Split (3)

train · 273k rows

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Why do cables like earplugs and chargers tangle up so badly and seemingly easily in your pockets?	[ "Basically, there is one state for the wires to be organized but nearly infinite ways for them to be tangled. It's much more likely that they will be tangled with movement than remain organized.\n\nAnother way of thinking about it, when you wind your wires into multiple loops, any time a loop or one of ends of the ...
Why babies/toddlers are more susceptible to ear infections?	[ "It might have something to do with the Eustachian Tube. In children under the age of seven it is shorter and in a more horizontal position than adults. Because of this, mucus might not drain from it as efficiently as it drains from adult ears, thus upping the chance of an ear infection.\n\nOther people feel it has...
How in cold weather, we are able to see our breath come out white, how come we do not see this when we fart?	[ "This answer is going to sound facetious, but bear with me. We generally don't see our farts in cold weather because our assholes are a lot tighter than our mouths.\n\nWhy does this make a difference? Well, because gas that is forced through a small opening expands rapidly, and rapidly expanding gas cools down fast...
Why in some places people in jail aren't allowed to vote?	[ "There are many people who are affected by a government but can't vote. Including children, non-citizens and even people in other countries. We don't normally grant the right to vote based on who is impacted by government regardless of which country you're talking about.", "In many states, felons aren't allowed...
Could someone please highlight/summarize why both American Presidential Candidates are so bad?	[ "I will take a stab, as far as unbiased goes im an aussie so i wont be voting or living in a country under the winner. This will be the summariest of summaries.\n\nTrump: Not a politition as has questionable pedigree. Had bren found doing multiple buisness dodgies. Makes seemingly spur of the moment proclaimations ...
Apparently moonquakes can be caused by tides, but the moon is tidally locked to earth. What tide causes these to occur?	[ "Tidal forcing from the Earth's gravity keeps the moon tidally locked with the Earth, despite variations in its orbit. This means that the Moon is not allowed to freely rotate and has not \"just happened\" to sync up its rotation with its orbit around the Earth, but rather that the Earth's gravity has constant effe...
Why do hot showers dry out your skin?	[ "Your skin is kept moisturized by oils in and near the surface. A hot shower can strip these oils. That allows the moisture in your skin to dry out." ]
How do bullet proof vests work? How do they protect you from bullets?	[ "They spread the force out on a larger area of your body, so you can handle it better.\n\nThink about when you go to the doctor to get a shot. When the nurse sticks the needle in you, she's not using a lot of force. But because the tip of the needle is tiny, it can break your skin easily. \nIf she pressed against y...
Why won't the Queen step down off her monarchy?	[ "Assuming you are talking about Queen Elizabeth II, the simple answer is that there is no pressure for her to do so and she doesn't want to.", "This topic requires some speculation because we can't read her mind, but there's lots of possible answers. \n\n- Why would she? Is there some specific reason why she shou...
The differences between frozen yogurt, frozen custard, ice cream, and gelato	[ "Ice cream is made with cream, milk, sugar, and flavoring (like vanilla or chocolate), sometimes with other ingredients such as eggs. It is churned while it freezes, which mixes air bubbles into it.\n\nGelato is an Italian style of ice cream, made with more sugar and less cream. It has less air in it than most ice ...
What would actually happen if the Large Hadron Collider exploded?	[ "There's nothing in the LHC to explode. The major electricity-using components are the giant magnets that circle the ring, while being cooled by liquid helium. In the event of a major failure, the magnets melt and the beam inside disperses into the concrete and dirt surrounding the LHC.", "Probably not much, in...
What's happening when a TV commercial gets cut off in the middle of it airing?	[ "When a cable company pays a retransmit agreement; they're allowed to insert advertisements over local stuff. These are triggered by IBOC signals; used to be rapid dial-tones you'd hear from time to time back in the 90's before the digital switch over.\n\nOccasionally; an advertisement would get queued up that was ...
What is an algorithm and how do they work?	[ "Typically an algorithm is basically a flowchart for equations/operations. If you've ever followed a flowchart then you know how an algorithm works.\n\nA terrible but simple example would be\n\n* 1: How to never divide by zero f(X)=A/B\n* 2: Input A, B\n* 3: Is B = 0?\n* 4: if yes, B+1, go to line 3\n* 5: if no, g...
Why does your mouth "water" when we are about to have yummy food?	[ "Mouth watering helps specially in the digestion of complex carbohydrates splitting them into simple ones. Many yummy foods are principally made of carbohydrates. That's why salad doesn't make you mouth watering,it has no CH, and why a chocolate cake does.", "Conditioning.\n\nWe salivate to help digest our...
How do electronics keep track of the time when they don't have any power?	[ "In a lot of cases, tiny batteries still give them enough power to keep the time. Some devices also reconnect to the internet after a power failure, and update the time that way.", "They have a small battery inside. Also, nowadays phones and computers connect to the internet in order to get the current time and d...
Why does eating under cooked chicken make us sick, but eating under cooked beef is completely normal	[ "Beef has a higher density than chicken meat, and as such bacteria have a harder time penetrating the outer layers of the beef, compared to chicken meat.\nThis means you just have to take care of the bacteria on the outside of the beef, and you can keep the inside red, if that's what you want.\nFor the exact same r...
What is MLM and pyramid schemes?	[ "People hate them because they hate being bugged by ‘employees’ of these organizations. There’s also a trust factor issue. Are these people really looking out for your best interests or just trying to do whatever they can to make a buck? Also the whole game is sign people up under you to sell products. So people wh...
Why do newspapers often have random sentences where a l l t h e w o r d s a r e w r i t t e n l i k e t h i s?	[ "Newspaper columns are justified on both the left and right, which means that the left margin and the right margin are both straight (see [this image](_URL_0_) for a visual explanation).\n\nThere are a couple of techniques you can use to get both margins straight, and usually you use a combination of both: you can ...
if it's electoral votes--not popular--that elect the president of the USA, then what would have to happen for a third-party president to win?	[ "The same thing that a major party candidate has to do -- win a majority of the electoral votes.\n\nSince the voters in each state choose who the electors are, the third party candidate would have to have a lot of support in almost every state.", "The clouds would have to part and a great hand would have to desce...
How does quantum entanglement not imply information traveling faster than light or how was the EPR paradox solved?	[ "Say that we have two balls, a red one and a blue one. I am on earth, you are next to the sun (roughly 8 light minutes away). Before you left, you took one ball and placed it in a bag. You don't know which one however. I have the other ball, also in a bag. At a given time (we're both wearing synchronized watches), ...
If the US was founded based on the principle of the separation of church and state why is this issue and issues surrounding it (abortion, same sex marriage, etc) still contested and debated?	[ "Because those are separate issues, the \"Separation of Church and State\" just means the government can't favor a religion. The topics of gay marriage and abortion are not directly related, people can be against abortion without believing in a higher power.", "The idea behind the seperation of church and state i...
Why is glass so fragile?	[ "Well, depending on the thickness and tempering, it can be VERY not fragile.\n\nBut I'm assuming for this one the typical glass of a... well, glass. :)\n\nThe thinness of the glass is part of it. The structure of the glass is the other.\n\nThe structure of glass is a lattice of the glass molecules (actually silica...
How do save states work? Why are they so small compared to save ram, yet recall so much information?	[ "In game consoles? The amount of RAM in old consoles is absolutely tiny.\n\nThe NES has 2K of RAM, 2K of video RAM, 256 bytes of OAM and 28 bytes of palette RAM. To save an arbitrary state you'd also need to store things like CPU registers which won't amount to much either.\n\n\nSaved games can be tiny on many game...
Does the USA really not have a measuring system for alcohol in bars?	[ "Here in Spain we do free pour, you can have as much or little as you like, within reason, \nbut that is true for a lot of Europe, \nI think in England, you need an extra license for free pour cocktails" ]
Why do we always "cut" a globe down the Pacific Ocean to make a map instead of the Atlantic Ocean?	[ "The Prime Meridian (0 degrees longitude) runs through the UK and is usually right in the center of a world map. To the right are the eastern longitudes, and to the left are the western longitudes. This matches real life because if you face north, east is to the right and west is to the left.\n\nIt also goes back...
Why is it that girls hand writing is generally neater, small and prettier than boys and writing	[ "There are tons of theories on this, from hormones to culture, to development stages of the female brain outpacing boys. The truth is nobody knows for sure, but it something that is documented and studied:\n\n_URL_0_", "Girls have finer motor skills than boys. This gives them a better handle on using writing ins...
Why does it take a long time for human babies to stand up/crawl but other mammals can stand almost immediately after birth?	[ "The scientific consensus is that humans are birthed early in development as compared to many other mammals as a consequence of our large heads (large brains). So a human baby is much less able to care for itself as compared to other mammalian babies.", "You get ten skill points to put into mobility at birth or ...
Why do speed limits always ends in either 5 or 0? Why not 2 or a 3?	[ "Not no expert but it's probably because the speedometer shows either 5 or 0. 10, 20,30 mph...easier for the driver to figure out rather than looking at each line. This w0uld be different of all cars had digital speedometer.", "Speeds are rounded down to the nearest 5 mph or kmph, that's just the convention for t...
Why isn't the earth's spin visible from a plane?	[ "two different questions. you can see the earth spin from a plane. travel eastwards and the sun will rise earlier due to the earth spinning. travel westwards and sunset is delayed because the earth is spinning in the same direction you are going. \nif you want to convince your roommate the earth is not flat ...
- how does emp work. How long does it's effect last?. Is it practically possible to shut down entire city with emp wave as shown in movies	[ "An EMP is a burst of electromagnetic radiation. There are many different sources for an EMP (including such natural sources as lightning), but the one typically represented in movies is from a nuclear blast. The nuclear blast generates a significant amount of electromagnetic radiation. A strong enough EMP can indu...
Since humans evolved in Africa and have developed an effective thermo-regulation system, why do we still complain about summer's heat and have air conditioner?	[ "Not all of Africa is hit. It's southern most point is a hop away from the Antarctic. There isn't much else to say other then humans have evolved in a wide range of climates as Africa has a wide range of climates." ]
Why have animals adapted so that members of certain species die upon procreation?	[ "Plus in the case of animals that swarm around a single female, the swarm as a whole is a closer analogy to a single larger animal than are individual bees. The genetics that matter are those of the swarm as a whole. The males exist to service that single individual. So one male dies? It's done its job. There may e...
If a starter motor turned the opposite way (from normal) would an engine start/run in said opposite direction?	[ "Nope.\n\nIf you look at a [4 stroke engine](_URL_0_) (there's an animation you should look at), the opening of the valves to let gas in & exhaust gas out is based on the engine turning in a particular direction. If you were going backwards, you'd be drawing air in through the exhaust & trying to blow it back ...
Professional Wrestling	[ "If you're wanting to become a fan of wrestling, here's some things that help. \n\n1. It's not \"fake\", it's \"scripted\". I assure you, everything they do is very real. They do jump off those ladders and they do get hit by chairs. Yes, they know how to do it to minimize the damage, but it's all very real. However...
Could someone explain to me the difference between socialism and liberalism?	[ "This is a really loaded question because the usage of the terms 'liberal' and 'socialist' in the United States aren't representative of what the terms have meant historically. Further complicating this question is that both socialism and liberal theories have different component parts, i.e. economic liberalism, so...
Why is it that girls can fangirl over One Direction, 5SOS, Justin Bieber, Ed Sheeran, etc. ,but if guys fanboy over female singers or female-fronted bands they're considered girly, immature or even lecherous?	[ "Perhaps it has something to do with the message. Almost all fabricated boybands appeal to young girls and tell them they're beautiful. Almost all current girl bands tell young girls they're great as they are, and ain't no man good enough for them. Neither party specifically appeals to Boys, and the Girl groups are...
What does our (user) data actually look like when it is tracked, collected, analyzed and sold?	[ "Former ad tech guy here. Your data (cookie or otherwise) is stored and parsed into segments (male, twenties, white) which are used by ad campaign managers to appropriately target you based off of needs and wants for each ad campaign. Campaigns have a target sheet which tells each campaign manager (or computer, now...
Tax on savings (UK)	[ "You're not taxed on the savings themselves, but any interest you earn on your savings is treated as income. In practice, most savings are now tax-free for many people. You now pay no tax on the first £500 or £1000 of interest per year.\n\nFor pensions, you pay no tax on money that you pay into a pension, then you ...
What is actually happening when we are experiencing a headache?	[ "Not sure about headaches, but migraine is caused by spasms in your blood vessels in the brain. Unfortunately I'm a migraine-sufferer myself.", "Some people have genetic predisposition to certain triggers that stimulate their fight or flight nervous system (specifically, innervation by the trigeminal nerve) that ...
How could the US intervene so quickly in Libya but do nothing in response to the declining situation and recent massacres in Syria?	[ "A lot of it has to do with political alliances. It is a horrible truth, but essentially Syria's geographic location, and leadership's connections to Iraq, Turkey, and most importantly Saudi Arabia meant that the US was very hesitant to get involved. At the time of Ghaddafi's (sp.) downfall, he had essentially no l...
Do clouds muffle the sound of thunder (or other sounds)?	[ "The way sound is muffled when going through some sort of foam material is that the air has to be pushed through the small holes, reducing the speed at which the air moves and turning that energy into heat. Clouds consist of very small droplets of air, kinda like very fine dust - which move with the air rather than...
Australian Senate Election	[ "In Australia there are two houses of Parliament, the Upper House (Senate) and the Lower House (House of Reps). The house of reps is divided into seats typically based on population groups of about 80000.\n\nThese divisions mean that the larger states have more seats in the house of reps, and therefore more influen...
Why do we like things we don't have but once we have them they start losing their worth?	[ "Typically, it comes down to your perception of the items value. What can it do for me? You convince yourself that it will benefit you to have it and it will, in some way, make life easier or more enjoyable. Once you have it you realize the item has fewer or less useful functions, it's functions are novel, or it's ...
How do multiple bit streams of audio get combined into one bit stream of audio?	[ "It's probably best to know how soundwaves work to understand this. Every single thing you hear comes as a single \"waveform\". This is why a single vibrating speaker is capable of producing drums and piano and singing and more drums and guitar through a single motion of a single physical speaker. \n\nSo...to co...
Why does a finger with a bandaid turn white and wrinkly and other parts of your body with clothing don't?	[ "Clothing tends to breathe. Try wearing thick socks and steel toed work boots in a hot environment for 10-12 hours and see how your feet look afterwards.", "It depends on how moist the skin becomes and whether or not that moisture is allowed to evaporate away. This effect will be much more pronounced, for example...
Why do plants have to get covered up when it gets cold outside?	[ "Same reason you cover up when you go outside. It isn't so much that it keeps them warm, but that it keeps stuff off of them, more like a rain jacket. Some plants don't like snow or frost to be on them, especially fruiting plants. The small layer of covering helps to keep them from being touched directly by things ...
Can a planet have two Suns like Tatooine?	[ "Yes. There are plenty of binary star systems in the known universe. However, the planets orbiting them might not be habitable, as temperatures would likely vary greatly due to how the planet orbits the stars." ]
If honey doesn't spoil, how can it ferment (to make mead and honeyed wines and such)?	[ "Honey doesnt normally spoil because its dry. It has almost no water in it at all, and if any bacteria attach to it, due to osmosis it sucks the water out of it and kills it off. Its also incredibly acidic which kills off lots of bacteria.\n\nIf humans add lots of water to it, suddenly the bacteria can feed off of ...
How do you build a website from scratch?	[ "If you want to truly start from scratch, you need to get your hands dirty in a web development framework. You need to program a content management system. Popular frameworks include Python/Django, Ruby on Rails, and .NET. It's going to take a lot of work and knowledge to build a production level content managem...
Why don't animals react the same way to bad smells like humans do?	[ "Dogs are particularly attracted to very strong smells because they can use it to hide their own smell. It's a form of camouflage: remember that dogs are predators, and anything that makes it harder for their prey to detect them is an advantage.\n\nHumans are repelled by the smell of things like faeces and rotting ...
crossbow vs compound bow	[ "The draw weight is only half the equation for the energy of a projectile. The other is the draw distance.\n\nThe reason for that is simple: The longer you push against a moving object, the more it's going to speed up. That means that you can calculate the kinetic energy of a linearly accelerated object by multiply...
How did the British decide what intelligence from breaking Enigma to act on and what to let go?	[ "Well the good news about breaking Enigma is that they now would know everything that German intelligence knew. The Germans communicated with their troops and generals through the Enigma transmissions, therefore, if you had broken Enigma, and the Germans didn't know you had, they would continue using it as if no on...
How do genetic traits work if both of them are dominant?	[ "It depends. You could get something like what you described. You could also get something called codominance, where both traits are expressed simultaneously. For example, blood types do this. A type is dominant, and B type is dominant. If you inherit both, your blood type is AB, because your cells express both ant...
why does the max volume on my device vary so much based on what it is playing?	[ "It is entirely dependent on the volume level used when mastering the video/song/etc. Some use a standard 'volume'. This is why all songs on iTunes are almost identical volume when they play at the same level on your phone. However, YouTube doesn't require this and as such some videos published retain the low 'mast...
why does the sun feel so good on your skin when you have a fever?	[ "Because when you have a fever, your body is internally very hot, which means heat is flowing out of your skin rapidly, so you feel cold. When the sun hits your skin, you stop feeling cold because heat is flowing into your skin as well (almost 2 horsepower worth of heat per square meter)." ]
how can currencies' price drop and rise? And What are they based on?	[ "Currencies rise and fall based on the value of the goods / services for which they can be redeemed in a given country. Thus the value of a currency can be varied by a variety of factors. Exports and the international market play a role in determining value as do stock markets, etc. Governments or other financial b...
How exactly does muscle growth work?	[ "Your muscles are made from bundles of stringy cells that are capable of contracting and relaxing. Exercise and damage to the muscle from overuse will cause your body to adapt and build the muscle up more strongly than it was before (more bundles of cells for more pulling). \n\nYour body creates those new muscle ce...
How did bad vision as a trait/defect survive natural selection?	[ "Avast ye! Yer not alone in askin', and kind strangers have explained:\n\n1. [ELI5: Why didn't bad eyesight get naturally selected out? ](_URL_5_) ^(_24 comments_)\n1. [ELI5: Why hasn't eyesight been phased out with natural selection? Wouldn't poor eyesight be detrimental to survival? ](_URL_6_) ^(_12 comments_)\n1...
What is happening when I log onto a website and I see a notification saying "establishing a secure connection"?	[ "There are two major components of a secure connection:\n\n1. Identity Verification\n\n2. Encryption of Communications\n\nAll websites which support secure connections must have a certificate. This certificate is signed by a trusted Certificate Authority who is willing to put their credibility on the line by vouchi...
Why does brushing one's teeth completely RUIN orange juice immediately afterward?	[ "Most toothpaste has a chemical in it called SLS, which is what makes the toothpaste foamy.\n\nSLS temporarily blocks your tastebuds from being able to taste \"sweet\" well. It also removes fat. Fat normally blocks you from tasting \"bitter.\"\n\nSo you taste less \"sweet,\" and more \"bitter.\" Orange juice is a c...
are photons (light) impacted by air/wind once the reach earth from the sun?	[ "They are impacted by the air.\n\nOnce they hit the atmosphere they scatter, which is why we get a blue sky in the middle of the day, while at sunrise and sunset we get a red sky. As the light passes through the air, more and more of the light scatters.\n\nLight travels far too fast to be impacted by the wind.", ...
What is a "resort fee" and who decides their price?	[ "To my understanding, a resort fee is a flat rate charge which covers access to the extra ammenities a hotel may offer. Rather than charging for individual services such as the pool, spa, massage, or whatever else (I don't know what those would be because I usually just go to a hotel only to sleep) or other extra...
Why do strange bugs show up when you leave cardboard/variants put away for a long time?	[ "Cardboard and is mostly processed wood, an organic material. Which means it's food for some organisms. If you add a humid environment, like that associated with warm weather, and lack of light, bacteria and mold can now grow on your cardboard. Which means that there is now food for slightly larger organisms - > b...
Why can't you use electronic devices on planes right after takeoff?	[ "Takeoff and landing are when most survivable air-flight incidents happen. In order to maximize survivability in the event that anything goes wrong, certain rules are made about what you can and can't do during takeoff and landing.\n\nFor instance, you can't have a tray-table out during takeoff or landing. Why? B...
Why are panda bears becoming extinct?	[ "Unfortunately pandas have very long reproductive cycles (the female may only be 'interested' once or twice a year in some cases). This means that their populations are particularly sensitive to disruptions, such as deforestation for palm oil plantations.\n\nTo give you an idea; the few western zoos lucky enough to...
How does salt and/or sand “melt” snow?	[ "Normal rain water freezes at 0°c. Salty water freezes at a lower temperature. As long as it's not cold enough to freeze salty water the ice melts. It's often laid as grit and or sand because salt is soluble, it melts the ice but then it dissolves and runs down the drains with the water. Grit and sand helps hold th...
What would the world be like if all of our collective debt was wiped out (in a deleted sense, not paid off)?	[ "Well... there probably wouldn't be any world left considering how extreme an event it would be to wipe out every banking record. But let's play the game.\n\nIt would be REALLY REALLY BAD for a while. Debt makes the world go round and suddenly A LOT of people are out A LOT of money since there is no proof they ...
How do drug makers come up with the names for their drugs? (e.g. how did "Fluoxetine" become "Prozac"?)	[ "[This _URL_1_ entry](_URL_0_) talks about how certain drugs are named:\n\n* Drugs marketed to women have softer letters (Sarafem is fluoxetine, but used to treat PMS)\n* Drugs with X/Z sound more futuristic and make people think they're cutting edge\n* Some Latin roots are used (Fosamax contains os (bone) and *m...
How do clouds stay up?	[ "That weight is spread across a huge volume! Clouds are really massive and you can think of them like fog or mist. The very tiny water droplets that make up a cloud are so small they get carried up into the sky by rising warm air currents. Once up there the tiny droplets combine getting bigger and bigger, until ...
Why do we have to pay to see our credit scores?	[ "Because it's not \"your\" credit score. It's a company's credit score that they created about you. In other words, it's their proprietary data that happens to reference you, and not something that belongs to you.\n\nAnd from a practical standpoint, it prevents you from repeatedly checking your score after ever...
Really, what are the implications of the existence of ring-shaped black holes?	[ "Science doesn't find the truth as much as it gets slowly closer and closer to describing it. We have models that describe features of the universe and those models are tested on how well they can predict new things. For example, the Big Bang Theory predicted there would be a curtain of low-level microwave radiat...
What is exactly going on in my ear before and after it 'pops'?	[ "There are tubes in your ear which are moistened by mucus (ear wax); they can trap air bubbles or even water when you are swimming. When you experience a change in pressure or if you move your muscles in certain ways (like when you swallow), the mucus seals which are trapping that air can be pushed open causing a s...
Why is it bad to sleep with contacts on?	[ "They restrict the amount of oxygen your eyes get. Things like sore/red eyes are pretty usual, sometimes it can get so bad that you can't even put them in until they get better. My sister and I seem to be prone to getting conjunctivitis if we keep them in too long, too.", "If you keep your contacts in too long, y...
why When a Tv is on and the screen is black why does the TV still emit light in a dark room? Even though the screen is black.	[ "Televisions use back lights to send light through colored pixels to make images. When the TV is on the back light is on, even when no picture is being displayed." ]
25 ohms vs. 200 ohms	[ "First, if you haven't heard beyerdynamic headphones before and know which of them your ears like, you should get neither of them. No specification online can tell you how something sounds: try them out in store.\n\nSecond, which of those you should get if you love both depends on what you're using to listen to mus...
Why is it so hard to hold police accountable for their actions?	[ "A couple of things.\n \n1) It is completely part of police jobs to use force to protect themselves or other people, or arrest someone. Force isn't pretty, but that's what they are paid to do. As long as that force is necessary and reasonable, they can use it. Including shooting people. That stuff on their belt...
Why did drive-in restaurants die out in America?	[ "Drive-ins were replaced predominately by drive throughs. The Restaurant can sell the same volume (or more) of food with a fraction of the staff and people get in and out faster.", "The other guy's answer is dead on but also, culture around burgers and other fast food started to change... the fast food got faster...
Why do we need a paper copy of a car registration?	[ "I got a ticket for not having my paper copy. The cop said he knew it was registered since I gave him my ID number and then proceeded to write me up for not being able to prove I was registered.", "The average computer in a police car is really slow." ]
Why is our Moon perfectly round?	[ "It's not. It just looks that way from down here." ]
How come when I sing while listening to music it sounds perfect to me. But when the music is off I sound horrible?	[ "You have the vocals supporting your voice and \"filling in the holes.\"", "The vocals and instruments make your voice sound better. If you sang to a karaoke video, your voice would sound better than it would with no music. For example, most rock singers sound way different without the instruments.", "I think t...
Why does microwaving a "dry" bread/muffin makes its texture like almost fresh?	[ "Microwave excites the hydrogen atoms in water and sugar, making them hotter. If the water in it gets hotter, it expands, or even turns into steam, making bread sort of fresh tasting." ]
how do we absorb things at all from vegetables if we can't break the cellulose wall?	[ "We can break the wall by chewing or cooking as mentioned before, but also bacteria in our gut will break down the cellulose.\n\nIt's a mutually beneficial relationship. The bacteria get tasty cellulose, and we get the nutrients from the plant matter.", "You manually break the walls by chewing or cooking." ]
Why is plastic always still wet after going through the dishwasher?	[ "Glass and ceramic hold the heat so moisture will evaporate off. Plastic cools quite quickly so moisture will not have the opportunity to evaporate." ]
the rips in ripped jeans	[ "Originally jeans would rip, usually in the knees, if you wore them long enough. Some people kept wearing them and eventually it became fashionable to wear them that way. Later, companies started making jeans with the rips in them, to mimic old, worn out jeans, much like you can buy t-shirts now where the design l...
When people say the fridge is their best friend, isn't it many times not the case, since most of the food they eat are in cupboards?	[ "It's a figure of speech called metonymy. Metonymy is when you use a simpler object or name to stand in for something complex. For example, when people talk about \"Wall Street\", they mean all corporate bankers and investment firms, not just the ones that literally have offices on Wall Street in New York City....
If Java is open source, how can Oracle sue Google for making their own version?	[ "Java was originally created by Sun Microsystems, and the reference implementation of the compiler and runtime environment were closed source.\n\nThe specification included not just a language and syntax, but a Virtual Machine. The Virtual Machine is basically a description of a computer with a set of instructions ...
Why is water not compressible?	[ "When you are doing things in science and engineering, often calculations can be easier when you make simplifying assumptions. For water, if you increase the pressure to 100 times \"normal\" pressure (atmospheric pressure) its size will only change a small amount ( < 1%). That means if you ever have to do calcul...
Can somebody please explain the theory of relativity to me, like I'm five?	[ "The first part is in the name. \"Relativity\". That is, everything is relative to the observer.\n\nImagine yourself on a train zooming along down the tracks. You bounce a ball on the table in front of you. What do you see? A ball bouncing straight up and down.\n\nNow imagine someone is at the side of the trac...
Is it true that the NSA/CIA is able to hack in to almost everything? If so, what enables them to do it compared to other hacking groups that cant get past the so called "unhackable systems".	[ "They certainly can't hack everything. They are a government agency though, so they have tons of resourves, top level mathmaticians and programmers, they also have the ability to get backdoors into programs due to being an official agency. They also have a lot of money so they can have huge supercomputers to crack ...
what are mortgage backed securities..??...and what role did it played in US 2008 market crash...	[ "Let me show you [the best youtube video you'll see all week](_URL_0_).\n\nI've watched it like 15 times. Not because I still don't get it (I do), but because it's so... nice.\n\nWhen you get to the CDO's... well, those are mortgage backed securities." ]
Why 60fps videos and movies are still not a thing?	[ "Movies would normally be 48fps (HFR). Peter Jackson shot some of the Hobbit stuff at HFR, and there were compalints that \"it didn't look like film\"\n\nVideo can be shot at 60 fps (50 fps Europe) but requires twice the storage and twice the bandwidth to deliver, so is less profitable for makers." ]
Why high end brands often hide their prices.	[ "The director David Lynch once said the thing he liked best about being wealthy was going into a bookstore, finding a book he liked, and buying it without every having to look at the price.\n\nThe reverse also holds, if you go into a store and buy things without every looking at the price is a sort of confirmation ...
British political system and political parties	[ "Well. I guess the easiest way to explain it to a five year old would be -\n\nImagine a school yard. There are loads of different groups (Goths, Jocks, Gamers etc) about to play a game. They have a vote, and the people with the most votes get to chose the game that they play. But then after 30mins, everyone gets to...
How is it that radiation, which causes cancer, can also help to treat cancer?	[ "Radiation causes damage to the mechanisms of the cell. If you're really unlucky, it causes damage to the mechanisms that regulate the cell growth, and a cell or group of cells begin to replicate out of control.\n\nBut radiation still causes damage. So you use a technique where you fire bursts of radiation from dif...
Why does the sentence "I'm better than you're" not make sense when "you're" is short for "you are?"	[ "Generally, one uses noun-verb contractions for the subject of the sentence. Ex: You're a wonderful person. Ex2: They're the most interesting people I know. \n\nIn your sentence, \"you're\" is not the subject. \"I\" is. Which is why \"I'm\" makes sense to you in the sentence, but \"you're\" at the end looks weird. ...
Why do some pens cost hundreds of dollars?	[ "The most expensive functional component of a pen is the solid gold fountain pen nib, usually made of 14 or 18 karat gold and tipped with a mixture of elements from the platinum group (osmium, iridium, etc.). A lot of people prefer it for its softer feel or flex.\n\nBut money only goes so far with a nib. While mo...
How do quantum computers work?	[ "Computers these days store information in bits- each bit representing either a 1 or a 0. Quantum computing makes use of the idea of superposition to give us the qubit- which can be a 1, a 0, *or* a superposition of both 1 and 0. What does that mean? It's kind of tough to get your head around but- imagine I hav...
Why is it ok to draw Muhammad because of a few radicals. But, it's not ok to put a cross upside down, burn the US flag, and so on?	[ "It isn't illegal to burn a US flag. Not aware of any laws against drawing crosses upside down.", "The problem is that when you have a billion people in your religion there's a significant number of them which take things too far.\n\nPeople shouldn't disrespect Muslims by drawing Muhammad, but at the same time M...
The United States Constitutional Convention	[ "It was the convention held in the United States which lead to the drafting of the Constitution. \n\nDo you have a more specific question?" ]
Why I see cars with Hawaii license plates driving in the continental US?	[ "They can be shipped on ferrys and things yes", "It's cheaper to ship a car then sell an otherwise good car and repurchase another similar one if you're moving to the mainland.", "I have some friends in Hawaii. They told me it costs about $2000 to ship a car to the mainland. It's not like a ferry. You don't get...

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