Split (2)

train · 226k rows

question stringlengths 3 301	answer stringlengths 9 26.1k	context list
How long would it take for a terraformed planet to replace a CO2 atmosphere with O2?	Artificial trees can suck up 1 ton of carbon per day, if they are big enough. _URL_0_ This is a lot more than a real tree can absorb. Note that the co2 is caught in a filter and stored elsewhere. _URL_1_ claims that over the course of a tree's life, it absorbs about 1 ton of co2. Note that this is 100 years. While no...	[ "If there is no chemical production of CO, all the CO in the current Martian atmosphere would be removed by photolysis in about 3,500 years. The hydroxyl radicals (OH) produced from the photolysis of water vapor, together with the other odd hydrogen species (e.g. H, HO), can convert carbon monoxide (CO) back to CO....
why is it easier to keep balance (while standing on one foot f.e.), when you focus on a specific point?	Your brain collects information from multiple sources to maintain balance. One of those sources is what you see with your eyes, this is why closing your eyes makes it harder to balance. When you focus in a static object, your brain can more easily detect when it's tipping out of balance (because it knows that static...	[ "The sense of balance or equilibrioception is one of the physiological senses related to balance. It helps prevent humans and animals from falling over when standing or moving. Balance is the result of a number of body systems working together: the eyes (visual system), ears (vestibular system) and the body's sense...
if i eat way more chile peppers, and build a tolerance, will i also have lower sensitivity to pepper spray?	I think you would have to practice rubbing hot peppers on your eyes for this to really take effect. People don't generally pepper spray you in the mouth. They spray you on the face/eyes. I don't think anyone should ever try and mess around with that kind of thing anyway, considering there have been cases of blindness ...	[ "Symptomatic relief for the pain of peripheral neuropathy may be obtained by application of topical capsaicin. Capsaicin is the factor that causes heat in chili peppers. The evidence suggesting that capsaicin applied to the skin reduces pain for peripheral neuropathy is of moderate to low quality and should be inte...
How did historians view the US Constitution of 1878 during the creation and after up until now?	As /u/mormengil said, your question is far too broad for us to answer. Historians have written literally thousands of lengthy books about the Constitution of 1788. You could pick myriads of subtopics to write a paper on - how contemporary historians viewed the Constitution in some decade, how modern historians view t...	[ "Evaluating the historiographical debate, Peter Novick concluded: By the early 1960s it was generally accepted within the historical profession that ... Beard's Progressive version of the ... framing of the Constitution had been decisively refuted. American historians came to see ... the framers of the Constitution...
Would it be possible to take in enough water to survive by inhaling steam?	I cannot answer your question, but just an aside, you are inhaling tiny droplets of liquid water, not steam. The water leaves the hot tea as steam (despite the fact that the water temperature is less than the boiling point), then quickly condenses into an aerosol. The droplets are small and light enough to be entrained...	[ "Many people believe that steam inhalation reduces cold symptoms. There is no evidence suggesting that steam inhalation is effective for treating the common cold. There have been reports of children being badly burned by accidentally spilling the water used for steam inhalation.\n", "Over the years, steam has bee...
If nuclear power technology and waste mitigation progressed to the point that energy was essentially free, would all the heat generated contribute to a global temperature increase?	It would have no noticeable effect except perhaps on very small scale locations. > The total solar energy absorbed by Earth's atmosphere, oceans and land masses is approximately 3,850,000 exajoules (EJ) per year.[7] In 2002, this was more energy in one hour than the world used in one year.[12][13] Photosynthesis capt...	[ "Numerous and beneficial uses of nuclear energy have evolved such as the use of nuclear energy to create electricity. Commercial nuclear-reactor operation and construction have persisted, with some notable increase in worldwide energy production. The management of nuclear waste remains somewhat unresolved, dependin...
how does fiji water justify their inflated price?	The claim is that their water from Fiji “comes from an artesian aquifer .“ Their unstated premise is that this water is somehow more pure and better for you. Their price comes from peoples willingness to buy it despite the high price. And people's willingness to buy it comes from their unstated premise.	[ "Fiji's deputy opposition leader Bernadette Rounds Ganilau said the bill was a joke because a large mass of land is lying idle in the country while Fiji continues to import food valued at over 180-million US dollars. Thousands upon thousands of vacant and re-possessed land is not being used, making Fiji the world's...
what's the reasoning behind the "pause" and "play" symbols as we know them?	Their origin is not clear but I think the "play" symbol was supposed to be an arrow that indicates the direction tape was moving in old reel-to-reel tapes, which would explain why the fast forward symbol is a double arrow. The pause symbol on the other hand, is even less clear. Some say it's a variation of the "stop"...	[ "The main symbols date back to the 1960s, with the Pause symbol having reportedly been invented at Ampex during that decade for use on reel-to-reel audio recorder controls, due to the difficulty of translating the word \"pause\" into some languages used in foreign markets. The Pause symbol was designed as a variati...
does the breakdown of carbon life forms add mass to the earth?	No, or yes. It depends on how you define the Earth. If you are talking about everything from the atmosphere down, then no mass is added since the mass from the lifeforms is already accounted for. If you mean just the soil and whatnot below our feet, then yes the bodies decompose and make their way into the Earth. The...	[ "The carbon cycle is an essential part of life on Earth. About half the dry weight of most living organisms is carbon. It plays an important role in the structure, biochemistry, and nutrition of all living cells. Living biomass holds about 550 gigatons of carbon, most of which is made of terrestrial plants (wood), ...
why does america still have a farm bill?	Well, the United States doesn't have a completely free economy. It's more free than many other countries, but there are still a lot of protectionist industries, with the notable ones being Steel and various Agriculture products (especially Sugar). That said, there are three basic reasons for the Farm bill. 1) Prote...	[ "A \"farm bill\" is one of the primary tools of the United States federal government to set policy related to agriculture in the United States. Farm bills are passed roughly every five years. The farm bills typically cover laws and policies related to supplemental nutrition, land payments, crop insurance, environme...
Why does the propane bottle (for the heater) get frosty?	> Propane is generally stored and transported in steel cylinders as a liquid with a vapor space above the liquid. The vapor pressure in the cylinder is a function of temperature. When gaseous propane is drawn at a high rate, the latent heat of vaporisation required to create the gas will cause the bottle to cool. (Thi...	[ "Propane is generally stored and transported in steel cylinders as a liquid with a vapor space above the liquid. The vapor pressure in the cylinder is a function of temperature. When gaseous propane is drawn at a high rate, the latent heat of vaporization required to create the gas will cause the bottle to cool. (T...
howcome no matter how much we brace ourselves for something startling (loud noise, etc...), we always still jump at it?	People have different reactions to startling events with some on the extreme end being people you can literally scare out of their seat with a "BOO!" every time, literally every time. Other people can train their reactions better, but it depends on who you are. The reason though is pretty simple, and it's that our fig...	[ "Another example is watching someone blow up a balloon beyond its normal capacity. This is often an unsettling, even disturbing thing for a person with ligyrophobia to observe, as he or she anticipates a loud sound when the balloon pops. When balloons pop, two types of reactions are heavy breathing and panic attack...
can someone write a dumbed down version of the "23 gun laws" that obama has came up with?	The White House Press Secretary put out an easier-to-read summary document. The Chicago Sun-Times has a copy [here](_URL_0_)	[ "In 2017, Webster voted in favor of the H.J.Res.40, which successfully used the Congressional Review Act to block implementation of an Obama-era Amendment to the NICS Improvement Amendments Act of 2007 that was aimed at preventing the mentally-infirm from legally purchasing firearms.\n", "On January 16, 2013, Oba...
why can't the body differentiate from a real threat vs second-hand anxiety symptoms?	We are social and empathetic creatures. We may not be experiencing it for ourselves, but our brain knows that it would be a bad idea so it triggers an anxious response in most people so they won't want to do it. It doesn't work all the time, obviously, and there's no way for your primitive instincts to know about the s...	[ "Similarly, anxiety has been commonly associated with individuals being able to perceive threat when in fact none is present, and orient more quickly to threatening cues than other cues. Anxiety has been associated with an enhanced orienting toward threat, a late-stage attention maintenance toward threat, or possib...
how can you see through something that's physically there, like plastic wrap or glass?	The same reason you can see through air: the photons hitting it on one side are re-emitted with (nearly) the same properties on the other side. Certain materials have this behavior for certain wavelengths of light. Your home wifi makes it through the walls of your house, but the same wavelength is used in your microwa...	[ "It is best to leave photographs lying flat on the table when viewing them. Do not pick it up from a corner, or even from two sides and hold it at eye level. Every time the photograph bends, even a little, this can break down the emulsion. The very nature of enclosing a photograph in plastic encourages users to pic...
Erwin Rommel	Actually, many career German officers--those who had entered the service before the Nazi party consolidated its power--had little esteem for Hitler and the party and used their personal clout to make independent decisions; Rommel wasn't unique in that regard. Wikipedia: Hitler promoted Friedrich Paulus—commander of th...	[ "The Rommel myth, or the Rommel legend, is a phrase used by a number of historians in reference to common depictions of German field marshal Erwin Rommel as an apolitical, brilliant commander and a victim of Nazi Germany due to his presumed participation in the 20 July plot against Adolf Hitler. According to these ...
If a motorcyclist is travelling towards me at 100mph and fires a bullet which leaves the gun at 1000mph, how fast is that bullet moving towards me?	Galilean relativity works well in situations when the speeds involved are much less than the speed of light. So in this case we can use it. If the motorcycle (and gun) is traveling with a velocity u with respect to you, and the bullet is fired at a muzzle velocity v (with respect to the gun). Then the velocity...	[ "BULLET::::- formula_11 = parameter calculated from a weighted arithmetic average speed in kilometers per hour theoretically reached by the vehicle at an engine speed of 1000 revolutions per minute in each gearbox ratio}}.\n", "BULLET::::- GA16DE: 1.6 (1,597 cc) DOHC with a 6,900 rpm redline and at 6,000 rpm, 110...
Assuming it doesn't burn out, will the North Star stay North forever?	So, there are two factors at play here: * [The Axial precession of the Earth](_URL_0_) The Earth's rotational axis changes orientation in a cycle that is roughly 25,772 years. Because of this, Polaris wasn't always the North Star, nor will it always be. In fact, if you go to classical antiquity, the Greeks claimed th...	[ "This star is roughly halfway through the initial phase of its stellar evolution and will, within the next few million years, expand into a red supergiant star wider than the orbit of Jupiter before ending its life in a supernova explosion leaving behind a neutron star or pulsar. From the Earth, a significant fract...
what happens to the water used to make concrete?	Concrete setting is a complicated process and depends on the materials used. But part of the process is the hydration of the ingredients. The water actually becomes part of the ingredients. The water remains but is part of the chemical components. Concrete is also produced which will set under water. The Romans underst...	[ "Concrete can be damaged by many processes, such as the expansion of corrosion products of the steel reinforcement bars, freezing of trapped water, fire or radiant heat, aggregate expansion, sea water effects, bacterial corrosion, leaching, erosion by fast-flowing water, physical damage and chemical damage (from ca...
how do photographers get cameras in animal dens or hives?	I've seen cameramen literally just elbow their way into rabbit holes and such. or they can use lightweight camera's on sticks basically. or sometimes there's a lot more room in there underground already, when a small animal has made a den in an existing but abandoned bigger den. as for bees, they're easy. they live i...	[ "Cinematographers have been using innovative techniques seen in other wildlife series, such as Cineflex or Phantom cameras. But they also developed some special artisanal tools, as revealed by some behind the scenes clips on the US or French Home Video editions.\n", "Cameras are set up to photograph anything that...
difference between necessary and sufficient conditions	Water is a necessary condition for making lemonade. Water is NOT a sufficient condition - water alone does not meet all of the requirements to make lemonade.	[ "Necessary and sufficient conditions can be explained by analogy in terms of the concepts and the rules of immediate inference of traditional logic. In the categorical proposition \"All S is P\", the subject term 'S' is said to be distributed, that is, all members of its class are exhausted in its expression. Conve...
was the economic stimulus act of 2008 at all effective in helping the recessed economy?	> Did the $158 billion dollars invested in the economy end up doing what lawmakers thought it would? [Yes](_URL_0_) it raised consumption and increased consumer spending. > Did the government see any returns on this investment? The government was looking for no particular "return" on this investment, merely to s...	[ "The Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 () was an Act of Congress providing for several kinds of economic stimuli intended to boost the United States economy in 2008 and to avert a recession, or ameliorate economic conditions. The stimulus package was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives on January 29, 2008, and ...
In August and September 1941, the Soviet Union sent three armies and 1,000 tanks to invade Iran. How did they have so many resources to spare as the Germans were rapidly approaching Moscow?	A note on on your last premise: "the Germans were rapidly approaching Moscow". It's a little misleading. In August the advance of Army Group Center (the German concentration advancing on the Moscow axis) effectively stalled after the battle of Smolensk - ostensibly an overwhelming German victory, but not only did enoug...	[ "The Soviet forces attacked on 25 August and Iranian airbases were destroyed by preliminary air attacks. The Soviets attacked using three armoured spearheads, totalling over 1,000 tanks and motorised infantry; the Iranians had no tanks in the area. The first force, consisting of the 47th Army broke through the bord...
in academia, why is communism still seen as a viable option while fascism is viewed as the biggest evil of all time?	No, that's not a "No true Scotsman", because USSR and PRC weren't in fact, communism. Also, more importantly the parts of the USSR and PRC that were "Evil" aren't part of the communistic ideal	[ "Communism and Capitalism are for Michel Henry two faces of the one death, which consists in the negation of life. Communism eliminates individual life in favour of universal abstractions like society, people, history or social classes. The dogmatism of Marxism is a form of fascism, i.e. a doctrine which originates...
why do some people get sweaty hands?	In addition to the posts you will get about why the body produces sweat (like to cool off the body, or our body's response to fear/stress) I will tell you this bit of information. My girlfriend has hyperhydrosis. The body normally produces sweat as a way to cool itself down. In her case, her body does this more often...	[ "Excessive sweating or focal hyperhidrosis of the hands interferes with many routine activities, such as securely grasping objects. Some focal hyperhidrosis sufferers avoid situations where they will come into physical contact with others, such as greeting a person with a handshake. Hiding embarrassing sweat spots ...
I just opened a saloon in a frontier town in the mid 1800s. How do I stock it?	Since the West is the largest and most diverse region of North America, there could have been any number of scenarios. In addition, saloons were one of the first businesses to open in a frontier town, but they also opened and closed throughout the history of that town, so there could be a great deal of difference betwe...	[ "When a town was first founded, the initial saloons were often nothing more than tents or shacks that served homemade whiskey that included such ingredients as \"raw alcohol, burnt sugar and chewing tobacco\".\n", "A pair of \"batwing\" doors at the entrance was one of the more distinctive features of the typical...
How common was it for North American Indigenous groups to maintain slaves?	As a follow up to my own question. If this was a common practice, was it introduced by colonization or did it pre-exist?	[ "The majority of Native American tribes did practice some form of slavery before the European introduction of African slavery into North America, but none exploited slave labor on a large scale. In addition, Native Americans did not buy and sell captives in the pre-colonial era, although they sometimes exchanged en...
why do prices of goods so often end in a nine, rather than a multiple of ten?	People are much more likely to buy something for $9.99 instead of $10.00. Source: _URL_0_	[ "Also typical is so called \"\"Baťa price\"\" used to give a price ended almost always by number nine. Basically meaning that a price 99 or 19.99 looks apparently much better than rounded number such as 100 or 20, even though the difference is just 1 currency unit.\n", "The regulating price of a given type of pro...
If there are infinite universes, does that mean that even all impossible things exist in some of them?	The other day a user of this subreddit (I can't remember/find who) made this comment, which I think is a good starting point for thinking about this: > There is an infinite number of integers, but only one even prime. Another example: There is no universe where the following statement is not a paradox > This sta...	[ "Roughly speaking, if 0 exists then the universe \"V\" of sets is much larger than the universe \"L\" of constructible sets, while if it does not exist then the universe of all sets is closely approximated by the constructible sets.\n", "BULLET::::- On the one hand, if the Infinite did not \"restrict itself\", th...
why is i go #2 before i shower, and wipe thoroughly, there's always a burning & itchy sensation in my my rear, which causes me to re-wipe an hour later, and i end up with tp coated with dookie?	Only wonder this once a day...	[ "BULLET::::- About one in four people with PR have mild to severe symptomatic itching. (Moderate itching due to skin over-dryness is much more common, especially if soap is used to cleanse the affected areas.) The itching is often non-specific, and worsens if scratched. This tends to fade as the rash develops and d...
Why do things smell? Can smell be measured?	Actually, we still don't fully understand how smell works. Of course, the basic steps of olfaction are easy to sketch out: 1) volatile compounds (odorants) travel from an object to your nose, 2) in your nose these compounds interact with certain receptors and 3) the receptors kick off a long biochemical pathway that en...	[ "The study of odors is a growing field but is a complex and difficult one. The human olfactory system can detect many thousands of scents based on only very minute airborne concentrations of a chemical. The sense of smell of many animals is even better. Some fragrant flowers give off \"odor plumes\" that move downw...
why don't creationists believe that evolution and their god could work hand in hand?	Many do. The Catholic Church, for instance: > in the 1950 encyclical Humani generis, Pope Pius XII confirmed that there is no intrinsic conflict between Christianity and the theory of evolution, provided that Christians believe that the individual soul is a direct creation by God and not the product of purely materia...	[ "...As far as I can see, God certainly could have used Darwinian processes to create the living world and direct it as he wanted to go; hence evolution as such does not imply that there is no direction in the history of life. What does have that implication is not evolutionary theory itself, but \"unguided\" evolut...
How do you optimally place two or more Hot Pockets in a Microwave?	Provided your microwave has a turntable, place food you want cooked evenly toward the outside so that it travels through more of the microwave and thus consistently passes through hot/cold areas. If you put food in the very middle it could more or less be stuck in a single... hot pocket? (or cold pocket). Toward the ...	[ "Acting as internal heat source, microwave absorption is able to heat the target compounds without heating the entire furnace or oil bath, which saves time and energy. It is also able to heat sufficiently thin objects throughout their volume (instead of through its outer surface), in theory producing more uniform h...
Why did the Industrial Revolution happen in Europe and not in places like China or India?	this is a pretty similar thread that can maybe answer your questionhttps://_URL_0_	[ "By the mid to late 19th century, China began losing its global economic edge as the European colonial powers and Japan were rapidly modernizing and industrializing. A number of factors such as contributed to China's stagnation behind Europe and Japan such as bureaucractic centralization that impeded innovation, cr...
on moon, where does the height of mountains "begin", when there is no sea level?	Altitude is calculated from a reference sphere with a radius of 1737km. So the sea level (or altitude 0) is defined as being 1737Km 'above' the center of mass of the moon.	[ "At some 10,786 m (35,387 ft) above the lunar mean, it is nearly twenty percent 'taller' than Earth's relative highest point, Everest. The summit is located along the north-eastern rim of Engel'gardt crater. Although methods of measurement differ somewhat (e.g. where is sea level on the Moon?), since its discovery ...
how do sites like ez tv and kick ass torrents not easily get shut down?	It's difficult to shut down torrent hosting sites because they don't technically host any pirated content. EZTV doesn't even host any torrent files, it only links to other sites that do host torrent files, which is one more degree of separation between them and the actual piracy. Of course, in many places, aiding/enc...	[ "There are several reasons why content providers and copyright holders may not choose torrent poisoning as a method for guarding their content. First, before injecting decoys, content providers have to normally monitor the BitTorrent network for signs that their content is being illegally shared (this includes watc...
dropshipping	Well dropshipping is profitable, but not as buying wholesale, since you aren't buying large quantities of the product. People don't buy from the distributor, because often they are hard to find, and even if you do manage to find it, sometimes there are minimum order prices, or even subscriptions. All of this stuff take...	[ "The drop swindle was a confidence trick commonly used during the 19th and 20th centuries. Employing a variety of techniques the con usually consists of the \"dropper\", who purposely drops a wallet containing counterfeit money near a potential victim. As the victim goes to pick it up the \"dropper\" turns to pick ...
In a common medieval battle, how many combatants would be wearing armor?	There was never a time where the majority had plate armor or anything approaching it. There have been military traditions like the Roman legions and Greek hoplite phalanx where a large number of the infantry had at least some armor. The heavy cavalry cataphracts of Persia and the Byzantine Empire were the prototypes fo...	[ "The Armored Combat or \"Heavy Weapons Fighting\" forms practiced in the SCA roughly mirror those of medieval infantry, and both tournaments and battles are fought. The fighters wear armor (often of their own making) made of plastic, leather, or steel, or any combination thereof. \n", "Participants use armour and...
why does microsoft care so much about people using edge?	Your user data is a valuable advertising tool, directed ads are worth money. You may recall that a law was passed saying your isp gets to sell your browsing data.. Google has been collecting that kind of data for years! That's why you get targeted google ads. If you search for a new deep fryer on google, then yo...	[ "Edge integrates with Microsoft's online platforms in order to provide voice control, search functionality, and dynamic information related to searches within the address bar. Users can make annotations to web pages that can be stored to and shared with OneDrive, but can't save HTML pages to their own computers. It...
why are ceiling fans worthless if there's no one in the room?	Ceiling fans mostly make you feel cool because the warmest air is pulled up and the cooler air moves below at person level. However, the temperature in the room doesn't actually get any lower--it only helps cool down someone on who the air is currently blowing. In fact, the heat generated by the fan will make it slight...	[ "A typical ceiling fan weighs between 15 and 50 pounds when fully assembled. While many junction boxes can support that weight while the fan is hanging still, a fan \"in operation\" exerts many additional stresses—notably torsion—on the object from which it is hung; this can cause an improper junction box to fail. ...
What is the fastest a human has ever travelled?	_URL_0_ 24,791 mph	[ "Greg Kolodziejzyk set two world records recognized by both the International Human Powered Vehicle Association and Guinness (TM) World Records on July 17, 2006 on a race track in Eureka, California. The first record is for the most distance traveled in 24 hours by human power , and the second for the worlds fastes...
When it's really cold outside what causes your body to tense up making movement difficult?	You're probably referring to the shivering response _URL_0_ Reflexive muscle shivering generates heat when your body temperature drops.	[ "In trying to resist this position, the body will begin to shake in places such as the legs and hands. Several other things happen besides this. Muscles in the body contract, causing them to be tense and ready to attack. Second, \"blood vessels in the extremities constrict\". This can leave a person with the feelin...
Do cones actually amplify sound, or do they just focus it?	Focusing is constructive interference, so I guess the answer to your question is "Yes." RickRussellTX was correct in noting that energy can't increase, and some is obviously lost to the surroundings, but the cone would change the typical inverse square loss of intensity. This means you get the "cardboard tube" effect ...	[ "The information conveyed by a single cone is limited: by itself, the cell cannot tell the brain which wavelength of light caused its excitation. A visual pigment may absorb two wavelengths equally, but even though their photons are of different energies, the cone cannot tell them apart, because they both cause the...
Why is it (especially with modern medicine) that domesticated animals have such short life-spans?	I don't think an accurate answer can be found considering we aren't factoring in everything. 1) There are different breeds of dogs which have different life spans so we can't be clear without being specific. 2) Not all pet owners have vet insurance so not all of them are willing to take their pets to the vet when the...	[ "Biodemographic studies found that even genetically identical laboratory animals kept in constant environment have very different lengths of life, suggesting a crucial role of chance and early-life developmental noise in longevity determination. This leads to new approaches in understanding causes of exceptional hu...
how time works?	The time dilation that occurs from gravity and speed according to relativity is fairly insignificant in most places in the universe, and "~14 billion years old" gives enough wiggle room to account for that. To answer your other questions, yes when we see a star that's 1000 light years away, we're seeing that star as i...	[ "In computing, TIME is a command in DEC RT-11, DOS, IBM OS/2, Microsoft Windows and a number of other operating systems that is used to display and set the current system time. It is included in command-line interpreters (shells) such as codice_1, codice_2, 4DOS, 4OS2 and 4NT.\n", "Time is an abstract measurement...
Why don't satellites around the earth gather in a ring (like saturn)	Man-made satellites go into the inclinations where people put them. The material in Saturn's rings is in rings because it general it stays in the inclination of its origins.	[ "Saturn's rings are the most extensive ring system of any planet in the Solar System, and thus have been known to exist for quite some time. Galileo Galilei first observed them in 1610, but they were not accurately described as a disk around Saturn until Christiaan Huygens did so in 1655. With help from the NASA/ES...
i've heard many times that honey is actually a superb home remedy for burns. how true is this, if at all? what's the science and chemistry behind it?	It's at most maybe true. There was a metastudy conducted in India on whether honey was useful for healing burns, and its findings were that honey can be effective for improving the healing of minor, surface burns; its effectiveness was not proven on deeper or more serious burns, however. Since there's only one study,...	[ "Honey has been used since ancient times to aid wound healing and may be beneficial in first- and second-degree burns. There is tentative evidence that honey helps heal partial thickness burns. The evidence for aloe vera is of poor quality. While it might be beneficial in reducing pain, and a review from 2007 found...
Does my phone get heavier when it receives a text message?	Most, if not all, cellphones these days use flash memory for storage. [Flash memory](_URL_0_) uses [Floating-gate transistors](_URL_1_) to store bits of information. Depending on the current cell state, the electric charge in the cell could either go up or down. However, weight change due to electric fields of this m...	[ "BULLET::::- Text messaging (texting) – this is a service on cell phones, allowing a user to type a short alphanumeric message and send it to another phone number, and the text is displayed on the recipient's phone screen. It is based on the Short Message Service (SMS) which transmits using spare bandwidth on the c...
It never made sense to me how easily Christianity overcame paganism. How did they fight thousands of years of inertia to get people to voluntarily give up their ancient beliefs?	The quick answer is that it wasn't easy. It took three centuries for Christianity to become officially tolerated and protected by Constantine, and nearly another century and a pagan emperor before it became the state religion under Theodosius. Although the empire was seemingly largely Christian by the fifth century, in...	[ "The numerous laws against pagans seems to have had only limited immediate effect in stamping out the old religion. Many people simply conformed outwardly and pretended to become Christian while secretly continuing to practice their beliefs. The numerous laws against apostasy, that had been continuously promulgated...
why do news websites insist on using terrible video players when it would be easier and more user friendly to embed youtube videos?	Youtube has an infamously crappy report system that can be abused, so a breaking news story might be yanked because it offended some 14-year old in a basement somewhere. I'm also not sure about the rights situation, Youtube might stake a claim in the news station's video if they upload it there.	[ "Since the early 1980s, advocates of video games have emphasized their use as an expressive medium, arguing for their protection under the laws governing freedom of speech and also as an educational tool. Detractors argue that video games are harmful and therefore should be subject to legislative oversight and rest...
how do modern vehicles prevent wireless keys from being locked inside?	As a person that’s worked at a Car rental place. They really don’t, most cars will give you a message in the dash about keys inside but that’s about it. I’ve had to deal with locked cars that are keyless and having to unlock them with tools. Hell, you could even start your car up go back inside and leave the keys insid...	[ "Today, many cars with power door locks also have a radio frequency remote keyless system, which allows a person to press a button on a remote control key fob, the first being available on the French made Renault Fuego in 1982. Currently, many luxury makers also allow the windows to be opened or closed by pressing ...
why have the planets in the solar system assumed relatively perfect circular orbits?	The planets have elliptical orbits. They are close to circular, but they're not perfect circles. And anyway, a circle is just a specialized ellipse with the centers in the same place.	[ "Most planetary orbits are nearly circular, and careful observation and calculation are required in order to establish that they are not perfectly circular. Calculations of the orbit of Mars indicated an elliptical orbit. From this, Johannes Kepler inferred that other bodies in the Solar System, including those far...
when did tobacco companies start adding to cigarettes all of the carcinogenic properties we know about today? were cigarettes ever safe?	Tobacco smoke contains most of those carcinogens naturally (there are such things as cigarette additives but they're mostly flavorants and they're regulated) Turns out burning a dried leaf and inhaling the smoke is bad for you. Go figure. "Natural" is not the same as "good for you."	[ "In recent years, there is growing evidence that the tobacco industry has known all along that cigarettes are harmful, but continued to market and sell them. There is also evidence that they knew that nicotine was addictive and exploited this hidden knowledge to get millions of people hooked on this dangerous habit...
why are trick plays in american football so rare?	Because trick plays only work if the defense isn't ready for them. If the defense correctly recognizes a trick play as it happens, they are easy to stop, usually for a big loss. Take the simplest trick play, a "reverse". The whole offense flows to the right as if the RB is running a sweep right, trying to get the de...	[ "Trick plays take advantage of the fact that nearly all American football plays are either a pass from the quarterback or a run by the halfback. As a result, defenses will think \"pass\" when the quarterback has the ball and \"run\" when the running back has it. They respond by quickly changing position in an attem...
The Kurds seem to be one of the most heterogeneous groups in the Middle East. Is this a modern tendency or historic?	I'm not a historian and in order not to break the rules of this subreddit by replying with my opinion and not historical facts, I invite you to come over to r/Kurdistan and ask us there :)	[ "Kurds make up the fourth largest ethnic group in the Middle East, after Arabs, Persians and Turks. Despite the size of the Kurdish population, the Kurds have always been a minority in their respective nation-states since the fall of the Ottoman Empire. They currently are minorities in the adjacent areas of Syria, ...
On Americans and their Tea Parties	Tea was very popular in the American Colonies, but by far the most popular drink in the colonies early national America was [Alchohol](_URL_0_). All three meals were accompanied by some kind of booze, and it was common for large bowls of spirits to be left around the house for consumption at one's leisure. Colonist's...	[ "In Anglo-American culture, a tea party is a formal gathering for afternoon tea. These parties were traditionally attended only by women, but men may also be invited. Tea parties are often characterized by the use of prestigious tableware, such as bone china and silver. The table, whatever its size or cost, is made...
is it built in to the genetic code of a virus to make its host sneeze or cough in order to further spread itself and ‘grow’? or is it just the body making an effort to expel the bad stuff?	Some viruses and bacteria use our body functions against us, to aid in their spread. Cholera is a bacteria, it injects a toxin into the causes the body to inject more water into the intestine causing diahrea, and hopefully contaminating more food & water sources so it can spread to other people. Cold viruses do the...	[ "\"Molluscum contagiosum virus\" only infects human epidermal cells. It is not spread throughout the body, which explains why the virus cannot be transmitted through coughing or sneezing. People have attempted to grow the virus in cell culture to study its molecular properties, but have been largely unsuccessful du...
If a nearby star goes supernova, what are the consequences in our solar system?	A supernova [within 75-100 lightyears](_URL_0_) could shower us with enough radiation to break down most of the ozone in the ozone layer making life temporarily difficult for plants. One in the next solar system over could exceed the gravitational binding energy of the atmosphere (RIP atmosphere, you were good while yo...	[ "Supernovae can result from the death of an extremely massive star, many times heavier than the Sun. At the end of the life of this massive star, a non-fusible iron core is formed from fusion ashes. This iron core is pushed towards the Chandrasekhar limit till it surpasses it and therefore collapses.\n", "WR star...
When the Spanish first arrived in the Americas they transmitted several diseases to the natives which quickly killed entire communities. Why didn't the same occur when the diseases that the natives were carrying were transmitted to the Spanish?	hi! this is a popular question here - check out previous responses in this section of the FAQ* [Native Americans and (European) Diseases](_URL_0_) *see the link on the sidebar or the wiki tab	[ "Diseases introduced to the Americas by the conquistadors had a great impact upon indigenous populations. As the Spanish were occupied with the conquest of Mexico, these diseases ran ahead of them from 1519 onwards. A smallpox epidemic swept through Guatemala in 1520–1521, and is also likely to have spread througho...
what makes liquid "bounce" when falling?	Most liquids you're likely to encounter are going to be comprised heavily of water. Water is a polar molecule, which means one side of it is slightly negatively charged, and the other side is slightly positively charged. Because of this structure (one slightly negative oxygen atom, two slightly positive hydrogen atoms)...	[ "When a liquid drop strikes a dry solid surface, it generally spreads on the surface, and then will retract if the impact is energetic enough to cause the drop to spread out more than it would generally spread due to its static receding contact angle. The specific outcome of the impact depends mostly upon the drop ...
intel core i7 processor	Basically, the "virtual cores" you're talking about are a feature called "HyperThreading". Hyperthreading can increase the performance of your computer if the following points are true: * The program you're running is limited by your CPU * The program you're running is heavily threaded- meaning that more performance c...	[ "Intel Core i7 as an Intel brand name applies to several families of desktop and laptop 64-bit x86-64 processors using the Nehalem, Westmere, Sandy Bridge, Ivy Bridge, Haswell, Broadwell, Skylake, and Kaby Lake microarchitectures. The Core i7 brand targets the business and high-end consumer markets for both desktop...
Why do Azerbaijan and Armenia each have enclave territories inside each other?	If you're looking at this from a technical sense, the enclaves and enclaves technically don't exist anymore as a result of the Artsakh War in the 90s and are only there due to political reasons. Technicalities aren't fun so to understand the full history you have to look at the events of the last century or so. There a...	[ "The Armenia–Azerbaijan border is an international border running from north to south and from northwest to southeast across the Lesser Caucasus. The border spans , with Armenia mainly to the west and Azerbaijan to the east. The Azerbaijani exclave of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic borders Armenia at the north ...
Why is my breath warmer and more humid when I "haaa" (to clean my glasses) than when I blow air through pursed lips (i.e. blowing out candles)?	Other than the speed of the air mentioned in the other comment, the actual air flowing past your hand is also cooler and drier. A fast moving stream of air causes a phenomenon called entrainment, where surrounding air gets pulled into the jet you're blowing.	[ "During blowing, thinner layers of glass cool faster than thicker ones and become more viscous than the thicker layers. That allows production of blown glass with uniform thickness instead of causing blow-through of the thinned layers.\n", "Nose-blowing becomes a breach of etiquette if it is done directly in fron...
why do .gifv files play so much better than .gif files if they have the same content?	The Graphic Interchange Format, usually indicated with file extension `.gif`, supports multiple frames that can be played in sequence. This allows it to support simple animations, and is the reason that most browsers by default will loop GIF animations. However, people started using it as a format to share videos--GIF ...	[ "For identical 8-bit (or lower) image data, PNG files are typically smaller than the equivalent GIFs, due to the more efficient compression techniques used in PNG encoding. Complete support for GIF is complicated chiefly by the complex canvas structure it allows, though this is what enables the compact animation fe...
Does a beam of light accelerate before it reaches its maximum speed, or is it at lightspeed as soon as it starts traveling?	Photons always travel at speed c, the speed of light, from the moment they are created. There is no acceleration.	[ "As speeds approach that of light, the acceleration produced by a given force decreases, becoming infinitesimally small as light speed is approached; an object with mass can approach this speed asymptotically, but never reach it.\n", "At speeds near the speed of light, the incremental velocity increase will be sm...
How stable was pre-colonial Africa?	That's a huge question to ask, since the very term precolonial Africa can refer to any number of areas and centuries prior to European involvement. That being said, I'll try to tackle a few big points for you here. There were a few precolonial kingdoms in the Sahel that were pretty significant. The Kingdom of Ghana...	[ "In the 1700s, the British Empire and other European powers had settlements and forts in West Africa but had not yet established the full-scale plantation colonies which existed in the Americas. Adam Smith wrote in 1776 that the African societies were better established and more populous than those of the Americas,...
why are some acids such as hydrofluoric acid and hcl so good at dissolving solids on contact? what causes this?	Most of the time, the behavior of acids depends on two things: the strength of the acid and what the anion of the acid is (as an example, the anion in HCl is Cl^- because dissolving HCl will give H3O^+ ions and Cl^- ion). Hydrofluoric acid is an odd one. Unlike all of the other halogenic acids (HCl, HBr, HI), HF is a ...	[ "Chaotropic salts that dissociate in solution exert chaotropic effects via different mechanisms. Whereas chaotropic compounds such as ethanol interfere with non-covalent intramolecular forces as outlined above, salts can have chaotropic properties by shielding charges and preventing the stabilization of salt bridge...
why does it feels sometimes that by laying down on your back will help to relief a hiccup ?	Hiccups are the result of a irritation of the diaphragm, Its a membrane/muscle below your lungs which causes air pressure in the area around the lungs to rise and decrease by moving, causing your lungs to take in and push out air. by lying down you´re relaxing it a bit, so in some cases it can ease hiccups, but it de...	[ "Irritation of the phrenic nerve (or the tissues supplied by it) leads to the hiccup reflex. A hiccup is a spasmodic contraction of the diaphragm, which pulls air against the closed folds of the larynx.\n", "Lockhart stated that hiccups can sometimes be cured by pinching the skin that covers the surface of the de...
Did Christianity really hold back knowledge hundreds of years?	Not to forestall further responses - espeically because this doesn't deal with the advancement of Japan and South Korea - but there's a good answer in our [Science and Health FAQ](_URL_0_) by /u/restricteddata: to this question: [Did the Catholic Church hold back scientific and technological progress in the Middle Age...	[ "A number of later Christian texts, usually dating to the second century or later, exist as New Testament apocrypha, among which the gnostic gospels have been of major recent interest among scholars. The 1945 discovery of the Nag Hammadi library created a significant amount of scholarly interest and many modern sch...
How do computers handle extremely large numbers or irrational numbers to a large decimal place?	Let's add two 128-bit integers. A 128-bit integer can be uniquely written in what is essentially base 2^64 in this way: x = 2^(64) x_1_ + x_2_ y = 2^(64) y_1_ + y_2_ When you add them, you get this: x + y = 2^(64) (x_1_ + y_1_) + (x_2_ + y_2_) So to add them together you ad...	[ "Computers cannot directly store arbitrary real numbers with infinitely many digits. The achievable precision is limited by the number of bits allocated to store a number, whether as floating-point numbers or arbitrary-precision numbers. However, computer algebra systems can operate on irrational quantities exactly...
Has the human penis grown larger over time due to natural selection?	_URL_0_ Fetal androgen ratios cause penis size differences. There could be several reasons (aside from penis size) that these androgen ratio differences occur. In other words, human larger penises (relative to other primates) could be a side effect, and not necessarily occur from female selection.	[ "Morris said that \"Homo sapiens\" not only have the largest brains of all higher primates, but that sexual selection in human evolution has caused humans to have the highest ratio of penis size to body mass. Morris conjectured that human ear-lobes developed as an additional erogenous zone to facilitate the extende...
What is this expanding ring captured by doppler radar today over the Florida Everglades?	What you are looking at is an outflow boundary from a dying thunderstorm complex. And an excellent example at that! The first thing you need to know to understand this phenomenon is the life cycle of a typical summer thunderstorm. There are several types of thunderstorms: this variety is known as a "Pulse Thunderstorm...	[ "The Opana Radar Site is a National Historic Landmark and IEEE Milestone that commemorates the first operational use of radar by the United States in wartime, during the attack on Pearl Harbor. It is located off the Kamehameha Highway just inland from the north shore of Oahu, Hawaii, south of Kawela Bay. It is not ...
why does classical music have such an effect on us?	Modern day music is made to sell, classical music is made to experience. But to get realy into it youtube 432hz classic music. Believe or not thats up to you. Yes its a conspiracy, no i don't believe all of it. Yes it works.	[ "Classical music has been seen as undergoing a fundamental shift in focus and importance from the second half of the 19th century, as it began to search for a distinctive national identity or identities and played an increasing role in British cultural life.\n", "The use of music as a stress coping strategy has a...
what do websites have to gain by making their visitors annoyed (from excessive popups/poor formatting/etc) to the point that they leave and never come back?	They can't attribute the lost visits to the ads. They're not trying to make a site that produces value. They're focused on "making money." I work in tech. Far too few people understand that you can't make money if you don't produce value first. Many think it's the other way around.	[ "Browse abandonment emails reconnect merchants with website visitors who quit the site without purchase action, giving chances to turn window shoppers into actual buyers. Browse abandonment is on the upper side of the purchase funnel, and the next abandonment which stop customers accessing to check-out is cart aban...
in animated shows, why is the object that the character is about to interact with look different than the background objects?	Because rather than re-animate the background for every frame, the foreground objects are animated separately and placed on the stationary background. That's why you can always see what Bugs Bunny is about to do to Daffy Duck before it happens.	[ "The show's visual style is that of digital ink-and-paint. The style was chosen both for the retro feel it gives the show and for the versatility and freedom it allows the animators, providing an environment in which it is possible to combine many different styles of animation. Another unique aspect of the show is ...
What is better for the environment - a paperless digital world or a paper only gadget free world?	Both suck for the environment. Logging while much more friendly recently is still a dirty business. I do not recall how much of our wood comes from tree farms, but it is still most likely not the majority yet. (Significant percent though, in the tens) However, the production of paper, or pulp mills is often a heavil...	[ "\"Paper or plastic? Bus or car? Old house or new? Cloth diapers or disposables? Some choices have a huge impact on the environment; others are of negligible importance. To those of us who care about our quality of life and what is happening to the earth, this is a vastly important issue. In these pages, the Union ...
For what reasons was Christianity so appealing to many South Asian, East Asian, and Sub-Saharan African people in the 20th century?	Just a sidenote: I made my graduation and master degree about jesuits in Japan and how the perspective of death changed for the converted christians. Readint the missivas - the jesuit letters - I found a lot, really a lot, of japanese who converted for the sake of eat meat. Yes, cow meat. Jesuits had a big impact on th...	[ "The significant growth of Christianity in non-Western countries led to regional distribution changes of Christians. In 1900, Europe and the Americas were home to the vast majority of the world's Christians (93%). Besides, Christianity has grown enormously in Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and Pacific. In 2010, 26% of th...
How large is the largest possible moon that a planet could have?	"largeness is the percentage of the planet's sky it takes up, not mass or absolute size of the moon." I think you mean what is called the angular diameter of the moon. That is determined by how far the moon is from the person looking at it and the physical size of the moon. Our own moon would appear bigger if it we...	[ "An intense search conducted by \"New Horizons\" confirmed that no moons larger than 4.5 km in diameter exist at the distances up to 180,000 km from Pluto (for smaller distances, this threshold is still smaller).\n", "The Moon is exceptionally large relative to Earth: Its diameter is more than a quarter and its m...
how come newer phones only have hybrid sim (sim+sim or sim+sd card) when old phpnes were able to have 2 sim slots and a micro sd slot?	Space is at an ultra premium in newer generations of phones, the less they have to deal with for stuff like this, the better they can design the phone. Adding more slots and sizes and places a user needs to interact with the external portion of a phone drastically alters their design ability. In a perfect world, we’d ...	[ "Dual-SIM devices have two SIM card slots for the use of two SIM cards, from one or multiple carriers. Dual-SIM mobile phones come with two slots for SIMs in various locations such as: one behind the battery and another on the side of the phone; both slots behind the battery; or on the side of the phone if the devi...
How did they make wine and beer before retail disinfectants?	Brewers did not disinfect anything until at the very least the early XIX c. František Ondřej Poupě, a Czech brewmaster, was one of the first to take a scientific approach to brewing in his book Umění vařit pivo fyzicko-chemicko-hospodářsky popsané (The Art of Beer Brewing - A Physico-chemical Economic Description), pub...	[ "In 1863, French chemist and biologist Louis Pasteur invented pasteurization, a method of killing harmful bacteria in beverages and food products. He developed this method while on summer vacation in Arbois, to remedy the frequent acidity of the local wines. He found out experimentally that it is sufficient to heat...
stephen hawking's theory of imaginary time	Do you know Pythagoras's Theorem, c^2 = a^2 + b^(2)? Well, it turns out that's is just a specific application of the distance formula in 3D space. Generally, if a point has coordinates (X, Y, Z), then its distance from the origin, the point (0, 0, 0), is D^2 = X^2 + Y^2 + Z^(2). Ok, now let's go to relativity. Instead...	[ "Miller was invited to Zhengzhou University in 2012 by Dr. Li Ying, and he began to design and conduct original experiments in the Psychology Department. He and his new team of post grad assistants explored collective intelligence and group wisdom. A portion of the experiments used monaural and binaural beats to ma...
What is the chemical(s) in the numbing anesthesia that dentists use, and how does it work?	The chemicals used by the dentist for numbing are local anesthestics which fall into two chemical categories bases on their structure: esters and amides. I think dentist primarily use lidocaine now, though procaine (aka novocaine) was used more in the past. Local anesthetics work by crossing into nerve cells near where...	[ "Methods used by dentist to reduce pain during anaesthesia by using the gate control theory are: Warming of the local anaesthetic cartridge, Stretching the oral mucosa, Gentle rubbing of the extra-oral skin.\n", "The lidocaine/prilocaine combination is indicated for dermal anaesthesia. Specifically it is applied ...
Which economic philosophers should I know about? any books I should read?	The /r/ask_politics sub has a [book list](_URL_0_) that features a few economic theory books. Don't just look at the Economic Theory section either--check out the other political theory sections and the Federal Budget section.	[ "Published in 1953, \"The Worldly Philosophers: The Lives, Times and Ideas of the Great Economic Thinkers\" (1953) has sold nearly four million copies, making it the second-best-selling economics text of all time (the first being Paul Samuelson's \"Economics\", a highly popular university textbook). The seventh edi...
If we can make false 3D images in the second dimension, can we make false 4D structures in the third dimension?	Yes, although you won't recognize it as such. Since your brain isn't wired to see things in 4D, it will just see a 3D object. Much like how a hypothetical flatlander, when faced with your 2D drawing of a cube, will not see a cube—rather, just ~~six~~ eight points connected by lines in a specific pattern.	[ "2.5D (\"two-and-a-half-dimensional\"), 3/4 perspective and pseudo-3D are informal terms used to describe graphical projections and techniques that try to \"fake\" three-dimensionality, typically by using some form of parallel projection, wherein the point of view is from a fixed perspective, but also reveals multi...
The Seven Year's War had a theater in every continent and involved all of the major powers at the time -- why don't we refer to it as World War I?	The difference between WWI and WWII, and the Seven Years' War is mass conscription/mobilization and mechanization. These changes created wars that led to enormous loss of life and destruction, unlike anything in the past. Hence, you can understand why people previously called WWI the Great War or the war to end all war...	[ "The Seven Years' War was a global conflict fought between 1756 and 1763. It involved every European great power of the time and spanned five continents, affecting Europe, the Americas, West Africa, South Asia, and the Philippines. The conflict split Europe into two coalitions: one was led by the Kingdom of Great B...
What are some examples of Roman infantry tactics being countered effectively?	Heya! The thing is, with the Romans, you hear more about their victories, their conquests, and their fall. Learning about specific battles and wars, on the other hand, is something that most people have glossed over! There are a few fantastic examples, but I want to start off with a quick discussion of the strengths of...	[ "Roman infantry tactics refers to the theoretical and historical deployment, formation, and maneuvers of the Roman infantry from the start of the Roman Republic to the fall of the Western Roman Empire. \n", "This new defeat, which followed that at the Caudine Forks, forced the Roman military to reorganize and ret...
Are there any materials in this world that are impenetrable by gamma rays?	It all depends on thickness of the material. Air can effectively stop gamma rays from outer space. The 100 km of atmosphere make a very good shield. The Earth itself stops them. But if you are looking for a thin material, I would have to say no. Gamma rays are just high energy light and subject to the same Beer's law...	[ "A sample of gamma ray-emitting material that is used for irradiating or imaging is known as a gamma source. It is also called a radioactive source, isotope source, or radiation source, though these more general terms also apply to alpha- and beta-emitting devices. Gamma sources are usually sealed to prevent radioa...
how could being near or farsighted help us? what is the purpose of having nearsighted or farsighted vision?	There's not a purpose; it's a defect. It's just a defect we've learned to artificially correct so it won't get weeded out evolutionarily.	[ "A particular place on this list should be reserved for the practitioners of foresight. Foresight is a tool for developing \"visions\", understood as possible future states of affairs that actions today can help bring about (or avoid). The practice of foresight is widespread in European strategic thinking, and to a...
In WW2 did Germany mistreat African American or Jewish American POWs more than white American POWs?	I can answer for what happened to Jewish POWs. Most of them would of course hide they were Jewish by not having it on their dog tags or throwing them away if you though you would be captured. So if you were caught without dog tags then most would lie or hide that they were Jewish. If you were a known jew then you would...	[ "While no orders were issued in regards to black prisoners of war, some German commanders undertook to separate black people from captured French units for summary execution. There are also documented cases of captured African American soldiers suffering the same fate. In the absence of any official policy, the tre...
Why did old CRT TVs get some discoloration when you hold a magnet up to them?	The pixels of a CRT are made from a phosphorescent material that emits light when hit by electrons. To create the picture, a modulated electron beam is swept over the screen to selectively light up the pixels you want to light up. For each point, you actually have three pixels for the elementary colours. If you put a m...	[ "Modern CRT displays are less susceptible than older CRTs prior to the 1960s because they have a layer of aluminum behind the phosphor which offers some protection. The aluminum layer was provided to reflect more light from the phosphor towards the viewer. As a bonus, the aluminum layer also prevented ion burn of t...
When I boil noodles, what is happening on a molecular level?	Pasta is composed largely of wheat flour, which contains a lot of starch. Starch is really just a kind of carbohydrate, and is made by plants during photosynthesis and functions as an energy store for them - plants can degrade starch later using a whole bunch of enzymes and cofactors to produce energy when they cannot ...	[ "Starch gelatinization is the most important feature in instant noodles that can enhance water retention during cooking. Two key steps in instant noodle processing serve the function to trigger starch gelatinization, which are steaming and oil-frying. Starch gelatinization occurs when starch granules swell in water...
What's the history of the outlandishly foppish American pimp?	Not to discourage further discussion, but this has actually come up before with [an excellent answer](_URL_0_) from u/yodatsracist.	[ "BULLET::::- The Piranha Club is a society of freeloaders, hustlers and other shady characters who will do anything to make a quick buck. It also houses an actual piranha named Earl who serves as the club's mascot and trash compactor. This piranha is so voracious he will bite and eat everything within reach of his ...
What examples are there of evolutionary traits that originally helped individuals of a species, but were bad for the species as a whole?	Maybe this is a bit of a cheating answer, but any "tragedy of the commons" scenario (_URL_0_) kind of fits. In humans, I'm not sure one could identify a single trait that drives this type of behavior, but selfishness, and the inappropriate bias toward considering short-term vs. long-term outcomes both play a role. In...	[ "Antagonistic pleiotropy is one of the several reasons evolutionary biologists give for organisms never being able to reach perfection through natural selection. Antagonistically pleiotropic genes are the explanation for fitness trade-offs. This means that genes that are pleiotropic control for some beneficial trai...
Why do humans have such long hair on our heads (if we left it uncut) when close relatives such as chimps do not? Does it serve some purpose?	One idea is that it's an example of runaway sexual selection with longer hair being indicative of greater health: _URL_0_	[ "Humans, horses, orangutans and lions are among the few species that may grow their head hair or manes very long. Humans are believed to have lost their fur 2.5–3 million years ago as hominids when transitioning from a forest habitat to the open savanna, as an effect of natural selection, since this development mad...
when something has sugars and carbs is that the same thing?	In your example, it's the same thing. Sugars are carbohydrates but not all carbohydrates are sugars.	[ "This is a list of sugars and sugar products. Sugar is the generalized name for sweet, short-chain, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. They are composed of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. There are various types of sugar derived from different sources.\n", "Sugar is the generic name for sweet-ta...
With Mars' lesser gravity would we be able to build a space elevator there with current materials?	Unfortunately not. The maximum length of a cable supporting its own weight, with most engineering materials, is about 20 km. _URL_0_ Mars' gravity is approximately 1/3 of that of Earth. Since length to rupture is directly proportional to gravity I can easily estimate this as 3 times longer: 60 km. But this is still v...	[ "On Earth, with its relatively strong gravity, current technology is not capable of manufacturing tether materials that are sufficiently strong and light enough to build a space elevator. However, recent concepts for a space elevator are notable for their plans to use carbon nanotube or boron nitride nanotube-based...
how can bread be both "whole wheat" and "gluten-free"?	researchers showed that it’s possible to render wheat technically gluten-free when it undergoes a slow lacto-fermentation with speciﬁc lacto-bacilli and fungi. The wheat started out life with a normal 75,000 ppm (parts per million) of gluten, but after the sourdough fermentation process, gluten levels were only 12 ppm....	[ "Whole wheat bread or wholemeal bread is a type of bread made using flour that is partly or entirely milled from whole or almost-whole wheat grains, see whole-wheat flour and whole grain. It is one kind of brown bread. Synonyms or near-synonyms for whole-wheat bread outside the United States (e.g., the UK) are whol...
why have airships not made a return now that engineering has improved and a safer airship could be made since the hindenburg disaster?	The aesthetics of the sky hardly compensate for the otherwise pointless activity of spending vast amounts of money to move through the air at low speeds, subjected to the whims of the winds.	[ "The Zeppelin NT, being designed more than 60 years after the last generation of Zeppelins were built as well as making use of advances in material science and computer-aided design, has been claimed to overcome some of the typical disadvantages of airships, such as maneuverability, safety, and economics. In partic...
how do twin cities work?	You're mixing up twin cities and sister cities. Sister cities are just a friendly way for cities to reach out to cities in another country to promote business, tourism & cultural exchanges. "Twin cities", at least in the US, are when you have two cities that are both the "main" city in a metropolitan area, rath...	[ "Sister cities or twin towns are a form of legal or social agreement between towns, cities, counties, oblasts, prefectures, provinces, regions, states, and even countries in geographically and politically distinct areas to promote cultural and commercial ties. The modern concept of town twinning, conceived after th...
how come eggs are not served with chicken and vice versa?	There's a very popular dish in Japan called "Parent & Child" (Oyako) which has chicken and eggs, chicken and egg breakfast burritos, chicken and egg breakfast sandwiches at Chic-Fil-A...	[ "Eggs that have been laid by a chicken are considered pareve because they are separate from the animal. But eggs found inside a chicken after its slaughter are considered to be part of the animal and therefore have the status of meat. Commercially marketed eggs generally are not taken from slaughtered animals and t...

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