Split (3)

train · 273k rows

title stringlengths 0 299	text list
how did people in places like florida get ice before machines were made to make ice.	[ "Ice was harvested in cold climates such as New England during the winter time and stored in cold places such as caves, while being packed in insulation, such as saw dust. Ice could be stored year round in some locations.\n\nIce was then transported to warmer locations, such as Florida in ships, again using sawdust...
Why do strobe lights cause seizures for certain people?	[ "The bright, flashing lights irritate the nerves of some people to the point of overexcitement, causing those nerves to send continuous signals to the brain. The brain can’t process it adequately, so it, in essence, shuts down and reboots." ]
Rainbow like waves on cellphone screens while using sunglasses	[ "ah so this is probably more suited to r/askscience, but I'll take my best guess as a former optical physicist.\n\nYour sunglasses have polarized lenses, which means only light that waves a certain way can get through them. But your screen also refreshes a certain way, so at certain angles, this refreshing could be...
How do babies in the womb not get the negative affects of blood rushing to their head while being upside down for so long?	[ "Imagine being upside down in a pool. Not quite the same blood rush to the head, is it? A fetus is basically in a fluid filled sac.", "Babies don't have nearly as large a blood volume or distance between their head and the rest of their body, so the difference in pressure is much less compared with an adult human...
glass slag and how it’s formed	[ "i'm assuming you're talking about slag glass because that's what google turned up (let me know if this isn't the case). Slag is a general term for impurities that come out of metal when it melts. Originally, slag glass was a glassy impurity (aka slag) that comes from smelting iron from raw ore. when you melt met...
How does electricity work?	[ "If you put all your Hot Wheels in a row on the coffee table or counter so they got from edge to edge, and then get just one more and push it in line so that it ends on the countertop/table, it'll push the one on the other end off. \n\nThat's how electricity moves. Metal is made of atoms, and atoms have electrons...
Why can some plants live in water, but the same plant will die if it gets too much water?	[ "Plants use water to transport nutrients to the plant cells.\n\nThey evolved to do that optimally in the environment they exist.\n\nWhen subjected to other conditions it impairs their ability to function properly.", "Plant roots need three things: water, oxygen, and nutrients. Water and nutrients are fairly obvi...
How does the moon control the ocean waves?	[ "The moon does nothing to the waves themselves. Those are created by the wind. But it does change overall water levels through tides.\n\nGravity is stronger the closer you are to the source. Let's break this problem into three parts to simplify it.\n\n The surface of the Earth directly under the moon is closer th...
Can you sweat underwater? Why?	[ "Sweating is your body’s way of cooling itself off. You body secrets swear which evaporates and Takes gets along in the process which cools you. You wouldn’t have any need of sweating underwater (or while wet) as the water itself would do the same job. \n\nBut you still sweat if you get hot enough. It’s an automati...
Is space infinite?	[ "There really isn’t a good answer to this without some speculation being involved. The universe as we know it is constantly expanding from what we believe is an event known as the “Big Bang”, which unleashed an incredible amount of energy and mass. To observe what’s beyond the universe you would need to move very f...
How was triceratops mouth/beak optimized for eating enough jungle plants/grass to sustain its body weight?	[ "A combination of being exothermic (what they used to call cold-blooded) and just constantly eating.\n\nThere's not much specialized about their mouths/teeth except thst they can cut the plants and start digesting them quickly." ]
Vis a vis abortion, why is it so hard for doctors and biologists to pin down "where life begins?"	[ "This is an area where science/technology, religion and philosophy all have something to say. Therefore interpretations and definitions are contextual. \n\nIn certain respects, advances in scientific knowledge has made the issue even less clear. Science doesn't advance in a consistent way in all areas. In today's s...
Why is moving air (eg. wind) colder than stationary air?	[ "Not an expert but from my understanding...\n\nYou is hot. \n\nYou warm the air near you. \n\nAir near you now warm.\n\nNew Air moves into that airs place. \n\nNew air was not previously exposed to your hotness so is cooler in comparison to old air." ]
Why did Korea split into two countries during the Korean War, but not the U.S during the Civil War?	[ "Because during civil war the side that was against splitting won. During the Korean war neither side won and the war technically never ended. There have been many skirmishes at the DMZ since the Korean 1953, notably [in 1976](_URL_0_) where American soldiers were chopping down a tree in the DMZ and the North Kor...
Why hasn't the US gone Chip and Pin even though the infrastructure is in place?	[ "In the US you aren't responsible for credit card fraud regardless of why that fraud occurs. This is not the same in the EU. EU laws on cardholder liability vary from country to country, but in most countries you are liable for ~150 euros per transaction, unless you acted \"carelessly\" in which case your liabili...
How do colds happen?	[ "The common cold is simply a virus, specifically one of over 200 different strains of viruses. They spread through the air or by direct contact. Most symptoms are simply the body's immune response to the cold. Despite the name, there's little evidence that it's actually caused by cold weather.", "The main reason ...
why do mushrooms naturally grow in a circle shape?	[ "Many types of fungi feed of plant matter buried in the ground. They form a vast network of roots, the so called [mycelium](_URL_0_). This network grows underground, absorbing all the nutrients, at at some point they use the stored up nutrients to grow above ground to spread their spores with the wind. So if you se...
In movies and TV shows, when actors and actresses snort a substance (cocaine, heroin, etc.) what are they really snorting?	[ "It depends on what they're doing with the substance. If it's just going to sit on a table or get cut into lines, they use a mixture of corn starch and baby powder. If it's going up a nose, they'll use powdered lactose instead (or vitamin B powder if they're lactose intolerant), and they might coat the inside of th...
How are polar bears able to go months without food?	[ "Animals that hibernate build up fat reserves in the summer and then go into a state where they minimize how much quickly they use that up by remaining inactive, slowing their metabolism and lowering their body temperature. It's not limited to polar bears, many other bears do and also animals like hedgehogs, tortoi...
What is a geometrically safe container to prevent radioactive materials to reach criticality? I've been reading a lot about nucular accidents and there is often this phrase of a "geometrically safe" container popping up. What is it and how does the geometry of a container prevent criticality?	[ "You get chain reactions with nuclear reactions because radioactive material decaying can cause other radioactive material nearby to decay to. \n\nIn nuclear reactors you want the reaction to be just enough to keep going and give of some heat, but not more. With bombs you want them to really get worse exponentially...
How do different animals age differently? What is the difference in their physiology that makes them age live longer/shorter lives than us?	[ "Heart beat speed is a common factor, faster heart beat tends to equal shorter life expectancy while slower heart beats equal longer life expectancy. I read this once so take with a grain of salt.", "There is a max amount of times that each of your cells can replicate (without mutations like cancer) “programmed i...
why is it better to pre-heat the oven when cooking meat?	[ "If you need to cook for a long time, then it doesn't matter.\n\nIf you need to cook for a short, set amount of time, then it matters because each oven takes a different time to heat up, so the recipe would be inconsistent between different ovens unless you preheat them.", "> wouldn't it be better to just put it ...
Heat tends to rise above colder air, but what happens when there is no gravity?	[ "When there is no gravity, the hot air will simply mix with the cold air until they reach the same temperature.\n\nThe long answer:\n\nCold air is denser, meaning that in a given volume of say 1 litre, there is more of air that can fit into 1 litre if it is cold, then if it is hot. So 1 litre of cold air weighs mor...
why do moths wait until the sun is down to be active, yet seem to spend all their waking hours around lamps?	[ "they normally use the moon to navigate and these lights just confuse them. It's not like they \"like\" or need the light to live." ]
How can someone make a fraudulent transaction just by knowing my Debit Card Number and CVV?	[ "i didn't need any Pin or anything to add my credit card to amazon, they might get suspicious if the name on the adress is not the same, but that's easy to change.", "In the United States, you can run a credit card using just your credit card number and CCV. PINs are only used for ATM/debit transactions, not tran...
How snorted substances affect the brain without properly being ingested or injected	[ "Chemicals dissolve in the mucus which coats most of the surface in the nose/back of throat. It can diffuse through the cells and enter your bloodstream directly. Same thing when you put something under your tongue, like lsd.", "Substances pass across mucous membranes lining all our insides. Crushed aspirin unde...
Why do gunshots sound so different at distance?	[ "The bang at the gun is from the explosion of propellant. \n\nThe snap downrange is the shockwave from the bullet going faster than sound. This sound is drowned out by the bang when you're closer to the gun. \n\nThere is also a whizzing sound as the bullet destabilizes or ricochets and starts to tumble. This is cau...
How can our brains distinguish between men with high voices and women with low voices? (Eg. Charlie Day vs. Emma Stone)	[ "Even if the pitch between a higher pitched male voice and a lower pitched female voice is the same, a male voice sounds different due to differences in the vocal tract and the resulting acoustic resonance. This is called a formant.\n\nHowever, it’s more difficult distinguishing between the two when this quality of...
what is the science behind a seizure, including how it ends?	[ "There are lots of things that can trigger seizures (genetics, electrolytes, infections, etc.), but the key thing to keep in mind (no pun intended) is that neurons work through the flow of electrolytes which creates an electric charge. This charge can be communicated from one neuron to the next through neurotransmi...
How are no-confidence votes in the UK different before and after the Fixed-Term Parliments Act of 2011?	[ "Previously:\n\n* The PM could ask the Queen to dissolve Parliament at any time and hold new elections\n* If the government lost any \"important\" vote (a confidence motion or supply bill), it was expected the PM would do that\n\nNow:\n\n* The PM can't ask the Queen to dissolve Parliament at any time\n* The gover...
How Do Military Operations Get Named?	[ "I think I read somewhere it's a random generator. After all, if you're job is to think of cool names about \"the death ray fired at the sun\" you as a human may inadvertently reveal details of the project subconsciously, like Operation Ray-Ban, Operation Icarus, Operation SPF3000, Operation Lantern Archon. Etc...\...
How do scientists estimate the age of a very old animal ?	[ "The shark you're thinking of was a [greenland shark](_URL_4_), and was part of a study that looked at almost 30 individuals ([Nielsen et al. 2016](_URL_6_)). These researchers took samples from the lenses of the sharks' eyes to estimate their ages by measuring the types and amounts of carbon. The reason for usin...
Why are children viewed as more of a financial burden than they used to?	[ "The expenses that have outpaced inflation the most are those that children require. Health care, housing, education. It can cost tens of thousands just to have a pregnancy and delivery.", "Kids don't help increase the family income like they did when farming was less automated. Both my parents hoed rows of cotto...
How do tower crane counterweights keep from falling out?	[ "In the image you have linked you can clearly see the retaining bolts coming out of the sides, this stops them slipping through." ]
Why are male children more likely to inherit or surpass the height of their parents over their female siblings?	[ "Oestrogen closes your growth plates at the ends of your bones, so when girls hit puberty they stop growing shortly afterwards. Boys, who produce much less oestrogen keep growing for much longer and so can reach their full growth potential", "It’s genetics. A good rule of thumb is a boy will grow to be the averag...
If your brain can remember memories from a very long time ago out of nowhere, why is it so hard to trigger your brain to remember things from as recent as yesterday?	[ "Our brain remembers different things very differently, and we have many different types of memory. Explicit memory is one of the two types of long-term memory that allows us to remember things like life-events and facts. This type of memory is conscious which means that you have to make a conscious effort to remem...
Why do we only ever see one side of the moon?	[ "The Moon spins once every month or so.\n\nIt also orbits around the Earth once every month or so. \n\nThe two periods are the same because the Moon is tidally locked to Earth, meaning the Earth's gravity pulled on the Moon until it stopped rotating relative to Earth. \n\nBonus fact: the Moon is doing a similar thi...
Is that spinning circle of leaves that spins around a few times technically a tornado? Why does it happen?	[ "The way air moves can create a 'vortex' (like water spins as it goes down a plughole) the leaves actually make the vortex seeable. Vortexes of wind happen pretty often.", "They are not tornados, they are vortexes. But tornados are a form of vortexes.\n\nImagine taking a round object and rolling it between your h...
Why does the key of a song playing on a set earphones change when the earphones are at some distance from the ears?	[ "Higher frequencies get dampened harder over the same distance. \nAdditionally, you can only hear sound thats at least a certain loudness. \nHeadphones are low-power speakers and if you increase the distance high frequencies seem do drop out because the fall under that threshold. \nThe last thing to disappear if...
Why are some soldiers wearing pixelated camouflage?	[ "Under certain conditions the pixelated/digital camo does a better job at breaking up the lines/outline/silhouette of the soldier. \n\nThe point of camouflage is not only to match the background colour of the soldier's environment, but also to break up any easily identifiable lines. If camo was colour matched to th...
Why are Performance Enhancing Drugs in baseball treated much more harshly than in other sports such as football and basketball?	[ "They’re not, all leagues suspend player for significant amounts of time for use of PEDs. Baseball may suspend more games, but that’s because they have much longer season.", "Basically, to appease public opinion.\n\nBaseball was (arguably still is) rampant with PEDs for a pretty major part of its history... and w...
How does most peoples limbs grow the same length and size?	[ "Do you mean relative to other people or their own limbs?\n\nThere's an average intelligence, physical size, hand size, limb size, etc for humans. Generally people approach this mean. \n\nFor individuals, limbs actually vary slightly in length and size. One will almost always be smaller or larger than the other jus...
How Hong Kong could leave China?	[ "Outside of some type of armed conflict, there is little reason to believe China would willingly give Hong Kong independence. There certainly remains a possibility that HK remains in a type of state within a state situation that it is now, past the date its supposed to, but even then, China does not seem interested...
In order for the US government and election system to be reformed, who all would have to act on it and approve of it? (Is it even a feasible hope for the voters?)	[ "Probably a referenda which is then enacted by legislated by Congress and signed off by the President." ]
How do GPS satellites and receivers compute our position without synchronous clocks between them?	[ "If you assume that the receiver have the exact same time as the transmitter then you would only need 3 satellites as you would be able to know the exact distance to each satellite alone just based on the difference in time. However the receiver does not have an accurate clock. But it is accurate enough to measure ...
How do our bodies fix the mistakes that proteins/enzymes make every now and then?	[ "Most mistakes don't matter, but defective proteins have certain physical characteristics that cause them to be digested by other specialized enzymes.*\n\nMistakes in DNA replication are repaired using the complementary strand as a template (the older strand will have chemical modifications that distinguish it from...
If we are supposed to eat meat, how come we have to clean it and cook it, but all other animals eat it raw?	[ "Humans do not have to cook meat. Sushi, Steak Tartar, Ceviche, are all food preparations that involve uncooked meat. What cooking meat, and other foods does is kill pathogens on the meat that can make us sick (a lot of animals get sick or die from food contamination). This is particularly important as we do not ea...
Why is it that thinking about things to hard makes them harder to do without thinking? (Sleeping, swallowing)	[ "Your brain stores muscle memory in a series of neural connections that fire in a squence and are reinforced every time you do it correctly. \n\nThink of it like a path in the woods. Every time someone uses that path, it gets worn in better and it gets easier to go through the woods to get home. \n\nWhen you think ...
On boats & ships, how do propeller shafts remain watertight despite the friction caused by the propeller movement?	[ "The boats I'm familiar with, sailboats around 30 - 40 ft, it's not water tight. You should get about 1 drip every 30 seconds. You need a bit of water coming through to act as cooling. Then you have a bilge pump to pump the water back out.\n\nThe shaft goes through what is called a stuffing box. (_URL_0_). You have...
Why do directors not film scenes in the order in which they appear in the movie?	[ "In those two cases, if you film the climax of the movie first, you have time to do it right, and fix anything that may go wrong in the process.\n\nWait and do it last, you might have to delay the movie if any issues come up.\n\nAlso, cost and simplicity come into play. If you have a bunch of scenes in your movie ...
How does a software input into a computer physically change a transistor	[ "Engineer here, this isn't 100% the entire story, but it's ELI5.\n\nSoftware input doesn't change the shape, state, or move or do anything physical to a transistor. A transistor is just another component whose shape and material will manipulate the flow of electricity in a specific and predictable way, just like an...
Why are baseball bats and cricket bats shaped the ways that they are?	[ "The cricket bat shape has evolved to be optimal for striking the ball when coming to you as it does from a bowler, and holding it as batsmen and women do. There is a \"sweet spot\" on a bat, more or less opposite the widest part (front to back) - hit a ball square on there and it will fly.... when you watch top ba...
Intel Optane memory	[ "Optane Memory is not RAM. Think of it as sorta booster for your Hard drive and ram interaction. But absolutely not RAM and you don't add them together. Optane memory is sorta more like a really fast SSD that works with your HDD to increase speed.\n\nThese lots of misleading ads on this claiming more memory and cou...
why do you have to avoid grapefruit while on so many medications?	[ "You have molecules (enzymes) in your body that break down medications and other molecules. There is one family of enzymes called the CYP3A family. Enzymes in this group are responsible for breaking down (metabolizing) more drugs than any other group of enzymes in your body. One of the components of grapefruit juic...
Will it be possible in the near future to create laptops that are able to withstand severe heat?	[ "The problem is one of \"small.\" \n\nIn order to make the laptops as flat and light as possible, everything gets jammed together. Airflow suffers, and components run hotter.\n\nCompound this with components getting faster, which causes then to run hotter, too.\n\nBigger, bulkier laptops, or laptops without the hig...
why does some gum lose its flavor so fast?	[ "The flavors in gum have to be able to get released from the gum to have a taste. That means that they should bind better to spit than to the gum. Gum itself doesn't break down much from saliva. The flavor in gum lasts quite a bit longer than it used to.", "Basically, whatever chemical it is that gives the gum it...
How are animals like felines able to jump and leap insane distances? What makes humans unable to do the same?	[ "The design of the hind legs has a lot to do with it. \n\n\nAnimals like cats and deer walk on their rear toes. The \"heel\" is quite high off of the ground. So their rear legs have three major segments instead of two, giving them more power and range of motion. This leads to bigger jumps. \n\n\nAnd you also h...
When you stretch and hear little cracks in your back, what is actually taking place in the body?	[ "That sound is called cavitation. It's the same as cracking your knuckles OR is could be the realignment of misaligned bones/joints, OR if it's more of a crackle/pulling sound, it's the muscle fibers. 👍\n\nSource 15+yrs experience with a DC program and training over 1K DC interns.", "What you are hearing is the ...
What actually is a “gut feeling?”	[ "A gut feeling is that feeling that something is wrong without any obvious outside information, just your instincts.\n\nWhat it actually is, is your blood pressure raising due to the uncomfortable and unknown situation at hand. Your subconscious mind has calculated that the scenario isn't going to go well based on ...
If water is non-conductive how does is short electronics	[ "Pure distilled water is non conductive. Most water however has impurities in it which are what conspire to make it conductive.", "Pure deionized water is non-conductive, however the rest of the water contains ions and minerals which makes it conductive. The ions in the water can transport the electrical charg...
Why dont we raise space ships with balloons before using rocket engines to escape earths gravity?	[ "The physics are complex, but simply put, look at a Goodyear blimp. The blimp (the actual envelope containing the helium) is huge relative to the tiny cabin attached underneath. Now, replace the tiny cabin with a spaceship made of materials capable of sustaining atmospheric re-entry, fuel for the round-way trip, pl...
How can a Minecraft world be infinite ?	[ "They're not infinite, just unlimited. Only the parts of the world that you have seen are created, as you see them." ]
why are most (all?) green parties against nuclear power?	[ "This is a handy link-\n _URL_0_\n\nas to the potential negatives of nuclear power, I will summarise them for you though to save time.\n\n1. Implementing enough nuclear power plants in time to cut emissions before 2050 seems financially unviable\n2. Inherent error, human risk, design flaws even natural disasters\n3...
What is your body doing when you have a “gut feeling?”	[ "This was asked earlier today. Please search first." ]
In the photos you see of nebulas, galaxies etc. What exactly does the coloured smoky areas represent? Is it just light or something cooler?	[ "Those are clouds of gas. As a quick and dirty guide you can break then into three groups.\n\nRed ones are thicker regions of hydrogen that are warmed by nearby starts to glow a red color.\n\nBlue have dust in them and are reflecting light.\n\nDark ones can actually have larger dust grains, molecules of hydrocarbo...
Why don't shoes last nearly as long as vehicle tires?	[ "First shoes impact the ground differently, tires roll, assuming properly aligned and balanced wheels. Shoes impact the ground and skid slightly that's why the heel or ball of the foot wears out faster.\n\nTires can be made of heavier rubber, heavy shoes like work boots or hiking boots are not always desirable. So ...
What happens causes people to start making fast movements (tapping feet, fingers, pacing back and forth, etc..) when they're waiting, or just impatient, instead of just sitting or standing still?	[ "Our brain and nervous system are composed of modules that aren't necessarily in sync. Your higher functions understand \"we're at the airport so we need to wait\" but your lizard and mammalian brain areas are concerned with food, reproduction, exercise, so they send nonverbal signals like itches to make you shift ...
Why do colors “clash?”	[ "I’m no scientist but I bet it has something to do with why certain music notes don’t sound good together. The “wobble” you hear when two notes clash is caused by the wavelength of those particular notes. Seeing how light is also a wave, it wouldn’t be unreasonable to assume that the two waves are clashing causing ...
why did my body odor change moving from Florida to West Texas.	[ "You are what you eat. Literally. And, you sweat out what you eat and drink. \n\nDifferent location means different food, different minerals and such in the water, etc. You will notice these differences when you sweat them out, until they become your \"new normal\"" ]
Why do laser beams have "brighter dots"?	[ "The light is striking dust and other particulate matter in the air and therefore being scattered/reflected. Some gets reflected toward your eyes so you perceive those spots as brighter.", "these are called \"speckles\" and are typical for coherent light like lasers. \n\nThey are created by interference from irr...
How does sunscreen work?	[ "The part of light that burns you is called UV, or ultraviolet light. You can't see it, but it's part of the light we get from the sun. Sunscreen reflects and scatters the UV rays or absorbs it instead of your skin absorbing it, depending on what the sunscreen is made of.", "Sunscreen is filled with little bits o...
why is it that a lizard can jump off insane heights but not take any damage and be fine but if we scaled us down to the size of a lizard we'd die from that high of a fall?	[ "Lizards weigh less, so the impact when they land is a lot lower. If I fall, it's equivalent to a 100 pound person landing on me. If a 300 pound person falls, it's equivalent to a 300 pounds of person landing on them. The gecko just takes a few ounces of weight." ]
Body temperature what makes it 98.5 and how does it regulate it?	[ "Keeps warm by :\n\n- Hairs standing up on body to trap heat\n- shaking to generate heat\n- (shut down parts of the body - in extreme cases)\n\nKeeps cool by :\n\n- sweating ( a layer of sweat helps take heat away from the body which then transfers to the air around us ). Thus cooling the body." ]
How does Google maps estimate the quickest way to get somewhere even with traffic involved?	[ "Well, for starters, Google has all the maps and knows all the speed limits on (almost) all the roads. They can easily figure out that taking a freeway 10 miles @ 70 mph is faster than back roads for 7 miles @ 30 mph.\n\nGoogle then takes that data and augments it with three types of data:\n\n- Road condition data...
What's the difference between having undetectable levels of HIV and being cured?	[ "You have spotted the thing.\n\n & #x200B;\n\nFrom a functional perspective, if you are undetectable, you cannot pass on the virus to a HIV- person. The virus is no longer in your blood (but it can hide in other tissues which is why it comes back if you stop taking your ARV meds).\n\n & #x200B;\n\nWhile you are un...
How do celebrities, like OJ Simpson, who lose their fortunes still live seemingly lavish lifestyles?	[ "Because his income can't be touched.\n\nAs a former NFL player, OJ has a very large pension, and pensions can't be attached in civil lawsuits.", "By becoming judgement proof. \n\nIf you expect to be sued, you can liquidate the majority of your assets and then purchase the most expensive mansion you can outright ...
Why does pressure build and/or maintain carbonation when you shake a sealed container of carbonated liquid?	[ "The pressure doesn't change. The amount of CO2 gas is constant in the container, as is the container volume and temperature, so the pressure is constant as well. What does change with shaking is that some of the undissolved CO2 at the top is forced into the liquid and forms pressurized bubbles. If the container is...
Can anyone explain, in simple terms, Einstein's theory that time is not absolute?	[ "Let's start with a ground rule:\n\nThe speed of light is always constant for everyone. That's been observed.\n\nNow, what follows from that? It follows that if you're at rest, light will move away from you at the speed of light, from your perspective. \n\nAnd that if you're moving at 99% of the speed of light, lig...
why have severe allergies for example peanut allergies that can lead to someone's, death not been bred out by natural selection in humans?	[ "Couple reasons. First is that allergies appear to be more common in the modern world. The going theory, as far as I've heard, is that our immune systems today are, for a lack of a better word, bored. Our environments are so much cleaner than they ever have been, and we have antibiotics and antivirals and antis...
Who and how do they pay for town,city and interstate lights?	[ "Generally the utility company tells the city approximately how many streetlights there are and as u/Callico_m pointed out, the city then pays the bill.\n\nThis is why reporting streetlights that are out to the town/city/village/whereverthefuckyoulive is important as you're still paying for it even when it's not wo...
How is alcohol (mouthwash) removed from city water?	[ "Most city water is not made by reprocessing waste water. \n\nWaste water, containing mouthwash, goes to a sewage treatment plant. There are many processes that go on there, but at least one of them is bubbling air through the water with an open surface. Alcohol evaporates under these conditions, leaving only th...
Does the sugar content in fruits rise as they ripen at home? Why do they get sweeter over time?	[ "Sugars can be broken into 3 main categories, mono-, di-, and poly- saccharides. \n\nMonosaccharides are ring shaped molecules made up of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. Our body gets energy from processing monosaccharides\n\nDisaccharides are two mono- attached together. Table sugar, called sucrose, is an example of...
If Earth is within the Milky Way Galaxy, why are we able to see the Milky Way Galaxy while standing on Earth?	[ "You aren’t seeing the entire thing, just a cross-section of it. The Milky Way looks like a dense band of stars encircling the Earth because it’s all around us. \n\nThink about it like this. We’re on a little boat, the S.S. Earth, in the middle of the ocean. If you look out the window, you can see the ocean, even i...
How are we able to determine if something technical “makes sense” or “seems right” when we have no prior knowledge on the subject?	[ "You draw on any experience you have with other things that might have something in common. Or it's just explained well enough to give you a basic understanding of how it works.", "This is a very, very good question, and also quite hard to answer - there's no really simple answer.\n\nWith any topic you're trying...
Why are teeth a part of the nervous system?	[ "Simple evolution. Look at human teeth as an evolved mammalian example.\n\nHumans are omnivores and throughout human evolution meat and found plants foods such as roots have been a large part of the human diet. Biting too hard into a bone or a small rock and breaking a tooth would seriously hamper nutrition intake ...
How does scar cream work (does it even work)?	[ "It doesn't. Scars are fibrous tissue where the wound closed up under the skin without the skin cells covering it. They usually fade over time because skin will regenerate over it over time but that takes a long time. \n\nCreams say they make scars \"softer, smoother and less noticeable\" which basically mean they ...
Why do carbonated drinks exclusively use CO2 and not other gases?	[ "The short answer is that CO2 is the ideal gas for carbonation.\n\nFirst of all its cheap compared to more exotic things like Helium or Neon, and isn't flammable and toxic like Hydrogen or Petroleum gases.\n\nNitrogen for example is plentiful but it doesn't dissolve in water nearly as well as CO2 so it doesn't make...
Why are some trials completed with a jury while others are not?	[ "In the US you generally don't get a criminal jury trial if the maximum punishment for your crime is less than 6 months. If its more than 6 months, you have a choice to get a jury trial - you can opt out if you want and people typically do when there is a strong emotional component to the trial.\n\nWhen there is...
What does the term "passive agressive" actually mean?	[ "Think of a situation where someone could react really aggressively, like if I responded, “this sub is a terrible place for you to ask for the definition of a single term! Why didn’t you just google the term, idiot?!” But instead of saying that outright, I convey the same level of aggression, in a toned down way,...
How does soap get foamy?	[ "Soap is an example of a \"surfactant\": something that lowers the surface tension between two other materials. Normally, the surface of water (with air above it, so air is the second material) likes to keep a smooth surface (there are some fun ways to play with this, e.g. you can make a pin float on water).\n\nYou...
Why do "weeds" grow so much more quickly and without any nurturing compared to plants/crops?	[ "We have carefully selected our crops to produce large yields. This is economically costly to the plant. Plants in nature don't produce yields like that because natural selection penalises that kind of economic investment. We ensure that it is beneficial for the plant through carefully removing competitors, inputs ...
The Vagus Nerve; what exactly is it?	[ "The vagus nerve is a cranial nerve that runs from your brain, down into your chest and into your abdomen. It is a purely parasympathetic nerve, which means it can slow things down, like your heart rate, breathing and or help things along that happen best when you are relaxed, like gastric movement. People sometime...
Does using internet on a flight really affect the plane’s instruments?	[ "The short answer is that it's possible, so don't.\n\nThe Mythbusters did an episode on this. What they found was older electronics had more of an effect than the newers ones.\n\nAlso that most modern airliners have shielding on the instrumentation to help protect them against this sort of thing. But on smaller and...
What is the difference between different educational degrees (MBA, GED, PhD, MD, doctorate, master’s, etc)	[ "MBA is a masters in bussiness administration\n\nGED shows that you have high school equivalent competence\n\nPhD is a doctorate in a subject, MD is a doctorate specific to medicine\n\nTypes of degrees one can get after high school are: Associates, bachelors, masters, doctorate. Each succesive degree requires addit...
A tree can contain hundreds or thousand pounds of wood, Where all this come from ? Does it come from the ground ?	[ "It comes from the air! Plants use CO2 from the air to make things (photosynthesis), wood is 90% carbon and oxygen.", "Trees and other plants contains large amounts of carbon. They take up CO2 from the atmosphere through their leaves and break it up into carbon (C) and oxigen (O2) in a process callled photosynthe...
What do the authorities do with the money that is found from high end drug dealers?	[ "What on earth makes you think that asset forfeiture only applies to \"high end drug dealers\"? There are cases where people have had [their homes seized after being caught selling $40 worth of drugs](_URL_4_), or because a visitor was caught with possession of small amounts of drugs.\n\nIn the USA, civil forfeitur...
Time and where it stops.	[ "You understand time crossing times zones doesn't mean you are traveling through time right? Like, if you take a 6 hour flight eastward that crosses 6 times zones, you didn't travel 6 extra hours into the future, and if you take a 6 hour flight westward that crosses 6 time zones, you didn't go back in time 6 hours,...
If the human body is constantly seeking homeostasis, and our ideal body temperature is near 98.6 Fahrenheit, why do most of us prefer external temperatures that are 20-30 degrees cooler?	[ "Because the human body generates a lot of heat so in order to maintain homeostasis it needs to be able to shed excess heat, a high external temperature make it difficult to shed this extra heat. - _URL_0_", "Your body produces heat. If the temperature of the air is the ideal body temperature, that would be the t...
Can a body that currently needs 7-8 hrs of sleep get used to 6hrs of regular sleep?	[ "Yes. All you need to have are fixed times for sleeping. Get up every day, even weekends and holidays, at the same time. If you are still tired the first week that shouldn't be surprising. If you still are overly tired after a month, improve your overall sleep quality. For example get better pillows or sleep in a ...
Why do towels absorb water?	[ "Water likes to stick to some things more than others. The amount of water that sticks to something is determined mainly by three factors: How much it wants to stick to that thing, the amount of surface area of that thing, and the amount that water wants to stick to the other thing (in the case of a beach towel, th...

Subsets and Splits

No community queries yet

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