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How is ear wax created? And what is the purpose of it?
[ "It's secreted from glands inside your ear. It's purpose is to trap and push out foreign dust and whatever else gets into your ear canal" ]
How do they grow seedless oranges and such without a seed?
[ "For oranges, by not pollinating the flowers. The plant is otherwise normal.\n\nThis isn't always true though, different seedless fruits are seedless for different reasons.\n\nSeedless watermelons are hybrids of two other watermelon species that, when combined, cannot produce functional seeds. These plants must b...
What does Adobe Air do on my mobile phone?
[ "I'm a developer who uses AIR, its a runtime to run certain apps in, like Java is. These days, we don't need users to install the AIR app separately, we can package the runtime in with our apps, but some older apps might still need the separate app that you have." ]
Why does it feel like time goes by faster as I get older?
[ "A friend and I had this discussion, think of it as a ratio, when you're little, say five or so, and your waiting for your birthday, its 1/5th of your life away, but when your 40, that's merely 1/40th away.", "There is a physiological reason, known as the holiday paradox, for this which is to do with how your bra...
What is that watery stuff on top of the sour cream when I open the jar?
[ "Sour cream is related to cheese (as is yoghurt). The protein infused water that sometimes separates out from the solids is called whey. The solids are called the curd.\n\nAs an aside; Little Miss Muffet was essentially eating cottage cheese." ]
The difference between SSRI and SNRI
[ "SNRIs act upon, and increase, the levels of two neurotransmitters in the brain known to play an important part in mood: serotonin, and norepinephrine. These can be contrasted with the more widely-used selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) which act upon serotonin alone.\n\nNorepinephrine along with epine...
The Lebanese Conflict
[ "Err I tried to write down the explanation but failed. Um it has to do with Syria, who once occupied Lebanon, the miltita/terrorist group Hezbollah who still havent disbanded, an assassinated ex-prime minister Rafiq Hariri, the Lebanese government with ties to Hezbollah and Syria, and disgruntled people.\n\nIt's re...
How much does internet mobile data actually cost a phone company?/Why is it so expensive compared to home internet plans?
[ "It costs barely anything, on the order of fractions of a cent per MB. It costs so much because people will pay that much for it because having internet literally anywhere is really convenient. You're also covering operational costs (salaries, maintenance of towers), startup costs (construction of infrastructure), ...
Why is Carbon Tetrachloride (CCl4) not flammable? Does it have something to do with its geometry?
[ "Fire is rapid oxidation. Burning gasoline takes things like C8H18 (octane) and turns it to 8(CO2) + 9(H2O)\\* with the help of plenty of our friend oxygen.\n\nWhen you get into the chemistry of it though, oxidization is not just adding oxygen to a molecule, it's actually pulling electrons away from whatever gets o...
How is the USA one of the richest countries in the world when it's trillions of dollars in debt?
[ "Think about it like this: I have five dollars. Tom has no dollars. Ted also has no dollars. \n\nI give a five dollar loan to Tom.\n\nTom gives that five dollars as a loan to Ted.\n\nNow that I'm broke I take that same five dollars as a loan from Ted.\n\nWe're exactly where we started but I owe Ted five bucks, Ted...
The Isreal/Palestine conflict
[ "Though there have been a lot of them like this, the simple explanation is like this:\n\nYou have two friends in kindergarden: Moshe and Achmed.\n\nBoth of them want to play in the same sandbox. Achmed has pretty much always played there for as long as anyone can remember. Moshe's family is going to be moving to to...
Why my medicine costs 14k for every dose. How is it even possible for a chemical to cost that much?
[ "You aren't paying for the actual chemical, you are paying for all the research that led to the creation of that medicine. It may take a company millions or billions of dollars to find, test, and build manufacturing to develop a new drug, and then it may cost nearly nothing to manufacture each dose.", "Don't con...
Why is the locomotion of a camel so much different than that of a horse?
[ "They move in a similar way to a giraffe, the gait comes from having relatively long legs compared to the length of the body of the camel. By moving both left legs then both right they reduce the chance of the back legs hitting the front legs, avoiding tripping. A horse doesn't have this problem as they have a lo...
Why did the cost of US college tuition skyrocket?
[ "Universities realized that people were always getting approved for their federal student loans, so they kept raising tuition knowing that the students will be able to pay their crazy prices.", "Supply vs Demand. Education is trumpeted as the only way to make a decent living. This coupled with the near limitless ...
If I have 1000 dollars in a stock and the stock goes to zero, what happens to my money?
[ "Stock represents your share in ownership of a company. When you buy stock, the company gets the money. If the value drops to 0 then that means the company is being appraised by the market as worthless. They may have your money somewhere or they may have spent it. You own a tiny sliver of the company though, and if...
How does anti dandruff shampoo work? And are the branded ones actually better than the other ones?
[ "Long term dandruff sufferer here! Dandruff is caused by a [yeast infection](_URL_1_) eating your sebum (the stuff that makes your hair oily). By doing so they irritate your skin, giving you dandruff. So proper anti-dandruff shampoo contains anti-fungals. \n\nMost anti-dandruff shampoos contain zinc. For some peopl...
What happens to the body when exposed to nuclear radiation?
[ "The radiation that people think of when they hear the term \"radiation\" is \"ionizing radiation.\" \"Ionizing\" means that the radiation is capable of creating \"ions,\" which means stripping electrons from atoms and molecules. Electrons determine how chemical reactions work. So basically the hazard is that the ...
Why are most of the foods that taste good bad for you?
[ "You're just viewing it from your perspective. To me, junk food is good but I'd rather eat properly prepared broccoli. Try accustoming yourself to different foods and healthier foods and you'll see that junk food does not always have the better taste.", "Junk food is loaded with sugar, fat, and salt... compounds ...
Spotlight quote: "If it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a village to abuse them."
[ "[\"It takes a village to raise a child\"](_URL_0_) is a common proverb which means that a child isn't just raised by their family, they're raised by the joint efforts of their community - their family, neighbours, school, friends, etc.\n\n\"It takes a village to abuse them\" means that in the case of child abuse, ...
Why do fashion/clothing models always look pissed off?
[ "If you notice, many catalog models are smiling and happy - they're trying to get you to buy something. The Victoria's Secret models also smile during their show. But high fashion models are often told not to smile because either it is distracting from the clothes (while walking in a runway shoot) or doesn't meet t...
What motivated individuals in the North to serve in the Union Army during the Civil War?
[ "Many were drafted, some believed in the union. A great book on this is \"Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men\" by Eric Foner... the very basic gist is that despite what some modern people assume, Northerners and their soldiers were generally not abolitionists, they were often racist to varying degrees and weren't part...
percentages
[ "Quick lesson - a percentage means \"per every hundred\". You can think of it as breaking your object/problem into a hundred pieces (like a chocolate bar, for example), and then taking the number of pieces that you need for your percent:\n\n- e.g. 14% of a chocolate bar means you'd first break the chocolate bar int...
Why are the movement of people in spacemovies so slow, if there is no resistance? (Example: When they climb up stairs)
[ "Have you ever been working in a tight space, with a low ceiling, crouched down, and then, without thinking, you stood up and banged your head?\n\nIf you're not careful, that happens *every time* in space. Imagine pushing off from one end of a tube with about the same amount of force as, on earth, you'd use to get ...
How do I know the color red I'm seeing is actually the same color red you are seeing?
[ "You don't\n\nFirst, you must realize that light is a wave. Your eye has 3 receptors that are each specialized in catching a certain wavelength. That information is then passed to the brain which decodes the message into to a color.\n\nNow, color blind people can take a color and then take two other lights and sh...
How exactly do people avoid taxes using shell companies?
[ "Let's say you own a pretty profitable business in the US but you're tired of paying taxes. First, you make a shell company where there are lax regulations and low taxes. Then you transfer the assets that your US company has to the shell company, in name at least. You continue to use those assets in the US to make ...
Why can some people eat lots of food, do no exercise but remain thin whilst others struggle to lose weight by eating less and working out?
[ "This is a big question. The general answer is that each person has a weight that his body considers as 'ideal'. They will eat, or not eat, enough food to maintain that weight. How that weight gets set is, at the moment, unknown.\n\nA thin person will eat enough to maintain their size. They might go and pig out at ...
Lebesgue integration: what it is and how it is useful where a Riemann integral is not.
[ "Lebesgue integration is a different, in some cases superior, technique of integration. To better explain it, a comparison to Riemann integration would be helpful. In Riemann integration, one finds that a function is integrable if, considering all possible ways to partition (split up) the interval, the lowest upp...
Apple's "Wave", Whats is this technology?
[ "Don't fall for that please...\n\nMicrowaving any electronic device will basically fry the circuits and maybe even explode the battery.\n\nI preemptively curse the trolls who will inevitably down-vote this.", "It doesn't, it's trolling iPhone users to put their phone in the microwave. In reference to a joke that ...
what was on the other side of the planet when it was 1 super continent....
[ "When the planet was a super continent I could imagine the rest was just ocean with a few islands here and there..", "> The single global ocean which surrounded Pangaea is accordingly named Panthalassa.\n\n- _URL_0_" ]
Why are Lesbians, Gays, and Bis grouped together with transgenders if being a transgendered person only correlates to their gender identity and not their sexual preference?
[ "They experience similar problems, in that they are usually attacked and disrespected by the same people.", "Because in general they face the same sorts of discrimination since most people don't know enough to differentiate between being gay or being trans.", "A few decades back, transgender people shared compa...
How do url shorteners work?
[ "You tell the shortening service a URL, it stores that URL in its database and generates a short code.\n\nWhen somebody tries to go to _URL_0_ it looks up the full URL from its database and redirects the browser.\n\nDepending on the service the short URL might be temporary (it will be removed from the database afte...
Why are genetic disorders like trisomy 21 much more common than say, trisomy 19?
[ "Most trisomies and other severe genetic defects are incompatible with life. The embryo never even reaches the fetus stage. It dies and is expelled in many cases even without the mother knowing she is pregnant. The reason Down syndrome is more common than many others is because Down syndrome embryos can still de...
How can someone have negative karma for every comment yet still have a positive karma score?
[ "Reddit employs algorithms that try to prevent vote brigading and mass downvoting. For example if you clicked on a user's page and started downvoting every comment, reddit will probably ignore those downvotes when calculating the user's total karma. \n\nIn this case, the thread was linked from /r/bestof, which caus...
Why do we not really remember much before we turn 5 or 6 years old?
[ "We do remember plenty. We just don't remember it *as events*. You don't, for example, forget how to walk or the language you're raised with.", "The ELI5 answer: Because our brains are still developing." ]
The difference between nerves and neurons.
[ "Neurons are the cells that can receive and transmit action potential, they can work by chemical or electrical stimulation and are mostly located in your central nervous system so brain hemisphere, brain stem, spinal chord and cerebellum (Altho you do have a \"stomach brain\" in the sense that you have neurons in t...
The difference between a programming script and "normal" programming?
[ "There are two types of programming languages, compiled and interpreted. In the first case you the programmer write your code, and then you invoke a compilation step that covers these vaguely English looking statements into machine code that the computer operating system can run directly. For example, on Windows yo...
Why is there a certain smell to really cold freezers?
[ "The refrigerant is odorless ( _URL_0_ ). You're most likely smelling something resulting from the accumulation of moisture, the food, packaging, etc." ]
How do banks make so much money?
[ "Fees, services, interest, and investments.\n\nFees - they charge you do to certain transactions. Some banks charge for debit usage. Others charge a fee to take money from an ATM. Banks charge for wire transfers. Banks also often charge a fee per month or year for certain account types or services that they sell yo...
Is the Rastafari religion a sect of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church ?
[ "Ethiopian Orthodoxy is a branch of Christianity. Rastafarianism is a whole separate religion with little remaining connection, if any, to Ethiopia." ]
How does a vending machine know how much money you put into it?
[ "i looked this up a while ago, and _URL_0_ might not be the most reliable source, but i think they just have very specific equipment. a machine and computer reads the dollar bills and is programmed to \"look\" for certain marks on different bills to distinguish them. for coins, it has another system that can tell ...
How exactly would Voter ID laws threaten the ability of lower-income earners, seniors, students, minorities, etc. to vote?
[ "It adds an extra step between voters and the vote. Not everyone has an ID, and going to get one, even if it's free, can mean taking time off work, or, in the case of the elderly, finding a way to get to an office. It also adds another layer of red tape to the actual voting process. Checking everyone's ID slows ...
Why do bullets have curved tops rather than sharp, pointy tops?
[ "Bullets with sharp points are meant for maximum speed. The power of a bullet comes from momentum, which is a product of weight and speed. A high powered rifle round doesn't weigh much, but goes *really* fast. A blunt bullet is designed for closer range. The blunt tip will have *less* ability to cut through the tar...
Why Americans say "dude"
[ "Why do British people say mate or git?", "They came up with the word, and the cowboy has entered popular culture pretty hard [heh, Brokeback Mountain].\n\nAdd [the Big Lebowski](_URL_0_) and stoner culture, and it is highly invasive.\n\nEdit:\n\nYeah, thinking about this. They came up with the word. A similar qu...
Horoscopes, and how they're written.
[ "Total BS. They're vague enough that they can apply to totally different types of people, but they're specific enough that when people read them, they think \"WOW THAT'S ABOUT ME!\"", "They don't try to make it up - and I'm not arguing for the scientific validity here, but according to their own system, here is h...
When mixing liquids of different temperatures, what will the resulting temperature be?
[ "You're right - it does end up at the exact average. \n\nThings get more complicated if there's liquids with different heat capacities involved, such as saline and plain water. Phase changes would also complicate matters - if you went from ice to liquid, for example.\n\nThere's a tutorial [here](_URL_0_).", "Most...
When I first start a file transfer from the HD to a USB key, it runs very quickly (20+ MB/sec). After a few seconds, it starts slowing down until it is running like molasses ( < 3 or 4 MB/sec). Why does this happen? There is no other process happening. It doesn't make sense. :/
[ "HDD's have a cache of ram and usb's have a cache of higher speed ram.\n\nOnce the cache is filled, they switch to their true transfer rate, and it is a lot slower.\n\nFor HDDs, they have a \"cache\" of ram that they initially transfer to.This \"masks\" or disguises the true transfer rate. Internally, while the ca...
If visible light is made up of all the colours of the rainbow, why does it appear colourless?
[ "Often in school people are taught that the three primary colors are red, blue, and yellow (technically magenta, cyan, and yellow); that mixing all of them together gets black; and that white is the absence of color. This is how mixing colors works with pigments--like paint. A pigment works by absorbing light of ...
Why is Windows Vista so hated?
[ "Vista's system requirements were much higher than XP's, and it dropped compatibility for a lot of software including drivers. For some people this meant that Vista ran slowly and either didn't support their hardware/software or crashed trying.\n\nThere were a lot of other changes made from XP to Vista, both in the...
Why does pain around the finger tips / finger nails seem to hurt so much?
[ "Your body doesn't have an even distribution of sensory nerves. Areas like your fingertips or lips have a lot. This allows you to feel temperature, and texture much better with those areas.", "Fingertips are used to feel our surroundings so they have a ton of nerve endings really close to the surface, as a resu...
How come it takes some people a couple minutes to fall asleep, while it takes others much longer?
[ "it can be a number of things, but it's mainly sleeping pattern. someone who has spent all day in bed, just been in a well light area for a long time recently, been active recently, or eaten certain things (high GI foods or caffeine for example) will have a harder time falling asleep than someone who has done the o...
What is Open Source?
[ "The literal entomology of the word is derived from the words \"source code,\" which is code that is written before it is run through a program which compiles it, making it into a language the computer understands, but it is virtually impossible to edit the code without the source code. Open source is used to descr...
What is realpolitik?
[ "Realpolitik is doing things (like leading the country) not in the way that's fair, or morally right, but the way that works and/or maximize your country's own interests.\n\nFor example, if you're an eastern-europe Prime Minister, and you feel Putin is being a dick, but you need russian gas so you avoid any confron...
What is the significance of the fly in Breaking Bad?
[ "On one level its about the possibility of contamination. How did the fly get in, what are the impacts of bugs on the cook? On another level (based on something else I read) its about the Walt losing control. Things that are spiralling out of control and he is desperate to reassert authority and be in control of...
Why do we hiccup? Why does holding your breath stop them?
[ "When you have something gross on your hand, like a bug or some rotton food, you flick your hand to get it off. The sudden motion removes the foreign object. The same goes for your diaphragm. A hiccup is your diaphragm moving suddenly to relieve an irritation. The sudden movement moves the lungs and forces air thro...
Why can't fake blood in movies look more real?
[ "It actually can, but it doesn't look as good. People have become used to seeing what they expect blood to look like in movies, and a more realistic version actually looks less real than than the real thing.", "It depends on what the directors are going for, it can be anywhere from Tarantino stylized blood to gri...
Why do prisoners cost so much to house?
[ "Here's a good link that breaks down the costs for California inmates from 2008-2009\n\n_URL_0_", "Well, to start with you have to feed and clothe the prisoners. That in itself isn't too bad, but then you have medical costs (particularly in the US, prisoners tend to get into fights, what with gang activity etc.)....
Why do people use 4 small tv screens hooked together instead of one big screen on computers?
[ "Two reasons\n\n1) Because each screen can display something different. Kind of cool/useful if you need to have multiple streams of information active at the same time.\n\n2) They don't make screens that big for computers. But if you hook up a group of them you can have a bigger screen.", "You can manage differ...
How can an AC current be superimposed on a DC current on the same physical line?
[ "If you have 50 VDC to begin with, and then make it oscillate between say 43 V and 57 V, that is 10 VAC superimposed on 50 VDC. The reason the numbers don't seem to add up is that AC currents aren't measured peak to peak (unless stated so), but is measured in something called RMS (Root Mean Square). The peak to pea...
How fast to atoms "push" each other? Ex: If I lifted a tower of metal one foot that is 10^10^10 miles long in a perfect vacuum (I'm really strong), how long will it take the top of the tower to move a foot as well?
[ "The movement propagates through the material at the speed of sound for that material. This differs by material. For instance, in steel it is about 19,107 feet per second.\n\nSo if you had a pole of steel 19,107 feet long, and you pushed one end, the opposite end would move 1 second later.", "What you are describ...
Why do people tend to feel cold when they are depressed?
[ "I've never heard this. Do you have any source that this is even a thing?\n\nMy guess is that malnourishment and/or inactivity causes poor circulation and general lethargy, which might feel like depression.", "Interesting. I suffer from mild depression,and often when I'm feeling at my lowest,I also feel unusually...
Why do patents and copyrights expire? Who/what decides when they do? Is it fair to the inventor/creator and is there a way around it?
[ "The idea for patents is this:\n\nWe, the society (in form of the state) protect your invention from copying. In exchange, you make your invention public. So after the patent expires, everything can try to build it or improve it.\nYou can also try to keep it secret, but then people who find out about your invention...
Why the Big XII is falling apart
[ "Someone can probably provide a better answer as I tend to focus more on the Big East, but I can give you a general idea.\n\nKey factor in all of this - money.\n\nIn general, the Big XII has two television deals - one with Fox Sports that is shared evenly amongst all of the schools, and one with ABC that tends to g...
I'm standing on the world's most sensitive scales, and I'm eating an exactly 1 lb burger. What happens to the scale reading after each bite?
[ "Nothing, because you are already holding the burger. Eating doesn't make weight go away or change or anything.", "You would lose a very small amount of weight every moment you are on the scale due to evaporation of water on the skin, humid air of the lungs expelling water vapor and carbon (in the form of carbon ...
How would the Church of Scientology be able to sue HBO on any grounds in the first place?
[ "They can sue all they want, come up with any reason they want, get it into courts and in front of a judge and cause HBO to have to respond to anything they say.\n\nThey don't have to be right or valid, but if they get sued HBO still has to respond in some legal way.", "Many times, suing someone isn't about winni...
other than snakes, why do almost all land vertebrates have 4 limbs?
[ "evolution is essentially survival of the fittest... not \"fit\" as in fitness and health so much as it is \"fit\" as in adapted to the environment they live in. \n\n\nat some point, some creature crawled out of the water and was able to survive on land. \n\n\nover time and generations it had mutations in its off...
What will happen to the ISS once it's mission ends in 2020 (or 2024 maybe)? Will it just stay up there and continue orbiting?
[ "The ISS is in a fairly low orbit at which there are still very small quantities of Earth's atmosphere. This wouldn't normally be an issue except that the ISS is massive, and has massive solar panels which act like a sail, creating measurable drag, slowing it down and causing it to spiral back towards Earth.\n\nAs ...
How the dark net (deep web, hidden Internet) works?
[ "Assuming you are asking about how things can't be found and why you can't google them:\n\nThis is not 100% accurate, but close enough for ELI5. Think of the internet as phone numbers for everyone. Most people are going to be in the phone book and easy to find there similar to how easy it is find much of the stuff ...
Why does feces and urine smell so bad?
[ "So we instinctively avoid it, as it can harm us", "Because it's rotting, partly digested waste.... and if it smelt good we'd probably re-eat it. It's actually a good thing that it smells bad.", "We are asking the question wrong. The question is \"Why do they have a smell?\" and not \"Why do they have a bad sm...
What is the weird noise I hear inside my head when I "flex" my ears?
[ "You're hearing a relatively low-pitched rumbling sound? You're hearing the muscle fibers vibrate in the [tensor tympani muscle](_URL_0_). Plenty of people (including me) can do this voluntarily.", "There's a whole [rumbling subreddit] (_URL_1_) dedicated to us." ]
What was the point of nuclear torpedoes?
[ "I believe they were made to counter nuclear armed ships and submarines. Standard torpedoes weren't reliable enough for preventing a potential nuclear attack, they needed to make sure they could wipe out the target with a single shot.", "A modern torpedo like the Mk 48 ADCAP has a 50km range so there's not much ...
How come increased memory on an iphone is so expensive? A 16GB micro sd only cost $10
[ "Annoyed with the fanboy comments here so here's an actual answer:\n\nThe read/write speeds for one are lower on most MicroSD (for the purpose of this answer, we'll assume a standard £10/£20 card, rather than the 'extreme' cards that are upwards of £60-£100 for 64GB that have comparable speeds). \n\nSecondly, the q...
Swiss bank account
[ "It used to be that Switzerland didn't require identifying information from you when you opened an account--you went in, got a number, left with a shiny new account. That made it ideal to place things in--drugs, stolen art, keystones to the holy grail, etc, in terms of safety deposit boxes but also money in a regul...
Why do people claim milk is unhealthy when we are all taught that it is healthy?
[ "An interesting series of studies on low-fat vs. full-fat dairy. A 46% less occurrence of diabetes in full-fat dairy consumers. \n\nOf course, correlation is not causation, but 46%?!!? Geez.", "I believe what you're referring to is the \"adult humans are not meant to drink milk\" idea. After a quick Google [searc...
How does alcohol in hand sanitizer kill bacterial cells but not our own cells?
[ "It absolutely does kill your own cells. If you drank hand sanitizer you would die. It can blind you if you get it in your eyes.\n\nYour skin keeps it away from the rest of your cells because that is its job, but it absolutely does kill your cells.", "It *does* burn away your own cells. But the outer layer of yo...
Why do we feel inclined to sing when music is present?
[ "I think the answer would depend very much on the person. Different people sing for different reasons, and you can also sing for different reasons in various contexts.\n\nFor example, you said you sang \"when driving in the car, for example, or doing the housework\". Housework is usually mundane, and driving someti...
Why do commercials sometimes only appear for a split second before being replaced by another one?
[ "You mean on TV, right? The times I've experienced this was because my TV service provider aired their own commercials instead of those the channel had been paid for/those the channel had made. There was a little delay, so some commercials were only shown for a split second.", "The network or channel will have it...
Why are Bear Grylls and Les Stroud able to kill animals for their reality shows, while fiction shows/movies are prohibited from doing so?
[ "There are a few differences.\n\nThe first being that the animal is eaten/used in such a way that it's hunting rather than abuse. The second being that they often get permission from the local authorities to do such a thing, as they are supposed to be for educational purposes.\n\nBut most significantly, it's for su...
What is a Single Payer Healthcare System?
[ "It is where the is literally one payer for all healthcare bills -- the government. Instead of having dozens of different insurance providers that doctors and hospitals have to deal with, there is a single point of contact for submitting all claims. Sort of like if the government's Medicare for seniors was extended...
what is negative mass?
[ "There is no such thing as negative mass.\n\nThere are equations that have interesting results if it turns out that things with negative mass exist, but none have been observed.", "Mass is a property that stuff has. Like electric charge, or colour charge.\n\nTechnically it is two different things; *inertial* mass...
Why can we tell if a bill (currency) is fake or not/
[ "Money is like a cake. You have slices of it, and it's delicious. But what's it made out of? Well, there's a tricky question. Eat the cake and find out? You can try. Hell, let's say you do it. You somehow know every single ingredient in the cake. More still, you somehow know the exact measurments.\n\n But if you pu...
How do people perfectly colour previously black and white photos ?
[ "It's basically painting a transparent picture on top of the black-and-white, and the B/W image provides much of the shading.\nIn the days before photoshop, you had actual transparent inks with limited tints to choose from, and that's why old hand-colorized photos often look more cartoony.\n\nNow, you can pick from...
The concept of judicial standing in the United States
[ "In order to be party to a legal process you have to have a reason to be involved. You can't just assert a right to participate.\n\nSo for example if you want to sue the NSA for listening to your cell phone you have to prove to a court that the NSA actually listened to your cell phone first. If the NSA refuses to...
Why does bottled water have nutritional information and ingredients and alcohol containers do not?
[ "The FDA regulates bottled water but not alcohol.", "Alcohol is not considered food like soda, icetea and other non-alcohols are, it's in a category by itself, and thus under the scrutiny of different regulations that does not require nutritional information.", "Molson 67 actually has nutritional info labels no...
Why are super-wealthy Russians described as "oligarchs" while super-wealthy Americans are described as "business magnates"?
[ "Monarchy means a system where one rules. The monarch is the head of the system. Oligarch means a system where \"some\" rule. And the oligarchs are those people. In russia, this term is used because the wealthy can more easily exert power, because the legal boundaries are not as \"strict\" as for example in the us ...
the origin of firm handshakes
[ "Handshakes came about in the same way that salutes in the military evolved.\n\nA thousand years ago people had no means of quick communication, so they were vulnerable to being robbed or attacked on the roads. They couldn't exactly call the police, after all. A hand wave and then a handshake was a polite way to ta...
How Argentinian currency devalued 15% overnight and the upcoming emerging markets financial crisis.
[ "A currency, or a Promissary Note, or \"Bill\" is essentially a promise by a government to pay you. Currency is a much easier way to make a transaction than bartering. \n\nBut the currency must have a value. It can be backed by gold (the gold standard), which is why many (most) countries keep gold bricks under lo...
Can some one explain to me what caused physicists to come to the conclusion that there are other dimensions or alternate universes like i'm 5.
[ "\"because it makes the math work\" is actually both the main reason, and a pretty good explanation. The behavior of really small particles is so strange that it makes more sense to think about them moving \"normally\" in extra dimensions than to try to come up with a reason why they seem to violate the laws of ph...
How did Valve get the DotA trademark even though Defense of the Ancients is a mod for Blizzard's Warcraft 3?
[ "The DotA trademark was owned by the people who created the mod, not Blizard. Valve paid the DotA team to come work with them & bought the rights to the name.\n\nBlizzard has no more rights to DotA than Microsoft has rights to Warcraft." ]
Why are stars in the sky white in appearance, but our sun appears as yellow?
[ "Ive read this before a while back, the sun is white but because of the atmosphere it appears yellow. Theres more science to it but i cant bothered to google it when you could do it!" ]
A 1 ton truck carrying 1 ton of live pigeons approaches a bridge that can only bear a load of 1.2 tons. If the driver bangs on his ceiling and all the pigeons fly off their perches (and hover within the truck) can the bridge take the weight?
[ "No. The birds lay their weight on the air below their wings, and the air in turn pushes the truck down. The truck will still weigh 2 tons.\n\n(Also, that's a shitload of birds.)", "Mythbusters covered this exact question:\n\n_URL_0_\n\nTL;DW, truck doesn't get lighter.\n\nEDIT: For all the followup \"what if\" q...
How do I wake up in the morning 3 pounds lighter than I was the night before?
[ "2 ways:\n\n1) You lose water vapor in your breath as you breathe out during sleep.\n\n2) you body still needs energy when you sleep, it produces this energy by burning sugar, the byproducts of sugar metabolism is CO2 and water. You then breath the CO2. All that Carbon you breath out adds up over the night.", "Se...
What is science exactly and why should we trust what it tells us?
[ "Because you don't trust \"in science\" or \"in scientists\". You understand how science works and you come to the conclusion that the way science works is the most reasonable way to understand how the world works.\n\nDoing Science is (among other things) characterized by **falsifiability**. If you have an idea i...
Why is an isolationist US foreign policy considered a bad thing?
[ "One reason is because the US economy is not in isolation - it depends on imports and exports to the rest of the world - which requires as much of the world as possible to be stable and peaceful.\n\nFor the past 70 years much of that stability has come from the United States and its ability to project power across...
What is the Holy Ghost?
[ "The Holy Ghost is a helper of sorts. God and Jesus do not often intervene in the everyday lives of people, but the Holy Ghost often does. \n\nIf you walk into a room and immediately feel that you are in danger, it may be the Holy Ghost prompting you. If someone around you needs help, you may also get promptings...
the history and variety of Jazz music.
[ "Yay! Something I know stuff about. It's been a few years since I dun learnt' this stuff, so bear with me (could this be guide material, I think so?):\n\n(Caveat – This is ELI5, not E-everything)\n\n**The beginning** \n\n1800s - 1900s\n\nJazz traces its origins to the Southern United States, in the region now known...
How come when i cook an egg over a campfire it explodes unless i poke a hole in it but hardboiled eggs dont.
[ "Direct heat from a campfire (1000+ degrees) is going to heat the inside of the egg much quicker than boiling water (212 degrees). When you hardboil an egg the air inside it slowly expands and escapes through the shell as the egg heats. When you heat an egg over a fire, that air expands quicker than it can escape...
The three seashells, as referenced in the 1993 motion picture Demolition Man.
[ "it's a mcguffin. it's not explained, it's not speculated. it's just a thing that moves the plot forward. it gave the character something to complain about so he could show that you get a ticket for verbal offenses.", "There is no explanation for the three sea shells. It was purposefully left unexplained in...
How and why does taking your pen drive off your computer without "safely removing" it cause harm to the pen drive?
[ "You're waiting with your dad at the bus stop. The bus pulls up, opens its doors and lets kids on.\n\nNow, it takes a while before all of the kids get on the bus and the doors close. It also takes a while for the kids to sit down so the bus can safely move.\n\nWhen you copy a file and it finishes copying, that's ...
The difference between analog and digital
[ "Everything in the world is analog. For computers, we created a digital signal. It isn't truly digital, it is still an analog signal, we just design the electronics to interpret everything to have only 2 states: 1 or 0. This allows us to turn switches on and off and manipulate information in a relatively easy manne...
why are guitars so expensive?
[ "It's all in the materials. Some wood is very expensive and some woodworking techniques take a long time to master. That is where the costs come from. The sound they produce is really just a matter of the design and density of the wood. Pine is going to sound very different than oak.\n\nI would also say this applie...