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how expensive would it be, and what would be the effect if we launched a nuclear warhead at the moon?	There are not enough nuclear weapons by far. See the craters on the Moon? It's already survived countless hits by asteroids. A few nuclear weapons aren't going to destroy it.	[ "BULLET::::- Estimates of the cost per unit mass of launching cargo or people from the Moon vary and the cost impacts of future technological improvements are difficult to predict. An upper bound on the cost of launching material from the Moon might be about $40,000,000 per kilogram, based on dividing the Apollo pr...
If a single uranium atom was fissioned, with no addition chain reaction fissioning, how big would the explosion be?	There'd be no explosion and good thing too since granite (say in your kitchen) and rock in general is laced with trace uranium. As a rule of thumb, the behavior of any single atom is utterly irrelevant to anything that happens to you. Over the course of a few days a single uranium-238 atom and its daughters will produ...	[ "If at least one neutron from uranium-235 fission strikes another nucleus and causes it to fission, then the chain reaction will continue. If the reaction will sustain itself, it is said to be critical, and the mass of U-235 required to produce the critical condition is said to be a critical mass. A critical chain ...
During the Anarchy in England, what did Matilda do to antagonise Londoners to the point where she was unable to be crowned?	Several factors combined to make the Empress unpopular in London. First, the city had accepted the candidacy of King Stephen after the death of Matilda's father, Henry I, and it had done this in direct defiance of the dead king's attempts to have Matilda accepted as queen regnant. The relationship between the city and...	[ "Matilda remained in England until 1148. The disorders were at their peak between 1142 and 1148, but her cause could never secure enough support to enable her to be crowned. Nor could Stephen decisively defeat Matilda's forces, which meant that England remained divided in allegiance between the two rivals. But whil...
Did pre-Neolithic Revolution humans suffer from depression and other "modern" mental disorders?	It may be worth x-posting this to our sister sub, /r/AskAnthropology	[ "The premise of \"Inside the Neolithic Mind\" is that irrespective of cultural differences, all humans share in the ability to enter into altered states of consciousness, in which they experience entoptic phenomena, which the authors discern as a three-stage process leading to visionary experiences. Arguing that su...
Could we irradiate meat to keep it "fresh" longer and without refrigeration?	Yes, we already do this with meat, as with produce, etc.	[ "In the food industry, refrigeration contributes to reducing post-harvest losses while supplying safe, foods to consumers by enabling perishable foods to be preserved at all stages from production to consumption by the end-user.\n", "When refrigerants are removed they should be recycled to clean out any contamina...
What geological processes could cause features like this? (Pic inside)	Zhangjialie is in the heart of a large swath of Karst topography. This is a predominantly Limestone landscape which has been eroded chemically by water, and in the case of this region to form these pillars and pinnacles. Karst topography starts out as water chemically erodes limestone underground creating caves, eve...	[ "To be distinguished from this are plainly aitiological tales that account for geological features without any connection to their formation; for example: the Native American legend of a giant bear chasing a couple who were saved when the land rose beneath their feet; the bear's claws left gouge marks on the sides ...
Was there a North/South divide in Britain before the industrial revolution?	There has been a divide between North and South since royal authority situated itself in London and had a harder time imposing its control on the distant North. For example, during the Reformation the Crown had a much harder time imposing Protestant reforms on the North where Catholic traditions were much slower to di...	[ "Prior to the development of socialism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the primary divide in British politics was between classical liberalism (Whiggism) and traditional conservatism (Toryism) as seen in debates about free trade and the Corn Laws, and James Kirkup, writing in the \"Daily Telegraph\", has...
British Navy vs Napoleon's Navy circa 1798 - Egypt invasion - Timing & Communication question	John Keegan spends a chapter discussing this particular incident in [Intelligence in War](_URL_0_) (which I highly recommend to anyone with a passing interest in military intelligence as it is very accessible). Keegan states that Nelson's hunt for Bonaparte's army and the French fleet commanded by Brueys, had to re...	[ "The launching of the steam-powered ship of the line \"Napoléon\" by France in 1850 began an arms race between France and Britain that lasted for a decade. The destruction of a wooden Ottoman fleet by a Russian fleet firing explosive shells in the Battle of Sinop, early in the Crimean War, followed by the destructi...
How does eating certain foods (In my case, anything with High Fructose Corn Syrup and peanuts) cause acne?	I would much appreciate it if someone linked a peer review journal article outlining relationship between diet and acne. If you eat greasy foods, it is more likely that grease on your fingers is what is transferring the grease to your skin. I have heard it suggested that foods can increase insulin like growth factor,...	[ "Celery is among a small group of foods (headed by peanuts) that appear to provoke the most severe allergic reactions; for people with celery allergy, exposure can cause potentially fatal anaphylactic shock. The allergen does not appear to be destroyed at cooking temperatures. Celery root—commonly eaten as celeriac...
How prominent were stage actors before the 16th century, if at all?	Hi! I've been browsing this subreddit for a while, and created a username because I've finally come across a question I can answer! I can only speak to the western tradition - my education was sorely lacking when it came to Asian theatre. The answer to your question depends on which point in history you're looking at...	[ "In the Elizabethan era, research has been conclusive about how many actors and troupes there were in the 16th century, but little research delves into the roles of the actors on the English renaissance stage. The first point is that during the Elizabethan era, women were not allowed to act on stage. The actors wer...
r/AskScience, what fascinating thing do YOU want to share with us laypeople?	Even though this isn't directly related to my field of study, I find it utterly fascinating. Mitochondrion, the tiny organelle in our cells that (among other things) acts to power them with ATP, originated as a free-living bacterium that was taken up and incorporated into one of our early eukaryotic ancestors. Their sy...	[ "His interests include bird watching and jungle safari. He likes films, music and reading, and has a taste for trying out different cuisines of the world and seeks recreation in interacting with friends and working on computer. He is a member of the India Habitat Center, Delhi, and Boat House Club, Nainital, and li...
How did the reputation of the 1950s evolve?	I'll speak to part of your question on a way in which some denigrate the 1950s. In the 1950s, the middle class was growing as good jobs were relatively plentiful. It was easier to support a family on a single income. Women faced social pressure to stay home, raise kids, and be perfect housewives. [The Feminine Mystique...	[ "The 1950s were a decade known for experimentation with new styles and culture. Following World War II and the austerity years of the post-war period, the 1950s were a time of comparative prosperity, which influenced fashion and the concept of glamour. Hairstylists invented new hairstyles for wealthy patrons. Influ...
What is the earliest record we have of humans supplementing their diet with spicy (hot) foods?	If you don't get an answer here, you could try /r/askhistorians	[ "Indians have used leafy vegetables, lentils, and milk products such as yogurt and ghee all along their history. They also used spices such as cumin and coriander. Black pepper which is native to India was often used by 400 A.D. The Greeks brought saffron and the Chinese introduced tea. The Portuguese and British m...
why does a slight change in glasses prescription cause headaches and eye ache?	Because your eyes are trying to focus through your new lens as if it was your old ones. Your eye are a muscle and this causes strain on it as it tries to focus again and again. Try putting the new ones on as you wake up.	[ "Eye strain can also be a result of the distortion caused by the refractive properties of certain types of spectacle lenses. The subtle blurriness caused by this distortion in peripheral vision, requires eye muscles to strain in order to retain clear vision. Such prolonged distortion can lead to an increase in stra...
how do electric cars heat the cabin?	Electric heaters blow warm air. But they also tend to have heated seats and steering wheels since it's more efficient to heat you directly than to heat the air, which then heats you.	[ "Some electric cars, for example the Citroën Berlingo Electrique, use an auxiliary heating system (for example gasoline-fueled units manufactured by Webasto or Eberspächer) but sacrifice \"green\" and \"Zero emissions\" credentials. Cabin cooling can be augmented with solar power external batteries and USB fans or ...
how is it that someone can post the same question on askreddit every day, and it gets thousands of upvotes and tens of thousands of people answering the same thing?	Because it the question has easy answer that get tones of upvotes, people will upvote the question just so their response gets more upvotes. Example "What show should have gotten another season?" The first person that says Firefly get thousands of upvotes as long as the post gets popular.	[ "Questions are initially open to answers for four days. However, the asker can choose to pick a best answer for the question after a minimum of one hour. However, comments and answers can still be posted after this time. To ask a question, one has to have a Yahoo! account with a positive score balance of five point...
In the WWI Eastern Front was there a use of trenches as complex and extensive as in the Western Front ?	No. That is not to say there was no use of trench warfare on the eastern front, just that the theater maintained a much more mobile character than the static west. If you consider the sheer size of the Eastern Theater than you can begin to understand the difficulties both the Russians and Germans would have had to esta...	[ "Early World War I trenches were simple. They lacked traverses, and according to pre-war doctrine were to be packed with men fighting shoulder to shoulder. This doctrine led to heavy casualties from artillery fire. This vulnerability, and the length of the front to be defended, soon led to front line trenches being...
why is it possible to order something from china on ebay and pay zero postage, but ordering from australia to australia costs so much more?	Probably still relevant (2014): [ELI5: Why can a Chinese company ship me an eBay purchase for $1.06 including the product, when it costs me a minimum of $1.97 to ship something across town in the U.S.???](_URL_0_) More about how the UN and the USPS wind up subsidizing Chinese shipping: [The United Nations is helping ...	[ "Under the Australian Postal Corporation Act 1989, letters up to 250 grams are reserved to Australia Post – other people and businesses can only carry them if they charge four times the basic postage rate. All of the other goods and services provided by Australia Post are sold in fully competitive markets and, in 2...
Why isn't the Meissner effect used in MagLev trains?	EDIT: /u/luckyluke193 has pointed out that this is incorrect. They do use superconducting magnets to lift the train now. ~~Well, for one thing, you'd have to supercool the bottom of the train to make it superconducting. That's hard to do. This is why people are trying so hard to find materials that are superconductiv...	[ "In EDS maglev trains, both the rail and the train exert a magnetic field, and the train is levitated by the repulsive force between these magnetic fields. The magnetic field in the train is produced by either superconducting magnets (as in SCMaglev) or by an array of permanent magnets (as in Inductrack). The repul...
is there a reason why there are no indian fast food chains?	In the US it's not popular enough to support fast food, especially amongst the demographic that eats fast food.	[ "The major fast food chains in India that serve American fast food are KFC, McDonald's, Starbucks, Burger King, Subway, Pizza Hut, and Dominos. Most of these have had to make a lot of changes to their standard menus to cater to Indian food habits and taste preferences. Some emerging Indian food chains include Wow! ...
contact with heat	Germ-X is a poor conductor of heat. Even though it's on fire on the outside, on the inside it's still cool because heat takes a while to transfer from one side to the other. Hot oil and hot metal are much better conductors of heat, so you're not only exposed to the source of the heat (as they're hot in and of themse...	[ "On a microscopic scale, heat conduction occurs as hot, rapidly moving or vibrating atoms and molecules interact with neighboring atoms and molecules, transferring some of their energy (heat) to these neighboring particles. In other words, heat is transferred by conduction when adjacent atoms vibrate against one an...
what is the war on terror?	The "War on Terror" isn't so much an actual war as much as a declaration of an initiative to devote resources to stopping terrorism. I'm not an expert on the matter but after its declaration we increased funding in airport security, CIA, NSA, and probably many other areas (maybe military but not sure as a % of GDP). We...	[ "The War on Terror is the campaign launched by the United States of America in response to the September 11 attacks against organizations designated with terrorism. The campaign, whose stated objective was eliminating international terrorism, began in 2001. The following is a timeline of events linked to the War on...
why do i have need to use 4g on my phone for gps but on m garmin it's free?	Because part of the purchase price of your Garmin includes a library of maps. The downside of this is that access to updated maps can be somewhat limited, in addition you sometimes need to chose what area you want maps for. Your cell phone does not store any maps. If it needs a map it downloads it from an online sou...	[ "A typical A-GPS-enabled receiver uses a data connection (Internet or other) to contact the assistance server for aGPS information. If it also has functioning autonomous GPS, it may use standalone GPS, which is sometimes slower on time to first fix, but does not depend on the network, and therefore can work beyond ...
How are the weights of body parts (the hands, head etc.) measured?	Not a direct answer to your question, but there is a method of calculation for surface area (for burns and the like) called the rule of 9's; each area of the body is apportioned as a factor of 9: Head - 9% Each Arm - 9% Front and Back Torso - 18% each Each Leg - 18% Groin/Pubic area - 1% I don't know if there is ...	[ "Strictly speaking, body weight is the measurement of weight without items located on the person. Practically though, body weight may be measured with clothes on, but without shoes or heavy accessories such as mobile phones and wallets, and using manual or digital weighing scales. Excess or reduced body weight is r...
Given recent developments in our understanding of water/ice bodies on Mars, is it possible that we could one day be surprised by Martian fossils? Or do we have reason to believe that Martian life would be limited to microorganisms?	It's not _impossible_ (because that's a pretty high bar to clear) but I'd say it's very, very unlikely. The reason is time. Multicellular life didn't become common on Earth until 500-600 million years ago (EDIT: _Life_ showed up on Earth very early. But it consisted of microorganisms). There are a very few possible ...	[ "There is evidence that Mars had a warmer and wetter past: dried-up river beds, polar ice caps, volcanoes, and minerals that form in the presence of water have all been found. Nevertheless, present conditions on Mars' subsurface may support life. Evidence obtained by the \"Curiosity\" rover studying Aeolis Palus, G...
How would life differ for a Roman merchant in 0 AD compared to 1000 AD?	By Roman, do you mean someone from the city of Rome or someone from the Roman Empire? In 1000 AD, the Roman Empire (or Byzantine Empire) no longer possessed the city of Rome itself and was centered around Constantinople.	[ "The status of the merchant has varied during different periods of history and among different societies. In ancient Rome and Greece merchants could become wealthy, but lacked high social status. In contrast, in the Middle East, where markets were an integral part of the city, merchants enjoyed high status. In mode...
How prevalent is Holocaust denial and how does it vary by nationality?	Part 1 This is a huge question that is probably not possible to answer in its entirety, because of the fundamental problem on how to measure Holocaust denial and how to gauge its prevalence in society, especially on an international or even world-wide scale. Edit: There is a summary at the end for those who wan...	[ "Because Holocaust denial is a common facet of certain racist propaganda, it is considered a serious societal problem in many places where it occurs and is illegal in several European countries and Israel. Holocaust denial is sponsored by some Middle Eastern governments, including Iran and Syria.\n", "Holocaust d...
if you have 2 credit cards, and one has debt, can’t you just use one to pay the other, then the next month do the same, and so on and so on?	Credit cards basically always have debt unless youre paying off your balance. Doing this essentially is like giving the credit card company a bunch of I.O.U's. All you're doing is adding more to your balance that needs to be paid off eventually.	[ "A simple solution to this problem is to call the credit card company, request a new card with a different account number, and cancel the previous account. They will transfer the debt amount from the old account to the new account. This makes companies that have the credit card information unable to continue chargi...
What is the purpose behind Phillips(cross-head) screw heads? Mechanical efficiency?	> Created by Henry F. Phillips, the Phillips screw drive was purposely designed to cam out when the screw stalled, to prevent the fastener damaging the work or the head, instead damaging the driver. This was caused by the relative difficulty in building torque limiting into the early drivers. _URL_0_	[ "The mechanical advantage \"MA\" of a screw is defined as the ratio of axial output force \"F\" applied by the shaft on a load to the rotational force \"F\" applied to the rim of the shaft to turn it. For a screw with no friction (also called an \"ideal screw\"), from conservation of energy the work done \"on\" the...
Moses was attributed as the author of the first five books of the Bible; at what point did scholars realize this probably wasn't true? Were any of the earliest five books written by the same author?	This is a bit complicated. The main theory on the creation of the Torah or Pentateuch is the Documentary Hypothesis. Basically, it is thought that these first five books are a combination of 4 sources and possibly a 5th editor. The sources are J, E, P, and R. J is the Jehovah source (they used the term Yahweh for God. ...	[ "According to tradition, Moses was the author of the first five books of the Bible, including the book of Genesis. Philosophers and theologians such as Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679), Benedict Spinoza (1632–1677), and Richard Simon (1638–1712) questioned Mosaic authorship. Spinoza said Moses could not have written the p...
Can I jump from the ISS in such a way I fall to the earth?	Nope. The ISS orbits at 7660 m/s, and your speed determines the height at which you orbit. If you jumped really hard backwards to give yourself a 10 m/s boost, you'd slow down to 7750 m/s and orbit slightly lower. Either way, you'd eventually slow down due to the tiny but still present air drag and reenter the atmosphe...	[ "In the case of an abort to orbit, where the shuttle is unable to reach the ISS orbit and the thermal protection system inspections suggest the shuttle cannot return to Earth safely, the ISS may be capable of descent down to meet the shuttle. Such a procedure is known as a joint underspeed recovery.\n", "BULLET::...
Why do cinnamon rolls get hotter in the center than the outer layer when you microwave them?	If they're like cinnamon rolls where i'm from, it's because the crusty exterior has very little water content, compared to the soft dough inside. A Microwave heats by exciting the molecules in the food, those that get most effected are liquids (water), fats & sugars.	[ "Another misconception is that microwave ovens cook food \"from the inside out\", meaning from the center of the entire mass of food outwards. This idea arises from heating behavior seen if an absorbent layer of water lies beneath a less absorbent drier layer at the surface of a food; in this case, the deposition o...
why do beverages like coffee and beer taste better now than when i was young?	My theory: When we were younger, our natural affinity for taste is sweet. Somewhere along the lines of becoming a teen our taste buds became apt to begin liking coffee and beer's bitter taste either through acquired desensitization or enough social norms that say it's what we should like and eventually it becomes that...	[ "Taste preferences and eating behaviors in children are molded at a young age by factors, such as parents' habits and advertisements. One study compared what adults and children considered when choosing beverages. For the most part, adults considered whether beverages had sugar, caffeine, and additives. Some of the...
How did the transition to an amniotic egg happen?	Plenty of amphibians lay their eggs on land, so that isn't really a huge issue. The main issue is how the extraembryonic membranes actually evolved; that is substantially more complicated and not fully understood.	[ "The amnion is a membrane that closely covers the embryo when first formed. It fills with the amniotic fluid which causes the amnion to expand and become the amniotic sac which serves to provide a protective environment for the developing embryo or fetus. The amnion, along with the chorion, the yolk sac and the all...
how can a lawn survive a full winter covered by snow, but start dying and turn bright green from 2 days of being covered by a tarp (or something similar)?	This is all about temperature. In the cold the grass is dormant, most processes shut down. In the summer, the grass is going full tilt with its biological processes- covering it with a tarp is like putting saran wrap over someones mouth while they are trying to run a marathon.	[ "The plant has proven resilient at times; it has been noted to persist in dry conditions and after being mowed when it appeared in the lawn of a home. It can also live without sunlight in darker areas of the forest understory, albeit in sterile form.\n", "Others theorize that leaves which remain on a tree due to ...
How was the term 'heterosexual' used to refer to a perversion?	Can you pull out the quote/citation from the article? I've only ever read of "heterosexual" being a sort of reaction/companion term to "homosexual," so I'm intrigued but confused!	[ "Although some early writers used the adjective \"homosexual\" to refer to any single-gender context (such as an all-girls school), today the term implies a sexual aspect. The term homosocial is now used to describe single-sex contexts that are not of a romantic or sexual nature.\n", "Homosexuality, now widely ac...
why did martin shkreli raise the price of life saving medicine a ridiculous amount?	Why did you ask your boss for a raise, your parents to give you more money for your allowance? Same exact reason.	[ "In October 1996, Eli Lilly and Company agreed to pay Neurocrine $74 million over five years to develop drugs for obesity and Alzheimer's disease based on its research of CRF-binding protein-ligand inhibitors.\n", "In September 2015, Martin Shkreli was criticized by several health organizations for obtaining manu...
if we couldn't stop ebola from spreading from 1 person to over 6,000 people (current estimation), how can we stop it from spreading from the 6k infected people to a much larger number?	There's lots of parts to the containment problem. Problem 1: "We don't know there's an ebola outbreak" This is a problem we had when one person had ebola. We didn't know anything about it until it had spread quite a bit already. That's no longer a problem Problem 2: We have nothing in place to fight an ebola out...	[ "On 29 November 2014, a new 15-minute Ebola test was reported that if successful, \"not only gives patients a better chance of survival, but it prevents transmission of the virus to other people.\" The new equipment, about the size of a laptop and solar-powered, allows testing to be done in remote areas.\n", "On ...
How and why did the Republic of China (Taiwan) keep China's seat in the UN for so long? How did the Nationalist government go from being recognized as the sole representative for China to being denied membership even as Taiwan?	At the time of the defeat of the Republic of China forces by the PRC, and the former's subsequent retreat to Taiwan, there was no disagreement as to whether or not there was one or more "China". Chiang and the Guomingdang were under the conviction that the Republic of China was the sole authority over the Chinese mainl...	[ "BULLET::::- China's seat was originally held by the Nationalist government of the Republic of China. However, it lost the Chinese Civil War and retreated to the island of Taiwan in 1949. The Communist Party won control of mainland China and established the People's Republic of China. In 1971, UN General Assembly R...
why is it that 4k makes such a big difference in quality against 1080p for a videogame but barley for a tv series/movie	The difference is between something that is already rendered vs. something that is being rendered at that time. 1080p resolution is 1,920x1,080, while 4k resolution is 3840×2160. That means that 4k has _a lot_ more pixels available to it and, if those pixels are utilized, will produce a much sharper image. However, ...	[ "The changes in the 2008 ruleset were made because 1080p was getting more and more popular and the authors felt it was necessary to lower the 720p bitrate minimum as well to show x264 lovers WMV is equal quality. The video size wasn't determined by the length of the movie anymore, but by the minimum bitrate.\n", ...
why is primer needed for a paint job? why not just use paint?	1.Better paint adhesion 2. Protects the painted material 3. Prolongs life of paint 4. Hides imperfections or former paint color that can bleed through It is a pain in the butt step but if you have ever tried to turn an olive green room to canary yellow you will get it. Also if there are any oily/greasy spots primer ...	[ "Primer is a paint product that allows finishing paint to adhere much better than if it were used alone. It is designed to adhere to surfaces and to form a binding layer that is better prepared to receive the paint. Compared to paint, a primer is not intended to be used as the outermost durable finish and can inste...
When did humans first start doing push-ups?	I want to start by saying that some preliminary research into push ups and press ups as a term I found that the first recorded use of the phrases were recorded in the early 20th century (_URL_1_ and _URL_0_) The legend of Milo of Croton using a bull calf in his training. It was said that he would lift a calf and eith...	[ "The pushup aspect of the awareness campaign proved value in the organic growth of campaign's mission because it garnered much attention when the pushups were done in a public setting which ultimately led to people asking what the pushups were all about. This ongoing strategy combined with leveraging social media t...
why do jury verdicts need to be unanimous?	Because we have agreed that to convict someone the standard they are held to is "beyond a reasonable doubt." That is an extremely high bar, and it is assumed that if as a juror you don't believe that burden has been met, then the person is not guilty. Most civil cases don't require unanimous verdicts. The burden ther...	[ "Unanimous jury verdicts have been standard in US American law. This requirement was upheld by the Supreme Court in 1897, but the standard was relaxed in 1972 in two criminal cases. As of 1999 over thirty states had laws allowing less than unanimity in civil cases, but Oregon and Louisiana are the only states which...
why can you just tag the base to get a runner out at first in baseball but it seems like you need to tag the runner himself all other times?	It's an issue of "forced" or not. If the runner has an alternative destination then you have to tag them, if they do not...you can tag the base. In the case of a runner stealing from first to second, the runner could return to first base if they decided to do so, so...you must touch them. When the player has just hi...	[ "Base runners may attempt to advance at any time while the ball is alive, even before or while the pitcher is throwing a pitch. The catcher—or pitcher, in lieu of delivering the pitch—often tries to prevent this by throwing the ball to one of the infielders in order to tag the runner. This \"pick-off attempt\" is u...
Can insects get heat stroke or hypothermia?	Insects are cold blooded, which means they mostly get their body heat from the environment. As such, they can tolerate a wider range of body temperatures than a warm blooded animal, which strives to keep its temperature within a few degrees of a specific temperature. Heat tolerance is going to vary from insect to insec...	[ "The body temperature, and therefore activity level, of this scorpionfly depends on its absorption of short-wave and long-wave radiation rather than surrounding air temperatures (by which it is completely unaffected). The boundary layer of snow that the insect occupies has very low thermal conductance, and so the i...
what is the difference between sleep paralysis and lucid dreaming?	In sleep paralysis you don't feel asleep, just trapped in a sleeping body. In lucid dreaming you feel freed into a dream world. So they are basically opposite, even though they both result from the conscious realization that you are sleeping.	[ "Lucid dreaming occurs when one realizes that the events experienced within a dream are bizarre or would not occur in one's waking life. As such, the inability to notice the bizarre nature of the dream has been coined as an example of change blindness, also known as individuals who are non-lucid dreamers. However, ...
Is it true that, during Medieval Times, the court Jester could often tell the King frankly what others would end up being beheaded for? What was the dynamic behind this relationship?	Please try to stick to the topic of court jesters and make sure your answers are factual and source-based. I have removed all off-topic comments and speculation.	[ "There is some historical debate over the identity of the man who beheaded the King, who was masked at the scene. It is known the regicides approached Richard Brandon, the common Hangman of London, but that he refused, and contemporary sources do not generally identify him as the King's headsman. Ellis's Historical...
how does electricity get into a battery	The electricity starts as chemical energy. When a regular one use battery is built it has two different salts that will react with each other loaded into it separated by a porous membrane called a salt bridge. Electrodes are placed into each solution of an appropriate type for the salts being used. The reaction doesn't...	[ "A battery is a device consisting of one or more electrochemical cells with external connections provided to power electrical devices such as flashlights, mobile phones, and electric cars. When a battery is supplying electric power, its positive terminal is the cathode and its negative terminal is the anode. The te...
why are blackberry phones considered more secure/unhackable compared to apple or android phones?	I believe it is the same reason Macs seemed more virus-resistant for quite awhile, too-- because fewer people use it, fewer people are creating viruses for it. Why create a massive virus to affect a minority of users when you can put your effort into hacking Apple or Android, which take the largest part of the market? ...	[ "The primary competitors of the BlackBerry are Android smartphones and the iPhone. BlackBerry has struggled to compete against both and its market share has plunged since 2011, leading to speculation that it will be unable to survive as an independent going concern. However, it has managed to maintain significant p...
why does non-dairy creamer dissolve more quickly in hot coffee/tea than cold?	When something is hot, the molecules are moving around in it much faster. That's actually what heat means on a physical level. All that moving around is kind of like stirring on the molecular level. Things get mixed by the motion and there's more energy available for the chemical reactions that we see as dissolving.	[ "Non-dairy creamers, commonly called tea whiteners or coffee whiteners are liquid or granular substances intended to substitute for milk or cream as an additive to coffee, tea, hot chocolate or other beverages. They do not contain lactose and therefore are commonly described as being non-dairy products, although ma...
What makes and erupting volcano like the 1883 eruption of Anak-Krakatau loud enough to be heard at great distances?	Things in general that make an eruption explosive: High volatile content. This is chiefly water, though also carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide and methane dissolved within the magma. As this magma nears the surface the confining pressure is lowered, these compounds exsolve, formung bubbles of gas (which means a larg...	[ "On Tuesday 7 September, Mount Sinabung erupted yet again, its biggest eruption yet since it had become active on 29 August 2010 and experts warned of more eruptions to come. Indonesia's chief vulcanologist, Surono, said \"It was the biggest eruption yet and the sound was heard from 8 kilometres away. The smoke was...
What's the point of Machiavelli?	Very general answer to the question: history is not science. The point of history is not to get at the true or right way to understand life, nature, human beings and cultures. Instead, the point of history is to understand the way the way people thought and believed about the way things actually were. (Even discover...	[ "Machiavelli's promotion of ambition among leaders while denying any higher standard meant that he encouraged risk-taking, and innovation, most famously the founding of new modes and orders. His advice to princes was therefore certainly not limited to discussing how to maintain a state. It has been argued that Mach...
If you vibrate the atoms of an object at a high percentage of the speed of light, would that object experience time dilation?	not sure about the time dilation aspect of it, but if you are vibrating the atoms at close to the speed of light, then you have to put in quite a bit of energy, and you might end up breaking the chemical bonds and killing the organism.	[ "An ideal impact to a structure is a perfect impulse, which has an infinitely small duration, causing a constant amplitude in the frequency domain; this would result in all modes of vibration being excited with equal energy. The impact hammer test is designed to replicate this; however, in reality a hammer strike c...
Why does the interface between air and water look like a mirror, when seen from the water?	This is a phenomenon called [Total Internal Reflection](_URL_0_). This happens when the medium in which the light is travelling has a higher refractive index than the medium at the other side of a boundary, and the light is at a high enough angle (depending on the refractive index difference) with respect to the interf...	[ "Water-air interfaces provide another source of circular polarization. Sunlight that gets scattered back up towards the surface is linearly polarized. If this light is then totally internally reflected back down, its vertical component undergoes a phase shift. To an underwater observer looking up, the faint light o...
what is database indexing?	A database is like a library - it holds information. A completely unindexed table is called a "heap." It's analogous to the books just being piled in a heap on the floor. The info's still in there, but it's going to take forever to find the exact piece you need. When the books are all on the shelves in the correct or...	[ "A database index is a data structure that improves the speed of data retrieval operations on a database table at the cost of additional writes and storage space to maintain the index data structure. Indexes are used to quickly locate data without having to search every row in a database table every time a database...
How did Cadillac become (for a time) the premiere American luxury automobile?	Prior to 1930, the three dominant luxury car manufacturers in the US were Packard, Peerless and Pierce Arrow. All three out sold Cadillac and dominated the much more limited production by companies like Dusenburg, Stutz, Brewster and Locomoble. General Motors tried to enter th...	[ "By the time General Motors purchased the company in 1909, Cadillac had already established itself as one of America's premier luxury carmakers. The complete interchangeability of its precision parts had allowed it to lay the foundation for the modern mass production of automobiles. It was at the forefront of techn...
why are polygraph tests inadmissable in court?	They're not considered very trustworthy. They really only measure heartrate, and while it is common for your heartrate to elevate while lying, your heartrate can elevate for a LOT of reasons- like stress for example. Do you know what's stressful? Being accused of things, while taking a polygraph test.	[ "When polygraphs are used as a screening tool (in national security matters and for law enforcement agencies for example) the level of accuracy drops to such a level that \"Its accuracy in distinguishing actual or potential security violators from innocent test takers is insufficient to justify reliance on its use ...
How much resistance was there to West Virginia becoming a state?	At the national level opposition to West Virginia being admitted into the Union was over West Virginia's reluctance to free it's slave population. While it is true that 87% of Virginia's slave population was centered in the east, as a result of decades of political disenfranchisement and economic stagnation(as well as ...	[ "The Northern hold on Charleston and most of the western part of Virginia created a larger problem. Virginia already had seceded from the Union, but the western part was under Union control. The issue of statehood was raised. So amid the tumultuous Civil War, West Virginia officially became a state through Presiden...
Why should vaccinated individuals stay away from immunocompromised individuals or pregnant women?	Well, first, unvaccinated people should stay away from the pregnant or immunocompromised, for the most part, but, there are circumstances where RECENTLY vaccinated people who were given a [live, attentuated vaccine](_URL_1_) should do so. An attenuated vaccine uses live organism or virus, that has mutated to become le...	[ "In humans, vaccination has become readily available, and is important to the prevention of some diseases like polio, rubella, and smallpox, among others. There has been no association between congenital malformations and vaccination, as shown in Finland in which expecting mothers received the oral polio vaccine an...
it's nearly 2012...eli5 what problems are still preventing a hoverboard from being created and mass marketed.	This isn't my area of expertise, but I can think of a few reasons: 1) The amount of energy needed to power the device. The weight of a person plus the board plus the engine could easily weigh over 200 lb. That means that when the board is hovering in place, it must generate 200 lb of force upward to prevent the boar...	[ "As a result of high oil prices following the 1973 oil crisis and the 1979 energy crisis, the profitability of the first generation of commercial hovercraft was badly hit, causing some operators to lose money and provoking requests from customers for more fuel efficient vehicles. Advances were quickly made in skirt...
We have split atoms but could we split anything smaller than that with a similar nuclear reaction?	In a lot of particle collider experiments, protons are smashed into each other and break apart.	[ "The U-235 nucleus can split in many ways, provided the atomic numbers add up to 92 and the atomic masses add to 236 (uranium plus the extra neutron). The following equation shows one possible split, namely into strontium-95 (Sr), xenon-139 (Xe), and two neutrons (n), plus energy:\n", "This splitting is called fi...
why being quiet is so taboo.	Being quiet in a social context is often a symptom of being shy, introverted, or both. Most people are extraverts, and because they're the majority, they don't learn about or understand introverts. They can only interpret quietness according to how they might choose to be quiet, and not why an introvert or shy pers...	[ "Within one week of its publication, \"Forbes' \" Jenna Goudreau noted that \"Quiet\" was featured by several major media outlets and was shared extensively across the Web, Goudreau observing that readers said they felt validated and seen for the first time. Cain spoke at leadership, management, training and educat...
In movies like Braveheart, leaders often give inspiring speeches. Assuming this was accurate, how would thousands of foot soldiers hear this leader right before battle?	Just a note - you've placed Patton's speech in the same way as those highly fictionalized accounts of Braveheart and The Last Samurai. Patton's speech to the 3rd Army is a well documented historical event. It occurred on June 5th 1944, the eve of the Allied invasion of Nazi Europe. The text of the speech can be found...	[ "Joseph's message, often called a speech, is frequently cited as one of the greatest American speeches. Coincidentally, Arthur \"Ad\" Chapman, the translator of Joseph's message, was also the man who had fired at a Nez Perce truce party before the Battle of White Bird Canyon nearly four months earlier, thus setting...
how did people living before the modern ages survive and get different sources of food which grew far outside their nation if global shipping came very later on?	What makes you think that the essential vitamins weren't available locally? Vitamins are basic chemicals needed for life. Any stable ecosystem will have sources of them.	[ "Life was, however, not quite idyllic. Northern Coast Salish and Wakashan from harder climates to the north were wont to raid. Food resources varied, and resources were not always sufficient to last through to spring. There is evidence that an extensive trade and potlatch network evolved to help distribute resource...
A family member recently told me that slavery had nothing to do with the Civil War. Can anyone provide me with articles to show him he is incorrect?	Linking to the FAQ or previous answers is not intended to discourage further questions or discussion. It's just a timesaver. In this case, there's the FAQ section "The Civil War and Slavery" at _URL_0_ . /u/Borimi had a shorter answer, but the first two articles by /u/Georgy_K_Zhukov are pretty definitive and well-s...	[ "Albert Taylor Bledsoe (November 9, 1809 – December 8, 1877) was an American Episcopal priest, attorney, professor of mathematics, and officer in the Confederate army and was best known as a staunch defender of slavery and, after the South lost the American Civil War, an architect of the Lost Cause. He was the auth...
how low would gravity need to be for a human to survive falling at its terminal velocity?	Depends what you land on. Humans have survived falls at terminal velocity on earth: it's just not pleasant, and not massively likely.	[ "Based on wind resistance, for example, the terminal velocity of a skydiver in a belly-to-earth (i.e., face down) free-fall position is about 195 km/h (122 mph or 54 m/s). This velocity is the asymptotic limiting value of the acceleration process, because the effective forces on the body balance each other more and...
why do people irrationally hate things that are popular, e.g fortnite, musicians etc.	In the beginning, you don’t care about the thing. But after countless mentions from TV, friends, social media, family, school, etc., you start getting tired/annoyed at the thing. And thus, you start hating the thing. Also, this is like being Pavlovian trained to hate the thing, just like making your favorite song you...	[ "All the things that happened were really inspiring, because it was frustrating ... But for me at least, every time we get really frustrated and you're hitting a wall and everything is chaos, it just makes the music that much better, because you have passion—even if it's negative. That's sometimes better, actually....
How to understand vacuum electrical permittivity and magnetic permeability?	> The speed of light in a vacuum is defined as (electrical permittivity * magnetic permeability)-0.5, which happens to be c in a vacuum. These constants only apply to E & M, and are therefore part of a much "smaller" theory than c itself. the vacuum permeability and vacuum permittivity are linked through the speed of...	[ "It is a useful unit for electromagnetism because, in a vacuum, an electric field of one statvolt/cm has the same energy density as a magnetic field of one gauss. Likewise, a plane wave propagating in a vacuum has perpendicular electric and magnetic fields such that for every gauss of magnetic field intensity there...
Self Polymer	For step growth polymers, the monomers generally require a relatively large amount of activation energy that is usually provided by heat. Keep the monomer cool enough and you shouldn't need to worry much about unwanted polymerization. Additionally, if the monomer is a solid it can't really undergo much polymerization...	[ "e-Polymers is a peer-reviewed internet journal under the auspices of the European Polymer Federation. In the area of polymer science and engineering, it makes novel scientific and technological results available both in academia and industry, and basically free of charge. It has become a respected journal with an ...
Why does quantum tunnelling not effect the result demonstrated the Ramsauer-Townsend effect?	As far as I understand, the Ramsauer-Townsend effect is usually described as an electron with energy E > 0 passing a potential well (an atom) with E < 0. It thus doesn't have to tunnel (which happens when the energy of the electron is lower than the potential barrier), but it does at least experience scattering.	[ "Fundamental quantum mechanical concepts are central to this phenomenon, which makes quantum tunnelling one of the novel implications of quantum mechanics. Quantum tunneling is projected to create physical limits to the size of the transistors used in microprocessors, due to electrons being able to \"tunnel\" past ...
why do we believe that "this is the one" and fear we "will never meet somebody like him/her in our life again"?	I don't believe either of those things. I just want to be clear that not everyone believes this. Or feels this.	[ "I never believed I was anybody special. I still don't think so, nor did I ever believe that anyone would give a hoot hearing about who I was, where I came from, what I did at various stages of my life, and why. I am convinced the world would function equally well, or equally badly, with or without me. - Andrew Las...
why is ios said to almost never be affected by viruses, whereas other operating systems are?	With mobile phone operating systems, a challenge is getting malicious code onto a user's device. With web browsers limiting plugins like Flash and Java, and blocking installation of apps from outside offical sources, that is a very challenging task. A properly implemented permissions system would also limit what mal...	[ "Mobile phones used to have proprietary operating system unique only to the manufacturer which had the beneficial effect of making it harder to design a mass attack. However, the rise of software platforms and operating systems shared by many manufacturers such as Java, Microsoft operating systems, Linux, or Symbia...
Can many small, quieter speakers produce sound equivalent to a single larger, louder speaker?	Yes, due to a principle called constructive interference, the sound waves with matching and in phase frequencies will build on eachother, making the amplitude higher and the volume louder. Think of a crowd cheering in a stadium for a simple example. However, from an engineering point of view the sound would probably ...	[ "Often, large speakers such as those used in clubs and in professional audio actually allow little cone excursion and/or they have fairly stiff surrounds which do not allow them to fluctuate greatly without high power. This is because they would otherwise overdrive and have a much shorter lifetime because it doesn'...
Why was Mohammed’s army so successful?	[I answered a similar question not long ago.](_URL_0_) To summarise, the Islamic armies were superior to their enemies primarily in political unity and morale, and didn't have any real advantage in numbers, tactics or technology.	[ "The exact size of the army under Muhammad's command is not explicitly stated, but it was likely much greater than al-Mu'tazz's forces. As many of his units were irregulars, however, their conduct in battle was not always reliable, and they were disciplined often for their failure to follow orders. In addition, whi...
Is this really the first time in history that obesity has been so widespread across socioeconomic levels?	The view of obesity and what it signifies has changed over time. During the Renaissance, for example, the ideal body shape for women would be what's considered "fat" by today's standards. To give an example, here's Rubens' [_Three Graces_](_URL_0_). The theory goes that being overweight signified your social status ...	[ "In earlier historical periods obesity was rare, and achievable only by a small elite, although already recognised as a problem for health. But as prosperity increased in the Early Modern period, it affected increasingly larger groups of the population.\n", "BULLET::::- Sedentary lifestyles, due to labor-saving d...
why is the standard dose of just about all medicines two tablets? couldn't they just make one that's twice as concentrated?	Some people have trouble swallowing larger tablets, children take smaller doses, larger people can take larger doses without taking a double dose (when I was over 300 I would take 3 Tylenol for instance) and a myriad of other reasons that I don't know.	[ "The recommended dose of Zyflo is one 600 mg tablet, four times per day. The tablets may be split in half to make them easier to swallow. The recommended dose of Zyflo CR is two 600 mg extended-release tablets twice daily, within one hour after morning and evening meals, for a daily dose of 2400 mg. Do not split Zy...
Are there any modern recreational drugs that could have been synthesized in Europe between 1000-1500CE, with the knowledge we have today?	Ha! You're not totally out of luck. If you were to somehow time travel back to 1300, you might be able to make some pharmaceuticals which would not actually be discovered until much later. And yes--you could even realistically make Meth, more than 500 years before it would actually be discovered. First, the relatively...	[ "Several drugs like hashish and opium were increasingly well known in Europe by the beginning of the nineteenth century. At that time, the use of these drugs was widespread among scientific and literary circles for purposes of recreation. \n", "Since classical times and possibly much earlier, hundreds of species ...
Does Helium drift away from Jupiter (or other planets) like it does from Earth?	It depends on the gravity of the planet, and the temperature of the atmosphere. In the case of Jupiter, no. > It can be shown that for cold giant gas planets such as Jupiter and Saturn there is no thermal driven atmospheric escape of significance... _URL_0_ If you want the background physics, there's a lot more de...	[ "\"Voyager 1\" found that about seven percent of the volume of Saturn's upper atmosphere is helium (compared with 11 percent of Jupiter's atmosphere), while almost all the rest is hydrogen. Since Saturn's internal helium abundance was expected to be the same as Jupiter's and the Sun's, the lower abundance of helium...
How does the brain distinguish between images you are actually seeing and images you are imagining? Can the two become confused?	We experience the visual world as being complete and in rich detail, but in actually, our brains are doing a lot of "filling-in", construction, reconstruction, and guess-work. The most obvious example of [filling in](_URL_3_) occurs at the [blind spot](_URL_2_) where nerves exit the eye and there are no photoreceptors....	[ "Direct realists can potentially deny the existence of any such thing as a mental image but this is difficult to maintain, since we seem able to visually imagine all sorts of things with ease. Even if perception does not involve images other mental processes like imagination certainly seem to. One view, similar to ...
High school sophomore, considering a career in history or physics. What are job opportunities in	Someone who specializes in history could potentially find work at any museum or historical society. I live in the Chicago area and there are historical societies for practically every suburb around here, not to mention all the big name museums downtown. There are organizations like Daughters of the Revolution, _URL_0_,...	[ "The Department of Physics, comprising more than 60 faculty and over 100 graduate students, is a major research department, offering graduate programs that have been ranked amongst the best in the nation by \"U.S. News and World Report\".\n", "Physics First is a popular and relatively new movement in American hig...
If energy can be never be created or destroyed, and as the universe is expanding, would there come a time where all energy is so dissipated that things have little to no, energy and hence would freeze?	There are no (nontrivial) global conservation laws for energy in GR. There are some spacetimes in which conservation laws can hold, but there is no law that holds for all spacetimes. That is, the statement that "energy cannot be created or destroyed" is not necessarily true in GR. Indeed, energy conservation typically ...	[ "There is no clear way to define the total energy in the universe using the most widely accepted theory of gravity, general relativity. Therefore, it remains controversial whether the total energy is conserved in an expanding universe. For instance, each photon that travels through intergalactic space loses energy ...
why does the water pressure drop a little bit once the water heats up?	Do you mean water flow? Usually rubber in taps expands when it heats so the flow decreases.	[ "The perception of water pressure is actually the speed of the water as it hits a surface, (the hands, in the case of hand washing). When an aerator is added to the faucet (or fluid stream), there is a region of high pressure created behind the aerator. Because of the higher pressure behind the aerator and the low ...
what is a site's robot.txt?	It's a file containing instructions telling search engine spiders and other programs which parts of the site they shouldn't look at, for example _URL_0_ on Reddit. It won't stop an evil program from reading those pages, but a polite one like Google's will do as you tell it. Sometimes those pages will still show up in G...	[ "AR Bots is a minigame that places thirty robots in the DualShock 4 controller screen. Players can interact with the robots through the controller, utilizing the motion sensor. The robots can also be displayed on the television instead of the controller screen by gesturing up on the touch pad.\n", "The robot is s...
Do people with dextrocardia experience right arm numbness during a heart attack?	Dextrocardia is a rare congenital condition in which your heart points toward the right side of the chest instead of the left. Normally, when a person without Dextrocardia experiences a heart attack, they may feel a pain in the left arm. This is because of referred pain to the arm. Referred pain can indicate t...	[ "This is complemented by gastro-coronary reflexes whereby the coronary arteries constrict with \"functional cardiovascular symptoms\" similar to chest-pain on the left side and radiation to the left shoulder, dyspnea, sweating, up to angina pectoris -like attacks with extrasystoles, drop of blood pressure, and tach...
why does having bigger muscles enable someone to lift or push more weight?	Actually the 650 skeletal muscles in the human body contract when they receive signals from motor neurons, which are triggered from a part of the cell called the sarcoplasmic reticulum. Motor neurons tell your muscles to contract and the better you become at having those signals tell your muscles to contract, the stron...	[ "Weight training aims to build muscle by prompting two different types of hypertrophy: sarcoplasmic and myofibrillar. Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy leads to larger muscles and so is favored by bodybuilders more than myofibrillar hypertrophy, which builds athletic strength. Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy is triggered by increa...
Was there ever any serious discussion on the United States joining the Commonwealth of Nations?	The simple answer is no. By the time the Commonwealth was created, after WW1, the Anglo-American relationship had developed its own unique characteristics. Its worth noting that Commonwealth wasn't really planned, it was the product of a series of compromises as British colonies gained independance. Essentially the c...	[ "The idea of admission to the United States was discussed among some netizens alongside proposals of becoming independent (within or outside the Commonwealth, as a republic or a Commonwealth realm), rejoining the Commonwealth, confederation with Canada as the eleventh province or the fourth territory (with referenc...
is it possible to change the structure of molecules using electricity or vibrations?	Yes, but not in the way you are describing. We can use a technique called electrolysis to cause an otherwise non-spontaneous reaction like turning water back into hydrogen and oxygen. This process doesn't work beyond the molecular level though, so we aren't going to get different atoms from the process (so no water int...	[ "In modern semiconductor research, surface vibrations are of interest as they can couple with electrons and thereby affect the electrical and optical properties of semiconductor devices. They are most relevant for devices where the electronic active area is near a surface, as is the case in two-dimensional electron...
legally speaking, how does recanting a confession work?	[This](_URL_0_) wikipedia article is actually a pretty good survey briefing of the topic of both coerced and voluntary false confessions. Typically, short of evidence of coercion, once a confession is out there it's usable by the prosecution (there are other ways of getting a confession thrown out, legal technical...	[ "\"Confession and absolution\", sometimes called the Sacrament of Reconciliation, is the rite or sacrament by which one is restored to God when one's relationship with God has been broken by sin. The form is the words of absolution, which may be accompanied by the sign of the cross. Confession and absolution is nor...
What is magnetic flux?	Basically it's the total amount of magnetic field passing through a given area. So if there's an area of 1 m^2 and there's a magnetic field of 1 tesla passing through it, the magnetic flux is 1 Weber.	[ "In physics, specifically electromagnetism, the magnetic flux (often denoted or ) through a surface is the surface integral of the normal component of the magnetic field B passing through that surface. The SI unit of magnetic flux is the weber (Wb) (in derived units: volt formula_1 seconds), and the CGS unit is the...
what is the funny taste we experience after hitting our heads too hard?	Post traumatic dysgeusia The short version is that it's your body undergoing trauma and your salivary glands sort of going haywire temporarily. It is not an adrenal response or spinal/brain fluid as most people falsely perpetuate.	[ "This nerve can cause an electric shock-like sensation by striking the medial epicondyle of the humerus from posteriorly, or inferiorly with the elbow flexed. The ulnar nerve is trapped between the bone and the overlying skin at this point. This is commonly referred to as bumping one's \"funny bone\". This name is ...
In what ways did Conquistadors worsen Native American mortality due to European diseases?	You are absolutely correct that the combined colonial cocktail worked to decrease host immunity and survival during periodic waves of infection, and then those same factors served to decrease chances of population rebound following those epidemics in the Americas. Any examination of disease epidemiology after contact...	[ "While technological superiority and cultural factors played an important role in the victories of the conquistadors in the Americas, their conquest was greatly facilitated by old world diseases: smallpox, chicken pox, diphtheria, typhus, influenza, measles, malaria and yellow fever. The diseases were carried to di...
what is wifi, like, physically? electromagnetic radiation? if so, what kind?	Radio waves. Very high frequency, approximately what you use for good cordless phones.	[ "BULLET::::- \"Wireless (WiFi) modem\" - an automated short range digital data transmitter and receiver on a portable wireless device that communicates by microwaves with a nearby access point, a router or gateway, connecting the portable device with a local computer network (WLAN) to exchange data with other devic...
how did we learn to make fire?	Someone else will probably have a better informed/cited answer. But I did a quick 5 minute research session and will back up what I found with a wikipedia link and some wild speculation. "Claims for the earliest definitive evidence of control of fire by a member of Homo range from 0.2 to 1.7 million years ago..." _U...	[ "The use of flint in particular became the most common method of producing flames in pre-industrial societies (see also fire striker). Travelers up to the late 19th century would often use self-contained kits known as tinderboxes to start fires.\n", "Fire can be created through friction by rapidly grinding pieces...
How does the hippocampus transfer short term to long term memory?	We do not know how our experience or information is encoded and decoded in the brain. As in precisely how the strength/association between neuron pairs changes or the neuron network structure of the brain changes. What we do know is that short-term and long-term memory are probably two very separate processes. In fac...	[ "Short-term memory is supported by transient patterns of neuronal communication, dependent on regions of the frontal lobe (especially dorsolateral prefrontal cortex) and the parietal lobe. Long-term memory, on the other hand, is maintained by more stable and permanent changes in neural connections widely spread thr...
How strong would a "cord" of DNA be if it was one inch thick?	It's not really possible to say, as you're extrapolating over about 7-8 orders of magnitude here, a DNA strand being about 1 nm is diameter. The strength within a DNA strand, and between the two complementary strands, is likely going to be a lot stronger than however you bind the separate strands together at the nano...	[ "DNA diameter is about 2 nm, while the length of a stretched single molecule may be up to several dozens of centimetres depending on the organism. Many features of the DNA double helix contribute to its large stiffness, including the mechanical properties of the sugar-phosphate backbone, electrostatic repulsion bet...
why are lakes so calm but oceans and rivers so unpredictable?	Lakes are smaller than oceans by a lot, and so they end up with fewer instances of turbulence or choppiness compared to ocean water. For example, the spin of the Earth causes a band of high winds and ocean currents near the equator, which churns the oceans continually, but a lake will generally only get disturbed by r...	[ "On the other hand, lakes and lagoons are permanent accumulations of water over impervious depressions. Their difference is mainly based on their extension and depth. They are very important for stream regulation, as a source of energy, tourist attraction and its ichthyologic wealth. In Argentina, all major lakes a...
the human body maintains a core temperature of around 37℃. how does the body know its temperature ? how does it know if its above or below its ideal temperature ?	your skin is covered in cells that detect temperature. These react very quickly to any temperature outside of a very narrow range. When it goes too far from that range, it transmits signals very similar to pain. these signals go to your brain, which immediately responds by doing things to return temperature to stable l...	[ "Core temperature, also called core body temperature, is the operating temperature of an organism, specifically in deep structures of the body such as the liver, in comparison to temperatures of peripheral tissues. Core temperature is normally maintained within a narrow range so that essential enzymatic reactions c...
why do we, as humans, often make decisions contrary to what our brains "know deep down" that we're supposed to do?	If I recall correctly, our limbic system dictates our "gut instincts" and our prefrontal cortex dictates decisions based on logic. The more data we get, the more our prefrontal cortex gets overloaded with information causing us to overthink things. The limbic system would be more tied into our emotional decision makin...	[ "Similarly, human decisions often cannot be easily explained: they may be based on intuition or a \"gut feeling\" that is hard to put into words. Requiring machines to meet a higher standard than humans is thus arguably unreasonable.\n", "Humans have limitations in their ability to collect and react to relevant i...
how mao got into power and why china is one of the most successful communist countries.	It became more successful by loosening up and becoming less Communist. I think they took notice of Hong Kong's success and tried to implement some of that without giving up full control. Since they opened up to the US in the 1970s, they have managed to continually grow their economy on exports. That will eventually ha...	[ "From the pivotal Zunyi Conference forward, Mao Zedong was the undisputed leader of the Communist Party of China, though he did not formally become party chairman until 1943. However, much of Mao's authority was informal, earned after years of building clout through the civil war and intra-party struggles. After Ma...
Why couldn't Britain defend itself from German Luftwaffe bombings during WWII?	The Royal Air Force successfully defended the UK by day in [the Battle of Britain] (_URL_0_) (July-October 1940); this forced the Luftwaffe to largely bomb at night in [the Blitz] (_URL_1_) (September 1940 - May 1941). Intercepting a bomber at night was incredibly difficult in 1940. The ground-based Chain Home radar s...	[ "During the Battle of Britain, the German Luftwaffe attempted to destroy Great Britain's Chain Home radar stations in order to degrade the British air defense network. However, German High Command failed to realize the efficiency of not only the radar stations themselves but the command and control system directing...

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