Subset (10)

eli5 · 25k rows

Split (1)

train · 25k rows

query stringlengths 20 300	positive listlengths 1 1	negative listlengths 1 1
if the DPRK is a brutal totalitarian regime/dynasty, why does the United States, the United Nations, and the international community condemn them while simultaneously wholeheartedly endorsing and taking vantage of states such as the Saudi monarchy and Qatar?	[ "North Korea is on a whole 'nother level compared to Saudi Arabia and Qatar." ]	[ "Just a side note: the Kim Jong-un story was completely made up. _URL_0_" ]
Why does it take several minutes for our eyes to adjust to the dark, when our pupils shrink so quickly?	[ "It's not just the pupil that helps us adjust to bright & dark situations. There is a chemical called Rhodopsin that detects when photons (light) hits it. The light breaks down the Rhodopsin, and it takes a while for it to reform/replenish. So when it's bright and you go into the dark (or stop looking at a bright l...	[ "That's because your device has to \"prep\" a lot of configurations such as encryption keys, protocols etc. Think of it as switching the battery in your car, you first gotta unplug it, check which wire goes well, reassure you did it correctly and then proceed to turn your car on. It took you time to do all that, ...
Why do some people believe microwaves can cause cancer?	[ "It's just an incomplete understanding of science. It happens to everyone in one form or another. Terms like \"cancer\" and \"radiation\" are commonly associated with one another, so if a person doesn't have a good grasp on what these terms actually mean, it leads them to form ideas like \"all radiation causes canc...	[ "When cells divide they make pretty much exact copies of themselves. Introduce radiation to the equation and the copying process goes screwy and the new cell is different. Rinse and repeat over and over and you end up with body cells which are completely different in shape size and function to what they were origin...
Why does my cat ignore me all day unless I'm on the toilet where he then begs and paws for my attention?	[ "Honestly I don't think there is a real answer for this. All I can say is that cats have very different personallities from each other. Cats react differently to many situations and have many different mind sets. Your cat could be thinking that your only want to pet him/her when your on the toilet. I know very stra...	[ "A variety of factors are in effect here, such as the general health of your digestive tract and how badly you need to go. However, the primary factor at play is [the posture your body is currently in](_URL_0_) (standing upright lessens the need while squatting down makes you feel it even more)." ]
Why do we see "child geniuses" who get into colleges at very young ages and know complex math or science from a young age, but don't ever actually see their achievements in these fields when they enter adulthood?	[ "uh, Mozart? Most of the top chess players? (Go players too apparently). [Most of them live pretty good lives as professionals. ](_URL_0_) You know, other than Ted Kaczynski... But a lot of this is just perception. Who would you say are the top 5 mathematical genius's today? Can you name even one? Society doesn...	[ "There is basically no one who receives a monthly pay stub from their employer that shows a monthly income in excess of six figures. What actually happens is that people who own a business, or are sitting on property that is going up in value (be that land, stocks, stock options, etc.) sit down with their accountan...
How skyscrapers are built	[ "You dig a deep pit until you hit bedrock, form the substructure of the skyscraper using beams and build the structure of the rest of the skeleton. Generally they will have a single core for the building made of reinforced concrete with thick steel beams and girders. From the core you will brace the building with ...	[ "Thank you for your submission! Unfortunately, your submission has been removed for the following reason(s): You can find the basic answer with a google / wiki search. Please start there and come back with a more specific question. If you disagree with this decision, please send a [message to the moderators.](_URL...
Do movies with more special effects take up more space than a movie of equal resultion but no special effects	[ "If you're talking about video compression, typically it compares differences between each frame and only includes the parts that have changed. In a movie scene with two people talking, most of the background won't change. That means the compression can be higher. Most CGI movies are heavily motion based with stuf...	[ "If I recall correctly from an advertising class I had at university, the Big Mac that gets shown in those advertisements is ingredient for ingredient exactly the same as the ones you get when you order it at your local restaurant. HOWEVER, for the advertisement, they spend hours meticulously preparing it as one ...
Could a compressed gas be used as an optical lens?	[ "Yes, definitely. In fact, even an uncompressed gas can be used as an optical lens as long as it has a different index of refraction from the surrounding air. For instance, the [heat shadow ripples](_URL_0_) that you see above the shadow of a hot object is caused by hot air surrounded by cold air acting like a lens...	[ "Diver here. The amount of air in an uncompressed bottle won't be enough to make the effort worthwhile. You would be better off taking the time and energy to get to either the surface or a reliable air source like a partner's backup regulator. For short vs long, either one would deplete in a matter of 1 breath any...
When and why did the English accent in early America fade away, and the American accents come about?	[ "English as it was spoken during colonial times isn't the same as it is spoken now in either Britain or America. Both populations have had their pronunciation drift over time. So Americans never lost their British accent, because they never had what we would now call a British accent to begin with. You can look up ...	[ "Lower right corner, there is your tray, click on the icon that looks like a keyboard, and change the setting to US English, or just US. If you don't have this little icon, look for a little taskbar that can be anywhere on your screen, usually at the top. Change it to US settings. It happens whenever you change yo...
If the IRS already know how much you owe, why do you have to do your taxes yourself?	[ "Because companies like TurboTax have lobbied against filling directly or the IRS filling for you for years and years. They say it's too complicated. The IRS has all the information in hand to just send you a bill for what you owe. Makes me so upset." ]	[ "Servers can't see what you do in your browser, they can only see requests you actually make to them. So google forces you to make a request to its servers so that it knows what you clicked, and then shoots you along to your destination." ]
Why is the Ukrainian army struggling so hard to subdue the rebels?	[ "The separatists have about 10-20k personnel and are augmented by Russian mercenaries, special forces, artillery, and intelligence working in conjunction with them. They are also receiving training, arms, ammunition, and medical treatment by the Russians. The Ukrainians can handle the separatists (they were winnin...	[ "This has essentially been answered by the preceding comments, but what hasn't been contributed is this: _URL_0_. Muster and enrollment records, transfer lists, honours lists, etc, for the period of 1730 through 1898. Worth having, OP, if you're writing or researching the topic academically. To succinctly summarise...
If a camera moves away from an object (facing it) with a constant speed of 0.5c, will the video be recorded in slow motion?	[ "the objects recorded on the camera would appear to be in slow motion. _URL_2_" ]	[ "Water tends to want to \"stick\" to glass, and other surfaces. This is called adhesion. This is one of the forces acting to turn the water as it pours. The faster you pour, the more force that is required to turn the liquid to keep it attached to the glass. At some point, the water is moving too fast for the adhes...
Do any species have social hierarchies independent of gender?	[ "Wolves live in family groups similar to human families. A pack is usually two parents and their adult offspring. The social hierarchy is based on generation, with children following parents. (Side note: the popular notion of the 'alpha wolf' is based on studies of captive wolves and does not apply to those in the ...	[ "A follow up question: Is it possible that they are potentially as smart as we are, but the lack of hands, appropriate communication (etc.) limits their ability to develop their potential?" ]
Are Vacuum Airships even possible?	[ "The advantage of Helium and Hydrogen is that they exert outward pressure to counteract the inward pressure of the atmosphere, so the skin of the airship just needs to be strong enough to hold in the gas without leaking. However, an airship that used a vacuum would have to be much stronger (and therefore much h...	[ "I'd be simpler just to build a [fusor](_URL_1_) with deuterium. _URL_0_" ]
If my chin was taped or molded into a cast, would a beard grow in a month?	[ "There seems to be no definite answers, but two theories. 1) It's not growing more, it's being worn off less. 2) The rubbing and pressure of the cast causes increased blood flow which stimulates hair growth. In either case, it goes back to normal within 4-6 months. _URL_1_ _URL_2_ _URL_0_" ]	[ "Physician (who loves whisky) here. What changes one's voice over time is not the alcohol but rather the untreated gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) (AKA heartburn). Alcohol, fatty food consumption, genetic predisposition, stress, amongst other things can cause GERD. When stomach acid hits your esophagus, your...
I once heard about Arizona briefly going to war with California over water. Can anyone tell me more?	[ "I studied this briefly in a class specifically about Arizona but unfortunately cannot recall most of it. I do remember Arizona \"deploying\" a Navy due to tensions regarding water rights. Edit: [This article](_URL_1_) has some information including a picture of one of the sweet naval warships. [Here](_URL_0_) is...	[ "The border follows the crest of the Bitterroot Mountain range/the continental divide. This link has some interesting history on the surveying and geography: _URL_0_" ]
Why do animals sometimes not put up a fight when they're eaten whole?	[ "Quite often by the time the prey animal is being eaten it has fought to exhaustion. Once the consuming begins shock will often play a part. The prey animals ability to fight is disabled as the damaged body attempts to preserve vital functions. Venom may play a part depending on the situation, which may leave the ...	[ "Part of the enjoyment of steak is the texture, and how as you chew flavorful fats and oils are releases. Also, as a solid block, your steak retains its heat for longer. But ones you pulverize it, all the texture is broken down, all the fats and oils are released and diluted, and it cools much more quickly." ]
Did racist European attitudes towards Africans help drive the Transatlantic Slave Trade? Or did those attitudes come about later as a way to justify the slave trade?	[ "You might find [this thread](_URL_0_) very illuminating, in what I think is one of the most informative posts I've ever read, by none other than /u/sunagainstgold. The last paragraph is a pretty good conclusion, but the whole post is great. > All these strands--the idea of legal discrimination based on ancestry; ...	[ "Hi - we as mods have approved this thread, because while this is a homework question, it is asking for clarification or resources, rather than the answer itself, which is fine according to [our rules](_URL_1_). This policy is further explained in this [Rules Roundtable thread](_URL_3_) and this [META Thread](_URL_...
Why cockroaches can survive nuclear Holocaust.	[ "Radiation damages cells when they divide. Humans have cells that are constantly dividing, so radiation is dangerous to them at pretty much any point. Roaches don't have as much cell division going on as humans. Instead, their cells tend to divide in spurts when they are molting (shedding their old exoskeleton so t...	[ "For the same reason seeds can sprout through concrete I imagine. Plants seek light, they'll grow around whatever they need to to get to it easier." ]
Why are extinct animals so much bigger than the animals that populate our earth today?	[ "Because so many more species have lived and died in the earths long past than are currently alive. There is a much greater pool of species to choose from in the past. The Blue Whale, is the largest (longest and heaviest, by a large margin) animal ever to live to our best knowledge. Blue Whales, represent!" ]	[ "Read [this answer from Quora](_URL_0_). Tl;dr: Most dinosaurs probably didn't look mean and scary. The problem is that we don't have any actual pictures of them, so we have to figure out how they looked from their skeletons, and the way that we do this makes them look as scary as possible. (For instance, you know ...
Found this auditory illusion on Youtube how does it work?	[ "Sound can be categorized by frequency (distance between its waves, measured in Hz). This number in Hz tells your ear what pitch the sound makes. Each key on a piano also has a distinct Hz value, and what that music program in the video does is take a ton of measurements of each layer of sounds' values in Hz (made ...	[ "I would suspect something like binaural recording would come into play. You can listen to the results here: _URL_0_" ]
What is last thursdayism and how does it work?	[ "Some religions say that the Universe was only created 10,000 years ago. Yet science has evidence that the Earth is about 4 billion years old and the Universe is 13 billion years old. So there was a religious theory that when the creator made the Universe 10,000 years ago, they made it with evidence that the Univer...	[ "Can someone explain this suitcase? I'm unfamiliar with it." ]
How does a seed in the ground orient itself?	[ "Gravity. The roots orient themselves toward the pull of gravity and the sprout thing goes the opposite way." ]	[ "Not a scientific answer, but when I was a scout in the army our sniper section guys told me they compensate for it on north/south shots over 1000 meters." ]
Prior to the sport of mountaineering appearing in the 1850s, is there any history of people climbing mountains or exploring other landscape features for no practical reason?	[ "The Italian poet Petrarch, together with his brother climbed Mt. Ventoux, (6,273 ft) in the Rhone valley, \"Just for the view.\" He wrote a letter about the climb to his old confessor back in Italy, which is how we know about it. Petrarch claimed that he was the first person since antiquity to have climbed a moun...	[ "hi! you may be interested in this post * [Why are the Swiss renowned chocolatiers?](_URL_0_) and perhaps also this one * [To what extent did tropical stimulants (coffee, tea, tobacco, chocolate...) have an impact on European industrialization?](_URL_1_) Meanwhile, since posts on popular food items tend to attract ...
How do machine learning models improve over time?	[ "Machine learning algorithms must be \"trained\" for them to be effective at prediction. This process happens very similarly to how humans learn as well. The model makes a prediction, and know whether that prediction was correct. This is why we feed the algorithm data that includes the outcome of the event. The alg...	[ "I have worked on a high energy case of your question: impact crater analysis, in particular on the Moon. It turned out that the the biggest problem in being able to exactly pinpoint values characterizing the impactor (speed, angle of impact, etc.) was that the \"damage\" depended very much on the properties of the...
Why does the USA have contingencies for scenarios that are virtually impossible in any real world situation?	[ "Do you wanna be in a country who isn't ready for the apocolypse or the zombie invasion?" ]	[ "Greetings everyone. In the few minutes this sub has been up, it's attracting sub-standard responses. Just a reminder of a few of the rules: * no responses covering events/conditions post-1994, per this sub's \"20-year rule\" prohibiting discussion of current events * no anecdotes * no speculation OP: your question...
How does the body know that the transplanted new organ does not belong to the body?	[ "Your immune system rolls up, checks out the cells of the organ. They go 'hey man, I don't recognize you, where are you from? ' So the cells of the new organ say 'Jon' Now, unless you have a chill immune response your immune system is going to start trying to kick it's ass and force it out. They don't know Jon, bu...	[ "Either they want it for themselves or they have a black market buyer. In general, they'd get caught if they tried to sell it to someone legitimate. Selling it to a specific person is far less dangerous." ]
Do collagen face creams actually work?	[ "No these creams do nothing to restore the collagen in your face. Collagen is a long fibrous molecule (almost like hair in shape just much smaller). It is a main component in the extra cellular matrix which is located on the basal (internal) side of the skin. Imagine trying to push this HUGE macro molecule through ...	[ "The same reason you get viagra and penis pill spam in your email. Some people are unbelievably stupid and willing to spend money to prove it." ]
How is it possible to hang from something like an electric fence but only get electrocuted once you make contact with the ground?	[ "When they touch the ground, it completes a circuit that allows the electrical current to go through their body." ]	[ "So it’s my understanding that as you fall asleep, your brain paralyzes the rest of your body to prevent yourself from acting out your dreams. Before your brain can give the rest of your body the all clear to fall asleep, it checks to see if your body is actually paralyzed, and when you feel that falling/jolting fe...
How does the body figure out what sort of antibody it needs to produce for a new threat it has never encountered before?	[ "The body doesn't figure anything out. When immune cells are produced they randomly rearrange genes to produce different antibodies. If the antibody matches a pathogen, then that cell can clone itself to produce large numbers of cells that can produce the same antibody." ]	[ "They mapped her brain activity and used the information writing the program that controlled the arm. The Doctors told her to think about moving her arm at the shoulder in all different directions, this caused brain activity in certain, specific areas; the Docs record this information and applied it to the program....
Why are eBooks so expensive?	[ "The expensive part of a book isn't the paper, the ink, or the printing cost. It's the hours the author, publisher, and other staff that all cost money. Books are cheap, writing one is not." ]	[ "Short answer is we’re not. Take a read at this article from 2015: [forbes](_URL_0_) There’s really no short answer for this other than it’s a lie." ]
why doesn't Google come out with Chrome for Android?	[ "I know a guy who does mobile development and has had direct contact with both the Chrome and Android teams. This may seem insane (because it is!) but the two teams are pretty much at war with each other. Yep, massive, massive infighting. It's gotten so bad that the Android team will not fix bugs reported by the Ch...	[ "Your question reminded me of this frikkin awesome documentary of about planned obsolescence. [Video snippet](_URL_0_), and the whole documentary, I can't find... but Im sure someone else may be able to. ELI5 version: Because companies want you to keep them in business." ]
How long would a group of people have to be isolated before their language changes?	[ "The main problem with your question is defining \"language changes\". Even without isolation people speak different forms of english depending where in the US they live. Or even in the same city, depending on age, status , wealth and ethnicity. The youth constantly invents new ways to talk (which invariably sound ...	[ "I know that crows, at least, can recognize individual humans, and adjust their behavior accordingly. I have also heard that groundhogs have specific names for 'blue square' vs 'blue rectangle' or 'red square'. I think I remember reading that they figured out 'brown haired researcher wearing green shirt' or somethi...
WIC forces the purchase of healthy foods, why do food stamps let people buy hot pockets and pizza?	[ "WIC is designed for children in mind, whereas food stamps could be for anyone who qualifies. They figure adults can make their own choices for their body." ]	[ "A lot of the hard core GOP base strongly opposes Planned Parenthood's stands on abortion and birth control. Go after Planned Parenthood is a way to try to earn their support. It's not about justification, it is about politics. Also, the argument can be made that supporting Planned Parenthood's non-abortion related...
How would ships be able to move in space?	[ "Conservation of momentum. If we're using a jet of air, in your example, we're expelling large amounts of particles at high velocity, and as such it has momentum. This momentum has to be conserved and is done so by moving the object doing the shooting (your space ship) in the opposite direction. Consider yourself o...	[ "The [glycocalyx](_URL_1_) plays some part in this. Essentially, sugars and proteins in the cell membranes protrude out and carry charges with them. These can be organized in such a way to keep cells appropriately distanced from each other so that they don't fall apart or merge. There may be other factors, but thi...
Why aren't most rockets launched from the equator ?	[ "Yes, there is an advantage to launching near the equator, but there are other considerations. Cape Canaveral in Florida was chosen because it's far south (nearer the equator) but still in the US and because they could launch out over the ocean in case something went wrong. Obviously not every nation can launch fr...	[ "Get a protractor, tape or glue a straw to the straight edge, and tie a weighed down string to the middle. When you get on the plane, look down the straw at a star that you can easily pick out from the night sky (hope you're travelling at night!) and is viewable from both hemispheres, and mark where the string hang...
How do roofing companies "eliminate" deductibles?	[ "It generally involves the roofer over charging the insurance or getting you to submit a fake receipt [here](_URL_1_) is an article (pdf) written by the bbb in Dallas because it has gotten that bad also [here](_URL_0_) is they blog write up, much easier read" ]	[ "There was a great short YouTube documentary about the company that does this for the Premier League posted in r/soccer a while back but I can't find it right now. Basically there are a bunch of guys who sit around and watch certain games on computers with special software that lets them keep track of all this stuf...
how do Poppers or Snaps work	[ "Snaps work by small pieces of gravel and impact sensitive explosive (usually silver fulminate which is like Mercury fulminate but not toxic.) When it is thrown the gravel provides enough impact for the silver fulminate to detonate and thus causes the iconic snap." ]	[ "In the UK, we had a [knocker-up](_URL_0_) , who was a guy with a big stick and would tap on your bedroom window when it was time to get up. No idea who woke him up though." ]
Japan contains a surprisingly large number of ethnic minorities such as the Ainu. Is the "Nissei" culture/people of Japan therefore mostly a modern construct? Or have the Nissei always seen themselves as different from the other minorities?	[ "I think you have your terms confused. \"Nissei\" refers to second-generation Japanese immigrants living outside of Japan. The term you are looking for is \"Yamato\", which refers to Japan's dominant ethnic group. Yamato Japanese have been culturally distinct from other ethnic groups in modern-day Japan for a long ...	[ "In the ancient near east/middle east in the Hebrew Bible era (say before 1000 BCE) deities were very regional and it was generally held that a certain god held dominion over a region and its people and a different god (or pantheon, like in Egypt) had dominion elsewhere. Common people generally held that a god wors...
These days civil wars seem to attract a lot of international attention and involvement. What did other countries think about the American Civil War, and to what extent did they get involved?	[ "It's a common question, with lots of good threads on it. [Here's one](_URL_0_). The TLDR is that the North didn't really want outside help (the king of Siam offered war elephants!). and while the South was desperate for foreign aid, no foreign power was willing to risk the costs of angering the much more populous ...	[ "Is this a homework question? It says in our [rules](_URL_2_): 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...
Why were dinosaurs so big compared to their modern predecessors? What caused animals to decrease in size after asteroids hit earth?	[ "The ones around today are the successors. Predecessors is one who came before, successors is one who comes after. What primarily caused animals to decrease in size was the big asteroids that killed all of them. The event basically led to the extinction of every single land dwelling animal species larger than a med...	[ "Short answer, money. Slightly longer answer: religion, anti-intellectual movement, funding, social issues, and things that are used to ‘measure’ performance. Tests are easy to use to see if a kid can produce the answer to a given question. Which is great if you are playing Jeopardy but generally useless day to day...
How did Facebook know I might be friends with a person in another city, when I've given them almost no information?	[ "Perhaps that person has you in a virtual address book on their email, phone etc which they have given permission for FB to link through. You gave FB your name, it sees your name on his contact list and suggests the connection." ]	[ "Google Android has a feature that sends location data to the google servers, even if you have GPS turned off. If you use a Google Android phone, you can actually view your own data if login to Google and goto this site: _URL_0_ What Google is doing is fetching all this data that is sent from all the Google Android...
Why are we not offended by our own smells (body odour, farts, etc)?	[ "I disagree, I'm offended by my own body odor, et al, from time to time. Especially after a day at work if I forgot deodorant. I just smell disgusting at that point and rush to take a shower." ]	[ "The heat your body is constantly generating needs to be removed from your body, since more calories are in the queue to be burned up. In the same way a car needs a radiator to get rid of excess heat in the engine before burning the next cycle of fuel. Heat transfer gets harder and harder when it gets hotter so you...
Why is it longer for human to adapt from light to night than night to light?	[ "Your eyes work by constantly producing chemicals that is broken down by light. By measuring how much chemicals is in your vision cells you can find out how much light they receive. When it is light there is very little chemicals present and when it is dark there is lots of chemicals. However it takes your cells ab...	[ "Two social psychological concepts come to mind here. State dependent memory encoding and Erickson Arousal theory of learning. State dependent learning states that what ever state of mind you are in during encoding is the state of mind where recall would be optimal. Erickson arousal theory states that learning is m...
Why is the ocean so blue and almost crystal clear in some places, while in other places it’s murky and green?	[ "It boils down to how much life there is in the water. That crystal clear, blue tropical water? It's pretty much dead and devoid of biomass. That murky green seawater of the Pacific Northwest, and so forth is full of plankton, algea, and other biomass. Why is this? The colder waters tend to have upwellings that del...	[ "Your eyes aren't different. Your mind is. Nothing any of us see is \"as it really is\". Photons enter your eye and stimulate nerves that send impulses all the way to the Visual Cortex in your brain where those signals are rerouted, decoded and modified. What you \"see\" is entirely filtered by your mood, your pa...
What is the cosmic constant and what role does it play in physics/mathematics?	[ "When Einstein was first formulating his theory of relativity in the 1910s, he worked through some of the equations and they produced a really weird result - they said that the universe should expand. This didn't make any sense to him (understandably - it's a bizzare result) and he assumed that there was a mistake ...	[ "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 does mail come earlier on Saturdays?	[ "At the Post Office, the carrier's job is: 1) Sort the mail that arrived after you went out yesterday. 2) Arrange the mail in the order which you use to do the route. 3) Get in your truck and deliver the mail. Step (1) takes much less time on Saturday morning because most businesses are closed and don't bring mail ...	[ "I would have to guess probably the efficiency of the code itself. I wrote a program that converts images to black and white in real time (shows the conversion on screen) and before I streamlined the code it didn't matter how fast the pc was it took the same length of time to process basically. once i streamlined i...
How accurate are period dramas about men's bodies in ancient and early history?	[ "Hopefully this doesn't discourage further discussion, but there's a response from /u/Iphikrates in the FAQ to the question [How ripped did Ancient Greeks get](_URL_1_) that might provide you with what you're looking for. There are a couple other ones about ancient \"workout\" routines, that you might also find int...	[ "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." ]
Why all of these anti-terror laws are bad?	[ "The way they are generally sold to the public, they aren't. However all laws are written in words. Words can be interpreted and reinterpreted by anyone. Say for example I'm a power hungry madman making my way up the ladder of politics. If I wish, I can redefine a terrorist as anyone. If you don't agree with me, th...	[ "The airlines want to be able to fill every seat. If they make a rule that says you have to check in, and people don't check in, they'll sell your seat so that the plane stays full. It's more profitable for them to do this." ]
Muscles. What actually happens when you work out and build muscle?	[ "You can not grow new skeletal muscles cells. The ones you have just simply grow in size (Hypertrophy). When mr. muscle cell gets fatigued after a work out he recruits new smaller friends into his cell body (amino acids, proteins) to prepare himself for the beating he is expecting to take again and hopes to be read...	[ "A \"chord\" is made up of 3 or more notes. A note is a single sound, like when you whistle, that's a note. Sounds make waves, and that's what we hear. Imagine you're in a pool with water like glass. You gently tap the pool at one end with your finger, while a friend lightly taps the water at the other end at the s...
What happened to paralyzed people in the days when there was no practical care or facilities?	[ "Sometimes family members were able to care for them. There were also churches that could assist. If they were wealthy, then they could hire people. If they were not, then they would most likely die from disease, starvation, etc." ]	[ "Hi, you may be interested in a couple of previous threads * [Modern cities bristle with parking lots used by commuters, businesses, and residents. Before the automobile, how did urban centres like London, Paris, and New York \"park\" their horses, carriages, and buggies when not in use?](_URL_0_) featuring /u/henr...
If I lived in the times of kings and queens of Europe, what job could I have taken that would have allowed me to raise a happy family no matter who took power?	[ "> i guess sometime before louis the 14th and after the fall of Rome. Could you please resubmit with a more specific time period in mind? We prefer not to have such broad, throughout history questions here." ]	[ "The things that are likely to fall on you when you are outside are: 1. Taller. 2. Heavier. 3. Often electrified. In principle... yes an empty field full of grass with no trees around would be a great place to be during an earthquake. However buildings are designed to withstand earthquakes, and so you should be saf...
Why Can't We Compare Apples to Oranges?	[ "The saying does not mean that you cannot compare an apple to an orange, or the concept of an apple to the concept of an orange. It's to say that given a bunch of apples, the comparison between each of the apples would be a completely different comparison than it would be were you to inject an orange into the compa...	[ "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_" ]
Why some things combust and some things melt	[ "Oh, anything will burn if the conditions are right. Iron will burn in pure oxygen at 930 C." ]	[ "I would put my money on that it is a liquid that is cheaply available and burns quite nicely." ]
In real medieval Europe, if someone were a hunchback (like fictional Richard III) or a little person, wouldn't that mean they were unfit to rule?	[ "Richard III is a historical figure, it is very likely his remains have been found and those remains indicate he had scoliosis." ]	[ "Is this a homework question? It says in our [rules](_URL_2_): 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...
How long would it take to sail the Caribbean during the early 18th century?	[ "Your distance is about 670 Nautical Miles. The first leg is close to the wind (given the prevailing trade winds) until you round the East end of Cuba. Your second leg is downwind (but is a shorter leg). If your ship averages 4 knots across both legs, your journey time will be about 7 days." ]	[ "A follow up & relevant question, how close did the CSA come to being recognized by a European Power?" ]
If some animals have more cones in their eyes than others which allows them to see colours which we are unable to comprehend, how come some species (including us) 'de-evolved' them?	[ "Humans are not the most evolved. Actually, there is no way to calculate how evolved something is. We don't evolve things based on how awesome we are, but if we need it. And we never needed that great sight for it to stick around." ]	[ "Because evolution isn't the process of achieving perfection. It is the process of achieving \"good enough.\" It is possible a method of increasing photosynthetic efficiency could be engineered, but that doesn't mean it would be a reproductive advantage for photosynthetic life, and reproduction is what drives evolu...
Why is it that the alarm always goes off right before the highlight of our dreams?	[ "It doesn't. We only recall that it does because we're woken up in the middle of a disturbed state. Sleep isn't a single state. Avoiding a lot of complexity here, our brains slip in and out of various periods of light sleep and deep sleep and dreaming sleep as the full night passes. Some people have intense dreams...	[ "Two social psychological concepts come to mind here. State dependent memory encoding and Erickson Arousal theory of learning. State dependent learning states that what ever state of mind you are in during encoding is the state of mind where recall would be optimal. Erickson arousal theory states that learning is m...
What's the evolution of the Chimpanzee like?	[ "Interestingly, there's some evidence to support the idea that the ancestors of chimps and gorillas were actually _more_ bipedal. The ancestral ape may have used a fair amount of bipedal branch-walking, and didn't necessarily look just like a modern chimp. article if you are interested. _URL_0_" ]	[ "Your asking essentially the chicken or the egg. Example, Did you stomach evolove first and create your brain and extremites to feed it. Or did your brain grow your stomach to power it. Har to say, as without something to feed the stomach, we would have no stomch. Without the brain to run everything, we wouldn't ha...
American/USA History: Why does The USA Democratic Party considered to be the same but not the same as jefferson's party?	[ "> Why? What are the arguments for each possible \"starting point\", and is one of the options \"more correct\"? Jefferson's Democratic-Republican party \"won\". Hamilton's Federalist Party died out. Factions developed in the Democratic-Republican party in 1824. The Jackson faction was what ended up becoming today...	[ "They both have a similar release date in mind since you don't want to come out too far after your competition and 3rd party developers want to know when to start making higher end games. As well they have similar price points in mind as you don't want to be way more expensive then the competition. So when you comb...
Why are there no trees in Iceland?	[ "Native Icelander here. When Iceland was settled it was full of trees which the Norwegians cut down to build houses and create grazing fields for general farming and for their cattle. What they did not realize was that the soil in Iceland is very weak and takes quite some time to recover, time which it didn't recei...	[ "Nasa, among other groups with space exploration in mind, are asking that question themselves: _URL_0_ It seems the biggest problem to overcome is the low atmospheric pressure, which sucks the already rare water out of plants. Nutrients don't seem to be a problem." ]
If mushrooms prefer to grow in dark places, why do they still grow up?	[ "Mushrooms are the sexual appendages of a larger fungus, and are literally called \"fruiting bodies.\" They grow up so that when they release spores those spores can be better picked up by moving air currents and spread by the wind. If they only grew close to the ground they wouldn't be able to effectively reproduc...	[ "The lights in the room are confusing the flies. & #x200B; Basically, flies and many other flying insects use the sun to navigate their way through the world. In a room with artificial lights, this can confuse the insect in question. From the fly's point of view, it's flying in a straight line. & #x200B; For the ...
In American football, when the kicker kicks the ball for the other team to receive, why they sometimes catch the ball and run it, sometimes let it fall, and sometimes catch it and take a knee?	[ "They'll run it if they think they can gain ground. If they don't think they'll gain any ground, they'll call a \"fair catch\" by signaling with thier arm. This is basically saying \"don't tackle me. I'm not going to run the ball anywhere. We agree to start here.\" Taking a knee is for when there's a turnover, and ...	[ "Captains deliberately going down with their ship is rare. There is a big difference of \"go down with the ship\" and \"being the last man to leave\". The first is more a military thing, based on honor. Some Japanese captains did this in World War 2. Last man to leave is entirely practical, to show that the captai...
How does lightning happen?	[ "Ever had a furry rug? If you rub it a bit, you'll be able to zap someone. Lightning is something similar. Clouds are like a big fluffy rugs that are constantly rubbing against other fluffy rugs. When enough charge is accumulated, they zap the Earth. ---- In a bit more detail: when you get enough power, you can zap...	[ "Current understanding is, that one factor in getting Myopia (short-sightedness) is [not being exposed enough to natural outdoor light](_URL_3_). So the myth around staring at the TV will get you bad eyesight has some basis in the fact, that at this times you are indoors and exposed to artificial lighte...
Why does the sound of running water make us feel like we need to urinate, especially when we already need to go?	[ "Why does a post about the need to urinate make me have to pee?" ]	[ "You had to do a task you were dreading and nervous about, and by canceling it, your brain considers it accomplished. You are then rewarded for it chemically. It's alot easier than spearing a mammoth anyway." ]
How the hell does gravity pull things through a vacuum?	[ "It doesn't pull, exactly. It may be easier to think of space as tablecloth pulled taut; if you put something on it, it makes a dent. The \"dent\" is the deformation of space by the mass of the object. This deformation literally bends space and results in the object still going in a straight line that has been def...	[ "We are used to seeing smoke rise up, because it is carried by convection currents. In microgravity, there would still be air currents but no set direction for the smoke to go. If the air is very still it might make a spherical cloud around the source, just like [flames on the ISS](_URL_0_)." ]
Why it is so hard to do a pull up but doing a pull down on a machine of your own body weight(Or even more) is so much easier.	[ "The machine is lying about the weight. 165 lbs on the machine is not equivalent to pulling up a 165 lb body. In fact, different machines may have different calibrated weights, so if you switch gyms you may find that you have to readjust your limits for all of the new machines. Source: I have trained at several gym...	[ "Your internet connection isn't one big pipe where data can go either way--it's several 1-way pipes. Given that most consumers download more than they upload, it makes sense to have far more download pipes than upload pipes in the standard connection." ]
Game clock stops at the end of an LA Kings game; Kings then score the winning goal in the extra second the delay provided. Amid accusations of foul player, their GM provides what he claims is a scientific explanation for what happened. Is his explanation plausible?	[ "I believe Lombardi's explanation was not intended to be a factual statement." ]	[ "The expansion of the universe is completely unrelated to the human perception of time. Perception of time is a very popular topic in many undergraduate and graduate university classes. The expansion of the universe is attributed to some unknown \"dark energy,\" whereas the human experience of time is just that: hu...
During the WWII, were there third party arms dealers that sold to both sides?	[ "Essentially none of any importance. Each country was overwhelmingly supplied by it's national arms industry (and some were assisted by American Lend Lease.) Additionally worldwide naval dominance of the Allies (except in the Japanese sphere) meant that few countries had a choice of which side they traded with. The...	[ "The person you link to has borrowed (~~or plagiarised - there's no citation~~ Edit: /u/Iguana_on_a_stick points out they do reference Eckstein on page 3, I only Ctrl-F'd the first page. My bad.) their main argument almost entirely from Arthur Eckstein's Mediterranean Anarchy, Interstate War, and the Rise of Rome...
RGB can't really produce true white can it?	[ "Light is a combination of n photons. Each photon has an energy. The number of photons is an integer number, but the value of the energy for any one photon is not discrete. In that sense, you can never have 'all light in the visible spectrum', just as you can't have all values between 0 and 1. There's an infinite n...	[ "Have you ever loaded a 4K UHD YouTube video on a 1080p device? Well, 3840x2160 has exactly 4x the amount of pixels as 1920x1080, so what happens is that every 4 pixels (imagine a 2x2 square) gets made into 1 pixel, the color of that pixel is the average color of all 4 pixels. Photos are more difficult as they ha...
What was the general feeling of Americans immediately after the nuclear bombings of Japan? We're they proud of their country? Relieved? Disgusted?	[ "In the last episode of Ken Burns' \"The War\", one of the survivors of that era, a woman living in Mobile, Alabama, spoke about her own reaction and the general reaction of others to the dropping of the atomic bombs on Japan. The reaction was simple relief, reflecting a belief that the bombs helped end the war. Ja...	[ "Hi /u/friendships4everyone, Your post has been removed as it breaks our rules on appropriate submissions. > Also, if you're looking for any sort of debate. What do you think of this man's actions? Did they do anything when he inevitably died a few second later? Were his actions meaningful? /r/AskHistorians is not ...
Why are the edges of my potato chips sometimes green?	[ "It's from a very mildly poisonous compound found in potatoes called solanine that turns green when potatoes are exposed to the sun. Small amounts of it won't hurt you." ]	[ "I would guess thermal expansion for the led tv. It takes a while for things to cool down. Also add in the fact it is usually cooler at night. As it cools, the plastic will shift a little." ]
What kind of impact did the burning of Washington, D.C. in 1814 have on the U.S.'s economy?	[ "Practically none, Washington was still a small swampy town of only small economic value. The only major loss were the naval yards which had several ships under construction. The loss of Baltimore or New Orleans would have been much more significant than the loss of Washington Anthony Pitch wrote *The Burning of Wa...	[ "You have a lemonade stand. You sell it for 50 cents a cup. One day you find out it's going to be very hot outside and people are going to want more lemonade. You figure you can get away with selling it for a little more since the demand is there. So you start charging 80 cents. You notice that the number of people...
How are non latin alphabet characters typed on a phone?	[ "What kind of keyboard are you talking about? Just like QWERTY keyboard, there are keyboard for plenty of non-Latin alphabets, as shown here: _URL_0_ Every keyboard software supports installing various keyboard layouts. East Asian languages also have special keyboard, [as explained in each of the answers here](_URL...	[ "The only one I am aware of is one I learned from my professors: nk in transliteration, so probably pronounced something like neck. They said it was a vulgar term for sex, so essentially the Egyptian f-bomb. They only told me of one attestation, a tomb curse which reads in part: _URL_0_ aA (nek tchew a-a), May a do...
If Aang was a vegetarian, what did he eat in the South Pole where there were no vegetables?	[ "He had some packed away. Also, as a monk, he's good at going without food for longer than most." ]	[ "Food stamps cannot be used for prepared food. The food you get from Subway is ready to eat. The pizza you get from Papa Murphy's still has to be cooked, so it's in the same category (food stamp wise) as a frozen pizza at the supermarket." ]
What makes a smell "bad"?	[ "It's a holdover survival mechanic. From an evolutionary standpoint, bad smells tell us something is rotten and shouldn't be eaten, or territory belonging to another, or good smells might be sweet and likely to be full of calories. If our ancestors couldn't tell good from bad, they'd have eaten the wrong stuff and ...	[ "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...
Why is falling through the map/level such a common glitch in video games?	[ "Just to add something on map-making years ago... when I played around with the old hammer editor for half life - you start with a void and add solids to the void to create your game space. On the other hand Unreal Tournament (1999) started with an entirely solid mass that you subtracted from to make a game space. ...	[ "Okay. So let's say that you want to bake a cookie just like the ones that grandma makes. You could try to eat her cookie, and then using your knowledge of baking sort of reverse engineer it, but it would be an incredible hassle and very hard to do. But if you had the recipe she used, it would be very easy to figur...
After the fall of the Byzantine Empire, how much Byzantine/Roman "nationalism" (for lack of a better word) was there in the region? When did the people living in the region stop thinking of themselves as Byzantines/Romans and start thinking as themselves as Greeks?	[ "There has been a prior discussion on this which can be found here, answered by /u/The_Turk2 _URL_0_ The answer they provide is basically, the term Roman still has not fallen out of use amongst the Greeks - \"Rhomaios\" or \"Roman\" is still used casually and there are isolated pockets in Greece (and Turkey) which ...	[ "The Albanians don't call themselves \"Albanians.\" Their word for themselves is \"Shqiptarët,\" and their name for their nation is \"Shqipëri.\" This isn't uncommon, really. The Koreans don't call themselves Koreans. That name is derived from the name of one dynasty, the Goguryeo. Their name for themselves is \"Ha...
If dying of old age is not an actual cause of death then could one live indefinitely(not immortal) provided they have enough money and a constant supply of vital body parts to replace with?	[ "No, you couldn't, and the reason is your DNA. Your DNA has bits of blank information on the end of it that are called telomeres. They act as a buffer to prevent damage to your DNA, because every time your cells reproduce, there is a risk of losing a very small amount of data from the resulting DNA. Think of them l...	[ "For the most part 3D printing is a technique for creating 3D objects through layered deposition. It's mostly just used to create simple plastic parts. It can't create anything but the simplest of hybrid materials, and certainly can't be used to create new cells. Growing a new limb is hypothetically possible, but ...
What (hard) evidence is there that Jesus actually existed and wasn't just the manifestation of a messianic cult?	[ "I don't have a lot to add to my already linked answers in the faq, but the two key questions here are: 1. What counts as \"hard evidence\"? Is hard evidence better than other kinds of evidence? Should we only formulate beliefs based on hard evidence? This is a set of epistemological and methodological questions no...	[ "To me, one of the best indicators that global warming is happening is continuous and observable land and sea ice melting. You could visit a glacier every year (or better, a number of them) and note their position, and watch as the majority of them recede." ]
How do we know that leaked documents are legit?	[ "We don't know. As with so much information, if we like/trust the source and the \"leaked\" docs support some narrative we believe in, then we grant legitimacy." ]	[ "Start with major journals. In medicine, this would be something like the New England Journal of Medicine. Consider the number of participants in the study. More is always better. A study of 10,000 is better than a study of 10. Usually anyways. Look at the methods the researchers used. Did they use widely accepte...
If the Law of Conservation of Energy is true, how is the Heat Death of the Universe possible ?	[ "Let's get one thing out of the way first off: energy is not necessarily conserved on cosmological time or distance scales. Conservation of energy is true locally (and to a good approximation is true for our entire galaxy), but not true for the universe as a whole. With that out of the way, nonetheless, the po...	[ "The complexity comes in the fact that \"calories in\" and \"calories out\" aren't as simple as they sound. Not every person digests food exactly the same way, which lends some fuzziness to \"calories in,\" and human basal metabolism can be surprisingly variable, which makes \"calories out\" hard to estimate accura...
How do recently made movies have the same title? How does movie title copywriting work?	[ "You cannot copyright or trademark titles. This is because they are generally too short to have significant content and the copyright office will not accept them. Trademarks on the otherehand cannot be applied to words alone and require artistic design or concept for them to be trademarked. When it comes to copyrig...	[ "Think of it like this. Our body is quite the complex system. It's balancing on the brink of disaster at all times. Our cells are dividing all the time. Thousands of times each second. All that's needed for us to get cancer is that something goes wrong in one of those divisions. We are standing on the brink, and we...
Why are the lakes in the far north of North America oval shaped and oriented n/s?	[ "Simple answer: Glaciers. During the last ice age most of Canada was covered by glaciers (known as the Laurentide ice sheet). This ice sheet advanced from the north to the south, scratching and tearing up the land and bedrock as it went. When it finally started to retreat (melt), it left behind all of these oblong,...	[ "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)." ]
What does Affirm do?	[ "Affirm is a non traditional lender that focuses on offering loans to HENRYs (high earners not rich yet). Most customers are millennials who have have thin file/no file credit profiles. They make good money, but don't use credit except for larger purchases. Affirm focused its credit offering for these consumers pri...	[ "Click a tile, the reavealed tile is either blank, has a bomb, or has a number. If it has a bomb, you lose. Sorry. If it has a number, that number tells you how many adjacent squares (touching it on all edges, including diagonally) contain bombs. Using that information, you can determine which tiles contain bombs w...
If you looked in a mirror with x-ray vision, would you see through the mirror or see yourself x-rayed?	[ "Mirrors cannot reflect X-rays. Mirrors are made by taking some kind of substrate, which is usually glass, and depositing on it very thin layers of material called dielectric. But because X-ray wavelengths are so small, to reflect them you'd have to deposit dielectric layers that are less than one atom thick, whi...	[ "When you listen to yourself speak, your voice is transmitted to your ears not just by the air (which is the normal way of transferring sound), but also by your skull. The properties of the bones in your skill - the way they transfer sound - is not the same as the air. This means that what you hear is not the same ...
If an astronaut were to take their smartphone into space would they be able to play games that require directional control? Would the lack of gravity affect the game playability?	[ "Maybe, with some really intense calibration. Accelerometers use really tiny springs with one half of a capacitor on it (one plate), and acceleration causes this hanging plate to get closer to another half of a capacitor, but farther from the opposite side's half capacitor. This creates a difference in capacitance,...	[ "Finally, my time to shine. I did my PhD in Human Motion in computing. Your hands have equally important, but different, functions There's a principle called Guiard's law of bimanual skill. This states that we typically we have one hand dedicated to fine movements, like writing with a pen, and another hand that is...
Why do stars not move if the Earth spins at 1000 miles (1600km) an hour?	[ "Remember, even at that speed, it takes 24 hours before a star is back at its position. And if you look through a telescope at 100x magnification, you can see it move quite clearly" ]	[ "Our brains didn't evolve with cars in mind. They evolved with, like, being hunted by a jaguar (or whatever) in mind. So your brain doesn't know what to do with a car. It thinks hey, we're sitting, our body's not really doing anything physical, there's very little activity or stimulus... this seems like a good time...
How does muscle weigh more than fat?	[ "Muscle is denser than fat, in the same way that iron is denser than cotton. So the same volume of muscle is heavier than that same volume of fat but the mistake most people make is saying that a pound of muscle weighs more than a pound of fat, but of course a pound of anything weighs exactly the same as a pound ...	[ "a program is like a piece of cloth occasionally a hole is found so you put a patch on it but the cloth remains the same size when you want to make a cloth a blanket then you make it bigger this is called bloat" ]
Why is GMO considered bad?	[ "First I want to say that there are some serious issues with our agriculture system. Now that that's out of the way, there are many different arguments against GMOs. 1. Naturalistic argument. \"Because its not natural its bad\". This can be ignored [\\(see here\\)](_URL_4_) 2. Infertility. A lot of plants are modif...	[ "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 a Petaflop and how does the Chinese Supercomputer compare to a PC?	[ "Peta is the SI prefix for 10^15 'flops' is FLoating-point-OPeration-per-Second. It indicates how many floating point calculations the architecture can manage in a second. Your PC processor is limited to around 10^11 flops while the graphics processors won't hit more than around 10^13 flops. So a petaflop is about ...	[ "C'mon this is explainlikeimfive Linux - Legos - there are sets you can get or you can just build whatever you want. Might need a manual for some things. Windows - GI Joe - Everyone knows it and there are all kinds of cool accessories for it, but still a GI Joe in the end. Vulnerable to dogs and little ...
How do radar detector-detectors work?	[ "Because it is not 100% passive. In order to detect the radar, the signal being received by the antenna is mixed with a signal from inside the radar detector called a \"local oscillator\". The signal from the LO can be received for a short distance outside the car. & #x200B; For a bit more information, google \"Su...	[ "Newer ones might be electronic. The original style would have a recording on a sound cylinder or disk, which would be wound by pulling the string. Generally, much like a record player. A number of the older ones basically are tiny little record players." ]
According to Kepler's Second Law, the Earth speeds up near the Sun, still, we don't feel the change on velocity. Why?	[ "The Earth, the atmosphere, all of us, etc. are all in free-fall around the Sun - we are in an orbit around the Sun. When you are in free fall, you can't perceive your velocity unless there's some medium through which you are falling." ]	[ "Whether you're punching or kicking (or even tackling or swinging), you're putting a lot of kinetic energy into your body. As you connect, there's a sort of \"billiards ball\" effect, where the energy goes out of you into your target, leaving you still (or at least drastically reducing your force). If you were to, ...
Considering all the different elements of sound, how is audio translated into binary so that a computer can understand what it's processing?	[ "As complex as sound.. uh.. sounds, really your ear drum is interpreting all those various sounds into one wave form. That is because you have one ear drum in each year, and it has only so many dimensions. It's really a matter of how much pressure, and how fast, the ear drum is vibrating. When we first started s...	[ "Imagine you want to cook some food. You reach for a recipe book. Not being very brave you go for something simple. You take the eggs and mushrooms and butter and ham out of the fridge, and you follow the instructions carefully. At the end of the process you enjoy your omelette and think \"if I ever want this omele...
What is/are the wavelengths of Hawking Radiation?	[ "It's theorized to be a perfect [black body spectrum](_URL_1_), with the temperature being [inversely proportional to the mass of the black hole.](_URL_0_). So a more massive black hole will be emitting in ridiculously long wavelengths (far radio), and a tiny black hole which is about to evaporate will be emitting ...	[ "You should read [this](_URL_0_) from PBS/Nova. One of the interesting scenarios is the Hagedorn temperature that appears in string theory. As you approach this temperature, as you put a given amount of heat into the system, it increases the temperature less and less. As a result, there is a limiting temperature th...
What's the best way to adjust computer volume, on the hardware or the software?	[ "Adjusting the vlume in software changes the signal-to-noise ratio going to your speakers. Increase the volume in software, and you increase the SNR (sometimes too much.) My recommendation would be to turn down the hardware volume to minimum (but not all the way down to 0), then turn up the software volume until th...	[ "In my experience, one’s awareness and cognitive state or mood comes into play. Interestingly, when I take stimulant medications music sound much louder and clearer than when I'm not on the medication. The mind also can 'ignore' noises after a period of time listening to them. In the same way we can block out whit...
Would it be possible for a tsunami to develop on Lake Superior?	[ "A tsunami can form in any sufficiently large body of water given a significant disturbance. In fact, the [largest tsunami ever recorded](_URL_0_) occurred in [Lituya Bay, Alaska](_URL_1_), which is only about nine miles long and two miles across. At smaller scales than this, the word \"tsunami\" starts to lose mea...	[ "TIL about [Knismesis and Gargalesis](_URL_0_). And that knismesis can put a great white shark into a trance." ]
Can humans generate actual random numbers?	[ "Yes. But they're going to be heavily biased, which makes them less than useful for most purposes where you want randomness. For instance, if I tell you to pick a random number up to 100, and then I hastily add that both digits must be odd and they can't be the same as each other, you'll pick 37 *more than half the...	[ "Warning: anecdotal evidence ahead. I'd consider myself mathematically minded (studied Math and CS in college, currently working as a software engineer), and this is definitely true for me. I'm pretty terrible at remembering (and sometimes even understanding) song lyrics, but I'll often be in a bar or other noisy e...
How did the gun from the Nintendo game Duck Hunt work?	[ "IIRC the screen would flash every time you pulled the trigger. Based on reflective light bouncing off angled light gun, game could detect where on screen the gun was pointed." ]	[ "It basically has a list, if it doesnt have the answer, it asks other dns servers untill one does, or it figures out that the server doesnt exist" ]
what would happen if us citizens voted to get rid of all taxes?	[ "Well, if it were hypothetically possible... Say goodbye to roads, fire departments, police, schools...." ]	[ "I initially imagined the moon exploding and the tides and everything being messed up and then the movie 2012. But then I decided I want a real answer as well. I'm here for that. Pretty good question, OP." ]

Subsets and Splits

No community queries yet

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