Split (3)

train · 273k rows

title stringlengths 0 299	text list
How is a space rocket's weight supported while on the launch pad?	[ "Any rocket can support it's own weight many times over by design. The reason is that on the pad, only gravity is affecting the rocket, but once launched, the acceleration will typically be 10 to 20 times bigger than gravity. \n\nSo if a rocket can handle the launch, than it can handle being on the pad without supp...
What makes some allergies more severe than others?	[ "In the simplest terms, an allergic reaction is an overreaction to certain chemicals that are basically harmless. Your body's initial defenses are triggered.\n\nThe problem is that your cells are really dumb. Sure, with all the complex mechanisms that you have and the finely-tuned balancing act between them, you ...
What happens in our brains when we cry?	[ "I'm fairly sure crying is just a symptom of intense emotion. It's not just tears but your sinuses in general that start overproducing.", "I think it’s a way of your brain to utilize your body to signal to others that you’re in distress. Basically an anatomical “help me please!”" ]
- Is there any truth to the expression, “Beer before liquor, never been sicker, liquor before beer, you’re in the clear”?	[ "If you drink beer before liquor, you are gradually ramping yourself up to an unknown BAC, therefore when you take shots, they hit you exponentially harder which could lead to getting drunker quicker. However, if you drink liquor first, you will ramp up exponentially from a 0% BAC to a possible tipsy or drunken sta...
When using sign language - is there a way to indicate you are just making a gesture as opposed to signing? Or is it just obvious?	[ "Quick note for those who may not know: there is not one sign language. Most countries have their own sign languages (ASL - American Sign Language; BSL - British Sign Language; Auslan - Australian Sign Language; Chinese Sign Language, etc.). This is because sign languages developed naturally over time, just like sp...
Clinical depression vs depression vs Major depression disorder what is difference?	[ "Clinical depression and Major Depressive Disorder are different ways to say the same thing. Both are defined by the crieria in the DSM-5. MDD is the formal name whereas clinical depression is the informal name.\n\nDepression just refers to an emotional state. You can be depressed without having a mental illness (...
Why does throat “burn” after drinking water with minty mouth?	[ "You ever see that internet joke that mint is just cold spicy? That's why. Specifically, it activates a protein called TRPM8, which is used by nerve endings to sense cold (similar to how capsaicin activates VR1 to simulate \"hot\"). Of course, unlike your mouth, your throat doesn't really have a concept of cold -mo...
Why do pushrod engines have to be so much bigger than a dohc to make similar power, for instance the DOHC Ford 5.0 vs Pushrod 6.2 Chevy vs Pushrod 6.4 Mopar?	[ "The main issue with pushrod engines is that due to the weight of the valvetrain they have issues with floating valves at high engine speeds. Basically the spring is not able to accelerate all the cams and rods fast enough to close the valve in time. So pushrod engines have a lower redline then other technologies l...
Why can’t you open a plane door mid flight?	[ "Except that airplane doors open inward you have it correct. \n\nThe pressure is much much greater inside the plane so the force required to overcome the internal pressure is simply too great. The pressure inside is what keeps the door closed.", "Most airplane doors open inward.\n\nWhen the plane is at cruising...
why does crying make your nose run?	[ "when you cry your tears come out of the tear glands and also drain through the tear ducts that empty through your nasal passage. it makes the mucus in your nose more liquid and thus making it run. everything in that region is all connected." ]
How do shows produced by streaming services like Netflix and Hulu make money? How does viewer count come into play?	[ "Subscription services, be it Netflix or or your mobile phone, or Ball Fondlers monthly all care about the exact same two things: \n\n(1) Getting new customers, and \n\n(2) Keeping the ones you have\n\nGetting new customers you need a reason for them to subscribe. Maybe its a new show, maybe its good service, maybe...
Can you make a brand new internet, like it would be completely empty with no data, no website no anything?	[ "Yes. And you'll have to keep it from connecting to current internet. Otherwise it'll just be part of the current internet.\n\nYou'd have to get people to rerun millions of miles of cabling independently of all current connections. \n\nNot very cost effective", "You certainly can. And in fact this is exactly ...
How does gum have calories if we don’t actually eat it?	[ "Pour a bunch of sugar on a piece of paper. Put the sugar and paper in your mouth and chew it. Once you don't taste any more sugar, spit the paper out. Do you think you just consumed some calories even though you didn't eat any paper? The answer is yes. Same concept applies to gum.", "The calories on food stuffs ...
Why do our fingers naturally curl up at rest?	[ "You have muscles to extend them and muscles to retract them into a fist, when not doing either intentionally those muscles meet in the middle." ]
Why doesnt the fire of a light lighter not go back in the lighter?	[ "To ignite, fire needs a mix of oxygen and fuel. The lighter works because the fuel is sprayed and mixed into the air, giving the right combination to keep the flame lit. However, the tube connecting to tank of the lighter to the outlet doesn't have oxygen and thus won't combust." ]
When you have a small chunk of skin removed, say you cut your fingertip off, how does the body know how much skin to replace to get it looking like it did before the injury?	[ "Basically every cell in your body has an internal set of instructions to follow. For skin, one of the primary jobs is to either grow or not. So each skin cell is sitting there and constantly going over a checklist of if it's time to divide or not. \"Ok, has it been a while since the last time I divided? Yup. Am I ...
Many of the Japanese anime are adapted from light novels or manga. Why is there so few Western cartoons adapted from books?	[ "1. Manga are already cartoons/illustrations. And the USA has had lots of animated superhero shows based on comic book stories & characters.\n2. In the USA, animators like Dreamworks and Disney are given a lot of creative freedom to create original work, which takes particular advantage of the animation medium." ...
How was 16-bit music created on different consoles?	[ "For those of us in the United States, the “Megadrive” is what the rest of the world (except South Korea, where it's the “Super Aladdin Boy”) calls Sega's “Genesis” console.\n\nCarry on.", "The SNES music chip was based on using tiny recordings of sounds and playing them back at different speeds to get differ...
so is it or is it not okay to eat raw eggs? I have heard of people who do this every day but some say it's bad.	[ "Like with most things in life, there is no easy one off answer. Raw eggs can contain diseases such as salmonella, which can be real nasty to whomever consumes it. The CDC says about 1.1 million people in America will get salmonella each year, and about 450 of those will die. Most deaths are attributed to severe de...
How does our brain determine the amoumt of pain we feel when we hurt or break a certain part of our body?	[ "It's about the number of nerve cells that are able to send messages to the brain.\n\nIf you have a small burn, then that's a small area, which means a small number of nerves.\n\nIf you have a small burn, but it is deep, then you get all the area inside and underneath the burn too, and that's more nerves, more mess...
why do you only feel the touch on one finger when you rub two fingers on the same hand together	[ "This is like those optical illusions where you can see two things in the picture, but only one at a time. [Which direction is this train going?](_URL_0_) \n\nWhen you pinch your fingers together, you can feel both of them, but your brain focuses on only one.\n\nYou can see this in action, too. If you make the O...
Sometimes I get a sudden really loud high pitched ringing in one ear, (can be any one) that fades away quickly. What is it and why does it happen?	[ "sounds are electrical impulses interpreted by your brain, and sometimes the tiny hairs deep inside your ear canal responsible for sending impulses get tripped (from air pressure changes, for example, which your inner ear is particularly sensitive to) resulting in neurological 'feedback.' sometimes this feedback la...
What happens to the cells of meat when they are cooked? are they still the same or totally different? Like If I take a piece of paper and burn it, does the makeup of paper before it was burned transformed into carbon by the fire? Thanks	[ "Meat is mostly muscle fibers. Heating them up slowly will cause the fibers to contract and firm up. This contraction will also squeeze moisture out. This is why meat that has cooked for a long time tends to be dry and tough. Some cuts of meat also have a lot of fat and connective tissue. These will break down unde...
Why do heatwaves cause massive power outages?	[ "Air conditioning draws a lot of power. The grid stability is challenged, and once one part starts to fail e.g. brownouts, all the loads kicking back on at once when re-connected causes bigger disturbances. This is mitigated by having more capacity within the grid, and the ability to load follow (add electricity as...
How do Height Increasing Powders work?	[ "Oh, this is an easy question. They don't. \n \nUnless they contain Human Growth Hormone (which is generally available only by prescription), anything that promises to increase your height is a scam." ]
When the human eye sees a flat image, say a landscape photograph, and there is an apparent depth of field, does the human eye/brain try to bring into focus the flat image?	[ "Your eyes WANT to see the same image in both eyes. So when you look at a flat photo, because it's NOT actually a 3 dimensional scene, nor is it a composite of two images laid on top of each other taken at different angles (they way your two eyes ACTUALLY perceive the world), both eyes are already seeing the same ...
How can the price of food, school, cars, and consumer goods in general outpace inflation? Isn't that the definition of inflation?	[ "Rising prices can't outpace inflation, because they \\are\\, as you say, inflation. They can outpace the purchasing power of a dollar (or whatever monetary unit.) They can outpace income, or specifically the minimum wage, which is often a topic of discussion.\n\nPeople often use the word 'inflation' to mean 'the...
The U.S. debt ceiling, how it can just be raised willy nilly and how if it's not, what would happen?	[ "The US Debt Ceiling is one of the dumber (which is saying something) aspects of the US Government's Finances.\n\nBasically, the US is the only country in the developed world that places a limitation on how much money its government can borrow. In any other country the government borrows as much as it needs to pay...
What's the difference between sorting by best and sorting by hot?	[ "Hot means they’re very active right now; best means they’re highly upvoted.\n\nControversial means they’re highly up AND downvoted.\n\nAnd New means they’ve recently arrived." ]
How does aloe vera gel help heal sunburns?	[ "There's a compound in the clear gel of the liquid that has been shown to reduce the healing time of burns, as well as open wounds, and has antibacterial, fungal, and viral properties when applied to the area. These are from compounds that help the plant to heal itself after damage, also work on human skin. It has ...
Why is it when skin is wet, it makes dry skin conditions like eczema worse than if the skin was dry?	[ "Skin conditions like eczema are not the result of dry skin. They are an auto immune disease where your body is literally attacking itself. This can be aggravated by various things. Being too dry, being too wet, getting too much sunlight, being exposed to various chemicals such as chlorine from a pool, etc. \n\nAdd...
what is the difference between white meat and dark meat in a chicken?	[ "Breast is white because the fuel for these muscle fibers comes primarily from a carbohydrate called glycogen and doesn’t require as much oxygen from the blood. Glycogen is useful for short bursts of activity.\n\nDark meat get their fuel primarily from fat, which provides a more sustainable energy (for the prolonge...
Why Nipples are sometimes erect and sometimes not	[ "The nerves in the nipple react to stimuli, both physical and psychological. So an arousing thought, change in temperature, or something as simple as the fabric of your shirt brushing against your skin can cause one or both of your nipples to become erect.", "Erect nipples facilitate nursing, which, afterall, is ...
why is turbulence no big deal for an aircraft the vast majority of the time, even though it feels like a big deal inside of the plane?	[ "Planes are designed with a substantial safety factor, where its wings can hold some multiple of its normal weight. Normally, we experience one gee of acceleration due to gravity, so planes are designed to withstand 5,6,7 gees in order to cope with turbulence and other unexpected phenomena. Not only this, but we as...
Why does our body temporarily cease managing its own temperature when we enter REM sleep? Why leave it up to the environment?	[ "The way I read it, it is the other way around: it's not that REM sleep turns thermal regulation off, it's that sleeping where we don't have to worry about thermal regulation (or predators) enables REM sleep. REM sleep is the effect, not the cause.\n\nREM sleep only occurs when we sleep in a warm-enough, safe-enou...
Why do toddlers yell when they’re having fun?	[ "It isnt a matter of age. Its a matter of society. As adults we choose/learn that screaming is annoying, especially every time we are having fun. But some still scream whooo at appropriate times like at a party or amusment park.", "Adults absolutely scream when they're having fun, or you've never been at a club/c...
- How does creatine work?	[ "Creatine is a compound that turns ADP back to the usable ATP. \n\nATP is the fuel your body uses to do everything. It’s called ATP for short, or adenosine tri phosphate . Once used turns into ADP, adenosine Di phosphate. So it losses a phosphate ( tri 3, Di 2)\n\nATP is what your heart uses to pump blood, how musc...
Brillouin Scattering	[ "Disclaimer: Not an expert, just doing my best to translate the wikipedia article. The refractive index of a material changes when that material is put under different conditions. This includes physical force, electric charge, and magnetic polarity. The result is that phonons (physical vibrations quasiparticles), p...
Why do spiders make such a special effort to never be seen in the day, but bite me while I'm asleep? Wouldn't they be better off spending all day hunting bugs?	[ "Yeah but every night this giant mountain of meat just stomps through their turf and then splays out asking to be eaten for 8 hours!" ]
why when you scratch a bug bite it becomes more itchy.	[ "Your body releases a chemical wr.call histamines when it takes damage, like a scratch or a bug bite. Histamines cause inflammation (swelling) and redness, as well as itchiness.\n\n So when you get a bug bite, it itches, and scratching it is seen as damage by your body, causing it to release more histamines." ]
How can enlisted soldiers in the US get a degree while on active duty? For example, the U.S. Navy?	[ "The GI bill, part of the agreement they get for enlisting, pays for college tuition (or most of it) and many colleges offer online courses in modernity that you can take via the internet. This allows soldiers to take one or two classes at a time during their free time." ]
How do panic attacks manifest from seemingly nothing at all?	[ "Not sure this is really BIO so much as PSYCH, and the answer I have is more anecdotal than scientific, but hear me out: Often times, when things scare us, we think about them. This is rather reasonable, since thinking about problems usually helps us fix em. However, sometimes thinking about them makes them more sc...
My parents hate each other, but are staying married for us kids. Is there a peer-reviewed study that can help them decide the best course of action?	[ "I don't have any peer reviewed journals but I do have the horrible firsthand experience of growing up with parents who hated each other but remained together: they need to split up asap. If they hate each other and are fighting every day it's only unnecessary stress on themselves and their children. It teaches kid...
If you own a small business and have paid your employees, taxes, and other costs. Are the money left (profits?) considered your income? And do you pay tax on that? Or do you assign yourself a salary and what is left belongs to the business and does it get taxed?	[ "Depends on if your business is a sole proprietorship, single member LLC, multi member LLC, an LLC with the “S” tax election, an S Corporation, or a C Corporation. \n\nSole Proprietorship: All profits and losses pass to you individually. You’re also personally liable for anything that goes wrong. Pro Tip: form an L...
How are we able to see planets through the naked eye like we see stars? They don't shine or glow, so are we just seeing a reflection?	[ "Yup. Reflections from the sun\n\nThey're much closer than stars (except our own sun of course)", "Light bounces off of everything. Even [VANTA black](_URL_0_) reflects some light. This is how we are all able to see stuff - it reflects light, and the amount of light it reflects, and the wavelength of that light...
How do you immigrate to the United States of America?	[ "Since it may be a while before you get a serious answer that goes into real detail, I'll give you what I know: You have to file for citizenship, take a test, pass a background check, and pay substantial fees every step of the way. This is a short explanation, but in reality the process takes many months and ofte...
When a large ship is launched into a body of water does it raise the water level? What about when that ship enters a new body of water ? Is it possible to calculate? Is it the same principle as sitting in a tub of water?	[ "it will raise the water level. the volume of the ship that is beneath the water is \"added\" to the water by displacing it. in total it raises the water level by the same amount as if you would add water of that volume. \n\nwhich happens to be the amount of water which weight is equal to the weight of the whole sh...
If drums produce sounds that correspond to certain frequencies (e.g., C#, F), how is it that drums, when played, do not clash with the songs in different keys?	[ "They do, it's called frequency masking. Mix engineers put a lot of effort into dealing with it, both live and in recordings. Cymbals are a particular nuisance. \n\nThey don't necessarily clash harmonically however. That's because tuning the drums with a drum key is necessary, but only for the more tonal pieces of ...
Why do people automatically stick out their arms when frustrated or confused (AKA universal WTF hand gesture) and why is it universally done and understood?	[ "are you referring to shrugging, showing the palms of the hands? I don’t know if it really is universal but if it is, it feels as though the gesture were a way of showing: hey, look, i am NOT in control here. it is literally out of my hands. and that equates to: don’t blame me for this shit" ]
How do so many space artifacts end up orbiting Earth and endangering us, instead of falling into Earth or off somewhere else?	[ "They don't have enough energy to go off somewhere else. The escape velocity for the Earth is about 11 km/second. Anything going less than that will stay in some sort of orbit, maybe circular, maybe very eliptical. The only way that won't continue is if the orbit intersects\nwith the Earth or the orbit dips low eno...
Aerospace has never been this big since Apollo, and rocket launches have never been this frequent,, How do nations not mistake another nation's rocket launches for a hostile action? And also, do nations conceal their "true intent" behind commercial launches?	[ "To answer your last question first, yes, sort of. Governement space launches often have classified payloads. It may be a satellite with an unknown or classified mission, or even a classified payload or system on board an otherwise known about satellite. Your open source example here is GPS, which is owned an op...
Why does thunder in the distance sound like a low-pitched but long duration kinda "rumble" akin to the sound of a jet overhead as opposed to the "CRACKBOOM" experienced when it's close?	[ "The lightning super heats the air ss it strikes. This causes a turbulent air column to collapse on itself, creating a sonic boom.\n\nBut each branch and fork of the lightning is like its own mini sonic boom.\n\nWhen you are close, those are all so close together in happening, that you hear them all at once. \n\nFa...
Why do insects like flies rub their eyes/heads with their legs ? What purpose does it serve ?	[ "They cannot blink so they clean their eyes with legs. Their legs also have brushy hair called setae which are very sensitive and inform the insect if anything is on them (mold, dust, whatever). They also have little hair on their entire body that acts as an advanced sensory organ. This also has to be clean." ]
How does blinking moisturise/hydrate eyes?	[ "Your tear ducts secrete tears, which lubricate the eyes and keep them moist. Blinking spreads the tears around so they create a protective/lubricating/moisturizing film on the whole surface of your eye." ]
With the history of large ships being taken over by "Somali pirates" or whatnot, why aren't those vessels outfitted with mounted machine guns, and a couple GTFO rocket launchers?	[ "They aren't legal - even the USA doesn't allow non-military ships to have such weapons. The age pf piracy made sure all nations signed up to this. The high seas would be chaos if any ship could be armed to the teeth.", "Most of these ships are civil. You'd need military personal for that and the approval of a co...
If I buy a 5 kwh solar system and the efficency of the panel is 20% do I only get 1khw?	[ "A 5kW panel will generate up to 5kW of electricity. Due to the sun rising and setting and the weather, you’ll only average about a seventh of that, even if the panels are ideally positioned. So 5kW times 24 hours divided by 7 gives around 17kWh per day, on average. In the summer it could be more than double and in...
Why don’t we, as passengers, feel the speed of a plane whilst it is flying?	[ "The plane is cruising at a constant speed. You feel the accelaration at take off but once the speed of the plane (and your speed too) is constant you wont feel it just like in a car too.", "You actually partly answered your own question. We are only able to feel the acceleration but not the constant movement.", ...
why do some antidepressants have "suicidal thoughts" as a side effect? Is'nt it counterproductive to take these drugs and still have those tendencies?	[ "Nobody AFAIK has invented drugs to block specific types of thoughts.\n\n The problem as I understand it is that sometimes, in some people, the first lift in mood (from say, an SSRI starting to take effect) gives the person the energy/motivation to actually carry out a suicidal plan, whereas beforehand they couldn...
Heron's Formula	[ "Heron's Formula is that the area of a triangle is sqrt(s\\(s-a)\\(s-b)\\(s-c)), where a, b, and c are the sides of a triangle and s = (a+b+c)/2. I don't think there's really an intuitive way to understand why* it works, but you can prove that it does work.\n\n[One way](_URL_0_) to do it is to split the triangl...
why does matter bend space?	[ "Since Newton we know that mass correlates with gravity. Which is only half of the truth.\n\nFor example, take an apple. Measure it's weight. \n\nNow, shrink the apple. It's weight is the same as before. But since the apple is now only half as big as before, the ant crawling the apples surface feels a much stronger...
why can we control some things our body does subconsciously like blinking and breathing. But why can we not control other things like making our hearts beat faster?	[ "We cannot directly control our heart beat because the heart only has autonomic nerves. These are involuntary. Breathing, blinking, swallowing all have muscles that have somatic nerves, meaning we can voluntarily move them. They are also autonomic responses, however we can control certain muscles that allow us to r...
why does a hot day or hot room make you so tired and weak?	[ "Scientists say that energy from the sun transfers heat to the body through electromagnetic radiation in the form of photons. This radiation causes body temperature to increase. When your body temperature changes more than .5 degrees, your body reacts by being sleepy, grump, or tired." ]
How do ‘bad’ carbs cause increased inflammation in your body?	[ "Glucose in the blood causes inflammation\nWhat's so bad about sugar and refined carbs is that it is absorbed very fast and spikes your blood sugar because there are no fibers and other nutrients due to the refinement process." ]
What is the academic reasoning behind believing we live in a simulation?	[ "IMHO, (layman here) is that there is not a \"belief\" that we live in a simulation. It is a philosophical position that we cannot rule out by our reasoning that we are not living in a simulation. There is nothing we know of (by observation or reasoning) that contradicts this position. This does not imply belief or...
How does Olaplex No.3 Work?	[ "As it is proprietary, I'm guessing the best you can do in understanding the motivation is reading the relevant patent [here](_URL_0_). It gives specific chemical interactions among other things." ]
Why does China use two currencies CNH and CNY?	[ "China does not have two separate currencies. Rather, the Chinese government treats Renminbi (yuan) differently dependingbon whether it is currency that is within China, or outside of china. \n\nLets say use an easier example, lets say you are a US citizen and have some Canadian dollars (CAD). If you go to a seller...
How does fiber-optic internet work?	[ "We are next door neighbours and I have a red laser pointer. Whenever I bake cookies I want to invite you over to eat them. So I shine the red laser pointer at your house.\n\nYou have a blue laser pointer. If you are busy and can’t come over to eat the bookies, you can shine the blue laser pointer and I will know t...
Why is it so hard to find a reading position that doesn’t become uncomfortable after five minutes?	[ "Because you're straining a particular set of (small) muscles continuously. Holding a small object still for a long time is not something humans evolved to do particularly.", "It's because books aren't designed to be read! I swear, I have this problem! And, I've concluded its because we keep making books in way t...
Why do politicians resign from their government as a protest? Do they not have more power staying in their post to fight against what they don't like? [UK example inside]	[ "Like you say, jumping before he is pushed.\n\nThe PM decides who's in the cabinet and what roles they have. If he fundamentally disagrees with the PMs approach, then he would be fired anyway.\n\nChances are the new PM will change up who's in the cabinet anyway.\n\nHe remains an MP and a member of the Conservatives...
How can domesticated animals change when in the wild?	[ "Generally speaking, when domesticated animals escape into the wild their chances of survival are not high due to their domesticated nature. \n\nWith regards to some farm animals escaping, the rapid change in their physical appearance would be down to one of two reasons. Firstly, some farmers will trim horns or tus...
Why light and the rest of electromagnetic waves don't interfere with each other?	[ "All your questions can be answered by understanding the concept of wavelength.\n\nBasically speaking, once you know what the wavelength of every radiation is, you can predict how it will interact with other things.\nI'll give you an example you probably didn't think about:\nWhy do car radios start to have bad rece...
What happens in your body when you’ve been constipated for days?	[ "It's [not good](_URL_1_). \n\nPoop is where everything your body doesn't want goes. If your intestines are packed too full of shit, they'll begin to rupture and leak poop into your blood stream which is life-threateningly-bad. \n\nIf you haven't shit in a couple of days, drink some coffee until you do. If you'r...
Why doesn’t water go up your butt if you jump in a pool?	[ "Something tells me you just might not be a real doctor!\n\nIt’s all to do with your anal sphincter" ]
How a bunch of moving electrons can power homes?	[ "A moving electrical current produces a magnetic field--so while the electrons aren't directly striking the rotors inside a fan, they are creating a magnetic field that is pushing against the rotors.\n\nThat's the basis of any motor: a moving electrical current causes a magnetic field. If you put some pieces toge...
Why are civilians targeted by militias in the Democratic Republic of the Congo?	[ "Ultimately that is a question that depends on the nature of the specific militia, its terminal and instrumental goals^1 , the attacks and who the people targeted were beyond just 'civilians'. Without that knowledge all I can really do is speak generally.\n\nGenerally a terrorist group (with political goals, most d...
Sex workers in modern times have acces to many forms of birth control. It is also a well know fact that sex work is one of the oldest professions in the world. How did people prevent pregnancy before the invention of modern birth control methods? Was birth control even used?	[ "There are plants that can induce abortion/miscarriage; a woman could consume those. There were also medicines/mixtures/potions (whatever you want to call them) that would have the same affect.\n\nThey couldn’t really ‘prevent’ it beyond not having sex when they were fertile; but they could end a pregnancy", "Lon...
Why is staring at a solar eclipse deemed to be dangerous and what is the difference from just staring at the sun?	[ "When you look at the sun your eye goes \"Damn that's bright, I better do something\". This causes your pupil to shrink down REALLY small to not let much light in, and also causes a reaction to flinch away. Both of these protect your eye from damage. \n \nIf you look at a not-quite-total eclipse your eye goes \"...
Why is some ice completely clear while other ice is opaque?	[ "A lot of it is dependant on how the water was frozen, where water that is slowly frozen will be more clear, as less air and impurities will be caught in the ice. This is why icicles are usually really clear", "Cloudy ice is full of gases (air) that come out of solution as the water freezes. If water freezes slo...
How does the open refrigerator at the store with cheese, butter, etc. not spoil the food, but our refrigerators at home need to be closed?	[ "Fluid dynamics!\n\nThe refrigerators at a store rely on something called \"laminar flow.\" There are fans at the top of the fridge that blow air along a straight path where all particles are moving in straight lines (\"laminar flow\", as opposed to \"turbulent flow\" where all the particles are moving in different...
why is it more devastating to detonate a nuclear bomb at a distance above ground, as opposed to directly at ground level (upon impact) ?	[ "If you detonate a bomb at ground level then a lot of the energy is spent digging a hole which is useless. You want the bomb to have a clear line of site to a large area for effective destruction\n\nIt's also important to note that if a 10 PSI overpressure will collapse most reinforced concrete structures then ther...
Why can we see light reflections from an angled surface? How are photons getting back to us?	[ "You're following the old axiom from physics class of \"the angle of incidence = the angle of reflection\". Physics class almost always modeled the world with a level of perfection of surfaces and materials rarely or never really found - e.g. the frictionless surface, and in this case \"the perfect mirror\".\n\nTo...
Why are animal sounds different in different languages? How did their spellings originate?	[ "Different languages use different sets of sounds, and different ways of stringing sounds together, to make words. For example, the way an American would say the 'r' in \"red\" doesn't exist that way in Japanese. Another example, the way a Francophone would say the 'r' in \"rouge\" doesn't exist in English. \n\nThe...
Why does Jupiter look black / invisible from this picture?	[ "That picture is taken from the shadow of Jupiter. You're seeing the \"night\" side of Jupiter, except for a tiny curve of \"twilight\" Jupiter.", "Because you're looking at the night side of the planet. Look at where the sun is in the photo; it's on the other side of Jupiter." ]
How was Amazon able to pay $0 of Federal income tax on over $11 billion of profit	[ "Your parents give you $20 to start a lemonade stand, under the condition that for every dollar you make, you have to give them $0.10. \n\nAfter a full day of successful lemonade selling, you made $10 profit. This usually implies that you owe your parents $1, but instead, you use those $10 to buy a bigger pitcher, ...
Two headed creatures	[ "Polycephaly is caused by the same thing as conjoined twins. Basically, during very early development, one of the cells of the initial foetus goes \"Freedom!\" and starts to form as its own baby. Then it changes its mind and goes \"Actually, do you mind if I just creep back in here?\". This makes the cells very ver...
How does food end up in your stomach even if you eat or drink upside down?	[ "Muscles in your esophagus squeeze it “down” the tube to your stomach. Kinda like trying to squeeze that last bit of toothpaste out of the tube.", "There is a series of muscles in your esophagus that contract in sequence to push food towards your stomach. These contractions can push the food against gravity and i...
How is the British Prime Minister selected by such a small group of individuals?	[ "The conservative party are in power, and the conservative party members elect the leader of the party. It's that simple.", "The simplest explanation is that as a whole, the UK voted for the Conservative party to be in power, meaning that that party has the vote on who runs the Parliament.\n\n & #x200B;\n\nIt's a...
Why is particle movement considered random?	[ "You're mixing up two different things.\n\nYou can \"move your hand\", because muscles connected to your rigid bones are articulated in a useful way. Your brain (where your \"will\" lives) can control those muscles to a certain extent.\n\nEach atom that makes up your hand moves randomly. This is usually called \"...
since when and why do seagulls eat small animal, I recently saw a video of a seagul eating a small rabbit whole like a snake really freaked me out is that actually a seagulls normal diet? why do they eat small animals?	[ "They’ll eat anything, they are greedy greedy bastards. There’s a town called Whitby in the UK where they’ll just attack anyone who has food.", "This isn't really an ElI5 question. You could just Google \"Seagull diet\" and come up with the answer. They eat rodents and a lot of other things, they always have. It'...
Why do humans have dominant hands? Why aren't we all ambidextrous?	[ "The neurons that control your left hand are not the same as the ones that control your right hand. If you taught one to write and not the other, then you made yourself one-handed as a writer. It's a parlor trick to teach yourself to write with both hands, but it takes hours that most people aren't willing to com...
why can animals drink out of a lake or body of water and be okay and we can't?	[ "well, you can, you just have to get used to it. BTW, if you've drunk clean water your whole life, drinking water in India or Mexico will usually make you very sick at first, but once you have developed the right gut bacteria from drinking that water, you'll be fine. Truth be told, some people never get to \"fine\"...
Is there any purpose of nipples on men? How are they created?	[ "In the womb, we don’t start as male and female separately. We have a single starting template, that’s mostly female like, and then differentiate as we grow. Ovaries migrate downwards to become testicles, for example, and the genital ridge (the precursor to vaginas and penises) expands and grows into a penis. \n\nN...
Why aren't there planes with solar panels on their top?	[ "Planes use fuel engines, not electric ones, so it wouldn't help generate more fuel. It might help powering the electronics without using the alternator or similar, but planes burn a lot more energy than would possibly be generated by solar panels of its size. For reference, a modern car might go 40 miles with 1 ga...
why are insulated metal containers always hand wash only? What harm would the dishwasher do to metal?	[ "Some are simply because the dishwasher can damage the finish on the metal if it's colored/powder coated, etc. But the heat, etc. of a dishwasher can also break the vacuum seal on insulated contrainers, rendering them a lot less effective at keeping things hot/cold.", "I assume by insulated you mean vacuum insula...
Why sometimes we only remember how to do something when we start doing it?	[ "Brains are associative: for singing you strongly learn the word before leads to the word after, and with a given pitch. You can also learn muscle movements instead of what exactly you are moving to: for example close your eyes and tell me the left-to-right, top-to-bottom order of your keyboard without using your f...
How does seeing a crush or a SO cause the feeling of lightheadedness and 'butterflies' in the stomach? What are the butterflies?	[ "I always associate it with anxiety. Similar to performance anxiety. Butterflies aren't a positive experience for me, but the attraction and excitement associated with a crush also combines with this anxiety making it a wonky feeling.", "Nerves. Your body is in a fight or flight kinda state which causes the stoma...
Why do speakers get blown out when you play them too loud?	[ "The voice coil in a speaker is an electromagnet, it vibrates back and forth against a permenant magnet. The voice coil can overheat due to too much power being sent to it. Or damage from moving too far forward/back.", "Beside the coil burnout discussed here, cheap consumer and bad home build enclosures mess with...
Why was JFK assassinated?	[ "Because Oswald was a mentally disturbed idiot. A psychiatrist in his childhood suspected he had a disturbed, schizoid personality. He was a pathetic loser who tried to compensate for it by seeking out counter-culture, such as Marxism. In this way, he was really not that different from someone who claims the Ear...
Why are smaller blueberries significantly sweeter than larger blueberries	[ "There are lots of varieties of blueberries.\n\n* Some are sweeter than others\n\n* Each has a different maximum size\n\n* Mature at different times on the summer calendar\n\nThe most common store varieties are large, have good shelf life, box well without damage, but don't have much flavor. Instead of letting them...
how are some flying animals (e.g - sparrows and house flies) able to fly at such a high speed without bumping into anything?	[ "The brains of flying animals are specifically evolved to handle the calculations and processes needed for flight. Humans bump into things when they move at ridiculous speeds because we evolved to move at medium and low speeds, dedicating more of our brainspace to things like language. When your entire brain is fly...

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