Subset (10)

eli5 · 25k rows

Split (1)

train · 25k rows

query stringlengths 20 300	positive listlengths 1 1	negative listlengths 1 1
Why couldn't the Nazis have just conducted Operation Sea Lion, even with the RAF still functional?	[ "Well this was not done primarily since the Germans needed air superiority so that their aircraft would be able to focus on the much more powerful Royal Navy. The Royal Navy was the real threat, but the Luftwaffe could destroy it if the RAF wasn't there to distract and destroy the Luftwaffe. It basically would hav...	[ "It may have cost a fair bit more in fuel - but the airline decided it was better to spend that and catch up so the plane would be in the right place for it's next trip in time and so the customers were happier." ]
Why are vital utilities (gas, electricity) controlled by private interests in America?	[ "Because America is America and America is Capitalist. Just because its private doesn't mean its not regulated. The Government pretty much says to businesses \"You may operate however you wish, but you have to follow some rules\" See also: Common Carrier Utilities" ]	[ "I work for an ISP The Internet is like a series of roads. Let's say you built a road from your house to your friends. You and your friend could go real fast to each other's houses. But what if you wanted to go to some else's house? Or the mall, or school? You would have to connect your road with your towns road. ...
Do octopi and squid have voluntary control of their suction cups?	[ "This is a surprisingly complex question. Octopus arms are highly autonomous – a half to two thirds of the cephalopods neurons are located in the arms, separate from the brain. This makes them able to perform complex reflexes without input from the brain, and studies indicate that the octopus lacks proprioception (...	[ "_URL_0_ > .... a fur seal tried to have sex with a penguin. ... _URL_2_ > ... Sea otters - cute, furry, adorable, clams-wouldn't-melt-in-their-mouths sea otters - have been observed forcibly copulating with, and in the process killing, juvenile harbor seals off California. ... _URL_1_ > my informant [a human] w...
Is Donald Trump (POTUS) descended from Mohammed (PBUH)?	[ "Yeah, probably? But it isn't a big deal, really. I probably am, you probably are, the Queen of England probably is... I can't put an exact number to it, but most people alive probably are... [As discussed in this old answer](_URL_0_) while there is something marginally notable in being lucky enough to have survi...	[ "The Dow is just a number of companies' stock price added together. The list was made quite a long time ago, and it's supposed to be a good indicator of the New York Stock Exchange as a whole (when it's up, the market is up, when it's down, the market is down, etc). Whether you think it's a good representation of t...
How accurate a telling of Nazi history is "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" by William Shrirer?	[ "I think that Shrirer needs to be treated mostly as a primary source. I feel bad about that, given the massive amount of research and legitimate scholarship he did on the subject of Nazism, but even in Rise and Fall he falls back to some very base assumptions about his subjects. The afterword of one of his later ed...	[ "The Germanic tribes beat off the legions in the famous battle of Teutoburger forest where 3 Roman legions were destroyed. _URL_1_ Rome eventually settled for a fortified frontier along the Rhine & Danube. In the east it was the Parthians who were able to hold off the Romans. Parthia was an empire in the Iranian/Pe...
Does one's brain get heavier as more memories are added to it?	[ "Please do not bring up computers as an analogy in this thread; brains are not computers." ]	[ "Imagine you're trying to find a coffee shop in a city. If you've been there recently, it should be pretty easy to find. If it's been 10 years since you've been to the coffee shop or the city, it might take you a LONG time to find. It also might take long to find if you've been to other, similar coffee shops in the...
What are machine-learning algorithms?	[ "At the most basic level, instead of telling a computer what to do, you give it the tools to learn from what it has done. For example, imagine a tic-tac-toe game. Instead of telling it what to do, you give it the ability to remember games; and whether or not it won the game. then, when it has to make a move, it loo...	[ "Google itself explains it on [this](_URL_1_) video on youtube. [This](_URL_0_) one is also good (also from Google)" ]
If you're in a falling elevator, why can't you just jump right before it hits the ground to not get hurt?	[ "Say the elevator (with you in it) is falling at 25 meters a second. If we're being generous (and you're a good athlete) you can jump at maybe 3m/s. So you still smack the bottom of the elevator shaft at 22m/s, or about 50 miles per hour." ]	[ "It's not you specifically that's gaining mass, it's the entire Earth-you system. You and the Earth are bound together by your mutual, attractive gravitational interaction. When you increase your altitude, you are increasing the potential energy stored in the system, and thus increasing the mass of the *entir...
Why aren't Sloths extinct?	[ "Their natural predators are few and far between. If an invasive predatory species were introduced into their environment, you'd likely see a rapid drop in their population size. Same deal with koalas. They are slow, dumb, and sleep almost all day to compensate for their terrible diet. But they are extremely common...	[ "It takes a while to implement the changes. How would you like it if the law changed overnight and you had to pay fees/go to jail next day without having a chance to adapt yet." ]
Why couldn't space rockets land like Space-X? What is the significance of this new technology?	[ "Basically, it makes the boosters reusable. The only purpose of a booster is to get the rocket into space; after that, they're dropped, usually into the ocean. But this is very expensive. It doesn't look that impressive, but landing a rocket booster upright, like SpaceX manged to do, takes a lot of trial and error,...	[ "Very careful simulation based on testing data. Engineers have experimentally gathered data about all the different materials used to make the telescope. This data includes failure points given applied loads, vibrational frequencies, etc. They can use this along with a computational model of the sattelite to predic...
Why hasn't the United States Congress issued a formal declaration of war since 1942?	[ "It is because the executive branch has become far more powerful. The precedent was really set with the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution in 1964 which gave President Johnson powers to commit combat troops to Vietnam. The War Powers Resolution of 1973 was supposed to check it, but has been circumvented ever since. Technica...	[ "Greetings everyone. In the few minutes this sub has been up, it's attracting sub-standard responses. Just a reminder of a few of the rules: * no responses covering events/conditions post-1994, per this sub's \"20-year rule\" prohibiting discussion of current events * no anecdotes * no speculation OP: your question...
if a murder were to occur on the ISS, what would be done about it?	[ "[Wikipedia article on space jurisdiction](_URL_0_). [PDF on law in ISS](_URL_1_). [More info](_URL_2_)." ]	[ "I don't have the requisite knowledge to fully answer your question, but: > Would the oxygen in your suit be enough for the blood to spill red, or will it be blue? Your blood is never blue. Oxygenated blood is bright red. Un-oxygenated blood is dark red. Your veins look blue because of how light is absorbed and sc...
Why can't planes fly through a thunderstorm but can fly when there's heat lightning?	[ "They pretty much can all fly through thunderstorms, but for passenger planes it's bumpy and people don't like it. Also, you need to be able to fly on instruments, and not all pilots can. The other problem is hail can actually damage them, so that's a risk. Going around is just a lot easier. It's kinda like asking ...	[ "Let's say you want to travel to Chicago from Atlanta by car. Can you predict your exact position at any given time? No. You can predict where you are going to be in the next few seconds but as you look further ahead you lose accuracy. Sure, you could say, \"I'll be near Indy around 6pm on this road, but you don't ...
Can someone explain why there are Inuit people in Greenland and Canada?	[ "The ancestors of the modern Inuit are descended from a people now called the [Thule people](_URL_1_), that migrated eastward through the Arctic from Alaska [sometime after 1000AD](_URL_2_). There are [related groups](_URL_0_) around the Arctic Ocean from eastern Siberia to Greenland. Wiki links for general informa...	[ "Follow-up question: I once read on this sub that the Tasmanian Aborigines of Australia gradually lost the technology of cold-weather gear after Tasmania was separated from the mainland. Well, it gets bloody cold in Tassie, so how did they cope?" ]
Why do most metals turn red when they get hot?	[ "Everything glows. They hotter is it, the higher the frequencies of light it gives off. Most everyday objects only glow in infrared light we can't see. Starting at about 500 C, object are hot enough to emit the lowest frequencies of visible light, which are red." ]	[ "Capillary action, and your legs have this giant artery called the Femoral Artery. As the blood moves through the leg and foot (that is uncovered) it is cooled by the outside air easier, and returned to the body a bit cooler. With the capillaries spread over the feet, and skin it gets more surface area to cooler ai...
why planets rotate on a flat plain?	[ "The solar system was developed from a cloud of gas. That cloud of gas condensed and started to spin for whatever reason (gravimetrics are very interesting.) The condensing and spinning flattened out the cloud. The center became the sun, and the remainder of the cloud that wasn't taken into the sun became the 8 maj...	[ "A long time ago in places like Greece, Rome and even before that in really, really long ago places like Sumeria, and Egypt people made up stories about the stars/planets and the pictures they thought groups of stars made. These stories were usually about beings they considered to be gods or demigods (the word demi...
United States vacation laws... Why does such an advanced economy have such poor laws regarding vacation time? (x-post r/labor)	[ "I blame the phrase \"if you don't like it, you can quit.\" When it comes to employee rights or other labor issues in America, this one phrase has been used to shut down so many potential improvements. So if you try to pass a law establishing a minimum number of vacation days, someone complains about how that hurts...	[ "Can you clarify your question? I see a map of a county in AZ detailed with geographic representations, and another map of the town boundaries in MA. You should look at similar maps to compare the 2 [MA](_URL_1_) and [AZ](_URL_3_) If you're asking about the make up of the political boundaries (i.e. Why does AZ not ...
Are there thousands of Saudi princes or do I hear about the same few in the news?	[ "_URL_0_ According to the wikipedia entry for their royal family there are currently 15,000 members of the royal family though not all are male." ]	[ "You can, but you shouldn't. Why? Because without other cases, you don't know if your one case study is representative of the average, or if it's an outlier. You need those additional cases to get a better picture of what the situation is actually like. If you try to extrapolate from one, you might get a very dis...
Why is concussion so dangerous in young people, given the brains plasticity?	[ "I think you might misunderstand what plasticity is. You seem to have the general idea--that plasticity has to do with the ability of the brain to change. However, I think you're overestimating plasticity and perhaps missing a few pieces. Plasticity, generally speaking, is the ability of brain connections (synapse...	[ "It's about novelty. When it's new, we cherish it and want to take care of it. Novelty eventually becomes familiarity. We see this a lot with cars. That new car, the owner is so careful. At some point, however, it becomes OK to toss that empty Big Mac box in the back seat." ]
What’s stopping the water in lakes from seeping into the soil and ‘disappearing’?	[ "Because there’s already water in the ground. If you were to dig down beside the lake you’d hit saturated dirt at the same level as the surface of the lake. The level at which this occurs is the “water table.” Water flows under ground and levels out so if you dig a hole and keep the hole open, it will fill with wat...	[ "First, you get a box that doesn't let heat travel in or out very easily, except at the back. On the back, you put some pipes full of really cold liquid. The cold liquid starts to absorb some of the heat from inside the box as the two pieces try and get to the same temperature. But before the liquid warms up all th...
What is game theory?	[ "At its most basic, game theory is the study of how and why people make decisions. More specifically, it's the study of how those decisions are made in an environment where other people are influencing those decisions. A retail store might use game theory to determine how effective a 20% off sale would be in increa...	[ "Imagine you have 100 doors, and there is a prize behind one. You pick one door and then 98 others are opened. The prize is either behind your door, or the other one that is unopened. Should you switch? Absolutely, because you had a 1/100 shot of guessing right with your first pick, and a 99/100 chance if you swit...
How come "free to play" models for video games are so easily swept up into the limelight and become the most popular?	[ "1. You can get your game out to more people, faster 2. You can make money on an ongoing basis, if players continue to play your game, as opposed to only getting paid once per user. Most businesses would rather have a steady stream of income. 3. You can potentially make a lot more money, and various success stories...	[ "It's because the cost of labor is cheaper. This impacts the price of everything. Imagine that every job in the entire country is done for 1/5 of the pay. You can see how this would make a hotel cheaper to build, cheaper to stock with food and drink, and cheaper to manage and run." ]
If dogs have a better sense of smell than humans, do they also have a better sense of taste?	[ "I've seen something on Animal Planet talking about how dogs have some crazy number of taste buds just for water. So I could imagine that they have a somewhat advanced set of tasters. But they also eat garbage, so I don't think they mind so much what you feed them. I give my dogs a good quality food and then supple...	[ "You could always run a controlled study. By keeping track of what you eat and drink and tasting your semen regularly you should be able to make a determination as to the truth of the statement." ]
Why are the frets on a guitar smaller the higher you get, when the frequency-delta separating two notes actually increases the higher the notes are?	[ "Because an octave interval is equivalent to doubling (or halving) a frequency. 16 - - - - - - - - 8 - - - 4 - 2 1 8 is closer to 4 than it is to 16." ]	[ "There is this brilliant math operation known as a Fourier transform, the most common computer algorithm used to calculate it is FFT or fast Fourier transform. A Fourier transform can be used to find all sorts of things out about a wave or sound, such as tempo, pitch, voices, levels, and loudness. All of this infor...
What does Turing Complete mean?	[ "A Turing Complete programming language or computer is one that's capable of simulating an arbitrary Turing Machine. The Turing Machine was a hypothetical computer proposed by Alan Turing. Basically, if your programming language has: * if, then, else * goto * basic math * arrays then it's going to be Turing Compl...	[ "This had just popped up on the front page a few days ago, take a look at the explanation by [Sean Carroll](_URL_0_). He answers the question very basically there, though if you watch the entire lecture he goes into further detail." ]
Fill an unbreakable bottle with water and put it in the freezer, will the water freeze?	[ "The behavior of water that we are most familiar with is at atmospheric pressure. Phase changes become more complicated when you also allow pressure to vary. You can look at a phase diagram for water [here](_URL_0_). You will notice that, as the pressure increases, the freezing point decreases. So in your situation...	[ "\"The inside wall of the igloo blocks does melt, to some extent. But the outside air is so cold and the building blocks of snow so thick that the blocks continually refreeze.\" Source _URL_0_" ]
How do world powers develop new nuclear weapons/warheads/systems if testing has been banned since 1996?	[ "Countries like the US and Russia have enough knowledge and data that they can be pretty confident a design will work just from models. Testing isn't just to make sure a bomb works. They gather scientific information from it to improve future designs. They can also do sub-critical tests, which can test part of a w...	[ "It's similar to the way 125% subprime mortgages spread (without getting into the debate about whether that caused the recession) - you get a few groups who think a similar way, with broadly the same ideas, motivations, worldview, that sort of thing, and when one of them comes up with a policy that fits those ways ...
Those who remember having to keep your TV tuned to Channel 3 to get a picture, what was the purpose of the other channels that just showed a screen of static/snow?	[ "The single channel 3 was the one video feed as supplied by the cable box which was decoding the cable signal. The cable box switched what channel it decoded but always delivered it to the television's channel 3. If instead of that you had an antenna connected to the television the channels would show all the openl...	[ "It is not the number to the police station. It is the number of the emergency call center. The local phone company knows where your phone is and what ECC serves that area. When you dial 911, they route your call to that location. You can get police, fire, and other emergency services by talking to a trained operat...
Being bones mostly mineral, rigid and having a high melting point... Is there any chemical that when reacting with bone tissue can make it soft to the point where we can bend it without breaking?	[ "Placing a chicken bone in vinegar for 2-3 days is a classic elementary/middle-school science demonstration; overtime, the acetic acid slowly strips the calcium from the bone leaving behind only the elastin and collagen fibers. At this point you can easily bend the bone (within reason) without breaking it. Once ben...	[ "Imagine a solid object is a group of girls holding each others' hands in a circle dancing. Now a group of guys rush over and each of them wanting to take a girl from the group as their partner for a waltz. If the girls hold each others' hands tightly, they stay in the circle and can't be pulled away individually t...
Why, when we are getting or have become sick, does our skin, especially forehead, become very hot?	[ "Having a higher body temperature makes it harder for the bacteria/virus to replicate inside of you. The higher temperature makes it uncomfortable for them which gives your body time to fight off the infection." ]	[ "Imagine your body is a phone. Not a Samsung Galaxy S56XL, just a regular one. You go and open 30 apps and the phone suddenly starts slowing down, right? Well, now imagine the common cold is a VERY consuming app for your cellphone, some kind of new Fortnite 2 game or whatever. Your body doesn't work as well when yo...
My mom always told me that if you boil veggies until they are mushy they are no longer nutritious. Is this true? If so, why?	[ "Cooking depletes the nutritional value, yes. Though even extremely overcooked vegetables still have some nutritional value. Many vitamins are water-soluble, and many more are heat sensitive, so when you boil vegetables, you lose a lot of nutrients. On the other hand, cooking vegetables will increase the availabili...	[ "Imagine you made a painting out of little colored plastic squares (a mosaic). To zoom in on the picture would be just getting closer to it. Would you see more detail? No, the individual squares would just be bigger and easier to distinguish from each other. There is no more information to gain by looking closer." ...
Why do we have inner monologues/pictures?	[ "There is incessant thinking because the untrained mind is run 90% of its life acting and reacting to situations based on past patterns. When your on auto pilot ideas come and the mind latches on and runs with an idea. By melting away the unnecessary and mindless thinking one finds beneath all that chatter is an bl...	[ "I think it is hardwired into us. [Tommy Edison](_URL_0_) explains it better." ]
Do electrons become more likely to be found in certain places as the temperature approaches 0K?	[ "Imagine a metal. It's an electrical conductor so many of its electrons are free to move around when the system is at room temperature. The electrons in the metal behave like a [Fermi gas](_URL_1_). As you cool the system down to absolute zero, it must approach its quantum-mechanical ground state. In this state, al...	[ "2 reasons, physical & chemical. Physical: The lithium-ion battery in your phone requires an electrolyte (liquid) of Li+ ions. At really Low temperatures this will freeze and prevent the phone from being used. Chemical: the voltage produced by the battery depends on reversible chemical reactions. The rate of these ...
How bodybuilders get such huge veins.	[ "Low body fat has already been mentioned. Superficial veins also increase in size due to increased demands (increased flow during working out) and of course there are drugs that increase overall blood volume." ]	[ "Well Christian Bale literally starved himself for his role in The Machinist - I wouldn't be surprised if other celebs were as reckless about their health to slim down for a role." ]
Why do your feet get tingly when standing on the edge of a tall building or cliff?	[ "Im getting tingly while laying in bed just thinking about standing on the edge of a tall building or cliff." ]	[ "I learned about this researching how to help my kid be a better sleeper. Essentially, you are over-tired. There is a \"sweet spot\" for everyone regarding the time they should go to bed (just the right level of drowsy). Once you get past that, your brain thinks there must be an important reason for you to continue...
Why do children seem to frequently get the stomach flu but you hardly ever hear about adults getting the stomach flu?	[ "Ummmm adults get the flu all the time. The \"stomach flu\" isn't actually the flu, it's some sort of gastrointestinal issue that may trigger some flu-like symptoms. And adults have a more robust and better developed GI tract so it can generally tolerate more than a child's can" ]	[ "Mosquito and flies like damp and warm environments. Hospitals, do their best to keep their environment dry and cool/freezing. Compared to the inside of a hospital, the incests prefer the garden outside where it is warmer, more wet. Nothing magical here." ]
Why do we procrastinate?	[ "The short answer is procrastination is sacrificing long term gain for short term no-pain. We do it because of that reward inherent in the immediate short term. Immediate short term rewards are good in many cases, procrastination is just an area where that 'breaks'." ]	[ "I will have a detailed explanation tomorrow. It's too late to write a novel now." ]
Given our present understanding of molecular phylogenies, isn't taxonomy completely obsolete?	[ "Well, kind of is the simple answer. In most cases these classifications actually represent the true relationships. Species are more related to each other species within a genus, genera within families, families within order, and so on. That being said, there are some paraphyletic groupings still around for poorl...	[ "[relevant master thesis](_URL_1_) (.pdf-Warning) [relevant literature](_URL_0_) There's always the question of the effectiveness of moral legislation. It is often the case throughout history that morals are legislated, often more than once over a period of some years. This usually indicates that the legislation ...
What is the minimal amount of moves and spaces filled on a tic tac toe board where if subsequently a best play strategy is used will always force a draw?	[ "0, because optimal play of tic tac toe from the start will always result in a draw." ]	[ "Put five apples onto a table. Now take no apples away. Now take no apples away again. Keep taking no apples away, and when you've finished, tell me how many times you were able to take no apples away from the five apples on the table." ]
Were there any kings that actually had an alligator-filled moat surrounding their castle?	[ "In a European context it’s purely fantasy. Take a look at [this National Geographic map](_URL_0_) showing crocodilian ranges. Historically the ranges were larger; for example there were crocodiles in the lower Nile until the 20th century, and we have ancient mentions of crocodiles in North Africa as well as the Le...	[ "Hey there, Just a reminder that /r/AskHistorians is called AskHistorians for a reason: we want to see original, in-depth, comprehensive answers based on solid research - not just looking at Wikipedia but engaging with scholarly research on the topic. If your knowledge on this topic isn't up to this standard, we ...
The USA and UK are very close allies in modern times, but of course their diplomatic relations began in just about the worst possible manner. Is there a key historical event which led to this drastic positive shift in the relationship between the two nations?	[ "There is a [section of the FAQ](_URL_0_) dedicated to the Anglo-American Relations with threads that might contain the answer you're looking for. HTHH :)" ]	[ "Humans and dogs have a working relationship formed through evolution. They are better trackers, we are better killers and thus the integration grew. [NPR - How Dogs Evolved Into 'Our Best Friends'](_URL_0_)" ]
Does material that falls from space increase Earths gravitational pull?	[ "As /u/dark_magnetar pointed out it does technically increase the mass and thus gravity. Ignoring the mass loss though, it's worth noting just how little 78,000 tons of material is compared to the mass of the earth, which is ~6x10^21 tons. Even if no mass were lost from the earth, accreting 78,000 tons per year fo...	[ "We lose about 3kg of hydrogen and 50g of helium each second (about 10^8 per year) due to [Jeans escape](_URL_0_). _URL_1_ We also gain 10^7 to 10^9 kg per year due to meteorites and such. _URL_2_ It balances out (to some degree). EDIT: Added a source." ]
Why are some perfume considered feminine and other masculine?	[ "Women and men are associated with different scents due to older society role model stuff, and influenced by scents that match our sexuality. Guys would do \"manly\" stuff in their day-to-day, like work in the woods where their clothes would pick up evergreen scents, or work with horses and pick up the scent of lea...	[ "You know how on Wednesdays me and mommy cook spaghetti? Then the whole house smells like spaghetti? Then on Fridays we make tacos and the whole house smells like tacos? It's kind of like that. It's smells different because there's different stuff in the air. Different when it's hotter outside, or more moisture, th...
Why does the fridge have a lightbulb in it but the freezer compartment doesn't? Is it too cold for the filament, would the bulb heat it up too much?	[ "Both of my freezers have lights. Although now that I think about it perhaps the older style \"fridge in the bottom, freezer on the top\" ones might not have had a light in the freezer compartment. Perhaps it was a heat issue and this has been resolved with the advent of LED lights?" ]	[ "Above the Curie temperature, a ferromagnetic material becomes paramagnetic. This means that instead of having well-aligned magnetic spin, neighboring particles have randomly aligned spin. A plasma is very similar to a gas which happens to contain a large concentration of electrically charged or ionized particles. ...
Why can hot water hold more solute but less oxygen?	[ "As the water molecules have more kinetic energy and are moving more, they are able to continuously surround and interact with, or solubilize, the molecules or ions in question. In the case of oxygen gas or carbon dioxide, those molecules have no dipole moment and so they're not going to interact with water via nic...	[ "It doesn't, it determines what a stable molecule would contain. The 2 atoms of hydrogen and 1 of oxegen have to all already exist and react together to form the new molecule." ]
Why are rocket engines not able to throttle down all the way?	[ "Hey, for deep throttling you need variable geometry in the injector. This can and has been done, e.g. for the LEMDE in production, and I believe there were experimental RL-10 variants (done for potentially up-scaled moon-landings) as well. Why this is the case is explained [here](_URL_0_) better than I could. The...	[ "Spaghettification is more a black hole thing, I'm not aware of it being used to apply to non-black hole cases. As to the planet being torn apart, the distance one body has to be from a larger one and NOT have this happen is called the Roche limit. For the sun, that body has to be within a couple radii. The distanc...
Why is it that the orange juice I buy that contains "Over 22 Whole Oranges" costs $1.89, yet I'd pay nearly 5x that to buy 22 whole oranges?	[ "Used to work in an orange packing shed. The juicing oranges were usually the lumpy, weird shaped ones that can't be sold loose, and don't fit nicely into the packing boxes. They all get lumped together in a bin, so would be much cheaper to transport. There's also more of them than the nice \"Grade A\" ones that ge...	[ "The less expensive tuna is prepared at sea in bulk. The more expensive tuna is rushed fresh from the sea to your table." ]
What's the origin of countries being represented by flags?	[ "The guys over at /r/vexillology could probably give you a good answer." ]	[ "This CGP Grey video does a really good job of explaining it all. _URL_3_" ]
What does 'austerity' mean?	[ "Austerity comes from the word austere, meaning self-disciplined, solemn, and/or without luxury. In the context of the Greece issue, austerity measures are designed to limit the amount of money the government of Greece can spend, and also to encourage the government to raise more money through taxes. The Greek gove...	[ "It's how poor students would pay teachers many years ago. Before schools were publicly funded, families had to pay for their kids to attend school. This resulted more in a barter system where kids of farmers would pay with apples or frequently potatoes." ]
If heat rises and blue flame is hotter than orange flame why is it that the bottom of the flame is blue and not the top.	[ "> blue flame is hotter than orange flame See [this comment](_URL_0_): \"This is actually a somewhat common misconception. The color of the flame isn't really as dependent on the flame temperature as it is on the method of combustion.\"" ]	[ "There is a general convention that flammable gasses like propane, butane, acetylene etc have left handed threads. Other inert or oxidising gasses e.g. compressed air, nitrogen, argon, oxygen etc etc have right handed threads. This is so that you can't accidentally connect a cylinder of oxygen to a pipework system...
why the similarities in Greek and Roman theology? Where did these religions come from and where did they go?	[ "Where did they come from, cotton eyed Joe?" ]	[ "I just read the article, and Witzel isn't even telling a just-so story -- he's telling an \"it's so whether it's so or not\" story. Take a look at this statement, as just one example among many: > Apart from the feature of drift, certain motifs that widely appear in Laurasian and non-Laurasian mythologies may bel...
What causes planets to have a center gravity?	[ "Anything that has mass, has a center of gravity. Basically, any object’s center of gravity is the average location of the weight of that specific object. I can expand upon this if you'd like." ]	[ "When a lot of stuff floats around it tends to group up... as those groups form they get more and more attracted to eachother. The more stuff there is the more gets attracted (gravety). Eventually there is so much stuff that the middle gets very hot! Everything there turns into this super dense ball. it keeps pulli...
Why is it so much easier to kill a fly with a flyswatter or newspaper than with your hand?	[ "Flies are highly sensitive to changes in air pressure and/light. When you attack it with a newspaper or swatter, you are using a flicking motion with your wrist that causes it to move much faster than your hand alone (think about how the tips of whips move faster than the speed of sound). So the window of time the...	[ "It is a matter of heat transfer. Specifically the heat transfer coefficient. Compare the coefficients of the two and you will see that your body (mostly fluid water) transfers heat energy more effectively through fluid rather than air." ]
Why America has an economic depression/ recession roughly every 20 years?	[ "The business cycle. This is just how capitalism works--it goes from boom to bust and back. Actual hard answers are complicated bits of economics that are beyond an ELI5." ]	[ "\"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..." ]
Do we experience atmosphere tides? Do the molecules in the air get dragged according to the moons gravity causing “deeper” periods of time?	[ "The moon does indeed effect the atmosphere, but orders of magnitude less than it does the ocean. Tidal effects form pressure waves of about 100 microbars, or about 0.01% the atmospheric pressure at sea level. That's only perceptible to scientific instruments, and practically background noise compared to the regula...	[ "Think about how you grip something like a tennis ball. You wrap your hand around the ball, right? Now, there's a microscopic space on both sides of the ball: one for your palm, and one from your fingers. I'm assuming that, since you know that nothing actually touches anything else, you know about electrons/electro...
Are there dinosaur fossils to be found in the ocean? Or do bones deteriorate over time in saltwater?	[ "Hello! There are a couple things going on here: Dinosaurs were strictly terrestrial (at least until the birds came on the scene). Global ocean levels were much higher when the dinosaurs ruled Earth; there were vast seas stretching over low lying areas, known as epeiric seas. So most of the sea creatures fossils t...	[ "Gargatua already gave great answer. I'd like to just give one example of a place where the matter carried by glacier has formed a clearly visible large landmark. In Finland there are three ridges called [I, II and III Salpausselkä ](_URL_12_). They were formed around 12 250–12 050, 11 790–11 590 and 11 300–10 400...
How does a muscle attach to a tendon and how does a tendon attach to a bone?	[ "Tendons are something in between pure fibrous tissue and bone tissue. So they kinda stick to the respective bone as a very adhesive tissue that is interwoven with the bone cortex. As you follow the tendon to the where it connects with muscle, it is more fibrous is origin and resembles muscle itself in structure. F...	[ "The same way ordinary plastic can be taken from a supplier, molded according to design plans, shaped into a Lego brick, and used with a bunch of other bricks to make the Millennium Falcon. The instructions are encoded in DNA, the mass is supplied by mom eating, and the cells divide and organize accordingly." ]
How documentary series like 'Dope' get cartel members to agree to filming	[ "Some high level criminals are also narcissistic and love the attention. They also probably \"recreate\" a lot of the crimes they commit rather than have the film crew follow them around as they commit crimes. For example, in the episode with the guys smuggling drugs. Very doubtful they let a camera crew follow t...	[ "There is an episode of This American Life that explains it really well: _URL_0_ They say that the real money is made of incentives from the manufacturer to sell the cars - they just need to move a set number of cars, it really doesn't matter how much they sell them for. And then they get big payouts from the manuf...
What vector space does the elements of gauge groups act on?	[ "So, the groups U (n) are called unitary groups. They act on the set of matrices n×n who have their inverse equivalent to their conjugate transpose via matrix multiplication. This is a subgroup of the general linear group so it would act on the same vector space. The group SU (n) is the subgroup of the unitary grou...	[ "You can just use the term volume or perhaps hyper-volume if you want to emphasise that you're talking about > 3 dimensions. More technically, you might call it a [Lebesgue measure](_URL_0_), though this doesn't distinguish between dimensions." ]
why does alcohol kill anxiety?	[ "It doesn't kill anxiety, unfortunately. It just increases GABA and dopamine. It has an effect on your central nervous system and helps mute anxiety and panic attacks. But, there is also a rebound effect as GABA levels drop and there is a strong increase in anxiety and the potential for panic attacks." ]	[ "generally to help your stomach, thin your throat secretions, and hydrate you. some people hate water." ]
Why is it that I sometimes lose my complete sense of time and day after taking a nap?	[ "When you sleep you go through different stages dictated by what are called alpha and theta waves. Being in certain stages of sleep will result in different levels of awareness upon waking up. I don’t remember what stages dictate what, but some involve not even being aware that you were asleep at all, and others in...	[ "I don't so much think of it as an evolutionary thing. There's really no benefit to being confused. It comes down to computing power. Your brain just takes a minute to recall old information/piece together new information to develop an idea of where you are and how you got there. I'm currently in flight school and...
Being that there are so many stars and galaxies in this universe, I've always wondered, how come pictures of Earth taken from space are completely black in the background instead of us seeing stars and such in said background?	[ "The Earth is a large, intensely bright object compared to the tiny pinpoints of feeble star light. If you adjust the camera exposure to be long enough to capture the stars the earth (and most of the picture) would be a washed out blob. The overpowering light from local objects is also why moon landing photos have ...	[ "Usually a movie set is relatively brightly lit while everything else is in as close to total darkness as possible. This acts to reduce the amount of light which can bounce off them, then off things on the set in order to be visible to the camera. Also eyes just really aren't that reflective. Look closely at your e...
How do the FBI and other agencies make trades with criminals (I give you Bin Laden, you give me Bauer)?	[ "The risk is part of the reason that these kinds of trades aren't exactly popular, and why they don't happen all that often. That said, there are ways you can mitigate the risk a bit; use a trusted third party, set up the trade in an area where you have control, come up with extra collateral. Or just kill them over...	[ "Because there are no laws that govern the entirety of the internet. There are laws in countries that limit what the people living inside of its borders can do with the internet, but those laws dont apply if you arent in that country. All pirate bay has to do to stay operational is to find a country that doesn't ca...
Why does the ASCII text format go from 0-128? Why not use the full range of a byte?	[ "ASCII was developed at a time when things were still commonly represented at the bit level, not the octet level. The fewer bits, the less it cost to transmit them. From wikipedia: > The committee considered an eight-bit code, since eight bits (octets) would allow two four-bit patterns to efficiently encode two di...	[ "In general when planning new communities, they leave gaps in the numbers if there is a possibility of new houses being constructed between existing houses later on. If you have 100 right next to 102, and there are a few acres for new development between them, then you have to add 100a, 100b, and so on, which is me...
How did we survive so long as hunter-gatherers, sharing the elements with other predators, when human babies are so loud?	[ "Hunter gatherers wouldn't generally take their babies around with them while they were hunting and gathering. Humans are tribal, so we stick together. Babies would be left with whoever was back at whatever base/town/village was set up. Generally, earlier people would go somewhere, settle for a while, use up reso...	[ "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...
Is it possible for a human to accurately measure distance/angles just by looking at something? Is there anyone in the world who can do that?	[ "As a builder, I eye ball things everyday for the last 11 years. I can get most things +\\- a bees dick amount. The only thing I can accurately estimate is roof pitches, but there are only certain pitches used where I work. It comes with experience I guess. I don't know if someone can consistently know distances an...	[ "Before you leave your home port, you set your chronometer so that you have a good time fix. Then you keep it wound, but don't reset it, as you travel. When you want to know what the longitude is, you determine what time the local noon is and compare that to your chronometer. If you've gone one-third of the way (12...
Why are the inner layers of the earth still hot after billions of years? Can we calculate how much time it takes for the earth to come to say 25C?	[ "Without an internal source of heat, the Earth's core would have cooled off a very long time ago. That would generally be a bad thing for most life, as it shuts down volcanic activity and quenches our magnetosphere. Thankfully, Earth's interior has a steady \"battery\" of energy in the form of radioisotopes. These ...	[ "Crickets, like all other insects, are cold-blooded. They take on the temperature of their surroundings. Many characteristics of cold-blooded animals, like the rate at which crickets chirp, or the speed at which ants walk, follow an equation called the Arrhenius equation. This equation describes the activation ener...
Is lead-containing crystal a good radiation barrier?	[ "There is already lead-lined glass that works as effective radiation barriers. There is no way to eliminate 100% of the radiation, but you can get really close. [Leaded glass](_URL_0_)" ]	[ "By screens? As in LCD displays? As a millennial you are probably safe. Us old people who were raised around CRT TVs and displays have more to worry about. LCD displays are pretty safe as far as radition and other harmful effects are concerned." ]
Why can I drive across the US with my headlights on and my battery will be fine, but if I leave my headlights on over night my car will be dead in the morning?	[ "The car's alternator (essentially a magnetic coil generator) charges the battery, and is powered by the engine, so the battery cannot run flat while the engine is running. If the lights are left on overnight, the battery drains while it is not being charged, and therefore it will run flat. Similarly, if a car's al...	[ "Imagine a bathtub full of water, the water represents electricity. The bathtub has a faucet, which represents the generation of electricity. Imagine now that there are little holes in the bottom of the bathtub, all plugged up. When ever a home needs power, unplug the drain and let the water flow out. Now imagine ...
What historical factors influenced the distinction between Continental and Analytic philosophy?	[ "Here is a good overview: _URL_0_ I would say that there are two kinds of historical factors involved, internal philosophical traditions and external historical events. The two are entangled of course. Partly it's a division of labor that has fallen along linguistic/geographical lines. Certainly without WWII the hi...	[ "Are you talking about the Lloyd deMause style of psychohistory? If so, you are surely aware that it is highly controversial? I realise this isn't really an answer, I just wanted to make sure first that we are talking about the same thing." ]
How fast does heat travel through a vacuum?	[ "Depends. If we are discussing infrared radiation, then speed of light. I.E. how the sun gives earth energy including other spectrums of light. If we are talking about heat propagation from say one side of the vacuum to the other, then zero since there is nothing to transfer the heat." ]	[ "At least one of the following: 1) Ten times the mass (and gravity) of the Sun. 2) Six times the temperature of the core of the Sun. 3) Be a fermion without electric charge. 4) The heat of the core of the Sun combined with at least one tenth the mass of the Sun in pure helium to allow quantum tunnelling to occur w...
What do governments do when an undocumented person literally cannot be identified?	[ "They’re in a pickle. Hopefully their actual government has a system in place to process people clearly born in that country, but as-yet undocumented. Google “stateless person”. There are ways to become somebody that no country will claim as their own. The ramifications can be severe, so rules about giving up citi...	[ "The hospital gets that money, which it uses to defray the costs to treat uninsured patients who can't pay." ]
What are the financial benefits for a buyer, when purchasing iconic artwork, such as Leonardo da Vinci's Salvator Mundi, which sold for $400million USD?	[ "Art is a very useful investment for the ultra wealthy (people rich enough to not need their assets to generate regular income to spend) because it's very easy to move relative to anything else worth similar amounts. How many other ways can you move $600 million across national borders in something the size of a la...	[ "Let's say you wanted to gamble at the horse track. You think Three-Legged Limpet is the horse to win on (despite having only three legs). You decide to place a $100 bet, but you don't have $100 on you now (payday isn't until tomorrow). The bookie agrees to take only $20, with the understanding that you will pay up...
How does an air fryer works?	[ "An “air fryer” is just another name for a table top sized convection oven. Instead of immersing your food in hot oil, the fryer blasts your food with superheated air." ]	[ "I hate that this question is downvoted so much. C'mon people, why are we punishing people for asking questions? Whatever happened to \"there's no such thing as a dumb question?\" awersF, please keep asking questions about the world around you. Discoveries are made because people question their perceptions establis...
Why is there no large animal with more than 2 eyes but spiders have a lot of eyes?	[ "The last common ancestor of all vertebrates had two eyes and that's worked well enough. No mutation that gives more than two eyes has given a significant survival or reproductive advantage, so we've stuck with what works. The arthropod body plan is a bit more flexible when it comes to numbers of things. You can ha...	[ "Those extremely long sentences come from multiple crimes. So someone might get 3 life sentences if they are a serial killer who murdered 3 people. It may seem excessive, but there are a couple of reasons for it: - They might get an appeal on one of the sentences and get out of it on a technicality, but they will s...
Why Is American Football Called Football?	[ "Because it falls within a group of sports where the ball is either moved by foot or derived from such a sport. As most countries have a predominant sport such as these it tends to be called the generic name football. Thus in various countries these particular sports are typically called football: * Association foo...	[ "This is a very common question. You can use search to find [all the other really good answers](_URL_0_ ). This is instant, and faster than ust typing in your question every time. It's a way of cheating elections. Read the others, and then ask a more specific question." ]
How is it that old but massive games like Mario 64 take up less space than an HD background photo?	[ "It's not that weird. The largest part of a video game will be the media assets (graphics, sound, video) and in Mario 64 these are very low quality and therefore very low in size. The code, data, events, etc. will be very small. It's not any weirder than the fact an electronic book will be tiny next to a high-defin...	[ "They don't, although you can have an experience like they do. If you just use the system without any changes and updates, it will work exactly as it always had. But looking at just phones for example: every year there are new phones out and old phones get binned. Samsung releases new galaxy models all the time, so...
How does gravity work?	[ "Gravity is a force pulling together all matter (which is anything you can physically touch). The more matter, the more gravity, so things that have a lot of matter such as planets and moons and stars pull more strongly. Mass is how we measure the amount of matter in something. The more massive something is, the mo...	[ "Basically, just like YOU keep up with earth : gravtity and momentum." ]
What position of earth relative to the sun has humanity deemed the end/beginning of a calendar year?	[ "It's a total coincidence, but the first day of the year happens to fall just a few days before Earth reaches perihelion, our planet's closest approach to the Sun. It usually falls between Jan. 2nd and 5th, depending on both how recently we've had a leap year, as well as the gravitational influence of the Moon. It ...	[ "Do the best with what you have. Florida and California are US launch sites because they are good enough. There's certainly an advantage to an equator launch, but logistically and practically its far easier to launch from home... and cheaper! Baikonur (Kazakhstan) fits a similar idea... although being the USSR's la...
Why does it take longer to cook two or more of something in a microwave?	[ "Microwaves bounce around inside the oven until they hit food. If you only have one item in, they'll bounce more but eventually hit the food and heat it. If you have two items in, half will be absorbed by each item. Optimal placement is usually to spread out the food and have it rotate (which many microwave ovens a...	[ "Child labor laws - time restrictions on working hours for child actors. 2 kids in one part gets around this" ]
What happend to the east india trading company after india became independant?	[ "The company was abolished in 1858 after the Mutiny, and the Government of India act of 1858 gave the British government the task of ruling India, while also giving the Crown the company’s possessions, army, administrative power and machinery. The company mainly managed the tea trade for the British government unti...	[ "Hi there -- while we've approved this question, we would like to remind potential respondents of our [current events](_URL_0_) (AKA \"20-year\") rule -- it's fine to discuss events through 1997 (inclusive) and their effects, but not events after 1997. Thanks!" ]
Why does ad blocker still work? If a website can detect that ad blocker is active, why can't the site also just bypass the ad blocker and display ads?	[ "Because they use a separate company to provide ads, which come from different web servers. Imagine they're people. Dave works for the pizza company, he delivers your pizza. Sarah works for marketing company, she delivers the ads. Now, you could put a camera on your porch. Then you only open the door for Dave, but ...	[ "Simply put for the same reason drinking water when you're not thirsty isn't as refreshing as when you're REALLY thirsty. Anticipating the bodies' needs doesn't trigger the same reward responses in the brain as fulfilling a need that is already present. Your muscles don't NEED to stretch right now, so you can't ant...
Sub-Space Communication. It shows up in a lot of Sci-fi. Is it a sound theory? If so, how close are we to developing it, and how can it change exploration of our system?	[ "We communicate with space ships by turning our message into radio waves, sending those radio waves through space, and having the space ship pick up and translate the radio waves into the message. Radio waves travel at the speed of light. Over very large distances, even something traveling at the speed of light can...	[ "Yer not alone in askin', and kind strangers have explained: 1. [ELI5: Why can't I hear very well while yawning? ](_URL_5_) 1. [ELI5: Why can't I hear while I am yawning? ](_URL_2_) 1. [ELI5: Why when we yawn we can't hear anything until the yawn is done? ](_URL_0_) 1. [ELI5: Why can't I hear when I yawn? ](_URL_4_...
Why don't tattoos disappear fairly quickly as our skin cells replace themselves?	[ "\"The cells in the superficial or upper layers of skin, known as the epidermis, are constantly replacing themselves. This process of renewal is basically exfoliation (shedding) of the epidermis. But the deeper layers of skin, called the dermis, do not go through this cellular turnover and so do not replace themsel...	[ "Evolution doesn’t routinely do luxuries. Can your current form and life-processes keep you alive in your current environment long enough to breed the next generation? Yes? Then you are “successful enough”. Rinse, repeat, refine through those generations. If the need to regrow limbs and organs was the only thing ke...
Can anyone explain Phil Plait's tweet? "@BadAstronomer: A fully inflated football converted completely into energy would detonate with a yield of 9 million tons of TNT. #SciBowl2013"	[ "He's substituting the mass of a football (probably a few kg) into E=mc^2 . He's using a equivalent tons of exploded TNT as an energy unit, like we do for atomic bombs. For context, the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima was about 20,000 tons and the largest nuclear detonation was 50 million." ]	[ "In Chernobyl, somewhere around [6 tonnes of nuclear fuel](_URL_0_) were released. The bomb in Hiroshima contained only 64kg of Uranium." ]
Why does Forbes consider someone like Bill Gates "self-made" when he grew up in wealth and could afford to attend Harvard?	[ "Because the money he has is money he made, himself, through his business. It isn't money he inherited from a family member or something. \"Self-made\" isn't about where you came from, it's about how you got here." ]	[ "The \"how\" is simple: HTML is just text, which you can write in any text editor. It didn't require special tools then, and still doesn't. The following is valid HTML which I'm writing off the top of my head in the Reddit editing box: < HTML > < HEAD > < TITLE > Web Page < /TITLE > < /HEAD > < BODY ...
Why is "Swatting" so easy? I feel like it shouldn't be that simple.	[ "Assuming you aren't talking about the mechanics of obtaining name/address to give to the police - how can they ignore a call? Someone calls them and says \"I hear gunshots at xyz address!\" they can't just say \"lolnope!\", they have to go. There's plenty of hate for police lately, but you can't expect them to go ...	[ "Statistics! If you pick a proper group of a small size, and analyze them, you can logically and mathematically extrapolate to a larger population. That extrapolation is an estimate, but if the group is properly chosen and the math done correctly, it's a very accurate estimate." ]
why do most people find things like beautiful views, white sand beaches with crystal clear water and sunsets nice to look at?	[ "It is biologically engraved in us. Seeing water and fresh landscape meant survival in ancient days" ]	[ "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...
When you boil water, does it ever get hotter than 100°C in the pot?	[ "If your pot has a very very smooth surface all around its inside, and you heat it gradually, it can become 'super heated', and exist at higher temperatures than 100°C. After that, when it starts bubbling, it will cool to 100°C. And the amount that it goes over isn't a whole lot. But it is measurable." ]	[ "Foodservice professional here: heating foods increases the general rate of oxidation(combustion) in the food product, this has several effects of note, not the least of which is the \"Malliard browning process\" which is the high temperature combination of a lipid, a protein and relatively simple starches that are...
If a woman became president of the US, and got pregnant, would she get a maternity leave?	[ "On the off chance a woman of child bearing age became president, which is unlikely, the VP would step in if she were incapacitated following the birth, or when she couldn't do things like flying, but as it isn't a very physical job, and the baby could always be in her office, I imagine she wouldn't take a complete...	[ "Because in most other hiring situations being black, white, man, woman, straight, jewish, whatever, has literally no bearing or impact on the ability to perform the required tasks of the job. Things like modeling and acting however, they can have 'essential requirements'. All jobs have 'essential requirements'--yo...
Why isn't the guillotine used for executions anymore?	[ "I'm pretty sure tests have been done that prove that cutting a head off of the body doesn't kill it, it is the lack of oxygen and other chemicals that kill it. So yes, _URL_0_ is right in that it is \"too gruesome\" _URL_1_" ]	[ "For starters the extra costs to the manufacturer and the customer are not worth it. And second saftey, they could be dangerous closing down on little children & even adults." ]
Why do dogs and cats have tails?	[ "Cats and dogs use their tails for communication. Nordic dogs use their tails to curl over their faces in winter, protecting their noses from frostbite and windburn, and warming the air before they breathe it in. Cats use their tails as rudders when they fall to help them twist and land on their feet. Both dogs and...	[ "The first USB standard required that a plug either be a dedicated master or slave device and this is why standard usb cables have different shaped plugs on each end. With later versions, it was decided that a device should be able to choose whether it is a master or a slave in certain circumstances, like to allow ...
Why is Nickelback so hated?	[ "The main thing for me is how ridiculously similar their songs are. I mean, I understand having a signature \"sound,\" and Chad Kroeger definitely has a distinctive voice, but for some reason they can't seem to come up with anything new. Oh yeah. One example I found is this clip of two of their songs, each playing...	[ "This is more of an opinion or discussion question than a concept you're looking to have explained. Not really a topic for ELI5. Maybe /r/askreddit" ]
How can hugely popular sites like craigslist, wikipedia, and reddit operate without sales or ads?	[ "Reddit has ads. Craigslist charges for certain kinds of job postings. Wikipedia operates on donations." ]	[ "Great question for u/harryyoud, since he works on LineageOS. Generally, many of the ways I have seen such projects succeed: - A strong base of volunteer developers that give on their spare time - Corporate-sponsored full-time developers, or corporate-sponsored open-source software - Donations to pay for full-time ...
How do Historians interpret sources that came hundreds of years after the actual event if that's the only source material they have? How can they be sure of the authenticity and accuracy?	[ "Very carefully. In seriousness, it's a challenge. It requires applying a critical eye to everything, and trying to validate the information. For Alexander the Great, for instance, there are only accounts much later, but there are tons of them, and history shows that there was a massive spread of Greek culture ov...	[ "The same way they do now: using satellite and microwave transmissions. Using the internet is kind of sketchy, because of a lack of control of the bandwidth that can cause the connection quality to drop, which is why other technologies are preferred when feasible." ]
how do inflated tires make riding a bicycle easier?	[ "If tires are inflated then a smaller area of the tire is in contact with the road, less contact, less friction. Less friction, easier to ride. There is also the fact that air leads to a smoother ride, but I think friction is a big part." ]	[ "I had this conversation with a friend of mine who is a paramedic. I also spent 10 years in St John Ambulance, and have been through a number of more extreme first aid training courses required by my university if you are carrying out fieldwork in remote areas (i.e. courses that train you to fix something, rather t...
Why is nutrition so complex?	[ "> In prehistoric days, wouldn't humans eat only whatever was locally available? Yep. > What would prevent severe nutrient deficiencies? Nothing. People died a lot and were covered in parasites, crippled by diseases, and lived short, violent, painful lives. I'm not sure why the new wave of health nuts thinks this ...	[ "Your answer was removed shortly before you posted this question. It did not meet our standards. We ask that answers in this subreddit be in-depth and comprehensive, and highly suggest that comments include citations for the information. In the future, please take the time to better familiarize yourself with [the ...
Wednesday What's New in History	[ "Slaves, they say, are almost impossible to find in the archaeological record. Impossible, that is, unless they're buried in their shackles! Check out these [unfortunate Roman souls](_URL_1_) recently excavated in southwest France." ]	[ "BTW, for those that are downvoting this question, I would appreciate it if you could take a moment to explain the motivation. On reddit in general I could care less if something I write gets downvoted, but here in askHistorians it decreases the chances something I ask will get answered so if I am breaking some sor...
How do prison inmates vote? Do they get to vote, and if so how do they?	[ "A convicted felon's right to vote varies from state to state. In some cases, they lose their right to vote permanently. In some, they don't lose it at all. In some, they lose it, but it is reinstated when they meet certain conditions. So the best way to get an answer to your question would be to look up a particul...	[ "I saw some study a while back in which apes were given tokens to trade for food or watch \"porn\" of their species. Most chose the porn. Edit: It was macaques not apes. Juice was the currency that they were using. [Here's an article.](_URL_0_) They also \"paid\" to see photos of high status males." ]
Why did E85 (Ethanol) Fuel not take off? I just found out my car is compatible and it is $1 cheaper than regular gas!	[ "Because it takes more energy to make ethanol than you actually get out of it. It's only cheap because of huge government subsidies. And once those end, then it will no longer be feasible." ]	[ "The best we could, in theory, do is a matter/antimatter engine. 71 milligrams of antimatter would be able to orbit the Space Shuttle (that is about three grains of rice). ([CITE](_URL_0_)) Unfortunately, while we do produce some antimatter on earth, we produce only a tiny fraction of even that small amount. Antima...

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