Split (2)

train · 226k rows

question stringlengths 3 301	answer stringlengths 9 26.1k	context list
how is all motion relative? is there an "absolute" motion? what about motion relative to the entire universe?	Motion is relative because in relation to different frames of reference, things can appear to be going faster, slower, etc. So, for example, I am sitting at my computer going 0 mph. But, if you look at the big picture, I have the velocity of the Earth's rotational spin, as well as its speed of orbit. If you are driv...	[ "This expounds the idea that motion is manifest in everything in the Universe, that nothing rests, and everything moves, vibrates and circles. This principle explains that the distinction between manifestations of Matter, Energy, Mind, and even Spirit, are the result of only different \"vibrations\". The higher a p...
how do computer extensions work? ( .exe .inf .iso .bat, etc)	For Windows, the file extensions tell the OS what type of data to expect in the file. It uses the extension to tell if the file is itself a program that it can run (.exe) or what program it should open when you double click on the file. For example if you have Microsoft Word installed, it knows to open .doc files in Wo...	[ "They can be downloaded from the online repository (TER) directly from the backend, and are installed and updated with a few clicks. Every extension is identified by a unique extension key (for example, \"tt_news\"). Also, developers can share new or modified extensions by uploading them to the repository.\n", "T...
If a space station was shaped like a giant cheerio, how fast would it have to spin to simulate earths gravity?	As stated already, it depends on how big your ship will be. However, there is a practical minimum set by the fact that for small radii your head and feet will experience different g forces, and there will be non-vertical forces induced on the sides of your body caused by centripetal acceleration being along the radial...	[ "In the \"Expanse\" series by James S. A. Corey, space stations generate artificial gravity by rotating, as do spun-up, hollowed-out asteroids, usually at around 0.3 g. Moving ships under constant thrust also simulate gravity by linear acceleration.\n", "A rotating wheel space station, or von Braun wheel, is a hy...
"made in china". why do we label where a shirt is produced, but not where the cotton is grown?	Often times, it is because it is too hard. Companies buy commodities like cotton on the open market, and will often buy batches of cotton from multiple suppliers in multiple countries. A factory may use cotton from Australia, India, China and America on the same day. They may specifically blend cotton from different so...	[ "This form of cotton also feels softer to the skin (this statement is subjective and needs verification) and has a pleasant smell. Naturally Colored Cotton is still relatively rare because it requires specialized harvest techniques and facilities, making it more expensive to harvest than white cotton. By the 1990s ...
why an opt out tax for socially divisive services like planned parenthood is a bad idea.	I’m no politician but I’m guessing enough people would opt out simply to save money that programs like planned parenthood would not have the funding necessary to continue operations.	[ "Opponents argue that privatisation harms social programs for the poor. This argument is particularly heard in connection with the railways and the National Health Service (NHS). Small government supporters, such as the British author and journalist James Bartholomew, point out that although record amounts of fundi...
How complicated are computer chess programs, and what is the simplest chess program that could still beat the average chess player?	A popular method for playing fully observable board games is the Minimax algorithm, with extensions such as alpha-beta pruning etc. This algorithm is actually fairly general, in the sense that all you have to do is give it a function for evaluating how good the current game state is from each player's perspective. The ...	[ "Since 2005–06, human–computer chess matches have demonstrated that chess computers are capable of defeating even the strongest human players (Deep Blue versus Garry Kasparov). However, ratings of computers are difficult to quantify. There have been too few games under tournament conditions to give computers or sof...
who benefits financially from the anti-vaccine movement?	While "following the money" can be a good strategy, it's probably remiss to assume that it must be a factor in everything. The anti-vaccine movement is driven by emotional advocates: people who think they have suffered (either directly or indirectly) as a result of vaccination, and have access to just enough m...	[ "The anti-vaccine movement mobilized following the decision and the Anti-Vaccination League of America was founded three years later in Philadelphia to promote the principle that \"health is nature's greatest safeguard against disease and that therefore no State has the right to demand of anyone the impairment of h...
how does an ip address get resolved to a physical location?	A simplified version is that networks announce the IP addresses that they know about in what is called CIDR blocks. These are a way of representing a block of ip address. So 192.168.0.0/24 is all the addresses from 192.168.0.0 to 192.168.0.255. Then other networks pick up these announcements and re-announce them furthe...	[ "On system startup, a node automatically creates a link-local address on each IPv6-enabled interface, even if globally routable addresses are manually configured or obtained through \"configuration protocols\" (see below). It does so independently and without any prior configuration by stateless address autoconfigu...
Do women with big boobs have more estrogen?	I have no idea why the top comments here are all people idly speculating about it when real answers exist one google search away. Breast development and size is a complex interaction between genetics and [several different hormones](_URL_0_) which includes the steroid hormones, estrogen and progesterone, growth hormone...	[ "In girls, estradiol (the primary female sex hormone) causes thickening of lips and oral mucosa as well as further development of the vulva. In the vulva and vagina, estradiol causes thickening (stratification) of the skin and the growth of both the myoepithelial layer and the smooth muscle of the vagina. Typically...
As a Roman gladiator from ancient times, which type of gladiator would I want to be if survival is my goal?	Generally heavily armored gladiators, like the murmillones would sustain fewer injuries than lightly armored gladiators like retiarii. However, it's important to note that the designers of the games would generally pair matches in classic ways. For example: The quick, light retiarius vs the slower, stronger, heavily ar...	[ "\"The Gladiator\" tells the story of a man yearning to live freely and removed from the oppression of totalitarian masters. Spartacus is a gladiator who initially refuses to fight because he will not “slay a man for the diversion of Romans”.\n", "When fighting as a gladiator, he mostly relied on his physical pow...
X-Post (askred) help Indentifying unknown bacteria	[Here's a chart](_URL_0_) [And another](_URL_1_) Your block of text is kind of a PITA to read, but I bet you have it in front of you more organized so it may be more productive to have a look at the chart rather than myself because I keep losing my place. :D If you can't find the ID on there, let me know.	[ "The manual was published subsequent to the Bergey's Manual of Determinative Bacteriology, though the latter is still published as a guide for identifying unknown bacteria. First published in 1923 by David Hendricks Bergey, it is used to classify bacteria based on their structural and functional attributes by arran...
why do we call giving someone the middle finger. “flipping the bird”?	bird (3) "middle finger held up in a rude gesture," slang derived from 1860s expression give the big bird "to hiss someone like a goose," kept alive in vaudeville slang with sense of "to greet someone with boos, hisses, and catcalls" (1922), transferred 1960s to the "up yours" hand gesture (the rigid finger representin...	[ "In Western countries, extending the middle finger (either by itself, or along with the index finger in the United Kingdom: see V sign) is an offensive and obscene gesture, widely recognized as a form of insult (colloquially known as \"flipping the bird\", \"flipping someone off\", or simply \"giving the finger\")....
Do you actually sweat out toxins when sitting in the sauna?	Sweat is really just sweat - so water, potassium and salt (the other ingredients are negligible). So no - the sauna does not really detoxify. It makes your body more heat resistant, may help with endurance in sports. And of course has a relaxing / positive psychological effect for a lot of people. Heat kills bacteria...	[ "Perspiration is a sign of autonomic responses trying to cool the body. Users are advised to leave the sauna if the heat becomes unbearable, or if they feel faint or ill. Some saunas have a thermostat to adjust temperature, but management and other users expect to be consulted before changes are made. The sauna hea...
why fats are essential if the body can convert and store them from carbohydrates?	There are specific kinds of lipids, what make up fats, that your body uses for various functions (including brain function) that cannot be created by the body. They have to be obtained through diet. These lipids are a different kind of fat than the storage fat your body creates.	[ "BULLET::::- When the body has no free carbohydrates available, fat must be broken down into acetyl-CoA in order to get energy. Under these conditions, acetyl-CoA cannot be metabolized through the citric acid cycle because the citric acid cycle intermediates (mainly oxaloacetate) have been depleted to feed the gluc...
what happens to dna when it's frozen?	DNA still has a half life. Even if it's frozen or fossilized. This was covered in several youtube videos about dinosaur DNA and if it worked like the movies. We're finding better ways to take care of DNA but even if it's frozen it's "dying." But half life of DNA is thousands of years so...	[ "Once the preserved material has become frozen, it is relatively safe from further damage. However, estimates based on the accumulation of radiation-induced DNA damage during cryonic storage have suggested a maximum storage period of 1000 years.\n", "Researchers at Queen's University (Canada) have sequenced and s...
What is the acceleration of light?	Photons travel at the speed of light from the instant they are created until the instant they are absorbed. They do not accelerate.	[ "where F is the net force acting on the body, \"m\" is the mass of the body, and a is the center-of-mass acceleration. As speeds approach the speed of light, relativistic effects become increasingly large.\n", "As speeds approach that of light, the acceleration produced by a given force decreases, becoming infini...
Clouds. What determines the point when clouds are too saturated and start to rain, and what controls the intensity at which rain falls over time?	There are three important factors - humidity and temperature and pressure. In almost all circumstances rain occurs when air of high humidity cools or compresses. Some examples of this... Warm air rising from the surface carries humid air upwards where it forms clouds as it cools, if there is enough heat the air gets p...	[ "An explanation could be the evaporation of the cloud droplets when precipitation drops are formed. Anyway, for others the phenomenon is simply non existing and should be considered equivalent to rain falling from a distant cloud, when there is a strong vertical wind shear between the cloud itself and ground, while...
why is the blackberry messaging system "safer" than others / how is it encrypted?	They are one of the only messaging systems that use full end to end asymetric encryption. Each handset have the only copy of a built in private decryption key. The coresponding encryption key is made public. The sender encrypts the message before it is sent to blackberry and it can only be decrypted by the receiver.	[ "Some cryptographers distinguish between \"message authentication without secrecy\" systems -- which allow the intended receiver to verify the source of the message, but don't bother hiding the plaintext contents of the message -- from authenticated encryption systems.\n", "According to WikiLeaks, once an Android...
Mixers in the past	The best books for this are Imbibe! and Punch by David Wondrich. He's the premiere mixed drink historian in the world at the moment and these two books cover the methods of mixing drinks with primary sources from the 17th century onward in great detail and a thousand years prior in a few paragraphs. What follows is...	[ "Mixers for the kitchen first came into use midway through the nineteenth century; the earliest were mechanical devices. The demand from commercial bakers for large-scale uniform mixing resulted in the development of the electric stand mixer. Smaller counter-top stand mixers for home kitchen use soon followed.\n", ...
What is the most accepted account of the first recorded war in human history? Who fought it? And why did they fight?	We humans have records, of a sort, of the conflict that led to the establishment of a unified Egyptian monarchy under a king known to us as Narmer, an event we date to 2950 BCE. We can say that there were three main habitation sites in Upper Egypt around this time (walled cities) and scholars of the subject can trace t...	[ "The earliest recorded battle in India was the Battle of the Ten Kings. The Indian epics \"Mahabharata\" and \"Ramayana\" are centered on conflicts and refer to military formations, theories of warfare and esoteric weaponry. Chanakya's \"Arthashastra\" contains a detailed study on ancient warfare, including topics ...
why do we wake up starving the morning after a night of binge eating?	Insulins fucked it up. Your body needs glucose for energy. Everything you eat is broken down into glucose. 1. Foods like "sugary" foods, starch or very simple carbohydrates like rice, bread, pasta, etc, are digested very fast and thus, broken down and turned into glucose very fast. 2. Now, when you eat lots of those...	[ "\"\"We are having a particularly hungry period and [I] can quite truthfully say that our mouths water, and that we 'slaver' as dogs do before meals. Some of us find it advisable to rise slowly after lying down, as due to malnutrition, any rapid movement is apt to cause dizziness or even a black-out ... one morning...
Recently, a US presidential candidate possibly tanked his entire campaign in a single debate moment, have similar incidents occurred in past presidential elections?	Since several comments have mentioned Dukakis in the tank and Nixon sweating: Political scientists are generally skeptical that gaffes impact the outcomes of presidential elections. See for instance political scientists [Brendan Nyhan](_URL_0_) and [John Sides](_URL_1_). I'm not aware of any political science study tha...	[ "Analysis on the debate was largely mixed regarding who, between the top two candidates, won. Some analysts from CNN and BBC viewed Clinton as the winner, while other publications such as \"The Washington Post\", \"The Chicago Tribune\", and the Fox News Channel, claimed that Sanders was the winner. Conversely, Cha...
What happened to scattered paratroopers during WW2 D Day.	It's very, very unlikely British and American paratroopers encountered each other during the battle, since they were dropped on opposite ends of the beachhead. To my knowledge, Americans and British paratroopers didn't meet during the Normandy campaign. This thread has more on the British and American airborne landings...	[ "It was the German paratroopers' only nighttime drop during World War II. The pilots dropped some behind the German front lines, others over Bonn, and only a few hundred behind the American lines, in widely scattered locations. Some aircraft landed with their troops still on board. Only a fraction of the force land...
If you throw away a plastic bottle that still has some water in it, are you taking that water out of the water cycle?	Unlikely. Most probably the bottle will not stay intact for long and as soon as there is a puncture or crack in it (or the cap comes loose) the water can and will escape. If you throw it in a trash collection bin, the waste processing that ensues will probably not leave the bottle intact with the water inside. It may...	[ "A university student's master's thesis incorrectly suggested that repeatedly rewashing plastic water bottles can lead to the leaking diethylhydroxylamine (DEHA) into the drinking water, and can be detrimental to human health. The results of this research were repeated by various sources and also became a chain ema...
Is the second law of thermodynamics (entropy) true in the larger scheme of things?	My understanding is from a chemical/engineering level, so I can't speak to the astronomical tendencies; but in chemical systems we often see that entropy in a system decreases. However, the universe has absorbed the entropy that the system lost to make an overall net change of zero or greater. As far as conceptuali...	[ "The idea that the second law of thermodynamics or \"entropy law\" is a law of disorder (or that dynamically ordered states are \"infinitely improbable\") is due to Boltzmann's view of the second law of thermodynamics.\n", "The first law of thermodynamics provides the basic definition of internal energy, associat...
How much ammunition did British infantrymen of the Napoleonic Wars carry into battle?	On average, about 60 catridges. [1777 Pattern "Rawle Pouch"](_URL_0_) carried 36 cartridges. The cartridges were carried in a reversible wooden block, so after half the cartridges had been used, the block had to be pulled out of the pouch, flipped, and puy back in the pouch. The 1784 Pattern pouch held 32 cartidges, ...	[ "During the Napoleonic Wars, artillery became one of the three chief combat arms, alongside the infantry and cavalry. Field artillery won several of Napoleon's victories. In 1800 French armies employed about two artillery pieces per 1,000 soldiers. As the quality of foot soldiers diminished, the ratio increased to ...
Mercury, Venus, Mars, and Jupiter were named after living Olympian gods. Yet Saturn is named after Jupiter's dead father. Why was Saturn named after a titan when all the other known planets were named after Olympians?	Saturn as a Roman god certainly predates importation of the Greek myths. His temple at the base of the Mons Saturnius (later Mons Capitolinus) definitely predates any association with Cronus. In these pre-Greek years he had a number of non-Cronus characteristic including the fact that he was a mixed sky/agricultural de...	[ "The planet Saturn is named for the Roman equivalent of the Titan Cronus. Saturn's largest moon, Titan, is named after the Titans generally, and the other moons of Saturn are named after individual titans, specifically Tethys, Phoebe, Rhea, Hyperion, and Iapetus. Astronomer William Henry Pickering claimed to discov...
what is the american dream?	The American Dream is a manufactured belief that if you try hard enough you can accomplish whatever your want. Historically this refers to owning a home, a nice car, a good career, ect. This was partially fabricated by early 20th century consumerists as a way for Americans to buy more stuff, usually expensive stuff. ...	[ "The American Dream is a national ethos of the United States, the set of ideals (democracy, rights, liberty, opportunity and equality) in which freedom includes the opportunity for prosperity and success, as well as an upward social mobility for the family and children, achieved through hard work in a society with ...
how do romney and obama plan to help the economy, and will either plan actually work?	Romney: Keep the richest people in a small tax bracket. They will use all of their extra money to invest in companies and hire poor people. Obama: End the tax cuts for rich people, reduce taxes on poor and middle class people. These people will buy more stuff with their extra money, and companies will hire more people...	[ "Romney has said the government should invest more in technologies that will help the United States, such as power generation, fuel cells, nanotechnology, and materials science. During his 2012 presidential campaign, his website included a statement he had made while commenting on the importance of investing in tec...
what makes smooth bore cannons accurate, but the same can't be said for rifles?	Rifled bore make the projectile spin, which make it more stable in flight and increase the accuracy. But making the projectile spin isn't the only way to stabilize a projectile. Tanks used rifled gun for a long time, but some specific projectile used by modern tank are better without rifling. One of them is the HEAT r...	[ "Smooth-bore weapons, such as the musket, had always been recognized as relatively inaccurate, especially at longer ranges, and required massed volleys to be combat-effective. Although the smoothbore barrels impeded the accuracy of a musket, it was an advantage when loading because the looser fitting musket ball sl...
why is pressure measured in inches?	It's measured in inches of mercury (inHg). Pressure used to be measured compared to how much pressure an inch of mercury in a glass column exerted. Or the other way round, how much a certain pressure moved the mercury. Simply, you have a container of mercury with a tube standing in it. Air pressure pressing down on...	[ "Pressure measurement is the analysis of an applied force by a fluid (liquid or gas) on a surface. Pressure is typically measured in units of force per unit of surface area. Many techniques have been developed for the measurement of pressure and vacuum. Instruments used to measure and display pressure in an integra...
I’ve seen a lot on how French has influenced English, how much did the English controlled areas in France affect French language, culture etc?	Not a whole lot, at least in the early years. The problem is that the Angevin empire doesn't really fit into the modern perception of what "England" is. It's less helpful to think of the Angevins as being "English in control of French lands" as it is to think of them as "French lands in control of England". They tended...	[ "After the rise of Henry Plantagenet to the throne of England, other forms of dialectal French may have gained in influence to the detriment of Anglo-Norman French (notably the variants of Anjou where the House of Plantagenet came from, and possibly Poitevin, the tongue of Eleanor of Aquitaine). With the English cl...
Is it possible that the virtual particles that keep popping and and out of space are just particles that move through time at a different rate than normal matter? Or do we already know why they exhibit this behaviour?	[Here's](_URL_0_) a good description of virtual particles. Have a look and post back if stuff seems unclear.	[ "BULLET::::- Are virtual particles really constantly popping in and out of existence? — Gordon Kane, director of the Michigan Center for Theoretical Physics at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, proposes an answer at the \"Scientific American\" website.\n", "Quantum mechanics proposes that pairs of virtual ...
how come we have latin phrases in the english language?	For many centuries Latin was the only language that was commonly understood across many areas/countries/royal domains in Europe. It was used as a religious as well as an academic and sciences language. It was little spoken outside of church but much written and read by those with an education. As a result of centu...	[ "When Latin words are used as loanwords in a modern language, there is ordinarily little or no attempt to pronounce them as the Romans did; in most cases, a pronunciation suiting the phonology of the receiving language is employed.\n", "Latin is a synthetic, fusional language in the terminology of linguistic typo...
why have higher lifeforms evolved on land on not on water?	There is no such thing as a higher life form except for human prejudice. An amoeba is as successful as a dog.	[ "Some authors support the idea of an aquatic phase as the origin of monocots. The phylogenetic position of Alismatales (many water), which occupy a relationship with the rest except the Acoraceae, do not rule out the idea, because it could be 'the most primitive monocots' but not 'the most basal'. The Atactostele s...
How prevalent was the Kentucky long rifle in the American Revolution?	Lots of detail to get into here, and I'll try to address your sub-questions as I can without access to a couple of sources I'd really like to double check (I may come back to edit this after work today). But a couple of things to start: yes, the kentucky rifle has been somewhat mythologized, but the weapon did play a r...	[ "The Seven Years' War and American Revolutionary War were two early conflicts in which the modern rifle began to make a significant contribution to warfare. Despite its lower rate-of-fire, its accuracy at long range offered advantages over the smoothbore musket in common use among regular armies of the time. In bot...
how did humanity survive in nature for over 100,000 years in nature with such helpless, useless babies that work as beacons for predators with the amount of noise they make?	Short summary of human evolution to this day. Because we out-thought them. Many human babies, as weak and helpless as they are for so many years, definitely did die by tooth and claw. But, on average, their parents were smarter than the things that wanted to eat them. So they were able to defend them for years with b...	[ "Human infants (10 months old) continue to search for hidden objects at their initial hiding place, even after observing them being hidden at another location. This perseverance of searching errors is at least partly contributed to by behavioural cues from the experimenter. Domestic dogs also commit more search err...
87 Rb as a Bose-einstein-condensate. How?	~~^87 Rb atoms have integer spin, therefore they are bosonic and obey Bose-Einstein statistics. Don't forget that a neutral atom of ^87 Rb also has 37 electrons, which are spin-half particles, giving the total atom (nucleus plus electrons) integer spin (-3/2, [according to Wikipedia](_URL_0_))~~ < -- Well, -3/2 is no...	[ "Rubidium-87 is an isotope of rubidium. Rubidium-87 was the first and the most popular atom for making Bose–Einstein condensates in dilute atomic gases. Even though rubidium-85 is more abundant, rubidium-87 has a positive scattering length, which means it is mutually repulsive, at low temperatures. This prevents a ...
what does non-binary genders really mean?	I disagree with gender being socially constructed. In my opinion gender roles are socially constructed, but gender identity is not, it is an innate sense of self. As a trans person, my need to transition wasn't because I wanted to do/wear "boy things", but because of the way I felt about my physical appearance. How...	[ "Gender binary is the classification of sex and gender into two distinct, opposite and disconnected forms of masculine and feminine. Gender binary is one general type of a gender system. Sometimes in this binary model, \"sex\", \"gender\" and \"sexuality\" are assumed by default to align.\n", "The term \"gender b...
why can't you use hot water to boil water for cooking?	There is more likely to be debris, nastiness, and funk in the water coming from the water heater. A tankless water heater would be fine.	[ "Boiling is also used in cooking. Foods suitable for boiling include vegetables, starchy foods such as rice, noodles and potatoes, eggs, meats, sauces, stocks, and soups. As a cooking method, it is simple and suitable for large-scale cookery. Tough meats or poultry can be given a long, slow cooking and a nutritious...
saudi arabia and oil prices	Saudi Arabia can produce oil incredibly cheaply, unlike other countries such as the United States. By pushing prices down so low other countries can't afford to produce oil as it is no longer profitable, therefore once Saudi Arabia increases its prices again it will have a larger market share and more profits. In addit...	[ "Oil state Saudi Arabia has always been adamant in maintaining low prices. Saudi Arabia is by far the biggest producer in OPEC and supplies approximately 30% of total OPEC output. Consequently, it is the most influential member of the organization.\n", "Saudi Arabia has been an enticing trade partner with the Uni...
difference between clinical and scientifically proven	If these are terms you've heard from marketing, then _neither_ really holds any weight until you actually examine those studies.	[ "The term \"clinical research\" refers to the entire bibliography of a drug/device/biologic, in fact any test article from its inception in the lab to its introduction to the consumer market and beyond. Once the promising candidate or the molecule is identified in the lab, it is subjected to pre-clinical studies or...
Despiste the negative connotations of historical revisionism, what are some examples of historical revisionism which challenged the commonly held view of an event(s) and revolutionised the way it was interpreted?	The predominant Western theory on the Battle of Midway has until fairly recently relied on one primary Japanese source-the testimony of a Fuchida Mitsuo, air commander of the Japanese carrier Akagi, flagship of Japan's carrier force. This resulted in a certain narrative that the victory at Midway was "a miracle" or "i...	[ "Historical revisionism is the means by which the historical record – the history of a society, as understood in its collective memory – continually integrates new facts and interpretations of the events commonly understood as history, about which the historian and American Historical Association member James M. Mc...
What happened to the mansions and lavish estates of the wealthy following the Bolshevik Revolution? How were the buildings repurposed, if at all?	Oh great, I'm glad you decided to post this question again! I was off the grid the last time you posted it so I wasn't able to answer in a timely manner and by the time I saw it, more than a week had passed which is basically a decade in r/AskHistorians time. u/mimicofmodes, I've been given a chance to redeem myself! ...	[ "In 1902 the palace was damaged by arson in connection with workers' protests. The Oldenburg family went into exile to avoid the Russian revolution; the estate properties were confiscated by the Bolshevik government in 1917 and the palace was subsequently used as barracks, a school, a hospital, and housing for mana...
Are galaxies continually getting flatter?	Generally no. The main reason disks get flatter is that they are dense enough for collisions between particles, which causes them to lose vertical speed and hence drop towards a flat disk. In a galaxy, the odds of even a single star colliding is very small, so the vertical velocity spread doesn't significantly change w...	[ "There were methodological problems with Hubble's survey technique that showed a deviation from flatness at large redshifts. In particular, the technique did not account for changes in luminosity of galaxies due to galaxy evolution.\n", "The analyses of Burstein and Sandage showed that lenticular galaxies typical...
Do charged particles feel a force when encountering a light wave?	Yes they would. Charges are accelerated in electric fields. This means that an amount of energy is necessarily passed to the charge, and so the charge has absorbed at least a little bit of the EM wave. The wave itself has lost that energy because it was partially cancelled by interference with the radiation emitted fr...	[ "A charged particle moving in a -field experiences a \"sideways\" force that is proportional to the strength of the magnetic field, the component of the velocity that is perpendicular to the magnetic field and the charge of the particle. This force is known as the \"Lorentz force\", and is given by\n", "Any charg...
What happened to the embassies of other countries in Berlin when the city fell in 1945?	First of all - during ww2, only the grand powers maintained embassies headed by an ambassador to each other. All other nations had a lower level of diplomatic representation, often a legation headed by a minister. The Swedish legation in Berlin consisted of 1 minister, 4 military attachés and 8 other staff. The priest...	[ "The embassy was closed at the outbreak of World War II and the German Ministry for Food occupied the building. Despite having survived a fire in revolution-torn Berlin in 1919, the building was severely damaged by Allied air raids in 1943, leaving it in ruins. A visiting British official in 1945 found nothing inta...
Are multicellular organisms really just very complex single-celled colonial organisms? At what point does a single celled colony become a multicellular organism?	Cellular specialization and differentiation. Lets take a sponge for example. A sponge is a simple creature. It's a filter feeder. It's basic structure is a hollow tube with holes in it and pores through it. Water is sucked in the pores and expelled through the middle of the tube. To facilitate this there is some ...	[ "Multicellular organisms arise in various ways, for example by cell division or by aggregation of many single cells. Colonial organisms are the result of many identical individuals joining together to form a colony. However, it can often be hard to separate colonial protists from true multicellular organisms, becau...
if vehicles are mostly dangerous because of the impact of metal, then why aren't they, or atleast the outer exterior, made of soft materials like foam?	Getting hit by 4,000 pounds of foam at 60mph would still kill you pretty dead. Vehicles are dangerous because they are large heavy objects that move fast. The fact that they are made of metal has very little to do with it.	[ "When metallic materials are put into corrosive environments, they tend to have chemical reactions with the air and/or water. The effects of corrosion become evident on the surfaces of these materials. For example, after putting a piece of iron into a corrosive atmosphere for an extended period, it starts rusting d...
Why aren't there more eye colors?	Eye color pigments only vary from light brown to black. No green or blue pigments contribute to eye color. The variations you see in blue, green and hazel eyes are produced through not only a lack of dark pigmentation in the stroma but also the presence of Tyndall scattering, Rayleigh scattering and selective light abs...	[ "The phenomenon is not entirely understood. One possible reason people see colors may be that the color receptors in the human eye respond at different rates to red, green, and blue. More specifically, the latencies of the center and the surrounding mechanisms differ for the different types of color-specific gangli...
How do factories that make seasonal goods stay in business all year?	Most of them produce many seasonal products. In the example of Halloween and Christmas masks, these companies in most cases also produce different "festive" paraphernalia. Some make these types of products from "rest" products from other forms of manufacturing creating an income from what otherwise would be trash.	[ "Protection and subsidy of import-replacing industries should come, but at a later stage. The Last Industry Strategy has disadvantages. It can slow the creation of domestic production. Industrialists who have begun working with imports may not accept domestic alternative products that reduce demand for their output...
Has any species other than humans been known to use a form of tangible currency?	Well, someone might want to put a much longer explanation out here, but "yes." First off, they can be taught: _URL_0_ Secondly, though, more importantly, when you say "tangible currency," one could easily define bringing tokens back to the pack-alpha as "use of currency," plus other similar examples. If the question...	[ "The precursor of paper money (紙幣) known as \"Flying cash\" were issued by the Tang dynasty, however these bills of exchange could in no way be considered to be a form of paper money as they weren’t meant to be a medium of exchange and were only negotiable between two distant points. The first true paper money in t...
What is the integral of displacement?	I've heard it called abasement. I can't say I've ever used it or seen it used anywhere in applications, but some googling found [a rather contrived example](_URL_0_) where you need to compute a roaming bill which is dependent on both time spent logged in and the distance to the hub you're logged into.	[ "A displacement is a vector whose length is the shortest distance from the initial to the final position of a point P. It quantifies both the distance and direction of an imaginary motion along a straight line from the initial position to the final position of the point. A displacement may be identified with the tr...
why do extremely profitable companies still engage in shady practices?	When doing something illegal and paying a fine is more profitable than doing something legal, it's just the cost of doing business. Businesses are rarely required to admit any wrongdoing, and there are no real repercussions.	[ "In a study on Bribery and Corruption in India conducted in 2013 by global professional services firm Ernst & Young (EY), a majority of the survey respondents from PE firms said that a company operating in a sector which is perceived as highly corrupt may lose ground when it comes to fair valuation of its business,...
why do roads continued to be made of asphalt give its proclivity to deform, and thus need constant repair?	Asphalt is incredibly cheap. It's also fairly durable and doesn't get too slick when it's wet.	[ "Some producers of asphalt for paving have—openly or secretly—incorporated REOBs into their asphalt, creating some controversy and concern in the traffic engineering community, with some experts suggesting it reduces the durability of the resulting pavement.\n", "Although uncompetitive economically, asphalt can b...
Do all animals begin as a female in the womb, and then turn male (if they have the corresponding chromosome)?	In the case of humans , the first 5-6 weeks as a embryo is said to be 'female' only because of the mass of cells developing so quickly and the male chromosome doesn't express it self right off the back. All mammals and other animals with X- Y set up does begin as female. My Biology teacher said that is why guys ha...	[ "There are three extant kinds of mammals: monotremes, placentals and marsupials, all with internal fertilization. In placental mammals, offspring are born as juveniles: complete animals with the sex organs present although not reproductively functional. After several months or years, depending on the species, the s...
how can alternative cellular service providers "borrow" verizon or at & t's infrastructure and offer lower prices but the same doesn't happen with cable and internet providers?	Major Internet Service Providers (ISPs) like AT & T and Verizon are actually required to provide wholesale access to their DSL network / services for the purpose of allowing other smaller / third-party ISPs to compete in the market and offer their own internet service to customers. This is how companies like [DSL Extr...	[ "Leased lines are more expensive than alternative connectivity services including (ADSL, SDSL, etc.) because they are reserved exclusively to the leaseholder. Some internet service providers have therefore developed alternative products that aim to deliver leased-line type services (carrier Ethernet-based, zero con...
why does acrobat reader suck so hard and crash so often?	It's essentially a result of the PDF format. PDF started as a way to send documents with full formatting between machines/printers without the risk of it looking different either end. Then people liked the idea of the non-editable / looks the same everywhere format and wanted more. Now it does loads of things - most o...	[ "Among the MacBook and MacBook Pro community there have been several owners who installed aftermarket hard drives already equipped with anti-shock features who reported experiencing kernel panic errors whenever their unit was physically moved. This is believed to be due to a conflict between SMS and the new drive's...
Did U.S. intervention in Europe during World War 2 ultimately change the course of the war, militarily speaking?	No, the German army at that point was no were near in a state to effectively defeat or even defend against the Soviet Army, and at that point, getting very close to stumbling on its back foot. Not only did the Red Army have an overwhelming majority in terms of equipment and manpower, but at this point was on par with t...	[ "As the Second World War progressed in Europe from 1939 to 1941, the direct involvement of the United States appeared imminent. While isolationists clamored against U.S. involvement, the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 put an end to such sentiments, and the subsequent declaration of war against the United S...
passwords and cryptography and encryption	This can be a very broad topic. I'll focus on some common ways you see these technologies used on the Internet and try and keep it as simple as possible. There is a lot to this topic if you want to learn more than this high level overview. Passwords are used to prove you are who you say you are to a computer. It's ...	[ "Cryptographic service providers can be used for encryption of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents starting from Microsoft Office XP. A standard encryption algorithm with a 40-bit key is used by default, but enabling a CSP enhances key length and thus makes decryption process more continuous. This only applies to...
why does water dissolve the tide pod from the outside, but the laundry detergent doesn't dissolve it from the inside?	the outer packet is water soluble but the detergent itself isn't high enough in water concentration to break it, your average detergent has a number of ingredients, as you add it the viscosity, density, ph, etc all change. so the packet is chemically designed specifically to keep laundry sauce inside until water is exp...	[ "A simple example is the space between a wall mounted faucet and the sink rim (this space is the air gap). Water can easily flow from the faucet into the sink, but there is no way that water can flow from the sink into the faucet without modifying the system. This arrangement will prevent any contaminants in the si...
what is cannibidiol (cbd) and why is it seemingly coming out of nowhere as an exceptional drug for many diseases and chronic illnesses, as well as improving all around focus and decreasing anxiety?	I probably would not explain anything about marijuana to a five year old, but, it's a component of marijuana. There are two "main" parts, THC and CBD. THC is the "weed high" portion and CBD is the medical stuff you mentioned, in a very general sense. An older-than-5 explanation (that I yanked from Google for you): _UR...	[ "In the United States, the cannabidiol drug Epidiolex was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2018 for treatment of two epilepsy disorders. The side effects of long-term use of the drug include somnolence, decreased appetite, diarrhea, fatigue, malaise, weakness, and sleeping problems. As of mid-2019 in...
why a video load bar shows minutes ahead are loaded, yet the video still pauses to buffer.	It depends on the site, but I'll look at it purely from a video encoding standpoint... Video online is highly compressed and packaged, usually with H.264 or Ogg/vorbis, which are different standards. These standards save space by not saving every pixel of every frame, instead only saving the pixels that have changed f...	[ "Video feedback is the process that starts and continues when a video camera is pointed at its own playback video monitor. The loop delay from camera to display back to camera is at least one video frame time, due to the input and output scanning processes; it can be more if there is more processing in the loop.\n"...
please explain what forces makes this magnet retard through a copper tube.	Induction. As the magnet falls through the tube, it induces an electrical current, which produces a magnetic field that is opposite that of the magnet and thus slows its fall.	[ "Currents bound inside the atoms of strong magnets can create counter-rotating currents in a copper or aluminum pipe. This is shown by dropping the magnet through the pipe. The descent of the magnet inside the pipe is observably slower than when dropped outside the pipe.\n", "Between each copper coil leg are plac...
why do people sometimes change the first letter when they talk? (i.e. she wanted to srink some doda)	I don't know what causes it, but it's called spoonerism and it's named after an English doctor or vicar (I may be wrong) who used to do it a lot (not deliberately). I don't know his first name, but his surname was Spooner.	[ "The name-letter effect is the tendency of people to prefer the letters in their name over other letters in the alphabet. Whether subjects are asked to rank all letters of the alphabet, rate each of the letters, choose the letter they prefer out of a set of two, or pick a small set of letters they most prefer, on a...
Why isn't there much known about Persian scholars and poets before Arabs invaded?	i'll keep it short and simple (since I don't have much time and there are probably way more qualified people to answer it thoroughly. * That comment is wrong. Persia had accomplished way more than Arabs before Prophet Muhammad. After Persia was conquered by Arabs, they continued to contribute to science/math/religion ...	[ "Most Muslim historians have long offered the idea that Persia, on the verge of the Arab invasion, was a society in decline and decay and thus it embraced the invading Arab armies with open arms. This view is not widely accepted however. Some authors have for example used mostly Arab sources to illustrate that \"co...
what does mach mean?	If you're travelling at Mach 1, then you're travelling at exactly the speed of sound. Mach 0.5 is half the speed of sound. Mach 2 is twice the speed of sound. And so on.	[ "The Mach number is named after Austrian physicist and philosopher Ernst Mach, and is a designation proposed by aeronautical engineer Jakob Ackeret. As the Mach number is a dimensionless quantity rather than a unit of measure, with Mach, the number comes \"after\" the unit; the second Mach number is \"Mach2\" inste...
Pterosaur flight?	That depends on how high a bar you want to set for proof. They have all the proper adaptions for flight: wings for a start, hollow bones, strong muscles for flapping (even stronger for taking off is a recent discovery). Computer simulations with reasonable assumptions show them capable of it. Is that proof? It's as clo...	[ "BULLET::::- Habib published a study examining how pterosaurs took flight. He concluded that pterosaur take-off occurred on all fours using the strength of their well-developed wing and chest muscles to launch into the air.\n", "Pterosaurs (; from the Greek , ', meaning \"winged lizard\") were flying reptiles of ...
what happens when you sleep, even just a nap, to make "morning breath" ?	I have a follow-up question to this: when I'm really, really tired, I have a certain taste on my tongue. I tell my friends that "I'm so tired, I can taste it." Is this linked to the morning breath and the "stagnant pond" thing that badcabcd mentioned? Or is it something else (because I've not heard of anyone else that ...	[ "Sleep apnea, also spelled sleep apnoea, is a sleep disorder where a person has pauses in breathing or periods of shallow breathing during sleep. Each pause can last for a few seconds to a few minutes and they happen many times a night. In the most common form, this follows loud snoring. There may be a choking or s...
On Earth, life has evolved to fill almost every potential ecosystem we can find, even unimaginably inhospitable ones. Are there any plant or animals species that we know of from Earth that we could take to Mars that would have a solid chance of surviving there?	There are certainly some extremophiles mostly bacteria or archaea that could survive on mars. Some of these could potential use the minerals on mars to grow and reproduce, others could go into a state of cryptobiosis kinda like hibernation where they could survive almost indefinitely in a dormant state. These bacteria ...	[ "Lifeforms do not live just anywhere on the surface of a planet randomly. Each species occupies a definite set of surroundings, or environment, to which it is adapted. It cannot survive for long outside the limits of that environment because it can no longer obtain what it requires to survive.\n", "The discovery ...
What are the major missing, but verified to have existed, lost works or objects from your historical field and why are they so important?	I work with the early 19th century, and my biggest 'lost work' issue are missing newspapers. Right now I'm researching a slave rescue in 1839 Ohio and the city where the slave in question came from has no surviving newspapers from 1835-40. Consequently, I can't find out how local people reacted to the slave rescue, n...	[ "Lost artworks are original pieces of art that credible sources indicate once existed but that cannot be accounted for in museums or private collections or are known to have been destroyed deliberately or accidentally, or neglected through ignorance and lack of connoisseurship.\n", "Works—or, commonly, small frag...
During the U.S Civil Rights Movement, were other minorities involved or prevalent in protests and demonstrations? Were there any particularly notable non-African-American activists?	Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel was a prominent figure in the civil rights movement and a close friend of MLK Jr., and read a psalm at MLK's funeral. Theres this famous picture of them both together at the Voting Rights March in Selma in 1965 _URL_1_ Sixteen Jewish leaders were arrested in St. Augustine, FL in 1964, and...	[ "The decade of the 1960s brought heightened activism in the civil rights movement: through boycotts and demonstrations, African Americans demanded an end to segregated public facilities and jobs. Some whites responded with violence, attacking demonstrators, and bombing a black church in Pine Bluff in 1963. Some civ...
what is a constitutional crisis?	Generally speaking, no constitution is perfect. And, even a great constitution is not self-enforcing---no matter how beautifully written or clear, people still need to abide by it, more or less. When you have a situation that the constitution doesn't appear to cover or where part of the government refuses to abide b...	[ "Politically, a constitutional crisis can lead to administrative paralysis and eventual collapse of the government, the loss of political legitimacy, or to civil war. A constitutional crisis is distinct from a rebellion, which occurs when political factions \"outside\" a government challenge the government's sovere...
If black dwarfs did exist, wouldn't they blend in with the cosmic background radiation, cooling off to this temperature?	At some point, yes, they'd be in thermal equilibrium with the rest of the universe, and become very difficult to detect optically. But they would still have a gravitational effect, or could obstruct our view to other objects when they pass by. As far as I can tell, there's no particularly precise dividing line between...	[ "A black dwarf is a theoretical stellar remnant, specifically a white dwarf that has cooled sufficiently that it no longer emits significant heat or light. Because the time required for a white dwarf to reach this state is calculated to be longer than the current age of the universe (13.8 billion years), no black d...
how did someone originally assign value to the different variables of time?	Do you mean units of time? Like seconds? Well, days, years and lunar months are pretty easy to observe. Now, 12 is a great number its better than ten. You can only divide 10 by 10, 5, 2, 1 but you can divide 12 by 12, 6, 4, 3, 2, 1. As multiples of 12, 60 & 24 are also useful numbers. So a day was divided into 24...	[ "When one attempts to empirically explain such variables in terms of other variables and/or their own prior values, one uses time series or regression methods in which variables are indexed with a subscript indicating the time period in which the observation occurred. For example, \"y\" might refer to the value of ...
Why do we do self-destructive things -- was Freud's 'Death Wish' supported?	This is a field of decision science that isn't well understood. Most cognitive psychologists will suggest that self-destructive things are done for short term pleasure, without taking into account the long-term consequence of an action. For example, drinking until blackout drunk may begin as a way to 'blow off some s...	[ "In the sixth chapter, Freud reviews the development of his concept of libido to explain why it must now be separated into two distinct instincts: the object-instinct of eros and the ego-instinct of thanatos. This 'new' concept of the death drive actually has a long developmental history in Freud’s writings, includ...
How did the crime rate in the United states change between December of 1941, after the attack on pearl harbor, and mid 1945, towards the end of world War two?	tl;dr Crime doesn't have one trend, it has multiple fascinating trends. The one pretty uniform trend is 1945 saw a crime boom. 1,565,541 major crimes were reported in 1945 compared to 1,517,026 & 1,531,272 in 1940 and 1941. A potential problem with your question is that crime wasn't in a steady state before th...	[ "BULLET::::- December 7, 1941 – Attack on Pearl Harbor, a surprise attack that killed almost 2,500 people in the then incorporated territory of Hawaii which caused the U.S. to enter the war the next day.\n", "After World War II, crime rates increased in the United States, peaking from the 1970s to the early-1990s...
Stalin and the media	> Is this accurate now and in 1937? Hi OP, please remove the "now" from this question : per this subreddit's 20-year rule, current affairs are off-limits here. I've temporarily removed this post; reply here or to mod mail when it's been edited out , and we'll approve. Also, can you clarify the question: the title i...	[ "On 25 February 1956, at a closed session of the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev delivered a \"secret speech\" in which he criticized actions taken by the Stalin regime, particularly the purges of the military and the upper Party echelons, and the develo...
why doesn't japan allow dual citizenship?	to put it in simple words: A government/country is essentially nothing without it's citizens, so they want to keep you. Another reason is that it's an awful lot of bureaucracy if you have multiple citizenships and travel around and something happens etc. Actually being allowed to have multiple citizenships is is the...	[ "It is generally difficult to have dual citizenship of Japan and another country, due to the provisions for loss of Japanese nationality when a Japanese national naturalizes in another country (see \"Loss of citizenship\" above), and the requirement to renounce one's existing citizenships when naturalizing in Japan...
How can we use one medication to treat multiple problems? Like using Humira to treat arthritis, plaque psoriasis, and ulcerative colitus?	Humira (adalimumab) is an anti-TNF antibody. Many inflammatory conditions with elevated TNF ranging from ulcerative colitis to certain forms of uveitis to Behcet's disease all use the inflammatory signalling molecule, TNF, to cause harm. This is not unique. Aspirin lowers fevers, help prevent myocardial infarctions (he...	[ "A number of medications have been used including amitriptyline, gabapentin, pregabalin, propranolol, and topiramate. There are no prospective placebo controlled trials of preventive treatment. In those with migrainous features treatment may be similar to migraines.\n", "A number of medications are able to contro...
I've heard that part of the reason that Operation Barbarossa failed in 1941 was because the Soviet army was already preparing to invade Germany, so they were not as caught off-guard as Germany expected. Is there any truth to this?	Categorically false. Operation Barbarossa failed for a myriad of reasons, but Soviet preparation should not be counted among them. The Soviets did not believe the Germans would violate the non-aggression pact with such rapidity, and while I have no sources to hand, you can read that many expected war with Nazi German i...	[ "Operation Barbarossa suffered from several fundamental flaws. The most serious of these was the logistical situation of the attack. The sheer vastness of the distances in the Soviet Union meant that Germany could only advance so far before outrunning their supply chains. By the time the German attack froze to a ha...
why can't ip addresses be used instead of mac addresses	Because It happens at different layers of the network stack. MAC addresses are the Ethernet layer of the connection. An IP frame can transit many different types of network connections, not just Ethernet. Examples include point-to-point serial links (if you were using a dial up modem, this is what you’d be using), ATM...	[ "MAC addresses are most often assigned by the manufacturer of network interface cards. Each is stored in hardware, such as the card's read-only memory or by a firmware mechanism. A MAC address typically includes the manufacturer's organizationally unique identifier (OUI). MAC addresses are formed according to the p...
why do hamsters find hamster wheel so fun?	In nature, hamsters have large territories and are largely solitary dwellers. We keep them in tiny cages and often with other hamsters, which goes completely against their nature. They would naturally run around marking vast territories (which accounts for their strong odor), mating prolifically (because they are food ...	[ "Hamster wheels or running wheel are exercise devices used primarily by hamsters and other rodents, but also by other cursorial animals when given the opportunity. Most of these devices consist of a runged or ridged wheel held on a stand by a single or pair of stub axles. Hamster wheels allow rodents to run even wh...
why doesn't acid melt a glass container?	Some acids do. Hydrofluoric acid, for example, will eat through glass and can be used for glass etching. Other acids can break down glass under certain conditions. A Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) would list the exactly how a chemical should be stored. Most acids, however, do not react with glass. Most substances, ...	[ "glass is melted and formed by typical glassworking techniques into the desired shape. This is heat-treated, which causes the material to separate into two intermingled \"phases\" with distinct chemical compositions. One phase is rich in alkali and boric oxide and can be easily dissolved in acid. The other phase is...
Why is copper used for hot water piping, even though it's an excellent thermal conductor? Wouldn't an insulator be more energy efficient?	Copper is malleable (easy to bend), doesn't corrode very easily, doesn't leach into your water, and doesn't let microorganisms grow in your pipes very easily. It's not particularly cheap, though.	[ "Copper is one of nature's most efficient thermal and electrical conductors, which helps to conserve energy. Because of its high thermal conductivity, it is used extensively in building heating systems, direct exchange heat pumps, and solar power and hot water equipment. Its high electrical conductivity increases t...
why do american kids don't simply go to study in europe or asia instead of paying so much in us?	1) It costs many thousands of dollars to move to another country. 2) You have to qualify for a student visa to said country. The US is not a part of the Schengen Area or the EU. We therefore do not have free reign to travel Europe without proper passports and visas seeking to live, study, or work there. We do not even...	[ "(1) compared to other nations, American students spend much less time on school work; (2) time spent in the classroom and on homework is often used ineffectively; and (3) schools are not doing enough to help students develop either the study skills required to use time well or the willingness to spend more time on...
How can we see galaxies that are millions of light years away, yet we can't even prove the existence of the Oort cloud?	Galaxies are really big and bright and objects in the Oort cloud are really small and dim. The fact that galaxies are so readily observable is a testament to how mind bogglingly big and bright they are.	[ "A2744_YD4 is a very distant young galaxy. This galaxy has first been identified as a possible distant galaxy in 2015 using Hubble. This detection was made possible because this galaxy lies behind the massive galaxy cluster Abell 2744. In 2017, ALMA observed it and detected a small quantity of dust (the most distan...
what's up with the "light" versions of beers in the usa. as a belgian i just cannot comprehend the idea of a "light" beer, please explain.	Okay so people are saying only people who don't like real beer drink light beer, but that's not true. I love craft brews, pretty much the whole range except stouts and uber dark beers. But anything else I'm down. There are two reasons why I drink light beer. A) Right now, I'm on a low carb diet. That means all b...	[ "The \"Light\" and \"Ice\" versions of the beer are far more prevalent and readily available for retail across the United States. Though Keystone Premium exists, it appears much less than its \"Light\" variety on liquor store shelves. \"Dry\" and \"Amber Light\" varieties were discontinued in the late 90s.\n", "L...
What would writing and sending a letter involve in the Roman empire of the first century CE?	I'm going to push the time frame back into the first century BC if that's OK. The survival of 900+ of Cicero's letters mean that we have a very good idea of how letter writing and sending worked in the last few decades of the Republic, and to be honest it's not likely that very much changed into the early imperial peri...	[ "Recent scholarship has revived the theory that Paul used an amanuensis, or secretaries, in writing his letters (e.g. Rom 16:22), but possibly Luke for the pastorals This was a common practice in ancient letter writing, even for the biblical writers.\n", "In some cases large numbers of letters have survived from ...
What information is a dog picking up when it sniffs another dog?	For starters, it's checking if the bitch is in heat!	[ "One notable quality of detection dogs is that they are able to discern individual scents even when the scents are combined or masked by other odors. Many items that dogs can detect can be disguised when covered by multiple scents. Detection dogs help uncover these items. In 2002, a detection dog foiled a woman's a...
Can barometric pressure affect in some way your intracranial pressure? If so, how?	Barometric, or atmospheric, pressure affects hollow spaces. This is why your water bottle compresses when the airplane goes down for landing, and why flying with a cold usually means proper pain in the sinuses. The intracranial space holds liquid, many of which are incompressible, and other tissues. Because humans hav...	[ "Intraocular pressure may become elevated due to anatomical problems, inflammation of the eye, genetic factors, or as a side-effect from medication. Intraocular pressure laws follow fundamentally from physics. Any kinds of intraocular surgery should be done by considering the intraocular pressure fluctuation. Sudde...
Academic Writing Before Typewriters?	I think one thing you might want to research would be medieval scribes and scriveners. They did more writing than possibly anyone else in history and loved talking about the theory and mechanics of writing. If any of the philosophers followed anyone's example, it would've been them I presume. I don't have any sources...	[ "Early versions of basic writing instruction in the United States started at Harvard between 1890 and 1910, when college enrollments nearly doubled. Modern basic writing originated in the 1970s when the City University of New York (CUNY) instituted an open admission policy for all New York City residents. In 1966, ...
Do you, as a historian, travel in a certain way?	I’m a museum curator so not sure this counts. I don’t just rely on trip advisor reviews that say “this museum is great” etc, I go to the individual museums websites to see exactly what exhibitions are on at the moment. I plan my day around what specific exhibitions I want to see and not just what museums I want to visi...	[ "The travels are themed around academic studies relating to the location visited and the professor guiding the travel. Economics, art history, literature, business and marketing, international relations, environment, sustainability and history are among common themes investigated through travels.\n", "Travel Writ...
the logic behind the debate over whether or not being teleported would teleport 'you' or just a copy of you?	Think of it like Lego! Teleport You: You start off as a Lego castle which is already made. You tear it down put it into a box and move the box to another room and build the castle again! Teleport a Copy: You start off as a Lego castle, break it apart and put it into a box which you put away forever. You then go t...	[ "Some psychologists have suggested that telescoping occurs because people are guessing the date of an event. According to this theory, if a person is unsure of a date, they minimize their chance of erring by placing events toward the middle of the period. However, telescoping occurs at the same frequency if events ...
how did fentanyl become an epidemic?	Fentanyl is a synthetic opiate painkiller, like Oxycontin. It has been used for medical purposes for a long time. And just like Oxycontin, it has been used recreationally for as long as it has been around. However, people used to do things like steal from hospitals or doctor-shop to get a legit prescription that could ...	[ "By 1947 penicillin had become standard therapy for syphilis. The US government sponsored several public health programs to form \"rapid treatment centers\" to eradicate the disease. When campaigns to eradicate venereal disease came to Macon County, study researchers prevented their patients from participating.\n",...
What was life like for a tank Commander in the Korean War?	It is my strong belief that tanking has not really changed a whole hell of a lot over the past seven decades. First things first. The tank in the photo is not the one which he would have used in Korea. He is photographed in a post-Korean-War M47, whilst the tanks used by the 73rd in Korea would have been M4A3(76)HVSS ...	[ "On June 17th 1952, 3rd Tank Division moved into Korea to took part in the Korean War as a part of People's Volunteer Army(CPA). During its tour to Korea, it took part in 267 battles and engagements, destroyed or damaged 22 enemy tanks and 74 aircraft.\n", "Following the initial assault by the north, the Korean W...
how do the murder laws on siamese twins work?	The answer is no one knows. Conjoined twins, as is polite to call them, make up an extremely small minority of the population. No such thing has happened yet and it will have to be resolved in the courts. That being said, for lesser crimes such as speeding, conjoined twins have been saved from jail time by claiming t...	[ "Siamese twins (also irreversible binomials, binomials, binomial pairs, freezes, or nonreversible word pairs) in the context of the English language refer to a pair or group of words used together as an idiomatic expression or collocation, usually conjoined by the words \"and\" or \"or\". \n", "Chang and Eng Bunk...
Why are nutritional studies done on rats used to determine guidelines for humans?	There are studies on on different animals, it's not just rats. We are quite different from rats, which is why they aren't used for everything. This is also why you see the disclaimer "but you're not a rat" when people talk about drug studies and toxicity.	[ "Laboratory rats have also proved valuable in psychological studies of learning and other mental processes (Barnett 2002), as well as to understand group behavior and overcrowding (with the work of John B. Calhoun on behavioral sink). A 2007 study found rats to possess metacognition, a mental ability previously onl...
How intelligent were dinosaurs?	The Mesozoic dinosaurs, we don't know. It's difficult to say how intelligent an extinct species we cannot interact with is. We can make an educated guess based on brain/body ratio: [Troodon](_URL_0_) for example is often cited as likely being one of the more intelligent dinosaurs of that time due to its large brain. S...	[ "Dinosaur intelligence has been a point of contention for paleontologists. Non-avian dinosaurs were once regarded as being unintelligent animals but have largely been appraised more generously since the dinosaur renaissance. This new found optimism for dinosaur intelligence has led to highly exaggerated portrayals ...
Can we increase the speed of light (greater than its speed in the vacuum) by moving the medium through which it is traversing?	No. Light in a moving medium still obeys the relativistic velocity addition formula. You simply can't transmit information locally faster than light.	[ "According to Einstein's theory of special relativity, as an electron's speed approaches the speed of light, from an observer's point of view its relativistic mass increases, thereby making it more and more difficult to accelerate it from within the observer's frame of reference. The speed of an electron can approa...

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