Split (3)

train · 273k rows

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The difference between mass and weight	[ "Your mass is a given quantity regardless of where you are. Its how much \"stuff\" you are made of. Weight is how gravity acts on your mass so you weigh less on the moon because there is less gravity but your mass is the same anywhere you go in the universe.", "In space, you can let go of a brick and it'll not dr...
What do hedge fund managers do and why are many people angry at them?	[ "This requires a few parts. First is the wall street melt down which was caused by subprime mortgages. A mortgage is a loan to buy a house. Basically when people decide whether or not an investment is safe or risky someone grades it. The safest investments are prime. So a subprime mortgage is a loan to buy a house ...
Does anyone actually work "9 to 5"? If so, why doesn't the company require the employee to put in 40 hours of work each week?	[ "Paid lunches are a real thing you know.", "9-5 are the traditional hours businesses are open, also known as first shift or day shift.\n\nSo 9-5 means an employee covers those hours while the business is open. They may come in a little early or stay a little late to perform tasks while the business is closed, bu...
What is wifi and how does it magically give my device access to the internet?	[ "Electronic waves. According to the frequency (high or low) your computer interprets it as an open or closed signal (1 or 0). From then on it's just binary programming.", "Wi-Fi is the brand name for a standarized protocol to transmit data over a wireless carrier.\nIt serves the same function as Ethernet does wit...
If you lose one of your five senses, do the others actually grow stronger, and if they do how is that possible?	[ "It's not that the senses get stronger in an absolute sense. Someone who is blind doesn't gain the ability to hear sounds that would be too soft for a sighted person. It's a matter of attention and processing in the brain. A blind person may notice the soft sound that a sighted person would ignore because of how so...
when comedians have their own tv shows, why do they need writers?	[ "If its a weekly show, even if its only half an hour, there's an amazing amount of work that needs to happen each and every week. The writing for each episode can only happen in 1-2 days - since the writing will dictate if there's any special props, sets, wardrobe, extras etc. that are required, special music, lice...
How does carbon and isotopic dating work?	[ "Carbon dating works for things that were once alive, but then died. There is a special kind of carbon called Carbon-14 that is short lived (in historical terms) but gets constantly created in our atmosphere. Basically as long as something is alive and breathing it keeps a constant level of this carbon-14. Once ...
What is the Bilderberg?	[ "It's a group of some of the most infuental people in the world (bankers, politics, CEOs, etc) that pretty much nothing is known about publicly. It supposedly works like a club, with occasional meetings with discussions covering various crucial economical and sociological issues. The lack of media coverage for the ...
Why is SARS that killed 299 people an epidemic and a new type of flue that can kill up to 500 not an epidemic?	[ "An epidemic is when it effects more people than usual. That's all the word means." ]
How/Why does curling ribbon with scissors work?	[ "According to /r/askscience, you're deforming the polymers.\n\n_URL_0_\n\n_URL_2_\n\n_URL_1_" ]
Why is there little to no homeless belonging to Asian descent in the US?	[ "You may not be in an area with a large Asian population. I live in the Bay Area in California and I see many homeless Asian people.", "The National Coalition for the Homeless estimates that 2% of homeless people are Asian American (compared to 5% of the general population). However, this number is probably lowe...
How does the religious-right in the U.S. reconcile the peaceful teachings of Jesus vs. supporting pro-war candidates?	[ "Clearly you missed the Old Testament where God was positively genocidal. But more importantly, religion is typically more of a justification than a motivation for such behaviors. Religious teachings are nearly infinitely mutable to match the desired position.\n\n\"Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to ...
How do dehumidifiers work	[ "Humidity is moisture (water vapor) in the air. The amount of water that the air can hold is related to temperature—hotter air can hold more water. If you cool down the air, it can't hold as much water, so the water has to turn back into a liquid and condense out of the air. If you've ever seen water condensing ...
How do animals avoid inbreeding in the wild?	[ "Exact way varies by species. For example lions, elephants, and others often drive away the males from the family group. Then during breeding time, generally only the dominant male in the area has the opportunity to breed with the group. This reduces the odds of inbreeding.\n\nMore importantly, it reduces the odds ...
When it smells like rain, what am I actually smelling?	[ "Most likely [petrichor](_URL_0_), the smell of rain on dry soil. If it's a thunderstorm, it could also be ozone, which forms when the lightning essentially fuses oxygen together.", "Petrichor.\n\nRain drops make dead organic (previously living) material in the dirt spray up into the air. It's usually made of dea...
How cloud storage systems (email, Google drive, Onedrive) don't run out of storage	[ "The very simple answer is that they can always add mode storage as usage grows. Same way you can add storage to your home system.", "Cloud providers run specialized storage software that allows for any amount of data to be served by clusters of many, many harddrives. The software automatically keeps several ...
If planets like Neptune emit light, why do they have a "dark side" facing away from the Sun?	[ "The amount of light they emit is incredibly small, compared to what comes in from the sun. It's also primarily in the infra-red part of the spectrum, so human eyes can't detect it.", "[Like Jupiter and Saturn, Uranus emits more heat than it recieves from the Sun, but just barely---about the same as that emitted ...
Why don't we visit the Moon any more?	[ "There's not all that much on the moon. Even originally, a big driving force behind the manned landings was the political race against the Soviet Union. Without that, the massive cost would have been much harder to bear.\n\nNowadays, if we wanted to go back we'd almost certainly send robotic probes. This is vastly ...
What does "Installing" on a computer actually do?	[ "1. It copies the files to the correct location. Sometimes, different files for the same program have to be in different locations.\n\n2. It checks if all of the shared components it needs are installed, copies the files over if they aren't, and registers the ones it copied over with the operating system so it know...
90% of cells of a human body are various bacteria (and other microbes). Where do they come from?	[ "Straight from wikipedia, \"Gut Flora Acquisition\":\n\n > The gastrointestinal tract of a normal fetus has been considered to be sterile, however recently it has been acknowledged that microbial colonisation may occur in the fetus.[27] During birth and rapidly thereafter, bacteria from the mother and the surroundi...
Why do we have to get a commercial driver license to drive a bus or semi, but not motor homes, which are almost just as large?	[ "1. You don't have paying customers on a motor home (typically, your family won't sue you if you're in an accident like a load of paying customers on a bus).\n2. It's the \"almost\" part that makes it legal. There has to be some size limit, and so they build right up to that limit, which I believe is something l...
How do so many airlines stay afloat in America?	[ "The country is very large, with the cities so far apart that train service is too slow. So people want to fly a lot.\n\nThe country is immensely wealthy, with a GDP per person of well over $50,000 per year, and hundreds of million of people. So a lot of people can afford to fly." ]
The evolutionary advantage to emotions	[ "Emotions serve as a motivator to engage in survival behaviors. On a basic level, emotions are punishments and rewards inside our own brains, in response to our own behavior. \n\nInsects can get by without emotion (at least, we assume they can't feel emotion-- they don't seem to have the brain structure that we ass...
What causes your nose to be runny instead of stuffy when you have a cold?	[ "A reason I could give is that the common cold is not one virus; it's a bunch of different viruses with similar symptoms. This is also why some colds are worse than others. Because of this, certain viruses give off different symptoms but they are also classified under a cold, meaning that, for example, although you...
Why does my immune system fight so intelligently against most malignant illness, but go full retard with benign allergens?	[ "Mast cells line much of your body's inner skin lining. When confronted with a puncture or other allergen, they release histamine that causes the inflammation reaction along with blood vessel dilation and bronchial constriction.\nSometimes the antibodies that normal immune cells (B and T cells) use to identify anti...
When I use my debit card at McDonald's, I don't need to enter my pin or sign. Why do I sometimes have to enter my pin and sometimes have to sign?	[ "If they run your debit card as if it were a credit card transaction, they don't need you to enter your pin. And often, for smaller transactions, stores feel that the time spent on getting the customer's signature on a credit card transaction isn't worth it, since while the customer could protest the charge and go ...
What has happened in Syria the past ten years?	[ "Bachar al-Assad was the dictator of Syria. He is an Alawite (an ethnical and religious minority in Syria, but they held the power), member of the Baas party (just like Saddam was in Irak), which has a secular, nationalistic ideology.\n\nAs /u/advocate499 said, he was brutal with everyone he didn't like or saw as a...
Cologne, After shave, deodorant? ?	[ "Cologne is how perfume is marketed for men.\n\nAftershave is for preventing infections after shaving. It may have ingredients that numb skin a bit (so it doesn't hurt that much) and almost all have some fragrance. \n\nDeodorant is for killing body odour caused by bacteria that eats sweat. Antiperspirant is a type ...
Why have humans evolved to need omega fats from fish if not all previous civilizations had access to fish?	[ "Omega fats are not derived just from fish. While fish definitely has a lot of omega fats, they're also found in other foods.\n\n_URL_0_", "People, for the vast majority of our evolution, stuck to coastlines. We migrated out of Africa approximately 200,000 years ago and arrived to Australia at about 40,000 years ...
how does the new internet bill that Reddit hates so much work? Will I actually be able to call and request any person's web history? How will companies take advantage of this?	[ "No, definitely not. Basically, companies can collect data on you either to sell or for their own use. Other companies can buy this data. It helps them get insight in trends for their users. While good for the business, that means your personal life is being used for monetary gain. That's what happens with grocery ...
I know China suffers from overpopulation. So what is better about new two-child policy than old one-child policy?	[ "China is more concerned about an aging population, where there are too many elderly and too little people in the working force to support them. \nAlso, the one child policy has largely been a failure, and has been revised a couple times to allow for more children (I think). For example, if both parents are a sin...
Frequency Modulation Synthesis	[ "Does [this image](_URL_0_) help you to understand? \n \nThe carrier wave is \"modulated\" (changed) in accordance to what the signal waveform is doing (called the \"modulator\" in this gif)." ]
How is it large herbivores such as cattle, moose and deer can grow so large on a diet of only grass?	[ "Hervibores have a specialized digestive system that helps them acquire much more nutrients from those food sources that would just pass through our own digestive tract untouched.\n\nAlso, all they do while they're awake is either eat or look for stuff to eat.", "Humans aren't able to break-down cellulose, the \"...
why do flies rub their front legs together?	[ "Flies really really want their feet to stay clean. They're wiping dust and gunk off of their legs.", "They are cleaning themselves. Flies rely on their compound eyes, antennae and the bristles on their bodies and legs to sense the world around them. They have to keep these sense organs clean so they can fly with...
Why does staying at a house other than mine cause me to wake up feeling like I'm in serious need of a shower?	[ "You don't feel like that when you wake up at your own house?" ]
What differs when looking at an untrained runner compared to a well trained one?	[ "There are a few physiological measures that can be taken to determine an individual's level of fitness in regards to endurance sports. \n\n\n\n*VO_2max_.* \n\nThis is the maximum volume (litres) of oxygen your body can actually utilise in a given time frame, usually a minute. This is considered to be the upper...
What raw materials/ingredients are used to make antidepressants.	[ "The process of synthesizing a medication starts with some commercially available reagent which is acted on in various ways to create the desired molecule.\n\nWhat that initial reagent depends entirely on the drug in question. For example, citalopram, a widely used antidepressant, can be synthesized out of 5-bromop...
Why DON'T we kill off mosquitos?	[ "Here's an idea. When we remove an organism from an ecosystem, we don't know what will show up to fill that niche. What if it's something worse than mosquitoes?", "Eliminate an entire species because they make us uncomfortable? Damn...\n\nI'd venture to say that in the grand scale of things, humans do a lot more ...
What is Bio Chemistry, and what do Bio Chemists do?	[ "Biochemistry is, simply put, the study of the chemical reactions that underlie biological systems. Think of the way proteins are formed, or how glucose is broken down into ATP. Besides academic study and aid of related fields like pharmacology, biochemistry has a lot of industrial applications nowadays, such as th...
How do distressing events or trauma lead to PTSD and other disorders?	[ "In a very natural very human way. (It's a little more complex than this but it's the gist)\n\nIf you are in a war zone for example, where your life is constantly in danger. Your body naturally reacts to protect you - this means highened awareness of surroundings, your body is more tense because it wants to be read...
How do they recover deleted data from a HDD?	[ "Usually when you delete a file on a HDD the data isn't actually deleted. Instead, the drive is just told that the area where the data is stored isn't important anymore and it can be written over. If you keep using the HDD, it will eventually overwrite the old data, but the data will remain on the drive until then....
ELI 5 the plot of Inception	[ "Explained in 1 minute using [folders](_URL_0_). HD for best results.", "I could explain it to you, but I have the perfect comic to do it for me. [Here](_URL_1_).", "Congratulations! This is the fifth time this is asked! You win 5 Internets and a cookie." ]
How do purchases made on the deep web work?	[ "They use bitcoin or similar untraceable methods to pay for things." ]
Why is it safe to put some chemicals like hydrogen peroxide on open wounds, but not to ingest them?	[ "It's not just about getting into your blood, it also has to do with the way it's broken down in your body, and what it comes in contact with along the way. That said, most things that would be poisonous to rub on a wound are also poisonous to ingest.\n\nHydrogen peroxide at the concentrations you'd use on a cut i...
Black holes. What causes them to form, how do they work, what do they do, is there an exit point?	[ "They're formed by a large amount of mass compressing so tightly that it forms a gravitational singularity. This is often conceptualized as all the matter being squeezed into a point so small it has no dimensions, but in truth it's an area where our current physics get 'murky' about what is going on.\n\nThe singul...
How exactly could the Mexican Supreme Court ruling over marijuana help fight the cartels?	[ "Cartels make their money, and thereby get power, by selling illegal drugs. If the drugs become legal, then anyone can sell them, draining money from the cartels. Further, the legal sales can be taxed, bringing money back to the government, improving their situation.\n\nFurther, if things like the growing and selli...
why is the search for life on other planets based on the things life on earth needs to exist?	[ "It has been considered, but Earth is the only planet we know of (well, not counting microbes on Mars) with life, so when we search for life on other planets, our best guess is to look for planets like Earth. Imagine if you moved to a new town, and you wanted to buy your favorite snack. Now, your old Town had a Foo...
How do Steam-Powered Locomotives Work?	[ "Its easier to show you than explain in words. There is a very nice animation [HERE](_URL_0_) that explains very well how a steam engine works." ]
why do phones need to be charged more frequent over time?	[ "Batteries wear out after being charged again and again and again over years. If you noticed that devices using disposable batteries don't have this problem it's because it's getting a fresh battery with all its charge each time. \n\nAll rechargeable devices, including laptops and handheld gaming devices, will have...
What made marijuana illegal in the first place?	[ "Paper, cotton, and tobacco owners lobbied to the government to make it illegal.\n\nThey did this because marijuana/hemp single handedly is better than all of the other three combined. And the owners of those businesses wanted to remain rich and powerful.", "Post-prohibition cops keeping their jobs.\n\nIt got rea...
What makes the new credit card "chips" so much more secure if the numbers are still posted on the card as well as a magnetic strip and what prevents cloning such a card?	[ "TL; DR: The chip on the card has a secret. The card reader gives the chip a random number. The chip does complex math on the secret and the random number to create a single-use secret. The reader verifies this single-use secret with the credit card company to confirm the card is real. Magnetic strips can't do this...
Why, after I masturbate or have sex, do I get an extremely uncomfortable feeling in my groin that seems to last about 10-20 minutes?	[ "Yep. Know what you mean. Only seemed to happen the most after drinking. No idea what was or why it did it. 1 out of every 4 to 8 times it would happen and I had the same tube switching thought as well. Felt kinda like passing a tiny warm stone starting at the base? Sucked.", "This sound a lot like prostatitis bu...
Why is it that when I'm suddenly tired my eyes begin to cross?	[ "For the same reason you're more likely to begin feeling cold, too. You're body is basically trying to force you to find a warm, comfortable spot and close your eyes so it can fall asleep.", "You probably have mild strabismus (commonly called lazy eye). When you alert, your eye muscles work to keep them focusing ...
How were the point amounts determined for the NFL?	[ "As far as to why extra points exist: Football and Rugby evolved from an earlier game in which what is now the \"extra point\" was the only actual point-scoring play. The team was required to touch the ball to the ground inside the end zone (which is why a \"touchdown\" is called a \"touchdown\") in order to try fo...
Why does the jolly fat man dressed who delivers presents at Christmas get referred to as 'Santa Claus' by some, and 'Saint Nick' and 'Father Christmas' etc. by others?	[ "The Santa Claus character is based on Saint Nicholas, who was a real person. He was known for delivering gifts to less fortunate children. The name Santa Claus is derived from translations of Saint Nicholas' name in different languages. Sinterklaas (Dutch) and Sankt Nikolaus (German) show some similarity." ]
Modern methods of attacking cryptographic systems	[ "The idea is that if we can't break the encryption, we can try to break the system instead.\n\nMan in the Middle attack: Lets say Alice and Bob wish to communicate securely. Alice contacts Bob. They set up an encryption key using a key exchange protocol such as the [Diffie-Hellman](_URL_0_), and from that point...
Why do some countries call 911 while others call 999, 000, etc?	[ "Back when rotary phones were a thing, higher numbers took longer to dial. 999 was chosen as an emergency numbwr, but could easily be misdialed during stressful situations. When it was adopted here 911 was decided as easier number to dial.\n\nAll largely irrelevant now that those phones barely exist outside of muse...
How can video games produce sounds from specific areas in the game?	[ "Science.meme\n\nBut seriously, it’s all in just using the right balance between left and right to mimic what he hear and how we perceive direction in real life. We experience the sounds we hear all the time in stereo (i.e. out of each of our 2 ears), so it’s relatively straightforward to create this same effect ...
if being frozen causes cell walls to burst, why does my grass not die when my lawn gets a frost?	[ "Just because there is frost on the grass doesn't necessarily mean that the cells themselves have suffered temperatures low enough to freeze. But, low temperatures can indeed cause the death of grass. Some grasses, however produce their own \"anti-freeze\" in the form of proteins that inhibit the growth of ice crys...
Why do american high schools teach advanced calculus and complex numbers, but still manage to be behind countries like germany in PISA or similar tests?	[ "Because the majority of students never take those classes.\n\nSimple as that\n\nTheyre options, but fewer and fewer students are getting there. A big part of it isnt even ability, we're pretty laid back in terms of academics and its made a lot of students kinda lazy.\n\nIts not hard to tell the difference, I've se...
When did drinking warm milk to help sleep become popular, and why if it doesn't work?	[ "Ask any newborn if drinking warm milk help them to sleep :) \n\nThey won't answer because they can't talk but if they could they'd probably say that it does.\n\nThe oldest mention of this practice that I am aware of is in the old testament in the story of [Jael](_URL_0_).\n\nI'm sure there are probably even olde...
What are the actual sizes of pen point sizes in NA?	[ "The easy answer is that there is no uniform \"standard\" for pen point sizes, although many of the big manufacturers pretty much agree on a few points (such as calling 0.7mm \"fine\", 0.9/1.0mm \"broad\"). And even then, there is notable variation between brands and types of pens.\n\nPut simply, the culture of t...
How are "celebrity nudes" leaked?	[ "Remote storage in the \"cloud\" is inherently susceptible to exploitation. Also, the media in question may not be in possession of the celebrity (\"revenge porn\" scenario). Additionally, leaked nudes or porn are a great way to drum up press. Think about it, if Kim Kardashian or Paris Hilton hadn't gotten plowe...
why does our Brain get attached to people, things, places etc, and why do we have a strong need to find the one we love	[ "Probably all to do with our survival instincts. We can get attached to places as a way to demonstrate that it's \"our area\", and to produce offspring we adore the person that is deemed by our brain as the best mate, for healthier and stronger children. This is my biased idea, so take it for what it is.", "Like ...
If lottery money goes to 'education' then why are school so bad?	[ "Not all lottery money goes to education, lotteries by themselves don't cover all the costs of schools, and the major problems with school systems have little to do with funding." ]
Why is pepperoni considered the default topping on pizza?	[ "Pepperoni, Sausage and just Cheese are \"default\" or common because they are cheap enough ingredients and the market majority likes them." ]
how is the weight that we lose excreted out of our body's?	[ "We exhale it. The fat is metabolized for energy, leaving water and CO2 as waste.", "Taken from a different Reddit post:\n\n\" Cool TedTalk video explaining the science behind where the weight goes: _URL_0_ \"" ]
Trolling and troll accounts on Reddit.	[ "Trolling is making a disingenuous post design to provoke a response.\n\nIt is like going to a friend and saying, \"oops, I accidentally scratched up your new car in the parking lot, sorry dude.\" then laughing at his reaction when he get upset.\n\nTrolling can be funny when it is clever, especially if you can push...
What are the major political parties of the U.K. and how do they compare ideologically to those here in the U.S.?	[ "There are two major UK political parties: The Conservative Party and the Labour Party.\n\nThe Conservatives are the party currently in power. They are a right-leaning party although they're probably a little closer to the centre than the Republicans in the US are. A lot of their policies revolve around keeping...
Why are the people of reddit so completely angry about things that are reposted? Do you truly believe that everyone has seen everything you have seen all the time?	[ "Two reasons:\n\n1. It fills up the feeds of people who spend a lot of time on reddit. They want to see new things instead of old posts.\n\n2. The reposter is getting attention and karma for something that they did not create and many people have a moral problem with that." ]
How can you "buy" an election? Why does it work if we regularly hear about the concept in the news?	[ "Its a reference to when the super rich like to Koch brothers and Sheldon Adelson or corporations like Comcast and oil companies spend tens or hundreds of millions of dollars to finance propaganda through advertising from bogus think tanks and lobbyist groups for certain candidates. When that candidate wins, thank...
Does it actually do any legal difference to write "I do not own this material" in a youtube video description?	[ "Nope. Still not legal to put up copyrighted content." ]
How did China become a permanent member of the UN Security Council?	[ "The countries considered \"victors\" of World War II were included in the permanent member. China actually played a rather significant part in World War II.", "Buzz word is '4 policemen'. This would later grow to 5 with the inclusion of France to the group of 'policemen' or, as they are also known, permanent me...
How does coloring black and white pictures work and how do you know which colors to use?	[ "If you mean \"how do you change an image to greyscale\"...\n\nColor has three \"dimensions\". Hue, saturation, brightness.\n\nHue is the \"color family\". and it goes in a circle: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, and back to red. (These value are continuous, so there are blue-greens, blue-blue-greens, and...
How do antidepressants work? If I'm depressed about my student loan debt, how is a pill gonna make me forget about it?	[ "They're... not?\n\nYou're mixing up clinical depression and being sad. Clinical depression requires being 'depressed' for an extended period of time (minimum a month, usually closer to 3) without a reasonable cause. You have a huge amount of debt and your mom died? That's not clinical depression, it's being depres...
How to navigate 4Chan	[ "If you're 5 then you probably don't want to go anywhere near 4chan...", "The most appropriate answer is don't, or lurkmoar.\n\n4chan is an imageboard organized by subject matter (in theory). nothing is archived and each board only has the 100+ most recent threads (varies by board). the top threads are the ones w...
Criminals in films spray paint cameras but they show their face anyway. Why?	[ "You saw the person spray paint the camera. You didn't see the person commit the crime. At least, not from that camera.\n\nWhen it's time to charge the suspect, if the camera footage is the only available evidence, that distinction could prove crucial.", "Its usually a trope. The only reason this would be otherwi...
Joel Tenenbaum has to pay 675,000 to the RIAA for pirating 31 songs. How does an average dude pay for this kind of fine?	[ "Probably what will happen to Mr. Tenenbaum is that he will be subject to a 'Wage Garnishment'. Folks who owe child support will be very familiar with that term since it's also used against them.\n\n_URL_0_\n\nAssuming that he or his lawyers don't find a way to duck the $675k fine, this means he owes a debt of $675...
When jumpstarting your car, why do you connect the black cable to the engine block instead of the black/negative terminal?	[ "Sparks near the battery can cause hydrogen fires. Sparks near the engine block are much safer. That said, modern batteries are sealed and pretty safe, but safer is always better." ]
Why does re-heating something in the microwave make it soggy, vs the oven or toaster oven?	[ "When you heat something in the oven or toaster you are directly exposing the food to heating elements that give off intense radiation and heat which stimulate all kinds of chemical reactions in the upper layers of the food, usually causing a toasting and hardening of the outermost layer. Microwaves do not work by ...
Why bacon is seen as a manly food and seen as the best food ever? Is it it's high calorie and fat content that makes it extremely palatable to humans?	[ "Because the people that like it dont judge taste by how many calories or grams of fat. We judge taste by simply the smile it brings to our face when we eat it", "it's the kind of food that provides the energy and motivation to smash a wild animals head in with a rock (and let us as a species become awesome)" ]
Why can we heal broken major bones?	[ "It's the same trait that allows us to heal minor bones, just on a larger scale.\n\nHealing broken bones is just a single act, healing the bone, it doesn't depend on if the bone is someone small like a finger bone, or a rib, or something large like a femur or tibia." ]
Why do some foods/liquids (e.g., soup) taste better when hot, while others taste better when cold (e.g., beer)?	[ "Per rule 7, please remember to search ELI5 before posting. [Like this.](_URL_0_)" ]
What happens to light beams when the source has been "turned off" or extinguished?	[ "Think of a beam of light as being similar to a stream of water being sprayed from a hose. Except instead of water molecules moving relatively slowly, you have photons moving at the speed of light.\n\nWhen you shut off the hose, the stream stops spraying more water, and all of the existing water molecules keep tra...
Why do stimulants cause some people with ADHD to feel drowsy?	[ "For every drug that is supposed to do \"Y\" to someone, it does \"X\" for a small percentage of people. \n\nThis is what is known as a paradoxical reaction. It is very well accepted in pharmacological study. As to exactly what causes it, that is a very large and broad question to tackle. \n\nBut a good way to ...
How does each part(RAM, CPU, and GPU) of a computer work.	[ "Analogy I use for people at my office:\n\nCPU = a worker. A faster CPU (measured in Ghz and now in multiple cores) is like a more skilled/experienced worker who can analyze and calculate data faster.\n\n\nRAM = the worker's desk. A larger desk (more RAM) allows him to spread more paperwork out and have related d...
Why do Canadians use bags for milk but not other beverages?	[ "I live in Ontario and I remember seeing juice in those bags when I was younger (maybe ~20 years ago?) It was the same exact bags that the milk comes in, and you would put it in the same exact milk jug thing and it just worked.\n\nI remember my mom would freeze them, and as they thawed she would turn them into some...
When two black holes merge who attracts who?	[ "When any two massively dense (or small) objects get near to each other they both attract one another.", "The same as with a person and the Earth. We attract each other, but Earth is so massive that the tiny bit of attraction we make is negligible.", "They both gravitate towards each other in a hypothetical bla...
Psychosomaticism	[ "Emotions cause reactions in your body. For example, Stress can cause headaches, which I'm sure you have experienced. When you experience extreme emotions you can experience stronger physical problems. You often don't realize it because we think of it as a mind trick or faking. Mind and body work together to crea...
Why was Cherice Moralez reported as being raped?	[ "Statutory rape is rape. Media in particular is cautious about not referring to things like rape as what they are, as it can be seen as extremely offensive otherwise." ]
Why are most bluray torrents (1080p) not at the quality of true bluray (1080p)?	[ "Blu-Ray discs are big. They can hold 25-50 gigs. Depending on the movie, all of that can get used.\n\nNobody wants to download a 50 gig file, so encoders try and compress it as much as possible while keeping the quality as high as possible. It's nice to start with as high def as possible an original, and usually B...
My tongue at the end of a USB cable attached to my laptop counts as an unrecognized device	[ "Yes: the port can detect something is attached, but can't tell what it is, because your tongue doesn't communicate via the USB standard :-P", "Yes.\n\nThe USB protocol has some back-and-forth where the computer asks the device what it is. That's how a keyboard gets identified as a keyboard and a thumb drive g...
How is a spider's silk stronger than steel?	[ "It is by relative strength, yes. If you had a string of steel as thin as a thread of [spider silk](_URL_0_), the silk would be stronger.", "It is both cases, if you made a huge spider silk line or shrunk down steel to be like a single strand of spider silk. The factor that determines strength is the stress that ...
Why does it hurt to wash my nostrils with pure water while salty water is fine?	[ "The insides of your nostrils (sinuses) are lined with mucous membranes, which are made of cells which are filled with slightly salty water. Water can flow through cell walls through osmosis, and in such a situation the water flows in a way that equalizes the cell's salinity (salt level) with the water around it. S...
What is holding treaties or deals between countries accountable?	[ "Well there's the UN... but even then, nothing actually stops a country from breaking a treaty. Their motivation to keep them are the terms of the treaty. E.g. if you and I have a trade deal, it's in both our interests (otherwise one of us wouldn't have signed) to keep up trade. If you back out on the deal, your...
why do we stretch? And does it feel so good to stretch?	[ "Stretching tenses the muscles which helps pump blood back to the heart, which is part of the cardiac cycle.\n\nThe 'feel so good' part of has to do with the sudden rush of rich oxygenated blood, which feels good.\n\nHope that helps." ]
does vacuuming slower really pick up more dirt, why or why not?	[ "It gives the vacuum more time to pick up debris. There is a point of diminishing returns, where more time spent on one spot does not significantly increase debris picked up, but you will get more stuff off your floor if you spend 5 seconds/meter versus 1 second/meter.", "I use to work for a vacuum manufacturer i...
why do we have to take flu shot every year?	[ "I study HIV Vaccines now, but my PhD work was in influenza. \n\nThere are two main reasons you get the flu shot annually. The first and most major one is that there are multiple strains of Influenza. Influenza comes in three major species (A, B, and C), two of which commonly infect humans (A and B). For Influenza ...
Why Linux?	[ "Linux can be more or less anything for anyone. There are versions ('distros') designed to be very easy to use for the most basic of computer users, as well as ones designed for highly stable servers, unstable ones focused on highly up to date software, and anything else you can think of.\n\nIn the following, I mos...
Why does a bad smell become unnoticeable after spending a short while next to it?	[ "Our senses are designed to emphasize new information. Once information is stale, it's less useful to us, so we tune it out.\n\nSmell is just the same as our other senses in this regard. Our eyes adjust to light or dark. Our ears adjust to loud or quiet. Our noses adjust to smells.", "when you Smell a fragrance f...

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