |
What is that "light" left in our vision after something like a camera flash? | [
"Your eyes got a bit over-stimulated and it takes time to adjust the eyes back.\n\nIf you go out and it's quite bright your pupils get smaller so that less light gets in, and vice versa. The idea is to try and get the best amount of light through to the actual sensors in the back.",
"Light causes chemical changes... |
What exactly are stomach bugs / viruses and how do they spread? | [
"Stomach flu or stomach bugs are neither flu nor bugs. But, the typical symptoms you get - nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, etc - are caused by a viral infection. Sometimes, it can be bacterial, but those are typically less communicable between people. So, let's stick with viruses.\n\nThere are a wide array of viruse... |
What is the difference between .jpg and .jpeg files | [
"The reason for the different file extensions dates back to the early versions of Windows. The original file extension for the Joint Photographic Expert Group File Format was ‘.jpeg’; however in Windows all files required a three letter file extension. So, the file extension was shortened to ‘.jpg’. However, Macint... |
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