Subset (10)

eli5 · 25k rows

Split (1)

train · 25k rows

query stringlengths 20 300	positive listlengths 1 1	negative listlengths 1 1
Ive heard it was the "barometric pressure" that makes me feel like this, can someone clarify or elaborate?	[ "Low pressure systems often bring rainy weather, and that lower air pressure can cause some people pain when the pressure causes the fluid and air inside cavities in your body to expand in response to the lowered ambient air pressure. This can often be felt as sinus headaches, joint pain, etc..." ]	[ "When you pour in the hot water the atmosphere inside the bottle is 1) heated to the temperature of the hot water and 2) saturated with water vapor at the same temperature. When you the mix the water inside the closed bottle the hot atmosphere rich in water vapor is cooled down to the temperature of the mixture, ca...
If i put dryer sheets under my car seats will it discourage spiders from entering?	[ "As an addendum to this, I've heard that dryer sheets repel mosquito's. But that [seems to be bupkis](_URL_0_)." ]	[ "One search isn't going to do much. They have hugely complicated algorithms in place to find what they are looking for. It might raise a flag, but a single flag isn't going to do much. By the way, just because you don't live here doesn't mean we aren't watching Creepy Smile." ]
How are the calories in food calculated?	[ "The most direct way to measure it is with a device called a bomb calorimeter. Such device essentially burns the food contents, which heats the air. The hot air is then run through a pipe through water and the air will heat the water. The increase in temperature of the water is measured and from this we can calcula...	[ "They have an investment bank do it for them! But there are a couple of methods they can use: 1) The value today of all future cash flows that the business is expected to generate 2) The value of all of the businesses assets, if you sold them. 3) The market capitalization of their stock" ]
Why do I hear the term "Super Earth" being used to describe planets that are not earth like at all?	[ "Earth-like planets are just planets which have little or no gas - rocky planets. So Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars are Earth-like, while the rest are gas planets. We only have the two terms for planets because until recently we only had the 8 or 9 planets to describe. Could be that as time goes on we'll make up n...	[ "If you deploy a parachute immediately following reentry, it will need to be able to handle the dynamic pressure (and thus very high forces) due to supersonic flight. This can be done but the hardware will be very heavy. Alternatively, you can wait until later (because the vehicle is still slowing down to its subso...
Why do ballerinas have to cobble their shoes?(black swan)	[ "Pointe shoes take a pretty serious beating, and if they don't fit perfectly they can throw off a dancer's performance. In much the same way as a hockey player constantly maintains the edge on his skates and the tape and curve of his stick, a ballet dancer has to [constantly maintain his/her pointe shoes](_URL_0_)...	[ "This question is getting a lot of traffic after being [tweeted by @reddit](_URL_5_), so I thought I'd welcome those of you that haven't visited /r/AskHistorians before to the subreddit. Please do bear in mind that in order to keep the quality of answers here high we have [strict rules on comments](/r/AskHistorians...
How do copyright laws work when it comes to selling handmade items?	[ "The term to look for is Fair Use. As /u/Ivan_Whackinov said, parody (critisism in particular) falls under fair use. You can take a wholly copyrighted materiall and criticize it, freely, if you can prove (or just justify) that your audience will be there for your critisism, and not for the original material. With...	[ "Ignoring online purchases, your biggest concern is people cloning cards. That magnetic strip on the back of the card isn't some complicated, secure thing - it really just has the number in a machine readable format. You can buy hardware for $50-100 that lets you write any number you want to a card. This is why car...
How the solar system planets rotates around the sun	[ "I think what you mean to ask is \"do the planets orbit in the same plane\", and the answer is yes, they do. All the planets formed from a rotating disc of material around the sun, and since that disc was flat the planets all orbit within the plane where that disc once was. They do not, however, all orbit together ...	[ "They start out as a giant blob of gasses and space dust, Sort of like pizza Dough. As they continue to spin they flatten once again like pizza dough." ]
Do polar vortexes also happen in the southern hemisphere?	[ "The antarctic polar vortex is stronger and much more stable than the arctic polar vortex. The polar vortex is a normal thing btw. that is always there. But since the arctic polar vortex is less stable it can move more and reach latitudes it normally wouldn't reach." ]	[ "Follow-up question: I once read on this sub that the Tasmanian Aborigines of Australia gradually lost the technology of cold-weather gear after Tasmania was separated from the mainland. Well, it gets bloody cold in Tassie, so how did they cope?" ]
Why do we launch rockets vertically?	[ "There is a compromise to be made because a more horizontal launch angle would require the rocket to push through more atmosphere than a more vertical launch to exit the atmosphere. Air resistance wastes a lot of fuel without actually allowing the rocket to speed up." ]	[ "Reactions happen on the surface of a substance. Let's say you make a solid block of black powder (OK, guess it's not actually powder any longer) - what'll happen is that the surface of it will burn. If you have granules or a powder, the amount of surface that's available to burn is suddenly much, much bigger - tha...
What foreign languages were studied in American High schools in the early-mid 20th century?	[ "In rural northern California, Spanish and German were offered. Some of the larger schools also offered French." ]	[ "This has been asked a few times, but there's never been, as far as I can tell, a comprehensive and well-sourced answer. So, I encourage people to provide one. That said, there have been _good_ answers. Here's [one](_URL_1_) with some good debate about what McCarthy got right or wrong, and [another](_URL_0_) that ...
We are carbon based life forms, however, is it possible for life to be based off another element?	[ "Honestly the more I study biochemistry the more I think it's unlikely. Carbon can form so many bonds in so many different ways that it's hard to imagine any other element forming the chemical backbone of life. While silicon is often mentioned in these things, it would have totally different chemistry and wouldn't ...	[ "Oxygen levels were probably slightly higher 500 years ago. There's good direct measurements for the past 25 years showing a decline in oxygen levels. _URL_1_ Indirect ice core measurements of oxygen levels going back a million years show indicate higher levels of oxygen then. _URL_0_ These differences are easily m...
What is it about orange juice that dulls the taste of alcohol so well?	[ "Ethanol causes a burning sensation because it activates the same [receptors](_URL_0_) as capsaicin. Acids also activate this class of receptors and so drinks like OJ and coke which are acidic will also activate them." ]	[ "Part of the reason is that we, like all primates, have a defective gene for producing vitamin C. Unlike dogs, cats, and nearly all other animals, we must get vitamin C in our diet or we die. The mutation must have happened to some proto-primate long ago and allowed to spread because it posed no problem for our a...
What is Reading Rainbow and why are celebrities getting behind the Kickstarter campaign?	[ "Reading Rainbow was a kids Television program that would feature children's stories and tell/show them to kids. LeVar Burton (of Geordie LavForge fame from Star Trek: The Next Generation) was the host. It was incredibly popular and one of my favourite shows as a kid. It was designed to get children interested in...	[ "It's how poor students would pay teachers many years ago. Before schools were publicly funded, families had to pay for their kids to attend school. This resulted more in a barter system where kids of farmers would pay with apples or frequently potatoes." ]
We all know prescription medications and alcohol are a bad mix.. But what is actually happening?	[ "Not all prescription medications result in adverse reactions with alcohol. Notable ones include some antimicrobials (eg metronidazole) that result in disulfiram-like reactions, which results in hypersensitivity to alcohol. Other drugs to be concerned about with alcohol include sedatives (eg benzodiazepines like di...	[ "Eyeglasses or contacts don't slow worsening vision, they only correct for it so you can see clearly. Likewise, they. don't make your eyesight worse. Your eyes aren't \"not relaxed\" when you wear glasses or contacts. Intuitively, this should make sense because the eyes of people with perfect vision who don't need ...
Why does NORAD 'track' Santa.	[ "Because of a wrong number printed in a magazine or newspaper back in like the 1950s that gave NORADs number by mistake for an advert to call Santa. The base commander decided it was fun for the kiddies and went with it." ]	[ "It's new names for the same old dates. Historians just didn't to assume that everyone was interested in Christ -- for example a lot of Hindus might feel differently. Also there has some debate about the exact year of Christ's birth, so they wanted to get away from that problem too." ]
In the Biblical book of Genesis, Jacob selects the color of his sheep by having them look at branches of the same color while they bred — a pseudoscientific "impression" theory of inheritance that was nonetheless widely held in antiquity. What were some of the earliest criticisms of this idea?	[ "Would you like to share the criticism from Kant?" ]	[ "The two big things I was taught in my intro-to-psych class, (heh) were: _URL_1_ and _URL_0_ Interference theory is the idea that your brain has an index for memory. When you gain new memories, those new memories have the same keywords as some old memories. The result is that when your brain searches \"cats\" all ...
Are their any larger animals missing one or more of the five senses?	[ "I guess one example would be some species of cave fish. Their ancestors became trapped in caves with very little or no light, and so there was no need to have eyesight, and it was gradually lost. _URL_0_" ]	[ "Depends on your definition. But alot of animals manipulate there food into a differnt form. Leaf Cutter ants for example grow a fungus and feed it plant matter (mostly leaves). They feed the fungus to the larvae while the adults feed off the sap of the leaves. _URL_0_" ]
how can animals with shorter legs be faster than humans with longer ones?	[ "It gets down to the slow and fast twitch muscle fibres in our body. Humans have evolved with higher amounts of slow twitch muscles that allow us to perform intricate and delicate tasks(writing, dance, woodworking) rather than apes such as chimps that have a lot of strength behind their backs but cannot perform suc...	[ "Our brains didn't evolve with cars in mind. They evolved with, like, being hunted by a jaguar (or whatever) in mind. So your brain doesn't know what to do with a car. It thinks hey, we're sitting, our body's not really doing anything physical, there's very little activity or stimulus... this seems like a good time...
Why are other drinks not as effective in hydrating as water when they have water in them anyway?	[ "In fact most drinks are about as hydrating as water. But some drinks contain a diuretic ingredient -- something that causes your body to throw out a bit of water -- such as caffeine. So these are not quite as effective, though (contrary to myth) they still hydrate you." ]	[ "The roast level just depends on how long and how hot it's roasted. It's like the difference between a rare steak and a well done one. The same bean variety can also take on different flavors depending on its source. It picks up different taste signatures from the soil. How the bean is processed and dried makes a d...
Was there an account of anyone in wild west using a bulletproof vest during a dual.	[ "Not the American West but in Australia there was a bushranger (Australian highwayman) named [Ned Kelly](_URL_1_) who wore a suit of [armour](_URL_0_) to protect himself from bullets." ]	[ "If you're new to the thread, please don't post the Mythbusters episode again. Mythbusters is entertaining but it's not history (or more specifically, it's not historical proof of anything.) The short answer is no, not that we know of. /u/davidaop, our pirate expert, and I have both answered [questions about th...
If Alpha Centauri had a solar system like ours, how big would the outer planet's orbit appear in the sky if visible with the naked eye?	[ "If the planetary system was completely face on and if we assume that it's an Earth like planet orbiting at 1 AU, then it would appear approximately 4x10^-4 degrees wide. That's about 0.012 arc minutes, and a quick wiki check says that the best a human eye could do is around 1 arc minute. So no way you'll see it. N...	[ "So the imaging sensors on Cassini are honestly not all that amazing by today's standards - the CCD chip is only 1024 x 1024 pixels, the equivalent of a 1 megapixel camera. These days, most phones far surpass that technology. However, it does have the benefit of extremely sensitive pointing correction and image geo...
If a supernova from a star was racing toward us, would we know before it hit us?	[ "It depends on the type of supernova. A type II supernova releases a burst of neutrinos a few hours before the light leaves the explosion so if you have a neutrino detector you would be alerted a few hours before you see the light from the supernova. In fact, there's a website that will send you an email if such a ...	[ "Get a weather alert radio. You're unlikely to get more than about 15 minutes warning. If you can, seek shelter with a neighbor. If not, stand in a doorway away from any windows. Some work places have shelters; so do some public buildings." ]
Has there ever been an incident where U. S. Military personnel disobeyed an unlawful order?	[ "-Not a historian - US Warrant Officer Hugh Thompson, Jr was awarded the Soldier's Medal for putting him and his forces between Vietnamese civilians and another contingent of US forces that were hunting down the civilians during the My Lai Massacre. _URL_0_" ]	[ "If you go back in time there certainly was. A classic example would be the battle of Agincourt where the English king Henry V led his army from the center of the battle line. You can read \"The face of battle\" by John Keegan for a fine account of the battle including many kingly deeds performed in the thick o...
How effective would late medieval plate armor (e.g. Gothic plate) be in a 1 vs 1 fight?	[ "Men wore armor for a reason. Full suits were lighter than popular fiction portrays, only in the neighborhood of 40 pounds, which when distributed properly is almost no weight at all. The advent of full armored plate allowed fighters to eschew a shield, which was bulky and cumbersome, and carry larger and more effe...	[ "The gold and silver colored sheets you see are often a single layer of aluminized polyimide with the silver aluminum side facing in. The yellowish-gold color of the polyimide on the outside gives the satellite the appearance of being wrapped in gold. Multi-layer insulation is used on satellites primarily for therm...
Why do only some nuclear explosions produce the stereotypical mushroom cloud?	[ "The formation of a mushroom cloud is about the amount of energy released into the atmosphere. You can create a mushroom cloud from non-nuclear detonations as well, for example volcano. The same mushroom clouds are also generated on hot days where you have solar energy constantly heating the ground, however these m...	[ "Thats photoshopped just so you're aware. The actual image is this: _URL_0_ They usually form in high altitudes, normally perpendicular to the wind direction. Long story short, They form when stable moist air flows over mountains." ]
Is there a bulge in earth's atmosphere constantly facing the moon?	[ "The atmosphere does bulge out, both towards the moon and away from it. Similar to the tides in the ocean the phase of the atmospheric bulge lags the moon and the moon's antipodal point. Apparently the atmospheric bulge follows the ocean tides rather closely and is mostly due to the bulging of the ocean below the a...	[ "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...
Why did other countries even bother with navies, when it was clear they couldn't come close to beating the British?	[ "Indeed, it is still a mystery to me why the Kaiser even bothered with the time and effort into building a fleet for battle just to see it turned away again and again by the war fighting spirit of my battlecruisers. If it weren't for those dastardly submarines, scrounging the oceans for victims, I surely would have...	[ "Some people go faster when they are behind. Even Olympic athletes who are trying their hardest to go as fast as they can. Sometimes in swimming you can get pulled along by the water from another swimmer in an adjacent lane, too. IIRC that helped Michael Phelps on the last leg of a relay he won." ]
What's the purpose of the human response to take our own life while depressed?	[ "Its a cost benefit analysis. The pain of living exceeds the perceived gain from living. Since continuing to live is a negative experience, death is the better option. Of course that analysis is bullshit, but a suicidal mind is a diseased one (meaning one that needs help)." ]	[ "I think the body would evolve to discourage that. The only way to scratch that kind of itch is going to harm you. Consider the reason for an itch evolved in the first place... it's to get you to brush off bugs and other critters. And for this it's better to have false positives. But bugs don't tend to get inside ...
Why can't we directly mix engine oil into gas, but have to add it separately?	[ "The kind of engines we use for most things has separate places for gasoline and for oil because gasoline and oil serve different functions." ]	[ "In addition to what /u/DCarrier said, the Oberth effect can be understood in terms of what happens to the fuel after you eject it. Assuming you are in orbit around some central body (such as a planet) the fuel will remain gravitationally bound to that object. Depending on the speed after ejection, it might remain ...
When and why did some electronics (notably televisions) go from having an 'On' light to having an 'Off' light?	[ "It's not an \"off\" light: it's a \"standby\" light. Your TV isn't completely switched off: it's still drawing power (as evidenced by the fact that there is enough power to power the light) so that you can wake it up again without leaving the comfort of your sofa. If you're looking for ways to save a little money ...	[ "Imagine a bathtub full of water, the water represents electricity. The bathtub has a faucet, which represents the generation of electricity. Imagine now that there are little holes in the bottom of the bathtub, all plugged up. When ever a home needs power, unplug the drain and let the water flow out. Now imagine ...
How does temperature-dependent sex determination work? Wouldn't the embryos already contain XY/XX chromosomes?	[ "Not all animals use sex chromosomes. In the species you mention, there are no sex chromosomes. Instead, gene regulation that leads to the final sex determination is controlled by temperature. There are zillions of different ways to determine sex." ]	[ "These sorts of things are called \"Extended Phenotypes\". Essentially, structures outside the physical body of the organism, created by the organism, that have a genetic basis (like a large number of loci that influence construction behaviors, like for dams or galls). I don't know anything deeper than that on the...
so many people hate waking up early, why do most office jobs require an early start time?	[ "It coincides with when the majority of people are awake, so it's more efficient that way from a productivity standpoint. In general jobs don't factor in your preferences. In fact, they give you compensation so that you will do the things you don't prefer. There are a lot of freelance jobs that allow you to make yo...	[ "The ELI5 answer is simplicity. Stuff gets loaded when opening a program. If I don't want to code a way for that stuff to change while the game is open, I force a reboot. This sacrifices usability for code simplicity (or development speed)." ]
What effect did the First and Second Punic Wars have on the Roman people?	[ "Dan Carlin's outstanding Hardcore History podcast has a 3-parter called \"Punic Nightmares\" that covered the three punic wars including much of the Roman perspective on the Carthaginians, Hamilcar and Hannibal. It's the best podcast I've ever listened to. You can find it for free on itunes or download it and supp...	[ "Since this is a homework question, we expect a little more effort from you. What research have you done so far for your paper? What are your findings so far? Is there anything specific you have a question about?" ]
What is the white powder that is on chewing gum for?	[ "It's powdered sugar and it is their to make the gum less sticky (so it is easy to unwrap) and more sweet." ]	[ "It doesn't, the ad was intended to make you associate Colgate with feeling virtuous and then want to buy Colgate the next time you're at the store." ]
If a plant was unable to build a proton gradient in the chloroplast, I know it wouldn't be able to produce ATP. Would it still be able to produce NADPH?	[ "It depends on why the plant couldn't establish a proton gradient. If the electron transfer system (Photosystem II-- > ETC -- > Photosystem I -- > NADP+ reductase) is intact, and there is simply proton leak in the membrane then yes, the plant can still make NADPH. If there is a blockage anywhere in that electron f...	[ "ADH is a hormone. By definition, hormones travel via the bloodstream. More specifically... ADH is secreted into the blood by the posterior pituitary gland. The blood (containing the ADH) travels to the kidney, where ADH binds to receptors in the kidney collecting ducts." ]
Is there any factual basis to the 'palm to palm' medieval dance style we see in modern movies and TV?	[ "Factual basis yes. Absolute proof no. We start to have a very good idea of how people danced and dance's from about 1500 on. The documentation from the medieval period is mostly based around court dances, so it's hard to say how the common people danced, but we can trace the steps of the nobility much better then ...	[ "He was bsing. Moving your hand generates a small amount of heat. Fanning yourself removes a reasonably large amount of heat. I suspect the net effect is normally cooling since you don't use much energy moving your arm, but it would depend on lots of factors like humidity, sweating, arm weight, temperature etc. Wha...
If we sent a probe into space away from earth at the speed of light, would it be able to transmit data back to us?	[ "You can't accelerate an object with a non-zero rest-mass to the speed of light as this would violate special relativity. You can, however, accelerate the probe arbitrarily close to the speed, in which case it would still be able to transmit data just fine, although the time it would experience would be much slower...	[ "No. First, 1 ly is around 10^15 meters, so depending on thickness and material, your stick will have the mass of a large asteroid / small moon. To move it, you'd have to apply an appropriately large force to one end of it, and that will pretty much crack / crumple that end. Otherwise you'll create a compression wa...
Why is north Africa a desert but southern Europe is not?	[ "Well desert is not defined by temperature but by how sparse vegetation and water is. In southern Europe there is a lot water and vegetation but in north Africa there is not as much. The Saharan desert actually does not include all of north Africa, along the Mediterranean sea is all tropical climate because of the ...	[ "From _URL_0_ \"... Like Magic Shell, Carvel’s Brown Bonnet chocolate topping instantly forms a hard shell around ice cream. And, just like Magic Shell, one of the main ingredients is coconut oil. Tropical oils, including coconut, are naturally high in saturated fat—consisting of about 90 percent of the stuff. As P...
what is Wolf-Parkinson White syndrome and what does it do	[ "The heart has four different chambers and they need to beat (or contract) in a certain order in order for blood to be pumped properly. To do this, there's something called a \"conduction pathway\" that is essentially a wire that goes along the heart, forking out to its different part and an electric signal travels...	[ "They reason they rank so high on the power list is their ability to finance essentially any project out there... as well as they have an extreme amount of connections. If they so wanted they could fund the massively expensive project of integrating seaweed into animal feed and cut all greenhouse gas emissions from...
salt water injected before sedatives	[ "Anytime an IV is started the first thing that gets pushed through it is normal saline - the salt water in question - to \"test\" the vein and IV. If for some reason the vein blows, or the IV site isn't patent (won't flow correctly) a little bit of salt water in your arm won't make a hill of beans in the long run, ...	[ "A Siamese we had when I was a kid had sensitive teeth, he would \"pat\" his water to make sure it wasn't too warm or cold to drink. Have you had a vet look at her? Edit: typo" ]
How does black light work?	[ "It isn't the \"black light\" that is special, it is the compound itself. Black light is simply a frequency of light not in the visible spectrum (the UV) for humans. Certain chemical compounds can absorb UV light (the energy in that light) and in the process re-emit light energy but this time in the visible spectr...	[ "Vertically Aligned NanoTube Arrays Some nerds got together and used carbon nanotubes to make a substance that absorbs almost all light in the visible spectrum. _URL_0_" ]
What is in the human eye that prevents it from freezing even in extreme conditions?	[ "Your body is trying to regulate it's temperature constantly. Areas like your hands and feet can be allowed to get cooler without any damage, but the core of your body (especially your brain) must stay within a degree or two of 37 degrees Celsius otherwise you will die very quickly. Your eyes are embedded in y...	[ "Atoms bonding together to make compounds fundamentally changes how those atoms as a combined entity behaves as opposed to how they behave separately. It all comes down to the strength of the interactions between atoms and molecules, and how many different ways these molecules can absorb heat energy. When oxygen a...
why DUI checkpoints aren't considered unconstitutional?	[ "In the US, driving is considered to be a privilege, not a right, therefore you must agree to certain terms when receiving a license. One is [implied consent](_URL_0_). Edit: formatting" ]	[ "There are marks along the highway at measured intervals. A plane flies overhead, timing cars as they pass these marks. They radio to the cruiser on the ground a description of the car, who then stops them and writes the ticket." ]
What is the difference between Congress and Parliament?	[ "The details on how a parliament is organized varies from country to country, but generally speaking, the U.S. Congress is in a system with the separation of powers, so that the executive (the President) is independent from the legislature. In a parliament, there isn't that separation, and the executive (usually a ...	[ "You have something I want. I shoot you and take it. That's robbery. You and your 99 friends have something me and my 99 friends want. We shoot you and take it. That's war." ]
Were there / are there any homosexuals in native communities?	[ "Which native communities? There are people native to almost every region of the world. I might also request clarification of what you mean by \"homosexual\", since a homosexual is a thing that can only exist in the context of our culture's specific set of ideas about gender relations and sexuality. It's pretty pe...	[ "There's room for discussion, perhaps the section [Natural Disasters](_URL_0_) from our FAQ will answer your inquiry. You might also be interested in this [NPR article](_URL_1_) on how Kiowa recorded events like tornadoes." ]
How do large fast food chains, like McDonalds, prepare for new menu items and have enough to distribute to all the stores despite it requiring a new process to manufacture?	[ "They don't roll out new products until they have all those processing plants built." ]	[ "In cities and towns there are organizations whose job is to keep track of traffic on their roads and highways. These are usually radio or tv stations, but some larger cities (LA or NYC) have specially designated groups who just keep track of traffic. All of these places have databases that are constantly updated ...
How do morbidly obese people live several years without having major complications?	[ "> Also, how do morbidly obese females not get estrogen-related cancers faster than normal? Anyone morbidly obese is at a greater risk of certain types of cancers. But at a greatest risk doesn't mean 'you will definitely totally get this within half a year'. So, they are at a greater risk, but that doesn't necess...	[ "you get over the novelty. thats been my experience. there is this guy at work who i used to think was a gargoyle at first but now i don't notice that he's a gargoyle. same thing for stunningly attractive people. you get over it." ]
Is the concept of infinity the worst thing to have in physics? If (not) so, why?	[ "I would venture to say that the worst thing and best thing to have in physics are the same thing: a contradiction. On the one hand, if you have a contradiction, something is wrong somewhere. On the other hand, if you have a contradiction, you have identified an important issue to be resolved, and have something to...	[ "Indeterminate. > Throughout the main body of his original 1927 paper, written in German, Heisenberg used the word, \"Unbestimmtheit\" (\"indeterminacy\"), to describe the basic theoretical principle. Only in the endnote did he switch to the word, \"Unsicherheit\" (\"uncertainty\"). When the English-language versi...
What does middle finger sign actually mean? how did it originate?	[ "The gesture dates back from Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome, as a symbol reminiscent of sexual intercourse, and was often used towards a people as a reference to \"a male who submits to anal penetration.\" It's Latin name, digitus impudicus translates to the \"shameless, indecent or offensive finger.\" It is sa...	[ "We don't need profanity to insult one another, think of all the ways you can insult someone in English without using a profanity. Besides, languages can borrow words and their meanings." ]
Why do electronic goods and branded clothing cost so much more in Europe than it does in the US?	[ "Aside from the mentioned sales tax you also have to factor in tighter consumer protection in Europe. But in the end it just \"they charge more because they can\". There are similar price inequalities for console video games between the UK and continental Europe. Games are cheaper in the UK, systems are more expens...	[ "Because taxes are complicated, and not all taxes relate to \"commerce\". For example, you pay taxes based on how much you make. But if you do something like donate to charity you have to pay less taxes. If you have an additional child you may end up paying less in taxes. If you get divorced you may have to pay les...
why do joints "pop"?	[ "The prevailing hypothesis (to my knowledge) of why joints crack relates to dissolved gasses in the fluids in your joints. When you pull the joint apart, the gas forms bubbles which then collapse and make a popping noise. As for whether or not it's bad for you, there was a doctor named Donald Unger who cracked the ...	[ "You don't want to inject air. It's difficult to fill a syringe without having at least a small air bubble. Putting the needle up and flicking will get any air bubbles in the syringe up to the end, you then push out the bubble and you know when it's all out of the needle when liquid flows through. Even when you're ...
How close has the US ever come to a coup attempt?	[ "Are we talking about a coup on city, state, or federal level? Now on a city level we've had a successful coup before. Which is the Wilmington (North Carolina) Insurrection of 1898, where white supremacist Democrats illegally overthrew the newly elected city government, forcing the mayor and the bi-racial council t...	[ "What on earth is your source for that conjecture? My graduate school advisor was an early Americanist and I've never heard anything similar. Also, Voltaire died in 1778, three years before the American victory at Yorktown. How would he have proposed a monarch for a nascent country that didn't yet exist? EDIT: Ap...
Why do black colored things absorb more heat?	[ "They don't, they absorb more light which translates to heat. Black objects are black because they don't reflect much light. Other things are the colours they are because they reflect light of certain frequencies much more." ]	[ "It’s a comparison between conducting the heat away (on table) and radiating it away (though air but air also conducts a little) if the table is large and metal it will be an excellent conductor so more often than not it will cool faster on the table than still air, assuming that both are roughly the same temperatu...
Are there points in space that aren't unique or specifiable when described as a direction and a distance from Earth?	[ "Consider the event horizon for a black hole; two different bearings from Earth which both intersect the horizon must necessarily both end up at the singularity. Given sufficient distance, I suppose that would be an example of a point in space which is not uniquely specifiable when described by direction and distan...	[ "Voyager has a sun sensor and [star tracker](_URL_0_) that keeps track of the star Canopus. There are a number of thrusters so it can adjust its orientation and it has 3 gyroscopes to keep it stable. I believe the location and speed are calculated values and somewhat approximate. Since there is no friction velocit...
There's been a lot of talk about a certain presidential candidate having his "finger" on the "nuclear weapons" button. Is it really that simple? Can the president just order a nuclear strike? What is the protocol?	[ "According to this Wikipedia article the Secretary of Defense has to agree also. If they don't the President can fire them and pick another one til they get someone who does. > While the President does have unilateral authority as commander-in-chief to order that nuclear weapons be used for any reason at any time,...	[ "Note that NK is testing a ballistic missile. By definition, a ballistic missile follows a ballistic trajectory, e.g., it burns its fuel immediately, and the just goes where gravity (and air resistance, etc.) take it. Getting an object into orbit, and deorbiting it accurately, is a considerably more complex task...
difference between charge, credit, and debit cards	[ "Debit card: you spend and the money comes direct from your bank account straight away. Credit card: you spend and the amount is added to a monthly bill. When your bill arrives, if you pay in full usually you pay no interest. You must pay a minimum amount (for example 3%), anything you don't pay carries over with i...	[ "Uk Language? Pills will get you proper munted. Like out yer bonce. It'll make you think chubbers are buff and pull shapes all night. Draw makes you want to cotch. Then you get bare munch and need to smash a mint Aero and Potnoodle, maybe a maccie d's. Chang will make you Brap." ]
whenever I eat late at night I feel more hungry in the morning than if I didn't eat, why?	[ "When you eat late, your stimulate your pancreas to signal cells to start swallowing up nutrients. As they do this, your body takes notice of the declining blood nutrition level and releases hormones which stimulate your hunger drive. Since you're asleep, however, these hunger hormones just build up and you notice ...	[ "Your eyelids are raised by a muscle that is partially controlled by the part of your nervous system (the \"sympathetic\" nervous system) that is responsible for activating and energising your body (you may have heard of it in relation to the \"fight or flight\" response). When you get very tired that part of your ...
Why are dreams so hard to remember after you wake up (especially after a few minutes)?	[ "The most basic answer is that our brain turns off our long term memory when we are asleep. So when you wake, your dreams may still be in your short term memory, but not long term. It makes sense. A third of our lives is spent sleeping so it would be a waste of space to remember it, especially when iit's usually ju...	[ "Imagine you're trying to find a coffee shop in a city. If you've been there recently, it should be pretty easy to find. If it's been 10 years since you've been to the coffee shop or the city, it might take you a LONG time to find. It also might take long to find if you've been to other, similar coffee shops in the...
How were Music Videos (the ones that came out before computers were capable of editing videos) actually made? Like, how did most music videos make smooth transitions and how were they able to make special effects without CGI?	[ "Lots of cool effects can be done with props and other things, and one could splice sections of film together to edit a video together" ]	[ "Yer not alone in askin', and kind strangers have explained: 1. [ELI5: How do snakes move? ](_URL_0_) ^(_7 comments_) 1. [How the fuck do snakes move? ](_URL_4_) ^(_1 comment_) 1. [ELI5: How do snakes move so fast? Actually how do they move forward at all? ](_URL_5_) ^(_4 comments_) 1. [ELI5: How do snakes move for...
Is baldness in males really passed down from your mother's father?	[ "One type of male pattern baldness is sex-linked, affecting the X chromosome. Females have two X chromosomes and males have an X and a Y chromosome. If mother's father had male pattern baldness, then your mother has at least one copy of a defective X chromosome, giving you a 50% chance of being bald. If your father...	[ "[Rogue](_URL_1_), but seriously there are several studies on this. [Here](_URL_2_) is a news article. [This](_URL_0_) is a scientific article that relates epinephrine to loss of pigment. Epinephrine is linked to flight-or-fight response system. Hypothetically stress, or a \"shocking experience\" indirectly would ...
Did the draftsmen of the Bill of Rights or their contemporaries write any notes or other supporting documentation that might help to clarify or add context to areas of hot debate like the Second Amendment? Where could I find these?	[ "Most people refer to the Federalist papers by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay. _URL_0_" ]	[ "Although we are encouraged to retain the magazines, technically there is no obligation to do so. They are categorised, in the US military, as expendable items. Of course, someone has still got to pay for them, which is why in training in particular they are retained, and if your supply system is limited, you may w...
"May he luckier than Augustus and better than Trajan." What exactly was so lucky about Augustus?	[ "I'm not sure where the saying your quoting is from, but it may stem from a problem translating the word felix from Latin. While felix can mean lucky in our sense of the word, it more commonly meant something like \"favored by the gods\" or \"successful\". Both of these translations more accurately describe Aug...	[ "This submission has been removed because it is [soapboxing](_URL_1_.), [promoting a political agenda, or moralizing](_URL_0_). We don't allow content that does these things because they are detrimental to unbiased and academic discussion of history." ]
The science of soap!	[ "Oil and water don't mix. But! Soap sticks to both, so when you run water over your hands, the dirt and grease goes with the water instead of stubbornly hanging out on your filthy skin. ^_^" ]	[ "They do that so if it doesn't kill all the germs they can't be sued for false advertising." ]
Why does magnetic field follow the right hand rule?	[ "You've stumbled upon something called Parity. Parity is basically a word that describes the fact that you can rotate your right and all day long, but it will never be like your left hand. Nature has a certain kind of handedness! Moving charges interact with one another depending on their direction of travel and th...	[ "From what I understand we really don't know why it was the case as it happened extremely early in the development of life. However one theory that makes some sense is that it came from extremely simple forms of life. If they detected food to one side they would need to trigger the motive limb on their opposite sid...
Why nowadays up to 60% of the people in developed countries have some kind of vision impairment?	[ "Totally winging this, but I'm guessing it just wasn't diagnosed much before reading small text became a part of daily life. If you learned to read when younger but need bifocals at 40, who cares if you already know everything you need to know?" ]	[ "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...
Have scientists ever actually brought back a once extinct species?	[ "Depends on what you consider to be a success. Most of the stuff out there is theoretical. [Alberto Fernández-Arias](_URL_0_), head of the Hunting, Fishing and Wetland department in Aragon, Spain worked with his team in 2003 to bring a bucardo (a species of wild goat) back from extinction using cloning methodology...	[ "Sort of. As you can see in Jurassic park 3, they can find out the shape of the voice box and get an idea of the nature of their vocals. They probably couldn't work it out exactly, and a lot of Jurassic Park is sort of filled in gaps." ]
Qing Dynasty: I'm a healthy 28 year old political advisor with no wife or kids and a harsh King--what's keeping me in the state instead of walking off in search of better opportunities in another state or in some tribe?	[ "Do you mean the Qin Dynasty? The Qing Dynasty was the last of the Imperial Dynasties, and in that period (1644-1912) no figures analogous to kings existed (except in tributary kingdoms beyond the borders of China proper)." ]	[ "There's a lot of places we can find this sort of thing, hagiographies, chronicles, letters, and so on. Sometimes this is explicit, generally powerful people made enemies and sometimes those enemies wrote books, especially during periods where reform was a major concern such as the late 11th-early 12th century. Oft...
How is the species of a skull determined?	[ "Not a professional here, just took anthro 100 in college for humanities credit. Basically, there are some really determinant features that certain species' skulls have. Some have crests along the top of their head, like a mohawk, some have a really protrusive brow crest, and some species spinal columns are placed ...	[ "Not really right for askscience - I would heartily recommend you try your luck over here though _URL_0_ Beautiful specimen." ]
Where do the winds go?	[ "Air moves due to a pressure difference. High pressure moves towards lower pressure. Wind isn’t an entity that is trying to go somewhere, there are no streaks of air that act independently, the air just wants to even out its pressure. So on a calm still day you’re in the middle of a patch of fairly even pressure an...	[ "The AC doesn't add air to your room. The AC sucks air into one channel from your room, through the big vent, uses it to cool the other channel and spits it out through your window. This air is used to cool the other channel, which is cycled from inside your room, back into it. So to answer your question, the pipe ...
Panthalassa was the giant, planet wide, ocean surrounding Pangaea. What effects would a giant ocean have on the weather?	[ "> Is this the same time as the Great Unconformity? No. > Lots of extreme weather? Yes. Severe annual seasonality, severe aridity in the tropics, and probably severe decadal/multidecadal climate oscillations (think severe El Nino). This system is called the [Pangean megamonsoon](_URL_0_) and probably shaped terres...	[ "First, a nomenclature nitpick: there are no underwater dinosaurs. Dinosaurs by definition are land-dwelling (or amphibious at best) reptiles with a certain physiology. Aquatic reptiles are technically not dinosaurs, but we all know that you mean \"large, extinct aquatic reptiles.\" Let's look at a few of them! * I...
Did the U.S.A discuss dropping a nuke during the Vietnam War?	[ "It was certainly discussed, informally, and studied by the JASON group, who concluded that tactical nuclear weapons would not materially aid the US case in Vietnam, and would actually be endangering to US strategy. [You can read about the JASON study here](_URL_4_). Basically they argued that they would be ineffe...	[ "Is this what Doctor Strangelove was based on?" ]
Why doesn't a bubble pop when freezing?	[ "Not an expert on anything important to this question, but I did want to point out that the weight of the ice is the same as the weight of the water that formed it, so that would not cause a pop. As for why it doesn't pop, I imagine the interaction between ice and water is roughly the same as water and water, since...	[ "Here is a site that answers you perfectly: _URL_0_ What happens is that there is a small pressure differential between the edge of the station and the centre of rotation, and so the balloon will \"rise\" against that pressure differential. The same thing happens in a car as it accelerates/decelerates, or when a ca...
Why does the pivoting end of a moving cart tend towards the direction of movement?	[ "Imagine pushing a cart sideways, from the middle of the broad side of the cart: the pivoting wheels will not experience much resistance, whereas the fixed wheels will have a large amount of friction. The pivoting wheels will move forward, the fixed wheels will not, and the cart will rotate. Returning to pushing th...	[ "Here is a great animation: _URL_0_ As you can see from the animation, the inner surface of the pen is grooved. The button has a \"holder\", which holds the pen shaft in place and slides back and forth on the grooves. The shaft has a complementary part that fits into the holder. The holder is designed such that the...
Why is "mouthbreather" an insult?	[ "I think it's because it's associated with a low IQ. I'm sure there are tons of semi intelligent people who are mouthbreathers, but that's not the norm. My dad would make comments about high foreheads, mouthbreathers and close set eyes as signs of mental capacity." ]	[ "Here is a wikipedia article and 2 discovery articles that will help you understand more about this topic. Although there are common rat-like ancestors, there are also better intermediate examples that were amphibious and maybe give a better resemblance. On the size thing, there are only speculations of course, bu...
Is there Synthetic Paper and if so why is it not widely used?	[ "There's really no need to even make synthetic paper. Paper is super cheap to make, is biodegradable, and is completely sustainable. Paper is made from trees that are expressly grown for that purpose, and which are re-planted after harvesting. It's essentially a farmed crop." ]	[ "I believe they made some realistic CGI films a few years ago. People found them unsettling. They weren't quite 100% realistic, but very very close, and people found that when they saw slightly odd behaviour in characters that looked that realistic, it was just \"wrong\". I'll try to find a reference..... Edit: fou...
Why should foreign policy matter for the President? Isn't that the job of congress?	[ "The President is the Head of State, he and his administration speak on behalf of the United States. Even if it's the Secretary of State or the Vice President doing the talking, these people were appointed by The President and carry his message and his words. The job of congress only comes into the picture when we ...	[ "Let's say you're starting a business and I loan you the money to get started. You make your payments and manage to keep the lights on. Soon, you start making a profit. I, who loaned you money, don't come demanding more money because you're making the payments on which we agreed. Your buddy Jeff has a business, to...
How do you distinguish artificial diamonds from natural?	[ "You don't. The literal only difference between the two is that, by law, artificial diamonds have to have \"lab made\" engraved on the stone (usually on the girdle). Usually lab-made stones are better in terms of clarity and color, are larger, have more fire, and are all-around better than mined stones." ]	[ "Try _URL_1_. They have some short tutorials and online algorithms you can use to examine photos. I've used the site on occasion to check if some Reddit images are faked. Very informative site. Also, check out captain disillusion on _URL_0_. He debunks videos which have been altered and explains how he determines i...
Why is water and blood volume tied only to Sodium and not other ions like Potassium, bicarbonate, Calcium, etc.?	[ "Because blood filtration in kidneys, which determines how much of water in blood stays in blood and how much of it turns into urine, is primarily driven by a sodium-regulated pump system in kidney ducts. This is an extreme oversimplification, and blood water content is, indeed, affected by those other ions as wel...	[ "> The side closest to the moon has a tidal bulge because of the additional gravitational force pulling the sea level higher than the average level, while the side opposite the moon also has a tidal bulge by virtue of the lessened force of gravity it feels being further away from the moon. So, both bulges are cause...
If bribery is illegal, why is lobbying allowed in Washington?	[ "Because the people who benefit the most from lobbying are also the people who write the rules. The lobbyists don't offer bribes, they offer campaign contributions. Then the the politician they bought who inexplicably pushes to legalize storing nuclear waste in orphanages will by some strange coincidence end up get...	[ "This is a very common question. You can use search to find [all the other really good answers](_URL_0_ ). This is instant, and faster than ust typing in your question every time. It's a way of cheating elections. Read the others, and then ask a more specific question." ]
If the US decided it was time to switch to metric, how would they do it?	[ "If I recall correctly, they did decide to convert to the metric system a good number of years ago. so the obvious answer would be any other way then that." ]	[ "Explain ___ like I'm five or Explain __ LI5 would be great in my opinion, and having a loose format like TIL also helps when browsing the main page (to easily identify which subreddit the post is from based on the title)." ]
Why is European weather much more mild than weather in the North America?	[ "There are two primary reasons. Firstly the Gulf Stream brings warm water from the Carribbean to the West coast of Europe, 365 days a year. The water has cooled somewhat by the time it gets there, but is still considerably warmer than the rest of the North Atlantic. Because much of Europe's weather comes from the W...	[ "Europa is very far away from the sun, past a region called the ice line. The ice line is the region beyond which water (and a few other volatiles) can survive in clumps, and won't be broken up by the sun. Where Europa was forming, there was a lot of icy material around for it to accumulate and hold on to. Where Ea...
How did early humans survive when babies wept constantly through the night?	[ "Humans have never been pray nor stealth animals. We are predatorial pack animals. Want to find a human? Follow the loud, smelly horde that's putting up tents and fires. Children crying is probably going to be the last signal you as a predator need to locate the human tribe. We compensated with being somewhat dang...	[ "Not a historian, just someone who likes to lurk and learn new things, but I can maybe point you to a few similar questions I’ve seen about kids and their obsessions while you wait to hear from an expert. [This post](_URL_2_) has an ancient Roman source from u/rkiga that mentions a toddler obsessed with birds. Furt...
As a control, why not fire both photons and neutrinos simultaneously at a distant target?	[ "It's hard to produce neutrinos and it's even harder to detect them. They almost don't interact with anything, so they build huge underground detectors to separate the real signals from the background. To have enough events you want to crank up your neutrino source, so you need some sort of particle accelerator to ...	[ "> In all macroscopic situations, it seems like any event that has a probability of occurring in one of multiple ways can really be predicted if you take more detailed and relevant measurements. If you're prepared to take microscopic nondeterminism on trust, then it's easy to see that we have some macroscopic nonde...
Do mirrors reflect all wave forms of light including infrared and x-ray?	[ "We humans generally refer to \"mirrors\" as things that reflect the portion of the EM spectrum that we can see, but the same object can be a mirror (reflector) for certain wavelengths of light, but be transparent (i.e., have a high transmission coefficient) or opaque (high absorption coefficient) for other wavelen...	[ "This question is pretty tough to imagine. Here's something that might help: Imagine you live on a [Möbius strip](_URL_0_). You're facing straight down at all times. You leave a ghost image of yourself as you go around the strip. Travel fully around and you get back to where you started, still looking the same way....
What did Soviet citizens think of the Bolshevik leaders' pseudonyms?	[ "To accompany any other answers which may follow, I want to point out that their surnames are not unusual at all for the Russian-speaking population. To give you an idea, \"Lenin\" could be compared to \"Lincoln\" as a surname with geographical origin. \"Stalin\" might appear unusual in English, but so would \"Bush...	[ "Is this a homework question? It says in our [rules](_URL_0_): Our users aren't here to do your homework for you, but they might be willing to help. Remember: AskHistorians helps those who help themselves. Don't just give us your essay/assignment topic and ask us for ideas. Do some research of your own, then come t...
If California is in a drought, why hasn't my water bill increased?	[ "Because that would be a logical way to limit water. And the govt doesn't work on logic. Besides home use of water is very small compared to irrigation. Something like 90% of the water used by people in CA is by farms and ranches." ]	[ "They don't. It's a marketing ~~lie~~ gimmick. I used to work for a company that did a similar thing by mail. New customers were supposed to sign up by a certain time for special rates but as a specific matter of policy we'd give those rates to anyone who mailed back the special offer." ]
I just found out that atoms repel. But now I have so many questions.	[ "We're not transparent because light interacts with atoms. Food and liquid does touch us; \"touching\" just means something subtly different than you're used to. It's not true that an atom is 99.9% empty space. The electrons of the atom are spread out over that space. Atoms don't always repel; they can bond with ea...	[ "Yer not alone in askin', and kind strangers have explained: 1. [ELI5: how do metal detectors work? ](_URL_2_) 1. [ELI5: How do metal detectors work? ](_URL_1_) 1. [ELI5 how do metal detectors work? ](_URL_3_) 1. [ELI5: How does a metal detector work? ](_URL_5_) 1. [ELI5: How do metal detectors work? ](_URL_7_) 1. ...
Are there bugs underwater? If not, what's the closest thing?	[ "Hello! I work for an environmental organization and one of my responsibilities is assessing local freshwater streams. I do this by collecting macroinvertebrates (small, spineless creatures) that live underwater to determine if the stream is safe enough to support life! The creatures I collect range from insects t...	[ "To give a slightly different example that /u/Vampire_Seraphin's a current excavation off of the coast of Sri Lanka at a fishing village called Gotavaya is the first marine excavation of an ancient shipwreck in Indian waters. It is dated from the first century BCE/CE, which was the peak of the ancient trade, but as...
The difference between Discrimination & Prejudice?	[ "Prejudice is a feeling or an opinion, while discrimination is an actual act. Prejudice of course often leads to discrimination. For example, if I believe people of a certain ethnicity are likelier to be shop lifters then I am prejudiced against them, but that doesn't mean I discriminate against them. It's discrimi...	[ "Uk Language? Pills will get you proper munted. Like out yer bonce. It'll make you think chubbers are buff and pull shapes all night. Draw makes you want to cotch. Then you get bare munch and need to smash a mint Aero and Potnoodle, maybe a maccie d's. Chang will make you Brap." ]
Was there any interaction between the native americans of the United States and the natives of Mexico?	[ "The only archaeological evidence for a trade link between the Aztecs and what is now the USA is found along the \"Turquoise Trail\" in New Mexico. Products from Meso America, like bright tropical bird feathers, were preserved at a few sites in New Mexico and Arizona. This area was also the source of the bright blu...	[ "I'm really frustrated that all my books are in storage right now. The author you want to find is [Henry Reynolds](_URL_1_). If you're in university you may be able to access some of his books & papers for free. He's famous for his work on frontier conflict, but he covers non-violent contact as well. This is one of...
How do roofies work?	[ "The exact how is a little more complicated then i really understand, but roofies (rohypnol, pharmaceutical name flunitrazeoam) are a benzodiazepine. That type of medication is usually used for anti anxiety, insomnia, and in some cases preventing seizures. You might be more familiar with another member of that fami...	[ "urgh, the tasteless side of my brain was automatically like \"by walking into them, haha\" the more tasteful side of my brain doesn't know, and is also intrigued by this." ]
If I were to make an radio transmitter that broadcast at between 430 and 790 THz, would it emit light that I can see?	[ "Electromagnetic waves at those frequencies are no longer called radio waves, so this wouldn't be a radio transmitter; it would be something that emits light. Radio and light (and microwaves and IR and UV etc.) are just names we give to different portions of the electromagnetic spectrum. For example, if you design...	[ "Perhaps see Figure 6 of this study: Non-thermal activation of the hsp27/p38MAPK stress pathway by mobile phone radiation in human endothelial cells: Molecular mechanism for cancer- and blood-brain barrier-related effects (a pdf can be found [here](_URL_0_)). Certainly from a physics POV, radiofrequency (RF) radi...
why every country uses a different plug sockets when they can just make it one universal type?	[ "I think the point is that it's too late. Try imagining changing the plugs pretty much everywhere on the planet right now. It's unfeasible. And the problem runs deeper than that. In the US for example you've got a completely different distribution: voltage in plugs is 110, whereas European countries use 230, or 240...	[ "It takes a while to implement the changes. How would you like it if the law changed overnight and you had to pay fees/go to jail next day without having a chance to adapt yet." ]
how do websites check if you have a valid email without you needing to press the submit button first	[ "They check for an @ symbol and a domain extension such as .com or .edu It doesn't normally do any test to check if the address is reachable etc" ]	[ "Imma answer your question, but first let me tell you about this time I watered the lawn on a warm july afternoon, there were clouds in the sky and childrens laughter.... ok seriously, who knows, maybe they just like to hear themselves type, or create an emotional connection to the recipe, perhaps they are just kil...
What would happen if a hole was drilled through the centre of the Earth and something was dropped into the hole?	[ "Ignoring the heat and ignoring the wind resistance, the object would fall through to the other side where it would slow stop and turn around and fall back. It would then oscillate back and forth like this theoretically forever. I believe each round trip would take 90 minutes, or 45 minutes one side to the other. O...	[ "No. Every material has a property called the \"[speed of sound](_URL_0_)\", which is actually the speed that energy travels through that material. When you push one end of the stick, the whole stick will not move at once. You'll actually cause a ripple through the stick -- a compression wave -- and that compress...
non American here. Why are these statues so important?	[ "History of our country. A dark history. It'd be like Germany wanting to keep Nazi monuments up for historical value." ]	[ "You know how people thought there's some angry god that throws lightning bolts when you do or don't do something? Well people are afraid of things they don't understand." ]
What is the theoretical limit to lossless data compression?	[ "This is entirely dependent on the data being compressed. Every file will have its own particular lower bound, its information entropy, and you can't compress it any further without losing some information." ]	[ "Basically if you plot the image density versus integrated energy on a pixel, you will find that no system is perfectly linear. Even the time of exposure (shutter speed) can affect the results. Film was especially bad in this respect. And lead to things like [\"Black lightning\"](_URL_1_) on photographs. Caused by ...
How are artificial flavorings made? For example, how would someone figure out which chemicals, when mixed together, taste like a peach?	[ "Separate the compounds in the peach using chromatography. Measure which compounds are the most common. Figure out what those compounds are using some analytical methods. Next, figure out how to produce these compounds. Look up literature for synthesis methods, test and experiment. Make different mixtures and test ...	[ "For starters, the anatomy of our neck and tongues allow for a wide range of sounds. One of humanity's earlier ancestors is believed to have been out-competed by another purely because the shape of their neck/throat didn't allow for complex communication. Birds have solid pitch control via their throats, but don't ...
why can a light tap or flick or what have you on my testicles hurt pretty bad, but ball-slapping sex doesn't hurt at all?	[ "Well, during ball slapping sex, things hurt less. Hormones, adrenaline, etc. For me at least, it's common for them to be a bit sore after." ]	[ "The Theory of relativity. The same reason time seems to pass In a blink when you're enjoying a night with friends, yet seems to last an eternity during the last 10 minutes of work." ]
I've heard that no matter where you are in the universe, you're still equidistant from the universe's "edges" as it expands. How is this so? Or am I getting this wrong?	[ "The \"edges\" of the universe are just as far as we can see, not physical edges, because the light at the edges is from the beginning of the universe and there can't be any light from before the universe. It's like two ships on the ocean, which both see the horizon equidistant from themselves no matter where they ...	[ "The example usually given is imagine two mirrors on opposing sides inside a box, and you bounce a particle of light between them. It takes said particle a fixed amount of time to ping between the two mirrors because the speed of light is fixed(See EEP). If you were to run with the box, the particle would have a gr...

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