Subset (10)

eli5 · 25k rows

Split (1)

train · 25k rows

query stringlengths 20 300	positive listlengths 1 1	negative listlengths 1 1
Friday Free-for-All \| April 24, 2015	[ "How does one deal with failure? Just yesterday my advisors told me my honors undergrad thesis wasn't strong enough to have a defense, so I take a lower grade and just get credit for the class. It was a huge blow to me and it has shaken me up a bit concerning if I want to pursue further studies. I'd still like to, ...	[ "Explain ___ like I'm five or Explain __ LI5 would be great in my opinion, and having a loose format like TIL also helps when browsing the main page (to easily identify which subreddit the post is from based on the title)." ]
Is there a significant difference in top speed when free falling vertically and horizontally (human fall)?	[ "Assuming you are referring to the orientation of a human while falling: Yes there is a significant difference. Terminal velocity (the final speed in free fall) is reached when the gravitational force and the air resistance are at equilibrium. Obviously, gravity does not depend on your orientation. However, the mor...	[ "I have nothing useful except that this is one of those questions that's both original, interesting and testable without expensive equipment. Makes my high school teacher's heart beat faster. This is a perfect end-of-year question to engage my 15-year old pupils with. It'll be great fun to have them try to answer w...
how I can be ready to pass out by 3pm, but come midnight I feel wide awake.	[ "I can explain the 3pm part: Your brain has certain neurons that are constantly at war. Some of them are fighting to keep you awake; some are fighting to keep you asleep. If you have a fairly normal schedule (awake during the day, sleep during the night...not a graveyard shift worker), the sleep neurons gain contro...	[ "Two social psychological concepts come to mind here. State dependent memory encoding and Erickson Arousal theory of learning. State dependent learning states that what ever state of mind you are in during encoding is the state of mind where recall would be optimal. Erickson arousal theory states that learning is m...
What is the truth between the rivalry between Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison?	[ "hi! not discouraging other responses, but you may get something out of these earlier posts * [What Really Happened Between Edison and Tesla?](_URL_3_) * [What is the historical consensus on the Tesla-Edison debate?](_URL_0_) * [Was Thomas Edison really the \"total dick\" that people on the internet make him out to...	[ "No one but the writers of the script know this for sure, but there have been many comic book where Superman and Batman disagree on something, maybe Batman took the last Natty light or something." ]
Why do we drool when we sleep? More specifically during daytime naps...	[ "Drool isn't produced when you're completely asleep... however, it is stimulated by the parasympathetic nervous system (also known as the \"rest and digest\" half of the nervous system, the calming half). One of the main reasons for drool is to keep your mouth wet, your airway lubricated, and components in it have ...	[ "Are you saying that you actually doze off while driving? Repeatedly? This is not normal and is a grave concern to me. I have never dozed off while driving. You should not be risking your life and that of other drivers that way. I'm frankly totally shocked. If something like that happened to me, I think I would s...
How do wild sheep sheer themsleves?	[ "Sheep simply shed their winter coat in the spring, much like a human losing hair. Since sheep need their coat to stay warm in the winter, they are usually sheared in the spring, just before they would naturally shed it. Note that some domesticated sheep have (through artificial selection) lost the ability to natur...	[ "Evolutionary adaptation and natural selection. You ever spent your entire life wandering around rocky fields? It would make sense that the animals with the harder covering for their feet would suffer less infections and then be less likely to die off." ]
How are we able to predict when meteor showers are going to happen?	[ "We have a pretty good map of the Interior solar system and major meteor clouds in our surrounding areas. By tracking these and modeling their movement in conjunction with their own orbital path, we can predict with a high degree of accuracy when our orbit will intersect with their pathway, causing them to enter in...	[ "They send out surveys through companies like Nielsen. You can volunteer to participate by filling out a form listing what shows you watched in a given week. They can also do it technologically. In the old days, volunteers would be given \"set meters\", which would record what channel the household was watching, an...
Do younger countries tend to be like the U.S., with constant political appeals to our "founding fathers"?	[ "Ataturk worship in turkey makes american founder father worship look amateurish. The guy is on the money. All of it. every coin, bill, etc." ]	[ "This submission has been removed because it is [soapboxing](_URL_1_.) or [moralizing:](_URL_0_) it has the effect of promoting an opinion on contemporary politics or social issues at the expense of historical integrity. There are certainly historical topics that relate to contemporary issues and it is possible for...
How do you stop a military from taking over?	[ "Sorry, we don't allow [throughout history questions](_URL_0_). These tend to produce threads which are collections of trivia, not the in-depth discussions about a particular topic we're looking for. If you have a specific question about a historical event or period or person, please feel free to re-compose your qu...	[ "I am no expert but... _URL_0_ Your answer seems ready-made. :) tldr? Move to Iceland if it happens." ]
Before Einstein, did nobody else consider there was a deep relationship between gravity and space time?	[ "If you don't get an answer here, you can also try /r/historyofscience, /r/philosophyofscience, or /r/historyofideas" ]	[ "It is much more complicated than that, and is a very active area of research. A professor at my school, David Eagleman, studies this stuff. He's a complete badass, check him out: _URL_0_ edit: one of his famous experiments involves using magnetic energy to slow the propagation of some signals in the brain, and i...
Why do words sometimes seem like they're spelled wrong when I think about it for too long?	[ "Gestaltzerfall, which is basically a more pedantic way to explain when you stare at the particular character, or words in this case (as the term was originally referring only to this phenomenon occuring with japanese kanji characters), and a part of your brain whose job is to store the visual information wears out...	[ "Your eyes are perceiving that your body should be in one position (lying down in case of the linked gif), yet the signal from the balance centers in your ears are sending a different signal to your brain. This dissonance causes your brain to try and make you feel how you should based on the signal from your eyes."...
Any books about Napoleonic era vessels, sailing, and tactics?	[ "Hi, I have some book recommendations on my profile page here: _URL_0_ From that list I'd say these would be useful: * N.A.M. Rodger, The Wooden World: An Anatomy of the Georgian Navy: An accessible introduction to the navy of the mid-18th century, while still providing substantial detail. Establishes Rodger's ...	[ "Check out Yuri Slezkine,[ Arctic Mirrors: Russia and the Small Peoples of the North](_URL_0_)" ]
Where did the notion of eating beef and other red meats "medium rare" come from?	[ "Also, an add-on to this, were there ever periods of time where eating medium rare pork/chicken were acceptable, or has it always historically been beef that was eaten medium rare?" ]	[ "_URL_0_ Reportedly cows tend to feed more around sundown when the nutritional content of plants is higher. > “A series of USDA studies looked at animals’ ability to choose different forages. The researchers cut hay in the morning and in the evening and used this in the choice tests. They’ve done it with cattle, g...
What is the difference between real and imaginary numbers?	[ "The real numbers are all the numbers you grew up working with - 1,2,3,4, 4.5, 1/3, 1.2345, -27, 3.1415... and so on. When you limit yourself to the real numbers, the square root of -1 is undefined - there's just no possible number it can be. To get around this, mathematicians defined i as the square root of -1...	[ "For a traditional IRA, you can put money directly into it without paying taxes on that money. However, when you withdraw from the account, you must pay taxes on your earnings. In a Roth IRA, you do have to pay taxes on your money before you put it in, but you do not have to pay taxes on any earnings when you t...
If I didn't know how old I was and there was no documentation, how could my age be determined and to what degree of accuracy?	[ "If you are under about 20 years of age, the [epiphyseal disks](_URL_0_) are a good indicator of age as they take a very long time to completely calcify (assuming no pathologies) and can easily be measured from x-ray film." ]	[ "Go to a new area of Australia (or wherever). Comb one acre very carefully, cataloging every species. Figure out how many new species there are. Do this in a few different places, figure out about how many new species there are in general, and extrapolate." ]
Digital Piracy, what is illegal, what's ok? (US)	[ "Distributing and downloading are both illegal. Some say it's easier to get caught while seeding, I don't really believe this. But realistically, you'll get a few warning letters before your ISP really takes action/" ]	[ "Depends on the country's laws, but the whole point was that they were exploiting loopholes. As in, they followed the letter of the law, but not the spirit. The money they made was intended to be taxed and used in other ways probably, but through a proper but legitimate misunderstanding of the law, they were able t...
I often hear that certain materials can only scratch another material if it is harder (such as the Mohs scale). Why does my fingernail scratch iron? I assumed it would be softer. Also, why can a piece of iron scratch another identical piece of iron?	[ "It's not just hardness, but applied force. With enough force (energy) you can break chemical bonds. This is harder to do for some materials than others. For example, I don't think you would make a noticeable scratch in a diamond using your fingernail. The difference in hardness is such that with enough force to br...	[ "The scrape removes the top layer of dead cells that act as the first layer of protection for your skin. The skin underneath is made of live/newly dead cells, which are wetter and plumper. That makes it \"shiny\". These cells will die pretty quickly, and you will have that top layer of dead cells again, which are n...
How do the computers in a car boot so fast?	[ "they arent booting an operating system, they are much simpler. They dont ever turn off either... they are always powered on, low power mode, but they are ready to listen for FOB commands." ]	[ "They could, but the expensive cars are not appealing just because of their looks but are a sum of many parts: the looks, finely tuned suspension, high quality interior, high horsepower engine, brand name, etc. Imagine a car that looks like a Ferrari but has a loose suspension, 145-hp 4 cylinder auto, and cheap int...
Why are buildings in Pripyat in ruins?	[ "No, because looting. You don't die instantly from being in an area of high radiation, like parts of the Chernobyl region. We think of that as a catastrophe, but people were back at work at the plant days later. Insane, right? Well, no, the plant was operational for years (like, 20 years) after. Chernobyl had a f...	[ "If your referring to paint, this should answer your question: _URL_0_ But basically, UV radiation degrades paint over time." ]
How do cell phones work? How does a cell tower know which phone to send a message to, and why don't other phones receive the message too?	[ "You power your phone on. Once the radio boots up, it brings to seek a signal from the strongest cellular tower. Your phone finds a strong signal and sends, in layman a terms, a handshake with identifying information about your device. \"Hey. I'm a Verizon device. Here's my identification. Can I get in here?\" Th...	[ "Each builder is going to do what they want. Google pictures of Beijing some time, they have entire large blocks of buildings the same style and height. They also are far more regulated about how they build. I imagine in a more free market economy, each builder wants their building to be \"their building\" and not ...
Will natural selection eventually converge on one thing that is as optimal as possible at surviving?	[ "Unlikely, because it's impossible to optimize for all possibilities at once. You can't, eg, be the best possible predator while simultaneously being the best possible herbivore. Life is full of innate tradeoffs between the ability to do one thing versus the ability to do another, so it's intrinsically impossible t...	[ "The term is [Emergent behavior](_URL_1_) or intelligence. The idea is that when you have a small set of simple rules repeated in large numbers you get impressive displays of 'intelligence'. Ants are simple. They do not weigh options, even as a colony. They have a series of \"if this, do that\" rules hard wired. I...
How do certain drugs cause you to see things in high detail that aren't actually there?	[ "_URL_0_ Hallucinogens work by shutting down neurons that have the effect of calming other cells in the visual cortex (the bit of the brain that works out what you are seeing). So these cells start firing as if they are really dealing with real visual information. Human eyes are actually not that great and the bra...	[ "From a distance you're only viewing the largest features of the smoke cloud. Up close, you're viewing much smaller, faster moving features of that cloud. Due to the fractal nature of such an object these features are different sized but similar looking. Next time approach the cloud but be mindful to focus only on ...
How often are film extras given an explanation of what is going to happen? Are they ever intentionally left in the dark?	[ "The extras most certainly know what is going to happen in a scene, anything about them being kept \"in the dark\" is just Hollywood rumors. How do we know this is true? One simple fact. Nothing is done in one take. Every scene from ever major hollywood movie is shot many many times. Dozens of times if not more. Th...	[ "Blind: The participants in the study don't know whether or not they're receiving the treatment being tested. Double-blind: Neither the participants nor the researchers know which participants received the treatment being tested (during the course of the experiment, in the case of the latter, they obviously find ou...
In the United States during the time of slavery did anyone argue that the use of slaves eliminated jobs that other wise would have been done by free citizens.	[ "Yes, this was one of the principle arguments of the Free Soil party, an important predecessor of the Republican party that ran on the slogan of \"Free Soil, Free Speech, Free Labor, and Free Men.\" The converse argument was also made by people like John C. Calhoun, which is that an emancipated country would effect...	[ "If, after the individual pays what they can and any assets are seized, there is not enough money to cover the remaining debt, then wages are typically garnished until the debt is closed. However, this scenario happens a lot more than you would think. Hence why sometimes you'll hear tossed around the phrase \"Judgm...
To What Degree Was Metal Commonly Used in Shields?	[ "I don't believe fully metal shields came into being before the rotella, which were used mainly by the Spanish before they fully developed the tercio pike & shot formations. They only lasted for about 50-60 years before being made obselete. I guess you could count bucklers as shields though but to what extent they...	[ "I found this basic experiment after a quick google search: _URL_2_ TL;DR: Measurements after a 1h exposure in the sun: Black shirt: 130 °F, white shirt: 107 °F (Difference: 23 °F or 15 °C). Admittedly not the most rigorous of experiments, but it shows that the phenomenon is real and that the difference can be mor...
Why are Spartan shields depicted with a Greek lambda instead of a Greek sigma? Is it because of Laconia? Why is the city-state called Sparta then and not Laconia?	[ "The actual Greek name for the Spartan city state was \"Lacedaemon\" and the name of the people were Lacedaemonians. Sparta and Spartan were terms applied to them at a much later time periods." ]	[ "The Albanians don't call themselves \"Albanians.\" Their word for themselves is \"Shqiptarët,\" and their name for their nation is \"Shqipëri.\" This isn't uncommon, really. The Koreans don't call themselves Koreans. That name is derived from the name of one dynasty, the Goguryeo. Their name for themselves is \"Ha...
How long would take in 8 or 9G environments to kill someone?	[ "The biggest danger would be to the circulatory system, as the heart attempts to pump fluid that is now 8 or 9 times heavier. Blood, and lymph would pool in the feet - causing swelling and edema (and probably even priapism). Meanwhile, the brain would suffer from a lack of oxygen as it gets harder to push blood up ...	[ "Yes. The notion of building a space elevator has been around since the pulp science fiction of the 40s. Problem is the material science hasn't been there. So lets suppose you want to want to build a space elevator. You need a space station at the other end to anchor the cable. No problem, we know how to do that, e...
Why do companies seem that they have no ethics and will do anything for money?	[ "Because of human nature and we all contribute to it. Imagine you've invested 1000$ of your hard earned money in a companies stock i.e. Apple, in hopes of making a decent return on your investment. Would you primarily worry about how Apple treats its employees? How environmentally friendly they operate? That their ...	[ "They have a history of exploitative and careless behavior: [click](_URL_0_), [click](_URL_2_), [click](_URL_3_). The more recent frustration is stemming from their comments on water and their usage of it in California [during a drought](_URL_1_)." ]
What determines the speed of light?	[ "> Do the physical properties of the universe prevent anything from traveling faster than 186K miles per second and light just happens to be the only thing that can travel that fast? Actually, the speed of light is the speed all mass-less particles travel at. Light just happens to be the most obvious of all mass...	[ "> I don’t even know if this question makes any sense I’m just curious. It makes sense in that I understand what you're asking, but it doesn't make sense in that it's a meaningless question; it has no answer. A photon is always traveling at c in all reference frames, and to measure the passage of time, that can't b...
From a Buddhist approach, what exactly is 'Nothing?'	[ "I can try to take an ELI5 whack at this. \"Nothing\" is the absence of an external object, an \"external object\" is something outside of the mind. However, there are countless debates about whether \"nothing\" or \"the absence of an external object\" is actually an object itself. In short, nothing could be just...	[ "I'm generally loathe to just post links, but there is a blog post that explains this whole situation excellently. _URL_0_ Have a read, and I'm happy to answer any further questions." ]
the difference between "Innocent" and "Not Guilty" in the legal system	[ "\"Innocent\" is not typically a term used in the legal system. \"Not Guilty\" means there isn't compelling evidence to find a person Guilty of a crime. The law only cares if you're found Guilty. If there isn't enough evidence, it doesn't automatically assign you as \"Innocent\" (because you might not be innocent.....	[ "Ask Reddit is for personal opinions, stories, and the like. Essentially subjective answers to questions without hard answers. Something like \"whats your favorite food\" is a good post there ELI5 is for getting a simplified answer or explanation to a question that you don't understand. A good thread here would som...
How do muscles physically move?	[ "I couldn't find the pretty GIF, but here's one that still explains it well: _URL_0_ You can ignore a lot of the technical details. The ELI5 is that your muscles are full of those things in the GIF, and when you want to contract a muscle your brain sends a signal that causes those little red things to pull the blue...	[ "Your evolutionary ancestor is calling for help, frightening the enemy, and moving you a bit away from the danger while your brain can catch up and decide what to do next." ]
When someone rubs their fingers together rather forcefully for a while, why does black residue start to appear?	[ "The friction causes your epithelial cells to slough off and the oils combined with sweat and dust and whatever else you might have on your finger (or in the grooves of) accumulate into the dirty looking matter you're asking about. If in the shower, you can also do this on your body. Some places (like the behind th...	[ "It's from the olive oil. Oils have what is called a [smoke point](_URL_0_) where the oil's carbon chains will degrade into soot which is essentially solid chunks of incompletely combusted carbon. Same kind of smoke you get from campfires and barbecues. You should probably cook at a lower temperature, or use a diff...
How does a solid state drive work, physically and in terms of memory, compared to a hard disk drive, and what happens to both when you delete/overwrite files?	[ "In SSDs, you’re basically storing your bits of data in special transistors called floating gate. Electrons can get trapped in an area and stay there for a long time, even without any power. The SSDs have circuits that detect if there’s any electrons trapped or not in these floating gates. Obviously you need a ton ...	[ "Thank you for your submission! Unfortunately, your submission has been removed for the following reason(s): You can find the basic answer with a google / wiki search. Please start there and come back with a more specific question. If you disagree with this decision, please send a [message to the moderators.](_URL...
Why does my bathroom window cause the light from the street light outside to form this pattern?	[ "Do you have a fly screen over the window? If so what you are observing is a [Moiré pattern](_URL_0_) being projected onto the window. Essentially the light is passing through the screen and the light waves get split up and then interact with each other causing spots of superposition where some regions are darker a...	[ "There is nothing special about your camera or camera phone that would let it correct such distortion. Even if it had a distortion correction system, it would be calibrated for the distortion produced by its lens -- it wouldn't detect distortion in the image automatically. What I think is going on here is that the...
Is the energy released by burning wood equivalent to the amount of energy it took to create that piece of wood?	[ "No, more energy is required to create the compounds than is stored in the compounds, because the production of them also required the metabolic maintenance of the plant which was constructing them. Imagine the fat cells in your own body - an adequate analogy despite the vastly different purposes. A pound of fat ha...	[ "You've more or less answered your own question. The form 0.5 c x^2 is obtained by integrating the expression y = c x. And \"y = c x\" expresses that one variable (y) is proportional to the other (x). Two variables being proportional to eachother is rather common, so the relation y = c x appears often and by extens...
Is it theoretically possible today to build a city underground, under water or in the sky?	[ "Underground? easy Cheyenne Mountain Complex already exists. Underwater? It would be difficult but not impossible. the deeper you build the stronger you need t build the outside structure to support the water pressure. Currently there are no reasons to build anything underwater unlike Cheyenne Mountain Complex. I...	[ "I'm not sure that we do see places and things in our dreams that we've never seen before. We just don't always realize everything we see. Walking through a book store you may see pictures of a thousand different things. Our conscious mind doesn't pick up on it all but it's all stored away in the subconscious. Our ...
How are neutrinos formed?	[ "During beta decay, a W boson decays into a lepton and an antineutrino, or an antilepton and a neutrino." ]	[ "We're looking for such behavior, but have no found any yet. Here's a slideshow about trying to find quark composites at the LHC, _URL_0_ One way would be through essentially Rutherford scattering where hard scatter interactions punctuate normal scattering behavior, like how Rutherford proved the idea of hard ato...
Why can movies and games that's rated R and rated M be bought buy 17 years of age? What makes 17 so special, where tobacco and marriage comes at age 18?	[ "Honestly it's really just an arbitrary number to prevent the majority of young people from being exposed to negative influences at a very young age. There's nothing 'special' about the age of 17, just it's generally accepted that at that age you're mature enough to understand the difference between games and film ...	[ "I assume so they can identify you more clearly if something happens to you. Like they don't get you mixed up with some other guy with the name name or birth date." ]
Why is it that yawning can make it difficult to hear your surroundings and what is that fuzzy noise inside my head during the yawn?	[ "There is a tube that runs between your sinuses and your ears, called the eustacean tube. If you plug your nose and try to breathe out your sinuses, you can replicate that fuzzy sound and the loss of hearing. This is because the pressure from the muscles around your sinuses compress that tube, which channels sound...	[ "There is a tube between your inner ear and your mouth to help equalise pressure between the two. They are called the [Eustachian Tubes](_URL_0_). If you blow too hard and have too much pressure in your mouth, the tubes will relieve some of that pressure to come out of your ears. I believe this is what you're looki...
How close were we to an all out nuclear war during the Cold War?	[ "The 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis is conventionally seen as one of, if not the, closest time the US and Soviet Union came to nuclear war. There’s tons of literature available online on the topic if you’re interested. One more obscure event you may be interested in, however, was an incident in 1983 when the Soviet Uni...	[ "Is this what Doctor Strangelove was based on?" ]
Did the United States ever consider or come close to attacking Canada?	[ "The War of 1812 and the Fenian Raids would consitute the Americans assaulting Canada. We (Canadians) with the help of British Regulars defended against both. In fact at the closing of the War of 1812 we marched on Washington and burnt the White House. The story goes that it is white because they used white wash t...	[ "If you have Netflix there's a very good documentary titled \"the world without US\" It explains your exact question." ]
How important were the provinces to Rome?	[ "Extremely. Even though the Roman government and body politic was based in Rome, the provinces were extremely important for different reasons. Food was a big area. To meet the food needs of a large, metropolitan city such as Rome, a large agricultural effort was necessary. One of these needs was the grain dole used...	[ "Another reason, not yet mentioned is that in some states, having their capital in a city not the biggest is seen as a way of balancing geographic rivalries. New York has a big divide between New York City and the rest of the state. Illinois has a similar divide between Chicago and the rest of the state." ]
If a man doesn't ejaculate, what happens to the produced semen?	[ "Semen is actually produced immediately before ejaculation in a process known as emission. After a suitable amount of stimulation the autonomic nervous system activates muscle tissue in the tubes that carry sperm cells up from where they are stored in the epididymis. As they approach the prostate they are mixed wit...	[ "Lets say today we are going to vote on issue A. Well everyone has one last chance to speak their mind about the issue. So Jon takes the stage and talks... and talks... and talks... and talks... Until it is to late to actually vote, and we all go home and try again tomorrow. Yes that is what happens in the Senate ...
were there glaciers in the southern hemisphere at some time in history?	[ "There are glaciers in the southern hemisphere right now. Even if we don't count Antarctica, the Andes in Patagonia in Argentina and Chile are covered in many glaciers, as well as the Southern Alps in New Zealand. There are even glaciers near the equator, in places like Mt. Kilimanjaro." ]	[ "Check out Yuri Slezkine,[ Arctic Mirrors: Russia and the Small Peoples of the North](_URL_0_)" ]
How do dictionaries determine the earliest known use of a word?	[ "It's the first \"known\" use, so they take the first use that they are aware of and put it in. There's no guarantee it's the actual earliest use of the word. If an earlier use of the word shows up, then they will update the entry in the next edition. Most of the first known uses come from old documents." ]	[ "This doesn't answer your question of how, but to address your skepticism - yes, they are born with the knowledge, or with enough cognitive skills to be able to figure it out on the fly. I don't know how - but other animal show similar and even more extreme knowledge. My favorite are sea turtles - they are born fro...
Were Type 1 Diabetics euthanized or sterilized by the Nazis in the 1930s and 1940s?	[ "The Nazis only euthanized people who were permanently institutionalized in state hospitals, and they only sterilized people who were on a limited list of conditions: > (1) Congential Mental Deficiency, > (2) Schizophrenia, > (3) Manic-Depressive Insanity, > (4) Hereditary Epilepsy, > (5) Hereditary Chorea (Hu...	[ "Alrighty guys, because apparently maturity and self-control are in short supply tonight, I'll go ahead and make this thread-level post. * Your jokes are not funny. Needless to say, they do not belong here. If your comment has no substance, do not post it. If any further jokes occur here, you will be warned, wi...
Do we get EXACTLY 50% of our DNA from our Mother and 50% from our Father?	[ "It's pretty close to being exactly true, with a few minor exceptions. Humans have 22 \"autosomal\" chromosomes, and two \"sex\" chromosomes -- the X and the Y. You get a copy of each autosome from each parent, and an X from your mother. If you're male, you have a Y from your father, and if you're female, you have ...	[ "Originally, they buy the product very cheap. This means something they buy for say 1 dollar each, they can sell for 5. If they noticed it wasn't selling, they could make it down to 4 dollars, (20 percent) and people would want to buy it more since it has advertising. The same would apply to the percent more. They ...
How is it acceptable for a gay person to be freely in locker/rest rooms of members of the same sex to which he/she is attracted when it's not OK for heterosexual male me to shower with the ladies?	[ "Because locker rooms are for changing/showering/storing goods, not for sex. The same sex rule is for peoples comfort. If gay sex is happening in your locker room, you are probably in a bathhouse. Change gyms. If someone is being inappropriate in your locker room, report it." ]	[ "The ingredients in shampoo are designed to make your hair soft and shiny whilst maintaining natural oils. Body wash is usually just soap based. Using body wash on your hair will clean it but can leave it feeling dry and less manageable. Using shampoo on your skin can cause irritation and/or a slimy feel due to the...
Why do some mammals have uniform poop (goats, rabbits, mice), while humans are all over the place in color, size and consistency?	[ "There might be a better answer to this, but given the animals you listed, I'm thinking this might a result of domestic animal chow—same thing in every day, same thing out every day. Unrelatedly, except that it's about animal poop: [wombats poop cubes](_URL_0_)!" ]	[ "Mint and menthol are sensed in the body by special sensory receptors (cold receptors, TRPM8) very much like how spicy food taste spicy (TRPV1). Wasabi produces a similar effect but it's due to the noxious chemical/extreme cold receptor TRPA1. You have those receptors in your mouth and nose (and eyes). Those recept...
How Marbury v. Madison impacts Constitutional Law in the US.	[ "The Supreme Court originally had very little power, it mostly just interpreted what laws mean. In Marbury, though, the court decided that it had the power to also oversee the other branches, making sure that they were acting within their constitutional powers. So if the legislature tries to pass a bill that they a...	[ "Since this is a homework question, we expect a little more effort from you. What research have you done so far for your paper? What are your findings so far? Is there anything specific you have a question about?" ]
What is the reason for the existence of so many types of Marsupials in Australiasia?	[ "As you may already know, the countries were not the same shape as they are today. At the time when one species of marsupial was living, it lived when America, and australia/asia were all inter-connected. Then the countries split apart. Most of the mammals in America were killed off by [placental mammals](_URL_0_),...	[ "They mutate. Take H1N1 for example. Until recently, that particular brand of influenza was only found in animals. Then, on a pig farm in Mexico, one strain of the virus mutated to be communicable to humans, and then infected the farm boy and spread across the world. It's basically evolution happening at a speed fa...
I’m listening to music through my headphones and I yawn widely. As my mouth is at its widest, the pitch of the song changes slightly, enough to be noticeable. Why is this?	[ "The air pressure in your ears changes when you yawn which directly impacts your ear drum and your hearing." ]	[ "You know how animals like dogs or cats move their ears when they are frightened? Humans did this, too, during one point in our evolution. These muscles became obsolete at one point but as they don't really cost us much energy they didn't disappear but only grew back until that point that most people don't even kn...
Why do microwave waves disrupt WiFi ones? Are they similar enough to interfere with each other? And are there any other types of wave that interfere with each other?	[ "They are very similar to each other. The frequency of a microwave oven is about 2,450 Mhz whereas the frequency that WiFi uses is between 2,412 and 2,484. The reason that WiFi uses those frequencies is because you don't need a license to operate a radio in them. That's precisely because microwave ovens cause so mu...	[ "Microwaving food cooks it unevenly, because things like water heat up much faster than things like fat. Microwaving for a long time on low gives more time for heat to spread by conduction through the piece of food, so you get a more even spread of heat." ]
If I do the dishes, my sponges gets filthy. How long does it take for all the bacteria to die so it's clean again?	[ "Most of the surfaces in your house of plenty of bacteria on them all the time. So does your sponge, especially so. But you do the dishes to clean them, not to get rid of bacteria. You want them to look nice and be free from dirt, so you can use them again. Making them sterile isn't the goal, and would be futile. I...	[ "First off I don't have a source for what I am about to say, it was said to me by my professor in a graduate level class about low-power design where we briefly discussed batteries. (Most of the class was software/hardware techniques to limit power, not battery technology) When discharging the electrons to use as e...
If particles cant traven faster than the speed of light, shouldn't there be a absolute max temprature?	[ "Temperature depends on the average kinetic energy (not the speed) of the particles, and kinetic energy goes to infinity as speed approaches c. Links that may be of interest: _URL_1_ _URL_0_" ]	[ "You should read [this](_URL_0_) from PBS/Nova. One of the interesting scenarios is the Hagedorn temperature that appears in string theory. As you approach this temperature, as you put a given amount of heat into the system, it increases the temperature less and less. As a result, there is a limiting temperature th...
What is the current science on repressed memories?	[ "There's reason to believe that it happens, albeit quite rarely--the norm is remembering the abuse. False memory is also a problem, and repressed memories cannot be reliably recovered, nor can a \"recovered memory\" be distinguished from a false one without further evidence. They have no place in the legal system, ...	[ "Reading that page hurt my head so very very much. There is so much shit and garbage on that page it is ridiculous. No, these people are completely nuts. And for any of the points they did make that are valid - experiments performed after the results they discuss have disproven the original results - or the origi...
how do frogs survive the winter in places where it freezes?	[ "Most frogs have special enzymes in their blood that acts like antifreeze and prevents their cells from getting damaged. Then they just lower their metabolism and basically freeze into a coma. Then they thaw out in the spring" ]	[ "How do you know a year has passed without looking at a calendar? I imagine they sense the temperature/climate changes like anything else." ]
How can we tell if a historic text isn't just fiction?	[ "Fiction from a time period is still an extremely valuable historical source. Writers tend to write what they know, so while it might not contribute to the timeline of a certain period of history, in many cases it can offer extremely valuable insight into the time period in a more general sense. And example would b...	[ "Hi - we as mods have approved this thread, because while this is a homework question, it is asking for clarification or resources, rather than the answer itself, which is fine according to [our rules](_URL_1_). This policy is further explained in this [Rules Roundtable thread](_URL_3_) and this [META Thread](_URL_...
How can a lawyer defend someone who is just not defendable?	[ "The point of a lawyer is to make sure his defendant receives a fair trial. Not to make him walks free, for example if the accuse is of intentional murder etc." ]	[ "People have been being knighted without actually qualifying since the late Middle Ages. The rank was associated with status, thus those who did not deserve it still desired it and were able to gain it through noble patronage. Two examples stick in my mind: -The knighting of the royal princes Louis and Charles of A...
The courtesy of men standing up when women leave a table. When was this actually done and when did it die out?	[ "It's definitely still proper manners to stand up whenever someone arrives or leaves a table." ]	[ "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...
What do physicists mean when they say space is curved?	[ "Because spacetime behaves like it's curved by the presence of mass and energy. What does curvature mean? Let's say we have two points and we draw a straight line between them. Now let's say we want to increase the length of the line while keeping the endpoints fixed. How do we do that? We curve it so that it's no ...	[ "You know how a train horn changes pitch when it is coming towards you fast compared to going away fast? That is the Dopler Effect. Light does that, too. If we look at light from stars, the farther away a star is, more the light appears to be coming from something going away fast. The farther away, the faster the s...
Why do certain cultures (Thai, Indian, Mexican) have so much spicy food, while others (US midwest) have very bland food?	[ "Availability of the spices in which spiciness is derived. Culturally and historically you use what you had near you. History dictates what culture perpetuates." ]	[ "Neural adaption. Basically, your brain only cares about a change in stimuli rather than every stimulus that comes along. Your brain knows how to ignore a stimulus if it isn't changing. So, if you are tasting/feeling the same thing all the time, your brain is going to ignore it." ]
what really happens when you build up an alcohol tolerance?	[ "The alcohol affects your brain. Like any drug, your body/brain adapts to it and becomes less sensitive to it, requiring more of a dose to put you at the same level of intoxication." ]	[ "I can probably fight one duck sized horse, but I probably would be killed by 100 duck sized horses. In the same way, your body can handle one or two tumors without too many problems. It can't handle a ton of tumors all growing in different locations. A tumor is dangerous when it spreads to many different places in...
Stuck sleeping but mind is awake??	[ "What you are experiencing is called, appropriately enough, Sleep Paralysis. It happens to me sometimes, too, usually when I'm on my back. The best thing to do would probably be to start by Googling that, because you can learn a lot more information reading about it from smarter people than I'd be able to tell you...	[ "Sounds like disassociation or something similar. If its a problem consult a psychologist." ]
Why do tapeworms can only infect the intestines, what makes them stay there and not go to other body parts?	[ "Like most parasitic infections, they have a life cycle. They're adapted to survive in the intestines as worms, but their eggs are passed in faeces to be consumed by the next animal, passing on the infection. The tapeworm eggs are eaten by animals, hatch and that's when they spread from the intestines to other bo...	[ "It's due to the size of cities. They can go through download areas, but you have to realize that downtown areas are very very small in comparison to the size of tornado alley. [List of downtown tornadoes](_URL_0_)" ]
Why do roads in the distance seem reflective or have puddles on them?	[ "As /u/Arpikarhu says, it's a mirage. /u/LondonPilot used this explanation in a previous answer: When it's very hot, the ground gets heated by the sun. The ground then heats the layer of air closest to it, by conduction. Given time, the hot air will rise - but initially, the air near the ground is hotter. Light fro...	[ "Mirrors are super hard on either the lighting or npc count depending on the method the game designers decide to use...there are 2 shit tons of cars in that game so there are 4 shit tons of mirrors to keep track of, that's a little too much for a simple aesthetic. To incorporate that they'd have to remove a lot." ]
How can the Parker Solar Probe travel so close to the sun and not just burn up? How is it able to send back pictures and data with all of the radiation?	[ "It's standing in its own shadow! The probe brings along an umbrella which it hides behind. (How's that for ELI5?) From the NASA website (_URL_0_): At Parker Solar Probe’s closest approach to the Sun, temperatures on the heat shield will reach nearly 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit, but the spacecraft and its instruments...	[ "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" ]
Why do some cheeses taste different depending on how it is served	[ "Pretty much all complex food tastes different in different conditions. Since much of our 'taste' is actually smell, I suspect that a huge amount of it depends on the proportion and composition of the volatile components. (this is certainly true for wines - consider how big of a difference temperature and glass sha...	[ "As the wood ages, the tone generated by the wood changes (usually in a desirable manner). Since the wood in older guitars has aged, the tone from that wood \"sounds better\". Also, when you are dealing with analog circuitry, there are quirky tones and characteristics generated by the components in those older guit...
how do hearing aids work ?	[ "Hearing aids are just microphones that pick up sounds from the environment and amplify them through a speaker in the ear. They're a way of \"turning up the volume\" on normal noises when your ears aren't able to hear as well as others." ]	[ "The ads fit in a single buffer and are supplied from the ad server. Everyone gets the same 20 ads in an area, so the local server cache always has them loaded." ]
Given that colors have different wavelengths, would a red or blue (or another color) painted car have better duration against sun exposure?	[ "In general organic blue pigments are more prone to bleaching out their colour than yellow or red dyes, by being oxidised. They are relatively easier to oxidise because of the low energy of their pi* electronic orbitals which is also what gives them their colour. A low energy gap corresponds to a long wavelength ...	[ "In a way, you have answered your own question when you link to the EMS article. Radio and light are simply two different sections of one continuous energy spectrum. If a media broadcaster were to send out signals in the visible spectrum, it would no longer be \"radio\" but visible light, and it would appear to you...
How do orphans get independent	[ "You age out. After you hit 18, the state has no obligation to care for you anymore. Private orphanages may be different, but since they are a business or a charity, probably not." ]	[ "They're not completely sovereign & have many of the same restrictions that states do - they can't print money, make foreign treaties or declare war, those are powers reserved by the federal government. The Beureau of Indian Affairs has a FAQ on the subject but it doesn't really get too much into too much detail ab...
If Bill Gates and Warren Buffett gave $15B to astronomers and said, "build the most amazing telescope you can", what would the specs be and what could we see?	[ "The price tag of the James Webb Space Telescope project is estimated at about half of that (estimated 8.7B in 2011). This will be a successor to Hubble, and will mostly see in the infrared looking for information about the formation of galaxies and stars/planets." ]	[ "This has actually already been done, [here is a video](_URL_0_). The problem is that the image coming from the eye is full of gaps and errors which our brain has evolved to cover up. We think we see a perfectly clear image but in reality it's distorted and constantly waving back and forth." ]
Can people's eye color change? If they can, how does this happen?	[ "Typically when someone says the color of their eye changes with the clothing they wear, what is happening is their iris is not one uniform color throughout. Rather, they may have different shades which are just more noticeable in different contexts. There isn't actually a change in the eyes color (iris pigment), i...	[ "It is down to the combination of the genes you get half the genes from your mother and half from your father but those genes are an almost random selection of those genes which go to make up each so can be combined in trillions of different ways. Like saying you get half a pack of cards from one parent and half fr...
Why is it that earth can't get hit by meteors?	[ "It can and often does. In fact, an object isn't a meteor until it collides with Earth's atmosphere. Before then it's an asteroid or comet." ]	[ "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_" ]
Would a drinking glass with a hydrophobic outer surface produce less condensation and stay cooler for longer?	[ "Could this question be answered by spraying Never Wet on the surface if a cup? If so, I will go perform this experiment in my garage with a plastic cup, coated with the Never Wet product, and fill it with ice water, placing that cup next to an untreated cup with the same amount of ice and water and see which cups ...	[ "A huge aspect of photovoltaic design is developing effective anti-reflective (AR) coatings to promote absorption. Currently, silicon PVs are etched to yield a thin top SiN layer, which appears blue. Keep in mind, these AR coatings aren't meant to absorb any energy, just to allow as much light through to the active...
Why do we have eyebrows?	[ "> Their main function is hypothesized to prevent sweat, water, and other debris from falling down into the eye socket, but they are also important to human communication and facial expression." ]	[ "Empathy! In humans earlier stages it was important for us to care of our tribe and to care for each other. Thus creating a system for young and old to survive." ]
What is a raspberry pi and why is it so significant?	[ "They are very small, very cheap computers. They have very little processing power compared to more expensive devices, but they are powerful enough to run a basic desktop OS. You can use them for all sorts of things such as emulating old video games, or as a media player, a home automation controller. They also ha...	[ "Here's a pretty good explainer. _URL_0_ Basically it comes down to different memory, different promises (reliability and service life), and different marketing." ]
Why did so few people turn up to vote in the primary election in North Dakota? (~0.05%)	[ "You're just confused due to the abbreviated results display. These are the results of the caucuses, not the number of individual voters. Explanation [here.](_URL_0_)" ]	[ "First, the US does not have any nationwide universal ID. Instead, each state issues its own ID (typically a Drivers License or similar) or there are photo IDs for members of the military. 2nd, a LOT of people don't have a driver's license. If you don't have a car, you don't need one. This primarily impacts the eld...
Why aren't we supposed to put Q-Tips in our ears and how else are we to reach that level of cleaning without them?	[ "There is a very high likelihood that you will push ear wax into the ear canal possibly leading to an infection or piercing of your ear drum. You can even pierce the ear drum with the q-tip if you push it too deep. And you are not suppose to reach that level of cleaning. Ear wax is a natural and needed component o...	[ "The same way you can be in the same yard as a bee. You only get stung if you are a threat. Just ask Steve Irwin." ]
Why are Americans so against universal healthcare systems, such as the NHS?	[ "Some people think it's govt overreach to force people to buy health insurance(or anything for that matter) like obamacare does. Some people think it's the wrong approach to the problem. (Free market vs govt). Some people trust all the people telling them that it's horrible, and assume that they're absolutely right...	[ "Horse meat isn't rare at all. You can get it in many parts of europe. Tastes ok too. Anyway, that's culture. The same reason we think that bacon and eggs is a breakfast food, and don't eat grasshoppers." ]
Where does the energy in a fusion reaction come from?	[ "Binding energy from the nuclei. Binding energy is negative. In proton-proton fusion p + p - > d + e + ν_e, the mass of the products (deuterium + electron, neutrino is basically massless) is lower than the sum of the masses of the reagents by 0.42 MeV - remember that mass equals the internal energy (that's what E=m...	[ "I'd be simpler just to build a [fusor](_URL_1_) with deuterium. _URL_0_" ]
Does the altitude of an airport affect the liftoff speed of an airplane?	[ "Sort of - when flying an airplane, we use indicated airspeed, which is based on the difference between ram and static air pressure. The indicated airspeed remains the same at all normal operating altitudes. However, the groundspeed of the aircraft will be higher for a given indicated airspeed at a high density alt...	[ "Essentially it’s because computers are smart. Sound is a wave, with how high or low a sound is being determined by how many waves it has per second. More waves = high pitch. So when a recording gets played at a faster speed, be that a record or on a computer, more waves come out in the same amount of time, so ever...
Can we actually save our planet or are we too late to stop certain extinction of our species?	[ "From what empirical data I can gather there actually is no threat of extinction from climate change other than adapting to new living conditions. Humans lived through one of the ice ages and adapted to the cold conditions to procreate and populate the earth. The changes we have wrought on the earth will inevitably...	[ "Not enough energy to. It's like lighting a match in a snow storm and expecting it to melt everything. Sure, the match is hot, but theres a lot more cold than there is hot." ]
How could a white minority of South Africans (10%) rule Apartheid on the black people in South Africa (70%)	[ "Hi there, there's a great deal to be said on this topic. While you wait for an expert to chime in, you may be interested in some of these older threads on apartheid in South Africa and elsewhere: _URL_0_ _URL_2_ _URL_3_ _URL_1_ If you find something interesting in them, please ask follow-up questions here and ment...	[ "Filters remove certain colors from the light beam. White light has all the colors mixed together: the blue filter removes everything but blue. If the color isn't there to begin with, the filter can't add it. You can test this by getting a red laser pointer (which is only red) and shining it through a colored l...
Why in films and novels (and I assume in real life) do submarines change their lights to dimmer red lights when they are trying to hide? Do the lights make less noise or...	[ "Hey there. I spent 12 years in the navy. Red light does not effect your night vision as much. You can walk from red light to darkness to red light without your vision suffering. In the case of the navy, it also isn't as visible at a great distance. So, if somebody is opening a door to the upper decks, the light ...	[ "This doesn't really answer your question, but if you install 2 lights at 100 percent, you can not ever turn them brighter if you wanted to. If you install 4 at 50 percent, that gives you the option to later turn them up more of you want to. Tldr: Maybe you will need a brighter light in the future install 4." ]
Can anyone explain what Dr. Who is about in less than 500 Words?	[ "There is this guy, who goes by the chosen name of The Doctor. He belongs to a species that mastered time. And so he has a time machine (called the TARDIS) which is also a space ship that travels as the speed of plot. Basically he can go anywhere or anywhen within a few minutes. He travels the universe doing good. ...	[ "He is trying to sell you on his self help program. That's it, he is a salesman with a pitch designed at a younger demographic and he advertises in places for his target audience (youtube)." ]
Why are boys more likely to have a cleft lip?	[ "I'm a girl with a cleft lip and palate. I have seen many girls with cleft lips and palates since I go to a cleft-specific hospital for treatment and follow operation smile extensively. I don't have a background in this, but when researching about genetic factors that I could pass to potential children, I found th...	[ "There is no evidence to support a difference in swimming speed. However, the difference in the mass of X and Y chromosomes _is_ used in many artificial sex selection methods." ]
Can someone explain to me why a balanced budget amendment is a bad thing?	[ "It cripples the government by forcing every policy change to be framed in the context of short-term budgeting. With this sort of thing the government might be unable to (constitutionally) react with strength in the case of a real emergency. The adage \"you need to spend money to make money\" is entirely accurate: ...	[ "Every transaction is tracked at both ends. Your paycheck is recorded both by the bank you have your account at and the company's bank. Every single bank account is subject to this type of regulation; the transactions must add up at the end of the day. Any deviation is a red flag for the bank to be audited by t...
How does the body heal and repair during sleep?	[ "Not a biologist or someone who really knows the answer, but the body is repairing itself all the time. When you are sleeping a lot of various processes and the energy for them are not being used so there is more energy that can be spent healing so you heal faster than if you are expending that energy being active"...	[ "Like many mammals, people have instincts to groom themselves to maintain health and attract mates. Part of our grooming instinct is to remove parasites, like ticks or lice. These bugs are not a common problem for many modern people (unless you live below the poverty line, or enjoy the outdoors in certain places). ...
During WWII, The americans used very violent cartoons, like daffy duck, as anti-nazi propaganda. Are there german, japanese or italian cartoons from the same era that were also used as ideological propaganda? What were them?	[ "In 1943, the Japanese Naval Ministry produced Momotarō no Umiwashi (Momotaro's Divine Eagles) and the following year began production on the animated feature Momotarō: Umi no Shinpei (often translated as Momotaro's Divine Sea Warriors). The protagonist of both films was the \"Peach Boy\" of Japanese folklore a...	[ "Mate, you're going to need to come up with a better example. That JFK cover is from 2013, ahead of the 50th anniversary of his assassination, a time when folks were inclined to overlook JFK's flaws. The 1968 Nixon cover is an allusion to the popular belief that Nixon lost the 1960 presidential election because of...
Is the speed limit of light only determined experimentally?	[ "Well, one of the postulates of relativity is that the speed of light appears the same in all inertial reference frames. The speed of light can be calculated from Maxwell's equations by knowing the permeability and permittivity of the vacuum. I'm not really sure what you're asking. Is there a way to understand the...	[ "To say what would happen, you need a reliable theory. But there are no reliable theories in which ftl travel is possible. There are plenty of crazy theories with ftl travel, so I guess you could pick one and use that, but it would be no less scientific to save yourself the effort and just make it up :)" ]
When you burn a candle where does the wax go?	[ "Wax is the fuel that the candle burns. It goes up the wick and is then burned off, with the waste products being water vapor and carbon dioxide." ]	[ "No where actually, all the data is still on your hard drive. Your computer has just marked that files spot as usable space, eventually it'll get overwritten. There are special programs that can fully erase a file by writing a bunch of zeroes over it." ]
internet sales tax. Why on a $30 purchase did i just get taxed but two days ago on a $20 purchase i didnt. Is it the purchase amount? The number of items in a purchase?	[ "The seller's state usually determines it. If they're in the same state, they will charge tax. If not, they usually don't. Many sellers on eBay do not charge tax no matter where they are located. Amazon is required to collect tax in any state where they have a physical presence (warehouse) and I think that's just a...	[ "This depends on the store and their ordering system. Often for a big box chain, they don't order specific sizes, they order batches. So for example a single batch might have 3 small, 3 medium, 5 large, 5 extra large. After selling, they have 1 small, 0 medium, 2 large, 2 extra large. So they order a second batch...
If you were to get a particle accelerator that you could open instantly so the sped up particle lets say a proton could fly out and you collided it with a thick plate of metal what would happen, and would the results vary for different metals?	[ "That is essentially what particle accelerators do, except that instead of firing them out of the tube at an external target, we put the target inside, surrounded by detectors to tell us what happens during the collision. The beam line itself is just an empty tube kept at a very high vacuum, so that the accelerated...	[ "Just to add to the explaination already here, saying somethings \"made of atoms\" is a broader concept than I think you understand. An atom isn't a single unit like a brick or something. There are a lot of different kinds of atoms. Suggesting that because something is made of atoms therefore shouldn't they be the ...
Could the red tint of Europa's ice be cause by biology? Could this be confirmed without taking samples?	[ "Possibly, this is an example on earth _URL_0_ It could just be minerals of iron in the ice, which don't have to come from a biological source at all." ]	[ "We know what tools and supplies are used to do that, and some of them you can easily identify in spy satellite photos. Coupled with radiological readings from the area, because we know how to enrich uranium, we know what it looks like when someone doing it. Some times, intelligence services have discovered shipmen...
Why have colleges become the focal point of the political correctness movement?	[ "Because colleges are filled with people who are just going out into the \"real world\" in many ways. They're finding out who they are, and how they feel, and ways of describing the way they feel that they didn't know exist. And they're surrounded by young folk who are more likely thatn any others to protest." ]	[ "\"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..." ]
What pushes strong wind into existence?	[ "u/goatharper gives a great explination and I'd like to add that the geography of the surrounding area can also affect the strength of the wind. For example the wind will always blow stronger through a mountain pass. This is because the air can't move through the mountains but has to either climb over them or sque...	[ "It's the reverse effect of why you, when stationary, hear a whoosh when something zips by you! The whoosh sound is made from displaced air, the faster the displacement the greater the sound. Sound is caused by motion, after all. Ever heard of a sonic boom? When you break the speed of sound, things get... Loud... A...
Do woodpeckers lose brain cells?	[ "No. Their brain is surrounded by what basically amounts to a shock absorber. Why are very special evolved to do with the forces involved. They are one of the sources of inspiration being look to for ideas on designing safer football helmets" ]	[ "A follow up question: Is it possible that they are potentially as smart as we are, but the lack of hands, appropriate communication (etc.) limits their ability to develop their potential?" ]
What was the advantage of a musket compared to a bow & arrow or crossbows?	[ "Ease of use. Becoming proficient with a bow could take years and requires a certain amount of strength. You could teach someone to use a musket in a fraction of the time." ]	[ "Let's say you have a 7 lane interstate. At each end there is a toll booth. In the past payments were processed manually and there was a receipt that had to print, but the printers were slow. Only do much traffic could get through. Fast forward to the future where you pay with the touch of a button and get an insta...

Subsets and Splits

No community queries yet

The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.