Split (2)

train · 226k rows

question stringlengths 3 301	answer stringlengths 9 26.1k	context list
How was rape treated under 19th-century American law?	I wrote my Master's Thesis on rape during the Civil War, so I will try to be brief on this topic. I could (and did) write hundreds of pages on this very topic. First off, the article is generally correct. Raping a black woman was not a crime against a person for much of the history of the United States. This is due to ...	[ "American rape law has transitioned common law practices which grew out of a male centric legal interpretation to the feministic view it has today. A woman once had to prove absolute resistance against her aggressor, and rape reformation laws in America did away with the Hale Warning, corrorborating evidence, and t...
what it means to be ethnically jewish, where ethnically jewish people originated, and why they are so widely dispersed today.	Most ethnic Jews you will meet in America originally came from eastern Europe, an area sometimes called the Pale of Settlement. This consisted mainly of parts of Poland and Russia, plus some other countries. The Jews of this region were excluded from the larger society. They developed their own culture which took part...	[ "Another study of L. Hao et al. studied seven groups of Jewish populations with different geographic origin (Ashkenazi, Italian, Greek, Turk, Iranian, Iraqi, and Syrian) and showed that the individuals all shared a common Middle Eastern background, although they were also genetically distinguishable from each other...
What is the greatest invention/discovery said to be lost in history?	One of my favorites: > [Flexible glass](_URL_0_) is a legendary lost invention from during the reign of Roman Emperor Tiberius Caesar (between 14 CE-37 CE). As recounted by Isadore of Seville, the craftsman who invented the technique brought a drinking bowl made of flexible glass before Caesar who threw it to the fl...	[ "The most recent and important excavation is at the Nor Geghi 1 Stone Age site in the Hrazdan river valley. Thousands of 325,000 year-old artifacts show that human technological innovation occurred intermittently throughout the Old World, rather than spreading from a single point of origin (usually hypothesized to ...
Assuming the universe is infinite in volume; it would mean that any event thathas even the slightest chance of existing, will exist an infinite number of times, including humanity, including you... right?	No. You misunderstand the concept of "infinite". Just because something is infinite, it doesn't mean it contains all possibilities, much less that each of those possibilities repeats "several" times, or an infinite number of times, or even once. Take an example from an earlier one of today's threads on mathematics...	[ "The poet Edgar Allan Poe suggested that the finite size of the observable universe resolves the apparent paradox. More specifically, because the universe is finitely old and the speed of light is finite, only finitely many stars can be observed from Earth (although the whole universe can be infinite in space). The...
Is there a way I could get my grandfather in contact with a historian?	[You may find this library of congress site](_URL_0_) useful. Also check the local state universities near you. I know that Rutgers for example has an oral history project but it revolves around NJ residents. edit: There is also [Storycorps](_URL_1_)	[ "The SFHC offers a comprehensive range of genealogical services to patrons worldwide tracing their family histories from various countries of origin. While the SFHC is not a repository for historical records, it does have access to a multitude of resources to help visitors begin or continue their family history jou...
why is there a cash gas price and a credit gas price?	The service station pays a percentage of the sale proceeds to the credit card company. They pass some of the savings on to those who pay in cash.	[ "The price of natural gas varies greatly depending on location and type of consumer. In 2007, a price of $7 per 1000 cubic feet () was typical in the United States. The typical caloric value of natural gas is roughly 1,000 BTU per cubic foot, depending on gas composition. This corresponds to around $7 per million B...
Does physiology affect personality?	There are a lot of answers to this question. Aside from obvious mental disorders and their effects on personality, physiology can affect how others perceive us (obesity, beauty, etc.), and that can in turn affect our confidence and how we act. In that way, physiology definitely plays an indirect role in the development...	[ "The biological basis of personality is the theory that anatomical structures located in the brain contribute to personality traits. This stems from neuropsychology, which studies how the structure of the brain relates to various psychological processes and behaviors. For instance, in human beings, the frontal lobe...
How can our immune system keep up with viruses, which evolve much faster than us?	There is a fairly long answer to this question, I'll do my best to break it down: First of all, we should review the different ways that the body fights pathogens. The first step, which occurs both in the developing fetus and also in early life, is learning to tell "self" from "non-self". Basically, the body does a st...	[ "Viruses reproduce rapidly because they have only a few genes compared to humans who have 20,000–25,000. For example, influenza virus has only eight genes and rotavirus has eleven. These genes encode structural proteins that form the virus particle, or non-structural proteins, that are only found in cells infected ...
why do radio stations edit songs to be shorter, by taking out an instrumental solo for example?	Precisely that reason. Radio makes money mainly by airing ads between the music and other programming. By trimming out parts of songs they increase the number of ads they can run. That's also the reason most songs that run for longer than 4 minutes or so get interrupted after a chorus somewhere in the 3rd minute. This ...	[ "Radio edits often shorten a long song in order to make it more commercially viable for radio stations. The normal length for songs played on the radio is 3 to 4 minutes. Occasionally, the song will simply fade out earlier, common on tracks with long instrumental endings. For instance, the radio edit of 'Heroes' by...
why can’t the ring finger extend independently of its adjacent digits?	The ring finger and middle finger each have two tendons that connect near the base of the fingers. One of the tendons from the ring finger goes underneath a tendon for the middle finger, while both middle finger tendons are on top. You can lift just your middle finger because nothing is in the way, but when you try to ...	[ "Because the finger holes are not covered with keys, some of the tone holes are placed in acoustically unfavorable locations to accommodate the hand. The relatively large finger-span distance reduces fluency of playing.\n", "In anatomy, the ring finger is called \"digitus medicinalis\", \"the fourth finger\", \"d...
why is the equation for kinetic energy 1/2mv^2 when the equation for momentum is mv?	They are completely different measurements that describe different physical properties. The momentum describes how much force wee need to apply and for how long we need to apply it in order to change the objects velocity a certain amount (F•t) . Just like forces, the momentum has a direction vector. The kinetic energ...	[ "The equation takes the same form as an undamped nonlinear oscillator(with cubic potential) one can pretend that formula_12 is time, formula_38 is displacement and formula_23 is velocity of a particle with unit mass, then the equation represents the energy equation(formula_40, where formula_41 and formula_42 ) with...
Concerning global warming, would rising temperatures increase the rate of evaporation of oceans, and mitigate rising sea levels due to the melting of polar ice caps?	Yes warming does increase the evaporation rate of the ocean and this has already been observed by studying the large scale salinity patterns in the ocean. However, even with greater evaporation the atmosphere can't hold much more water vapor so the extra evaporation merely leads to increased rainfall - mostly over the ...	[ "Global warming also has an enormous impact with respect to melting glaciers and ice sheets. Higher global temperatures melt glaciers such as the one in Greenland, which flow into the oceans, adding to the amount of seawater. A large rise (on the order of several feet) in global sea levels poses many threats. Accor...
How can AC current run a DC motor?	With rectifier diodes. _URL_0_	[ "Direct current (DC) is constant current that flows in one direction. Alternating current (AC) is a current that switches direction according to a sinusoidal function, typically. Power grids use alternating current, and so residences and appliances are generally powered by AC.\n", "DC power supplies use AC mains ...
Why doesn't ethanol from alcohol drunk react with the triglycerides in our blood?	The conditions for the reaction aren't sufficient for this to happen on a scale that is likely to affect humans. Essentially the reaction is too slow relative to everything else. Consider the factors that can accelerate a reaction. Here s an example of an open-access paper on transesterification of plant-based oils: [T...	[ "Denaturing alcohol does not chemically alter the ethanol molecule. Rather, the ethanol is mixed with other chemicals to form a foul-tasting, often toxic, solution. For many of these solutions, there is no practical way to separate the components.\n", "Ethanol, when used for toxicity, competes with other alcohols...
Was there ever any equivalent to "white flight" in Europe?	The inner city slums is to a large part an American anomaly, generally in Europe the richest people lives in the inner city, and the poorest in the suburbs. So no, white flight, even though it exists, is not responsible for the existence of suburbs in Europe.	[ "L'Oiseau Blanc (English: The White Bird) was a French Levasseur PL.8 biplane that disappeared in 1927 during an attempt to make the first non-stop transatlantic flight between Paris and New York City to compete for the Orteig Prize, flown by French World War I aviation heroes Charles Nungesser and François Coli. T...
In honor of Easter; Why did Christians begin using the Crucifix, a Roman invention, as opposed to its earlier symbol of the fish?	One of many reasons may be Constantine's influence on Christianity. In Eusebius' incomplete book Life of Constantine, he recalls a story that [he claims] Constantine told him that while marching his army to battle in 312CE, Constantine had a vision of a cross made of light with the words "In this sign, you will conqu...	[ "The tradition of Christians fasting on Fridays to recognize Jesus's crucifixion on Good Friday dates to the first century AD. Fish had been associated with religious holidays even in pre-Christian times. The first mention of fish in connection with Lent comes from Socrates of Constantinople, a church historian in ...
[coinage] In the ancient Mediterranean and SW Asia, we often see profiles or portraiture of varying quality on coins. How accurate can we consider these images to be, relative to the person being depicted?	The ancient Greeks definitely had a tendency to idealize their portraiture according to their own aesthetic. Alexander the Great was one of the first to put his own image on currency, and he often showed himself with the skin of the Nemean lion(to liken himself to Heracles), as well as with the horns of a ram, suggest...	[ "Still, some of the Greco-Bactrian coins, and those of their successors in India, the Indo-Greeks, are considered the finest examples of Greek numismatic art with \"a nice blend of realism and idealization\", including the largest coins to be minted in the Hellenistic world: the largest gold coin was minted by Eucr...
what is arp poisoning?	Every network interface controller (or NIC) (an ethernet port or a wifi radio) has what is called a MAC address. A MAC address is a unique number associated with your NIC. When you connect your computer to a network, a router or designated computer will give your computer an IP Address. It uses a method called Addre...	[ "In computer networking, ARP spoofing, ARP cache poisoning, or ARP poison routing, is a technique by which an attacker sends (spoofed) Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) messages onto a local area network. Generally, the aim is to associate the attacker's MAC address with the IP address of another host, such as the ...
How long would it take modern science to rebuild the pyramids?	5 years, $5 billion dollars. _URL_0_	[ "The pyramid was first relocated in 1938 by a team from Liverpool University led by Alan Rowe. In the meanwhile the superstructure had been almost entirely destroyed. Time constraints prevented Rowe from undertaking close investigation and as a result his report was extremely short and contained no information beyo...
what are plus minus sign used for?	Nine of my friends and I decided to drive cross-country, from my house in LA to a friend's mom's place in NYC. We went in three separate cars, and took almost identical routes. Car 1 traveled 2800 miles. Car 2 traveled 2795 miles. Car 3 traveled 2805 miles. It's not wrong to say that the distance between LA and NYC i...	[ "The plus-minus sign, ±, is used as a shorthand notation for two expressions written as one, representing one expression with a plus sign, the other with a minus sign. For example, \"y\" = \"x\" ± 1 represents the two equations \"y\" = \"x\" + 1 and \"y\" = \"x\" − 1. Sometimes it is used for denoting a positive-or...
What are the effects of fiber on the absorption of fructose?	At the end of the stomach is a sphincter which prevents solids from passing to the bowels by constricting when touched. Anything that remains solid for an extended period in the stomach (most fibrous foods) will cause most food to remain in the stomach for longer. This allows more time for enzyme activity to break u...	[ "The mechanism of fructose absorption in the small intestine is not completely understood. Some evidence suggests active transport, because fructose uptake has been shown to occur against a concentration gradient. However, the majority of research supports the claim that fructose absorption occurs on the mucosal me...
what do investors mean when they talk about derivatives?	A derivative is any financial product that is based on the performance of another underlying product. For example, a bank which has issued mortgages might offset its position by issuing a "Mortgage Backed Security". This is a derivative where the payments are based on many individual mortgages. If the homeowners don't...	[ "Derivatives are contracts between two parties that specify conditions (especially the dates, resulting values and definitions of the underlying variables, the parties' contractual obligations, and the notional amount) under which payments are to be made between the parties. The assets include commodities, stocks, ...
Is the stereotype that Asians are bad drinkers (get intoxicated faster than average) true?	Yes. the current thinking is that when a person drinks there are two enzymes in the liver that metabolize the alcohol: alcohol dehydrogenase which converts alcohol into acetaldehyde, then acetaldehyde dehydrogenase which converts acetaldehyde into acetic acid, which is then broken down to carbon dioxide and water. A go...	[ "In contrast to studies of Western cultures, research in other cultures has yielded some opposite findings. The landmark INTERHEART Study has revealed that alcohol consumption in South Asians was not protective against CAD in sharp contrast to other populations who benefit from it. In fact Asian Indians who consume...
When a cricketer shines a ball to help it 'swing', what's going on when the ball travels through the air, and how does it help?	Basically it creates two different levels of drag on the ball. The shiny side is low drag and the rough side (that they haven't polished) is high drag, relatively speaking. This means that when they bowl the ball (I'm going to go with a fastball, it's easier to visualise) the seam will be running parallel to the pitch...	[ "An outswinger is bowled by holding the cricket ball with the seam at an angle and the first two fingers running along either side of the seam. The ball must be released at 12 o'clock height. The hands should move slightly towards the left at follow through and must push down for more back-spin. Once the ball has w...
as a non-american, what is the purpose of the senate, congress and house of representatives, and how do they work in relation to each other?	Congress is the name for the whole legislative branch; it includes both the Senate and the House of Representatives. The House of Representatives is meant to be the people's voice in government. Each representative covers roughly the same population and they're voted on every two years, meaning they're theoretically m...	[ "The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States consisting of two houses: the lower house known as the House of Representatives and the upper house known as the Senate. The House and Senate are equal partners in the legislative process—legislation cannot be en...
Was there ever an effort to have British colonies not located on the continent join with North American colonies for the purpose of political union / revolution?	Not a historian myself, but I can direct you to these threads that do a good job of explaining why. _URL_1_ _URL_3_ _URL_2_ _URL_0_	[ "Three types of colonies were established in the English overseas possessions in America of the 17th century and continued into the British Empire at the height of its power in the 17th century. These were charter colonies, proprietary colonies, and royal colonies. A group of 13 British American colonies collective...
what's happening inside our bodies when we get jump scared.	Your animal brain reflexively initiates your fight or flight response due to a perceived danger. Your rational brain takes a split-second longer to recognize that it isn't actually a threat and start shutting it down.	[ "A jump scare (often shortened to jumpscare) is a technique often used in horror films, haunted houses, video games, and Internet screamers, intended to scare the audience by surprising them with an abrupt change in image or event, usually co-occurring with a frightening sound, mostly loud screaming. Common in film...
what's the white substance that comes out of bacon when cooked	Bacon certainly releases fat when cooked, but this will be clear and then turn white. I believe you are referring to the frothing/foamy white stuff that comes from _some bacon_. If so, this is the result of added sugars (dextrose, honeys, maple, some preservatives). Sugars froth when presented with high heat. If yo...	[ "Research has also found that bacon is treated with a chemical called sodium nitrite. This chemical preserves the red colour of the meat, keeping it looking fresh as opposed to turning grey. However, this chemical has been thought to lead to a number of health risks, including being a carcinogen. On the other hand,...
is it possible nuclear reactors will run out of uranium that powers them? how long will the uranium we have sustain our input and what are scientists doing to make sure we have enough?	I don't know if I can explain it like your five. Once we crack the fusion (reactors today use fission) problem don't think uranium will be needed anymore. The tokamak reactor is something you should look up.	[ "The Energy Watch Group has calculated that, even with steep uranium prices, uranium production will have reached its peak by 2035 and that it will only be possible to satisfy the fuel demand of nuclear plants until then.\n", "Jan Willem Storm van Leeuwen, an independent analyst with Ceedata Consulting, contends ...
Why do some aircraft contrails have a regular periodic pattern running along them?	The flow of the contrails is turbulent and turbulence is characterized by randomness and unpredictability. However, through this randomness some periodic behavior is observed, the coherent structures. What you observed was exactly that, a kind of coherent structures. Something like case 4 here _URL_0_ and more details ...	[ "Contrails are a manmade type of cirrus cloud formed when water vapor from the exhaust of a jet engine condenses on particles, which come from either the surrounding air or the exhaust itself, and freezes, leaving behind a visible trail. The exhaust can also trigger the formation of cirrus by providing ice nuclei w...
What is the size limit for molecules that can diffuse through the plasma membrane without a carrier protein?	There is no absolute size limit for the diffusion of molecules across the plasma membrane; the ability of a molecule to diffuse across this membrane also depends on other factors such as polarity. A larger non-polar molecule can diffuse through the membrane more easily than a smaller yet highly polar molecule. Though l...	[ "It is important to note that the MWCO of a membrane is not a sharply defined value. Molecules with mass near the MWCO of the membrane will diffuse across the membrane slower than molecules significantly smaller than the MWCO. In order for a molecule to rapidly diffuse across a membrane it typically needs to be at ...
how do combination locks store their code?	Mechanically. As the dial rotates it rotates wheels with a notch in them. The wheels have bumps that allow one wheel to rotate the next wheel if you a whole turn past the number you started on. The position of the notches relative to the numbers on the dial controls the combination.	[ "A combination lock is a type of locking device in which a sequence of symbols, usually numbers, is used to open the lock. The sequence may be entered using a single rotating dial which interacts with several discs or \"cams\", by using a set of several rotating discs with inscribed symbols which directly interact ...
what mental illness is it when one talks to themselves out loud (as if talking to someone) and why does it happen?	There is a huge list of things that can cause someone to suffer hallucinations (which is what this sounds like). In terms of mental illnesses, you might be thinking of Schizophrenia, the symptoms of which often include hallucinations, delusions and so on.	[ "\"Mental illness\" is an expression, a metaphor that describes an offending, disturbing, shocking, or vexing conduct, action, or pattern of behavior, such as packaged under the wide-ranging term, schizophrenia, as an \"illness\" or \"disease\". Szasz wrote: \"If you talk to God, you are praying; If God talks to yo...
What would be the easiest and most realistic way to accelerate close to the speed of light from Earth into space?	To accelerate what? You can accelerate an electron that fast with a strong capacitor. If you want to accelerate a spaceship our best method based on technology that can be made today is to use nuclear bombs to propel a ship. But that won't get us more than a few percent of light speed, if that.	[ "Rather than exceeding the speed of light within a local reference frame, a spacecraft would traverse distances by contracting space in front of it and expanding space behind it, resulting in effective faster-than-light travel. Objects cannot accelerate to the speed of light within normal spacetime; instead, the Al...
Do certain colored pixels have different byte quantities?	The number of bytes a colour consumes depends on how you're encoding those colours. 24-bit colour gives one byte to each of the primary colours: red, green, blue. So each color expressed in that scheme consumes 3 bytes. 32 bit colour adds a 4th byte which is often unused but may be used to represent opacity. HTML all...	[ "For example, a 24-bit bitmap uses 8 bits to represent each of the three color values (red, green, and blue) of each pixel. The blue alone has 2 different levels of blue intensity. The difference between 11111111 and 11111110 in the value for blue intensity is likely to be undetectable by the human eye. Therefore, ...
when boiling a pot of water for cooking, why should you start with cold water instead of hot?	Cold water is less likely to contain lead from pipes and legionella bacteria from your hot water heater. Hot water boils faster, though( I'm not sure how this is a myth other than in some conditions hot water freezes faster than cold, and so people think the opposite could be true)	[ "Boiling can be done in several ways: The food can be placed into already rapidly boiling water and left to cook, the heat can be turned down and the food can be simmered or the food can also be placed into the pot, and cold water may be added to the pot. This may then be boiled until the food is satisfactory.\n", ...
How do polar bears hunt in the water?	They don't. Seals need to come up for air and polar bears try to guess where they come up; sometimes they get lucky ([source](_URL_0_)). This is why biologists are worried about the future of polar bears with respect to climate change. Polar bears rely on sea-ice because it is literally the platform from which they hun...	[ "These cetaceans are targeted by terrestrial and pagophilic predators. The polar bear is well-adapted for hunting Arctic whales and calves. Bears are known to use sit-and-wait tactics, as well as active stalking and pursuit of prey on ice or water. Whales lessen the chance of predation by gathering in groups. This,...
After having performed very well against the more capable armies of Germany and Japan, why was the U.S Military not able to quickly win wars against comparatively less sophisticated opponents of Korea and Vietnam?	I think it's important to remember that in Vietnam, the United States did very well militarily. However a large, vocal segment of the populace was very much against it. This coupled with the general ennui and terror at being thrust into a war that seemed to have no direct benefit to themselves, against their own will...	[ "After the Korean War, BGen Robinett complained that American military succumbed to a \"natural tendency\" to develop quickly capabilities to counter an enemy, rather than those to defeat and destroy him. U.S. defense developed equipment and tactics weighted too much on defensive implements. In particular, the tank...
why do the scandinavian countries celebrate christmas eve more than christmas day?	When Christianity was introduced it was normal "borrow" from the local culture when introducing Christian celebrations. Most cultures have some celebration in late December relating to the winter solstice and it just happend that the Scandinavian one was on the 24th.	[ "In much of Northern Europe Christmas is celebrated on December 24 and is referred to as \"Jul\" (see Yule), while December 25 is a relaxed day for visiting relatives. \"Yule\" may come from the Norse word hweol, jól, meaning wheel, and Old English géol. The Norse believed that the sun was a great wheel of fire tha...
This webpage says that Earth could temporarily have "2 suns" when Betelgeuse goes supernova. Is this true and, if so, is the article correct in saying that it wouldn't have adverse effects on Earth?	The supernova is expected to have an apparent magnitude in the region of [-12](_URL_0_), which is approximately the same as the full Moon (which is on average [-12.74](_URL_1_) - note that lower magnitudes are brighter!). We don't know the exact mass of Betelgeuse, however, which will affect how bright the supernova wo...	[ "Some media outlets tied the fact that the red supergiant star Betelgeuse would undergo a supernova at some point in the future to the 2012 phenomenon. However, while Betelgeuse was certainly in the final stages of its life, and would die as a supernova, there was no way to predict the timing of the event to within...
how do text messages "know" which mobile phone to go to?	Your phone authenticates to the mobile network via it's sim card. Only after it has proven that it is the legitimate recipient, the mobile network will send the SMS to the phone. (For the transmission the data gets encrypted, so nobody else can read it)	[ "After this there are one or more 'Information Elements', these tell the phone what to do with the information when it receives it. The two most common Information Elements are for Port Number Addressing (code 05) and concatenation (code 00) (telling the phone how to put together two or more SMS messages to make a ...
why do more people blame illegal immigrants for "stealing" jobs than business' for hiring illegal immigrants?	> Please correct me if I'm wrong but I've yet to hear a candidate call out business' for hiring illegals and thus giving them a means to sustain themselves here. I mean, if it weren't for the fact that illegals could get hired here, would they even bother coming here at all? Isn't that a far more reasonable and cost ...	[ "Professor of Law Francine Lipman writes that the belief that illegal migrants are exploiting the US economy and that they cost more in services than they contribute to the economy is \"undeniably false\". Lipman asserts that \"illegal immigrants actually contribute more to public coffers in taxes than they cost in...
Curious as to what affected scientists during the scientific revolution, both positively and negatively	This is a big question, and there is quite a lot of muddy middle ground between the three themes that you raise. In order to deal with all three and still get at a meaningful answer, I am going to talk about the system of patronage that Natural Philosophers had to involve themselves with in order to find employment. ...	[ "Many recent thinkers, such as Carolyn Merchant, Theodor Adorno and E. F. Schumacher considered that the 17th century scientific revolution shifted science from a focus on understanding nature, or wisdom, to a focus on manipulating nature, i.e. power, and that science's emphasis on manipulating nature leads it inev...
Are obesity-related issues (i.e. type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, etc.) more related to weight or poor diet?	Hey guys, let's stick to facts on this one. Good sources: Peer reviewed studies, a relevant background, etc.	[ "Obesity tends to lead to a number of non-communicable diseases and impacts individuals through a lower quality and length of life. The mental effects of obesity should not be ignored either: depression, discrimination and lower educational attainment are psychological aspects related to the physical negative conse...
Walkin' Medieval - did people walk on heels first?	Okay, there are three different avenues to this question: (1) how do people walk today, (2) how much is our gait cycle pre-determined and constrained by the skeletal anatomy of our species, and (3) did people in 1500 have a different walking pattern for whatever reason. I'm moderately qualified to answer the first two ...	[ "Archaeological ruins and texts show that stiltwalking was practised in ancient Greece as far back as the 6th century BC. The ancient Greek word for a stilt walker was κωλοβαθριστής (\"kōlobathristēs\"), from κωλόβαθρον (\"kōlobathron\"), \"stilt\", a compound of κῶλον (\"kōlon\"), \"limb\" and βάθρον (\"bathron\")...
loads of my friends have gone travelling on the cheap, for months at a time, working abroad to cover their expenses, it's hard enough to get a job in the uk, how do they do it?	The Bank of Mum & Dad.	[ "Some UK benefits can not be claimed when people go abroad. Between April 2008 and March 2009 it is estimated that £55 million was lost as a result of benefit fraud overpayments to British claimants who did not tell the authorities they were living or travelling abroad.\n", "The Department for Work and Pensions, ...
Why are chromosomal disorders not regressive?	There are quite a few reasons, and in some cases, one chromosome can take over. The first and easiest to understand is haploinsufficiency. This means that when you only have one chromosome, that copy cannot make enough of the gene to satisfy the cell's requirements. The other reason which is equally important is the ...	[ "Although chromosome instability has long been proposed to promote tumor progression, recent studies suggest that chromosome instability can either promote or suppress tumor progression. The difference between the two are related to the amount of chromosomal instability taking place, as a small rate of chromosomal ...
what differentiates the low-tier pizza chains (papa johns, dominos, little caesars, pizza hut, etc.)	- They all have different recipes and do not use the same identical ingredients. You could probably identify each one in a blind taste-test, in comparison to other products. - Little Caesar's is known as the cheap brand and doesn't deliver. - Pizza Hut started off as a sit-down restaurant/buffet, but has since shif...	[ "Extreme Pizza is a privately held restaurant franchise chain specializing in conventional and California-style pizza, founded by Todd Parent and Michael Pastor in 1994 in San Francisco, California. The chain currently includes over 30 locations in the United States; a previous location in Ireland has now closed. M...
will the increase in population in earth...	Better question: If we all drive our cars in the direction of Earth's rotation will we be able to change the Earth's direction of spin?	[ "In 2006, the United Nations stated that the rate of population growth was visibly diminishing due to the ongoing global demographic transition. If this trend continues, the rate of growth may diminish to zero by 2050, concurrent with a world population plateau of 9.2 billion. However, this is only one of many esti...
how water in pipes get pressure?	Water pressure is provided not by electricity (locally) but by the age-old mechanism of gravity, for the most part. _URL_0_ Water is pumped (normally at a remote location) into a water tower which is normally significantly higher than the local buildings. The water is released from that water tower as needed and gra...	[ "Water pressures vary in different locations of a distribution system. Water mains below the street may operate at higher pressures, with a pressure reducer located at each point where the water enters a building or a house. In poorly managed systems, water pressure can be so low as to result only in a trickle of w...
Where can you find dinosaur fossils?	Well first you'd want to find a region where sedimentary rocks were laid down in the Mesozoic. Now I don't think New Hampshire is the granite state for nothing. Most of the relatively "younger" rocks have probably been eroded away exposing older rocks beneath. (I'm lumping the mesozoic rocks into "younger" here) Here'...	[ "Paleontologists have uncovered numerous fossils in the Candeleros rocks, including ancient species of fish, frogs, snakes, turtles, small mammals, and several types of dinosaurs. The best known dinosaur found here is Giganotosaurus carolinii, a carnivorous theropod thought to be larger and faster than Tyrannosauru...
what keeps the government from shutting down websites? (wikileaks, etc)	It's very difficult to shut down a web site. The only group that could revoke their domain registration is ICANN, who would have to be given an order to do so which complied with all applicable laws. In cases where a law enforcement group has done so, it is usually after they seize control of some company or group tha...	[ "There are no government restrictions on access to the Internet. And aside from child pornography and copyrighted material, the government does not block or filter Internet content and there are no restrictions on the type of information that can be exchanged. Social media and communications apps such as YouTube, F...
what do dogs see?	Dogs can see blue and yellow, but have a hard time with red and green because they lack a special sort of cell in the eye called a cone. Humans have 3 types of cones, but dogs only have 2, so their vision is missing the key colours of red and green. Dogs have very good vision when it comes to tracking movement and an...	[ "The dogs have learned to cross the street with pedestrians and have been observed obeying traffic lights. Since dogs have dichromatic vision, researchers theorize that the dogs recognize other cues, such as the shapes or positions of the changing signals. \n", "Experimentation has proven that dogs can distinguis...
how someone is declared "legally sane" despite committing horrible crimes.	Legally, the distinction is whether the individual committing the crime was in control of his full mental faculties or not, and whether he knew what he was doing at that time. The individual must be aware of his or her own actions and its consequences whilst committing the act. In the case of Anders Breivik, the cour...	[ "In criminal and mental health law, sanity is a legal term denoting that an individual is of sound mind and therefore can bear legal responsibility for their actions. The official legal term is \"compos mentis\". It is generally defined in terms of the absence of sanity (\"non compos mentis\"). It is not a medical ...
Did any prominent Black people oppose the civil rights movement?	Marcus Garvey was a Jamaican-born black civil rights proponent, active in the early 20th century in the US, but civil rights of the sort that is now generally disagreed with. While supporting certain rights, he came in to conflict with W. E. B. DuBois, the most celebrated black rights advocator of his time, on several ...	[ "Before the legislative accomplishments of the Civil Rights Movement, black travelers in the United States faced major problems unknown to most whites. White supremacists had long sought to restrict black mobility, and were uniformly hostile to black strangers.\n", "King believed that organized, nonviolent protes...
Would the works of Chaucer have been available to Shakespeare?	Check out this previous answer by u/Yst: [Did Shakespeare read Chaucer?](_URL_0_)	[ "The actual author of Shakespeare's plays was proposed to be Christopher Marlowe, Francis Bacon, Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford or Mary Sidney (Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of Pembroke). The declaration named 20 prominent doubters of the past, including Mark Twain, Orson Welles, John Gielgud, Charlie Chaplin,...
why do kids' clothes cost so much compared to the amount of materials used?	Pretty much the same reason that [XL and small clothes are the same price](_URL_0_) - most of the cost isn't the fabric. Fabric's cheap when you buy in bulk. The cost is the labor to cut & assemble the garment, to ship it overseas, put it in a store and, ultimately, allow the retailer to make a product (even if the...	[ "In this same manner, to entice children, the value of energy dense products has also decreased making these products cheaper and more available to younger adults. Despite the prices of these items being reduced, the portion sizes coincidently have also risen, allowing individuals to pay less for more.\n", "Produ...
do two identical objects at different temperatures heat at the same rate or does one catch up over time?	What you're asking is: is the heat capacity for a material independent of temperature? You also seem to be making the caveat that no phase transition occurs. Generally, no. Most heat capacities vary with temperature, and the third law of thermodynamics implies that the heat capacity must go to zero at zero Kelvin so i...	[ "When two bodies of different temperatures meet, the hotter body will cool off, and the cooler body will heat up, until they are separated or until they meet at a temperature in between. What that temperature is, and how quickly it is reached, depends on the thermodynamic properties of the two bodies. The important...
Is there any evidence that dogs behave differently around human infants compared to around human adults?	[There was a study that has shown dogs are capable of social referencing in the same way humans are.](_URL_0_) That is when we discover something new, we're influenced by those around us on how to behave towards it. Through social referencing, dogs take cues from us when learning how to behave towards the cute mini hu...	[ "In general, dogs age in a manner similar to humans. Their bodies begin to develop problems that are less common at younger ages, they are more prone to serious or fatal conditions such as cancer, stroke, etc., they become less mobile and may develop joint problems such as arthritis, and in old age often become les...
How are semiconductors used in today's electronics?	Semiconductors are used to make transistors, which which are used to make microprocessors, radios, etc. A transistor is a solid state device that controls the flow of electric current, somewhat like a vacuum tube from the old days.	[ "The study of semiconductors is a significant part of materials science. A semiconductor is a material that has a resistivity between a metal and insulator. Its electronic properties can be greatly altered through intentionally introducing impurities or doping. From these semiconductor materials, things such as dio...
if 'deez nuts', a candidate for the presidential election, won, what would actually happen?	It would be considered the same as no one being elected, in which case the 12th Amendment states that, out of the top three valid candidates, the House of Representatives will choose the president, and the Senate will choose the vice president.	[ "On February 23, 2008, Huckabee appeared on the Weekend Update portion of Saturday Night Live to explain why he was still in the election despite the \"mathematical impossibility\" of him winning the nomination. After an explanation by Seth Meyers about why he cannot win, Huckabee said that he would \"not overstay ...
why antibiotics becomes weaker, but stuff like silver, pepper etc doesn't?	Antibiotics usually target a very specific part of what a bacteria needs to survive, while things like vinegar/salt (pickling) are much more general - they make the whole environment the bacteria are in hard to live in. Imagine it like this - an antibiotic would be like a pair of scissors cutting a fuel line to a car...	[ "Antibiotics have no effect on viral infections such as the common cold. They are also ineffective against sore throats, which are usually viral and self-resolving. Most cases of bronchitis (90–95%) are viral as well, passing after a few weeks—the use of antibiotics against bronchitis is superfluous and can put the...
why does skype never close?	Skype allows you to accept incoming phone calls and in order to do so must be running on your computer. Having the program running is like having a smart phone turned on. Your smart phone works similarly but doesn't use a separate program so it isn't as obvious. If it blocks shutting down while you are not using it th...	[ "On 10 November 2014, Skype scored 1 out of 7 points on the Electronic Frontier Foundation's secure messaging scorecard. Skype received a point for encryption during transit but lost points because communications are not encrypted with a key the provider doesn't have access to (i.e. the communications are not end-t...
Do particles still exist as "probability distributions/wave functions" when part of a solid?	Yes, particles are still waves/particle distributions inside of solids, which is actually what leads to bonding and the solid phase in the first place. What happens is when you bring a bunch of atoms close together, the electron configuration with the lowest energy is not for all of the electrons to be localized to th...	[ "In quantum mechanics, particles are treated differently from the objects of classical mechanics. Particles are described by wave functions that evolve according to the Schrödinger equation. Non-stationary wave functions are linear combinations of the eigenstates of the system, a phenomenon described by the superpo...
Are there more units beyond acceleration?	The next one is called jerk, and then after that there's nothing official but they're often called snap, crackle, and pop. They come up occasionally when trying to engineer devices that interface with human movement, like prosthetic limbs.	[ "Acceleration has the dimensions of velocity (L/T) divided by time, i.e. L T. The SI unit of acceleration is the metre per second squared (m s); or \"metre per second per second\", as the velocity in metres per second changes by the acceleration value, every second.\n", "Acceleration is defined as the rate of cha...
How exactly did Che Guevara meet death?	The "escaped Nazi" narrative comes from a documentary of SS-Hauptsturmführer and Gestapo member Klaus Barbie directed by Kevin Macdonald titled My Enemy's Enemy. The documentary alleges Klaus Barbie helped the CIA capture Che Guevara. It was specifically journalist Kai Hermann who made this claim, saying "[Barbie] al...	[ "On October 8, 1967, the Argentine Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara was captured by the CIA-assisted Bolivian Army nearby La Higuera, where he was killed the next day. The body was buried in Vallegrande, in an airstrip off Av. Circunvalación 2do Anillo, and returned to Cuba in October 1997, where he was buried in ...
when to use the words less or fewer in a sentence?	If it's a countable quantity of something, you'd use fewer; if not, you'd use less. So you'd have less water, but fewer bottles of water.	[ "Very often, different words can be used to alter the emphasis of a sentence – e.g. while and both mean \"I smoke, but I shouldn't\", the first sounds more like a statement of fact (\"...but I mustn't\"), while the second feels more like a \"judgement\" (\"...but I oughtn't\"). Similarly, and both mean \"I don't wa...
Can some clear up some claims made about the French colonial prisoners by the Nazi's in 1940	I can confirm that the quote is taken from French Colonial Soldiers in German Captivity during World War II by Raffael Scheck, p. 8-9. In terms of accuracy, that's how far the above claim goes. What we see in this video and the above quote taken from it is cherry-picking at its best and with no understanding of the r...	[ "Around 120,000 prisoners from the French colonies were captured during the Battle of France. Most of these troops, around two-thirds, came from the French North African possessions of Tunisia, Morocco and, particularly, Algeria. Around 20 percent were from French West Africa. The rest were from Madagascar and Indo...
what is the main differences between air-to-air and air-to-surface missiles?	There are a lot of differences, and a lot of similarities based on the missiles in question. The one largely Universal difference is in Explosive Yield. Air to air missiles tend to pack less explosives, because aircraft take less force to destroy than a reinforced bunker, and the missile may have to pull hard Gs so t...	[ "A major advantage of air-to-surface missiles for ground attack by aircraft is the standoff distance they provide: missiles can be launched from a distance without coming within range of the target's air defences. Most air-to-surface missiles are fire-and-forget from a standoff distance, allowing the attacker to wi...
(neuro)surgeons of reddit, what happens when you perform brain surgery and cut something vital?	I'll assume we are talking about cutting a large blood vessel; cutting a nerve by mistake may be disastrous but is unlikely to be life threatening. The immediate problem is going to be to stop the bleeding. In some cases this may actually be impossible as the surgeon may be unable to gain access to the vessel to get a ...	[ "Surgery can be performed on mass lesions or to eliminate objects that have penetrated the brain. Mass lesions such as contusions or hematomas causing a significant mass effect (shift of intracranial structures) are considered emergencies and are removed surgically. For intracranial hematomas, the collected blood m...
I'm an illiterate medieval farm hand. What is my understanding of the contents of the bible if church services are conducted in Latin?	Medieval preaching outside of clergy was in vernacular languages. Contrary to popular belief, the Roman Church of the middle ages did not restrict verbal preaching languages and in fact encouraged the oral dissemination of it, but through approved channels only: the ordained clergy, to ensure messages and interpreta...	[ "In 1671 the Catholic Church published the whole Bible at Rome. The translation was done under the direction of Sergius Risi, the Catholic Archbishop of Damascus, as well as of Dominican Vincenzo Candido, professor of theology at the Roman College of Saint Thomas. Francis Britius aided the translation.\n", "Accor...
What happens at the molecular level to your stomach from NSAIDs?	To answer your question: yes. But to explain more fully, first we need to distinguish between NSAIDs and how they work. These drugs inhibit 2 enzymes: cyclooxygenase-1 (COX1) and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX2). These enzymes are key in making prostaglandins: compounds that act like hormones to regulate a wide array of biologi...	[ "Like other NSAIDs, it is useful in the treatment of acute or chronic inflammatory conditions. Sulindac is a prodrug, derived from sulfinylindene, that is converted in the body to the active NSAID. More specifically, the agent is converted by liver enzymes to a sulfide that is excreted in the bile and then reabsorb...
Where do you draw the line between higher and lower eukaryotes?	Since those are comparative words, it's a relative scale and not a binary distinction. However, often when people talk about "higher" eukaryotes, they're referring to multicellular ones with organs, as distinct from unicellular eukaryotes (e.g. yeast) and multicellular eukaryotes without differentiated cell types (e....	[ "The importance of the distinction between prokaryotes and eukaryotes gradually became apparent. In the 1960s, Stanier and van Niel popularised Édouard Chatton's much earlier proposal to recognise this division in a formal classification. This required the creation, for the first time, of a rank above kingdom, a \"...
ny why do cars on the opposite side of a divided highway have to stop for a school bus flashing red lights?	Your photo shows that opposite traffic must slow and prepare to stop. Juat curious, can you link to the actual law stating you must stop on a true divided?	[ "For example, an intersection has dedicated left-turn signals for traffic traveling north. The southbound traffic gets a red light so northbound traffic can make a left turn, but the straight-through northbound traffic continues to get a green light. A southbound driver who had entered the intersection earlier will...
Was fainting from shock ever a common occurence, or was it merely a trope in fiction? Did people actually use to lose consciousness overcome by emotion, or have modern people simply become too desensitized for something like that to happen?	There is, as always, more to be said, but you may be interested in this related question which I answered some time ago: [How did fainting in the Victorian era become so gendered? What social conventions led to the loss of consciousness to be so strongly identified with women?](_URL_0_)	[ "An evolutionary psychology view is that some forms of fainting are non-verbal signals that developed in response to increased inter-group aggression during the paleolithic. A non-combatant who has fainted signals that she or he is not a threat. This would explain the association between fainting and stimuli such a...
eil5: why is hate speech not protected speech?	The question is fallacious — hate speech is protected by the first amendment. I think you are confused because there is much attention paid to "hate crimes", e.g. burning a cross on somebody's lawn or vandalizing their house with swastikas. But in each of these "hate crimes" there is some underlying crime (usually ...	[ "The United States does not have hate speech laws, since American courts have repeatedly ruled that laws criminalizing hate speech violate the guarantee to freedom of speech contained in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. There are several categories of speech that are not protected by the First Amendmen...
how do dogs know not to jump out of the truck bed when their driver is speeding down the highway?	Not all of them do know this. Our neighbor lost a dog because it jumped out while the vehicle was moving.	[ "The man is picked up by a park ranger. When getting in the truck, he asks about the dog, but it's nowhere to be seen. When he clicks his seat belt on, it triggers a memory of putting on his seatbelt while Plazzy and his two fellow robbers were arguing, with Plazzy holding a gun to the Man’s head. The Man uses thei...
Could the Spanish Civil War of the 1930's be accurately described as a conflict between democracy and fascism?	I am going to say no, but I am not qualified to give you a real answer. Instead, I am just going to point you to a number of previous discussions which I think you will find interesting, and through which you might be able to piece together an answer. [The Spanish Civil War AMA](_URL_1_) [What is Fascism?](_URL_0_) (...	[ "In 1936, the Spanish Civil War was viewed by many socialists as a contest against the rise of fascism which it was vital to win. Many CPGB and Independent Labour Party members went to fight for the Republic and with the Stalinist led International Brigades and the Workers' Party of Marxist Unification (POUM) anti-...
key pairs and public key cryptography	Here is a very nice video explaining how it works: _URL_0_	[ "Symmetric-key cryptography refers to encryption methods in which both the sender and receiver share the same key (or, less commonly, in which their keys are different, but related in an easily computable way). This was the only kind of encryption publicly known until June 1976.\n", "Public Key Cryptography is a ...
why is inflation something that japan wants, but the us doesn't?	I would argue that both Japan and the US want inflation right now. Both are in recessionary situations (though the situation has persisted in Japan for much longer) and both could use a bit more nominal spending, which means more inflation and more growth. Over the medium term, Japan has settled on an inflation rate...	[ "The effect that Japan's recession has had on its country has greatly changed their market values on almost all goods as well as their real estate market. However, Japan is not the only country feeling the effect of their recession; some countries such as the United States of America and Britain have lost a large a...
How does the intensity of a source light affect the distance the light can penetrate water?	> Is there a relationship between penetration and intensity? The intensity will decrease exponentially with the distance because of the absorption. This is why it's more practical to use a dB scale. Between 70lm and 30lm there is a 10*log10(7/3)=3.68 dB difference. === Now, all you have to know is the absorptio...	[ "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 is responsible for the a...
why did germany respect neutral status in wwii?	Spain was in itself fighting a civil war in which the ultra-right group led by General Francisco Franco won. It would have been seen as another potential ally for the fascists and Nazis. Hitler and Italy actually provided some minor support to his Nationalists during La guerra civil, which lasted from 1936-1939. Not...	[ "BULLET::::- Germany was to become officially neutral and not enter into any kind of coalition or military alliance directed against any of the countries whose military forces had participated in the war against it.\n", "The obligation to refrain from separate peace was also made during the Second World War in bo...
How technologically advanced was late Byzantine armor?	It's hard to talk specifically about Byzantine armor in the late period. This is because the army a) had an increasing reliance on foreign troops and b) the archaeological evidence we do have is dominated by foreign style equipment (Turk or Frank). The army would have used chainmail with leather and iron lamellar sup...	[ "The arms and armour of the Byzantine forces in the late 11th and 12th centuries were generally more sophisticated and varied than those found in contemporary Western Europe. Byzantium was open to military influences from the Muslim world and the Eurasian steppe, the latter being especially productive of military e...
why do stores discount their merchandise during the holiday season? that is, why is it advantageous to decrease prices as demand increases, rather than increase prices?	It is similar, in a way, to how gas stations will alter the prices of their gas when travel is on the rise in order to increase traffic inside of the store. Essentially the stores are accepting a loss on, sometimes, cheaper merchandise in order to get heavier foot-traffic so they can sell some of their "normally" price...	[ "Seasonal shopping consists of buying the appropriate clothing for the particular season. In winter people bundle up in warm layers and coats to keep warm, while in summer people wear less clothing to stay cooler in the heat. Seasonal shopping now revolves a lot around holiday sales and buying more for less. Stores...
why does toilet paper get wrinkly as you near the end of the roll?	Didn’t work with toilet paper but when I worked at a factory (think tape and other assorted things) I worked on a winder line. Sometimes when the rolls were not tightened on all the way (without getting into too much detail) they would wrinkle, but depending on what type of adhesive the tp manufacturer uses it could ju...	[ "Toilet paper when used with a toilet roll holder with a horizontal axle parallel to the floor and also parallel to the wall has three possible orientations: the toilet paper may hang \"over\" (in front of) or \"under\" (behind) the roll or be pierced by the axle upright. The choice is largely a matter of personal ...
How can DNA tests determine relation in cases where there are identical twins involved, or when incest was involved?	Generally speaking, DNA tests cannot tell the difference between identical twins. If the incest question is a separate question (no identical twins?), the answer is yes, you could tell if the father was his mother's father. It would actually be pretty simple, the y-chromosome comes from the father, not the mother, so...	[ "Autosomal DNA tests can identify relationships but they can be misinterpreted. For example, transplants of stem cell or bone marrow will produce matches with the donor. In addition, identical twins (who have identical DNA) can give unexpected results.\n", "Another abnormality that can result in monozygotic twins...
When cheese melts is it just a physical change or does it also go through a chemical change?	Melted cheese is mainly just a physical change. If I recall correctly, cheese is primarily made of lipids and protein that has been precipitated out of milk with acid, and cooking it would just melt these components. Melting the cheese may make the protein and lipids more homogeneous, as well as denature many of the p...	[ "The use of emulsifiers in processed cheese results in a product that melts without separating when cooked; with prolonged heating, some natural cheeses (especially cheddar and mozzarella) separate into a lumpy, molten protein gel and liquid fat combination. The emulsifiers (typically sodium phosphate, potassium ph...
How comes that a helium balloon floats at the same height from the floor on a second floor and a sixth floor of the same building?	I'm guessing your balloon is partially inflated and still has a string, which is either tied to something or has its other end touching the floor. The weight of that string is what's limiting how high the balloon will rise. It may only have enough buoyancy to lift up half the string, so once that threshold is reached, ...	[ "A common helium-filled toy balloon is something familiar to many. When such a balloon is fully filled with helium, it has buoyancy—a force that opposes gravity. When a toy balloon becomes partially deflated, it often becomes neutrally buoyant and can float about the house a meter or two off the floor. In such a st...
when inhaling deeply, why do you start to struggle, your intake of oxygen gets almost shaky? is this your lungs reaching absolute maximum capacity?	Probably your diaphragm (the muscle that allows lungs to inhale/exhale) reaching its limit of contraction.	[ "At high altitude, the partial pressure of oxygen is lower and people have to breathe more rapidly to get adequate oxygen. When this happens, the partial pressure of CO2 in the lungs (pCO2) decreases (is \"blown off\"), causing a respiratory alkalosis. This would normally be compensated by the kidney excreting bica...
plot of the film "the big short"	Banks normally issue mortgages (loans) to help people buy houses. They realized that they could sell these mortgages immediately, to investors who wanted to get paid back later and earn the profits. This was a fast way for banks to make some money. They grouped thousands of mortgages into a pile and sold each whole p...	[ "On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 88% based on 312 reviews, with an average rating of 7.74/10. The site's critical consensus reads, \"\"The Big Short\" approaches a serious, complicated subject with an impressive attention to detail – and manages to deliver a well-act...
If I drink a liter of water, how much of the water is absorbed and used by my body, and how much just goes right through me?	All of it goes through you and all of it is absorbed and used by your body, mostly as a solvent. Even when you just piss it away, you do so along with some salts, and that's still the water being used by your body for a specific purpose.	[ "As an example, if someone is infusing four 2 liter exchanges a day, and drains out a total of 9 liters per day, then they drain 9 × 7 = 63 liters per week. If the patient has an estimated total body water volume V of about 35 liters, then the weekly Kt/V would be 63/35, or about 1.8.\n", "Fomepizole distributes ...
Would it be possible to make a road that charges electrical cars as they drive on them?	Yes, there are actual test projects you can quickly find on the web. For example _URL_1_ _URL_0_	[ "Roadway-powered electric vehicle system is the patent held by Howard R. Ross. It has several components. The first of which is an all electric vehicle that would be fit with electromechanical batteries that accept a charge from the road. The road is the second component and would have strategically placed charging...
why waves ? all energy transfer in nature from one point to another happens in waves. light, sound, even gravity travels in waves. which fundamental property of nature is responsible for wave like nature ? are there other non-wave like ways to transfer energy from one point to another ?	The short answer is probably pretty unsatisfying: because that's the way it is. There is no reason that light, energy and everything else has to move in waves. In fact, some really smart people (such as [Isaac Newton](_URL_1_)) initially thought that light was just particles that moved in a straight line. However,...	[ "Waves can be constructed as physical fields, due to their finite propagation speed and causal nature when a simplified physical model of an isolated closed system is set . They are also subject to the inverse-square law.\n", "In physics, mathematics, and related fields, a wave is a disturbance of a field in whic...
To what extent was German culture suppressed in the US during WW1 & 2?	I would add, is something minorly off-topic, that in Canada German culture was attacked as well. Perhaps links can be made across the border. One of the most famous examples was changing the name of Berlin, Ontario, to Kitchener, Ontario, due mostly to anti-German animus	[ "In 1917–1918, a wave of nativist sentiment due to American entry into World War I led to the suppression of German cultural activities in the United States, Canada, and Australia. There was little violence, but many places and streets had their names changed (The city of \"Berlin\" in Ontario was renamed \"Kitchen...
Why will the universe end when the last black hole explodes?	Most likely the program you were watching was referring to the "heat death" of the universe. Black holes, which are predicted to emit radiation, evaporate over very long time scales such that they will outlive all the stars. And when I say outlive, I mean *really* outlive. A black hole the mass of the 10 Suns (whic...	[ "After all the black holes have evaporated (and after all the ordinary matter made of protons has disintegrated, if protons are unstable), the universe will be nearly empty. Photons, neutrinos, electrons, and positrons will fly from place to place, hardly ever encountering each other. Gravitationally, the universe ...
How can you stop at a Lagrange point?	Be cautious with what you call "stop" in this context. There is no fixed point in the universe. Lagrange points are moving, e.g. Earth-Sun L1 is moving around the Sun just like the Earth does. It's just at a fixed distance from Earth. Anyway, spacecraft going to those points have thrusters for their journey and for st...	[ "In celestial mechanics, the Lagrangian points ( also Lagrange points, L-points, or libration points) are the points near two large bodies in orbit where a smaller object will maintain its position relative to the large orbiting bodies. At other locations, a small object would go into its own orbit around one of th...
Who initiated the massacre at Fort William Henry?	It was not one particular person that initiated the attack, and no French commander allowed it. The British and American troops had surrendered and agreed to terms of parole back to Fort Edward off the Hudson river. Marquis de Montcalm had a large war party of Native Americans, some stretching from far west, which some...	[ "The \"Baylor Massacre\" (also \"Tappan Massacre\") was a surprise British attack on September 27, 1778, against the 3rd Regiment of Continental Light Dragoons under the command of Colonel George Baylor during the American Revolutionary War. It occurred in the present-day town of River Vale, New Jersey.\n", "News...
AskHistorians Master Book List II	I always regretted that the other list passed me by, so to speak. Here we go... *The Great War: An Introductory Book List* Lead-Up and Causes - The Guns of August by Barbara W. Tuchman (1962): a marvelously accessible narrative history of the early days of the war. It does a good job of situating the con...	[ "\"Into the Unknown\" contains an assortment of new powers, equipment, feats, character themes, and three player races; the svirfneblin, the kobold and the goblin. For Dungeon Masters, the book contains dungeon-building advice and details, including lore on classic dungeon monsters, companions for adventurers, a fe...
Why were Apollo astronauts weightless on the way to the moon? If they weren't orbiting shouldn't gravity have still affected them?	You will feel weightless whenever you're travelling in an inertial path - that is, free of any external forces. An orbit is one such example, but there are many other trajectories that are also inertial paths. For example, if you were to free-fall in vacuum and plummet towards Earth, you're experiencing the "pull" of E...	[ "It is a common misconception that astronauts in orbit are weightless because they have flown high enough to escape the Earth's gravity. In fact, at an altitude of , equivalent to a typical orbit of the ISS, gravity is still nearly 90% as strong as at the Earth's surface. Weightlessness actually occurs because orbi...
If the law of supply states that quantity supplied increases with price, why can I buy things in bulk for cheaper unit prices?	Short answer: It's cheaper to produce one gallon jug of milk than two half-gallon jugs. Let's take the example of the fries. It's easier for the restaurant to produce and sell one order of large fries than two orders of small fries. The person working in the kitchen has to put the fries into two containers instead...	[ "The law of supply is a fundamental principle of economic theory which states that, keeping other factors constant, an increase in price results in an increase in quantity supplied. In other words, there is a direct relationship between price and quantity: quantities respond in the same direction as price changes. ...

Subsets and Splits

No community queries yet

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