query stringlengths 20 300 | positive listlengths 1 1 | negative listlengths 1 1 |
|---|---|---|
What's included in death of "natural causes," and how does it work for people who are relatively young ( < 50)? | [
"If you're referring to \"natural causes\" as listed on a death certificate: Natural causes would be determined by pre-existing conditions. Let's say a woman in her mid-30's had a history of heart problems. It'd be no surprise that she might die of heart failure. Often times the coroner or medical examiner will det... | [
"They can't. Insurance contracts are contracts of adhesion, so any ambiguity is automatically interpreted in favor of the insured. However, homeowners contracts are not maintenance contracts. If you have a 40 year old roof that is falling apart, the fact that a hailstorm comes in and damages it more does not mean t... |
How did Japan make such a quick and powerful cultural and economic comeback following the dismantlement of the imperial government and culture? | [
"Because America basically rebuilt them in its own industrialized image after WWII. We learned our lesson after leaving WWI Germany to languish and decided that we needed to put Japan on solid footing. So we turned them into an industrial superpower in the hopes that they wouldn't feel the need to try to take over ... | [
"Each culture has an 'in' to a particular business in each area. So, one Korean family will come and open a dry cleaning business. When their cousins come, they will tell them the tricks of the trade and the regulations and have the business model set, so their cousins open up another cleaning business one town ove... |
why are chemicals named in the order they are, e.g. Hydrogen Peroxide, or Potassium Nitrate? | [
"Because we decided to name compounds that way as standard convention called iupac. Just as how we decided on subject verb object order. You could say peroxide hydrogen and a chemist would probably be able to understand what you're saying just as an English speaker can understand \"chicken I every Tuesday dinner e... | [
"Netflix/hulu/shomi or all other good streaming services have an international database. It analyzes every movie and how many people watched it, and how many people rated it. The importance is more of public rating, rather than views. It also has an algorithm to group movies together for the \"For You\" section. Bo... |
How does an enlarged heart (congestive heart failure) make my dog cough? | [
"Congestive heart failure causes an increase in pulmonary vein blood pressure, essentially due to failure of the heart to pump well. This increase in pressure increases the overall [Starling forces](_URL_0_) that push fluid out of lung capillaries into the alveoli and interstitial space (lung tissue). This fluid bu... | [
"You start with the monarch, the person who actually holds the power. They are known as the King Regnant or the Queen Regnant. When a King Regnant marries, his wife becomes a Queen Consort. She holds no real power for being a Queen Consort, she is just the King's wife. When a Queen Regnant marries, it is a bit more... |
What is that white stuff on my teeth I scrape off sometimes? | [
"Bio film. Bacteria basically create this gooey substance to live in and try to take over the world. They’re comfy there so they can replicate. But when we brush our teeth, were disturbing their colonies and pull them apart. Ideally, you shouldn’t have it on your teeth, it’s a sign of poor oral hygiene."
] | [
"Where did you get the idea that eating cheese neutralizes cavity forming acids?"
] |
When battling a cold or flu, does taking drugs to ease symptoms impact recovery time? | [
"Some treatments can shorten recovery time. The UK advertising watchdog investigated claims for a nasal spray that was marketed as prevention and treatment. They assessed a load of clinical trials and determined that the spray wasn't shown to prevent colds or flu but could, in certain circumstances, potentially sho... | [
"For a possible parallel, look at alcohol. Some people in rural areas still distill and sell moonshine, both as a sort of \"Screw you\" to the government, and also because it's strong and cheaper to buy with no taxes attached. However, bootlegged liquor is many, many orders of magnitude less popular than it was du... |
Medically speaking, what is the "best" blood type to have? Is there one? | [
"AB+ for the same reason you already put in your question (in case of an accident, you could basically receive a different blood type without having many complications). Other than that, there is inexistant support those wild claims by new age gurus or quack doctors that type X or Y are better, or that you should ... | [
"For a traditional IRA, you can put money directly into it without paying taxes on that money. However, when you withdraw from the account, you must pay taxes on your earnings. In a Roth IRA, you *do* have to pay taxes on your money before you put it in, but you do *not* have to pay taxes on any earnings when you t... |
Why do electrons form pairs if they repel each other? | [
"It is due to the fact that even though electrons have negative charge they are bound to the nucleus by the attraction force from the nucleus and thus they have to somehow be around the nucleus and at the same time be in the lowest possible energy situation. This is done by pairing of the electrons which have oppos... | [
"The would still, by convention, follow the right hand rule, but would have the opposite charge of their non-anti-particle."
] |
Why after 6 hours in a freezer did my water bottle not look frozen at all, but once I picked it up, the bottle froze over in a matter of seconds? | [
"The water was cooled below freezing but did not have a surface upon which to begin forming the orderly crystal structure of ice. once you disturbed it the imbalance caused the matrix to start and the crystals formed quickly."
] | [
"Phil Plait and Walter Lyons can! > Assuming the video is real, I had a sneaky suspicion it had to do with the electric currents generated inside the cloud, the same currents that create lightning. Clouds can carry huge electric potentials — essentially, the ability to move charges around — and that stored energy ... |
How do .zip files work? I can download a .zip and extract a file that's twice as large from it. What are they cutting out? | [
"They aren't cutting anything out, they're just writing it in a way that doesn't take as much space. There's a good explaination here: _URL_0_"
] | [
"He dosent communicate. What happens is that you removed him from the gene pool, he can no longer reproduce. But all the mosquitos who didn't get hit can reproduce, so they can pass on whatever trait they have that allowed them to not get hit. So over time all the mosquitos that can get hit do and die, and all the ... |
Are there other speed barriers after the sound barrier and before FTL? | [
"The \"sound barrier\" only exists in fluids like the atmosphere (and it changes depending on the properties of the fluid). The speed of light is fundamentally different. Really, you can't even *approach* the speed of light since no matter what you will always observe light (and any massless particle) to move at th... | [
"It's because *all* observers measure c to be a constant value. They find that they all disagree with how they make measures of distance and time. So it turns out that what is faster than light for *one observer* is actually backwards in time *for another observer* with a relative motion away from the first. This i... |
Why are we not supposed to sit close to a TV but computer monitors and phones are okay within inches of our eyes? | [
"Early CRT TVs produced a reasonable amount of X-rays. The way to remain safe is to reduce the amount of X-rays that reach you, and the best way do do that is to allow them to spread out - by keeping a reasonable distance from the source. But this problem was designed away long ago. As CRT TVs are no longer used, t... | [
"As a kid, I remember it was easier to visually understand a cartoon. I'd watch after-school cartoons, and then the first live action show would come on (CHiPs) and I remember thinking... I don't really even understand what's going on in this show. The actors all looked the same, I couldn't understand what they wer... |
Why was the SI shoot not considered nudity? [NSFW] | [
"Who is suggesting that this is not nudity? Most of the stuff in the SI swimsuit issue is sexual in nature without the nipples or vulva visible. That stuff could be considered non-nude. The shots with nipples visible could be viewed as nude or at least more-NSFW."
] | [
"Well, we can't transmit smells yet. So how do you sell a smell to someone who can't sample it? You create an image of the smell, be it dreamy or sporty or sexy. And that's the direction a lot of designers and ad companies go with it."
] |
Why do many web pages seem to first load once, then disappear / realign and take another couple of seconds before they are actually done? | [
"Bad website design. This is something that people making websites should know about, and that is relatively easy to make not happen. But many website designers choose not to care about it when they're making websites, so they don't stop it from happening. Often it's because they store \"what the website content is... | [
"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... |
Why does the US have some of the worst schools in developed Nations but some of the best colleges | [
"Public school is free to all and schooling is required unless you homeschool. Some other countries have no requirement to go to school, so only those that really want to be there, or have strong family support, will go. Some countries have free public school only for the best students. If you test out, you have t... | [
"Your information is wrong. We are 13th on the list. _URL_0_ If you can't take the time to check your facts, please don't post."
] |
If life just emerged spontaneously from chemical compounds in ancient-Earth, and it's still a fantastic place for life to develop, then why don't we still see it happening all the time? | [
"Lots of good answers so far. Keep in mind that today's Earth is swarming with life. Every single available speck of volume that can support life is teeming with it, even if it's at the microbial level. And every single cell of that life is the end product of billions of years of cutthroat competition and evolution... | [
"The deep space images we get are of objects which are really, really big and usually emitting huge amounts of light on their own. It is like asking why you can't see an ant from 100 meters away but you can see a stadium from a mile away. A stadium which is on fire."
] |
What did freedom or liberty mean to the Romans? | [
"The standard go-to for this question is still Wirszubski, *Libertas as a political idea at Rome* (1950). If you PM me, I can help you get access to this. He lays everything out in the introduction. Roughly, though, he says that: - libertas is not innate, but is instead the sum of civic rights and prerogatives gran... | [
"In addition to [Pompeiian graffiti](_URL_1_) and other [epigraphy](_URL_3_), much of which was quite crude, we also have the books for a number of comedic plays by [Plautus](_URL_4_) and [Terence](_URL_0_) and satirical poems by [Horace](_URL_5_) and [Juvenal](_URL_2_). And what were they like? Much like humor in ... |
Where is the Ark of the Covenant? | [
"Ethiopia claims to have the Ark of the Covenant, though they refuse to show it. It is hidden away in a small guarded temple. Since they deny proof, there is no way to know for sure. Other places claim to possess it as well, but the names don't come to mind. In short, we don't really know if it truly exists, let al... | [
"This is a pretty common question here; here's some links from the FAQ: _URL_2_ _URL_4_ and a few others that have been posted over the years: _URL_3_ _URL_1_ _URL_0_ Most posts agree that it is largely a post-war pop phenomenon with fairly little evidence to support it."
] |
If nuclear war were to occur, would the world be reduced to living conditions like Chernobyl or would it be more like Hiroshima and Nagasaki? | [
"A full-scale [nuclear war](_URL_0_) might well result in the [extinction of the human race](_URL_2_). Failing that, and depending on the type and number of weapons used, conditions would likely be pretty shitty everywhere for quite a while. Here's some [suggested reading](_URL_1_)."
] | [
"There's a large sum of info in this thread given by an expert on Chechnya: _URL_0_ Here are some highlights of the thread which may help answer your questions. This comment chain in specific should answer your question about the First Chechen War: _URL_0_c9uw9zc This comment chain dissects one of the major battles... |
How does a Casino get its house advantage in blackjack | [
"The biggest factor is the fact that the player goes first. Lets say you bust. The casino takes your money. If it also bust, the casino still wins. That is a huge advantage for the casino."
] | [
"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."
] |
This is really dumb, but like where is the internet? | [
"the internet is just a collection of millions of computers. your computer is part of the internet. your neighbor's computer is part of the internet. my computer is part of the internet. reddit's computer is part of the internet. by you using your computer to send data to reddit's computer, i am able to use my... | [
"It arrives in wires from the generating plant. Here are some posts that describe how it's made there: 1. [ELI5: How is electricity made? Is it unlimited? ](_URL_1_) ^(_8 comments_) 1. [ELI5: How is electricity generated- in words an actual 5 year old can understand please. ](_URL_3_) ^(_16 comments_) 1. [ELI5:How ... |
Why are rivers/water formations in Europe/UK so murky/dirty, can they be cleaned? | [
"It’s just the composition of the ground. The water is brown because of the substrate it flows on. Nothing you can do about that without literally replacing the surface makeup of our soil. The Thames in particular is also unfortunately a dumping ground for waste, some industrial products and other stuff. It’s not a... | [
"A lot of it has to do with the difference in diet and lifestyle of then vs now. Back then (say, before the industrial revolution, at least), humans didn't eat any refined foods. They ate a lot of \"basic\" foods - wheat, rice, barley, potatoes, and the like. As you probably know, sugar is terrible for your teeth, ... |
How does suncream work? | [
"Two types of sunscreen: **Chemical**: Organic compounds, which become absorbed by the skin, become converted into heat when exposed to ultraviolet radiation. **Physical**: Minerals (Zinc oxide or Titanium dioxide) are finely ground and act as a reflective layer that reflects ultraviolet radiation."
] | [
"Different skin colours help in different climates, darker skin tones nearer the equator, lighter towards the North and south poles etc"
] |
What makes a chemical able to pass the blood brain barrier? | [
"One of the factors that affects absorption through the blood brain barrier is the lipid (fat) solubility of the molecule in question. The higher the capacity for a molecule to dissolve in fat, the better it can pass through the barrier. (One of the reasons why heroin has a more poweful effect than other opiates su... | [
"Some things are already made in bacteria/yeast. However you need to consider some things: * starting materials: can the plant/bacteria/fungi import the starting materials efficiently? are they nontoxic to the host? * is the final product toxic to the host? are the intermediates toxic? * are the intermediates going... |
Why are there so many Russians in Ukraine? | [
"Crimea has historically belonged to Russia, but in 1954, the Soviet Union, under the leadership of Nikita Khrushchev, transferred Crimea from the RSFSR to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. Because Ukraine was so close politically to Russia at the time, Russia was still able to use it as it pleased. Today a... | [
"\"Just about everyone here\" Where is \"here\" for you? It sounds like your question's premise is based on a small sample set based on personal observation. Before your question is addressed, you should be making sure the premise is valid..."
] |
What is “throwaway DNA”? Is there a purpose those strands of DNA? | [
"Theyre called telomeres. By the nature of the mechanisms involved in duplicating dna for cell division, the last few neucleotides (letters) cannot be cloned, so nature devised long sections of throwaway dna to allow cells to duplicate for a very long time without getting shortened dna. Fun fact: We can actually st... | [
"You're not supposed to discard a disposable razor after one use. You're supposed to discard it when the blades wear out. The difference is that they are not designed to have replaceable blade cartridges, have less technology in them (vibration motors, fancy weighted handles with pivot joints, etc.)."
] |
Why do murderers often find it difficult to dispose of murder weapons? | [
"We only hear about murderers that get caught. Plenty of them know how to hide things, and we'll never hear about them precisely because they do not get caught."
] | [
"1) Cost. 2) Damage to the ecosystem of the place you get the water by taking too much. 3) Damage to the ecosystem of the receiving place by the transfer of invasive species. 4) Pipes can be the problem. Flint has dangerous water because of their plumbing. 5) You are wanting to set a permanent solution to a temp... |
How do you measure the most accurate measurement devices? | [
"Here's an episode of radiolab about the why and how of measurement standards. It includes creating, agreeing on, and accurately measuring a new definition of a kilogram. It's an entertaining listen. [!Episode!](_URL_0_)"
] | [
"Exit polls. People stand outside polling places and ask people questions after they vote. They get demographic information, as well as information like who they voted for, what their main issues are, and so on. Voters can decline to participate but the exit polls seem to be pretty accurate nonetheless."
] |
What are crop circles and how are they made? | [
"Crop circles are circles of smashed that crop that supposedly indicate alien activity. You can make them with a string of rope that you use align yourself to the center of the circle, then you take a plank with two ropes attached to it, and you smash it down with your foot on the crop (most often grain fields) Mo... | [
"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."
] |
How are clubs and other social gathering places allowed to have "Ladies Night" without people pulling out the discrimination card? | [
"People can pull out whatever cards they want. It's a free country. They generally don't, because it also benefits guys in that it brings more women to bars - men often go to bars to meet women or at the very least enjoy their presence. Having a Men's Night with discounted drinks for men would mean they're paying l... | [
"because the shops are small and these large companies arent trolling through etsy to find their intellectual property, and theyre the ones that have to file the report with etsy to get any action taken. i dont doubt if someone went around and reported all these shops to the respective companies, that most of those... |
Exactly what is a home owners association and how do they have the authority to issue fines and say what you can and can't do to your own property? | [
"Follow their rules and the value of your property goes up, mostly. HOA neighborhoods are also usually nicer traditionally than others that aren't as regulated, because of the rules imposed. Especially if you want to profit when you sell your house, HOA is a great way to ensure your value is maximized when you sell... | [
"Many military bases host regular events showing off their war assets. Around here (DC Region) there's the Joint Service Open House, a weekend-long event held at Andrews AFB where just about every military land/sea/air unit you can think of is on display. It's essentially a huge airshow with military aircraft, whil... |
Why are Republicans not wanting Sidney Blumenthal's transcript released? | [
"The reason appears to be that Blumenthal's testimony is entirely uninteresting and the product of a committee that exists not to investigate an issue that was already thoroughly investigated, but rather to harass a political opponent. As long as it's a secret, the Republicans can allude to it in spooky voice as if... | [
"btw, Ray Takeyh is not an \"Iranian historian\" he's a washington \"think tank\" \"policy\" \"wonk\". ~~He doesn't even speak Persian...~~ edit: (didn't think he did from listening to him speak, e.g pronunciation of names)."
] |
Why have CGI animated movies looked amazing for years, while many video games' graphics looked clunky in comparison? | [
"CGI movies are pre-rendered by some seriously beefy specialty computers. Game graphics have to be rendered by the average consumer's desktop."
] | [
"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... |
How to get a good credit score right off the bat? | [
"there is no benefit to carrying a balance. and even if there were, it still wouldnt make logical sense to pay money to improve credit. good credit should save you money. make purchases, always *ALWAYS* pay it in full. On time. your score will rise quickly. Unfortunately the score is only 1 aspect, they also look a... | [
"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"
] |
Is the universe symmetrical? | [
"The universe is not an expanding bubble. The Big Bang wasn't an explosion that propagated outward through space. It was space itself stretching and expanding. According to our best understanding of cosmology, the universe is most likely isotropic and homogeneous, which means that on large scales it does in fact ha... | [
"Disclaimer: amateur astronomer. I have a clue, but no guarantee that I'm right! In the past, large telescopes like the 200\" at Mt. Palomar would be just one large circular mirror. When you try to scale up much beyond that, you get problems like the mirror sagging under its own weight, ruining the image. The moder... |
Why do topical anti-fungal(s) have instructions to avoid mucous membranes? | [
"Because these drugs can have serious side-effects when they are absorbed by the body. For example, [ketoconazole](_URL_0_) can cause liver damage if it is taken orally. When applied to the skin topically these side effects can be avoided since the drug is not absorbed by the body in an appreciable amount. It can b... | [
"You're looking at it backwards. If they didn't include the disclaimers you mention, they would have to meet the FDA's standards, like real medications must. They hope to sell you something without having to go through the rigor and expense of FDA certification."
] |
How powerful are electro magnets, and what are their capabilities? | [
"> Can electro magnets be not only switched ON or OFF, but can their percentage of magnetic capabilities also be controlled? Yes, you can tune the field strength by controlling the amount of current flowing through them. > What type of negative effects do magnets have on cell phones, laptops, TVs, etc? Strong, cha... | [
"search askscience for a better answer but it would have to be very strong, I think there might be affects before you get strong enough to make the dimagnetism of water what kills you"
] |
Why does smoke look different after inhaling? | [
"Some of the particles dissipate inside your lungs making it less thick. If you're looking for a scientific explanation in detail I can provide that as well."
] | [
"so depending on the monitor technology it works something like this... side view ~ | -- > ~ | -- > ~ | -- > Where the ~ is white light the | is the screen and the -- > is the colored light you see What the screen | does is it sends any light waves you don't want to see in other directions, and it lets the w... |
What is the difference between network and cable TV channels in America? | [
"Although most Americans have cable TV service, and get all their TV that way, network TV shows are also broadcast over public airwaves, and the networks have to lease broadcast spectrum from the government to do this. Because of the First Amendment, the US government usually has little or no control over the conte... | [
"I usually explain it to my friends using phones: & nbsp; Switch - You can call anyone in your area code but can't get anyone outside of your area code. & nbsp; Router - You can call people in your area code(switch), but anything not in your area code is forwarded from the switch to the router. The Router can for... |
Why the King of Hearts (Also known as the suicide king), is more often than not, depicted having a sword through his head | [
"I don't know how true this is, but I heard the suicide kind isn't actually stabbing himself. It is actually the knife of the Queen of Spades. The evidence is in the sleeves and the way each card is facing. In truth, he is actually being murdered. Checkout this site. The theory is well-explained here. _URL_2_"
] | [
"Ok, so in the chest cavity between the ribs and lungs there is space, which normally has lower than the atmospheric pressure. This allows the lungs to expand and fill with air when we open our airways and use our breathing muscles. If there is communication between this space and the outside (from a stab wound etc... |
How do scientists such as Schroedinger make equations out of their ideas? | [
"As with all scientific development, progress is made by [standing on the shoulder of giants](_URL_2_). That is, it's not like the idea came out of _nowhere_. There were already established properties that were observed or known, and it's a matter of putting these mathematical relations together in one equation. Us... | [
"Just use e=mc^2 and bear in mind that about half the energy released will be in neutrinos that don't really interact with anything, and voila."
] |
What keeps people from pirating tons of digital media in public places with free WIFI? | [
"Public places with free Wifi do not usually have very good connection speeds, so it would take you forever to download tons of digital media."
] | [
"Usually steep fines and punishments when caught. And it is *when* caught, not *if* caught."
] |
Why does snot (nasal mucus) change consistency as we progress through fighting the flu? | [
"The contents of the mucus changes over time. As the infection progresses you end up with dead neutrophils and bacteria as well as your own cellular debris being ejected as mucus. The green tint of your mucus when you're sick actually comes from neutrophils in the form of [myeloperoxidase](_URL_1_). Another compone... | [
"Your body can't dissipate heat as well at 75-80 degrees as it might at 50 degrees, so it needs extra help at dissipating the heat. Even though your temperature is 98 degrees you are ALWAYS creating heat and your body is ALWAYS getting rid of heat. So if the environment makes it take longer to get rid of the same a... |
Why do some electronics take AA or AAA batteries? | [
"There are two big reasons why we have lots of different types of batteries. The first is that different electronic devices require different voltages to operate. That is why you have AA batteries which are 1.5 volts, car batteries which are 12 volts, and 9V batteries which are of course 9 volts. The other reason ... | [
"The first 100 issues of an important UK archaeology monograph series, East Anglian Archaeology, were recently made available [for free on their website](_URL_0_). These are site reports - publications of archaeological data - for the UK counties of Norfolk, Suffolk, and parts of Cambridgeshire. The series includes... |
Why is it generally recommended that smokers, overweight or unwell people see a doctor before starting an exercise regime? | [
"Serious exercise can put the body through a lot of stress. If you're unwell and you start off slowly, you'll be fine and gradually be able to do serious work. If you try to do serious work right off the bat though you could easily end up in the hospital with heart problems or various injuries. A doctor would give ... | [
"Originally actors and actresses were not credited for their work. Eventually some bright spark realised that if they are using popular actors and actresses they can increase sales in subsequent films by advertising the fact these actors and actresses are in the film. When this started they were credited at the sta... |
Why don't people get goosebumps on their face? | [
"Goosebumps were used back when we were more hairy, think of a chimp or a monkey, to stand all our hair on end. It was a flight or fight response to make us look bigger and more intimidating. We wouldn't have had to much hair around the face and thus wouldn't have had a need to poof it up like the body hair."
] | [
"Carving faces in a mountain is super duper hard. And it's not super popular with our native American friends in the region."
] |
textbook to supplement colonial US history class? | [
"Hey, I totally understand feeling more comfortable with a textbook to use for reference. Have you tried reaching out to the Professor/Teacher of the course? If there is a textbook they are partial to but didn’t assign for cost or other reasons that would be your best bet. Especially if it might mirror the general ... | [
"Anything by Trevor Bryce. Specifically: * *The kingdom of the Hittites* (Oxford, 1998) * *Life and society in the Hittite world* (Oxford, 2002) * *The world of the Neo-Hittite kingdoms* (Oxford, 2012)"
] |
How were women treated in ancient mesopotamian cultures? | [
"I am PMing you a section of a paper I wrote. I don't want it online for various reasons, but I will share it privately with anyone who wants an answer to this question."
] | [
"This is a fascinating question! I am also curious in when and how this happened. I imagine it was state by state, so perhaps not all at once? Or was it only after the 19th amendment was passed?"
] |
How big were ancient Romans? | [
"I recall that the height of the average Roman of the era was 5'6, so your average soldier would likely be taller, and great generals topping that scale. So, I think putting Julius somewhere in the 5'8-6' foot range would be acceptable. Remember, these guys had to get on a horse. Not easy to do if you're only 5 fee... | [
"Add-on question: how hard would it have been for them to have sculpted body-hair, assuming that's not the answer?"
] |
Why do Apple make you enter your password when getting a free app? | [
"So my kid can't download 6 trillion apps onto my iPad."
] | [
"There is a fear, founded or not, that the government will require specific actions or information in order to provided service. Example: \"Oh, you want kidney stone procedure done? Sure, but first we need to see all of your grocery store receipts to see if your diet is causing the problem\" or \"Yes, we will be ha... |
If Cicadas are supposedly returning this Summer after 17 years of slumber, then what are the bugs I've been hearing every Summer night for years? | [
"The ones about to emerge (it is dependent on soil temps) are of the species *magicicada*. They breed *en masse* and all emerge from the ground at the same time as to overwhelm predators. There are broods consisting of both 17 and 13 year cycles with another recent example being brood X (10) which made an appearanc... | [
"I used to work for our local TV station, Ch3 WEAR, in the master control department, and one of our jobs was to prep all commercials ran locally prior to them being loaded into our playlists. So, that meant checking captions, volume levels, run time, etc. If any of these were off by a certain margin, we had to con... |
if you are a beekeeper, and your bees fly away, how do you recapture them? | [
"You basically own their house and the only female they have. Of course they are coming back"
] | [
"The new Pirate Bay (Beach) is currently being hidden behind many proxy servers. When you go to the Beach all you download is a magnet or a torrent file. These files give basic information such as what is in the file and where to get it from. The downloads themselves are actually stored on peoples computers. All th... |
does Rogaine work, and if so, how? | [
"Interesting story. Science isn't perfectly clear on the why/how. Minoxidil (Rogain) is a [edit: *anti*hypertensive] ~~hypetensive~~ (high blood pressure) drug, and they discovered the hair growth as a side effect of prescribing it for high blood pressure. They think that maybe the drug widens blood vessels and ope... | [
"First, here is a picture of the hair in a mole. _URL_0_ The red circle in the middle is the cross-section of the hair, the shit around it in a circle is the rest of the hair follicle organelle, various different layers of the cells that form, protect and nourish the hair follicle. And then the 'Island' around the... |
[neuroscience]Is there any limit as to how much information that the human brain can hold? | [
"Ultimately the brain has limited amount of material for data storage so it can store limited amount of information. It is impossible to store infinite information to finite possible entropy. However the brain also does not store the information in quite the same way than a computer does. Information in the brain o... | [
"We aren't really sure why, but it doesn't seem that something like that can be done. Think about it like your bladder; you can build up a need to urinate, but you cannot urinate so much that your bladder is more than empty."
] |
how do trebuchets work? | [
"Ever play with a teeter-totter? Put something (or someone) light on one side and then jump on the other to 'Launch' it? Now take that teeter-totter and put it 12 feet in the air, so the board can rotate all the way around instead of hitting the ground. And lengthen one side so it is traveling faster than the short... | [
"We don't really know how and why they move, we only know where and when we can detect them. What happens between launch and detection is pure speculation."
] |
How did the Birthday Song's melody become the global birthday tune? Even in different languages, the melody is the same. | [
"Started in America, translated into 18 languages, catchy as heck and that's likely why it was accepted into several cultures' traditions. warner owns the rights, public performance could be subject to royalties. mobile, sorry: _URL_0_"
] | [
"We are all subject to a circadian rhythm which dictates our sleep timings. A couple of factors include exposure to light and our body's release of supplement called melatonin. Many babies, for example, are naturally nocturnal. That is why parents have to sleep train them. After that, they will typically get tired... |
Why is it impossible to reheat McDonald's leftovers? | [
"You have to add some moister to the meat, the buns need to be removed from the meat and it has to be reheated. The heat from the meat will cause the buns to become stiff as it cooks the buns when it wrapped up. So the best thing to do is to remove the buns and place them in a baggie and put them on the counter, th... | [
"The true limit on a microwave oven will be how fast heat gets conducted out and how well you can couple the energy into your target. Microwave generating machines can be used to heat fusion plasmas _URL_0_ so long as they are given enough power."
] |
How can galaxies and stars be slowly miving apart, but the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies are set to collide? | [
"Everything isn't drifting apart. The universe is constantly expanding due to the metric expansion of space, and that does carry most objects further from each other, but that is not the only thing affecting objects. The Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies are gravitationally bound to each other. Basically they're cl... | [
"Any physically straigth line will always appear arc shaped if it covers long enough area of your vision. Its just our brains can make us realise they are really straigth if there is enough context. For the case of milkiway center there isnt. Cameras can cause further confusion. Its like inverse version of the prob... |
Getting Data and Cell Phone Plans for Travel in Europe. | [
"How about a pre-paid chip? Most telecom operators here offer those, and there are a lot of smaller companies selling this too. Just google for \"prepaid SIM cards germany\", there are a lot of options. Here is the second [link](_URL_0_) that appears to me."
] | [
"I just looked this up and it appears that Japan charges hefty fees for using internet on large ships in it's territorial waters. Some cruise lines, simply opt to not use it in Japanese waters so they don't have to pay fees. Here's a [thread](_URL_0_) on it if you're curious to know more."
] |
How does CGI “age?” If something looked real “at the time” why does it look less real now? | [
"The baseline of comparison isn't reality, it's other CGI. When CGI first came out, it was obviously CGI, but it still wow'd people because you had this fantastic amazing stuff happening on screen. As the push to make CGI \"realistic\" increased, new CGI was always compared to existing CGI. Stuff \"looked real\" at... | [
"Are you watching blu ray? Is it a good transfer? (Example: despite being made in the early 80's Blade Runner Ultimate Director's cut blu-ray is one of the best you can buy) How good is your blu ray player? Is it a ps3? All of these factors contribute to what you determine as a home viewing experience being inferio... |
Why can’t we increase the wattage of chargers to make devices charge faster? | [
"The rate of charge is primarily limited by the battery itself. It gets hot as it absorbs energy due to a variety of factors. This tends to increase with age too. Many devices do very little to remove heat from batteries so they must charge really slowly. Some devices will charge faster if you simply keep them cool... | [
"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 ... |
[META] What do people mean, when they ask "What was the past REALLY (ACTUALLY) like?" | [
"Mostly, I think, it assumes that there **is** a single, accurate, true, and most particularly, *known* version of the past. There is some understanding that the public/media/popular image of a given era might not be accurate, but there's an underlying belief that someone knowledgeable can pick apart these misunde... | [
"To our readers: Please keep in mind [our subreddit rules](_URL_3_) when posting. Particularly, please make sure [to write an in-depth answer](_URL_1_), [to not just speculate](_URL_2_), and [not to just post a link](_URL_0_)."
] |
What did people before science think the moon was? | [
"You'll probably have to define \"before science\" to get a more meaningful answer. If we take it to mean before Francis Bacon and Rene Descartes codified the modern rules of the Scientific Method in the early to mid 1600's then the answer is that people knew quite a surprising amount. As far back as the ancient ci... | [
"Do you have a particular geographical region or time period in mind? You're more likely to get a good answer if you are more specific than \"people in the past\"."
] |
Why did the basics of modern civilization develop in Asia, Europe, and Arabia, but not in other parts of the world? [via /r/askreddit] | [
"What do you consider the 'basics of modern civilization'? Odds are you'll find them in a lot of places you're not expecting. Our modern perception is skewed because of the success of European imperialism, which usurped numerous other traditions since 1500. Once you provide some more details on what specific traits... | [
"No selection pressure, particularly. The two below answers are basically correct - they weren't black to start with, and they stay out of the sun. Between them, that means there is no significant advantage to being darker and no genetic hypermelanism to inherit, so the average colour of the population doesn't chan... |
Why does our skin turn red when it is hit? | [
"The body is directing blood to gather at areas of detected damage, and if you were hit hard enough it may include bleeding between the cells through ruptured capillaries. Blood flowing nearer to the surface is more visible and makes the skin more red."
] | [
"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... |
Did plant life and animal life begin independently of each other, or was one of them first, and then at some point evolve into the other? Both possibilities seem equally amazing | [
"While I can't answer which came first, I can tell you that all life on this planet seems to share an ancestry at least at some point. Here's some previous discussions on the topic: _URL_0_ _URL_2_ _URL_1_"
] | [
"Well, the moon might orbit its planet perpendicularly to the planet's orbit, and get enough sunshine. If it is inside the hospitable zone and large enough to hold an atmosphere, it is definitely theoretically possible for it to support life."
] |
How would America respond to a real revolt, On a county wide scale? | [
"Badly... People would use it as an excuse to do stupid things like steal, kill and commit other crimes."
] | [
"Because most people who do not live in a cave realized decades ago that this has been going on. Very few people and/ or countries are that naive, not to know that this is going on in every country in the world"
] |
Light slows down when travelling through matter; do gravitational waves likewise slow down when passing through matter, or gravity wells? | [
"Technically yes, but the effect is ridiculously small because gravity is so weak. A much larger effect than the direct matter interaction is the [Shapiro delay](_URL_0_)."
] | [
"Basically nobody has a fully quantum mechanically sound theory that relates to black holes, so people don't know whether they expect these things to be conserved or not. I would say these quantities probably are conserved but don't affect the properties of a black hole. To an outside observer matter never even re... |
How can normal batteries explode? | [
"depends on what it is made of. some battery materials are highly flammable and they can burn at high temperatures, quickly increasing volume. They are usually stored in a protective container that can only take so much abuse."
] | [
"Some deodorants have their scent packaged in little balls (microcapsules) that break open due to heat or friction. Those activate, but many don't. Fabric softeners do the same thing."
] |
How is it that "seizure therapy" dogs can detect seizures in advance? | [
"Nobody is entirely sure. Obviously they can sense *something*; it might be a smell (common theory, but we've never found the chemical responsible) or a subtle change in behavior. Dogs can have seizures themselves and are very sensitive to the well-being of pack-mates. It makes sense that they can notice warning si... | [
"A few things to realize before trying to draw conclusions like this: * Science is an evolving process that doesn't end with a single study. One study's results could be refined or contradicted by other studies, and it takes multiple iterations to suss out the truth. * Science journalism is terrible. University PR ... |
Why aren't films sold with compression, making bluray quality dvds? | [
"You can only use MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 on a disc if you want most DVD players to understand it. MPEG-4 uses more complicated tricks that wouldn't run on cheap hardware back in 1995."
] | [
"The same is true of literally any product in the world. For example, when you buy groceries, you don't buy from farmers do you? You buy from a store, that buys from a distributor, that buys from farmers. The farmer sells in bulk to the distributor who sells in less bulk to the store who sells in single units to yo... |
If nicotine is a stimulant why does it calm people down to smoke? | [
"Someone already mentioned withdrawal, but there is another theory that some people are self-medicating for conditions that would normally be treated with stimulants, like ADHD."
] | [
"It's just a form of advertising. They sponsor the event, the Redbull logo is everywhere and everyone sees it. Later on, you think \"I should get an energy drink\" and the brand that leaps into your mind is Redbull. So you buy a Redbull. In addition, people like to buy things that they perceive as having importanc... |
Why do vegetables taste worse compared to meat/fat if it is healthier for our body? | [
"Out bodies crave and enjoy things with higher calorie content, just because it's basic self-preservation to prevent starvation."
] | [
"Simply put for the same reason drinking water when you're not thirsty isn't as refreshing as when you're REALLY thirsty. Anticipating the bodies' needs doesn't trigger the same reward responses in the brain as fulfilling a need that is already present. Your muscles don't NEED to stretch right now, so you can't ant... |
Relativistic space travel thought experiment: Time dilation, how does it work? | [
"> Spaceship-Z sees a massively redshifted Earth with clocks moving at the same rate at Spaceship-Z's. No, the effects of time dilation are symmetric when the ship is in an inertial frame. The crew sees Earth's clocks moving slower and the Earth seems the crew's clocks moving slower."
] | [
"You seem to be describing a variant of the [ladder paradox](_URL_0_), just using a train and tunnel instead of a ladder and a garage, he he. > What does the outside observer see? The outside observer sees the front guillotine make a cut, then later after the train has passed further through the tunnel, the back g... |
Why can't spent nuclear waste be transported via ship to the middle of the Pacific and dropped into the Mariana Trench? | [
"It would eventually leak, and then we'd have radioactive contamination spreading into the ocean that's impossible to contain. Also, that waste is still radioactive enough to generate a large amount of heat - enough heat to wreak havoc on the ecosystem down there."
] | [
"Instead of draining the ocean, what about a cofferdam down to the ocean floor? Something like a giant tube all the way down so that you were at the elevation of the bottom of the ocean. Are you interested in whether we could breath there or if the pressure would be too high?"
] |
What is the evolutionary benefit to growing a set of teeth and having it be replaced years later? | [
"sets of teeth are also different sizes. A child's jaw cannot fit as many teeth of the adult size as an adult's can. So we have smaller teeth as children replaced by larger ones as adults."
] | [
"Part of the presence of pain is its *purpose*. Your nervous system continues to remind your brain the pain you've experienced so you know to protect it. For us, that means going to a doctor for a broken finger. But in nature, that means \"I need to guard this finger until it heals, or else I may die. If I try to ... |
Why did the Bill of Rights have to be "amended" in the US Constitution, when the "original" constitution and the amendments essentially were ratified simultaneously? | [
"It was three years later when the bill of rights was ratified. After the constitution was finished and put up for ratification the opponents of ratification complained about the lack of a bill of rights. The supporters then promised to add one soon afterward, and instead of going back and restarting the whole cons... | [
"Backwards compatibility is fairly difficult, and comes with its own difficulties. The architecture of a PS3 and PS4 are radically different, so a game that is written to run on a PS3 architecture can't run on PS4 architecture at all. In order to achieve backwards compatibility, either the PS4 needs its internal ar... |
how come so many shows on Fox make fun of Fox so much? Why does Fox keep them on the channel? Shows like Simpsons and Family Guy. | [
"Because they're popular. If the Simpsons bring in a lot of viewers, it would be a really bad business decision to cut them because they make fun of Fox."
] | [
"The numbers represent the frequency, in megahertz (MHz) at which the radio station transmits. The reason that they're always odd (88.9, 89.1, 89.3, etc.) is because each station is allocated a 200 kilohertz (KHz) bandwidth. So those stations actually have a range of 88.8-89.0, 89.0-89.2 and so on. You're tuning th... |
Why do mirrors seem to flip images on a vertical axis but not on a horizontal axis? | [
"Mirrors [flip front to back, and not left to right](_URL_0_). It seems to humans like mirrors flip left to right because we flip our body (or a piece of paper) left to right to make it face the mirror. If humans turned around by going head over foot instead of left to right, the mirror would seem to flip things up... | [
"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... |
Does changing temperature have "inertia?" | [
"No, for the reason that changes in temperature require a sink to 'move heat' (**this is not a rigorous way of talking about it**) in or out of. If the water is getting colder, it has to be making something else hotter by giving energy to it. By the laws of thermodynamics it can't be making anything already hotter ... | [
"The device isn't manufactured to the strict tolerances needed to maintain the same rate, because there's no reason to do so. So anything from the charge in your battery, to the heat of the environment, can introduce some 'wiggle room' into the mechanism. Since it would take extra expense to eliminate this, and sin... |
how prime numbers are used for security purposes. | [
"If I asked you what 761 * 977 was, you could probably figure it out pretty quickly. But if I asked what two numbers multiplied together make 743,497, that is a lot harder to figure out. It is the same for computers, they can multiply even 100 digit numbers together in microseconds, but it could take centuries for ... | [
"Membership in a political party allows you to do things like vote in primaries. Election boards need this information to determine who can vote in what primaries. I would imagine it's also done at the request of political parties to ensure membership."
] |
Why do we put milk in our cereal? How did that start? | [
"I put milk ON mine. But (having tried it once when desperate) why does putting water on cereal taste SO bad?"
] | [
"School collects box tops & sends them to the company. The company sends the school money. The idea is that people will buy more products from the company if they know it'll help the local schools. It's just an advertising campaign."
] |
Are other planets' magnetic fields oriented the same as Earth's? | [
"For some planets, this is true; for others, not so much. - Earth's magnetic field is tilted 11° to its rotation. That's surprisingly close to Jupiter's (10°), and not too far off from Ganymede's (4°). - On the other hand, both Saturn and Mercury have a 0° tilt to the magnetic field. In other words, their magnetic ... | [
"Look at [this picture](_URL_0_). Pretty much gets the idea across. The lines in the picture represent magentic field lines. Note how the disk is sorta \"pinched\" between them. In that fashion the disk is held in place."
] |
Why do candies of different types in the same container start to share tastes? | [
"They've been rubbing flavour juices all over each other."
] | [
"There is a concept known as a \"[ring species](_URL_0_)\" which is basically what you're describing, with species A in your example sitting in the middle of the ring, and species B and C sitting on the ends of the ring."
] |
What is the fastest two-reactant first-order chemical reaction? | [
"M^-1 s^-1 ? Are you sure you are talking about first order and not second order? And at what temperature? I worked with tetrazine/trans-cyclooctene reactions with second order rate constants of some 10-100 millions (at 25°C), but those are fully diffusion controlled."
] | [
"Awesome question, you’re right that the research about this kinda sucks. If you are good at interpreting/understanding research articles then check this out, if not then I’ll cover the details below so don’t worry: _URL_0_ Generally, research of this nature is done using model organisms, in the case of this study... |
How true is this comment? Was Hitler in any way "progressive"? | [
"I am not trying to stifle further discussion, but a [search for \"hitler socialism\"](_URL_0_) returns many discussions about the ideological orientation of National Socialism in Germany."
] | [
"Gisela Perl wrote a book on her time as a doctor in Auschwitz in which she admits to performing hundreds, if not thousands, of abortions. Her story seems to imply that pregnancy was not unusual and that many in the camps knew that they would be at risk by continuing the pregnancy. Starvation rations would make the... |
ELIM5 the difference between Sheriff, Deputy, Police Officer, Constable, Trooper and Marshall. | [
"Actually, there is little to no difference between \"police officers\" and \"constables\". When the idea of the modern version of a police force was created by Sir Robert Peel in the 1800's ( [source](_URL_0_) ) his idea was to have men working patrols to prevent crime. These men were officially referred to as \"c... | [
"Astronaut Group 4 was the first group of non-pilots to enter the NASA astronaut core. Previous groups were taken from test pilots and fighter pilots. Harrison Schmitt on Apollo 17 was thus the first US non military officer in Space. Source: Eugene Cernan's Autobiography right next to me."
] |
Are there any other compounds besides H2O that appear in 3 different states naturally on Earth? | [
"This is a cool question and I was bummed when I didn't find an answer already here. Did some research and found an article and specifically this paragraph; the last sentence indicates that \"yes\", water's the only one: \"For starters, while other substances form liquids, precious few do so under the conditions o... | [
"Oobleck is the closest you will get _URL_0_ It's cornstarch and water mixed together Water has one of the highest surface tensions, so that's your best bet, but oobleck stiffens under pressure, so if you jump around, it's ok"
] |
If someone who had a deathly allergy to peanuts or tree nuts (where they went into anaphylactic shock) received a bone marrow transplant from someone who did not have this allergy, would the recipient's allergy disappear? | [
"Yes, assuming all the host bone marrow is destroyed and totally replaced with donor marrow. I was only able to find one [case](_URL_0_) of this happening in a quick search."
] | [
"Xenotransfusion has been attempted in the 1600s, with mixed results, with sheep blood. Ape and chimp blood might work, as would pig blood as they all have similar Rh factors. Source: _URL_0_ Also, dog to cat transfusions can be done, bit only once as the cat will make antibodies to the blood. Also, apes, dogs, ca... |
EIL5: What's the real difference between AA, AAA, 9v, D, etc. batteries? And why did Dildos/Vibrators take only C's for so long? | [
"AA, AAA, C, and D batteries are all 1.5 volts. But they differ considerably in the amount of current and time they can produce. A bigger battery can produce more power over time. A 9V battery is just that - 9 volts. But it has a lower current throughput. As for why a vibrator takes a C battery I can only conjectur... | [
"Taliban - Tribal alliance from Afghanistan. They want control of Afghanistan/Pakistan, as that is the territory they are present in. ISIS/ISIL - Product of the Syrian Civil war, their organization is attempting to create a unified Islamic state throughout the Region they are present in. Al Qaeda - International or... |
Is there a term for chemical compounds that are very similar in structure? | [
"Molecules can be very similar in many different ways. Chemist have a huge repertoire of terms for molecules that may share similarities. I can just think of three top of my head but there are so many. sterioisomers - different only by arrangement (i think cis and trans) Enantiomers - mirror molecules. (like your h... | [
"Nothing is stopping them. [ReactOS](_URL_0_) is a binary-compatible windows clone, for example. As for Apple's OS X, it itself is a clone/fork of [FreeBSD](_URL_1_)."
] |
What would happen if you took a space elevator up to the height of a geosynchronous orbit and then jumped? | [
"If by \"jumped\" you mean \"stepped off\", you'd just stay there floating next to the elevator. If you mean \"jumped\" as in jump up, you'd be putting yourself in an orbit that had a perigee at geosynchronous altitude and apogee slightly higher, with a period of slightly longer than a day. So relative to the eleva... | [
"Zero-g is very bad for certain kinds of injuries. Internal bleeding is pretty much a death sentence since blood just pools in the area and clots up, and things can't drain properly. This came into play in a recent episode of the television series The Expanse. You can see the clip here: _URL_0_ The ship had just un... |
With a high enough wave length, could you communicate through the planet rather than around it? | [
"There are certain types of particles/radiation (most prominent are neutrinos) that can pass through the earth without great problems. However, if the signal does not interact (much) with matter, how are you going to detect it? This is also one of the main problems in neutrino research. So in summary, it is possibl... | [
"It would work. But the subduction plates move at the same rate that your toenails grow, or thereabouts. So it would take years and years and years for the waste to disappear. Years that highly radioactive/toxic material is sitting on the ocean floor, polluting the water and killing nearby organisms. Not to mention... |
What would happen if a true vacuum were to be created? | [
"\"Vacuum\" is one of those words that has no precise definition. If you mean a volume with no fermions in it, nothing would happen. It'd just be a volume with no fermions in it. If you mean a volume with no *fields* in it, then that cannot exist by definition, so the question is meaningless."
] | [
"Many people posting here haven't actually taken a nerf gun apart and looked at it and are speculating that spring loaded guns could shoot fine in a vaccum. Well, here's a picture of a [maverick](_URL_4_) being taken apart for modding. You can see the spring is pushing on a piston-cylinder assembly. The nozzle on t... |
Do sterile neutrinos make up dark matter? | [
"sterile neutrinos are a viable candidate for dark matter. If I am not mistaken the phrase \"a fourth neutrino\" is a bit misleading since for every neutrino you could (or even need to?) write down a right handed partner. Those are still *candidates* though, next to the usual wimps or others like primordinal black ... | [
"The common methods? Nuclear pants *are* the common method. Neutron research facilities tend to be built at them. Another way is use a particle accelerator to create unstable nuclei that decay by neutron emission. The [Spallation Neutron Source](_URL_0_) collides protons into mercury to produce neutrons."
] |
In the Star TrekTNG episode "The High Ground", Data states that based on earth history "Terrorism is an effective way to promote political change." Would you say this is true? | [
"What do you mean by terrorism? Fear has always been used to achieve goals, so it's at best a vague statement."
] | [
"American political campaigns are funded by donations. The rules of the campaign state how much money a given organization, corporation, or individual can donate. Political campaigns are expensive and regularly getting more expensive. Between non-profit organizations, individuals, and corporations, the only group w... |
what is the difference between stereo sound, Dolby sound, and all the other types of sound? | [
"Mono (1) - the sound comes from all the speakers and sound the same. Stereo (2) - Two different sounds played on two (or more) speakers. Stereo w/ bass (2.1) - Same as stereo, but there's a rumbly box making shaky noises. Dolby Surround Sound - Dolby's version of many sounds coming from many directions. (5.1 - 5 s... | [
"My LI5 explanation - You work out where you are and how you are moving from both your eyes, and the motion detection organs in your ears. When you are in a car, your eyes see the device in front of you, and it does not appear to be moving. But your ears pick up all the movement of the car. So your eyes are saying... |
Imagine a human is standing on a giant, perfect sphere. How small must the sphere be for the human to look out on the horizon and notice that he is on a curved surface? | [
"That pretty much depends on your definition of a noticeable curvature."
] | [
"One way to think about waves is [Huygens' principle](_URL_1_), which states that waves travel as though each point on the wave were emitting an outward-going wave of its own. It's mathematically equivalent to other ways of thinking about waves but is useful for thinking about diffraction. From the Huygens point of... |
How can animals live in contaminated areas created as a result of a nuclear disaster, but humans can not? | [
"Plants and animals are not affected by laws, unlike humans. That does not mean however, that most animals and plants aren't affected by the (Chernobyl*) radiation. Many species of birds and plants have evolved radiation-resistant abilities, for example by increasing the amount anti-oxidants or having more active c... | [
"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 the Microsoft Windows operating system require so much more memory now than it did 15 years ago? It seems like its functionality has remained basically the same. | [
"A lot of the extra memory usage is for compatibility -- multiple copies of things, including old and new versions, may be running side by side. Some is for security -- the old versions of Windows were not secure against network attacks and viruses. Some is for extra speed."
] | [
"Say you have a hammer and nail. If the hammer head is bigger than the nail, then the force of the hammer is distributed evenly against the head of the nail. The nail will go straight into the wood. Now say you have a hammer and a nail, but the nail head is bigger than the hammer. When you hit the hammer against t... |
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