Subset (10)

eli5 · 25k rows

Split (1)

train · 25k rows

query stringlengths 20 300	positive listlengths 1 1	negative listlengths 1 1
What is the difference between molecular covalent bonding and network covalent bonding?	[ "It's clearer when you think of a crystal of each. Take quartz (silicon dioxide) and dry ice (carbon dioxide) for example. In quartz, the ratio of silicon to oxygen is 1:2, but each sillicon is bound to four oxygens. Each of these four oxygens is bound to two silicons, which is bound to four oxygens, and so on, al...	[ "MAC adresses are hard-coded into physical hardware devices (and cannot be changed) - sort of like the street address for your house. IP address are set in software and can be moved/changed - sort of like your phone number. When you call 911, the operator can tell what your address is because your physical address ...
Were there any recurring jokes (A.K.A Memes) in any ancient civillization?	[ "A meme isn't necessarily a joke, it's just any idea that is spread between multiple people" ]	[ "There is a site, _URL_9_, that does an ELI5 for each xkcd strip. This particular strip is explained here: _URL_9_/wiki/index.php/1545:_Strengths_and_Weaknesses Your question isn't answered directly in the Wiki, but it does contain a link to the MCA (Most Common Ancestor) wiki article, here: _URL_11_" ]
Why are fancy dishes that no one uses called "China"?	[ "China used to be the only place on earth where really high-quality porcelain was produced. Europeans tried for many decades (centuries?) to work out how to make it, and they called it \"China ware.\"" ]	[ "California has some labeling and quality laws that are more strict than the rest of the country. If they didn't put that on there, then they could sell it in every state except California. So they just slap it on everything in order to avoid the hassle of worrying where in the united states it will wind up. If you...
why is frying something almost always considered less healthy than grilling?	[ "while frying you are almost always adding oils/fats to food while grilling you are generally removing fats, since the fat will be liquified, drip off the food then burn when it hits the bottom of the barbecue creating that smokey flavor." ]	[ "If you are looking at it from an emissions or energy standpoint then yes. [This](_URL_0_) Peta site is a good source of info, such as \"It takes more than 11 times as much fossil fuel to make one calorie from animal protein as it does to make one calorie from plant protein.\" Interesting information on burger prod...
What defines a sound's "texture"? Like how some guitars sound softer, some rougher, etc.	[ "As I don't know too much about physics, I can't go too much in to the nitty gritty of it, but what you are referring to is called \"Timbre\" (pronounced TAM-ber). This is the quality of a sound separated from it's pitch and loudness. I can play the same pitch on a piano as on a guitar at the same volume but they w...	[ "Foods actually taste different! Everyone has the same [five types of taste buds](_URL_1_). When you taste something, the flavour comes from a molecule in the food interacting with the taste receptors on the surfaces of taste buds, which sends a nerve response to the brain. But not all taste receptors can react to ...
What causes humans to imagine hearing names, or voices in general, while showering?	[ "It's definitely your brain. The human brain is made to recognize patterns very well. The shower is an environment with lots of ambient, meaningless noise that involves mindless activity. Given noise and a wandering mind, the brain will pick out information that isn't there, \"hearing\" a voice that isn't there." ]	[ "Because your brain's primary directive is survival. Good things, positive things, are normal and help your survival. In these cases, your brain did what it was supposed to, increase your chances of survival. But when a negative experience occurs, your brain turns on it's memory and activates other things which hel...
Why do spinning things often look like they are spinning a different way than how they are actually spinning?	[ "This is called the [wagon-wheel effect](_URL_0_). It happens when the rotational rate of the spinning object exceeds what our brains can pick up (our internal refresh rate). The object eventually spins fast enough that your brain is only able to catch the frame when the blade/spoke/whatever is advanced just behind...	[ "Grab a tennis ball and a lamp. Turn off every other light in the room. Hold up the tennis ball. Half is lit, half is dark. If you are looking from the side (you can see the lamp and the ball) you can see some of the dark side of the ball. The ONLY way to see nothing but lit ball is to have the lamp directly behin...
If nothing can go faster than the speed of light, then what happens when a light source is traveling at near light speeds?	[ "Photons created by a light source travel the speed of light. The speed of the light source is irrelevant. If you are walking (let's pretend in a vacuum) with a flash light the photons coming from the flash travel the speed of light. Now if we say attach the same flash light to the front of a interstellar ship ship...	[ "They just do. All massless objects travel at c in vacuum. It's the default. They don't get \"a boost\". In QFT no detail is put into how they are created, they are just emitted or absorbed in an instant. When they are emitted they propagate at c. This turns out to be an accurate model of reality. Any set of obs...
Why is psychosis bad?	[ "Those are not side effects. Those are possible side effects. And if the incidence of these is low, then the benefits of taking the medication outweigh the risks of developing one of these effects." ]	[ "You know how people thought there's some angry god that throws lightning bolts when you do or don't do something? Well people are afraid of things they don't understand." ]
Is there a theoretical 'maximum' to how loud a sound that room temperature / sea level air can reproduce without distortion?	[ "Eventually you get something called nonlinear propagation where the air is squished so much that it changes the squishiness." ]	[ "This comes from the way an analog mixer works and I think understanding this helps understand a good mix too. Each channel on an analog desk has an input, be it a mic (typically) or something else. These feed into the desk, there is no amplification at this point, just the microphone signals going straight in. Th...
How were albino slaves treated in the American South?	[ "I just want to direct you to Charles W. Chesnutt (1858-1932). He has some excellent works (some short stories, some novels) concerning \"passing\" in the deep South. Definitely worth the read if you are truly interested in what it meant to look white, but be black, in that time period. Chesnutt himself was of mixe...	[ "Tanning was usually relegated to the [outskirts of town](_URL_1_) due to the nature of the industry. Slaughter houses also used to be relegated to [certain streets.](_URL_0_) These both refer to England, though it seems to have happened in other places as well." ]
Why navy sailors wear Blue Camouflage, when the ships are painted grey and the naval bases are on the ground surrounded by green?	[ "As I recall, the current US Navy uniform was designed to hide paint splatter. The problem is that no one wears that uniform out to sea. It really was a great uniform to wear, being roomy and comfortable. Out to sea, coveralls are the shit. Can't beat coveralls. Edit: You are all filthy, slimy wogs. Hail King Nept...	[ "Because knots are very very useful when on the water and using maps. 1 knot is 1 nautical mile per hour. A nautical mile is one arcminute of Earth's surface. The reason that is really handy is because of the way maps are drawn. You know those lines they draw on maps? The longitude and latitude lines? Well, the hor...
how have humans developed a sense of compassion for other species, unlike most animals	[ "Compassion, like any reaction, has triggers. Humans and some other social species have some level of compassion instinct, and other animals can sometimes trigger it by resembling behaviors among their own kind that induce it. The most common example is infants. Although in the wild an orphaned animal is usually tr...	[ "nothing, they have no concept of things we do for our entertainment. Any attempt to say that they do is anthropomorphising them too much" ]
I have military insurance. How can pharmacies be paid only the "allowable amount" and still make money?	[ "I serve TriCare clients...but as a therapist, not a pharmacy obviously. We make less from some insurance and make more from others and from private pay folks. The submitted amount is typically inflated to what the BEST insurance carrier pays. By contract, we must charge all insurances/private pay folks the same. S...	[ "> How are drug companies able to patent products whose mechanism of action is unknown? In order to patent something it must be new, useful, and not obvious (and of course patentable). Nowhere in there is it required that one know exactly how it works. If for example a company wants to make a drug to help stop clot...
What would happen if a person could bend light in a perfect circle?	[ "Getting light to travel in a circular path isn't anything super exciting and is done routinely. These structures are called [optical ring resonators](_URL_2_). No perpetual energy here, but it does have widespread applications in fiber optics. [Here's what they look like](_URL_0_) [and an animation](_URL_4_) and [...	[ "This has actually already been done, [here is a video](_URL_0_). The problem is that the image coming from the eye is full of gaps and errors which our brain has evolved to cover up. We think we see a perfectly clear image but in reality it's distorted and constantly waving back and forth." ]
How do glow in the dark products work?	[ "Essentially, light causes electrons to jump up to an excited state. But the way for those electrons to drop back down is mostly blocked for certain kinematic (physics of motion and conservation of motion laws) reasons. So they take a very long time to do that. When they do, they release light as they drop down. ...	[ "Usually toys come with an \"extra heavy duty\" battery which is a generic name for [zinc-chloride](_URL_1_). These batteries are really bad. An AA might hold 1.5 watt-hours of power. Some really cheap toys come with \"heavy duty\" batteries or zinc-carbon. These are the worst and an AA might have 1 watt-hour of po...
Why are rape+homicide rates so high? What motivates someone who is simply out for sexual gratification to rape (and possibly end up murdering the victim) and why is that seen as a better alternative than paying for sex?	[ "Ive studied violent crime in grad school a bit. It’s not as simple as looking for sexual gratification. In fact the sex is secondary for most, and the real thrill comes from overpowering and beating the system if only for a little while. Sex is just a means to that end for many." ]	[ "Honestly? I want to be the monkey with the most shiny rocks. Deep down, I know that's what it is. I want more food and shiny rocks than the other monkeys and I want lady monkeys to want my shiny rocks. That's what the physical urge is. There is no other way to explain why I hate the person who grabbed the last bag...
How can I get around the internet filter in Saudi Arabia?	[ "The Tor Project is Awesome. If you can afford a VPN-That's better!" ]	[ "it's a problem once it's said it's mohammed O /\|\\ / \\ This stick figure is competely safe O /\|\\ < - muhammad / \\ This will get my head chopped off." ]
Why trees produce different shapes/sizes of leaves.	[ "A thing to remember about evolution (that I often see is either forgotten or never realized) is that so long as a trait works well enough, and doesn't kill an organism or weaken it to the point of applying direct evolutionary pressure, it will remain. Leaves are a balance between energy expenditure (to grow) and e...	[ "When Mohammed died his followers disagreed on who should lead them....Abu Bakr, His senior advisor and father in law, Or Mohammeds Cousin and brother in law, Ali. Much as the christian church has split into dozens of related sects that each practice their own interpretation of the same religion....So has Islam. E...
Pressurized staircase in hotel?	[ "It means that fan pumps air into the stairwell. This is a fire evacuation safety measure, so that if you open the door from your burning corridor into the stairwell, the positive air pressure will push the smoke back allowing you to escape and close the door. It means that holding the door open will cause people's...	[ "Wait really? I've never been on an escalator that does this, it always goes at the same speed. Some field service installers are messing up the escalators you are on." ]
why the US Postal Service is in so much trouble	[ "Several years ago congress passed a law forcing the USPS to pre fund the retirement accounts for the next 75 years. Meaning they have to put money away for workers that have not even been born yet. Without this requirement the USPS would be operating just fine. Email has also caused a reduction in mail volume whic...	[ "Let's say toll roads are run by Wal Mart. They then offer a discount - you can drive to Wal Mart for free, but still have to pay a toll when you go anywhere else. Sounds good, right? But then next year they double or triple the toll. Soon you can't afford to shop anywhere EXCEPT WalMart. Every other store then go...
Why does most life rely directly only on the visible spectrum of light, and not the rest of the light spectrum?	[ "Because visible light passes through our atmosphere most easily - the majority of UV and IR light is absorbed quite heavily by the air." ]	[ "There's plenty of info and history in this article: _URL_0_ The short answer is that the RGB colors are chosen based on the color sensing cone cells in your eyes. Using these colors as the primary colors helps you distinguish more possible mixes of color (from those primaries). There aren't any actual PRIMARY colo...
How are milk suppliers able to predict, almost to the day, when milk will go sour?	[ "Short answer is they dont. That date is a rough approximation of the earliest date which the milk will begin to spoil when kept in a cold, dry place. This is actually really easy to predict if you are at all familiar with how any given bottle is treated and packaged. Once they figure out that date, they subtract a...	[ "The movie producer doesn't have the authority to show a rating until the final cut of the movie has been reviewed. The trailer gets produced and edited before that, and even though they might know by the time the trailer is showing, there isn't time to edit another version and distribute it. Teaser trailers are sh...
Which regions of the United States contain the fewest mosquitoes?	[ "Mosquitoes need standing (fresh) water to breed their eggs and larvae. Thus areas where you would not typically find stagnant puddles of water are the areas with the fewest mosquitoes. Those areas correspond with areas that can go long periods without seeing rain, which is typical of Mediterranean climates found i...	[ "Long story short: You're right about the glaciers making the flat areas. The Adirondacks and other mountains in the area are there because they're made up of harder rock than most of the rest of the upper midwest/east. (They're made of granite, etc, instead of sedimentary rocks)" ]
How come red and violet are similar colors on the standard color wheel, but are on opposite ends of the visible light spectrum?	[ "That becomes obvious if you look at the spectra of sensitivity of the different color receptor in our eye: If you have a look [here](_URL_0_), you see that the red receptor has a region of sensitivity in the blue-ish frequencies. That is why short wavelength light evokes violet perception in us - it produces the s...	[ "VL can go right through glass, but IR can't. It all has to do with electron energy levels. If the material doesn't have electrons with energy gaps that match the energy of that type radiation, the material will be transparent to that type." ]
How come computers can complete an action so much faster than us, but even super computers take several minutes to simulate one second of human brain activity?	[ "A lot of these answers are wrong and misleading. There's no \"creativity\" in the brain that trumps all computer based logic. The key word is simulation, the computer is trying to pretend to have and replicate every electrical and chemical reaction in the brain. It's really easy for computers to tally up the vot...	[ "That's because your device has to \"prep\" a lot of configurations such as encryption keys, protocols etc. Think of it as switching the battery in your car, you first gotta unplug it, check which wire goes well, reassure you did it correctly and then proceed to turn your car on. It took you time to do all that, ...
In a centrally planned economy such as the Soviet Union, who does the planning?	[ "What the others said, also: - Soviet planners often took the prices from the Wall Street Journal - Behind formal plannig, there was basically an informal market of favors" ]	[ "This question is getting a lot of traffic after being [tweeted by @reddit](_URL_5_), so I thought I'd welcome those of you that haven't visited /r/AskHistorians before to the subreddit. Please do bear in mind that in order to keep the quality of answers here high we have [strict rules on comments](/r/AskHistorians...
Trans Pacific Partnership and why people are against it	[ "_URL_0_ this thread has all the info you'll need" ]	[ "This CGP Grey video does a really good job of explaining it all. _URL_3_" ]
If the atmosphere is pregnant with moisture and the conditions are right, what stops the snow from just all falling at once?	[ "Two reasons: 1. Heat is not constant and there are temperature gradients so the freezing of water will take place at different rates in different areas. 2. Heat energy is in a way released (in an eli5 sense) when the snow freezes, so the atmosphere around the snow particles temporarily will not be cold enough to c...	[ "We have a pretty good map of the Interior solar system and major meteor clouds in our surrounding areas. By tracking these and modeling their movement in conjunction with their own orbital path, we can predict with a high degree of accuracy when our orbit will intersect with their pathway, causing them to enter in...
Why aren't land speed records set by huge vehicles?	[ "> So I'm wondering why land speed records aren't set by huge rockets tipped sideways on wheels. Their are different categories for the different records, all with their own sets of rules and regulations. There is a governing body, so you can't just \"build whatever you want\". > And in regards of Piston powered c...	[ "I ran track in highschool and followed the scene a bit. Most of seems to come from simple observation of past history. In the example you mentioned it is just that nobody has ever passed that mark. No matter how hard people train and repeat the cycle, nobody has done it. Basically they just figure that if nobody c...
Pinky toes and wisdom teeth: What else are humans slowly losing as we evolve?	[ "I don't understand this \"we don't need something so we're going to lose it\" evolution thing. I thought that evolution was random mutations + natural selection, and in a modern world I don't see how people with, let's say, small wisdom teeth have a higher survival rate than people with big wisdom teeth. Maybe I'm...	[ "The ability to sit still in the dark and rely upon other senses. If you drink, smoke or eat certain foods you can be smelt in the jungle at quite some distance." ]
why can i proof read for a long time and find no mistakes, but as soon as i give it to someone else to proof, all the mistakes are so apparent as they are proofing the document?	[ "Because you already know what you are trying to say, and instead of actually reading what is there your brain fills it in for you with what you intended to say. Pro tip: proof your own work by reading it backwards word-for-word and you'll find a ton of those mistakes also." ]	[ "When you listen to yourself speak, your voice is transmitted to your ears not just by the air (which is the normal way of transferring sound), but also by your skull. The properties of the bones in your skill - the way they transfer sound - is not the same as the air. This means that what you hear is not the same ...
In baths/showers, why does the little knob you press down release water when you’re done, where is that water from?	[ "When you turn the water on and push the button, the water pressure holds a stop so the water can’t come out like it was a bath. Since the water can’t go out there, it instead fills the pipe going up to the shower head and comes out. When you turn the water off, the water pressure is gone and the stop opens again. ...	[ "Here is a great animation: _URL_0_ As you can see from the animation, the inner surface of the pen is grooved. The button has a \"holder\", which holds the pen shaft in place and slides back and forth on the grooves. The shaft has a complementary part that fits into the holder. The holder is designed such that the...
Why is it considered "wasting water" when I leave the water running or take a long shower if the water goes down the drain and is recycled at a water treatment plant?	[ "Water treatment isn't free. It costs money to build those plants & energy to operate them. If you're in a place that's got clean water shortages, you can still deplete your clean freshwater supplies faster than nature completes the water cycle to bring it back to you." ]	[ "A cattle farm produces as much waste as a small city. Meat production is highly inefficient; they have to grow grain to feed to the cattle, and the animals produce waste and gaseous emissions. It takes 3 times as much crops to feed the animals we eat than if we just ate the plants we grow. Animal farms use a third...
why did Christian slavetraders think it was okay what they where doing while the bible says God punished the Egyptians for enslaving the Jews?	[ "The Christian bible has no problem with slavery, and has detailed rules about how the Jew were to handle slaves, how badly you could beat them, how much you should sell you daughter for, that kind of thing. The Egyptians weren't punished for having slaves, they were punished for not letting them go when commanded ...	[ "Not sure if libertarians is the correct term to use here, he maybe referring to the likes of North Carolina governor Zebulon Baird Vance and Georgia governor Joseph E. Brown both of whom resisted Jefferson Davis and were believers in state's rights. Brown was particularly bad, trying to prevent Georgia state troop...
Why do long freight trains have engines on the back facing backwards? Is there a difference between the engine facing forwards?	[ "This is known as a \"push-pull\" train, and has a few advantages: * It makes direction reversals much easier. Turning trains around is very difficult; it's much easier to simply switch the direction of both engines. * When climbing mountains, it's safer for the engineer to be at a higher elevation than the rest of...	[ "From a distance you're only viewing the largest features of the smoke cloud. Up close, you're viewing much smaller, faster moving features of that cloud. Due to the fractal nature of such an object these features are different sized but similar looking. Next time approach the cloud but be mindful to focus only on ...
If an ant was the size of a human, would it still be able to lift 10x it’s body weight?	[ "No. This is commonly referred to as the \"square-cube law\". Basically, the strength of something relates to its cross-sectional area - how thick it is. If you scale up something by a factor of 2, then the cross-sectional area of the arms/legs/etc increases by a factor of 4, i.e. the square of the scale factor. Ho...	[ "Brains easily perform many, many tasks hat are difficult for computer. Take that we know brains are optimized for pattern-finding. Consider intelligent life forms have to interact with a real 3-world and real time. Which means they can check their expectations. Testings a supposition is as simple as rotating an o...
Statistical Analysis techniques	[ "You would use a t-test. That test determines if a group is significantly different from another group. ANOVA is what's used when you have more than two groups to compare them all to each other." ]	[ "The Nielsen Company. I believe they have around 10,000 US households and they give them a special device that logs when each user is currently watching tv. This is also how demographics (age, race, etc.) are gathered." ]
When should I post to ELI5?	[ "Complex(or simple) things you want simple(r) answers to." ]	[ "Such hypothetical / speculative / open-ended questions are better suited for our new-ish sister sub /r/asksciencediscussion. Please consider reposting there instead." ]
can somebody explain socialism to me?	[ "This is one of the most asked questions in this subreddit. Please search your question before posting. _URL_0_" ]	[ "Employers pay half of the social security and medicare taxes (the thing listed as FISA on your paystub.) When you are self employed, you pay the half that your employer would pay if you had an employer." ]
Why is "she" used as a third person reference in textbooks to replace he/she?	[ "Writing he/she is considered awkward by many authors. So instead, they'll alternate use of he and she between the chapters." ]	[ "Many of these differences are simply stylistic. Different countries and different time periods have different traditions/norms for newspaper article writing. Certain phrases fall out of style while others become more accepted. There's [a journal article from 1983](_URL_1_) which presents a study of readability whi...
AskScience, I need your help finding a paper.	[ "An Oxford Professor of Philosophy has in fact come up with a well-known \"simulation argument\". His website is here :_URL_1_ The paper itself here: _URL_0_ (Published in Philosophical Quarterly (2003), Vol. 53, No. 211, pp. 243-255.) Abstract pretty much sums it up: > This paper argues that at least one of the f...	[ "Depends on what level the study is at. Look at people who regularly eat lots of red meat and bacon, and compare it to people who don't If there is a difference in cancer rates between the two groups, something is causing a higher rate of cancer. Maybe work place exposure, food, lifestyle etc. Then take genetically...
After getting bit by a mosquito, it itches. Is there an evolutionary benefit for humans that the bite itches?	[ "Yes, it teaches you to stay the hell away from mosquitoes, the single deadliest animal on Earth for humans." ]	[ "> My question is how can for example a tree \"know\" that if it starts to produce fruits their seed will be spread easier. It doesn't. If, out of billions and billions of trees, one of them happens to have a mutation that causes it to produce something fruit-like, that tree's seeds will be spread further, so in 10...
Why does making an X with my nail on a mosquito bite seem to stop the itchiness for a bit?	[ "You're drowning out the relatively minor itchiness with sharper pain, so it takes your body a moment to readjust and notice the itchy signal again." ]	[ "Do you have a fly screen over the window? If so what you are observing is a [Moiré pattern](_URL_0_) being projected onto the window. Essentially the light is passing through the screen and the light waves get split up and then interact with each other causing spots of superposition where some regions are darker a...
How/when did black become the color of mourning?	[ "It isn't that way everywhere. Some countries have white as their mourning color. As for why it is in many western cultures, I'm curious too." ]	[ "hi everyone! just a reminder to respondents to be mindful of this sub's [\"20-year rule\": no discussion of events/conditions post-1994 please](_URL_0_)! thanks! OP, if you'd like to carry on this discussion for more recent years, consider x-posting this question to /r/AskSocialScience." ]
Watched Hawking's 'Curiosity' last night, question: if there was no time before the Big Bang, why at a specific instant did the universe spontaneously come into existence?	[ "Imagine that you want to make a long trip and decide to always go north. It's easy: you know how to use a compass, you just have to follow this direction. But then you reach the North Pole. Some people have warned you that the concept of \"north\" is a bit singular there. Your compass isn't indicating anything use...	[ "_URL_0_ Great explanation of cosmology as a whole, and how quantum mechanics allows for something to come from nothing." ]
Object Oriented Design	[ "I highly recommend [this book](_URL_0_) for OOP novices. It explains concepts very well and is a good, language-agnostic reference. Best of luck to you." ]	[ "Tl;dr engineers didn't ever give it a different name and just called it a black box. It's orange because that makes it easier to spot" ]
Does the common cold virus infect tissues all over the body, or is it limited in scope to mucous membranes?	[ "What cells a virus can infect is determined by its tropism. Basically, the proteins on the virion can only attach to receptors on the cell surface that are able to interact with each other. This means that each virus can only infect specific types of cells." ]	[ "Originally they were written for fun or just to see if they could. The very first worm was supposed to catalog how many computers were on the early internet. It would copy itself to the next machine in order to get a count. But, there was a bug and it copied itself far too much, creating a problem. Most modern mal...
When and why did humans begin to wear clothing?	[ "When is tricky. Clothing is unlikely to survive as long as other tools, so we can't say with certainty that the earliest tool-users (Australopithecus) didn't wear furs or other clothing. As to why? That's also tricky. There's no historical or archaeological record of early clothing, so your guess is as good as any...	[ "Hi OP, this is a cultural question, so it would greatly assist anyone considering answering if you could specify which culture you're asking about. For example, the name of a cultural group / country / geographic region, plus a rough time period. Otherwise, this question is simply too broad, as it encompasses almo...
If employer applications state they will not discriminate against you based on your race or gender, why do they still ask for that information?	[ "It's usually kept separate from the application, so the recruiter doesn't read it. They will use it if someone tries to claim discrimination to prove they aren't discriminating." ]	[ "Graphic designer here. It's for the printer sake. So he can measure that every individual color is printing correctly. You might also find a small cross hair next to the colors, that is to make sure the colors are lined up with each other. As every color is printed in it's own printing press, a cross hair of every...
How come Spain and Portugal led the age of exploration and not any other European power	[ "Well if the question is earnest, then theres no such thing as a stupid question. Some related questions have already been asked and answered [here](_URL_1_) and [here](_URL_2_). There are further discussions to be read on the overall subject page found [here](_URL_0_). If you have any followup questions that aren'...	[ "I don't know what you mean by \"better resources\". The countries you named are some of the wealthiest in the world. Norway, in particular, is flush with oil money." ]
Why are the pupils usually absent in ancient Roman sculptures?	[ "Eyes were painted on. Plus have you ever seen a statute with carved pupils? super creepy." ]	[ "I heard it had a lot to do with the invention / discovery of the camera obscura. This helped people understand perspective / proportions / etc better. Here's a quick article I found about it - but there are a ton of others, videos, books, etc that talk about it in more depth. _URL_0_" ]
What do people mean when they say that a music album is 'overproduced'?	[ "For me it means there is too much going on. For example, if a song would sound best with a simple piano accompaniment but is, instead, recorded with a full symphonic orchestra and a backing choir." ]	[ "Basically if you plot the image density versus integrated energy on a pixel, you will find that no system is perfectly linear. Even the time of exposure (shutter speed) can affect the results. Film was especially bad in this respect. And lead to things like [\"Black lightning\"](_URL_1_) on photographs. Caused by ...
"Got in a little hometown jam, so they put a rifle in my hand." Who fought in Vietnam due to trouble with the law?	[ "I previously answered a question very similar to this one [here](_URL_0_), but I’ll paste it below." ]	[ "\"America\" can't, but Texans in his district certainly can. Once every two years they get the opportunity Mr. Smith is a congressman, and he represents one particular place. Only people from that place get to vote for or against him. Unfortunately Mr. Smith represents a wealthy area near Austin, Texas where I sus...
How do photons carry information about objects from which they are emitted or off of which they have reflected?	[ "A singlet photon does not offer much information. You can measure the polarization, wavelength and direcion it was coming from. However if you have a lot of photons you can recognize patterns, like lines in the energy spectra, which in turn can be identified with certain atoms/molecules. Additionally from the post...	[ "What are some possible experiments to support or refute the [OrchOR]( _URL_0_) theory? I'm trying to think of something that shows any sort of information transfer along microtubules, and perhaps relating it to phosphorylation states of the tubulin and associated proteins. [This paper]( _URL_1_) seems like a good ...
When comparing the costs of developping, maintaining and operating reusable launch systems with those of single-use systems, are reusable systems worth the effort and if so to what extent?	[ "_URL_0_ > According to SpaceX’s Elon Musk, $200,000 in fuel and oxygen make up just 0.35% of his firm’s launch costs. The rest is in their $56.5 million Falcon 9 rocket." ]	[ "Sometime ago, there was a suggestion that the first few missions that send humans to Mars should be a one-way trip. And preferably one beyond reproductive age which gives the added advantage of a reduced chance of side effects from harmful radiation (so that they will die before suffering from them). You can read ...
if someone has massive credt card debt and that person dies, what happens to the debt?	[ "It becomes a debt to that person's estate (which is cleared up during probate). If that person had no assets/money and the person wasn't married, the debt would be written off." ]	[ "pets are not people, so they cannot own property. Who is a legal heir varies from country to country, but the heir(s) can dispute the will in court, and get the belongings instead." ]
How do coaxial cables transmit so much data with only one pin?	[ "Coax can carry more bandwidth (as in frequency spectrum). RG-6 coax can carry somewhere 1-3Ghz while Cat 6 Ethernet (8 wires) can only carry about 500 Mhz. The reason is the shielding is so good and the impedance of the RG-6 coax cable is guaranteed over a long distance. HD TV channels only need 6Mhz so a single ...	[ "[This video explains quite well how it works online, specifically Youtube](_URL_0_) TL;DW: Youtube only sends information about changes between frames of a video. Since there is usually very little difference between 2 frames the server can just say \"ehhh take what you had last time, shift this part a tiny bit th...
Does the probability of pregnancy change depending on the genetic distance between two human parents?	[ "There is hardly any genetic difference between human races, as compared to species with significant variation such as dogs. The old \"there is more variation within than between races\" holds true -- genetic race as popularly constructed is limited to a pretty superficial set of alleles. Therefore then, speaking ...	[ "As a follow up, would the impact be lower in close-knit tribes of hunter gatherers with better social support than would be found in agriculturally-based civilizations with greater social stratification and more physical/socio-cultural barriers to group intimacy? And what role do certain beliefs regarding babies/s...
Inflation target is roughly 2-3%, is any lower than this bad? If so, why?	[ "Moderate inflation provides incentives for people who have money to lend it out to borrowers. These borrowers generally spend this money in the short term, which fuels economic activity and all that comes with it (higher production, lower unemployment, etc.). In short, money is put to work rather than just sitting...	[ "Imagine you buy a shiny new toy. It costs $20. A week later, you want to sell it to a friend, but that friend will only pay $15 because he knows he could have a new one for $20. You decide not to sell. A year later, the toy has gone out of fashion. Now, your friend will only pay $5 for it. It's in similar conditio...
According to the Biblical account, Jesus rose three days after his death. So why do Christians celebrate it only two days later (between Good Friday morning and Easter Sunday morning)?	[ "He didn't rise in three days, he rose on the third day. So Friday as the first, Saturday as the second, and Sunday as the day it occurred. Dead people don't come back to life. While people are welcome to believe otherwise, history, like all empirically minded endeavors, employs methodological naturalism. We can as...	[ "you actually \"deep\" sleep in ~1.5 hour cycles. if you wake up in the middle of one of those cycles you'll feel groggy. if you time it to wake at the end of those cycles, you'll feel more refreshed. in your scenario where you've slept the same amount of time, i'd guess something was disturbing your deep sleep, bu...
As Kings of England, why aren't Edward the Martyr or Edward the Confessor known as Edward I or II?	[ "You can see a reply to \"If Arthur, Prince of Wales had succeeded his father Henry VII, would he have been King Arthur I or II?\" by /u/Valkine at _URL_0_ . Mentioning this answer is intended as a starting point, not to discourage more discussion. Further questions, info, and debate are welcome." ]	[ "Joan of Arc is merely an Anglicization of her name. Americans suck at the nasal sound in Jeanne. Because \"Leonardo of Vinci\" does not roll off the tongue as well. The \"-o\" of Leonardo does not merge well with the \"o-\" in \"o\"f, and the \"-f\" does not merge well with the \"V\" in Vinci. Say Leonardo of Vin...
I know that some amount of inflation is good for the economy, but is deflation ever good? Does it ever even really occur?	[ "Deflation is generally judged to be really bad, worse even than inflation. It has happened at least once in Japan, but it is very rare. The theory goes that during deflation, currency will gain value over time. That means there's no reason to invest or sometimes even work, since you can just wait and your money wi...	[ "there have been a few posts touching on \"white flight\" and deurbanization; they won't answer your question directly so hopefully someone else will chip in with that, but these posts will provide more context: [What happened in Detroit that made it what it is today?](_URL_4_) [What are some pivotal events in the ...
When I put my iPhone next to my clock radio, the speaker on the clock radio occasionally makes this static-like sound, especially right before an email comes in. Why?	[ "When your phone is just siting around, the antenna is just receiving information from the cell towers. When your cell phone gets a message or email it sends a response back to the cell tower to confirm that it received the message. The confirmation message from your phone uses the antenna to send radio waves back ...	[ "You've got a tube that connects your inner ear to your throat called a Eustachian tube. Normally this tube is pretty much open, except for a 'door' on the throat end to keep stuff out. When you've got a cold, the tube can get infected and it gets swollen, so even if the 'door' opens it can't equalize pressure bet...
Are there other species besides humans that have a concept of grandparents?	[ "I remember seeing a study on Orcas and why females live beyond their reproductive age, relating to why women live way beyond menopause. Observations led to theories that it helps in passing on knowledge and raising young. Not quite the same, I don't know if they look at their elder females and think 'grandma!', bu...	[ "These sort of questions are really hard to answer under the auspices of \"science\". Someone can probably tell you a story based on a sort of \"evolutionary reasoning\" (and these stories are where a lot of evolutionary studies begin), but unless they can cite a serious research program that has investigated this...
What would happen if a nuclear fireball extended past the atmosphere?	[ "An explosion-driven fireball that you see is largely a pressure wave. The fire you see is atmospheric molecules combusting. It's inherently different from, for instance, a volcanic eruption, where lots of 'new' material is being shot upward. That being said, the atmosphere would define a boundary for the pressure...	[ "Not enough energy to. It's like lighting a match in a snow storm and expecting it to melt everything. Sure, the match is hot, but theres a lot more cold than there is hot." ]
If the sun is getting hotter in billions of years does that mean that planets farther from us may become suitable for life (while earth may not).	[ "The only potential candidate for this would be Mars (further out, solid surface) BUT Mars has insufficient gravity to hold an atmosphere TL;DR - it's not just about temperature" ]	[ "If you have a 30W light bulb right in front of you and a 100W light bulb on the other side of the football field, the 30W bulb will appear much brighter because it's so close. By the time the 100W bulb's light gets to you, it's scattered so much that there's barely anything left to come straight at you. Stars ar...
Why does Google and other companies restrict so many of their products and apps to US only?	[ "Legal reason mostly. There are a ton of different reasons that depend on what product you are talking about. Some are straight forward like copyright reasons, where they have managed to acquire the rights to one one thing in one place but not another. Like Netflix being able to stream a movie they bought the right...	[ "This is a fun question. And it mostly has to do with cartographers and how they built /drew maps. Plus a little bit of British imperialism. Most of the early cartographers were employed by the rich Northern European countries to make maps of their country and the new world. So they put their native/home country fr...
How do the Portuguese Man O' War's tentacles retract?	[ "From what I recall from my university days, the retraction is triggered when enough sensation alerts it to an ensnared food source it then manipulates the tentacles to curl using the same impulses other species like the lions mane jelly use to retract to swim and move in shallow waters although the man o war isn’t...	[ "> It doesn't kick upwards, it's just propelled. Its feet never extend It does kick upwards, and its feet do extend. It just happens very quickly, and is only fully visible in [a single frame of the video](_URL_1_). You can check out all of the individual frames [here](_URL_0_)." ]
Why can't we add a lens to a camera that has a larger actual lens on the end but concentrates it to the sensor size to get extra light for images?	[ "Speedboosters do this but nothing is \"free\" in optics speed boosters shrink the image circle and require that the original lens be placed much closer to the imaging surface (film or sensor). Those two trade offs mean there needs to be a large supply of larger format lenses that were intended to have longer mount...	[ "The thing about galaxies (clusters of stars) is that they are by definition very bright objects. And we detect exoplanets typically by pointing a telescope at a star and waiting for something to pass between the star and us. Any planet further than us from the sun will never pass between us and the sun - and will ...
Why do I wake up not needing to go poop when I go to sleeping needing to poop?	[ "You feel the urge to poop because stretch receptors in your anus indicate there's material present. Basically, your large colon deposits poop, ready to be released into the wild, and that stretches certain sensors. If you don't #2 for a period of time, the colon does what is known as reverse peristalsis, and takes...	[ "There are a few factors at work here : Moſt chairs are deſigned to ſit at about knee height ; they generally ſupport your back, and more importantly, your butt and legs. Toilets are uſually lower, and they are made with a large hole in the middle, into which you ſink a little. This lower height, lack of ſupport,...
How can the IVANPAH solar field be efficient with the placement of the solar panels?	[ "The panels move - and their goal isn't to collect sunlight, but to reflect it towards a central location. Additionally, they've built so much reflection ability they often times have to turn the panels away from their desired location because they generate too much heat. This makes the total energy during the whol...	[ "Not science disclaimer: This is not science. Land is sold by the acre which is surface area. The whole point behind very tall buildings like the Burj Khalifa is to maximize that patch of planet that it is built upon. When the design constraints begin at the very bottom, the only choice is to go up. Pyramids ha...
Why did China and other non-European countries not have more advanced technology if they didn't experience the Dark Ages?	[ "Because the idea of the Dark Ages is a product of \"Enlightenment\" Era propaganda, and technology does not advance uniformly or equally across all cultures at all times." ]	[ "Less added sugar, less carbs. When you eat a diet where you get your energy based off of carbs you are running on glucose, basically your body is always in an insulin rush. This makes you fat. If you get most of your energy from good fats insetad of sugars youre body will shed it's fat. So more meat based fats or ...
Why do only our fingers work on touch screens?	[ "> A capacitive touch screen works by measuring the amount of pressure on each corner of the screen, and triangulating. No it doesn't. A [resistive touchscreen](_URL_1_) works more or less like this in terms of detecting any pressure, though the positions are not triangulated via the corners. An eraser or other obj...	[ "Specializing helps with optimization. Cows can't eat meat, but their teeth and multiple stomachs are ideal for eating grass. Humans have to have sharp teeth for meat and grinding teeth for plants and our digestive system is inefficient at processing plant matter. Versatility is obviously useful, but there are trad...
Could a wireless charger work underwater (without electrocuting anyone?)	[ "yes, if you ran a long, waterproof cable from the surface to the charging device, it could in theory work. The likely problem is that your charging pad is likely not tested to the same waterproof level as the watch. you might find that the range of the pad is reduced in water versus in air, but i don't have attenu...	[ "Quoting [Wikipedia](_URL_0_) (a bit naughty, but it's a nice way to express what I think): > The proposed theory is inconsistent with quantum mechanics and critics have ruled it out on those grounds. Which is essentially saying what you pointed out, yes. If what they're doing is as easy as it sounds - just runnin...
Why are planets made of such different stuff?	[ "[This question](_URL_0_) in the FAQ probably explains this sufficiently. Although actually the planets are very similar, if you consider them as two separate groups." ]	[ "Watch this video by Veritasium: _URL_1_ I think it answers your questions." ]
Why do some helicopters have two rotors on top of one another while others do not?	[ "The main rotor of a helicopter also causes the body of the helicopter to rotate in the opposite direction. Normally, this force is countered by a rotor on the tail. However, you can accomplish the same task by having another rotor on top that is rotating in the opposite direction. At low speeds, two top rotors are...	[ "The names refer to the number of points of origin, or \"heads\" of the muscles. Bi, tri, and quad meaning 2,3, and 4, and \"cep\" from \"cephalic\" meaning head. We actually have 2 sets of muscles called the \"biceps\", the biceps brachii or the arm and the biceps femoris of the leg. Most muscles only have one ori...
how does a mood ring work?	[ "It's really quite simple. The stone on a mood ring is either made from, or coated with, a chemical that undergoes several stages of color change, as its temperature changes. So, basically, mood rings are old fashioned forehead thermometers, that you wear on your hand." ]	[ "As far as I know, it's the blood flow in your ear amplified." ]
How do mammals relate to their full-grown, mature offspring? Do they maintain a special relationship?	[ "'Mammals' is too broad a group for this question. Some species remain part of the same social groups when they mature. The extreme example of this is humans. Others abandon their young almost immediately. Many have developed a system in which one sex of young remains with its family while the other sex is driven o...	[ "Could you please clarify what you mean by family? Does it mean family in the modern sense of the term (father, mother and kids) or does matriarchal families (mother, kids, mothers brothers, and unmarried sisters) count? (i.e are you looking for cultures where kids were looked after by non-blood relatives?) In [Spa...
If radioactive material goes into a "half-life", does that mean it can never fully decay?	[ "I'm just going to interpret the probabilistic model here. A real nuclear physicist would give you a physically meaningful answer... Think if you had one particle. While it's true that at any point in time it might have just \"not yet decayed\", the probability of it lasting forever goes to zero quickly: practicall...	[ "The brain is made up of neurons, which are essentially just cells. We have a pretty fixed amount of neurons over time; what changes is the number of connections between neurons. Whenever you learn something new, your brain creates a bunch of connections in your brain that represent that. When you're young, your br...
How do freshwater fish naturally occur in small isolated ponds and streams?	[ "Ducks and herons feed in shallow water. As they are feeding, fertilized eggs cling to their feathers and feet. As they go about their day they stop at various water spots, transferring the fertilized eggs into a pond or stream that previously had no fish. It would only take a few eggs to start a new population." ]	[ "There are lots of ways for animals to traverse the earth, not to be trite. Addressing your specific example, this wiki. _URL_1_ Indonesia was at one time linked to the rest of the islands in that part of the world, when sea levels were lower due to so much water being bound up in polar glaciers. When the glaciers...
How does the App Store get profits from free apps?	[ "Many free apps have in-app purchases, and Apple gets a cut of them. But developers also have to pay Apple a (small?) amount of money to list apps on the App Store, so even truly free apps generate revenue for Apple." ]	[ "They calculate with what a average person would eat (because jot everyone eats tons just because it's all you can eat) and choose a price after that calculation. There are also person who don't eat much (old people e.g.)." ]
how do websites like _URL_0_ find all the information on your family	[ "While _URL_0_ digitizes a lot of records from the past, that doesn't specifically tell you about your family. They way it knows about your specific family is that there are other people who have taken the time to enter their family trees on the site, and their ancestors match up with your ancestors. When you sta...	[ "I use Android, but it does the same thing. I think it just uses GPS to figure out where you spend time everyday and makes an educated guess." ]
In movies and tv shows, how do they eliminate all background noise (i.e., noise on set from 100+ people)?	[ "99% of the people you see in a movie are supposed to be there. Extras on set are most often required to stay quiet while the scene is being shot. Many times the sound they \"make\" is added in post production so that the volume is appropriate. Some times, actors and actresses will have to re-dub scenes because of ...	[ "If you are adding waves together from unknown sources you get what is called \"Incoherent addition.\" Which is to say, you don't know if you have \"constructive\" or \"destructive\" interference between all of the sources. The average interference is what gives you the \"incoherent\" value. The normal value we use...
Why dont people have a problem with Cuba being a problem?	[ "There isn't a sort of flicked switch between free and oppressive. As countries go, Cuba isn't that bad. It's also poor, yes, but arguably because of US-imposed trade embargoes. All the money it spends on medical aid is also a very good PR move - it sends hundreds of doctors to developing countries. It also has ...	[ "\"Just about everyone here\" Where is \"here\" for you? It sounds like your question's premise is based on a small sample set based on personal observation. Before your question is addressed, you should be making sure the premise is valid..." ]
why do public sector bodies pay tax?	[ "Not sure what you mean? As a CPA I’ve never seen a government agency pay tax, they have exempt status." ]	[ "The government of the US was formed around the time of the enlightenment, a philosophical movement that among other things, taught that people had natural, inherent rights. It was the first major modern government formed on these principles, and a lot of other developed countries followed suit." ]
How does American surname laws work with regards for other cultures?	[ "America does not really have Surname Laws. Your child is whatever name you put on the birth certificate." ]	[ "Actually we do. _URL_0_ The reason its so complicated is because we have so many dialects, accents, and speaking mannerisms. The program itself needs (I believe) a minute of speech from the subject before mimicing the speech." ]
How to say certain complex chemical formulas?	[ "Cu = copper CO_3_ = carbonate OH = hydroxide The parentheses group the items so you know that there are two carbonates and two hydroxides. Azurite's chemical name is quite boring. Copper(II) Carbonate hydroxide. To see more on naming rules for inorganic compounds, start [here](_URL_0_)" ]	[ "You can change to \"simple English\" on the left side of the page, in the list of languages. And it will show you a more basic explanation of the topic written in language everyone should be able to understand." ]
Why don't we build multi wing aircraft anymore when they were the epitome of technology during WWI?	[ "Biplanes and triplanes were necessary at those times because the engines they had at the time weren't fast enough to generate the lift required to keep the plane in the air. As a drawback, biplanes generate more drag and are much slower than single-wing aircraft. Now that we have high-speed engines to put in plane...	[ "A quick [PubMed](_URL_0_) search for these drugs brings up a vast amount of peer-reviewed papers, some of which are free even if you are not at a University with access. The short answer is that even though these early compounds were effective, the side effects were astronomical. We've moved towards more specific...
Is it possible to put enough backspin on a ball so that its trajectory defies gravity?	[ "I am a little concerned about the wording in the question and answers here. Nothing \"defies\" gravity. But there is a complex interplay within an atmosphere between buoyancy effects, fluid effects and gravity. Is it possible that backspin can cause a ball to not take a parabolic arc trajectory? Yes. But gravity i...	[ "It has been done. The device is known as Boomerang. Here is the wikipedia article: [Boomerang (Countermeasure)](_URL_0_) And a video: [Boomerang III](_URL_1_)" ]
The difference between DSL, Cable, and Fiber.	[ "The technologies you are referencing are what type of connection you have to the internet provider's backbone to the internet. * DSL internet uses phone lines * Cable internet uses TV lines * Fiber internet uses fiber optic lines (speed of light transfer, well... 2/3rds speed of light) Generally, Fiber > Cable > D...	[ "Would some one humor me and explain the advantages of diesel and gasoline as fuel source. I've always wondered she we have both." ]
IF I own 100% of a company and i give 49% to someone else, do I still have the same power I had when I was the sole owner?	[ "The answer hinges on the structure of the company, but the short answer is yes. Owning 51% of a corporation with a board of directors would allow you to choose who sits on that board. The board is generally responsible for choosing executive leadership, CEO, CFO, etc. in theory you could elect yourself to the boar...	[ "A woman named Frances Wright did something like what you are asking in 1824. In Memphis, TN she bought two thousand acres of land from Andrew Jackson and would buy slaves. On this land she set up a co-operative labor system where they could basically work off their price of purchase and then they would be set free...
Why does Russia feel it has to compete against the EU and North America? Why doesn't it just become our allies?	[ "Fair enough. Why don't we all just join them instead? No big whoop, right? Let's reinstate the Warsaw pact with America and Europe as members with special status." ]	[ "If your next door neighbor is trampling flowers in your backyard, and your much larger, much bigger neighbor from across the street decides to try and stop him, it's in your interest to just let him do that, whether with implicit or explicit approval. ... especially when you can't get to that corner of the backyar...
Why does the moon appear bigger on some days and smaller on others?	[ "The moon does not have a perfectly circular orbit around us. Like just yesterday, I watched the supermoon, where it came something like 5-7% (correction would be lovely) closer than usual. It can also depend on the tilt of the Earth, just like in seasons." ]	[ "This is because of what is known as moment. Pick up an axe by its head and it’s rather easy to lift, try and lift the axe head up from the far side of the handle and it’s much more difficult. The axe head exerts more of a moment the farther away your hands are (ie the fulcrum). The same thing happens with flat sca...
Why don't flies drop dead after repeatedly ramming head first into my mirror?	[ "Newton's second law is that force equals mass * acceleration. Flies don't have much mass, so even if they really quickly change speed (like suddenly stopping when they hit a mirror) there isn't that much force. Things like this are often called \"laws of scale\". Basically, as you change the size of something, d...	[ "Speculative, as I know of no scientific study on the subject, but I am an electronics technician and electronic warfare specialist who works with various radio and radar equipment. It's possible that the angle of your radio station relative to the freeway (and thus overpasses) is such that just as you go through t...
How do "they" calculate how many jobs were gained or lost in the economy?	[ "[The Bureau of Labor Statistics does monthly surveys.](_URL_0_) Their sample is a data set of 147,000 businesses, and they rotate about 55k of those each year. Initially, they do phone interviews, and after a few months let firms self report. Since the IRS gets a nearly-complete set of that data as part of tax col...	[ "There was a great short YouTube documentary about the company that does this for the Premier League posted in r/soccer a while back but I can't find it right now. Basically there are a bunch of guys who sit around and watch certain games on computers with special software that lets them keep track of all this stuf...
When was the last tie two combatant forces had a tank battle?	[ "A well-recorded one? The Gulf-War, 1991, the US VII Corps' advanced elements conducted a hasty attack on Iraqi tank units still in assembly. However there's been more modern actions involving tanks, if not a 'drawn out armored battle' - which is incredibly rare all things considered throughout history. The initi...	[ "Hi there! This is a reminder to potential respondents to this question that we have the [no current event rule](_URL_0_) in effect that in order to discourage off-topic discussions of current events confines questions, answers and all other comments to events that happened 20 years ago or more, inclusively (e.g. 1...
Does it make a difference to eat once a day instead of eating multiple times a day?	[ "There was a good BBC article on this topic recently. Basically there isn't any good scientific evidence to show that people that eat three equally sized meals a day is healthier than eating one meal a day. There is a lot of speculation that eating multiple small meals a day is easier on your digestive system, but ...	[ "How big are the files you are talking about? You may have noticed that transfer speed always ramps up slowly. Therefore it will always be faster to transfer one 10gb file than a hundred 100mb files. This is because the file system needs to open a data stream of the file, read the data, write the data, close the ...
Why does 70 degree (F) water feel so cold yet 70 degree air is fine?	[ "Water is a fantastic at absorbing heat. It sucks the heat right out of basically anything put into it including your body. Since your body is built to operate around 98.6 it is quite obvious to your senses when 70 Degree (F) water is sucking that away. We experience that as a feeling of cold. Air on the other hand...	[ "when you get out of the pool, the wind blows on your wet skin and that creates a low pressure area that makes the water evaporate, and any process of evaporation is endotermic, meaning it absorbs energy" ]
Why do rainbows curve into a semi circle?	[ "Rainbows are actually circular, they appear directly opposite the angle of the sun. They appear to be semi-circular because their edge would be below the horizon. They are circular because of the way the light refracts through droplets of water. Each tiny droplet acts as a prism, and the rainbow is a set of all th...	[ "sine/cosine functions are perfectly good, exact solutions to Maxwell's wave equations. One thing i will note though is that the 2D representations you are describing are a special case known as \"plane\" polarisation. In general light is elliptically polarised, and the more commonly known \"plane\" and \"circular\...

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