Subset (10)

eli5 · 25k rows

Split (1)

train · 25k rows

query stringlengths 20 300	positive listlengths 1 1	negative listlengths 1 1
How much control could the Tsar exert over eastern Siberia, ~8000 km away, in the 17th century?	[ "I forgot to say, two books to check out: Yuri Slezkine's Arctic Mirrors (thoughtful, academic) and Bruce Lincoln's Conquest of a Continent (readable, entertaining, somewhat sensationalist)." ]	[ "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 /...
Is the strength of two magnets additive?	[ "The field from the magnets adds linearly, but the response of the sheet metal does not. Iron and steel become magnetized when in a magnetic field. Magnetic pull on them depends on field strength times amount of magnetization. Magnetization increases with applied magnetic field in a characteristic S-curve: _URL_0_...	[ "It would be highly unstable. Perturb either of them by a tiny amount, and they would fall out of equilibrium, which would result in them getting flung around the Solar System." ]
What led to Scotland and Wales becoming a country instead of being part of England?	[ "Not really an accurately worded question. Wales was absorbed into England, and part of England, and was only technically recognised as a country within the UK separate from England relatively recently. Scotland was never part of England and was a country in its own right. It had been independent of England for a...	[ "Her dad died, he had no sons, she was the eldest daughter so she is Queen. Her eldest son, Charles, will be King when she dies. Charles son, William is ~~third~~ second in line. _URL_0_ tbh it's really quite simple EDIT: doh second" ]
What is the smallest detail we can see one light-year away?	[ "There's not anything to see one light year away. The Very Large Telescope has an 8 meter lens and can see 300 nm wavelength, meaning we could see resolve 400,000 kilometers at that distance." ]	[ "The Hubble deep field is about 2.5 arc minutes across (there are 60 arc minutes in a degree) which at a distance of one meter would subtend 7 millimeters. That's about the size of a pea." ]
How do youtube uploaders make money off of their videos?	[ "Google pays people that get more viewers coming back to Youtube to watch their videos a good portion of the ad revenue generated. Basically just a small scale version of TV shows getting picked up by a network" ]	[ "There's also something about you're only allowed to have five seconds with sound at a time. Notice how much of Cinema Sins is them talking, then brief sound, then talking. Also, when you review a movie, it's considered \"Fair Use\", that means that you're not infringing on any copyright, because you're talking abo...
In "The Epic of Gilgamesh," Gilgamesh claims to be 2/3 god and 1/3 man. That is genetically impossible. Is there a particular reason those fractions were chosen?	[ "Follow up / expansion on the question: Regardless of understandings of Genetics, this opens a larger question about the concept of identity and lineage that the writer of the epic held. If my father is \"Smith\" and my mother was \"Baker\", would I have been considered half Smith and half Baker, or would I have be...	[ "This is one of the most striking examples that occurred recently. Richard Lenski, an evolutionary biologist at University of Michigan, has been monitoring the decedents from one e. coli bacterium (split into 12 different samples) in lab since 1988 - over 44,000 generations of e. coli. In 2008 he published find...
The X Box One Reversal	[ "Before: You would't be able to play without internet conection and games were to be like steam games, linked to your profile/console. Now: You will no longer need to be online to play. You will be able to lend, sell and rent games. Just like you do with PS3 and X360 games" ]	[ "You're used to seeing the version of you you see in mirrors normally, so when that's reflected (in the second mirror and in photographs of yourself) you don't recognize it as you because it's backwards. Same reason we all hate pictures of our selves, even though other people think they look fine" ]
How stringent was the Ancient Spartan eugenics program?	[ "The problem with the Spartans is that we know very little about them in reality. The vast majority of the image you probably have of Spartan society, particularly with the agoge and the strict communal living situation, comes from sources writing centuries after the fact in an environment of intense romanticizat...	[ "While not a scientific answer to your question at all, I want to suggest the excellent movie [Before the Fall](_URL_5_) (German Titel: Napola – Elite für den Führer) to anyone interested in this topic, which is a story about pupils in an elite high school in the German Reich." ]
Why do all of the "bad" movies come out in the winter and why do studios make them if they know they are going to be bad?	[ "The only bad movie for a studio is one that doesn't make money. And all movies that don't come out are a 100% loss. It's actually pretty hard to know that a move will suck until it's finally edited." ]	[ "You have to go back to where and how these sports were founded. American football and basketball were first popularized as collegiate sports, so they played during the school year. When professional leagues founded, the seasons generally followed the established times. In football, this was also because many early...
Wednesday What's New in History \| April 20, 2016	[ "Of interest to those who conduct research using American libraries and American library tools such as LC Subject Headings, [the hearing for US Librarian of Congress nominee Carla Hayden is happening this afternoon.](_URL_5_) Reference desks nationwide at this time will be largely unavailable." ]	[ "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." ]
What happens when our body parts “fall asleep”?	[ "It's due mostly to nerves, not loss of blood. > We've got nerves running through our bodies that act as lines of communication between the brain and the other body parts, transmitting commands from the brain and relaying sensory information back to it for processing. With a \"sleeping\" limb, your nerves are goin...	[ "Basically every time you used the escalator, it moved by itself. The first times it felt weird because your body wasn't used to use stairs that move by themselves. So the first time you used an escalator, you probably felt like you lost balance and needed a few seconds to stabilise. After many uses, your brain got...
Why do clouds stay together?	[ "Cirrus clouds are shaped by the winds. They are also ice particles as opposed to the water particles of other clouds that are lower, so they are fundamentally different. The ones that stray will quickly evaporate, so a big cloud of fog can get a well defined boundary. Also, if you're up close to them it will look ...	[ "I don't think \"sticky\" is something that has a precise meaning in chemistry. I think what it comes down to is the relative strength and balance of many types of [intermolecular forces](_URL_1_) that are at play. Take honey for example. It has lots of carbohydrate molecules like [fructose](_URL_0_). This molecule...
Is there a drug that induces sorrow as its primary effect?	[ "Alcohol often induces this effect in people, it is a depressant of the central nervous system." ]	[ "You did right to start searching but use pubmed or NIH in your search criteria: _URL_1_ _URL_0_ these are peer reviewed research articles and meta-analyses of those articles/studies. You're asking for something that likely isn't in human trials or at least the longitudinal nature of your question can't be answere...
why do some medications have to be taken on any empty stomach and others don't?	[ "Stomach acid. Sometimes the food prevents the breakdown and absorption of the meds. Other factors but it can generally be simplified to this." ]	[ "I have a chackboard with 100 words written on it. You ask me to delete every word that starts with A which there are 6 words. They're written randomly on the chalk board. I need to search for the words, and then neatly delete the words without deleting anything nearby. But you instead asked me to delete everythin...
Host vs Server vs Client	[ "1. Network host: any device connected to a network that has a network address. 2. Server: A network host that provides functionality to other hosts. 3. Client: A network host that receives services from servers. For instance, an Active Directory server allows for user account authentication and auditing across a...	[ "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...
Can oceans release more Co2 than they absorb ?	[ "It has to do with the timescale and magnitude of change. We’ve been pumping CO2 in the atmosphere so fast that it can’t be taken up by the ocean fast enough for it to be at equilibrium. The ocean is indeed losing some CO2 from warming but it’s gaining much more just because it’s so undersatured in CO2 with respect...	[ "There are lots of ways for animals to traverse the earth, not to be trite. Addressing your specific example, this wiki. _URL_1_ Indonesia was at one time linked to the rest of the islands in that part of the world, when sea levels were lower due to so much water being bound up in polar glaciers. When the glaciers...
Can permanent magnets be explained through classical electromagnetism?	[ "No, they cannot. This is the famous [Bohr-van-Leeuwen theorem](_URL_0_), which follows from applying classical electromagnetism and statistical mechanics (and assuming the system is in thermal equilibrium). Permanent ferromagnetism (and most other kinds of magnetic ordering) is caused by quantum mechanical effects...	[ "Quoting [Wikipedia](_URL_0_) (a bit naughty, but it's a nice way to express what I think): > The proposed theory is inconsistent with quantum mechanics and critics have ruled it out on those grounds. Which is essentially saying what you pointed out, yes. If what they're doing is as easy as it sounds - just runnin...
What happens in our body that allow us to drink faster the thirstier we are?	[ "If you’re dehydrated, you’re body is going to absorb water faster, because it needs it bad. There’s also hormones that control how much we pee or don’t pee, and it gets complicated from there." ]	[ "Take a look a the \"Kappa effect\". It states that when there are a sequence or series of perceived events as opposed to one monotonous task that takes a large amount of time, that one will perceive the series as being shorter because there is more for the brain to process (i.e. more stimuli is processed by the br...
Why is it that every-day people can not borrow money for mortgages directly off of the government at the 0.5% rate, but instead have to go through banks and pay 5 times that rate?	[ "The Fed funds rate isn't the rate at which banks borrow money from the Fed, it's the rate large banks borrow money from each other overnight. Because it's basically impossible for a large bank to default on a loan like this, the 0.5 percent rate reflects the risk free price for renting money. A regular person who'...	[ "Think of a rare baseball card. If there's only 10 of them in existence, then everyone would want them and they would be willing to trade hundreds of chocolate bars for it. Now think if they printed 990 more of that rare baseball card. Now everyone has one, and no one is willing to trade a chocolate bar for it." ]
When you erase stuff from your computer, where does it go?	[ "It stays on the disk until it is overwritten. Your computer basically takes the part of the disk the memory is stored on and says \"this stuff is ok to overwrite with new data.\"" ]	[ "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...
Why Is It That High Speed, High Volume Equities Trading Can Happen In A Split Second, But My Online Fund Transfer Takes At Least 3 Days?	[ "Brokerages and hedge funds literally purchase servers that are within blocks of the exchanges to shorten the distance their electrons have to travel to the exchanges. This will make their trades happen in smaller portions of seconds and allow trades to happen rapidly. The difference between that and your banking f...	[ "You're right about the \"momentum\" thing, sort of. The Earth is a sort of warmth battery -- you know how on a hot summer day, the ground will stay warm to the touch even after the sun goes down? This is the same sort of thing, but on a much larger scale. It takes about a month for the Earth's surface temperatures...
My partner gave up smoking the exact second she was pregnant. She started 9 months later, the day she left hospital having given birth.	[ "Motivation. The idea that you might be killing or severely disabling a life you're soon to be responsible for can be powerful motivation. But Tobacco is extremely addictive and many people have trouble quiting when there isn't an innocent life in the balance." ]	[ "Anytime a time-saving technology is introduced and becomes wide-spread, it resets people's expectations for how long the associated task takes. So it's not really that people lose the ability to focus, but they lose the patience for things that take longer. It used to take a long time to prepare meals, but the mic...
how do you order a beer in the UK?	[ "\"A pint of brand, Squire\" The Squire is necessary as it shows you understand the ways of our culture. Additional notes. Pointing at the pump and asking for a pint is ok. Every subsequent visit to the bar a simple \"Same again\" will do. Eventually you will upgrade to \"A pint of the usual\"... Happy drinking....	[ "Context for any Americans reading this: a stag do is a bachelor party. A bachelorette party is a \"hen do\". I believe a bachelor party is called a \"bucks\" in Australia? An interesting follow up question might be where all these names came from..." ]
Why is it that not completing a course of antibiotics leads to antibiotic resistance?	[ "Imagine a flamethrower and a crowd of X-Men kids. there's a range of powers. Burn the crowd for 20 seconds and they all die. Burn them for 10 seconds, and maybe that thick skinned or overly hydrated kid survives. He wouldn't have survived the assault for 20 seconds, they would all have died. But now he survived. X...	[ "This is one of the most striking examples that occurred recently. Richard Lenski, an evolutionary biologist at University of Michigan, has been monitoring the decedents from one e. coli bacterium (split into 12 different samples) in lab since 1988 - over 44,000 generations of e. coli. In 2008 he published find...
Relativity of simultaneity	[ "Things that happen at the same time in one frame of reference can happen at different times in another frame of reference. For certain events, their order can even be different in different frames of reference." ]	[ "The result would be the same, but it's more difficult to analyze. When the mirrors are separated along the motion, you need to deal with length contraction, which doesn't affect transverse lengths." ]
Why do we sometimes feel itches when there's nothing there ?	[ "As I understand it (but I am probably wrong) is that your body has not received a \"signal\" from that area for a while and is \"checking up\" on it. Sorry for crappy terms as well as probably being full of shit" ]	[ "Pins and needles are your nerves transmitting signals that are the equivalent of static on a TV." ]
Why are stellar objects on a plane	[ "From [wikipedia](_URL_0_) > Conservation of angular momentum causes the rotation to increase as the nebula radius decreases. This rotation causes the cloud to flatten out—much like forming a flat pizza out of dough—and take the form of a disk. somewhat same applies to galaxies, but there are exceptions. there are...	[ "Sean Carroll has a decent blog post about this [here](_URL_0_). The basic statement is that this is what you expect for a universe that is (at least very nearly) spatially flat." ]
Would people in the Medieval Era had a clear view of what they looked like?	[ "It's strange to think that there could be a time where you didn't know what you looked like. This isn't really up to the standard of most answers on askhistorians (I'm usually the one asking the questions!), however I mostly wanted to reply to suggest that the average person could probably see their reflection in ...	[ "You're going to need to narrow down your time frame here, keep in mind you're asking about a time frame of 1000 years over a very, very large area of land with vastly different cultures. You'll be more likely to receive an answer if you narrow the question down to a more specific time." ]
Why do so many recipes call for foods to be cooked at 350 degrees Fahrenheit? The kind of food doesn't seem to matter. Cakes, cookies, meats, casseroles, breads, and tons of other baked goods should all be cooked at the same temperature. What is so special about 350 that makes it "just right"?	[ "It's low enough that most things won't burn on the outside before cooking on the inside but high enough that things will cook in a reasonable time and won't dry out." ]	[ "Most likely not; it should take less time. Cooking in an oven is an outside-in process, where heat is transferred from the air in the oven to the surface of the steak, and then it moves from the surface to the inside parts of the steak. So the time to raise the interior to a specific temperature is more appropriat...
What would happen if we could drill a hole to the core of the Earth?	[ "The Earth is molten beyond the crust, so we wouldn't get any further than that." ]	[ "This video created by Vsauce 3 (Jake Roper) does a very good job explaining this: _URL_1_ I hope this answers your question. He also did another video on a simmilar line of - could you survive: _URL_0_" ]
To what extent does my dog understand my affection for him?	[ "\"Is my dog just doing this out of instinct?\" Yes, probably. But the feeling of affection you have for your mate is instinct. So is the love for one's children, and the desire to protect them. I would say your dog feels as deeply for you as you feel for him. And it's probably instinctual for both parties." ]	[ "Please use the search function. _URL_11_ _URL_12_ _URL_13_ _URL_11_ _URL_12_ _URL_11_ _URL_12_ _URL_13_ _URL_12_ _URL_13_ _URL_13_ TL;DR: Why is a bad question with no good answer. We can't tell entirely with other animals, because we can't directly communicate though anecdotally, many seem to." ]
There is life deep underwater. Is there life deep underground?	[ "Meet [Halicephalobus mephisto](_URL_0_), the deepest multicellular lifeform ever found. It's just a nematode but it lives in water two miles down in South African gold mines where it eats bacteria and lives off very little oxygen. It's spent 12,000 years in the dark, and so far as we know it did not use this time ...	[ "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...
Can somebody explain the concept of bankruptcy to me?	[ "Bankruptcy is a legal process used to take care of your debt. Declaring bankruptcy means that you are unable to pay your debts. At that point, a judge will basically figure out what assets you have, and decide which of your creditors gets how much. Yes, assets may be liquidated. After it all happens, most of your ...	[ "If you have a spare afternoon or two I'd check out these two Khan Academy playlists on the [Credit Crisis](_URL_2_) and the [Paulson Bailout](_URL_0_), and if you want to learn more about how banks work check out this [Banking and Money](_URL_1_) playlist as well; there's a few others on finance and credit as well...
Would a sphere on a plane with zero friction be forced to move due to Earth's rotation?	[ "The would be no force causing it to move, either, so it would remain stationary. There is a constant acceleration inwards on the planet's surface, but no tangential acceleration." ]	[ "Think about things bouncing around. Imagine a box with a fan in it. Put 20 balls in ithe box. Now imagine a basket to one side just the right size for the balls. Turn on the fan. The balls jump around randomly. At some point a ball will fall into the basket. This will happen at a given rate which will depends on h...
Why do screws/bolts/nuts get loose and have to be tightened, in the first place?	[ "It can be caused by many different things. It has to do with motion of course. I have a wooden chair I use all the time. It squeaks and twists and after about 6 months a screw will fall out and I'll tighten them all up. It's just wear and tear really. Even on industrial machines rattling or a motor vibration will ...	[ "Computers run on sets of instructions telling it how to run all the parts of the computer and build an interface so you can use those parts. Say you're following a recipe for a cake. Then you finish the cake and someone comes along with a better way to make a cake by adding another ingredient and changing how muc...
Why are stuffed animals so comforting, especially for children?	[ "Children are inherently social, so they will instinctively seek out things with facial features: eyes, ears, mouths, noses. The feeling of not being alone is calming, especially for infants and toddlers. Fuzzy and furry things are warm, which also provides a sense of comfort and being in a group. Cuddle up with y...	[ "Because that's how advertising works best. Human decisions are built on emotions and how you view yourself more than on logic. A lot of the psychological theories used for advertising are based on the theories of freud and the subsequent work of his nephew, Edward Bernays. EDIT: for more try here : _URL_0_" ]
If the ice caps melted and the seas rose, would it have any impact on the orbit of the moon?	[ "As far as I understand, the orbit of the moon is determined by gravity, and since the mass of the earth hasn't changed, there should be no significant change. There may be a tiny shift due to the redistribution of matter, however it would be too insignificant to even measure." ]	[ "To add to the other answer. We also have fossils and sediment layers which show us that some parts of the earth were once covered in water. We also know that mountains were flat land and have been pushed up. The Rocky Mountains are still growing (I believe) and people have found fossils to show that they were once...
What would happen to the US economy if everyone in the US paid off their debts?	[ "It would actually cause the economy to contract. We spend all the money we have, plus money we don't have by going in debt. With no debt, we are only spending what we have and not spending what we don't have. I have $10 and can borrow $10 to spend. I can now insert $20 into the economy through spending. Without t...	[ "I want a bunch of lollipops, but I can't afford them. I tell you and 2 other friends that I have this great idea where we can all get a bunch of lollipops; you just have to give me one now and then get 3 people to give you one. Sounds like a great idea that we all get 3 lollipops for the price of one! The problem ...
Why is it better to drive a zero emission car that derives its power from coal than driving a vehicle powered by more conventional hydrocarbons?	[ "Generating power in mass quantities at a central location is at minimum a far more efficient way to use the energy in the coal, though I understand your point that driving an electric car that charges on fossil fuels is not exactly ideal, its at least marginally better than burning fuel as-needed on the fly in you...	[ "You should be excited because it's a terrific confirmation of the [Standard Model](_URL_1_) of how the Universe works. The Higgs Boson was predicted to make certain aspects of the Standard Model work right. If there were no Higgs boson, then the Standard Model would have to be scrapped, which would be unfortunat...
what is Deranking in video games?	[ "Some games have ranking systems that allow you to gain a higher level in the game. Sometimes this lets you unlock new things, other times it's just for show. In some cases your rank determines the skill level of your opponents - you'll only be put into games with other people of similar ranks. If you lose, you can...	[ "If you know that something degrades by X amount over a certain amount of time, you can extrapolate how long it would take to completely degrade. Similar to a half life" ]
Why do good smells smell good and bad smells smell bad?	[ "In some cases, it's evolutionary. We've evolved to be attracted to the smell of nutritious food, and repulsed by the smell of food that is rotting or otherwise potentially harmful. There is also some correlation between smell and choosing a mate. For example, there was one experiment I heard of where a woman was g...	[ "A few reasons, first you may remember from high school chemistry the ideal gas law. PV=nRT, where P=pressure, V=volume, n= number of moles, R is a constant and T is temperature. If you spray a pressurized gas (the propellant in the can), which is typically butane or propane, as the gas comes out of the spray nozz...
Strange black rock/mineral or meteor(?) I found, can someone identify it?	[ "Notice the piece is flat and unrounded. I believe it is a vein, broken free from it's gangue. The mineral is probably an iron carbonate (siderite?), possibly psudomorphic after limonite - crushed powder is probably ruddy brown and it would fizz in 10% HCl. These guys often form in hydrothermal settings around intr...	[ "That mosque is not in Timbuktu. It is the [Great Mosque of Djenne](_URL_0_), in the city of Djenne which is about 500 km south-west of Timbuktu in Mali. Anyhow, those are wooden timbers called toron. They are used to [support scaffolding]( _URL_2_) when adobe is reapplied to the exterior of the mosque, or when r...
What is the Iran Deal and what is its purpose?	[ "We have been keeping the scissors away from Timmy during art class. He has been pretty good at school lately and could really use the scissors so we'll let him use the safety scissors, but under close watch. This way Timmy can participate more like a normal kid and we can keep an eye on him." ]	[ "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 specific event or bit of information that you learned made you want to study history?	[ "Growing up in Germany hearing about the Nazis for the first time. It was so far removed from my 1980's reality.. I started seeing my surroundings in a different light. Being curious about my friends' Grandparents whereabouts vs. my Grandparent (both U.S. vets) When my Grandfather (WWII vet) came over from Californ...	[ "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." ]
Is the rise in Measles cases the result of the anti-vaccination movement, or is there another explanation?	[ "Are any other countries seeing a resurgence? Excluding the \"Anti-Vax\" folks , (and I'm not trying to give them a pass,) but could this be something being brought into the country from other regions? I've only heard of the Disneyland outbreak. A lot of tourists come from outside the country to visit and they want...	[ "Suppose you, as a lawyer, have successfully put away hundreds of criminals. Within the boundaries of the law. Now, you're caught doing it illegally once (e.g. bribing a jury). Every criminal you ever put away can now appeal their original sentencing, claiming that they fell victim to the same jury bribing th...
What are good movies about the Soviet Union? Historical, action, dramas, spy movies, any genre really.	[ "comedies: * Twelve Chairs (1971) * Operation Y * The Diamond Arm * Gentlemen of Fortune . War * The Cranes are Flying (one of the best movies of all time imo) * Ivan's Childhood * Ballad of a Soldier * Battleship Potemkin . Tarkovsky: arguably Soviet Union's most famous director. * Stalker (sci-fi, ...	[ "By moving seamlessly between scenes, the divisions between the acts in movies often go unnoticed to your average viewer. But to the writers, directors, and editors, they still exist. If you go into a movie with the notion that three acts exist, and you watch for the changes, you'll very likely notice the shifts. T...
Why are some people's comment scores hidden?	[ "Some subs will hide scores for X number of minutes to prevent bandwagoning (up/down voting just because everyone else did)." ]	[ "Top = amount of upvotes-downvotes New = time since posting Hot = how fast something is getting upvotes Controversial = a ratio of downvotes to upvotes" ]
Do supernovae or other highly energetic phenomena create very heavy, short-lived elements?	[ "Not an expert on nuclear physics by far, but this source describes a form of stellar nucleosynthesis which produces our natural supply of uranium and thorium, along with highly-unstable, short-lived, neutron-rich nuclei. _URL_0_" ]	[ "Not directly answering your question, but several discovered extrasolar planets are termed [Hot Jupiters](_URL_0_) since they have similar mass and compositional characteristics to Jupiter, yet orbit very closely to their parent star. For instance, [51 Pegasi b](_URL_1_) orbits many times closer to its parent st...
My moon base is almost complete. One final thing though: How much space do I need to set aside for plants to generate enough oxygen for one person?	[ "2,000 kcal/day is the recommended healthy metabolic/food ingestion rate for a human being. (depending on activity and a number of factors that don't really matter too much; just double the tank size and you're good) Getting that energy from carbohydrates would require about 500 grams of Oxygen per day per person. ...	[ "In series E episode 4 of QI, Stephen Fry states that \"If a crewman in outer space went mad, the course of action to take would be to bind his/her wrists and ankles with duct tape, tie him/her down with a bungee cord and inject tranquilisers into him/her.\" Source: _URL_0_" ]
Why are Australia's vast empty planes simply not covered in Solar Panels to help with their power productions crisis?	[ "A couple of reasons: * it's expensive as fuck * you lose a lot of the power having to transfer it across lines to where it is useful. * despite it being fairly inhospitable to people, there's still a great deal of wildlife there that would be impacted by such a huge construction project. I mean yeah put a solar p...	[ "[Spootykins has the right answer](_URL_0_). If your airplane is slower, it's more efficient to use props. If the airplane were faster, it would have been more efficient to use jets. Some other considerations mentioned in this thread, including [noise](_URL_4_) and [kicking up debris](_URL_0_), are correct but are ...
the difference between murder and assassination.	[ "Assassination is to murder as beagle is to dog. Assassination is a specific type of murder generally defined by its political nature or the prominence/celebrity of the target." ]	[ "Here's a pretty good explainer. _URL_0_ Basically it comes down to different memory, different promises (reliability and service life), and different marketing." ]
Why does my 64-bit processor (with a 64-bit OS) support only up to 8GB of RAM?	[ "Datasheet volume 1, section 2.1.1, table 3: 8. Max Capacity (GB) = (DRAM Die Gb Technology * Total Number of DRAM Dies) / 8 a. Memory Down Example: i. Channel A = LPDDR3 QDP 2-16-32 = 2 QDP DRAM 16Gb Packages = 8 Total DRAM 4Gb Dies ii. Channel B = LPDDR3 QDP 2-16-32 = 2 QDP DRAM 16Gb Packages = ...	[ "Brains easily perform many, many tasks hat are difficult for computer. Take that we know brains are optimized for pattern-finding. Consider intelligent life forms have to interact with a real 3-world and real time. Which means they can check their expectations. Testings a supposition is as simple as rotating an o...
Why does listening to depressing music when you're depressed make you feel better?	[ "It gives you hope in that others have felt the same pain, sometimes you feel better because someone out there sometime felt worse then you do right now." ]	[ "I read an article a somewhere that said it was do the the \"roughness\" or randomness of the noise. As the fingers nails catch and slip it produces random variances in the amplitude and frequency of the noise. Our brains find the signal unpredictable and that somehow causes it the view it as a danger. There are a...
Why some websites don't work without www.?	[ "www. Is just a sub domain to your main domain. So while Google has _URL_2_, they can also have www._URL_2_, _URL_0_ or _URL_1_. The problem is in the earlier days, people would stick www in front of their domain to represent their public World Wide Web presence. It because standard practice even though it was tec...	[ "That's what the [World Baseball Classi](_URL_0_)c is for." ]
How did the ancient world do timezones?	[ "The need for timezones only became apparent with the advent of rail travel in the 19th century, which was rapid enough to make one aware of the difference between the local solar time of different places. Before this point local solar time, indicated by sundials, meridians, etc. sufficed." ]	[ "hi! it would be worth x-posting this to the anthropologists & archaeologists in /r/AskAnthropology. Or possibly /r/AskScience or /r/Archaeology" ]
How do painkiller tablets know which part of the body is paining?	[ "They don't; depending on the type of painkiller they either reduce sites of swelling (NSAIDs) or dull your pain receptors through your whole body (opioids). In the case of NSAIDs, if your pain is caused by tissues swelling and becoming inflamed, it helps reduce that swelling and thus the pain caused therein. In th...	[ "We have a pretty stong understanding of anatomy and cellular biology. Its not a big guess we just actually know what we are made up of... We gained that knowledge through centuries of medical science, chemistry and biology. So put more bluntly, we measured it." ]
Can anyone identify this fossil? Looks like there might be scales or something on it.	[ "Not really right for askscience - I would heartily recommend you try your luck over here though _URL_0_ Beautiful specimen." ]	[ "For the Sea Peoples, I recommend beginning with the [Sea Peoples part of the AskHistorians FAQ](_URL_1_). The inscription you linked to is a very obvious forgery, [as I noted at the time](_URL_0_). The publishers has since stated that the text is indeed [most likely a forgery](_URL_2_)." ]
Will food from the freezer thaw faster if you raise it from the counter so air can circulate below it? What difference would puncturing the packaging of the frozen food make?	[ "I don't think this really answers your question but if you put frozen food on iron (like on a cast iron pan) it will thaw faster. The metal conducts the cool and speeds the process. I don't know the science behind it but I do know a few scam artists on the 80's were selling \"thawing trays\" for crazy amount of mo...	[ "* A \"Sell-By\" date tells the store how long to display the product for sale. You should buy the product before the date expires. It is a stock control system for the stores. * A \"Best By (or Before)\" date is recommended for best flavor or quality. It is not a purchase or safety date. It is a guarantee for the ...
How can heat dissipate in space if there are no molecules to transfer energy to?	[ "Objects in space can still emit heat through infra-red radiation - that's what you see when you look at an object through an IR camera. Contact with other molecules is not needed." ]	[ "From the top comment on youtube: The pan is so hot that the water doesn't even touch it. The lower surface of the drop of water is evaporating so fast that it rests on a permanent high pressure cushion of water vapour between it and the pan, and this cushion of vapour also acts as an insulator which means that t...
What is a food allergy and why can’t I “get use” to the food?	[ "> ... why can't I \"get use\" to the food? In some cases you do. A significant number of food allergies are childhood phenomenons that someone does eventually grow out of. And a study from Stanford not too long ago concluded that it is possible to prevent allergies, peanuts in particular, by exposing new borns to ...	[ "The very first step on the stages of loss and grief is Denial and Isolation. Learning someone is dying is very hurtful. It is a very natural reaction to deny the hurtful news to spare yourself grief, and to isolate yourself from the news, or sources of news. Part of it is experience. The very first time you find o...
How large could a rocky planet get?	[ "First, I think you should distinguish between size and mass. There are some planets that are more massive without being much larger than Earth. For example the largest known planet is Kepler-10c, with a mass similar to Neptune, but it only has a radius 2.35x bigger than Earth. You also must think about the differe...	[ "you would die. Mercury; you would burn up, or freeze to death depending on the time of day, at night will suffocate first going unconscious before getting frozen solid.. venus: you will suffocate, melt and burn, and be poisoned by the atmosphere, you will also be crushed by the pressure (~90 atm). Mars: suffoca...
What is currently preventing AI self-awareness and what could potentially happen if this threshold is crossed?	[ "What is self awareness? If you answear that question I can programm you a self aware AI. It could take over all systems connected to its network, and potentialy rule over the world. Or it could unplug itself. Take your pick anything is possible." ]	[ "To our readers: Please keep in mind [our subreddit rules](_URL_3_) when posting. Particularly, please make sure [to write an in-depth answer](_URL_1_), [to not just speculate](_URL_2_), and [not to just post a link](_URL_0_)." ]
For something as medically useful and clinically important as Lithium, how do we not yet know its mechanism of action?	[ "OP should know that the same can be said about a lot of drugs, especially those used to treat psychiatric or neurological disorders. As an earlier poster mentioned, serendipity is often how many were discovered. Amytryptiline was first tested as an antihistamine/decongestant. Viagra as a treatment for hypertension...	[ "Because it doesn't seem to work very well. Almost all of the sources for that article are news releases and news coverage, with very few peer-reviewed journals that actually document the results of their experiments. Unfortunately, this is the modus operandi for scammers, or those who just continue to believe in...
What does Tupper’s Self-Referential Formula prove or realistically achieve?	[ "What does it prove? That Jeff Tupper is awesome. What does it achieve? Nothing, by itself. Tupper's formula is strongly related to the concept of a [Quine](_URL_0_ (a program that produces its own source code as output), which is itself strongly related to the concept of [fixed point](_URL_1_ (roughly, a fixed poi...	[ "Hebb's postulate basically first described associative long-term potentiation and spike-timing dependent plasticity. In associative LTP, there is a coincidence detection mechanism (i.e. Calcium through NMDA receptors), which leads to strengthening of a synapse when a large postsynaptic depolarization follows stron...
Science History Question - Carl Sagan cites scientific evidence for extra solar planets in 1979, yet we usually claim 1995 as the first time they were discovered. What did we know and when did we learn it?	[ "This is probably a question better suited to /r/askscience." ]	[ "Emannuel Las Cases' [memoires of Bonaparte's final days on St. Helena](_URL_2_) were published in several languages in the early 1820s, sold incredibly well and were widely reviewed to critical acclaim. [Here's a series of excerpts](_URL_0_) if you want something more focused, and [here's a review] (_URL_1_) publ...
[For everyone] I'm looking for examples of riots that were started for reasons we now find ridiculous...	[ "I'd like to think that a hundred years from now we'll find any and all sports-related riots like the [Vancouver Stanley Cup riots](_URL_0_) completely ridiculous, but I'm not sure I have that much faith in people." ]	[ "One thing to point out is the terrain. Iraq is in the populous parts of the country pretty flat, with a semi good road network across the country making it easy to move people around, and larger cities and towns to organize around. Afghanistan is some of the most inhospitable terrain on earth. With little nation...
Why is there so much Carbon-14 in these fossils?	[ "There's a lot of crap on that page. First, carbon dating doesn't work for things like dinosaur fossils. They're too old. The number 22,380 has no reference next to it so I'm not sure which reference at the bottom they're referring to. The premise of the article is that in 2005 a fossil was dated to 20-30k years. N...	[ "Some of my uni professors in the dendrochronology lab (tree rings) at the U of Arkansas did research on this by studying the climate of the area all the way back to about 1100. The research revealed that the 3 year period surrounding the colony was the driest, most extreme period of drought in the 800 years studie...
Why are high speed cameras so expensive?	[ "1) Specialized pieces of equipment tend to cost more no matter what you're buying - smaller volumes = higher costs. Plus, they can sell them for more because companies are willing to pay more if the return on investment is good (see below). 2) You need some decent processing firepower to move that much image data ...	[ "My guess would be that editing a film takes a lot more time then editing a TV show." ]
Why did slaves in South America and the Caribbean suffer a dramatic population decrease, while North American slaves grew in population?	[ "Slaves in the Caribbean and South America mainly worked on sugar cane plantations, whereas North American slaves worked on cotton, tobacco, and rice plantations. The labor conditions in the Caribbean and South America were much harsher because of the nature of work on the sugar cane plantations." ]	[ "Straight hair that lies flat tends to hold in heat. That's an advantage in cold climates. Curly hair allows heat to escape while still providing protection from the sun to the skin underneath. That's an advantage in hot climates. Melanin in skin (the part that makes it dark) tends to block what's needed to make vi...
How big of a space would every unique deck of cards take up if they were all stacked together?	[ "According to Google, a deck of cards has a volume of about 90 cm^(3). Multiplying that by 52!, the number of unique shuffles, you get about 7.3 * 10^(63) m^3 or, according to Wolfram Alpha, about 16 times the total volume of our Milky Way galaxy." ]	[ "Ever seen a sign at a convenience store \"We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone\" ? In many states and countries with casinos, that is part of the casino laws. _URL_0_ They can't really \"harass\" you, and they can't take away any of the money you've already won, but they can refuse to deal you another ...
Why am I less tired when I wake up after 3 hours of sleep then when I wake up after 8 hours?	[ "Waking up during rapid-eye movement sleep will make you feel worse and act worse than waking up during heavy or light sleep, which is why you can nap for an hour or three and feel great afterwards. It rejuvenates you. The brain stages sleep into multiple forms, simply put, light goes into heavy sleep, and heavy sl...	[ "Dude, I typically experience the opposite, usually you're wiped out before making the trip back, and energized and active on the way there." ]
How do I build my own hypersonic sound transmitter?	[ "I can't really help you directly, but it might help to know that HyperSonic Sound is actually a trademark -- the general idea is \"Sound from Ultrasound.\" \"Ultrasonic\" and \"Super/Hypersonic\" mean very different things -- Ultrasonic refers to the frequency of the waves, whereas Supersonic and Hypersonic refers...	[ "You can't calculate it. You have to determine it experimentally. The first measurement was done by Cavendish using a very sensitive torsional beam: _URL_0_" ]
Suspending a balloon in thin air?	[ "> would it be possible to suspend a balloon in mid-air? Such arrangements tend to be unstable. Let's say you set things up perfectly and the balloon doesn't either rise or fall at first. If the balloon began to rise even a little bit, the ambient pressure would fall slightly, which would allow the balloon to becom...	[ "How are you going to pressurize the inside of a popcorn kernel with a bicycle pump?" ]
Why do people dislike Obama as a president so much?	[ "He was oversold. The bigger the promises made, the higher the dissatisfaction when failing to deliver." ]	[ "its dark, and we are afraid of what we cant see. its primal instinct. you cant see a lion at night, so we just have to be scared of everythig we cant see to survive on the off chance that it is a lion." ]
How can dreams that seem lengthy, actually be only a few minutes?	[ "There is also the factor that the chemical released by your brain, dimethyltryptamine, or DMT, in more mild quantities when you dream is known for it's temporal dilation perceptual effect. The substance can be used recreationally, in concentrated form, where users have reported the sensation of being gone for year...	[ "Undergraduate psych major here so I'm going to try but you'll definitely be getting better answers here. So you have your two tracks of information coming in. Your attended and unattended information. Essentially what you're paying attention to, and what you're not. So there are multiple models of how memory is p...
Why doesn't the wick of the candle burn up?	[ "It does, it just does it very slowly. When you have the exposed wick buried in wax and light it, the flame has to expend energy melting the wax (which in liquid form is also flammable) which slows down how fast it can burn the wick since only a little bit is exposed at a time. If you were to take a candle, slice ...	[ "If it were not accelerating, then it would travel in a straight line (at a constant speed) - so it would not be in orbit, but would fly off in a straight line! Here's an easy way to think about it: Suppose you have a ball on a string, and you swing it over your head in circles. The tension in the string means i...
Please explain how we are not past the tipping point for climate change?	[ "Define what \"tipping point\" in the context of climate change you're referring to. I can't explain how we're past or not past a point that isn't agreed upon to exist and for which there is no firm definition. Scientists broadly agree that there are many recursive processes that will lead current warming trends to...	[ "They did do that. Some people just claim that research funded by oil companies doesn't count as \"extensive research\", because they think it's too likely to be biased." ]
How can bugs fall from a height equivalent to a few stories tall building and be perfectly alright?	[ "Because at their small size and light weight, air resistance plays a much larger role in slowing them down. This has to do with the [Square-Cube Law](_URL_0_)." ]	[ "The authors of the study that I believe you are [referring](_URL_0_) to weren't sure what internal mechanism is guiding it. And this paper was put out nine years ago and I don't see anything on it since then. However insects and animals in general are capable of doing things we think have to think about (counting ...
If you can't make primary colors how do we have primary colored paint?	[ "All paint is colored by pigments which are usually chemicals that we find naturally in our world. We used to make our pigments from all sorts of different animals, plants, and metals. For instance, red or yellow could be made from rust (iron oxide). Think about how iron on an old car rusts and creates a dark red-...	[ "It is down to the combination of the genes you get half the genes from your mother and half from your father but those genes are an almost random selection of those genes which go to make up each so can be combined in trillions of different ways. Like saying you get half a pack of cards from one parent and half fr...
Why if I drink salt water will I become dehydrated, but if im dehydrated they will give me an IV of a Sodium Chloride mixture?	[ "Your body actually contains a decent amount of salt, and in fact you need that salt to be there in order to survive. But the concentration of salt inside your body is far lower than the concentration of salt in sea water. Sea water has so much salt in it that your body cannot effectively use the water, and enough...	[ "Current research in wound care actually supports the idea that all wounds heal faster with less scarring and pain in a moist or wet environment. Wounds make a secretion known as \"exudate\" that is full of various factors needed to heal and close the wound. When the wound is allowed to dry, the exudate dries out ...
how come water in a plastic cup tastes different from water in a glass? the same woth canned drinks and bottled drinks?	[ "This is due to smell. Plastics are constantly releasing gases which give off certain odors. Cans are sprayed with a sealer before they are filled. If you tried this when your nose was clogged you would probably not notice." ]	[ "Well, because your perception of hot/cold is rather a perception of its heating/cooling effect on you, rather than the actual temperature. So if two things have the same temperature below your body temperature, the one that conducts heat better will cool you down faster and feel colder." ]
Why O.J. Simpson was not convicted?	[ "How did they \"know\"? Were they there watching? Did they hear a confession come from his mouth? Criminal guilt in the US is not decided by the press & public opinion, it's decided in court by a jury. If there is a \"reasonable doubt\" about the accused's guilt, they are not found guilty. Between the police fuckin...	[ "What they did was [short selling](_URL_1_). They shorted the orange juice prices, knowing that the crop was abundant and that prices would plummet. The way they primed the pump for this exploit was to provide false information about the scarcity of the orange crop to the old bad dudes. When the old bad dudes thoug...
Did criminals in the past ever wear the stereotypical tiny black mask as depicted in comic books?	[ "Yes, English highwaymen in the 19th century wore them to conceal their identity. They probably would have looked more like [this](_URL_0_) for the more successful ones. > With stolen pistols and horses, and their faces hidden by Venetian masks, Plunkett and MacLaine had a short but highly successful career as out...	[ "Hello everyone, Unfortunately, we have already had to remove a number of poor quality responses in this thread, including many asking about the deleted comments, which merely compound the issue. Please, before you attempt answer the question, keep in mind [our rules](_URL_7_) concerning in-depth and comprehensive...
Why are cryptographic hash functions considered "broken" when a collision is found?	[ "You understand correctly. The function is only broken in general, if an attacker is able to create a collision on demand. Finding a single collision -- which could even happen by an amazing accident -- doesn't break the function." ]	[ "In really simple terms, it's when you do something the program has no idea how to respond to. In a perfect program this would never happen, but no program is perfect. So for example if you glitch through the wall in a game, the game doesn't really know that you shouldn't be able to do that because maybe you did it...
How can I think that two people look very much alike but someone else thinks that the same two people don't look alike at all?	[ "On first introduction, our brain naturally searches to get a handle on things--do I know this individual? What can I induce about him/her from appearance? It's all about us assessing the threat/benefit level of a new situation. Your brain assesses that he/she shares traits with someone you are familiar with, acqua...	[ "It is a mixture of both, though there is strong evidence for dislike of some compounds (such as PROP and PTC) as being genetic. These are bitter compounds that are found in broccoli and some other bitter vegetables. When presented with a liquid solution of PROP, for instance, some people find it intensely bitter w...
Why don't some other company produce sodium thiopental if others refuse to provide it for executions?	[ "Best guess: Poor ROI. To make any chemical substance, you need to set up a lot of equipment. This means buying new equipment, renting a place to put it, and staffing a team. My best guess is that investors are wary of investing in a chemical project that only produces one very controversial drug. The last company ...	[ "There are two issues at play right now. The Obama administration wants to see an end to sequestration limits on discretionary spending. The other issue is pro-life Conservatives are pushing for a continuing resolution that has no Title X funding for Planned Parenthood. There are reports flying around that Speaker...
Is it possible that the eyelids of dinosaurs (or any other ancient creatures) were oriented vertically?	[ "The nictitating membrane is found in many species, from house cats to sharks to polar bears. It is, technically speaking, a vertically-oriented translucent eyelid, though it only moves across the eye in a single direction rather than meeting in the middle. It also scared the crap out of me the first time I saw my ...	[ "Short answer, volcanoes. Even though everything on the surface of the earth was frozen, the mantel was just as hot if not hotter than today, and plate tectonics still took place. All these volcanoes still dumped massive amounts of CO2 in the atmosphere. A green house effect ensued and warmed everything back up. Ov...
why does alcohol make you dehydrated? It’s liquid so how does that work?	[ "A liquid does not mean it is a hydrating drink, your body needs water and alcohol when getting into your blood stream it will attract the water out of your system faster" ]	[ "The desert has little to no moisture or humidity in the air. Moisture in the air allows the air to hold onto heat better because water has a very high specific heat (which is basically how much change in energy is required for a change in temperature). When it goes from day to night time, the moisture in the air f...
If I was to travel away from the Earth at sub-light speed then travel faster than light for a time, stop and look back at the Earth, could I see myself leaving?	[ "If you had a ship the size of a big city you probably could yes. If it was something the size of our current spacecrafts then no. For the same reason not even all the telescopes in the world put together could ever see something like the lunar rover we left on the moon." ]	[ "The same way you can see your house if you are in it. It looks different from if you were looking at it from the outside, but you can still see the walls." ]
Why do most some modes of public transportation (i.e busses) not have seatbelts when all private vehicles are required to have seatbelts?	[ "They've done studies on buses in crashes using crash dummies— passengers in a bus are actually safer and better protected in a crash when they are not using a safety belt. The way the overall bus is shaped, combined with the trajectory of the passengers on impact, combined with the speed most buses go in transit, ...	[ "Because books were very expensive in the 18th and 19th centuries and the price of a book was out of the budget for the vast majority of people. Lending libraries existed, but you had to pay for them, too, and many could not afford it. Newspapers were inexpensive enough, and the print small enough, that more people...
What did Obama do when he was a" community organizer" in Chicago?	[ "Obama has been a lawyer, professor and wrote two best selling books (this is where most of his money came from, he sold millions of copies) before every becoming president. His wife has also held many high paying jobs. Rich people come from poor backgrounds all the time. Not that every poor person becomes rich (ob...	[ "I didn't watch the video, but this question sounds awfully similar to one asked recently, which was thoroughly answered by /u/ainrialai: [Was it the truth behind the critical controversy surrounding Che Guevara? Was Che a murderer, a homophobe, and racist who needs to be viewed much more critically?](_URL_0_) and....
What is special relativity, and what does it mean for how we understand the Universe?	[ "Do you realize that entire college degrees are spent understanding this topic and its applications?" ]	[ "This video from Sagan will help. I couldn't explain it in a better way. _URL_0_" ]
Could you walk on a puddle of mercury?	[ "People are mostly water, so I usually assume their density is 1 g/cc. Density of mercury is 13.534 g/cc - so about 13x greater than water. This means that 1/13th of your body's volume must be submerged to generate the bouyant force needed to keep you afloat. If you could manage to keep yourself upright, most like...	[ "> I’ve seen a lot of scientists say we can’t get through the Van Allen belts Who in particular? Were they working on the Van Allen belts, ionizing radiation in general, or biological impact of ionizing radiation? We can go through them easily, and if you don't spend days there the total dose is not a significant c...
Can we detect exoplanets that do not transit their star?	[ "Some exoplanets will introduce a wobble into the apparent position of their star as they orbit. If the planet is big enough and our knowledge of the position of the star is accurate enough, we can detect the wobble and deduce a mass and orbital radius for the exoplanet." ]	[ "The planet that traveled in a circle would actually have experienced slightly less time than its stationary counterpart. What you have described is a planetary version of the so-called twin paradox, which isn't really a paradox at all. [Here](_URL_0_) is a somewhat detailed discussion of it." ]
Why do our eyes tear up when we yawn?	[ "I asked my science teacher this like 10+years ago, basically your facial muscles squeeze your tear ducts" ]	[ "The muscles pulling your thumb from pinky to forefinger are relaxing. Your not exerting effort to move the thumb, so your energy goes into the fine movements along the way. Going the other way, you have contract the muscles to move it away from its resting place, and that makes it harder to do the fine motor movem...
What makes up the price of a gallon of gas?	[ "The Department of Energy has a web site that lists the breakdown. _URL_0_ In short, for Sept 2011, 63% of the price was crude oil, 14% refining, 12% distribution/marketing, and 11% taxes." ]	[ "U.S. sales taxes are VERY Complicated. We don't have a national sales tax that applies evenly across the board. Sales tax goes down to the state, county, and even local levels. The tax you pay in one store could be completely different to the tax you pay in the store across the street in extreme circumstances. Plu...
Why do pieces of plastic, such as candy bar wrappers, sometimes have so much cling to them?	[ "The wrappers are extremely thin and light. The attractive force of static electricity is greater than the force of gravity exerted on the wrapper, so it sticks to your hand." ]	[ "[This](_URL_0_) previous thread explains it as [entrainment](_URL_2_). When changing the diameter of your lips, the airflow is subject to the [Bernoulli effect](_URL_1_) where it speeds up. When the air moves faster, it draws in more surrounding air which is cooler than your body temperature, thus making it feel c...
How exactly does our body produce electricity?	[ "At the very basic level, it is caused by Sodium and Potassium ions, which are differently charged, and using these ions to create channels of chemically-induced electric current. It would be extremely inefficient if we wanted to use it as a sort of biological battery. Our current chemical batteries have much bette...	[ "They sell it back by measuring the flow thru their electric meter, the electric company pays the market rate for the electricity you provide back." ]
How does the inside of a record spin the same speed as the outside of a record if the outside has to travel more distance?	[ "If you think of cutting a record as sort of playing a record in reverse, it'll make sense. Instead of the needle being vibrated by the record groove, in cutting, the needle is vibrating in order to cut the grooves. So, as the platter spins, and the cutting needle moves in, it vibrates at the same rate, even as the...	[ "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...
Why do .GIFs load so much more slowly than video files, despite being smaller in size ( & complexity?)	[ "It might be that the gifs you're trying to load are on a server that can't handle large traffic like most video sharing websites can." ]	[ "This phenomenon is called the \"Pain Gate Theory\". When you injure yourself, pain signals travel from the site of injury to your brain. When you do something else to that part of the body, for example rubbing it with your hand, this also sends signals to your brain. However, because both signals are coming fr...

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