Subset (10)

eli5 · 25k rows

Split (1)

train · 25k rows

query stringlengths 20 300	positive listlengths 1 1	negative listlengths 1 1
What would happen if i printed millions of dollars and put it into circulation?	[ "Well first you would probably be arrested. But millions? Thats like adding a drop of water to a pond. Sure itll ripple for a few seconds but then its like nothing ever happened." ]	[ "It varies, but not much individually. The problem is when everyone does it. It's kind of like why you're taught not to pick a flower from a garden when growing up. You alone, picking one flower, is not going to be noticed, it's not going to affect the plant or garden overall, but if everyone picks just 1, very s...
How can tabloid magazines get away with making up embarrassing and shocking stories about celebrities? Isn't that considered libel?	[ "It's libel if the claim can be shown to be untrue. If the claim is true, or cannot be proven false, it's not libel. And as /u/Melon-Tester says, there are ways of wording your article so it can't easily be proven false. Another trick is to make the claim in the form of a question: \"Did Angelina Jolie snort cocain...	[ "Nielsen does this, they tell you how on [their website](_URL_0_), but basically they just randomly select people and track everything they do by asking them to write down everything and walk around the streets with microphones to record whatever people are listening to. They aggregate the data and produce the rati...
Why does the desert have so much pure sand? How was it made? What is underneath it?	[ "Since no one has answered that I can see, the Sahara has sand about 150-350 meters deep. Underneath this would be sandstone and then granite. A similar question was asked about a year ago. _URL_1_" ]	[ "Almost always.. It's not \"truly random\", it's what's called \"pseudo-random\" or \"fake-random\". Basically it takes a number of some sort (called a seed, possibly the amount of milliseconds since 1970) and use that as the input to a complicated math equation that is supposed to output a seemingly random series ...
What's the difference between Battery and Assault?	[ "Battery is unlawful contact, basically hurting someone. Assault is causing the apprehension of that contact, threatening or attempting to hurt someone basically. Sucker punching someone from behind is battery. Pointing a gun at someone is assault. You usually do both though, like say threatening to hit someone and...	[ "If somebody hacks your credit card & runs up charges, calling the card issuer & telling them will allow you to simply NOT pay for those fraudulent charges. If somebody hacks your debit card, that money is already out of your bank account and you have to fight to get your money BACK. Given that little tidbit, I'm ...
What is the peak power produced by a lightning strike?	[ "Well, lightning varies in intensity, but it's power can be calculated with good old P=IV Lightning currents are several kilo-amperes across a potential difference of a couple hundred thousand volts. [This] (_URL_0_) is a good article for lightning in general which talks about this in more detail." ]	[ "Static from the particles of ash and dust rubbing together, like how particles in regular clouds makes lightening Edit: a word" ]
According to the IMF, the world's debt has reached 225% of the world's GDP. How is this possible?	[ "Because there is no specific limit to how much money you can borrow, as it relates to your annual productivity. My parents borrowed money for a house that cost much more than 225% of their annual income." ]	[ "There are various ways but two I'm familiar are: Fake businesses. I import something from the US and overpay for it in dollars. For simplicity, I set up a fake \"designer\" jeans company in the US or find a friend who owns one. I pay him $1,000 per $10 Jean I buy and import to China. I sell the jeans in China and ...
Why does/did the United States lack major radical movements such as fascism and socialism?	[ "Can you explain how you consider socialism to be a \"radical movement\"? Neoliberalism is arguably more \"radical\" as an ideology and has enjoyed widespread success in the US. What about Christian fundamentalism as another successful radical movement? How do you define radicalness?" ]	[ "It would be extremely difficult. Styles vary so much that virtually any style may be found in a different location at a different time. For example the large finely flaked bifaces of the Solutrean period (20-15 kya) in what is now western Europe could very easily be lost among Cascade Period (6-9 kya) bifaces in t...
How did Ted Kennedy's political career survive the Chappaquiddick incident?	[ "This is not /r/Politics people. Please make sure you answer with a lot more than just your opinion." ]	[ "Hi there -- while we've approved this question, we would like to remind potential respondents of our [current events](_URL_0_) (AKA \"20-year\") rule -- it's fine to discuss events through 1997 (inclusive) and their effects, but not events after 1997. Thanks!" ]
What was happening in Brazil during WW2?	[ "The regime of a man named Getúlio Vargas and the lack of industrialization in Brazil before that time! =) So, see Brazil is large and massive and such, but economically it was still like most of Latin America, under the US sphere of influence through the Good Neighbor Policy. So, while it had strength in numbers,...	[ "This question is getting a lot of traffic after being [tweeted by @reddit](_URL_5_), so I thought I'd welcome those of you that haven't visited /r/AskHistorians before to the subreddit. Please do bear in mind that in order to keep the quality of answers here high we have [strict rules on comments](/r/AskHistorians...
How much movement is there in the water column in the depths of the Mariana Trench? How long does it take for water to cycle through?	[ "Neat question! I found a good article on this: Taira et al, 2003: \"Deep and Bottom Currents in the Challenger Deep, Mariana Trench, Measured with Super-Deep Current Meters\" _URL_0_ At the bottom of the trench, they observe a flow of a few cm/s either eastward or westward, depending on tides, [inertial oscillatio...	[ "One reason why sea level is useful on earth is that is provides a geopotential surface to measure the gravity field and give a local idea of the shape of the geoid (planet). I imagine atmospheric pressure gives you a similar sense on mars (though potentially more difficult to measure quantity, as you would have to...
Do any British Lords/Ladies etc. still live on splendid estates à la Downton Abbey? If not, who was the last to do so?	[ "Some do. The Duke of Marlborough still lives at Blenheim Palace, which is about as splendid as you get. But many in the British peerage just couldn't afford the expense of maintaining such expensive homes during the economic changes in the 20th Century, with a large number of them signed over to the care of the Na...	[ "Can you specify which law you are referring too? (There are several) As to their ability, in the U.K. there isn't a Bill of Rights like in the US. Parliament can pass pretty much whatever it wants and it is only the unwritten understanding of what are fundamental freedoms that would keep them restrained. Also, in ...
Why do divorced men "lose everything in the divorce", why aren't all assets and money divided up evenly? Why don't women have to pay the man?	[ "Many people with more assets (often men, but not always) complain that they lose everything, when, in fact, they simply get 50% of the assets. It's frustrating for the asset-holder, because s/he feels like s/he has worked hard for these assets. What this person fails to recognize are the unpaid contributions from ...	[ "> Couldn't a TV station give less time for ads and charge more for them? Sure, but the people selling ads will see that as a bad deal, and go with the competition, which hurts the TV station, which incentivizes them to be competitive. > Couldn't there be less ad space on a website that costs more to use? Same as...
How do non-radio objects (eg fans, bed frames) pick up and play AM signals?	[ "They have metal parts in them that can act like an antenna. If exposed to a strong enough electromagnetic field, they'll begin to oscillate at whatever frequency that field's at. This is essentially how a crystal radio works. But you'd need to be really close to a really, really powerful transmitter to hear music...	[ "Your car acts as a [Helmhotz resonator](_URL_1_), just like when you blow in a bottle, but the frequency is obviously much lower because a car is much larger than a wine bottle. You can also look [here](_URL_0_) for more comments." ]
What did ancient civilizations think about the dinosaurs?	[ "We have no evidence that we ever did so. Any suggestion that dragons or giants are based off of dinosaur bones is pure speculation without anything to back it up. Seashell fossils were occasionally found, and that led thinkers such as Xenophon to speculate, correctly, that oceans once covered what is now dry land....	[ "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\"." ]
What happened in a molecule when an atom decay into two smaller one ?	[ "In general, the energies involved in nuclear reactions are thousands to millions of times greater than those of chemical reactions which means that most decays would cause the molecule to break apart. However, there are a few exceptions to this. Perbromates were first synthesized through the decay of selenate. Tri...	[ "You get the full year's worth of radiation. From an outside point of view, we see that time is dilated and the astronaut is moving very slowly inside their spaceship. But we see the spaceship take a full year to reach its destination, and gets hit by all this radiation along the way. From the astronaut's point of ...
What happens to all the soap/shampoo/conditioner that is washed down the drain?	[ "Most soap and shampoos are principally [emulsifying agents](_URL_1_), that help to dissolve nonpolar materials (oils, grease, etc) to dissolve in water (a polar liquid.) These are carried, along with the rest of the waste water (including human waste) to a [waste water treatment plant](_URL_0_). The wikipedia arti...	[ "It's the [water cycle](_URL_0_) There is a limited amount of water on Earth but it's a pretty neat cycle where the water coming from waterfalls end up in rivers / the ground then joins the oceans, evaporates, goes up the sky, ends up raining down on mountains at cold temperature where they form snow / ice then mel...
How does hacking work?	[ "Ignore everything that you've seen on TV or in movies. Hacking in those is about as accurate as the gunfights. Both use computers and guns, and that's where the similarities end. Most \"hacking\" is actually social engineering, and involves tricking a person into giving you the password to the system. You'd be ama...	[ "This short clip explains it to a certain degree: _URL_0_!" ]
Why do our hands get wrinkly when in the water a long time?	[ "Because your body is recognizing you’re in water or in wet situations, the reason for the wrinkling is for added grip incase you need to grab something or hold onto something" ]	[ "Wifi and cellular systems use microwave radiation (like your microwave oven, except far far less power). Microwave radiation rips absorbed quite readily by polar molecules like water and fats. (this is how microwave ovens cook food, imparting the energy of microwave radiation into kinetic energy of water and fat m...
Would other elements have 'wonder' properties similar to graphene if arranged in a single-atom-thick sheet?	[ "It's certainly possible, and this is an area of great interest right now. Good progress towards the phosphorus analog to graphene (\"phosphorene\") was just reported last year (_URL_0_), and it could well have even better electronic properties. The silicon variety, \"Silicene\" has been studied as well, but for no...	[ "Absolutely. That's how we have radio, infrared, UV, etc telescopes. The coating you use to optimally reflect the wavelength you're interested in changes, but the physics is the same. For example, the upcoming [James Webb Space Telescope](_URL_1_) has gold coated mirrors, because gold optimally reflects the infrare...
How Effective is ECT in Treating Psychological Disorders Such As Depression?	[ "ECT is by far the most effective therapy in reliable improvement in symptoms. That being said it is basically only used in severe depression so it may be this only applies to this subgroup. Furthermore the biological signs of depression such as reduced hippocampal volume is significantly improved with ect and loss...	[ "Define “useful”. If useful takes criteria like economical or efficient into account, then no. Any cutting or destruction the LHC is capable of is done more easily/efficiently by more traditional methods. Do realize, this is a machine that requires insane amounts of energy to operate. The proton beam could penetr...
How Marine biologists, biologists, and archaeologists make money if their profession is discovering things? Who pays them and why?	[ "Biology professor here. Almost all these people are paid to teach courses at universities. The grants they are awarded to fund their research may supplement a portion of their salary, such as the months in the summer when they are doing research and not teaching. Edited to say: I am federally funded. At most, one ...	[ "Well... first of all. the ones that are not buried underground we almost certainly already know about, so there's a big factor, so the \"new\" ones that are found are going to be in a spot, such as underground, that we don't know about. Many of these sites are quite old, and over time, flooding and changing climat...
Would the collapse of the Fukushima reactor really cause a mass extinction event?	[ "Even if true, and I'm not saying it is, claiming \"one fuel rod has the potential to kill 2.89 billion people\" and somehow jumping to the conclusion that a \"mass extinction event\" is about to occur, is like predicting a \"mass population explosion\" on the basis that a single male ejaculation has the potential ...	[ "Viruses and bacteria have been around a long time. Viruses are not quite organisms. The need to hijack the DNA or RNA transcription machinery of a living cell to reproduce. They mutate easily. Some are able to reproduce in hosts of more than one species. The damage they cause if any is species-dependent. Ebola vir...
Why do gamers get obsessed with achievements, even at the cost of fun?	[ "Not necessarily limited to just gamers, though it is most noticeable in games. It is linked to the completionist trait that some people have, and a sense of achievement (or desire to achieve/stand out) that is commonplace with everyone. It is something that makes them stand out in the crowd, inflating their sense ...	[ "Imma answer your question, but first let me tell you about this time I watered the lawn on a warm july afternoon, there were clouds in the sky and childrens laughter.... ok seriously, who knows, maybe they just like to hear themselves type, or create an emotional connection to the recipe, perhaps they are just kil...
How many Ball Turret Gunners died in World War II?	[ "related question, did they have higher casualities than the rest of the crew on the plane? How about other dedicated gunner positions, both in larger and smaller aircraft?" ]	[ "Mostly they are far enough so that it doesn't matter. Zoom lenses are a wonderful thing. There are sometimes cases of cameras being put close enough to suffer some damage. The way they get around this is by building a bunker for the camera. [Here's a photo of a camera bunker from the Trinity test](_URL_0_) — the w...
Why do some words have silent letters?	[ "Silent letters show up because English has a lot of influences. A lot of times, when there is a silent H at the begging of a word, it comes from a rule in French language pronunciation. That’s why hour sounds like our. Silent Ks come from Old English, which was spoken in England before 1100 CE. They actually used ...	[ "A solid can only have a perfect lattice structure at absolute zero. At any temperature above that, entropy demands that defects will spontaneously form. There are two types of defects: interstitials and vacancies. Interstitials are small foreign atoms that fit between the regular atoms in the solid and they can mo...
are the great pyramids eroding over time?	[ "Yes, it will just take a very long time. Much of the damage to the Pyramids is actually a result of the exterior casing stones being removed and repurposed." ]	[ "I know I know I know this one!!! Weather moving dust/sand around and stuff is definitely a component like other people have mentioned, however, my ecology teacher who specialized in architectural archeology explained how or was EARTH WORMS*! Some species dig up to 6 feet straight down... And carry the soil up. Ii...
Is there a name for this phenomenon?	[ "I've encountered these questions before when I was being interviewed for jobs. Usually the interviewer is trying to expose your problem solving skills and ability to understand context. It is totally unfair and puts the interviewee on the spot. This could be the [Complex question fallacy](_URL_0_) or other questio...	[ "Your car acts as a [Helmhotz resonator](_URL_1_), just like when you blow in a bottle, but the frequency is obviously much lower because a car is much larger than a wine bottle. You can also look [here](_URL_0_) for more comments." ]
What are the arguments for/against a flat tax?	[ "One problem with a flat tax is that poor people need to spend nearly 100 percent of their income on necessities: food and shelter. Taxing them at the same rate as rich people is a greater burden on them because you are taxing into their food money, not their disposable income." ]	[ "This CGP Grey video does a really good job of explaining it all. _URL_3_" ]
A person with photosensitive epilepsy hallucinates their seizure trigger. Would they have a seizure?	[ "Yes, but getting such a hallucination in the first place would be unlikely. Photosensitive seizures are usually caused by improper feedback loops within the visual cortex that will cascade and amplify until they propagate all over the brain. This usually happens in the primary visual cortex (V1) that seldom activa...	[ "> I see pictures like this: _URL_0_ and long to see this sight for myself. I think those types of pictures are taken using decent cameras with high ISO settings and a long exposure time (maybe 25 seconds or more). They don't reflect what you'd see with the naked eye, unfortunately. Here's one photographer's rendit...
Did Vietcongs cut children's arms off after they were vaccinated by the US Army?	[ "_URL_0_ /u/bernardito talked about in in a previous thread here" ]	[ "I know nothing of the, I assume, television show that you're referring to. However, there were certainly people in the west of France whose religious views were regarded as \"unorthodox\" by the Church, such that there was a missionary campaign in the early 18th century to attempt to reestablish conventional chris...
Is it possible that black holes send matter backwards in time to the singularity at the beginning of time?	[ "That would not be consistent with our current physical models." ]	[ "That's a hard question, because you're asking for a hypothetical analysis of a hypothetical behaviour of a hypothetical particle. Based on what we know right now, reverse time travel is not achievable. However, when things change, so will our understanding. No-one knows what those changes will be until they happen...
Why did Korea split into two countries during the Korean War, but not the U.S during the Civil War?	[ "Because during civil war the side that was against splitting won. During the Korean war neither side won and the war technically never ended. There have been many skirmishes at the DMZ since the Korean 1953, notably [in 1976](_URL_0_) where American soldiers were chopping down a tree in the DMZ and the North Korea...	[ "Your cell's DNA is like a paper manual for what it needs to do. Every time that cell divides, it photocopies the manual and gives a copy to the new cell. However, every photocopy can only be as good as the original copy and may also result in a lower quality. The original copy may also get some wear as you flip th...
Why is the prayer position (palms together) so similar across many different religions?	[ "As some people have said here, it's a form of submission, same with when people hold out their hands with the palms facing upwards to show they are holding no weapons. And since almost every religion is based off of submitting to a higher power, it makes sense that people would prove that they are not dangerous to...	[ "Back then people still needed jobs, now they dont and can practice harder for longer. And science helps by showing then methods on improving motions. You cam find cool videos on youtube" ]
Why is an execution by firing squad seen as "more honorable" than being hanged?	[ "Hanging is how common criminals were executed whereas soldiers would have be thrown up against a wall and shot by other fellow soldiers. By instead being given the noose they would be seen as nothing but a common criminal not worthy of a soldier's death." ]	[ "This guy explains it very nicely: _URL_0_ Generally the idea of the hemi is good, but it is not very efficient when you design the layout of the valves and sparkplugs, and it is difficult to get a good compression in. Pent-roof is the way to go." ]
when disarming a bomb ,why don't they put a bowl upside down on the bomb and suck all the air inside , so there be no ignition and/or the bomb won't explode correctly ?	[ "Depending on the explosives and triggering mechanism it's quite possible it doesn't need any ambient air to detonate. Even really simple to make at home explosives are self-oxidizing." ]	[ "I imagine you are talking about the internal combustion engine (ICE)that is commonly used around the world in automobiles. Think of the classic \"fire triangle\" when thinking of these engines. You need 3 things to make something burn: Fuel, Oxidizer, and heat. In an ICE these components are a Petroleum product s...
Can an infrared laser cause eye damage?	[ "Yep, it would. I believe near-IR is generally absorbed pretty quickly by water, so you'd probably end up boiling/burning the outward-facing portion of their eye you pointed it at." ]	[ "For myopia (nearsightedness), there's nothing we can say definitively. But researchers have found a [correlation between myopia and time spent indoors.](_URL_1_) For animals, it's extremely uncommon but researchers were able to [induce myopia in an experiment](_URL_0_)" ]
/ When and why did 12/31/0001BC and 1/1/0000 become so?	[ "There was no Year 0; the day after December 31st 1 BC was January 1st 1 AD. Nothing \"special\" happened. It's just a way our calendar is used to refer to what year it is. It's intended to be based on the year of Christ's birth (the Biblical Jesus) but this calendar system was invented hundreds of years after th...	[ "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...
Why did the genes of Crusader populations leave no imprint in genome of the modern Middle East populace?	[ "I can't directly answer your question but In general this is common throughout history. Massive population migrations that have enormous impacts on populations are rare. For example in the UK there is very little DNA originating from the Italian peninsula, despite centuries of being a Roman province. Populations j...	[ "Well, you are talking about cultures that are all influenced by three religions that are very closely connected and originated from each other and in the same area. That is always going to cause a certain amount of overlap. Certain standards for female modesty originated in judaism which were then carried on into ...
How do we know the exact dates of Virgils birth and death	[ "The dates come from the [Life of Vergil (the Vita Vergiliana) by Aelius Donatus](_URL_0_), which is mostly based on Suetonius' lost On poets (De poetis). The second sentence of the Vita gives us the birth date as follows: > natus est Cn. Pompeio Magno M. Licinio Crasso primum coss. iduum Octobrium die i...	[ "It may help if you had the source you originally found this in. This is a pretty spectacular claim, and its veracity could be checked more easily if there was a position to start from. What was the text you used for that course? Does your college still offer it? If so, are they using the same text? EDIT: u/Ediced...
Why does Coca-cola still advertise?	[ "If Coke stopped all advertising, nobody in England would have a fucking clue that Christmas is coming." ]	[ "As big as they seem they are not covering majority of the population. Their are entire states were they dont have service in. Like most cable companies they are one of 2 choices in most areas. Dont forget you can get satellite in 98% of places which is a choice.. not the best choice but a choice." ]
What is the whole EU “meme ban” about and how does it impact people living in and out of the EU?	[ "The people living in the EU will see much more restricted images and sound because anybody can claim that anything infringes on their copyrights and have it taken off the Internet. Sony has a long track record of claiming copyright over Bach and other classical musician's works because they have released recording...	[ "Place was an April fools reddit made two years ago. Place was essentially a canvas consisting of 1 million pixels (1000x1000). Users could change one pixels colour every 5 minutes or so (the delay between placements changed). As it progressed over the next couple of hours users started to make drawings and images ...
Why does the Higgs boson interract with electrons but not photons? Is there some property subatomic particles have which determine the 'level of interactivity'?	[ "Actually the mass is what determines the extent of their interaction with the Higgs field. It's not that the Higgs field determines a particle's mass; rather, the existence of the Higgs field simply makes it possible for other particles (fields, really) to have mass." ]	[ "saying that the surfaces don't truly touch is an interesting philosophical observation about the meaning of \"touch\" but doesn't really impact your question. What we call \"touching\" at the macro level is an interaction between atoms that prevents them from occupying the same space at the same time. That this c...
Why have marketers recently developed a preference for confusing and ungooglable product names like “Xbox One” or “MacBook”?	[ "It means that you're more likely to get all your information about the product form them, not from third parties." ]	[ "This isn't an exact answer to your question, but there's something called an Inverse Problem, where one process is much more difficult than the opposite. A simple example is squaring and square rooting. With a pencil and paper, find 432^2 , and then independently, find the square root of 186624. Another example is...
Deaf to hearing question	[ "People keep asking this question, but using different titles. It's difficult to search for. She wasn't completely deaf from birth, and she was simply hearing clearly for the first time in the video. _URL_0_ _URL_1_" ]	[ "Assuming they aren't blind their brain would get the regular sensory information (although maybe out of focus). They wouldn't be able to do much with it though." ]
What is the philosophy behind a DDOS attack on gaming servers?	[ "It's a cry for attention, similar to what a baby does when they poop their diapers." ]	[ "If you put enough traffic on a freeway, no mater how wide the freeway is, no one can get anywhere. the same thing applies to networks, where if you flood them with enough traffic, with fake cars that don't actually want to get anywhere, nothing can get where it wants to go." ]
US Money Supply - Why shouldn't this chart freak me out?	[ "You're looking at the amount of cash out there, but cash is only one kind of money. Bank deposits, for instance, are another kind of money. So the total money supply is much bigger than just the amount of cash in the economy. There are lots of rules that we might want the monetary authority to follow with regard ...	[ "They buy from each other. In NYC the federal Reserve has a massive vault with many compartments. Each labeled with a different countries name so they buy from each other and shift the gold.bars from vault to vault. Source: took a tour of the reserve and saw the vault even held some of England's gold." ]
I just got checked by a nurse practitioner and I looked up their schooling. Most of their programs are only 2 years online degree, how are they allowed to practice independently with so little schooling?	[ "You must be looking up the wrong info. A nurse practitioner must first earn their registered nursing (RN) license and have a 4-year bachelor's degree in Nursing. Then they must earn a Master of Science in Nursing (MSN). Then they have to pass their certification exam. It's possible that there are accelerated 2-yea...	[ "The Japanese used nengo (年号), eras declared by the imperial court. They didn't have a set length and a new era could be declared for any of a number of reasons: a new Emperor taking the throne, a natural disaster, astrology, etc. The longest nengo lasted for thirty-five years, but the majority were less than a...
If the sun and moon are both visible (and well above the horizon), how could the moon still have a shadow?	[ "Grab a tennis ball and a lamp. Turn off every other light in the room. Hold up the tennis ball. Half is lit, half is dark. If you are looking from the side (you can see the lamp and the ball) you can see some of the dark side of the ball. The ONLY way to see nothing but lit ball is to have the lamp directly behin...	[ "UPDATE! A colleague with superior google skills figured it out. It's caused by many nocturnal species of birds that tend to migrate southward behind cold fronts. Their nocturnal migration appears around radar locations as a circular formation with radars that are behind a cold front showing larger, darker formatio...
Why don't actors use actual liquids when pretending to drink in films?	[ "After 20 takes you'll probably be vomiting from drinking too much water, coffee, etc." ]	[ "Because they would get sued. The legal system isn't like some kind of beep-boop robot that overlooks totally obvious loopholes. Any company that claimed \"No, we were really advertising the endorsement of Bill Gates, plumber, from Bumfuck, Nebraska.\" would get laughed out of court. As /u/Snewzie pointed out with ...
How do plants move without muscles?	[ "As far as I understand it, the side away from the light grows faster, \"turning\" the plant towards the light. Plants also move using cell pressure, like deflating a balloon, as you see when you touch a mimosa and it curls up." ]	[ "Never heard of anyone trying to grow in vitro wood. It's possible that someone is doing it somewhere but I doubt there's much money in such a prospect. The reason in vitro meat is desirable is because mass animal farming is highly destructive to the environment. Mass tree farming is not nearly so. Done properly it...
What causes us to mishear what someone has said but then know a second later what it was?	[ "Our brains often work with incomplete information and then attempts to fill in the gaps with likely additional information until it makes sense. This can lead to errors in hearing something that can take a few second to rectify." ]	[ "Basically you are hearing the muscular waves or [peristalisis](_URL_1_). More detailed explanation here at [Discovery Health](_URL_0_)." ]
How does a human "aiming" process work?	[ "Its a combination of two senses: vision and proprioception combined with historical knowledge Our sense of vision - specifically our brains ability to process 3D vision - allows us to calculate the rough distance between ourselves and an object. Our sense of proprioception - our brain's ability to know where are...	[ "As a 5-year old, something you can relate to is Legos. Modern software design is just like Legos. The parts of the program are all built as standardized pieces. They can be taken apart and put back together in a variety of ways, but because of this use of standard parts, old parts can be removed and then new parts...
How come when you drive backwards, your car tends to feel like it swerves more when you turn the steering wheel then when you are driving forward?	[ "When you're going forwards, the back wheels follow the front wheels but a little \"inside\" of them. That tends to counteract the steering action a little. Going backwards it the opposite. The steering wheels in the back will track \"outside\" of the leading wheels, tending to intensify the turn. Also, the same ge...	[ "It's worth noting that while it's not a big deal for modern jets, it was a big problem in World War I for those early fighter planes. The engine and gas tank rotated along with the propeller, so the torque of the engine would try to rotate the plane - in the Sopwith Camel, for instance, it would try to rotate to t...
Why won't Verizon locate a lost phone with their GPS tracking service?	[ "Alternatively, if they tracked the phone to a person and you went after that person to get your phone back, they probably don't want to be held legally responsible for your vigilantism." ]	[ "Ha, I wrote a paper on this once. If I had to boil it down to one cause... I would say its the fact that in the US railroad infrastructure is (mostly) owned by private companies, which is fairly unique in the world. The US has the most sophisticated and impressive freight railroad transportation in the world (thin...
Would electrically or magnetically propelled projectiles cause recoil?	[ "There would still be a recoil. The projectile is being accelerated by some means, being is compressed gas from gun powder, electric charge separation, or anti-aligned magnetic moments. Regardless of the method of propulsion, Newton's laws still hold. For a magnetic rail gun, the force that the rail gun applies on...	[ "A variety of reasons. Disciplined troops fought in rank and file for literally thousands of years. It made them easier for generals to control, improved morale, and formations like the phalanx were stronger than the same number of men acting as individuals, particularly against cavalry. The same rules applied with...
Why do things cook faster when in oil?	[ "There are several contributors to this effect. First, oil has a higher specific heat than air. The average specific heat of a continuous medium (air, vegetable oil, etc) is what we use to describe the amount of energy it takes to raise that medium's temperature compared to a different medium. Air in an oven might...	[ "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...
Why is the wind from fans cooler than the rest of the room?	[ "This is the same as other forms of wind chill. We are constantly losing body heat to the air around us, and in doing so we cause the air next to our skins to warm up. This heat eventually dissipates, and we lose more heat to the now cooled air. Wind chill speeds up this process by replacing the air around us as we...	[ "A recent study showed that it is natural for nostrils to have differing air intake volumes under normal conditions. The findings suggest this aids in identification of scents, as the reactions occur differently at a higher volume and an lower volume. Edit: [_URL_1_ Article](_URL_0_) \"The flow of air is greater in...
why there are differences in average heart rate between inspiration and respiration?	[ "Your heart rate increases with inspiration. When you inhale, the negative inspiratory pressure decreases filling of the left side of the heart. Less filling means less time before the next contraction, so a higher heart rate." ]	[ "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...
What caused such a dramatic political shift in the US since the Obama administration took over?	[ "Nothing really happened. People just have a tendency to hate, and find fault with, whomever is in power. Proper governance is about compromises, but compromises often anger your opposition and make your base less enthusiastic, which swings the political pendulum to the other side of the aisle." ]	[ "I heard it had a lot to do with the invention / discovery of the camera obscura. This helped people understand perspective / proportions / etc better. Here's a quick article I found about it - but there are a ton of others, videos, books, etc that talk about it in more depth. _URL_0_" ]
What are graphics APIs such as DirectX or Vulkan and what do they do?	[ "(Technical note, DirectX actually covers a bunch of things like sound and input, we'll assume we are talking about the Direct3D portion of DirectX which is what Vulkan does) They both provide an abstraction layer, a language or set of commands, between the graphics card and the software that wants to use it. It me...	[ "I thought it was explained pretty well by this old tek syndicate video _URL_1_ Definitely worth a watch!" ]
How big was Plato's lyceum ? Do floor plans or other architectural knowledge exist ?	[ "Do you mean Aristotle's Lyceum? Or do you mean the Academy? The Academy was not a building, it was a grove sacred to Academus, north of the city. The site is quite large, with a number of buildings, most of which were built during the Hellenistic Period. The Lyceum, where the Peripatetics met, was also originally ...	[ "I believe the [Stanford University Orbis project](_URL_0_) has a pretty good reputation on this sub. I've seen it alluded to several times without it's accuracy being contested. I would imagine it contains a degree of speculation and estimation but I'm not sure exactly how much." ]
Why chips are superior to stripes on a debit/credit card.	[ "I comes down to what the stripe holds. The stripe on a normal card holds your card number, expiration date, cvc number, and your name. If someone scans that card, they have a complete copy of that data and are able to make a transaction with it simply by writing that data to another card. The chip on the other ha...	[ "This is more of an opinion or discussion question than a concept you're looking to have explained. Not really a topic for ELI5. Maybe /r/askreddit" ]
The Inca Empire is famous for being one of the few 'advanced' societies that did not use money. How did the Empire made external trade work without a general medium of exchange?	[ "Slightly off topic, but does anyone have a recommendation on books about the Inca that would be non-historian friendly? I love history, but I'm not a historian buff so if anyone has a recommendation of a slightly more pop-history style history of the Inca I'd really appreciate a rec. Thanks." ]	[ "Most people copy ideas. If the tribe A comes up with a good idea, then tribe B next door will copy it. Or tribe A's good idea may make it powerful enough to conquer tribe B and force them to adopt their idea. Isolated communities may not be exposed to outsiders' ideas (like modern technology) so they don't copy th...
When did China start being called "China" and why?	[ "To the \"Insiders\" By \"insiders\", the formal name for China is 中华人民共和国 (People's Republic of China). In short, it is 中国 (literally translated as Middle Kingdom; in short- China). The Chinese generally do not call their country \"China\" or themselves \"Chinese.\" (中国人 literally means 'middle kingdom person'...	[ "For the same reason that you always hear the term \"semiautomatic assault rifle\" when someone decides to go on a rampage. Its sensationalism. Ordinarily, specifics like that are used to reach something deeper inside of our heads to make us react in a more meaningful way , thus increasing ratings/sales." ]
difference between cast iron and stainless steel pans?	[ "cast iron transmits heat better. Stainless steel does a pretty good job but its lighter by half. So I have stainless steel for most and a cast iron for steaks ( pan) and stews (Dutch oven) Seasoning is basically sealing the pores on the surface of cast iron so food sticks less. The seasoning is basically burned on...	[ "MAC adresses are hard-coded into physical hardware devices (and cannot be changed) - sort of like the street address for your house. IP address are set in software and can be moved/changed - sort of like your phone number. When you call 911, the operator can tell what your address is because your physical address ...
What is the difference between being invisible, and not reflecting light?	[ "Not reflecting any light, aka absorbing all the light, is black. Our eyes detect the void where no light is reflected back, hence the darkness. Being invisible means letting light rays pass through you." ]	[ "\"You're sitting in a chair\" and \"I know you're sitting in a chair\" don't mean the same thing, of course. The former is entirely a statement about you; the latter includes that statement, but also makes a statement about me. Now let's introduce Jane. Jane is staring at you from a hidden camera because she's a...
Why do animal baby's take minutes to develop but human children are useless for years?	[ "Because we stand upright. Our large brains mean that we have more cognitive high level functioning. However, when humans began to move to an upright standing position our pelvis needed to rotate and become narrower, this combined with a larger skull means that our babies must be born younger and less developed. He...	[ "If i recall correctly, plants actually convert ~5% of incoming light to energy via photosynthesis. In addition to this, solar radiation is a pretty diffuse source of energy (one of several issues with solar panel technology, large areas are needed for any significant energy to be gathered). These two factors (poo...
Why are so many school books portray Christopher Columbus as a hero, when in reality he killed and enslaved the native Americans?	[ "Because killing and enslaving is what a lot of heroes did in the 15th Century. It was a very different era, and finding a technologically undeveloped nation and taking their stuff is what you did to get ahead. It was going on in Africa, it was going on in Asia, and it was even going on in Europe. To put things in ...	[ "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 is the music so much better when you listen at high volume?	[ "Fletcher Munson equal loudness contour curve. The optimum frequency response of your ears is around 85dB of loudness. So below that the bass frequencies seem quieter in relation to the higher frequencies. At 85dB it still isn't near flat or perfect, but it's as good as your ear gets." ]	[ "We honestly don't know, but it is culturally universal. Clearly humans feel some connection to it that animals and other biological organisms do not in the same way. Perhaps some could claim it's a form of mate attraction, similar to birds singing or whatever, as it does tend to have that effect, as does many hu...
How do doctors perform 20+ hour surgeries? Don't they get mentally and physically exhausted?	[ "Most surgeries (when things go to plan) take around 30 min-2 hours. Some major surgeries e.g. a liver transplant might take ~6-8 hours. 20+ hour surgeries would be exceptional e.g. conjoined twin separations where you actually need multiple different teams e.g. plastic surgeons, neurosurgeons etc. Usually surgery...	[ "I think you are confusing \"able to make\" with \"able to make cheaply and safely enough that it can be sold commercially for a profit and pass all the safety regulations required for use with regular people\". Scientists will always have access to new technology years (perhaps decades) before regular people becau...
How do forensics deal with identical twins?	[ "Identical twins have identical DNA that cannot be distinguished from each other. They do have different fingerprints, though." ]	[ "Well one way is by selected specific people for your study. The studied that showed evidence that vaccines caused autism actually dropped people from the study who had children not become autistic, found children who had family history of autism to include in the study, and kept the numbers small. Another way coul...
Why is the INF treaty so important for Europe?	[ "Because the treaty is about intermediate nuclear missiles and Europe is at intermediate range from Russia. Many eastern European countries furthermore have bad memories about the Soviet Union so obviously feel strongly about this." ]	[ "If your next door neighbor is trampling flowers in your backyard, and your much larger, much bigger neighbor from across the street decides to try and stop him, it's in your interest to just let him do that, whether with implicit or explicit approval. ... especially when you can't get to that corner of the backyar...
Why does electricity want to get to the ground?	[ "Ground is said to be a sink and a source for charge. When electricity flows, charge has to come from somewhere and go somewhere. The place we normally use is the earth. At the same time, charge likes to follow the path of least resistance. Which is why the grounding is connected to a metal spike driven into the g...	[ "A few more interesting facts: 1) The earliest morse code transmitters used to establish the first intercontinental radio links were nothing more than rotating disc dragging a series of conducting plates across a metallic lead and generating a shower of sparks (google SPARK GAP TRANSMITTER). As discussed elsewhere ...
Why doesn't blood reproduce out of body if given proper oxygen + nutrients?	[ "Red blood cells do not have a cell nucleus and as such they cannot multiply. Blood is composed of a lot of things, mostly being water and all sorts of compounds. Those can't reproduce because they are not cells. Not sure about the other cell types in blood." ]	[ "Hairs don't know. Your hair follicles go through a timed cycle - they grow for a period of time, then they rest, then they shed the old hair and grow a new one. The length of the growth cycle determines the maximum length of the hair." ]
what makes it difficult to cure varicose veins?	[ "I don’t know about “cure” but the operation to have them removed is actually not very complicated." ]	[ "We're working on it. Eradicating a species as invasive as the mosquito isn't exactly easy. Can't exactly just spray pesticide everywhere." ]
Why the iPhone 6 has a 1810 mAh battery and the Galaxy S6 has a 2550 mAh but they have very similar usage times?	[ "The S6 has significantly better hardware and more background \"features\" running that drain the battery. The phone has double the cores at double speed in regards to the processing power, nearly double the screen quality (pixels per inch to display), more RAM, etc. I'm sure they purposely chose the size of the ba...	[ "Rockets are complicated. Saturn V is a three-stage rocket with 7.8 Mlbs, 1.2 Mlbs, and 0.2 Mlbs thrust. All three stages are used to insert into earth orbit with a significant amount of fuel left over for injecting into a trans-lunar orbit. The SpaceX mars spacecraft is a two stage rocket with 29 to 31 Mlbs for th...
How do roller coaster simulators at theme parks fabricate the feeling of motion?	[ "They move a little (tilt in place) and play a video so your brain fills in the rest. Not like a real coaster because it has no g forces, but cool." ]	[ "They don't. It's pretty much just bunk placebo app (of course the makers of the apps will never tell you that!) The apps generally \"work\" by detecting movement on your bed at night and trying to make calculations based off that. They don't actually analyze your body or measure anything. It's basically BS." ]
Why does America have so many people in jail?	[ "The main cause, in my opinion, is \"The War on Drugs\". I say that, not because I'm some hippy pot-smoker and \"the government should just chill, man\", but because of the hardline enforcement of jail time associated with mere possession of virtually any class of drug. The same logic applies to many other lesser c...	[ "Well, you can take the costs that you pay for your everyday life. Rent, food, hygeine, medical care, dental, etc. Then add to those the costs of having guards, cooks, janitors, and lawyers involved.... it gets pretty expensive quickly." ]
Are there stars that are dull enough to be seen as flaming balls instead of just intense light with the naked eye?	[ "I think that part of the difference between \"flaming balls\" and \"intense light\" is the variation. There are certainly dull stars, and there are stars which are the various colors found in fire, but any star you can see is going to appear as a solid dot - whether that dot is solid fire-orange, ember-red, or blu...	[ "They start out as a giant blob of gasses and space dust, Sort of like pizza Dough. As they continue to spin they flatten once again like pizza dough." ]
Are the ratios in the harmonic series present anywhere else in science?	[ "This is a type of resonance, which you find in many places! [Here](_URL_0_) is a great video showing harmonics with sand on a vibrating plate. The [tacoma narrows bridge](_URL_1_) was a case where wind was causing vortices to form over and under the bridge at the right frequency to cause a resonance that amplified...	[ "You're going to have to give a bit more detail about what you want. For example, why do you want them explained? What's your level of mathematical ability? Also, I'm not sure that this is really an askscience kind of question. Try here: /r/cheatatmathhomework ." ]
How do fictional shows get speeches from real-life presidents or political figures?	[ "They're just lifted from other speeches. Whether it's free to use depends on where it came from. The video feeds from Congress are in the public domain, which means anyone can use it for free for any purpose. For other videos, you'll have to check with the person who recorded it. C-Span allows their (non-Congress)...	[ "I'm not normally one to naysay a request for knowledge, but this is not exactly a topic that can be explained like you were five. It requires a fairly extensive level of prior knowledge and understanding just to pose that question, and any answer posted is likely to be incomplete, wrong, or misleading. Sorry, but ...
Why baby actor's can only work a set amount of time per day, it's not like they can exactly tell the difference between acting and real life.	[ "But there is a difference if your life consists of peace and harmony or if it consists of people shouting about and trying to make a movie all around you with spotlights pointed at your face." ]	[ "Governments give tax breaks and subsidies to corporations to lure them in to their area. The idea is that bringing that business to the area will, ultimately, bring more business and jobs to the area which, theoretically, will bring jobs to the locals and more tax revenue for the government. Again, theoretically, ...
On august 19th, 1848 the New York Herald published a article about gold found in California. Is there a record of the actual article?	[ "[Here's the whole issue](_URL_0_); I think you're looking for the blurb on page 1 column 2: > \"I am credibly informed that a quantity of gold, worth in value, $30, was picked up lately in the bed of a stream of the Sacramento.\"" ]	[ "mmm. Maybe not common folk. You would need an art historian for that specifically, I think. But the growing middle class of the Netherlands during their [golden age](_URL_0_) began to purchase large numbers of small paintings. Many of those reflected common pursuits. [Art and commerce in the Dutch Golden Age](_URL...
purchasing power parity (GDP)?	[ "Say you live in the US. You make $100,000 a year. Now say you live in China, but you make $50,000 a year. You could say that the person living in the US is twice as rich as the Chinese person in absolute terms. But consider that lunch (a sandwich) costs $10 in the USA. It costs $1 in China. So an American can buy ...	[ "\"Portable\" here means that it is easy to implement to other computer platforms. Source: RFC2083 PNG is designed to be: * Simple and portable: developers should be able to implement PNG easily." ]
How can other animals survive on one type of food but humans need a balanced diet?	[ "We don't need them any more than other animals do, it's just that if you don't eat a balanced diet your life expectancy and quality of life will both be lowered. Animals can survive on one or two foods, but like us they'll be healthier if they get a diverse diet. Store bought pet food usually contains a mix of d...	[ "your question is based on a confusion of scale. life on earth lives within a very sensitive, and relatively narrow temperature range. the most extreme temperatures between night and day or between seasons even is orders of magnitude less than the temperature changes which occur on other planets. in other words, o...
I recently read that the U.S has been involved in 80 different country affairs since WWII (or something along that timeline.) If we have nothing to gain, why does America involve themselves in so many issues? And if we do have something to gain, why are there so many people complaining?	[ "People complain because we act in our own self interest with little regard for the will of the people. What we gain is economic ties, trade agreements, military access, intelligence, etc. When we do involve our military in foreign wars, the american weapon manufacturers get business. Bulletmakers sell more bullets...	[ "First of all, we are social creatures. Most people have an innate desire to be around other people and form meaningful relationships and feel lonely if they fail to do so. Often just having someone to talk to and share experiences with is enough to make people happier. For a more utilitarian response, people are m...
Can high amounts of G-Force directly kill you, and how can it make you pass out?	[ "When your body is subjected to high G-forces you could die yes. deceleration and acceleration are actually the exact same thing. Your body is full of squishy stuff like your organs. If you accelerate those body parts gets squished up against your skin or your skeleton depending in where in the body they are. If th...	[ "In series E episode 4 of QI, Stephen Fry states that \"If a crewman in outer space went mad, the course of action to take would be to bind his/her wrists and ankles with duct tape, tie him/her down with a bungee cord and inject tranquilisers into him/her.\" Source: _URL_0_" ]
How do engineers decide what the speed limit should be on any given road/street?	[ "State route speed limits are set by lawmakers, not engineers. Engineers however do set the speed limits for ramps and transition roadways, curvy bits where G forces matter more than speed. When traveling through a curve there's a max G force your vehicle is allowed to take before it becomes unsafe; this is why pos...	[ "Part of it is surely guesstimation, but more than anything, the doctor has access to data about the survival rates of a certain disease. Something like this one: [_URL_0_](_URL_0_) In other words, hard numbers about how many people in the past have been cured and how many have not. Of course, real doctors have acc...
what is a "domain", why do companies have thousands and why do average joes have hundreds?	[ "The domain name system (DNS) is what computers use to create hierarchical names for IP addresses that they connect to. Remember all your friends' phone numbers? No; when you call them, your phone says \"Calling Bob\", not \"Calling 555-5555\". It's the same for websites in web browsers: replace Bob with _URL_1_ an...	[ "I work for an ISP The Internet is like a series of roads. Let's say you built a road from your house to your friends. You and your friend could go real fast to each other's houses. But what if you wanted to go to some else's house? Or the mall, or school? You would have to connect your road with your towns road. ...
A deck of cards can be arranged in more ways than there are atoms on earth. How can this be when there are only 52 cards in a deck?	[ "So let's say card number 1 is the Ace of Spades. So card number 2 can be 51 different cards Card number 3 can be 50 different cards Card 4 can be 49 different cards and so on. The math ends up being 52! (52 factorial) which written out is 52x51x50x49....x3x2x1 = 80,658,175,170,943,878,571,660,636,856,403,766,975,2...	[ "High coercivity vs. low coercivity. You're never going to need to re-write the information on the magnetic stripe of your credit card, so its stripe has high coercivity. That means it took a lot of energy to produce, but will take a lot of energy to erase. Hotel keys need to be re-written almost daily, so their st...
Could an Encroaching Shadow Travel Faster than the Speed of Light?	[ "Your shadow is not a thing - it is darkness caused by obstruction of light. Thus, to say your shadow has any speed at all is actually a misnomer. Also: > so if the shadow of a 3D object (2D) can go faster than light, could a 4D object cast a 3D shadow that travels faster than light? The shadow of a 3D object is...	[ "An electron can never reach nor exceed c, but there's nothing stopping an electron from exceeding c/n in some medium with index of refraction n > 1." ]
Why can some people walk with their head up when the sun is shining, but others have to keep their head down due to the sunlight?	[ "Light intake can depend on a lot of things. There's some evidence that different color eyes take in more or less light. Lighter colors means more light. Our eyes also dilate to let in more or less light. Coming out a dark area will overwhelm people very easily. Likewise going into a dark area can mean not seeing...	[ "Your brain cells require a lot of energy to work at full capacity, and your visual processing center is a fairly large portion of your brain (relative to the amount of space your eyes take up on your body). Put simply, your brain can choose which incoming sensory information is worth dedicating chemical energy to ...
Why do animals seem to like stuffed animals (the teddy bear kind, not the taxidermy kind), while people find models similar to people off-putting?	[ "We also like stuffed humans, as long as they're not too human. Dolls, for instance. It's humans that are lifelike, but not quite there, that get you into the uncanny valley. There are a number of theories for why this exists, such as beginning to apply social norms once the object corresponds to our idea of human....	[ "With things like cosmetics & hygeine products, we've already done an absolute shitload of testing & know which ingredients are safe. There's just not a lot of reason to test a slightly blend of ingredients X, Y & Z when you've already been selling XYZ for 20 years. Not only does it sound good, it saves you a bunch...
"Ghost in the Machine"	[ "Ill give it a whirl since there are no answers yet. To a 5 year old I'd say the idea is basically like if you were eating alphabet soup. If you had enough \"letters\" you'd eventually get words then maybe sentences, and so on. Ghost in the machine is the same except deals with lines of code that cause unexpected/r...	[ "Is this an attempt at viral marketing? On the exact link you provided it says: > Infiniti’s Lane Departure Prevention system uses a camera to monitor the distance between the vehicle and lane markings. If the vehicle drifts, the system signals a warning and can help the driver return the car to the center of the ...
Can lightning be induced by lasers?	[ "Yes, they can. Lasers can ionize the air to create a plasma channel, which allows for electric discharge along the path of the laser. This is easiest with a man-made electric source, but the same principle can be used to induce a lightning bolt during lightning storms. See [electrolasers](_URL_0_)." ]	[ "Static from the particles of ash and dust rubbing together, like how particles in regular clouds makes lightening Edit: a word" ]
Is it true that some people can sleep with their eyes open ? If yes, how do they do it ?	[ "I used to scare my mom all the time when I was little because I would sleep with my eyes wide open and she would walk in and think I was dead. She would shut them but later on in the night they would re-open. I still do it sometimes as an adult- I'm 28 now. I think the reason I do it is because as I'm falling asl...	[ "Through exposure. Put a camera in a dark room and take a long exposure picture. They do the same thing for seeing things far away in space. The reason it takes satellites so long to get a picture is because they have been taking a long exposure shot the entire time." ]
Why is the background of a map of the Cosmic Microwave Background always an ellipse?	[ "Those are just maps of the whole sky. You could put it in any [map projection](_URL_0_) you wanted, but astronomers tend to prefer equal-area projections like the Mollweide. You can also [find them](_URL_1_) in rectangular maps." ]	[ "Galaxies come in many types. Some are spirals, while others are more spherical. These are called [_URL_0_] elliptical galaxies. We think that elliptical galaxies form when a spiral galaxy merges with other galaxies, but the jury is still out!" ]
Why is it that a lot of what we hear on the radio is censored while television seems to have more flexibility in which words are allowed/not allowed?	[ "Radio is a public broadcast, and is [therefore subject to a federal ban on \"obscene, indecent, or profane\" broadcasts.](_URL_0_) Cable, satellite, or internet TV isn't public and therefore isn't subject to the ban. Broadcast television is." ]	[ "You need to pay attention carefully to a movie. With a show you become familiar enough with the logic and the characters to just sort of watch it casually. I feel just as exhausted watching a pilot as I do a movie, there is a lot of exposition. Once you get past the exposition you don't need to learn as much." ]
How was the exact distance between CERN and Gran Sasso determined? Could it be that this measurement was wrong or that the distance changed since the completion of CERN or the neutrino detector at Gran Sasso?	[ "I know that they did take into account movement from the earths tectonic plates when measuring. You have to bear in mind that this is one of the world's best funded scientific organisations which employs thousands of scientists, i'm pretty sure they thought of this." ]	[ "You're thinking of the two clocks as ticking like this: \|---\|---\|---\|---\|---\| \|----\|----\|----\|----\| Both in the same \"direction\", with one ticking slow, and, therefore, necessarily, one ticking fast. But relatively-moving clocks in special relativity don't tick like that. They tick along different \"directio...
When a piano plays the note E, why does a trumpet have to play an F-sharp?	[ "Trumpets used to not have valves, and were essentially like bugles, only able to play the notes in one chord. So you really did have different keys of trumpet--if you wrote a piece in D major you had to use a D trumpet that could play useful notes for the key. A C trumpet wouldn't be able to help out in the sound ...	[ "The internet is mostly run by companies who own infrastructure (like wires and shit). The institution you're talking about (assuming the FCC) gets to decide what these types of companies are allowed to do. Right now they are FORCED by the FCC to treat all traffic equally. We are worried that the FCC will change th...

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