Split (3)

train · 273k rows

title stringlengths 0 299	text list
How can an igloo stay warm without melting?	[ "It does melt a little bit. Heat is trapped on the inside, but on the outside, it is still very cold and kept frozen. All the ice the igloo is made of is in contact with more ice on 4 sides, and 1 side is facing outside in contact with very cold temps and wind. The blocks are also quite thick so the ice is bette...
Why do you instinctively gasp when falling?	[ "I was told by a martial artist that it is the same reason they scream when they throw a punch or kick. It tightens up your core and gives you \"extra strength\". Why your body would do this instinctually is, when you hit the ground you are not a flimsy noodle that gets squashed. Not sure how true, just what I was ...
How do companies like Facebook and Dropbox get their profit?	[ "Facebook has tons of ads and makes a billion dollars quarterly through advertising and promotion.", "> Facebook doesn't show ads or requires me to pay anything.\n\nFacebook shows ads. Also it allows post promotion, which means that you pay for your posts to be more probably shown in users feed.\n\n > Dropbox g...
How is it possible for some childeren at a young age to enter college?	[ "You don't necessarily have to finish all the grades to enter college. You can also take an entrance exam which determines if you have enough background knowledge, and then sometimes exams to skip prerequisites for courses. Lots of kids are accepted to community college before they graduate high school - my son too...
How does a speaker work?	[ "Many frequencies all sum to one wave through constructive and destructive interference. Think about the wave in air; the air can only be one pressure at a time, so no matter how complex the sound it results in just one waveform." ]
Why do cooling towers for nuclear power plants have to be so tall?	[ "Thermal power plants need to reject heat, because not all the heat energy can be captured by the turbine/generator. The plants therefore need some sort of way of getting rid of the heat, called a heatsink.\n\nIf the power plant is near the sea, or a large lake, then cold water can be used as the heatsink.\n\nIf le...
Why do I feel like I need a shit after drinking coffee?	[ "Some studies say coffee (probably primarily the caffeine) causes contractions in colon muscles. Apparently haven't been too many studies but I would say it's also combined with the natural time for most people to go #2. We could do our own study, next time trade your coffee for caffeinated tea or a Coke and see wh...
If space telescopes are so powerful that they can see light years away,why can we still not see the surface of closer planets?	[ "My eyes are so powerful that I can see a couple mountains from my office in Lexington Kentucky several miles away. \n\nHowever, I cannot read a sign on a shop window less than a block away.\n\nOne must keep in mind scale.", "_URL_0_\n\nXKCD to the rescue. The core point is that planets are small, moving really ...
When I pour water into a glass of ice, why does the ice make a crackling sound for a few seconds?	[ "Well as you may know, water expands when it freezes. When you pour warmer water (or any other liquid for that matter) it warms the outside of the ice causing a temperature difference between the inside and the outside temperatures. While the outside of the ice is being warmed it contracts while the inside of the...
Why it is perfectly acceptable to have people wearing only underwear in picture advertisements but we ourselves are not allowed to stroll around in just underwear.	[ "Why do you think we're not allowed? A bathing suit has the same amount of coverage. As long as it is opaque it should be fine, though some cities enact ordinances otherwise.\n\nAs far as private property, like a mall, they are free to set their own standards. They can kick you out for not wearing shoes even tho...
What happens at the back of your throat, right before you cry, that makes it feel all tight & painful?	[ "Our body has what's called the autonomic nervous system. As its name suggests, its major role is to regulate all of the non-voluntary movements. This includes controlling heart rate, breathing rate, motility of your bowels and so on. You probably have come across it as the \"fight or flight\" & \"rest and digest...
Is human knowledge just a tower of assumptions, each block reliant on another, that would collapse if a fundamental "truth" at the base was proven false?	[ "Sure, if our Axioms (those fundamental truths) were proven false the entire system built on that Axiom would collapse or at least take a heavy hit.\n\nThing is that our axioms are pretty sturdy and are often self-defining. A triangle has angles adding up to 180 degrees. You cannot disprove that because any shape...
Why is it so hard throwing an object straight upwards when lying down?	[ "When you were a child you took a long time to learn how to throw properly, moving your body in just the right way. Throwing (well) is actually quite a complex action, using lots of muscle groups, and if you try to throw in a particular way without having practiced a lot, for example with your non dominant hand, or...
How do microwaves work? And why is that an empty container next to a container full of food will stay cool and the food gets selectively heated?	[ "Microwaves use radio waves to excite the water molecules inside an item to heat it. Since the empty container has little to no water in it, there's nothing to excite and cause heat", "The microwave makes the water molecules in the food flip up and down really fast. Remember that temperature is a measure of how ...
Why do men feel sick when punched or kicked in the testicles?	[ "A good rule of thumb for questions about why the body works in a particular way is to ask, \"How would this trait benefit our caveman ancestors?\" The ape-man who has 'numb nuts' isn't going to be particularly concerned with protecting them, leading him to whack them as he climbs over a rock, or leave them exposed...
How does our body develop immunity against diseases such as smallpox after we recover from it.	[ "> whats the mechanism for it?\n\n[Some basics on the immune system](_URL_0_)\n\nYour body is constantly producing B cells covered in antibodies, which are Y-shaped proteins. On the arms of the Y shape, there are different shapes. They will react to foreign molecules, such as those on the outside of a smallpox viru...
How are stock prices calculated?	[ "A typical stock's price will change numerous times throughout the day, based on its last known sale price. Stocks are quoted in two different numbers, the \"bid\" (what buyers are willing to pay for it), and the \"ask\" (what owners are willing to sell it for). When a transaction actually occurs, the exchange co...
What exchange rates mean?	[ "It doesn't really matter if one is higher or lower. What matters is the change in exchange rate over time. So if country A to country B exchange rate was 2:1 last year, and today it is 1:2, then that matters because it affects prices of goods that are traded between those two countries. But if they stay relatively...
What's going on in your head when you have a "deja vu" moment	[ "During Deja Vu short term/current experiences are being written in real time to the area of the brain used for long term storage, and then immediately recalled concurrently. Memories are not usually written here during times of consciousness, so your brain interprets it as reliving an experience. It is basically...
Why does giving babies peanuts earlier on decrease the risk of them developping peanut allergy?	[ "Parent of a peanut allergic kid here.\n\nUnfortunately science doesn't know yet the exact mechanisms that lead someone to develop a peanut allergy, except that certain genetic factors predispose one to allergies, asthma, and eczema (this is called atopy)\n\nFor many years the medical wisdom was that early exposure...
Why does an image formed by pixels on a screen remain sharp, when light tends to spread out over distance?	[ "The image from the screen does become wider as you get away from it, the same way it does from a torch (or, for our American friends, a flashlight - I had a very amusing conversation with an American when I referred to it as a torch and she didn't know what I was talking about!)\n\nThat's why if you and I sit a ...
Why do certain shots hurt more and for a longer time than others?	[ "The three main routes are intradermal (ID) injection, subcutaneous (SC) injection and intramuscular (IM) injection. Each type targets a different skin layer: Subcutaneous injections are administered in the fat layer, underneath the skin.\n\nIM causes painful bruising because the needle is going into your muscle." ...
Garden centres and pet shops have dirt cheap "bird feed" peanuts. Why can't I eat these instead of regular grocery peanuts?	[ "You can. I grew up in a pet shop family and ate tons of bird seed seeds and even dog treats.\n\nI would check the country of origin on the label though, as some countries may use pesticides that you want to avoid.", "Food products like seeds and nuts that aren't meant for human consumption may be processed in wa...
Why is it bad that the 85 richest people on the planet are worth nearly as much as the poorest 50 percent of the world's population? [Serious]	[ "It's not bad if you take advantage of the situation and think smart. If rich people have more money then half the world you start a billionaire protection service, complete with drones/cyber-shielding/etc and military veterans. \n\nSounds like they are gonna need it. \n\nOh and if you do, make me a VP or somethin...
As I am falling asleep, why do I see images and hear sounds that are almost like hallucinations, and how do they differ from normal dreaming?	[ "It's called hypnagogia. As you transition from awake to asleep, you pass through a weird bit where it is possible for bits of dream to get mixed in with external sensations, and/or for lingering bits of external sensations to get mixed into your dreams. This experience of dreamstuff while not entirely asleep can ...
Where do our eyes focus when we close them?	[ "The eye focuses on light, and thus when you close your eyes the muscle involved, the cillary muscle, relaxes.", "I was taught that with the eyes closed they tend to focus at about 1 Diopter or about 1 meter from you.", "I remember that when we were messing with our buddies during a summer-camp by opening their...
What is the significance of January 1st? Why does the new year begin then and not on say, December 21st, a solstice?	[ "Nobody knows.\n\nOur calendar comes from the Roman calendar, which was (sort of) a lunar-solar calendar until Julius Caesar reformed it in 45 BC, creating the purely solar Julian calendar, which in its corrected Gregorian form is our modern calendar today. Lunar-solar calendars such as ancient Rome's align with th...
Why treads provide better traction than smooth surfaces.	[ "If you are referring to car tires, a bald tire does have more traction but only when dry, street cars need the treads because it isn't going to have the ideal conditions a track car would have.", "I have summer tires on my car, it has way less treads. When the road conditions are ideal I get way way better tract...
How come there is so much money in golf? Tiger Woods is arguably the best paid athlete, yet no one I know watches golf, and neither has golf big stadiums like football.	[ "It's about who the audience is. Advertisers and sponsors are OK with decreasing the number of consumers if they can reach a richer audience. Golf is more of a sport for the richer set whereas football is more of a sport for working class people.", "Endorsements, & sponsoships play a huge role. Also, I have see...
When I call someone, why is the first ring always louder than subsequent rings?	[ "This is probably due to sensory adaptation. When you experience something that triggers one of your senses multiple times in a row, the experience is less and less each time. This is also why you get used to smells." ]
ELI 5: Fibonacci spiral	[ "I can see that there is an explanation gap that you would like filled.\n\nOn one side of the gap, is the fact that Fibonacci numbers can be related to a spiral like [this](_URL_3_).\n\nOn the other side of the gap is the fact that Fibonacci spirals can be seen in nature like [this](_URL_0_).\n\nThe explanation gap...
How can kid music be so annoying to adults while children love it?	[ "With a lot of music, there's a kind of tension between what's predictable and what's interesting or novel. Predictable elements are things like chords that are very harmonious and lead naturally to one another, rhymes and predictable themes in lyrics, melodies that match well with the underlying harmony, etc. What...
Why do the veins on my arms become less apparent when it is cold? But more apparent when it is hotter or I am doing physical labor?	[ "This is part of your thermoregulation system. When it's hot, your body pumps more blood to veins near the surface in order to radiate heat from it. Likewise, when it's cold, blood is withdrawn from the surface to keep it warm.", "Your body has a priority based system when it comes to thermoregulation. So when it...
Why does "the big red car" sound better than "the red big car" in the English language?	[ "Because adjectives have a specific order in English (and other languages). The order of adjectives in English is \n\n > Quantity or number.\n\n > Quality or opinion.\n\n > Size.\n\n > Age.\n\n > Shape.\n\n > Color.\n\n > Proper adjective (often nationality, other place of origin, or material)\n\n > Purpose or qual...
Why does it work to close one eye and fully open the other on a bright sunny day, but you must squint if both eyes are opened?	[ "At one point I had an eye infection that made it hurt whenever my pupils dilated or contracted. Even though the infection was only in the left eye, bright light in the right eye would hurt the left eye. The doctor explained that even though light only entered one eye, the pupils do not react completely separately....
why does tv signal manage to have no buffer when you watch tv, while internet videos buffer a lot ?	[ "TV, whether over the air or over cable TV, is \"broadcasting\" one thing to everyone who can possibly receive it. If you've got an antenna and are tuned in, you will see whatever is going on right at that moment. There's no buffering, because there's no before, no after: you can only receive what's being sent at...
Why does embarrassment cause blushing?	[ "Your cheeks need to make sure everyone else knows how stupid you feel." ]
Why is there no cure for rabies?	[ "rabies has a vaccine called rabies post exposure prophylaxis or RPEP. after being bit, they can give this with antibodies for rabies at the bite site. so you can cure it, it depends on the animal bite scenario if youre given RPEP\n\nwhere your confusion comes into play is youre used to the idea of healthcare bei...
Why does adhd medicine calm people with adhd down and speed everyone else up?	[ "ADHD medication does \"speed up\" the brains of people with ADHD; what looks like \"calming them down\" is really more like \"speeding up the part of the brain responsible for staying focused.\"", "As a person who took Adderall for 6 years of their childhood; it seems like it calms down children but has the oppo...
Is being disgusted by fat people just social conditioning, or is there more to it?	[ "It's a combination of biology and social condition. Biologically, we are coded to find attributes of the opposite sex that we perceive as an indication of fertility and ability to raise a child. \n\nIn women that means wide hips (better for birthing children), large breasts (better for nursing a baby), and gener...
Do mosquitos know the risk they take when they land on us?	[ "Mosquitoes in all likelihood don't even have a concept of death, so no. Their brains are incredibly simple so they can't even extrapolate that far into the future.", "Only female mosquitos suck blood, and they do so to use the iron and protein in our blood to help make their eggs. It's evolutionarily programmed ...
Why we chose the word "water" to symbolize water	[ "For that specific word: _URL_0_\n\nThousands of years ago, people said wódr̥ to refer to the stuff. Then over time, the word passed on to new languages and in English it changed to water.", "Why is this downvoted? We're at ELI5 here, and this is actually a very relevant question. People have been struggling with...
Instead of aiding fleeing refugees, why not make them stay and fix their own governments/countries?	[ "First of all, Canada is only committed to taking 25,000 refugees. That couldn't even take Rogers Arena, let alone a nation. For perspective, Assad has ten times that many political prisoners already, and the US government has released evidence that he tortured to death half that many people since 2011.\n\nSyria is...
Einstein's Theory of Relativity and a phone call going across the galaxy	[ "Ok, as simple as I can explain it.\n\nTime slows down the closer you get to the speed of light, but only from an outside observer's perspective. \n\nSo, if I'm on a spaceship travelling near the speed of light and you're on a planet watching me fly by...to you, time is passing normally and I'm in slow motion. To m...
Why are 4x4 vehicles (Such as the Jeep Wrangler) Limited in speed (80kph as per the owner manual) in 4WD mode, whereas a full time All-Wheel Drive vehicle doesn't have any such limit (within the limits of the engine)	[ "Super short answer: Because it's not safe. Tires in 4x4 MUST skip if not going straight forward, and will thus lose traction which is not safe. AWD does not force tires to skip.\n\nMedium answer: At low speeds, with tires skidding, or offroad, you spin on some dirt or loose gravel or leaves or whatever, that's fin...
Why don't razor/shaving cream companies push for men to shave leg hair? Wouldn't that increase their market and profits?	[ "There is also a risk of a backfire.. If they push it too aggressively, then the brand may be seen as feminine by a large part of the target group. As you might have noticed, portraying a macho image with male-grooming items is seen as important in advertising.", "It's just a guess, but I imagine they've done mar...
Why do a lot of people(might be subjective) think Keanu Reeves is a bad actor?	[ "His range of acting is said to be really limited, you generally know the general sense of his characters before going to a movie.\n\nPersonally, I think he is the person for those roles. No one plays his type better than he does. I can't imagine anyone else has Neo, I know other actors would have their own variati...
How is the present defined with respect to the space-time continuum?	[ "In relativistic physics, which events are simultaneous depends on the observer looking at the events. So every observer has their own present and if different observers are travelling at high speeds relative to one another they'll disagree about which events are in the past, present and future." ]
From a CRT: What is an electron gun, and What exactly does it do?	[ "An electron gun is a device that emits a continuous beam of electrons when powered on. In a CRT, electromagnetic coils bend the electron beam back and forth to scan across the screen like printed text, left to right then top to bottom. The beam strikes phosphor strips that coat the inner surface of the screen and ...
If the Chinese language is dependent on tonal inflections for meaning, how easy/hard is it to understand Chinese music?	[ "the inflections disappear in melody. you just know which word by context." ]
how do zero acceleration and zero velocity work?	[ "Yes, acceleration is when there's no change in velocity. Zero velocity is when there's no change in position (or specifically, displacement). But velocity is a bit weird in that's it's kinda arbitrary. It needs to be relative to something.\n\nSo it's perfectly legitimate to say that you are moving at 0 m/s, or 100...
I'm A computer science student.Why During a final exam my brain struggle finding a solution and my grades are avarage, But when I'm at home my brain solves problem immediately and every thing is so easy?	[ "Probably you're looking at different types of problems. Or you're focusing on what seems atypical and surprising (surprising that you would choke on an important test, surprising that you have a flash of genius when it doesn't matter). Another kind of selection bias is hindsight bias: when you are solving prob...
Why, in movies, do we get so happy, sad, or our hearts race for certain characters even in scenes where we know what is going to happen?	[ "This question is literally answered on the front page right now" ]
Why can't I have a wild bird like a cardinal or a jay as a pet?	[ "Being undomesticated, they retain the wild, primitive instincts of their velociraptor forebears. Eventually, the impulse to roam and horrifically mangle secondary characters without actually appearing in-frame will prove too much and they'll get loose. After that, it will only be a matter of time before they learn...
How do automotive keyless entry systems work? I don't mean when you have to press the button on the fob, I mean the passive systems where you keep the fob in your pocket and just pull the door handle to unlock.	[ "The car constantly sends out very weak \"are you there?\" signals, and the fob listens for them. When it hears one -- which should only happen when it's quite close since the signal is weak -- it responds, so the car unlocks itself.\n\nBonus point: this system may be easy to use but is very insecure, and has been ...
How is it that always new studies pop up and show contrasted results opposing to other studies on the same subject?	[ "There are dozens of reasons. One study can have too small a sample, which makes the statistical analyses unreliable.\n\nOne study can sample from too small a population (e.g., only white men between the ages of 18 and 25 from a suburb northwest of Boston, all found at a little league baseball tournament for their ...
What is the difference between "Equal" and "Stretch" tuning for pianos	[ "In general it has to do with how far apart an ocative truly is.......central A oscillates at 440 oscillations per second. One ocative in equal tuning would be doubled or halved that so the A above is at 220 oscillations and the one below is at 880 oscillations. In stretched tunings that is changed or \"stretched...
why is a fisheye camera lense typically used in skateboard videos?	[ "The most important aspect of the fisheye lense is that it is wide angle. So much so that careful framing is not too important. Also, the wide angle minimizes jerkiness and vibrations. Then, you can have your cameraman chase after you while moving at speed, jumping and shit without needing a dolly or big steadicam...
Can anyone explain derivative securities to me like im 5?	[ "For starters, companies issue stock to get spending money so they can become more profitable. Someone buys stock from the company as an investment and if the company's value changes the change is represented in its stock price. Now, the person may come along and find a better investment or need the money, so he ...
Fruit flies....how FAR can they be 'forcibly evolved' in a lab?	[ "They've been bred to the point where they weren't able to reproduce with other fruit flies. That's commonly considered a new \"species\". It would probably take too long to turn it into something very very different." ]
Why do people have the notion that age correlates to ability?	[ "Because in the vast majority of roles/positions/jobs etc. age is a big indicator of experience. You can't get really good at something without putting a lot of hours into it. When you are 13 you simply don't have enough hours alive to convince someone that you are an expert in any field.\n\nProgramming is one of...
Why does a processor, for computers, get so hot? How doesn't it just melt? How does a fan and a heatsink work so well?	[ "There's an enormous amount of work happening in a tiny amount of space. Under load, CPUs use (relatively) huge amounts of electricity, which generates heat. The heat in the CPU can be controlled with a fan because, while it's very hot, it's also a very tiny area. So the total amount of heat-energy that needs to be...
If the vast majority of video cameras and websites support HD video nowadays, why is the porn industry still flooded with low definition videos?	[ "My best guess would be that they want you to subscribe for the higher quality/full length content. Why give away your best product for free right?" ]
Knights and knaves logic puzzles	[ "Lots start by seeing if person 1 is a knight? He said that both people are knights. If that was true, person 2, being a knight (which he'd have to be, since person 1 said he is, and he couldn't lie), would have to tell the truth. But he said that person 1 is a knave. There is no possible way for person 1 to be tel...
How do rush hour traffic jams form?	[ "Traffic is like pouring milk through a funnel. If you pour more into the top than can escape through the bottom, the milk fills up the funnel and overflows. Only so much milk can move through the bottom of the funnel, and pouring more into the top doesn't make it move through any faster. \n\nBut, a road is like ...
Why is the 1/4 mile stretch and 0 to 60 the benchmark cars are rated for?	[ "The European standard for measuring acceleration is the time for 0-100 kilometers per hour. This is converts to about 0-62mph which was then rounded down, so both numbers are very similar and can be easily compared.\n\nThe quarter mile seems to come from quarter horse racing ([source](_URL_0_)), but I figure tha...
Why/ How are celebrities insuring their body parts!? And what does said insurance actually cover!	[ "Celebrities do it because there are certain parts of their body or features that are important to the line of work they do or get people interested.\n\nFor example, pornstar Kieran Lee insures his member for $1 million as his member is the only way he can earn an income thus if anything happens to it, the insuranc...
- remapping a car??	[ "The map from the manufacturer is designed to get the car through various economy and emissions tests. These tests (depending on country) will run the car at different RPM, temperatures, etc. The map is also designed to work for a specific fuel octane rating. On cars without turbochargers, there is limited impro...
Why did George Lucas need an actor inside of R2D2?	[ "Robotics in 1976 was primitive.\n\nThe guy turned the top and made R2 wiggle the right way. This was way better than any robotics could have done without spending way more.\n\nI am certain that part of R2's personality and charm actually came from having a person in there doing some moves.", "Electronics, radio ...
Do flightless birds still have hollow bones?	[ "It depends on the bird in question! Hollow bones are the ancestral characteristic in all modern birds, but more interestingly they go back much further than the evolution of avian flight, right through to [theropod dinosaurs](_URL_5_) and even [sauropods](_URL_4_) (which helps explain why Brachiosaurus and fri...
why drinking alcohol would/wouldn't help with food poisoning or other type of infection in the GI tract.	[ "If you were drinking enough alcohol to sterilize your GI tract you'd probably have other problems more serious than gastroenteritis or whatever you had.", "First off, food poisoning isn't necessarily caused by 'living bacteria.' It could be, for instance, waste products of long dead bacteria, poisons, or so on. ...
Why do we close our eyes when we are afraid that something my hit/harm us?	[ "> I understand that eyelids can protect your eyes from dust/dirt, but if something big and sharp hits your eye then your eyelids aren't really going to help\n\nIsn't it? Think back to our ancestors. If you're walking through a forest and out of the corner of your eye you see a tree branch falling, a sharp edge of ...
why does it look like big (really big) things fall slower than smaller things?	[ "They appear to move slower relative to themselves.\n\nConsider a ball 1 cm across, and one 10 meters across. In the first second of falling, each will fall the same distance; about 5 meters. But the first ball will have gone 500 times it's diameter, while the second will have traversed barely one of it's radii, ap...
If all polar caps melted, would we be able to consume seawater due to the reduced salinity?	[ "nope, because even a few meters increase in Sea level is far less than a 1% increase in total ocean volume. The ocean is really really big. So we would still be fucked without the added benefit of extra drinking water. If anything it might reach some near coast lakes and ruin those." ]
Some people tell me I'm legally required to pay income taxes, and some tell me it's unconstitutional. Which person is correct and why?	[ "It is constitutional until the courts rule it unconstitutional. Currently it is firmly on the side of \"legally required\".", "You are legally required to pay income taxes. Some people are politically opposed to taxes, so they claim that it is unconstitutional. This is 100% not true because taxes are directly me...
How are syringe needles made?	[ "Take a tube and yank on it. It stretches out to be very thin but the hole in the center doesn't collapse! Do this carefully a bunch of times and you can end up with good thin needles.", "_URL_0_\n\nThis is a \"How Things Are Made\" video that goes into great detail on how hypodermic needles are made." ]
How do hedge fund managers become so wealthy?	[ "Because they get paid based on the income from the funds they invest. Hedge funds earn a small management fee and a large performance incentive (the stereotypical fee structure is 2% of funds under management and 20% of the fund income). Most fund managers earn 2-3% of funds under management but do not get a...
Why cant we just stop media outlets from covering terrorism? Wouldn't that effectively make it pointless?	[ "Freedom of the press. \nIf you prevent the media from reporting something, that opens room for abuse. \nPolice beating that man to death? Fits most definitions of terrorism. \nThat government crackdown on dissidents? Terrorism. \nInvading another country? Terrorism.", "There's a difference between reporting ...
Why do languages develop words with double meanings? (Like "right" in English)	[ "Possibly because the 'same' word came from two different places. More often, though, it's just a branching out from the original meaning. The word 'right' is a good example given how many things it can mean, but really, in a certain sense, it means the same thing. \n\n[Check this out.](_URL_0_) 'Right' came from t...
The argument that Science can answer moral questions.	[ "You watched his talk? Was there something in it you didn't understand? I thought he explained it pretty simply. What were some of the concepts or examples you didn't follow?" ]
The Bootstrap Paradox	[ "Lets say your best friend bakes his mom a cake from scratch. He went to the store and bought all the ingredients, bakes it and gives it to her.\n\nYou steal the cake and you go back in time, instead of him going to the store you save him time from baking the cake, by giving him the cake. He then gives that cake to...
Why do countries exist?	[ "They evolved, as powerful people (and groups) organized armies to take control of areas of land. You could only control an area where you could send warriors to enforce your will, so each leader had a finite geographic area -- his (or her) country.\n\nIn many cases these were quite small -- areas only a few km acr...
the second half of TLS/SSL	[ "The public key isn't used to encrypt the data, it's only used for key exchange - the client uses this key to encrypt and send information that will be used by both parties to generate a shared key, just for this session. This key is then used for a symmetrical encryption such as AES." ]
How do physiologists differentiate between mental disorders and personality?	[ "Psychiatrist and/or psychologist? There is a [manual](_URL_0_) for it with the various criteria. One of the general criteria for personality disorders would be that it \"lead to clinically significant distress or impairment in important areas of functioning,\" which is really the main difference between an odd per...
Assuming humans are still alive at the time, how close will andromeda have to be to the Milky Way before we notice changes such as gravity, weather, and other stuff.	[ "Based on current calculations astrophysicists predict a 50% chance that in a merged galaxy, the Solar System will be swept out three times farther from the galactic core than its current distance. They also predict a 12% chance that the Solar System will be ejected from the new galaxy sometime during the collision...
How is it possible to self-plagiarize yourself?	[ "The concept is poorly named by people with a limited vocabulary. Your instinct that the sin of plagiarism lies primarily in taking other people's work is right--that is the origin of the term. (From the Latin word for \"kidnapping,\" by analogy.) \n\nHowever, particularly in academia, reusing your previous work wi...
How can the Sun's gravitational pull be strong enough to keep Pluto in orbit but not just pull Mercury into it?	[ "The Sun's gravity is pulling Mercury, but the planet is traveling so fast that it can't fall fast enough to ever hit the Sun. Mercury's orbit is elliptical though, so it does vary in distance from the Sun. As it gets closer to the Sun the pull from the Sun's gravity does increase, but so does the orbital velocity ...
How can or why would someone consider themselves being transgender without being pre-op or post-op?	[ "I'm no expert - but surely it's possible for someone who was born a man to feel like a woman, to chose to live her life as a woman, dress like a woman, and identify as a woman, but not want to undergo major surgery? And vice versa.\n\nAll surgery is risky. I would imagine (but maybe I'm wrong - everyone is differe...
The difference between an enoteca, trattoria, etc. in Italian dining	[ "An enoteca, in the original Italian sense is just a wine shop. It is usually a shop dedicated to regional wines. Now, of course, in most enoteche (plural form of enoteca) you can also eat.\n\nA trattoria is much like a restaurant, but is less formal: usually there isn't a real (printed) menu, and the available dis...
I have mild asthma, if I can only spare 30 minutes to an hour a day to exercise, what should I do?	[ "anything cardio is fine. or lifting weights. cardio directly burns fat, whereas lifting weights build muscles which burns fat and increase metabolism which burns fats. lifting is kind of an indirect way of losing weight." ]
Why do parts of your body involuntarily twitch/flutter repeatedly for short to medium periods of time?	[ "As unsatisfying as this answer is, most of the time no one has any idea why it happens. There's usually no obvious physical cause, no diseases, and no tests to show that anything is wrong. And then just as randomly stops as if it'd never been there.\n\nAnd that's pretty much it. Sometimes such symptoms can be caus...
What happens to an embassy when the country it represents gets declared war on	[ "International law would dictate they are given safe passage back to their home countries, but in practical terms, whatever the country they are in wants. It is not unheard of for diplomats to be made captive. Also, they would not be POWs, that is a status for soldiers.\n\nAnother thing to consider is their relat...
What is the purpose of adding -eth to the ending of some verbs in older writings?	[ "In Middle English, you'd conjugate the verb \"to think\" like so:\n\nSingular \| Plural\n---------\|----------\n(I) think \| (we) think\n(thou) thinkest \| (you) think\n(he) thinketh \| (they) think\n\nPeople just started using 'thinks' instead of 'thinketh' and dropped the 'thinkest' alto...
The Mandelbrot Set or any other fractal	[ "The Mandelbrot set and other fractals are drawn on a plane called the \"complex plane\", but we can just call it what it is - a graph.\n\nA graph has an X-axis and a Y-axis. You can plot a point on the graph by using its coordinates, which are the numbers on the X and Y axis for that point.\n\nFor the Mandelbr...
How do standard BIC Lighters work? They appear to be a liquid, but are released as a gas.	[ "Butane gas is contained within the body under pressure. This pressure condenses it into a liquid, dramatically increasing the quantity of fuel that can be stored in a given volume (if the butane were stored as gas, the lighter would be several dozen, if not hundred, times larger). When you push the activation nub ...
What causes the tingling feeling in my arm/leg when the blood flow is restricted?	[ "It is called [paresthesia](_URL_0_). You basically already explained it; it happens when there is in interruption of circulation to an area. \nThink of it like this: a hose is running with water, you begin to kink the hose, and all of a sudden, only a few drops are trickling out, or none at all. When you releas...
Why does combining a gyroscope and an accelerometer only give me the pitch - roll orientation and not yaw?	[ "You can measure yaw just fine. The issue is that based purely on accelerations, you can't have a stable yaw reference over time. What's being measured is only the _rate_ of rotation, not the orientation itself. Any errors or noise in the sensor data or the integration process will add up over time to wreck your re...
Is it actually possible to change the size of your penis?	[ "No it's a scam. \n\nFrom previous thread - What they don't tell you, is that with the pills you get also a pump. Which brings blood to your penis, and the pill being a chemical that temporary helps that process. So it is technically a penis enlargement pill, the same ways as Viagra is." ]
How does digestion work in zero gravity?	[ "digestion still takes place even when you are upside down because our digestive system has many muscles that force things to the end.", "Your muscles push the partially digested food along. Even on Earth, you can swallow something while being upside down - not to mention parts of your digestive track travel upwa...
Why is having money in tax havens like Swiss Bank accounts considered bad if it is not actually illegal? If it is illegal why is there a Swiss Bank?	[ "Depositing income into Swiss Bank accounts for the purpose of avoiding taxes is illegal, but there may be other reasons for wanting to keep money overseas and secret/secure. Also, Swiss banks are governed by laws of Switzerland, so U.S. laws have no bearing on whether and why they exist... their laws could be comp...

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