question stringlengths 3 301 | answer stringlengths 9 26.1k | context list |
|---|---|---|
how do anonymous videos go viral so quickly? | People find YouTube videos in a variety of ways:
* Looking at the list of new videos.
* Searching. Either, "I love Celine Dion," or, "I loathe Celine Dion." This search could be outside YouTube, like within a search engine.
* Finding via video relationships. I watched a video about an airport and this video showed up ... | [
"It is sometimes difficult to predict which images and videos will \"go viral\" with widespread sharing; sometimes the creation of an Internet celebrity is a sudden surprise. One of the first documented viral videos is \"Numa Numa\", the webcam video of then-19-year-old Gary Brolsma singing and dancing to Romanian ... |
we don't feel as if we are standing upside down or sideways because of gravity correct? however in space, there is no gravity. how can one tell what direction is upside down since space is infinite? | Well in space there is no up, down, or sideways. If you were being pulled towards the earth you would get your sense of direction back as soon as the gravity starts to effect you. | [
"Due to the lack of gravity, confusion often occurs. Even though there is no up and down in space, some crew members feel like they are oriented upside down. They may also have difficulty measuring distances. This can cause problems like getting lost inside the space station, pulling switches in the wrong direction... |
When did underwear become a thing? Was it concurrent with the development of trousers? | I would suggest [episode 62 of our podcast](_URL_0_), which is an episode about hygiene and cleanliness, with a section about the development of modern underwear. | [
"Modern men's underwear was largely an invention of the 1930s. On 19 January 1935, Coopers Inc. sold the world's first briefs in Chicago. Designed by an \"apparel engineer\" named Arthur Kneibler, briefs dispensed with leg sections and had a Y-shaped overlapping fly. The company dubbed the design the \"Jockey\" sin... |
my first language is vietnamese, second language english, my sister is the same as me, and we are able to switch between languages mid sentence and they would make perfect sense to us, both grammatically and syntactically; how is this possible ? | It's called code switching. It's very common among people raised speaking multiple languages. It comes from the fact that languages learned before the age of 12 (or so) are much more deeply ingrained than those learned later in life and your brain can seamlessly switch between them mid-sentence or even mid-phrase.
T... | [
"Vietnamese, like many languages in Southeast Asia, is an analytic language. Vietnamese does not use morphological marking of case, gender, number or tense (and, as a result, has no finite/nonfinite distinction). Also like other languages in the region, Vietnamese syntax conforms to subject–verb–object word order, ... |
Did Ancient Civilizations Have Restaurants? | That depends on what you mean by "restaurant." Civilizations in practically every time period have had places where you could go and buy a cooked meal, either to eat there or take home. In some places, such as classical urban Rome, it could be a massive fire risk to cook meals in a tenement apartment, so "eating out" w... | [
"The earliest evidence of a Greek restaurant, or taverna, was discovered at the Ancient Agora of Athens (or Athenian Agora) during archaeological excavations conducted by the American School of Classical Studies in the early 1970s. Large quantities of classical Greek cooking and eating utensils were found at the ta... |
how do volunteer firefighters/other first responders support themselves and family if they volunteer? | You have a job just in your spare time your a volunteer. They work around your schedule normally. | [
"The volunteers first responders can take part of an emergency rescue team in case of disaster; due to the bad response time (usually some hours to gather the teams), they usually deal with minor casualties, but could theoretically act in first line. In some places (e.g. in Paris), the volunteers take part of the p... |
Hey AskScience, can you help my medical school study group understand referred pain? | My understanding is that it's related to very strong stimulus coupled with the nerve terminals being in close proximities. Like the classic example of referred pain during a MI: there is a "spillover" of neurotransmitters that are picked up by other dendrites that are not directly related to where the pain is coming fr... | [
"Pain is a monthly peer-reviewed medical journal published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins on behalf of the International Association for the Study of Pain. The journal was established in 1975 and covers research and reviews in the fields of anesthesiology and clinical neurology. The editor-in-chief is Francis J. ... |
why does walking around negate the feeling of having a full bladder? | Huh? I have this the other way around. When I sit it's all good, but when I stand and start to walk I have to hurry to the bathroom. | [
"The urinary bladder is a hollow muscular organ in humans and some other animals that collects and stores urine from the kidneys before disposal by urination. In the human the bladder is a hollow muscular, and distensible (or elastic) organ, that sits on the pelvic floor. Urine enters the bladder via the ureters an... |
what happens if a person experiencing a severe allergic reaction doesn't get treatment? | An allergic reaction is your immune system attacking a false threat, that causes inflammation.
If the immune system starts attacking your throat walls to hard it swells a lot, it gets harder to breath and you can’t breath and die | [
"The symptoms of allergic contact may persist for as long as one month before resolving completely. Once an individual has developed a skin reaction to a certain substance it is most likely that they will have it for the rest of their life, and the symptoms will reappear when in contact with the allergen.\n",
"Th... |
in olden days, people used to sodomize open wounds. medically, how did that help? | I think you mean cauterize? | [
"Wounds were treated by bandaging with raw meat, white linen, sutures, nets, pads, and swabs soaked with honey to prevent infection, while opium thyme and belladona were used to relieve pain. The earliest records of burn treatment describe burn dressings that use the milk from mothers of male babies. Prayers were m... |
how do convection clothing dryers work? | Basically, you put your clothes on racks in the dryer. A heating element in the bottom of the machine heats the air around it, causing it to rise. As it rises it passes through the wet clothes, heats up the water in them causing it to evaporate, then goes out a vent in the top into the room where the machine is. | [
"Many dryers consist of a rotating drum called a \"tumbler\" through which heated air is circulated to evaporate the moisture, while the tumbler is rotated to maintain air space between the articles. Using these machines may cause clothes to shrink or become less soft (due to loss of short soft fibers/lint). A simp... |
Can someone give me an unbiased account of Mother Theresa's life, her work, and her philosophy and whether it is reasonable to somewhat objectively call her a overall "good/"bad" person? Is the Catholic Church accurate in the way we remember her? | Hi, you may be interested in this earlier post
* [AskHistorians consensus on Mother Theresa.](_URL_0_) - a long discussion post featuring several flaired users, including a side conversation on the issues historians have with casting judgment on other people's lives | [
"Mother Teresa (Juliet Stevenson), recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, is considered one of the greatest humanitarians of modern times. Her selfless commitment changed hearts, lives and inspired millions throughout the world. The film is told through personal letters she wrote over the last forty years of her life ... |
why does coffee sold in california must carry cancer warning? | California Proposition 65. Basically requires cancer warnings on anything that contains any trace amount of some substance that has been linked to cancer, birth defects, etc.
_URL_0_ | [
"In March 2018, a California judge ruled that Starbucks and other companies must provide warning labels on all coffee products, warning consumers of chemicals that may cause cancer, a requirement by California law which Starbucks was found in violation of. The chemical in question is acrylamide, a carcinogen byprod... |
Did General Haig Make a Good Choice By fighting the Battle of the Somme? | **TL;DR:** Yes.
---------
You're asking one of the biggest historiographical questions of the First World War, one that was hotly debated at one point but is now, quite conclusively, decided upon. With this question, was the Battle of the Somme a 'good choice', we must ask ourselves a series of questions:
1. Was it ... | [
"From 1 July to 18 November 1916, Haig directed the British portion of the Battle of the Somme. The French wanted Haig to persist with the offensive and insisted throughout the battle, even after the French went on the offensive at Verdun in October 1916. Although too much shrapnel was used in initial the bombardme... |
How did the Mona Lisa end up being permanently displayed at the Louvre, so far away from Florence? And what happened to the painting in the centuries before its permanent display? | The Mona Lisa was actually in France quite close to DaVinci's death; he seems to have brought it with him to France when he moved there late in his life at the invitation of Francis I. This is not terribly surprising; other Italian artists like Cellini were invited to work at Francis's court as well. Francis later brou... | [
"The 1911 theft of the \"Mona Lisa\" and its subsequent return was reported worldwide, leading to a massive increase in public recognition of the painting. During the 20th century it was an object for mass reproduction, merchandising, lampooning and speculation, and was claimed to have been reproduced in \"300 pain... |
why are nuclear missiles today still not exceeding the power of ones from the cold war? | Partially because the introduction of MIRV (Multiple Independent Reentry Vehicles) gave missile many smaller warheads instead of one big one. Also, the dynamics of hypothetical nuclear exchanges changed. The focus for decades was on increasing the accuracy of the missile. Instead of one huge missile that might hit nea... | [
"Because there was no formalized treaty ending the Cold War, the former superpowers have continued to various degrees to maintain and even improve or modify existing nuclear weapons and delivery systems. Moreover, other nations not previously acknowledged as nuclear-weapons states have developed and tested nuclear-... |
how is it possible that homework has no correlation with academic success, when repeated practice is important to so many other activities? | Teacher in my 7th year here! Lots of people hit the bigger points; you get the feedback too late. Kids also have a tendency to just toss out graded work once they glance at the grade. BUT, last year and this year, I've started something new, which is putting up the answer key and having my students grade themselves AND... | [
"Some educators argue that homework is beneficial to students, as it enhances learning, develops the skills taught in class, and lets educators verify that students comprehend their lessons. Proponents also argue that homework makes it more likely that students will develop and maintain proper study habits that the... |
why do humans need to cut their hair while other animals have hair that stops growing? | We NEED to cut our hair? Thats news. Last I checked it was voluntarily done for aesthetic purposes. Hair also naturally has a maximum length, the follicles only grow a hair for x amount of time, then they stop and begin on a new one. Our head hair just grows longer than that of most animals. Handy to keep us warm when ... | [
"Humans are the only primate species that have undergone significant hair loss. The hairlessness of humans compared to related species may be due to loss of functionality in the pseudogene KRTHAP1 (which helps produce keratin) Although the researchers dated the mutation to 240 000 ya, both the Altai Neandertal and ... |
redshift and measuring how long ago something happened in the universe. | The doppler shift is an effect that arises due to the motion of waves being added to the motion of the observer.
As a train is going by and sounds its horn, it produces sound waves of a specific *frequency*, which means the spacing of the waves in the air is a certain size. The conductor of the train will always here ... | [
"The GRB's redshift was measured to be 0.937, which means that the explosion occurred about 7.5 billion () years ago (the lookback time), and it took the light that long to reach Earth. This is roughly half the time since the Big Bang. The first scientific paper submitted on the event suggested that the GRB could h... |
when a mod says "i've removed this post for x reason" i can always still see it on the subreddit, and oftentimes front page. why? | It is proof (to you, the user) that the comment has remained on the site and on Reddit's servers. It is largely a deterrent, for example if someone makes death threats online, they can be reported to the local law enforcement agencies in their state\country.
If you were to use Google Chrome's Incognito Mode and try t... | [
"Members of the Reddit community /r/The_Donald created the /r/pizzagate subreddit to further develop the conspiracy theory. The sub was banned on November 23, 2016, for violating Reddit's anti-doxing policy after users posted personal details of people connected to the alleged conspiracy. Reddit released a statemen... |
why does it seem like medical research and technology has advanced at an incredible rate in the past 50 years but dental research hasn't seem to advanced much? | In 50 years? Dental tech has definitely advanced- invisible braces, whole new systems of implanted and replacement teeth, changing materials etc. (digital x rays) the big diffference is that dentistry mainly works with realignment and repair of damaged tissue and bone in a relatively easy- to reach area. Medicine as a ... | [
"Dentistry has been widely criticized for the lack of evidence or scientific principles behind its practices. Although medical schools are the center of medical research, many dental schools are not involved in research of any kind. In areas where research has been done, common practice often runs counter to the sc... |
the difference between a lemma and a theorem. | A lemma is a result that isn’t terribly important on its own, but is an important step in proving a theorem. A theorem is (generally speaking) important on its own. It’s not a precise definition, but lemmas are often used to break up a long proof into “chapters” so that it is easier to digest. | [
"There is no formal distinction between a lemma and a theorem, only one of intention – see Theorem terminology. However, a lemma can be considered a minor result whose sole purpose is to help prove a theorem – a step in the direction of proof – or a short theorem appearing at an intermediate stage in a proof.\n",
... |
Did people actually talk how Shakespeare wrote? | By the most part, yes, but let me explain why is not fully yes. Most of Shakespheres works are actually written iambic pentameter, a type of verse in poetry, also happening to be one of the most popular.
That being said, people at the time did not speak generally in that "perfect" speech, espaiclly lower classes. It ... | [
"Shakespeare's authorship was first openly questioned in the pages of Joseph C. Hart's \"The Romance of Yachting\" (1848). Hart argued that the plays contained evidence that many different authors had worked on them. Four years later Dr. Robert W. Jameson anonymously published \"Who Wrote Shakespeare?\" in the \"Ch... |
why are arthritic/joint pains apparent in cloudly-like weather? | The factor that MAY be responsible for increased pain is not weather per se, but actually, a change in atmospheric pressure.
Atmospheric pressure is the force exerted onto a surface by the weight of the atmosphere at any given point. As a storm system (i.e. cloudly, rainy, snowy weather) develops, the atmospheric pr... | [
"Weather pains, weather-related pain, or meteoropathy is a phenomenon that occurs when people with conditions such as arthritis or limb injuries claim to feel pain, particularly with changes in barometric pressure, humidity or other weather phenomena. Scientific evidence, however, does not support a connection betw... |
what causes crackling and static noises in headphones when it shouldn't be there? | This comes down too your cable. Cables are either made with solid copper or many copper strands twisted together. Stranded cables are cheaper and more flexible. However, stranded cables are much easier to break due to overflexing or smashing. The static sound is a bad connection caused by your cable going bad. To stop ... | [
"Electrostatic and piezoelectric noise can also become an issue in exotic headphone systems, if the headphones have a relatively high input impedance compared to traditional speakers which have a nominal impedance of 8 Ohms. This is where a careful choice of insulating materials can make a difference. This type of ... |
Has any monarch ever un-abdicated their throne? | Definitely. The most recent example I can think of is Gyanendra of Nepal, who reigned as King while an infant in the 1950s after his father and grandfather fled from the country after a dispute with the Rana family, who were the hereditary Prime Ministers and in some respect the real effectual rulers of Nepal. When t... | [
"Historically, abdications have occurred both by force (where the regnant was forced to abdicate on pain of death or other severe consequences) and voluntarily. Some rulers are ruled to have abdicated \"in absentia\", vacating the physical throne and thus their position of power, although these judgments were gener... |
why do we take big gasps of air all of a sudden? | Sometimes your brain detects that there is low oxygen in your blood, so it triggers a deep breath or big inhale to remedy the problem. | [
"A gasp is a kind of paralinguistic respiration in the form of a sudden and sharp inhalation of air through the mouth. A gasp may indicate difficulty breathing and a panicked effort to draw air into the lungs. Gasps also occur from an emotion of surprise, shock or disgust. Like a sigh, a yawn, or a moan, a gasp is ... |
Soviet historical revisionist who was author of a hefty tome re-imagining most world history..? | It's Fomenko and Nosovsky you probably talking about and their [New Chronology](_URL_0_).
Fomenko is prominent mathematician, member of the national Academy of Science, and his weird little "hobby" was strongly opposed by scientific society in USSR, but nobody was taking him seriously.
There's rumors that even Fomenk... | [
"Pipes, in his turn – following the demise of the USSR – charged the revisionists with skewing their research, by means of statistics, to support their preconceived ideological interpretation of events, which made the results of their research \"as unreadable as they were irrelevant for the understanding of the sub... |
Why do stars fuse for so long? | The stellar material is compressed under its own gravity, until it becomes dense enough and hot enough at its core to fuse. The energy produced by fusion radiates outward and acts to counterbalance the gravitational collapse, making the reaction completely self-regulating. More gravitation pressure = more fusion = mo... | [
"The coming together of two binary stars when they lose energy and approach each other. Several things can cause the loss of energy including tidal forces, mass transfer, and gravitational radiation. The stars describe the path of a spiral as they approach each other. This sometimes results in a merger of the two s... |
I've noticed that Asians tend to have more manageable hair than Caucasians. Is there any explanation or is just hygiene habits or something? | Its a genetic. The difference comes from two factors.
First comes follicle shape.
The actual growth has to do with the shape of the hair follicles. Straight haired people have straight follicles that have a circular opening. People with curly hair on the other hand have curved hair follicles with a tight oval opening... | [
"Others indicate that physical characteristics are a factor. Studies have shown that taller individuals tend to be promoted and earn more money than shorter individuals, and the average Asian American height is shorter than the national average. Some also report that Asian facial characteristics are unconsciously p... |
Can the Higgs Field be manipulated? | The higgs boson is an excitation of the higgs field. The same way photons are excitation of the electromagnetic field (photon field.) | [
"In the Standard Model, the Higgs field is a scalar tachyonic field \"scalar\" meaning it does not transform under Lorentz transformations, and \"tachyonic\" meaning the field (but not the particle) has imaginary mass, and in certain configurations must undergo symmetry breaking. It consists of four components: two... |
What transactions affect the money supply? | The Federal reserve actually has very little control over the money supply. The amount of actual US currency in existence (either in cash or deposits) increased drastically after 2008, but inflation held relatively steady. The reason for this is that most of the money in circulation is actually credit issued on the pre... | [
"The transactions demand for money is positively affected by the amount of real income and expenditure, and negatively affected by the interest rate on alternative assets, which is the opportunity cost of holding money for any reason. It also depends on the timing of expenditures and the length of the payment perio... |
Why were exclaves (and by extension, enclaves) so prominent in history, but less so now? | Interesting question. I think enclaves and exclaves were more common back in the days before the nation state and before nationalism. This all comes down to how land is owned, I think. In the pre-modern days, lands were owned by lords, families, etc. A single person could hold a title which controlled an area. When tha... | [
"In addition, a number of Conclaves were founded in territories of the British Empire or later British dependencies, but failed to survive the changing demographics of independence. Examples of these include Aden Conclave at Aden in modern-day Yemen, Indus Valley Conclave at Mooltan in modern-day Pakistan, St Louis... |
since archeology is a thing, and so much history is buried underground, how did those things get buried? what's creating these layers of earth over the items? is the earth technically growing in diameter? | Mostly dead plants, animals, dust in the air, land movement, volcanoes etc. And no, the diameter of earth isnt increasing, for every new amount of land you have land somewhere else get eroded. | [
"Today archaeology is viewed as a science for reconstructing the past, but in the eighteenth century it was understood as a method of recovering \"antiquities.\" Trenches measuring well over three hundred and fifty metres in length were dug with the sole object of recovering vases, statues, and various other object... |
why does reddit often fail to deliver pages, evne though it uses aws? | AWS is very scalable. If it detects that it needs some more servers it automatically makes them. The problem is that making more servers takes time.
To be able to send you a webpage, a server needs to have that information on it. To make a new server Amazon has to create a new image with the right info on it and bo... | [
", Reddit decommissioned its own servers and migrated to Amazon Web Services. Reddit uses PostgreSQL as their primary datastore and is slowly moving to Apache Cassandra, a column-oriented datastore. It uses RabbitMQ for offline processing, HAProxy for load balancing and memcached for caching. In early 2009, Reddit ... |
will we have photorealistic video games in the next ten years? if not, what's holding us back? | Entirely possible. We're doing really good now, the only thing that's holding us back is processing power.
There are 2 major ways computer graphics work. First is what games use, which is an approximation. This is why "realistic" games nowadays enter the uncanny valley so easily. the way we simulate light in these gam... | [
"GameSpot compared the 2004 video game to the gameplay featured in early 1990's adventure titles, describing it as a \"pseudo-nostalgia piece\" that isn't fun to play. Game Chronicles reasoned that the use of real-world photography is proof that video games don't require computer-generated imagery to be enjoyable. ... |
What makes LiHMDS such a strong base? | It would only be that much stronger a base than hydroxide in aqueous media. However, let's look at their pKa's in DMSO, which is a better approximation of situations when we would use LiHMDS. The pKa of water in DMSO is around 28, with LiHMDS around 36. So now the difference is not as pronounced. But the difference boi... | [
"LiHMDS is often used in organic chemistry as a strong non-nucleophilic base. Its conjugate acid has a pKa of ~26, making it is less basic than other lithium bases, such as LDA (pKa of conjugate acid ~36), but it is more sterically hindered and hence less nucleophilic. It can be used to form various organolithium c... |
Is there adequate evidence, beyond the anecdotal, to suggest that the internet has lowered attention spans, memory and/or patience? | You may be thinking of [this Science article](_URL_0_), which reports:
> This is preliminary evidence that when people expect information to remain continuously available (such as we expect with Internet access), they are more likely to remember where to find it than to remember the details of the item. One could argu... | [
"Some authors, such as Neil Postman in his book, \"Amusing Ourselves to Death\", believe that the attention span of humans is decreasing as use of modern technology, especially television, increases. Internet browsing may have a similar effect because it enables users to move easily from one page to another. Most i... |
why does a beer have more calories than the carbohydrates, protein, and fat listings would indicate. | There are a lot of calories in alcohol. | [
"Alcoholic drinks are a source of food energy. The USDA uses a figure of per gram of alcohol ( per ml) for calculating food energy. In addition to alcohol, many alcoholic drinks contain carbohydrates. For example, in of 5% ABV beer, along with approximately 18 ml of alcohol (), there are usually 10–15 g of carbohyd... |
how do planets generate sound in space if sound cannot travel in space? | If you mean things like the sound of Saturn's rings, it's actually radio waves, which can travel in space, which scientists translate into sound for us to hear. | [
"BULLET::::- Hearing - In the space station and spacecraft there are only mechanical noises. There can be no environmental noise; there is no medium that can transmit the sound waves. Although there are other team members who can talk to each other, their voices stop stimulating the sense of hearing, since they get... |
why the surface on ps1 disc were black while cds and eventually dvds at the time had reflective surfaces | Disc color is mostly cosmetic (hence why some CDs are gold) and technically, they were clear purple and the labels made them look black. Some early PS2 games that came on CDs were blue instead of silver.
It made it much easier to tell counterfeits from the real deal. CDs were far easier to pirate than cartridges (henc... | [
"DVDs have a different structure from CDs, using a plastic disc over the reflecting layer. This means that a scratch on either surface of a DVD is not as likely to reach the reflective layer and expose it to environmental contamination and perhaps to cause corrosion, perhaps progressive corrosion. Each type of opti... |
the size of insects, could they be bigger? | Insects breathe through a network of tubes in their body called spiracles. Due to the surface area to volume ratio over which they can get oxygen from the air, it is impossible for them to grow larger and still support themselves. Their system is far less efficient than ours, however it works for small sized creatures ... | [
"The largest species of this diverse, huge order are the giant water bugs \"Lethocerus grandis\" and \"L. maximus\". These can surpass a length of , although they are more slender and less heavy than most other insects of this size (principally the huge beetles).\n",
"Megaloptera includes dobsonflies, alderflies ... |
why are movie times standardized? | The schedule allows for the optimum number of showings/day. If all the theaters are playing the same movies, the shows times are going to be pretty similar across the board. | [
"Based on an American Film Institute standard, films with a running time of forty-five minutes or longer are considered feature films. In 1915, feature films were becoming more the trend in Hollywood. In 1916, Universal formed a three-tier branding system for their releases. Universal films decided to label their f... |
Cell phone use while pumping gas - is it really dangerous? | The cellphone itself isn't causing the danger. I used to work for the State of Florida Department of Environmental Protection, and our studies found that it was actually people entering and exiting their car to talk on their cellphones while pumping gas that caused the danger. You are more likely to build up a static c... | [
"In a similar vein, signs are put up in many countries, such as Canada, the UK and the U.S., at petrol stations prohibiting the use of mobile phones, due to possible safety issues. However, it is unlikely that mobile phone use can cause any problems, and in fact \"petrol station employees have themselves spread the... |
if fire needs oxygen and the sun is over 80% helium.... | The sun isn't burning as in a conventional fire. It's a nuclear fusion chain reaction smashing a ton of very small atoms (hydrogen and helium) and forming larger atoms, which releases a ton of energy. | [
"The atmospheric proportions of hydrogen and helium are close to the theoretical composition of the primordial solar nebula. Neon in the upper atmosphere only consists of 20 parts per million by mass, which is about a tenth as abundant as in the Sun. Helium is also depleted to about 80% of the Sun's helium composit... |
Some experiments looking for evidence of the Big Bang have been described as looking back in time. But how can we see anything from before our galaxy's creation? The energy from the Big Bang should always be moving outward from the original singularity so shouldn't it always be "ahead" of us? | The Big Bang wasn't an explosion, nothing's traveling outward, it didn't happen at a single point. It happened everywhere. The Big Bang was the whole universe adding space between points. The universe is likely infinite, and at any rate it's quite large. Large enough that when we look 13.8 billion light years away, we'... | [
"In 2010, Penrose reported possible evidence, based on concentric circles found in WMAP data of the CMB sky, of an earlier universe existing before the Big Bang of our own present universe. He mentions this evidence in the epilogue of his 2010 book \"Cycles of Time\", a book in which he presents his reasons, to do ... |
how does a browser decide how to split bandwidth with multiple downloads? | The browser doesn't decide much at all, in this case. It makes requests to a server or servers. They start to provide the data based on their capability, loading, and the priority that they give to those particular requests. As those bitstreams make their way to you, they can encounter network congestion along the way... | [
"Web browsers open separate Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) connections for each Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) request submitted when downloading a web page. These requests total the number of page elements required for download. However, a browser is limited to opening only a certain number of simultaneou... |
Were the tales collected by the brothers Grimm widely known before they compiled them? Did the more popular ones (Snow White, Cinderella, Red Riding Hood) match the ones more popular before they collected them? Were they immediately of academic interest? | I will answer the first part of your question. (and I humbly request someone who knows better than me to give a full comprehensive one)
Jacob Ludwig Carl and Wilhelm Carl Grimm (known better as the Brothers Grimm) compiled a huge array of folk tales from various sources in an effort to preserve Germany's cultural her... | [
"The Brothers Grimm (' or '), Jacob Ludwig Karl (1785–1863) and Wilhelm Carl (1786–1859), were German academics, philologists, cultural researchers, lexicographers and authors who together collected and published folklore during the 19th century. They were among the first and best-known collectors of German and Eur... |
how are photos stored on the voyagers golden record? | In a very similar way to analogue television signals, only of course a lot slower because the bandwidth of a record is much less than VHF or UHF radio broadcast.
The [method of playback](_URL_0_) is quite simple, and instructions on how to get the right frequencies are included on the spacecraft. | [
"Most of the images used on the record (reproduced in black and white), together with information about its compilation, can be found in the 1978 book \"Murmurs of Earth: The Voyager Interstellar Record\" by Carl Sagan, F. D. Drake, Ann Druyan, Timothy Ferris, Jon Lomberg, and Linda Salzman. A CD-ROM version was is... |
why do many websites not allow me to access them until i accept one or multiple cookies? | In some countries/regions it's a law that users give permission for the site to use cookies. [Link Explanation](_URL_0_)
In addition, like @StrangelyTypes mentioned, a lot of sites won't function perfectly without the use of cookies, so it's best to ask the user/inform them to turn them on for the best experience. | [
"Cookies do have benefits that many people may not know. One benefit is that for websites that one frequently visits that require a password, cookies make it so they do not have to sign in every time. A cookie can also track one's preferences to show them websites that might interest them. Cookies make more website... |
why do we get the urge to hurt ourselves when we're extremely stressed out? | Not everyone has these feelings. Some do, and some even act on them.
There are a few reasons.
- Actual or contemplated pain acts as a distraction against the stressful situation.
- Actual pain releases endorphins, brain chemicals that help us feel better, like a built-in medicine. (Eating hot chilies also does this.)... | [
"Anguish is made up of fear, distress, anxiety and panic. These stressors cause an enormous amount of dissonance, which could then lead to issues of mental health. While taken literally anguish may be defined as a physical event, but it may be extrapolated to an event of one’s psyche. It has been found that the ang... |
I've read that all electrons are the same, but is there some evidence for otherwise? | No, there is no evidence that contradicts the claim that every electron is fundamentally identical to every other one. | [
"Electrons are identical particles because they cannot be distinguished from each other by their intrinsic physical properties. In quantum mechanics, this means that a pair of interacting electrons must be able to swap positions without an observable change to the state of the system. The wave function of fermions,... |
Why does the star Sirius flash different colors? | You're probably living in a northern region, where Sirius never gets high above the horizon. Thus it is subject to heavy scntilation (star twinkling), because it is both very bright and low in the sky.
If you would be near the equator, Sirius would be close to the zenith and wouldn't twinkle as much as at your positi... | [
"Sirius appears bright because of its intrinsic luminosity and its proximity to the Solar System. At a distance of 2.6 parsecs (8.6 ly), as determined by the Hipparcos astrometry satellite, the Sirius system is one of Earth's nearest neighbours. Sirius is gradually moving closer to the Solar System, so it will slig... |
Why is fresh water considered to be in limited supply when it is never actually used, just recycled, evaporated, etc, and used again by some other process? | Because there is a finite rate that it is recycled. Once used it is no longer considered fresh water. It is urine, polluted run-off, etc. Additionally, a lot of used fresh water ends up in the ocean, where we either need to invest huge amounts of energy in desalination, or wait for the natural cycles to evaporate and d... | [
"The cost of reclaimed water exceeds that of potable water in many regions of the world, where a fresh water supply is plentiful. However, reclaimed water is usually sold to citizens at a cheaper rate to encourage its use. As fresh water supplies become limited from distribution costs, increased population demands,... |
Did Cortes really order his own ships burnt? Did he ever really stand a chance of losing when he made this decision? | This is a very common misconception. He did not burn his ships. He scuttled them. Why you might ask? For several reasons, first he had already sent a ship back to Spain under the command of Francisco de Montejo who was charged with presenting the Emperor Charles V with a petition by the 'city of Veracruz' that asked th... | [
"There are differing perceptions about what happened to Hernán Cortés's ships. Some think that he burned the vessels, and others believe he beached them. The notion that he burned his ships did not become accepted until 250 years later. However, Bernal Díaz del Castillo, while attending an expedition with Cortés, g... |
Do different wavelengths of light travel at different speeds through different materials? | The phenomenon of different wavelengths traveling at different speed in a medium is called [dispersion](_URL_0_ ). The speed of propagation may increase or decrease with wavelength depending on the material and the wavelength range of concern.
Edit: Formatting | [
"The speed at which light propagates through transparent materials, such as glass or air, is less than ; similarly, the speed of electromagnetic waves in wire cables is slower than . The ratio between and the speed at which light travels in a material is called the refractive index of the material (). For example, ... |
Why did Hernán Cortés destroy Tenochtitlan and build México City right on top of it? | Lots of Tenochtitlan related questions recently... So we can note at least two reasons for Cortés' comparatively harsh actions against Tenochtitlan (and the Mexica): military and religious reasons. His native allies also used the fall of the Mexica as an opportunity for revenge. Lastly, not all of pre-hispanic Tenochti... | [
"After the fall of Tenochtitlan in 1521, the lands controlled by the Aztecs became part of the Spanish empire. All the temples, including the Templo Mayor, were sacked, taking all objects of gold and other precious materials. Cortés, who had ordered the destruction of the existing capital, had a Mediterranean-style... |
If the edge is the observable universe is limited by the light that has reached us, why aren't we seeing new stars as their light reaches us? | The edge of the observable universe is rolling away from us at the speed of light in all directions, so yes, it's always expanding. However, what we see at the edge is always the same: it's the hot opaque plasma of the early universe coalescing into transparent gas. There weren't any stars yet at that early epoch.
edi... | [
"The current accepted answer is that, although the universe is infinitely large, it is not infinitely old. It is thought to be about 13.8 billion years old, so we can only see objects as far away as the distance light can travel in 13.8 billion years. Light from stars farther away has not reached Earth, and cannot ... |
Why is it matter in the Sun's core can undergo fusion at 15 million degrees but our fusion reactors need to be 100+ million degrees? | Fusion reactions are a slow/low probability process. In the sun, the time it would take for a nominated atom to undergo fusion would be significant, but this is offset by the sheer number of atoms present.
In a lab based fusion system, the number of atoms in the pool is a lot smaller, so this is offset by increasing ... | [
"The core is the only region in the Sun that produces an appreciable amount of thermal energy through fusion; 99% of the power is generated within 24% of the Sun's radius, and by 30% of the radius, fusion has stopped nearly entirely. The remainder of the Sun is heated by this energy as it is transferred outwards th... |
What really happens when you breate in helium? | helium resonates differently with your vocal chords than does air, or sodium hexaflouride..(which makes your voice deeper)
_URL_0_
| [
"Helium dissolves into tissues (this is called on-gassing) more rapidly than nitrogen as the ambient pressure is increased. A consequence of the higher loading in some tissues is that many decompression algorithms require deeper decompression stops than a similar decompression dive using air, and helium is more lik... |
Quantum Mechanics - How do we know it is true? | Physics is not about the truth. It is about making models that fit experiments and make correct predictions for future experiments.
You are surrounded by things that were developed using quantum mechanics. You couldn't write this thread here if our understanding of quantum mechanics wouldn't lead to correct prediction... | [
"Quantum mechanics is a mathematical model that can provide some extremely accurate numerical predictions. Richard Feynman called quantum electrodynamics, based on the quantum mechanics formalism, \"the jewel of physics\" for its extremely accurate predictions of quantities like the anomalous magnetic moment of the... |
can the mindset of a serial killer be created by something such as abuse as a child, or is a true serial killer born like that. | It's generally accepted that serial killers are a result of a certain innate predisposition coupled with environmental factors like abuse. Sociopaths are born. They lack empathy for others and tend to be extremely manipulative. However, not all sociopaths are serial killers, although the stereotypical serial killer is ... | [
"Theories for why certain people commit serial murder have been advanced. Some theorists believe the reasons are biological, suggesting serial killers are born, not made, and that their violent behavior is a result of abnormal brain activity. Holmes and Holmes believe that \"until a reliable sample can be obtained ... |
To what extent did normal people lift weights to build muscle and become stronger in ancient civilizations? | Ancient people in the Greek and Roman world did lift weights to build their strength, especially in the cities. However, wrestling was more popular and ball-based exercise was seen as superior (which I suppose can count as lifting weight since it is a weight and you lift it, but I assume you are talking about dumbbells... | [
"Athletes in ancient Greece were advised to consume large quantities of meat and wine. A number of herbal concoctions and tonics have been used by strong men and athletes since ancient times across cultures to try to increase their strength and stamina. In the 1910s, Eugen Sandow, widely considered to be the first ... |
how viable are amazon drones and how do they work? | from the wiki (talking about max speed)
> 50 mph (80.5 km/h) with packages weighing up to 5 lb (2.26 kg) in tow.
and they're proposing 30 minute delivery which means there's a 25 mile radius for delivery at topspeed. So any warehouse could easily service someone within that range. As for operators, the FAA regulatio... | [
"Amazon decided to use drones to speed up the shipping service so that it can save time. The goal for Amazon is to deliver packages to customers within 30 minutes. The Amazon drones are fully controlled by computers and they access GPS to deliver objects. Amazon started discussing this topic in 2013 and they have b... |
why are some juices (apple, orange, pineapple, grapefruit) very common, and others (watermelon, pear, peach) aren't? | The other juices certainly exist, and are (for example) more common in Mexican markets than in American ones.
The less common ones tend to be extremely sweet, very thick/pulpy, made of relatively costly/uncommon fruits, or made of fruits that are only in season a short time and thus rarely available in the surplus qua... | [
"Fruit juice is a natural product that contains few or no additives. Citrus products such as orange juice and tangerine juice are familiar breakfast drinks, while grapefruit juice, pineapple, apple, grape, lime, and lemon juice are also common. Coconut water is a highly nutritious and refreshing juice. Many kinds o... |
What is the proper way to read weather temperature forecast? | Typically the values given are merely the expected maximum and minimum temperatures over the 24-hour period (which may or may not be midnight-to-midnight). While the minimum temperature is typically soon after sunrise and the maximum is in the early afternoon, weather conditions can change this dramatically. You can ... | [
"Weather forecasting is the application of science and technology to predict the conditions of the atmosphere for a given location and time. People have attempted to predict the weather informally for millennia and formally since the 19th century. Weather forecasts are made by collecting quantitative data about the... |
Does Mercury experience any significant tidal forces from Sun? | Yes, though the tidal forces aren't strong enough to cause a full tidal lock. Instead Mercury is in a 3:2 orbital resonance with the Sun, meaning that three days on Mercury are equivalent to two full orbits around the Sun.
Solar tidal forces are relevant even on Earth: The solar tide is about half the magnitude of the... | [
"Despite being closer to the Sun than Venus, Mercury is not tidally locked because it has entered a 3:2 spin–orbit resonance due to the eccentricity of its orbit. Mercury's prograde rotation is slow enough that due to its eccentricity, its angular orbital velocity exceeds its angular rotational velocity near perihe... |
how was propaganda before Stalingrad, and how did it change after the defeat? | Modified from [an earlier answer of mine](_URL_0_)
> Enjoy the war, for the peace is going to be terrible- popular German joke in the last year of the war
As the fortunes of war turned against Germany after the Battle of Stalingrad, German propaganda found an imperative need to readjust to this new reality. Prior ... | [
"Propaganda was a key component of the culture of World War I. It was most commonly deployed through the state-controlled media to glorify the homeland and demonize the enemy. Propaganda often took the form of images which portrayed stereotypes from folklore about the enemy or from glorified moments from the nation... |
What did *I, Claudius* make up? | As you've pointed out, apart from Graves' rhetoric, there's very little in *I, Claudius* that's totally unattested. That being said, much of it is utter hogwash and everyone (including Graves) knew it. Graves relied most heavily on Suetonius and Tacitus. He drew on Suetonius and a host of late Roman authors (who are, h... | [
"Claudius' extant works present a different view, painting a picture of an intelligent, scholarly, well-read, and conscientious administrator with an eye to detail and justice. Thus, Claudius becomes an enigma. Since the discovery of his \"Letter to the Alexandrians\" in the last century, much work has been done to... |
why does it seem like my body will "wait" until i have time off then i get sick | When you keep yourself stressed out for a long period of time, you're basically in permanent "fight or flight" mode. Your body does this to keep you keen because it senses a threat. you basically convince yourself that these papers or projects (or parties) are a threat that must be dealt with.
When you finally start ... | [
"Working while sick is the most prevalent form of presenteeism, but there are other ways in which staff may be 'present' but not working to their full potential. This can include habitual voluntary overtime (staff staying at work longer than needed due to job insecurity, which also fuels coming to work when sick) a... |
why do carbonated softdrinks hurt some people's throats when they drink it too fast? | They contain acid.
When you place carbon dioxide (the gas that gives soda its fizz) in water under pressure, some of the carbon dioxide (CO2) reacts with the water (H2O) to form an acid called carbonic acid. It's pretty mild, but it's also unstable and a good knock or even just sitting there once the pressure is rele... | [
"Most soft drinks contain high concentrations of simple carbohydrates: glucose, fructose, sucrose and other simple sugars. If oral bacteria ferment carbohydrates and produce acids that may dissolve tooth enamel and induce dental decay, then sweetened drinks may increase the risk of dental caries. The risk would be ... |
why do some people have adverse reactions to flu shots? | 1. flu like symptoms are a reaction to the vaccine and means your body is reacting appropriately to an "intruder"
2. The most common (and as far as I know only) reaction to a flu shot is with the eggs aspect. antigens are grown in a substrate derived from eggs making it apply to people with egg allergies.
3. Unless she... | [
"Pharmaceutical drugs that may cause ILI include many biologics such as interferons and monoclonal antibodies. Chemotherapeutic agents also commonly cause flu-like symptoms. Other drugs associated with a flu-like syndrome include bisphosphonates, caspofungin, and levamisole. A flu-like syndrome can also be caused b... |
why can skiers travel faster downhill than human terminal velocity? | Terminal velocity is based on air resistance. The quoted value of human terminal velocity is likely based on a normally clothed individual falling face first with their body square to the direction of travel. If they turned so were falling either head first or feet first, they'd probably fall quicker. Likewise the clot... | [
"\"Basically, any downhill skier is a daredevil, and I'm no exception,\" he said before the Winter Games in the former Yugoslavia. \"I like to drive cars faster than 100 [miles per hour]. I like to go over bumps in my car and get airborne. I like to drink. I chase girls full time, but I only drink part time.\"\n",
... |
if the sun were between a large flat surface and a larger, brighter star, would it cast a shadow on the surface? | "Casting a shadow" just means "blocking more light than you're producing" so yes it would cast a shadow. If you had faint flashlight outside on a bright day it'll cast a shadow too, even if the light is on, same thing. | [
"The light from stars (other than the Sun) arrives at Earth precisely collimated, because stars are so far away they present no detectable angular size. However, due to refraction and turbulence in the Earth's atmosphere, starlight arrives slightly uncollimated at the ground with an apparent angular diameter of abo... |
what happens when a military tank gets struck by lightning? | Rubber wheels on the ground isn’t what protects you in a vehicle during a lightning strike. The body of the vehicle forms a faraday cage. | [
"It was reasoned that a lightning strike was most likely responsible for the tragedy. As it struck the tanker amidships, it knocked out the dynamo thus preventing the vessel to send out a distress call. It also caused two adjacent tanks to explode breaking the ship in two with both halves sinking rapidly\n",
"The... |
Why are plants mostly green and solar panels mostly black? | The difference is due to the fact that solar cells and plants have simply have different requirements. The key goal of a solar cell is to convert as much sunlight as possible into electrical energy, which means that the ideal solar cell will absorb all incoming light. While we never get to this ideal case, the most com... | [
"Live green plants absorb solar radiation in the photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) spectral region, which they use as a source of energy in the process of photosynthesis. Leaf cells have also evolved to re-emit solar radiation in the near-infrared spectral region (which carries approximately half of the tot... |
why are the warm states seemingly the ones that are more socially conservative? | The climate is related insofar as being more suitable for agricultural activity, which means a rural lifestyle, and there's a pretty clear correlation between urbanization (or the lack of it) and political ideology. | [
"In North America, South America and Australia, the other three continents where Christianity is the dominant professed religion, religious observance is much higher than in Europe. At the same time, these regions are often seen by other nations as being uptight and \"Victorian\", in their social mores. In general,... |
how do people produce "cheesy" epic music? | In the metal genre is somewhat easy [if you know what to do](_URL_0_).
really watch it and tell me if it's not true | [
"Darren Allison (born May 1968, Ashington, Northumberland, England) is an internationally renowned British record producer, musician, and recording engineer, best known for his production work on the epic soundscapes of such artists as Spiritualized, The Divine Comedy, and, more recently, Efterklang, Belle & Sebast... |
why there is no in-vitro for animals to save from extinction? | Most animals are not going extinct because they are not breeding, they are going extinct because we are destroying their habitat or because we are overhunting them. In-vitro doesn't help with that. It would be a very expensive non-sollution that doesn't solve the actual problems these animals are facing. | [
"Until today only few of the rare, endangered or extinct-in-the-wild species could be saved from complete extinction by keeping and breeding them in human care. But it may be well too early to really evaluate the contribution of zoos breeding programmes to the preservation of biodiversity.\n",
"It can be possible... |
what does pay a fair share in taxes mean? | it basically means nothing.
"Fair" is subjective. Generally Politicians mean by "need to pay someones fair share" that they want to raise taxes for those people. By how much and why they consider it fair is not immediately obvious and you would need to check their party plattform for the details. | [
"The value added tax (VAT; \"Mehrwertsteuer / Taxe sur la valeur ajoutée / Tassa sul valore aggiunto\") is one of the Confederation's principal sources of funding. It is levied at a rate of 7.7 percent on most commercial exchanges of goods and services. Certain exchanges are subject to a reduced VAT of 2.5 percent:... |
Taxmen seem to have existed for a long time, how did the early Taxmen establish what citizens owed? | (My area of "expertise" is Roman Britain and Roman general history, but I think I can answer this question)
In ancient Rome, the collection of taxes was done by the publicani, public contractors, and operated in a tax farming environment. Later, a direct taxation method would be employed.
The rights to collect taxe... | [
"The first ever tax records, dating from about six thousand years B.C., were in the form of soil tablets which were found in city-state of Lagash (Now in the territory of current Iraq). The system was called bala (rotation). It was such that each month one particular area of city was taxed, which allowed to make su... |
Do we have any surviving pre-Columbian maps? | The answer is, yes, the Aztecs did have maps, the Oztoticpac land map springs to mind. This 'map' is actually a land survey showing the holdings of lords and townships in the Acolhua region of the Valley of Mexico. The map itself was written/drawn in Native style and on indigenous paper. However, it is essential to not... | [
"The Ottoman cartographer Piri Reis published navigational maps in his \"Kitab-ı Bahriye\". The work includes an atlas of charts for small segments of the mediterranean, accompanied by sailing instructions covering the sea. In the second version of the work, he included a map of the Americas. The Piri Reis map draw... |
Can we add oxygen to Mars and be able to breath it? | You'd need more than that. Mars' atmosphere is about 1% of the thickness of Earth's, and mostly carbon dioxide. If you just pumped oxygen in until you got Earth's atmospheric pressure, it'd be 99% oxygen, which is not ideal for humans. So you'd need to pump in a huge amount of nitrogen etc too. And you can't just filte... | [
"While it is possible for humans to breathe pure oxygen, a pure oxygen atmosphere was implicated in the Apollo 1 fire. As such, Mars habitats may have a need for additional gases. One possibility is to take nitrogen and argon from the atmosphere of Mars; however, they are hard to separate from each other. As a resu... |
how were the lights synchronized in lady gaga's halftime show? | The drones use Intel's realsense technology combined with infrared LEDs, allowing the drones to know where each other are and form a sort of wireless mesh network.
Once the drones know where they are and where they are supposed to be, you can program them.
Example of drone formation from 5 years ago: _URL_0_ | [
"Beginning behind a giant, green, laser lit video screen featuring scrim lights, Gaga appeared in a bulb-covered futuristic silver jeweled jumpsuit with matching eye makeup and mask and sang \"Dance in the Dark\" as dancers, dressed in white balaclavas and white jumpsuits, moved around her. The video screen, resemb... |
In the United States, approximately when did most restaurants make the shift from homemade food (e.g pies, bread, chicken patties, etc) to processed products that were shipped to them? How did the public react during this shift? | The prevalence of processed and preserved products (both shelf-stable and frozen) is rooted in the post-WW2 economic and scientific boom. The extremely good economy meant lots of well-paying jobs and the GI Bill let returning soldiers get college educations that had previously been unheard of in their family trees. Aft... | [
"In 1970, American supermarkets created a Mexican food section in their stores for the first time, due to the influence of Old El Paso and other Mexican food products. Also in the '70s, Old El Paso introduced a taco dinner globally, where many international markets were unfamiliar with Mexican cuisine. \n",
"The ... |
how can the tone knobs on a guitar amp change the way a single frequency sounds | No. When you play a note on a guitar you are playing SO much more than one frequency. You are playing a FUNDAMENTAL frequency (i.e. the pitch you hear that makes it sound like that particular note in the scale) plus lots of quieter frequencies called "harmonics" or "overtones." The amplitudes of these frequencies are o... | [
"Guitar amplifiers can also modify the instrument's tone by emphasizing or de-emphasizing certain frequencies, using equalizer controls, which function the same way as the bass and treble knobs on a home hi-fi stereo, and by adding electronic effects; distortion (also called \"overdrive\") and reverb are commonly a... |
why gravity keeps us on the ground instead of flinging us off. | Gravity, for this ELI5, is the surface of a trampoline. When the trampoline is flat, there isn't much gravity, and you can roll a tiny marble across it without much of a problem.
Now we take a bowling ball and place it on the trampoline. Naturally it goes to the center and creates a huge depression, in the shape of a ... | [
"In fact, a ball falling from such a height wouldn't fall behind but ahead of the vertical because the rotational motion would be in ever-decreasing circles. What makes the Earth move is similar to whatever moves Mars or Jupiter and is the same as that which pulls the stone to Earth. Calling it gravity doesn't expl... |
if lactic acid is toxic to our bodies, why do our bodies produce it in the first place? | Lactic acid is a byproduct of glycolysis, the process by which the cells break down sugar into energy. If your cells have enough oxygen, they can process the lactic acid further and get all of the energy out of it, but if there isn't enough oxygen to go around, the lactic acid builds up faster than it can be processed.... | [
"Lactic acidosis is a medical condition characterized by the buildup of lactate (especially L-lactate) in the body, with formation of an excessively low pH in the bloodstream. It is a form of metabolic acidosis, in which excessive acid accumulates due to a problem with the body's oxidative metabolism.\n",
"Lactic... |
How do bacteriophages have the energy to inject their DNA into cells? | Antiviral biologist here, not a biochemist though. It's a series of chemical reactions similar to the way proteins can change their conformation as a result of a single binding. In the simplest terms, when the phage connects to the membrane, the difference in polarities at the binding site creates a cascade of change... | [
"Hershey and Chase were also able to prove that the DNA from the phage is inserted into the bacteria shortly after the virus attaches to its host. Using a high speed blender they were able to force the bacteriophages from the bacterial cells after adsorption. The lack of P labeled DNA remaining in the solution afte... |
if electrons move slower than a turtle on a copper wire, how do electronics process and receive data so fast? | They "bump into each other". Imagine a long tube filled with ping-pong balls which are almost touching. You knock one at one end and almost immediately, the one on the far end moves.
The individual balls didn't move very fast or very far, but the "signal" you sent moved very quickly indeed. | [
"Therefore, in this wire the electrons are flowing at the rate of . At 60 Hz alternating current, this means that within half a cycle the electrons drift less than 0.2 μm. In other words, electrons flowing across the contact point in a switch will never actually leave the switch.\n",
"The problem commonly arises ... |
What caused the initial spin of the solar system? | The initial motion of the cold gas cloud that formed the solar system would have had small, seemingly random motions. It may have been any combination of random gas motions, gravitational influence from other objects, or pressure from the interstellar medium.
The rotation was then simply amplified by the gravitational... | [
"Earth's original rotation was a vestige of the original angular momentum of the cloud of dust, rocks, and gas that coalesced to form the Solar System. This primordial cloud was composed of hydrogen and helium produced in the Big Bang, as well as heavier elements ejected by supernovas. As this interstellar dust is ... |
Where does the energy that allows for the moon to drift from the earth come from? | The energy comes from the Earth's rotation. The Earth is rotating more slowly as the moon drifts away. | [
"The gravitational torque between the Moon and the tidal bulge of Earth causes the Moon to be constantly promoted to a slightly higher orbit and Earth to be decelerated in its rotation. As in any physical process within an isolated system, total energy and angular momentum are conserved. Effectively, energy and ang... |
Can someone tell me what kind of long term effects LSD, Marijuana, or magic mushrooms can have on a person | Ozzy has a genetic condition. He isn't like that because of drugs. | [
"A 2009 national survey of drug use by the US Department of Health and Human Services concluded that the number of first-time psilocybin mushroom users in the United States was roughly equivalent to the number of first-time users of cannabis. In European countries, the lifetime prevalence estimates of psychedelic m... |
data limits. why were pioneer plans offering unlimited data and now we're seeing caps on not only cell service, but even at-home isps? | ISPs can no longer increase revenue by adding subscribers. Nearly everyone that wants and can afford broadband already has it. This leaves them looking for new revenue streams.
It is also a way to limit cord cutting. | [
"A key difference between the two models is that the model which relies on its customer base for offering their bandwidth for other customers to access customer hosted data can operate at significantly lower costs than a company that seeks to limit data access to a per-download fee in order to supplement the cost o... |
Has anyone tried translating ancient western books into a more readable form for amateurs? | I'm a little confused, you're looking for modern translations of classical texts that explain references in the text?
If that's the case then you're in luck because there are a lot of very good critical editions of classical texts which have extensive notes that provide exactly what you're looking for. It's hard to... | [
"Herbjørnsrud writes: \"In 2018, projects are under way to translate several ancient Egyptian texts for the first time. Yet we already have a wide variety of genres to choose from in order to study the manuscripts from a philosophical perspective: The many maxims in “The Teaching of Ptahhotep”, the earliest preserv... |
at what point does a crime become a ‘crime against humanity’? | Spree killings are usually one-off acts. Sometimes they're committed by people with broader political agendas, but they aren't part of a systemic effort to kill people, like the Holocaust, China's treatment of the Uyghur Muslims, or the recent genocide of the Yazidi by ISIS. I'm pretty sure that's the key difference. | [
"Crimes against humanity are certain acts that are deliberately committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian or an identifiable part of a civilian population. The first prosecution for crimes against humanity took place at the Nuremberg trials. Crimes against humanity have si... |
how do animals with numerous offspring know when one of their young is missing/astray if they are unable to count and quantify them? | When there were classmates missing in class, did you only notice after counting all your classmates? | [
"In non-human animals, number sense is not the ability to count, but the ability to perceive changes in the number of things in a collection. All mammals, and most birds, will notice if there is a change in the number of their young nearby. Many birds can distinguish two from three.\n",
"Developmental psychology ... |
what is happening when a video lags and loses quality but continues to play? | > What is happening when a video lags and loses quality but continues to play?
The streaming service has detected that there isn't enough throughput of data necessary to maintain a full resolution video stream to your computer, but that a lower quality video stream which consumes less bandwidth can be supported. It ... | [
"In the peer-to-peer gaming model, lagging is what happens when the stream of data between one or more players gets slowed or interrupted, causing movement to stutter and making opponents appear to behave erratically. By using a lag switch, a player is able to disrupt uploads from the client to the server, while th... |
how would life be different for humans if we breathed in pure oxygen instead of impure air? | You would die. Oxygen is a toxic compound and actually responsible for the first mass extinction in the known paleontological record. Breathing pure oxygen for more than a few minutes is deadly because it acts as a toxin to our system when concentrations get much higher than the natural mix in air. | [
"All aerobic creatures need oxygen for cellular respiration, which uses the oxygen to break down foods for energy and produces carbon dioxide as a waste product. Breathing, or \"external respiration\", brings air into the lungs where gas exchange takes place in the alveoli through diffusion. The body's circulatory ... |
Were there any nations that practiced segregation aside from South Africa or the United States? | In short: absolutely. However, the answer is not as simple as that and it is important that we contextualize what we mean when we talk about "practicing segregation". Like all great historical topics, we must talk about talking about the issue then do a deep dive.
The reason why apartheid South Africa and Jim Crow im... | [
"In 1948, the South African government, at the time representing only a small proportion of the population, erected a system of strict racial segregation and called it apartheid (separateness) which is a codified system of racial stratification which first began to take form in South Africa under the Dutch Empire i... |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.