Split (3)

train · 273k rows

title stringlengths 0 299	text list
Why when you heat up vegetable oil, some waves start to appear on the bottom of it?	[ "What I believe you're describing is technically called a mirage. If you've ever seen something incredibly hot, such as a jet engine, against a detailed background, you can see that the air around the hot object ripples. This comes from the immense heat of the object warming the air around it. This air becomes less...
How does Advil/Ibuprofen affect your body after a night of drinking?	[ "This isn't a \"story.\" It is a well-documented interaction. The drug reduces inflammation in the body but has a common side effect which is increased risk of ulcers in the stomach because it prevents the formation of mucus (which protects the stomach from the acids in it).\n\nPair this with alcohol, which thins t...
Why is the language of the Netherlands called "Dutch" and German not called "Dutch" since that is an Anglicization of "Deutsch", the German word for the German language?	[ "The word deutsch (and dutch) originaly included both Dutch and german and the differences between german dialects were comparable to the difference between Dutch and german back then. Since England had more trade and contact with the Netherlands and flanders these were the Dutch they knew. When the german language...
Why does a car engine make a 'dripping sound' when you turn it off?	[ "Metal expands and contracts with temperature. That's just hot parts cooling off, they make that sound as they settle back to their cold size and position.", "It's the sound of metal parts in the engine cooling and contracting." ]
What would be legitimate uses for a shell company or shell companies and why would you need to use them?	[ "Walt Disney used shell companies to buy up land for Walt Disney World in central Florida. Nobody really wanted that swamp land, so they knew they could buy it cheap as long as nobody knew Disney wanted it. If someone thought that one rich company wanted it all they could have got land in the middle of everything a...
What happens to overstock of certain types of food/snack foods and unsold stock and how do shops/retailers keep it within local business/health and safety laws?	[ "Given how long the dates are and now quickly they turn over stock and stores get new shipments, and the production cycles of such products, it’s easy enough to simply reduce or pause a delivery so as to prevent overstock and items approaching their expiration date. There are always channels like dollar stores as w...
How do people in saunas withstand the extreme heat?	[ "The sauna isn’t set to 300 degrees, that would kill you. Instead they built a sauna in a location that was extremely cold, so it was a 300-degree temperature differential between the outside temp and the sauna temp" ]
For example, you read that the movie cost 50 million dollars, a that it made 100 million in domestic theatre and another 100 worldwide. Usually, who spend the money, and who earned the money?	[ "Movie studios make it very difficult to find out exactly who is spending what and who is getting paid, it's called 'Hollywood Accounting'. Studios want to hide how profitable their movies are because if they made a deal with the actors or the writer to give them a share of the profits, you want to make it look lik...
Why does putting your tongue on a 9V battery hurt, but not when you touch the poles with your fingers?	[ "The saliva on your tongue is a much better conductor than the dead skin cells on your finger; even if you make them wet, dead skin cells. The tongue also has more sense cells per unit area than almost any other part of the body." ]
Why do your ears kind of close when you yawn?	[ "Yawning affects your eustachian tubes, which regulate pressure in your ear. The change in pressure hampers the passage of sound because it lessens your eardrums ability to vibrate while \"hearing\"" ]
Why do phones have to be put on airplane mode when you're in flight?	[ "Apparently the phones create a lot of \"noise\" for the plane's system and airplane mode \"silences\"your phone as it's not searching for a network and stuff" ]
why does a funnel breast develop on a fetus?	[ "The \"why\" for genetic mutations isn't going to make you happy, they are mostly random. The term \"funnel breast\" isn't a very scientific one, but here's one alternative.\n\nPectus excavatum is the formal name for a chest deformity in which the sternum and rib cage are shaped abnormally. This produces a caved-i...
Why is Western classical music perceived as stimulating and good for brain development but not other music?	[ "Pretty sure this was disproven a long time ago, and it was the fact that, at one point, babies who were exposed to classical music had attentive, educated parents and the class advantage that derives from coming from an educated and affluent family in western society. It’s all just cultural bias. \n\nJust spend ti...
Why do some foods get hard when they go stale (ie bread) and some foods get soft (ie cereal)?	[ "Because some foods have high water content like bread that dries up when it gets stale and therefore hard while others we prefer with low ater content and absorb humidity from the air and get soft when they are stale like cereal.", "What happens when you put a cup of cold lemonade and a cup of hot coffee on your...
Why do some floors or steps get eroded by our feet, when roads don't visibly get eroded by tires?	[ "Roads do get eroded by tires eventually (especially if used frequently or by heavy vehicles), you just don't notice it as much since you are traveling over them at high speeds. Roads are repaved due to erosion pretty frequently in some places. Also, your tires erode quicker than the driving surface (I assume becau...
Why do the same companies use different names?	[ "Sometimes the company buys regional companies and they consolidate ownership but keep the existing regional brands due to their local customer loyalty.\n\nSometimes companies have one name and aquire another company and combine names. Like GlaxoSmithKline.\nWhich where three different brand names.", "I will say ...
what stops lighters from exploding when you use them.	[ "For combustion, you need oxygen. There is no oxygen inside a lighter. When the butane inside a lighter is released, it reacts with oxygen in the air to make fire. Because there's a much higher pressure inside the lighter than outside it, oxygen can't get in while the trigger is flipped \"on\" since butane gas want...
If a movie finishes post production early in a year but isn’t going to be released until the end of the year, where is the actual movie put until it’s released?	[ "Nowadays, it's mostly kept on computers, ideally in a large, properly equipped server setup with redundant backups and good security. \n\nIn the past, film production companies typically had physical storage areas available for film reels, both to keep them prior to mass production and also to serve as an archive....
How are we able to determine how old a star is and how long it will probably live?	[ "Stars \"live\" for a characteristic approximate lifespan based on their mass, composition, and luminosity (how brightly they burn). We can pretty accurately estimate all three of these, by splitting the incoming light from a star and examining it. Different elements absorb light at different frequencies, so by s...
why do large amounts of flammable material in a small space explode (ex: gasoline can) when ignited instead of just lighting on fire and burning like wood	[ "Burning causes things to expand, heat up and release gases. if its in an enclosed space such as a pipe, grenade casing, gas can, etc... then the pressure from these reactions builds up causing the big bada boom.", "Whether a mixture of air and gas is combustible depends on the air-to-fuel ratio. For each fuel, i...
Why are ice cubes mostly clear but icebergs are white	[ "Light gets scattered when it moves across a boundary, from water to air, or from air to water. If you have \"pure\" ice, with no tiny air bubbles, it is perfectly clear. The more air mixed into the ice, the more white and opaque the ice is, because light gets more and more scattered every time it crosses the edge ...
We have ways to create mass ammount of heat using chemicals, what about cold?	[ "Cold is nothing, but the absence of heat and not a distinct entity that can be created and has a mind of its own. So, it should be viewed as a baseline state that changes with addition or removal of thermal energy. Said removal happens automatically in nature with rapid dispersion of heat to the environment via in...
How do fish gills extract oxygen from the water?	[ "The gills are a series of very thin membranes through which blood can flow. The membrane is so thin that gasses can cross through via osmosis. Basically, if oxygen is higher on one side, it will cross the barrier until the concentration is equal on both sides. The same thing will happen with carbon dioxide, ammoni...
How the US lost the ability/technology to land on the moon, after 50 years of industry advancement	[ "We haven't. In fact Nasa plans on putting a man on the moon in 2024. Planning missions like these takes a long time in advaced, because literally every contingency needs to be planned for. Not to mention we plan to use it as a test for a new rocket design. These things have to be built, people need to be trained...
Why does rubbing something make it feel better?	[ "It’s called the gate control theory of pain. Pain signals enter the spinal cord at a certain level. If you rub the area, you send many non-painful sensations of touch and pressure to the spinal cord that enter at that same level, basically flooding the input and preventing so many pain signals from getting through...
Why do baguettes get hard and stale faster than typical cut loaf bread?	[ "French bread has only four ingredients: flour, salt, yeast, and water. No fats. Other breads can contain fats like dairy, oil. It’s the lack of fat that makes French bread get hard and stale faster." ]
How do they test and measure baby eyesight and prescribe corrective lenses since the babies are uncommunicative.	[ "Babies are not talkative, but you can very well observe a babies reaction to various eye sight tests. An example are the Heidi tests which have various smily faces on differently contrasting backgrounds. Even a baby will react to facial expressions and this way you can conclude things about how well the baby can s...
Why does cold alcohol seem to go down easier than when hot/warm	[ "You generally don't taste things as well when they are cold, so cold alcohol is a bit easier to take that warm. You actually taste it just a bit less. This is the same reason why melted ice cream at the bottom of the bowl is just so darn yummy. One of the theories behind this is:\n\nYour tongue sends signals to yo...
Why do paper cuts hurt so bad?	[ "The way I understand it is that paper isn't completely flat, it has jagged edges so it's almost like a cut from a jagged knife." ]
Does time have physical properties?	[ "Interesting question. Most physical properties are defined by time. Ex: Velocity is distance per an amount of time, acceleration is a change in velocity per an amount of time. As such, you could say that time \"turns acceleration into velocity\", or time \"turns velocity into distance\". Thank you for making me th...
Why do our eyes turn red in pictures?	[ "Light reflecting off the back of the eye (the retina)\n\nFun fact: doctors actually test for this in kids. It's called the 'red light reflex,' and not having it is a sign of a tumor that can happen in kids or cataracts.", "It's the flash reflecting off of our retinas. A lot of cameras these days have \"red eye\"...
What do the US Marines do?	[ "The Marines as the British Empire used the term were originally the soldiers on a ship. They were the ones that boarded an enemy vessel, or went ashore to claim a beachhead. In the US they had the same role. Over time they grew large enough that they were separated from the Navy but they still have close ties with...
Why kids(6ish) can sleep so heavily, easily, and through things, and why adults can't?	[ "Are adults supposed to be light sleepers? I have to set like 15 alarms to wake up and have slept through a gas explosion right down the street lol", "Don't have a scientific answer but I think it's just because kids trust the adults around them to keep them safe. Both my kids sleep like the dead, I can move them...
How does a solid state drive work, physically and in terms of memory, compared to a hard disk drive, and what happens to both when you delete/overwrite files?	[ "Hard disks are composed of spinning disks that can be magnetized or de-magnetized in order to store data. To read or write on a certain part of the disk, the target region of the disk must sit below the read-write head. This part of the disk is then either re-magnetized or measured by a magnetometer. To achieve th...
Why are auroras mostly seen in high northern and southern latitudes?	[ "The Earth is a big 'ol magnet. In space, there is a constant onslaught of charged particles (often electrons and protons) coming from the sun, other stars, and pretty much everything in space. These particles are deflected by the Earth's magnetic field, and due to some weird physics stuff, often find themselves bo...
why do cherry flavored things taste bitter while actual cherries are sweet and sour?	[ "I absolutely hate fake cherry flavor... I didn't eat cherries for 21 years of my life because I thought they all tasted like cherry candy..." ]
How do salary caps and computing for future salary and cap space work in team sports like basketball?	[ "Team A has a $50m budget because they have a rich donor. \n\nTeam B has a $10m budget. \n\nTeam A can afford to lure multiple top tier players and therefore always walk all over Team B. Salary caps help to stop teams buying their way to the top of the ladder and even up the playing field.", "The majority of ...
Why does gelatin melt when stored in the freezer or chiller?	[ "Gelatin works by creating a medium-loose bond between water molecules using collagen which is a type of protein. When you freeze prepared gelatin, the water molecules break the bonds with the collagen. These do not reform properly when it is thawed. I have not tried completely melting the gelatin again to see if i...
What are Turing shaders?	[ "[Turing](_URL_0_) is a microarchitecture (a type of chip) from Nvidia. It's used to build GPUs (chips specialised for graphics) with support for more general purpose parallel programming (GPGPU) as well. Turing shaders are programs written for this type of chip." ]
Why do drones usually have 4 rotors - has this been proven to be the best (most efficient or stable) design, or is it possible that a different number would be better?	[ "An even number of rotors makes it easy to prevent unwanted spinning. Each rotor spinning clockwise has a twin rotor spinning counterclockwise, which allows the drone body to sit still without rotating. Now, in order to tilt forward, backward, left, and right, the drone needs three or more blades. Four is the small...
What's Foreign Direct Investment?	[ "If a company or individual sets up a company or purchases assets or a significant share of an existing company in a foreign country, that is considered FDI. The assets purchased are located and in use in that foreign country.\n\nDay to day or small trades in shares of a foreign company does not constitute FDI. The...
how do motorcycles go from being upright to almost completely leaned over to back up again?	[ "Once the motorcycle is moving, the rider pushes on the handlebars to lean the bike and to stand it back up. \n\nPush on the right bar to go right, push on the left bar to go left. That leans the motorcycle over. The harder and longer the push, the more it leans. The more it leans, the tighter the turn. Relax on th...
how do motorcycles, when cornering, go from being upright to almost completely leaned over to back up again?	[ "The path the tires follow works with inertia to adjust the bike's angle. Starting a turn, you actually have to steer opposite the direction of the turn to get the lean going. From there it's a combination of steering and slight shifts in body weight to maintain course. When you want to straighten out again, you ...
What's a benchmark interest rate and a prime rate?	[ "A benchmark interest rate is set by independent financial institutions to show how expensive (i.e. at what rate) banks or funds can get money from the market (bank to bank transactions of borrowing money). The independent financial institution collects estimates from a panel of various banks on what they ecpect th...
How do we know that the sun was formed around 5 billion years ago?	[ "There are various methods, such as using computer models of stellar life cycles, but the most tangible way is simply that we know that other things that probably formed around the same time as the Sun were formed around 5 billion years ago.\n\nIt's likely that the entire solar system (the Sun and the planets) form...
How do fans without blades work?	[ "If you mean like the Dyson fanless fans, they have one big fan hidden in the base, that sucks in air from the holes, then pushes it all out of the 'fanless' section via a slot that runs along the edge" ]
Why is India and Europe linked(regarding the term indo-european)?	[ "Languages show the connection. Indogerman languages are spoken in Europe and the western of asia, the anchestors of German, English and many other languages. You see the relationship in word like \"mother\" or \"Mutter\" (German), \"knee\" and \"Knie\". They didn't imitate each other, they are both \"a dialect\" o...
Why is the inflation target a range of 2-3%? What is bad about it dropping below this range?	[ "The economy is all about people spending money and money changing hands, which is affected by inflation. \n\nImagine you have £100 or $100 in your hand.\n\nWith that £100 you want to buy a load of things. Due to steady inflation, that same amount of money is less powerful the longer you hold on to it.\n\nIf you kn...
Why does using different codecs for an mp4 file often make it incompatible for some software to use (Premiere).	[ "Container vs Codec:\n\nEvery video consists essentially of still images played at a frame rate. Each image consists of pixels. Each pixel consists of 3 colors. Each color takes up a byte at least. \n\nThis is a lot of data. File sizes for videos would normally be massive if not for a little trick we knew, compress...
how do we measure a distance with lasers?	[ "Light travels at a known speed, by reflecting the laser back , it can time it and give you a read out on distance based on the time it took to come back to the source." ]
Why is it that it feels so great to stretch your legs after sitting down for a long time?	[ "It probably has something to do with aour blood pressure, and that when we stretch, ouor muscles contract increasing that pressure, making as more \"alive\", and \"rested\", which helps us be active.\n\nNot sure, tho.", "Blood flow out of your legs (called venous return) is largely dependent on the use of your m...
if female orgasms are better than men’s, then why are men typically the ones who bother females about having sex and not the other way around?	[ "\"Better\" is subjective.\n\nHas anybody ever been biologically male, and then biologically female, and compared the two? I don't think so. So we can't ever actually compare them.", "Because men are virtually guaranteed an orgasm and women are not. If you had an orgasm every time you did something, you’d be high...
why do international visitors to eu countries get to shop tax free?	[ "When an EU visitor buys stuff, he pays the store for the item as well for the sales tax. The store will transfer the sales tax to the state.\n\nWhen an non-EU visitor buys stuff, the initial cashflow is the same. The non-EU visitor can claim the sales tax back when leaving the EU with the item. Usually the store w...
Why does hymen exist in women? Does it have any real purpose?	[ "The vagina is formed from two different bits of the back end of the embryo, the hymen is considered to be the boundary between the two where it has failed to break down" ]
how do ICBM travel such long distance in short amount of time? Can they be intercepted?	[ "It's a warhead strapped on a rocket. Rockets go fast.\n\nIf you can identify and properly track the rocket, sure. You'll need a rocket that can go faster than your enemy's.", "Because an ICBM is a just a rocket and rockets go really fast. Rockets that reach orbit are traveling at least 7.8 km/s. ICBMs are only a...
How are national surveys such as Pew research so accurate, especially since they interview only a few thousand people?	[ "Statistics is a branch of mathematics that addresses questions like this. Put simply, if you choose a representative sample from a much larger population, the opinions on the sample group align tightly with the opinions of the entire population. It comes down to two things. The first is that none of us is speci...
Why are five cent coins often larger than ten cent coins?	[ "For US specifically, nickles contain once contined a decent amount of nickle. Whereas older dimes had silver content. The sizing of the coin may very well be related to the volume and type of precious metal that used to be in the US coinage.", "I will preface with that I don't know the exact answer.\nHowever, wh...
What is Neural Darwinism?	[ "Basically its the idea that Darwinism (natural selection and self pruning of undesirable traits through low suvivability) applies to brain neurons. \n\nKey part of it is that when you are born, your brain develops in a ton of diverse ways, just because. As you age, the brain goes \"This part's not needed\" and pru...
why does a stuffy nose sometimes switch sides?	[ "You nose contains the same spongy tissue as a penis! It's true! [Here's an article about why the nose does what you're asking about. ](_URL_0_" ]
Why does your skin radiate heat when you get a sunburn even after you've been out of the sun?	[ "All burns do this. Lots of blood flow to the area causes more obvious heat radiation than from other areas.", "Sunburn means that there's widespread tissue damage which results in inflammation as your body pumps blood and white blood cells to the site to fix it. That also make it warmer than the rest of your ski...
if blood circulation is restricted in one of your limbs while you’re asleep, does your brain “wake you up” to correct the problem before it becomes a bigger issue?	[ "You can shift position while still asleep subconsciously, or wake up. The only times I've heard of damage is when sleeping in a position that seriously cuts off blood flow while sleeping significantly drunk.", "you can move somewhat without becoming conscious and yes you can be woken by all manner of sensations...
How do you decide the design and shape of a product especially if it's new? And who decides it?	[ "Most products go through a lot of design steps before they are put into public\n\nIt usually start with concept artwork, schematics & CAD design then once that is refined a prototype is made\n\nPrototypes can be expensive to manufacture so you usually want to limit the quantity & once you have the prototype yo...
How does the shoulder rotator cuff work? How is the arm able to move in a complete circle and why is the shoulder so prone to injury?	[ "Rotator cuff muscles are a group of 4 muscles that stabilize the shoulder. They all attach to the humerus (arm bone) and the scapula ( two flat things on your back) at varous places. The shoulder joint is a highly mobile joint, its literally a ball in a socket so it can rotate 360 degrees. With this type of range ...
Why do some dead batteries work again after you stop using them for a while?	[ "I'm not really sure, because this is very situation-specific (for instance, iPhone batteries have some special features).\n\nHowever, many batteries will also be very hot when they run out of life. When cooled, the charges flow better, so you might be able to squeeze just a little more life out of them.\n\nSome ba...
How was Space X able to build better rockets than NASA having less budget and experience?	[ "I think the other people have missed the critical element here.\n\nThe critical element was the shift from disposable to reusable rockets. Now, to their great credit, NASA did make that move in the 70s with the space shuttle, but it was a bit too early, and the whole shuttle project was a bit of a logistical and p...
Why do Night Terrors Occur?	[ "Night terrors happen when the waking-up process gets out of sequence.\n\nDuring REM sleep, the dreaming stage, our brains shut down signals to our muscles, effectively paralyzing us. This helps prevent sleepwalking.\n\nA night terror occurs when you regain consciousness before your brain has restored muscle contro...
How is it that so many people die with such big debts, and their creditors are still net positive on the amount lent?	[ "People usually pay significantly more due to interest than a loan is originally worth. This allows the relatively minor loss of money to be offset by the deceased's prior interest, as well as the interest of other debtors. It's not like the majority of the population dies with 100k debts on their shoulders. Also, ...
How do they do a print run for a magazine and know what the right sort of paper is?	[ "Magazines are typically done on offset presses, using standard sheet sizes. The type of paper printed on is specified by the customer, generally proofed before a full production run. Matte vs. Glossy is often a varnish applied on top after printing is done, before it goes to binding. There are usually multiple ma...
Why do cable internet providers offer such asymmetrical speeds compared to their fiber counterparts? E.G. Their upload speeds are so much slower than their download speeds.	[ "There is almost always a bigger need for downloading information than there is for uploading it, and the cables that cable internet travels over are more limited than fiber optic. So, cable and DSL companies prioritize download speeds by using more channels for downloading than for uploading.", "As others have s...
How do smaller online flight travel agents work?	[ "They act as a reseller for tickets via a centralised database for them. Since they can determine their own profit, higher volume (relative to them) allows them to discount. This makes filling planes a surer thing, and many people (rightfully so), still drift direct carrier to buy.\n\nThey never work with all the a...
In the "Hubble scientists have released the most detailed picture of the universe to date, containing 265,000 galaxies." Picture; what is the method of expanding that map, and from what orientation are we observing from?	[ "The map is stitched together from many different observations, so expanding it would be done by adding more observations near the edges.\n\n\"Orientation\" is a bit vague a question, but the field is within the constellation Fornax, in the southern hemisphere southwest of Orion." ]
Why does Honda sell so poorly in Europe?	[ "In general cars are much smaller in Europe than in the US because of narrower streets and less space in general. For example what is considered a humongous SUV over here (Audi Q7, BMW X5) would't be a particularly large car in the US. \n\nTherefore there's no market for US cars. I see Honda being named as a very s...
How does dish soap dissolve oil and grease?	[ "The detergent is composed of molecules with one end that is attracted to water and one end which is attracted to oils. Oils and water normally don't want to mix, but the detergent acts like an intermediary and forms tiny bubble membranes around the oils, allowing them to be washed away by the water.", "Soap mole...
why do animals act casual and gaze around like nothing’s happening, even though they might be getting killed or are the situation is serious?	[ "Animals usually dont have similar facial expressions to humans, the exeption being our closest genetic realetives like chimps and such. Even then the facial expressions mean very different things to them. And animal with it head and ears up scanning its surrounding is looking for a potential threat so it can run t...
How did Eratosthenes figure out Earth is round and calculated earth circumference 2000 years ago?	[ "Grab a paper towel tube and hold it up to your eye like it's a spyglass and you're a pirate. Declare \"yarrr!!\"\n\nNow use your new cardboard spyglass to look close to a light, but not quite. The line from your eye to the light is blocked by the wall of the tube, so the light doesn't reach your eye. If you tur...
How does a little bit of powdered gelatin (proportionately) solidify a large amount of liquid? How does it work? What's the reaction or physical process?	[ "The small amount of powdered gelatin disperses into a kind of large, cross-linked web structure throughout the liquid, holding it together. Since the fibers of gelatin are very thin and widely spread, the block of jello is pretty fragile and jiggly and not very physically strong." ]
Why is the power of car engines measured by horsepowers?	[ "When James Watt was touring the country selling his steam engine, it was easier to tell people how many horses they could replace than how many joules of work his engine could accomplish per minute... or how many pounds of force it could apply a given distance in a given time. So he came up with a unit of measure...
How does specialized bacteria find its target?	[ "Bacteria does not \"find\" a target. Instead, you have so much bacteria just going everywhere that some inevitably finds some food it can live on. The bacteria that does not find food reproduces and makes more bacteria which goes out hoping to land on even more food." ]
How does recycling get “contaminated” ?	[ "The issue with contamination is that you cannot separate or sort it. Recyclable material get contaminated if they get into contact with un-recyclable materials that you cannot easily separate. For example, although a cardboard box is recyclable, a pizza box isn't recyclable because the grease from the pizza cannot...
Why can some brands completely rip off other brands designs on certain products?	[ "Per a quick google search, they are often lawsuits for this. However, I’d hazard a guess that court costs and lawyer fees are factored in before moving forward. Generic copy at Walmart maybe only profits 40k$, but the lawsuit would cost 200k for both sides. It’s now a loss to sue and not worth moving forward. Adid...
Why does animal camouflage, for the most part, not work on humans? We can often see what the camouflage is attempting to do, but we can usually spot an animal pretty quickly.	[ "Oh I actually think I might know this one!\nHumans are really good at recognizing patterns. We see faces in everything- toast, clouds, stone, etc. We just automatically look for patterns in things, so when we see a spot in some leaves that seems to have a separate pattern, or doesn’t quite line up, we’re likely to...
What’s the importance of restarting your computer after updating an application/program on a computer?	[ "Computers run on sets of instructions telling it how to run all the parts of the computer and build an interface so you can use those parts. \n\nSay you're following a recipe for a cake. Then you finish the cake and someone comes along with a better way to make a cake by adding another ingredient and changing how ...
How is it that leaders like Putin always find a means to poison their opponents, yet no opponent groups are able to do the same to him? Not a single rogue member of his team attempts it?	[ "So Russian oligarchs are fucking scary. One of the best stories to come out of the death of Stalin was about the guards on duty outside his bedroom. Reportedly, they heard him hit the ground when he died, but refused to enter the room for the next 8 hours because he might be angry at being disturbed and kill them....
When looking at the moon, you can see a hint of blue on one side of its edge, and red on the other. Why is this?	[ "It is called chromatic aberration and it is from the lens of the camera used to take the picture. You now how a prism used to split light will bend light different angles depending on its wavelength? The lens does that too, just the effect is attempted to be minimized." ]
Why does some kinds of skin get darker when they go out in the sun instead of getting sunburnt?	[ "It depends on the amount of melanin you have in your body. Darker skinned people tend to have more melanin and are therefore more resistant to sunburn. Usually you can determine the amount of melanin you have in your body by you skin, eye and hair colour. For example, a red headed person with blue eyes and freckle...
why is a chip on a credit card considered ‘safer’ than swiping the magnetic strip?	[ "Magnetic strips can be much more easily duplicated than the chips.\n\nThe strip can be duplicated just by reading the swipe, since the data it gives is the data it has.\n\nThe chip, instead, gives an encrypted code based on what you ask it by combining the value you gave it with a secret one it has, and even if ...
I always wondered why the "One a day" vitamins have to be so uncomfortably large. Why not make them into two regular sized pills and call it "Once a day" vitamins?	[ "some pills do that. See: the gummy one a days.\n\nbut generally, it's easier for people to understand to take one pill once a day than two once a day, even if it's little uncomfortable.", "Because most people would see 2 tablets once per day and then tell the retailer \" do you have one where I can just take one...
Why is the QWERTY keyboard's arrangements the way it is?	[ "Typewriters are complex mechanical contraptions, so having commonly used keys next to each other makes them jam easily if you're using an alphabetically ordered keyboard.\n\nQWERTY has the keys more or less evenly spread so that typewriters could write at high speeds without jamming, and once the convention set it...
What would happen if the UK leaves the EU with a no-deal?	[ "Once we left we would immediately then have to do a trade deal with Europe as its such a big and important trade block.\n\nThe term no deal is not accurate. We would still need to do a deal but we'd be in an even weaker position." ]
How did we initially measure the distance to other planets precisely enough to send probes to them?	[ "We track their movement through the sky. There is actually a lot of interesting history behind this.\n\nThe effects of gravity and the math of orbits were always well understood. Kepler and Newton figured out how gravity and orbits worked (which is interesting since Kepler somehow figured out his three laws decade...
Why does coffee/caffeine help migraines?	[ "Caffeine is a vasoconstrictor, so if the migraine has a vascular component, caffeine may have an effect on blood flow.", "Headaches are caused by dilated blood vessels. Caffeine is a vasoconstrictor. \n\nIt also could be side effects of caffeine withdrawal. (Caffeine is a drug) And getting the caffeine helps wit...
How do some cars have a birds eye view of of the car when they’re parking?	[ "The car has cameras in the front, rear, and in the two side mirrors. Those images are stitched together (kind of the same way that your phone creates a panorama) to give a kind of 360° view of the car's surroundings. That image is then displayed in such a way that it looks sort of like a bird's-eye view instead ...
Why does alcohol make you feel warmer but actually makes your body temperature colder?	[ "Alcohol dilates your capillaries (the smallest blood vessels closest to the outside), increasing the flow of blood through them. More warm blood flowing through capillaries makes you feel warmer, but that blood is being cooled down from being exposed to the cold, and that brings down your body temperature.", "Al...
How do wetsuits work?	[ "Step 1: Submerge wetsuited body in water.\nStep 2: Wetsuit fills with water.\nStep 3: Body heats up water now trapped in wetsuit.\nStep 4: Body stays warmer than the water outside of the wetsuit. \n\nAddednum: Wetsuits typically range from 3mm to 7mm thick. Thicker wetsuits provide more protection against the cold...
What would be the significance of a non-carbon based life form?	[ "It would be tantamount to what Thomas Kuhn termed a ‘paradigm shift.’ Basically, it would revolutionize the most basic conclusions scientists have had about the origins of life for hundreds of years.", "it basically means that all forms of life that we're familiar with isn't the only form of life that's possible...
how are (mostly) whole crashed planes transported to be dismantled or repaired?	[ "Most large aircraft are actually modular. Wings, tail, etc only require a few bolts and some cable disconnects to unship them. Then, they can be loaded onto trucks ( or trains, I’ve seen that once) for long haul shipping.", "If possible, they are repaired wherever they are, so the are good enough to fly, then ...
why does looking at the sun help you sneeze?	[ "Its a condition that only affects some people (me included) its to do with the nerve endings in your face getting crosswired. The eyes and the nose are very close to each other so some people have this problem." ]
"What happens to the cavity in a building where the crane was initially."	[ "You are all lunatics. Cranes don't build the structure around themselves, the crane will be either free standing next to the building or sitting on the current top floor. When they build a new floor they move it up another level.\n\nSo your question has no answer because it isn't a problem that exists." ]
what’s the difference between certificates, diplomas, and degrees?	[ "Certificates are typically awarded for a short term study in a specific field. Diplomas are awarded for completing (typically) a multiyear study at a non university level. Degrees are awarded by universities for the completion of a multiyear course of study. The first level of degree is a Bachelor's. Graduate ...
How does the Game Genie work?	[ "The Game Genie and Game Shark peripherals were special cartridges that sat between the system and the game cartridge. This lets it read and modify memory in any way it wants.\n\nThe special codes you put into it contain the memory address and the action to perform. It can be as simple as \"Set this value to X an...

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