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Newton's Second Law?	[ "Slap a ball and it'll move in the direction you slapped it. Slap it harder and it'll move faster.", "Newton's first law tells us that anything with a constant velocity (including a stationary object) will continue doing what it is doing unless a force acts upon it.\n\nAcceleration is defined as the change in vel...
How can fluids be incompressible?	[ "Fluids aren't completely incompressible; they're generally more compressible than solids, for sure. It's just that, under the kind of conditions normally studied in fluid dynamics, they will only compress a little tiny bit. So we can simplify a lot of things if we just say \"okay, pretend they can't be compresse...
When a casino brings in a cooler, what exactly is the cooler doing?	[ "Nothing because it's superstitious nonsense.\n\nIf someone is counting cards at a blackjack table and the casino doesn't want to/can't kick them out for some reason, a new dealer will burn a card before they start, which makes it closer to time to shuffle and adds an additional unknown card which makes the count l...
Why is it so difficult for Iran to build nuclear weapons today, if the US could build them in the 40's?	[ "[The Manhattan Project](_URL_2_) was a tremendous project. It [ grew to employ more than 130,000 people and cost nearly US$2 billion (about $26 billion in 2015[1] dollars). Over 90% of the cost was for building factories and producing the fissile materials, with less than 10% for development and production of the ...
What exactly is happening when we taste food?	[ "Its your taste buds that pick up certain chemicals in your food. Your taste buds then send electric pulses to your brain and tells it this is what this thing tastes like, and this is the sensation you should release. That's why the natural human reaction is to pull away from spicy food.", "Smell also greatly inf...
Would "station spinning" (the "rotating wheel") really create a sensation of gravity in a space station?	[ "It works, and the best part is that you don't have to rotate the station to see the effect. If you move around a stationary circular station the result is pretty similar; NASA played around with this during Skylab: _URL_0_", "The effect would not stop the moment you jumped into the air, because if you did this y...
If everything in the universe disappeared except Earth, our moon, and the Sun, would it be self-sufficient?	[ "In the short term, probably. The loss of the other planets would have a small but non-negligible effect on the orbits of the three remaining bodies, so eventually something would likely start to go wrong there. \n\nThat aside, the Earth-Moon system is pretty much self-sufficient. There isn't really anything that t...
What's so great about Chicago Cubs winning the world series?	[ "Toronto fan here. I found myself really happy for the Cubs winning. I guess to put it really into words it starts with the 108 year drought of them not winning a championship - it is just so notorious. There is no longer drought between Championships for any other team not just in baseball, but in the NBA/NHL/NFL,...
Humans have a limited audio and visual range. Do we also have a limited range of taste?	[ "Taste is basically the ability to detect the chemical makeup of a substance. \n\nSo yeah, pretty much any chemical we can't taste counts.", "What you need to understand is that our senses are basically electrical and chemical impulses transmitted by tiny sensors that receive a limited range of stimuli from the e...
What are the Credit Derivatives on the US Debt Clock? Are those simply bets? A type of credit? Or an enormous market that is separate from our GDP?	[ "Derivatives are mostly like insurance policies, and this is ELI5... I'm going to start with a story.\n\nJohn buys an old comic book at an auction for $1000. John expects that the value of that comic book will go up in the future. If John was worried that the comic might get damaged (and the value of the comic mi...
Why do so many countries simply have 3 vertical or horizontal stripes as a flag?	[ "For most of history, flags were considerably more complex. Back then, a noble house would make a flag that symbolized their wealth and power, so they would go all out, spending on it like a modern wealthy family spends on cars or gardens.\n\nThe tricolor comes from the needs of the French Revolution. Before that, ...
If all dogs are the same species, how can there be so many different and diverse breeds?	[ "We've spent thousands of years breeding dogs for specific purposes, leading to a wide diversity of shapes suited to those purposes. Then in the last hundred years or so we've started \"ultra typing\" these dogs, picking those traits that we think define a breed and selecting them to the extreme. \n\nThey are all t...
Near Sighted and Far sighted	[ "Take a set of binoculars and look at something far away and focus them properly. Now put a book in front of the binoculars and try to read it. You can't because it's blurry.\n\nSimilarly, if you are far-sighted, the lens in your eye does not focus properly on things that are close to it." ]
Why is it that most people write in blue, but we print all books etc. in black?	[ "As a lawyer, I always want my clients to sign documents in blue. It is a carry over from photocopying - photocopy is black & white, so a blue signature is \"original\". Of course this doesn't really apply as much now that everyone has color copiers but we still maintain the practice. \n\nBut, because of this pra...
What happens in the body when you get swollen and how does the swelling go away?	[ "Swelling is interstital fluid entering the area. It's different than bruising which is blood underneath the area of injury. The lymphatic system regulates the swelling and pulls that fluid out of the area eventually. However, in some cases it doesn't happen in certain spots as well which is why you see people wit...
How do trains stay on their tracks?	[ "Basically because the wheels aren't perfectly cylindrical, they are cone shaped, the outer side is a smaller diameter than the inner side. This means that the weight of the train and the difference in rotation speeds between matched wheels forces continuous position adjustments that keep the train centered betwee...
Why do medicine commercials list all the bad/crazy side effects on TV?	[ "They have to. They are required by law (how much they have to say depends on where you live though)." ]
why my computer speakers go spastic every time i get a call on my phone	[ "Your mobile phone communicates with the phone network using electromagnetic radio waves.\n\nOne feature of electromagnetic waves is that when they pass through a wire, they create an electric current in the wire.\n\nThis is what's happening. The phone is generating electromagnetic waves so it can communicate with ...
Two people with no knowledge of each others language learning each others languages.	[ "So I read a book that had something like this involved. It was about an American family going into their cabin, the son and father go first to make sure everything is ok. Then, the mom, daughter and baby get sick so the father goes bak home to help them, anyway, the boy met a Native American \"tribe\" or \"family\...
How to build a good bridge?	[ "before building anything physical you'd want to run all the math to make sure no details are missed about what parts are built and what forces will be endured.\n\nThere's also vibration, oscillation. That can cause forces other than what's planned which bend and strain the bridge materials.\n\nMetals will be alloy...
where does the expression "you only use 10% of your brain" come from?	[ "I learned just yesterday that this myth comes from a misunderstanding of a William James quote. Here's a pretty interesting [TedTalk] (_URL_0_) that explains!", "I was always under the impression that it was because only ~10% of the brain is actually neurons (the wiring and \"working\" part) and the rest was gli...
I know penny auctions are a rip but why are they a rip off?	[ "Let's say you and 10 other people have 500 pennies. \n\nUp for auction is a pack of bubble gum with a retail value of $1.00.\n\nThe bidding starts at 1 penny. \n\nYou have a legitimate chance to buy the gum for 1/100 of its retail value. \n\nYou bid a penny. Someone else bids two pennies. Ok, now you can outbid th...
Zero-Determinant Strategies vs. Tit-for-Tat in the Iterated Prisoner’s Dilemma	[ "There are multiple levels you can strategize on.\n\nYou can strategize just based on the current round. The optimal strategy is then to always defect. This might make my opponent defect more in future rounds, but I don't care.\n\nYou can strategize based on the outcome of the previous round. Then the optimal strat...
Why haven't animals learnt to stay the fuck away from humans considering how often we kill them?	[ "Those animal populations that are actively hunted do. You can tell this easily by observing deer. Deer who live in an area long enough learn when hunting season is and are much more skittish during that season. Deer also seem know when they are on land that is safe. I have often seen deer run like maniac to get aw...
How do matches work?	[ "The tip of a match is dipped in phosphorus. Phosphorus burns when it is really hot.\n\nYou swipe a match on a rough strip, which creates friction. Friction becomes heat.\n\nThe heat causes the phosphorus to burn. The fire then uses the wooden matchstick as fuel, so it doesn’t stop burning." ]
How does LTE/4G/3G data signals go through walls to a phone? Why is coverage "stronger" in different parts of a house?	[ "You know how you can see through glass? That's because light waves in the visible range (430-790THz) can pass through glass. You know how you have some glass that looks green? That's because it lets green light through but not red, orange, yellow, blue, or violet. \n\nRadio waves are light waves too. They just hap...
What is the difference between crystal and glass?	[ "Crystal is a structure where atoms / molecules are ordered in a self-similar repeating structure. Glass is a solid substance when atoms/molecules don't form any ordered repeating structure, and the substance can be heated so it becomes more runny/~~elastic~~ less viscous, and then cooled back into a solid form.\n\...
Why is Islam the only religion that has to defend itself against allegations of it prompting believers to violence?	[ "Former muslim here. \nThe life of Muhammed is divided into 2 phases: Mecca, & Medina. \nBack when he was in Mecca he didn't have much support, hence the verses of Quran were tolerant & accepting, like \"Al-Nahl\" \"The Bees\" verse number 125 **Invite to the way of your Lord with wisdom and good instruction,...
Explain LI5 what is beyond Internet Service Providers	[ "It's all about peering agreements.\n\nBasically, two ISPs have an agreement along the lines of \"I'll carry your traffic if you carry mine\" and connect themselves to each other. Of course, there are two many ISPs for every ISP to have an agreement with every other ISP, but if you just have connections to a few ...
Why does the Fukushima plant still leak so much contaminated water into the sea?	[ "The more important questions are what is your concept of \"so much\"? And does it matter? How much does it matter? [Beta radiation has the weakest penetration power](_URL_0_).", "Many of the structures you see contuinue down below grade level. They have sustained structural damage from the massive earthquake....
How can the DEA make the decision to ban Kratom in 30 days with no legislation passed by the US government?	[ "> With no legislation passed by the US government\n\nBut there was - in 1970 when Nixon declared his \"War on Drugs\" and Congress passed the Controlled Substances Act\n\n_URL_0_\n\n3 years later the DEA was established with an amazing amount of unregulated power to decide what people are and are not legally ...
If a movie does well in the box office, who gets all of the money/profit?	[ "The company that produced it (Paramount, Warner Bros., etc). The people involved with making the film are generally paid by this company, and the company gets the profit from the actual output (the movie). I'm sure some actors and such have contracts that state that they'll get part of the profits from the film ...
why do Muslims take issue with depictions of Prophet Muhammad, but seem okay with movies such as the Passion of the Christ which depict other major prophets of Islam?	[ "We are not okay with movies such as the passion of Christ. As Muslims, we shouldn't depict any prophets, but we shouldn't get violent over it.", "Images of Jesus and Moses are also prohibited. The people who \"seem okay with\" it are just relatively tolerant Muslims.\n\n_URL_0_", "I think the point is that Muh...
Are the garbled words/spelling when viewing CC (Closed Caption) TV and online videos fixable?	[ "If you're talking about closed captioning of live TV, no, it can't be fixed. They can barely keep up with typing everything the first time; no way could they go back. \n\nAnything that's recorded for later playback could be fixed, but the time and expense is rarely considered worth it, assuming you're just askin...
How do modern pop bands/pop stars start their careers? for instance lady Gaga, Katey Perry, or Imagine Dragons	[ "I'm going to be interested in what other people here have to say, since this is a question I've been thinking about recently too.\nSome things I do recall: Katy Perry supposedly started out playing shitty acoustic shows in LA, and Lady Gaga did a variety of things to start out - burlesque shows, shows in small NYC...
Why is 0% brightness on smartphones still so bright?	[ "I think the real reason is so that you can't turn the brightness down so low that you can't see the screen to turn it back up.", "\"0%\" on a smartphone isn't actually 0%, it's likely something like 2 or 3 percent of your backlight's power (This will vary by phone)", "The backlight on your smartphone is either...
How is a piece of software like "Scan/Check Disk" able to fix a piece of hardware being your "Hard Drive"? What is going on behind the scenes here and why can't the OS just fix these errors on-the-fly?	[ "Your hard drive uses an organization system. Think of it like the index of a book, it's page numbers and table of contents too. There's way too much data to ever keep track of otherwise.\n\nAs it's working, it's constantly updating and editing this index to reflect the drive's contents. Pulling the plug before it ...
Why are American cities so 'Manhattanised'?	[ "While the population of those two cities (and many other examples) seems on the smaller size on paper, that's because you're looking at the population of only the municipality proper. This is usually a smallish area that consists of the downtown/CBD and then older neighbourhoods around it, while not accounting for...
How did North Korea become the dictatorship it is today?	[ "After the fall of Nazi Germany the USSR began a military campaign against Japan (the last remaining Axis power).\n\nSoviet military forces seized Pyongyang and Kim Il-sung was installed as the leader of the Communist party.\n\nNorth Korea declared itself a sovereign entity in 1948 and has been a dictatorship ever ...
Are sweatshop workers better off if their factories close down?	[ "If you're in a third world country, your other options might include:\n\n* Farm work: You vs. the elements, back breaking work\n* Mining: Sometimes in dangerous, unregulated, illegal conditions\n* Waste management: Possibly dealing with dangerous waste from first-world nations such as electronics which can contain...
Why do most people's faces swell up after crying for a long time or crying hard?	[ "Your body is flooding your system with histamines causing inflamation, congestion, etc. in response to stress." ]
How do trees know how long a year is?	[ "Every plant has a time of year when they do the most growing. It's unimaginatively known as the \"growing season\". We can measure time using tree rings because for each species of tree there's a time of year when they start growing, and their growth is very fast, compared to a time of year when their growth is ve...
Why is it that in animated series, objects that can move around are drawn differently than static objects?	[ "Drawn differently? Like the classic Wile E Coyote where you can tell that THAT rock right there is going to squish him because it's a different color? That's because when those were done animation was still printed on cels and those cels were [layered on top of each other](_URL_0_). So you'd have a background stat...
Why do people stop and look when there is a traffic accident ?	[ "When we do the same mundane task over and over and over, our brain basically shuts off. We just continue doing the mundane task as a brain \"sub routine\" and we drift out.\n\nCar accidents are exciting and different, it wakes your brain up. Something is happening so now you're active in your involvement in drivin...
How does swarm intelligence work? How are ants or bees smarter as a group than an individual?	[ "Each individual has a very short list of rules. For an ant, it might read something like, “When outside, look for food. When you have food, release scent. If you have no food, follow the scent.” For any individual, these instinctive behaviors don’t appear very intelligent. The average ant wanders around at ra...
What do people in big corporate legal departments do all day?	[ "It totally depends on the corporation and the lawyer, but activities might include:\n\n* Writing or reviewing contracts between one corporation and another\n* Responding to subpoenas or information requests from the government or law enforcement - for example if the FBI is tracking a criminal, they may ask Google ...
Is it true that America does not negotiate with terrorists? Why not?	[ "If you give a mouse a cookie, he's going to want a glass of milk.\n\nIf you negotiate with terrorists, it feeds the cycle that people can manipulate you by being terrorists. Hence you get more terrorists.", "Technically this is completely and utterly false, the US negotiates all the time. However for the questi...
Why do all SUVs have a rear windshield wiper while almost every sedan doesn't?	[ "I think it has to do with the rear window of SUV's/minivans being more vertical compared to a car which usually has a more angled back window.\n\nPassing air wont blow the water off the suv back window the same way it would in a car.", "Aerodynamics. The shape of an SUV (or wagon, or hatchback) is such that the...
Why are aboriginal boobies not blurred on TV when other boobs in the USA are blurred?	[ "In the United States, the government isn't normally allowed to restrict speech, including what people put on television. There are a number of ways to get around this, but the biggest one is that free speech doesn't cover \"obscenity.\" What this means, though, is that the ability to block someone from, say, put...
How is a game made from a totally new engine (like overwatch)?	[ "Likely your first step is going to be how to display something, so you would code an interface to the graphics systems (we're going broad here) that tells it you want a square on the screen. Then you want to apply a specific color. Then you may want to be able to put a specific design on it. You slowly (and painfu...
How can companies not have nutritional information on their food?	[ "There are a few exceptions to the rules about labeling. If you're buying it from the company that makes it, then it probably falls under the \"Delicatessen-type food, bakery products and confections that are sold directly to consumers from the location where prepared\" exclusion. \n\nThere are a few other exclusio...
Why has Iran so quickly reversed its footing on its nuclear program?	[ "The latest sanctions on the Iranians have effectively crippled the countries economy to a point that is essentially unsustainable and will only get worse if they continue on their current course. The Iranians have come to the table and accepted very large concessions about their nuclear program in order to ease th...
Aren't Christian faith healers and self-proclaimed "prophets" blaspheming? Is it not against Christianity to claim to be able to personally provide access to God and salvation?	[ "Well, blasphemy means either insulting a god, or claiming to have the powers of a god. Those wouldn't necessarily apply: the Christian Bible has many stories of people with powers of prophecy and healing.\n\nBut from a religious point of view, the obvious question is: Do they actually have the gifts of healing and...
Genetic Dominance	[ "An allele is a particular version or form of a gene. Dominant alleles usually are the version of a gene that codes for a particular protein, and recessive alleles are usually coding for an absent or non-functional protein. \n\nSo consider something like lactose intolerance. You only need a few lactase enzyme prote...
Our body fight diseases by increasing the temperature, why betraying it by cooling ourselves down?	[ "Your body is a house, pathogens are a thousand and thousand of cockroaches ramping on the floor.\nFever is basically the house habitant (immune system) being like \"Oh fuck it, let's burn the fucking house down\".\n\nIt's super effective but it can be very damaging, when a fever isn't really high, doctors usually ...
How does too much salt increase blood pressure?	[ "[It's not entirely clear that it does.](_URL_0_) High levels of sodium consumption (sodium being the half of the table salt molecule, NaCl, that's relevant here) have traditionally been associated with hypertension (i.e., high blood pressure). But recent research indicates that the relationship between sodium inta...
Why do people in movies automatically bleed through the mouth when they are injured in the belly area? It's something that happens in real life?	[ "It's possible but not too common. If someone is stabbed or shot in the stomach, most of the blood would drain down, not be coughed up.\n\nHowever, if someone is stabbed in the lungs, it's definitely more possible. There's a lot of blood vessels in your lungs and you could definitely see people coughing up blood in...
When and why did humans begin to wear clothing?	[ "When is tricky. Clothing is unlikely to survive as long as other tools, so we can't say with certainty that the earliest tool-users (Australopithecus) didn't wear furs or other clothing.\n\nAs to why? That's also tricky. There's no historical or archaeological record of early clothing, so your guess is as good as ...
Why is it rude to ask people how old they are?	[ "Society seems to have an ideal age to look like (somewhere around 21-25), and everyone is always trying to look as close to that age as possible. Asking someone their age destroys any and all effort they've put into that attempt to appear closer to that ideal age.", "It's only rude if the person is offended by t...
why to we have a divot beneath our noses and above our mouths.	[ "It is a seam left over from when you were formed in your mothers womb.", "(note: the following is folklore and not science, I'm not a believer but that doesn't mean I can't appreciate a pretty story)\n\nA poetic explanation I've heard is that your guardian angel comes down from heaven at the instant of your birt...
ELI5: What are the best explanations of how to visualize an atom?	[ "How about:- \n\nA small fuzzy ball that you can't quite see surrounded by a larger fuzzy cloud of stuff that you also can't quite get a fix on.", "The best model (to my knowledge, as a college student not studying chemistry or quantum physics) is a small, dense nucleus made of neutrons and protons, surrounded by...
- Why do my teeth get a funny feeling when I have to pee really badly?	[ "I definately have experienced this and ive talked to many other people who have as well. Ive even heard it refferred to in a book, i cant remember the book at all unfortunately. I remember character used the phrase \"i have to pee so bad my teeth are floating\" or something to that effect. Ur def not alone dude"...
What is lag?	[ "Every time you move your avatar you push a button. It takes time for the button push to register from your keyboard to your computer, from your computer to the internet, from the internet to the game servers, the change in avatar location takes time to go from the server to the internet, to others computers. \n\nT...
why the US and many other western countries were not on Bashar al-Assads side, but rather wanted to take him down, when his enemies are apparently ISIS. Shouldn't the west support the enemies of ISIS?!	[ "The Syrian Civil War isn't simply Assad vs. ISIS. There are many other factions involved, including Hezbollah, Kurdish forces, many (small, disorganized) various anti-Assad rebels, and Israel.\n\n[This map](_URL_0_) might help.\n\nThat's why the west struggled with how to handle Syria - none of the opposition gro...
If the United States got invaded today, what would happen?	[ "By who, aliens?\n\nThere is no country in the world that has the projective military power of the US. With their air and missile defenses, it is unlikely any country besides Mexico or Canada could get military forces anywhere near the mainland.\n\nWithout being more specific, it is not a question that can be answ...
What does "Depraved Heart Murder" mean?	[ "You may be interested in the following thread. There are some bad answers in there, but a few comprehensive ones and discussion following.\n\n_URL_0_" ]
The difference between private healthcare and public healthcare	[ "I'm not 100% on the Australian system, but this should basically explain it:\n\nPublic healthcare is a hospital. Lots of different patients, many doctors and nurses. Partially paid for by the government.\n\nPrivate healthcare is a called a practice. It's a lot smaller, and often targets one specific type of patien...
what is going on in your body when you get paranoid/anxiety attacks/vomitting when you smoke too much weed?	[ "If you were 21 instead of 5, and happened to be visiting a state like mine with legal recreational cannabis, I might recommend you try an indica instead of a sativa.", "I'll try my best but probably not the best explanation. \n\nGetting anxious and vomiting and all of the symptoms of a whitey is your body sayin...
Academic Probation, and University transferring help	[ "Just pointing out that questions like these are exactly why your school has assigned you an advisor. They are very helpful and can usually answer questions about specific universities in your area and offer advise on how to tailor your studies towards transferring to the program you want at the school you're loo...
Glasses	[ "Glasses are just lenses. What lenses do is they change the direction of light (which travels in a straight line) that passes through them. Specifically, light that passes through different parts of the lens has it's direction changed by a different amount. When light is coming from more or less the same direction ...
Why do children instinctively like cartoons ?	[ "I think it's less that kids 'instinctively' like cartoons, but rather that producers understand what kids will like and cater to that. Cartoons are a big part of that, obviously, but also live action shows like teletubbies, yo gabba gabba, and sesame street, for example.", "I imagine it is due to the possibiliti...
What is happening in C# when I call a method?	[ "By \"out\" value, do you mean the return value of a method, or the `out` variable created by something like `Int32.TryParse()`? They are not the same: `TryParse` does not return the parsed integer, but a boolean (`True` or `False`) depending on if the parsing of the string entered as the first argument was success...
what exactly is vibrational and chassis tuning when automakers are testing vehicles and concepts?	[ "Everything has a resonant frequency, the pitch where the whole structure will vibrate and generally cause problems for people in or near the thing.\n\nBridges sometimes collapse (for example) because the wind or the people walking across it match the resonant frequency and amplify it until the structure fails.\n\n...
Why do most drones have four spinning instead of three?	[ "I'm assuming you are talking about the rotors here and not the wheels or anything else, since you haven't stated it.\n\nWith rotor aircraft the ideal set up is to have an even number of rotors, be that 2 or 4 or 8. The reason for this is gyroscopic torque, the same reason a helicopter (1 rotor, odd number) needs a...
How does someone end up owing thousands in back taxes?	[ "Easy. Your W-2 was't filled out right and didn't automatically withdraw enough taxes. Then come tax time you owe thousands of dollars because you didnt pay enough during the year. However you didnt realize this was happening and don't have the money to pay right away.\n\nBoom back taxes.", "The most common way i...
why is there a calm before the storm?	[ "There isn't always, but when there is it is because when the warm, dry, stable air rolls in it 'calms down' the rest of the air. \n\nSource:[how stuff works](_URL_0_)" ]
Dyslexia	[ "First, disclaimer if I am not doing this right. But I just created a reddit account and this is my first comment. I had/have dyslexia too. I had a very difficult time learning how to speak, read, and write (in that order). From 2-12 grade, I had to study for hours after school (w a tutor up to grade 6). With ...
How does our brain create a mind?	[ "This is a question no one knows the answer to, there are plenty of theories about what it could be though.", "I have a degree in Cognitive Science, and I can assure you that nobody knows. Not even close. It's often debated whether it is even possible for us to know.", "One theory is that there are tiny magneti...
Where does deleted data go?	[ "Imagine the device you are saving your data to as a library with a special place for each book and an index list that tells you in which book you have to look for a specific information (piece of data). Now when you delete data, usually only the entry on the index list is removed, the book is still in place. If, i...
lack of guilt	[ "Could be any number of things, such as:\n\n1. The way they were raised. If \"white lies\" were seen as okay when they were growing up, they are unlikely to feel guilty about them later in life.\n2. Habit. If they do something \"wrong\" a lot, the mind adjusts to it and no longer causes feelings of guilt. That ...
How are random product/reward codes generated?	[ "Lets assume for a moment the key is comprised of just uppercase letters. This allows for 26 options for each character of the key, giving a total of 26^25 possible combinations. 26^25 is about 2.3\\10^(35) total, or about 3.2\\10^(25) (that's 32,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000) possible combinations *for every l...
Can you get a computer virus if you go to a site but don't click anything? Or stream a video but don't download it?	[ "Yes. A site could have javascript that downloads or installs things, or if it uses flash, you could have an out of date version that's susceptible to an exploit in what you're watching.\n\nTo stream something, you have to download it. Think of a download like going and buying a book to take home, and a stream as...
If my allergy to dust has evolved to make me sneeze/cough/runny nose why should I take drugs to counter that? Does it not serve a similar function of pain or smell in letting me know of something that is harmful?	[ "Allergies occur when the immune system responds to a stimulus which does not require an immune response. It's essentially an error, or, maybe more accurately, an overreaction to something that is not actually harmful. You take the medicine to alleviate the symptoms you are suffering from something that shouldn't o...
How is it someone can do 100 squats but can't run but a few miles?	[ "ELI5: bulldozers can lift tons of weight but can't go fast. They are built for one thing and they do other things not as well. Race cars can go fast but can't lift tons.", "It's less about their leg muscles and more about their lungs and heart. To do a marathon, you don't need to use much more leg strength than ...
Situation in Yemen right now.	[ "The situation in Yemen is a bit crazy and alliances are changing in a very unexpected way. I'll try to make this as short as possible since I'm only taking a break from studying for finals.\n\n\nBefore the Arab Spring:\n\n* The Ali Abdullah Saleh Regime is an ally of Saudi Arabia\n* The Houthi movement is an a...
Why is there no tri-core processor (3x)?	[ "/u/shawnaroo almost had it right. Integrated Circuits (ICs), due to the way they are manufactured, are rectangular in shape. And when you put multiple copies of something as big as a core on a chip, you essentially do a \"cut and paste\" (almost). You also don't (usually) want to make a chip a lot longer than ...
What laws prevent the majority stockholder of a corporation from just giving away the corporation's assets?	[ "They're not her property. You can't give away property belonging to someone else. Even if that person is a legal fiction you have majority control over. \nThe majority stockholder could push the board to give away assets, but that would likely be a breach of the board's [fiduciary duty](_URL_0_) to the minority...
where does that style of writing that graffiti artists always use come from, and why do so many of them use it?	[ "Grab a can of spray paint and start trying to write. With very thick lines created by the wide spray you are limited in the legibility if you don't write like that." ]
What are undeclinable requests like, 'Could you get the door for me?' called and how do they work from a linguistic or sociological standpoint?	[ "This type of language is used in sales pitches and marketing around the world. Opinion polls and surveys and questionnaires too.\n\nIt's called a \"Leading Question\".\n\nIt's a form of persuasion and it's something we just pick up - we all do it, subconsciously. Some people (stage magicians, salespeople etc) st...
The Maccabees	[ "A rebellion against Greek rule by Jews in the 160s BC. The Greek king wanted to have a statue of himself in the Holy of Holies in the Tenple, the most holy place in Judaism. The Jewish population was having none of that, and managed to fight off the Greek king's army. A lantern in the Temple which was meant to nev...
What is the difference between cheap 35-49p energy drinks and red bull?	[ "That brand costs a lot of money. They advertise the fuck out of their sugar water and sponsor crazy shit left and right.\n\nIn addition to that, RB charges more to keep the impression that the brand is better than others. There's really no reason it should cost any more than Coca Cola." ]
what does the symmetrical group of n letters (and more specifically the alternating group of n letters) actually mean?	[ "Hey, I sent this to you as part of our message thread, but just in case anyone else wants to see it:\n\nOkay, so we can start with symmetric groups. Let's say you have an ordered \"tuple\" of n things. We'll just use 3 for brevity. We can use symbols as the things:\n\n(a, b, c)\n\nA permutation over n things is ...
How can dogs smell cancer?	[ "The current theory is that cancer cells produce characteristic organic compounds which get into the bloodstream and are then also present in the patient's breath - only in tiny amounts, but enough to be detected by a dog's amazingly keen sense of smell.\n\nWhich compounds those are exactly is still being research...
Why does a multitool spin this funny way in zero gravity?	[ "It's because the rotation about that axis is unstable, and small deviations quickly build until the pliers flip round. You can see the same effect if you throw a tennis racket in the air.\n\n_URL_0_", "Veritasium did a video on this except with a cellphone.\n\n_URL_1_", "As a side note: zero gravity has nothin...
What does "force start" while using a torrent client actually accomplish?	[ "In μTorrent at least, it means \"Ignore download queue settings and start right now\". For instance, if you have it set so no more than X torrents will be downloading at one time, the normal Start will respect that and put lower-priority torrents on hold. Force Start lets you override that setting temporarily for...
Why can Putin openly introduce ridiculous legislation against LGBT groups, (teaching kids that gays dont exist) yet still retain global political integrity?	[ "I don't think he has retained global integrity. But he is the leader of his own sovereign nation, so besides going to war or using diplomatic channels to persuade him, there is nothing we can do to actually stop him." ]
How can an area see very little rainfall but also see quite a bit of snowfall.	[ "Several things to consider here. One is that an inch of rain can be a foot of snow. So if you get a couple of 10ths inch of rain, this could translate into several inches of snow. Another thing is that some places get rain seasonally. It may never rain in July and August, but maybe May gets most of the rain. The r...
If radiation kills cells, and cancer is uncontrolled cell growth, then why does high-volume radiation cause cancer?	[ "Radiation causes damage to the DNA. At a low enough dose, it will simply damage the DNA but allow the cell to live. In this case, the cell could then develop cancerous properties due to the damaged DNA, and before you know it you have cancer.", "Because radiation-induced cancer falls between that level of radiat...
Why some frequently occuring diseases like psoriasis are still incurable?	[ "In order to cure a disease, you need to be able to (generally speaking):\n\n* Know what causes it and how that process or processes get started and progress\n\n* Be able to design some kind of agent that will reliably stop that process\n\n* Have that agent not cause worse effects than the original disease\n\n* Hav...
How are serving sizes on nutritional labels determined, and why are they often so much lower than a realistic amount that most people would consume?	[ "They are arbitrary. They are just used so you have a reference for the nutrition label. \n\nThe smaller the serving, the healthier you food looks to unobservant consumers.", "Whatever portion of the food has a reasonable amount of salt, fat, carbs or sugar is usually what they call a serving. But let's serious....

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