Split (2)

train · 226k rows

question stringlengths 3 301	answer stringlengths 9 26.1k	context list
why do body blemishes (zits, scratches, bug bites, etc.) seem to heal greatley over night?	One thing I can think of is your skin repairs itself more effectively when you are asleep than when you are awake. This also applies to the daily damage the skin goes through from the sun and other elements that wear it out each day. It is possibly where the term "beauty rest" came from.	[ "The bugs emerge at night, when the inhabitants are sleeping. Because they tend to feed on people's faces, triatomine bugs are also known as \"kissing bugs\". After they bite and ingest blood, they defecate on the person. Triatomines pass \"T. cruzi\" parasites (called trypomastigotes) in feces left near the site o...
what's happening in my brain when i "get tired" of a flavor/snack?	Your reward center associated with that particular sensation has all its NT receptor occupied or shut off this decrease neuron activity or stops it altogether. It's a form of habituation. Similar to how drug addicts always trying to reach that same high but impossible. Good for you is that it will eventually go away...	[ "A study done by SL Colles, JB Dixon, and PE O’Brien on snacking at night relates obesity, binge eating disorder (BED), and psychological stress to night eating syndrome (NES). This syndrome constitutes a pattern of eating where most food is consumed late in the day and at night, sometimes including waking up durin...
how come even when my computer is running normally fast it can take up to a few seconds to load the drop down menu when i right mouse click my desktop?	Because RAM and CPU speed/utilization are not the only factors in the performance of your computer. Standard hard drives are spinning and there is a bit that moves about the rotating disks to read different sectors. If it is reading or writing a different sector that is far off from the sector where your "right click...	[ "For simple software, when the mouse starts to move, the software will count the number of \"counts\" or \"mickeys\" received from the mouse and will move the cursor across the screen by that number of pixels (or multiplied by a rate factor, typically less than 1). The cursor will move slowly on the screen, with go...
how was 8 hours/day determined to be a regular work day?	It was actually fought for. The amount of time spent at work was one of the major themes of labour/union movement struggles in europe and NA, starting in the early 1800's. The industrial revolution brought with it 12 and 16 hour days in factories, and once people started organizing, this was challenged. One of the mo...	[ "The eight-hour day might have been realised for many working people in the US in 1937, when what became the Fair Labor Standards Act (29 U.S. Code Chapter 8) was first proposed under the New Deal. As enacted, the act applied to industries whose combined employment represented about twenty percent of the US labour ...
i've always read on here that the us helped destabilize a few governments in south and central america. how was this done and how would it benefit the us in any way?	The CIA has a long history of supporting military coups and providing support to dictators that are anti-communist. It was all part of the Cold War doctrine to prevent communist expansion, even if that meant propping up anti-democractic dictators. Having pro-US dictators in South America allowed the US to get trade b...	[ "Following the Spanish–American War in 1898, this aggressive interpretation was used to create a U.S. economic empire across the Caribbean, such as with the 1903 treaty with Cuba that was heavily tilted in the U.S.' favor. U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt believed that the U.S. should be the main beneficiary of pr...
If cold sores are so contagious they can spread to others via a kiss or sharing utensils, why don't they spread to all corners of the infected and symptomatic person's lips?	The thing you have to first realize about cold sores is that they're a secondary manifestation that comes from previous infection with herpes simplex. The original infection is akin to what you're asking - [multiple sores around the lips](_URL_0_) and several ulcers inside the mouth - including ulcers on the gums that...	[ "The likelihood of the infection being spread can be reduced through behaviors such as avoiding touching an active outbreak site, washing hands frequently while the outbreak is occurring, not sharing items that come in contact with the mouth, and not coming into close contact with others (by avoiding kissing, oral ...
How old can a book be before it's "too old?"	Many works attain canonical status in their field and will never be too old. A few examples without going too far back: Adam Smith, Max Weber, E. H. Carr. Perhaps a student of history a generation from now will read Richard J. Evans' defense of history against postmodernism. That doesn't make Carr less relevant to what...	[ "You're Only Old Once! A Book for Obsolete Children is a 1986 picture book for growing-up people by Dr. Seuss. Released on Geisel's eighty-second birthday, the book follows an elderly man on a visit to the Golden Years Clinic, where he endures long waits and bizarre medical tests.\n", "It is not clear whether it ...
What are some good histories on the Stasi (East German intelligence)?	Gary Bruce's [The Firm: The Inside Story of the Stasi](_URL_4_;) is an accessible and short history of the MfS with a special focus upon the Stasi's impact on local regions of the GDR. Jens Gieseke's book on the MfS has been translated into and published by Berghahn as [*The History of the Stasi East Germany's Secret...	[ "Other researchers have documented the contribution made from other Warsaw Pact intelligence agencies to the fledgling Sandinista government including the East German Stasi, by using recently declassified documents from Berlin as well as from former Stasi spymaster Markus Wolf who described the Stasi's assistance i...
Is being mexican an ethnicity?	There's nation, there's state, and there's ethnicity. French Rationalist philosophers in the middle of the 18th century stated that “Nation [or rather nation (in French)] denotes the population of a state, regardless of that population’s characteristics and feelings.” By the beginning of the 19th century, a new concep...	[ "While Mexico does not have comprehensive modern racial censuses, some international publications believe that Mexican people of predominately European descent (Spanish or other European) make up approximately one-sixth (16.5%), this based on the figures of the last racial census in the country, made in 1921. Accor...
In English, why don't we capitalize words like "to" and "for" in titles?	This question would probably be better answered over in the asklinguistics subreddit	[ "A reasonable surmise for why \"faw\" and \"law\" were substituted for \"fa\" and \"la\" can be offered, based on the history of the English language. Until the twentieth century, English had no words ending in . Words ending in , however, have always been abundant (\"paw\", \"caw\", \"thaw\", \"saw\", \"Shaw\", \"...
When a magnet attracts something, or one body attracts another gravitationally, what is going on between the two objects?	[Here's an older post I made about gravity](_URL_0_). The idea is that if space time isn't curved, a body, feeling no forces, will either be at rest or in motion at a constant speed. Which is to say that the rate of change of the body's position is constant in either case. But that same body, feeling no forces (thi...	[ "Magnetic materials and systems are able to attract or press each other apart or together with a force dependent on the magnetic field and the area of the magnets. For example, the simplest example of lift would be a simple dipole magnet positioned in the magnetic fields of another dipole magnet, oriented with like...
When will spaceprobes be able to use electricity as ther propulsion? Does this mean that they could in theory run for forever?	We can already use electricity for propulsion, There are two main ways. One is to use only electricity and the other is to use electricity to accelerate propellant. I am guessing your question refers to the first one, where you only use electricity and in theory would never run out of propellant. The basic idea is to ...	[ "Nuclear-electric or plasma engines, operating for long periods at low thrust and powered by fission reactors, have the potential to reach speeds much greater than chemically powered vehicles or nuclear-thermal rockets. Such vehicles probably have the potential to power solar system exploration with reasonable trip...
why does sentence structure vary so greatly between languages?	Grammar and sentence structure develops organically over time within each language. They are often influenced by neighboring languages, but there is next to no reason for multiple languages to choose the same rules as they develop. Particularly if they do not have contact with each other.	[ "For any ordering, there are also many ways in which sentences can be grouped into paragraphs and higher-level structures such as sections. For example, there are 8 (2**3) ways in which the sentences in (1234) can be grouped into paragraphs, including\n", "Sentence structure is much more fluid than in English, wi...
Are all humans descendants of one female?	You're asking about [Mitchondrial Eve](_URL_0_). The wiki explains it better than I can, but it's not quite how it sounds. There were other females with descendants at the time. But as each line at some point failed to produce a female, we got to a point where all of our mitochondrial DNA ultimately came from her.	[ "Some research has suggested that historically, women have had a far higher reproductive success rate than men. Dr. Baumeister has suggested that the modern human has twice as many female ancestors as male ancestors.\n", "All human men descend in the paternal line from a single man dubbed Y-chromosomal Adam, who ...
I recently found out that the Illuminati actually had some historical significance, can anyone point me towards some good literature on them?	The wording in your post makes me worried. What historical significance, what era and what historical figures? The Illuminati is a name given to several groups, both real and fictitious. The real, historical Illuminati was the Bavarian Illuminati, an Enlightenment (where the latin names comes from) era secret society ...	[ "Founded by Adam Weishaupt in Bavaria in 1776, the Illuminati have been referred to in popular culture, in books and comics, television and movies, and games. A number of novelists, playwrights and composers are alleged to have been Illuminati members and to have reflected this in their work. Early conspiracy theor...
Can electricity be generated from nuclear power without the use of a power cycle?	You can use a thermoelectric generator, which is a solid state device that creates an electric potential from a temperature gradient. Couple this with a nuclear heat source and you get a radioisotope thermoelectric generator, or RTG. In fact, this is how deep space probes are typically powered, where solar panels would...	[ "Currently nuclear power provides approximately 15.7% of the world's electricity (in 2004) and is used to propel aircraft carriers, icebreakers and submarines (so far economics and fears in some ports have prevented the use of nuclear power in transport ships). All nuclear power plants use fission. No man-made fusi...
if the galaxy is constantly moving, how come we have stars at fixed location?	Yes, everything is moving ridiculously fast but it's also super ridiculously far apart. It takes over 8 minutes for light from the Sun to reach Earth. It takes 5 hours for that light to reach Pluto. It takes 433 years for light to reach the North Star. Since stars themselves move at far slower speeds than l...	[ "The fixed stars exhibit real motion as well, however. This motion may be viewed as having components that consist in part of motion of the galaxy to which the star belongs, in part of rotation of that galaxy, and in part of motion peculiar to the star itself within its galaxy. In the case of star systems or star c...
Who is the highest ranking US military member to ever be court-martialed under the Uniform Code of Military Justice?	The highest ranking military US member to actually be court-martialed was Major General Robert Walker Grow, who commanded the 6th Armored Division in WW2. He was serving as a senior military attaché in Moscow when excerpts of his personal diary were photographed and latter published in an inflammatory form by the Sovie...	[ "A general court-martial is the highest court level. It consists of a military judge, trial counsel (prosecutor), defense counsel, and a minimum of five officers sitting as a panel of court-martial members. An enlisted accused may request a court composed of at least one-third enlisted personnel. An accused may als...
Why were parts of Eastern Germany annexed after WWII? Was there an ethnic justification, or was it just a land-grab?	Starting around 1944 the German population in these areas began to flee back west. The first to begin fleeing were the German settlers who had settled in the Baltic area and the areas annexed by Poland. Many found their way to East Prussia. The Wehrmacht and what was left of the Kreigsmarine fought an extremely despera...	[ "The areas affected included the former eastern territories of Germany, which were annexed by Poland and the Soviet Union after the war, as well as Germans who were living within the prewar borders of Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Yugoslavia, and the Baltic States. The Nazis had made plans—only partiall...
let's say a disease went rampant and infects a lot of people. why would it be necessary to find/kill patient zero?	Uh, it wouldn't be necessary to kill anyone. Finding a "patient zero" helps track the outbreak and allows better predictions for which areas may be at risk.	[ "David Heymann, infectious-disease epidemiologist at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, has questioned the importance of finding patient zero and has said: \"Finding patient zero may be important in some instances, but only if they are still alive and spreading the disease. And more often than not, e...
how can cable tv service work well nearly 100% of the time while internet service from the same provider can be so wildly inconsistent?	TL;DR: The machines that handle internet traffic are more complicated than the ones that handle cable. Internet traffic accesses more locations and sends information in two directions. Cable is handled by centralized locations and only sends information one direction. ----- When you subscribe to cable, you are paying...	[ "Cable television is largely, but not entirely, unregulated. Cable providers must include local over-the-air stations in their offerings on each system (stations can opt to gain carriage by seeking a must-carry option) and give them low channel numbers, unless the stations decide to demand compensation of any sort ...
approximately how long does it take to construct a commercial cruise ship and what are the processes involved?	They build them in sections at a time on the docks. Each section is craned into place. Then they weld the compleated sections, called modules, into place a bit at a time like a giant lego kit. [If you have 6 minutes](_URL_0_) As for how long it depends on size but its a lot quicker than people imagine to get the hull...	[ "Her work can involve hard physical labor managing the ship's machinery. Voyages can last up to six months at a time. Her job has enabled her to travel to many countries including Australia, South Africa, Turkey, Britain, and Germany.\n", "The ships were built with a modular inner structure from eleven prefabrica...
why, in the us, is campaign finance so important. if everyone can vote, why does it matter how much a candidate spends. why can't people just vote for the candidate they like regardless of money they spend?	So let's say that you support a bunch of political ideas that you think are a good idea. Candidate A and Candidate B both support 9/10 of your ideas. They're both really good fits for you. Candidate A supports a 10th policy you don't have a strong opinion on that is actually a good idea, and Candidate B supports a 10t...	[ "One of the most important aspects of the major American political campaign is the ability to raise large sums of money, especially early on in the race. Political insiders and donors often judge candidates based on their ability to raise money. Not raising enough money early on can lead to problems later as donors...
Why didn't Japanese people die from European diseases like the native Americans did?	Good question but one that has been asked before [right here](_URL_0_). Basically, Japan was close enough to the Asian mainland that they were exposed to much of the same Eurasian diseases that Europeans would have been carrying. People in Mainland Asia and Europe were not too isolated that diseases couldn't spread a...	[ "Before WWII, the highest concentrations of Japanese and Japanese descent were in Baja California, followed by Mexico City and Sonora. Most worked in fishing and agriculture followed by non-professional workers, commerce, professionals and technicians. Up until the war, the treatment of Japanese in the country and ...
who is victoria and why is she helping everybody with amas?	_URL_0_ _URL_1_ She's reddit's director of communications, which means she's basically in charge of the site's public relations. One part of her job is helping celebrities who are unfamiliar with the site do AmA's. Either she's actually with them and showing them around the site, or she helps them over the phone (rea...	[ "In September 2011, she joined SMA Trust team as their celebrity ambassador. In August 2017, she became a patron of Open Door, a non-profit that aims to help young people gain access to drama school auditions. She auctioned a chance to watch an episode of \"Game of Thrones\" with her at the 2018 Sean Penn Charity G...
why does shaking a match put out the flame?	When a simple flame on a match or candle is burning, what's happening is that gases released by the heat of the flame are rapidly oxidizing, creating heat, and causing more gases to be released, etc. etc. The whole process relies on the heat produced by the oxidizing gases being next to the object that's burning long ...	[ "An exothermic chemical reaction can generate enough heat as to catch itself or tinder on fire. Matches are small sticks of wood or stiff paper with a coating that undergoes an exothermic reaction when triggered by friction.\n", "A match is a tool for starting a fire. Typically, matches are made of small wooden s...
why did the english alphabet get rid of letters like þ and æ even though they are still used today?	In many cases before then printing press came along, the english language was in huge flux. People did what was convenient, or what they thought was more true to latin or greek origin (even when it wasn't). Pronunciations weren't uniform and spellings less so, and they could change dramatically in only a few short de...	[ "The Old English Latin alphabet began to replace the Runic alphabet in the 8th century, due to the influence of Celtic Christian missionaries to the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. The orthography of Old English – which was entirely handwritten in its own time – was not well standardized, though it did not use all the Latin ...
why is ireland divided into two (northern ireland and ireland) and is there a chance that they'll ever be combined back into a single ireland?	The entire island of Ireland was once a separate country, but became part of the United Kingdom in 1801. It was an unhappy relationship, and Britain's treatment of Ireland during the infamous Great Famine of 1845-1851 caused a great deal of resentment. Movements sprang up campaigning for Ireland to regain its independe...	[ "United Ireland (also referred to as Irish reunification) is the proposition that all of Ireland should be a single sovereign state. At present, the island is divided politically; the sovereign Republic of Ireland has jurisdiction over the majority of Ireland, while Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom. A...
what's the motivation for lawyers to defend very clearly guilty clients?	Everyone gets a lawyer, even if they are broke or even if they are really bad dudes. There are lawyers who defend criminals for chump change. Most bad guys don't have much money anyway, as most criminals are poor. These lawyers aren't doing it for money. Their responsibility is to ensure that their client receives ...	[ "All prosecutors are under a heavy ethical burden. They are sometimes referred to as \"ministers of truth,\" since they are not there to secure a conviction at any cost; they must instead take into account the broader public interest and the interests of fairness in their quest to protect the truth.\n", "Canadian...
Is there really one language that is the "hardest" to learn?	Oh my, I can contribute! M.Ed. M.A. Linguistics, fluent speaker of 3 languages. (Eng, Spa, Port) This is all subjective, obviously. If you speak Italian it would be easier to learn languages with similar etymology: Latin based. Some of the more confusing grammar in language is Thai (monosyllabic), Chinese, German, ...	[ "Berlitz divides languages into two sections of difficulty, A and B ... I'm going to make up a C list for Oneida. It is a very hard language. It will take a student more hours to learn because of the vocabulary. Word lengths are so long. Learning English can be compared to a train with one car following another and...
Why does blood donation use hard needles unlike IV lines?	A couple reasons: it must be rigid so that the biconcave shape of the RBCs do not break or clump during the draw, but when getting an IV, it’s typically something like saline or a mix which does not run the risk of damaging components contained in something like a viscous blood draw. There should be more reasons, such ...	[ "BULLET::::- Intentionally created (for example, Cimino fistula as vascular access for hemodialysis). Blood must be aspirated from the body of the patient, and since arteries are not easy to reach compared to the veins, blood may be aspirated from veins. The problem is that the walls of the veins are thin compared ...
what are the fake facebook pages for places like walt disney world trying to accomplish by offering fake giveaways for shares?	Long story short: the attention of thousands or so people looking liking and sharing their posts.	[ "Recently, in an insider trading case, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission brought charges against a boyfriend of a Disney intern, alleging he had a fiduciary duty to his girlfriend and breached it. The boyfriend, Toby Scammell, allegedly received and used insider information on Disney's takeover of Marvel ...
Why does glass become a mirror when there is no light?	The glass reflects light all the time, but when there's a bright enough light on the other side, the light coming through completely overwhelms the light being reflected.	[ "The glass is coated with, or has encased within, a thin and almost-transparent layer of metal (usually aluminium). The result is a mirrored surface that reflects some light and is penetrated by the rest. Light always passes equally in both directions. However, when one side is brightly lit and the other kept dark,...
when your body burns fat, how does it do it. is it through heat and can you turn fat into muscle?	Getting a little out of ELI5 territory here. Relevant and important tangent: when you burn (chemical reactions, not fire) glucose (building block of sugar and carbohydrates), the body's primary source of energy, it goes through glycolysis to make pyruvate, which is broken down to make acetyl-CoA. Acetyl-CoA enters the...	[ "Ordinarily, the body responds to reduced energy intake by burning fat reserves and consuming muscle and other tissues. Specifically, the body burns fat after first exhausting the contents of the digestive tract along with glycogen reserves stored in liver cells and after significant protein loss . After prolonged ...
What genre were the gospels and do we know of any books that influenced them?	Good (and somewhat complicated) question. A fairly wide consensus has emerged that many elements of the gospels cohere with those of bioi ("lives"). The basic structure of a bios might examine an individual's "ancestry, birth, boyhood and education, great deeds, virtues, and death and consequences." However, ...	[ "During the mid-20th century, when the literary genre of the New Testament gospels was under debate, scholars like C. H. Dodd and Rudolf Bultmann suggested that the gospels were of a genre unique in the ancient world. They called the genre \"kerygma\" and described it as a later development of preaching that had ta...
Eyes Ears Mouth Nose & Fingers. What sense could humans(or any creature) develop to add to these 5 senses to add a completely nea sense?	We also have accelerometers imbedded in our ears.	[ "Humans have just two ears, but can locate sounds in three dimensions – in range (distance), in direction above and below, in front and to the rear, as well as to either side. This is possible because the brain, inner ear and the external ears (pinna) work together to make inferences about location. This ability to...
what is the difference of a hybrid car to a normal petrol powered car.	There are two factors that improve performance. Combustion engine is not equally efficient across all speeds (revolutions per minute). The RPM in which the engine is most efficient is called working point. You want to keep the RPM as close to this point as possible. But cars have to operate at various speeds, that mea...	[ "In addition to vehicles that use two or more different devices for propulsion, some also consider vehicles that use distinct energy sources or input types (\"fuels\") using the same engine to be hybrids, although to avoid confusion with hybrids as described above and to use correctly the terms, these are perhaps m...
how can someone have both near-sightedness and far-sightedness?	I have both astigmatism and a high myopy (around 7, 7.5), meaning that I barely can't see anything withought my glasses. My myopy is basically an eye deformity, my eye is slightly elongated, so light entering my eyes does not land perfectly on my cornea, making images far away blurry. At the same time, my cornea is n...	[ "Single vision lenses correct for only one distance. If they correct for far distance, the person must accommodate to see clearly up close. If the person cannot accommodate, they may need a separate correction for near distances, or else use a multifocal lens (see below).\n", "Tentative evidence indicates that th...
How large was the Jewish diaspora in the 1st century AD?	I'll edit and answer the first part when I'm back home with my books (I'm away from home on a business trip). Until then, I'll just answer the second bit. But note on the first part that there was also a large jewish community in Mesopotamia. > How many of them were converts (or were most descendants of Judeans/Isra...	[ "By the first century, the Jewish community in Babylonia, to which Jews were exiled after the Babylonian conquest as well as after the Bar Kokhba revolt in 135 CE, already held a speedily growing population of an estimated one million Jews, which increased to an estimated two million between the years 200 CE and 50...
how do touch-me-not plant seeds "explode"?	The cells of the plant on on side of the seed pod fill themselves up with water, using osmosis to transport the water within the cells. This causes pressures of up to 1 Megapascal pressing against the seed. (Atmospheric pressure at sea level is about 100 kilopascals) The plant forms a brittle structure, so that the see...	[ "The fruit is a seedpod long, containing several seeds. The seedpod dries completely on the tree, and when mature begins to twist into a helix or corkscrew shape, (see below), ultimately exploding open—with a very audible \"clack\"—to deliver its seeds into the environs.\n", "The investigation determined that a m...
Were there any groups that sequentially followed the path from Judaism, to Christianity, to Islam as they emerged?	Three regions would really match up with these transitions. 1) Levant/Egypt 2) Horn of Africa 3) the Maghreb All these regions share a common denominator in that they are all inhabited by Afroasiatic people's and share many common cultural and ethnic features to begin with, as well as strong ties to the middle eas...	[ "Abrahamic religion spread globally through Christianity being adopted by the Roman Empire in the 4th century and Islam by the Islamic Empires from the 7th century. Today the Abrahamic religions are one of the major divisions in comparative religion (along with Indian, Iranian, and East Asian religions). The major ...
why do sometimes when i'm almost asleep i suddently twitch or jump up like a madman and wake myself up? i often feel like i'm falling or i'm tripping and then falling and that's mostly the reason i suddently twitch, lile getting scared of falling or something.	It's called an Hypnic Jerk, it's exact causes are unknown, although there are some theories but they're lacking any substantial evidence. See the link below. [Link](_URL_0_)	[ "Occasionally, late at night, while trying to sleep and failing, people experience an anxiety of existence, they are aware of their entire body, the entire world, and the whole of reality itself. It's like waking from a dream, or a light going on, or a giant \"\"You are here\"\" sign appearing in the sky. The mere ...
why do emergency vehicles alternate between different siren sounds?	EMT here. Different siren sounds are used at different times. For example, we need to change our siren to "yelp" when we're approaching/clearing an intersection to make sure people hear us. The "wail" siren, the one you're most used to hearing, is used at other times, like when driving on a surface street.	[ "BULLET::::- Sirens - These can be fully electronic, electric, or manual, but are all designed to create changing sound patterns. These patterns vary by model of siren. Emergency drivers are often trained to use different siren tones in different conditions, to achieve maximum effectiveness through traffic. A long-...
How do we know that the conservation of energy is an actual thing?	There is a mathematical theorem called [Noether's Theorem](_URL_0_). Basically it states that every symmetry of a system corresponds to an invariant. This fact is one of the cornerstones of modern physics, specifically in quantum physics. Symmetry in time leads to the conservation of energy. Spatial symmetry leads to t...	[ "The conservation of energy is a common feature in many physical theories. From a mathematical point of view it is understood as a consequence of Noether's theorem, developed by Emmy Noether in 1915 and first published in 1918. The theorem states every continuous symmetry of a physical theory has an associated cons...
Can you make a waterproof Shear-Thickening Fluid?	You might want to try asking this question at [r/AskScienceDiscussion](_URL_0_) instead, since it's more of an exploratory question. I doubt anyone can tell you the answer to this simply because nobody's tried it before! With that being said, a few things to consider: kevlar is already very strong even without the she...	[ "A method for testing the behavior of shear thickening fluids is stochastic rotation dynamics-molecular dynamics (SRD-MD). The colloidal particles of a shear thickening fluid are simulated, and shear is applied. These particles create hydroclusters which exert a drag force resisting flow.\n", "Low shear wet granu...
If one filled a thick metal container with water and left it in a very cold place like the Antarctic, would the freezing water be able to expand enough to break the container? How thick would such a container have to be to resist the water's expansion?	You can buy those in science catalogs. Water-filled cast iron container is for physics class demos, called [an "ice bomb."](_URL_0_)	[ "Experts consider version #4 the most likely — temperature changes in the pool's water stressed welding seams, tearing them. When building #5's repository was designed, it was assumed that the water would be kept at a constant temperature by heat from the nuclear assemblies suspended under the surface. A separate w...
Is water used to make concrete trapped in or does most of it come out in the drying/curing process?	Modern concrete and cement have a number of calcium silicates in them which react with water to form a range of hydrated calcium silicates. These chemical processes change the structure of the concrete and cause it to harden (cure). So the water becomes incorporated into the crystal structure of the minerals formed in...	[ "Traditional conditions for curing involve by spraying or ponding the concrete surface with water. The adjacent picture shows one of many ways to achieve this, ponding—submerging setting concrete in water and wrapping in plastic to prevent dehydration. Additional common curing methods include wet burlap and plastic...
how beer can go bad but not liquer	There are two issues here. Just a bit of background Alcohol is a super disinfectant. It is more effective at higher concentrations. The first issue is alcohol content. Beer is traditionally 5% alcohol while spirits are around 40%. The higher alcohol content of spirits will more likely stop bacteria growing in the bo...	[ "However, the most striking feature of \"Beer Bad\" is the twin moral: Beer and casual sex are bad. In a BBC interview, Petrie states: \"Well, very young people get unlimited access to alcohol and become horrible! We all do it — or most of us do it — and live to regret it, and we wanted to explore that.\"\n", "Th...
Is there a connection between Vitamin D and vivid dream/nightmares?	There's no connection that I know of, and a quick PubMed search didn't turn anything up either. There are some substances that have known effects on dreams/nightmares. By far the most famous one is [mefloquine](_URL_0_), which is known for causing vivid dreaming and nightmares, but if I remember correctly, L-DOPA is a...	[ "BULLET::::- A dietary deficiency of vitamin D is most commonly associated with osteoporosis, but can cause ANIM as well. Vitamin D induced ANIM is most commonly associated with sleep deprivation as it induces tonsillar and adenotonsillar hypertrophy, as well as weakens the airway muscles. These changes induce slee...
how intelligent is an ant colony as a whole?	I am not a biologist, but ant colonies is an area we studied in an AI class. Each ant in a colony is more independent than a neuron in a brain is, and the colony as a whole really doesn't communicate all that much. What is fascinating about ant colonies is how well they are able to function with only very low-levels of...	[ "It is known that some of T. \"rugatulus\" specializations in colonies include being lazy. Some scientists disputed this as an inaccurate conclusion because T. \"rugatulus\" has primarily been studied in the laboratory, where conditions may not reflect their natural habitat. Researchers have found; however, that th...
Why did the KKK disappear then reappear in the 1920s?	Two big things. The emergence of eugenics giving a 'scientific' basis to their claims of racial superiority on an intellectual level, and their status as a social group that was rabidly pro-Prohibition as a raw recruitment tool. It's important to understand that Prohibition was heavily wrapped up in the classic 'white...	[ "The Ku Klux Klan, which had largely disappeared after a brief violent career in the early years of Reconstruction, reappeared in 1915. It grew mostly in industrializing cities of the South and Midwest that underwent the most rapid growth from 1910 to 1930. Social instability contributed to racial tensions that res...
why did the chinese never develop an alphabet?	To be sure, there are calls within China to move to using the Latin alphabet, in part precisely because it is easier to learn: Chinese schoolchildren, it is said, are still learning to read while their western counterparts are moving on to more advanced stuff. And yet generally speaking, the Chinese writing system doe...	[ "The first alphabetic writing system for Chinese was created by the Tibetan Buddhist monk and leader Drogön Chögyal Phagpa () on the orders of the Mongol emperor Kublai Khan. His 'Phags-pa script, promulgated in 1269, was a vertical adaptation of the Tibetan alphabet initially aimed at Mongolian but later adapted t...
What happens to a photon as light passes through a medium?	There's a really nice answer in the FAQ ~~here~~ [here](_URL_0_).	[ "Photon diffusion is a situation where photons travel through a material without being absorbed, but rather undergoing repeated scattering events which change the direction of their path. The path of any given photon is then effectively a random walk. A large ensemble of such photons can be said to exhibit diffusio...
Most Germanic countries are predominantly Protestant/Reformed while Latin countries are predominantly Catholic. Why did this split happen?	That's not really true though. The southern half of Germany (Bavaria, Saarland and the southern part of Baden-Württemberg, and it's most common christian denomination in Baden-Württemberg, North Rhine Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate) as well as all of Austria are very catholic. In fact, the second largest religious ...	[ "Roman Catholicism in Germany dates back to the missionary work of Columbanus and St. Boniface in the 6th–8th centuries, but by the 20th century, Catholics were a minority. The Reformation, initiated by Martin Luther in 1517, divided German Christians between Protestantism and Catholicism. The south and west remain...
If the universe we're not expanding, but instead was contracting or stationary, would the second law of thermodynamics hold?	No it's not directly related to the expansion of the universe.	[ "In 1998 it was discovered that the expansion of the universe appears to be accelerating rather than decelerating due to a positive cosmological constant, implying that any two regions of the universe will eventually become permanently separated from one another. Dyson noted that \"in an accelerated universe everyt...
Exactly how detrimental was the Russian winter to the Germans in world war 2? I’ve seen my fair share of Russian winter memes and know it’s not the only factor.	From [an earlier answer of mine](_URL_0_) The Russian winter certainly did make offensive operations quite difficult for the Germans in 1941. Extreme cold degraded the combat performance of the army as a whole. Vehicle engines were difficult to start in the cold, personnel wastage increased to frostbite and other pro...	[ "This befell a that was ill-equipped for cold weather. The Russians, properly equipped, considered it a relatively mild winter; the French deficiencies in equipment caused by the assumption that their campaign would be concluded before the cold weather set in were a large factor in the number of casualties they suf...
what do the different settings on the microwave actually do?	They primarily help them market you the microwave because you think they do something special or the microwave with all these buttons is somehow a superior quality product. Seriously. Its pretty much all BS. When you're choosing what microwave to buy: Do you want the simple one with one button? or this other one with...	[ "Modern microwave ovens use either an analog dial-type timer or a digital control panel for operation. Control panels feature an LED, liquid crystal or vacuum fluorescent display, in the 90s brands such as Panasonic and GE began offering models with a scrolling-text display showing cooking instructions, numeric but...
what dopamine does for the human body	Dopamine doesn't just make you happy. Dopamine, similarly to most neurotransmetters, is just like the good ol' swiss knife : it really depends where and when you are using it. And as a matter of fact, Dopamine is really just a multi-tasking tool (or more like a command order). **It's the dopaminergic neurons tha...	[ "Dopamine (DA, a contraction of 3,4-dihydroxyphenethylamine) is an organic chemical of the catecholamine and phenethylamine families. It functions both as a hormone and a neurotransmitter, and plays several important roles in the brain and body. It is an amine synthesized by removing a carboxyl group from a molecul...
If our sun burned at a different colour, would we also perceive colour on Earth differently?	Well evolutionarily we developed sight in the wavelengths produced most intensely by the sun. [Here's the spectrum of what the sun emits](_URL_0_), showing both before and after going through the atmosphere. I just pulled this from a google image search, while I think it's more or less right, I'm not sure if the colors...	[ "The Sun's color is white, with a CIE color-space index near (0.3, 0.3), when viewed from space or when the Sun is high in the sky. When measuring all the photons emitted, the Sun is actually emitting more photons in the green portion of the spectrum than any other. When the Sun is low in the sky, atmospheric scatt...
When you make a lemon battery or potato battery and the use all the energy, will it be less nutritional for you if you eat it after?	The battery gets its energy from zinc being oxidised, Zn -- > Zn2+ + 2e-, and H+ ions are being reduced, 2H+ + 2e- -- > H2. The organic molecules in the foods that we get energy from (sugars, starch, acetate etc) are largely unaffected. In particular, we can't harness the energy of the zinc. So the energy your body...	[ "A lemon battery is a simple battery often made for the purpose of education. Typically, a piece of zinc metal (such as a galvanized nail) and a piece of copper (such as a penny) are inserted into a lemon and connected by wires. Power generated by reaction of the metals is used to power a small device such as a lig...
[nsfw] why do the last few drops of urine always end up in your pants?	They don't. Try pushing up on your taint and moving forward to your balls to "squeeg" the last drops out when you are finished pissing. You're welcome.	[ "Muscles surrounding the urethra (the tube that takes urine away from the bladder) have the job of keeping the passage closed, preventing urine from passing out of the body. If the bladder contracts strongly and without warning, the muscles surrounding the urethra may not be able to keep urine from passing. This of...
why isn't economics more of an exact science? surely there are enough real-world examples of different systems that we can know which is the most effective.	Because you're dealing with mass psychology. It's always hard to predict how a big group will react to certain things and interact with itself	[ "It is possible that economic models can also be improved through an application of chaos theory, but predicting the health of an economic system and what factors influence it most is an extremely complex task. Economic and financial systems are fundamentally different from those in the classical natural sciences s...
how do the balance sheet and income statement work together	Assets - Liabilities = Capital + Income - Expense. In your example above this would create a balanced entry.	[ "The balance sheet is the financial statement showing a firm's assets, liabilities and equity (capital) at a set point in time, usually the end of the fiscal year reported on the accompanying income statement. The total assets always equal the total combined liabilities and equity in dollar amount. This statement b...
Has the human brain changed in the past 100,000 years? If so, what has changed? Are there any differences between population groups? If not, why?	Well, one change is certainly that our brains have been shrinking for a while: > Over the past 20,000 years, the average volume of the human male brain has decreased from 1,500 cubic centimeters to 1,350 cc, losing a chunk the size of a tennis ball. _URL_0_ People have presented different hypotheses, but we reall...	[ "The qualitatively largest changes within an individual generally occur during early development and more subtle ones during aging and learning, while pathological changes can vary highly in their extent and interindividual differences increase both during and across lifetimes. The above-described morphometric meth...
Why is the sport of Cricket so popular in India, but not football/soccer?	First of all, football IS very popular in India, being second most popular sport. It's another matter that the Indians are not as successful at it in international events and thus, not as famous. It all started early and quite well. Football was introduced to the Indians by British soldiers in the 19th century and cl...	[ "Cricket is a popular summer sport in the United Kingdom and has been exported to other parts of the former British Empire. Cricket has its origins in south east Britain. It is popular throughout England and Wales, and parts of the Netherlands. Cricket is also popular in other areas and also played in northwest Eur...
Could one distill alcohol by putting it in a vacuum type device, to an negitive pressure where the ethanol boils but not the water, and then open a valve to collect the distillates?	It sounds like you are describing [vacuum distillation](_URL_0_).	[ "Ethylene hydration or brewing produces an ethanol–water mixture. For most industrial and fuel uses, the ethanol must be purified. Fractional distillation at atmospheric pressure can concentrate ethanol to 95.6% by weight (89.5 mole%). This mixture is an azeotrope with a boiling point of , and \"cannot\" be further...
How do we research the material culture of dispossessed groups, such as Native Americans in North and South America?	I am an archaeologist that has had the lucky privilege of working in the United States, Canada, and Peru. As I am not a member of a dispossessed group myself, this is a very limited perspective but I hope to at least point people to sources and aspects of this topic to think about. I am also going to assume that the qu...	[ "William Duncan Strong (1899–1962) was an American archaeologist and anthropologist noted for his application of the direct historical approach to the study of indigenous peoples of North and South America. \n", "At Gilcrease Museum, the anthropology collections and the work of the department of anthropology focu...
why don't fungi and protozoa develop resistance to antimicrobials as fast and efficient as bacteria?	Ultimately, the development of resistance to antimicrobials can occur in two different ways. The first way is by mutation. Basically, an enzyme or other molecule that the antimicrobial targets can be mutated so it is no longer affected, or the organism can produce an enzyme that destroys/inactivates the drug, or finds ...	[ "Some of the antimicrobial compounds produced by endophytic fungi are of interest in their effectiveness against pathogens which have developed resistances to antibiotics. Several isolates from the ascomycota \"Pestalotiopsis\" sp have been shown to have a broad range of antimicrobial effects, even against methicil...
how does the electronic ignition in a lighter with no batreries work?	There are certain crystals that generate electricity when squeezed or bent. It's called piezoelectricity. The crystal has two electrodes either side to collect the electricity when the button is pressed, one is connected to the has jet nozzle nd the other to a metal rod just above it. The button also starts the gas flo...	[ "A gas lighter is a device used to ignite the gas stove. It is used in gas stoves which do not have automatic ignition systems. It uses a physical phenomenon called piezo-electric effect to generate an electric spark which ignites the combustible gas from the stove burner.\n", "Lighters typically use a percussion...
Why did Russia give up on seizing Constantinople?	Because Russia, as one of the Great Powers, was very aware of the importance of maintaining the balance of power in Europe. Britain, France, Austria, Prussia, and Russia were the Great Powers in Europe in the 19th century, and they operated under with the understanding that no one country should make significant gain...	[ "The reaction in the Ottoman capital of Constantinople ranged from concern to total panic. Russia had annihilated a vital convoy and now had operational control over the Black Sea. The destruction of the harbor defenses opened the door to Russian invasion and suddenly the entire Samsun and Trabzon Coast was now at ...
Would it be possible to spin a molecule fast enough to breaks its bonds?	Let's calculate this (just roughly) for fun. For Hydrogen molecule. H2. We have: * Mass of each atom: 1u = 1.6e-27kg * Distance: 74pm - Radius 37pm * Binding energy: 436kJ/mol = 7.3e-19J/Atom We have to overcome the centrifugal energy barrier. So E=mw^2r^2 /2. This means we have to get the molecule to a angular spe...	[ " Electron bands can spontaneously split into up and down spins. This happens if the relative gain in exchange interaction (the interaction of electrons via the Pauli exclusion principle) is larger than the loss in kinetic energy.\n", "The backbone will break down randomly, this can occur at any position of the b...
how does bansky (and similar street artists) fund their operations?	They sell indi documentaries. And books. Or have real jobs as well. Host art shows. Banksy art sells for a lot of money.	[ "While its primary goal is to provide a service to underrepresented artists, Representing NYC also creates a meaningful way for artists moving into the rapidly changing neighborhoods of New York City to engage with the youth and the communities that surround them.\n", "The Street Artists Program of San Francisco ...
why can't we heal personality disorders?	So when you're normal, you're in what can be called a "physiological state", basically normal functioning. When you're sick, and you get a disease, it can be considered a "pathological state." With some mental disorders, you shift from a physiological to a pathological state. And you can revert this with certain drugs...	[ "The management and treatment of personality disorders can be a challenging and controversial area, for by definition the difficulties have been enduring and affect multiple areas of functioning. This often involves interpersonal issues, and there can be difficulties in seeking and obtaining help from organizations...
what's up with redditors reliably trolling youtube posts that get front-paged here?	Somethings seriously wrong with those dudes... I guess that's their only source of joy.	[ "The targets of this trolling come from \"every pocket of the Web\", to include not only the non-corporeal aspects of Internet phenomena, (e.g. online catchphrases, fan pages, forums, and viral phenomena), but also real people (e.g. amateur celebrities, identifiable internet drama participants and even Encyclopædia...
Is it better to just sleep until you wake up or adhere to some sleep schedule?	Had this exact conversation with a neurobiology professor around 5 years ago. Conclusion was you should definitely keep on the same schedule- even through the weekend. It was not my major and I do not remember specifics [but this was a top google result.](_URL_0_)	[ "Among lifestyle practices, going to sleep and waking up at the same time each day can create a steady pattern which may help to prevent insomnia. Avoidance of vigorous exercise and caffeinated drinks a few hours before going to sleep is recommended, while exercise earlier in the day may be beneficial. Other practi...
My dad doesn't believe that LBJ whipped out his dong a lot, are there any legitimate sources?	In a lengthy biography of LBJ, Robert Caro definitely makes mention of LBJ whipping it out and nicknaming his... Johnson. Caro is a highly regarded writer so he would fall under your need for a legitimate source.	[ "Later, Mitchell had the following to say about his encounter: \"Sibrel faked his way into my home with false History Channel credentials for an interview. After about 3–4 minutes, he popped the bible question. Realizing who he was, I maintained my cool enough to swear on his bible, then ended the interview and tos...
what is the point of "riots" where participants damage private property? doesn't it damage the protestors' image and so their goal?	Two things: First, you're assuming rioters have a coordinated goal. Some, maybe even most people involved have might have a principled political message to get across, but others are along as opportunists who don't care about that message. Second, even with the chaotic anarchy, there is still a message being transmit...	[ "In addition, activists may use the tactic of property destruction as means of protest, e.g. by smashing the windows of banks, shops and government institutions and setting fire to cars. This often takes place during riots but can also happen as a stand-alone event, e.g. by animal rights activists destroying proper...
Did the Catholic church really sell indulgences?	Maurice Druon’s claim in Les Rois Maudits is technically correct. From the technical perspective of canon law (the law of the church) the church couldn’t “sell” indulgences since this would constitute the grave spiritual crime of simony, the buying and selling of church offices or graces. An indulgence was a remitta...	[ "The inquisition put to death many of the New Christians, and expropriated the property and wealth of many others. The riches of even some Old Christian merchants were expropriated after false anonymous complaints were made that the inquisitors accepted as valid, since the property of the condemned reverted to them...
what would happen if all insects were killed overnight?	The first couple days, we'd all enjoy mosquito free evenings and have awesome BBQ's. But pretty quickly, the food chain would start to break down. A lot of birds, lizards, and other small animals subsist on a diet heavy on insects. They'd start starving and dying. And then the larger animals that fed on them would st...	[ "In 2019, research was published showing that insects are destroyed by human activities like habitat destruction, pesticide poisoning, invasive species and climate change at a rate that will cause the collapse of ecological systems in the next 50 years if it cannot be stopped.\n", "BULLET::::- If all the insects ...
why isn't t-mobile violating net neutrality?	It absolutely is a violation of net neutrality. It's a textbook example of how to violate net neutrality. They're giving certain services to customers with different levels of access based on what they pay. I think your real question is, why are they being allowed to violate net neutrality and don't we have any laws...	[ "Net neutrality rules would prevent traffic from being allocated to the most needed users, according to Internet Pioneer David Farber. Because net neutrality regulations prevent a discrimination of traffic, networks would have to treat critical traffic equally with non-critical traffic. According to Farber, \"When ...
Could the tragedy happening at the nuclear reactor in Japan been averted if the reactors were not shut down?	Nuclear reactors require power from offsite to operate. That was lost during the earthquake/tsunami. They don't generally power themselves, because then a problem in the secondary system (the part that generates power) would lead to loss of controls on the primary system (fission).	[ "By March 2012, one year after the disaster, all but two of Japan's nuclear reactors were shut down; some were damaged by the quake and tsunami. The following year, the last two were taken off-line. Authority to restart the others after scheduled maintenance throughout the year was given to local governments, and i...
why putting a spin on things makes them travel straighter (e.g. rifling with bullets)	Most bullets will not be perfectly symmetrical sure to flaws in the manufacturing process. These flaws will cause a bullet to naturally veer during flight. Think of a plane with the tail kinked slightly to one side, it will not fly sight without constant adjustment from the pilot. Since bullets cannot be stress once sh...	[ "BULLET::::- A spinner is a type of hubcap that spins independently inside of a wheel itself when a vehicle is in motion, and continues to spin once the vehicle has come to a stop. As an attachment to the car's wheel, a spinner operates by using one or more roller bearings to isolate the spinner from the wheel, all...
the origins of cinco de mayo	Cinco de Mayo is a celebration of a battle Mexico won in the war between Mexico and France that lasted from 1861 to 1867. The battle is called the Battle of Puebla, and happened in 1862. France attacked Mexico because Mexico was not paying back its debt to France. Even though Mexico won that battle, the French were win...	[ "The earliest inhabitants of this region hunted, fished, and gathered plants. They gradually developed an agricultural technique that allowed them to settle in various communities. On arrival of the Spaniards in the today states of Sonora and Sinaloa, the Mayos were part of an Indian confederacy with the Apaches, P...
What did Chinese military forces look like in the 17th and 18th centuries (early to mid Qing Dynasty)?	Qing armies were divided into two categories: bannermen and the Green Standard. The Green Standard armies were Han conscripts and were generally (considered to be) of lower quality than banner forces. They were, however, more numerous than the bannermen, and in the later Qing era acquired more and more significance, in...	[ "At the start of the war the Qing army consisted of over 200,000 soldiers, with around 800,000 men being able to be called for war. These forces consisted of Manchu Bannermen, the Green Standard Army, provincial militias, and imperial garrisons. The Qing armies were armed with matchlocks and shotguns, which had an ...
Why aren't the Tulsa race riots of the '20's ever mentioned in American history books?	Hi there! You’ve asked a question along the lines of ‘why didn’t I learn about X’. We’re happy to let this question stand, but there are a variety of reasons why you may find it hard to get a good answer to this question on /r/AskHistorians. Firstly, school curricula and how they are taught vary strongly between diffe...	[ "The Tulsa Race Riot (or the Greenwood Massacre) of 1921 took place on May 31 and June 1, 1921, when mobs of white residents attacked black residents and businesses of the Greenwood District in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It has been called \"the single worst incident of racial violence in American history.\" The attack, carr...
how do we know with certainty that 1 second is "the duration of 9192631770 periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between the two hyperfine levels of the ground state of the caesium 133 atom" ?	Because the second is an arbitrary unit of measurement. It's a human invention, and it means whatever we want it to mean. So we have defined it as "the duration of 9192631770 periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between the two hyperfine levels of the ground state of the caesium 133 atom"	[ "In 1967–68, during the 13th CGPM (Resolution 1), the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM) redefined a second as … the duration of 9 192 631 770 periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between two hyperfine levels of the ground state of the caesium 133 atom.\n", "BULLET::::- The ex...
Did the Final Solution significantly harm the Third Reich's ability to prosecute its war effort during WWII?	In short, no. Under a normal functioning economy, the Final Solution would have absolutely done significant harm to Germany's ability to fight a multi-front world war however, given the "free" labor and raw materials Nazi Germany enjoyed, they were able to basically accomplish both. In other words, I have not seen any ...	[ "In 1940, the idea of the Final Solution was still \"unthinkable\", and Stern believed that Hitler wanted to make Germany \"judenrein\" through emigration, as opposed to extermination. In December 1940, Lehi even contacted Germany with a proposal to aid German conquest in the Middle East in return for recognition o...
i call someone on my cellphone, i can hear them clearly but they cannot hear me at all.	Imagine being in a cave and someone above ground uses a megaphone to say to you, "Hey down there, can you hear me?" and you do hear them, but when you yell back up at them with your own voice (no megaphone to help you) it's not powerful enough to make it through the dirt clearly and they don't hear your reply. In oth...	[ "The Voice Carry Over Telephone (VCO) is used by those people who are unable to hear over the telephone but prefer to use their voice to communicate. VCO telephone calls must be made through a relay service. This connection allows the person with the hearing loss to speak to the other party and read their incoming ...
how can lots of famous pages use content from reddit with no reference whatsoever and easily get away with it? ِisn't there any copyright? like 9gag, 8crap, and other similar pages ...	It is copyrighted. All material is inherently copyrighted by the person who created it. For Reddit, both the original user and Reddit (per the terms of service) own the copyright to material posted on reddit. However, you must enforce your copyright. Anyone can use the info if you sit there and do nothing, and don't e...	[ "The site is frequently used as a citation source for facts presented elsewhere since it is not commercial and site's author states all his sites are freely visible and copyable. However, the site's author states, \"When writing papers, students should use books and not the internet.\"\n", "BULLET::::- An article...
Is it possible to spin a black hole so quickly that it falls apart due to the inertia of its various parts?	From a post I made yesterday: > Black holes are not spheres of matter; the event horizon of a black hole is not the surface of a sphere or matter. The event horizon marks the boundary of a region of spacetime for which it is impossible for anything within to leave or interact with anything outside that region. Thus ...	[ "Rotating black holes are surrounded by a region of spacetime in which it is impossible to stand still, called the ergosphere. This is the result of a process known as frame-dragging; general relativity predicts that any rotating mass will tend to slightly \"drag\" along the spacetime immediately surrounding it. An...
when the military bomb a certain area, how do they confirm that a certain target is dead? how can they know for sure?	Well, if you bomb something you can look at it afterwards... Generally, if nothing is moving for some time you presume anyone in that area is dead. And if you drop 100kg of explosives on something you can be pretty sure anyone in the direct vicinity of the blast is dead. Sometimes you may be able to identify bodypart...	[ "With the advent of precision guided munitions that can be directed onto a specific target, it may be reasonable to use air attack against isolated command posts or other high-value facilities away from civilian areas. The combination of highly accurate, small weapons such as the Small Diameter Bomb, or even bombs ...
what washers are for on nuts and bolts?	Standard washers have two main purposes: To distribute the pressure of the nut evenly over the surface, so that the surface isn't damaged, and, to ensure that the nut is pressed against a smooth surface, reducing the chance that it'll gradually loosen because it's in contact with an uneven surface.	[ "The term washer is often applied to various gasket types such as those used to seal the control valve in taps. Crush washers are made of a soft metal such as aluminium or copper, and are used to seal fluid or gas connections such as those found in an internal combustion engine.\n", "A superbolt, or multi-jackbol...
What were Ottoman reactions to the Protestant Reformation?	I'll try to answer your question, sorry if it doesn't satisfy you Initially, the reformation was considered by the Ottomans to be nothing more than a theological problem. They considered the Reformation a Christian feud, and that the Catholic Christians were more than able to deal with these trivial theological differ...	[ "Conversion to Islam in the Ottoman Empire involved a combination of individual, family, communal and institutional initiatives and motives. The process was also influenced by the balance of power between the Ottomans and the neighboring Christian states.\n", "However so, after the Ottoman conquest of Bosnia, the...
What are antibiotics' impacts on the gut flora, specifically in young children?	Generally, gut microbiome diversity stabilizes when children are around 3 years old. Children who are younger than 3 years old and recieve antibiotic treatments are therefore at risk of a lowered diversity in their gut microbiome. Children with lower microbial diversity in their guts are at risk of Obesity, Diabetes, ...	[ "Antibiotics are a common treatment for children, with 11% to 40% of antibiotic-treated children developing diarrhea. Antibiotic-associated diarrhea (AAD) results from an imbalance in the colonic microbiota caused by antibiotic therapy. These microbial community alterations result in changes in carbohydrate metabol...
why does food poisoning seem to always happen in the middle of the night?	Food poisoning tends to come on a few hours after you ingested the contaminated food (it depends a little on exactly what it is contaminated with.) Some foods are more likely to cause food poisoning than others, like for example meats and shellfish. We tend to eat these things mostly for dinner. We also have a bigger t...	[ "This suggests food poisoning, but of an incredibly rare type that the doctors have never seen before. The men do not have the main symptoms of food poisoning: diarrhoea and vomiting. Also, the incubation period is too short for the most common bacterial poisonings. They also suspect recreational drugs, but the men...
why some soldiers today psychologically affected from modern warfare when most soldiers from before the age of firearms weren't too affected by the brutal melee warfare.	PTSD has always been a thing. Like Always. There are records back as long as we have them of soldiers have massive issues. The Egyptians, Greeks, and Roman all actually wrote about the massive issues soldiers would have after combat. In WWI it was often called "shell shock" You might be interested in the first page o...	[ "Due to medical advances, warfare in the 21st century tends to yield more survivors with severe injuries which soldiers in previous wars would have died from. This means that, though fewer service members die, more return from war with injuries more serious, and in turn more emotionally devastating, than ever befor...
What is the earliest poem/work of fiction known primarily for being bad?	Silius Italicus wrote an extremely long epic poem on the second punic war and Richard Miles (in his "Carthage must be Destroyed") mentions it was not received very well. Pliny, for instance, says Silius Italicus had more eagerness to write than he had genius. Mecenas was a patron of the arts, supporting, amonst other...	[ "The oldest surviving speculative fiction poem is the \"Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor\", written in \"Hieratic\" and ascribed a date around 2500 B.C.E. Other sources ascribe the earliest written poetry to the \"Epic of Gilgamesh\" written in \"cuneiform\"; however, it is most likely that \"The Tale of the Shipwrec...
what in the brain typically causes a mentally unstable person to yell/mutter/talk with themselves or an "invisible person?"	Think about it like you have one of these mental disorders, not like someone looking at another with a mental disorder. People with say, severe schizophrenia, may actually not be yelling at an "invisible person." In there mind, that person or voice or whatever they are seeing or hearing is actually there and so they a...	[ "Another typical disorder where auditory hallucinations are very common is dissociative identity disorder. In schizophrenia voices are normally perceived coming from outside the person but in dissociative disorders they are perceived as originating from within the person, commenting in their head instead of behind ...
why do some dogs tails curl while others don't?	Most dogs look the way they do because of breeding. At some point in the past someone had a litter of dogs where one had a little bit of a curl to their tail. The owner liked the look of that and wanted to make it curl more. So, they bred that dog with other dogs who had slightly curly tails. Eventually all of their pu...	[ "There are many different shapes for dog tails: straight, straight up, sickle, curled, or cork-screw. As with many canids, one of the primary functions of a dog's tail is to communicate their emotional state, which can be important in getting along with others. In some hunting dogs, however, the tail is traditional...
why do males die before females?	This is only true for male versus female life expectancy and nothing really to do with any particular person. As has been said, men are more likely to have risky jobs. They are also more likely to engage in risky behavior and less likely to take care of their health, such as by going to the doctor when they have symp...	[ "Male die off occurs because of an increase in free corticosteroids in the blood. This increase of corticosteroids in the blood causes a suppression of the immune system and gastrointestinal ulcers and which result in male mortality. An increase in free corticosteroids is thought to allow males to utilise their res...

Subsets and Splits

No community queries yet

The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.