Split (3)

train · 273k rows

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How do Human Beings "absorb" energy from an impact?	[ "There are a lot of sources for energy to go here. Most of it probably ended up being converted to heat eventually. Here's a runthrough of what might have happened:\n\n* The child-bike system has some amount of kinetic energy and is heading toward you\n* The bike collides with you, skidding off to the side. The ene...
Why is it sometimes taboo to classify transgender folk as having a mental illness?	[ "Because one criterion for mental illness is that the behaviours and thoughts the person is experiencing keeps them from being able to fully function day-to-day. For example, anxiety disorders and depression can impact a person's ability to go to school, to work, to hold social ties, etc. Feeling like one's gender ...
why can you still feel the ebb and flow of the waves when lying in bed after swimming in the waves during the day?	[ "Your body seeks equilibrium. It is always trying to balance your senses out so that you can tune out normal things, and be alerted to anything in your environment that is different. For example you put an air filter in your bedroom and the first few days you are very aware of the fan noise. After a few weeks your ...
Why does a vehicle 15 mph faster than you appear to gain a much greater distance from you depending on your own speed?	[ "Because when sitting still, you have all of your environment in the same relation to the moving car as you.\n\nHowever when you are moving 70mph, the only reference point you have is your car and the other car to judge the speed difference." ]
Why do we experience a 'burning' sensation in our eyes if we haven't slept for a while or immediately after waking up?	[ "It might be that \"crusty\" discharge from your eyes called rheum ( a mixture of different kinds of cells, mucus, dust, etc.) that is released during sleep. It looks likes sand in your eyes hence the saying.\n\nThe burning from sleep deprivation is just like what sleeplessness does to the rest of the body, give i...
When someone sues another person who's not financially well-off for a huge sum of money, how do they get paid?	[ "Essentially she won't. She can attempt to take money from wherever he may have some, and then on top of that try to take a percentage of any earned (garnishment). But the reality is she won't get a dime.", "I am not a lawyer but a junior who will try to give my best. I can't guarantee that any of this is true. H...
If we can only see the "observable" universe, how can we make conjectures about things like its beginning?	[ "What they mean is that eventually space will be expanding fast enough that all the light will be redshifted out of detectable range. \n\nThe universe isnt expanding because of the motion of the galaxies. Space itself is expanding. Every second there is more space between us and distant galaxies. \n\nOur relative...
How do people on drugs, such as meth, supposedly get superhuman strength, taking multiple people to subdue them etc?	[ "People are generally stronger than we think. We have built-in safety margins, like the warning line in a pressure valve, so that we don't accidentally injure ourselves... these safety margins are often very cautious, preventing us from exerting anything like our full possible force (except for in emergencies, wher...
If fusion reactors fuse hydrogen into helium, wouldn't we run out of hydrogen at some point?	[ "Hydrogen is the most abundant substance in the universe. 90% of all the atoms that exist are hydrogen. There is so much hydrogen locked up in fossil fuels that we could just use them for millennia before we even started using water, or sending spaceships to collect it.", "Theoretically, yes. But there is a LOT o...
Why do we have the capacity to hate ourselves?	[ "Free thought and free will has many positives and negatives. Increased intelligence means that we also can see the uglier sides of things, and well....", "Humans have evolved as social creatures. In addition to caring about things from our own point of view, we have parts of the brain dedicated to caring about h...
What is the "shy bladder" and what can people do to get over it?	[ "> What's going on \n\nYou're having an expectation that someone may intrude on your urination, which in turn makes you unable to relax.\n\n > how can I make it easier on myself\n\nFind someone to squeeze you. /meta\n\nYou may need to somehow snuff out all surrounding sounds to help you unwind and start peeing.", ...
- why do most honour killings involve murdering the victim? Why not kill the rapist instead?	[ "In such cultures women are viewed as property, to be bought, sold, or traded. The honor killing is in retribution for the perceived dishonor of allowing themselves to be raped, as it damages or destroys their value to their male owner.\n\nIt is fucked up.", "If someone smashes the windows in your car, take a shi...
Who writes the stuff that goes in fortune cookies?	[ "Apparently, the [CFO of the company who manufactures the fortune cookies](_URL_0_). Maybe that's why they so often refer to wealth?" ]
Why is it that if you exhale like blowing out a candle the air is much cooler than if you exhale like you're checking your breath?	[ "Hi, Mechanical Engineer here. I assume that when you blow out a candle, you purse your lips. Air is pushed out of the small hole and this creates a high pressure, fixed volume chamber in your mouth and exits to a lower pressure, free volume atmosphere. This sudden change in pressure causes the volume of air contai...
What is the significance of a full metal jacket in small arms ammo?	[ "Bullets were originally just cast lead, and many people still do cast bullets this way (I used to). This can lead to lead deposits in the barrel which will hurt accuracy as well as a bunch of lead in the air (not a good thing). The FMJ is a copper jacket around this soft lead to make it more stable in flight as ...
Why and how is it that the Windows operating system hasnt been replaced?	[ "One of the main reasons is that Microsoft makes deals with hardware manufacturers to include their OS in those products by default. This starts the cycle that makes most consumers use Windows regardless of if they're at work or at home. Consumers generally don't like change, so then Windows usage seeps into other ...
Negative electricity prices.	[ "Well, think about it. Suppose someone occasionally offers you $10 if you can somehow use one megawatt of electricity for an hour. Would you accept? It's a great deal, but can you actually do it? It turns out it's not so easy.\n\nYou could do it, if you had a couple hundred home water heaters, or a couple thousand ...
Why is St. Louis not as important in the United States as it once was? Is it likely to continue shrinking?	[ "It was very important when the Mississippi was a big hub for transferring industrial products out of the Midwest. The small arms factory my grandmother worked at during WWII in Davenport, IA shipped through St. Louis, for example.\n\nAs Midwestern industry declined, so did the shipping of those products out along ...
How can a computer be infected with virus/malware/etc. by visiting a website?	[ "When visiting a web page, what you're really doing is making a request to a web server to transfer files to your computer. If one of those files contains a malicious payload, and your computer executes the malicious code without being interrupted by antivirus software, it will become infected.\n\nMalicious code is...
why can't people inhale when they get the wind knocked out of them	[ "You know when you hit your leg on something (like you bring your thigh up into a bar underneath the table) and you pause whilst cursing the pain because your leg kind of seems to go numb for a second? That's your body very temporarily immobilising the area to make sure nothing is SERIOUSLY wrong with the part of y...
What has happened to the babysitting market in the last ten years?	[ "The market is flooded. You have a lot of people who can't get jobs elsewhere because the economy isn't as strong, so there are many people able to work as babysitters. Which not only means that you have babysitters lowering their rates to remain competitive with everyone else, but also advertising whatever benefit...
When listening to earphones/headphones, why does my music feel louder after I yawn?	[ "Your ears are usually pressurized, which serves as a slight volume reduction in some cases. Over time, the pressure in your ears can accumulate. When you yawn, the muscles used relieve the pressure within your ears, \"popping\" them and removing the pressure, which allows you to hear better." ]
What does sunlight consist of, and why do some parts pass through windows while other parts don't?	[ "Sunlight and heat are (in simple terms, heat is complex) both electromagnetic radiation. They just have different frequencies (the rate at which the wave repeats itself, think of it like the number of waves in a given stretch of ocean). \n\nUV light (higher frequency) causes sun burn. It’s blocked by special glazi...
Differences and Similarities Between Computer Science and Computer Engineering.	[ "In Computer Science you will learn mostly programming and a bit of computer hardware and electrical engineering. \nIn Computer Engineering you will learn computer hardware, electrical engineering, and programming about equally. \nNeither is particularly useful for IT which I've always felt was more a skill you l...
Why is it common practice to separate high voltage (120V) wiring/cabling from low voltage (24V) wiring/cabling?	[ "Electrical Controls Engineer here. Basically it is to reduce noise and to not induce voltage into the lower voltage wires.\nWith ac circuits the currents alternates through the wire generating a magnetic field. Any wire close to this can potentially interact with that field and a voltage will be created in the wi...
How do smart phones dissipate the heat created by the processor?	[ "I think some of the answers are great, but missing a major point that I want to add:\n\nThe chips in smartphones ([SoCs](_URL_0_)) are built from the ground up to turn the energy in the battery into useful work as efficiently as possible.\n\nIn industry terms, smartphone SoCs have truly insane Performance Per Watt...
Why can we (USA) claim a no flight zone in a foreign country?	[ "Because we have big guns and fighter jets. All we need is a UN Security Council resolution to be able to do whatever we want where ever we want.\n\nIn this case, Russia will veto any resolution like that." ]
X-box 360 downloadables, the entire Banjo-kazooie game is 48mbs (with heaps of animated scene vids) and a short Banjo trailer is 98mbs to download, why?	[ "The animated cut scenes in the game are rendered in the game - so instead of having a recording of a video for each scene, they just have to include instructions for how the character will move. \n\nThink of it as shipping blueprints for a house (knowing the receiver has the supplies) versus shipping an entire hou...
Why do I get silly or weird when I'm really tired or otherwise sleep deprived?	[ "I've actually read that being sleep deprived is like being drunk. \"After 17-19 hours without sleep, performance on some tests was equivalent or worse than that at a blood alcohol content of 0.05%\"\n\nHere is the link _URL_0_" ]
What is the biological explanation of when your "heart skips a beat", as in when you get scared or nervous?	[ "The feeling you get when you're nervous/scared is due to a rapid increase in your heart rate. Epinephrine (adrenalin) is released, and causes the Sinus node (the main pacing area of your heart) to increase it's rate of firing. \n \nYou perceive your heart skipping a beat, but it's actually just beating faste...
Why Do We Still Shutdown Financial Systems for Weekends	[ "5-day weeks are something that just a few decades ago was the norm. Most towns would essentially be closed on the weekend, especially Sunday (except for the local diner and hospital, maybe the gas station).\n\nIt's only relatively recently that 24 hour/7 day businesses have emerged, mostly out of need. They need t...
Why did analogue TV tuners click from channel to channel while analogue radio tuners slid along a scale?	[ "The number of TV channels available in a given area was relatively small, but they were often spread over a very large bandwidth. It was not technically possible to provide continuous tuning over such a wide band, and in any case the mostly empty band space would have provided a frustrating experience. \n\nThe ans...
How is gps for self-driving cars accurate enough when my google gps totally craps out any time I'm in a mall plaza?	[ "Self-driving cars use more than just GPS to navigate; they also use onboard cameras to identify the road, other vehicles, pedestrians, traffic lights, and other potentially relevant information. If they lose GPS signal, they continue going along what was the plotted route until the signal is regained. \n\nAs the t...
Why is much more in taxes taken out of holiday bonuses?	[ "So when your taxes get calculated, it's from a tax table. There are different tax tables based on pay frequency. So, if you are paid every two weeks, your employer consults the table for your pay amount, and the amount listed is what they have to withhold -- which is based on 26 times that pay amount. That works o...
Why is this winter so warm (in the US at least)?	[ "Because of La Nina. A current in the pacific ocean is cooler than normal, and that affects weather across North America." ]
Why the tallest skyscrapers are built only in Asia or North America but not in Europe?	[ "The sky is significantly lower in Europe; there's really not enough height to build such huge skyscrapers.", "There isn't really a reason to build a massive skyscraper. They're cool, but they're also expensive. Dubai built the Burj Dubai not because of any sort of land constraints, but just because they wanted t...
Why does David Cameron want mandatory porn filters for UK internet users?	[ "Information control. Australia's government tried to same thing a couple of years ago but it failed. Turned out that porn was just going to be the first step and then after that it was going to be everything the government didn't like. Whoever controls the information has the power. The idea is to get their fo...
Can anyone explain to me why it's called a traphouse. I know what a traphouse is, I just want to know the origin of the word.	[ "Trap is slang for a place where drug dealers sell drugs. It could be a street corner, alley, or trap house." ]
What are MLM scams and what are examples of them?	[ "The hallmark of a Multi-Level Marketing scam is that the emphasis and reward are heavily weighted against recruitment instead of the actual work of selling a product. \n\nIf I hire you to sell vacuum cleaners door to door, and pay you based on your time/amount of sales, then it's a legit job. If instead I pay yo...
how are license plates numbers distributed?	[ "Not sure if it's the same in Canada, but states in the U.S. print a bunch sequentially and send them to each local DMV. I'm not sure if they're assigned to an area DMV, or just whichever boxes get loaded. Either way, a specific area will tend to get a whole lot of certain sequences, and not many of others, and the...
Why do PC's become slow and "aggravating" to use after little time, but Macs seem to stay at top performace for a long time?	[ "IT professional here: Can you please define \"slow\"? This word is thrown around often when it comes to computer complaints but details matter. Is it taking a long time to boot up? Is netflix choppy? Is it slow when you open a third powerpoint deck? Those can help me answer you better.\n\nThe shorter answer is R...
Why do browsers and websites prompt you for saving your passwords if it is considered unsafe?	[ "The Average Joe is unlikely to be \"hacked\", but very likely to forget the password to a site he hasn't used in a while. Browser password-saving is meant to be a convenience feature, not a security feature.", "The reason why it is considered \"unsafe\" is because it would allow anyone with access to your comput...
Why does AM talk radio have such a disproportionately large amount of commercials compared to FM music stations?	[ "Your FM station has sneaky ways of putting in advertising even though it might claim to have 55 minutes of music. It's advertising when the DJ comes on between songs and reminds you that they will be at a certain business (AD!) tomorrow from 4 to 6 and they'll be giving away a certain item (AD!). It's advertisin...
What is the overall goal/point of google deep dream?	[ "Google deep dream was developed as a test of Google's image recognition software. Basically, they're running it backwards - rather than taking a picture of a dog, and asking the software \"Is that a dog\"; they take a random picture and ask the software \"show me what looks like a dog\". By seeing what the softw...
Why does it seem like most funerals in the US are open-casket?	[ "Films and TV do open-casket because of course it is more dramatic and visually interesting.\n\nIn the US, the family picks which they want.", "If you're talking about wakes/viewings (never heard this at an actual funeral), it is usually a religious thing. There is a huge Catholic population in the US, and an op...
Why are we mean to people we crush on or love?	[ "I hate and I love. Why I do this, perhaps you ask?\n\nI do not know, but I feel it happening and I am tortured\n\n\nThe tsundere dilemma has always been with us. It happens for many reasons. Sometimes because the person who feels the attraction is unable, or does not understand how, to express these strange ...
Why is medicine dosage measured in half-life if half the medicine is still in the body?	[ "It's not used to purely say when a patient has \"0\" of any drug in their system, it's more to help when giving \"Top Up\" doses, say you have a patient on Morphine that needs an extra dose, knowing the half life helps Doctors/Nurses decide of they're able to give them a slight dose if they need it. \nIt's also u...
Teresa's daughter Riddle.	[ "There's a couple of things you need to take away. We can work this out similar to how algebra work.\n\n\"my daughter's mother\" = \"me, or my female partner\"\n\nSo now the riddle is \"Teresa's daughter is me or my partner\"\n\nIf Teresa's daughter is me, I am Teresa's daughter\n\nIf Teresa's daughter is my partne...
The Jets releasing Tim Tebow and why it's such a big news story.	[ "He is a highly prominent player who has now been released.\n\nHe is a former Heisman winner (best college football player) who also won two national championships in college. He was also drafted in the 1st round of the NFL draft which would imply that he's a great player with a strong future in the pros (though w...
What keeps your skin cells in a human shape instead of them reproducing outwards indefinitely?	[ "Oversimplified: Skin grows upward from a base layer - as you go further there's less and less blood supply, and cells aren't supported. The outer surface of your skin is substantially dead cells that form a protective layer.\n\nIn the case of injury, other tissues are involved, and chemicals help signal where repa...
The "cooling" sensation when eating a powdered-sugar donut.	[ "The process of sugar dissolving in saliva is endothermic (absorbs heat). Since it's such a fine powder, it happens quickly and the effect is noticeable." ]
Why do people have to swear under oath? If they're willing to lie, they'll do it with or without the oath.	[ "If you lie while under oath, you're guilty of [perjury](_URL_0_), which is a felony in the United states, punishable by up to 5 years in prison. If you lie in your day-to-day life, you're just an asshole exercising the 1st Amendment.", "Lying is not inherently against the law. You are well within your civil rig...
Can someone explain string theory to me?	[ "Precocious child: \"What is everything made out of?\" \n Science: \"Little things called atoms.\"\n\nPC: \"Well, what are atoms made out of?\"\n Science: \"Smaller things called protons, neutrons, and electrons.\"\n\nPC: \"What are those made out of?\"\n Science: \"Even smaller things called quarks....
How do game cartridges and video game discs work?	[ "Cartridges have memory chips inside that have the game code stored in them. When you insert the cartridge into the console, metal contacts in the console touch metal contacts on the game cartridge, and they can exchange data via electrical signals. The console loads the game off of the cartridge, and you play. \n\...
After Charlie Hedbo, people ranted and raved about the importance of protecting free speech, even if it offends people. Now people wants kids expelled and made criminals for offensive things they say it private. Please explain the logic here.	[ "Apart from what /u/Kitworks has said (that it's undoubtedly not the same people complaining), one of the cases you've identified is people being opposed to the murder of a dozen cartoonists for the brusque expression of a political position. The other is a few people being expelled from a university, not beca...
How does adware work?	[ "Adware is a piece of Internet connected software that is ether installed alongside something else you installed (opencandy), displays ads as part of the interface (Windows 10 apps, bittorent,) or displays ads outside the program and doesn't make it clear (comet cursor, bonzi buddy) \n\nSometimes the program sends ...
[Biology / botany] How is it possible that some plant species mimic the visual form of other beings, without being able to 'see'?	[ "Random mutation. Sometimes the random mutation results in a look that slightly mimics some other look, which might give an advantage. For instance, something that looks slightly like a predator, might scare away a herbivore intent upon eating the plant. \n\nThus, that plant survives to reproduce. Others that don't...
Why do people naturally put on a different voice when they're on the phone or serving someone?	[ "When on the phone you can't see facial expressions or body language so you have to communicate all that information through just your voice. Therefore some people try to use a happier or overly emotional voice in order to be perceived the proper or happier tone.\n\nWhile serving someone, the idea is to please the ...
How does voting for the president work?	[ "Each state is allotted a certain number of votes, based on the number of congressional seats they have. For example, North Dakota, which has one representative and two senators, has three electoral votes. California, has 53 representative (because they have a much larger population) and two senators, for a total o...
Why do some tests and assessments require that answers are filled in using a #2 pencil?	[ "Because the machine that is used to scan it can only see a certain shade of black." ]
How do one-way windows actually work?	[ "They are just heavily-tinted windows. What makes them one-way is that the room that's supposed to be visible is well-lit, and the room that's not supposed to be visible is dark (same way tinted windows on cars hide what's inside).\n\nThe window is actually just as visible in both directions. It's placement that ...
Why is the last percent when charging your device the one that takes the most time?	[ "In general, for charging batteries like lithium ion cells, there is a maximum safe voltage that shouldn't be exceeded (keep in mind batteries can hold a ton of energy, and you don't want that released uncontrollably). \n\nThis generally means that as the charging cycle comes to a conclusion, the voltage of the c...
Is it possible to not get addicted to Cigarettes and Alcohol?	[ "There's definitely a spectrum of people's physiological reaction to nicotine and how addictive it is. Some people just can take it or leave it. I was like you, a social smoker in college and for a few years after. (This was back in the day when you could smoke in bars.) I smoked when I drank, and a \"heavy\" day f...
Why is the hiring practice so much more difficult for minimum wage jobs than skilled labor?	[ "I think part of it is weeding people out. The other part of it is that for skilled labor you usually have some other credentials that make the tests given at DQ pointless. If you have a bachelor's degree from an accredited institution, you should be able to pass a math and literacy test and have proven that you ca...
Why are people with a lazy eye unable to perceive 3D in 3D films?	[ "3D films used polarized light to create the effect. The footage is shot with 2 cameras, and projected through 2 projectors with different polarizing filters, one vertically polarized and the other horizontal. The 3D glasses are also filters, only allowing light of a vertical polarization to enter one eye, and li...
How are professional sports statistics captured?	[ "It's a bit of both. Traditionally stats are collected by the official statisticians - there is usually a team of them (although it depends on the sport.) For instance in hockey one person is responsible for tracking when each player gets onto the ice and when each player leaves the ice, for the purposes of trackin...
why are trans fats not completely banned by the FDA?	[ "Several ostensible reasons, such as the fact that trans fats are naturally occurring in some levels in many meat and dairy products, so banning them would mean banning those meats or diary items, which would be both difficult and cause a large uproar from consumers. Also, the federal government doesn't really ha...
All these random pyramid schemes in the US	[ "In the USA, pyramid schemes have long been illegal. Amway was the pioneer of \"multi-level marketing\" (MLM), and won a regulatory battle against the FTC in 1979: [In re Amway Corp] (_URL_0_). They had been accused of being a pyramid scheme, but the FTC ruled that they weren't. After that, all such schemes could c...
Why do people think that blacking out their eyes in pictures protects their identity?	[ "Eyes presumably show the most emotion / personality etc of any body part, so we're most likely to remember those, if we see them again.\n\nAlso, who blacks out their own eyes..? It's usually done by others to protect the identity of someone.", "Good question. I was going to answer \"so we don't remember them\" b...
why do dry erase markers erase themselves if you color over a line you already drew?	[ "The pigment in the marker is dissolved in alcohol. The alcohol evaporates after you write with the marker and expose it to air, leaving the pigment as a dry, solid layer (though easily wiped away). This is why you can't write with dried-out markers. But if you write over the pigment with the marker, it dissolves a...
Bohr's Theory of the Hydrogen Atom	[ "Basically, the atom was understood like a solar system. Electrons orbiting the nucleus. Bohr suggested that the electrons could only be in very specific orbits and light was emitted when it went from a high to a lower orbit and light was absorbed when it went from a lower to a higher." ]
What does a a lawyer do to defend someone like Dylann Roof	[ "A lawyer is supposed to protect a clients rights. As such, at a minimum, his job should be to ensure his rights are not violated.\nThe accused should have the right to a fair trial, should not be mistreated, should be innocent until proven guilty and so on.\n\nWhat makes a lawyer \"good\" is that they also try to ...
why do musicals play a medley of the music in the musical at the beginning before things start?	[ "Traditionally the Overture (from French for \"Opening\") introduces the musical themes used later in a piece like an opera. The Finale will recap them at the end. It's a little like the essay structure Introduction - Body - Conclusion.", "To add, the orchestra often gets very little recognition for their hard ...
Has Russia really decimated ISIS the way some reports suggest?	[ "They've certainly decimated somebody, that's for sure. Two things to keep in mind here: One, Russia is conducting its air strikes in cooperation with the Syrian army. This makes them very effective due to the fact that ground forces can move in and exploit weaknesses in enemy positions created by the bombing. Th...
Why does rubbing your eyes feel so good? And is it bad for your eyes/vision?	[ "Optometry student here. I suspect that rubbing your eyes could feel good for many reasons. Allergies is the obvious one. But usually it's because people tend to feel like they have \"tired\" eyes, especially at the end of the day, which for optometrists that translates into \"dry eyes\" much of time. Rubbing your ...
Why do people advise against using the 1st check in a checkbook?	[ "It's a paper scheme obviously! They just wanna sell us more paper!\n\nJust kidding... I've never had anyone tell me that before. I always use the first check and nothing bad has happened to me. I'm posting here to profile this, so that I can see if I'm being stupid." ]
Why can't we use spectrometry to reverse engineer the Coca Cola secret formula?	[ "At most that will tell you whats in the can and the approximate amounts. That information is already printed on the can. It wont tell you the process that was used to mix the ingredients.", "* knowing the ingredients is very different than knowing how to combine those ingredients into a final product...the preci...
Why is violence in video games acceptable, but sexual violence is an extreme taboo?	[ "Everyone is used to violence and in some cases it’s perfectly acceptable to use it (e.g. when defending yourself). There are no cases where sexual violence would be acceptable, however.", "Most games present violence in semi-acceptable situations, like war, self defense, or killing evil space goblins. Even when...
Why do jokes make us laugh?	[ "A good explanation I have heard (I'm a bit of a comedy geek) is that most jokes subvert our expectations. In other words, they lead us to start following a trail of thought in a certain direction, then BAM! we are forced to think in a totally different way suddenly. The element of surprise makes us laugh.\n\nHer...
How do birds know which direction to fly when they head south for winter?	[ "Many birds have a sense of magnetic field that allows them to know direction and travel to the right place. Many sea turtles also have that sense. \n\nMany birds also have a sense of barometric pressure as well, which is why you can often birds leaving an area before a storm.", "Birds (and a lot of other animals...
Doctors always super-sterilize everything before any procedure, from giving a shot to full surgery. Is this "can't be too careful" or would I take horrible infections from receiving a shot without alcohol wipes?	[ "It's less of a worry about giving you a small infection that goes away after a week or two and more of \"we don't want to get sued for $20 million because we gave a guy flesh-eating bacteria with his tetanus shot.\"", "I wouldn't think that an unsterile needle containing potentially thousands of airborne bacteri...
How does a molecular sieve dry a sorbent	[ "The principle is called adsorption. \n\nMolecular seive is a material with tiny little pores, like activated charcoal. These pores are like the dimples on a golf ball but tiny, nanometers in size.\n\n You make it work by selecting a desiccant with a pore size that matches the size of the molecules you want to abso...
In what circumstances does a president sign a bill while Congress is in session?	[ "If in 10 days the president doesn't sign a bill and Congress is still in session then it becomes a law just like you said. In that case then, the president has three options. They are different in not just whether the bill becomes a law but also in what they mean. \n\n * The president can obviously veto a law me...
What does a movie/TV producer actually do?	[ "For film, producers oversee the entire production of the film. First, they have to acquire the rights to create the film. Then, they have to find someone to write the script (or buy the already written script). Then they have to hire the director to actually create the film, along with hiring the casting director,...
Why does e^pi*i + 1 = 0?	[ "Probably can't explain at an ELI5 level, but here's the gist of it:\n\ne^angle*i is a rotation of a point in the complex plane (just pretend it's typical \"x is horizontal y is vertal\" for the moment)\n\nangle=0 degrees means the point (1,0).\n\nangle =90 degrees means the point (0,1)\n\nangle=180 degrees means ...
Why does color affect heat absorption?	[ "It's not color that affect heat absorption. It's the physical propriety of material that absorb different wavelenght of light. So if a material absord all visible wavelength of light it will appear black because it doesn't reflect back light into our eyes. \n\nAlternatively, something white is made of something th...
Why is gambling is considered a dangerous vice?	[ "Okay, you're asking two questions here.\n\n1. Why is gambling considered a dangerous vice? Because some people have the tendency to become addicted to gambling and it can engulf their entire life. They will spend every last dime to chase that feeling of winning. In the end though, the house always wins and that's ...
The conflict in the Middle East with Israel and the rest of the Arab nations	[ "This is obviously a super complicated issue, with many conflicting viewpoints. Both sides have their own view of the facts, and even within each side there are many different views.\n\nI’ll give you my own take on this. I’m American and Jewish, but I am fairly sympathetic to the Palestinian side. I grew up learnin...
if a teenager can be charged with child pornography for having pictures of themselves, why can't they be charged with sexual assault when they masturbate?	[ "Because they've given consent to it as a sexual act. However, if they somehow did it against their own will, then they could potentially sue themselves. Even under the age of consent, they are doing it to themselves. Plus, the only people who could sue in the name of their kid would be the parents. But again, the ...
Stephen Hawking theory that information can be lost from the universe when black holes evaporate away	[ "Well, it's wrong because of the word evaporate. When water evaporates, the information of water is not gone. It's transferred to another state of matter. It's only lost in the sense you can't get that cube of ice back, in exactly the way it was frozen, even if you could somehow capture all the water molecules. Hon...
How do they get pure oxygen into oxygen bottles?	[ "Do you mean tanks of compressed oxygen?\n\nThere's a few different methods, depending on the purity of gas required. A common method is cryogenic distillation. Basically you make ambient air so cold that it liquifies, then raise the temperature of that liquid just to the boiling point of oxygen.\n\nThe oxygen gas ...
Why do lips, fingertips, toes, etc. get blue when they are cold?	[ "I'm going to go out on a limb and assume the OP is asking why that particular color. Why not yellow or polka dots or zebra stripes? Is there a reason it's blue." ]
Why do men and women have separate restrooms?	[ "It is for comfortability. Many people feel uncomfortable with members of the opposite sex around while they are doing their business. It is that simple.", "Easy, it's so when you are out to eat with your wife and baby, and the baby needs changing, you can shrug and say, \"sorry, there's no changing table in the ...
When I'm sitting on my couch and my phone signal switches from 4G to 3G or drops from 5 bars to just 1, what is happening to cause it?	[ "Wireless communications engineer here. There are several things that might be happening.\n\nTL;DWR It's probably your network trying to provide service to the greatest number of customers.\n\nOk, so full explanation: First, and most likely, is that your cellular provider is attempting to redistribute the load ...
How do fuel cells in the Voyager 1 & 2 last for 80+ years, yet the fuel in my car won't last a week?	[ "They use these:\n_URL_0_\n\nThey're great if you need a power source that lasts for years and years and years and you only need to power a radio, a computer and a few other gadgets on a satellite, but they're not great when you need lots of power to drive a car with.", "Voyager doesn't use fuel cells, although o...
Why do sites choose to go with 'smart' or 'curated' lists (Hulu / Instagram) versus pure chronological or user chosen lists? (Netflix / Twitter)?	[ "Essentially it just keeps you coming back for more. While you could cycle through Hulu alphabetically, there's a chance you don't want to watch 75% of what they have. You don't know exactly what you want to watch, but it's none of that garbage they're tossin at ya. You become fatigued and think, \"man, am I really...
Considering that the Earth's atmosphere is more than 75% nitrogen, how do our lungs only breathe in oxygen without accidentally breathing in any of the other atmospheric gases?	[ "In contrast with what a few people in this thread are saying, you do breath in nitrogen, CO2, radon, argon, and anything that is in the atmosphere near you, and it does enter your bloodstream. All gases are pulled into the lungs by decreasing the pressure in the lungs by increasing their volume. So now you have at...
why is consumption of meat bad for our climate/environment?	[ "It isn't, really.\n\nThe _production_ of meat is problematic when done by people who care about the money but not the animals or environment at all.\n\nBut that can be said of anything left to the stewardship of the uncaring.\n\nIn resource management terms, eating meat takes ten times as much energy input to get ...
Random flashes of light when my eyes are closed at night after going to bed.	[ "You might want to get that checked out with an Opthalmologist. Seeing bright flashes of light inside your eyes is usually due to the retinal cells getting stimulated by movement or traction. Not keen on scare mongering, but in rare situations it can be a precursor to retinal detachment.", "do you often hear a ba...
Why are keyboards organized in a QWERTY format instead of alphabetically?	[ "Because of typerwriters.\n\nBack in the old days, the physical keys of the typewriter's keyboard were connected by steel prongs or wires to their corresponding letter-striker...thingie. Anyways, if you typed too quickly, neighboring keys had a tendency to get tangled up with each other. Thus the QWERTY design was ...

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