question stringlengths 3 301 | answer stringlengths 9 26.1k | context list |
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Why are numbers hard to memorize while letters are the exact opposite? | Are you making a "sound" with the letters, such as
Laruthaqef? | [
"BULLET::::- Difficulty recalling the names of numbers, or thinking that certain different numbers \"feel\" the same (e.g. frequently interchanging the same two numbers for each other when reading or recalling them)\n",
"People have a limited ability to retain information, which worsens when the amount of informa... |
why does skin oil (from your nose) break up beer foam? | Oil combines with the carbohydrates that make up the bubbles and reduce the surface tension. Think of it like you originally made a box out of cardboard, but now you've doused that cardboard in water, and the wet cardboard box is not what you're using. This makes the bubbles less strong and they tend to not be able t... | [
"One mechanism of destabilization of a beer foam is due to gravitational drainage. The water or liquid between the bubbles will drain and cause the liquid and gas phases to separate. This allows for the bubbles to become close enough to merge. This can be slowed down by increasing the viscosity of the liquid.\n",
... |
The earth's core is still slowly cooling. Is more of this heat lost through conduction through the earth's surface, or through hot material coming up through things like volcanoes? | It looks like the conduction through the crust accounts for something like [99%](_URL_0_) of the heat flow from the earth's interior to the surface, which makes sense when you consider the relatively small surface area available for volcanism. | [
"The mean heat loss from Earth is , for a global heat loss of . A portion of the core's thermal energy is transported toward the crust by mantle plumes, a form of convection consisting of upwellings of higher-temperature rock. These plumes can produce hotspots and flood basalts. More of the heat in Earth is lost th... |
instead of removing the testicles and ovaries and uterus, why do so many veterinarians not perform vasectomies and tubal ligations? | It's not only about preventing pregnancy, it's also about behavioral control, cleanliness, cancer prevention, and infection prevention.
If a female dog's ovaries and uterus were still intact, she would still have heat cycles--which means owners will be cleaning up blood. Then as she ages, her chances of eventually de... | [
"Vasectomy: In a more delicate procedure than castration, the vasa deferentia – ducts that run from the testes to the penis – are cut then tied or sealed, to prevent sperm from entering into the urethra. Failure rates are insignificantly small. Breeders routinely have this procedure carried out on male ferrets and ... |
how do the clear bulbs with the red tips on my christmas lights make the string blink? | There is a special bit of metal inside that bends with the heat of the bulb, causing it to disconnect. Then, the bulb cools down, allowing the light to make contact again. | [
"The original twinkle bulbs were C7½ and some C9¼ incandescent light bulbs with a bimetallic strip. Once the bulb warms up, the strip pulls slightly away from the contact, opening and interrupting the parallel circuit through the bulb and turning it off. The bulb then cools, allowing the strip to bend back and make... |
Did Egyptian Pharaoh’s live a “rockstar” life? How much were they worth in currency and what was their lives like? | Not to discourage any further answers but you might like these while you wait:
[What did being wealthy look like in the Bronze Age?](_URL_1_) by /u/Bentresh (this one has a lot on lifestyle)
[I'm a Royal Princess in Ancient Egypt. What Do I Do with My Time?](_URL_3_) by /u/ianwill93
[What exactly did Egyptian Pharao... | [
"BULLET::::- Pharaoh Amset-Ra - Ruled ancient Egypt thousands of years ago and hoarded his riches. Sought immortality and great power, but was sealed away when 5 of the 6 treasures that would grant him power to take over the world were stolen.\n",
"Several of Egypt's most famous pharaohs were from the Eighteenth ... |
why do food/retail companies store our credit card information? | They don't usually store it as far as I know, or if they do it's not for very long. The hacks that have stolen credit information have involved people putting malware on the credit machines that steal the information when the card is swiped.
Source for Jimmy John's: _URL_1_
Source for Target: _URL_0_ | [
"Transaction data, especially for credit card use is being turned into a revenue stream and being sold for digital advertising and other marketing efforts by many credit card companies. This is not always clear or shared between the companies and their consumers. The data collected is often kept anonymous and aggre... |
When searching for exoplanets, do astronomers have to account for the planets size? | If the planets get too large they start accreting hydrogen gas and grow a big envelope, becoming more like Jupiter. It's unknown where exactly the rocky/gassy cutoff is and it depends on a lot of factors, but it's around 5 Earth masses. | [
"OGLE-2014-BLG-0124Lb is known as an exoplanet. These planets are located outside of our solar system. The Kepler telescope has allowed astronomers to discover thousands of these types of planets. Exoplanets obviously range in size, types, and orbits, but using this technique will help us search for planets that ar... |
How does the wavelength of light change after passing through different colored water? | You are mixing up two different things here: adding color to water will change the absorption spectrum, but it does nothing to the wavelength of light that passes through.
As you may have already heard, white light is just a mixture of different wavelengths. Green color for example absorbs all wavelengths except gree... | [
"Water attenuates light due to absorption which varies as a function of frequency. In other words, as light passes through a greater distance of water color is selectively absorbed by the water. Color absorption is also affected by turbidity of the water and dissolved material.\n",
"Water absorbs light of long wa... |
How can a computer program can prevent the computer from "knowing" its code? (like closed source programs) | I'm assuming you mean an executable program that you're able to run on a computer, but you're not able to open in an editor and see the source code that created the program?
When a program is written--use the C programming language as an example--the program must be *compiled* before it can run on a computer. You ... | [
"In other cases, it might be possible to decompile a program in order to get access to the original source code or code on a level higher than machine code. This is often possible with scripting languages and languages utilizing JIT compilation. An example is cracking (or debugging) on the .NET platform where one m... |
why is linux commonly used by hackers/for hacking? | Linux and any other Unix based OS is what's commonly referred to as Open-Source, meaning that the user has direct access to the system's kernel, and can make modifications that they deem fit, unlike an OS that's proprietary, like OSX or Windows. In reality, you'll find that Linux is often used not just by hackers, but ... | [
"Linux malware includes viruses, Trojans, worms and other types of malware that affect the Linux operating system. Linux, Unix and other Unix-like computer operating systems are generally regarded as very well-protected against, but not immune to, computer viruses.\n",
"Linux servers may also be used by malware w... |
Nutritionally, what does it mean to be lactose intolerant? | You'll still get the nutrition from the milk. The problem is that you won't be able to break down the lactose sugar in the milk, so you won't get any sugar from the milk.
The other stuff (Fat, Vitamin D, etc.) should all still be absorbed, unless you have other issues that are disrupting their uptake. | [
"Lactose is a disaccharide sugar composed of galactose and glucose that is found in milk. Lactose can not be absorbed by the intestine and needs to be split in the small intestine into galactose and glucose by the enzyme called lactase; unabsorbed lactose can cause abdominal pain, bloating, diarrhea, gas, and nause... |
What's determines the temperature of a star? | This is really a big issue and there's a whole field dedicated to "stellar evolution" and all its complexities!
Stars can change their temperatures throughout their life. Our sun is a yellow-white star, but it will eventually expand and turn into a cool red giant, before puffing off its outer layers and settling down ... | [
"Stars have a decreasing temperature gradient, going from their central core up to the atmosphere. The \"core temperature\" of the Sun—the temperature at the centre of the Sun where nuclear reactions take place—is estimated to be 15,000,000 K.\n",
"The surface temperature of a main sequence star is determined by ... |
If Voyager1 was able to come to a dead stop would it fall into an orbit around sun or would start being pulled back to the sun? | If its velocity was changed to 0 with respect to the sun, then yes, it would just fall to the sun. To orbit a body, an object must have velocity perpendicular to the acceleration due to gravity. | [
"On August 30, 2007, \"Voyager 2\" passed the termination shock and then entered into the heliosheath, approximately 1 billion miles (1.6 billion km) closer to the Sun than \"Voyager 1\" did. This is due to the interstellar magnetic field of deep space. The southern hemisphere of the Solar System's heliosphere is b... |
phone network speeds (edge, 3g, 4g, etc) | You might think that these terms are engineering terms and that as such they have clear definitions with standards attached. While that is true with some of them it is not true of them all. The reality is that these are marketing terms.
The g stands for generation. With gen 1 being no mobile data connection, edge i... | [
"According to the Acceptable use policy of most providers where this limitation is in place, the speed is comparable to that of an old dial-up connection. However, there were numerous complaints by customers that the actual speed was lower. In response to these complaints, Telenet (cable internet provider) in Octob... |
Lincoln | Abraham Lincoln was opposed to slavery for moral reasons.
As a young man, he took a riverboat down the Mississippi and witnessed the brutal workings of the institution with his own eyes. Remember that your average Northerner had probably never met a slave, nor seen a plantation, nor a slave market. Travel was much... | [
"\"Lincoln\" is a 2012 American historical drama film directed and produced by Steven Spielberg, starring Daniel Day-Lewis as United States President Abraham Lincoln and Sally Field as Mary Todd Lincoln. The film is based in part on Doris Kearns Goodwin's biography of Lincoln, \"\", and covers the final four months... |
I'm a Jewish survivor of a concentration camp that was liberated. What now? | There's always more to add, but part of this previous answer from /u/commiespaceinvader addresses this: [People don't stop hating over night. What was life in Germany like for Jewish, handicapped, gays after WWII?](_URL_0_) | [
"Although most of the Jews from the camp were evacuated to Partisan-held territory, 204 (7.5%) of them, the elderly or sick, were left behind and were sent to Auschwitz by the Germans for extermination. Ivan Vranetić was honored as one of the Croatian Righteous among the Nations for helping save the Jews evacuated ... |
How did the Soviets fair in the Battle of Stalingrad from an individual soldier's perspective? | _URL_0_
It's untrue. | [
"The Battle of Stalingrad, by October 1942, was allowing the Soviets an ever tighter grip on the course of events. Soviet strategy was simple: elimination of the enemy field army and the collapse of Army Group South.\n",
"Despite its title, \"Stalingrad\" covers the entire campaign between Germany and the Soviet ... |
Just how important has Alaska been to the United States history in general? | That's a tough question to answer, because "importance" is a relative term depending on who's asking the question and what sense it's being asked in. There's political importance, social importance, economic importance, cultural importance, racial importance ... the list goes on. Can you narrow down your question? | [
"Alaska USA was founded in 1948 by 15 volunteers and originally chartered as the Alaskan Air Depot Federal Credit Union to provide financial services to military personnel and federal employees stationed in pre-statehood Alaska.\n",
"In 1967, Alaska celebrated 100 years since its purchase by the United States fro... |
Are there any operations we can do to numbers other than addition and subtraction and their abstractions? | Multiplication and division is not shorthand addition and subtraction. This may be ok for thinking about integer multiplication, but, for example, what would it mean to multiply e by pi in terms of addition? Multiplication is better thought of as a scaling operation.
_URL_0_ | [
"In particular it is important to understand that there is a single operation of multiplication, a single operation of division, and a single operations of addition and subtraction. This single multiplication operator can operate on any of the types of mathematical entities. Likewise every kind of entity can be div... |
how do some mammals like polar bears not freeze to death after getting wet? | Depends on the mammal, generally it's a combination of one or more of the features.
First they might have a double coat of fur, the longer outer layer of fur is mostly there to protect the inner layer, like in polar bears, it's hollow to help bring sunlight and it's warmth down to the skin. The inner layer is soft li... | [
"Water bears (Tardigrade), microscopic multicellular organisms, can survive freezing at low temperatures by replacing most of their internal water with the sugar trehalose, preventing the crystallization that otherwise damages cell membranes.\n",
"Freeze avoidant: These species are able to prevent their body flui... |
what are "office politics"? | It's when you've waited forever for your turn on the swing set. You know you're next because you've been waiting the longest and everyone around you knows it's your turn. But when Billy finally decides he's done. Instead of giving it to you, he gives it to his younger brother Jeffrey who only showed up like two seconds... | [
"Workplace politics is the process and behavior in human interactions involving power and authority. It is also a tool to assess the operational capacity and to balance diverse views of interested parties. It is also known as office politics and organizational politics.\n",
"\"Office politics\" is management beha... |
how come if i have a high quality phone (galaxy s4), when i watch videos on youtube they are still grainy and pixilated? | The two biggest reasons are that the source video is of poor quality, or your connection to the server is of poor quality. Youtube thinks you would rather see all of a grainy video than part or none of a higher quality video. | [
"Quality, however, often becomes an issue at this stage and great care is taken to ensure the quality of the medium is of the highest possible quality for its intended deliver method. For example, a video encoded for streaming to mobile devices requires a much higher level of compression than would for a PC downloa... |
why is it that when we sleep, our cuts will heal in hours, while when we are awake they stay open? | During sleep, your body can direct much less energy towards your brain and almost no energy to your muscles. Having a bunch of energy available allows you to direct that towards healing. This is one of the reasons that we sleep in the first place, as we simply do not produce enough energy to do all things necessary to ... | [
"BULLET::::- Researchers have shown that a fundamental reason for sleep is to clean the brain of toxins. This is achieved by brain cells shrinking to create gaps between neurons, allowing fluid to wash through.\n",
"Generally, for people experiencing difficulties with sleep, spending less time in bed results in d... |
Historians, what is your favorite free, accessible place on the internet to view archived material? | I *love* [British Pathé](_URL_0_) - the amount of newsreels and old film on that site is insane, and it's really fun to look through. | [
"All the materials in the Living Archive are publicly available online, and can also be accessed using the LAAL Reader App. One the website, users can find and access the materials by clicking on areas of a map or by browsing a list of locations, languages, authors or books. The materials are made available under a... |
why does dopamine consumption/injection not drastically treat, or even cure, parkinson's disease? | The information that you need to be able to answer your question has sort of been given in parts by other commenters, I'll see if I can put it all together for you in non-medically language but I can't promise to explain all the intricacies of it while trying to do that.
What you're asking - what, why and how can cert... | [
"Dopaminergic medications that are used to treat Parkinson's disease are sometimes associated with the development of a dopamine dysregulation syndrome, which involves the overuse of dopaminergic medication and medication-induced compulsive engagement in natural rewards like gambling and sexual activity. The latter... |
why in the era of hd quality video do phone conversations still sound like two cans connected by a string? | Technology is not the problem, it already [exists](_URL_0_).
The problem is there's little market demand for higher quality phone calls, the current standard is good enough for most people. Implementing higher quality voice cost phone carriers money in new equipment so they're not going to implement it without some w... | [
"At the time, most local cable providers did not pass the encrypted audio to subscribers. As such, some viewers who had both cable and satellite found a way to marry audio and video. Viewers found a way to get audio from a cable line and video from satellite with their VideoCipher II and push both to their VCRs and... |
why are tins cylindrical? wouldn't cuboid be more efficient for storage? | I found this great video on reddit before that someone linked which is amazing and explains the shape and how cans are actually really ingenious!
_URL_0_ | [
"Generously rounded corners provide a number of advantages. There is less stress concentration on the part and on the tool. Because of sharp corners, material flow is not smooth and tends to be difficult to fill, reduces tooling strength and causes stress concentration. Parts with radii and fillets are more economi... |
Could a person consume enough food while running to run indefinitely? | No. You might hit a brisk walk.
A 12-minute mile running pace burns between 600 and 800 calories. [Runner's World](_URL_0_) suggests eating 30 to 60 grams of carbs per hour, or 120 to 240 carbs per hour. Clearly this is insufficient. We could bump this up pretty easily. Hammergel offers a 5-serving flask that's a... | [
"Carbohydrates that a person eats are converted by the liver and muscles into glycogen for storage. Glycogen burns rapidly to provide quick energy. Runners can store about 8 MJ or 2,000 kcal worth of glycogen in their bodies, enough for about 30 km/18–20 miles of running. Many runners report that running becomes no... |
How did US citizens feel about the My Lai Massacre immediately after it was exposed? | In 1970 William Calley was court-martialed for, among other charges, "his machine-gunning of people in the plaza area south of the hamlet [of My Lai 4;]; his orders to men to execute men, women, and children in the eastern drainage ditch; his butt-stroking with his rifle of an old man; his grabbing of a small child and... | [
"The incident prompted global outrage when it became public knowledge in November 1969. The incident increased to some extent domestic opposition to the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War when the scope of killing and cover-up attempts were exposed. Initially, three U.S. servicemen who had tried to halt the massac... |
could someone explain srs and the state of reddit? | Reddit's structure leads to a lot of echo chambers where anonymous idiots on the internet post horrible shit and then get upvoted to the moon by their fellow misogynists/racists/pedophiles. SRS reposts that stuff to name and shame. | [
"SRS is a form of variable envelope return path (VERP) inasmuch as it encodes the original envelope sender in the local part of the rewritten address. Consider \"\" forwarding a message originally destined to to his new address :\n",
"The SRS was first published in 2010 and has been used by an increasing number o... |
Is it possible to quicken a planet's rotation? | Yes. As an example of what will happen, look at Phobos' eventual fate (_URL_0_ ). It will draw closer to Mars' surface and eventually hit it. Phobos might break up into a ring first, but that doesn't matter for our purposes. Either way, as Phobos' orbital altitude decreases, its orbital speed increases (the angular mom... | [
"Another method would be to use asteroids to spin-up the planet, which, due to dynamo theory could restart Venus's magnetosphere, this would be safer than the other methods, since the planets rotation would have to be stopped again for the field to fail, however there is the problem of changing the planets speed, w... |
why doesn’t the penis get stretch marks? | There’s enough skin to accommodate the penis at its fully erect state. That’s why flaccid penises look all wrinkly and smooshed. | [
"Stretch marks are caused by tearing of the dermis. This is often from the rapid stretching of the skin associated with rapid growth or rapid weight changes. Stretch marks may also be influenced by hormonal changes associated with puberty, pregnancy, bodybuilding, or hormone replacement therapy.\n",
"BULLET::::- ... |
how does your body know to divert the majority of fluids to your bladder so that it doesn't all end up in your intestines? | The bladder is not part of the digestive system, it is part of the renal system, along with the Kidneys.
When you drink water or eat soup or chow down on watermelon or steak, the liquid is absorbed just like the nutrients in the food. Water is also produced by some bodily processes (like dehydration synthesis, which... | [
"In humans, the bladder is a hollow muscular organ situated at the base of the pelvis. Urine collects in the bladder, fed from the two ureters that connect the bladder with the kidneys. Urine leaves the bladder via the urethra, a single muscular tube ending in an opening – the urinary meatus, where it exits the bod... |
why do people criticize the un so heavily? | The problem with the UN is that there are permanent members (China, France, Russia, UK and US) who have the power to veto. If the UN would like to adopt something and everyone agrees, while one permanent member uses it's veto to cancel the whole progress, the UN would look like it had no power.
For example: UN doesn't ... | [
"In the US, complaints about the UN surface regularly in the domestic mainstream media. Some critics who oppose international constraints on US foreign policy contend that the US should withdraw from the UN, claiming that the United States is better equipped to manage the global order unilaterally. More frequently,... |
How accurate is the claim that the Royal Navy ruled the waves? | Here's a provisional answer:
The British navy had near total dominace over the seas of the world from about 1815, the end of the Napoleonic Wars, until about 1890. During this period they adopted a policy of keeping their navy larger than the two other largest navies in the world (typically France and Russia). Startin... | [
"Historian Nicholas Rodger called Edward III's claim to be the \"Sovereign of the Seas\" into question, arguing there was hardly any Royal Navy before the reign of Henry V (1413–22). Despite Rodger's view, King John had already developed a royal fleet of galleys and had attempted to establish an administration for ... |
how do award shows such as the oscars, grammys, etc work? | This is how the Oscars works.
The Oscars are the award given annually by the Academy, hence why they are called the Academy Awards.
What Academy? The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
To even be considered, a film must meet certain requirements. Things like "Must be a minimum of 70 minutes in length, mus... | [
"The Grammy Awards is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry. It shares recognition of the music industry as that of the other performance arts: Emmy Awards (television), the Tony Awards (stage perfor... |
why are some grapes seedless and other seeded? how did they get the seeds out? | You can breed grapes and many other fruits to have no, or only vestigial, seeds. You have to propagate them by cuttings. It doesn't need GM.
Bananas are a major example. The variety that most of the world eats have had seed production bred out of them. As such, all plants are clones and if a virus struck, it's going... | [
"Seedless grape varieties were developed to appeal to consumers, but researchers are now discovering that many of the healthful properties of grapes may actually come from the seeds themselves, thanks to their enriched phytochemical content.\n",
"The seed comes in the form of a tiny nutlet inside the old flower, ... |
why are airlines willing to allow you to check three bags that are 50 pounds a piece but not one bag that is 60 pounds without adding an extra fee? | my speculation would be that a bag that is 50lbs can be handled by a single employee safely and in accordance with safety regulations. Same with 3 bags of the same weight.
A bag of 60lbs likely exceeds the weight safety limit and requires 2 individuals to handle it. (likely a union rule or some other safety standard... | [
"For checked baggage, stored in the aircraft hold, usually the weight is the limiting factor. All checked items are generally weighed by the airline during check-in, and if they exceed the limit, the passenger is informed by the airline. To avoid any fees, the passenger often must switch some of the items found in ... |
In WWI, had France crossed through Belgium ignoring their neutrality to get a one-up on Germany, would the Treaty of London have Forced Britain to attack France? | The treaty was joint, not several, so it really did not oblige Britain to attack any one. It was more moral indignation that played a role in British intervention. | [
"In the Treaty of London, signed in 1839, the Great Powers guaranteed the neutrality of Belgium. Germany called it a \"scrap of paper\" and violated it in 1914 by invasion, whereupon Britain declared war on Germany.\n",
"The neutrality of Belgium had been guaranteed by the Treaty of London (1839), which had been ... |
How is DNA found in hair? | Hair samples need to have the *root* of the hair for effective DNA extraction. The cells that grow the hair contain DNA that can be extracted, but the hair itself, like you say, is almost completely keratin protein.
So, the cells at the root of the hair are where the DNA is extracted from. That said, modern DNA techn... | [
"DNA was first isolated by the Swiss physician Friedrich Miescher who, in 1869, discovered a microscopic substance in the pus of discarded surgical bandages. As it resided in the nuclei of cells, he called it \"nuclein\". In 1878, Albrecht Kossel isolated the non-protein component of \"nuclein\", nucleic acid, and ... |
To what extent did music reflect the counter culture movements of the 1960s? | Well if you wish to look at the American attitude reflected in music, I would encourage you to look at 1950's Rock and Roll, think Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly and Little Richard. Many in the mainstream music establishment (writers and critics) at the time came from Jazz and Band backgrounds who took pride ... | [
"Popular music of the United States in the 1960s became innately tied up into causes, opposing certain ideas, influenced by the sexual revolution, feminism, Black Power and environmentalism. This trend took place in a tumultuous period of massive public unrest in the United States which consisted of the Cold War, V... |
Why are men physically stronger than women? | Just a little background on sexual dimorphism before I get into humans specifically. An overview of [sexual selection](_URL_4_) will help your understanding of this topic. "The sexual selection concept arises from the observation that many animals develop features whose function is not to help individuals survive, but ... | [
"A \"Los Angeles Times\" editorial dated January 21, 1911, stated that “women are incapable of physically dominating men. By their inferior physical strength they are unable to compete on an equal basis in any line of endeavor where ability is determined by sheer bodily prowess. All positions of physical power - su... |
how has the "6-4-1-5" chord progression all a sudden dominated all genres of music? | If you study music in college you'll learn that that chord progression has been an epidemic for centuries.
Seriously though, they teach rules for music theory but what it really boils down to is guidelines for what sounds good. Humans are just wired to enjoy certain sounds. Cultural influences also play a large part.... | [
"The previously discussed I-IV-V chord progressions of major triads is a subsequence of the circle progression, which ascends by perfect fourths and descends by perfect fifths: Perfect fifths and perfect fourths are inverse intervals, because one reaches the same pitch class by either ascending by a perfect fourth ... |
what makes applications operating system-specific? | The operating system exposes a set of functionality called APIs. Applications are written to use a specific API. If an app is written to use one API on one OS, then it cannot work against the different API that another OS exposes.
It's sort of like how if you write a book in English, then only English speakers can r... | [
"All computer operating systems are designed for a particular computer architecture. Most software applications are limited to particular operating systems running on particular architectures. Although architecture-independent operating systems and applications exist, most need to be recompiled to run on a new arch... |
why do so many european countries oppose the eu? | Supranationalism can whittle away a country's identity. Countries, especially the benelux countries, have started to identify more with their organization rather than their country, and some people don't like this. | [
"The perceived democratic deficit in the European Union, including legitimacy problems of the European Commission and the European Parliament and the supremacy of EU law over national legislation are some of the major objections of British Eurosceptics. The EU is also argued to have a negative financial impact due ... |
How did the Berlin airlift function and how effective it was? | > Did they have an airport in West-Berlin?
There were three runways that West Berlin controlled, one at Gatow that the British administered and two at Tempelhof.
During the blockade the Gatow runways was extended and reinforced and a huge new one was built at Tempelhof.
> Who was in charge of distribution?
Ini... | [
"The Berlin Airlift was one of the defining events of and marked the beginning of the Cold War. The 464-day effort to supply a city's needs solely through the air demonstrated the resolve of democratic nations to oppose communist repression. The massive humanitarian effort was an early triumph for allied air forces... |
why do creators keep their upcoming projects/products secret until release? | One of the aspects that you may not have considered is that a huge number of projects that people work on *never get released*. They turn out not to be as interesting as the creator hoped, or there's no enough of a budget, or there are creative differences with other people involved, etc. And it's not good practice t... | [
"BULLET::::- IP protection – many Interactive Digital Media developers and content producers are reluctant to publicly announce the details of a project before production due to concerns about idea theft and protecting their IP from plagiarism. Creators who engage in crowdfunding are required to release their produ... |
why don't modern 3d movies make more use of 3d, like i remember imax movies did 15 years ago? | When 3D was first introduced, it was used as a gimmick, and there were lots of parts of the movie that were specifically made to be all, "Look! Look everyone! It's 3D! Look how 3D it is! Threeeeeeee, Deeeeeeee!"
And that's fine . . . for a gimmick. But as 3D becomes more and more standard, the usage of it becomes... | [
"3D films have existed in some form since 1915, but had been largely relegated to a niche in the motion picture industry because of the costly hardware and processes required to produce and display a 3D film, and the lack of a standardized format for all segments of the entertainment business. Nonetheless, 3D films... |
why the single male:female is wider than birth rate ratio? | This could easily be differences in polls, if this was the same company, than that wouldn't apply.
What this means is that 5% more males are born, yet there are 15% more single men. The only way I can think of this is if there are a lot more lesbian marriages than male-to-male, though that likely isn't the case, e... | [
"The ratio of males to females by age indicates the consequences of differing mortality rates on the sexes. Thus, while values above one are common for newborns, the ratio dwindles until it is well below one for the older population.\n",
"Before puberty both males and females have a similar waist–hip ratio. At pu... |
Why has Gothic art/architecture come to be so strongly associated with the horror genre? | This is something that stems in part from the 18th century novel. In Britain, at least, 'the Gothic' (both in art/architecture and in writing) was a fashionable novelty and a pastiche of medieval aesthetics; and as such it was constructed as a counterpoint to the prevailing 'rationalism' of the Enlightenment and neo-Cl... | [
"Gothic metal is characterized as a combination of the dark atmospheres of gothic rock and darkwave with the heaviness of doom metal. The genre originated during the mid-1990s in Europe as an outgrowth of doom-death, a fusion genre of doom metal and death metal. Examples of gothic metal bands include Paradise Lost,... |
Deciding the Common Era | There is no year 0.
BCE and CE are politically correct terminologies used by people today in a generally bald faced effort to remove Christian terminology from "secular time." Not that there's anything wrong with that, specifically, but that's the source of calling it the "Common Era" or "Before the Common Era."
BCE ... | [
"The phrase \"common era\", in lower case, also appeared in the 19th century in a \"generic\" sense, not necessarily to refer to the Christian Era, but to any system of dates in common use throughout a civilization. Thus, \"the common era of the Jews\", \"the common era of the Mahometans\", \"common era of the worl... |
I've heard that the Prussians in 1870 dismissed the American Civil War as a "rabble of little consequence". How obsolete or 'backwards' was the USA's military and its tactics in relation to mainland Europe? Did Prussians and French fight their war in a different manner? | I went through my bookmarks to find threads that will help you :)
___
[What did European powers think of the American military from the time of just after the Civil War leading up to World War I?](_URL_2_)
____
[At the time of the civil war, how did the US army compare to european militaries?
](_URL_0_)
_____
[How di... | [
"BULLET::::- The first six weeks of the Franco-Prussian War saw French armies, convinced of their superiority following French victories in the Crimean War and the wars of Italian unification, enter a war with Prussia believing that their weapons and tactics would easily defeat the Prussians. However, the Prussians... |
Textbook's claim about the 3/5th compromise | > The formula reflected delegate's judgement that slaves were less efficient producers of wealth than free people, not that they were three-fifths human and two-fifths property.
I'd recommend checking out [Federalist number 54](_URL_0_) which is James Madison's letter to the people of New York where he justifies the ... | [
"The compromise rule that was written into the Laws of the Game in 1866, and eventually adopted universally, was to adopt a form of the Cambridge rule, but with \"at least three\" rather than \"more than three\" opponents.\n",
"The compromise solution, as set out in the two resolutions, was very carefully worded ... |
If we moved Mars so that it was the same distance from the Sun as the Earth, would it be able to support life? | Mars is already in the habitable zone, but the problem is mainly the size of the planet - it doesn't have the gravitational pull to hold its atmosphere. Even if there was enough ice on Mars to create an atmosphere, it wouldn't be sustainable.
Additionally Mars no longer has a molten core, so would not be able to g... | [
"Alberto G. Fairén and Dirk Schulze-Makuch published an article in \"Nature\" recommending that planetary protection measures need to be scaled down. They gave as their main reason for this, that exchange of meteorites between Earth and Mars means that any life on Earth that could survive on Mars has already got th... |
accents | Think of it this way: you know how when you spend lots of times with your friends, and you have all of these inside jokes and funny sayings and made-up words? Well, it's sort of like that: when you spend all your time with the same people, you tend to use these inside jokes and made-up words all the time, and that's s... | [
"A range of accents are spoken in the West Midlands (in the major towns and conurbations (The Black Country, Birmingham, Coventry, Stoke-on-Trent and Wolverhampton) and in rural areas (such as in Herefordshire and south Worcestershire).\n",
"Accents are the distinctive variations in the pronunciation of a languag... |
what is an nfl contract holdout. how do they work and why do players holdout? | Players have a contract with the team they work for, just like any other employee has a contract with the business they work for. NFL contracts are usually of the form "$X/year for Y years", like "10 million dollars a year for 5 years" or "$500k a year for two years". There are some other clauses but those are the imp... | [
"Waivers are a National Football League (NFL) labor management procedure by which a team makes an American football player's contract or NFL rights (such as NFL draft rights to an unsigned player) available to all other teams. During the season (starting July 4 and lasting through the regular season), each team has... |
how a helicopter tilts forward/backwards | Visualize a helicopter with two rotor blades, just to make it easier. And let's just ignore the tail rotor and the engine for now.
Focusing only on the rotor and how it controls the movement of the helicopter, there are two controls the pilot uses. One is called the collective, and one is called the cyclic.
The rot... | [
"The control is called the cyclic because it changes the pitch of the rotor blades cyclically. The result is to tilt the rotor disk in a particular direction, resulting in the helicopter moving in that direction. If the pilot pushes the cyclic forward, the rotor disk tilts forward, and the rotor produces a thrust i... |
How accessible would 'classical' music have been to the contemporary lower classes? | You have read correctly! We get this question with some frequency, but your alliterative examples really hold it head and shoulders above the rest.
There are a few ways in which the Salt of The Earth might have experienced historical art music. One, and this is a big one, is church, which had expensive music free for... | [
"It is proposed, not only to extend a knowledge of the productions of the greatest masters, by a more perfect performance of their works than has hitherto been attained, but likewise to give to modern and native Composers a favourable opportunity for establishing the worth of their claims upon the attention and est... |
Neil deGrasse Tyson claims that al-Ghazali stifled scientific pursuits in Muslim countries, preventing similar achievements compared to the Abbasid empire. How true is this claim? | This (and even the theories that the Mongols were the cause) is an old orientalist position. From what I've read, the strongest and most active English-language critic of it is george saliba (see eg his book "islamic science and the making..."), and I'll summarize some of salibas points.
First is that in the islamic w... | [
"Al-Ghazali was commonly accused by Orientalist scholars of causing a decline in scientific advancement in Islam because of his refutation of the new philosophies of his time. He believed he saw danger in the statements made by philosophers that suggested that God was not all-knowing or even non-existent, which str... |
What does an egg provide sperm with besides a genetic complement? Or, why can't we create a new human from two male parents in vitro? | You don't just need to have corresponding chromosomes, you need to have your epigenetics in order. [Here's](_URL_0_) a post I wrote a few days ago about nearly the same thing. Two sets of male/female chromosomes can't properly join because their epigenetic imprints won't be compatible.
edit: Wikipedia has a [good art... | [
"Embryos may be created by in vitro fertilization (IVF) with gametes from a male and female of the species to be reproduced. They may also be created by somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) into an egg cell of another species, creating a cloned embryo that transferred into the uterus of yet another species. This te... |
why do some stores close one entrance off at night | I'll give this a shot. Since there are less customers to serve at night the store would schedule fewer employees. By closing an entrance it cuts down on employees needing to watch/stand/patrol the entrance & allows the store to control foot traffic. | [
"A further problem becoming very common in the USA (2005) is that retail stores at night close one of their main entrance/exits through makeshift heavy metal barriers, signage, paper notes, or junk placed in front of the exits. Some actually lock their exits. A large array of signage and mechanical exit systems hav... |
why don't cars have a face/defogger setting for the ac & heater? | Most cars with digital climate control allow you to set any combination you desire, including all vents. My Audi has this. I can do face and defog. Most luxury cars will let you, lower end or base models do not. So they can have less moving parts in the HVAC system. Allowing the cost to be lower. | [
"Some cars include additional rear center console, which commonly includes entertainment and climate system controls (and possibly display screens and air vents), auxiliary power outlets, and sometimes window controls when these are not in the doors (for example, in the Ford Sierra). Another element is an ashtray, ... |
Why don't Na+ ions enter a nerve cell in equilibrium? | Sodium really wants to flow in, that's why when the voltage gated Na^+ channels open it happens so quickly.
The sodium-potassium ATPase actively pumps out sodium ions and pumps in potassium to maintain the steady state. | [
"Normally, current carried by ions could travel in either direction through this type of synapse. However, sometimes the junctions are rectifying synapses, containing voltage-gated ion channels that open in response to depolarization of an axon's plasma membrane, and prevent current from traveling in one of the two... |
What exactly is a gamma ray? | If you look at a picture of [the electromagnetic spectrum](_URL_0_), then you'll see a wide range of radiation, from gamma rays down to radio and TV stuff, with visible light roughly in the middle.
Every wave has a wavelength, and an associated frequency. If you throw in Planck's constant, then every wavelength also ... | [
"A gamma ray, or gamma radiation (symbol γ or formula_1), is a penetrating electromagnetic radiation arising from the radioactive decay of atomic nuclei. It consists of the shortest wavelength electromagnetic waves and so imparts the highest photon energy. Paul Villard, a French chemist and physicist, discovered ga... |
why do pianos lack a black key for e# and b#? | A sharp note is just a note a half-step above the root note. F is a half step above E, therefore it's E#, but it's known as F, so we just call it F. | [
"Most modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, 52 white keys for the notes of the C major scale (C, D, E, F, G, A and B) and 36 shorter black keys, which are raised above the white keys, and set further back on the keyboard. This means that the piano can play 88 different pitches (or \"notes\"), going f... |
how can something presented in court be disregarded? | If it is minor, the court asks the jury no to take it into consideration.
If it is major, it is ground for a mistrial. | [
"The presentation of applicable law is the responsibility of the parties. An arbitrator's disregard of the law presented by the parties is cause for challenging an award in a court of competent jurisdiction.\n",
"Suppression of evidence is a term used in the United States legal system to describe the lawful or un... |
What did beauty standards for women look like in the early United States, and Europe of the same time? | One place to look is period fashion plate magazines. An important one is *Godey’s Lady’s Book*, published in Philadelphia from 1830-1898 by Louis A. Godey. [Much](_URL_0_) of it has been digitized by Hathitrust. In this period body and fashion standards in the US slavishly followed French and English fashions. See, for... | [
"Over the course of history, beauty ideals for women have changed drastically to represent societal views. Women with fair skin were idealized and segregated and used to justify the unfair treatment of dark-skinned women. In the early 1900s, the ideal female body was represented by a pale complexion and cinched-wai... |
why can 2 songs of the same length require different amounts of data when encoded? | They do take up the exact same amount of space when they're uncompressed.
However when they're compressed or stored in a lossy format (such as mp3) the encoding process is smart enough to not waste time with long stretches of silence or storing multiple copies of the same pattern. Just like when you read song lyrics ... | [
"If the distance is less than the length, the duplicate overlaps itself, indicating repetition. For example, a run of 10 identical bytes can be encoded as one byte, followed by a duplicate of length 9, beginning with the previous byte.\n",
"The run-length code represents the original 67 characters in only 18. Whi... |
why are modern buses box-shaped, not round-shaped? | I don't know how important aerodynamics are at the speeds a bus is going, weight is probably a bigger factor. Also, it would be hard to make efficient use of space in a round bus, compared to an oblong one. Its also possible it gives a more stable centre of mass, to reduce the likelihood of it rolling, or has other eng... | [
"A articulated version was designed and built in 1982 for a Government of Ontario demonstration project, but used a Classic front end on the New Look body, and for that reason this model is sometimes not described as being a New Look and is not included in New Look production figures. Series production took place i... |
160 years ago if you asked someone in either the US government or military how it could be ethical to force Japan to open up to western trade when they'd made it clear they wanted to be left alone, what would they have most likely said? | 1. The virtue of the American people and their institutions: The whole world is being carved up by the Great Powers, and America is the most free and enlightened people. Better us than some truly repressive power using them as say, resource extraction serfs, or whatever
2. The mission to spread these institutions, ther... | [
"In 1844, William II of the Netherlands urged Japan to open, but was rejected. On July 8, 1853, the U.S. Navy steamed four warships into the bay at Edo and threatened to attack if Japan did not begin trade with the West. Their arrival marked the reopening of the country to political dialogue after more than two hun... |
How much did the (particularly early) Roman empire use religion to justify their expansion? | Broadly, they did not.
Religions were typically amalgamated, incorporated, or adapted into the Roman pantheon. Examples of amalgamation and incorporation include Sulis, in Bath, England, a famous example. She was the goddess of the springs there, and roughly analogous to Minerva, alongside a host of other deities from... | [
"Christianity added new impetus to the expansion of empire. Increasing the arrogance of the imperial project, Christians insisted that the Gospels and the Church were the only valid sources of religious beliefs. Imperialists could claim that they were both civilizing the world and spreading the true religion. By th... |
How much am I paying for electricity when I charge stuff in my car? How does it compare to charging from a wall socket? | Let's do a quick back-of-the-envelope calculation. According to [this white paper](_URL_3_), the efficiency of the car engine plus alternator is about 21%.
One kilowatt-hour is 3.6 MJ of electricity; at 21% conversion efficiency that would require burning 17 MJ of gasoline. Energy density of gasoline is [45 MJ/kg](_... | [
"BULLET::::- Charging. Vehicles can be charged with 120, 240 or 480 volts (Level 3 charging station). Charging times vary based on input voltage, and can range from 8 hours with a household outlet to 3 hours with a charging station.\n",
"The price for the home charging units is plus installation costs. The Voltec... |
Why didn't any of the Anglosphere countries become fascist or communist during the 20th century, like many other western nations did? | When it comes to England, at least, there are two important components that I'd like to mention -- one a personality, and the other a law. The following is derived largely from comments I've made elsewhere about a particularly infamous event, to which I will link below.
Anyway: The personality, to begin with, was **S... | [
"Furthermore, communism was implemented in other East European states (e.g. Romania, Hungary, Poland) in a much shorter time frame and developed very differently from the way it did in the Soviet Union. In Hungary, for example, the communist party initially came to power via tacit consent to a coalition government.... |
how/ why do undocumented immigrants have payroll taxes? | Not all of them are paid under the table. In the US, illegal immigrants can get an tax ID number (ITIN) from the IRS, which allows employers to withhold taxes. In addition to paying income taxes, they also pay in to the social security system, with no means of ever being able to withdraw it when they reach retirement... | [
"IRS estimates that about 6 million unauthorized immigrants file individual income tax returns each year. Research reviewed by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office indicates that between 50 percent and 75 percent of unauthorized immigrants pay federal, state, and local taxes. Illegal immigrants are estimated... |
why do neurons connect as synapses instead of physically connecting to each other? | The synapses you're thinking of - as do most people - are called chemical synapses. As you know, between communicating neurons there is a small gap called a synaptic cleft. Neurotransmitters are small chemicals that leave one neuron (the PREsynaptic neuron) and move across the synaptic cleft to alter the state of the n... | [
"Neurons communicate with one another via synapses. Synapses are specialized junctions between two cells in close apposition to one another. In a synapse, the neuron that sends the signal is the presynaptic neuron and the target cell receives that signal is the postsynaptic neuron or cell. Synapses can be either el... |
Is the refraction of sunlight, when the sun is geometrically below the horizon, any more or less harmful to look at? | If the refracted image that you see still looks like the sun, then the light is still concentrated enough to do damage.
It's not quite as bright as when the sun is high in the sky, because there's more air to scatter light out of the path from the sun to your eye, but "not as bright" doesn't always mean "safer". If th... | [
"The above indicates that the damage level of even direct sunlight coming from the horizontal skylight is reduced to 36% by regular window glass. Due to the sun's changing position, even less direct light enters through side windows and hanging an artwork away from direct sunlight reduces the exposure to potentiall... |
How were the ancient techniques of lighting a fire underwater transferred from the days of Spongegar to the residents of Bikini Bottom today? | To put it simply, oral tradition.
It's well known that several customs of the time, including the sport of jellyfishing, were passed down due to a combination of a strong local community and the ability to reproduce by budding. It's generally assumed that firemaking techniques were handed down in a similar matter. | [
"Fire-setting is a method of traditional mining used most commonly from prehistoric times up to the Middle Ages. Fires were set against a rock face to heat the stone, which was then doused with liquid, causing the stone to fracture by thermal shock. Some experiments have suggested that the water (or any other liqui... |
why no business delivers hamburgers | many places around here (upstate NY) deliver hamburgers and subs... what is hard to get is hotdogs and mexican food (except some very simple stuf) | [
"Hamburgers are sold at fast-food restaurants, diners, and specialty and high-end restaurants (where burgers may sell for several times the cost of a fast-food burger, but may be one of the cheaper options on the menu). There are many international and regional variations of the hamburger.\n",
"Some restaurants o... |
Throughout history, we have seen marriages that were mainly caused by people who aspired to gain political importance. When did these actually start to happen and how did marriage transition from being used originally as a ceremony of love to being used as a way to gain political influence? | I'm afraid the origins of the institution of marriage go back beyond recorded history; you'll be better off asking this question on /r/AskAnthropology. | [
"Centuries ago, couples often married for political reasons rather than love. In some cultures, marriages were arranged by parents. In these arranged marriages, the bride and groom did not meet before the wedding. Since procreation was the primary purpose of arranged marriages, fertility was a concern for the newly... |
If an object had an elliptical around a black hole entered the event horizon why would it not exit the event horizon at some point later in the orbit | Accelerating masses emit gravitational radiation (just as accelerating electric charges emit electro-magnetic radiation), which causes objects orbiting each other to spiral together, but the timescale for this is generally much longer than a hubble time, but it's fairly short for objects orbiting a black hole at a few ... | [
"An observer crossing the event horizon of a non-rotating and uncharged (or Schwarzschild) black hole cannot avoid the central singularity, which lies in the future world line of everything within the horizon. Thus one cannot avoid spaghettification by the tidal forces of the central singularity.\n",
"Since the e... |
- what is to prevent the offspring of a sperm donor from engaging in accidental incest? | I supposed nothing directly... except that the probability of it is pretty damn low.
There are 320 Million people in the USA alone... balanced roughly 50/50... in that case, you're basically talking about finding the one person in 160,000,000 people who is related to you. That's pretty unlikely. | [
"People may be unaware of a kinship relationship between them in a number of circumstances. For example, artificial insemination with an anonymous donated sperm may result in offspring being unaware of any biological relations, such as paternity or half siblings. To reduce the likelihood of accidental incest, ferti... |
Is there any evidence of real covens during or around the witch scare? Since I assume not, any evidence the convicted practiced paganism or folk religion? We’re people killed for folk medicine use? | Hi there! Second-year history major here. I'm just going to answer this in relation to the Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692 because that's what I'm most qualified to discuss.
In the late 20th century, some historians (led predominantly by Chadwick Hansen, especially after his book *Witchcraft at Salem*) began specul... | [
"These witch trials seem to have been a phenomenon resulting from a great mass hysteria; people from all walks of life were arrested and charged, regardless of age, profession or sex, for reasons ranging from murder and satanism to humming a song with the Devil, or simply for being vagrants and unable to give a sat... |
why do new release novels come out first in hardback then months later in paperback? | You got it in one in your original post. The cost of producing a hardback book is maybe a dollar. The cost of producing a paperback is maybe $0.50. But the hardback sells for $20 or $30 and the paperback sells for $10. | [
"In 1982, romance novels accounted for at least 25% of all paperback sales. In 2013, 51% of paperback sales were romance. Many titles, especially in genre fiction, have their first editions in paperback and never receive a hardcover printing. This is particularly true of first novels by new authors.\n",
"Since pa... |
why does it it feel extremely good when we change our sitting/lying down position after having been sitting/lying down in the same position for quite some time | I’d say pressure on joints muscles and bones being relieved... ooh and that cold under side of the pillow is always better then the top.! | [
"Sitting or standing postures also indicate one's emotions. A person sitting till the back of their chair, leans forward with their head nodding along with the discussion implies that they are open, relaxed and generally ready to listen. On the other hand, a person who has their legs and arms crossed with the foot ... |
could someone explain the dalai lama? wouldn't a guy that claims to be a "chosen one" have a huge ego? i'm not being sarcastic. | I'm not an expert by any means, but I think it is more a case of the High Lamas who proclaim who is the next incarnation (usually a pre-teen boy). He is then removed from his family forever and taken to the Palace to be informed of his future role. As far as his family is concerned, the child is now gone forever.
He h... | [
"According to Chapter 6 we can say that the Dalai Lama clearly represents his opinions on human relationships, empathy and sexual attraction, and he tries to explain them in a simple way. These are the most important and most discussed topics in Chapter 6. We find out how empathy is needed in human relationships. T... |
Have there been any cases of Alzheimer's disease going into remission, or of abnormally long progression in the clinical AD stage? | I only have peripheral experience with Alzheimer's disease, so I can't really comment on the literature as a whole. That being said, I have seen a number of case studies that report an improvement in functional testing after a previously demonstrated decline in cognitive function.
These are only case studies, however... | [
"The treatment will depend on the cause of memory loss, but various drugs to treat Alzheimer’s disease have been suggested in recent years. There are four drugs currently approved by the FDA for the treatment of Alzheimer’s, and they all act on the cholinergic system: Donepezil, Galantamine, Rivastigmine, and Tacri... |
This Week's Theme: Oceania | Exactly how long have they been at war with East Asia? | [
"The theme of the games was \"\"One Heritage, One Southeast Asia\"\". Highlighted during the games' opening ceremony, the theme emphasises unity and co-operation among the 11 member nations of the SEA Games Federation.\n",
"The Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) is one of the six continental confederations of i... |
How do multiple members of the same siphonophore species have the same shape if they are just colonies of individual animals? | The same reason you and other animals have the same shape even though you are just colonies of individual cells (after a manner of speaking). The colonies grow from each other in a defined pattern, producing a similar final outcome.
Don't imagine that a bunch of individuals clump together in a random mass and then ... | [
"The helical parameters of the shape of Arthrospira is known to differentiate between- and even within the same- species. These differences may be induced by changing environmental conditions, such as the growth temperature. The helical shape of the trichomes is only maintained in a liquid environment. The filament... |
What proof do we have that CO2 is a greenhouse gas. How do we know it has caused global warming? | Spectroscopy. CO2, for example, consists of two carbonyls, which absorb a huge proportion of infrared light that is shone through them. The absorption of light by gases in the atmosphere increases their thermal energy and increases the temperature, leading to global warming. | [
"In the 1998 paper, \"CO2-induced global warming: a skeptic's view of potential climate change\" Idso said: \"Several of these cooling forces have individually been estimated to be of equivalent magnitude, but of opposite sign, to the typically predicted greenhouse effect of a doubling of the air’s CO2 content, whi... |
Is there an upper limit on how massive a rocky astronomical body can be without being spherical? | There is! Though I'm unaware of any official "limit" comparable to the Roche or Chandrasekhar limits, there's been a few papers on the [asteroidal sphericity limit](_URL_0_), or ["potato radius"](_URL_1_), and is around 200km or so, with a gratuitous percentage error.
I would surmise this is due to the myriad of facto... | [
"A large object, such as a planet or star, will usually be approximately round, approaching hydrostatic equilibrium (where all points on the surface have the same amount of gravitational potential energy). On a small scale, higher parts of the terrain are eroded, with eroded material deposited in lower parts of the... |
When you're flying over the ocean at 40,000 feet, how far can you see to the horizon? | As long as your height above the surface of the Earth is small compared to the radius of the Earth, the distance to the horizon is
sqrt(2*R*h)
where R = radius of the Earth and h = your height above the surface of the Earth.
The height of 40,000 ft (about 12 km) is clearly very small compared to the radius of the Ea... | [
"To compute the greatest distance at which an observer can see the top of an object above the horizon, compute the distance to the horizon for a hypothetical observer on top of that object, and add it to the real observer's distance to the horizon. For example, for an observer with a height of 1.70 m standing on th... |
are schools aloud to jam cell signals so you are forced to use there wifi | Considering some of the incidents in schools over the last few years you would have an extremely uphill battle to tackle a policy that can be clearly presented as promoting safety in the school. | [
"To prevent distractions caused by mobile phones, some schools have implemented policies that restrict students from using their phones during school hours. Some administrators have attempted cell phone jamming, but this practice is illegal in certain jurisdictions. Software can be used in order to monitor and rest... |
Which factors determine the refractive index of a material and is there a theoretical limit to how big it can be? | Holy shit, something I can explain! In an oversimplified sense, refractive index is determined mostly by the electron density of the material. In a practical, everyday sense, it can be estimated or calculated based on the elements that make up a material. One of my professors co-authored a major paper explaining this, ... | [
"In general, an index of refraction is a complex number with both a real and imaginary part, where the latter indicates the strength of absorption loss at a particular wavelength—thus, the imaginary part is sometimes called the extinction coefficient formula_1. Such losses become particularly significant, for examp... |
why do galaxies appear elliptical? | Some of the older, disorganized ones [actually are](_URL_0_), but more often the spiral galaxies are elliptical in pictures because you're seeing them at an angle.
They're more or less flat, so unless you're looking at them from directly above they won't make a circle in the sky. | [
"Elliptical galaxies are characterized by several properties that make them distinct from other classes of galaxy. They are spherical or ovoid masses of stars, starved of star-making gases. The smallest known elliptical galaxy is about one-tenth the size of the Milky Way. The motion of stars in elliptical galaxies ... |
Was the Roman navy ever involved in any major wars outside of the Punic Wars? If so how did it perform, was it as formidable as their land counterpart? | As a few examples?
In the 5th Century the Emperor Majorian sent a force of 300 ships to engage the Vandals. It didnt go overly well.
>
Mense Maio Majorianus Hispanias ingreditur imperator: quo pertendente, aliquantas naves quas sibi ad transitum adversum Wandalos praeparabat, de littore Carthaginiensi commoniti Wa... | [
"During the course of the First Punic War, the Roman navy was massively expanded and played a vital role in the Roman victory and the Roman Republic's eventual ascension to hegemony in the Mediterranean Sea. In the course of the first half of the 2nd century BC, Rome went on to destroy Carthage and subdue the Helle... |
doctors handling ebola victims generally wear full body suits, gloves, and goggles. how can they take that equipment off without touching the exterior of it and exposing themselves to infection? | They disinfect first. Often having showers or containment rooms where the suits are sprayed down, and then they remove them, and are sprayed down themselves. | [
"People who care for those infected with Ebola should wear protective clothing including masks, gloves, gowns and goggles. The US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recommend that the protective gear leaves no skin exposed. These measures are also recommended for those who may handle objects contaminated by an infec... |
what's going on with mcdonald's? | mcdonald's ought to realize its target market. people who love shitty, addictive food. they keep trying to push healthy items and act like they're being more ethical. there is a massive market out there of people who do not care about animal rights and/or being healthy. that's who they have served for decades and they ... | [
"In 2012, after a series of ABC News reports, concern amongst the public led McDonald's, Burger King, Taco Bell, Wal-Mart, Safeway, and several other grocery stores to abandon the product. Company officials suspended production at three of its four plants. The United States Department of Agriculture issued a statem... |
the carbon and nitrogen cycles | The Nitrogen Cycle:
Dead organic matter gets consumed by fungi or bacteria and the waste product as a result of that is ammonia. Another type of bacteria will then consume that ammonia and create nitrite as waste. Then, another type of bacteria will turn that nitrite into nitrate. Nitrate is three Oxygen molecules and... | [
"The nitrogen cycle is one of the Earth’s biogeochemical cycles. It involves the conversion of nitrogen into different chemical forms. The main processes of the nitrogen cycle are the fixation, ammonification, nitrification, and denitrification. As one of the macronutrients, nitrogen plays an important role in plan... |
why do i randomly get angry/sad for no "good" reason, no matter how awesome my current environment is? | Realizing the futility of life and meaningless of existence? | [
"After some time (usually around three months, depending on the individual), differences between the old and new culture become apparent and may create anxiety. Excitement may eventually give way to unpleasant feelings of frustration and anger as one continues to experience unfavorable events that may be perceived ... |
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