Subset (10)

eli5 · 25k rows

Split (1)

train · 25k rows

query stringlengths 20 300	positive listlengths 1 1	negative listlengths 1 1
Can tumours mutate against drugs, like bacteria?	[ "Yes. Cancers [can acquire drug resistance](_URL_0_) in a variety of ways. The article mentions expression of protein transporters that actively move anticancer drugs out of the cell as well as changes that mute anticancer drugs' ability to induce programmed cell death. They all boil down to changes in the cancer c...	[ "While not an answer to your question, a point which you might be missing (judging from the title: the \"The E coli genome has millions of nucleotides\" part). Genomes are large and mutations are random, so if we leave things to chance, the probability of independently repeated mutations in many individuals in th...
Are there advantages to rockets being aerodynamically shaped once they have left the atmosphere?	[ "They mostly aren't - by the time it gets to space most of the rocket (the lower stages) has been released from the top part, and the payload is only aerodynamic because it is encased in [payload fairings](_URL_0_) These will be dropped away too once the benefit of having them around to make it more aerodynamic is ...	[ "Mining the asteroid wouldn't, landing the metals mined theoretically could, as could just putting the asteroid in orbit around the Earth. The amount it would change by would be so minuscule as to be effectively unmeasurable however, and would have to be calculated depending on how much of the asteroids momentum wa...
If there's clockwise and counterclockwise in three dimensions, is there an analogous third-clockwise in four dimensions?	[ "In three dimensions, you can rotate about one axis, and that's it. Depending on where \"up\" is along this axis, you then get clockwise or counter-clockwise. In four dimensions, you can rotate about two axes simultaneously. So, you can actually rotate clockwise around one and counter-counter clockwise on the other...	[ "I'd like to add this. In WWII they retrofitted some Spitfire airplanes with up to 5 cameras that used this exact same principal to take 3D areal recon photos of Europe. The cameras were aligned just right (and pilots trained just right) take take photos that could be put under a special viewing device bringing the...
Why do some people think the Holocaust didn't happen?	[ "Often they believe it wasn't this big systemic thing. Jewish people were killed, but not much more than any other flavor-of-the-month racism target. Camps were for protection from ghettoes, the gas-showers didn't happen, just explain it all away. And it's just played up (easy to do, jews own hollywood) so that the...	[ "First you take a little of this: _URL_3_ Then you throw in this: _URL_1_ sprinkle in these kinds of studies to give \"evidence\": _URL_2_ Then you heap a whole bunch of: _URL_0_ And its nearly impossible to change people's minds once they are set." ]
If darker colors absorb more heat, why is our skin made to darken when exposed to the sun?	[ "Because the problem with sunlight is not the heat, but the exposure to UV radiation, which damages skin cells and their DNA, leading to sunburn in the short term, and to melanoma and other problems in the long term. Melanin, the pigment responsible for the darkening of the skin, is placed above the DNA of skin cel...	[ "No, evolution doesn't work that way. You sweat to cool down. You can't sweat forever, so you ideally want to get to a cooler location. Being uncomfortable and sweaty does two things, it helps you cool down short term and motivates you to get somewhere cooler long term. If you were happy as a clam being sweaty, you...
When my cat sits on my touch lamp, i can use his nose as an on/off button. How does this work?	[ "I would guess - I'm not entirely sure - that your lamp detects changes in its capacitance. The capacitance, easily said, is the amount of power you need to charge the lamp fully. If the lamp stands by itself, it has a certain capacitance. If the cat sits on it, that capacitance changes, because the cat is now part...	[ "An optical mouse has a camera underneath it. The camera constantly takes pictures of the surface beneath it, compares that picture the one it took a fraction of a second before, and from that determines how the mouse has moved. This camera takes highly magnified images of the desk surface, and, because of this, ha...
How is it that humans can learn vocal language to virtually perfect speech yet still be illiterate?	[ "Most of this is because the mapping of symbols on the page to sounds is arbitrary. When speaking you're mapping sounds to meaning. This is something you brain has specifically evolved to handle. For written text we've invented some arbitrary symbols, we've decided that they map to specific phonemes (or they map in...	[ "First of all, keep in mind that all studies of ancient languages are theories, or loose estimations. No one can REALLY know for sure. That being said, things such as imagery and even living conditions help. For example, say a throne is found in a temple, with a large hieroglyph carved on the back. Clearly, this sy...
Could one possibly gain more weight from eating a certain product than the weight of the product itself?	[ "Directly, no. That would violate mass conservation. But it you could conceivably eat food that makes you retain water or other substances, in the opposite of the way that alcohol and caffeine cause you to lose water." ]	[ "I want a bunch of lollipops, but I can't afford them. I tell you and 2 other friends that I have this great idea where we can all get a bunch of lollipops; you just have to give me one now and then get 3 people to give you one. Sounds like a great idea that we all get 3 lollipops for the price of one! The problem ...
The process of dry cleaning.	[ "Check out the (wikipedia article) [_URL_0_] if you want to know more specifics but here is a TL;DR for the lazy. The process is basically the same, the only difference is dry cleaning doesn’t use soap and water as the medium for dissolving dirt. It instead uses another liquid that is equally as adept as dissolving...	[ "It is a term encompassing actions with the aim of making money coming from illegitimate sorces appear as they are legitimate. Example: You robbed a bank and now have 1000000 in cash you cannot just say you found. So every once in a while your lemonade stand will make a phantom sale where you earned cash, declared ...
People are complaining that average wages at companies aren't going up. But wouldn't that just cause inflation and they wouldn't really make more money after all?	[ "Empirically, (as in the other times minimum wages were raised) No, while inflation does increase, it does not increase enough to completely counter the increase in minimum wage." ]	[ "If you ask for 1 pen, it costs you two dollars. If you ask for 100 000 pens, they will only cost you one dollar each. I prefer selling you 100 000 pens at half price, than selling you 1 at full price and have 99 999 sitting around doing nothing. In a similar way, if you ask for a small amount of money, you pay a b...
How are Sloths still alive? They are very slow in everything they do and they are exposed to faster predators.	[ "They exploit a niche in the ecosystem not used by some other creature. Were they faster they'd need higher quality food and have to compete for it with something else. As it is, they hide in trees, apparently rarely getting eaten, and just snooze their lives away. Edit - by the way, this is quite informative about...	[ "There are dozens of holes in our skull (think eyes, nose, mouth, cheekbones, spine....) but the temples are not among them. But our evolutionary ancestors, the early synapsids (as well as our relatives the dinosaurs and birds) actually did have [holes in their temples](_URL_0_), the [temporal fenestrae](_URL_1_)...
why aren't people convicted of a crime even if they confess?	[ "A confession is rarely enough evidence in itself to convict, the defendent must be proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. False confessions do get made, _URL_0_, and because of this, they are not in themselves enough evidence to convict. If the \"strong evidence\" along with the confession doesn't convince the j...	[ "Start with the other side. If the climate is changing, why should the average person agree? You probably answer that with \"They can act to change things and not destroy the planet\", that's the common argument. What people get by denying climate change is freedom not to act. If the action you're suggestin...
Would syringe hold liquid in vacuum?	[ "well, since it's a syringe it has at least one open end. Let's assume a real syringe, i.e. the piston has a proper seal and would need some force to be moved. The liquid should be fine for a short while and would stay inside the syringe... however, since we have vacuum, the liquid will soon start to boil (as the l...	[ "Almost all systems like those you describe have to have some sort of ventilation. The crankcase, for example, usually has to have some way for small amounts of gas which blow past the piston to get sucked into the intake and burnt. That means there's somewhere what amounts to a pipe which can carry oil if tipped u...
why is it that some features (like a GPS) are bought once while others (like in car wifi) need subscriptions, when they both use satellites?	[ "GPS is operated by the government. WiFi needs a internet provider which needs money to maintain the network." ]	[ "Radio stations do a lot of clever work to fit more information in the audio stream then just the audio. Originally an FM station were just a simple mono audio signal. However they found out that the signal quality were good enough to deliver audio signals at much higher frequency then the humans can hear. So they ...
When a new game comes out and Nvidia and AMD release updated drivers, what do they actually contain specific to the game?	[ "Bug fixes. The drivers don't have game-specific code per se, but they do contain bug fixes (and sometimes updated features that weren't complete for the previous driver) for bugs uncovered by game developers." ]	[ "Software can optimize images and fonts to render well with your monitor. See [hinting](_URL_0_) and [anti-aliasing](_URL_1_) for details. With macs, the software is more standardized, which makes this easier to accomplish. For other systems, a bit of tweaking may be required, but the same effect can be achieved. ...
What is swarm intelligence and how should we use it?	[ "1000 stupid things can accomplish smart things, just like computers, they are just millions of switches" ]	[ "I would check out It's Okay to Be Smart on youtube. They do a good episode on this (im bad at links)" ]
Do other animals recognize music like humans do?	[ "< _URL_2_; < _URL_3_; So yes, some animals are just as bad as humans at recognizing music. More seriously: < _URL_1_; < _URL_0_;" ]	[ "Please avoid anecdote. The answer should not include the words \"my cat\" or \"my dog\". Instead please cite research." ]
Why do we constantly tap our foot or shake our leg when sitting?	[ "It's an anxiety reliever. Usually the person taping/ shaking their leg doesn't notice until it is pointed out." ]	[ "There are a few different answers because there are a few different psychological approaches. TheCanadianDoctor's answer is the biological approach. Using the behavioral/learning approach, I would say it was because when you learned that word, you learned it by forming a connection between the (echoic) sound and t...
Why do search engines tell you how long the search took?	[ "Honestly, they're kind of bragging to show you how good/fast/awesome they are. There is no other reason; it might be interesting to a very small segment of the population, but it's more about people going \"Wow, 20 billion results in 0.02 seconds!\"" ]	[ "They don't. It's a marketing ~~lie~~ gimmick. I used to work for a company that did a similar thing by mail. New customers were supposed to sign up by a certain time for special rates but as a specific matter of policy we'd give those rates to anyone who mailed back the special offer." ]
How does the human body anticipate how much force to use when lifting/pulling/pushing an object, and why are our bodies often momentarily confused when something weighs less than we had expected?	[ "Your brain uses memory as a way to anticipate the effort required in these situations. There is a book called [On Intelligence by Jeff Hawkins](_URL_0_) that discusses this. You've opened thousands of doors, lifted thousands of objects. Your brain remembers how it felt to engage in that activity. So when you appro...	[ "Its to do with the connections between your visual cortex and your motor cortex. To use a computer analogy, its like the graphics card working fine but a fault in the cable that causes distorted images on your computer monitor. You have to translate the visual image into precise muscle movements that will draw the...
How did people wake up when they needed to, in a time when alarm clocks/phones had not yet been invented? (Medieval times etc. "We'll depart just before dawn")	[ "People can know how long they sleep. 8 times out of 10, if I decide I need to wake up at a specific hour and set the alarm clock, I will wake up a few minutes before the alarm goes off. This happens only when I feel that it's important, though. So if I have a plane I need to catch, or some meeting. With daily stu...	[ "I can give a very cursory answer, but you might get a much better answer by cross posting in /r/askanthropology. Hunting deer doesn't require a lot of equipment - it is not so difficult even for just an individual with a bow and arrows. Larger game, like mammoth, were probably group efforts. We also have evidence...
Is Moore's Law a good indicator of the progression and development of technology? Or is using it as an authority just baseless speculation?	[ "This was not a \"law\" developed from some immutable facts; it was an empirical observation. To some extent it has even been a self-fulfilling prophesy. It will likely run out of steam at some point, since silicon transistors seem to be reaching some limits. My prediction is after another 4-5 generations. We are ...	[ "Generally wages have been stagnant for many years. Inflation has increased, which means goods and services have gone up, while the purchasing power of the dollar has gone down. What that means is that people today are making more than they did in the 80's, but they can't purchase the same goods with that money. Th...
Why do words or phrases start sounding "unreal" when we repeat them to ourselves over and over?	[ "It's called Semantic Satiation, and it's a well known phenomenon. The reason for it is that repeating the same word over and over in quick repetition activates the specific part of the brain's cortex that \"store\" the meaning of that word. When this happens, the brain inhibits to some degree the neurons in that a...	[ "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...
If all iron in our solar system is fused in far off stars, does that mean that the iron in my body is potentially older than the sun?	[ "Not just potentially, it is. Everything you're made of is older than the sun because the sun hasn't had a chance to spew it's fused atoms into space yet. The oldest stuff in your body is the hydrogen, which is almost as old as the universe ~13 billion years. The other stuff was made in the first few/couple genera...	[ "Two things. One is that half-lives for naturally occurring radioactive isotopes can be extremely long. Some of the common ones are: Potassium-40: 1.3 billion years, Uranium-235: 0.7 billion years, Uranium-238: 4.5 billion years, Thorium-232: 14 billion years. Half of all the U-238 that existed when the Earth for...
How is it that illiteracy still exists in the United States?	[ "Illiteracy still exists because: Some kids actively refuse to learn to read, and they manage to fake it well enough that they fall through the cracks of the schooling system. Others are severely dyslexic and so are really only partially illiterate, or they have severe mental handicaps preventing them learning to r...	[ "By using advertising disclaimers like \"limited quantities\" or \"while supplies last\", which in many states exempts those items from raincheck laws." ]
Does a 35 MPH tail wind affect the speed of a vehicle traveling at 175 MPH in exactly the same direction as the wind?	[ "It would reduce drag. A car going at 175 mph with a 35mph tailwind would only experience air resistance equivalent to that of a car going 140 mph with no wind. This can be a pretty huge difference because the slowing force from air drag increases with the square of speed. The power required to overcome it increase...	[ "The second two digits refer to the primary interstate that it's an auxiliary of. So auxiliaries of I-15 will be numbered 215, 315, etc. If the first number is even (215, 415, etc.), then it is a loop or bypass: it branches off from the main interstate at one place, and returns to it at a different place. If the fi...
If I clean my toilet with bleach, then pee into it, will it produce chlorine gas?	[ "It would if you peed [hydrochloric acid](_URL_0_). However, if you peed hydrochloric acid, you would have a larger problem on your hands. Especially if you got some pee on your hands." ]	[ "Your plumbing supplies water at a certain maximum pressure. That pressure is lower than the pressure required to stretch the hose. So it's less like blowing up a balloon, and more like blowing through a pinched straw. No matter how hard your lungs can blow, the straw's not going to explode." ]
How are the same species of fish found in multiple non-connected lakes?	[ "Just because they're not connected today doesn't mean they've never been connected, like in a flood. Or the last Ice Age. Even if they've never been connected, birds can still transfer fish eggs. Tornadoes can transfer fish eggs." ]	[ "Generally due to copyright and licencing issues. Different companies may own the rights to the same content in different countries." ]
How does converting cars and such to electric help the environment?	[ "Non-electric cars run on some form of fossil fuel that is extremely polluting. When you use electricity instead you have more options for producing the energy fueling the cars. So it becomes possible to use less polluting energy sources like solar power, wind power or even nuclear energy. Edited to be more clear" ...	[ "They did do that. Some people just claim that research funded by oil companies doesn't count as \"extensive research\", because they think it's too likely to be biased." ]
Public Employee Retirement (PERS)	[ "CalPERS is a defined benefit program, while a 401k is a defined contribution program. The difference is that, in a 401k plan, your retirement account is worth what your investments are worth. If the stocks you are invested in go up, your retirement is worth more. If the stocks went down, you lose a bunch o...	[ "[Found it!](_URL_0_) Your info is in the quote on page 3 of the PDF. I would quote it here, but I'm on my phone." ]
What does your phone do with all of the excess energy it gets after charging to 100%?	[ "Modern phones don't overcharge, by design. Its not safe to do so and could cause damage to the battery or other safety issues. Generally when they reach 100% they stop charging and actually slowly discharge their power down to about 95%, then charge back up and repeat." ]	[ "Each cell pumps sodium ions out and potassium ions in producing a gradient for each ion. This produces a potential across the membrane of the cell. This potential plus the gradient can be used by the cell to transmit electrical signals" ]
Pros and Cons of Britain Leaving the EU	[ "Pros: * More control over laws - a lot of UK laws are influenced by EU directives * Can restrict immigration from Europe * Do not have to follow EU on trade treaties * No more issues over 'loss of sovereignty' * Free to pursue own diplomatic agenda Cons: * A huge amount of business is dependent on European free tr...	[ "This CGP Grey video does a really good job of explaining it all. _URL_3_" ]
If CO2 is heavier and denser than O2 and Nitrogen(/air), then why would I want a CO2 detector high on a wall?	[ "I'm going to assume that you really meant to type CO, carbon monoxide, which is lighter than air." ]	[ "More force on the wire with less weight required. The arrangement you show has 5x the amount of force. So a 100 lb weight creates 500 lbs of tension. It also helps stability. The weight will no bounce as much as the trains pass. It moves more, but the acceleration is less." ]
When you look in a three-way mirror, why does every second reflection look like a dipshit version of yourself?	[ "You're used to seeing the version of you you see in mirrors normally, so when that's reflected (in the second mirror and in photographs of yourself) you don't recognize it as you because it's backwards. Same reason we all hate pictures of our selves, even though other people think they look fine" ]	[ "This is called the [Moire Effect](_URL_0_). The stripes in the pattern interact with the stripes in your monitor. Normally it's in black and white, but because computer monitors use rows of colored dots, it creates a false color effect too." ]
Why is today Tuesday? By that I mean why isn't the week shifted over x days? What decided when the first week ever started?	[ "Our current calendar, the Gregorian calendar, was based off a previous, very similair calendar, the Julian Calendar, which was in use since the early Roman Empire. The current calendar started in the late 1500s, but adoption in different areas varied over the next about 400 years, but was in widespread use in Euro...	[ "Everybody's front page is different, depending on which subreddits you subscribe to. If you never subscribe/unsubscribe manually or you view reddit without logging into an account, you will see the default subreddits. The default subreddits are determined by reddit staff (presumably based on quality & popularity)....
I'm developing a soft-historical-fantasy computer game which is heavily influenced by medieval history / culture, and I'm in need of solid sources.	[ "[What Every Medievalist Should Know.](_URL_3_) The list is relatively up-to-date and should point you towards some of the most useful intro-level texts in each of these subject areas. If your project delves into the Renaissance, I'd also suggest this site. It's a bit more limited to a specific time/place, but it's...	[ "If you live near a university you will likely be able to use their database access in the library. If you don't want to go to that trouble, you can also try using google scholar. It will lead to many academic articles. You will not have access to all of them, but many of them are available for free. You will want...
How do those bladeless fans work?	[ "The pedestal of the fan contains a brushless electric motor that takes in air and feeds it into the circular tube. Air flows along the inside of the device until it reaches a slit inside the tube. This provides the basic airflow that creates the breeze you'd feel if you stood in front of the fan. Dyson claims that...	[ "They have no case at all. The energy from the wind would turn into heat eventually anyway. The wind farms extract usable energy from the wind while this process goes on." ]
Why are Neptune's wind speeds so incredibly high?	[ "The mechanism driving the winds isn't well understood, but is thought to be a result of several factors: - Low surface roughness of the planet to act as drag - Little heating from the sun, which would cause turbulence, which would cause more drag - Cold temperatures, so less friction - More internal heating of the...	[ "It's an interpretation of the magnetic field the planet has, audible sound can't travel through the vacuum of space but electromagnetic field are easy to detect with the right equipment. By assigning different parts of the field to different sounds you can have a roughly corresponding noise. Imagine each colour of...
Would it be possible to clone a dinosaur?	[ "You can use frog DNA to fill in the gene sequence gaps! Edit: the Michio Kaku video that actually explains a real answer: _URL_0_" ]	[ "It takes a ton of energy, and the cost is prohibitive. [Here is a good explanation why](_URL_0_) Here are some other discussions on this topic. _URL_2_ _URL_1_ _URL_3_ _URL_4_" ]
How homogeneous is CO2 in the atmosphere? How much does this mixing (or lack of) impact climate change?	[ "For your purposes, you can assume it's constant. For decades we've tracked point measurements of CO2 at certain stations. They vary with the seasons, as plants die off and regrow each year: this variation is about 1% of the average in isolated spots like Hawaii, and about 10% in a seasonal continental location lik...	[ "I wrote a detailed response about Tom Holland's documentary [here](_URL_0_), using primary source to argue that something very similar to modern Islam did exist quite early on. Also worth noting that Crone and Cook's Hagarism thesis is not taken seriously anymore (or even at the time) - it literally used only th...
Where does the energy to heat magma come from in the earth?	[ "According to Wikipedia, 20% of the energy is left over from the planet's formation (squeezing everything together to make a planet heats things up), the other 80% comes from radioactive decay. There is also some heat generated by tidal forces acting on the Earth's core, but I'd imagine these are very minor. _URL_...	[ "Increased blood flow. Blood starts its path in your core and is pushed out toward your extremeties. Your core temp can be several degreea higher than, say, the temperature of your hands. More bloodflow = more heat." ]
Why do you get “that” good sensation when you sneeze?	[ "Endorphins are released when you sneeze. Endorphins stimulate the brain's pleasure center." ]	[ "The inner ear and outer ear are seperated by a layer of issue impermeable to the outside atmosphere called the ear drum, aka tympanic membrane. When the air pressure changes by a large amount, the air in the inner ear and the air outside the ear are not at equilibrium. To re-establish that equilibrium of pressure,...
Why does an excess of grease make you feel sick?	[ "Your stomach contains acids and enzymes. Acids aren't very good at dissolving greases, bases are much better at it, but your stomach is acidic, not basic. Eating a lot of grease fills up your stomach with something that it can't easily digest, and as a defense mechanism you'll feel nauseated so you eject it from ...	[ "Go watch the movie Supersize Me and report back your findings." ]
Are the 'buy acres on the moon/mars' legitimate? If we inhabit the moon and I own an acre, can nobody build on that without my permission?	[ "No, they're not legitimate. There's an international treaty that says, basically, \"no country owns anything in space.\" So if it isn't the territory of a country... who are you buying it from? What's their claim, and who do you register the deed transfer with?" ]	[ "I mean, you can work out and gain mass, but the statement about muscle is taking into account that you follow the same routine as in earth and were stabilized on not gainong/losing muscle. What it means is that since you don't make work against gravity to walk, move things, etc. Doing the same workout with the sa...
Is there a way for humans to gather information faster than reading?	[ "Interesting question.. But I guess it depends on what you define \"learning\" as. Reading is simply using our sense of vision to recognize symbols and lines on a page, and our brain applies meaning to them. You could say that we \"learn\" not to touch a hot stove because after touching it once, our sense of touch ...	[ "There are parts of food that cannot be broken down effectively by our digestive system alone. For example, the cell walls of vegetables can't be broken by our stomach or intestines. Chewing helps but because the cells are so small, it doesn't help much. But when you cook it, those cell walls are broken open from t...
How do Facebook "Meme" Pages get revenue from 'likes' and 'shares'?	[ "They don't, but if someone buys the page they can then post a status and get something in front of all of those people who liked it, and thats valuable to some people." ]	[ "The reason they can post footage from Star Wars is [Fair Use](_URL_0_). \"Examples of fair use include commentary, criticism, news reporting, research, teaching, library archiving and scholarship\" Because they are providing commentary, criticism and arguably teaching they are allowed to use the copyrighted work...
How does the idea of white privilege differ from that of the "Jewish privilege" written about by Hitler in Mein Kampf?	[ "I don't know mein kampf, but the idea of white privledge isn't that white people have caused all the ills in society but that the system is set up to give them advantages that other groups do not have. Assumptions of criminality, of employability, of cultural norms and beliefs, all set to give a white male the bes...	[ "Karl Rove once challenged Dwayne Wade to a 1:1 basketball game. Wade was obviously the overwhelming favorite, but Rove convinced Wade that the best way for him to win was to let Rove's points \"trickle down\" into Wade's basket. Rove won 184-2." ]
Is it possible for an astronomical body to have a molten core, without orbiting a star?	[ "Sure. If a planet forms and then gets ejected from its star system, there's no reason it couldn't have a molten core for a while. The Earth's core isn't molten because of the Sun, it's molten because of residual heat from planet formation plus radioactive heating from decay within the crust." ]	[ "your question is based on a confusion of scale. life on earth lives within a very sensitive, and relatively narrow temperature range. the most extreme temperatures between night and day or between seasons even is orders of magnitude less than the temperature changes which occur on other planets. in other words, o...
Why do magnets always have two poles, why have I been told that it is impossible to have a magnet with 1 pole?	[ "Magnets create a magnetic field which travels in a direction, that 'flow' out one end and into the other, then back through the magnet. What pole it is, basically is a function of whether the magnetic field is flowing in or out at that point. Cutting a magnet in half creates new poles where the center was. [Pictur...	[ "This question is pretty tough to imagine. Here's something that might help: Imagine you live on a [Möbius strip](_URL_0_). You're facing straight down at all times. You leave a ghost image of yourself as you go around the strip. Travel fully around and you get back to where you started, still looking the same way....
Why does a cable company (Comcast for instance) charge me for "basic" cable that is standard definition when a simple cheap antenna gives me a HD picture for free?	[ "Because is costs them money to bring that signal to you. Why does a gas station charge you 99 cents for a bottle of water when it falls out of the sky for free?" ]	[ "The point of a water softener is to remove calcium and magnesium which form positively charged ions when dissolved in water.The tank is filled with negatively charged beads and so when the hard water enters the tank the positively charged calcium and magnesium stick to the beads. The water that comes out of the ta...
ELI: why can't you see the fog that is immediately around you?	[ "You see the fog immediately around you just as much as the fog further away - it's just that the more \"accumulated\" fog you would have to look through, the more dense it looks. Since fog is usually experienced outside (no shit, Sherlock), everything you look at is pretty far away - so even a density of fog that ...	[ "this diagram shows the illusion well, _URL_3_ Basically we all interpret cues associated with perspective. things far away get smaller so if it's big in the distance it must really be big up close. In the picture the moon is the same diameter but it's position in the scene makes the one up front looks tiny. Same...
Why are mules sterile?	[ "Basically horses and donkeys have different numbers of chromosomes. When the hybrid is making eggs (or sperm) Chromosomes from horse and donkey have to pair up, but because horse and donkey have different numbers there are some non-paired chromosomes. This cell divides, and divides again and you want 1 chromatid f...	[ "Compared to what other mammals? All of the other large primates, dolphins, elephants, rhinos, giraffes, seals and other pinnipeds, equines, wild cattle worldwide, wild goats, wild sheep, deer and other cervidae, llamas...all have a single baby, or rarely, twins." ]
When naming streets, what determines St. vs Rd. vs Ln and so on?	[ "In addition to the sort of generic guidelines /u/Ansuz07 laid out, each city basically makes their own rules. Where I live this means that for the most part, N–S ones are named \"Avenue\" and E–W ones are \"Street.\" We also have a good number of \"Places,\" which is generally a small street sticking off of a larg...	[ "Different TLDs follow different countries' rules. In both Sweden and the US, the government isn't allowed to arbitrarily seize domain names- they have to follow some procedure, probably involving the courts, to do so. Swedish law and legal procedure allowed the government to get an order to seize the .se domain. U...
Why is "good" in goodbye.	[ "It's actually derived from \"God\". God be with you = > Godbwye = > Goodbye." ]	[ "End now essentially means the following Os: program, please close now. finish what you're doing and stop. program: < ignores the OS being unresponsive and stuck and all > Os: program, please stop. program: < ignores the OS > repeat ad infinitum . terminate means Os: program, please close now. Program: < i...
[URGENT] Can someone please tell me what could have possibly bitten me, as well as what I should do?	[ "Ask a doctor. Reddit doesn't offer medical advice." ]	[ "Lower right corner, there is your tray, click on the icon that looks like a keyboard, and change the setting to US English, or just US. If you don't have this little icon, look for a little taskbar that can be anywhere on your screen, usually at the top. Change it to US settings. It happens whenever you change yo...
I read a book that says "If an antivirus is 99% effecient, a single attack a week will render the probability to 59%". How is this true?	[ "So, basically what this means is that each individual attack has a 99% chance of being stopped. That means that every other subsequent attack also has a 99% chance to be prevented. Over a 2 week period, for example, you would do 99% * 99% = 98.01. Another way of expressing this is 0.99 (which is 99% in decimal) to...	[ "In general, a chess-playing program works by looking at the current state of the chess board (where all the pieces are), then looking ahead at all the possible moves, and picking the best one based on a points system where each of the pieces are assigned values. Difficulty is determined by how many moves ahead the...
What are examples of segregation in the U.S. that not actual laws or ordinances?	[ "Look at racially restrictive covenants on property (invalidated by the Supreme Court in Shelley v. Kramer). These were private agreements, though until Shelley, they would have been enforced by most courts as legally binding." ]	[ "So, I don't know if you know this, but Blackstone did just what you are suggesting. After the housing crash of 2009, they went out and bought up homes in different cities. They put them all under the umbrella of a REIT (real estate investment trust) called \"Invitation Homes\" and then spun it out in an IPO a few...
Venus has been described as an example of "runaway greenhouse effect." Would it be possible to reverse the greenhouse effect on Venus and lower the temperature on the planet?	[ "Yes, there are some interesting terraforming proposals. I read a cool one by Paul Birch, which remarkably I found on [_URL_2_](_URL_0_), where he suggests dropping one of the ice moons of Saturn on the planet to both fix the rotation problem (Venus has a very long day) and add some water. He suggests freezing the ...	[ "Enron basically used non-GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles) accounting methods to cover up their massive overleveraged position, (i.e., they had way more debt than equity). By keeping this debt off their books, they could overstate earnings. However, when people, including the SEC (Securities Exchange...
Why glass looks weird when wearing sunglasses	[ "If your sunglasses are polarized, and the glass you are looking at is polarized - this effect will happen. It will also happen if you look at an LCD screen iPod, iPhone, iPad for example. - because the pixels on the screen are laid out on a regularly spaced grid. Polarizing a piece of glass creates, in effect, a m...	[ "I sounds like what you're describing are optical aberrations, most likely [Spherical Aberrations](_URL_1_) or [Coma](_URL_0_). It's nothing to worry about though, It's mostly due to viewing a distant light off axis. Might be worth checking out some of the other aberrations too if you're interested" ]
How do people go about translating their name into a different alphabet?	[ "Names are never translated officially (though they might be translated for fun between friends, in the case of names that are also just regular words). Names are transliterated based on internationally accepted transliteration systems - even for one language (such as Russian) to English there are multiple system...	[ "Most have a [relay phone](_URL_0_) in their homes - they use an interpreter. [TTY](_URL_1_) is also available on mobile phones, landlines, and in 911 centers." ]
How does smoking marijuana cause tar buildup in pipes, but not so much in the lungs?	[ "It actually does gunk up your lungs. Some studies suggest that pot smoke is significantly worse for your lungs than even tobacco smoke. It doesn't build up to infinity because your lungs have a significant self-cleaning ability." ]	[ "They remain in jail. because their actions were criminal at the time they did it. Of course, it is possible that the governor/president commutes their prison sentences or pardons them, but that's extraneous with regards to legalization; it's not required or a de-facto part of the legalization process." ]
The role of the Middle East, South America, India, and the non-Pacific parts of Asia during World War II	[ "Mexico declared war on the Axis powers on May 22, 1943. The reason for this was the sinking of 2 Mexican oil tankers by German U-Boats. An air combat unit was formed and sent to U.S.A. for training. 299 elements including pilots and ground support crews trained in Greenville, Texas and Pocatello, Idaho. 2 pilots...	[ "Persia is now known as Iran, and Arabia is now known as the Arabian Peninsula. They are two completely different places, and are separated by a body of water known as the Persian Gulf. Check out the map of Iran on Google Maps and you'll see what I mean. These two lands have had different peoples, different rulers...
When approaching light-speed, in orbit of a massive object, what happens to the view of that object.	[ "You probably would not see much of it, actually. When you are traveling near the speed of light, one of the phenomena that takes place is Doppler boosting. What happens is that light in a very narrow cone in front of you is boosted to very high frequencies and seems very bright, and light coming from all other ang...	[ "The most basic way to phrase the answer to this is that [speeds don't add like you think they do](_URL_0_). To expand a little: if you are watching a ship move away from you at 0.9c in one direction and another ship moving away from you at 0.9c in the opposite direction then, of course, you see the distance increa...
How close to a parent star can a gas giant form?	[ "Not directly answering your question, but several discovered extrasolar planets are termed [Hot Jupiters](_URL_0_) since they have similar mass and compositional characteristics to Jupiter, yet orbit very closely to their parent star. For instance, [51 Pegasi b](_URL_1_) orbits many times closer to its parent st...	[ "Since we don't know what the limits of biological life are, it's almost impossible to answer that. Planets probably formed as early as 12.8 billion years ago. But is that necessary for life? Is carbon? We just don't know." ]
What are the benefits of using metric system over English standard system?	[ "Unit conversion is easier. Metric is all 1:1 and 10:1 conversions while ye olde Imperial is pretty random and obtuse. Otherwise the two systems are functionally identical for most common measurement purposes." ]	[ "I would have to guess probably the efficiency of the code itself. I wrote a program that converts images to black and white in real time (shows the conversion on screen) and before I streamlined the code it didn't matter how fast the pc was it took the same length of time to process basically. once i streamlined i...
Why do we struggle so much to learn how to ride a bike for the first time? Furthermore, why do we never forget how to ride a bike, regardless of how many years have passed?	[ "Your brain can very much unlearn how to ride a bike. What people mean when they say \"It's like riding a bicycle.\" is that once you learn it, it's very difficult to unlearn it. A lot of it has to do with unconscious muscle memory and learning. Watch [this video](_URL_0_) to watch a guy unlearn his bike skills by ...	[ "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...
Underarm bacteria that produce bad smells can be killed with lemon juice and its very effective. Is there any negative consequences to this?	[ "You will smell delicious. Otherwise, no, there should be no consequences. Most skin bacteria are opportunistic in nature and do not appear to contribute to our overall health. In fact, quite a few of them cause health issues such as acne." ]	[ "A few reasons, first you may remember from high school chemistry the ideal gas law. PV=nRT, where P=pressure, V=volume, n= number of moles, R is a constant and T is temperature. If you spray a pressurized gas (the propellant in the can), which is typically butane or propane, as the gas comes out of the spray nozz...
If we tried to land on the sun, what's the absolute closest we could get with today's materials?	[ "Let's be clear on one thing: you can't land on the sun; it's not solid. Nor could you land on any of the gas giants. I think what you're really asking how far a probe could penetrate into the sun without malfunctioning. The answer then would depend on the thermal limits of your probe." ]	[ "Note: this was explained to me by a trusted person. So I think I know the right answer, but I may have misunderstood, or been trained wrong on purpose as a joke. I welcome correction. The problem with your scenario is that the issue an astronaut faces is not gaining too much speed as they fall, but LOSING speed ...
What are imaginary numbers?	[ "A number which doesn't belong to the set of real numbers (negative infinity to infinity). More specifically a number which includes the square root of negative one. Since it is impossible to have the square root of a negative number, it is very useful for many fields which find themselves working with the square r...	[ "You know how authors write long stories using letters and words and the rules of grammar and writing? Its just like that. With enough knowledge of how to read (math), these kinds of explanations make sense. Dont feel bad that you cant read it. Its just like if you tried to read a story in a language you dont know....
Why is happening psychologically in a murder suicide when the victims are not even people the killer knows? Why would somebody who intends to take their own life want to kill others before doing so?	[ "Typically such a person believes he has been treated unjustly by society, so he is striking back at society in general -- which includes basically everyone. _URL_0_" ]	[ "More money is always the answer, but that's not the question. Why this particular job instead of the thousands of other jobs on the job listing site? Why did you apply for this job, what about this job or company interests you? Why are you qualified enough to get this job. etc" ]
Why are there always a few more drops of urine in there no matter how many times I shake it?	[ "No matter how much you shake and dance the last drip ends up in your pants - Old English proverb." ]	[ "One theory is that the head of the penis evolved it's shape to \"scoop\" out sperm. That way while attempting to procreate we remove the sperm of our competitors while depositing our own. Following ejaculation we become sensitive to stop us from continuing to thrust and scooping our own sperm out." ]
How has Jurassic Park not been screened to critics if it comes out in 3 days?	[ "Even if it's screened to critics, they have a review embargo which asks the critics to not post their reviews until the theatrical release. However, some people are breaking the embargo and the reviews aren't favorable to Jurassic world." ]	[ "Many high end restaurants (or restaurant suppliers) get first pick. Particularly when it comes to meats and other things that spoil quickly. How many people at your supermarket are willing to pay top dollar for prime or whagu steak? Vs people going to a steak house." ]
- Why is population control (birth number restrictions) never a solution for hunger, poverty, etc.	[ "It might keep the number of people from increasing, but it doesn't do anything to actually increase food supplies and basic necessities." ]	[ "So, I don't know if you know this, but Blackstone did just what you are suggesting. After the housing crash of 2009, they went out and bought up homes in different cities. They put them all under the umbrella of a REIT (real estate investment trust) called \"Invitation Homes\" and then spun it out in an IPO a few...
How did Mars lose it's global magnetic field that protected it's atmosphere from the Sun's cosmic radiation? Could the same thing happen to Earth?	[ "Mars is much smaller than Earth. It molten core which is what generates the magnetic field cooled and solidified long ago. es it will eventually happen to the Earth. On the scale of a few billion years so we have little to worry about. I believe this has been asked in /r/askscience with much more detail you might...	[ "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...
How do we know the universe is 14 billion years old? Do we have telescopes that can see that far?	[ "The age of the universe is determined by measuring the rate at which its expanding. The light emitted by an expanding galaxy becomes redder as it moves away. This is called the red shift. The rate at which the colour changes determines its velocity. If this velocity was reversed and the galaxies move closer with t...	[ "We don't. The concept of things being greater than we can perceive is kinda the only thing that keeps religion going. It is not just possible but probable that we are part of a larger structure of some sort. Unlike, say, mites we have a brain capable of understanding it though. We just have to get a better picture...
Did Mussolini have sole power or was that more of an image created during the fascist period?	[ "I've said here many times that the idea of Mussolini as an oafish fool was created by Allied propaganda. There are a number of good biographies of him, most notably Denis Mack Smith's. In short, Mussolini was absolutely not a figurehead. He had a stranglehold on the Italian government, eliminating his opponents ru...	[ "Nixon impounded spending passed by Congress at a high rate, and Congress removed Presidential authority to do so: _URL_0_ Nixon was weakened by Watergate and was unable to stop this. Most Presidents since have asked to get the authority back, Congress has never agreed." ]
Why do Americans think the USA is the best nation on Earth when people from my country don't say this about our homeland? How did it develop to be socially acceptable to say this?	[ "Europe suffered greatly at the hands of \"nationalists\" in both WW1 and WW2. They killed off practically an entire generation in each of those conflicts, so nationalism and patriotic zeal are associated with truely horrific events in their culture. By contrast, the US only showed up at the tail end of WW1 and l...	[ "It's different for different countries. In the case of \"Germany\" it's an english-ification of \"Allemagne\" and \"germania\" - names of the group of people that lived in the area now called Deutschland (and the group of people from which the English language derives - so, it goes way back in language and culture...
What would happen to you on different planets of our solar system, if you would "go outside" without any kinds of protection?	[ "you would die. Mercury; you would burn up, or freeze to death depending on the time of day, at night will suffocate first going unconscious before getting frozen solid.. venus: you will suffocate, melt and burn, and be poisoned by the atmosphere, you will also be crushed by the pressure (~90 atm). Mars: suffoca...	[ "This video created by Vsauce 3 (Jake Roper) does a very good job explaining this: _URL_1_ I hope this answers your question. He also did another video on a simmilar line of - could you survive: _URL_0_" ]
What is Prom actually?	[ "It's just a fancy name for a high school end-of-year dance. The name is short for \"promenade\", meaning to go out for a walk in public." ]	[ "I could try to explain it to you, but this video is all you really need: _URL_9_" ]
Why is Obamacare bad/not wanted by some people? (I'm british)	[ "Some people are deeply partisan, and would oppose ANY policy forwarded by the democratic party. Some people object to the idea that it's really not voluntary; they feel that liberty is very important, and they want the freedom to handle their own healthcare as they see fit. Some people don't feel it's right to be ...	[ "This goes back to the French Revolution. Before the revolution, members from different classes would very occasionally meet when called by the king to advise him. The assembly of the different classes (also known as estates) was called the Estates General. The king called a meeting of the Estates General shortl...
Since saliva starts the digestion of food in our mouths, why is it that neither our tongue or any other parts of our bodies that get saliva on them are dissolved?	[ "Saliva only contains amylase and lysozymes, which digests complex carbohydrates like that found in bread and carbohydrates found on the surface of bacteria." ]	[ "He's covering the sugar in a hydrophobic coating. Scotchgard is a common one. [Here](_URL_0_) is a video of sand with a hydrophobic coating. Note that when he picks it back up out of the water, it's dry. This happens because water won't stick to or penetrate a hydrophobic surface. So, the sand/sugar stays \"dry\" ...
How big can a planet get??	[ "What a body accretes past a certain size gravity will trigger fusion, and the result is a star. Jupiter is big, but it is estimated it would need to be about 75 times bigger to initiate hydrogen fusion." ]	[ "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...
Why is Apple just sitting on the largest capital in the world? Why not use it to invest, innovate, acquire etc.?	[ "Taxes. Apple makes a lot of money abroad, and through shifty tax minimization (mainly in Ireland, but a little bit in the Netherlands too) pay almost no tax on those earnings. If they wanted to repatriate that money to the US to put it to work they'd have to pay taxes on it. They don't want to pay those taxes, so ...	[ "to build publicity. reporters aren't following them all the time. in order to get reporters to show up, the person has to announce that they're going to make a major announcement that'll make news." ]
How do our skin cells stay together so that they form a solid surface?	[ "Skin cells -- formally, [squamous epithelial cells](_URL_0_) -- form [interlocking pieces](_URL_2_), kind of like puzzle pieces, that are held together by protein structures called [desmosomes](_URL_1_) -- sort of intercellular velcro. The surface isn't really all that solid either; it's fairly porous, but many la...	[ "Not all parts of the web are sticky. If I remember right (since I'm too lazy to google it right now) the radial stands (the straight ones from the middle out) are not sticky. The circular strands are. The spider just walks on the radial strands" ]
How do we know that the universe is expanding?	[ "By measuring the wavelength of light arriving from different stars and galaxies we can determine whether they are moving towards us or away from us and how fast. Taking measurements of lots of them we can construct a model showing the overall trend, which appears to show the universe expanding outwards." ]	[ "This video from Sagan will help. I couldn't explain it in a better way. _URL_0_" ]
"Wilderness" vs. National Parks	[ "Wilderness Areas have greater restrictions on human impact than National Parks do. National Parks encourage visitors to come and see their natural beauty and have roads, parking lots, visitor centers, hotels, and other intrusions into them. Wilderness areas allow no motorized vehicles or mechanized transport (moun...	[ "Here's a pretty good explainer. _URL_0_ Basically it comes down to different memory, different promises (reliability and service life), and different marketing." ]
When I take nap during the day, why do I wake up way too hot, while I can sleep fine during the night under similar conditions?	[ "During the day, your body has a higher metabolism. Your engine is revving, ready to go, so to speak. This means your body produces more body heat. This extra body heat makes your warmer." ]	[ "Depends on context. If your surroundings are warmer than what you are heating, then it take no additional energy to raise the temperature of the thing. If your surroundings are cooler, it takes no additional energy. If you are operating in a frictionless world, with perfect efficiency, both heating and cooling w...
This whole net neutrality thing, how does it effect the common user?	[ "The affect may be subtle at first, but the implications are strong and disturbing. Your ISP can now choose which content to make available to you, which creates a breading ground for corporate interests to infiltrate those ISPs and steer your content where they want it to go. Imagine if Fox \"News\" was the only \...	[ "Can someone please just eli5? I don't understand any of this. What does this mean for me? A citizen of the United states." ]
What is the difference between true gravity on earth and artificial gravity (centrifugal force)?	[ "There is no difference between an object under accelerated motion and being at rest in a gravitational well. This is called the [equivalence principle](_URL_2_) and is the central posit of general relativity. This phenomenon has a huge range of implications, including [time dilation](_URL_3_), [frame dragging](_U...	[ "I'm not entirely sure what behaviour you're referring to. Absent any external forces, the overall centre of mass of the machine will stay in the same place. If the footpad is light and the 'motor' part that you hold heavy, that means that the large movement of the footpad will only create a small movement of the m...
Why can I watch a movie at 24fps, but a video game at that speed is unbearable?	[ "\"Without realistic motion blurring, video games and computer animations do not look as fluid as film, even with a higher frame rate. When a fast moving object is present on two consecutive frames, a gap between the images on the two frames contributes to a noticeable separation of the object and its afterimage in...	[ "Evolution really: You track an object of interest with \"smooth pursuit\" because it has your distinct attention. When you're \"searching\" for an object to give your attention the eye moves differently and \"Saccades\" until it finds something to track. You do this when reading. You can train your eye to move sm...
Why do football players have black stripes of face paint under their eyes?	[ "This is common in many sports. It stops the sun from reflecting off your cheek bones and into your eyes. It reduced glare to some degree to make it a bit easier to see in sunny conditions." ]	[ "Not just support - but it's allowed. MMA fighters or boxers don't get arrested for their actions, unless the injuries are severe beyond the norm. It's an implicit agreement within hockey that it's part of the game, and you are free to _not partake in any fights as well_. In serious cases of injuries, criminal inve...
Why are the high frequencies the first to go when audio is compressed?	[ "For one thing, high frequencies are more sensitive to data reduction. There is this thing called the Nyquist sampling theorem that says that in order to reproduce a frequency F, you need 2F sampling points per second. It makes sense -- catching the high and the low point of a wave requires you to sample two times ...	[ "Computerphile explain it quite well - _URL_0_ Think of it like removing parts of a sentence but allowing it to still make sense. eg. 'The weather today will be sunny' compresses to 'weather today sunny' - it still somewhat makes sense, but there's less information. Hope this helps." ]
Where does heat go in space?	[ "The main way to lose heat in space is through the light which is emitted by any object which has a temperature above 0 kelvin (absolute 0). For temperatures below several hundred degrees Celsius, this light is mostly emitted in infrared and not visible with the naked eye." ]	[ "You could make a significantly less bulky suit out of a highly elastic material using sealed, fluid filled pouches over the body's concavities to keep the body pressurized. However, you'd still need to incorporate a system for regulating the body's heat, and you'd probably want some radiation protection. Since we ...
Why would anyone choose to smoke cigarettes over vape?	[ "well there is very little long term research that has gone into the effects of vaping so tbh we don't know that its better for you than cigarettes. obviously neither of them is healthy for you" ]	[ "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" ]
Why does Tokyo have such unusual street address designations?	[ "Sometimes it's helpful, in cross-cultural contexts, to turn the question around and think about the assumptions behind it. How did European cities come to name the spaces in between the groups of buildings, rather than the blocks themselves? Any large building on a college campus, for instance, will have a dozen...	[ "A follow-up question of sorts: Did other monarchies, Duchies etc. use legendary people as part of the numbering for names? Like, suppose the Duchy of Toyota had a legendary founder Duke Camry, did the first actual Duke Camry take the name \"Camry II\"" ]
How did we come to agree that working 8 hours a day for 5 days a week is the norm?	[ "That's all thanks to unions - before people started unionizing, there weren't really rules on workers' rights - people could be worked until they collapsed, every day... or maybe with Sunday off for church. Once industrial workers started unionizing, they had enough pull to work out a deal that's mostly held up ev...	[ "I recommend reading 'At Home' by Bill Bryson. He goes through this in detail. From what I recall, houses used to be just one big room, animals, people, servants all in the one place. Over the centuries, people got bette at building walls, so they built these buildings higher - this showed your wealth and was much ...
I'm aware of why so many Irish left their homes in the 19th C, but what about Scandinavians, Germans and Chinese? What made them come to North America in large numbers?	[ "From Sweden, mainly * an increase in population * failed crops 1867–1869. * no religious freedom * the pull factor of emigrants writing back/helping others to emigrate Obviously the causes changed over time. The small village where I'm from, many left in the mid 1800's due to religious reasons, later it was more ...	[ "A lot of the people illegally entering the US from Mexico aren't Mexicans. They illegally entered Mexico to get to the US. Mexico would rather they keep going and get into the US rather than stay in Mexico." ]
Why is Jupiter so radioactive?	[ "Jupiter itself isn't very radioactive, but the space around it is. Its magnetic fields redirect solar wind and make thick bands of energetic ionized particles. Several of its moons orbit inside of these bands, and so they get constantly bombarded by high energy particles. Hence, radiation. Earth has similar bands...	[ "I fear the graph is still up to date - no new records since them. JT-60U still has the highest triple product. ITER should beat it, but not before 2027. It should release 10 times more fusion power than necessary input power when run with DT plasma (2035+), a huge milestone. After that it is \"just\" making a viab...
Why did the Western Roman Empire fall, while the Eastern survived and flourished for hundreds more years?	[ "A big reason was simply wealth. When the empire was one whole, two thirds of imperial revenues came from the east. At the same time it was the west that had to spend a significant amount on the military in border between Gaul and Germany. There were many small wounds that caused the fall of the west but this funda...	[ "Here's a [picture](_URL_0_) that might help explain. That figure is the \"analemma\". You can create such a thing by taking a picture of the same location in the sky (assuming the Sun is there) at the same time of day throughout the year. What you'll notice is that the Sun doesn't just trace a line back and forth,...
The impending Venezuelan collapse. How can this happen in a country rich in oil?	[ "It is no big mystery, there is no such thing as being too rich to get into trouble spending more than you earn. When oil was over $100 a barrel, Venezuela spend heavily on \"social programs\". But those programs weren't building infrastructure and improving the economy, they were unsustainable bribes in exchange f...	[ "not discouraging more contributions on this topic, but FYI there have been several similar questions, so I'm taking this opportunity to do a round-up. if anyone can remember more, please add links in a reply - thx [Why is South America poorer than North America today?](_URL_2_) [Why is Latin America so far behind ...

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