Split (3)

train · 273k rows

title stringlengths 0 299	text list
How does your fingerprint come back after damaging your fingertips through cuts burns etc.	[ "Although the fingerprint is only visible on the surface of the skin, the skin under it is still differentiated, if the visible part of the fingerprint is destroyed but not all the way down to the bone it can re-grow because the pattern is still there though not visible.\n\nBeing a clumsy amature glassblower I have...
Could you survive a fall from a very tall building onto a pile of pillows if it were thick enough? How thick would it have to be to survive, or to avoid injury?	[ "So you can get this answer wit a bit of physic. What hurt you during an impact is the rapid deccellaration of your body over a short distance. You can get the acceleraction you will endure with the formulas 1/2 a×t^2=d,F=m*a and d/t=v. (a=acceleration, its the amount of change of your speed relatively to the grou...
how do rockets work?	[ "The typical rocket (not electric as would be used for spaceflight) carries fuel in it (either solid or liquid). When launched, a primer (usually an electric heating element) ignites the fuel which begins to burn and create hot gases. This fuel passes through a hole at the base called a nozzle. It's shaped a specia...
are microplastics more or less dangerous for humans than the fumes from burning plastic?	[ "There are no proven evidence that microplastics are even bad for you. Granted there are not many studies conducted in that area yet. Most plastics tend to be very innert which is why they do not break down naturally. And this property means that they do not cause reactions in the body either. So most microplastics...
How do tinted windows work?	[ "They absorb light and heat up slightly. Being on the outside of a structure, however, they are more able to radiate/conduct the heat away to the outside air. If that light got inside of a structure, it would end up becoming heat anyway, and then that heat would be trapped inside.", "The heat that is mostly heati...
why are housecats terrified of getting wet, when their instincts include catching fish?	[ "They are generally just not used to it. Most cats love water, housecats included, if they are introduced to it when they're young and have been around it for a while.", "Housecats are descended from desert cats of the middle east. Deserts get very cold at night. A wet cat could easily freeze to death. And th...
What makes certain clothing materials be able to be classed as 'antibacterial'?	[ "Wool has some amazing and natural antibacterial properties. I understand there are two things that help wool resist bacteria build up. Firstly, the fibers have a rough texture on a microscopic level that, unlike smooth synthetic fibers, keep bacterial from sticking. Secondly the lanolin, which is a waxy substance ...
Do religious parties change their stance on drugs such as cannabis when they become legalized substances?	[ "No, not unless they try to conform with societies modern standards and expectation. This doesn’t mean the religion itself is accepting of these decisions made by religious parties.", "As a Christian our churches are generally told that we are part of the world but not of it. Meaning we do not change our beliefs ...
How do lighting rods work? Is there a safety benefit or purpose?	[ "Yes.\n\nThe divert lightning. It's in the name ;)\n\nSo, if lightning would hit a place it can cause damage, fires... Bad stuff. Lightning rods divert that electricity from lightning to the ground, making it safer.\n\nLightning rods are placed on high spots that are likely to get hit." ]
How do we "burn off" fat when losing weight?	[ "Most fat loss is through your lungs. (85%)\n\nFat is turned into Carbon dioxide, and water. C02 is breathed out. Water is sweated out, or lost as urine.\n\nOn a very very ELI5 level, fat is a bit like gasoline. Its stored energy. Our body can put that energy to use. The byproduct is heat, C02 and water.", ...
Why should we eat vegetables if we can get the nutrients they provide from supplements?	[ "Supplements aren't intended to substitute for food. They can't replicate all of the nutrients and benefits of whole foods, such as fruits and vegetables. Whole foods are complex, containing a variety of the micronutrients your body needs.", "A person can live their whole life without eating vegetables and avoid ...
Does the reversal of Earth’s magnetic poles affect our technology/electricity? If so, how?	[ "The Earth's magnetic reversal happens over a very long period of time (years). It doesn't really have that much of a direct impact on technology - _URL_0_" ]
How does Hubble zoom so far?	[ "if you think about it, light from 10 million lightyears away is constantly reaching us, we just have to point the telescope at it to see it. Same with 15billion. the main thing is, light that old is very faint, so the telescope has to stare at the same spot for a while to collect enough of it." ]
What causes power to flicker?	[ "The lightning strikes are causing surges in the line, which causes automatic circuit breakers (known as reclosers) to trip. They trip, but then they have a timer to reset and during that time is when the power is out. If a tree falls on the line and causes a dead short in the line, the reclosers will close/retri...
how can dark heavy clouds remain in the air for hours without raining, yet light fluffy clouds can make sun showers?	[ "A cloud is a volume of super-wet air -above 100% relative humidity- where the water condenses in place. But, weird as it sounds, just because the air is wet doesn't mean it has a lot of water (in a given space at least), like how it only takes a teaspoon of water to make your hand wet. So the hundreds of thousands...
On TV and in movies, why are some other outside pieces of media referenced by name whereas other pieces of media have to be given fake names?	[ "A few reasons:\n\n1. Sometimes it is the writer's preference. Some writers prefer to use real-world name brands because they think it will make the story more realistic. Some prefer to use fake names, especially in circumstances that are critical of the product. It's just a stylistic choice. \n2. Sometimes a sh...
Energy can be inter-converted in a lot of ways. Why not between angular and linear momentum?	[ "> The obvious-seeming answer is that there's no geometrical configuration possible that doesn't just result in equal-and-opposite application of the energy\n\nThe problem isn't that you can't convert angular momentum into linear momentum (simply use a spinning wheel to interact with an object and throw it in a de...
Why are nitrites toxic to tank fish, but nitrates are okay?	[ "That one oxygen atom changes the shape, structure, and function.\n\nFor example Nitrates are used in many fertilizers and explosives. Nitrites are used in food preservation.\n\nNitrates form strong acids and nitrates form weaker acids.\n\nThat one extra oxygen atom in Nitrates makes a huge difference.", "Kinda o...
What does "double jeopardy" mean? Does that mean you can't be tried for murder if you were already acquitted, and there is similar evidence for the new case?	[ "It means you can't be tried twice for the same (instance of a) crime. \n\nOtherwise they could just continue to press charges and have hearings until they won, or keep you tied up in the system even when they keep losing." ]
Why has television historically been seen as "bad" for you, while other superficially similar things (notably film) are not?	[ "Tv is something you can turn on and sit in front of for hours on end. You could be doing more proactive things if it weren’t for tv. Film is different because in those days it was a special occasion to see a movie. You had to go to a theater and pay to see a movie so it wasn’t an everyday occasion. \n\nNowadays th...
does using internet/wifi use up SSD's write cycle, if not what aspects of it does? Does viewing images/videos (not downloading them) use up these cycle?	[ "Yes, data is written to your drive when using the internet.\n\nThat said SSDs life expectancy is longer than you might think so using one normally should last for the life of the PC with little trouble (5 years or so). Also, some SSDs, like Samsung, have a utility which partitions off some percentage of the drive...
Why is the iris coloured	[ "I used to dissect cow eyes for visitors in a science museum in high school. Here’s what I remember:\n\nEyes, like skin, contain the chemical melanin. It helps absorb UV rays from the sun. The advantages of higher concentrations of this chemical are that it helps you resist UV. \n\nIt works the same in the eyes. Ex...
How does the body know what to take in and put out?	[ "It isn't a question of \"knowing\", the body simply does what the chemistry dictates. Think about a set of interlocking gears, how do they \"know\" to turn in sync? They don't of course, they don't have any way to do otherwise. This is basically how the body works, just with chemicals rather than gears.", "Don't...
How do stocks work? I always see the stock graph charts on my phone and am curious.	[ "A stock is, fundamentally, a piece of a company. There are numerous things which drive a stocks value on the market. \n1) the \"market cap\" of a company. A single share of Apple or Google is going to represent more value than a single share of Bob's Computer Store. \n\n2) how many shares the company is divided i...
How did early humans ever come up with translations to words such as "the", "a" , "an" , etc?	[ "Let's imagine a hypothetical situation in which you speak one language, and I speak another. \n\nI want to show you an apple. I say: \n\n\"This is an apple.\" \n\nExcept you hear nonsense. So I point at the apple, and say \"Apple.\" You know what food and fruit looks like, so you know it might be edible, before I ...
What exactly makes McDonald's hamburgers so unhealthy.	[ "> However when you put them all together in a McDonald's hamburger it's widely accepted as unhealthy.\n\nSimply put this is because people are stupid, not because the hamburgers are inherently unhealthy. Eating too much is unhealthy and McDonald's is just one of the sources of cheap, desirable food. Our bodies cr...
Why does clear liquid THC turn wine cloudy?	[ "Because your THC extract is an oil that can’t dissolve in water, so you’re creating a suspension of tiny oil droplets in your wine. That makes it look cloudy." ]
Would it be more medically ethical to lie to a patient if there was a therapy that only worked if the patient believed a not totally true statement	[ "No. Do no harm. You will do harm with even the small chance he will remain the way he is today. \nAs a recently healing triple brain surgery survivor, losing faith and trust in medical professionals/hospitals due to treatment failure when you are newly disabled can create hopelessness never felt so deeply before. ...
Why/how does water activate soap to become bubbly and essentially usable?	[ "This is a bit of a side note - soap does not need to be bubbly to be an effective cleaner. Things like dishwashers and front load washers use soaps that are low sudsing.\n\nThe reason soap is effective is largely from the way it reduces the surface tension of the water. It does this because water is a very polar m...
have languages for animals developed over time similar to that of human beings, or say can a lion in this time communicate with a lion five hundred years ago?	[ "When it comes to some animals like whales, dolphins, orca and the like, separated by 500 years they would most likely not be able to communicate well with each other, they have regional dialects just like us. I wouldn't be surprised if the same applied to elephants but I'm not certain how complex their \"language\...
Why does nuclear fusion create so much energy, and why can't use it (yet?) to produce electricity?	[ "TLDR: Current generation reactors don't produce enough energy to be self-sustaining, ie they use more power than they produce.\n\nNuclear fusion reactions release a lot of energy for a small amount of mass. That makes fusing hydrogen much more energetic than burning things like coal.\n\nThe problem with Nuclear fu...
Why do you not see your bone when shining light on your finger?	[ "Photons (visible light) going through human tissue will refract and diffuse. X-rays going through, however, will cause much less diffusion and refraction and therefore a much sharper image of hard objects such as bones.\n\nYou can actually see bone with a strong enough light. Your phone’s LED isn’t as strong." ]
Why does the shower curtain pulls closer to the water when the water starts flowing?	[ "It’s a result of a drop in air pressure caused by the movement of the water. It also happens when you blow between two sheets of paper. It’s called the Bernoulli Effect. It is also what causes lift under an airfoil, hence allowing planes to fly." ]
Why does handwriting reveal so much about our personalities and does it differ by language?	[ "In truth, it doesn't really reveal as much as is commonly believed. Handwriting analysis is generally regarded these days as a pseudo-science, with the claims of accurately determining facts from it being proven false. \n\nIt's been shown in studies that you can reasonably tell the difference between male and fema...
Why is self-consciousness a feature attributed only with human beings?	[ "I studied brain science in university.\n\nYour book appears to contain out-of-date information.", "We don't know what consciousness is, to begin with.\n\nUntil that is figured out, I'm pretty sure any statement about consciousness (and especially selfconsciousness) is rather fiction than fact.", "There have be...
How do powerline adaptors (allows you to connect to the internet via a power outlet) work?	[ "The general idea is that an ether media can carry signals of several different frequencies at the same time, and they won't interfere with each other.\n\nA power line cable carries a VERY STRONG signal at 50Hz or 60Hz (depending on which country you are in...) that is used to power feed the lights, the vacuum clea...
What's the fuss now with area 51?	[ "Please read this entire message\n\n---\n\nYour submission has been removed for the following reason(s):\n\n* Recent/current events are not allowed on ELI5. First, these are usually asking for factual answers or opinions. Additionally, information about these events is usually still developing , making objectiv...
Electrical wires	[ "They don't really do different things. At least not at the wire section. At the wires it's just different voltages at different intervals. When it comes to phone wires, it's about turning a switch on and off. So it doesn't matter how high the voltage is, just that it turns a switch on and off. It needs to do this ...
What is the twelve tone technique (in music)	[ "You might be talking about 12-tone atonal music. \n\nWestern music operates on the basis of Harmonic Function, which basically means all notes in a given scale have weight and they all want to go somewhere. Take the key of C Major for instance: C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C\n\nC is the “tonic” which means it is the most stabl...
What exactly are you "Cracking" when you crack you neck, back, fingers etc	[ "Cracking joints seems to be the result of changing pressure in the synovial cavities of those joints - essentially little bags of fluid around the ends of bones and such - which allows chemicals dissolved in the fluid to briefly become gaseous. As I recall, the jury may still be out on exactly what part of this pr...
How does a Gold Reserves work for a country?	[ "In terms of economic or monetary policy, a Gold Reserve does very little to nothing for most countries. All major currencies are no longer backed by gold. (which it used to be around a century ago)\n\nA gold reserve is therefore just an amount of gold held by a country's central bank or monetary authority. It is s...
how does grit in your eye get to the corner of your eye to go in your nose? We don’t have horizontal eyelids!	[ "> to go in your nose\n\nOk, I was with you up until that part. What exactly do you mean by going into your nose?", "When your eye washes things out it does so in a circular motion. This means that everything slowly goes outward, but because the sides are basically corners eventually it just gets stuck there. So ...
How do surgeons make sure air doesn't get trapped in patients' bodies during and after surgeries? Could it even be lethal?	[ "They don’t. Air does get trapped. It eventually works it’s way out of the body, but can cause discomfort or pain (typically in upper chest/ shoulders) while it does.", "During laparoscopic (long, thin camera and instruments inserted into incisions less than an inch long) surgeries, carbon dioxide is pumped into ...
What triggers the intense coughing when cleaning your ears with Q-Tips?	[ "You have something call \"Arnold’s nerve\" in your ear which is connected to the \"Vagus nerve\". The Vagus controls important stuff like coughing and breathing. When you touch the inside of your ear the Arnold’s nerve sends a signal which sometimes the Vagus misinterprets. Instead of telling your brain that you h...
Why can’t we just clone extinct animals	[ "with our current level of technology we can only clone from live animals using the process of somatic cell nuclear transfer. we remove a mature somatic cell from an animal we want to copy. then fuse that cell with an unfertilized egg with the nucleus removed. the egg will then take on the DNA from the somatic c...
How is the Riemann Hypothesis linked to our understanding of prime numbers?	[ "The Riemann Zeta Function encodes information about primes and their distribution. Essentially, every prime contributes a factor to the value of the Riemann Zeta Function weighted by how big the prime is, and different inputs to the Riemann Zeta Function weight them differently. So an understanding of the Riemann ...
How did the tip culture in America become so prominent + the unwritten rules for tipping.	[ "In the mid-1800s Americans discovered tipping habits in Europe and brought them back to America. Shortly thereafter Europe ended their tipping tradition but it was just picking up steam in America. It may have died out after a couple decades if nothing drastic had changed (because tipping was seen as elitist and w...
Why do birds, tiny beaked dinosaurs, find humans relatable enough to seek attention from us when they're in captivity?	[ "Most birds aren't that smart but most animals can recognize familiar faces, even tortoises and small fishes which are both way dumber than most birds can do this, if an animal grows in captivity they will develop a kind of affection towards its ~~overlords~~ caretakers, or at least they will associate them with fo...
How do scientists measure the depth of an Earthquake?	[ "The basic idea of it is that they use the timings of the seismic waves generated by the earthquake to locate where in the Earth’s crust it originated. \n\nTo explain a little further, there are several different types of wave produced by all earthquakes set apart by the type of movement they create. Of importance ...
What causes sea sickness, and is it related to motion sickness?	[ "Yes. Sea sickness is kinda the opposite Version of car sickness. It's caused by a disassociation between what your eyes see and what your balance organ in your inner ear feels.\n\nWhen you're on rough seas inside a cabin, your eyes see no movement. To your eyes you're in a stationary room, but your balance organ c...
What exactly was the watergate scandal and why did it kick Nixon out of office?	[ "Nixon's goons were caught red-handed breaking into the Watergate hotel to steal files from his Democratic opponent. \n\nRecordings Nixon himself made in the oval office later proved that he personally ordered the break-in.\n\nWhen the Supreme Court ordered the recordings released, the GOP controlled Senate told Ni...
How do lasers work?	[ "It depends on a particular way electrons can be arranged in an atom to store energy in the electrons in atoms and release it all together. Most materials don't emit laser light but simply give out random light photons when excited by heat or high voltages, \n\nThink of it a bit like a set of high shelves while you...
How are chameleons able to change colors to blend in with their surroundings?	[ "Chameleons mainly use their color changing for communicating mood, and in response to temperatures, sorta like how you might change your face color to red when cold or angry. \n \nChameleons have light bouncing crystals in their skin. \nThey have tiny muscles attached to these crystals and can move them around....
What causes moles?	[ "A mole is the result of one specific patch of your skin deciding that it needs to release as much melanin (skin darkening pigment) as it can. This is usually due to a benign tumor made out of melanocytes (cells that make melanin) forming under your skin. Most moles aren't cancerous and don't get worse over time.\n...
how can a balloon deflate over time when there's no hole to let the air out?	[ "For things like rubber balloons, the material is like 99.9% impervious to gases like helium, but not 100% so over time it just very slowly leaks through.", "While there’s no visible hole in the balloon, the balloon still lets small amounts of air out through tiny, non-visible holes because it’s not completely ai...
If natural satellites (moons) are remains (or even consequences of collisions) of our planets, why do the orbits of the majority of them stay in the same plane as the orbits of the planets? Couldn't they be random?	[ "Most moons don't actually orbit in the same plane as their parent body. Our moon, for example, actually orbits with about 5 degrees of inclanation.\n\nBut yes, generally speaking, they will adopt a similar orbital plane, and the reason for this is that when all this ejected material slowly gravitates towards other...
Why do intrusive thoughts occur?	[ "Thoughts are literally only limited by your imagination; if you can think it there’s a good chance you will think it at some point. In that way thoughts can be meaningful, meaningless, useful, benign and painful and every iteration in between. \n\nSometimes we are really good at letting random thoughts come and go...
Why are sweeteners in soft drinks very common (Diet Coke/Coke Zero for example), but not in other sugary foods such as chocolate bars, cakes or candy?	[ "The same \"zero\" calorie sweetener you taste in a diet soda would taste drastically different if raised to a baking temperature prior to being served. Here is a good article detailing the whats and whys of how substitutes work in food prep: _URL_0_", "Type 1 diabetic here- I've done a ton of reading, research, ...
Why is a high note and a low note still considered the same note in music?	[ "It is down to physics. The frequency of a given note doubles each time you go up an octave. Picking the note A because the maths is easy, the frequencies in hertz of the A keys of a piano are:\n\n27.5, 55, 110, 220, 440, 880, 1760, 3520\n\nWe perceive this array of frequencies as the same note because they stimula...
What makes a helicopter go forward? I know the main rotor generates lift and the side facing one on the tail keeps it from spinning out, but what allows it to move forward/tilt different directions?	[ "The angle of the blades of the main rotor can change mid-revolution, so that they can be more flat at the front, and at a higher angle at the back, creating more lift in the back and tilting the entire helicopter forward.\n\nHelicopter pilots also have another control available to them: the collective, which chang...
How come metal is cold in room temperature?	[ "Metals are generally good heat conductors, and your body is generally warmer than room temperature. So the metal conducts heat away from your body.\n\n_URL_0_", "When you touch something, and feel how hot or cold it is, you aren't feeling how much heat there is or isn't in the object. What you're actually feeli...
What are “subliminals” on Youtube and do they work?	[ "Subliminal advertising was a theory which was proposed that if you showed one or two frames in a larger film it was past before the conscious brain spotted it, but the subconscious brain would spot is and then be vulnerable to the influences of the frames such as being thirsty. However the initial research on it w...
How does a housefly react so fast?	[ "Compound eyes allow it to see in many directions at the same time. And with it's tiny body and short neural pathways. Reaction time is very quick compared to a humans.", "IIRC - they have the ability to sense the wind that you make on the way down when you try and swat them. That’s why flyswatters have holes, it...
How does a Bill get passed in both the House and Senate (explain differences in approaches as well)?	[ "Generally speaking:\n\n- The bill will be drafted by a Congressperson or a group of Congresspeople\n\n- The bill be will be discussed in committee, where it will be amended\n\n- The committee will vote to bring the bill to the floor\n\n- The bill will be brought to the floor for debate, where additional amendments...
How do songs/poems get translated into a different language?	[ "So, there are (in general) two ways to translate structured language (i.e poems and songs)\n\na ) You can change the meter, but preserve the wording. \n\n b ) You can change the wording, but preserve the meter.\n\nIf you just translate it as directly as you can then no. the beat, rhythm and rhyme will change. \n\n...
If animals (humans included) are never exposed to the knowledge of their predators, would they be afraid of the latter? (eg. If a mouse was raised in solitary, has never seen a snake, how would it react? Is the instinct to escape innate?)	[ "If you see a picture of a fictional monster you instinctively get scared of it. Even though you have never seen anything similar before. There are certain features in animals that we instinctively fear. First of all it is any creature bigger then us or at least looking stronger and more agile then us. And secondly...
How do foreign exchange rates work?	[ "Although purchasing power parity suggests that MUA = MUB, this is a very long term equilibrium at best. \n\nMore important for the short term is the demand for currency. If MUA exports a lot of product while MUB does little export, there will be more demand for MUA than MUB. (you need to purchase MUA to buy produc...
Why do different compounds give certain colours when burned?	[ "Burning involves putting heat, which is energy, into a compound. At an atomic level, when an atom receives energy, the electrons get \"excited\". Electrons, roughly speaking, \"orbit\" the nucleus of the atom at a certain average distance away. When they get excited, they \"jump\" to a higher energy level. Imagine...
What is stochastic trend?	[ "Let's use the example of the idea that \"The population of the United States grows at 1 million people per year.\"\n\nThe simplest interpretation of this is a completely deterministic process. If the population last year was 325,570,271, then the population next year will be exactly 326,570,271. If you plotted U...
the current situation in Hong Kong. What is the desired outcome of the protests and is there a reason it’s all happening at Yuen Long	[ "I think the general idea is \"less chinese oversight and involvement into Hing Kong affairs.\" The Hong Kong people lived as a separate territory for a long time, and some of them get upset when China takes away their personal freedoms, etc. That doesn't mean they all want to be separate, because many of them have...
What is the spatial and temporal domain part of ?	[ "Combined, the spatial and temporal domains make up space-time, a four dimensional void where objects can be created in three dimensional space over a period of time.\n\nEinstein theorized that time is, in essence, a physical dimension and capable of being stretched and molded by gravity, leading to the idea of spa...
how does water put out fire?	[ "Fire needs three things: oxygen, fuel, and heat.\n\nLiquid water removes two of those things. It displaces oxygen and smothers the fire, and it absorbs the heat as it turns into steam.", "It absorbs the heat and transfers it away as steam, and it starves it of oxygen. Taking away two of the three factors needed ...
How do we keep in contact with spacecraft such as Voyager 2 that are at the very edge of our solar system?	[ "With very big dishes on Earth, and very sensitive receivers that can find the tiny signal.\n\nFun fact: the Voyagers' radio transmitters are 20 Watt -- which is the same power as the bulb in your refrigerator.\n\nSo we're effectively looking for a flickering fridge bulb, 19 billion kilometres away...", "Big. Hon...
How does your brain decide what's worth remembering and what's not?	[ "This is a rather mind boggling question when you think about it.\n\nThe immediate answer is your brain doesn't decide what is worth remembering or not. A memory can be made more strongly depending on the context. More emotional or impactful memories will be burned it deeper. You can also decide that something is...
Why do people with arthritis experience worse symptoms when it rains?	[ "At standard air pressure, your body is being pressed in on all sides by 6.7kg per square inch. Rain is usually preceded by a drop in air pressure. For the average person, this drop is not an issue - we've had millions of years of experience with it - but if you have inflamed tissue, like you get with arthritis, it...
Why do some animal species end up being strictly carnivores or herbivores?	[ "You need special teeth, bodyplan, and digestive adaptations for what you eat. If an animal finds itself in a situation where it is only eating one food (for example, polar bears not having access to plants, or grazing animals having such abundant grass that they don't eat anything else), natural selection will pus...
How can they say it will rain at 2:36 PM but also say there is only a 20 percent chance of rain?	[ "With computer modeling they can calculate that the conditions in the forecast area will become ideal for rain a 2:36 and there will be some non-zero amount of rain likely to fall, but that doesn't mean it will rain over the entire forecast area. It is also far more difficult to predict how heavily it will rain onc...
Why do twins have different fingerprints?	[ "Fingerprints are not _entirely_ genetic in origin - the develop partially in response to hormone levels and other environmental conditions. Similarly to how identical twins will have different patterns of freckles or moles (due metabolic variations) they will develop different fingerprints." ]
What makes magnets attract?	[ "This is one of those things where most physics teachers would probably say, \"We prove magnetic properties experimentally, and write them down in a big table for future reference.\"\n\nYes, you can say it's because electrons - one of the fundamental building blocks of matter - orient themselves in a certain way wi...
How do animals in the wild know what’s safe to eat?	[ "Some level of smell/taste (bitter for humans, for example, tends to be toxic) is in play, and probably some instinct, however many, say, dogs do occasionally eat very toxic organisms that either kill them or seriously make them ill. How much that happens in the wild is difficult to measure, but there are plenty of...
What stops battery technology progressing faster?	[ "It is just really difficult to hold large amounts of energy reliably, cheaply and safely (all of which are required for consumer electronics).\n\nHigher capacity batteries exist in labs, but very often they fail on one of those three dimensions:\n\n- They are susceptible to thermal runaway, where they can explode ...
How do self cleaning ovens work?	[ "The self cleaning function heats the oven up really hot, usually around 470c. This causes any soil/debris/gunk to decompose into ash. This ash can be easily removed.", "There are two types. \n\nPyrolytic are the type described by the other answers so far, where they lock the oven door and wind the internal temp...
What’s the differences between subsidized and unsubsidized loans?	[ "A subsidized loan means the government pays the interest that your loan accumulates while you're still in school. With an unsubsidized loan, you're still on the hook for it." ]
How is car insurance cost calculated?	[ "I believe they look at the odds of paying out for certain characteristics, like age, sex, location, car type and what the average the claims cost the company and then they charge so that they make a profit after claims are paid." ]
why does the moon have so many craters and the Earth doesn't?	[ "Two reasons:\n\nFirst, the earth's atmosphere burns up many small objects that would otherwise impact it. Since the moon has no atmosphere, everything on a path to hit it will impact the surface.\n\nSecond, on earth craters will eventually be eroded by wind, water, or tectonic activity. The moon has none of those ...
What causes those random, short, stabbing pains you feel sometimes?	[ "Compression injury of a nerve can cause these. Like if you're sitting in a certain position that squeezes the surrounding tissue of a nerve over a period of time. The part of you that's getting pinched will swell up later and put pressure back on the nerve.", "The one in your ribs may be precordial catch syndrom...
How can our eyelids stay open when we die?	[ "Eyelids are controlled by muscles - one set to close them, one set to open them. When your eyes are open, the muscles that hold them open are contracted. When they're closed, the muscles that hold them closed are contracted. Contracting a muscle requires energy, and when you're dead you can't control the exertion ...
What’s the difference between highside and lowside in electrical functions?	[ "In DC systems, high side is connected to the positive side of the supply, low side to the negative. Typically, the negative side of a single-side supply will be the common ground, which gives high-side and low-side switches distinct advantages. A high-side switch will disconnect the positive supply, leaving the su...
Why is some cheese always cut in squares and some in circles?	[ "This is the answer to a previous ELI5 asking the same question.\n\nWhen it comes to deli-style cheeses that are made to be sliced and used on sandwiches, the round shape of certain cheeses is strictly a perception/expectation thing.\nProvolone is traditionally made in a log shape, from small-ish 10 lb logs up to 8...
What causes an aurora?	[ "The Sun produces both electromagnetic radiation (visible light, x-rays, infrared, ultraviolet, etc.) and a steady flow of charged particles called solar wind. When solar wind hits the atmosphere it reacts with the ionosphere which is the layer of the atmosphere that is composed of free ions and free electrons. At ...
What is that electric shock that you get when you hit your elbow on a specific spot ?	[ "You have nerves running down your arm. When you hit your elbow just right, that force presses on the nerve causing it to send a bunch of signals to the brain. Normally, the nerve carries sensory information from your arm, so the burst of signals are interpreted in your brain as a wide variety of intense senses, ca...
Why does insurance not cover some medications? Isn't that what we pay them for?	[ "Imagine you invite your friend to a restaurant and say, \"I'll pay for one of your drinks!\" Then she comes back with [this monstrosity](_URL_0_). Most people would agree you would be right to refuse to pay for it.\n\nIn a similar way, when insurance agrees to pay for medical care, that doesn't mean you can do wha...
what causes/are the bits of skin that I have that just stays white and doesn't tan at all	[ "Probably a genetic skin defect. I have a genetic skin defect which causes white spots about the size of freckles that do not tan. A dermatologist looked at them and determined they were caused by a common genetic defect." ]
Why do humans flinch to specific noises like certain whistles or anything on a high frequency?	[ "Sudden loud noises can be an indication of something dangerous, high frequency noises can also damage your ears, so people tend to try to protect themselves from that. \n\nPeople also have wildly different tolerences for pain, so a high frequency noise to one may be an ear-bleeding noise to another.", "On top o...
What would a 4 dimensional object look like?	[ "Ugh, unfortunately theres no way to effectively explain it like you're 5. YouTube has some pretty good examples but even those are only guesses.", "Visually it shouldn't look any different to a 3 dimensional object since we can't visually perceive a 4th dimension.", "You would see a shape morph as you slide al...
My physics teacher told us that transverse waves travel at right angles. What does that mean	[ "It just means that if (lets use compass points for this) the wave is traveling from South to North, then that direction of travel is perpendicular \"_\|_\" to that direction. In the same way that an ocean wave moves (propagates) in a given direction across the ocean, the rise and fall of the wave itself is vertical...
What causes libido and why does it vary so much between people?	[ "Hormones, particularly estrogen and testosterone but others as well. Everyone has varying levels of them. Females estrogen production increases before ovulation, causing more sexual desire. This happens because the ovulation period best chance of conception (evolutionary trait). In addition there's a psychological...
If you are you because you got half your DNA from each of your parents, why are older/younger siblings not physical carbon copies of each other?	[ "The half I get from one parent (say my mother), is not equal to the half my siblings got from my mother. Say my mother has {a,b,c,d} I could have gotten {a,b} from her, while my sister got {a,c}, and my brother got {b,d}. similarly for genes from my father, and you get completely different genomes for all of us.",...
Why does fire always look disconnected from its source?	[ "This is because if the fire is being burnt off of wood, the wood is breaking down into a gas, which then fire will burn off of the gas coming off the wood a few millimeters off the wood. The burning of the wood itself creates embers which is the actual burning of the physical element of the wood.", "Because the ...
why has a standard shower controls never caught on?	[ "Because people like different designs. Same reason a standard door handle, blind, window style, or anything else haven't caught on. There's definitely common ones in all of these categories and a few major types but again, whether you want a single control or separate knobs for hot or cold is a cost, installation,...

Subsets and Splits

No community queries yet

The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.