Subset (10)

eli5 · 25k rows

Split (1)

train · 25k rows

query stringlengths 20 300	positive listlengths 1 1	negative listlengths 1 1
Why are more toilet flushes not like the water-conserving ones that they have on airlines?	[ "toilets on aircraft, trains, and rv’s, flush waste directly into a holding tank which then must be pumped out and then discharged into a sanitary waste system eventually ending up in a treatment plant. Residential and commercial toilets don’t have holding tanks, waste must be carried by water, thru underground sew...	[ "The pressure doesn't keep increasing. It's pressurized to a certain level and stays there. Just as a balloon can hold pressure for days without the pressure increasing and bursting it. Edit: Or how a heavy book on a shelf doesn't press harder and harder until it breaks the shelf. The pressure has stabilized." ...
I have some cheese in the fridge that glows fluorescent in the dark. Why?	[ "What kind of cheese is it? I mean, there is some types of bacteria that are phosphorescent..." ]	[ "Interesting fact: the smell of fresh cut grass (depending on the species) can come from a chemical called coumarin. Coumarin itself is harmless, but when metabolized and fermented by certain fungal species, coumarin becomes dicoumarol (with 4-hydroxycoumarin as an intermediary). When farmers in North America began...
Why is RT news banned from the subreddit r/news?	[ "It's not news its propaganda as RT is owned by the Russian government. I'm sure that if you posted Donald Trump press releases they would be removed for the same reason." ]	[ "Production companies create shows, then sell the broadcast or distribution rights to distributors and TV networks. They sell to different people in different regions -- say you make a TV show, then sell the rights to FX so they can broadcast it in the United States. Well, FX doesn't exist in Australia, so you sell...
What caused snowball earth to stop freezing?	[ "Short answer, volcanoes. Even though everything on the surface of the earth was frozen, the mantel was just as hot if not hotter than today, and plate tectonics still took place. All these volcanoes still dumped massive amounts of CO2 in the atmosphere. A green house effect ensued and warmed everything back up. Ov...	[ "It means that physics, as we know it now, is actually a low energy solution to a more general high energy theory. The common analogy is the ferromagnet. Above a high temperature (the Curie Temperature) the magnetic domains are all randomly aligned. But as the ferromagnet cools, the solution will snap into an align...
why does your nose start running when you eat something hot?	[ "Capsaicin in chili peppers binds to spots on the tongue that make the brain think the mouth is literally on fire, and the best way the body has to flush it out is a runny nose and watery eyes. Also, this gets asked fairly often. Better to search first." ]	[ "The sour taste of foods is created by acid. The spicy taste of spicy foods is created by capsaicin. Capsaicin is not an acid." ]
How can different liquors affect someone different, ex, “Whiskey makes him crazy”, are there any actual differences or is it BS?	[ "It's mostly based on one's personality and the culture around you. _URL_0_ _URL_1_ _URL_2_ _URL_3_ TLDR: It's all in your head. Alcohol is alcohol. You perception of what it is alters your behavior and reaction to it." ]	[ "There is more air between the you and the Sun. The more air the light has to go through, the higher the chance that some of that light will interact in a way which causes it to deflect or be absorbed. Also, the shorter the wavelength (closer to violet in the rainbow) the higher the chance that this will happen. Wh...
Why they haven't sent more people to the moon? If that was long time ago, we're supposed to have more technology now	[ "The main problem with this is funding. We (humans) have already shown that we can in fact reach the moon and hop around on it. So comes the next part: why would we want to send more people? I can think of reasons why I would personally like to see more people on the moon, but the problem is writing up a fantas...	[ "We are born with small brains to fit through the womb. It takes along time for our brains to grow and mature because of its massive potential compared to animals. Animal brains aren't like ours" ]
When you have a really “heavy” yawn, what’s that rumbling sound you get in your ears?	[ "There's a tube (Eustachian tube) that connects the back of your nasal cavity to inner side of your ears. Normally, it's there to ensure that the pressure inside your ears matches the outside of your ears. When you yawn, your entire mouth/nose area opens up and the sound you hear is because air is rushing past the ...	[ "You have a [Vestibulo-ocular reflex](_URL_0_) which automatically corrects your gaze to accommodate any self-initiated head movement. To demonstrate this reflex, nod your head. Your eyes will automatically move counter to the direction of your head in order to keep these words fixed on your retina. Jaw movements d...
Why are there so many different medications on the market right now for "moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis"?	[ "Because that’s not all that it treats. A LOT of these drugs treat basically what are side effects of an overactive immune system. Rheumatoid arthritis, plaque psoriasis, Crohn’s disease ulcerative Colitis, Ankylosing Spondylitis Etc. most are injections, so the few that are coming out are tablets or capsules becau...	[ "We weren't always obsessed with terrorists; that's the biggest difference. When we had military engagements, we went in, took care of business, and left. While there might have been government spying then as well, it would have been an even bigger deal when it was uncovered, instead of even somewhat justified. So ...
I'm doing a dissertation on the suppression of the Knights Templar (1312) and I really need some references to primary sources, can this reddit help me?	[ "I'm hoping that this is only for undergraduate-level work -- otherwise your lack of knowledge of French or Latin is not acceptable for the project you have taken on. There is no substitute for being able to examine the primary sources in their original language. Translations are find for high-schoolers and undergr...	[ "Way too quiet in here! Everyone seems to be watching the World Cup... A technical question: How does everyone search for book reviews? Is jstor's search usually comprehensive enough when it comes to history/humanities journals?" ]
What kept the Egyptians from exploring the Mediterranean like f.e. the Minoans or the Phoenicians?	[ "The answers here are rather flawed. For one, there was plenty of trade in the eastern Mediterranean, and the trade between modern Lebanon and Egypt was very valued. This trade was often varied out on Egyptian ships. More importantly, if you are referring to colonization of the western Mediterranean, that was prett...	[ "They don't build the tunnel through the water, they dig under the rock that's under the water. [Here is a diagram](_URL_0_) so you can see what it looks like." ]
Is there a word for the concept of when in a symbiotic relationship one of the species goes extinct, stops participating or is replaced?	[ "There are known cases of co-dependent species losing their associate. I remember, for instance, an essay by S.J. Gould mentionning a bahamian (I think...) hermit crab which could only fit in the shell of a certain species of snail, now extinct. That crab was apparently surviving by exploiting Pleistocene sand depo...	[ "Surgeon here. The following description may be NSFW. She did not become fused with the couch. Like others have pointed out, this is impossible. But imagine her entire backside is an open wound, with exposed muscle and fat and bone, and the entire thing is slimy and full of pus. This can make it very hard to tell w...
How are 'normal, healthy' emotional and psychological behaviors defined? Is it purely based on statistics? An extreme example might be that most people behave a certain way, ergo psychopathy isn't normal?	[ "I think it's important to note that normal != healthy. They sometimes overlap, but some normal behaviors are detrimental in modern society, while some weird behaviors can be more beneficial than their normal counterparts. Normal would be statistically determined, while healthy would be determined by the effects, e...	[ "The integral of sin(x)/x is well defined and we the value of the integral Si(x). We can use a variety of numeric techniques to evaluate Si(x). We can also use the definition of Si(x) to derive and prove a number of useful relations. However we can not express Si(x) in a simple form. If you think about it sin(x) is...
What actually makes a bootable USB key bootable? Specifically.	[ "I don't know enough about USBs disks and modern UEFI bios to answer that side of it, but bootable floppies and old fashioned BIOS are the same idea and I know about them. Basically during the boot process (if you have told it to try and boot from floppy) the BIOS will read the first sector of the floppy disk out. ...	[ "I'll piggyback: How does a breathalyzer even work? I don't get how the air you exhale from your lungs can relate to the alcohol in your blood/stomach. Always something I've wondered about" ]
Is it unhygienic to shower at night instead of in the morning?	[ "I highly doubt there to be scientific experimentation about this. The answer is relative and would depend on how much the person sweats during the day, and at what times." ]	[ "For the majority of human history, children lived in a cave or hut with their parents and sometimes others. They would have been completely exposed to sexuality. It's only when you start to have multi room homes that hiding sexuality from children became possible. even today, in many parts of the world, single roo...
Why are melting Ice Caps causing the world water level to rise, when (correct me if i'm wrong) the higher percentage of the ice is in the water already and ice has a lower density than water?	[ "Maybe in covered surface you're right but the volume of ice on land is far greater than the volume of sea ice. Sea ice is a couple of meters thick and the land ice on Greenland and Antarctica is up to 3 kilometers thick, that's a lot." ]	[ "Floating doesn't have as much to do with weight as it has to do with density. An object will sink if the weight of the object is than heavier the weight of the water it displaces! Two objects of the same size will displace the same amount of water (when completely submerged). Suppose that water would weigh 10 poun...
How do hard boiled eggs exist? Wouldn't the eggs explode from pressure?	[ "FYI: I put a partially hard boiled egg in the microwave and it did explode. I'm talking egg on the ceiling and scary noise explode. That was fun, though entirely accidental. Plus it scared my puppy, so I didn't repeat it. Also, It didn't explode right _URL_0_ exploded after I toolkit out of the microwave." ]	[ "Yer not alone in askin', and kind strangers have explained: 1. [ELI5: If an airplane cabin is pressurized, why do I have to pop my ears throughout the flight? ](_URL_0_) ^(_ > 100 comments_) 1. [ELI5: If airplane cabins are pressurized, why do our ears pop? Also, what is actually happening in our ears when they po...
Questions inside: African-Americans in the era between the two world wars	[ "I am by no means an expert on this topic, but I can point you towards a very good book I read a few years ago. [Arc of Justice by Kevin Boyle](_URL_0_) discusses the trial of [Ossian Sweet](_URL_1_), an African-American physician who killed a white man in self-defense in 1925 Detroit. The man was part of a white m...	[ "Yeah, please elaborate a little. Are you talking about POWs or people in concentration camps or just normal citizens displaced due to fighting?" ]
Do trees die of old age? Is it common? If I plant 100 trees of the same type in the same area, will most of them die around the same time?	[ "Trees die of old age. Palms for instance only have about a 50 year life expectancy. Alaska Red Cedar can live up to 3500 years and some trees are even older, there is a 5000 year old tree somewhere i believe. & #x200B; If you have 10 palms, some will die after 40 years and some will die at the age of 60. They can...	[ "Typically, they are given 2 intraveinous shots: the first is a deep sedative which puts them into a deep unconscious state, similar to the first step of anesthesia. The second step is to give them an overdose of anesthetic, similar to the second step of anesthesia. The long and short of it is that it's typically t...
Why are people so condescending of chiropractics as a science?	[ "The doctrinal basis of chiropractic is that all diseases and issues with the body, no matter what they are, have a single cause, namely vertebral misalignment, and can therefore be cured with a single type of treatment, namely spinal manipulation. Even today, when, from my understanding, the majority of chiropract...	[ "> how it really amounts to a bunch of bologna I don't have an answer, but I do need to point out that bologna = lunch meat. Baloney = nonsense." ]
Game glitches where something starts to twitch or vibrate around in mid air like crazy	[ "What's happened there is the physics calculations have gone wonky. This can happen when an object clips into another when it's not supposed to, which can result in tremendous force being transferred into one of them a bit like how when you squeeze a tennis ball it flies out of your hand if you hold it like a soda ...	[ "Well, obviously you already know how you can overlay graphics on top of a still image. Creating an arrow or label on top of a photo isn't so hard, from that perspective. It's the movement and real-time camera sync that's hard. So how do you do it when the image moves and changes constantly? Well, the cameras posit...
Why were the cameras on the Voyager 1 turned off?	[ "Nothing to see, and Voyager has a limited amount of power and data storage. Additionally it'll get harder and harder to continue transmitting images as it gets farther away from Earth." ]	[ "We don't have pictures, it's more of a painting. Ex. You're sitting in a room, you could make a bird's eye view of the room without being at the bird's eye point of view. So what scientists/astrophysics nerds along with programmers have done, is made a map of everything in our galaxy (drawn it out from our PoV, w...
Why do some farmers plant crops in big circles, rather than sticking with squares or rectangles? Aren't they losing ~21.5% of crop area?	[ "area isn't the limiting factor in places they use center pivot irrigation. It may be water, it may be labor, it may be transportation." ]	[ "It isn't one trigger. There is a psychological component. We eat a lot more if served more food on a plate. Another famous experiment was to eat soup that was connected such that it never emptied. People ate a ton more. Stomach expansion is also a factor, thus lap-bands reduce what people eat. There is another sig...
Can anyone help me identify the uniforms and time frame this tintype photo was taken.	[ "We might be able to narrow this down quite specifically. The man at the back on the left appears to be wearing the [M1872 Officers' fatigue blouse](_URL_0_), as might the man next to him. This was replaced in 1874 by the M1874 fatigue blouse, as apparently it proved unpopular. Tintypes were at the peak of their po...	[ "Seems like the American occupations of Germany and Japan fit your bill. They were pretty militaristic, nationalist-type polities before 1939; now they are liberal democracies where the mere mention of upgrading the military is controversial." ]
How do people know how much their homes are underwater?	[ "> Why would it even matter if you're planning to live in a house for 20 years? It matters mainly if you want to refinance your mortgage. Refinancing is when you replace your loan with a crappy interest rate with a new one with a better interest rate. Technically, the way it works is you get a new loan with a good ...	[ "I do telephone and we use a TDR (time domain reflectometer) that sends a pulse out and times how long it takes an echo to return the unit (based on a given gauge of wire) and it shows the length on the wire. We have records that indicate what the distance should be and compare that to the result." ]
If diamonds can only be cut by other diamonds, why do diamond blades get dull?	[ "[Diamond blades](_URL_0_) are not made entirely of diamond. Rather they are generally steel with diamond particles embedded into it. So, as the blade/drill works, the steel is stripped away and the diamonds fall out. A full diamond blade is not feasible because, even though it is very hard, it is also very brittle...	[ "The DQ store receives the candy/cookies/whatever already broken down into pieces. The Oreos and Butterfingers and stuff like that all come crushed up, cookie dough and cheesecake come in little bit size pieces, etc. The only things that manually get chopped are bananas. Also, the stores don't get the stuff directl...
I'm going to a Dungeons and Dragons meet up soon, could someone please explain the game to me? I've watched others play before but I dont fully understand the rules.	[ "you're collectively telling a fantasy story. each of you only determine the actions and words of one character in that story, the GM determines everything other than that. for things you wish to do that have a chance of failing, like hitting someone with a sword, you roll dice to see if your idea works." ]	[ "Dublin Regulation is an act regulating how asylum claims are handled. TL;DR: First country an asylum applicant enters handles the problem. It's failing couse it would strain countries reciving the weave of migrants like Greece or italy" ]
Could we build an elevator into space with current technology? If so, why aren't we doing it?	[ "nope, the material for the \"rope\" would have to be some kind of nearly massless wondershit." ]	[ "How would you get it there? Pound for pound, going to the moon is expensive. Really expensive. How would you service them? Getting a technician up there is really really expensive. How would you protect them? Earth has mild temperatures and magnetic protection from solar flares. The Moon doesn't." ]
What happens to the newly "dead" bacteria on your hands after you use hand sanitizer that "kills" bacteria?	[ "Like another poster has said, you can't really wash off the dead bacteria because water acts differently on them due to their size. Also when you use antibacterials, the area will quickly become repopulated with bacteria from your environment, other parts of your skin and by the bacteria that wasn't killed multip...	[ "Imagine your hard drive as a giant wall, like the Great Wall of China. Now imagine that your files are painted on this wall (Images, text, music notes). When you delete a file, your computer finds the spot on the wall where that file was painted, and marks that section of the wall as \"free\". It doesn't scrub o...
If a property of any gas is that it expands to fill its container, how is the molar volume 24.45 L?	[ "Gas expands to fill all the available volume in a vacuum (zero pressure). One mole of gas expands to fill the molar volume at standard pressure (1 atmosphere) and temperature." ]	[ "Your whole high school is in the gym for an assembly. The presentation comes to an end and everyone needs to leave all at once. If you never open the doors, people will never leave. If you open one door, how long will it take for everyone to leave? If you open all the doors, how long will it take for everyone t...
What determines life expectancy in a lifeform?	[ "In mammals it's somewhat proportional to the resting heartbeat and metabolic rate. Even though they can be vastly different sizes, they all get about a billion heartbeats. Live fast, die young in action. Humans do a bit better, about 4 billion. Different families of creature don't necessarily fit." ]	[ "You might want to take a look at [epigenetics](_URL_0_), which is a study of where the rubber of genetics meets the road of environment. Basically biological functions are entirely due to protein activity. Protein activity is influenced by many factors, but the big ones are genetic and environmental. Protein act...
If the U.S. Government is spying on everyone, why hasn't there been a major crackdown on crime?	[ "There aren't any answers on here that are correct. Bruce Schneier has a good write up on it at _URL_0_. While it focuses on terrorism, terrorism is just one specific crime. The principle is the same for all crimes. The short of it is \"base rate fallacy\". Since any algorithm for detecting crime is not 100%, there...	[ "The conter-intutitve idea that in a recession the government should spend more money, not less, was largely proposed by the economist John Keynes and were widely taken up by governments all over the world in the 1930s, with varying degrees of success. Since the 1980s, however, Keynes's ideas have been largely out ...
Would a blind synesthetic person be able to see sounds?	[ "This hasn't been heavily studied, probably because the number of cases to study would be quite small. If the neural pathways leading to synesthesia are intact even when the person becomes blind, then in theory the person would still see the visual illusion with sound. [Here's a study](_URL_0_) that showed evidence...	[ "I would suspect something like binaural recording would come into play. You can listen to the results here: _URL_0_" ]
Why is it perfectly normal to walk on moving escalators but when they are not it feels super weird?	[ "In one regard, an escalator's steps are taller, and spaced differently than we are used to on a staircase, so this alone presents some unusual sensation as we advance. Additionally, it is theorized that we adapt to moving surfaces like airport moving sidewalks and escalators, with the expectation of their movemen...	[ "I think it has to do with what we are used to. In languages there are sounds that typically come after other sounds. Our brain maps these stronger and stronger as we learn to speak. Normally we don't have multiple similar sounding words right after another unless we are saying the same exact word. Our mind gets co...
Why do our teeth only grow back once?	[ "So they don't actually grow back... You have your adult teeth in your face the entire time, they just come down when they feel like it. They only grow in the womb Picture (and nightmare fuel): _URL_0_" ]	[ "Hi! You don't. Consult with a doctor or dentist about this. _URL_0_ _URL_1_" ]
It's December 7th. Why isn't Google paying homage to the 75th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor?	[ "Google doodles take a lot of effort to create, even the simplistic ones, and usually hope to serve the interests and audiences of multiple countries. So you have to understand even significant tragedies don't always get doodles (9/11 didn't get one this year either.) However, you're not wrong in that it's a littl...	[ "The last time that happened was when Estes Kefauver won 13 of the 16 Democratic party primaries in 1952. 32 states, including the large states of Michigan and New York, did not hold primaries in 1952. The delegates for the national party convention in those states were chosen by State Democratic party conventions,...
how does your brain produce a coloured image through staring at a negative?	[ "Your eye sensors tire after a short while viewing a static image. In this example they're giving you a fixed point to focus on so that the image stays positioned in the same place on your retina. Notice how her lips are green in the negative. Staring at that wears our your green sensor there. Then, when you switch...	[ "I found this article about it: _URL_0_ Here's the tl;dr of it: Atoms emit photons occasionally. Our retinas occasionally pick these photons up, even if the source is inside your own body. Plus, photons can sometimes stimulate other nerves directly." ]
Tau hyperphosphorylation in Alzheimer's.	[ "When a protein is phosphorylated, it means a negatively-charged phosphate group is added to certain amino acids (also called residues) within the protein. The addition of this charged phosphate group can often affect the shape (or conformation) of the protein and because of that, it often affects the way that prot...	[ "It is called the Hygiene Hypothesis. It states that the lack of childhood exposures to bacteria, parasites, infectious agents, etc, leads to an increased susceptibility to allergies, autoimmune diseases, and even autism. Note that this is still a hypothesis, and any studies thus far have not provided concrete caus...
Why are computer generated visuals way more advanced than sounds/voices?	[ "When you know exactly what is going to be said it makes a million times more sense to just have someone read it off the page. Siri and other \"computer voices\" need to make words and sentences out of whatever audio database they have available to adapt to any situation." ]	[ "Are you watching blu ray? Is it a good transfer? (Example: despite being made in the early 80's Blade Runner Ultimate Director's cut blu-ray is one of the best you can buy) How good is your blu ray player? Is it a ps3? All of these factors contribute to what you determine as a home viewing experience being inferio...
How do earbuds know how to send different aspects of a song to different ears for the best effect?	[ "It's not up to the earbuds. The recording has a left track and a right track, and the earbuds send one track to one ear." ]	[ "I use Android, but it does the same thing. I think it just uses GPS to figure out where you spend time everyday and makes an educated guess." ]
When you are sick why does the mucus in one nostril move to the other after a while?	[ "> Because your nostrils split their workload. Throughout the day, they each take breaks in a process of alternating congestion and decongestion called the nasal cycle. At a given moment, if you're breathing through your nose, the lion’s share of the air is going in and out of one nostril, with a much smaller amoun...	[ "Your perception need a small adjustment. Don't think of rain as \"water falling over this particular location\" rather think of it as \"this cloud here has reached critical conditions for rain to form\". Now, the cloud moves around, and will form rain until the conditions are no longer suitable. So, in summary, th...
Why is food which is grown locally so much more expensive? Can someone educate me on this - because I'm struggling to find the common sense in all of it..	[ "Not that long ago, farmer's markets and other locally grown options actually were cheaper. But then it got trendy, and GMO became a big boogeyman, so local farmers realized they could earn far more money by selling stuff for more. Your cow example is actually flawed though, using hormones makes cows produce more ...	[ "Did you actually read the article? This article literally provides the answer to your question." ]
Why do we always portray extraterrestrial life as way more advanced than us?	[ "Yes, but primitive life wouldn't find us. The only way we would find primitive life is if we advanced enough to search for them. Edit: it should be noted that loads of sci-fi presents ETs that are less advanced than we are." ]	[ "So imagine the universe is a football stadium. Except it's midnight and all of the lights are turned off so it's pitch black. I'm this scenario our earth will be on the 50 yard line. Planet 9 would be a marble 10 yards away. Meanwhile any star or galaxy would be a lightbulb in the end zone. Sure it's much further ...
How do our cells differentiate between the sense and antisense strands of DNA to make sure they make the correct mRNA and protein?	[ "The TATA box is just one part of the promoter sequence. There is also a more complex sequence near the TATA box, which is often used as an identifier so particular genes can be trascribed only under specific situations (such as in particular cells, or at a particular stage of development). These sequence would not...	[ "older machines relied on magnetic properties of the ink in bills and features visible in UV. newer machines can do optical recognition in addition to the older techniques. Newer machines can also work with the features added to more modern bills to distinguish between the denominations." ]
What is the smallest theoretical size a transistor could be?	[ "[Single atom transistors do actually exist](_URL_3_). There has also been a proposed [spintrontics transistor](_URL_3_), as far as I'm aware none have ever been realised, though spintronics does work for other devices. For the largest mass produced transistor, [Intel are currently using 14nm transistors with plans...	[ "A Farnsworth Fusor will easily fit on your desk, and is well within the realm of a highschool Science Fair project. However it will never hit break even energy. The amount of material in the plasma is on the order of micrograms." ]
Is there a maximum number of times that a liver can regrow itself? Does regrowing reduce the functionality of a liver or does it always return to 100%?	[ "If I remember correctly, the danger isn't that the liver can't regrow, it's that the procedure is invasive and it carries the risk of complications for both donor and recipient in addition to organ rejection. Infections, for example is a complication of surgery. The generation of unwanted granulation/scar tissues ...	[ "The number of possible ways to order a deck of N cards grows like N!. The growth of N! is used to explicitly compute the entropy of simple systems in statistical mechanics. If the Taylor Series of a function is to converge at the value x, then f^([N])(x)x^(N) cannot grow faster than N!. Factorial growth is a facto...
After snakes swallow a large meal, how do they avoid getting eaten in turn?	[ "That is a very real concern for the snakes when they eat a large meal like that. Really there is not much for them to do besides wait out the digestion period. Usually a snake will hunt in an area it is familiar with and has a dark hole of some kind it can lay in for a while for some protection while it digests. O...	[ "Same reason humans run when there's a single guy shooting up a school/movie theater/whatever. Sure, they might take him down, but chances are some people are gonna take a few bullets. Nobody wants to be one of theose people. There are some exceptions, of course (e.g. parents defending their children), but in the ...
Any mycologists here? What is this mold?	[ "Unfortunately, it's nearly impossible to give an answer unless we are able to see the mold under a microscope. It could be one of a hundred lab contaminants I could think of off my head. IDing fungus is based on macroscopic growth on agar plates, then microscopic morphology, then sometimes even chemical IDs. Also...	[ "Can you take some more pictures? Specifically, down the \"tubing\" from both angles and flipped over from how it is? I am specifically curious about how the metal is folded over." ]
In many models, dark matter WIMPs are their own anti-particles. How are they expected to generate photons on annihilation if they have no coupling to the EM field?	[ "Via loop processes or intermediate particles. An example that we have observed is the Higgs decay to two photons. The Higgs doesn't couple to photons directly (they don't have mass and the Higgs doesn't have an electric charge) but both couple to top and W." ]	[ "If you detect which slit the electron goes through, you collapse the wavefunction so that its position is defined at that point, so no wavefunction 'goes through' the other slit and there's nothing to interfere with. Instead, you see a simple ballistic pattern, without interference. To say that another way, measur...
How do they apply special effects to movies shot to film?	[ "Shooting on film has a distinct look. Even after it's digitized, it still retains its filmlike quality. These days, film to digital transfer is done at very high resolutions, such as 4k (4 times the quality of traditional 1080p HD), so the details and nuances of film still exist in the digital world. There are al...	[ "The sets and props weren't expensive. Foam, plaster, and plywood are cheap. The artisans to build them were expensive. Good people with marketable skills are expensive. That hasn't changed. Now instead of hiring a bunch of set guys and prop guys and costume guys you're hiring a hoard of CGI guys and renting hundre...
Given the brutality of World War 2, how have relations between the major Allied and Axis powers continued to be so positive? Why are the alliances between the U.S. and Japan/Germany, in particular, so strong? What was different about WW2 from other wars that prevented ongoing tension/conflict?	[ "It wasn't the war, it was the recovery. The Allied powers knew that the harsh reparations leveled on Germany after WW1 had directly lead to WW2. They were much softer with reparations and lead a significant rebuilding effort in the Axis countries after the war to ensure they got back on their feet with fewer har...	[ "It's hard to attribute a chronology to Zelda, though some aspects can be assumed ( like Wind Waker seems to be a post-apocalyptic Hyrule, the Great Sea having flooded the world ), and each of the games has similar themes for the most part. Seeing as Link is the \"hero of time\", I always saw the series as two omni...
Why do we seem to experience technological jumps so much faster than ancient civilizations did?	[ "5 year old answer: We've built technology that helps us build more technology at a faster pace." ]	[ "commercialism. if you were happy with your old stuff, you wouldn't need to buy new stuff. all the designers and manufacturers come out with new looking stuff and market the old stuff as ugly and new stuff as pretty in order to make money. our tastes are hugely influenced by others." ]
Why is relativity of simultaneity a consequence of special relativity?	[ "As written, your question mischaracterizes the issue with simultaneity. It's not a question of the two observers PERCEIVING or SEEING things differently; things are actually different in one frame vs. the other. In the example you give, even after the observers \"correct\" for the finite speed of light (which give...	[ "You seem to be describing a variant of the [ladder paradox](_URL_0_), just using a train and tunnel instead of a ladder and a garage, he he. > What does the outside observer see? The outside observer sees the front guillotine make a cut, then later after the train has passed further through the tunnel, the back g...
What would the timespan be for the majority of earth's population to be 'new' people?	[ "This is a sort of standard demographics/population biology question; I tried to answer it just now naively, assuming exponential mortality, but got a silly answer; you'd need to have the actual data from [tables like these](_URL_0_) along with a profile of current demographics and do some calculations on them. A g...	[ "hi everyone! just a reminder to respondents to be mindful of this sub's [\"20-year rule\": no discussion of events/conditions post-1994 please](_URL_0_)! thanks! OP, if you'd like to carry on this discussion for more recent years, consider x-posting this question to /r/AskSocialScience." ]
The plot of The Legend of Zelda series	[ "It's hard to attribute a chronology to Zelda, though some aspects can be assumed ( like Wind Waker seems to be a post-apocalyptic Hyrule, the Great Sea having flooded the world ), and each of the games has similar themes for the most part. Seeing as Link is the \"hero of time\", I always saw the series as two omni...	[ "From the exact same XKCD article that you linked: > (Climates can be hard to predict—for example, in our world, Somalia and French Guiana both sit on the equator, at the eastern coast of a continent, and seem like they should both receive a tropical sea breeze. But coastal French Guiana is dense rain forest while...
What is data mining?	[ "Looking for patterns in large amounts of data. A well known case from a while back was this: retailers have a huge database of what customers bought. An analyst had this idea: You can tell when a woman has just had a baby because for instance she has started buying diapers. But is there anything in a woman's buyin...	[ "Before I get all high & mighty about the term \"Dark Ages,\" can you define what you mean for us?" ]
Why do we always put our hand where pain is?	[ "ELI5 In short, if you can apply pressure to pain, it can lessen/make the pain go away. The idea is that the nerves can only relay one type of information, pain or pressure, not both, so by forcing the nerve to relay pressure information, the pain information will be minimized. See for more information [Gate Contr...	[ "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...
Why haven't pandas developed bacteria specifically for digesting cellulose like a true herbivore?	[ "Evolution is purely random. It doesn't choose to have features but if features do randomly occur and nature favors those features over the current ones, then a species may evolve to enhance that feature." ]	[ "The International Space Station uses ~~lithium hydroxide~~ zeolite to scrub CO₂ by ~~chemical reaction/absorption~~ adsorption, and the ~~chemical~~ zeolite can then be regenerated by heat. The equipment is called the Carbon Dioxide Removal Assembly (CDRA). *edit: zeolite not LiOH per /u/RuNaa's comment below." ]
How did a meteor kill only the dinosaurs and not ancestors of modern day animals?	[ "The event that you are referring to is usually called the [KT extinction](_URL_0_). The current consensus among those who study the period is that there was a roughly 10km meteor that impacted Mexico, causing massive fires and a corresponding \"nuclear\" winter that made it difficult for life to survive in the sea...	[ "In a lot of cases we don't. & #x200B; In some cases we can the imprint of feathers or other surface features imbedded in mud that has turned to stone." ]
How does a speaker work?	[ "Many frequencies all sum to one wave through constructive and destructive interference. Think about the wave in air; the air can only be one pressure at a time, so no matter how complex the sound it results in just one waveform." ]	[ "As far as I know, it's the blood flow in your ear amplified." ]
How will the JWST "stop" at the L2 Lagrange point?	[ "You do a braking burn, just like you would for entering the orbit of a body, and then you've simply entered a new orbit of the Sun, which will be in sync with the orbit of the Earth." ]	[ "They use [reaction wheels](_URL_0_) in most cases, which run continuously and only need some electrical power to run. The main drawback is that they wear over time and eventually fail, so engineers often put spares if missions are expected to last for long time." ]
White reflects, black absorbs. White radiates little, black radiates a lot. What do transparent materials typically do?	[ "Transparent materials let most of the light pass through. Also, many \"transparent\" objects are opaque to other wavelengths of light. Something that lets visible light through might for instance block radio waves or vice versa. Also, white reflects visible light through diffuse scattering. Black absorbs visibl...	[ "You have a window that allows visible light to pass through it, but you can close the curtains. The curtains are opaque to visible light. Microwaves have a wavelength on the order of 1 cm. They can pass through air, but the metal grid with those tiny holes on the microwave screen is opaque (to the microwaves)." ]
why do we have to move our eyes when remembering something?	[ "I'm not a neurologist or psychiatrist, but I can tell you how it kind of works for me. When I move my eyes to remember, it's more like I'm looking away from what I was focused on rather than visually focusing on something new. It's kind of like daydreaming when can be staring off into space without really seeing w...	[ "Follow up question, I get the leaning = focus part, but what about when you shift your body left and right when you're maneuvering in-game obstacles?" ]
if the immune syatem attacks/kills foreign bodies, how is it possible that bacterias are thriving in our bodies in great numbers?	[ "Most of them are in the digestive system, which is more or less outside the body. There are defenses against bad gut bacteria, but if everything is working properly, the gut bacteria are separated from most of the immune system. There are also bacteria on your skin and in women's' vaginas. They are also separated ...	[ "Well, think of it like a car. The individual parts of a car mean nothing. Every bolt, nut, belt and fuel serve a purpose altogether. Sure you can run it without a few things, but it will wear and tear faster. A car is alive with fuel cycling through the system via combustion and the energy from the battery provi...
Why does it seem like the last 15 minutes of sleep after my alarm goes off is the best and deepest I've had all night?	[ "[There is an old post on ELI5 that might answer your question.](_URL_1_) Top comment [(link)](_URL_0_): > During sleep, a horomone called melatonin is released throughout the night to induce a relaxing sensation throughout the body. Once the body is triggered to wake up (I.e. sunlight or an alarm clock) the body s...	[ "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,...
If adrenaline boosts our mental quickness and physical strengths, how come it isn't always pumping through our veins?	[ "Because adrenaline also is very unhealthy. It increases blood pressure, heart rate, and puts you in a state of flight or fight. You may also get palpitations or skipped heartbeats. Being like that 24/7 will increase your anxiety to the point where you won't be able to function well. Furthermore, adrenaline is like...	[ "Human beings, like many species, are highly social animals. We are strongly driven to ensure we \"fit in\" with the larger group. This has advantages of course, which is why we do it, but it also has huge disadvantages, including the ability to stop thinking clearly and go along with the herd because of the misgui...
Why at times when we laugh so hard we want to stop but we just keep laughing out of our control?	[ "I imagine we'd need to have a better understanding of why we laugh in the first place. It’s a very complex process that transcends simple neurology AFAIK. Good question though!" ]	[ "You have microscopic hairs in your cochlea (the snail-shaped organ in your inner ears) that are attached to nerves. These vibrate very subtly in order to pick up the sounds you hear. The thing is, quiet sounds are incredibly low-energy. In order to detect the faintest sounds, those hairs need to be ultra tiny and ...
Why does it seem like people only get one disease at a time?	[ "The immune system is activated and alert when you have one infection, so it makes it harder for another infection to develop. Disease states, such as cancer, diabetes, etc., may cause weakening of the immune system which often results in secondary infections." ]	[ "\"Just about everyone here\" Where is \"here\" for you? It sounds like your question's premise is based on a small sample set based on personal observation. Before your question is addressed, you should be making sure the premise is valid..." ]
Why do people try addictive drugs such as heroin despite the well-known risks of it?	[ "Because it makes all the hurt go away and I would never get addicted like all the other fools, I'm not weak." ]	[ "Sugar tastes good. When faced with a choice between that which is smart and that which is pleasing, most people will spend their money on the latter. A business exists to sell people what they want to buy, not what some might feel they should buy." ]
When my phone restarts it requires my fingerprint and my unlock code. Why is just my fingerprint not sufficient?	[ "It's a security measure in case the fingerprint is being forged somehow. The numeric unlock code is still considered the primary method of authenticating." ]	[ "Ok, here we go. This is my first ELI5, so I hope it helps. Feel free to critique anything. Think of DNA as a recipe. You have all kinds of recipes: cakes, pies, fruitcake. For the rest of this example, we will use cake recipes. There are set instructions, but you can also tweak them a little (strawberry cake, van...
How did child rearing work before diapers?	[ "As far as infants, cloth and linen were often used as diapers, this is shown in native tribes. Disposable diapers are relatively new. Many people still use cloth diapers as they tend to be better for an infants skin. Thorough cleaning was just very important." ]	[ "As a follow up, would the impact be lower in close-knit tribes of hunter gatherers with better social support than would be found in agriculturally-based civilizations with greater social stratification and more physical/socio-cultural barriers to group intimacy? And what role do certain beliefs regarding babies/s...
Why do bank transactions take several business days to go through if everything is digital?	[ "The US banking system was [developed in the 70s](_URL_0_), and has not been updated since. They save up days worth of transactions and then actually perform them all at once, which saves them a lot of effort. If Bank A has 10,000 transactions totaling 1 million dollars to go to bank B, and Bank B has 10,000 transa...	[ "If all states voted on the same day, that would ensure that the candidates would be campaigning in only the largest states. By spreading it out, more people have an opportunity to see and hear the candidates and (more to the point of the schedule), there's more opportunity for fundraising for the candidates." ]
Why is it expected that the captain is to go down with his ship when it sinks?	[ "Tradition is a minor part of it, but the practical reason is that he or she knows the ship better than anyone. Access to lifeboats, emergency equipment and any necessary steering in the event that the ship can still be steered necessitates that the Captain stick around. If it was accepted that the captain is allow...	[ "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 is the English version of a Wikipedia article always much longer and more detailed than in any other language?	[ "Most other languages simply don't have as many contributors. The German Wiki is actually very good and very active. Some smaller language simply don't have as many editors which greatly limits the amount of subjects they write on." ]	[ "Who says these are translations? For example, the \"Home Alone\" vs \"Mi Pobre Angel\" title change is a choice by the studio. The meme of latchkey kids isn't as common in Latin American countries, so a \"Solo En Casa\" title wouldn't have worked. Calling children angels in America would be mostly sarcastic, thoug...
Both Stone and Sam Adams announced beer with helium for April Fools. But is it actually possible, or desirable?	[ "1. Helium is one of the least soluble gases. For comparison, you can get about 2.5g of CO2 into 1 kg of water at 10C. Under the same conditions, you'll get about 0.0016g of He. 2. No, helium is non-reactive. With everything. It is not toxic, nor is it used in any biological process (that I know of) in the human ...	[ "There was an artist that did this in the early 80's for an art installation. Due to the low resolution of the satellite (Landsat 3), the images came back with bright white pixels. Here's an [article](_URL_2_) all about it." ]
Why is cancer so hard to get rid of?	[ "This question, or very similar ones, have been asked numerous times before -- please use the search function first next time: _URL_7_ _URL_1_ _URL_8_ _URL_0_ _URL_5_ _URL_4_ _URL_6_ _URL_3_ _URL_2_" ]	[ "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...
why do radio signals seem to get stronger momentarily, when you drive through an underpass?	[ "Speculative, as I know of no scientific study on the subject, but I am an electronics technician and electronic warfare specialist who works with various radio and radar equipment. It's possible that the angle of your radio station relative to the freeway (and thus overpasses) is such that just as you go through t...	[ "I'm not good at breaking things down to ELI5 levels but AFAIK sound is a wave that requires a medium to travel through in this case air is that medium. Sound will travel further in a more dense medium meaning the apparent volume will be higher. Air at night is colder than air during the day because the sun isn't d...
if the switch is on, but there's no bulb, is it still using electricity?	[ "No, since the circuit isn't closed - the bulb closes the circuit, along with the switch. The bulb socket acts as a switch - there are 2 metal contacts inside, for phase and neutral connections. Once you install the bulb in it, the bulb closes the contacts." ]	[ "Read about a guy who passed out drunk in college, slept for too long on his arm, woke up and did bad enough nerve damage that he couldn't use his arm for months, had to undergo physical therapy for it, etc. Finally regained movement. Read another story about a girl who did the same thing with her leg and needed am...
When were the economies of the USSR and the US most equal?	[ "Well, let's take a look at some graphs! [Here](_URL_1_) we have the USSR's economic history from 1970-1990. They peaked at ~1 trillion dollars ~1980. This is lower than any point of the US during that same period. [Same source](_URL_0_). At no point in time was the economy of the USSR close to that of the US durin...	[ "It will depend on where in the world you're talking about of course. In my area -- ancient Greco-Roman world -- the codex reached parity with the scroll ca. 300 CE. [More details in this older thread.](_URL_0_)" ]
Why did the Latin language die off?	[ "Hi there, this is not to discourage more answers to the question, but you may be interested in these past questions that have been asked on the topic: _URL_3_ _URL_1_ _URL_0_ _URL_2_ To quote /u/keyilan from the first answer, > Latin didn't start to die out. Latin just became something that we gave other names t...	[ "Follow up to /u/suddenly_mozzarella 's excellent post: The Roman Empire is much, much older than the Islamic empire. The main bulk of Islamic conquest occurred some 1200 years ago, while the Roman Empire was at its peak 2000 odd years ago. There has been much more time for the former Roman provinces to develop the...
Why do certain mental illnesses or physical conditions cause us to experience clear sensory hallucinations (people's faces, voices speaking in sentences, etc.) rather than just sensory garbage?	[ "I can't offer an explanation as to how complex hallucinations originate (although I will mention that the [Wikipedia article](_URL_0_) has a lot to offer). I do want to point out though, your assumption that we don't hallucinate jumbled crap may be driven by confirmation bias. Ie: people are more likely to tell y...	[ "This is still an active research though I'm no expert and I'm sure others can answer you better. But i understand our memory is not really like how computers record things. We only extract information that are relevant to us and heavily compress it. Eg you see a mouse eating a cheese. Its quite an odd sight so you...
What’s the current science of using Nicotine in treatment of ADHD?	[ "Nicotine and Cancer: I'm not an expert, but to the best of my knowledge, you can not get cancer from Nicotine itself, the carcinogens in cigarettes are related to Tobacco and it's additives. E-cigs are popular now because of this, though no long term studies have been done, and the \"fake smoke\" agent in them is ...	[ "What you are missing is that the exhaust gas velocity depends on the gas molecular mass M. You can calculate it using [this equation](_URL_0_) of the exhaust gas velocity in chocked flow. Basically the lighter the gas the faster it can go and the more efficient with you mass you are. However for a given tank (ie a...
Why do my eyes "leak" while laying down sometimes?	[ "Slightly offtopic, but why do my eyes leak when I yawn?" ]	[ "Differing Alpha and Beta levels within the brain. Everyone is wired differently and most likely the time you go to bed affects the said levels. This also changes when you age as well. There's a japanese article that goes into detail about this but I can't find it" ]
In a 4D space-time continuum, what's the conversion factor for time < - > distance.	[ "The speed of light, c, 299,792,458 m/s. Interestingly though, if you want to compute a 4-dimensional \"distance\", you have to treat the time extent differently than the spatial ones. In space, d^2 = x^2 + y^2 + z^2 In spacetime, s^2 = x^2 + y^2 + z^2 - (ct)^2 That spacetime distance s* is called the [spacetime ...	[ "I encourage you to read David Deutsch's book The Fabric of Reality. The chapter on what time is (and isn't) will likely help you think about these things. It's worth the effort to read the book. (It is written for non-specialists who are willing to think.) Deutsch, by the way, is a theoretical physicist who has ...
If a plant/animal consumes one gallon of water, will it eventually excrete one gallon of water?	[ "Mostly but not all as water. The H2Os we take in will eventually come out (we haven't evolved the ability to turn mass into energy!) mostly as H2O (wee and sweat) but also some of the oxygens will be part of CO2 we breath out and some of the hydrogens will come out in multiple other ways" ]	[ "These images were taken from an airplane at relatively low altitude. Each photo is color balanced and stitched together in what is known as an orthomosaic. The hard part about water is that it has what is known as sun glint or spectral reflection, an angle/location on the image where you can see the reflected ligh...
Why can't humans learn to speak an animal's language?	[ "Because animals (with very few and highly debated exceptions) don't have language in the sense we talk about." ]	[ "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." ]
What are some currently unsolvable mathematical concepts that could potentially be solved with quantum computing?	[ "There aren't any, as long as you're not talking about solving them efficiently." ]	[ "It means that the geometry of the universe, on very large scales, is like the geometry you learn in school. Parallel lines neither converge nor diverge, triangles have 180^o in their interior angles, and the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter is the number we call pi." ]
Why did men stop wearing hats?	[ "I don't know if this has any merit but my dad and a few other older gentlemen I know have said that it's because JFK didn't wear a hat. It was around that time that men stopped wearing them and he was rather popular but again, I have no idea really." ]	[ "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." ]
Why is "You're Welcome" a response to someone saying thank you?	[ "\"Thank you for your kindness\" \"You are welcome to my kindness, good sir.\" What you're welcome to is whatever you're thanking them for." ]	[ "Looking at something exercises the rod and cone cells in the back of your eyeballs which then send the signal down your optic nerves to allow your brain to process the information. If the subject is very bright, then your rod and cone cells get overworked and start to become less sensitive to whatever type of ligh...
How do the grooves in records make music?	[ "[The grooves](_URL_0_) in a record are basically the [audio waveform](_URL_1_) that needs to be played. A needle runs along the grooves, being wiggled by the grooves, and the needle then uses that wiggling to wiggle air, which is sound." ]	[ "Actually, you are spot on! Metals are ductile and malleable (able to be bent/flattened) because they are composed of small grains which can move past each other when a force is exerted upon them. Image here of the crystal structure of some aluminum sheet: _URL_0_ The heat is generated by the friction of these grai...
can organs be strengthened through trauma (e.g., if an obese person lost a ton of weight, would his/her heart be stronger than average)?	[ "When your heart has to work harder due to you being overweight or for other reasons, it does get bigger and stronger, but it's not considered a good thing for your heart's health. For example, I have some [left ventricular hypertrophy] (_URL_0_) due to a valve problem - which I've had all my life but only found ou...	[ "The rate at which a human brain processes information is not constant. It changes based on a number of factors. When you feel a sudden threat, your body releases hormones that trigger a change in the rate at which your brain can process information. If your brain is processing information more quickly, your percep...
How did Hollywood become the center for the entertainment business?	[ "According to Wikipedia, Thomas Edison's held the patent on the kinetiscope, and his company, located in New York, was relentless in shutting down unauthorized use, by lawsuit or seizure. To escape this, many producers moved out west, where his patent laws couldn't be enforced. They settled on Southern California b...	[ "Watch \"The Big Short\" they give a good explaination of how the housing market collapsed resulting a financial breakdown. Ofcourse there are more factors in play bit this is something that is to complicated to explain on the level of a 5 year old." ]
If one were to be shot in the stomach would it be better to have a full or empty stomach?	[ "Well, since more acid is created when food is present/about to be present/was just present, I would say that it would be better to be shot in the stomach when it is empty and has been for a little bit. Other then acid content, I would have to say both would be equally bad" ]	[ "You can compare it to trying to move a 10 kg box filled with marbles, and 5 kg of marbles without a box. For some reason moving the marbles are easier when they are in a box, even though you are moving more." ]
Why did the Roman shield design change from a squared shield to an oval?	[ "I will have a detailed explanation tomorrow. It's too late to write a novel now." ]	[ "I am by no means an expert on this topic, but I can point you towards a very good book I read a few years ago. [Arc of Justice by Kevin Boyle](_URL_0_) discusses the trial of [Ossian Sweet](_URL_1_), an African-American physician who killed a white man in self-defense in 1925 Detroit. The man was part of a white m...
Exactly how influential was the Rosetta stone in deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphs?	[ "Very. The hieroglyphic system hadn't been used for roughly 1500 years and although there had been studies made by islamic scholars, little was actually known as part of the assumptions made in translations before the discovery of the stone were inaccurate (they thought it was purely symbolic but there was more to ...	[ "The size of the iris is controlled by a sphincter muscle, those eye drops are muscle relaxant, which blocks the nerve signals that control the muscles, so that they can't contract." ]
Have we been imaging the Crab Nebula (or other extrasolar objects) for long enough that we can see changes between the frames?	[ "I think one of the more impressive animations is of the stars orbiting the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way: [Animation of actual photos taken over 16 years](_URL_0_) [Computer animation](_URL_1_) This one is good too: [Crab nebula pulsar - 6 months](_URL_2_)" ]	[ "You're actually modeling a spaceship going relativistic speeds (and at that rate of compression, pretty close to the speed of light), where time passes slow on the ship compared to on the earth. Your question is the same as \"if there was some means of instantaneous communication, what would the people on the ship...
How do airplanes that fly advertisements at the beach take off and land and keep the banners perfectly vertical?	[ "A gif of it in action came through not too long ago, but I can't find it at the moment. Basically the line on the end of the banner is strung up between two posts and the plane swoops in and grabs it with a hook. Then the banner takes off much like a kite." ]	[ "Ice causes the effect you are speaking of: _URL_0_ > The most significant effect of snow or ice on the wing surface is its influence on the smooth flow of air over the surface contour. Changes in the contour shape and roughness of the surface will cause the airflow to begin to separate from the wing at a lower ang...
Why do you gain an accent when you move to a different area or even a different country? Why dont you just retain your original accent?	[ "You normally do not adopt the accent of the country you move to unless you move while you're still a child (when the language centers in the brain are still developing). Children who move before the age of 8 are likely to adopt the local accent of the new country/culture almost perfectly (if not just like a nativ...	[ "YouTube (and I assume other video websites) processes the uploaded videos. If you'd download a YT video, you'll find that it's not the same as the original file. If you would upload the file to a service that doesn't do any processing (such as cloud storage), then no matter how often you'd upload/download, the fil...
What led to the end of Mafia?	[ "As a former hobby of mine, the history of Cosa-Nostra, the major thing that destroyed it was dealing drugs. Luciano and The Commision showed their disapproval and prohibited it because it was punished with decades and life imprisonment. This would lead to rating on eachother so life in jail could be avoided. In t...	[ "Hi there -- while we've approved this question, we would like to remind potential respondents of our [current events](_URL_0_) (AKA \"20-year\") rule -- it's fine to discuss events through 1997 (inclusive) and their effects, but not events after 1997. Thanks!" ]
why do our hands get wrinkly when exposed to water for sone time? Further, why doesn’t our entire body do this too?	[ "It's our body's way of allowing us to have a firm grasp on things that we want to pick up when our fingers are wet and slippery... those wrinkles/ridges act like snow-tires on ice. Thank God." ]	[ "Your understanding of how heat work in atomic level is correct. But when you have bunch of atoms together, you will get a slightly different thing that react to heat differently. Your skin is made up of many big molecules (molecules= many atoms bonded together into one thing), and they need to be in a very specifi...

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