Subset (10)

eli5 · 25k rows

Split (1)

train · 25k rows

query stringlengths 20 300	positive listlengths 1 1	negative listlengths 1 1
What is the difference between coke zero, diet coke and the new coke zero sugar	[ "Coca-Cola is trying hard to make a diet drink that matches the taste of the regular Coke. Diet Coke was their first attempt in the 1980s. It was noticeably different than regular Coke. They later tried to make regular Coke taste like Diet Coke, which was a [total disaster](_URL_0_) for them. Coke Zero is a more r...	[ "To put it simply, Playboy and Penthouse show female nipples and genitals while Cosmo does not. While Cosmo will allude to sexual situations, Playboy/Penthouse will explicitly describe them. That is the line we have decided to draw." ]
Generally speaking, why do long-shot candidates run for office?	[ "For starters, sometimes long shots make it. Eight years ago a freshman senator was a longshot against a well-financed established party member, a spouse of a former president. That longshot is now president. Besides that, there are reason people will run, even if they don't have a great chance of winning. The camp...	[ "To get you to spend $29.95 on their \"work from home\" information package." ]
Why can't doctors replace a failing heart with a mechanical pump system?	[ "It's difficult to design a pump that's not too rough on the blood cells. Artificial hearts (which do exist) tend to rough them up a little, which causes clotting and can lead to heart attacks/strokes as well as immune responses." ]	[ "They are working on it. In NYC's East River, a third generation turbine is under development. The first was destroyed by the current. Pretty sure there is a project in Maine too. I'm sure there are more, but it is in its infancy." ]
why does everybody hate nickelback?	[ "Most of it is people just jumping on the bandwagon. It's cool to insult them because they're a pop band that made a lot of money." ]	[ "This CGP Grey video does a really good job of explaining it all. _URL_3_" ]
How do historians do their research?	[ "/u/commiespaceinvader wrote [an entry for \"Monday Methods\"](_URL_4_) that might shed some light. See also [this entry](_URL_6_) by sunagainstgold, and a discussion of archives and the hunt for sources [here](_URL_3_) by multiple flairs, most notably /u/Caffarelli. /u/Commustar hosted a series called \"Finding an...	[ "Hi everyone. Since this is the kind of question that can attract non-expert responses, just a friendly reminder that all responses must comply with [sub rules](_URL_0_), and that [personal anecdotes](_URL_1_) are explicitly not permitted in /r/AskHistorians." ]
Does a body's nervous system have electromagnetic properties & a EM field?	[ "1. Yes. 2. Extremely weak and short-range. 3. You can't 'control' magnetic fields, just produce them. You could set up an interfering field, but it won't do anything to the person." ]	[ "There is something similar called the nocebo effect: if you believe something will make you ill, it will. This is what is seen in people that get a rash from being near a Wi-Fi router - whether it's turned on or not. It's not the Wi-Fi signal that's causing the rash, it's the belief. Whether the same is true for...
Does the eccentricity of earth's orbit affect the weather?	[ "Well there's the whole chaos theory/butterfly effect that says practically anything is going to have an effect. The difference in solar radiation received varies by almost 7% between aphelion and perihelion so there's bound to be some effect. The perihelion (closest approach to the sun, 4 Jan) currently being so c...	[ "It varies, but not much individually. The problem is when everyone does it. It's kind of like why you're taught not to pick a flower from a garden when growing up. You alone, picking one flower, is not going to be noticed, it's not going to affect the plant or garden overall, but if everyone picks just 1, very s...
Why can't humans stay in one position without feeling uncomfortable.	[ "We move around while sleeping/trying to get to sleep so that we avoid injury. If you sleep in one position you can cut off blood flow to a limb, cause strain on muscles stretched in odd angles, cause pressure wounds to form (bed sores), and form blood clots that are potentially fatal." ]	[ "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." ]
How is choreography/dance transcribed?	[ "Most of the choreography you see is a combination of named steps and moves. When you are in basic dance classes you learn these basic steps by watching and imitating a teacher. You learn the names of specific turns, leaps and steps, and then ad you become an advanced and professional dancer you can read instructio...	[ "They use this - _URL_1_ It records all of the major news channels and indexes the closed captioning data so that it's searchable. _URL_0_" ]
How do homeless people get fat?	[ "Cheap food is not healthy food. And as homeless have told me, there's plenty of food. They're not begging for food money. If it's not going to drugs, they spend it on transportation, supplies, and temporary housing (hotel rooms). There's shelter, too, but it's not great and some try to avoid it as much as possible...	[ "Go watch the movie Supersize Me and report back your findings." ]
Why don't English people have "of the" or "the" in their name like Europeans who have names like "Mario LaSelle" or "Marco de la Rosa"	[ "Actually I feel like this hasn't been fully answered. English names have conventions like \"son of\" and \"belonging to\" and place names, yes, but they don't have \"the.\" This is because Romance languages use \"the\" far more often than English does. Where we say \"I like music,\" the French would say \"j'aime l...	[ "We do, but they have to be screwed in to your jawbone with titanium screws. Natural teeth are glued in place by a layer around the base of the tooth called the periodontal ligament. It acts as a cushion and can heal itself so it doesn't wear out. Tooth implants have no shock absorber or have shock absorbers which...
How do modern historians treat topics like Joan of Arc? Did she have divine aid or she was a good leader?	[ "Well, I'm no medieval historian but I can tell you that in the western secular historical tradition that most of us are part of, we don't really give supernatural explanations any credence at all. It just doesn't match our understanding of the world as it is. We simply have to presume the same physical laws applie...	[ "This site: [_URL_0_](_URL_0_), in French only, sorry, measures and reports air pollution levels due to fire at Notre Dame, and to this day, there is no significant decrease in air quality. But that's for classical pollution sources and measured over larger areas, so the measurements are not very local and very nea...
why do I feel dizzy even if I close my eyes while spinning?	[ "It is your inner ear that is mainly responsible for feeling dizzy, not your vision. You have a series of tubes filled with fluid. As you move around, upside down, sideways etc, the fluid shifts and you brain uses it to determine exact how your body is positioned to help you balance. When you spin around, you shake...	[ "Polarization. Grab another pair of polarised sunnies, take a pair in each hand, look through the lens of one pair with a lens of the other in front of it then slowly turn either pair. You'll see the same effect" ]
Why could we previously not have any socio-economic/political relations with Cuba, but now are moving towards having a relationship with them again?	[ "Most of the people who cared are now dead. Fidel Castro overthrew a dictator friendly to the US, and invited the USSR to put missiles there. The US tried to assassinate Castro about a million times. This lead to some hard feelings. On top of that, a lot of Cuban exiles fled to Florida, an important swing state in ...	[ "If by \"we\" you mean Americans, not much. The CDC is controlling the two citizens that are infected closely, and our climate and lifestyle isn't really conducive to spreading the infection. If you mean everyone on earth, a little more, bit still not much; ebola doesn't spread as easily as a lot of other diseases,...
What affect did natural disasters suck as tornadoes have on Native American culture?	[ "There's always room for discussion, but perhaps the section [How did earlier civilisations deal with hurricanes and tornadoes?](_URL_0_) in our FAQ will answer your inquiry." ]	[ "I can't speak for all tribes, but let me forward you to [this answer I gave before](_URL_0_). In short, it depended upon the goal of the battle -- was it a raid to take slaves/captives, a reprisal raid for an insult, or something else?" ]
How can some terminally ill people just "hold off" death until they're ready?	[ "With a lot of diseases, your body become so weak that breathing is difficult, and can at teams require a conscious effort. You even have minor attacks, were you have to breath as hard as you can for a while just to stay alive. At some point, you might choose to not make that effort anymore. Also, you can make choi...	[ "The process you seem to be missing is... well, it's your actual question. Sometimes, it takes longer to write. You don't always have the same level of inspiration, you don't always have the same level of motivation, and every writer has to occasionally fight with writer's block." ]
How can frozen dinners (like Banquet brand) cost as low as 89¢ per box? Is it even food?	[ "I never heard of this brand, so I Googled it. The cheapest I was able to find was $1.65. Either way, it's cheap because it's small amounts of low-cost food -- corn, potatoes and low-quality meat. Rounding: The whole thing weighs 9 ounces, so let's say each bit is 3 ounces. You can get a can of corn for less than ...	[ "Because they would get sued. The legal system isn't like some kind of beep-boop robot that overlooks totally obvious loopholes. Any company that claimed \"No, we were really advertising the endorsement of Bill Gates, plumber, from Bumfuck, Nebraska.\" would get laughed out of court. As /u/Snewzie pointed out with ...
Why are we cold when we are wet and it's windy?	[ "Wet: Because water has a higher specific heat capacity than air, meaning it takes more energy to heat it up by 1 degree. Since it takes more of your body heat to regulate the temperature around you, you feel cold. Windy: When your body produces heat, it warms the air around you. Wind blows that warm air away and r...	[ "It is a matter of heat transfer. Specifically the heat transfer coefficient. Compare the coefficients of the two and you will see that your body (mostly fluid water) transfers heat energy more effectively through fluid rather than air." ]
Why did Great Powers like Spain and France send delegates to the coronation of Queen Elsa, who ruled a politically insignificant country like Arendelle?	[ "Although Arendelle was not and has never been a major political player in Continental European politics, Arendelle was a major source of naval stores, (especially wood and tar) in this period. Both France and Spain were trying to keep up with English naval dominence, but lacked (due to centuries of deforestation) ...	[ "This question is getting a lot of traffic after being [tweeted by @reddit](_URL_5_), so I thought I'd welcome those of you that haven't visited /r/AskHistorians before to the subreddit. Please do bear in mind that in order to keep the quality of answers here high we have [strict rules on comments](/r/AskHistorians...
Where are bananas' seeds contained?	[ "They don't have any. They're all cloned (split from a tree and replanted) from a single mutation, which is why bananas are so prone to disease. We lost one species, the [Gros Michal](_URL_1_), to disease (not entirely lost, but the disease was widespread enough to prevent the economic distribution) already. They'...	[ "Perhaps it is a preservative in bottled juice. Check ingredient list." ]
What does it mean to have a unicameral legislature like Nebraska’s, and what benefits does it provide? How is a state allowed to pick it’s system of government?	[ "unicameral means there is only one group of lawmakers. bicameral means two groups, like the US federal government (house of reps / senate), British Parliament (house of commons / house of lords), and most US states. Many other countries have unicameral legislatures. a unicameral legislature can pass laws more easi...	[ "It comes down to the binding energy of the nucleus. If a nucleon can move to a lower energy state by emitting a particle or fissioning, chances are it eventually will. How long it takes to do so is determined by the 'energy barrier' or 'energy hill' it has to climb to get to that other state. Of course, this is ju...
Why do we get goosebumps when we listen to epic music?	[ "When you're listening to epic music your body releases an endorphin called dopamine (the pleasure hormone) as a reward for listening to such kick ass music" ]	[ "There are a lot of scientific answers here; I think a quote from Peter Ustinov's character in the movie \"History Boys\" might also shed some light on it: [\"The best moments in reading are when you come across something - a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things - that you'd thought special, particular to...
Why do clouds look like they have a flat bottom, as if they have hit an invisible barrier?	[ "Liquids (which includes things like air when doing fluid dynamics) do not mix evenly like you think they would. They form layers. If you have ever dove down in a lake you may have experienced a [thermocline.](_URL_0_) The water is, literally, warmer on side and colder on the other. Stick your arm through and you c...	[ "It doesn't always get colder the higher up you go. [Here is a picture of a typical temperature profile of our atmosphere](_URL_3_). In the lower atmosphere, the temperature usually drops as you go higher because the sun heats the surface of the earth. The surface of the earth then heats the air. The closer air is...
How do blood types work?	[ "All the organs in your body have protein markers on them. Your immune system looks for markers it doesn't recognize and, when it finds one, it attacks. When this happens to an organ, this is called rejection. When it happens in a blood transfusion, it's called a hemolytic transfusion reaction. Your blood has fewe...	[ "Radiolab does a really good job of explaining it like I'm 5: _URL_0_" ]
Reddit's obsession with John Cena	[ "The majority of the internet has an obsession with John Cena. All of it spawned when a radio show did a prank call or \"phone scam\" telling the person being pranked that they could see the WWE Superslam(Not a real event) and watch John Cena wrestle. There's a video from where it all started, just by looking up \"...	[ "\"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..." ]
How do gift cards generate revenue for a convenience store not associated with the gift card?	[ "In general, major brands often pay to be on the shelves of major retailers, so while Target might not get a cut of the profits from selling iTunes gift cards, they still get paid by apple to have them on their shelves." ]	[ "I would consult your employee handbook and/or talk to HR. In general, that sort of thing is given to you when you do stuff like join a gym and go X times a month. Or it could mean they're giving you money and telling you to use it on a gym or something. But it will necessarily vary (and by quite a bit) from compan...
Do non-human animals experience boredom?	[ "yes, of course. Dogs will become depressed and even destructive if they get bored." ]	[ "How do you know a year has passed without looking at a calendar? I imagine they sense the temperature/climate changes like anything else." ]
What's the best way for me to verify that global warming is real?	[ "To me, one of the best indicators that global warming is happening is continuous and observable land and sea ice melting. You could visit a glacier every year (or better, a number of them) and note their position, and watch as the majority of them recede." ]	[ "Planting trees helps but we're currently cutting down trees, globally, faster than anyone who's interested in helping could plant them. In some areas there is a forest renewal policy that forestry company's must plant new trees when they cut down a forest but some of the largest forests in the world are in South A...
Oldest person we know to have existed?	[ "The Palette of Narmer is a work of Egyptian art dating to around 3200 BC that names King Narmer, the unifier of Upper and Lower Egypt. He is thought to be the son of King Scorpion II. Since his name in inscribed on the palette in hieroglyphics, you can consider the palette itself a primary source (as it was made c...	[ "> I've always been stumped You and the entire history of Christian theology, pretty much. AFAIK there is no universally agreed upon answer to this question." ]
Why are both construction and destruction both enjoyable at different times, even though they are very much opposites?	[ "Both actions are a display of power, proof to an individual that they are in control of what's around them. The human nature loves being in power, because power often equates to success. Regardless what your doing, if you succeed at it, it makes you feel good, and sets off those lovely reward triggers in our brain...	[ "Ah this is one of the main questions in the entire field of psychological perception. There are multiple fields discussing it. What you are speaking of specifically are called \"Affordances\" and the field of \"ecological perception\" does quite a good job at describing what you are asking. I suggest reading about...
What determines which body part gains more weight ?	[ "All genetics. It’s nothing you really control. You can not spot burn fat with exercise. Meaning that crunches won’t burn belly fat. Exercise and diet that are appropriate, will cause you to lose overall body weight, from everywhere it stores it, most likely leaving fat where it first formed." ]	[ "Your employer takes money out of your paycheck throughout the year to pay your local, state, and federal taxes. The amount they take out, however, is just an estimate how much tax you will probably owe at the end of the year. There's no way for the state, local, and federal governments to know what you actually do...
we have machines that build parts to make other machines, but how did the parts for the first ever machines get built?	[ "Carving, poured moulding, and hammering/forging. Many new prototype parts and designer pieces still start this way." ]	[ "Basically, you stitch everything back together under magnification. The order in which it's done may vary, but the idea is that you fix the bones together to give you stability, then you use a microscope to reconnect the blood vessels so that the limb doesn't die, after that you suture the nerves so that sensibili...
Conservation of Momentum and Friction	[ "If you're including friction between say, the ground and an object, then you'd have to look at the momentum of the ground. To keep things simple, assume the ground, and by extension the entire earth, is a rigid plane (~~or cube, or~~ something ~~flat~~two-dimensional (thanks /u/kev92715) so we don't have to worry ...	[ "The assumptions and of your teacher are wrong. First of all you know the position of the particle only up to a certain degree, namely the width of the slit. That is an uncertainty right here. Secondly, you don't know the impulse from that experiment. You know the direction of the impulse vector (up to a certain d...
what did the baby boomers do that suddenly everyone is blaming them for	[ "The generation before them (the greatest generation) dropped everything after pearl harbor and began helping the war effort in any way they could. A lot of men and women died or sacrificed for the greater good of the country. Their children (the baby boomers) adopted more of a selfish attitude. Basically this is t...	[ "This is kind of a vague question, maybe if you could narrow it down to a specific place and year or decade? Mannerisms and culture change within society on a very quick turnaround (think about the differences in culture between now and 1990 alone) so it would help if you could specify" ]
Why Is Companies giving Senators a big stack of money to get there way not considered bribery?	[ "Companies do not give Senators big stacks of money to get their way. Just like I could set up a group that advocates for issues important to me, and either fund it with my own money or through donations, and then in turn decide to donate money to campaigns of candidates supportive of issues important to me - compa...	[ "> 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." ]
Why does the gas in a clear lighter look like liquid but comes out at gas? Why is this physical state change so quick?	[ "The gas in the lighter is [butane.](_URL_0_) It boils at around the freezing point of water, but is held in a liquid state in the lighter because it is under high pressure. While under pressure, the boiling point is raised, but when you light the lighter, you are releasing the pressure, which causes the butane to ...	[ "It's something in between, called a [gel](_URL_0_). It has some fluid-like and some solid-like properties and actually consists of a relatively rigid matrix with fluid in between. Many things we deal with in our daily lives aren't really a solid in the crystalline sense of solid many people think of. Gels aren't i...
What was the reaction by the common person to the ascension of the Scottish King James to the English throne in 1603?	[ "To give a really basic answer (hoping somebody will jump in with a more thorough response), responses were mixed -- weren't they always? Religion is a useful category for examining the reactions of common people to the accession of James I. He was widely accepted as legitimate, but fairly quickly questions were ra...	[ "If it's okay, I'd like to ask an add-on question: could anyone, theoretically, do the exam, or was it restricted to the middle classes? I mean, clearly a peasant would probably fail because of their poor education, but were they allowed to try?" ]
why is being a Whig historian such a bad thing?	[ "Whig history is created by looking back and selecting \"winners\" of historical encounters, specifically those which resulted in the \"improved\" modern world we live in today. The problem with a whiggish interpretation is that not only does it gloss over important details and events, it also results in massive mi...	[ "BTW, for those that are downvoting this question, I would appreciate it if you could take a moment to explain the motivation. On reddit in general I could care less if something I write gets downvoted, but here in askHistorians it decreases the chances something I ask will get answered so if I am breaking some sor...
the oxygenated fluorocarbon as seen in "The Abyss" (the rat breathing the liquid oxygen, which was apparently the real deal)	[ "Yup, in fact that scene in The Abyss was real; they really submerged a rat in it and filmed it. [Here's the wikipedia article about liquid breathing](_URL_0_). As I recall, however, there are issues with it. I've heard it's fairly painful as your body thinks it's drowning, and can cause stress-induced heart atta...	[ "There are a number of ways that scientists can use proxies to estimate temperatures - a proxy is just a known ratio of isotopes or minerals that changes depending on temperature. The wikipedia page for the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum goes in to a couple: \"Precise limits on the global temperature rise during ...
Why is the AK47 such a well respected/popular weapon?	[ "The AK-47 is an incredibly simple weapon. It has very few moving parts which makes it reliable. Yes, it absolutely will fire underwater, covered in sand, mud, dirt, you name it. So simple construction, and reliability make it a desirable weapon. Its really that simple." ]	[ "This is a very common question. You can use search to find [all the other really good answers](_URL_0_ ). This is instant, and faster than ust typing in your question every time. It's a way of cheating elections. Read the others, and then ask a more specific question." ]
After having their first large-scale success, why don't all musicians produce their own albums?	[ "Producers also manufacture and distribute the physical (and digital) media that music comes on. Those resources can be pretty expensive, so it's cheaper (or just easier) to have another company do it for you." ]	[ "Developers don't like app stores. They take a 30% cut, restrict what your app can do, make you wait to get your app released, don't allow upgrade versions, etc. You don't get direct access to your customer, you can't get their email to try and sell them more crap. On most mobile devices developers don't have any ...
Did the Soviets ever test their atomic weapons on political prisoners?	[ "Screw political prisoners, they used ordinary citizens as guinea pigs. [This documentary (NSFL)](_URL_0_) has all the gory details. Basically they set off 456 bombs at a test range in Kazakhstan starting in 1949. They chose this site as being reasonably close (93 miles) to the city of Semipalatinsk, with the i...	[ "Is this what Doctor Strangelove was based on?" ]
Auto industry price-fixing	[ "Because that's not price-fixing. If Toyota called Honda and made an explicit agreement to price the Civic and Corrolla the same, that would be price fixing. There is no reason to believe that that is occurring" ]	[ "It generally involves the roofer over charging the insurance or getting you to submit a fake receipt [here](_URL_1_) is an article (pdf) written by the bbb in Dallas because it has gotten that bad also [here](_URL_0_) is they blog write up, much easier read" ]
Gravity at the galactic scale	[ "~~Their past position.~~ As far as we know, gravity propagates at the speed of light." ]	[ "The short answer is yes, there is a whole branch of study of this in physics, the most relevant of these are geodesics. Standard procedure in GR is to use whatever geometry of spacetime due to the presence of mass or other parameters that we are interested in and reformulate the lagrangian, hamiltonian or other re...
Why has no one made a faster commercial plane since the Concord?	[ "A supersonic passenger jet that can hold enough passengers, quiet enough to operate in most American airports, and can be fuel efficient enough to be cost feasible would take years of development and prototyping along with billions of dollars. I'm sure airplane manufacturers like Airbus and Boeing are researching ...	[ "It's all marketing. There has been much criticism of pharma companies for this practice of marketing the same drug as multiple different medicines, at different price points. There are many people that think this is unethical behaviour. I would agree. If you want paracetamol then buy paracetamol. Ignore any \"spec...
Why are pitchers in baseball not as good as hitting as baseball players at EVERY other position are?	[ "This is mainly due to the fact that pitching is a very difficult thing to due, and learned through years of repetition that has to constantly be maintained, leaving less time for them to practice hitting. Now hitting is very hard on itself, which leaves pitchers generally either skimping in hitting or in pitching,...	[ "How do you know they committed that \"obvious crime\"? What are the legal elements to prove that crime and is there enough evidence to prove it? How do you know what an appropriate sentence is? Have the defendants rights been infringed in any way? If a guilty plea was obtained, was it obtained free from duress? Th...
Can you just direct any private ship to help with a search and rescue operation? Do they get reimbursed?	[ "I think it very much depends on where you are sailing. I know that when sailing coastal waters in the UK, you are expected to be ready and able to help people in distress so long as you won't endanger yourself... or something to that effect. There are many international conventions for stuff like salvage ops, sear...	[ "Most of the time the people who go to these places are either already successful or some kind of athlete. The majority of the people you are talking about already have a lot of money to finance these trips. The alternative is usually some kind of athlete like the ones you see on YouTube doing extreme sports (base ...
Why isn't there really low levels of oxygen in densely populated cities due to a lack of trees?	[ "The atmosphere is made of gases. They mix, really easily. Plus most of the world's oxygen isn't made by trees, it's made in the oceans by plankton." ]	[ "Infrastructure costs may well be part of it as there is obviously much less land that needs be covered, but I think Ofcom may have much to do with it as well. Here in the UK Ofcom is the regulator of communications and holds a lot of power over mobile networks and broadband operators, they have forced price reduct...
What are the technological/physical limitations regarding smartphone camera advancements? Will we ever see them match traditional ones?	[ "Small lens size limits light entry, so no, will probably never match the quality of a traditional SLR" ]	[ "[This post](_URL_0_) has links for pictures of all the Apollo landing sites. These pictures were taken by a satellite around the moon. It's essentially impossible to take pictures of these sites from Earth. Kind of hard to believe at first, but it's true. You would need an unbelievably large telescope because the ...
Why and how do small fishes (like goldfish) overfeed themselves to their death?	[ "For any creature to be able to stop eating when food is readily available, they need to have mechanisms that react to the amount consumed and triggers some sort of instinct to stop. For this mechanism to evolve naturally, the creatures would have to have gone through long periods of fatally over-abundant food. Thi...	[ "they do keep updating it and adding features, so your not exactly buying a 10 year old gopro for the same retail price. with that said, gopro is in pretty dire financial trouble because their market has been yanked out from under them by bigger competitors with less overhead and more efficient supply chains. They ...
Why can animal cells survive in culture conditions without a blood supply to provide oxygen?	[ "There is oxygen in the air. The reason that vasculature is needed is not to deliver oxygen, but to deliver it efficiently. This is why you find more efficient vasculature (and respiratory system) in organisms that require high amounts of energy. For example: one-chamber heart vs two-chamber heart vs three-chamber...	[ "It's all about having an atmosphere, since that's what helicopters need to fly. [This article explains it quite nicely ](_URL_0_) Here's a relevant quote: *\"Elysium was that—unlike an airplane cabin—its atmosphere wasn’t canned up in some hollow tube. A landing spacecraft could enter its air like it would on Eart...
Do blind animals still turn their heads to stare at sudden noises?	[ "Turning your head when you hear a sound is not just about being able to see the source. Animals with more than one ear can often also determine a more precise location by adjusting the angle of their heads (or sometimes just their ears) in relation to the sound. _URL_0_ This works because the sound waves will reac...	[ "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 is it possible for Cam Newton to pay a 198.8% tax rate, as claimed by Forbes?	[ "He's not paying all of those taxes on his Super Bowl winnings. He's paying taxes on his normal salary too. And his normal salary is about $20 million a year, so even a small fraction of that is more than what winning the Super Bowl pays. The article's point is that, if he weren't playing in the Super Bowl in Cal...	[ "He's substituting the mass of a football (probably a few kg) into E=mc^2 . He's using a equivalent tons of exploded TNT as an energy unit, like we do for atomic bombs. For context, the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima was about 20,000 tons and the largest nuclear detonation was 50 million." ]
In special relativity, why do all objects appear to collapse to a point in front of you when approaching the speed of light?	[ "As your velocity with respect to an object increases, the object is physically contracted in your frame of reference, but it doesn't appear to be contracted. This, which might seem counterintuitive, is ultimately because in addition to length contraction, light from different points of the object arrive at you...	[ "Have you ever wondered what's inside your bouncy ball? Imagine it was too small to cut but you really, really wanted to know. What you might want to try is throwing it into something so hard that it breaks and you can see the smaller parts. Of course, if you only have another bouncy ball because that's the only th...
Why do eyeballs hurt when you see the sunlight after being in the dark for a week ?	[ "Wait, no explanation for asking about sunlight after being in the dark for a WEEK? Dude, you have got to provide a little background information here." ]	[ "Educated guess here. Lots of blood and lubricating fluid builds up in all the \"tubes\" of your genitals when you sexually excited, and the tubes expand a bit for better flow. The \"plan\" is all that fluid is expelled in an ejaculation, then all the blood flow goes back to the rest of your body and all your \"tub...
Conversion of CO2 into sugar is endothermic, making plants "heat batteries". How much has "discharging" these batteries alone (by burning fossil fuels) contributed to temperature rise?	[ "It's not too complex to get a ballpark estimate. Let's give it a go... Burning a gallon of gasoline releases about 1 x 10^8 joules. The US burns 136 billion gallons a year. Let's say the world burns 4 x 10^11 gallons. That's 4 x 10^19 joules. Solar radiation is about 1 x 10^3 watts per square meter. The cross-se...	[ "The Earth is big, and it takes a long time to warm up. Temperature lags behind energy input." ]
Before antibiotics, how fatal was a cut or open wound likely to be? Did people behave differently as a result?	[ "Yes, cuts, wounds, and surgery were considered life threatening before the availability of antibiotics and antiseptics. Doctors and patients were very reluctant to perform a surgery purely for this reason. By about the 1930's, some types of surgery become routine, and some doctors start to report that patients see...	[ "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...
Why does my computer only use 4.5GB (the most noticed) of ram when my computer has 12GB installed?	[ "Either you're not running programs that need that much ram or you're only running 32 bit programs that can't use more than 4. More than 8 GB is excessive for the sweeping majority of consumers, in prebuilt machines it's a selling point to rack up the price and in custom built machines it's for specific purposes, ...	[ "Simply put, your brain adapts to it and adjusts it's own production of several chemicals to balance out the drug you're taking. It appears to affect you less because you could imagine that usually, you'd add the drugs affects to your brains naturally produced effects. However, if the production drops, then the sum...
How do people develop stage 4 cancer without noticing until it’s too late?	[ "A lot of the symptoms can be masked by other things. One guy I knew didn't find out he had lung cancer until it had metastasized to his ribs. He coughed and ached all the time for years, but he just wrote it off as a result of his constant smoking and age. It wasn't until he went to the ER to get an xray of a 'cr...	[ "There was the story of the [family that didn't know World War II happened](_URL_0_). There are some places in Siberia that are very isolated and populated with indigenous peoples, that probably are aware of who is in power, but just continue some degree of subsistence living." ]
Why are the missions of the SOE (aka "The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare") still state secrets in the UK 70 years after the end of WW2?	[ "It is very possible that tactics used then were new and are still used today in the same secret way. Thus they do n9t want to let them free." ]	[ "That feeling when someone asks a really excellent and thought-provoking question, and even after putting in a bunch of research you don't feel qualified to provide an AH-quality answer. :( But I did learn a most wonderful Victorian euphemism for feminists: \"the Wollstonecraft order who do mischief.\" *And that ot...
When measuring water percentage in an organism, is it only free water that is measured?	[ "Do you mean the hydrogen and oxygen present in amino acids and carbohydrates? Some of those atoms originated from water, but some of them did not. In any case, a single molecule of any amino acid or carbohydrate contains exactly zero water molecules. Once those H and O atoms are incorporated into a different molec...	[ "Feeling wetness is a combination of the work of mechanoreceptors, cutaneous receptors, and thermoreceptors. Thermoreceptors feel temperature, cutaneous receptors feel texture, and mechanoreceptors feel pressure. Anything that feels cold and smooth may feel wet. You're more likely to feel wetness if the temperature...
why is it more instinctual to hold our breaths while lifting something heavy, than it is to breath properly?	[ "when lifting an heavy object, your body needs to become rigid enough to lift such object. So you start tensing your muscles to create a strong enough structure capable to lift. Breathing involve the diaphragm to expand and retract the rib cage. in order to do so, the upper chest needs to be \"soft\" enough to allo...	[ "Cause love is the only thing that matters in the end. Or in a less poetic way, the only thing evolution gives a shit about is how many surviving offspring you get, and how many offspring they get and so on. So we have evolved to form bonds that would help with the survival of our offspring. As far as evolution i...
Is inter-species bonding limited to almost exclusively mammals?	[ "The species in question are all social species. That's what makes the big difference. If a species isn't social it won't have deep instincts to interact with its own species, let alone having that transfer over to other species. Also, regarding the bird example, it is more common than you think. In the wild [many...	[ "_URL_0_ > .... a fur seal tried to have sex with a penguin. ... _URL_2_ > ... Sea otters - cute, furry, adorable, clams-wouldn't-melt-in-their-mouths sea otters - have been observed forcibly copulating with, and in the process killing, juvenile harbor seals off California. ... _URL_1_ > my informant [a human] w...
Why do people sneeze when they look at the sun?	[ "My brother, husband and son all do this. _URL_0_" ]	[ "Actually, Isaac Newton studied the exact thing you are talking about. It's called a phosphene, and it's created by the stimulation of the retina by means other than light, such as a magnetic field or an electric current. In your case, it's simply the physical pressure exerted on your retina. [Source](_URL_1_)" ]
Why does reddit detest vapers/vaping so much? If nothing else the nasty cigarette smell is absent right?	[ "The problem isn't with the vaping the problem is with people that are obnoxious about it. Blowing huge clouds for no reason or have some ridiculously huge contraption to smoke out of. I vaped in the military and mine was just a fake cigarette, you couldn't tell the difference from a distance." ]	[ "\"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 does your body ache when you have a cold?	[ "_URL_0_ In summary: * The immune response has to kill some of your own cells because the pathogens are hiding inside. * Histomine causes your blood vessels dilate which also leads to some swelling * Cytokines make you more sensitive to pain Weakness and pain are probably not disadvantageous as it could slow the sp...	[ "Look at it like a phone and charger. If you put a load of energy into the phone (more than it's rated for), it'll do serious damage almost immediately. If you use an underrated charger, it'll put only a little energy in, but the phone will use more than it's getting and eventually die. Heat is just a form of ener...
What are arguments against sustainable energy?	[ "The biggest problem with solar and wind right now is that they can't provide baseload. If the wind isn't there, or if it's cloudy, there isn't enough electricity. Factories, houses, businesses, the internet all need a consistent level of energy to function. As soon as we figure out how to efficiently and cheaply ...	[ "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...
Based on this post by RobotRollCall, I think I actually begin to understand gravity and why the planets go around the sun. But why, then, do I feel a "force" toward the Earth when I'm seemingly at rest?	[ "> to follow a path through curved space? Not curved space, curved spacetime. Spacetime is a mathematical idea treating time as another dimension that objects move in. So yes, your path through time is important. You have no inertia relative to the earth, which is why you are pushing against it the whole time. Le...	[ "Your reflexes are still active when you are asleep. If, while rolling over, you feel the edge of your bed, the reflexes that keep you from falling force you to move away from the edge. However, if you are, say, very drunk, this reflex may not kick in, and you could fall off the bed." ]
Why do certain scents give us headaches?	[ "from what Ive found, the question has to many variables to nail down exactly, as each case is typically different. some research says its the swelling and shrinking of blood vessels, while others attribute it to memory association. In short, its a well documented phenoma with a variety of reasons and speculations ...	[ "This sounds like an extreme example of \"Tip of my Tongue\". _URL_0_ I can't really give an overly scientific answer as to what causes it (some interesting articles on that page, though), but I'd imagine that it's just a \"brain fart\", kinda like deja vu. It's a problem with long-term semantic memory recall. (Se...
How is it that different dogs breeds have specific personality types?	[ "Selective breeding by humans. If you want a good hunter then you breed the best hunters together, if you want a guard dog then you breed the animals that are more territorial. If you want a lap dog then you need to select the dogs that are less stressed by being around new and different humans. humans select the b...	[ "We can, it is just it takes a lot of study and the language isn't in the same form as human language so it isn't just like learning German or Spanish and it comes with body language, scents and other non verbal cues _URL_0_" ]
Why is tipping in USA so common, yet in the UK for example, it isn’t?	[ "Cause the UK pays service workers a living wage. They build it into the price of the entrees. The US wants the struggle to be real so they pay like $3.52 per hour to service workers and tipping is supposed to makeup for the shit hourly pay." ]	[ "Interesting; also, standing ovations at performances. Just as you said, they're somewhat expected now, despite the fact that they were probably once \"special\". I once heard this discussed on NPR (I think both topics were mentioned) & I hope someone has an answer!" ]
What would happen to a rope hanging from outer space to earth?	[ "This is probably of interest to you: [Several simulations of what would happen if the cable on a space elevator snapped.](_URL_0_)" ]	[ "You're right to be confused. It is 100% wrong as depicted in the movie, and a lot of people of wondered about why they made such a grave error considering the rest of the movie was somewhat realistic. It is likely that the reason this happens in the movie is that it makes things more dramatic. Artistic license i...
Is there something inherently rewardy about dopamine or is it arbitrarily set as a happiness chemical similar to how words in a language are arbitrary?	[ "That system came about via evolution. Put simply it's a system of a chemical released by certain brain cells that bonds to receptors on other cells altering their activity. Basically a signal and a receiver. A vast number of other chemical-receptor systems could accomplish the same task (we have a lot of similar s...	[ "Not an explanation just my fucked up reasoning : To get my dog to actually start fetching the toy instead of keep running away with it was to act very excited everytime he got it. So maybe they believe it's both?" ]
What prevents full recovery of nerves after reattachment?	[ "Just had a lecture on this! That's actually only half true. In the Central Nervous System (Brain and Spinal Cord) supporting cells called Astrocytes form a scar in the cleanup of the damaged cell and prevents regrowth. In the Peripheral Nervous System (axon tracts leading to/from the Brain and Spinal Cord) however...	[ "It is not \"can't\" just \"we haven't figured out how to do it yet.\" _URL_0_ We are also working on things like genes the govern tooth regrowth, so humans might eventually regrow a lost tooth. Sources: link + sister is a dentist and almost an orthodontist." ]
Viking Names, the English Language, and their Translation.	[ "Well, modern English is influenced a good bit by Old Norse. The bynames and patronymics you talk about are, because of that influence, easily translated to English. For example: Eírikr bloðöx = Eric Bloodaxe Eírikr rauði = Eric the Red Ivarr beinlauss = Ivar the Boneless (though legless is a possibility, too) Hrol...	[ "Any chance you'd be willing to hold on to this question until the historical linguistics AMA panel goes up on the 24th? It's not a bad one." ]
Everyday calculus application?	[ "Working out the size of a tin can that uses the least amount of metal and yet has the largest volume, uses calculus to determine this." ]	[ "The biggest practical usage, in my opinion, is the transistor which has led to the development of the modern computer." ]
Display panels and resolutions	[ "Finding 2560x1440 resolution screens isn't too difficult and there are 4k resolution monitors on the market. Pixel density isn't so much of an issue - even 8k monitor prototypes exist. But the average consumer doesn't need more than 1080p, so companies don't really make higher resolution monitors. The cost increas...	[ "There isn't really a good answer for this. There are too many variables like number of coil windings, physical resistance of cone surface, shape of cone etc. And in order to say it's good we need some point of reference as to what bad would be. There are at least 4 markets for speakers that I know of and all of th...
How do non-phonetic languages such as Chinese work across different regions of the same country?	[ "Accents often are mutually unintelligible. Cantonese and mandarin, for instance, don't even have the same number of tones, which for tonal languages (where differences in tones determine meaning along with phonetic sound) is a big issue. But, they share a written language. This means it's actually easier to commu...	[ "Most have a [relay phone](_URL_0_) in their homes - they use an interpreter. [TTY](_URL_1_) is also available on mobile phones, landlines, and in 911 centers." ]
If a circuit is perpendicular to gravity, would some of the battery power be used to lift electrons higher up and create gravitational potential energy?	[ "In principle yes, but since you have a circuit, statistically, the electrons drop down as much as they are lifted up, so you end up doing zero work against gravity. Even if you did work against gravity, the mass of an electron is small and gravity is an incredibly weak force, it has almost no effect. Let's do a qu...	[ "In an idealized setting, where one body orbits another in a perfect vacuum, no work is being done on either body (and thus no energy is consumed). Perpetual motion doesn't exist because the real universe is not such an idealized setting, but the error in this case is very, very tiny: the orbit of a planet around i...
A Proton (hydrogen ion) donor?	[ "The vast majority of hydrogen is just a proton. Chemistry involving deuterium (hydrogen with a neutron) is slightly different in the details but qualitatively the same." ]	[ "Yes! One of your parents could be recessive for a third allele called the [Bombay phenotype](_URL_0_)/H antigen that isn't ABO or +/-. The H is basically like the foundation of the ABO \"house\" so if you don't have an H then you can't attach and A, B and you will register as O with a normal blood test even though...
What would the world be like without any form of currency?	[ "\"Once I was in Victoria, and I saw a very large house. They told me it was a bank and that the white men place their money there to be taken care of, and that by and by they got it back with interest. We are Indians and we have no such bank; but when we have plenty of money or blankets, we give them away to other...	[ "It's how poor students would pay teachers many years ago. Before schools were publicly funded, families had to pay for their kids to attend school. This resulted more in a barter system where kids of farmers would pay with apples or frequently potatoes." ]
A few questions on physics & particles	[ "1) Light doesn't have mass but it does have momentum. I have seen it as a triangle actually so yes but it seemed pretty pointless to me 2) A photon is a particle of light. 3) Never heard of it. 4) If you do, someone is doing something wrong." ]	[ "You would perceive it to simply vanish. On very short timescales it would bounce around getting absorbed by the walls." ]
What makes an Image of Muhammad an Image of Muhammad?	[ "it's a problem once it's said it's mohammed O /\|\\ / \\ This stick figure is competely safe O /\|\\ < - muhammad / \\ This will get my head chopped off." ]	[ "Follow up question- how do people see me in the street: handsome mirror timaldinho or burn that photograph timaldinho?" ]
What types of sails did ancient galleys use?	[ "The OCD, following Casson's superb books on ancient seafaring says that sails in the Mediterranean were made of linen, and adds that leather was often used in the corners or in strips to strengthen sailcloth. Besides that, what sort of sail a ship might have depends entirely on the sort of ship--there are several ...	[ "If you're new to the thread, please don't post the Mythbusters episode again. Mythbusters is entertaining but it's not history (or more specifically, it's not historical proof of anything.) The short answer is no, not that we know of. /u/davidaop, our pirate expert, and I have both answered [questions about th...
How does the United States justify the use of "superdelegates" in the Presidential nomination process, when they are essentially free to give votes to candidates regardless of how many people actually voted for them?	[ "The US doesn't have to justify it. It's on the individual parties, which are private entities and free to set the rules of their own primary process." ]	[ "One major problem is that any people don't really bother reading more than the first page or two of comments. This means they're only seeing the top-rated comments, and upvoting those. Any comments that come later never get read or ever have a chance to get upvoted, regardless of quality. You can see this effect b...
Can the standard model be represented in a single (or a low amount of) mathematical expressions or equations?	[ "It can be represented by the Standard Model Lagrangian which can be shrunk to a (somewhat inaccurate, has too many h.c.'s) form that appears on [mugs and T-shirts](_URL_1_). However, those terms are all contracted forms of more complicated expressions, to write it out full you'd end up with something like [this mo...	[ "a way this is used is when some kinds of elements which are radioactive like some kinds of uranium releases radiation. This radiation comes in 3 forms. Well only talk about one form that is gamma radiation. When uranium radiates gamma radiation, this gamma radiation has no mass but it was observed that the uranium...
What is Zero Point Energy?	[ "It's the energy of the ground state of a system, or in other words, the lowest possible energy a system can have. In quantum mechanics, you can't have things be 'absolutely still' even at absolute zero, so there's always some motion, this is a consequence of the uncertainty principle. Now, this is often mischarac...	[ "Some amount of money paid to each citizen no strings, as an alternative to social security. I think the numbers pay out to similar costs. And the benefits are supposed to be substantial. It's already in practice at a small scale in Alaska." ]
Can we fix the blind spot?	[ "You're right. You can even buy little stick-on mirrors that have a convex shape, allowing you to see the presence of something in the blind spot. But that doesn't sell cars. Telling people that they have a radar that keeps their family safe does." ]	[ "Evolution doesn't \"design\" us to be better. Either your genes are good enough to survive and reproduce successfully or they're not. After enough generations, genes that are detrimental will disappear. Ingrown toenails typically don't kill people, and if they do, it doesn't happen often enough to select for that ...
Would an adult human brain become accustomed to 360 degree peripheral vision?	[ "Not a full answer, but my first thought was that you would have to focus on one spot of vision anyway, and then you'd just have a large, 360-degree connecting periphery at all times. But it turns out that's totally wrong and the human brain can process being focused on multiple points of vision at a time, so wh...	[ "> why isn't the field of view larger as you go from 720p to 1080p? Quite simply, it's because the entire point of higher resolution is usually better quality, not a larger field of view. No one wants a better display just so they can see more of a scene at the same low quality. Instead, they want to see the same a...
Do we know what the Earth looked like before ''Pangea''?	[ "Reasonably well. We've got pretty extensive paleogeographic data and reconstructions going all the way into the Upper Proterozoic (say, about 600 MY ago); beyond that we've still got data but things get a lot fuzzier for a bunch of technical reasons. You can find a collection of paleogeographic maps for assorted t...	[ "Your asking essentially the chicken or the egg. Example, Did you stomach evolove first and create your brain and extremites to feed it. Or did your brain grow your stomach to power it. Har to say, as without something to feed the stomach, we would have no stomch. Without the brain to run everything, we wouldn't ha...
I am colorblind. How do we know that I'm the colorblind one, and all you guys see the weird colors. ELI5	[ "> what if I am seeing the \"true\" world. There's no such thing. Colors are a completely subjective way of interpreting light information that only exist in our minds. The thing is, though, if you're colorblind, it just means you're getting less information from the world visually than the non-colorblind, so if yo...	[ "Imagine you are made of genetic soup. Some people have ingredients that just don't go well together and make the soup taste bad. But that's ok, because when you have a kid, we just take some of my soup and some of my wife's soup and pour it in together. So even though my soup has some bad ingredients, her ingredie...
How fast would a fully-fueled Saturn V rocket be able to propel itself without any Apollo spacecraft payload?	[ "Well the S-IVB has a dry mass of about 10 tons, and fuelled mass of 119.9 tons. The CM/SM had a total mass of 30 tons and the LM had a mass of 14.5 tons for a total of about 45.5 tons of Apollo spacecraft payload. The specific impulse of the S-IVB was 421 seconds. Delta V = Isp * g0 * ln(m0/m1) So... Delta V = 421...	[ "Because the projectile is going (off the top of my head) mach 7+. The air is going through compression heating and becomes a plasma. It's probably not undergoing chemical burning, though I guess the right projectile might." ]
How do all those one-way-rental trucks (U-Haul etc) get back to where they came from?	[ "In NZ we get a lot of tourists driving campers from Auckland and flying out of Christchurch. They pay people to drive them back. They generally get paid to drive to Picton and board them on a boat then get bussed back (get about $70 for it). They are picked up in Wellington by another mob who drive them to Aucklan...	[ "Because you are used to seeing yourself in reverse while viewing the _URL_0_ pictures you are seeing yourself how everyone else sees you.That's why if you ask someone if you look odd in a picture they'll most of the time say \"no you look fine\"." ]
Why is the Milo controversy such a big deal?	[ "I'm guessing people were getting sick of him and this was a good excuse to oust him as yes molesting children is probably the most frowned upon thing out there. And I do agree with you that he was abused and those behaviors were how he coped. Yep. But he's a grown man. Go to therapy don't attack half the planet. ...	[ "Here's a typical example: In multiple airlines around the world men are forbidden to sit next to children. If you're a man, you're assumed to be 1. a paedophile and 2. a child molester. It's actual company policy. It's like a black person being forbidden to enter a store without being escorted by a white staff...
Why are internet download speeds typically 10x faster than upload speeds?	[ "Your internet connection isn't one big pipe where data can go either way--it's several 1-way pipes. Given that most consumers download more than they upload, it makes sense to have far more download pipes than upload pipes in the standard connection." ]	[ "It also it partially due to your different genders. Males are designed to get rid of excess heat, more of their blood vessels are closer to the surface of their skin. Females, are designed to hold heat in. It traces back to how your body is wired for reproduction. With more blood vessels closer to the surface, he ...
What colonies did Russia acquire during the 19th century?	[ "Only Alaska (1799–1867) and Fort Ross in California (1812-1841) could be counted as \"proper\" colonies. Russia expanded in mainland Asia, and while many of those territories could be considered as colonies, bu they were administrated as governorates of Empire. Siberia was \"Wild West\" of Russia, but it was form...	[ "Hi, I've approved the post, but just a note to you and potential respondents: this subreddit has a 20-year rule against discussing current events, so any answers will have to cut off at 1997. If you're looking for answers that can include 1998-2012, do consider x-posting elsewhere, eg. a foreign affairs sub like /...
What is it about foods like chocolate and grapes that are harmful for dogs?	[ "As usual, it depends, [here is a PetMD page](_URL_0_ ) with a calculator that says how much is how serious. The chemical is theobromine, dogs metabolize it much more slowly than humans so in a large enough quantity it can kill a dog. The more cocoa in the chocolate the more likely it can harm the dog (ie. Dark cho...	[ "They don't really. The chance of that stuff actually happening to you is practically nil - but if it does, from a legal standpoint you were warned in advance. From a medical perspective they probably have ways to tell that a certain mixture could have some side effect without needing actual cases of the effect o...
Why does your nose start running immediately after eating spicy food?	[ "because the spices contain capsaicin. Capsaicin binds to your receptors, and literally makes your brain think youre on fire, which sets of all of these alarms, so your nose starts running, you start sweating alot more, you crave something to drink. Just remember, water doesnt work as its polar, while capsaicin is ...	[ "Our brains didn't evolve with cars in mind. They evolved with, like, being hunted by a jaguar (or whatever) in mind. So your brain doesn't know what to do with a car. It thinks hey, we're sitting, our body's not really doing anything physical, there's very little activity or stimulus... this seems like a good time...
How does tin foil in the oven not get hot?	[ "It does get hot. But since it is so thin, it has very little mass and a very high surface area compared to that mass. So by the time you've pulled it out of the oven, it's already cooled down quite a bit. That very low mass also means there is not much actual heat energy stored there to burn you." ]	[ "Kirchoff's law of thermal radiation says, more or less, that bodies that are good absorbers (darker) are good emitters of EM radiation. Good reflectors (lighter/mirrors) are poor emitters of EM Radiation." ]
Why do we see the milky way as having a black strip running through it?	[ "The Milky Way's spiral arms are filled with dust. Our solar system is in a spiral arm. As we look toward the center of the galaxy, our view is obscured by this dust." ]	[ "You don't get spots or stripes when you stir chocolate milk mix into milk... I believe the appearance of stripes and spots would have to be written into their genes As neither parent genetically had stripes or spots, this is out of the question." ]

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