Split (2)

train · 226k rows

question stringlengths 3 301	answer stringlengths 9 26.1k	context list
why do all 24 hour cable news networks cut to commercial break at the exact same time?	If they had commercials at different times, you could just switch to another channel instead of watching commercials. And that wouldn't really benefit the channel you switch to because you can do the same again when their commercials come on. So all channels benefit from keeping their commercials roughly in sync with ...	[ "On a national network, programming interruptions are restricted to extremely urgent news. On the other hand, such breaks are now common on 24-hour news channels which often have an anchor available for live interruption at any time. However, in recent times, a 'breaking news' banner has been used more frequently o...
About seismic activity: would a series of small quakes release enough pressure to prevent "the big one"?	I can only give an armature answer to this at best but let me see. The cause of earthquakes along faults are a release of energy. In California almost all of our faults are transform, which means they slide last each other, specifically to the right if you looked across the fault line. Though there is a certain amount ...	[ "The quake also disproved scientists' opinions on deep earthquakes. According to the squeeze theory of earthquakes, pressures and temperatures at the depth of 200 to 400 miles should be so great that rock should not undergo frictional sliding. Most geologists had believed that the crushing pressures and increasing ...
i know i don't drink enough water. if you're supposed to drink 6-8 glasses a day, why am i not dead or severely ill?	8 glasses a day is a myth. You need as much water as you need. If you live in a cold climate you'd need less. If you lived in a desert just having 8 a day would kill you from dehydration.	[ "BULLET::::- Eight glasses, or two to three liters, of water a day are not needed to maintain health. The amount of water needed varies by person (weight), activity level, clothing, and environment (heat and humidity). Water does not actually need to be drunk in pure form, but can be derived from liquids such as ju...
If black holes have infinite gravity, how come the entire universe isn't a singularity?	Black holes don't have infinite gravity. If the sun were to collapse and turn into a black hole today, it would be dark and cold, but we would continue in exactly the same orbit that we have today. Black holes' scary gravitational effect come about because you can get so close to the center of mass of a very massive ob...	[ "Gravitational singularities are mainly considered in the context of general relativity, where density apparently becomes infinite at the center of a black hole, and within astrophysics and cosmology as the earliest state of the universe during the Big Bang. Physicists are undecided whether the prediction of singul...
how can cars with snorkels and on-hood air intakes not have issues running in the rain?	There should still be an air filter between the intake and the engine itself that will screen out most of the moisture.	[ "Military wheeled vehicles, such as a HEMTT transport or a Unimog are often capable of mounting snorkels for the engine air intake only, to allow them to wade through relatively deep water, limited by the height of snorkel intake and the driver's head (usually slightly less than the height of the roof). Generally, ...
if the american culture is so old and has changed so much? why cant we say that we are 100% american, instead of 40% irish etc.	Well it's really not that old. What Americans consider old is like a few hundred years, compared to much much longer for other countries.	[ "According to Kenneth Weisbrode, though statistics point to American decline (increased death rate, political paralysis, increased crime), \"Americans have had a low culture for a very long time, and have long promoted it\". He thinks that the obsession with decline is not something new, as something dating back to...
why are the symptoms of period pain/ dysmenorrhea so varied?	Every body reacts differently to the level of hormones. Prior to starting birth control my periods were ‘normal’ regular cramping not a terribly heavy. I had friends who would double over in pain and miss school. Fibroids and ovarian cysts also make period pains worse.	[ "Secondary dysmenorrhea is the diagnosis given when menstruation pain is a secondary cause to another disorder. Conditions causing secondary dysmenorrhea include endometriosis, uterine fibroids, and uterine adenomyosis. Rarely, congenital malformations, intrauterine devices, certain cancers, and pelvic infections c...
What are the main differences between Soviet, Chinese, Yugoslavian, and Albanian communism?	_URL_1_ This is a great post discussing the differences between the different communist ideologies but don't really talk about yugoslavia or albania (other than a passing reference but doesn't talk about it) _URL_2_ This thread is specifically on how the communist government of yugoslavia functioned amd what it d...	[ "As with Yugoslavia after the Tito-Stalin split, Albania took a different course than most of the rest of the Eastern Bloc. Because of Party of Labour of Albania First Secretary Enver Hoxha's dogmatic Stalinist adherence, Albania broke with the Soviet Union in 1960 following the Soviet de-stalinization. Albania beg...
How does the charge of a particle actually work?	I'm not clear on your question. It sounds like you're asking "why do opposite charge repel one another while like charges attract?" If that is indeed your question, I have to direct you to Feynman's [beautiful answer](_URL_0_) to that very question. Also, you should be aware that charged particles generically generate...	[ "In physics, a charged particle is a particle with an electric charge. It may be an ion, such as a molecule or atom with a surplus or deficit of electrons relative to protons. It can also be an electron or a proton, or another elementary particle, which are all believed to have the same charge (except antimatter). ...
do sociopathic people still have a psychological need to interact with other human beings to not go insane?	Every patient have different profiles of their behaviours. Isolation cells in general have very little to no positive effects on sociopathic people (though please bear in mind that sociopath is an informal term to use) because humans are social animals and restricting one's ability to communicate likely only manifests ...	[ "One Chicago academic has argued in a review of TV trends that the contemporary fantasy of sociopathy/psychopathy is of someone whose emotional disconnection from others in society, rather than being the hindrance that it can represent in real clinical cases, enables them to be an amazingly successful manipulator d...
why is there a need for a 7nm chip manufacturing process?	more material - > more resistance - > more losses - > more heat That leaves you with 2 very big problems: heat and power. And making things smaller would solve both of your problems. Your chips will be more effective use less energy and therefore cause less heat. Or you could make them bigger pump in more power an...	[ "Intel's Itanium chip is based on what they call an explicitly parallel instruction computing (EPIC) design. This design supposedly provides the VLIW advantage of increased instruction throughput. However, it avoids some of the issues of scaling and complexity, by explicitly providing in each \"bundle\" of instruct...
why some people freckle whilst others tan.	Melanin is what makes skin darker. Freckles produce more melanin when exposed to sunlight. So, if you have freckles, they get darker when exposed to sunlight. It's not that the sun is creating freckles, it just makes the freckles darker. You may not have noticed them before because they were too light, but once exp...	[ "Freckles are not a skin disorder, but people with freckles generally have a lower concentration of photo-protective melanin, and are therefore more susceptible to the harmful effects of UV radiation. It is suggested that people whose skin tends to freckle should avoid overexposure to sun and use sunscreen.\n", "...
why is the inside of my microwave always several degrees warmer than the ambient room temperature?	You most likely have a vent fan that goes to outside. It is usually only sealed with two flaps that only open outward. Those let a bit of outside air leak back in. Attic/wall heat from where the vent tube travels may also contribute.	[ "The temperature of the air is generally maintained around 26.5 °C, getting warmer more and more due to the contact with various components, up to about 49 °C. When air is directed by fans in the warm closed corridor where, reaching the top of the room passes through the cooling coil and is cooled to room temperatu...
if moving at the speed of light causes you to experience no time, why does light still take time to get places?	I think the reason for your confusion is a misconception of special relativity. You often hear people say something along the lines of if you travel at speeds close to the speed of light, time gets really slow for your. Unfortunately, that is very wrong. What special relativity actually says is: *If an object is...	[ "The special theory of relativity limits the speed at which all such influences can travel to the speed of light, formula_1. Therefore, the principle of locality implies that an event at one point cannot cause a simultaneous result at another point. An event at point formula_2 cannot cause a result at point formula...
An average sized man, a body builder and a morbidly obese man are all deprived of food. Who would starve to death first and why?	The average sized man would die first. Muscle can be broken down and converted to energy. As long as the muscular guy did not continue to exercise while he was starving, his BMR would rapidly decrease in the absence of any caloric intake. The fat guy would survive the longest, obviously, since fat has a high caloric...	[ "In very obese persons, it has been shown that proteins can be depleted first and death from starvation is predicted to occur before fat reserves are used up. (There is nothing in the study about any of the five subjects dying.)\n", "In general, humans can survive for two to eight weeks without food, depending on...
How did people folding their hands together when praying originate?	According to "The Knight, The Lady And The Priest" by Georges Duby folding hands together when praying has its origins in the warrior culture of the early middle ages. Lesser nobles used the gesture to signify subordination when they took oaths of fealty to lords of higher rank. They, or rather their siblings who enter...	[ "BULLET::::- Praying hands, a reverent clasping of the hands together, is an expression used in most major religions during prayer. The palms of the hands are held together with the fingers extended and touching or the fingers folded upon the opposite hand. This gesture is often made with the two hands held at ches...
How did people in Rome (c. 100 CE) work for a living? What jobs did they have?	Well, just about any job you can think of. It was, as you say, a city of a million people, which requires an enormous amount of labor just to stay operable. You need tavern owners, builders, carpenters, potters, tanners, weavers, as well as sausage sellers, longshoremen, porters and firefighters. I suppose the big diff...	[ "After the Punic wars, Rome started the mass exploitation of slaves. However, the development of industry, trade and other branches of economy required skilled free workers that took interest in their jobs.\n", "Most Romans lived in \"insulae\" (apartment buildings), and those housing the poorer plebeian and non-...
Did Scottish Highlanders really ride a horse without wearing anything under the kilts?	They wouldn't have worn kilts for riding horseback, they would have worn tartan trews for riding. The idea of riding in a feilidh-mor isn't well supported, and honestly doesn't not seem smart. Common highlanders would not have been able to afford a horse in the 18 and 19th centuries, and the Highland gentry that had be...	[ "Thus, with the exception of the Army, the kilt went out of use in the Scottish Highlands, but during those years it became fashionable for Scottish romantics to wear kilts as a form of protest against the ban. This was an age that romanticized \"primitive\" peoples, which is how Highlanders were viewed. Most Lowla...
why do some people cry when they eat spicy stuff?	They don't cry, they tear up. You body thinks that spicy stuff is somehow bad. Maybe it's poisonous, maybe something else, but definitely not something you would need or want. And your body is trying to get rid of it. Easiest way is sweating, tearing up, runny nose or even diarrhea.	[ "Anger and excitement increase warmness and dryness in the body and are the signs and also the cause of dry and warm \"Mizaj\" as someone with warm and dry \"Mizaj\" is more prone to get angry or excited. People who consume too much warm and dry food stuff might be affected by anger and excitement more often.\n", ...
What did the Franks refer to themselves collectively as in the decades before and after Charlemagne's rule?	Franks identified themselves...well, as Franks or Franci, as their main collective identity. This term is present everywhere in contemporary texts and unmistakably designs the inhabitants of the "Frankish core", so to speak, made of the sub-kingdoms of Neustria, Burgondia and Austrasia : not that, critically with th...	[ "The Franks ( or ) were a collection of Germanic peoples, whose name was first mentioned in 3rd century Roman sources, associated with tribes on the Lower and Middle Rhine, on the edge of the Roman Empire. Later the term was associated with later Romanized Germanic dynasties within the collapsing Western Roman Empi...
why do humans get nervous in non life-or-death situations?	The situation is still stressful, so the body will react as if it is in true danger. The body itself doesn't know that you're about to take a test or ask a girl out. It just knows there is something that is causing you stress, so whatever we, as higher thinking mammals, view as stressful, the body will react to.	[ "There are also popular notions that someone can be \"scared to death\" or die of loneliness or heartbreak. Experiencing fear, extreme stress, or both can cause changes in the body that can, in turn, lead to death. For example, it is possible that overstimulation of the Vagus nerve—which decreases heart rate in a m...
If it wasn't for World War II, would the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and its economic repercussions have lasted longer?	As it is, this question is better suited for /r/HistoricalWhatIf. A better way to pose this question is, "How did WWII affect the Great Depression?"	[ "After the Wall Street Crash of 1929, nearly the whole world sank into a Great Depression, as prices fell, profits fell, and unemployment soared. The worst hit sectors included heavy industry, export-oriented agriculture, mining and lumbering, and construction. World trade fell by two thirds.\n", "In the United S...
A question about micro black holes and Hawking radiation.	Particles don't really have a diameter. Instead, they have a wavelength. The wavelength of a particle is a function of its energy, and it can be thought of as a sort of minimum bound on localizing that particle. You can't ever say that a particle with wavelength X is localized to a region Y, if Y is smaller than X. ...	[ "Hawking's calculation and more general quantum mechanical arguments predict that micro black holes evaporate almost instantaneously. Additional safety arguments beyond those based on Hawking radiation were given in the paper, which showed that in hypothetical scenarios with stable black holes that could damage Ear...
Is there any known way to bend space the opposite way of gravity and create anti-gravity?	It would require some sort of negative energy distribution, just as a positive energy distribution warps space and creates gravitational effects. Such a source of negative energy has not been discovered. Sorry!	[ "\"Anti-gravity\" is often used to refer to devices that look as if they reverse gravity even though they operate through other means, such as lifters, which fly in the air by moving air with electromagnetic fields.\n", "Anti-gravity (also known as \"non-gravitational field\") is creating a place or object that i...
Why did the civil rights movement of 1865-1876 collapse? We got the 14th Amendment out of it but it was ignored...what went wrong?	I honestly believe that it was much more war fatigue then anything else. Lincoln was followed by Andrew Johnson, a Democrat. Johnson, in my opinion, did more to harm civil rights in the United States then any individual in our history. As president he ordered the southern states to reform their governments, returned co...	[ "Congress had passed the Civil Rights Act of 1875 in the waning days of Reconstruction, outlawing segregation in public accommodations such as railroads. The Supreme Court did not rule on the Civil Rights Act of 1875 until 1883, when it struck down the law in \"Civil Rights Cases\". In his majority opinion, Justice...
What exactly causes the media to find out about certain science discoveries (and then to turn them into headlines)?	Each university has a PR department whose job is to keep on the lookout for interesting publications or discoveries made by people working there and send out press releases to the media. In that article you linked it refers to this as "...a Monash release said Monday." The idea is that the more the university is in t...	[ "A large gap divides the scientific and journalist communities when it comes to deciding what is newsworthy. The ongoing nature of peer review in the scientific community makes it difficult to report interesting advances in scientific discovery. Consequently, this can create a focus on the negative aspects of medic...
Can a tidally locked planet still rotate on an axis if its pole is pointed at its star?	Hm, the poles of astronomical bodies are where the axis of rotation meets their surface. For an object to be tidally locked to another, its axis of rotation must be perpendicular to its orbital plane... so the pole of a planet tidally locked to a star cannot be pointed at the star. In other words, if you draw the orb...	[ "Planets close to their stars on circular orbits will tend to despin and become tidally locked. As the planet's rotation slows down the radius of a synchronous orbit of the planet moves outwards from the planet. For planets tidally locked to their stars, the distance from the planet at which the moon will be in a s...
How effective were the Eastern European Axis powers in WW2?	Romania suffered the largest casualties in the war on the Axis side after Germany on the Eastern Front. The "auxiliary" Axis soldiers, to put it in a manner of speaking, were poorer soldiers than the Germans. The only ones that didn't get (too much) grief from the German officer corp were the Finns and the Cossacks/Old...	[ "By 1941, the Axis powers were in a comfortable position after defeating the Allies in Scandinavia, Western Europe and in the Balkans (leaving the British Empire as the only significant opposition). Axis forces deployed in Europe could only be engaged in the air or at sea, while the North African Campaign was unlik...
Why have vaccines been so successful?	Vaccines are generally dead or weakened contagions whose purpose is to "prime" your body to fight the full-fledged infection. Often you can still become sick with whatever you've been vaccinated against, but your immune system can fight it off quicker and more effectively. Polio is a good example of a viral disease w...	[ "The twentieth century saw the introduction of several successful vaccines, including those against diphtheria, measles, mumps, and rubella. Major achievements included the development of the polio vaccine in the 1950s and the eradication of smallpox during the 1960s and 1970s. Maurice Hilleman was the most prolifi...
When did we know that birds are descended from dinosaurs?	Almost as soon as the first Archaeopteryx was formally described by Richard Owen, other scientists noticed the many similarities between this "first bird" and certain dinosaurs. Within 5 years—so, 1868—you had Thomas Huxley loudly banging the "birds and dinosaurs are related" drum, as well as Cope and a few others. W...	[ "The possibility that dinosaurs were the ancestors of birds was first suggested in 1868 by Thomas Henry Huxley. After the work of Gerhard Heilmann in the early 20th century, the theory of birds as dinosaur descendants was abandoned in favor of the idea of their being descendants of generalized thecodonts, with the ...
why sometimes a browsee doesn't recognize the file size of a download	The download starts with some headers which tell your browser about the file - things like what type of file it is and whether it has been compressed. The headers can include the file size, but they don't have to. The server may not even know the file size when it sends the headers, because it may be generating the fil...	[ "Users can search for filenames in the servers/kad and are presented with the filenames and the unique identifier consisting of the top-level MD4 hash for the file and the file's size that can be added to their downloads. The client then asks the servers where the other clients are using that hash. The servers retu...
how do protons, neutrons, and electrons form intelligent life?	You can't understand the process in a single step, you need * Physics to explain how subatomic particles form atoms * Chemistry to explain how atoms form molecules * Biology to explain how molecules form living things * Neuroscience to explain how nervous systems work * Cognitive science to explain how intelligence wo...	[ "Laboratory scientists examine meteorites and comets to follow the evolution of simple to complex molecules in the solar system. They are gaining insights into the origin of life by examining the conditions present in the early Earth. Studying unique ecologies to develop detailed models of their biochemistry helps ...
What happened to United Empire Loyalists who moved to England?	While much more has been written about the loyalists who landed in Nova Scotia (part of which became New Brunswick in 1784) and others to Upper Canada, there is significantly less about the large number of loyalists who landed in England and the British Isles. You should certainly get your hands on Mary Beth Norton's *...	[ "When their cause was defeated, about 15 percent of the Loyalists (65,000–70,000 people) fled to other parts of the British Empire, to Britain itself, or to British North America (now Canada). The southern Loyalists moved mostly to Florida, which had remained loyal to the Crown, and to British Caribbean possessions...
Can anybody explain the historical Jewish tradition of putting stones on headstones?	Ultimately, to my knowledge, the origin is unclear. As the [Jewish Virtual Library](_URL_5_) says: > Unlike people from other religions, Jews do not typically place flowers at gravesites. Instead, they often place stones on the grave or tombstone. **The origin of the custom is uncertain, though it may relate to anci...	[ "Starting in the Bronze Age, burial cists were sometimes interred into cairns, which would be situated in conspicuous positions, often on the skyline above the village of the deceased. The stones may have been thought to deter grave robbers and scavengers. A more sinister explanation is that they were to stop the d...
What would theoretically happen if you broke the speed of sound underwater?	There's actually a Russian torpedo that breaks the speed of sound in water. I'm posting from my phone so not sure how well linking works, but here goes: _URL_0_. Basically, when the torpedo moves faster than sound, it creates an effect called supercavitation. The force of the Shockwave coming off the nose cone of the ...	[ "BULLET::::- American Jacqueline Cochran becomes the first woman to break the sound barrier, reaching over 760 mph (1,224 km/hr) in a series of steep dives in an F-86 Sabre over Edwards Air Force Base, California. She also sets a new womens international speed-over-distance record over a 100-km (62.1-mile) closed c...
price gouging during declared emergencies. how can hospital still charge $45 for an aspirin.	Those are the normal prices and price gouging laws only apply to raised prices in emergencies, not having high prices all the time. It's one of the huge problems of US healthcare and something that is coming to light quickly during this pandemic.	[ "BULLET::::- The State of Texas fined Aetna $1.15 million for failing to promptly pay doctors and hospitals for services. Texas Insurance Commissioner Jose Montemayor also ordered Aetna to pay restitution to physicians and health care providers who did not receive timely payment for claims.\n", "The Ohio Drug Pri...
why does it take so much less time to get fast food from a drive through than to get it from inside?	They track the time that cars spend at the drive thru window and have to get it under a specific time. Because of this, they tend to prioritize and rush drive thru orders compared to walk ins.	[ "The fastest form of \"fast food\" consists of pre-cooked meals kept in readiness for a customer's arrival (Boston Market rotisserie chicken, Little Caesars pizza, etc.), with waiting time reduced to mere seconds. Other fast food outlets, primarily the hamburger outlets (McDonald's, Burger King, etc.) use mass-prod...
when choosing from a menu, why am i "in the mood" for a certain type of food.	Nutrient cravings combined with enjoyment/emotional attachment to various foods.	[ "BULLET::::- In restaurants, you often order each dish as you want it, so that they are not ordered all at once at the beginning of the meal. In informal restaurants, you may be required to share a table. If so, do not force conversation: act as if you are seated at a private table. Waitstaff may be summoned by mak...
why do we need constants in formulas? is it because our units or number system are flawed?	it has nothing to do with flawed numbering systems. constants are derived from the universe around us. whether in science or in math, they are either measured or calculated to make the formulas true. for example, regardless what numbering system we use, the circumference of a circle, divided by its diameter will alw...	[ "A mathematical constant is a number whose value is fixed by an unambiguous definition, often referred to by a symbol or by mathematicians' names to facilitate using it across multiple mathematical problems. Constants arise in many areas of mathematics, with constants such as and occurring in such diverse context...
Whenever Marine One flies over my house, my TV flickers out. Why?	Multi-band airborne jamming has been around for a while [e.g. EC-130](_URL_0_), so such a device mounted on Marine One is certainly possible.	[ "In 2016, exclusively to India, Indian arm of South Korea's LG Electronics Inc started selling a TV that would repel mosquitoes. It uses ultrasonic waves that are silent to humans but cause mosquitoes to fly away. It was released on 16 June 2016. The technology was also used in air conditioners and washing machines...
Why do these gifs give a vivid impression of 3D, while video doesn't?	What you're seeing is called [structure from motion](_URL_1_). Your brain uses the motion in 2D (along your retina) and the assumption that the world is fairly rigid and static (the complex motion doesn't come from weird warps in space) to infer vection (movement of the viewer) or object motion in 3D. This 3D motion in...	[ "Finally, if needed, 3D storyboards are created (called 'technical previsualization'). The advantage of 3D storyboards is they show exactly what the film camera will see using the lenses the film camera will use. The disadvantage of 3D is the amount of time it takes to build and construct the shots. 3D storyboards ...
Do the constellations change/ look different from the Moon, Mars?	The constellations do not appear to change as the Earth orbits the Sun, and the Earth has an orbit that is 300 million km (186 million miles) across, so you can see that going to the Moon (400000 km away) or Mars (never more than 401 million km away) won't change what the constellations look like. In fact, you'd have...	[ "Michael Speidel associates Mithras with the constellation of Orion because of the proximity to Taurus, and the consistent nature of the depiction of the figure as having wide shoulders, a garment flared at the hem, and narrowed at the waist with a belt, thus taking on the form of the constellation.\n", "The Gree...
how can the brain sort itself out during an full convulsive seizure?	I think you are drawing too close a parallel between a human brain and a computer. An electrical signal in the brain is not like a task in a computer program where each step needs to be sequentially executed in order to continue. Misinformation from one or two "bad" signals will not cause a seizure the way that an erro...	[ "A seizure, formally known as an epileptic seizure, is a period of symptoms due to abnormally excessive or synchronous neuronal activity in the brain. Outward effects vary from uncontrolled shaking movements involving much of the body with loss of consciousness (tonic-clonic seizure), to shaking movements involving...
Has Britian been self sufficient in food since the industrial revolution?	No, Britain has not been self-sufficient in food since basically the late 18th century. By that point, it became clear to British policy-makers that not only would Britain no longer be an exporter of food, as it had been in much of the early modern period, they would have to import in years of poor harvests. In years o...	[ "The Agricultural Revolution in Britain proved to be a major turning point in history, allowing population to far exceed earlier peaks and sustain the country's rise to industrial pre-eminence. Towards the end of the 19th century, the substantial gains in British agricultural productivity were rapidly offset by com...
Do fluctuating temperatures actually increase risk of illness?	The answer is pretty dynamic actually. The colder months of the year can be linked to a higher chance of catching a cold or the flu but not because of the lower temperature's effect on our body. More so it's the temperature's effect on where we spend most of our time(inside/outside). When the weather gets colder p...	[ "A direct effect is increase in temperature-related illnesses and deaths related to prolonged heat waves and humidity. Climate change could also change the geographic range of vector-borne, specifically mosquito-borne disease such as malaria dengue fever exposing new populations to the disease. Because a changing c...
Why do some parts of the world generally experience more vivid/'better' sunsets?	The fluctuation in sunsets by location is to largely due to the particulate matter in the air. Since every particle has a different size, and refractive index, they cause light to refract, reflect or even diffract differently. Basically, these particles in the air, can cause light to bend/change direction and or polari...	[ "Sunset colors are typically more brilliant than sunrise colors, because the evening air contains more particles than morning air. Sometimes just before sunrise or after sunset a green flash can be seen.\n", "During sunrise and sunset, sunlight is attenuated because of Rayleigh scattering and Mie scattering from ...
Does the motion of the Earth effect radio waves?	Remember there is no absolute frame in the universe speeds and positions can only be measured relative to one another. The speed of light and therefore radio waves is always the same no matter your reference frame. However if a transmitter is moving toward or away you will perceive a change in frequency known as the Do...	[ "The radio signal spreads out from the transmitter along the surface of the Earth. Instead of just travelling in a straight line the radio signals tend to follow the curvature of the Earth. This is because currents are induced in the surface of the earth and this action slows down the wave-front in this region, cau...
how come when i'm really high up (like on a building or something), there is a little voice in my head telling me to jump? is there any sort of evolutionary benefit to having the voice? or is it just our brains trying to kill us.	Great question. Took more than a quick search to find this thread so no fault for asking, but [here](_URL_0_)'s a link that should explain it. Thoughts like this are apparently called 'intrusive thoughts.' :)	[ "Most people experience a degree of natural fear when exposed to heights, known as the fear of falling. On the other hand, those who have little fear of such exposure are said to have a head for heights. A head for heights is advantageous for those hiking or climbing in mountainous terrain and also in certain jobs ...
Question about the rate of pathogen evolution.	It can happen. There is an offset in that pathogen and host tend to evolve together. A pathogen may have no effect on another group/species because the attack pathways are not the same. This is why diseases tend to be restricted to a single species and there is little danger from meeting aliens and catching their dise...	[ "Alternative hosts can also potentially have a critical role in the evolution and diffusion of a pathogen. When a pathogen crosses species it often acquires new characteristics that allow it to breach host barriers. Different pathogen variants can have very different effects on host species. Thus it can be benefici...
why do most recipes and appliances ask specifically for cold water when the water will just be heated up?	Hot water can be sitting in water heaters for a while & pick up all sorts of metals & minerals. This may alter the chemistry of what's going on or it might just increase the rate at which mineral buildup occurs inside the appliance. Using cold water avoids the problems.	[ "The simplest use of cold water is for air conditioning: using the cold water itself to cool air saves the energy that would be used by the compressors for traditional refrigeration. Another use could be to replace expensive desalination plants. When cold water passes through a pipe surrounded by humid air, condens...
in the game of thrones universe, some winters are longer than others. how?	Scientifically, there is a possibility for it, like if a planet has a weird axial tilt, or multiple stars in the solar system etc. But Martin has claimed that there is a supernatural reason for the long seasons, but hasn't discussed this in detail outside of what you find in the books.	[ "\"The Winds of Winter\" was originally intended, in the very early stages of the series, to be the final installment of \"A Song of Ice and Fire\" (then conceived as a trilogy). Following his expansion of the series, Martin eventually concluded it would be succeeded by one final novel, \"A Dream of Spring\". By Ju...
What are the similarities & differences between trying to decipher Linear B & Indus script?	You might be interested in [this](_URL_0_) answer I wrote regarding the indispensable discoveries that help translate a language. I mention both Linear B and Indus script, but only briefly. The biggest thing impeding translation, or really, intensive study, of the Indus script is the size of the "texts." There are ove...	[ "In a 2009 study by P.N. Rao et al. published in \"Science\", computer scientists, comparing the pattern of symbols to various linguistic scripts and non-linguistic systems, including DNA and a computer programming language, found that the Indus script's pattern is closer to that of spoken words, supporting the hyp...
why do most job postings refuse to put base pay in their listing?	They're trying to attract qualified canidates, not simply people who want money. Money is also negotiable and it is expect that as a professional you already have an idea of what your pay will be.	[ "Employment sites typically charge fees to employers for listings job postings. Often these are flat fees for a specific duration (30 days, 60 days, etc). Other sites may allow employers to post basic listings for free, but charge a fee for more prominent placement of listings in search results. A few sites use a \...
Having trouble making sense of the famous "Now I am Become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds." Why is this said by Vishnu and not Shiva? See description:	In the actual _Gita_, it is Krishna, not Vishnu, who says the quote. Oppenheimer misattributes it. (Krishna is an avatar of Vishnu, but whatever.) Anyway. The quote is not about destruction, per se, it is about the inevitability of death. Oppenheimer's own translation is idiosyncratic. It is Krishna saying to Arjuna ...	[ "\"God is Dead\" (German: ; also known as the Death of God) is a widely quoted statement by German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. Nietzsche used the phrase to express his idea that the Enlightenment had eliminated the possibility of the existence of the Abrahamaic God or of deities in general. However, proponents...
If an animal can't see or recognize itself, how does it reproduce with its own kind?	Animals tend to attempt to reproduce with anything it can, however two different species can't make viable offspring due to many problems which can prevent offspring such as mechanical or being unable to fertilize the egg. however occasionally 2 different species can produce an offspring such as a horse and a donkey ma...	[ "Some animals reproduce with male and female; some animals change sex – they start female and they end male or vice-versa. Some fish do that. Some animals are hermaphrodites – they don't need anybody, they have both vaginas and penises. Then we have animals that don't need sex at all, they just clone themselves.\n"...
What does "chemicals" mean?	In this case, the Wikipedia article works best: _URL_0_ In short, just about everything. Water is a chemical for example.	[ "While the term \"chemical substance\" is a precise technical term that is synonymous with \"chemical\" for chemists, the word \"chemical\" is used in general usage in the English speaking world to refer to both (pure) chemical substances and mixtures (often called \"compounds\"), and especially when produced or pu...
How much can I trust Albert Speer's memoir: Inside the Third Reich?	The main problems for Speer's memoirs, both Inside the Third Reich and the Spandau Diaries are two-fold. Firstly, part of the appeal of Speer's postwar writings was that as an insider, he gives a portrait of the Third Reich's leadership and it is often an unflattering picture. Speer spends a good deal of time in hi...	[ "Inside the Third Reich (, \"Memories\") is a memoir written by Albert Speer, the Nazi Minister of Armaments from 1942 to 1945, serving as Adolf Hitler's main architect before this period. It is considered to be one of the most detailed descriptions of the inner workings and leadership of Nazi Germany but is contro...
out of all the words in the world, why did we end up with limited surnames?	Western surnames are limited because we have what's called 'Patrilineal' naming. You take your fathers surname, exactly as he has it. New surnames only pop up through people deliberately changing their name or mistakes but they can die out when the male line ends (or things like children taking their single mothers...	[ "During the modern era, many cultures around the world adopted family names, particularly for administrative reasons, especially during the age of European expansion and particularly since 1600. Notable examples include the Netherlands (1795–1811), Japan (1870s), Thailand (1920), and Turkey (1934). Nonetheless, the...
How do calculators compute factorials for non-integer numbers?	There are a number of approximations of factorials (and, by extension, the Gamma function) of the form n! ≈ n^n e^(–n) p(n) where p is at most a polynomial in n. The most well-known isn [Stirling's approximation](_URL_0_), but from what I understand, the Gamma function is typically evaluated using the...	[ "Here is a sample program that computes the factorial of an integer number from 2 to 69. For 5!, you'll type 5 A and get the result, 120. Unlike the SR-52, the TI-59 or TI-58 don't have the factorial function built-in, but do support it through the software module which was delivered with the calculator.\n", "Int...
why is "bloody" a bad word for the britisher types? nsfw ? (not my work)	It's not that bad of a word and I've never seen it censored on British television.	[ "Bloody, as an adverb, is a commonly used expletive attributive (intensifier) in British English, Australian English, and a number of other Commonwealth nations. \"Bloody\" is considered profanity, citing its origin from the phrase \"of generational\" or \"of family\". Often meaning of a bad generational trait. For...
why do pixels warp when viewed through a camera, and is it similar to this effect?	I think what you're looking for is called a [Moire pattern](_URL_0_).	[ "The human eye has a characteristic called Phi phenomenon. Quickly displaying successive scan images will allow the apparent illusion of smooth motion. Flickering of the image can be partially solved using a long persistence phosphor coating on the CRT, so that successive images fade slowly. However, slow phosphor ...
why do we have a "second stomach" for desert?	the desert is hot and the heat causes you to gain a second stomach in an attempt to preserve itself (think camels). The organs then allows the esophagus to split in two through a process called eosinophilic esophagitis. Its quite a remarkable process that happens when the temperature spikes at 120.	[ "Gastroparesis (gastro- from Ancient Greek γαστήρ - gaster, \"stomach\"; and -paresis, πάρεσις - \"partial paralysis\"), also called delayed gastric emptying, is a medical disorder consisting of weak muscular contractions (peristalsis) of the stomach, resulting in food and liquid remaining in the stomach for a prol...
can anyone explain this math question to me?	well, he read #s 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 when just subtracting 27 from 53 you're fiding the difference in the number, but you're not taking in to account the starting point, #27, which was read as well.	[ "\"math\" would be an expression in a meta mathematical environment with its own variables. To distinguish these meta-variables from math variables represent them by capital letters and the mathematical variables by lower case letters.\n", "General Mathematics is a 50-question exam that students are given only 40...
how is it that we have a nearly universally accepted calendar?	Because the west won. The west (meaning Europe and North America) ruled the world since the 1800s and imposed their calendar on everyone else. The calendar had been pretty standard for about 500 years at that point in the west already , and now everyone else who was using different calendars were forced to change to ...	[ "The common modern calendar is based on the Roman calendar. Although originally a lunar calendar, it broke the traditional link of the month to the phases of the Moon and divided the year into twelve almost-equal months, that mostly alternated between thirty and thirty-one days. Julius Caesar instigated calendar re...
Why is the structure of the universe so similar to the way neurons are connected?	There is a superficial resemblance, but no underlying connection. Many processes can result in a filamentary structure. Beyond that, there is no similarity between the two structures you showt.	[ "The geometry of neurons often depends on the cell type and the history of received stimuli that is processed through the synapses. The shape of a neuron often directs the neuron's function by establishing its synaptic partnerships. However, there is also a growing evidence for volume transmission, a process that i...
if warm light is better for the eyes at night, why are most new led streetlights a bright white color as opposed the orange sodium lights?	The new LED lights that have appeared in the past few months are bright, and they’re white, but the color temperature is a warmer, more neutral white, rather than a harsh, almost blue-white that I think you are describing. The light that Is first mentioned yields far better color rendition, meaning that colors appear t...	[ "BULLET::::- Light pollution: Because white LEDs emit more short wavelength light than sources such as high-pressure sodium vapor lamps, the increased blue and green sensitivity of scotopic vision means that white LEDs used in outdoor lighting cause substantially more sky glow.\n", "Around 1970, a new lamp was in...
the fair repair bill in ny and why it is necessary to keep phone repair legal	I'm a repair tech, I'll try to explain this as best as I can. So basically the bill would require big companies to provide all the information about their products to the public. To me personally, this is important because it would force these companies to release their mainboard schematics (ELI5: what all those little...	[ "TRA worked with four states - South Dakota, New York, Minnesota, and Massachusetts - to introduce \"Right to Repair\" laws in those states between 2014 and 2016, which would require OEMs to provide the required information and documentation for consumers and third-party repair shops to repair their products. While...
How well stocked were Soviet grocery stores?	Side question: Did the Soviet Union have grocery stores? Where did a regular person go to get their food for the day?	[ "Analyzing shortages in Soviet Union showed very uneven distribution among the population. For example, both Moscow and Leningrad, the two of the country's biggest cities, were supplied much better than the rest of the country and did not have rationing until the late 1980s. Similarly, presence of goods on the shel...
why do bands bring have their own speakers and amplifiers if everything is just run through the arena's pa system?	Like their guitar amps and stuff? A guitar amp does a whole lot more to influence the actual sound and tone than the PA. A guitarist's amp is pretty integral to his whole sound, so he'll want it to be consistent, and he'll want control over it. Then the venue will put a mic on his amp to connect it to the PA.	[ "As a result, in many large venues much of the onstage sound reaching the musicians now comes from in-ear monitors, not from the instrument amplifiers. While stacks of huge speaker cabinets and amplifiers are still used in concerts (especially in heavy metal), this is often mainly for aesthetics or to create a more...
Do extension cords lose power?	There will be negligible ohmic heating loss in the cords, but it will not affect the charging time. The phone charger uses a switching AC to DC power converter that will draw as much power as it needs to output the correct amount.	[ "Extension cords (extension leads) are used for temporary connections when a socket is not within convenient reach of an appliance's power lead. A power strip with multiple sockets may also have a switch, surge voltage protection, or over-current protection.\n", "The insulation of extension cords, particularly li...
what is upregulation of dopamine receptors?	It means the number of dopamine receptors on each cell is increased in those areas. If there are more receptors, then more of the dopamine "signal" can enter the cells. Imagine a line of people having tennis balls thrown at them. Each person has to catch as many tennis balls as possible and place them in a bucket - the...	[ "Downregulation of receptors can also occur when receptors have been chronically exposed to an excessive amount of a ligand, either from endogenous mediators or from exogenous drugs. This results from ligand-induced desensitization or internalization of that receptor. This is typically seen in animal hormone recept...
Throughout the history of Islam, were there any popular heretical movements? If so, how were they dealt with?	No one has claimed he's Muhammad reincarnated, but there of course have been many sects and heretical movements. Here are some of the more important ones: * Alawites - In Syria, Assad's sect * Alevi * Druze * Ahmadiyya - the founder Ahmad claimed to be the Messiah and a prophet "subordinate" to Muhammad * Bahá'í -...	[ "It was the first of several Islamic movements – including secularism, Islamism and Salafism – that emerged in the middle of the 19th century in reaction to the rapid changes of the time, especially the perceived onslaught of Western Civilization and colonialism on the Muslim world. Founders include Muhammad Abduh,...
Why not give your child peanut butter until after the age 2?	According to this [2008 study](_URL_0_) of children in England and Israel, the prevalence of peanut allergies in England was 10x higher (within the study group), and they attributed that to the first age of introduction to peanuts. > We demonstrate that Jewish children in the UK have a prevalence of PA that is 10-fol...	[ "When infants consume peanut proteins while 4 to 11 months old, the risk of developing peanut allergy before the age of 5 years decreases by 11-25%, specifically in children with higher allergy risk via their parents with peanut allergy. From these results, the American Academy of Pediatrics rescinded their recomme...
are lawsuits against big companies that end with the plaintaint receiving the money back for what he paid his lawyer a waste of time?	No, what makes you say that? The loser has to pay a large sum, and more importantly, they will be ordered to stop what they were doing wrong. The most important civil cases are not about big payouts, but about getting a party to stop some form of harmful conduct. In a trespass case, it's more important to you that you ...	[ "After the case was remanded to the Florida courts in which it had originated, the parties eventually settled. In 2008 the company agreed to pay $7 million into a fund. Of that amount, $2.1 million went to pay the plaintiffs' lawyers. The members of the class, potentially 70,000 in number, divided the rest.\n", "...
Did the Spanish Flu affect any sporting events at the time?	It actually saw the Stanley Cup final cancelled for the first time (the second would be in 2005 due to a labour stoppage; 2020 may also be cancelled, we'll see). In 1919 there were two major professional hockey leagues: the NHL (National Hockey League; which had teams in Montreal, Ottawa, and Toronto), and the PCHA (P...	[ "In late 1918, Spain attempted unsuccessfully to prevent the spread of the Spanish flu by imposing border controls, roadblocks, restricted rail travel, and a maritime \"cordon sanitaire\" prohibiting ships with sick passengers from landing, but by then the epidemic was already in progress in Spain.\n", "The influ...
why is green required to do cgi?	It doesn't have to be green. Green is just commonly used because it provides a high contrast with the colors normally found on people. [Sometimes, people end up wearing green...](_URL_0_).	[ "Digital Green's approach is primarily a technology-enabled means of behavior change communication, which is cost-effective, scalable, and brings together researchers, development practitioners, and rural communities to produce and share locally relevant information through videos. In a controlled evaluation, on a ...
How and when did acting become a reputable profession?	Great question! So let's begin with your initial paradigm that actors (and I'm using the term "actor" as inclusive of all gendered theatre performers) were often considered sex workers (a term I’m going to use rather than “prostitutes”). You're absolutely correct, but we'll have to set up the social, classed framework ...	[ "In the 19th century, the negative reputation of actors was largely reversed, and acting became an honored, popular profession and art. The rise of the actor as celebrity provided the transition, as audiences flocked to their favorite \"stars\". A new role emerged for the actor-managers, who formed their own compan...
why it seems to be nearly impossible for plastic surgery to make someone look genuinely 20+ years younger.	Real young is a lot more complicated and subtle than making a doll face. They can't exactly figure it out, but it's noticeable in the result. Kinda like real/artificial vanilla extract. There's trace amounts of many chemicals in real vanilla extract that chemists can't really tell all of the chemicals, but in the re...	[ "Some sufferers are more likely to seek plastic surgery to cut and stretch wrinkles to make them look more youthful while the main concern of many other sufferers is the internal, biological long-term damage caused by the aging process.\n", "The American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) estimates that more than...
Is a "theory of everything" even possible?	This really gets down to philosophy, but the prevailing attitude among scientists - and one against which there isn't much evidence - is that all phenomena in nature come down to a theory or set of theories. So yes, something like sexual selection should certainly be described by things like electrodynamics and quantum...	[ "\"An Exceptionally Simple Theory of Everything\" is a physics preprint proposing a basis for a unified field theory, often referred to as \"E Theory\", which attempts to describe all known fundamental interactions in physics and to stand as a possible theory of everything. The paper was posted to the physics arXiv...
Why does a solution of antifreeze and water raise the boiling point?	The concept is called "boiling point elevation". Any substance dissolved in any other substance will raise the boiling point. It doesn't matter what the solvent is or what the solute is, only the amount matters (as long as the solute's boiling point is way above the solvent's). This is basically because the solute has...	[ "Because water has good properties as a coolant, water plus antifreeze is used in internal combustion engines and other heat transfer applications, such as HVAC chillers and solar water heaters. The purpose of antifreeze is to prevent a rigid enclosure from bursting due to expansion when water freezes. Commercially...
Why doesn't HSV-1 transfer to other parts of your lip? Does genital herpes function the same way?	Herpes resides in your nervous system, not your lips. The infection you see as a cold sore is an inflammation response to a newly reactivated bit of virus at the tip of a nerve under the skin that colonizes some minor damaged tissue on the lips. The reason it is reactivated is not clear: herpes is usually dormant for ...	[ "HSV-1 and HSV-2 are transmitted by contact with an infected person who has reactivations of the virus. HSV-2 is periodically shed in the human genital tract, most often asymptomatically. Most sexual transmissions occur during periods of asymptomatic shedding. Asymptomatic reactivation means that the virus causes a...
what is going on with my body while i stand near a working microwave and why do i feel weird?	Nothing is happening to your body near a microwave that isn't happening anywhere else, assuming you are using a normal microwave that isn't falling to pieces. At most, a microwave oven leaks about 5 milliwatts of radiation measured 5cm from the oven. In contrast a cell phone emits about 1.6 watts. You do the math.	[ "Eleanor R. Adair conducted microwave health research by exposing herself, animals and humans to microwave levels that made them feel warm or even start to sweat and feel quite uncomfortable. She found no adverse health effects other than heat.\n", "Exposure of skin to microwaves can be perceived as a sensation o...
how tv comapnies broadcast channels via cables & antenna?	TV is broadcast over the air using a very large antenna and high power amplifiers. Amplifying the signal and hooking it up to a metal antenna causes the antenna to resonate, and that sends out an electromagnetic wave. At your end, a resonance is caused in your antenna by that EM wave, and it is then amplified and sen...	[ "The channel is broadcast free-to-air in the digital terrestrial television network in Sweden and Åland. Satellite transmissions are from the Thor and Sirius satellites, but are encrypted. A decoding card from Viasat or Canal Digital is needed to view the channel. The two largest cable networks (Com Hem and UPC) br...
why do "forever storms" seem to exist in some planets like jupiter (and now stars)? how do they stay "forever" and not die?	They're not forever. Jupiter's storm is losing it's energy and will die out eventually. I think it's been overdue for almost a decade, but I'll let someone else find the literature on it.	[ "The storms on Jupiter are similar to thunderstorms on Earth. They reveal themselves via bright clumpy clouds about 1000 km in size, which appear from time to time in the belts' cyclonic regions, especially within the strong westward (retrograde) jets. In contrast to vortices, storms are short-lived phenomena; the ...
Is there an underlying meaning to why Hitler and the people stuck an arm out at each other when doing the “Heil” salute?	I've written about the salute before so will rework some of that here. The Nazis did not invent it themselves. The 'Nazi Salute' was chosen because it was the 'Fascist Salute' already popularized by the Italian Fascist Party under Mussolini. Other Fascist aligned movements, such as the Spanish Falangists also adopted ...	[ "The salute was executed by extending the right arm to neck height and then straightening the hand so that it is parallel to the arm. Usually, an utterance of \"\"Heil Hitler!\"\", or \"\"Heil!\"\" accompanied the gesture.\n", "By autumn 1923, some members of the Nazi Party were using the rigid, outstretched righ...
Would travelers using an Alcubierre drive experience time dilation?	This may help others- _URL_0_ Helped me!	[ "\"The Nights Dawn Trilogy\" novels by Peter F. Hamilton published in the 1990s, used it under the name ZTT (Zero Temporal Transit) Drive. It is worth noting that with ZTT, momentum is conserved, so a ship might spend days synchronizing its normal-space relative velocity with its destination before or after jumping...
Why, besides a few exceptions, is all of the most popular classical music from Central and Eastern Europe?	German, Austrian and Italian composers dominated the baroque and classical eras of Western music, which is what is commonly thought of when we think of "classical music" today. However, in the early modernist era of the late 19th and early 20th century, the influence of composers from other areas of Europe cannot be ig...	[ "The music of the Muslim populations of South Asia (Maldives, Pakistan, India and Bangladesh, with Nepal and Sri Lanka) merged Middle Eastern genres with indigenous classical musical modes, and is generally distinct in style and orchestration, yet due to the strong links encountered between the Middle-East, Central...
Is it possible that some pathogens or viruses have evolved to cause coughing/sneezing symptoms in its victims to encourage it to spread?	I'd say the other way around, to be pedantic. Some pathogens evolved traits that lead to coughing/sneezing and could travel well in air/mucous, thus were spread extensively, and thus the trait perpetuates. They didn't develop the trait to do a thing, but the trait mutated randomly and did lead to success, thus it ...	[ "Perhaps the most universal risk of sneezing is the spread of disease. Bacterial infections can spread to susceptible uninfected people via the spread of microscopic organisms suspended in the droplets expelled by a sneeze. Bacteria which commonly spread by sneezing include bacterial meningitis, strep throat, and t...
If there is little to no friction or gravity in outer space to slow an object down, how come a space shuttle has a maximum speed? (Apparently around 28,000 kilometers per hour). Why can’t a spaceship continue to build momentum to reach up to light-speed?	They run out of fuel. You can bring more fuel, but that increases the mass of the shuttle, which means that you get lower acceleration until you've burned that fuel up. If you ignore gravity and the atmosphere and just think about a single rocket with fuel, then it follows the "Tsiolkovsky rocket equation", which is ...	[ "Rather than exceeding the speed of light within a local reference frame, a spacecraft would traverse distances by contracting space in front of it and expanding space behind it, resulting in effective faster-than-light travel. Objects cannot accelerate to the speed of light within normal spacetime; instead, the Al...
Because wind is just the movement differences in air temperature and pressure, will it ever reach an equilibrium?	Nope. There are too many hydrodynamically unstable things in the system. For example, just having spinning motion in a curved reference frame can cause [unexpected instability](_URL_0_). Also, natural convection is known to cause [instability in the form of convection rolls](_URL_1_). A very simplified model of thi...	[ "The basic principles of physics and the Coriolis effect satisfactorily explain that the direction of the wind in the atmosphere is parallel to the isobars. Measurements of wind speed and direction at heights well above ground level confirm that the speed of the wind matches that predicted by considerations of grad...
The sun is white even though when observed through the atmosphere it appears yellow/orange. Are all stars white when viewed outside the atmosphere or are some different colours?	No, stars have colors from red to white to blue. Stars approximately emit their light as [blackbodies](_URL_0_) of certain temperatures. The coolest stars are around 3000K, the hottest upwards of 40,000K. How that temperature maps to color in your eyes is very complicated, but stars will basically fall along the [Pla...	[ "For example, the relative spectral power distribution of the sun produces a white appearance if observed directly, but when the sunlight illuminates the Earth's atmosphere the sky appears blue under normal daylight conditions. This stems from the optical phenomenon called Rayleigh scattering which produces a conce...
why bill gates and paul allen have such different wealths even though they both founded microsoft?	The orginal founding percentages of MS were 64% for gates and 36% for Allen. Balmer got a $50,000 salary plus a 10% profit share. The profit share to Balmer was getting to be to much as MS started to grow, so they restructured. In exchange for cancling his profit sharing agreement, Balmer got 8% of the company. Anot...	[ "In 1999, his wealth briefly surpassed US$101 billion. Despite his wealth and extensive business travel, Gates usually flew coach in commercial aircraft until 1997, when he bought a private jet. Since 2000, the nominal value of his Microsoft holdings has declined due to a fall in Microsoft's stock price after the d...
why are the united states, liberia and burma the only three countries in the world not to implement the metric system as their standards weights and measures?	Inertia, tradition, and the expense of converting everything in one of largest and most populous nations on Earth to a new system.	[ "The International System of Units has been adopted as the official system of weights and measures by all nations in the world except for Myanmar, Liberia, and the United States, while the United States is the only industrialised country where the metric system is not the predominant system of units. There are 192 ...
what are the difference between browser add-ons, like what firefox uses, and extensions, such as what chrome uses?	Nothing - there's some minor differences in how each browser handles extensions, what they're allowed to do etc. but this isn't indicated by the different wording - they just picked different names. Could have used 'plugin' for example.	[ "Firefox can have themes added to it, which users can create or download from third parties to change the appearance of the browser. The Firefox add-on website also gives users the ability to add other applications such as games, ad-blockers, screenshot apps, and many other apps.\n", "Firefox implements many web ...
Is a figure 8 solar system possible?	No, there are no such stable orbits. (I notice lots of people don't seem to understand what "stable" means. A pencil balanced on its point is not stable, even though there is an equilibrium position there.) A couple of people have pointed out that there are some possible figure-8 orbits in which a group of objects of ...	[ "Another such example would be HIP 11915, which has a planetary system containing a Jupiter-like planet orbiting at a similar distance that the planet Jupiter does in the Solar System. To strengthen the similarities, the star is class G5V, has a temperature of 5750 K, has a sun-like mass and radius, and is only 500...
First question to AskScience. How much of the universe can't we see due to the extreme distances?	The furthest object we can see would be cosmic microwave background radiation. As we look far away, we also look at the past. Thus, we see younger and younger objects as we look further. We see young galaxies, and even the first galaxies forming. Eventually, we see how the Universe looked like when it was just a bunch ...	[ "The proper distance—the distance as would be measured at a specific time, including the present—between Earth and the edge of the observable universe is 46 billion light-years (14 billion parsecs), making the diameter of the observable universe about 93 billion light-years (28 billion parsecs). The distance the li...
Could an object orbit the moon at a really low height? (Like 500 ft, assuming it doesn't run into mountains)	Yes it could. Orbital speed at the Moon's surface is around 1.68km/s, so it wouldn't even have to be traveling that fast. Mountains would of course get in the way.	[ "BULLET::::- There are no natural satellites of the Moon. For man-made objects in lunar orbit, the point of least distance may be called the pericynthion () and the greatest distance the apocynthion (); or perilune and apolune are sometimes used.\n", "At some 10,786 m (35,387 ft) above the lunar mean, it is nearl...
Do Lagrange points exist for planets in elliptical orbits?	All planets have elliptical orbits. Newton’s laws mandate it; Earth is no exception. Something having an elliptical orbit has no effect on wether or not it has Lagrange points. However, most objects with very elliptical orbits probably don’t have them because objects that have very elliptical orbits are usually small, ...	[ "In astronomy, Lagrangian points are five positions in the orbital plane of two large orbiting bodies where a small object affected only by gravity can maintain a stable position relative to the two large bodies. The first three Lagrangian points (L, L, L) lie along the line connecting the two large bodies, while t...
how do credit card companies provide refunds for scams?	I guess it's a combination of insurance and the weight of all of their lawyers and legal teams. They can come down on the company with enough aggro that it's cheaper to just do the refund, rather than pay to fight a legal battle.	[ "To avoid the processing fees, many businesses resorted to using direct debit, which is then called \"electronic\" direct debit (, abbr. \"ELV\"). The point-of-sale terminal reads the bank sort code and account number from the card but instead of handling the transaction through the Girocard network it simply print...
what are cuticles for, and why do people "push them back"?	They protect the skin adjacent to the nail from debris and microbes. People push them back because they believe it looks better, but it does carry an increased risk of infection.	[ "In human anatomy, \"cuticle\" can refer to several structures, but it is used in general parlance and even by medical professionals when speaking with patients to refer to the thickened layer of skin surrounding fingernails and toenails (the eponychium) and to refer to the superficial layer of overlapping cells co...

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