Split (2)

train · 226k rows

question stringlengths 3 301	answer stringlengths 9 26.1k	context list
Why are SSRI's used over supplemental serotonin?	Psychiatrist here. There is some very solid information in these replies, along with a bit of misinformation. Let me just add a few points, since there is a huge difference between the neuronal effects of SSRIs and 5-HTP. SSRIs work by blocking the reuptake (recycling mechanism) of serotonin after it has already been...	[ "Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are believed to increase the extracellular level of the neurotransmitter serotonin by limiting its reabsorption into the presynaptic cell, increasing the level of serotonin in the synaptic cleft available to bind to the postsynaptic receptor. They have varying degree...
why does it seem so common to see quotes where a word has been added in square brackets, but the quote [wouldn't] have originally made any sense without that word?	There are fundamentally three different reasons for changing or adding words in a quote, indicated by the square brackets: * Change of person or any similar grammatical change that doesn’t alter the meaning, only the perspective: * “this is my fault and I intend to remedy it” * Quote: He said “this is [his] ...	[ "If a quoting sentence introduces the quotation, it is preceded by a colon; the ending punctuation mark should be inserted as in the original. Lowercase initials should only be used if they are lowercase in the original. If a quoting sentence follows the quotation, they are separated by a dash (and spaces). Punctua...
I’m wondering what this symbol is on this court note, it’s from 1853 in New York, I feel like i’ve seen it before but i don’t know what it’s called or what it means, any thoughts?	This appears to be the same as a copyeditor's note for a paragraph. This looks like a draft of a document that would be re-written more carefully crafted formal document. This would be indicating the need for a paragraph break. edit: I yield to the counsel for the plaintiff, /u/qfrostine_esq. I believe the attorney ma...	[ "The various symbols within the arms are representative of the history of the city. The book represents the education within the city, specifically the 16th century Wolverhampton Grammar School; the woolpack represents the mediaeval woollen trade within the city; the column is a representation of the Saxon pillar t...
in the uk or places with a 3+ party government, how does it work to "form a government"	I think you have the basic idea. Part of the confusion is one of language -- in the US, when we say "government" we mean the permanent bureaucratic institution -- what people in some other countries might refer to as civil service or some other term. In a parliamentary system, what we think of as the executive and leg...	[ "British governments (or Ministries) are generally formed by one party. The Prime Minister and Cabinet are usually all members of the same political party, almost always the one that has a majority of seats in the House of Commons. Coalition governments (a ministry that consists of representatives from two or more ...
how do directional laser sensors for people counting work?	There's a bunch of different ways that could be accomplished but the easiest would probably be to just record the times each one is broken and sort it out with software. If the time for the outer one is first add one to the incoming. If the time for the inner one is first add to the outgoing.	[ "Laser trackers are instruments that accurately measure large objects by determining the positions of optical targets held against those objects. The accuracy of laser trackers is of the order of 0.025 mm over a distance of several metres. Some examples of laser tracker applications are to align aircraft wings duri...
Examples of wars in the past that had multiple actors with dynamic alliances like the Syrian Civil War?	I think the factional nature of the Spanish Civil War gets overlooked partly due to the way that the two sides seemed to coalesce. The Nationalists were made up of the military and its supporters, two different stripes of Monarchists that were often hostile to each other, industrialists and large agricultural concerns...	[ "There are numerous factions, both foreign and domestic, involved in the Syrian Civil War, including ISIL, the Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army, pro-government Christian militias, al-Qaeda in Syria, Kurdish YPG militia, or Shia sectarian militias from Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan, many of whom are aligned against each...
In places like San Francisco where the weather is basically the same year round, do plants release pollen all year ? If not, how do they "sense" the season.	_URL_0_ Plenty of variation in rainfall, temperature, and sunlight hours. You need to go to a tropical forest to find very little variation in climate, and in that case I think there is also little or no seasonal variation in plant growth and flowering.	[ "There is no official wet season or dry season. Precipitation is dispersed throughout the year with most of it coming from various types of fog. One variation of is San Francisco fog (also known as advection fog) which mainly occurs along the Central Coast, from San Francisco to Santa Barbara.\n", "Research has b...
why don't we just elect the president via a delegate system in lieu of primaries?	What do you mean by "delegate system"?	[ "In the modern U.S. presidential election process, voters participating in the presidential primaries are actually helping to select many of the delegates to these conventions, who then in turn are pledged to help a specific presidential candidate get nominated. Other delegates to these conventions include politica...
How big would a building/dome/indoor park have to be in order to have it's own weather patterns?	It does in fact occur, there was a post recently about a ~~boeing~~ (e: Nasa) building that has weather patterns from the humidity in the air. e:[source](_URL_0_)	[ "The classic residential tower is a massive building, two to four stories high, with tapering walls and a flat shale roof. The floorplan is usually rectangular, measuring 8–10 by 8–12 meters. The tower tapered due to the walls getting thinner to the top, and due to their inward inclination. The thickness of the wal...
How do you handle the logical difficulties of 0! = 1?	The factorial function for positive whole numbers is defined, as you know, via n!=(n)(n-1)…(2)(1). The question is, can you extend the notion of factorial to 0? It turns out if you define 0! to be 1, then a whole bunch of expressions involving factorials that work for positive whole numbers can also be extended to in...	[ "BULLET::::- \"Top-down approach\": This is the direct fall-out of the recursive formulation of any problem. If the solution to any problem can be formulated recursively using the solution to its sub-problems, and if its sub-problems are overlapping, then one can easily memoize or store the solutions to the sub-pro...
What happened in the middle east or more specifically Saudi Arabia and the way they dresses from the 40s and 50s to today?	> Why don't they still dress like he was in his youth today? Frankly I'm not sure I would read so much into this. Your question is actually unique in that these questions are almost inevitably about what women are wearing, but whenever we do get these questions they are invariably about the clothing choices of eli...	[ "The religion and customs of Saudi Arabia dictate not only conservative dress for men and women, but a uniformity of dress unique to most of the Middle East. Traditionally, the different regions of Saudi have had different dress, but since the re-establishment of Saudi rule these have been reserved for festive occa...
Do two same atoms have unique identifying properties?	No, they do not. You cannot differenciate between two particles with the same quantum numbers. This is a fundamental principle of quantum mechanics. This has been confirmed from predictions made from [quantum statistics](_URL_0_) (as opposed to classical statistics which considers every particle to be unique).	[ "The molecular formula reflects the exact number of atoms that compose the molecule and so characterizes different molecules. However different isomers can have the same atomic composition while being different molecules.\n", "Atoms of chemically pure elements may bond to each other chemically in more than one wa...
how do tool-assisted speedruns work?	Imagine if you could pause time, evaluate the outcomes of any given action, choose the best course of action, and then advance time by the smallest increment possible and repeat. That's the idea of Tool Assisted Speedruns. They are not designed in real-time gameplay: rather, the inputs are carefully selected frame-by...	[ "Creating a tool-assisted speedrun is the process of finding the optimal set of inputs to fulfill a given criterion — usually completing a game as fast as possible. No limits are imposed on the tools used for this search, but the result has to be a set of timed key-presses that, when played back on the actual conso...
What mechanisms did the Romans use to mine gold and other ore?	Sorry if this is vague, but in the TV documentary series "What the Romans did for us", there was an examination of a Roman gold mine in the UK, which used a very interesting technique: a spring on top of a gold rich hill was dammed and used to fill up a large catchment pond. When full, the water was released all at onc...	[ "In Roman metallurgy, new methods for extracting gold on a large scale were developed by introducing hydraulic mining methods, especially in Hispania from 25 BC onwards and in Dacia from 106 AD onwards. One of their largest mines was at Las Medulas in León, where seven long aqueducts enabled them to sluice most of ...
is there a genetic explanation for why some people can have a ton of energy throughout the day while after a 8 to 5 shift i just want to crawl in bed and sleep?	Everything plays a factor, exercise, proper diet, enjoying your job, getting up and moving throughout the day, proper nights sleep, everything possible can affect your body. Everyone is different, if I don't work out in the morning I feel tired throughout the day, but my friends are the opposite and can only workout...	[ "Modern humans often find themselves desynchronized from their internal circadian clock, due to the requirements of work (especially night shifts), long-distance travel, and the influence of universal indoor lighting. Even if they have sleep debt, or feel sleepy, people can have difficulty staying asleep at the pea...
the purpose of a maestro. do bands or orchestras actually need one?	He (or she) essentially sets the pace, keeps everyone in line (volume from the different sections, the speed, balance of the entire orchestra), directs each section to cool it when they need to hear a soloist etc. a little more clearly. Everyone on the group/orchestra looks at him, therefore everyone is on the same p...	[ "The orchestra is a club where many musicians can play their instrument. There are two of them at the ARG, one is for the musicians, who can’t play very well and the other one is for the better ones. In the second orchestra the more talented musicians play but most of them aren’t at the school anymore.\n", "Class...
how and why do cemeteries arrange their plots so close together?	They are not lying on top of each other, at least in the US. A plot here normally has 6 inches to a foot on each side of it to separate it from the other plots, but some older cemeteries which were dug by hand have a larger buffer. Land is expensive so they make the plots as small as they possibly can in order to sel...	[ "In order to physically manage the space within the cemetery (to avoid burials in existing graves) and to record locations in the burial register, most cemeteries have some systematic layout of graves in rows, generally grouped into larger sections as required. Often the cemetery displays this information in the fo...
were ancient egyptians, african or middle eastern?	All of the above. Seas were not barriers to ancient societies, but highways. Along the north of Africa, the Middle East, and for a while the South of Europe, Mediterranean features were common. People travelled and moved in those areas. Egypt pushed south as far as Ethiopia, and people of the darkest shades of skin w...	[ "Located in the extreme north-east corner of Africa, ancient Egyptian society was at a crossroads between the African and Near Eastern regions. Early proponents of the dynastic race theory based this on the increased novelty and seemingly rapid change in Predynastic pottery and noted trade contacts between ancient ...
What is some of the best evidence that corroborates the Afro-centric view of ancient history?	> the African presence in the Americas that predated the European There is no evidence for this. You can read more about it and related theories in our [FAQ](_URL_0_), though please do follow up with more specific questions you might have.	[ "Scholars have challenged the various assertions of Afrocentrists on the cultural and biological characteristics of Ancient Egyptian civilization and its people. At a UNESCO Symposium in the 1970s, the vast majority of the delegates repudiated the Afrocentric assertions. Zahi Hawass has gone on record as saying tha...
How do you explain the similarity between the equation of the electromagnetic force et the one of the gravitational force ?	What they have in common is that they both exist in a 3-dimensional space, have massless "force carrier" particles, and do not (strongly) self-interact. A property that is unique to 3 dimensions of space is that the surface area of a sphere is proportional to the square its radius. A consequence of this is that if you ...	[ "This includes Newton's law of universal gravitation, and the relation between gravitational potential and field acceleration. Note that and are both equal to the gravitational acceleration (equivalent to the inertial acceleration, so same mathematical form, but also defined as gravitational force per unit mass). T...
Why did Denmark go into a union with Iceland in 1918?	Sæll :) Iceland's battle for independence had been very long and very arduous. In 1871, Denmark forcibly induced a new code of law for Iceland called the Status law. Among many other things which Icelanders had not wished for, the Icelanders' right to vote on the Danish parliament was revoked. It dictated which matter...	[ "The Act of Union, a December 1, 1918, agreement with Denmark, recognized Iceland as a fully sovereign state—the Kingdom of Iceland—joined with Denmark in a personal union with the Danish king. Iceland established its own flag. Denmark was to represent its foreign affairs and defense interests. Iceland had no milit...
Does purposely letting my laptop 'drain' the battery actually help it last longer unplugged than keeping it charged when I can?	No. Lithium-ion batteries (almost certainly what's in your laptop) gain no advantage from being discharged fully before charging. Older Ni-Cad batteries (and possibly also older NiMH batteries) suffered from a so-called 'memory-effect' that could give them less capacity if not fully discharged before charging, but eve...	[ "Battery life is limited because the capacity drops with time, eventually requiring replacement after as little as a year. A new battery typically stores enough energy to run the laptop for three to five hours, depending on usage, configuration, and power management settings. Yet, as it ages, the battery's energy s...
why do shoes with heels make such a loud noise when people walk in them?	Compared to, say, sneakers, the sole of heels is very hard most of the time. And hard things (sole) hitting hard things (ground) make a louder noise than soft things (sneaker sole) hitting hard things (ground). // edit: The same is true with a lot of dress shoes. They have a hard sole as well and are about as equally ...	[ "These have a mostly smooth, rigid and inflexible sole, bent slightly at the ball of the foot. This, and the cleat attached to the shoe bottom, make a clicking sound when they come together and results in the waddle of the walking cyclist. These shoes are designed to function while the user is on the bike and littl...
Why did Abraham Lincoln drop his vice president, and why did he choose Andrew Johnson instead?	The Republican Party in 1860 was relatively new - they had fielded their first presidential candidate in 1856 - and consisted of a number of different factions. They felt that they needed to keep as many of the factions (geographic and ideological) happy as possible. Hannibal Hamlin was relatively 'safe' in that he had...	[ "Andrew Johnson (December 29, 1808 July 31, 1875) was the 17th president of the United States, serving from 1865 to 1869. Johnson assumed the presidency as he was vice president of the United States at the time of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. A Democrat who ran with Lincoln on the National Union ticket, Jo...
when ants bite a human, do they know they are biting a living thing?	It's likely just a threat response. Some Activity Disturbs me enough = Bite. Ants aren't likely to have any complex thoughts.	[ "Most ants are capable of biting, stinging, and spraying irritant chemicals. However, only relatively few species can harm humans; among which some can cause significant injury or, in rare cases, death. Like wasps, individual ants are capable of stinging multiple times as they do not lose their stingers.\n", "Ant...
why do nickels have smooth edges while other coins don't?	I'm not sure why nickels don't have rough edges, but I can tell you why others do. In a nutshell, U.S. coins were sometimes made out of valuable metals like gold or silver. If you trim the edges off all the coins you find, you can start collecting a decent amount of metal shavings that you can sell for profit, and sin...	[ "One theory is that the serrated edge made it easier to prove that the coin was solid metal. However, only the Seleucid bronze coinage, rather than coins of gold and silver, feature this sort of an edge. Certain Roman serrated denarii were especially designed to be harder to counterfeit or debase. However, the Roma...
what being "spiritual" but not religious means?	When people say they are 'religious', it generally means they can put a name/label to their beliefs (ex. I am a Christian/Muslim/Buddhist/etc). When people say they are 'spiritual', it usually means they believe in a higher power/supernatural forces but don't have a name for it (ex. they believe in miracles, but they d...	[ "\"Spiritual but not religious\" (SBNR), also known as \"Spiritual but not affiliated\" (SBNA), is a popular phrase and initialism used to self-identify a life stance of spirituality that takes issue with organized religion as the sole or most valuable means of furthering spiritual growth. Historically, the words \...
How to detect cancer	I see where you are going with this but there are several problems with your idea. First, it isn't cancer cells that do this "recruitment" but rather tumors that do it. A cell here or there has sufficient nutrients to where it does not need a new blood supply to meet it high metabolic demands. It is when you have to...	[ "Cancer can be detected at an early stage by observing certain signs and symptoms. Common diagnostic methods include physical examination, x-rays, ultrasounds, cytology, blood tests, urine tests, and nuclear scans. Depending on the type of cancer and its level of progress, surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, or immun...
what are birds doing when they fly around in crazy, beautiful, yet chaotic formations?	Different species of birds flock together for different reasons, so depending on what species you were looking at they could have been foraging for insects, or moving en masse for protection, warmth, aerodynamics, or as a mating behavior. The complex movements and formations they make are called murmurations, and i...	[ "This bird has a spectacular aerial display, which involves flying high in circles, followed by a powerful stoop during which the bird makes a drumming sound, caused by vibrations of modified outer tail feathers.\n", "This bird has a spectacular aerial display, which involves flying high in circles, followed by a...
why the uk never made their overseas islands integral part of their country?	In this case France is the odd man out. Most countries with oversea territories have different level of citizenship, different set of laws and different tax rules. There is some sort of superiority and ownership over these territories that is not part of the country but rather owned by the country. In the same way that...	[ "The British Overseas Territories (BOTs) or United Kingdom Overseas Territories (UKOTs) are 14 territories under the jurisdiction and sovereignty of the United Kingdom. They are remnants of the British Empire that have not been granted independence or have voted to remain British territories. These territories do n...
When Physicists say atoms are 99% free space of mass, what does that mean?	An atom is a nucleus (protons and neutrons) bunched together. Swirling around the nucleus are the electrons which "orbit" (using that term loosely...do not think of it like planets orbiting a sun but more like a fuzzy cloud surrounding the nucleus) at some distance. If the nucleus was the size of a football placed on...	[ "The large majority of an atom's mass comes from the protons and neutrons that make it up. The total number of these particles (called \"nucleons\") in a given atom is called the mass number. It is a positive integer and dimensionless (instead of having dimension of mass), because it expresses a count. An example o...
Am I getting more petrol if I fill up on a cold day compared with a warm day?	This idea is a myth. First of all the fuel is housed underground so it undergoes minimal density change. Secondly, The basic facts are correct, but the advice is not. Gasoline does expand and contract a little depending on its temperature. When gasoline rises from 60 to 75 degrees F, for instance, it increases in volu...	[ "While gasoline internal combustion engines are much easier to start in cold weather than diesel engines, they can still have cold weather starting problems under extreme conditions. For years, the solution was to park the car in heated areas. In some parts of the world, the oil was actually drained and heated over...
How the story is of Che Guevara is painted in U.S. schools? In South America he is like a hero.	The portrayal of Che Guevara, and the Cuban Revolution in general, in U.S. schools is usually pretty negative. It's less about Che Guevara and more about Fidel Castro and the Revolution at large, but historian Aviva Chomsky covers a bit of this in the Introduction to her excellent A History of the Cuban Revolution...	[ "Che! is a 1969 American biographical drama film directed by Richard Fleischer and starring Omar Sharif as Marxist revolutionary Ernesto \"Che\" Guevara. It follows Guevara from when he first landed in Cuba in 1956 to his death in Bolivia in 1967, although the film does not portray the formative pre-Cuban revolutio...
What happens when you plug two 9V batteries into one another?	They heat up	[ "A split-charge diode is an electronic device used to enable simultaneous charging of multiple batteries from one power source. The device prevents current from flowing from one battery to another while enabling the batteries to be continuously connected.\n", "A problem with this style of connector is that it is ...
Why is the Conquest of Constantinople by the Ottomans considered as one of the greatest feats in military history?	It was considered one of the most important battles in military history mostly because of the extensive use of cannons and gunpowder to bring down the massive walls of the city, which were considered impregnable. After that siege extensive defensive fortifications became a lot less important and had to be adapted to th...	[ "Constantinople was conquered by the Ottoman Empire on 29 May 1453. The Ottomans were commanded by 22-year-old Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II. The conquest of Constantinople followed a seven-week siege which had begun on 6 April 1453.\n", "The conquest of Constantinople began to make the Ottomans the rulers of one of t...
Effects of solar gravity...	Solar gravity is negligible compared to Earth's gravity for a person on Earth. The acceleration due to gravity at Earth's surface is 9.81 m/s^2 . The acceleration due to the sun's gravity for a person on Earth's surface is (Gravitational constant)*(mass of the sun)/(distance from Earth to the sun)^2 which is ap...	[ "The gravitational effects of the Moon and the Sun (also the cause of the tides) have a very small effect on the apparent strength of Earth's gravity, depending on their relative positions; typical variations are 2 µm/s (0.2 mGal) over the course of a day.\n", "These include solar gravitational effects, the obliq...
why do my feet feel sore and raw for days after walking around in wet shoes/socks for more than an hour?	There can be many reasons for this. Water can seep into the skin, and it can also dry skin out, causing friction and pain. In WW1 soldiers who lived in wet boots often had the soles of their feet rot off because water would also cause molding from the inner layers of skin under the epidermis. One thing they teach ...	[ "Foot immersion is a common problem with homeless individuals wearing one pair of socks and shoes for extensive periods of time, especially wet shoes and sneakers from rain and snow. The condition is exacerbated by excessive dampness of the feet for prolonged periods of time. Fungus and bacterial infections prosper...
Can someone help me understand two dimentional limits?	1.) The important thing in limits is that as "whatever you input into the function" approaches a point of interest, the output approaches some value. In 1D, you can only input a single number, (x), into your function and you can only approach a point of interest from either the positive or negative side. In 2D, your in...	[ "Limits are also referred to as \"universal cones\", since they are characterized by a universal property (see below for more information). As with every universal property, the above definition describes a balanced state of generality: The limit object \"L\" has to be general enough to allow any other cone to fact...
what happened to the swine flu (h1n1)?	It's only a scare when it is novel (new), has not had a vaccine produced for it yet and is highly contagious. It is now in every vaccine batch and is nothing to be scared of. Each hemisphere of the Earth (northern and southern) develops the flu that will appear in the opposite hemisphere's next winter. The goal is to ...	[ "In June 2009, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the new strain of swine-origin H1N1 as a pandemic. This strain is often called swine flu by the public media. This novel virus spread worldwide and had caused about 17,000 deaths by the start of 2010. On August 10, 2010, the World Health Organization decla...
when going up a hill in a car, do you get better gas mileage giving the car more gas or downshifting?	There is A LOT of bad science here, including the top voted answer by heit88. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Refer to [Here](_URL_0_) to see an engine fuel efficiency map. When you demand a constant speed of your car, you are demanding a constant power outp...	[ "Fuel economy-maximizing behaviors also help reduce fuel consumption. Among the most effective are moderate (as opposed to aggressive) driving, driving at lower speeds, using cruise control, and turning off a vehicle's engine at stops rather than idling. A vehicle's gas mileage decreases rapidly with increasing hig...
why don't apple, samsung and co. integrate a qr-code-reader into their camera-app?	Windows phone 8 has this Source, I have a Lumia 520 I know this doesn't directly answer the question but it shows that it is possible	[ "Many phones are able to decode barcodes using their built-in camera, as well. Google's mobile Android operating system uses both their own Google Goggles application or third party barcode scanners like Scan. Nokia's Symbian operating system features a barcode scanner, while mbarcode is a QR code reader for the Ma...
why is it still so difficult to definitively determine the source of major rivers like the nile and yellow river?	Because hundreds of rivers merge to form these big rivers. So technically there are numerous sources.	[ "Traditionally, explorers and geographers define the origin of a river system by tracking the longest tributaries while heading upstream, as volume can change dramatically from month to month. In a system as complex as the Amazon basin with dozen of streams as candidates in previously poorly mapped areas, no consen...
curious european, why does cleveland suck?	To quote Tvtrope's article on Cleveland (yes, Cleveland is considered a trope): Known in some circles as "The Mistake By The Lake" (namely, Lake Erie) or "The/Tha Land," Cleveland is the largest urban area in Ohio. Located on the state's northern coast, it's often considered a Wretched Hive and a Place Worse Than Deat...	[ "By the turn of the 21st century, Cleveland succeeded in developing a more diversified economy and gained a national reputation as a center for healthcare and the arts. Additionally, it has become a national leader in environmental protection, with its successful cleanup of the Cuyahoga River. The city's downtown h...
How is it that a projector can make something look bright white on a tan wall?	Your eyes actually can adjust or "white balance" quite dramatically without you even noticing. For example, the outdoor light is much, much bluer than indoor light, but when you look at your clothes in both environments they don't seem to change color. Hope that makes sense.	[ "The biggest challenge when setting up a bluescreen or greenscreen is even lighting and the avoidance of shadow, because it is best to have as narrow a color range as possible being replaced. A shadow would present itself as a darker color to the camera and might not register for replacement. This can sometimes be ...
how do animals like fish, who have no way of seeing themselves, know to stay and mate with their own species?	Animals don't look at themselves first to figure out what they find sexually attractive. They just know what they like, and evolution means that tends to be things of their own species. Did you look at yourself and think "Hmm, I am a human so I guess I should like other humans," or did you just get attracted to certai...	[ "Fish prefer to shoal with their own species. Sometimes, several species may become mingled in one shoal, but when a predator is presented to such shoals, the fish reorganize themselves so that each individual ends up being closer to members of its own species.\n", "In biology, any group of fish that stay togethe...
how is power restored after an outage caused by damaged poles or power lines?	They fixed / replaced the wires that were broken, and strung them up between the poles that were left intact, with perhaps a temporary pole or suspension wire to hold them in place until the full sized permanent pole is ordered and placed into the ground. A residential area is also a "grid" (that's why it's often call...	[ "A transient fault is a fault that is no longer present if power is disconnected for a short time and then restored; or an insulation fault which only temporarily affects a device's dielectric properties which are restored after a short time. Many faults in overhead power lines are transient in nature. When a fault...
if the earth gets too hot because of global warming in the next 100 or 200 years, do you think it is possible and practical to shift the earth to a higher orbit with respect to the sun and thus moving us farther away from the sun's heat?	The Earth is pretty massive. Its mass is 5.97219×10^24 kg.	[ "By modifying the albedo of the Earth's surface, or by preventing sunlight reaching the Earth by using a solar shade, the sun's warming effect can be cancelled out—although the cancellation is imperfect, with regional discrepancies remaining.\n", "Wagner erroneously asserted in March 2017 that climate change is t...
Why is quantum entanglement so important to quantum computing?	It's not really necessary per se, it's more like an inevitable consequence of superposition. I think people have this idea that entanglement is somehow special, but it's not really: it's the unentangled states that are the special cases. Most possible 2 qubit states are entangled.	[ "Many quantum information applications, such as quantum teleportation, quantum error correction, and superdense coding, rely on entanglement. However, entanglement is a fragile quantum property between particles and can be easily destroyed by loss and noise arising from interaction with the environment, leading to ...
what is the reason why brand name cereal companies don't sue the generic brands that are obviously complying them?	There is nothing about Fruit Loops that is patented or copyright protected, other than the trademarked name. Recipe's are considered trade secrets, so they are not revealed, but are free to be reverse-engineered should someone want to.	[ "Due to cultivation of a name brand mindset, customers might believe that a name branded product (say, cereal) tastes better than a generic one. In many cases, this may not be true. Misconceptions can be clarified by a blind test or by storing the product in clear glass containers.\n", "Manufacturers may be able ...
What dictates the throttle ranges of rocket engines?	It wasn't that you couldn't throttle in that range, it was that it wasn't healthy for the engines long term life. One of the components of the engine combustion chamber/nozzle was an ablative insulation/cooling layer. The 60-90% throttle limitation was an attempt to reduce damage to that ablative layer. Essentiall...	[ "Rockets can usually be throttled down to an exit pressure of about one-third of ambient pressure (often limited by flow separation in nozzles) and up to a maximum limit determined only by the mechanical strength of the engine.\n", "The formula_8 term represents the momentum thrust, which remains constant at a gi...
how are tariffs different than taxes and won't these ultimately fall to consumers to pay? who's the beneficiary of the tarrif revenue?	Yes, consumers end up paying the price ultimately. They are a type of tax, charged to imported goods. They are supposed to benefit domestic producers of the same/similar good. For example, let's say US made steel costs $100/ton, while Korean steel costs $80/ton. Manufacturers needing steel will be likely to buy the Kor...	[ "Taxes and subsidies change the price of goods and, as a result, the quantity consumed. There is a difference between an Ad valorem tax and a specific tax or subsidy in the way how it is applied on the price of the good. The final effect stays similar though. In the end levying a tax moves the market to a new equil...
the difference between 59hz and 60hz refresh rate for monitors.	One refreshes 59 times a second and the other refreshes 60 times a second.	[ "On smaller CRT monitors (up to about ), few people notice any discomfort between 60–72 Hz. On larger CRT monitors ( or larger), most people experience mild discomfort unless the refresh is set to 72 Hz or higher. A rate of 100 Hz is comfortable at almost any size. However, this does not apply to LCD monitors. The ...
why can you not get the same cold/virus twice, how are antibodies so powerful?	What we see as "being sick" is often the body's way of getting rid of diseases. This is part of our innate immune system, but it doesn't always work so well. Once your body makes antibodies, that's part of the adaptive immune system. The antibodies "tag" the virus so that killer T-cells can get rid of them. So instead...	[ "While antibodies can only be directed at macromolecules such as proteins and at small molecules (haptens) only if bound to macromolecules, Anticalin proteins are able to selectively bind to small molecules as well.\n", "Most antibodies work by binding to an antigen, signaling to a white blood cell that this anti...
how do paleontologists differentiate dinosaur carnivore species?	Do sheep and horses look the same to you? There are major fundamental differences between many of them, and more subtle ones between species within the same genus. It is simply a case of careful description.	[ "Along with anatomical similarities, \"Stratiotosuchus\" and other baurusuchids are thought to have had lifestyles very similar to those of theropod dinosaurs. While many small carnivorous crocodyliforms are known from the Adamantina Formation, \"Stratiotosuchus\" and \"Baurusuchus\" are believed to have been the o...
What is the difference between the frequentist and the Bayesian meaning of probability?	Also [obligatory xkcd](_URL_0_). Bayesians condition their expectations on the occurrence of the event--while frequentists look at the raw frequency of the event. Is the event rare enough to say we think the null is false (freq) vs what's the likelihood given our expectations/observations (bayesian). Bayes rule: p(b\|...	[ "Bayesian probability is the name given to several related interpretations of probability as an amount of epistemic confidence – the strength of beliefs, hypotheses etc. – rather than a frequency. This allows the application of probability to all sorts of propositions rather than just ones that come with a referenc...
Do the types of lipids composing myelin alter its function at all?	It is highly unlikely that the fats from your diet alter the consistency of lipid membranes in myelin. I say very unlikely first because I've never heard nor read of such a thing. Second, they are different types of lipids but that's irrelevant really because who says edible fats can't be incorporated into cell membr...	[ "Liposomes are composed of vesicular bilayers, lamellae, made of biocompatible and biodegradable lipids such as sphingomyelin, phosphatidylcholine, and glycerophospholipids. Cholesterol, a type of lipid, is also often incorporated in the lipid-nanoparticle formulation. Cholesterol can increase stability of a liposo...
would it be possible or plausible to add a letter to the alphabet?	The fact is that in the english language it would be more prudent to remove a few letters. All of the phonetics required in the english language could be produced with fewer letters than we have in our alphabet. An alphabet which covered every phonetic instance in english would be far too expansive for practical purpos...	[ "According to Ledyard, the five borrowed letters were graphically simplified, which allowed for consonant clusters and left room to add a stroke to derive the aspirate plosives, . But in contrast to the traditional account, the non-plosives () were derived by \"removing\" the top of the basic letters. He points out...
why do our hands get sticky if we wash them and let them dry without using a towel?	This sounds like a personal problem. If you've properly washed your hands, then they shouldn't get sticky after air-drying. If they do, it's because they had something sticky on them that didn't get washed off, and gets sticky again after the water evaporates. If you dry your hands on a towel, you're wiping the stick...	[ "Medical hand-washing is for a minimum of 15 seconds, using generous amounts of soap and water or gel to lather and rub each part of the hands. Hands should be rubbed together with digits interlocking. If there is debris under fingernails, a bristle brush may be used to remove it. Since germs may remain in the wate...
why is telephone clarity so low compared to the audio of live tv?	Most of it has to do with data compression. When the mobile networks began changing from analogue to digital almost a decade ago, it also changed how calls were handled. They became digital streams of bits and bytes. This meant that if there was a change in connection, the data loss could cause the call to be choppy or...	[ "Telephone speech signals are usually very degraded in quality. Part of this degradation is due to the limited bandwidth used in the telephone systems. In most systems frequencies lower than 250 Hz are cut and bandwidth only extends to frequencies of 4 or 8 kHz. Using filtering and waveshaping low and high frequenc...
pinterest	Pinterest is a place to share links (called "pins" there) with each link being represented by a picture from the page and a description of your choosing. You can sort the pins into different categories (called "boards"). You can choose to allow other people to see your pins and boards so they can share links and post y...	[ "Pinterest, Inc. is a social media web and mobile application company. It operates a software system designed to enable discovery of information on the World Wide Web using images and, on a smaller scale, GIFs and videos. The site was founded by Ben Silbermann, Paul Sciarra, and Evan Sharp. Pinterest has reached 29...
If you were to fall into a black hole, just as anyone watching would see your time slow down until you stop forever on the event horizon, would you in turn see the entire future of the universe pan out in front of you? If not, why does the mathematics not allow this reversal of perspective?	No. * The premise is wrong. No one will see you stopping forever. This is a purely mathematical result. Yes, the intensity of light you expect far away will never reach exactly zero. But it will quickly become ridiculously low ( < 10^-10^100 ). You will quickly receive the last photon ever, afterwards the object has f...	[ "An observer crossing the event horizon of a non-rotating and uncharged (or Schwarzschild) black hole cannot avoid the central singularity, which lies in the future world line of everything within the horizon. Thus one cannot avoid spaghettification by the tidal forces of the central singularity.\n", "On the othe...
why is it when i have to verify a card with my bank, they want all the same information a card thief would require?	Regardless of what information the bank asks for this will end up being the information the card thief wants. The reason the card thief wants this information is so that they can give it to the bank and pretend to be you.	[ "The only common security measure on all cards is a signature panel, but, depending on its exact design, a signature may be relatively easy to forge. Some merchants will demand to see a picture ID, such as a driver's license, to verify the identity of the purchaser, and some credit cards include the holder's pictur...
Was North Korea ever actually communist? If not, where did the idea it was come from?	If a country does not describe themselves as communist, it does not automatically make it true. Remember that the USSR also described itself as a '[democratic](_URL_0_)' state. Just don't fall into the 'No True Scotsman' fallacy involving communist, stalinist etc type countries.	[ "The Communist movement in Korea emerged as a political movement in the early 20th century. Although the movement had a minor role in pre-war politics, the division between the communist North Korea and the anti-communist South Korea came to dominate Korean political life in the post-World War II era. North Korea, ...
how is it that games like lol and dota are still basically hacker-free, while cod games have hackers within hours after launch?	Hi guys. Software Engineer here. This might be a little bit more for 13 year olds than for 5 year olds but please bear with me. About 10 years ago I discovered hacking in Counter-Strike. I tried out a couple of different cheats and even managed to make previously detected cheats undetectable by the VAC system. Com...	[ "\"Hacker II\" is more difficult and involved than the first game. In \"Hacker II\", the player is actually recruited based upon his (assumed) success with the activities in the original game. Once again, they are tasked with controlling a robot, this time to infiltrate a secure facility in order to retrieve docume...
classical music nomenclature, such as what 'op.' is, how a concerto is different from a nocturne, why a piano trio usually is a piano and various stings, etc.	Op. is short for opus - it's a chronological way of storing a composer's work by simply attributing a number to each piece. Several pieces in a suite can be numbered as Op. 32 no. 1 or 2 in order to keep them together. There are many titles used for different types of pieces in classical music, there are probably ream...	[ "\"The Piano Concerto\" is a piano concerto based on the music Nyman wrote for \"The Piano\" organized into four phases (one movement). The saxophone is omitted (\"Here to There\" is given to the piano soloist) and the piano is accompanied by a traditional orchestra. The work is Nyman's second concerto, having prev...
Why is Finland not considered to be part of Scandinavia ?	Two reasons: 1. Geography: Finland isn't a part of the Scandinavian peninsula. 2. Language/Culture: The countries of Sweden, Denmark and Norway are traditionally Scandinavian, i.e. they speak North Germanic (Scandinavian) languages. The main language in Finland is Finnish, which is a Finnic language, which in turn be...	[ "The clearest example of the use of \"Scandinavia\" is Finland, based largely on the fact that most of modern-day Finland was part of the Swedish kingdom for hundreds of years, thus to much of the world associating Finland with all of Scandinavia. However, the creation of a Finnish identity is unique in the region ...
when i’m at home and playing video games an hour feels like 5 minutes, but when i’m at work an hour feels like 5 hours. why is that?	That's relativity. Either Einstein or people explaining Einstein's theory said, "A girl sits on your lap for an hour and it feels like a minuter and if you put your hand on a stove for a minute and it feels like an hour. That's relativity."	[ "1UP.com's Chris Pereira stated \"the music does become grating as you play (if you play for long enough in one sitting), and the standard levels can be too easy and ask too little of you at times. But the game is made so well for the platform -- you can pick it up, play a level, and go back to what you were doing ...
typically, why do most abused children date abusive partners in their future?	Lingering self-confidence issues often draw them toward partners who are more controlling, who are therefore more likely to abuse them. Once abused they are also less likely to report it or leave the relationship since this treatment has been somewhat normalized in their own mind, as such they are less likely to be sho...	[ "Abusive incestuous relationships between siblings can have adverse effects on the parties involved. Such abuse can leave victims detrimentally hindered in developmental processes, such as those necessary for interpersonal relations, and can be the cause for depression, anxiety, and substance abuse in the victim's ...
Why can we block off some senses but not others.	My basic educated guess - from a survival point of view the ability to shut off senses would more likely end up with you being unaware of danger than benefiting.	[ "The proprioceptive sense is often unnoticed because humans will adapt to a continuously present stimulus; this is called habituation, desensitization, or adaptation. The effect is that proprioceptive sensory impressions disappear, just as a scent can disappear over time. One practical advantage of this is that unn...
when doing heavy excersise\lifting, why do we stop breathing?	> When doing heavy excersise\lifting, why do we stop breathing? Tensing the muscles of the core will provide extra rigidity in the torso and can aid in whatever physical exertion you are attempting, but of course this makes it impossible to breath properly. It is a trade of breath for core strength.	[ "During heavy breathing as in exertion, a large number of accessory muscles in the neck and abdomen are recruited, that during exhalation pull the ribcage down, decreasing the volume of the thoracic cavity. The FRC is now decreased, but since the lungs cannot be emptied completely there is still about a litre of re...
why do people raise their right hand when they take an oath?	Well, this is an interesting story. You know how we brand cattle? It's pretty much that. In Europe, 1600's, judges didn't have a way to keep track of who did what and got punished for what. So when criminals were given a light punishment, the judges would sometimes brand a letter on the convict's thumb to keep track of...	[ "Raising one’s right hand while taking an oath originates from the courts of 17th century London. As judges did not have a reliable method of keeping track of criminal records, branding was sometimes chosen as a punishment, usually for defendants who were given leniency. For example, if the defendant received lenie...
why do cats only meow at humans and not at other cats?	Cats know how to comunicate properly without vocalisation, they just have to dumb it down to get their point across to humans	[ "A meow is a vocalization of cats. They have diverse tones and are sometimes chattered, murmured, whispered or muttered. Adult cats rarely meow to each other, so an adult cat meowing to human beings is probably a post-domestication extension of meowing by kittens, a call for attention.\n", "Cats have learned how ...
why do elves, dwarves, orcs and goblins appear in most things 'fantasy'? why do they usually follow the same lore and where did they come from?	Many of these creatures, specifically elves, dwarves, and trolls, originally appeared in Norse mythology. They were introduced to modern fantasy by Tolkien in Lord of the Rings and surrounding books.	[ "Many fantasy creatures are inspired by European folklore and the romances of medieval Europe. Dragons and unicorns are among the most popular creatures. Other monsters, such as griffins, giants, and goblins also appear. Races of intelligent beings such as elves, dwarves, and gnomes often draw their history from me...
Does half-and-half keep coffee warm longer, and if so why?	I never heard of half & half but from what I can find it's half cream and half milk. Dairy products usually contain fat, which has a different specific heat from water. I'm guessing it's lower so it would make hot coffee+h & h cool even faster. But since you usually don't heat the h & h but add it cold/roomtemp it's c...	[ "Extending the shelf life of roasted coffee relies on maintaining an optimum environment to protect it from exposure to heat, oxygen, and light. Roasted coffee has an optimal typical shelf life of two weeks, and ground coffee about 15 minutes. Without some sort of preservation method, coffee becomes stale. The firs...
How much control did the English King have over the Welsh Marches (11th and 12th centuries) and what legal systems did they use?	The Welsh marches and their Earls are quite an interesting part of the Anglo-Norman Kingdom, so forgive me if this post doesn't become too in-depth! When William I succeeded in his conquest of England he appointed three of his most trusted and capable followers as Earls, William FitzOsbern as Earl of Hereford, Roger d...	[ "The Marches remained outside the shire system, and nominally outside the control of the English monarchy, until the first Laws in Wales Act was introduced in 1535 under Henry VIII. This, and a further Act in 1542, annexed Wales to England and created a single state and legal jurisdiction, commonly referred to as E...
If there were two passes at the Battle of Thermopylae,what made the Greeks decide to defend the first and ignore the latter?	The Greeks did defend that path, [Herodotus 7.217.2-3](_URL_0_) points out that a detachment of a thousand Phocians had volunteered to defend the path. The Greeks were clearly aware of its potential as a vulnerability to their position but the Persian force under Hydarnes drove them from their position. The news of thi...	[ "Tactically, the pass at Thermopylae was ideally suited to the Greek style of warfare. A hoplite phalanx could block the narrow pass with ease, with no risk of being outflanked by cavalry. Moreover, in the pass, the phalanx would have been very difficult to assault for the more lightly armed Persian infantry. The m...
How would a freedman (or woman) be able to prove he was not a fugitive/runaway slave in the Southern USA?	Manumission papers would be provided by former owners to their newly freed slaves. By the middle of the 19th century in Georgia and other states freedmen had to register with the state, providing proof how they became free, whether by birth or manumission. [Source](_URL_0_)	[ "When the slaves were found missing, masters did everything they could to find the runaways. Flyers would be put up, posses to find him/her would be sent out, and under the new Fugitive Slave Act they could now send federal marshals into the north to extract them. This new law also brought bounty hunters into the b...
Is it possible to write an equation for eccentric anomaly of an elliptical orbit in terms of time?	You have to use an iterative method, unfortunately. The process is nicely outlined [here](_URL_0_). It takes several steps, and you will generally want to use a numerical algorithm to solve some of the equations, because they don't have exact solutions. However, the results can still be very accurate, because you are...	[ "The 'eccentric anomaly' is useful to compute the position of a point moving in a Keplerian orbit. As for instance, if the body passes the periastron at coordinates , , at time , then to find out the position of the body at any time, you first calculate the mean anomaly from the time and the mean motion by the form...
why is it the faster we go in and vehicle or mode of transportation we get wobbly?	Because no matter what medium you're traveling on/in, there are irregularities and the faster you pass over/through them, the more quickly they displace you. Think of it like someone grabbing your shoulders and moving them back and forth. If they do it slowly, you dont feel much of an effect. If they do it quickly, yo...	[ "Drivers make more mistakes and are more likely to have collisions when they are presented with the complex driving situations created by numerous conflict points. Conversely, simplifying the driving task contributes to improved traffic operations and fewer collisions. A less complex driving environment is accompli...
why do americans still refer to their presidents as leaders of the free world.	It's primarily a military thing. The United States has a stronger military than all other free countries combined, and so a lot of the world depends on it for security guarantees. Presidents are commanders-in-chief of the US military, ergo "leader of the free world." There is also nostalgia involved for when the U...	[ "The \"Leader of the Free World\" was a colloquialism, first used during the Cold War, to describe either the United States or, more commonly, the President of the United States. The term when used in this context suggested that the United States was the principal democratic superpower, and the US President was by ...
why do you all of a sudden start busting to go to the bathroom when you near your home and not while out and about?	The same reason you cling to your blankie and not some random blanket from someone's house down the street. A sense of security	[ "Psychiatrist Takashi Sumioka (1997), meanwhile, has noted the possibility that hidden behind the symptom of \"wanting to go to the bathroom\" may be a condition such as irritable bowel syndrome or anxiety disorder.\n", "They stop at an isolated gas station, as the girl wants to use the bathroom. As the girl has ...
why have i never seen an indian or chinese baby with down syndrome	Because you couldn't be bothered to use [Google](_URL_0_)? That's Chinese conductor Hu Yizhou, and he has Down Syndrome, just in case somebody thinks I was making the inference based solely on his appearance. India even has their own [Down Syndrome Federation](_URL_1_) so it's not an unknown phenomenon to them.	[ "A Japanese baby girl born to an Indian surrogate mother was in legal limbo after the couple who had intended to raise her divorced. The three-month-old baby had been unable to leave India after her birth because she holds neither an Indian nor a Japanese nationality. The issue was resolved after the Japanese Gover...
Did they smoke cannabis/marijuana in medieval Europe?	Short answer: No. Cannabis is indigenous to south Asia, whereas smoking was a practice first developed in the Americas. Trans-Atlantic travelers in the 1500s would smoke tobacco when they were in the Americas, but most Europeans looked down on smoking as something backwards or dangerous. Only in the 1600s did Europeans...	[ "Cannabis was common in Eurasia before the arrival of tobacco, and is known to have been used since at least 5000 BC. Cannabis was not commonly smoked directly until the advent of tobacco in the 16th century. Before this cannabis and numerous other plants were vaporized on hot rocks or charcoal, burned as incense o...
What decade did the printing press gain its first 'spike' of popularity/ wide usage in England?	England was never really a printing center. This is not to say that a print center did not exist in London, or that print production did not rapidly overtake manuscripts from the late 15th c. on, as it did elsewhere in Europe. However, compared to Germany, France, and Italy. For example, for the period from 1450-1600, ...	[ "The spread of printing affected the transmission of literature across Britain and Ireland. The first book printed in English, William Caxton's own translation of \"Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye\", was printed abroad in 1473, to be followed by the establishment of the first printing press in England in 1474. \...
why taking antibiotics long term does not lead to antibiotic resistance, but taking them for too short of a time (ie not finishing the prescription) does?	It's like weeding a garden. If you don't get the roots out, the weeds come back. Kill all the weeds and you keep a healthy garden, leave the roots and they come back. But with anti-biotics it survival of the fittest, the most resistant survive the die off and re-populate with a more resistant strain.	[ "Antibiotic resistance increases with duration of treatment. Therefore, as long as an effective minimum is kept, shorter courses of antibiotics are likely to decrease rates of resistance, reduce cost, and have better outcomes with fewer complications. Short course regimens exist for community-acquired pneumonia spo...
What kind of a woman would a peasant man in 17-19th century Europe find physically attractive?	All right, y'all, here's what's up: There are over 100 comments in this thread. Yes, they have all been removed barring a follow-up that is closely related to OP's question. Yes, they all violate AskHistorians' rules in some way. Here is what you are missing: Category \| Tally --------\|----- Mod comment \| 3 If y...	[ "If these descriptions are accurate, it is difficult to understand why a woman as gifted as Lillie would marry a man with such shortcomings. In her memoirs \"The Days I Knew\" she explains that Edward Langtry was an extremely shy person, and had spent his life since leaving Oxford in outdoor country sports. In Lond...
Are there any real-life examples of historical figures "redeeming" themselves?	Aristodemus was one of the 300 Spartans at Thermopylae, who survived because he left the battlefield due to an eye infection, given permission by Leonidas to do so. However, upon returning to Sparta, he was publicly and widely shamed for this action, partially because his fellow Spartan with the same eye infection chos...	[ "In the Fortress of Regrets, The Nameless One encounters three of his past incarnations: one practical, one good, and one paranoid. The Nameless One learns that the \"good\" incarnation was the original man who was made immortal by Ravel, and learns that he had committed immeasurably terrible sins in his lifetime. ...
how is it possible to run 4 million volts of raw electricity trough a human body without damaging anything?	This is a bit beyond me, because I'm a computer engineer and not an electrical engineer, but I'll do my best. First, volts do not "flow". An electric current is electrons moving through something. A current is measured in amperes or amps. Amps are a measurement of how many electrons move through something per second. ...	[ "Human powered direct current generators are commercially available, and have been the project of some DIY enthusiasts. Typically operated by means of pedal power, a converted bicycle trainer, or a foot pump, such generators can be practically used to charge batteries, and in some cases are designed with an integra...
why do we put so much effort in keeping certain species from going extinct and invasive species out of foreign areas when the more "natural" thing to do is let it happen? (read description for clarification)	Endangered is one thing. And more so humans trying to take responsibility for their actions. Most animals that are really endangered, it's partially our fault. As for invasives, the thing is, naturally it wouldn't have happened in the first place. How is a Python from Burma going to relocate to the Florida Everglades...	[ "Removal of exotic species will allow the species that they have negatively impacted to recover their ecological niches. Exotic species that have become pests can be identified taxonomically (e.g., with Digital Automated Identification SYstem (DAISY), using the barcode of life). Removal is practical only given larg...
how come an xbox, which features 6 year old hardware, can run modern games smoother than my recently built pc?	When you program a game, you have to plan for what machine it'll run on. If I'm planning on making a game on Xbox, I can do some fancy tricks to make the game look even nicer than the games that first came out, but if the game needs a higher spec than what the Xbox is built for I need to start again. So how do I make ...	[ "Because the Chihiro and Xbox share the same hardware architecture, porting from the Chihiro is theoretically easier than porting from a different arcade platform. In practice, there are a number of challenges - the first being that the half-size main memory restricts the size of the working set and the second bein...
Do Humans take the longest to mature or are there other animals out there that take longer?	There's some animals that take a similar amount of time, e.g. blue whales and elephants. Elephants usually hit sexual maturity around 16-17 years old and stop growing around 25, where humans stop growing around 20. Blue whales and tortoises are also similar, with blue whales maturing at around 15 or so, and tortoises i...	[ "Sexual maturity is reached at around 20–25 years in captivity, possibly 40 years in the wild. Life expectancy in the wild is thought to be over 100 years, making it one of the longest-lived species in the animal kingdom. Harriet, a specimen kept in Australia Zoo, was the oldest known Galápagos tortoise, having rea...
what happens when you're on a ship in the ocean and there's an earthquake below you?	Does the ship shake? No. Water would not transfer those vibrations. However, depending on the type of quake, you could see some major waves or swells. Earthquakes are created when two plates either rub together laterally or if one plate slips under the other. The second case would cause the sea to drop, causing a...	[ "The cause, in my opinion, of this phenomenon must be sought in the earthquake. At the point where its shock has been the most violent the sea is driven back, and suddenly recoiling with redoubled force, causes the inundation. Without an earthquake I do not see how such an accident could happen.\n", "The cause, i...
why is the recommended pressure so small (to the point of being practically invisible) on my car tires?	Car tires typically only list a maximum pressure, which you should not be using. The car itself lists a recommended pressure, typically on the driver's door or door jamb, as well as in the manual. This should be easy to find and read, and will list front/rear separately. Two vehicles using exactly the same tires will...	[ "The pressure rating of tires is usually stamped somewhere on the sidewall. This may be in psi (pounds per square inch) or bar. The pressure rating could be indicated as \"Maximum Pressure,\" or \"Inflate to . . . \" and will usually give a range (for example, 90-120 psi, or 35-60 psi). Inflating to the lower numbe...
Is there a way of determining the boiling point of any(known) substance other than trying?	For a material we don't know the boiling point? You can predict the melting point using [Lindemann's criterion](_URL_0_) (for crystalline solids) by looking at the how the vibrational frequency of atoms vary with temperature. At some temperature, the atoms could occupy the same space, so the material melts. However, ...	[ "Boiling-point elevation describes the phenomenon that the boiling point of a liquid (a solvent) will be higher when another compound is added, meaning that a solution has a higher boiling point than a pure solvent. This happens whenever a non-volatile solute, such as a salt, is added to a pure solvent, such as wat...
whats so great about the raspberry pi? what can you do with it??	Everything a computer can. It's basically a cheap computer with decent processing power (though not as much as your average desktop PC). I use mine (1st gen Pi) to download torrents, watch movies, host a couple of small websites and store backups on an external drive I hooked up to it. People I know use it to play si...	[ "The Raspberry Pi is a series of small single-board computers developed in the United Kingdom by the Raspberry Pi Foundation to promote teaching of basic computer science in schools and in developing countries. The original model became far more popular than anticipated, selling outside its target market for uses s...
why is it easy to drink 6 pints of beer but not 6 pints or even 2 pints of water?	I think it's mostly psychological. As water is fairly tasteless, and beer is rich with taste. And in nature, (mostly) the food with more flavor has more vitamins and nutrition, so your body responds more positively. (Not a doctor or anything that has to do with anything at all)	[ "Those typically available are the 200 ml, 285 ml (10 fl oz) and 425 ml (15 fl oz), with increasingly many pubs also having pints (570 ml, 20 imp fl oz) available. It is also common for pubs and hotels to serve large jugs filled to 1140ml (i.e. two pints).\n", "In Canada, the Weights and Measures Act (R.S. 1985),...
why do i feel like i'm going to pass out when i become too anxious?	When you suffer from anxiety, feeling faint is almost exclusively caused by hyperventilation. Also known as "over-breathing," hyperventilation occurs when you breathe out too much carbon dioxide as a result of poor breathing habits. Interestingly, hyperventilation feels like the exact opposite – when you're hyperventi...	[ "People feel less anxious when close to their attachments because their attachments can provide support during difficult situations. Support includes the comfort, assistance, and information people receive from their attachments.\n", "People with anxious-preoccupied attachment tend to be hypervigilant to signs of...
Jews were expelled and banned from England in 1290 by Edward I until Cromwell began to readmit them in 1655. Given medieval era Jews' roles as lenders and merchant bankers did their 366 year absence have any noticeable affect on the English economy?	After the expulsion of the Jews in the middle ages the vacuum was filled by Italian merchants, Lombard Street in the 'City of London' (the financial district of London) is named after Lombardy where many hailed from. The laws against usury prevented them from charging interest on loans until 1546, when Henry VIII re...	[ "In 1656, Oliver Cromwell made it clear that the ban on Jewish settlement in England and Wales would no longer be enforced, although when Rabbi Manasseh Ben Israel brought a petition to allow Jews to return, the majority of the Protectorate Government turned it down. Gradually Jews eased back into England, first vi...
why do some judges ask a person to pay more alimony/child support, than what they make in a month? or a extremely high % of what they make in a month?	A lot of it is based on previous employment. Say you had a job that made 6000 a month last year, well your wife and you split, and you get depressed and lose the job because of whatever reason. The judge will assume that your previous income is your earning potential and charge accordingly. In most cases this is ...	[ "In September 2008, the Delhi High Court in a verdict said that a woman earning sufficient income is not entitled to maintenance from her divorced husband. The verdict came after a man challenged a family court's decision to grant monthly alimony to his wife. The man had pointed out that his wife was earning for mo...
Can cats see in Infrared? Like being able to see if something is hot or not...	Not an answer to your main question, but just to nail a misconception: it's not true that infrared = heat. All types of electromagnetic radiation are capable of heating things if they are sufficiently strong. You yourself can see if something is hot - heat up metal, for example, and it starts to glow, first red, then ...	[ "Pit vipers, pythons and some boas have organs that allow them to detect infrared light, such that these snakes are able to sense the body heat of their prey. The common vampire bat may also have an infrared sensor on its nose. It has been found that birds and some other animals are tetrachromats and have the abili...

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