Split (2)

train · 226k rows

question stringlengths 3 301	answer stringlengths 9 26.1k	context list
How common was it for girls under the age of 15 to get married to men before recent times?	From the medieval period, the church said you could be betrothed before puberty, but you could not be married until both parties could assent to it, which coincided with puberty - generally assumed to be 12 for girls and 14 for boys. That was a minimum however, and there was a fair amount of commentary which said that...	[ "married before the age of 15 years, and of these, 17% were married before they were 10 years old. Another survey, conducted in the state of Madhya Pradesh, found that 14% of girls were married between the ages of 10 and 14 years.\n", "Women may legally marry at age 18 (or at age 15 with parental consent) and men...
how can things like trees,weeds,grass, and so forth,be considered to be "alive", as well as know how to do what is required to keep themselves alive, such as absorb water and sunlight,when they don't have a brain to control their functions?	Sentience is not a classification for life. Growing, reproducing and the ability to react to the environment are. Organisms that exhibit these behaviors are considered alive. The cells in plants, for example, preform all the necessary functions without a central brain (as we know it) being necessary.	[ "According to such a theory, each one of us is potentially Mind at Large. But in so far as we are animals, our business is at all costs to survive. To make biological survival possible, Mind at Large has to be funneled through the reducing valve of the brain and nervous system. What comes out at the other end is a ...
Were slaves in Haiti aware of the French Revolution, and perhaps influenced by it?	In terms of the Haitian Revolution, very much so at a senior level. In the case of other slave revolts, I am not particularly sure but I see no reason to dispute the claims of Geggus as described by /u/amplified_mess - after all, there were widespread rebellions well before the French revolution, so its impact does hav...	[ "Other historians say the Haitian Revolution influenced slave rebellions in the US as well as in British colonies. The biggest slave revolt in US history was the 1811 German Coast Uprising in Louisiana. This slave rebellion was put down and the punishment the slaves received was so severe that no contemporary news ...
What are the major cities that no longer exist or have decreased dramatically?	Antioch. Founded by Seleucus Nicator, it was the capital of Syria during Roman/Byzantine rule and one of the major centers of Christianity. Declined and virtually disappeared during the times of crusades.	[ "At the same time, the urban cores of these and nearly all other major cities in the United States, Western Europe, and Japan that did not annex new territory experienced the related phenomena of falling household size and, particularly in the U.S., \"white flight\", sustaining population losses. This trend has slo...
what is a limited slip differential, or differential in general? and in what cases are certain types of differentials preferred/more beneficial over the others?	Not sure if this fits the rules of ELI5, but I think it fits the spirit. Here's the (quite long, nearly 10 minutes) video that finally gave me a good understanding of how differential gears actually work. _URL_0_	[ "The main advantage of a limited-slip differential is demonstrated by considering the case of a standard (or \"open\") differential in off-roading or snow situations where one wheel begins to slip. In such a case with a standard differential, the slipping or non-contacting wheel will receive the majority of the pow...
the beef between tupac and biggie and the conspiracy surrounding their deaths	First off, I don't know if I'd tell a five year old about this, due to the content of 2Pac and Biggie's music (not really what five year olds should be listening to), and also because the saga has lots of violence. So I'm going to explain this as I would to an older audience, although I'll attach a LI5 explanation at t...	[ "Tupac Assassination: Conspiracy or Revenge is a documentary film about the unsolved murder of rapper Tupac Shakur produced by Frank Alexander, a Shakur bodyguard who was with the rapper at the time of the shooting, produced and directed by Richard Bond.\n", "Tupac denied involvement with Stretch's murder, but co...
when i force myself to see double vision, how am i doing it? and what is happening to cause it?	If you're not crossing your eyes, and seeing double that way, then you're probably just focusing far away. This is how you see /r/magiceye pictures!	[ "There are two main kinds of movement: conjugate movement (the eyes move in the same direction) and disjunctive (opposite directions). The former is typical when shifting gaze right or left, the latter is convergence of the two eyes on a near object. Disjunction can be performed voluntarily, but is usually triggere...
why has tesla's work on 'free energy' never been fully explored or completed in the modern day?	Tesla never tried to produce "free energy". He wanted to realize wireless power transfer - but that still would have required a power source to run the system. The reason nobody ever put money on his idea was not just the risk of people tapping into it, but also that it's wasteful. Wireless energy transfer over big di...	[ "In 1933 at age 77, Tesla told reporters at the event that, after 35 years of work, he was on the verge of producing proof of a new form of energy. He claimed it was a theory of energy that was \"violently opposed\" to Einsteinian physics, and could be tapped with an apparatus that would be cheap to run and last 50...
When our epidermis grows with our size, does the number of nerve endings increase to maintain a constant density, or are they simply spaced further apart?	the number of sensory nerves innervating your skin is determined by the number of neuronal cell bodies in the dorsal root ganglia. During gestation this number increases through division (some die off) and reaches a stable number. Neurons are 'post-mitotic' and do not divid further. The neuronal cell bodies by then hav...	[ "Cytoplasmic flows created through osmotic pressure gradients flow longitudinally along the fungal hyphae and crash into the end causing growth. It has been demonstrated that the greater pressure at the hyphal tip corresponds to faster growth rates. Longer hyphae have greater pressure differences along their length...
If temperature is a measure of average kinetic energy, is a bottle of water speeding past me "warmer" than a bottle of water in my hand?	It has more energy, but it isn't really "warmer". The question abuses the definition of temperature. Temperature is about the molecular average kinetic energy, not the macroscopic energy. (An analogy: It's like asking how fast can a fish swim, and then you put your fish tank into your car and drive down the road and...	[ "BULLET::::- Different heating and cooling loops must send the heated or cooled water in with as low a velocity as possible. (This necessarily entails heating and cooling loops having velocity controlled pumps and tube ports with the maximum feasible diameter.)\n", "without referring to Frenkel, Fisher or Widom, ...
on election night, how do they determine who has won a state after calculating only 1% of the state's votes?	Normally they won't call an election won with only 1% of precincts reporting. It's just an indicator. Usually, it is known ahead of time how certain counties vote. They can extrapolate from that how the rest of an election goes, but they won't call an election until a higher % of precincts have reported their result...	[ "Following the national presidential election day in the first week of November, each state counts its popular votes pursuant to that state's laws to designate presidential electors. Almost all states allot all their electoral votes to the winning candidate in that state, no matter how marginal the candidate's win....
Does the placenta have the DNA of the mother or the baby? What about the umbilical cord?	The placenta is fetal tissue! Very, very early on in development the blastocyst implants in the endometrium of the womb. The outer layers of cells in of the blastocyst become the trophoblast that becomes the placenta, embedding deeper and interfacing with the blood supply of the mother. The foetus essentially builds it...	[ "In placental mammals, the umbilical cord (also called the navel string, birth cord or funiculus umbilicalis) is a conduit between the developing embryo or fetus and the placenta. During prenatal development, the umbilical cord is physiologically and genetically part of the fetus and (in humans) normally contains t...
How common was it for people in ancient civilizations to just travel for leisure?	Not to discourage any further answers, but you'll probably find these older posts helpful: * [Did tourism exist within the Roman Empire? I assume that most of the lower class could not afford to go visit another city, but what about the richer population?](_URL_1_) by /u/bitparity * [Do we know if ancient people (thi...	[ "Travel outside a person's local area for leisure was largely confined to wealthy classes, who at times traveled to distant parts of the world, to see great buildings and works of art, learn new languages, experience new cultures, and to taste different cuisines. As early as Shulgi, however, kings praised themselve...
why does everyone want sessions to resign?	The allegations are that he was contacting the Russian ambassador outside of his Senate Armed Services panel responsibilities prior to the election and then committed perjury by saying that he had no contact with the Russians during his Attorney General confirmation hearings.	[ "Although Sessions denied that he had acted improperly, he was pressured to resign in early July, with some suggesting that President Clinton was giving Sessions the chance to step down in a dignified manner. Sessions refused, saying that he had done nothing wrong, and insisted on staying in office until his succes...
data breach: why are the companies themselves responsible and why does it still happen?	Usually with companies that get breached, there is some company-consumer assurance that their data will always be safe. So when it is breached, its like a breach in their trust. It is also extremely difficult to find the hackers, they may be on the other side of the world. Thus, not being able to bring the suspect to ...	[ "There is also a major backlash from the consumer if there is a data breach in a company that is supposed to be trusted to protect their private information. If an organization has any consumer info on file, they must by law (Red Flags Clarification act of 2010) have written information protection policies and proc...
how does the show top gear get ahold of these impressive super cars and get away with basically anything when driving them on the public roads (drag racing, etc.) when the roads are clearly not closed for filming?	This depends on the car they are driving. Most of the cars are models they get from the manufacturers to increase publicity on their brand or model. Sometimes they get cars from owners who like their car to be on the show. When they go out on the public road they make it look like the road isn't closed but it actually...	[ "Unlike normal episodes of \"Top Gear\", in which the challenges were related to the abilities of the vehicles reviewed, such as the Toyota Hilux in the \"\", producer Andy Wilman admitted that \"the narrative of the film is a bit more skewed towards the three guys.\"\n", "The series is known for its extremely we...
How have check marks come to represent 'right' while Xs represent 'wrong'?	There are quite a few theories floating around out there, but as it's not a universal standard and mainly contained within Western Europe and cultures influenced by Western Europe, I'm inclined to go with the tick / cross system being distributed by the Romans, especially given the amount of bureaucracy they bought to ...	[ "The check mark is believed to have been created during the Roman Empire. \"V\" was used to shorten the word \"veritas\", meaning 'truth'. This was used to indicate yes, true, or confirmed on items in a list. Over time, the design of the mark started to change. As people started writing more quickly, the right side...
who develops medicines for animals?	Pet care is a $5.5 BILLION dollar a year industry. So there is definitely money to be made from pet pharma. But the companies themselves are often "normal" pharma companies - Bayer, for example, makes Advantage flea products. That doesn't even include the size of the pharma industry related to livestock and agricult...	[ "Animals may also play a role, in particular in research. In traditional remedies, animals are extensively used as drugs. Many animals also medicate \"themselves\". Zoopharmacognosy is the study of how animals use plants, insects and other inorganic materials in self-medicatation. In an interview with the late Neil...
How did Egypt become a client kingdom of Rome?	> So, when Caesar arrived in Egypt, he said that it was his job as Dictator of Rome to settle a royal dispute between Ptomely and Cleopatra on who sould be pharaoh. He even stationed himself at the Palace of Alexandria as a judge to hear the case made by both parts That isn't right. Caesar at no point in the B.C. men...	[ "Egypt became a province of the Roman Empire in 30 BC, following the defeat of Marc Antony and Ptolemaic Queen Cleopatra VII by Octavian (later Emperor Augustus) in the Battle of Actium. The Romans relied heavily on grain shipments from Egypt, and the Roman army, under the control of a prefect appointed by the Empe...
what info can whatsapp use to provide targeted ads, if all my chats are encrypted?	I'm assuming this question stems forth from the recent publication that WhatsApp is going to share data with the Facebook network so that specific social network can use that information to provide targeted advertisements. There are many ways this information can be used. But one of them that I find not too farfetched...	[ "In order to identify targets for government hacking and surveillance, both the GCHQ and the NSA have used advertising cookies operated by Google, known as Pref, to \"pinpoint\" targets. According to documents leaked by Snowden, the Special Source Operations of the NSA has been sharing information containing \"logi...
why isn't there a tl;dr law that would prevent things being secretly added to bills in congress?	Well, nothing is "secretly" added. There's no attempt to hide anything. But you are correct that unrelated riders are often put on them. We allow this because it allow compromises to be made. For example, let's say you want to pass a particular measure that I'm opposed to. We might sit down and make an agreement: you'...	[ "The American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) strongly opposed the bill, arguing that the bill \"undermines\" citizens' \"right to be informed\" by making it more difficult for \"citizens to find their government's regulations.\" According to AALL, a survey they conducted \"revealed that members of the public, ...
why does a step up transformer cause lower currents?	Ohm's law applies when you shove electrons through something by applying voltage. A transformer isn't doing that. It's a coil of wire applying a magnetic field to another coil of wire. Now if that second coil is running at twice the voltage and twice the current, then we have magically created energy. That's why power ...	[ "The ideal transformer model assumes that all flux generated by the primary winding links all the turns of every winding, including itself. In practice, some flux traverses paths that take it outside the windings. Such flux is termed \"leakage flux\", and results in leakage inductance in series with the mutually co...
Did the ancient Romans have any ideological or moral reasons for why they ran gruesome gladiatorial combat? Was it truly only for public pleasure or was there more to it?	The origin of Roman gladiatorial combat was probably [some form of ritual combat](_URL_1_), linked to funerals or religious festivals; the death of one (or both) of the combatants would then be a form of human sacrifice. The oldest recorded gladiator fight in Rome was in honor of the funder's dead father. (The Gree...	[ "Like many ancient cultures, concepts of ethics and morality, while sharing some commonalities with modern society, differed greatly in several important ways. Because ancient civilizations like Rome were under constant threat of attack from marauding tribes, their culture was necessarily militaristic with martial ...
why when i scratch an itch, does my brain/body create another, often on a completely different part of my body.	Wish I knew. It's the same thing when I'm trying to go to sleep and I get an itch, right on the side of my body that I'm laying on. Can't ignore it, have to turn over and scratch.	[ "Itch (also known as pruritus) is a that causes the desire or reflex to scratch. Itch has resisted many attempts to be classified as any one type of sensory experience. Itch has many similarities to pain, and while both are unpleasant sensory experiences, their behavioral response patterns are different. Pain creat...
Engine design question - why do standard car engines always come with cylinders in banks of 2, and never 3?	Because of first and second order vibrations, as well as ease of manufacturing. First order vibrations can be addresses in either a 4 cylinder or a 6 cylinder base engine. In simple terms the same amount of metal is going up or down at any one time. In a 4 cylinder engine this is done by each cylinder being separate...	[ "The inline-four engine is the most common four-cylinder configuration, whereas the straight-6 has largely given way to the V6 engine, which although not as naturally smooth-running is smaller in both length and height and easier to fit into the engine bay of smaller modern cars. Some manufacturers, including Acura...
was there anyone prominent in classical times, in Greece or Rome, who believed there were other inhabited worlds in the universe? if "yes" how did other people take the idea?	Epicurus was a fairly prominent Greek philosopher (founder of the philosophical school of Epicureanism) of the 4th-3rd centuries BCE. The doxographer [Diogenes Laertius records a letter from Epicurus to Herodotus](_URL_0_), in which Epicurus says [Loeb translation]: > Moreover, there is an infinite number of worlds...	[ "In ancient Near Eastern cultures in general and in Mesopotamia in particular, humans had little to no access to the divine realm. Heaven and earth were separated by their very nature; humans could see and be affected by elements of the lower heaven, such as stars and storms, but ordinary mortals could not go to he...
Would it theoritically be possible to isolate serotonin and dopamine, and create them in drug form, if this is possible what would the side effects be?	To answer part of your question: While you can create dopamine, injecting it serves no purpose unless it can be directly administered to the desired area of the brain. This is because dopamine is incapable of passing through the blood brain barrier. However, we can work around this by giving people L-3,4-dihydroxyphe...	[ "Findings implicate that abnormalities of serotonin function and the serotonergic system could be responsible for psychiatric disorders such as the spectrum of schizophrenia (gating) disorders and therefore, that serotonin agonist or antagonists might be useful in the treatment of e.g. schizophrenia. To investigate...
why do babies in the womb not have allergic reactions to foods they will later develop allergies to (assuming the mother eats those foods during pregnancy)	Please note that I am by no means an expert on this subject. I will try to explain my understanding of it based on just what I remember from biology classes. If you would like to be 100% sure seek information from sombody like a midwife. (I also am no expert on the english language so please don't take my spelling and ...	[ "A wide variety of foods can cause allergic reactions, but 90% of allergic responses to foods are caused by cow's milk, soy, eggs, wheat, peanuts, tree nuts, fish, and shellfish. Other food allergies, affecting less than 1 person per 10,000 population, may be considered \"rare\". The use of hydrolysed milk baby for...
If there were a radio station on the Far/dark side of the moon would we be able to detect it?	There is an aspect to this question that the others are missing: some of the radio waves will propagate from that radio station around the moon and to the earth without reflecting off another body. [Huygens' principle](_URL_1_) tells us that waves can be treated as being continuously re-emitted by each point through ...	[ "The radio telescope would consist of a lander vehicle that would deploy dipoles across a 300-400 m area. The dipoles, which receive the cosmic radio signals, would be deployed either by a dispenser or by a team of small mobile robots. The South Polar location would ensure permanent sunlight and direct communicatio...
- why does your nose burn when there is a foul or strong scent in the air?	When you smell it is because you are breathing in amounts of the actual chemical it is that you are smelling. For example: If something smells like bleach it is because you are breathing in particles of bleach and that is what your nose is recognizing. & #x200B; If your nose is also burning when you smell something ...	[ "Inhaling the vapor causes symptoms that begin in the upper airway and expand to the lower airway. Increased concentrations cause worse symptoms. Mild inhalation exposure causes rhinorrhea (runny nose), sneezing, barking cough (a harsh cough that sounds somewhat like a dog barking), epistaxis (nosebleed), dyspnea (...
why can you see the veins in your eye when the eye doctor shines a bright light into it? why do eye doctors even do that?	They do it to see the back of the inside of your eye through your pupil. They can determine whether you are at risk for glaucoma, among other things, this way. Edit: the veins you see are on the front of the inside of your eye. You can see them because of the light reflected off the back.	[ "Advocates of eye vein verification note that one of the technology's strengths is the stability of the pattern of eye blood vessels; the patterns do not change with age, alcohol consumption, allergies, or redness. Eye veins are clear enough that they can be reliably imaged by the cameras on most smartphones. The t...
why are high pop. density areas more left leaning?	Small cities are essentially everyone feeling a sense of community by sharing the same religion, hobbies, and ideals. They view the government as an outsider trying to rule over them. When 95% the town is Religion X, nobody opposes things like bible verses in court houses. However in a large city there are Christi...	[ "The low population density (less than 30/km², or 78/mi²) is caused largely by the rural exodus and urbanisation of the 19th and 20th centuries. Some commentators prefer to speak of a \"low-density diagonal\" (\"diagonale des faibles densités\") and regard the term \"empty diagonal\" as both pejorative and exaggera...
if a premiere is not supposed to happen till sunday, how can they show commercials with previews of these live events on wednesday?	The footage they show on commercials is from previous years. The "live from the red carpet" shows are filmed as the celebrities arrive for the awards, which can be an hour or more before the ceremony starts	[ "In the United States, on days when presidential elections take place, regularly scheduled prime-time programming is suspended so that networks can air up-to-the-minute coverage of the elections. Likewise, regularly scheduled daytime programs are suspended during coverage of presidential inaugurations. However, dur...
when they bottle soda how do they stop it from bubbling over?	They add the carbon dioxide when the water/rest is already in the bottle.	[ "The conversion of dissolved carbon dioxide to gaseous carbon dioxide forms rapidly expanding gas bubbles in the soda, which pushes the beverage contents out of the container. Gases, in general, are more soluble in liquids at elevated pressures. Carbonated sodas contain elevated levels of carbon dioxide under press...
Do particles at different temperatures experience time differently? Can we heat particles to near-relativistic speeds?	Well, 1 mph experiences less time dilation that 2 mph. So the answer to the first question is trivially yes. For the second part, you'd experience relativistic phenomena that converts an energetic particle into multiple particles before you started reaching too high of energies, but the dilation effects would increase ...	[ "In classical mechanics all particles can be thought of as having some energy made up of their potential energy and kinetic energy. Temperature, for example, arises from the intensity of random particle motion caused by kinetic energy (known as brownian motion). As temperature is reduced to absolute zero, it might ...
Why don't we consider the Romans to be a cruel in the same light as other civilizations?	Seems like your perception might be a bit skewed by pop culture here! You have some truths here, but they're mixed up with misconceptions (If that makes sense), so I'll go down your list, then do a bit of chattering (cause I seem to like doing that bit ;) ) --- First off your points. They seem to all be centred aroun...	[ "Later Greek and Roman theologians and philosophers discussed the problem of evil in depth. Starting at least with Plato, philosophers tended to reject or de-emphasize literal interpretations of mythology in favor of a more pantheistic, natural theology based on reasoned arguments. In this framework, stories that s...
Did the Red Army really use human-wave tactics in World War II?	Borrowing from the answer I provided last week for the [Eastern Front AMA](_URL_0_) > It isn't not true, but it didn't happen like you see in Enemy at the Gates. > > There are three principle ways that human waves were utilized during the war. > > * In the very early months, the fight was exceptionally d...	[ "The basic tactical principles of the Red Army remained those used during World War I, primarily trench warfare, until the emergence of theoreticians such as Uborevich, Tukhachevsky and Triandafillov who transformed the tactical, operational and strategic conduct of war in Soviet military philosophy.\n", "Develop...
What was Hitlers policy towards Freemasons, and were any masons in his administration?	Hjalmar Schacht was the only freemason in the 1933 Nazi government. The Nazi's associated freemasonry with international conspiracies and denounced it in their propaganda. Freemasonry in Germany was targeted immediately after the Nazi's came to power in 1933 and became illegal in 1935, after most of the lodges had alre...	[ "Historically, complaints have been made that the Masons have secretly plotted to create a society based on the revolutionary ideals of liberty, equality, fraternity, separation of church and state and (in Nazi Germany) a Jewish plot for religious tolerance. Similarly, some anti-Masons have claimed that Freemasonry...
Recommend me a good book covering Europe in the period after the Roman Empire and before the turn of the millenium (1000AD)	Chris Wickham's The Inheritance of Rome: A History of Europe from 400 to 1000 (2009) sounds like the book you are looking for. Wickham is an excellent historian and his breadth of knowledge really shines in this book, it's not often that you can find a medievalist just as comfortable talking about Anglo-Saxon England...	[ "The library offers approximately 90,000 printed titles and 900,000 licensed online resources on the history of Europe from the mid-15th century. There is an emphasis on general European history and international history, as well as on church history and the history of theology since the period of Humanism and the ...
why is the devil portrayed as he is?	From the Gauls. They had a horned god who was master of the hunt. When Christianity was absorbing paganism, he was turned into the adversary.	[ "Satan, also known as the Devil, is an entity in the Abrahamic religions that seduces humans into sin or falsehood. In Christianity and Islam, he is usually seen as either a fallen angel or a jinn, who used to possess great piety and beauty, but rebelled against God, who nevertheless allows him temporary power over...
so what happened to greece after the media stopped caring about it?	If a crisis occurs and no major news outlets cover it, does it make any crisis?	[ "The crisis has laid bare the unsustainability of Greek media, and the dependence of media owners on state support in terms of tax breaks and public advertisement revenues, and reciprocating by publishing favourable stories, in a self-censorship mode. When public funds dried up, media went bankrupt, while the gover...
why does mac & cheese thicken as it sits?	* evaporation * mac still sucking up water * fats in the cheese coagulating again	[ "In the United States, string cheese generally refers to snack-sized servings of low-moisture mozzarella. This form of string cheese is roughly cylindrical, about 6 inches (15 cm) long and less than 1 inch (2.54 cm) in diameter. The common term is a \"cheese stick\" which is cut and packaged, either individually or...
What characteristics made Sparta an environment where women could be so much more powerful, confident and autonomous than in other states of the ancient world?	CW: sexual violence, humiliation and oppression of women & nbsp; (1/2) There are many problems with the claims in this video. This is probably because it's based on the scholarship of Sarah Pomeroy (1975), who broke new ground by studying Ancient Greek women in their own right, but mostly did so in an excessi...	[ "In later Classical times, Sparta along with Athens, Thebes and Persia had been the main regional powers fighting for supremacy against each other. As a result of the Peloponnesian War, Sparta, a traditionally continental culture, became a naval power. At the peak of her power, she subdued many of the key Greek sta...
During the American Civil War were the tactics used really as far behind the technology as stated in many documentaries?	The mass fire tactics used with muskets with ball shot were developed in part because of the relative inaccuracy of a single shot from the weapons. The development of the minie ball made each individual capable of hitting his target over 100 yards away. So you go from people shooting at masses of people and hoping th...	[ "The Civil War drove many innovations in military tactics. W. J. Hardee published the first revised infantry tactics for use with modern rifles in 1855. However, even these tactics proved ineffective in combat, as it involved massed volley fire, in which entire units (primarily regiments) would fire simultaneously....
does keeping my phone plugged in hurt the battery, and what is the best charging practice to keep my battery at maximum efficiency?	A lithium battery is happiest when it's cool and between 20% and 80% state of charge. So ideally you would slow-charge it to keep the temperature down, unplug it at 80% and plug it back in before it gets too low. Leaving it plugged in isn't great because it means you're charging it to 100%, but it's not really any wor...	[ "Which electrical practices, and so which charger, are best suited for use depending entirely on the type of battery. NiCd cells must be fully discharged occasionally, or else the battery loses capacity over time due to a phenomenon known as \"memory effect.\" Once a month (perhaps once every 30 charges) is sometim...
Why did Musket and bayonet era troops (1600-1800+) Why bright colorful clothes? most notably the British redcoats?	[There are](_URL_0_) [several](_URL_2_) [answers about this](_URL_1_) [in the past](_URL_3_). I'd recommend going through them. If you have any other follow up questions, I'll be happy to answer but the simple answer is that they're like that to create a regimental unity and to show which side they're on.	[ "The iconic \"Redcoat\" of the British Empire was the staple unit in the British armies that created the largest empire in history. The British infantryman was equipped with the .75 calibre Land Pattern Musket, or Brown Bess. He was well trained by the standards of the time, training with live ammunition. A fully t...
Why is Michigan one state and not two separate, smaller, states?	This was asked and answered last week: [Why is Michigan's Upper Peninsula part of Michigan and not part of Wisconsin (or even its own state)?](_URL_0_)	[ "Michigan is largely divided in the same way as many other U.S. states, but is distinct in its usage of charter townships. Michigan ranks 13th among the 50 states in terms of the number of local governmental entities.\n", "The state of Michigan is largely divided in the same way as many other U.S. states, but is ...
Did any non-European powers ever engage in colonialism or become an overseas power?	Yes, absolutely. Since I assume you're referring to the 'age of imperialism', the first and foremost example would be Japan. Throughout the Tokugawa Shogunate, from 1600-the mid 1800s, Japan had been in relative self-imposed isolation. Large scale trade continued with other east-asian countries, most prominently Korea...	[ "While the other European colonial powers, such as France, Britain and the Netherlands, gave up their colonial empires in the post-war years, both Spain and Portugal clung to their possessions around the globe. Portugal fought a costly colonial war in Africa and in 1961 saw its territory of Goa invaded by India. De...
why is there cotton in various medication containers?	pills bad when wet, cotton absorbs water. pills bad when broken, cotton absorbs shock.	[ "Cotton and cotton blends dominate the market. The most common blend being cotton and polyester. Cotton provides absorbency and a soft hand, while polyester adds durability and wrinkle resistance. Other common fibers used in the manufacturing of bed sheets include linen, silk, Modal and bamboo rayon, lyocell, and p...
What culture was the first to create candy? How did that happen?	The practice of eating raw honey and honeycomb is so old it predates history, and possibly even humans in the sense of anatomically modern Homo sapiens. Does your definition of "candy" mean the sugar has to be cooked?	[ "Candy has its origins mainly in Ancient India. Between the 6th and 4th centuries BCE, the Persians, followed by the Greeks, discovered the people in India and their \"reeds that produce honey without bees\". They adopted and then spread sugar and sugarcane agriculture. Sugarcane is indigenous to tropical South and...
Why did the Allied Strategic Bombing campaigns of 1942-45 help break Axis civilian resolve while German “Blitz” of 1940 helped strengthen British civilian resolve?	Does this question assume facts not in evidence?	[ "The strategic bombing campaign against German industrial cities, military installations and a wide variety of other targets continued throughout World War Two and made a decisive contribution to Allied victory. Although the Royal Air Force suffered significant losses of both men and aircraft, the campaign severely...
computer science and computer engineering.	Computer Engineering is generally associated with hardware - making better physical components that make the computer run. Computer Science is generally associated with software. However, there is some crossover. Knowing a little about CE may situationally help a software developer optimize their code. Likewise a ha...	[ "Computer Engineering is a combination of elements of Electronics and Communication Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, which deals with the design, and utilization of computers. The parent discipline of Computer Engineering is Electrical Engineering with which it shares considerable commonali...
how do conjoined twins fit in the womb?	The womb can stretch a lot and unborn babies are very pliable. They can curl up into fairly small balls (newborns have soft bones). Also important to remember is that the vast majority of twin pregnancies (even non-conjoined ones) will not make it full term. The average length of a twin pregnancy is 36 weeks (vs 40 wee...	[ "Conjoined twins (or the once-commonly used term \"siamese\") are monozygotic twins whose bodies are joined together during pregnancy. This occurs when the zygote starts to split after day 12 following fertilization and fails to separate completely. This condition occurs in about 1 in 50,000 human pregnancies.\n", ...
When does "simplifying" history for children in text books become falsifying history or misinformation?	It all depends on what you want to teach. What is your goal for the students to reach? Quick example: If I teach about Rome, I want them to see the class struggle, the legitimate grievances the peasants had, what the reforms were tried, and why they failed. But I have neither time nor the capacity for understanding o...	[ "Since the mid -50s it has become vogue to reread and reinterpret classic children’s books. As to what children’s books should accomplish trouble cultural observers. However, they agree that the narratives in children’s books must delete unequal social arrangements: and instead of identifying inequality, describe, ...
How does a computer processor wear out?	Current flow causes heat. Heat causes expansion. Cooling allows contraction. Solid state components often fail when connections break down due to the constant cycling of expansion and contraction. I'm not sure about the cpu die itself but the connections where the die meets the conductors will be made from differe...	[ "A common problem amongst single processor G5s was that the plate of metal soldered to the Logic Board connecting all eight of the RAM slots would, over time, expand and contract in such a way that the computer could not boot properly, as it would not detect any RAM. The only way known to fix this problem is for so...
how are booger formed and what makes them change colors?	You breathe in lots of dust during the day. You don't want dust in your lungs. The hairs in your nose and mucus capture the dust to prevent them from entering your lungs. Boogers are just collections of dust and mucus. They change colors based on what kind of dust is in there.	[ "The wort is moved into a large tank known as a \"copper\" or kettle where it is boiled with hops and sometimes other ingredients such as herbs or sugars. This stage is where many chemical reactions take place, and where important decisions about the flavour, colour, and aroma of the beer are made. The boiling proc...
What were stone age civilizations like?	So, Stone Age is a tricky term that a lot of archaeologists don't use anymore. Part of the reason is that a lot of public perception is that societies had a unilineal evolution or development that progressed through a Stone Age to a Bronze Age to an Iron Age and so on towards modern Western civilization. The implicatio...	[ "In regions such as Sub-Saharan Africa, the Stone Age was followed directly by the Iron Age. The Middle East and southeastern Asian regions progressed past Stone Age technology around 6000 BCE. Europe, and the rest of Asia became post-Stone Age societies by about 4000 BCE. The proto-Inca cultures of South America c...
why are there so many ladyboys in thailand?	Being a primarily Buddhist country, there is much less stigma attached to being gay or TG there.	[ "Similarly, in Thailand, \"kathoey\", or \"ladyboys,\" have been a feature of Thai society for many centuries, and Thai kings had male as well as female lovers. While \"kathoey\" may encompass simple effeminacy or transvestism, it most commonly is treated in Thai culture as a third gender. They are generally accept...
being from canada, why do all these sports websites block me from watching a highlight from their website?	Content rights are generally owned on a country-by-country basis. The owner of that highlight may only have authority to broadcast it in say Belarus, not in Angola. As such, since they are legally not allowed to show you the content since you live in Angola, they don't show it to you. There may be some company in An...	[ "Sportsnet shows two flagship national games per week, Scotiabank Wednesday Night Hockey, and Rogers Hometown Hockey on Sunday nights—which features segments hosted on-location by Ron MacLean from various Canadian cities as part of a nationwide tour. On Saturday nights, the Sportsnet channels, CBC, and Citytv broad...
How liquid crystals rotate light's polarization?	No, they don't act as polarizers, they are what's called a birefringent material. Linear polarization can be described as a linear combination of left and right circular polarizations, and the angle of linear polarization is given by the phases between the left and right circular polarizations. Liquid crystals have di...	[ "When the liquid crystal material is in its natural state, light passing through the first filter will be rotated (in terms of polarity) by the twisted molecule structure, which allows the light to pass through the second filter. When voltage is applied across the electrodes, the liquid crystal structure is untwist...
Why do we teach more complex sciences earlier in life, and wait until around 11th-12th grade to start explaining physics.	Physics require understanding of calculus. Calculus requires a lot of prerequisite knowledge of math that takes years to learn.	[ "Physics is one of the oldest academic disciplines and, through its inclusion of astronomy, perhaps \"the\" oldest. Over much of the past two millennia, physics, chemistry, biology, and certain branches of mathematics, were a part of natural philosophy, but during the Scientific Revolution in the 17th century these...
how do scientists make money?	People that fund research: A Company looking to make a product, Universities, The Government in General, The Military in Specific, NASA in Specific, and people who donate to research funds.	[ "Private funding for research comes from philanthropists, crowd-funding, private companies, non-profit foundations, and professional organizations. Philanthropists and foundations have been known to pour millions of dollars into a wide variety of scientific investigations, including basic research discovery, diseas...
Would a woman be allowed to become a blacksmith in Medieval Europe?	The Holkham Bible (British Library Add. MS 47682) from 14th century England isn't a "Bible" in the standard sense. It's more like a biblically-based storybook, combining prose and poetry narratives that weave apocryphal legends into bible stories. This sort of narrative or historiated Bible isn't unusual for the later ...	[ "Women were admitted to membership in the majority of the medieval craft guilds, but membership in a guild did not carry with it the right of being apprenticed, although it implied that a female member might share in all its benefits, pious and pecuniary, and in the event of her husband’s death (he being a master) ...
i dont understand animals having multiple primary colours. what do they see?	Light is Radiation and there are different frequencies that correspond with different colors. Us humans have three distinct receptors in our eyes and are able to see a part of the radiation spectrum with them. Other animals have more types of receptors and see colors like infrared (a to us invisible frequency of the ra...	[ "Animals can also appear coloured due to structural colour, the result of coherent scattering perceived as iridescence. The structures themselves are colourless. Light typically passes through multiple layers and is reflected more than once. The multiple reflections compound one another and intensify the colours. S...
How and why was what constitutes a deck of playing cards decided upon?	Hey there - while you're waiting for an answer for your question, here are some related topics that you might be interested in: /u/AshkenazeeYankee discusses the traditional colors for playing cards: [Why are playing cards red and black?](_URL_1_) /u/Vox_Imperatoris talks about the original games: [What games were pl...	[ "A deck of cards consists of any number of cards, generally of a uniform size and of rigid enough paper stock that they may be reused. Some may bear artwork, writing or other game-relevant content created during past games, with a reasonable stock of cards that are blank at the start of gameplay. Some time may be t...
At the most fundamental level, what stops me from falling through the floor?	The electrons in your feet are repelled by the electrons in the floor.	[ "When the athlete drops down to the floor, the body experiences an impact upon landing. The higher the height of the step-off platform, the greater the impact force upon landing. This creates a shock to the body which the body responds to by undergoing a strong involuntary muscular contraction to prevent the body f...
how do zambonis work?	Cooling tubes embedded in the concrete beneath the ice keep it at a temperature which is somewhat below zero. This is important, as it needs to keep the ice cold enough to freeze the additional water which is laid down during resurfacing. The machine first scrapes the ice to remove shavings and prevent weak spots with ...	[ "Zambales (; ; ; ; ) is a province in the Philippines located in the Central Luzon region in the island of Luzon. Its capital is the Municipality of Iba which is strategically located in the middle of the province. Zambales borders Pangasinan to the north and northeast, Tarlac to the east,\n", "The Zamboni is a s...
Did the US really save UK's ass in WW2?	There's lots of different opinions on this and lots of valid reasoning for all conclusions. However, I will say that the one thing everybody should agree on is this: The US entry into WWII drastically shortened the war and saved an untold number of British and Commonwealth lives. And for that matter, the bravery and...	[ "Britons' actual wartime diet was never as severe as in the Cambridge study because imports from America successfully avoided the U-boats, but rationing improved the health of British people; infant mortality declined and life expectancy rose, discounting deaths caused by hostilities. This was because it ensured th...
How many atoms "thin" does a solid sheet have to be before it becomes transparent?	Depends on what the paper is made out of. Glass can be rather thick and still be transparent. An equally thick piece of most metals would be opaque. However, a sufficiently thin piece of gold foil is mostly transparent and is used on astronaut helmets as a filter.	[ "Materials can be transparent. This is referred to as being \"dissolved\". Unlike real transparency, the result does not depend upon the thickness of the object. A value of 1.0 for \"d\" is the default and means fully opaque, as does a value of 0.0 for \"Tr\".\n", "The act of applying a thin film to a surface is ...
Could high blood pressure be treated by giving blood every week?	The blood pressure is not because you have too much blood in your system. You have the correct amount of blood :) The problem is occlusion of the blood vessels. and so, yes, high BP is definitely a symptom of something else.	[ "In people who do not have a diagnosis of high blood pressure, drinking 2–3 liters of fluid a day and taking 10 grams of salt can improve symptoms, by maximizing the amount of fluid in the bloodstream. Another strategy is keeping the head of the bed slightly elevated. This reduces the return of fluid from the limbs...
To what degree was Manifest Destiny religious in its origin?	The answer, in my view, is both entirely yes and not really at the same time. Here's why: The United States of the nineteenth century was an overwhelmingly religious country. Even compared to today's US, which is much more religious than most of Europe, people believed during the nineteenth century. In particula...	[ "Manifest Destiny was the belief that American settlers were destined to expand across the continent. This concept was born out of \"A sense of mission to redeem the Old World by high example ... generated by the potentialities of a new earth for building a new heaven\". The phrase \"Manifest Destiny\" meant many d...
Drink with lime in a solid copper mug, is there a chemical reaction that changes the flavor?	it's called a [Moscow Mule](_URL_0_). Copper oxidizes over time, creating a layer of copper oxide in the cup. When copper oxide (a base) comes into contact with the citric acid (an acid) from the lime juice, the neutralization results in a salt. Now, whether this produces enough salt to be noticeable in the drink, I ...	[ "This compound is often improperly called (even in chemistry articles) copper carbonate, cupric carbonate, and similar names. The true (neutral) copper(II) carbonate CuCO is not known to occur naturally. It is decomposed by water or moisture from the air, and was synthesized only in 1973 by high temperature and ver...
What happens to light and thermal energy?	Light won't disappear. If light is not absorbed it will travel forever. If it is absorbed it can be converted to thermal energy, warming the object up. There are other things that can happen when light is absorbed depending on the material absorbing the light. Thermal energy can be converted into light e.g. a fire or ...	[ "Heat is energy in transit that flows due to a temperature difference. Unlike heat transmitted by thermal conduction or thermal convection, thermal radiation can propagate through a vacuum. Thermal radiation is characterized by a particular spectrum of many wavelengths that are associated with emission from an obje...
what authority permits the us national guard to be deployed overseas?	I would assume that this would fall under either voluntary order, or Presidential Reserve Call up. Which is basically a fancy way of saying, if the president and his team think a certain situation calls for federal aid he can send the guard. There generally isn't much of a problem getting enough volunteers to go on mis...	[ "The Army National Guard as currently authorized and organized operates under Title 10 of the United States Code when under federal control, and Title 32 of the United States Code and applicable state laws when under state control. The Army National Guard may be called up for active duty by the state or territorial...
Were puritan women permitted any rights?	One of the greatest debates between historians of the reformation is whether or not it was a was a positive movement for women. It's difficult to say whether it was entirely positive or negative, but I'd have to agree more with the side claiming that it was on the whole a positive movement for women. Protestants valu...	[ "During the English Civil War, the Puritans briefly passed a law that divested marriage of all sacrament, leaving it as a secular contract that could be broken. John Milton wrote four divorce tracts in 1643–1645 that argued for the legitimacy of divorce on grounds of spousal incompatibility. His ideas were ahead of...
why are different types of alcohol (vodka, gin, whiskey, tequila, etc.) associated with different moods of intoxication (violent, mellow, happy, crazy, etc.)?	It's because of the situations in which you drink them. Not a lot of people sit quietly at home and sip tequila while reading a nice book - that's more of a thing for wine or brandy, so we associate those with a quiet or a thoughtful drunk. We drink tequila at parties (or good tequila at a nice dinner or something) s...	[ "Excessive concentrations of some alcohols other than ethanol may cause off-flavors, sometimes described as \"spicy\", \"hot\", or \"solvent-like\". Some beverages, such as rum, whisky (especially Bourbon), incompletely rectified vodka (e.g. Siwucha), and traditional ales and ciders, are expected to have relatively...
What does the interior of the ISS smell like	Apparently, [meat and metal.](_URL_0_)	[ "BULLET::::- Smell - The space station has a permanent odor described as the smell of gunpowder. Due to the zero gravity, the bodily fluids rise to the face and prevent the sinuses from drying up, which dulls the sense of smell.\n", "The International Space Station (ISS) is a space station in low Earth orbit. Its...
Curiosity on Support for Nixon during the Nixon Presidency	> Not only towards the time of his resignation, but as the investigation rolled on (I see it began in 1972; his resignation occurred in 1974.) did he still have many staunch supporters stating he was innocent? Taken from an earlier answer: Most Republicans stuck out with Nixon to the end. In August 1974, a week befo...	[ "Courage and Hesitation: Notes and Photographs of the Nixon Administration is a 1971 non-fiction book by Allen Drury. It is an inside look at U. S. President Richard Nixon and those closest to him midway through his first term in office, with photographs by Fred J. Maroon.\n", "Also in 1955, while Nixon was servi...
Can too much cardio be bad for your heart? And how do you know how much is too much?	Yes. A review conducted by the Mayo clinic has found that excessive exercise can actually cause patchy scarring in the heart. However, excessive exercise was defined as people who are marathon or ultramarathon runners, not your average Joe. They found that up to 60 minutes of vigorous physical activity per day can b...	[ "Rates of adverse effects are based on a comparison versus placebo in people with heart failure. Most common side effects include dizziness (17% vs 9% ), low blood pressure (7% vs 2%), and diarrhea (5% vs 4%). Less common side effects include joint pain, fatigue, and back pain (all 3% vs 2%).\n", "In many cases, ...
oil price goes up, market crashes. oil price goes down, market crashes. wtf??	Basically OPEC dropped the price of oil per barrel because they didn't want to lose money. They wanted to drive the price of oil so low that we have to stop fracing cause we wouldn't make any money. Certain countries need to sell oil for a certain amount per barrel otherwise they won't make any money. They can drill fo...	[ "A commodity price bubble was created following the collapse in the housing bubble. The price of oil nearly tripled from $50 to $140 from early 2007 to 2008, before plunging as the financial crisis began to take hold in late 2008. Experts debate the causes, which include the flow of money from housing and other inv...
how is it that in 10 years i’ve never seen an answer posted in here that a 5 yr old could understand or not become incredibly bored with inside of 5 seconds?	Read the sidebar. > LI5 means friendly, simplified and layperson-accessible explanations - not responses aimed at literal five-year-olds. That would be why.	[ "A woman, recounting a story about an old man who used to answer all her \"stupid questions\", explained \"Chica, if you ask a question it makes you look stupid for 5 minutes – but if you don't ask – you stay stupid for fifty years, so always ask questions in your life\".\n", "The people that answer questions off...
if energy is not created nor destroyed, what happens to the energy in batteries once a device uses it?	The energy changes form. While in the battery it is stored chemically. While the battery is being used, it is transferred to electrical energy, and when all of that done, the energy is dissipated as heat (the same reason why your laptop may be hot right now). That heat then disperses and its energy is no longer useful ...	[ "Energy is lost during the process of converting the electrical energy to mechanical energy. Approximately 90% of the energy from the battery is converted to mechanical energy, the losses being in the motor and drivetrain.\n", "Batteries convert chemical energy directly to electrical energy. In many cases, the el...
what does the denotations of flu viruses, like h1n1 or h7n9 indicate?	The two proteins on the surface of the virus, hemagglutinin (H) and neuraminidase (N). The numbers are indices to identify the protein variations.	[ "Influenza A virus subtype H3N2 (A/H3N2) is a subtype of viruses that causes influenza (flu). H3N2 viruses can infect birds and mammals. In birds, humans, and pigs, the virus has mutated into many strains. In years in which H3N2 is the predominate strain, there are more hospitalizations.\n", "Seasonal H3N2 flu is...
how do we keep such good track all of the objects that are orbiting earth?	The laws of the universe are actually fairly simple. They get complex when it's a whole bunch of them mixing together - but space is perhaps one of the least "law-mixing" regions. Basically if you know the velocity of an object and the mass of the objects around it, you can very precisely predict its movement just us...	[ "Orbiting at an altitude of approximately ; orbital radius of approximately , each SV makes two complete orbits each sidereal day, repeating the same ground track each day. This was very helpful during development because even with only four satellites, correct alignment means all four are visible from one spot for...
How large were the Greek Colonies in the Mediterranean?	They were some of the largest cities of the Greek world. Herodotus tells us that Cyrene (in modern Libya) could field 6000 hoplites in the mid-6th century BC, which means it would be outmatched only by the biggest communities of the Greek mainland. In the Classical period, Syracuse (in Sicily) was the second largest Gr...	[ "Influential Greek colonies in the western Mediterranean – many of them in today's Italy — included Cyme, Rhegium (Rhegion) by Chalcis and Zankle (c. 8th century), Syracuse by Corinth/Tenea (c. 734 BC), Naxos by Chalcis (c. 734 BC), Massalia (the later Marseille, France, c. 598 BC) and Agathe (shortly after Massali...
why is the nuremberg defense not considered valid?	The Nuremberg Defense refers to a legal strategy employed by many of the defendants at the Nuremberg war crimes trials seeking to convict Nazi perpetrators of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the Second World War. Many of those defendants claimed that they were not guilty of the charges against t...	[ "However, US General Telford Taylor, who had served as Chief Counsel for the United States during the Nuremberg trials, employed the term \"Nuremberg defense\" in a different sense. He applied it not to the defense offered by the Nuremberg defendants but to a justification put forward by those who refused to take p...
information theory	Information theory does not require a being. It does tell you what the being can (theoretically) do with the information, and whether (and how much) he can tell the information from noise. If you get caught up in philosophical questions, you'll probably just confuse the issue. Look at it this way: instead of wondering ...	[ "Information theory studies the transmission, processing, extraction, and utilization of information. Abstractly, information can be thought of as the resolution of uncertainty. In the case of communication of information over a noisy channel, this abstract concept was made concrete in 1948 by Claude Shannon in his...
How come only mammals have external ears?	Different types of species have different reasons. Such as snakes and some reptiles don't have them as to protect themselves from getting dirt and water in their ear. Birds on the other hand don't have them because they have small feathers that cover the ear hole to reduce noise generated from high winds. _URL_0_	[ "In mammals the cues for hearing are usually based on inter-aural intensity differences, which occur as a result of the diffraction of a progressive sound wave by the head and pinna. They could also be based on inter-aural time differences that are present because of the distance between their two ears. Moles have ...
how does stephen hawking continually contribute to science despite his severe disability?	For the most part, he doesn't. His scientific output has declined significantly since the 1980s, when he retained more control over his body. This actually isn't that unusual for even able bodied theoretical physicists, who tend to peak in their 20s and 30s. Since then, he has been more of a science popularizer than...	[ "Some of his contributions in the scientific field include knowledge of the inner ear, motion sickness, disorientation, and biological effects of space flight. Other of Money’s interests include badminton, skiing, acrobatic flying, skydiving, fishing, and reading.\n", "In the late 1960s, Hawking's physical abilit...
I am a proud member of the Soviet Union, and I have answered the call to defend the Mother Land against the Facists in WWII. What is the extent of my training, and what is my fate?	Ah, the popular view of the Red Army; questions along these lines pop up every now and then. You'll be most interested in u/Georgy_K_Zhukov's [answer on blocking detachments](_URL_1_), which also addresses several other matters along the way - namely, your question 2 and part of your question 3. The remainder of your ...	[ "Until the war's end in 1945, the 1st Red Banner Army covered some of the long far eastern borders of the Soviet Union. In August 1945, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan, and the Soviet Far East Front attacked into Japanese-occupied Manchuria, as part of the Soviet invasion of Manchuria, led by Marshal of the ...
article 13 meme ban?	It just bans copyrighted imagery, so if someone draws/makes something/takes a photo then you can’t steal it to make a meme out of it.	[ "A popular internet meme, started in 2011 and based on the show, became widely popular on social media in early 2018. The meme consists of five panels depicting a dispute between Paul Sr. and his son Paul Jr. In the original scene, Paul Sr. shouts at Paul Jr. for being late to work and Paul Jr. shouts back, throws ...
History questions about the medieval period	I think a good place to start for you would be Ian Mortimer's The Time Traveller's Guide to Fourteenth-Century England (or, if you prefer early modern, The Time Traveller's Guide to Elizabethan England--you might find that some of the issues you're asking about are more relevant later). It's a solid, well-sourced b...	[ "The close of the medieval history is also variously fixed; some make it coincide with the rise of Humanism and the Renaissance in Italy, in the 14th century; with the Fall of Constantinople, in 1453; with the discovery of America by Columbus in 1492; or, again, with the great religious schism of the 16th century. ...
how does color work and does it exist in the dark?	Color is something your brain generates, to represent various wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation, the part of the spectrum we call visible light. It does this in response to those wavelengths falling upon receptor cells in your retina that are sensitive to those wavelengths. Color does not exist 'outside' your b...	[ "Color is the element of art that is produced when light, striking an object, is reflected back to the eye. There are three properties to color. The first is hue, which simply means the name we give to a color (red, yellow, blue, green, etc.). The second property is intensity, which refers to the vividness of the c...
Does a map of North and/or South America pre-colonialism exist?	There are some old petroglyphs and other items you may find interesting here: 'Maps, mapmaking and use of maps by native North Americans' _URL_0_	[ "The Piri reis map was discovered in 1929 while Topkapi Palace, Constantinople, Turkey was being converted into a museum. It consists of a map drawn on gazelle skin, primarily detailing the western coast of Africa and the eastern coast of South America. The map is considered to have been drawn in 1572 by piri reis,...
[Opinion]How has the American Civil War and Reconstruction affected the forming of the two modern political parties and modern American politics in general?	In my opinion, the modern condition of the two parties is a result of things much more recent - Nixon's Southern Strategy and the rise of Fox News. The Civil War and Reconstruction certainly played their part, see the Civil Rights Act, but in terms of meaningful effect I would still focus on more recent times.	[ "The Civil War and Reconstruction issues polarized the parties until the Compromise of 1877 finally ended the political warfare. War issues resonated for a quarter century, as Republicans waved the \"bloody shirt\" (of dead union soldiers), and Democrats warned against Black supremacy in the South and plutocracy in...
how did the 9 month school/3 month break system develop and how come it's universal?	It has to do with buildings being hot and sweaty and poorly ventilated during the summer. Completely an urban thing -- nothing to do with agriculture. Edit: It may have started as an agricultural thing, but as soon as school schedules became synchronized (no more rural schoolhouses), that went out the window. It's al...	[ "As school systems grew throughout the United States they became more aligned with college and university schedules, which already observed a break during summer. Breaks became more frequent as well. Original schools observed New Year’s Day, Easter, Fourth of July, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. The duration of break...
what would happen if everyone maxed out all of their credit cards at once?	I like this question, generally banks or lending institutions extend lines of credit, but use statistical algorithms to decide how much money to keep available, so it's possible Visa might run out of money, since this is an essentially impossible occurrence, for which they are not prepared.	[ "This second form of credit card hijacking was created by marketers who recognized that subscription based services generally have relatively low periodic billing amounts which will generally go unnoticed on any given credit card statement. So what happens is that long after the user loses interest in the subscript...
how does the vocaloid software work?	In order to understand it, you first have to understand a bit about the difference between English and Japanese. English writing breaks everything down into letters (c+a+t = cat). Japanese breaks things down into the sounds (kuh+at = cat). So, in Japanese they have this huge list of phonemes (that's the most basic u...	[ "Vocaloid's technology is generally categorized into the concatenative synthesis in the frequency domain, which splices and processes the vocal fragments extracted from human singing voices, in the forms of time-frequency representation. The Vocaloid system can produce the realistic voices by adding vocal expressio...
How and where does our brain store the "voices" of people/friends so that when we imagine them, we can hear them in our heads.	There may actually be one neuron in your brain that fires in response to a familiar voice. I heard someone found evidence of voice-activation of the "grandmother cell", but unfortunately I can't find a reference for it now. The [grandmother cell](_URL_0_) is a single neuron that fires in response to the face of a speci...	[ "During a real-life conversation, sounds follow a complex journey before reaching the listener's ears for decoding by the brain. The human brain analyses the sounds and all their alterations to determine the source's position in the room. This enables the brain to know instantly who the speaker is, even without rec...
What would be the first language of the Irish who arrived in the United States in the 19th century? What impact or relation did it have to their relation to society?	By far the majority of the Irish who arrived in the US in the 19th Century spoke only English, or were bilingual in English and Gaelic. The 1861 census of Ireland (a few years after the large potato famine immigration, but the best data I could find, and unlikely to have been much different in 1846) found that only 2%...	[ "Irish people brought the language with them to North America as early as the 17th century (when it is first mentioned). In the 18th century it had many speakers in Pennsylvania. Immigration from Irish-speaking counties to America was strong throughout the 19th century, particularly after the Famine, and many manus...

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