Subset (10)

eli5 · 25k rows

Split (1)

train · 25k rows

query stringlengths 20 300	positive listlengths 1 1	negative listlengths 1 1
Why are unpaid internships legal, while workers working at a place for anything less than minimum wage is illegal?	[ "The Department of Labor is fairly specific about delineating the difference- _URL_0_ The short version is that for an internship to be legal, it has to be a form of training for the benefit of the intern, and the intern can't be used to displace/replace regular workers. If an internship meets those criteria, then ...	[ "Neighbor across the street: \"Hey Tommy, will you mow my lawn?\" Tommy: \"Sure, I'll do it for $5/hr.\" Neighbor: \"How about $3?\" Tommy: \"I want $5.\" Neighbor: \"OK, well I'll just ask your brother.\" Tommy: \"My brother and I and all the neighborhood kids decided together that we weren't going to mow lawns fo...
After a few deep breaths of cold air, why are my lungs so sensitive?	[ "The purpose of your upper respiratory tract is to warm and moisturize air before it gets to your lungs because the cells lining the inside of the lungs are very sensitive to these conditions. If you're breathing really cold air then there isn't time for it to reach ideal temperatures, and it can irritate or damage...	[ "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." ]
Intuitive ways to think about how electricity flows in linear circuits	[ "Can you elaborate on your question? The best way to intuitively picture this is usually the water pipe analogy. Wires are like pipes, and current is like water within the pipes. Voltage is like water pressure. There's a whole lot further you can take this, which I'd be glad to do, if you'll clarify what you want t...	[ "As far as I know, it's the blood flow in your ear amplified." ]
Why are freshwater lakes more common than saltwater lakes?	[ "Not really. Endorheic lakes (terminal lakes/sink lakes/soda lakes) are the primary sources of saltwater lakes. They are typically far inland and are in regions with little rainfall. These lakes do not drain like most lakes do through rivers and streams, so they accrue a lot of minerals like salt, and may even be o...	[ "Human babies live the womb surrounded by and breathing amniotic fluid. Their hearts have extra holes which seal themselves after birth which accommodate their reversed blood flow. We mammals adapt from an all fluid environment to a—gasp—no fluid environment. Tadpoles are humans. Ta da!" ]
What do military drum lines do?	[ "Keep the rest of you rhythm deficient SOBs stepping correctly. The drummer is a champion of tempo and rhythm. In the military marching and drilling are rhythmic activities. Having someone keep the beat helps. In years past the drummers cadence would also be used to communicate with other units over a distance. Tod...	[ "Small models. If you go to Mount Rushmore or the Crazy Horse memorial they have the scale model on display that the artists used for planning purposes. These models are perfect replicas of what's going to get built, but at a small scale that you can actually walk around. By taking measurements off these models and...
When people are born with extra, functioning appendages, are they also born with unique brain regions for controlling them?	[ "In cases of polydactylism, such as having an extra finger, I believe an appendage splits during very early development. One finger might split and develop into two but they are essentially treated as one finger by the nervous system." ]	[ "The go to way is to take a bunch of sensor units, attach them to whatever muscles are left in the stump, and convert their muscle movements into electric signals. These signals are then used for rather rudimentary commands. Hand prostheses for example are either \"pull to open\" or \"pull to close\". If you don't...
Were there diagnosed autism patients pre 20th century and if so were there groups of people dedicated to helping them live good lives like there are today?	[ "I don't think so, but I do know that behavioral characteristics that are often associated with autistic kids were depicted in a 19th century literary writing. The characters were referred to as \"Idiot Savants.\"The first formal reporting of autism was included in a 1943 psychiatric journal, and didn't make its wa...	[ "on Antarctica, here are some previous posts to check out for previous responses: [Do we know or do we have any evidence of any Peoples or societies that existed on the Antarctic landmass before it got covered in ice?](_URL_1_) [Is it possible that the native inhabitants on the Tierra del Fuego peninsula explored o...
What does Vaseline or similar products mean by: “Petroleum Jelly”?	[ "The product is a jelly made from petroleum. It’s literally in the name. It originally was a byproduct of oil drilling that built up on the rigs." ]	[ "Gasoline doesn't last that long, for one. You can buy gasoline futures (paying now for gas later) but it's a poor way to invest money. There are better ways to invest." ]
Why is America so successful and Mexico not?	[ "Mexico was not sparsely populated when the Spanish arrived. It was one of the most densely populated places on Earth." ]	[ "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 are very short car journeys bad for the car?	[ "If the car doesn't run long enough to get up to full operating temperature, a couple of things can happen. The gases produced by combustion include water vapor. A small proportion of the gases blow by the piston rings and end up in the crankcase, including the water vapor. When the oil is cold, the vapor condense...	[ "Elevation. \"Octane\" is a description of how much compression the fuel can be put under before it spontaneously ignites. The higher the octane number, the more pressure the fuel can take before it just ignites. An engine wants to take the fuel/air mixture as close to this point as possible (but not past it) befor...
If I heat a metal ring, will it become tighter or looser on my finger?	[ "The inner diameter will increase. In fact, it's very linear - a two inch ring will expand exactly twice as much as a one inch ring according to the coefficient of thermal expansion for the material in question. The geometry doesn't change anything." ]	[ "To clear things up: You want to transfer power over long distance. This Power is P=VxI (Lets use DC current for simplifying stuff) Now you want to minimize losses and/or material cost. With high voltage for the same Power P you have less current. This smaller current need smaller diameter in the transmission lines...
Are there any prominent 'histories' of major world events/wars written by historians that have never been translated to English?	[ "A heavy, heavy amount of derivative works building upon/criticizing/amending/defending the massive four volume, eight book 6.000 page biography of Mussolini by Renzo De Felice have been published - for a while the works of De Felice basically defined the study of Italian Fascism. In fact, if a biography of Mussoli...	[ "Hi - we as mods have approved this thread, because while this is a homework question, it is asking for clarification or resources, rather than the answer itself, which is fine according to [our rules](_URL_1_). This policy is further explained in this [Rules Roundtable thread](_URL_3_) and this [META Thread](_URL_...
Could the Hubble Telescope take pictures of structures or people on earth?	[ "Hubble cannot pictures of things on the Earth because it is moving too quickly relative to the Earth. As NASA says [here](_URL_0_): > The surface of the Earth is whizzing by as Hubble orbits, and the pointing system, designed to track the distant stars, cannot track an object on the Earth. The shortest exposure t...	[ "_URL_0_ Mainly because it blows wide open the idea of civilisation at that time being technologically primitive. This thing is extremely advanced, both in its construction and in some of the complex calculations that they now think it was designed to perform." ]
What SPECIFICALLY is and is not protected by the First Amendment?	[ "You can't scream \"fire\" or \"gun\" in a crowded theater. You can't wantonly and maliciously slander and defame someone untruthfully. Hate speech and obscenity is protected as long as it isn't threatening or suggesting actions of violence." ]	[ "as a follow-on question: I've heard of \"ritualized\" battles in some of the less developed parts of the world--remote pacific islands, rural africa, and the like. Is that true? What was the purpouse of such a ritual? what kinds of casualties were there? edit: as an aside, I'm pretty sure the WW1 \"live and let ...
how does the liver and gallbladder work. I think these are two organs that everyone should have a basic understanding of.	[ "Liver breaks things down or \"detoxify\" substances. It also creates some of the clotting factors needed to stop bleeding. It can help store glucose or break it down when needed. It also produces proteins that bind to drugs and substances that get used by our body. The gallbladder mainly stores bile and empties i...	[ "How exactly did labor markets (or whatever was in their place) function in the USSR? How did planners determine what was being paid (if this is a fair way to characterize it)? Did wages differ by trade/region/labor supply, and if so, how was this decided?" ]
Is there any proof that alkaline diets change the stomach PH? Can stomach PH be altered by diet at all?	[ "[In a word, no.](_URL_0_) The stomach contains mechanisms to regulate its own acidity and there is very little you can do to alter that. Neutralising some of your stomach's acidity will just cause the stomach to produce more acid and may, as a result, worsen any problems you might be having as it overcompensates."...	[ "You're right that zinc is not considered safe in that application. What leads you to think the can is galvanized? Tinplate is commonly used for this purpose - see the following article, which discusses industry use of tinplate and its safety: [Tin in canned food: a review and understanding of occurrence and effec...
Does the planet "use" the oil deep underground for some lubrication or anything like that?	[ "No is the short answer. Water however does modify the melting of minerals and in a way acts as a lubricant. Water or oil or any fluid occupying the pore space does does also change the stress on the rock. It isn’t necessary for anything though. Oil is found in sedimentary basins which are generally not hotbeds of...	[ "> For that matter, do we even really have a frame of reference to say what horizontal/vertical is? Only one you choose. You can just as easily represent the solar system rotating vertically and be perfectly correct. Or you could have a 45 degree angle. The horizontal depiction itself is just a choice. They orbit ...
safe to eat raw chicken.	[ "Most meat is fairly sterile immediately after slaughter, but the slaughter environment quickly taints the meat. Beef slaughter is not quite as dirty because you get so much off a single animal that you can afford some overhead. Chickens are notoriously dirty animals ( I own 20). And worse they are omnivores. Whi...	[ "This question was asked some time ago [here](_URL_0_) and it appears that, even with all the negatives Reddit presents, the overall consensus was “no, not really,” although there were a couple differences of opinion." ]
What is the purpose of a saline drip, medically?	[ "Keep you hydrated. It also provides a clean IV where they can easily give you drugs. Other side effects are that kidneys generally are less stressed when you're very hydrated (lots of things in a hospital setting are very stressful on your kidneys) and regular urination let's them check your kidney function easily...	[ "Because you will still remember the name and probably the jingle used, and above all that is what they want. Sure Coke benefits by trying to make you thirsty, but think about the number of businesses who don't necessarily expect you to drop in straight away. The idea is if you decide you need a service they offer,...
[ref. request] The history of Europe for people who don't know nothing about nowhere	[ "Read the Davies. It's a lot of fun...I've read it three times" ]	[ "If you can give more specific dates or a more specific subject I can refer you to more specialized books. Otherwise, if you're looking for general primers on a specific time period, that is good too. Respond whenever!" ]
What did common people in Europe do for fun/leisure in 1790-1820?	[ "I'm by no means an expert on this, but I am a very avid reader of 19th century literature (particularly Russian though). From what I've read, I gather that people lounged together a lot (some times someone read outloud, some times some one read quietly while the women knitted or played music, other times they just...	[ "Hi readers! Since questions like these often attract anecdotal answers, just a quick reminder: you are in /r/AskHistorians, so do ensure that answers are comprehensive and informative, and based on solid source material. Personal anecdotes or other casual chitchat/speculation/opinion are not accepted as answers he...
What is the energy source of our satellites (ex: the Hubble Telescope) ?	[ "Most of them are powered by large solar panels. Some of them are cylinders wrapped in solar panels. Others that need more power unfold them into \"wings\", resulting in the famous image of a satellite we're all used to." ]	[ "we used television cameras with vidicon tubes. These let it turn the optical data into electronic pictures, and let us turn those pictures into a digital bitstream, which was sent to earth. edit: fixed typos" ]
Why are our palms and soles of a different skin colour?	[ "Because the skin in the palm of our hands and feet (and lips) have an extra layer of epidermis called stratus lucidum. This extra layer can be made up of multiple layers, which makes the pigments made by the melanocytes not reach the top layers of our epidermis - thus giving a whiter look." ]	[ "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,...
Does your brain still ignore your nose after losing vision in one eye?	[ "After sitting with one eye closed for the last few minutes I would say yes, it does ignore it." ]	[ "You start with a reward based system. For instance; every time they hear a bell, a treat appears in the bowl across the room. Once they finally understand that sound = reward, you simply move the source of the sound further away until they stop noticing and take note of the distance. For sight it's a similar proc...
Is it true that darkness is just the absence of light? Or cold is the absence of heat?	[ "> Is it true that darkness is just the absence of light? Or cold is the absence of heat? In both cases, yes. EDIT: it's important not to confuse heat with temperature. Heat is a quantifiable form of energy; temperature is one manifestation of that energy in the form of vibrations of atoms and molecules. > How...	[ "The human mind is incapable of comprehending \"nothingness\", because we've never experienced it. Think of it this way: If you've never seen the color red, but you're aware of the idea of the color red, how would you describe the color red to someone else? You couldn't. You'd have nothng to base it on." ]
You know when you have to poop really bad and are trying to hold it in and then you get that kind of bubbly feeling in your bowels and don't have to go as bad anymore? What has physically changed that relieved some pressure?	[ "Contraction of bowel into the anal canal is peristaltic meaning it comes in waves. The first anal sphincter is involuntary so when you need to go it relaxes letting poo to the canal. Then you tense your voluntary one. When the peristaltic wave passes you mo longer feel the urge even though the canal itself is full...	[ "The specific altitude will vary depending on the relative pressure of the contents of the balloon and the outside pressure of the air and the balloon's ability to withstand certain pressure differences. A balloon remains inflated because the rubber is thick enough to withstand the pressure from the helium inside, ...
If one were to attach two gyroscopes to each other, could gyroscopic precession be negated?	[ "With counter-rotating flywheels, the precession forces exactly cancel out and it works just like it would work if the gyroscopes weren't spinning. Of course, there is still kinetic energy stored in the spinning motion." ]	[ "Everything on board the ship will experience time to behave normally. You can not experience your own time dilation, and neither can the camera. You can also say that you are in fact stationary and experiencing no time dilation, and it is the solar system that is moving relative to the ship, since there is no abso...
What is the fastest moving celestial object we have found?	[ "This is an extremely vague question. However, if you want to know what star in the Milky Way has the highest velocity relative to the Sun, it appears to be a star known as [SDSS J090745.0+024507](_URL_0_) moving away from us with a velocity of about 850 kilometers per second. Such hypervelocity stars are likely ej...	[ "If you threw it straight down at 50 mph relative to you, it would be going up at 50 mph relative to the Earth when you threw it. Of course, the gravity of the Earth would cause it to turn around and fall back down after a little time. You can see the equivalent phenomenon on an airplane. If the flight attendant to...
Why haven't we cured HIV, HPV, etc. yet?	[ "We have vaccines for HPV, but there's really no major incentive to cure it. If youve had sex more than once, chances are you've been infected with it. Nearly everyone is at least once in their life. Our immune systems just obliterate it 95% of the time. HIV is much different. HIV actually infects your immune syste...	[ "Not enough energy to. It's like lighting a match in a snow storm and expecting it to melt everything. Sure, the match is hot, but theres a lot more cold than there is hot." ]
Why do cars generally lose brake horse power (BHP) as they become older?	[ "When an engine is brand new all the parts have a near perfect fit. As time goes on things start to wear and get a bit sloppy. As a result items that are supposed to rotate begin to get a bit of lateral wobble and in the cylinders pressure starts to get past the pistons on the outside." ]	[ "The software becomes more complex and the demands on the cpu increase. You can certainly run an original IBM PC today with the original software but it would choke on Windows 10 as it was not designed for it and the original CPU lacks many of the enhanced extensions that the modern cpu kernel has in it" ]
Is there a limit to how strong an electromagnet can be?	[ "also, there is the [permeability](_URL_0_) of the material used as the core- too much current, and the core saturates. the strength of the field still increases with more current, but at a much reduced rate- so not a hard limit, but efficiency drops dramatically beyond that point. at least that's my (layman) under...	[ "That result is for an infinitely long wire of uniform charge density. That infinite length is important, as it provides some of the symmetry necessary to obtain this result. For such a wire, the total charge is infinite, where as the charge per unit length is finite. In a real world situation, the field value obta...
Why is it that we are unable to remember anything from the first few years of our lives as infants? Are our brains unable to retain memories at that point in time or is it because it's just too long ago to recall?	[ "Infants don't develop a sense of self until around age 2. It's hard to ask kids that young, but it seems like before that, events in the world are just things happening around them, not events they ascribe personal significance towards. They see the world more like an observer than a participant. Plus, they also d...	[ "People are very bad at assessing long term risks. We haven't evolved to handle dangers and risks of long term activities. Even though we intellectually know the risks, it is hard for us to translate that intellectual knowledge into behavior, as it does not tell our instincts that it is dangerous. We instinctively ...
What would happen if a nuke went off in the atmosphere?	[ "Nukes generally explode over their target as opposed to on it as it causes more destruction so they already do." ]	[ "This was experimented with a bit in the '50s by both the Americans and the Soviets. The main issue is that to protect the crew from radiation you need a lot of heavy shielding, and this makes it difficult to fly. _URL_0_" ]
Why do we blink in response to loud sounds we anticipate?	[ "A loud, sudden noise would indicate something has fallen, exploded, or occurred that could possibly cause you harm, many of times from shards or debris. Your eyes are delicate, and that's your body's response to keeping your eyesight functioning as well as possible - which was even more essential to surviving and ...	[ "Yawning in animals is generally a full body thing, you ever do a massive yawn where you have to stretch your arms and tense your leg muscles and stuff? It's a pack/herd animal adaption. Deer and Zebras it's really clear in, when some of the group is sleeping and some are keeping watch, one will yawn/stretch to kee...
When I shift my focus between the image on the TV and the reflection of the window behind me is that happening in my eyes or in my brain?	[ "Reflections aren't seen at the distance of the reflective object, but the combined distance between you and the object and the object it's reflecting. That's because the light from travels from you, to the window then back to you, doubling the distance. It's not going from just the window to you. Optometrists actu...	[ "The surface of the stainless steel fridge is not smooth like a mirror. Rather, the steel has a microscopic pattern scratched into it across the surface. Each scratch acts like a tiny angled mirror, and reflects light in a certain direction. A perfect mirror would reflect the laser spot perfectly, but since the scr...
Do plant's grow slower behind window glass?	[ "Here is the [sun's emission spectrum]( _URL_0_) ( yellow is upper atmosphere, red is ground level). Here is the [transmission spectrum of common glass]( _URL_1_). Comparing the two, you see that glass is very good at letting light from the sun pass through. When you put a plant indoors, however, you are lim...	[ "Are you perhaps talking about the fact that colder ice traps more condensation from the atmosphere, which forms an opaque layer on the surface because it doesn't crystalize evenly?" ]
Is it possible to calculate a bullet's trajectory and pin point the location where it was shot?	[ "not so much with a stray. a stray bullet isnt following its original flight path due to wind.The higher the arch of the shot the harder it is to get an approximation of the area" ]	[ "Simpler explanation: I write you a letter that says \"This letter was sent from < my address > on < date > and < time > . Please send me a letter back as soon as you get this, with the exact time and date you received this. You follow the instruction and send the second letter back to me. When I get your letter, I...
What was the degree of trade like in the dark ages?	[ "Before I get all high & mighty about the term \"Dark Ages,\" can you define what you mean for us?" ]	[ "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?" ]
Do people who are born blind have a concept of what they look like? Do their minds have images like ours do?	[ "The best way to imagine what it's like to have never have seen is to imagine waking up in a parrallel universe one day, one in which humans have an extra sense, imagine that this sense allows humans to communicate \"images\" to each other however these images are also feelings and a bit of something that doesn't h...	[ "If you had never seen a window before you would probably hit it a few times too before accepting that a completely transparent object can block your way, or perhaps you'd keep touching it while walking along it, searching for an equally transparent opening. I'm not sure the intelligence of an insect is enough to r...
If the Moon was orbiting the Sun instead of the Earth, would it be classified as a planet or a dwarf planet ?	[ "If it was orbiting amongst a collection of similarly sized bodied and didn't have enough mass to gravitationally affect them and toss them out of that orbit, then it would be classified as a dwarf planet. Like Pluto and Charon cannot clear out their orbit of other Kuiper Belt objects. Yes, it's a dodgy definition,...	[ "You're good on the \"molten innards rotating\". It's called [dynamo theory](_URL_0_). If the planet becomes tidally locked to its star, it wouldn't matter much since the molten innards are rotating with respect to the planet's surface." ]
What is Broadband Accessibility Act of 2017?	[ "> What is Broadband Accessibility Act of 2017? Basically? It's a $45 million bribe being paid to AT & T and Comcast to get them to stop blocking EPB expansion in Tennessee. EPB is an electric power cooperative in Tennessee that started offering gigabit internet service to customers in Chattanooga, but has subseque...	[ "Thank you for your submission! Unfortunately, your submission has been removed for the following reason(s): You can find the basic answer with a google / wiki search. Please start there and come back with a more specific question. If you disagree with this decision, please send a [message to the moderators.](_URL...
How South America is not as developed as North America, yet it was colonized earlier and with better results.	[ "The people who arrived in North America were there to stay, the ones who arrived in South America were only there to steal." ]	[ "We are born underdeveloped. Because humans learned to walk upright, our hips are shaped differently. Because we have large heads because of our large brains, if we give birth later, we won't fit through the birth canal. Picture something like a marsupial. They have their young VERY underdeveloped, they then crawl...
How accurate is a modern smartphone GPS system?	[ "Shifting tectonic plates, changes in the earth's orbit and better measurement technologies since the prime meridian at Greenwich was created in the mid-1800s mean that the strip in the ground is no longer exactly on 0 degrees. The prime meridian is (as your phone says) several hundred feet east of the strip." ]	[ "I think OP should add to the question if the artillery was using wrong data or the scouts/hq delivered wrong data. Just as a sidenote." ]
If alcohol calories can not be stored as fat, and they aren't used for energy (because alcohol is "empty calories"), then where do they go?	[ "Alcohol calories can be stored as fat. They are used for energy. [Empty calories](_URL_0_) doesn't mean what you think it does. It means that food has minimal nutrients (vitamins, minerals, etc.) other than being energetic/caloric." ]	[ "Barrels breathe. They expand and contract with temperature changes, drawing the spirits into the wood and then pushing them out again. They also allow in a small amount of air that filters through the wood. The interaction of the spirit with the wood, the char on the barrel, and the air is what ages it. Once it's ...
How was the order of the Alphabet decided?	[ "The order of our alphabet actually predates the alphabet by a very long time. The current alphabet with Latin letters ABC was inherited from previous alphabets like the Greek Alpha, Beta, Gamma and its predecessors like the Phoenician alphabet that went Aleph, Bet, Gimmel and so on. There have been archeological f...	[ "They make an agreement with a salesman for the local distributor. Usually they pick whoever will make them the better deal." ]
How did water on this planet come to be?	[ "Most of the earths water probably came from comets and asteroids after the surface had cooled a bit from planetary creation. Oxygen is produced by stars during fusion. So when a star supernovas it ejects the oxygen as well as unused hydrogen. After they cool off a few million degrees they may end up colliding and ...	[ "Well when two hydrogen atoms and one dirty little blonde oxygen atom from accounting make sweet sweet love in the copy room...things get a little wet." ]
Stars can "die" (in many different ways, I know). Can black holes "die"?	[ "It is possible that they can evaporate by emitting hawking radiation, but this is an extremely slow process that would take much longer than the current age of the universe, and can't even happen yet because the cosmic microwave background radiation is currently hotter than any known type of black hole. It's also ...	[ "X rays do not escape from within the event horizon either. The ones we see were never inside, but emitted from near the surface. To answer your question though, no, it would be pitch black. All the photons inside would be traveling towards the singularity, none would be traveling towards your eyes." ]
AMA: Roots and American Slavery	[ "Thanks so much for participating here! One of the things that is commonly pointed to as a horror of slavery is that masters were free to, and often did, split families apart, selling men and women to different owners without regard to their children. It also seems to be the case that slave labor was divided along...	[ "If I can ask a follow-up, why is Waterloo referred to as a \"lamentable event\" when this article was presumably written from an Anglo (at least, Anglo-American) perspective?" ]
What was life like aboard an English Man-of-War during the early 1800s (specifically during war against Napoleon and/or the War of 1812)?	[ "The questions you're asking could quite literally be a book (indeed, I would recommend to you N.A.M. Rodger's The Wooden World). However, not to leave you like that, I would invite you to take a look at some answers I've provided elsewhere on this sub: _URL_0_ _URL_7_ _URL_10_ _URL_9_ _URL_5_ _URL_6_ _URL_3_ _...	[ "Hi - we as mods have approved this thread, because while this is a homework question, it is asking for clarification or resources, rather than the answer itself, which is fine according to [our rules](_URL_1_). This policy is further explained in this [Rules Roundtable thread](_URL_3_) and this [META Thread](_URL_...
How do flares stop missiles?	[ "Heat-seeking missiles home in on the heat being generated by the jet's engine. Countermeasure flares are launched out of an aircraft and immediately ignite in a very hot flame. Now instead of seeing only one big hot target the missiles sees a dozen targets, and has to choose one. There is a constant battle betw...	[ "A few reasons: - It was a [Falcon](_URL_0_), which is a pretty good sized rocket. - The launch was at sunset. So it wasn't daylight on the ground, but the rocket itself was in daylight. The sunlight reflected off the exhaust plume. - It was a south launch into polar orbit. The track of the launch went near the pop...
When I wake up in the morning with a spider bite, did the spider eat my tissue and gain sustenance, or did it simply attack me?	[ "Most likely, neither of the above. You can rule out the \"eat my tissue\" scenario, since spiders' prey is never large, living animals. Spiders also don't \"simply attack\" people - to a spider, you are simply terrain. Spider bites happen when the spider is threatened/in danger, e.g. when you roll onto it or trap ...	[ "No you're misunderstanding a basic use of imagery to describe something. They show you all that food as what is part of a balanced breakfast. All those items are part of a balanced breakfast. Nobody is expecting you to eat all that and drink full pitchers of milk as part of a balanced breakfast. Its for visual pur...
People have higher physical performance under stress. Does this translate to mental abilities?	[ "No. That higher physical performance under stress is the result of muscle inhibition. Which basically means that under normal non-stressful conditions, your brain and nerves don't allow your muscles to operate at their full potential because you could pull your own body apart. (Literally, you could flex your own m...	[ "_URL_2_ columnist William Saletan waded into this issue several years ago with similar questions to yours. Here's an article posted AFTER his initial article and several followups, all of which can be reached via links within the article. It's an interesting journey with commentary from psychologists, statistician...
Are the "explosions" in this new simulation video supernovae?	[ "I've met a few of the people who worked on that :) Supernovae are part of it, but this is way bigger scale than a single supernova. You have loads of supernovae going off at the same time, plus you have other energy from stars (winds, radiation etc), and you also get a lot of energy from \"active galactic nuclei\"...	[ "Generally speaking we can't talk definitively about what we can't yet observe so people usually mean when _we see it_. For example [eta carinae\|_URL_0_] is expected to go nova in a relatively short time, anywhere between today and the next million years or so. However since it is 7500-8000 light years away it coul...
Why did the Jews not convert to Christianity like all of the "pagans" in Europe?	[ "The European nations converted when their kings/emperors converted. Once that happened, conversions to Christianity trickled down through the society. The Jews stayed in their own communities, keeping their social, racial, and religious identities closely entwined. Changes in language, politics, religion, or law ...	[ "> But, why doesn't Mercury just crash into the sun and why doesn't Pluto just \"escape\" the Solar systems with it being so far away? Because the planets are all moving sideways, which causes them to fall toward the sun, but always miss. That's really all an orbit is. It's actually quite difficult to get an object...
How is music remixed?	[ "When you record music in the studio, you record a bunch of different audio tracks (anywhere from 4 to over 100) and then mix those together to produce a final track. A proper remix starts with these raw unmixed tracks and then cuts them up, adds a few new pieces and creates a new song out of it." ]	[ "Using statistics. A representative sample of a country's population either get asked to keep a record of what they watch or listen to or have devices in their TVs or radios that do this. This information is gathered and the figures are scaled up to the whole country. EDIT: grammar" ]
Question about the modern remnants of the Iberian Peninsula's turbulent history	[ "Although you have received very complete answers, I would like to point out some more (although I am not a historian). From pre-Roman times you can find several archeological remains such as the [bulls of Guisando](_URL_3_), the numerous Celtic villages in the North of Spain and in Portugal, called [castros]( _URL...	[ "Hi, this is just a reminder to posters to abide by our [subreddit rules](_URL_0_) and remember that unless you're posting an in-depth reply about the history of the issue, your post will be deleted. Pay particular attention to the rules about soapboxing and the 20-year-rule. We don't need discussion of present-d...
How in the heck is Edward Snowden "living" in the Russian airport without being seen?	[ "He's not in the standard passenger area. He is in a hotel at the airport and in some back/employee type areas of the airport." ]	[ "The country is very large, with the cities so far apart that train service is too slow. So people want to fly a lot. The country is immensely wealthy, with a GDP per person of well over $50,000 per year, and hundreds of million of people. So a lot of people can afford to fly." ]
How does comparable gpu's have completely different power needs?	[ "More modern manufacturing process, using smaller transistors that leak less heat during operation, and improvements to the arrangement of those transistors that results in a more efficient architecture." ]	[ "It depends on many factors: * Energy consumption rate * Body weight and fat * Age * Genetics * Many, many other ones" ]
How can the Gaussian Function be integrated from -infinity to infinity, but it cannot be integrated in an indefinite integral to work at any point?	[ "The indefinite integral exists. It just can't be expressed in terms of elementary functions." ]	[ "There is a class of Probability distributions called the Gamma distributions. _URL_0_ \"In probability theory and statistics, the gamma distribution is a two-parameter family of continuous probability distributions. The common exponential distribution and chi-squared distribution are special cases of the gamma dis...
Would an Argon-Oxygen atmosphere be breathable?	[ "Yes, although the act of breathing would require more effort due to density differences. The partial pressure of oxygen is the critical factor, and at an appropriate % of oxygen, the partial pressure is the same. Deep sea divers actually use [oxygen-helium mix](_URL_1_) to avoid complications at higher pressures ...	[ "Had the same question earlier today and found [this resource.](_URL_0_) Organic arsenic and inorganic arsenic are different both in their structure and effects. See the first paragraph for details. Short answer is that organic arsenic is believed to be nontoxic. Edit: I figured you might be like me and need some a...
Why are German cars cheaper in the USA than they are in Europe and Germany?	[ "One reason is taxes. Most US states do have sales tax, but it's not included in the MSRP of the car. US sales tax is usually around 6%. Another thing is that exchange rates are a very flawed way of comparing prices. It doesn't quite work that way most of the time. There are a bunch of other economic factors that ...	[ "Most of the mark up is done by those who hold distribution rights within your country. Interestingly with the US minimum wage it takes about 8 min of work to earn enough to buy the song. In Australia at your minimum wage it would take you about 7 min of work to earn enough to buy the song. So they are more or les...
Why are rising house prices considered 'good'? If anything else rose in price, it's usually not considered good.	[ "Price is an indicator of demand in economics. Rising prices mean increased demand. Rising housing prices mean an increase in the demand for houses. Houses have be linked to stable families and are significant investments. So a healthy strong economy should have a strong demand for houses as families with (members...	[ "Well, the Wars of the Roses were in that period, in which you had Nevilles and Percies ambushing each other along the borders, lords rebelling against kings, disorders in Wales, lords obediently passing acts of attainder and repealing attainders passed by the last faction to control the throne (removing titles, se...
What does pH mean at a molecular level?	[ "The pH of a solution is a measure of the concentration of H^+ ions in the solution (specifically, the negative of the base 10 [logarithm] (_URL_0_) of the concentration/activity). If something is acidic, that means it increases the concentration of H^+ in a solution when dissolved, and an alkaline substance does t...	[ "Apn - Access point name. It is the host name of your cellular company’s data gateway. Changing it to something that your carrier has not given you will break your data service. The only way to try a different carrier is to swap out sims for a new carrier and then change your apn to what they prescribe for you." ]
Is it possible that we could ever generate electricity from the momentum being carried in falling raindrops - by capturing the force with which they land on a rooftop panel?	[ "A better way would be to collect it in large reservoirs and flow water from the reservoir through an electromagnetic turbine. We already do that. You can do the kind of thing you're talking about with some kind of piezoelectric actuator (converting vibration into electricity), but I doubt you'd get much out of it....	[ "Car engines are extremely heavy. The starter motor for an ordinary car may briefly put out more than 4 horsepower. (Notice the huge battery it uses.) It's not realistic do do that with a kickstarter. What you can do is get a human-powered charger and use that to refill a battery that will provide that surge of p...
What is actually happening, on a microscopic level, when people wash their hands?	[ "There is a lot of going on when you wash your hands. 1. Water is a universal solvent, meaning dissolves a lot of different substances (the most substances of any other liquid). This takes time, so the more time a substance spends under water, the more of it is dissolved. 2. Physical agitation. The mere act of rubb...	[ "Dvds and cds are played back by shining a laser on the aluminum layer above the clear layer of plastic on the bottom. A fingerprint can reflect or distort the laser, which means that the aluminum layer can't be read. A digital recording like a DVD can skip frames or stop playing completely if the recording is unre...
Why don't books have age ratings?	[ "Lack of demand. The censorship crowd that demands strongly enforced age ratings tends to be a very unsophisticated, reactionary, populist bunch. The reading crowd tends to be a rather sophisticated, intellectual bunch. In the year 2014 there just isn't a lot of overlap." ]	[ "Yuo can raed taht way beauce we dno't acluatly raed ervey letter in a wrod, we raed the shpae of the wrod. It's sungrisiprly esay to raed tihs, but relaly anoyinng to write lkie tihs, so the rset I copeid form the intnernt. \"i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pwe...
Why does our mind seem to work against itself in cases such as anxiety and depression?	[ "One theory is that these simply represent a defect, something that's a bit broken. Another theory is that the human brain is not good at coping with the conditions of modern civilized life. Another theory is that these are actually helpful emotions to keep you alive in a situation that's really threatening." ]	[ "Think of your brain like a billion streams of water that flow over the surface of a rock. The more you use a certain stream, the more \"powerful\" that stream becomes by digging away that rock. Now even if you have a nice dug place for a stream, sometimes randomly that stream won't have needed to flow for a while ...
Why is no medicine delivered through the nose like cocaine?	[ "Lots of medications are nasal delivery. I've used allergy medicine that was just a spray bottle. It's not just localized either, it's absorbed into the body." ]	[ "Actually it is being worked on presently, maybe you've heard of stem cell research? Same principle, but usually grown outside the body (currently), however there is a lot of talk about using straight injections for some issues, with spinal paralysis being a big one." ]
Why does fresh prepared rice, nice soft rice, dry out when sealed immediately and refrigerated?	[ "There are two kind of starch in rice: amylose and amylopectin. Amylose is a long, straight starch that rigidifies when it cools. Amylopectin is stockier and branched in structure, and it gelatinizes under heat. Long grain rice—the rice most prone to hardening in the fridge—has a high proportion of amylose. The sh...	[ "Think of your brain like a billion streams of water that flow over the surface of a rock. The more you use a certain stream, the more \"powerful\" that stream becomes by digging away that rock. Now even if you have a nice dug place for a stream, sometimes randomly that stream won't have needed to flow for a while ...
What's the difference between a road, a street, a boulevard, a lane, and an avenue?	[ "Road: a wide path leading from one area to another Street: a road with houses on one or both sides Boulevard: wide street with vegetation Lane: a narrow road, usually without shoulders Avenue: road with trees at regular intervals So basically the name tells you whether or not there are houses and/or plants alongs...	[ "I usually explain it to my friends using phones: & nbsp; Switch - You can call anyone in your area code but can't get anyone outside of your area code. & nbsp; Router - You can call people in your area code(switch), but anything not in your area code is forwarded from the switch to the router. The Router can for...
Why is it that when I am watching a video in slow-motion, the voices of people speaking sound really low and deep?	[ "Sound is air waves. The pitch of the sound is determined by the frequency, or how many air waves hit your ears per second. High sounds are high frequency and low sounds are low frequency. When you slow down audio, you literally decrease the number of waves hitting your ears per second, so it sounds lower." ]	[ "You've got a tube that connects your inner ear to your throat called a Eustachian tube. Normally this tube is pretty much open, except for a 'door' on the throat end to keep stuff out. When you've got a cold, the tube can get infected and it gets swollen, so even if the 'door' opens it can't equalize pressure bet...
Why do people (and apes in general) have two breasts/nipples, given that they're most likely to have only one child at a time?	[ "We have bilateral symmetry. Every mammal has an even number." ]	[ "* It relied on the fact that you could use the TV's off air tuner at the same time you used the VCR's or cable box's tuner. Today most people get their local channels via their cable provider, and often don't even have an off air TV tuner. * The main advantage of PiP was to see what was on other channels. Built i...
How does the captcha technology work and why sometimes do you have to go through only one test and sometimes 6?	[ "Captcha works by tracking your mouse movements on the screen. It is basically looking for human like interactions, rather than trying to make the questions unanswerable by bots. This is why sometimes it can be as simple as checking the \"i'm not a robot\" box, and other times, having to complete the same test many...	[ "Different amounts of traffic at different times. If its not too congested reddit will keep trying to serve you the page you wanted. If it is congested, it'll stop trying and give you that error page." ]
Why do we squint when we hear a loud noise?	[ "An attempt to protect our eyes from any projectiles the loud noise could cause." ]	[ "Yawning and stretching increases blood pressure and preps our muscles for activity. Having yawns be shared among a group of animals/humans makes us more alert and prepared, which was probably advantageous to our survival in the past. Watching [Vsauce's video](_URL_0_) may be more clear than my stolen summary." ]
Which other plans were suggested for the partition of the Ottoman empire after its fall and why were they rejected? Why are the borders in the Middle East the borders they are today if they cause a lot of conflict?	[ "I suggest reading David Fromkin's A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East. Mr. Fromkin describes how and why the Allies, through the Sykes-Picot agreement, drew the lines of the Middle East. He also points to imperial ambitions and Europe's lack of unders...	[ "What does the centre regions of the milky way look like? Are bodies very close together or still separated by lightyears? Do solar systems occur or are the gravitational forces from all directions too strong too sustain stable solar systems?" ]
Why isn't fish considered meat during lent ect.?	[ "In this context, Catholics use the Latin word for meat that specifically refers to the flesh of a warm-blooded animal, so fish and other seafood is okay. [NPR has some more info](_URL_0_)." ]	[ "The mystery was recently solved so you ask at the right time. Long story short birds that migrate make breaks at lakes. Fertilized fisheggs get stuck at their feet and then carried to another lake whee they develop into fish! It's cool" ]
Why does a white cop shooting a black person get world wide coverage but when a white cop shoots a white person it doesn't make it outside of USA news coverage.	[ "My take on the question is just that it's easier for media companies to make money and gain attention by bringing race issues into the situation. It's always been the news anchorman to be the first one to say \"black youth\" or \"white cop\" and everyone loses their shit. Remember: Controversy = Good for News stor...	[ "News and scheduled programs have different airing times for the different time zones. Live programs (sports, or a presidential debate or something) are scheduled so as to attempt to be convenient for everyone. This often ends up being rather late on the east coast, and inconveniently early on the west coast. I don...
Why do lengthy Terms of Service (ToS) for websites like facebook or Twitter stand up in court despite 90% of users not reading or understanding the document?	[ "They actually often don't stand up in court, at least not when the case is Big Giant Corp. v. Small Individual. There are special rules for \"boilerplate\" in contract law, and one of the most active areas of legal scholarship today is how to deal with the proliferation of lengthy terms of service. One theory, fo...	[ "Yuo can raed taht way beauce we dno't acluatly raed ervey letter in a wrod, we raed the shpae of the wrod. It's sungrisiprly esay to raed tihs, but relaly anoyinng to write lkie tihs, so the rset I copeid form the intnernt. \"i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pwe...
If the coriolis effect makes hurricanes/typhoons swirl in different directions, what exactly happens when storms cross the equator? Do they begin to slow and weaken?	[ "Look at [this chart](_URL_0_). Hurricanes don't cross the equator! They don't even form very close to the equator, because the Coriolis effect doesn't exist at the equator and is very small at small latitudes. As a storm approaches the equator, it either loses intensity or turns away because there is no driving fo...	[ "This is the whole \"paradox\" in the twin paradox. The resolution to be paradox is the fact that the motion of the twins is not symmetric. In order for the twins to meet up at the end of the experiment, at least one of them must accelerate, and therefore change inertial frames in order to turn around. In t...
Besides human activity, how is the carbon in fossil fuels returned to the ecosystem?	[ "A large portion of the petroleum in the ground gets released naturally over time; it isn't extracted and used/burned by humans. Still don't know, once it's released to atmosphere/the ocean, how it recycles back into the ecosystem other than micro organisms eating it. Doesn't quite support my statement in full but...	[ "Hydrolysis of water definitely has a reverse reaction. It's called \"oxidation,\" or more commonly, [\"combustion.\"](_URL_1_) & #x200B; You can absolutely burn hydrogen. And you are correct - it [releases quite a bit of energy.](_URL_0_)" ]
Affluence of Jewish People	[ "No need for all this ancient biblical stuff. In modern society, the reasons that Jewish people tend to be affluent, is because as a culture, they value education, and encourage children to study hard, get an education and go into professional careers, like medicine, law, business. They also frown on having kids o...	[ "I asked a question about [the Rothschilds losing assets to Nazi Germany](_URL_0_) to one of the historians here. The answer I got was that they were diversified enough that losing their German assets didn't really hurt them much at all, and in the long run may actually have helped them." ]
Why can I usually smoothly fast forward a digital video (Netflix, HBO Go, DVDs, etc) but reverse playback is always a jerky mess?	[ "Vidoes general are usually buffered forwards not backwards. Basically they assume that once youve seen it already it's unlikely that you will go back to see it again. So if you do have to go back all the currently buffered data is tossed out and then you are basically starting fresh from that new point that you j...	[ "A show like Jimmy Kimmel isn't on YouTube for the revenue, they're on YouTube because it's free advertising. They don't want you to watch all the back-episodes, they want you to tune in and watch the show as it's airing." ]
What were the purposes and policies of the Whig party?	[ "[I made this post](_URL_0_) awhile back discussing the Whig Party, however feel free to ask any additional questions if that post doesn't cover your inquiry." ]	[ "Caveat: I am not a dentist, but I am someone with a cool dentist who keeps me up to date on relevant research. Prophylactic removal has fallen out of favour in many places around the world. The UK are against it, with the NIH stating \"The practice of prophylactic removal of pathology-free impacted third molars s...
why is it that in all movies and TV shows, characters never end a conversation on the phone by saying "goodbye"? Instead they simply hangup, regardless of genre or tone.	[ "Movies and TV shows are supposed to show only the bits that matter. Screen time is limited and you want to keep your viewers focused. You don't see characters having their breakfast, having a shower, shaving, taking a poop, etc because they are mundane and don't contribute to the plot." ]	[ "It has already been answered, but I will add some more detail. A camera records the visuals, an microphone records the audio, obviously. The problem is, that unlike with consumer cameras, the audio isn't recorded to the same file as the video. So, you are left with a very high quality audio track, and a separate v...
How does absorbing neutrons by U238 create Pu239 which has two more protons?	[ "> I would assume that absorbing neutrons would add neutrons and not more protons. How does this happen? It undergoes two beta decays where a neutron emits an electron and becomes a proton." ]	[ "You can use immunohistochemistry/immunocytochemistry/flow cytometry like /u/baloo_the_bear says, but tau is present all the time, but you're looking for a specific pathological aggregation state of tau. It's not my specific area, but I believe that you're looking for the hyperphosphorylated tau state. You could ^3...
What is a "confirmed kill"? Is this a real military term or more a Hollywood myth?	[ "It's real. The military keeps records of sniper kills, the range, the weapon used...etc. Traditionally it wasn't publicly discussed and was sort of a \"don't talk about fight club\" rule among snipers, but Hollywood has popularized the term." ]	[ "Usually it's referring to how government contracts are awarded. Contractors submit bids for how much it will cost to do a particular job for the government, and the government is required to choose the contractor with the lowest cost estimate. So like Apollo astronaut Alan Shepherd said: \"It's a very sobering fee...
why does bank transfers take so long?	[ "In addition to the reasons below - there's likely a commercial interest at play too - if bank A sends money to bank B immediately, while bank B is checking it is legit, it can earn interest on that money in the hours or days before they release the funds. And that's a lot of money." ]	[ "It mainly has to do with the monopoly that ISP's hold over different areas. Most people have one choice for their internet provider. It's not like you can switch to a different company if you aren't happy with their shit service. Another thing is that the capacity for fast internet exists it's just that they have...
When you "see stars" what are you actually seeing?	[ "You are not \"seeing\" anything, that is simply your brain not getting enough oxygen to process what you are seeing. Like when you stand up too fast and you loose blood pressure in your head. You will have a tendency for your vision to fade, and sometimes even go completely black." ]	[ "Since the question has already been answered, I'm just going to throw in a plug for my favourite app for answering these kinds of questions, [Google Sky Map](_URL_0_). Just point it at whatever is confusing you, and it tells you what and where everything is." ]
Why is the incarnation rate in the US so high compared to other countries? Are laws just stricter here, or do other countries have alternative forms of punishment?	[ "USA has a prison for profit system, because of this misdemeanours which would be given a warning or suspended sentence in other countries recieve long sentences in 'Murica." ]	[ "Two things. 1st. Writing. Egypt had it. The Americas mostly didn't. So there was little in terms of long term, permanent record keeping. In Egypt we have huge volumes of recorded histories, in, assuming our translations are correct, their own words. Mostly in the Americas you have folk stories. Which can be very ...
How come I can pop some of my joints every few minutes but some can take hours before I can pop them again?	[ "When you are still, basically a gass formes in your joints. If you crack them the gass escapes the joints and produces the popping sound. It takes a while to form in the joints again." ]	[ "Someone's musical taste derives from the same pleasure centers in the brain attributed to hobbies, obsessions, and activities that give someone the sense of contentness. Our reward and pleasure centers undergo change as one matures based on socio-environmental factors which can be attributed to some drastic change...
What was the importance of Cheese in ww2?	[ "the map just details the natural and industrial resources produced in NZ during WWII. It also shows e.g. sheep and timber. There is nothing about cheese being important. NZ was, and is still is, a big producer of dairy goods. I'm not even sure if this is a serious question, but cheese and dairy products are genera...	[ "You may be interested in this similar earlier thread. _URL_0_ See responses by Blanglegorph, jonewer and myself. The short answer is that any positions of relative advance (e.g. Rocketry) tended to be out of desperation, whilst Allied advances (e.g. Computers) tended to be more a case of doing things they could af...
If Uber/Lyft are just ride-hailing applications, what prevents actual taxi companies from cloning the app to automate their dispatching/payments?	[ "The difference is that legal taxis have to have a license that can cost many hundreds of thousands of dollars per cab. It is the law. It is a way to avoid exploitive taxi companies and an overload of cabs. Meanwhile Uber/Lyft do not need this and do not need to limit number of drivers. Basically, the system is br...	[ "Because they use a separate company to provide ads, which come from different web servers. Imagine they're people. Dave works for the pizza company, he delivers your pizza. Sarah works for marketing company, she delivers the ads. Now, you could put a camera on your porch. Then you only open the door for Dave, but ...
On Guitar, why are the B and (high) E strings not C and F strings?	[ "This is a great one to try for yourself. Tune in all fourths and you should quickly see how awkward it is to play. Chords get extremely difficult, and open strings fit into the key far less frequently. I play around with a bunch of different tunings, but straight fourths is nearly useless. I'll also add that in al...	[ "_URL_0_ Reportedly cows tend to feed more around sundown when the nutritional content of plants is higher. > “A series of USDA studies looked at animals’ ability to choose different forages. The researchers cut hay in the morning and in the evening and used this in the choice tests. They’ve done it with cattle, g...
If wearing flip flops is bad for your ankles due to a lack of arch support, does that mean walking barefoot is equally as bad?	[ "Yes. Barefoot walking _on hard surfaces_ is equally bad." ]	[ "There is a major difference and that is that the program was downloaded and executed automatically when you loaded a web page. You need to download and install regular programs so is it a lot harder to convince someone do that compare to be executed automatically. The page was not necessary one that that the hacke...
How can a star not have any planets?	[ "If there isn't sufficient angular momentum in the gas cloud for enough gas to stay out of the star, enough material won't be present to form planets. Keep in mind that the sun is literally over 99% of our solar systems mass. A less than 1% change would be sufficient." ]	[ "Because the solar system is spinning. Spinning things become flat. Like pizza dough when they throw it in the air." ]
why are Chinatowns celebrated in American cities as tourist destinations? What's the cultural significance compared to say a Braziltown?	[ "We do not have a lot of Brazilian immigrants, and those that we do have are not extremely likely to congregate. That said if a Braziltown did form it would not have the same draw as a Chinatown because it is not culturally different enough. Brazil is a former Portuguese colony and much if not most of their cultur...	[ "The change came with the meeting between Nixon and Mao. Reading up on that meeting might be a place to start. The relationship between China (PRC) and Taiwan (ROC) is interesting. Both governments consider them to be one country. As long as the exiled-government-of-China-which-resides-in-Taiwan continued (and cont...
Why can't we see the moon's surface well enough to see lunar lander sites, but we're able to produce deeper space images with orbital telescopes?	[ "The deep space images we get are of objects which are really, really big and usually emitting huge amounts of light on their own. It is like asking why you can't see an ant from 100 meters away but you can see a stadium from a mile away. A stadium which is on fire." ]	[ "There is [a limit](_URL_0_) to how far we can zoom in. The angular resolution depends on the size of the telescope and on the wavelength of light used." ]
how a pedometer/step counter works?	[ "In the old days, pedometers had a little ball that bounced up and down with each step. Nowadays they use piezo-electric crystals. Those are crystals that have a tiny electric charge when they are under stress. As you move, the stress changes, and that change can be detected in the charge. Fitbit themselves have a...	[ "Little built-in batteries to drive an [RTC chip](_URL_0_). It's basically a tiny digital watch built into the device. On older PCs (think MS-DOS era), you had large, visible batteries that, while rechargeable, could go dead on you. DOS would ask you for the date & time before doing anything else on boot." ]
How are giant highway bridges built?	[ "Warning: I am not a civil engineer, don't take this as infallible Bridges are typically built, as obvious as it may sound, one bit at a time. Initially the pylons (towers) are raised, then the road surface is rolled out across the span in sections. There's a [fantastic documentary on youtube](_URL_0_) that talks...	[ "They collect anonymous data from anybody who is running Maps or otherwise using Google location services. They use that to average out the speeds on each road." ]
[Biology] Why does ice cream make you thirsty?	[ "It takes much water for your body to digest all the fats and sugar. It will first draw this from your stomach and intestines (from your bloodstream, ultimately). Thirst is your body telling you to drink water - in this case, just to replenish what was used to break down the fats and sugar." ]	[ "Neural adaption. Basically, your brain only cares about a change in stimuli rather than every stimulus that comes along. Your brain knows how to ignore a stimulus if it isn't changing. So, if you are tasting/feeling the same thing all the time, your brain is going to ignore it." ]

Subsets and Splits

No community queries yet

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