Split (3)

train · 273k rows

title stringlengths 0 299	text list
Why does the back button on the browser work and other times does not?	[ "When you've been automatically redirected from one address to another, depending how that was implemented, the back button can take you to the place you were redirected from - at which point, you're immediately redirected again. Thus, you have to click it twice, fast enough that the second one comes before the re...
Differences in performances of artists in classical music: ELI5 how does one tell a superb conductor from an average one, or a superb, award winning pianist from a "plain", skilled musical school graduate?	[ "A good conductor is one who is able to get exactly the emotion and sound out of the orchestra that they have in their head and have the artistic sense to know what will sound good. The audience will notice the second of those traits, the orchestra will notice the first. Doing so requires a great deal of expres...
What is at the center of Gas Giant planets and what holds them together? Why do they have an atmosphere?	[ "What holds them together is gravity. \n\nAs you go into a gas giant the atmosphere which is mostly hydrogen gets thicker. Eventually you get so much pressure that you get liquid hydrogen, and then at the very core you will have solid hydrogen/whatever heavier elements the planet has absorbed." ]
Why are people so "stranger-phobic" nowadays?	[ "Because the media shows so many awfull things happening, that no one actually trusts eachother anymore. That, and I have no idea what to say to strangers, I'm not really talkative and when I do say something in the nicest way, I mostly get a very rude response.\nLots of people blame it on internet and videogames m...
How does genetic drift work?	[ "Genetic drift is simply changes in the gene pool of a population due to chance.\n\nLet's say you have a population of 10 bugs. 5 of the bugs have Gene R which makes the Red in color. 5 of the bugs have Gene B which makes them Blue. Being red or blue is equally advantageous in hiding from their color blind predat...
How does public-key cryptography work?	[ "Public (also known as Asymmetric) encryption is best explained by [this picture](_URL_0_). Just take a second to digest each step and realize how both parties do indeed come to the same result and that if you were spying on them in public, it would be difficult to determine their private colors. Now replace the id...
How and why do does the WestBoro Baptist Church make money?	[ "They did and iama recently. They all hold down regular jobs and some are lawyers, so they are not poor. In any case, what do they need money for? The only expenses they have are travel costs and it's not like they do it for the money.\n\nUseful info from the inside:\n_URL_1_\n\n_URL_0_", "The dad used to be a bi...
What the hell do we need the stock market for, /explainlikeimfive	[ "Do you remember when you started your lemonade stand? Well, you didn't have any money then, so you had to ask us to help start out your shiny new business! This is called Venture Capital! We gave you some money, with the hope that you'll turn it into a big business and pay us back and some more!\n\nNow that you ha...
An overview of WWII	[ "Germany was pissed off about losing the WWI and being saddled with some horrifying economic punishments courtesy of the Treaty of Versaille. A guy called Hitler rose to power by loudly bitching and moaning about how unfair it all was and how the German people deserved so much better. The German people loved having...
Why is sign language different in different parts of the world?	[ "if you learn sign language you will notice it's basically a sign for each word. if you learn a second language you will learn that each language has different rules for words, like the order of noun/verb might be flipped or one language will use a second word while another will change the ending of a word. so each...
What is the difference between applied physics and engineering?	[ "I'm actually majoring in physics. Theoretical physics to be honest, but we were forced to do some applied stuff too. But I've also worked as an intern in an engineering office which makes me feel like I can draw a comparison. \nEngineering focusses on problems on a higher level than applied physics does. Applied p...
Why do we get drunk, when we drink alcohol?	[ "Alcohol is a friendly guy. He loves to hug things, like your brain cells. When you drink a lot of alcohol your brain winds up being too busy hugging alcohol to work right. Alcohol is also a very thirsty guy. That's why you wake up dehydrated.", "To answer this question you have to think a little bit about biolog...
How does electrical current "know" which path offers the least resistance?	[ "They don't. Electrons follow the path of least resistance in the same way that water flows downhill. The electrons do not act collectively, each individual electron is driven away from other electrons, and driven toward positive charges. The collective result is well described by the statement that they follow the...
how do actors do smoking scenes?	[ "They often smoke herbal cigarettes that don't contain tobacco _URL_0_", "They can either not inhale or smoke it for real. It's hard to fake inhaling, but tbh not a lot of people are looking for it.", "I always wondered this too, I saw an anti smoking commercial once with a bunch of teens smoking (or \"smoking\...
Why is air generally colder in the upper atmosphere, even though hot air rises, and it receives more direct sunlight?	[ "Air pressure is equal to the weight of all the air above in the atmosphere, so it decreases with altitude. Therefore when hot air rises, its pressure decreases and it expands and gets colder. \n\nThe reason why it cools down is hard to explain without using math, but it's the same as when you open a compressed air...
Who decides if art is 'good' and what it's worth?	[ "Usually it's based on the body of work of the artist.\n\nFor example, by the end of his work life Joan Miró was placing a single stripe of paint on a canvas and these are very prized even though anybody could place a stripe of paint on a canvas.\n\nLike he'd stare at the canvas for a while and then in one fluid ...
How are we able to type fast without thinking about the key placement, yet probably wouldn't be able to recollect where the keys are without a keyboard	[ "Muscle memory versus actual memorization. They are stored differently than regular learned memories. Therefore accessed differently. Which is why when you need a key you very seldom use you still look." ]
The difference between republican and democrat and what they believe in.	[ "Put very broadly, and recognizing that there are a lot of variations within the parties, Republicans are the \"conservative\" party and Democrats are the \"liberal\" or \"progressive\" party. In terms of actual policy positions, Republicans tend to be in favor of smaller government involvement in the economy, a la...
Why do we shake our hands after we punch things?	[ "I would like to venture a guess on this. I think it's a response to some pain or itching signals coming from the nerves in your hand, a very common after effect of punching something solid. The reason we scratch an itch is because it creates a small amount of pain (scratch anywhere that doesn't itch to see that it...
How can such a huge company, like yahoo, afford to rebrand themselves after becoming so prominent under their current brand?	[ "simple answer... they cant afford not to.\n\nyahoo is not a sustainable business, as proven by years of losses and failed remedies.\n\nthey need cash, and if selling the yahoo brand to verizon provides that cash, so be it. Just as sears recently sold craftsman to black and decker. \n\nchances are yahoo is positi...
How did J. R. R. Tolkien invent his elvish language?	[ "He was a linguist who was very talented and very imaginative.", "same way you make up any other language.\n\nyou make it up. \n\nhe just had a good sense to write it down and make it make sense....in an elvish way", "From Wiki..\nHe served as the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon and Fellow of ...
If you flew a spacecraft into a gas planet, would you go straight through it or would you hit some form of ground?	[ "That's pretty much why we've sent Juno up to Jupiter; I understand that it's going to be firing some kind of radar through the atmosphere to see what reflections come back.\n\nThere are also theories that due to the extreme pressure, the core may contain phase 5 hydrogen, a state in which it forms into a metallic ...
How have we come so far with visual technology like 4k and 8k screens but a phone call still sounds like am radio?	[ "The reason phone calls don't have perfect audio has all to do with three things.\n\n* Bandwidth\n* Physical medium of the delivery technology\n* The codec used\n\nThey are all closely related.\n\nIf you think of a data connection as a water pipe, there is only so much data that can be passed down the connection, j...
Why are there different sockets on motherboard for CPUs? Why isn't there a universal socket to fit all CPUs?	[ "Part of it forces you to upgrade your entire computer at a certain points and part of it is due to compatibility.\n\nAs for the compatibility part, when a socket is designed it has certain features they are trying to support, DDR2, PCI-E 2.0, Sata 2.0, ect. In the future this same design may not work for newer fea...
Why is it that after a full meal, when I can't eat any more, I somehow make more space for a dessert?	[ "there are probably two parts to this:\n\n- there was a study that found that we want variety when we eat. We evolved in a way that our body needs several kinds of minerals and nutrients. In order to incentivize us to get them, the body tells us \"this is enough\" after eating a large portion of one food, but as so...
Why is that computers connect to just one wifi connection and not multiple ones at the same time?	[ "Wifi cards only have one tuner and transmitter, think of it like a standard radio. You cant tune to 2 stations at the same time, a transmitter can only transmit on one station at a time as well.", "It only has one WiFi card. You should be able to connect to two networks if you have two cards. I think." ]
What causes the eyes to close and feel natural when sleepy, but unnatural and difficult to keep closed when fully awake?	[ "I don't think I have this wants to spring open when awake thing." ]
why is it called lake michigan and not michigan sea? lake superior and not superior sea?	[ "Geologically speaking, altitude. 200' above present sea level is, by definition, always a lake.\n\nInland seas are low enough that at maximum sea level (when there is no ice) they are part of the ocean. But during an ice age (like now, we have some ice but not a lot), sea level falls enough that inland seas beco...
What goes on at a landfill aside from just burying the trash?	[ "Depending on the kind of operation, you might get recycling/sorting operations, to divert metal and other non-degradables from the heap. There are trash burning operations, where it is used to fuel powerplants, but this is fairly uncommon.\n\nOtherwise, you don't really bury the trash, except under more trash, unt...
If lightning is very short, how does it create a long continuous sound as thunder?	[ "In addition to what others have said, while the event of lightning can be very short, the actual bolt itself, can be several miles in length. \n\nWhile this distance is pretty insignificant in terms of the speed of light, it is significant in terms of the speed of sound. So not only do you have multiple reverb...
Why does my air mattress always go flat after I use it?	[ "You know when you lay on your arm too long and you get that 'pins and needles' feeling? That's not just a feeling. Your body hair really turns to pins and needles.\n\nNow, in a regular polyester-fill mattress, this is no problem. But in an air mattress, you compromise the integrity of the mattress over time.\n\nTh...
What are the sparks for? Space Shuttle Launch	[ "From NASA website: the sparks are used to burn up any hydrogen that may have been leaked from the engines/tanks. If they didn't do this, there was a chance that a pocket of leaked hydrogen would blow up when the engines started.", "The sparks are for ignition, but not for the engines. They ignite any hydrogen th...
Does space go on forever or is there an end?	[ "Current models suggest that space is infinite in extent, and that the universe essentially goes forever in any direction. The most popular model is called the [Friedmann–Lemaître–Robertson–Walker (FLRW) ](_URL_0_) model, which suggests that the universe is infinite and flat, based largely upon the data that the un...
Why do we have so little control over our bodies?	[ "You evolved from creatures that developed random solutions to problems that may or may not have actually been good solutions. All that mattered for the solution to become prevalent was wether or not it made the creature more likely to reproduce. You will notice that cancer is very rare among individuals who are yo...
Why is restoring a painting acceptable/preferred?	[ "There's still some debate over what is and isn't preferred when restoring something. With some antiques people insists that the patina of dirt is important. With some art people insist that any parts replaced should be done so that they give the impression of the original while clearly being different. But in some...
why listening to classical music is the most beneficial compared to other genres of music	[ "Contrary to popular belief it doesn't make babies into geniuses, however [music in general effects brain chemistry and can be beneficial to you.](_URL_0_)" ]
How can an object get partially into something and then not be able to get back out? e.g. getting stuck between railings	[ "shape and compression. a cone or arrow shape could compress a bit and be pushed through but it would present a hard edge and would be difficult or impossible to pull through. \n\nThink of [these things](_URL_0_) you can push them in but you can't pull them out without manually compressing them due to their shape."...
If staring at screens for long periods of time doesn't cause nearsightedness (myopia), why has myopia increased from 10% to 41% of the US population in the last 30 years?	[ "It’s not staring at screens that causes it, but a lack of exposure to sunlight and of staring into the mid-distance.\n\nSo if you spend a lot of your time staring at a screen but still get/look outside for an hour or two every day, your eyes get the full spectrum exposure and exercise they need.\n\nNot much differ...
Richter magnitude scale	[ "It's a logarithmic scale measuring the energy released by an earthquake. Starts at 0, but is technically openended (thankfully, we've never had a 10.0 or higher). Each increase in the scale number indicates a 10x increase in the amount of energy released by the quake. A 5.0 is 10 times stronger than a 4.0. A 6...
Time share scams	[ "The basic idea is that instead of buying one vacation property that you only use for a week a year, you can split the cost of the house with 51 other people and SHARE the house in different TIME slices. This is fine in theory, but there are a number of problems with this. For one, you're probably not going to ge...
; Why did Blackberries stop being popular?	[ "Blackberry was focused on the business market. Originally it was only a business that could justify the expense of a smart phone so the apps were focused on the concerns of businesses. Apple came along and decided that hardware prices have come down enough that justified a consumer level smart phone. Apple focused...
Why do children get leukemia more frequently than other types of cancers?	[ "Most cancers are due in part to some external source, such as radiation (including from the sun) or carcinogenic compounds. Exposure to these carcinogens has a chance of producing mutated cells which are cancerous. Since exposure to some extent is unavoidable, it's simple mathematics that the longer you live, the ...
Why is there hierarchy in our society?	[ "Humans cannot exist alone. An alone primate is a dead primate. So, in pre-history, we lived in groups, whom we were mostly related to genetically, and went about obtaining resources required for caloric intake (eating food). Young men usually serves as the warriors and hunters (to prove their worth to the tribe), ...
Why doesnt Harry destroy the third deathly hallow, the invisibility cloak?	[ "He destroyed the stone because it drove people crazy, he destroyed the wand because it was used for harming others. The invisibility cloak didn't really cause any harms, and so he didn't see any reason to destroy it.\n\nThat being said, in the books he didn't destroy the elder wand, he placed it in Dumbledore's t...
Why drug dealers would agree to be on those VICE shows	[ "Journalistic integrity has existed throughout the centuries, protecting sources to get to the truth. Vice is offering anonymity to get the story.\n\nEgo is what likely keeps the dealers willing to tell their story in disguise just to be on television. I imagine it appeals to the rush of the drug dealer lifestyle s...
Hangovers are caused, in large part, be the diuretic effect of alcohol. Will eating salty foods (which, obviously, cause water retention) counteract the loss of fluids and reduce any hangover effects?	[ "Yes, the extra salt will help you retain water in your system so you don't piss it all away (literally). This is why traditional pub food includes nuts, pretzels and pickles. \n \n \nHowever, don't forget that you also need to drink more water than you want to. Too much salt and not enough water intake can m...
Why do small flies congregate in small swarms in the same place night after night during spring/summer?	[ "They are banging.\n\nThat is pretty much it. Flies swarm in order to mate, so you are basically running through a night club where everyone is DTF." ]
Why is travel so exhausting?	[ "Travel in a vehicle is mentally stimulating. You are surrounded by noises and by other people. And it is slightly stressful because you have fairly little control over what is happening -- either because you're a passenger or because you're in traffic. (Note how much less tiring it is to travel if you're the dri...
The difference between hospice death and doctor assisted suicide	[ "Hospice does not \"overdose\" a patient. They will provide patients with the means for comfort, whether through medication, repositioning, mouth care, etc. Medications like Morphine may suppress respiratory effort if administered irresponsibly, but the goal is comfort, not death. Hospice will often follow a patien...
Linking verbs, object, complement	[ "Most verbs describe an action; for example, \"write\" describes the action of setting words down on paper.\n\nIn a simple sentence like \"Bill wrote a letter,\" there are three main parts:\n\n1. Bill is the subject: he is the thing or (in this case) person doing the action;\n2. wrote is the verb: it describes ...
the expression "Clocks don't really measure time, they measure themselves."	[ "Time exists and always has^ish and always will^mostly. It is not a construct of man but rather a universal condition. Before the clock was invented we had the sundial, which measured the movement of the sun accross the sky, not really time. When clocks were invented the attempted to keep pace with time but had to ...
What are birthmarks? What causes them?	[ "It depends on the type of birthmark.\n\nSomething like a port wine stain:\n\n_URL_0_\n\nis actually an overgrowth of blood vessels that grow too much, and too close to the surface of the skin where they shouldn't be.\n\nSomething like a congenital nevus/giant mole:\n\n_URL_1_\n\nis an overgrowth of melanocytes, wh...
How come when you involuntarily blink you never notice, but when you realize and start blinking intentionally it's all you notice	[ "Well... because you're thinking about it.\n\nSame thing with the nose, it's always there but your brain ignores it. Once you realize this then it is noticeable.", "You just made everyone here blink intentionally you evil bastard now I can't stop realizing it" ]
Explain TRULY like I'm 5: What a default gateway and subnet mask is.	[ "The \"TRULY\" has nothing to do in your question. A 5 year old does not need to be concerned with technical specifications of computer networks, so an answer such as \"it's some of the stuff that computers use to talk to each other\" would be appropriate for a 5 year old but probably wouldn't satisfy you.\n\nSo, ...
Is it normal for a person to regularly fantasize about killing people? What causes it?	[ "I'm not sure \"fantasise\" is the right word here, but many people randomly daydream about doing bad things and about bad things happening so that your mind subconciously checks that it is bad and should be avoided. There was a recent ELI5 about it which I will link if I find.\n\nIf you do mean \"fantasise\" as in...
Why are people saying that the Ebola Virus is not as transmittable as suggested?	[ "~~A lot of diseases can survive in the air or on surfaces for long periods of time.~~\n\n~~Ebola can't. Unless you directly get some of an infected person's bodily fluids inside you, you're extremely unlikely to contract it.~~\n\n~~So while Ebola is super deadly, it's not really all that contagious, when compared...
What would happen to an object travelling at a great speed(ie: Hyperloop) in a vacuum if it were to suddenly enter the atmosphere?	[ "You don't really need to wonder.... This is basically what happens to meteors and re-entering spacecraft. Massive heat (from atmospheric compression, not friction) and the violent destruction of the object (unless it's designed to deal with this via a heat shield or something).", "Well you are luck, there are ...
Child Porn stipulations	[ "I think, it's more illegal because no matter what, the child is a victim. There's no consent and they can't know better at that age. \n\nAs weird and creepy as it is, a drawn nude child is fictional if it just comes from the mind. There's no real victim here, granted if it's not sketched from a previous seen pictu...
Not trying to be racist, but why do the majority of countries have white, skinny and tall women as the beauty standard despite having very few people being actually like them?	[ "A history of colonialism establishes cultural norms in places. \n\nIn some places, there is some evidence that things like lighter skin were considered attractive due to that being a symbol of wealth (similar to fatness being a symbol of wealth and being able to afford food), but things like stereotypical European...
Why do americans love pickup trucks so much ?	[ "Part of it, is that the US doesn't pay as much for fuel as many European/Scandinavian countries. On average, we pay about half of what you do for fuel. Therefore, having a utility vehicle that gets poor gas mileage is not as big of a luxury as you might think. \n\nTrucks are useful. Many of my relatives are trades...
Why do reflections still have 'depth' so that our eyes have to focus on objects near and far, even though the reflective surface is flat?	[ "Reflection is caused by light bouncing off of a surface. So you're not focusing on the surface itself, but on the things being reflected off that surface, which can be varying distances away." ]
Why are some foods "acquired tastes" and how do people eventually like them?	[ "For one thing, both our [sense of smell](_URL_2_) and our [taste buds change](_URL_3_) as we age. You are basically a lot more sensitive to strong tastes when you are young. So kids have 30,000 taste buds and often hate strong flavors like garlic. By the time you're an adult you have about a third that number and ...
Claiming tips from deliveries at work.	[ "You have to claim ALL income, regardless of source (tips, wages, etc) for tax purposes. You should try to claim as little as possible so that you are not taxed on that additional income, its technically illegal to do so, but its standard practice to claim little (or no) tips as income in many service jobs." ]
Why do broken noses bleed so much?	[ "Our noses serve to humidify the air we breathe before it reaches our lower airways. In order to do this, structures called turbinates project from the side walls of the nasal cavity to increase the surface area for which the air will come into contact. The walls of the cavity are extremely vascular in order to tra...
Why is abortion so heavily regulated by the government?	[ "Many people believe that abortion is morally equivalent to murder, or at least a form of murder.\n\nAs a result, they advocate policies that they believe will reduce the number of these acts or punish the people who conduct them. \n\nThe reason it seems like there is so much government involvement is because a lar...
How do they accurately measure the movement of a mountain? Everest moved 3cm. after the earthquake. Relative to what?	[ "With topographical maps, GPS positioning, and satellite imagery; you can easily compare and contrast what the data says today with what it said with previous bits of data years ago.", "Primarily through sattelites and distancing.\n\n\nRemember Geometry in school? We start there.\n\n\nYou have three sattelites. T...
Lets say the President tries to push his big red button, what happens next?	[ "If anything in your question happened, it would create a constitutional crisis, so there's now way to predict how it would shake out, but here's what we do know.\n\nThe president is the only person authorized to use nuclear weapons, and do so any any time for any reason, but this order must be seconded by the Secr...
Both entropy and inertia (in physics).	[ "Entropy: Your mom tells you to clean your room every day. She had to go on a business trip so you stopped cleaning your room this week. It starts getting messy and messier and finally looks like a storm blew through it. You stopped putting energy into cleaning your room so it became a mess. Entropy states that wit...
Drifting	[ "Drifting came about as a reaction to loose surfaces on rallye circuits. A rear wheel drive car would drift excessively so they started playing around with all wheel drive to get more traction. When you're operating on loose surfaces it always seems more comforting to have your nose pointed where you want to go (...
Why is the task of investigating fraud/counterfeiting given to the Secret Service?	[ "Because that was mainly why the were created in the beginning, see the [history of the Secret Service](_URL_0_)\n\n > 1865 - The Secret Service Division was created on July 5, 1865 in Washington, D.C., to suppress counterfeit currency. Chief William P. Wood was sworn in by Secretary of the Treasury Hugh McCulloch....
Why is it almost impossible to balance on two wheels on a bike, but once you start moving forward it becomes so much easier?	[ "Holy shit, ~~everyone at the top of this thread is wrong.~~\n\nBalancing on a bike is not not not because of gyroscopic effects from the wheels!\n\nIt's from the centrifugal force (or really centripetal acceleration) of turning the wheel.\n\nWhen you're going along on a bicycle and you start to tilt and fall t...
Ambeint occlusion	[ "Ambient occlusion tries to simulate the \"dark corners\" of a scene.\nWhen you have a concave feature - meaning for example the corner of a room, or a small crack - the geometry shadows itself: light can enter the corner or crack only from a small angle.\n\nThis can be simulated with ray-tracing or approximated by...
why are people always under an illusion that they are wasting their life ?	[ "Humanity's ability to get itself to a position where all it's physical needs are satisfied and still want more is, imo, what made us the dominant species of the planet. That dissatisfaction keeps us reaching. It's sitting in a dry cave with a bellyful of meat and saying \"okay but now what\".", "I just feel like...
What is Net Neutrality and why is it so important?	[ "Net neutrality is the concept that an Internet Service Provider can't discriminate data you access via the internet. Its how the internet has worked for its entire existence so far. \n\nFor example Netflix hurts Comcast’s cable business. So they clamp down and make all streaming of netflix videos unwatchable for t...
How does an X-Ray machine work?	[ "It works like a camera. An X-ray \"light\" shines on the object and onto a digital sensor that reacts to X-rays just like a digital camera reacts to light. X-rays go through most things so you put the object between the X-Ray source and the sensor.", "One part of the machine super heats a metal filament, causing...
Why is it when you see pictures of fashion models on the runway, they're wearing something nobody in there right mind would wear?	[ "Think of it more as a walking art installation. Instead of a crazy ass sculpture or a painting, it's a person walking around all decorated and shit.", "Actually, they're not showcasing the clothing as much as they're showcasing the fashion designer." ]
Why can little kids squat on their haunches, but most adults cant?	[ "Practice. Adults who regularly do it can still do it well into their older years. In fact, squatting on the haunches is a pretty common sitting style around the world.\n\nWear and tear does eventually take its toll, but for most people it's atrophy and loss of flexibility due to inactivity that's playing the lar...
When boiling a pot of water for cooking, why should you start with cold water instead of hot?	[ "Cold water is less likely to contain lead from pipes and legionella bacteria from your hot water heater. Hot water boils faster, though( I'm not sure how this is a myth other than in some conditions hot water freezes faster than cold, and so people think the opposite could be true)", "It's not true that cold wat...
why does guacamole last longer when you keep the avocado seed in the guacamole?	[ "I've never heard of that, but it sounds like a folk tale, and not fact. Do you have some link which indicates that this is true, and not just something you've heard before? \n\n_URL_0_\n\n > So how does leaving the pits in the bowl mitigate this process? It is not because the pits exude an ineffable, protective au...
How can we still see thumbnails for images that are no longer available?	[ "Say you want to view 1 reddit page with 10 thumbnails from imgur on it. To create the thumbnails, you need to load the images from imgur first, then resize/crop accordingly. \n\nReddit can go to imgur every time someone accesses that 1 page. Wait for the 10 imgur links to load, do the cropping process and then sho...
Why is it important to preserve traditions?	[ "There are actually a few potential answers to this question. \n \nAlso, to give a more complete answer. It should be noted that the idea that it's important is a claim and not necessarily true at all. \n \nSo the answer will depend on who is making the claim, and why the claim is being made. \n \nFir...
Why do things take "4-6 weeks" to ship?	[ "This is not always the case, but especially with infomercial trinkets, it's not uncommon for the products you're buying not to even be manufactured yet. By allowing long lead times, the seller can gauge response and manufacture just enough to meet demand.", "There are a couple reasons for the lead times being so...
how are people able to track hackers ie: where they are, who they are, etc	[ "This is part of digital forensics and is kind of like asking 'how do you know that this person murdered this other person without actually witnessing it?'.\n\nYou can narrow hacking down to \n\n1) Physical access - someone having access to the machine in order to clone the data to another device or crack it at the...
Why can programs on my computer be completely unresponsive but pressing control+alt+delete is always instant?	[ "This is because the program is stuck in some sort of loop, so sending commands to the program does not work.\n\nCtrl+alt+del sends an interrupt, which means that it tells windows to drop everything it's doing. Next windows will show the ctrl alt del menu. \nThis (generally) will not stop the program from being in...
How did recording on wax cylinders in the early Phonograph days work?	[ "Recording on wax cylinders required a two needle machine, not the single needle player that most people had at home. The recording mechanism had a clockwork system to move the stylus along the cylinder in a long spiral. This could be played or used to make a master. To make a master, gold vapor was plated into t...
How come you can "feel" when someone is watching you?	[ "You can't actually tell other than by looking at where other people are looking. Humans are social animals and we look around quite a bit to check where others are looking without really noticing. Only when we detect someone looking our way do we take note, sometimes thinking we somehow knew we were being observed...
What makes great paintings great?	[ "To me, a great work of art is more than just something I perceive with my eyes. It is often thought provoking, and has the personality and psychology of the artist captured within it. \n\nThese popular paintings are \"simply\" (obviously you can read way more into them, but for this example I'll leave it like this...
What determines how much spicy food someone can handle? Is it genetic?	[ "You can build up a tolerance. Also helps if you were raised on it. I imagine genetics plays a part, too.\n\nPlants evolved capsaicin because they needed their seeds spread far. Small mammals, lime mice, can't stand the spice and avoid it. However, birds don't feel the capsaicin and can eat and spread the seeds...
If there was a pill that contained all the nutrients, vitamins, energy etc., would you still need to eat?	[ "Yes. Because the calories you would need cannot be consumed in something as small as a pill." ]
Do heat-seeking missiles ever accidentally lock onto the sun?	[ "Usually, a heat-seeking missile has been programmed to change its trajectory based on various things, and so it can usually tell if it's detecting the sun (or, for example, infrared light from the sun scattered off of clouds) or if it's detecting its actual intended target.\n\nCompared to a person or a vehicle, th...
Liability of Gun Manufactureres	[ "If a firearms manufacturer intentionally produced weapons that were easy to modify to be an illegal firearm, it would make sense to want to be able to hold them legally liable if their product was involved in a crime, and the gun was modified illegally.\n\n i.e. in the US civilian \"assault rifles\" are supposed t...
What does a police officer have to do in order to receive a jail sentence?	[ "No, if they were to do something undoubtedly criminal, they would receive jail time.\n\nThe thing is that most of the crimes that we see police committing are simply recklessness, negligence, excessive force, which are relatively minor things. Juries and Judges are more likely to let these go by with lower sentenc...
What is the technology behind 3d printers?	[ "Yes, it works layer by layer. The printer consists of a printing head that can squirt molten plastic and can move freely through the printer. The software turns a 3D model into tiny little horizontal slices, and the printer then squirts the plastic into that shape, layer by layer. Each layer is built upon the one ...
What happens if you don't agree to the new data policies the social networks keep telling you about in Europe?	[ "If you don't agree, then according to their terms of service, you won't be allowed to continue using the service. But that clause is probably not enforceable in most jurisdictions.\n\nHowever, after May 25th at the latest, social media websites with a presence inside the EU will, by law, be required to collect a...
how does bail work with bailbondsmen and why does this exist?	[ "First of all, let me explain the concept of bail.\n\nBail is an extremely old way of making sure that people show up for their trials without having to hold them in jail until the trial. To make sure you don't run (since, the logic goes, a guilty person would probably run before his trial), you have to pay a consi...
What would be the bodily effects of taking a pill giving you 17 times the amount of daily Vitamin C for a year do to your body?	[ "Vitamin C is water soluble, meaning that the body takes in whatever level of vitamin C it needs and flushes the rest out through the kidneys. The body does not store Vitamin C, so any additional dose is removed. The percentages of RDA appeals to the \"more is better\" and does nothing but create urine high in Vi...
Where does the items deleted in the Recycle Bin go?	[ "They essentially just get marked for re-writing, meaning that now the computer can write over that space with whatever. So they aren't deleted until something is written over it. I could be wrong however, i pulled this out of my ass-brain.", "On Windows XP \"deleted\" files are listed under a folder named RECYCL...
How do mobile phones transmit calls over the same bandwidth at the same time without interfering with each other and always finding the right reciever?	[ "GSM doesnt use the same frequency for all communication, and not the same time. CDMA is a method that allows everyone to send at the same time and distinguish them." ]
Why don't birds get cold in the wind?	[ "Birds have insulating feathers called down. They trap air close to the body so convection (moving air currents) can't pull heat away. To get their feathers to do this, their muscles can make the feathers stand on end -- these are literally goose bumps.\n\nBy the time it gets warm, they have shed many of thei...
How do airlines make a profit?	[ "The short answer is that the airlines are _exceptionally_ good at price discrimination.\n\nThe longer answer is that not everyone pays the same price for the tickets they have. This is very obvious when you think about business class vs. coach - the business class tickes are often > $1,000 a seat for domestic fl...

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