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At what point in history was it decided that time should be split up from the period ranging before the death of Jesus Christ (BC) to after his death (AD)? | It started with a monk called Dionysius Exiguus, about 1,500 years ago.
Dionysius was working on [a better way to keep track of when Easter fell each year](_URL_1_). As part of this, he decided he wanted a better year-numbering system.
So, he decided to start counting years from Jesus Christ's birth. He calculated th... | [
"The early Church Father Eusebius (c. 260–340), attempting to place Christ in the chronology, put his birth in AM 5199, and this became the accepted date for the Western Church. As the year AM 6000 (800 CE) approached there was increasing fear that the end of the world was nigh, until the Venerable Bede made his ow... |
In the primordial ooze of our early planet, was life created a few times before a version capable of reproduction developed? | By your original question, reproduction is one of the axioms to defining living from nonliving matter; so technically no. However, it is likely there were many living prototypes that were outcompeted by LUCA (Last Universal Common Ancestor), but it is speculation. We will likely never have the answer to this question. | [
"The existence of life without reproduction is the subject of some speculation. The biological study of how the origin of life produced reproducing organisms from non-reproducing elements is called abiogenesis. Whether or not there were several independent abiogenetic events, biologists believe that the last univer... |
So the moon is pulling on the earth slowing its rate of rotation, does the earth have a similar effect on the moon? | Yes, tidal effects have actually forced the Moon in to a tidal locked state. That is, the same side of the Moon is always pointing towards the Earth. Eventually, assuming the Earth is still around by then, the Moon will have a similar effect on the Earth and the same side of the Earth will always point at the Moon. Ult... | [
"Through the action of tidal forces, angular momentum is slowly being transferred from the Earth's rotation to the Moon's orbit. The result is that Earth's rate of spin is imperceptibly decreasing (at a rate of ), and the lunar orbit is gradually expanding. The current rate of recession is . However, it is believed... |
why do my shoes get squeaky? | glue in the soles breaks, and two pieces of rubber then rub against each other.
..at least that's i've been told. | [
"Shoes is a GUI toolkit based on the Ruby programming language. It was originally developed by why the lucky stiff, and others are carrying on with it after his disappearance. Shoes runs on Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and Linux (GTK+), using the underlying technologies of Cairo and Pango.\n",
"After removing shoe... |
Has mankind ever discovered an element in space that is not present here on Earth? | To the best of my knowledge, coupled with a google search, the answer is no.
However, there was a brief period of time when the answer would have been yes. When space was first being analysed by spectroscopy ( yielding pictures like [this](_URL_0_)) no absorption lines matched up with any element ever seen on Earth. S... | [
"From the work of Henry Moseley in 1914, it was known that several elements had not yet been discovered. Their chemical properties could be deduced from the vacant places in the periodic table of Dmitri Mendeleev. Several scientists claimed the discovery of the missing elements.\n",
"The discovery of element 102 ... |
Why is it that the speed of airflow from the back of a hairdryer is much lower than that of what it's blowing at the front. | It's just a nozzle that takes air from a large area and blows it out a smaller area. | [
"The volumetric efficiency of the Roots-type blower is very good, usually staying above 90% at all but the lowest blower speeds. Because of this, a blower running at low efficiency will still mechanically deliver the intended volume of air to the engine, but that air will be hotter. In drag racing applications wher... |
why do the effects of weed occur? | Weed acts as something called a ‘vasodilator’, which means it makes your blood vessels go wider, including in your eyes. Because of this you get more blood going through these vessels, and voila - bloodshot eyes.
As for the other effects, in your brain and all over your body your cells have receptors on them called ca... | [
"There is strong evidence that using cannabis can produce psychotic and affective experiences. When it comes to persisting effects, there is a clear increase in incidence of psychotic outcomes in people who had used cannabis, even when they had used it only once. More frequent use of cannabis strongly augmented the... |
How did people of the Middle Ages regard the placenta? | To know Medieval medicine you have to go back to the Greeks and the Romans, who (sadly) did not have the expected bizarre theories regarding the placenta's function, if not exactly a full grasp on the whole process of "how is babby formed?"
Hippocrates, for instance, has [this terse passage](_URL_0_) about the format... | [
"Instances of placentophagy have been recorded among certain modern cultures. In the 1960s \"male and female Vietnamese nurses and midwives of Chinese and Thai background consum[ed] the placentas of their young, healthy patients\" for reasons unspecified, as reported by a Czechoslovakian medical officer in at the H... |
how did they see atom particles 100s of years ago. also how do you see atoms in air ? | They didn't, and we don't. It takes a laboratory full of modern, high-tech equipment to see things that small. | [
"BULLET::::- Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology showed the first photograph demonstrating the appearance of an atom, using x-rays to simulate a pattern of iron and sulphur atoms, within the mineral marcasite, magnified more than 10,000,000 times.\n",
"There is an established and long philoso... |
what is the gambler's ruin? | It's a collection of statistical and mathematical ideas that together mean the casino always wins. For instance, if you win money and then increase your bet, but then don't decrease it when you lose, you will always go broke eventually. Or, if you are playing a totally fair game like a coinflip and have finite money, b... | [
"The earliest known mention of the gambler's ruin problem is a letter from Blaise Pascal to Pierre Fermat in 1656 (two years after the more famous correspondence on the problem of points). Pascal's version was summarized in a 1656 letter from Pierre de Carcavi to Huygens:\n",
"BULLET::::- The result above is a co... |
why appliances such as an old generation tv or a remote which are not working properly start functioning correctly when hit? | The russian way of fixing things is not a consistent way to fix things.
It could help separating pieces that shouldnt and remove a power issue momentarily but i dont recommend hitting anything. | [
"Timers can be used to turn off standby power to devices that are unused on a regular schedule. Switches that turn the power off when the connected device goes into standby, or that turn other outlets on or off when a device is turned on or off are also available. Switches can be activated by sensors. Home automati... |
what does bloomberg lp do, and how does the company make so much money? | They provide financial information and news to subscribing customers. The primary source of their income is selling access to the Bloomberg terminal. Have you ever seen those fancy, multi-screen views of financial data that every stock broker seems to have on their desk? That's a Bloomberg terminal and it provides real... | [
"Bloomberg L.P. is a privately held financial, software, data, and media company headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It was founded by Michael Bloomberg in 1981, with the help of Thomas Secunda, Duncan MacMillan, Charles Zegar, and a 30% ownership investment by Merrill Lynch.\n",
"Bloomberg L.P. pr... |
what is ~? | It indicates holding a vowel to trail off the sentence rather than just end it. For example rather than writing "Hellooooo!" you might write "Hello~!".
Technically apparently this is a "swung dash" for what it is worth. | [
"If ~ and ≈ are two equivalence relations on the same set \"S\", and \"a\"~\"b\" implies \"a\"≈\"b\" for all \"a\",\"b\" ∈ \"S\", then ≈ is said to be a coarser relation than ~, and ~ is a finer relation than ≈. Equivalently,\n",
"Specifically, define a binary relation < from \"X\" and \"u\" by setting \"x\" < \"... |
how my wi-fi is super fast at loading hd movies but really slow at loading a low quality gif? | It's not the speed of the connection, it's the speed of the things on either side.
With movies your computer is connected to several servers, all of them sending parts of the film to you. Then your computer will start playing the movie when it only has a few seconds already downloaded. This is what buffering refers to... | [
"BULLET::::- A sustained 8 Mbit/s or faster Internet connection is recommended for viewing 1080p HD movies and TV shows, 6 Mbit/s or faster for viewing 720p content, and 2.5 Mbit/s or faster for SD content.\n",
"BULLET::::- Statistical Variable Bitrate: Ensures optimal video quality throughout the film by allocat... |
Why when I pour coffee slowly from my coffee pot, it pours perfectly, but when I pour quickly, it runs down the side? | At least with my coffee pot and several others I've tried, it's the cover of the pot that makes it drip down the side. If you lift the cover, you can pour as fast as you like. With the cover down and trying to pour fast, the coffee starts hitting the sides near the opening and drips down from there. Nothing fancy go... | [
"Typically, when the coffee boils up through the jebena's neck, it is poured in and out of another container to cool it. The liquid is then poured back into the jebena until it bubbles up. To pour the coffee from the jebena a filter made from horsehair or other material is placed in the spout of the jebena to preve... |
do our pets recognize when we kiss them as an act of caring? | Sort of. Ish. For Dogs.
Canidae lick the corners of the mouths of other canidae higher in the pecking order to show submission.
By kissing them (around their mouth) you prompt them to lick around your mouth. That is basically how they communicate "you are my better but we are better off having you as my better".
... | [
"Expressions of affection are displayed in the animal kingdom as well. Affectionate behaviors do not include penetration or genital rubbing, but are still seen as a manner of sexual behavior. An affectionate activity can be as simple as licking. Male lions are known for head rubbing, bats engage in licking, and mou... |
what is p value and why is 0.05 so important? | When doing studies that have some probability factor involved in it (say randomly sampling people), there is a chance that you may conclude a fact about something simply because of random chance in your study. Say for example it can happen that you flip a coin 4 times and every time it lands on heads. And then you conc... | [
"The \"p\"-value is the probability of observing a test statistic \"at least\" as extreme in a chi-square distribution. Accordingly, since the cumulative distribution function (CDF) for the appropriate degrees of freedom \"(df)\" gives the probability of having obtained a value \"less extreme\" than this point, sub... |
what happens if someone speaks up against the bride and groom marrying? | Nothing would happen, unless the person actually did have a valid legal reason why the marriage should not take place. The line comes from a 17th century Christian Prayer book. It was phrased "...if any man can show just cause, why they may not lawfully be joined together..." and was intended for just that - objections... | [
"Upon the death of her fiancé, a bride could choose to go through with the wedding, in which the groom was represented by a white cockerel at the ceremony. However, some women were hesitant since this form of ghost marriage required her to participate in the funeral ritual, mourning customs (including strict dress ... |
why are the edges around animal's eyes black? | Sort of like why some us football and baseball players have black stripes on their upper cheeks, it helps reduce the glare from the sun.
_URL_0_ | [
"Animals with this pattern may include birds, cats, cattle, dogs, foxes, horses, pigs, and snakes. Some animals also exhibit colouration of the irises of the eye that match the surrounding skin (blue eyes for pink skin, brown for dark). The underlying genetic cause is related to a condition known as leucism.\n",
... |
Where does the energy come from to facilitate gravity? | You basically gave the answer yourself. Every once in a while you have to reset the weight. What you are doing then is increasing the distance between the weight and the earth and by that you are increasing its energy. We call that energy potential energy.
When the weight slowly falls down again as it powers the c... | [
"Gravitational energy is the potential energy associated with gravitational force, as work is required to elevate objects against Earth's gravity. The potential energy due to elevated positions is called gravitational potential energy, and is evidenced by water in an elevated reservoir or kept behind a dam. If an o... |
how are researchers always discovering that psychedelic drugs could be beneficial to those with certain mental disorders when the drugs themselves are illegal? | Illegal for YOU. Not illegal for someone with a licence to procure or make them. | [
"Despite many psychedelic drugs being non-addictive and there being no evidence to support long term harm on mental health, many of these drugs have been declared illegal under the UN Convention on Psychotropic Substances of 1971. In addition, many countries have analogue acts that automatically forbid any drugs sh... |
how do our eyes coordinate to look at the same point and produce one image? | There are tiny muscles in the eye socket to control your eyes movement. Due to evolution and natural select of ability to control where we look and how much control we have over fast-twitch muscle fibers, we are able to have our eyes turn to the same focal point and our brain merge the images together to produce our vi... | [
"When one image is presented to one eye and a very different image is presented to the other (also known as dichoptic presentation), instead of the two images being seen superimposed, one image is seen for a few moments, then the other, then the first, and so on, randomly for as long as one cares to look. For examp... |
what does toner do in a printer, and why is it so expensive? | There's a drum inside the printer. When you print something, a laser is pointed at the drum, and as it plays over the surface creates areas of different electrical charge.
When the drum is passed through the toner, the toner sticks to parts of the drum that did not have the laser light on them (implying that the laser... | [
"Most toners work by replacing the metallic silver in the emulsion with a silver compound, such as silver sulfide (AgS) in the case of sepia toning. The compound may be more stable than metallic silver and may also have a different color or tone. Different toning processes give different colors to the final print. ... |
Why don't stretch marks bleed when formed? | your skin has three layers. The dermis, the epidermis and the subcutaneous layer. Your blood vessels are in the dermis layer. You can damage part of your skin without damaging the blood vessels (which would cause you to bleed).
Your skin can stretch and feel strain. It will compensate by laying down new material to re... | [
"Stretch marks (technically called \"striae\") are also a form of scarring. These are caused when the skin is stretched rapidly (for instance during pregnancy, significant weight gain, or adolescent growth spurts), or when skin is put under tension during the healing process, (usually near joints). This type of sca... |
once melted why can't snowflakes turn back into snow. | They can be turned into snowflakes if they are formed in the same way, but snowflakes only form the way they do because they are grow from tiny droplets freezing high up in the air. If they are on the ground or in a big falling rain-drop, they will freeze into far less organized and symmetrical ice sheets or pellets. ... | [
"Ice pellets form when a layer of above-freezing air is located between above the ground, with sub-freezing air both above and below it. This causes the partial or complete melting of any snowflakes falling through the warm layer (the French term for sleet, \"neige fondue\", literally means \"melted snow\" because ... |
heavy elements were ejected from the sun when it went supernova at the end of its previous generation. when this ejecta coalesced to form earth, how did elements of the same type gather together (in the form of ore veins) instead of getting evenly dispersed throughout the earth? | Heavy elements weren’t ejected from our sun, they were part of a star that came before the sun, and were part of the explosion that happened at the end of its life.
When those elements coalesced through a combination of gravity and mutual attraction (static) in a new system, most of them fell to the center of the sol... | [
"After fusing heavy elements, its core will begin to produce iron, disrupting the balance of gravity and radiation in its core and resulting in a core collapse supernova. It is expected that stars like UY Scuti should evolve back to hotter temperatures to become a yellow hypergiant, luminous blue variable, or a Wol... |
Does lowering the volume on your portable MP3 player increase battery life? | Electrical engineer here. The answer is yes. But i can't tell you how much exactly.
It will depend on the implementation of the volume control and the impedance of your headphones(They range from 16 Ohm to 600 Ohm, depending on type, size and whatnot) or the device that you supply with signals from the iPod. The techn... | [
"A bulky hard-drive based MP3 audio player which comes in 20G and 30G capacities. Its rated battery life is 25 hours of audio and 5 hours of video. One of the first video mp3 players made, it was released a few months before the iPod Video. The player has an FM Radio, text viewer, video viewer, USB host, and 5 defa... |
How has our knowledge of Dinosaurs changed between when Jurassic Park was released and now? | I guess the short and dirty version would be:
1. Birds are an offshoot group of dinosaurs that survived the KT extinction event. Therefore birds are dinosaurs. Many features link them, one of the more more interesting finds has been feathers, specifically in the theropod group of dinosaurs.
2. Dinosaurs did not make... | [
"1993 saw the release of \"Jurassic Park\", based on the 1989 novel of the same name by Michael Crichton and directed by Steven Spielberg, which set a new benchmark in the genre with innovative use of CGI and tried-and-tested animatronics to recreate dinosaurs. The film was an enormous critical and commercial succe... |
why are there a lot of indian movies available to view on youtube while there are hardly any hollywood movies available to watch? | Copyright. Indian movie companies may not even be aware that YouTube exists, and won't issue DMCA/takedown notices.
American companies are very much aware of YouTube and they, or an automated process, will take down content.
To put the situation in reverse, if someone takes your movie and uploads it on [Niconico](_UR... | [
"Indian films were soon being followed throughout Southeast Asia and the Middle East—where modest dressing and subdued sexuality of these films was found to be acceptable to the sensibilities of the audience belonging to the various Islamic countries of the region. As cinema as a medium gained popularity in the cou... |
Do electromagnetic frequencies bounce off mirrors similar to light frequencies? | If by electromagnetic frequencies, you mean electromagnetic waves, then yes. Light is a type of electromagnetic wave, and reflects off mirrors easily, as do certain wavelengths of infra-red and ultra violet. Ouside of that, you can start to get troubles.
The mirror can completely absorb some low energy radio waves (al... | [
"During times of strong ionospheric reflection, especially at night, it was possible that the receiver would see reflections from the ground after one reflection. To address this problem, the system was later provided with a second pulse repetition frequency at 12.5 pps, which meant that a reflection would have to ... |
Linear B was cracked decades ago - why have we not been able to decipher Linear A? | There are two main reasons:
* We don't know the language. Linear B recorded an archaic Greek. Linear A shares a few symbols with B, but substituting them produces irregular nonsense.
* Totaling all known texts, we only have about 7,500 extant characters. Imagine trying to decipher English using 60 tweets. | [
"In the 1950s, Linear B was largely deciphered by Michael Ventris and found to encode an early form of Greek. Although the two systems share many symbols, this did not lead to a subsequent decipherment of Linear A. Using the values associated with Linear B in Linear A mainly produces unintelligible words. If Linear... |
what is a whistleblower and why do they get in trouble with the government if they're exposing the corruption in the government | In general, a whistleblower exposes publicly some failure or corruption or illegal activity of an organization. In companies and most cases in federal organizations, it's illegal to retaliate against someone who does this, especially if they reported something illegal to the authorities.
In the specific case of Edwa... | [
"Whistleblowing is the intentional disclosure of sensitive information to a third-party with the intention of revealing alleged illegal, immoral, or otherwise harmful actions. There are many examples of present and former government employees disclosing classified information regarding national government misconduc... |
why did it take so long for human's artistic skills to develop? | For an accurate painting you need a flat canvas which will hold the paint, a paint brush to apply the paint exactly where you want it to go and quality paints which have the required colours and consistency. | [
"Once upon a time, artists were able to use their special skills freely, until seven years ago with a group of artists began using souls as raw materials for their work. Now society lives in fear of artists as a young man named Acro Hanbakka travels to the capital city to ply his trade as a sculptor and to realize ... |
What's it called when you never notice something, but then it's pointed out to you and you see it everywhere? | The Baader-Meinhof phenomenon. | [
"'Haven't you noticed Charlock that most things in life happen just outside one's range of vision? One has to see them out of the corner of one's eye. And any one thing could be the effect of any number of others? I mean there seem to be always a dozen perfectly appropriate explanations to every phenomenon. That is... |
what is the reason for the extremely rare occurrence where you suddenly feel very close to someone you just met, almost as if you'd known them before? | What's happening is that this person reminds you of someone else so strongly that you get the mis-impression that you actually know them even you really don't. | [
"People are more likely to form relationships with those who are in close physical proximity of them. Individuals are also more likely to begin an interaction with someone who is seen on a regular basis, showing that familiarity also influences interactions. Communicating on the Internet can allow individuals to be... |
Did H.P. Lovecraft ever talk about what or who inspired his work? Were authors "Lovecraftian" before Lovecraft? | Yes! Lovecraft read fairly deeply in weird fiction, especially during the mid-to-late 1920s when he was researching his essay [Supernatural Horror in Literature](_URL_6_), which he would continue to expand and revise throughout his life.
Lovecraft's earliest influences include Lord Dunsany, who began producing fantasy... | [
"Lovecraft's earliest known literary works began at age seven with poems restyling the \"Odyssey\" and other mythological stories. Lovecraft has said that as a child he was enamored with the Roman pantheon of gods, accepting them as genuine expressions of divinity and foregoing his Christian upbringing. He recalls,... |
ball-bearing sound | It's in your ears right? If so, that's your ear muscles. Muscles make a little noise when they do work because they vibrate. So, you're the muscles in your ear area work. | [
"Sound waves are semi-directional. They consist of both Point- and Line-wave propagation. The projectile emanates mostly line-propagation properties after leaving the barrel. At the moment that the projectile is exiting the barrel it produces a mainly point-biased wave generation. (This is largely due to the shock ... |
when my stomach feels terrible, why does exhaling seem to make me feel better? | Try some ginger pills or ginger tea. It'll at least help with the cramping and the nausea if it doesn't help with the barfiness | [
"The stomach is considered by most researchers as a very uncommon source of bad breath. The esophagus is a closed and collapsed tube, and continuous flow of gas or putrid substances from the stomach indicates a health problem—such as reflux serious enough to be bringing up stomach contents or a fistula between the ... |
why do i have to negotiate a price when im buying a new car as opposed to all new cars just having a bar-code and everyone paying the same price? why cant i negotiate the price of a shirt im buying at walmart? | You can negotiate a shirt at Walmart. Nothing is stopping you, there is no difference. Price tags and ads for cars are the same as they are for a shirt, they are merely an invitation for an offer. Except with a car you usually offer lower until you agreed in a contract, and with a shirt you usually just match their inv... | [
"Users can add options, change trim and alter finance preferences to get a ‘live' price which dealers are committed to. \"What Car?\"'s 'Target Price' – a long-established recommendation of the most the magazine's mystery shoppers think someone should pay for a particular model – is displayed alongside the dealer p... |
How is gravity able to bend the direction of light, while it is unable to speed up or slow down light? | Gravitational fields do not give photons (or any bodies, for that matter) acceleration components in any directions, normal or tangential. They bend spacetime and the bodies all fall freely through it. Acceleration is measured as deviations from these freely falling trajectories. | [
"Under general relativity, the rotation of a body gives it an additional gravitational attraction due to its kinetic energy; and light is pulled around (to some degree) by the rotation (Lense–Thirring effect).\n",
"In general relativity, light follows the curvature of spacetime, hence when light passes around a m... |
When Did It Become Convention to Say "The United States is..." as opposed to "The United States are..."? | It's a bit lengthy, but [this](_URL_0_) [series](_URL_2_) [of](_URL_3_) [posts](_URL_1_) by linguist Mark Liberman over at Language Log covers the issue quite nicely. There's four of them, looking at usage in newspapers, Supreme Court opinions, presidential addresses, and a second look at Supreme Court opinions with a ... | [
"Ellsworth took an active part in the proceedings beginning on June 20, when he proposed the use of the name \"the United States\" to identify the government under the authority of the Constitution. The words \"United States\" had already been used in the Declaration of Independence and Articles of Confederation as... |
Did ancient Romans ever argue about which gladiator was the GOAT? (Greatest Of All Time) | Corollary: did Romans have a 'golden age' of gladiatorial games, when the competitors were seen as the best and most entertaining, compared to other iterations in other periods? | [
"A centaur (; , \"kéntauros\", ), or occasionally hippocentaur, is a mythological creature from Greek mythology with the upper body of a human and the lower body and legs of a horse. Centaurs are thought of in many Greek myths as being as wild as untamed horses, and were said to have inhabited the region of Magnesi... |
whats the problem with israel defining itself as a jewish state ? | Lots of people *also* have a problem with states being defined as explicitly Islamic or Christian. | [
"The IDI concludes that \"the definition of Israel as a 'Jewish state' does not contradict its definition as a 'state of its citizens.' Although the State is Jewish in that, within its framework, the realization of certain interests of the Jewish people is ensured and its identity is protected and developed, noneth... |
why do some people think it's a positive thing to be stupid? | I understood this from another point of view: "Ignorance is bliss". | [
"BULLET::::- There are no negative people, there are negative deeds - nobody is born into being bad, people do make mistakes and sometimes do something bad; those bad deeds are what gets discussed, not personalities or characters. It also means that quite a great deal of credit is given to be trusted, but it, too, ... |
Were there any liberals as we know them today in Nazi Germany? | There are two aspects of this question that make it a tricky one to answer. Firstly, American politics has made the definition of liberal so incoherent that the term has actually lost much of its political definition. Generally speaking in US conservative news outlets like Fox News or social media, "liberal" is an epit... | [
"Politically, the national liberals dominated since the foundation of the Reich in 1871 until they were ousted by the Social Democrats in 1907, who were usually the strongest party also during the Weimar Republic. In the 1933 German federal election, the Nazi Party received 30 percent and the Communist Party 21 per... |
How did the US not become a dictatorship when it first was started? | You are implicating so much here in your question and post. People here don't like loaded and leading question with hidden implications.
So if you are serious, edit it to bring some resemblance of neutrality in your post.
| [
"Leading up to the Presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt, a hypothetical Roosevelt dictatorship was proposed by some supporters of Franklin Roosevelt. If it had happened, the President of the United States might have assumed extraordinary powers either by an explicit grant of Congress or through a self-coup, perhaps ... |
why do we say (for example) "take me to church" and "take me home"? why not "take me to home"? | When you're saying "take me home" it's more of a direction than a place. Like saying take me away, or take me up, or take me there. | [
"When you go into a neighborhood to preach the Gospel, never attempt to tear down a man's house, so to speak, before you build him a better one; never, in fact, attack any one's religion, wherever you go. Be willing to let every man enjoy his own religion. It is his right to do that. If he does not accept your test... |
Energy can be converted into matter. What determines what the resultant matter of such a conversion composed of? | Just a small correction: energy cannot be converted into matter, energy can be converted into mass. Energy is not a real thing that you can touch, it's just a number that you use to do accounting. And mass is a form of energy, it's literally the energy that matter has when it is not moving. When energy is converted int... | [
"Historically, confusion about mass being \"converted\" to energy has been aided by confusion between mass and \"matter\", where matter is defined as fermion particles. In such a definition, electromagnetic radiation and kinetic energy (or heat) are not considered \"matter\". In some situations, matter may indeed b... |
why does a room go dark after the light goes out? where does the light go, and does it take a brief moment for this process to happen, or is it nearly instantaneous the room goes dark after the light goes out? | Think of it like a hose... and a room made of sponge.
The light bulb is a hose, spraying water (light) everywhere. The room is a sponge, absorbing the water (light) all the time.
The moment you turn the light off, it's like closing the faucet to which the hose is attached. It stops spraying water (light) everywhere,... | [
"When the lights are bright in the main room and dark in the blue room, the reflected image cannot be seen. When the lighting in the blue room is increased, often with the main room lights dimming to make the effect more pronounced, the reflection becomes visible and the objects within the blue room seem to appear ... |
how is it possible to get your daily vitamins and minerals from a few tiny pills? | > ...or are vitamins and minerals just a health industry hustle?
This is debated every way to Sunday, it's mostly "yes it helps but only if you have a deficiency" or "no it doesn't help and it could hurt you if you take too much" with a few in the middle.
As for the vitamins it depends on what you take, most likely ... | [
"Vitamin C dietary supplements are available as tablets, capsules, drink mix packets, in multi-vitamin/mineral formulations, in antioxidant formulations, and as crystalline powder. Vitamin C is also added to some fruit juices and juice drinks. Tablet and capsule content ranges from 25 mg to 1500 mg per serving. The... |
Why is there so much radiation in outer space? | Because there's nothing to stop it out there. Here on our cozy home planet we're protected by our atmosphere and our magnetic field. The Earth's magnetic field shields us from most solar winds and some cosmic rays, and the atmosphere shields us from a lot of lower-energy cosmic rays (this is relative, they're pretty en... | [
"Space radiation comes from cosmic rays emitted by our local star, the Sun, and from stars beyond the Solar System as well. Space radiation can trigger cancer and cause damage to the central nervous system. Similar instruments are flown on the Space Shuttles and on the International Space Station (ISS), but none ha... |
why does greenland have such a high suicide rate? | You may think it may have something to do with the sun, and you would be partly correct.
Many of the reasons for suicides in Greenland are the same as other countries around the world (e.g. depression, poverty, alcoholism, etc.)
Suicide rates increase during the summer due to the constant daylight because it causes i... | [
"Several reasons are blamed for Greenland's high rate of suicide, including alcoholism, depression, poverty, conflict-ridden relationship with spouse, dysfunctional parental homes, etc. According to a report published in 2009, the suicide rate in Greenland increases during the summer. Researchers have blamed insomn... |
Is humanity at a, "Point of no return." when it comes to Earths climate? Is there time to turn it around and if so, how serious are the changes going to be in the next 100 years? | No expert, but it would seem that public opinion is changing way too slowly. We will have to deal with the effects of our actions, but nobody will care until their own house is underwater or their energy bill is $500/mo. | [
"... even with the most optimistic set of assumptions -- the ending of deforestation, a halving of emissions associated with food production, global emissions peaking in 2020 and then falling by 3 per cent a year for a few decades -- we have no chance of preventing emissions rising well above a number of critical t... |
Does a method exist for organisms to prevent mutations from occurring? | Yes, and the best example is actually the naked mole rat. It sounds made up, but its basically immune to cancer. Some other animals are very prone to cancers.
Even within the same species, the sexes can have different kinds of cancer protection. Men have a much higher chance of brain tumors because we do not have a c... | [
"In order for a biological organism to evolve by natural selection, there must be a certain minimum probability that new, heritable variants are beneficial. Random mutations, unless they occur in DNA sequences with no function, are expected to be mostly detrimental. Beneficial mutations are always rare, but if they... |
What workout regimen did US GI's undergo in WWII? Was stretching involved? | Can I piggyback with a related question? What type of general athletic conditioning did the average GI have when the entered the service? Modern-day running and lifting as hobbies, to my knowledge, only became popular 50 years ago. | [
"During World War II, military personnel in the Pacific region were given \"goofballs\" to allow them to tolerate the heat and humidity of daily working conditions. Goofballs were distributed to reduce the demand on the respiratory system, as well as maintaining blood pressure, to combat the extreme conditions. Man... |
how can a 3rd party (not my isp) detect if i am downloading copyrighted material from a torrent? | They can find a torrent, start downloading it (with permission from the copyright owner), and see which IPs they connect to when transferring files.
That why most torrenters recommend using a VPN or proxy service. | [
"Users find a torrent of interest on a torrent index site or by using a search engine built into the client, download it, and open it with a BitTorrent client. The client connects to the tracker(s) or seeds specified in the torrent file, from which it receives a list of seeds and peers currently transferring pieces... |
if the tv stations get paid by the commercials they run so they can broadcast over antennas for free, why can't they also show their stations online for free? | The shows that they air are licensed from other companies -- television studios, the ones who actually make and own the shows.
These licenses are geographically restrictive. A studio would license a network to air that show in only one country. So, any online streaming would need to be able to reasonably assure that o... | [
"They exist to allow network television stations to send content to smaller local stations. The shows contain no commercials, just a small gap of blank video to allow the local station to insert their own. The exception for this is for \"barter\" syndicated programming, where only the commercials required to be sho... |
What does it mean to have a mass of 0? | Consider how light would behave if the mass was really low. As it approaches zero, light behaves like that. This allows you to work out how it behaves using equations in special and general relativity that don't quite work for m = 0. | [
"The mass number is a dimensionless quantity. The atomic mass, on the other hand, is measured using the atomic mass unit based on the mass of the carbon-12 atom. It is denoted with symbols \"u\" (for unified atomic mass unit) or \"Da\" (for dalton).\n",
"The name massless refers to the absence of a term formula_1... |
Why is heat generated when you mix a strong acid with water? | As I understand it, there are two effects at work. One is the protonation of water, which is exothermic, and the other is the solvation of the sulfate (or hydrogen sulfate) ion, which is also exothermic. Anhydrous sulfuric acid is actually a really good drying agent; water just dives right into it because of the favora... | [
"Preparation of the diluted acid can be dangerous due to the heat released in the dilution process. To avoid splattering, the concentrated acid is usually added to water and not the other way around. Water has a higher heat capacity than the acid, and so a vessel of cold water will absorb heat as acid is added.\n",... |
What events led to the Allies declaring on the Neutral state of Iran and what strategic importance did the country hold? | The British controlled Anglo-Iranian Oil Company was of immense importance for the British war effort. It was those Iranian oil fields that allowed the British navy to transform from a coal powered to an oil powered force. While Iran was neutral, the UK feared that the Shah held pro-German sentiments, which the British... | [
"The new Shah signed a Tripartite Treat Alliance with Britain and the Soviet Union on 29 January 1942, to aid in the allied war effort in a non-military way. This treaty committed the Allies to leaving Iran \"not more than six months after the cessation of hostilities\". In September 1943, Iran declared war on Germ... |
Why do the noble gasses have such a small gap between their melting and boiling points compared to other elements? | Noble gas atoms don't stick very well together (they only weakly interact with each other), so there is no strong force pulling back on an noble gas atom when it is leaving the others (still liquid) to go and float around a bit (like a gas). | [
"The properties of the noble gases can be well explained by modern theories of atomic structure: their outer shell of valence electrons is considered to be \"full\", giving them little tendency to participate in chemical reactions, and it has been possible to prepare only a few hundred noble gas compounds. The melt... |
After the American Civil War, was there any talk of redrawing the borders of the Southern states? | Maybe not an exact answer to your question, but its worth mentioning that the state of West Virginia was created from Virginia and admitted into the Union as a direct result of Virginia's joining the Confederacy. There were some lingering issues related to borders between the two states once the Confederate controlled... | [
"The American Civil War saw the rise of asymmetric warfare in the Border States, and in particular on the US Western Territorial Border after the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 opened the territories to voting on the expansion of slavery beyond the Missouri Compromise lines. Political implications of this broken 1820s... |
Why is Marcus Antonius’ name anglicized to “Mark Antony” while other contemporary politicians are still the same. ie Gaius Julius Caesar, Lepidus etc | Some combination of Shakespeare, convention, and French.
Speakers and readers of English have been engaging with the Classical world for a very long time, and a few prominent figures (like our abbreviated friend Mark Antony) have had illustrious independent careers in English literature and cultural reference. In Ant... | [
"Anthony or Antony is a masculine given name, derived from the \"Antonii\", a \"gens\" (Roman family name) to which Mark Antony (\"Marcus Antonius\") belonged. There was an ancient tradition that the Antonii gens were Heracleidae, being descendants of Anton, a son of Heracles. (Plut. Ant. 4)\n",
"Marcus Antonius ... |
if our ability to smell is just our way of perceiving chemicals in the air, why do certain substances, like an unlit candle, still give off these chemicals to the air? | Candle wax and the oils containing the candle scent are still relatively volatile -- the candle is outgassing a slight amount of the scent particles even when not lit, which is what you smell. | [
"Inhalants are a broad range of household and industrial chemicals whose volatile vapors or pressurized gases can be concentrated and breathed in via the nose or mouth to produce intoxication (called \"getting high\" in slang), in a manner not intended by the manufacturer. They are inhaled at room temperature throu... |
A shoe that you could wear over your heels in the 1920s- 1930s? Fashion/design history | Did the overshoes look something like [the ones a third of the way down the page here](_URL_0_)? As you can see from the text beneath the illustration, this was called a "carriage boot".
It's essentially a fancy galosh, with a hollow heel so it could be worn over a heeled shoe. Originally, it would have been worn in t... | [
"The fashionable shoe was a flat slipper. In the late 1820s, the first high shoe appeared and became vogue for both men and women. The shoe typically consisted of a three-inch high cloth top that laced on the inner side and a leather vamp that supported a long, narrow, and squared toe.\n",
"By the 15th Century, p... |
the hulk & "world-war hulk" | MILD SPOILERS AHEAD:
During this time period Hulk is fairly intelligent (his intelligence fluctuates pretty heavily throughout his history). Prior to World War Hulk was an arc called Planet Hulk. What happens in Planet Hulk is that the Illuminati (Reed Richards, Iron Man, and other good heroes that meet in secret to... | [
"\"World War Hulks\" is the continuation of an arc that began with the \"Planet Hulk\" storyline in 2006–07, that continued into \"World War Hulk\" (the Marvel event of 2007), through the short lived \"\" and into the last two years of both Hulk titles, which have largely focused on the identity of Red Hulk, the de... |
Did the First World War have any research/development projects comparable to those of the Second World War? | Well I know that the British research and development on the Tank, would of been somewhat comparable in this regards. As it conducted in secrecy by designating it landship or landcruiser was to much of a give away someone in the team suggested 'tank' and it stuck ever since. Winston Churchill pushed for the research af... | [
"Other technological and engineering feats achieved during, or as a result of, the war include the world's first programmable computers (Z3, Colossus, and ENIAC), guided missiles and modern rockets, the Manhattan Project's development of nuclear weapons, operations research and the development of artificial harbour... |
how is ac current transformed into dc when ac just jiggles electrons back and forth and dc pushes a continuous stream of electrons? where do the dc electrons come from? | The electrons are those already present in the metal of the wire. Neither form of energy *creates* electrons — in both cases the energy is in the *movement* of the electrons.
Think of waves in a pond. The energy is in the movement — waves don't create any new water. | [
"In one simple inverter circuit, DC power is connected to a transformer through the center tap of the primary winding. A switch is rapidly switched back and forth to allow current to flow back to the DC source following two alternate paths through one end of the primary winding and then the other. The alternation o... |
Can somebody explain this strange circle in the night time sky? | I actually [snapped a picture](_URL_0_) of one of these halos just the other night.
What you're seeing is the refraction of the moon's light off of ice crystals in the atmosphere - probably from very high altitude clouds (the picture I took was already at 13,800 ft, so the clouds were well above that at least).
There... | [
"In either hemisphere, observations of the night sky show that the visible stars appear to be moving in circular paths, caused by the rotation of the Earth. This is best seen in a long exposure photograph, which is obtained by locking the shutter open for most of the intensely dark part of a moonless night. The res... |
in england all energy providers provide energy from the same grid, how comes they are all able to sell the exact same product at differing prices? and why is there competition between them? | They basically just keep track of how much energy they provided to the communal grid, and how much their customers drew from the communal grid. They can produce it at a certain price, and prove their customers drew that power out the other side, so it doesn't really matter where the specific electrons came from as lon... | [
"In line with all UK gas and electricity price comparison services, the UK Power switching service is free to use for both home and business consumers. UK Power receive a commission from suppliers when a customer switches through their service. Their website states, \"Some, but not all, suppliers pay a referral fee... |
why do hotel room prices differ between websites? | Some websites work on a commission basis with the owner or another website and company who have a contract with the accommodation owners. The commission percentage ranges differ as well as prices they are allowed to display. Also date ranges selected affect the price and so do some possible "handling fees" and such tha... | [
"Online hotel reservations are also helpful for making last minute travel arrangements. Hotels may drop the price of a room if some rooms are still available. There are several websites that specialize in searches for deals on rooms.\n",
"Many hotels, resorts, and cruise ships offer Internet access for the conven... |
Was the idea of "intellectual property" or "copyright" an issue in Antiquity? | I'll start by saying, that i don't know, if there was ever a case like you described with Herodotus and Claudius.
However, if you take a look at ancient literature and how it works, it seems unlikely. I will explain that second.
First, you can see a vague idea of "intellectual property" by looking for example at Vergi... | [
"The concept's origins can potentially be traced back further. Jewish law includes several considerations whose effects are similar to those of modern intellectual property laws, though the notion of intellectual creations as property does not seem to exist – notably the principle of Hasagat Ge'vul (unfair encroach... |
the "all but" structure in english | It doesn't mean "The city was completely destroyed".
It means "The city was destroyed almost entirely". Maybe 95% destroyed. There's still the occasional building standing amidst the destruction. | [
"The is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners or readers. It is the only definite article in English. \"The\" is the most commonly used word in the English language, accounting for seven percent of all wo... |
how do hotels with apparently quite low rates remain open for business? | An empty room doesn't necessarily cost the hotel much. A certain number of rooms need to be filled to cover overheads like the cost of staff, but filling more than that is just extra profit.
It's possible that a few times a year they have a very large number of guests, in those cases the profit in that season offsets ... | [
"In comparison to individuals who contact hotels directly and ask for discounts, the consolidators are able to achieve deep discounts due to their buying power. Hotels are willing to offer dramatically reduced room rates to consolidators because they know it will yield a greater number of reservations. \n",
"Anot... |
Regarding the battle of Sekigahara | For narratives of the battle itself, I am sad to say that unless you can read Japanese, there is none.
Western scholars rarely touch on Sekigahara more than its reason and aftermath in establishing the Edo Bakufu. Even more military-minded scholar treats Japan more as example, or maybe even a separate sphere to be exa... | [
"The Battle of Sekigahara (Shinjitai: ; Kyūjitai: , Hepburn romanization: \"Sekigahara no Tatakai\") was a decisive battle on October 21, 1600 (\"Keichō 5, 15th day of the 9th month\"), that preceded the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate.\n",
"The 1587 siege of Kagoshima took place during Japan's Sengoku pe... |
What kind of Lithium is used in batteries? Alloy, pure lithium? And how do they keep the lithium from tarnishing while they make the battery? Does that matter? What roll does the Lithium play? | Lithium primaries, e.g. Energizer Lithium batteries, use pure lithium metal sheet. You can see an example of this in [Nurdrage's lithium video](_URL_1_).
Lithium-ion recheargeable cells use various lithium compounds, selected to be light, electrically conductive and easily electrically dissociated into the electrolyte... | [
"Most lithium batteries (Li-ion) used in 3C (computer, communication, consumer electronics) products use cathodes made of other lithium compounds, such as lithium cobalt oxide (), lithium manganese oxide (), and lithium nickel oxide (). The anodes are generally made of graphite.\n",
"Solid lithium (Li) metal anod... |
why do we have to use uranium as fuel in nuclear power plants instead of any other less dangerous material? | Chain reaction.
What we want is heat. The heat boils water, which make turbines (a very fancy type of fan) spin around to generate electricity.
We get heat from uranium by splitting the atom. By forcing atoms to split, they shoot off parts of itself that hits other atoms and so on.
[Image](_URL_1_)
This is not easi... | [
"The use of nuclear technology relying on fission requires Naturally occurring radioactive material as fuel. Uranium, the most common fission fuel, and is present in the ground at relatively low concentrations and mined in 19 countries. This mined uranium is used to fuel energy-generating nuclear reactors with fiss... |
why do animals/humans have different visible light spectrums and audible ranges? | To clarify what I'm asking, is essentially why don't we all see and hear the same thing? | [
"Research shows that animals sensitive to more than three color channels are likely to see the world in a very different way from humans. These animals are likely to experience different and more numerous unique hues, along with additional ways of mixing them.\n",
"Other animals also have receptors to sense the w... |
why do headlights twinkle in the distance? | The same reason stars twinkle - changes in air density bend light.
The further away the lights are, the more air there is between you. Over a distance the light refracts (bends) as it passes through moving pockets of air with different density. This results in distortion or twinkling. It's the same reason things look... | [
"A 1972 article in the \"Wilmington Star-News\" argued that \"most investigators\" had believed the light was traceable to refraction from car headlights on a nearby highway, U.S. Route 74. Reprinting a 1950 long-exposure photograph of the light, the newspaper stated that a bend on the highway was the cause of the ... |
why is the us stock market doing so poorly? | Because the dollar is so strong that it's actively hurting the profits of US-based multinational companies. Because Europe is going to potentially make life incredibly difficult for US-based technology companies. And because all of the things you mention are already baked into the price of US stocks. | [
"Because of the influential role that the U.S. stock market plays in international finance, a New York University study in late 2014 interprets that in the short run, shocks that affect the willingness to bear risk independently of macroeconomic fundamentals explain most of the variation in the U.S. stock market. I... |
How do Historians Assess the New Deal? | It is usually argued based on political lines. Conservatives typically talk about how it prolonged the depression, and liberals talk about how it saved America. Each side cherry picks different statistics to support their claims. In reality, it probably didn’t shift the balance too much in helping or hurting. Productio... | [
"The majority of historians and economists argue the New Deal was beneficial to recovery. In a survey of economic historians conducted by Robert Whaples, professor of economics at Wake Forest University, anonymous questionnaires were sent to members of the \"Economic History Association\". Members were asked to eit... |
Did Classic art forms (Painting, Plays, Music) go through the same vetting process as contempary art forms (Films, Videogames)? | I can't speak for theatre or music. But for painting, in the West, the central debate over the legitimacy of painting occurred in its transition from a mechanical craft to a member of the Liberal Arts (essentially what it is believed to be today), a process that began during the Renaissance and more or less culminated ... | [
"The final phase of production in my work is distinguished by a return to painting, almost forgotten in my eagerness in use it as a medium instead of a purpose, and the utilization of all I’ve learned through the years about shaping a pictorial – not musical – art work, which held all the spiritual power of music, ... |
What is the best explanation as to what happened to the Roanoke Colony? | When John White left the colony to return to England in 1587, it was not a happy colony he left behind. Supplies were running very short, and what was worse, the colonists had, through a series of misunderstandings, cultural errors, and the aggressive actions of a previous English colony (Grenville attempted to settle ... | [
"The discovery of Roanoke Island and the coast of North Carolina led to the establishment of the Roanoke Colony. This colony at Roanoke Island would later be known as the \"Lost Colony,\" whose members are presumed to have either starved to death or been incorporated into one of the local native American Indian pop... |
What happens when my phone reaches 100% battery but is still charging? | Technically, the thing you plug into the phone is not a charger. It is a 5 volt constant voltage (CV) power supply. OK, some can put out different voltages, but they are still CV supplies.
The charging is controlled by the phone. When the phone decides that the battery is fully charged, charging terminates, and the p... | [
"If a battery has been completely discharged (e.g. the car lights were left on overnight) and next is given a fast charge for only a few minutes, then during the short charging time it develops only a charge near the interface. The battery voltage may rise to be close to the charger voltage so that the charging cur... |
Where does there energy in the Earths core come from? | In my astronomy class last semester we talked about this. The Earth's core is heated(at least partially) from the differentiation of materials in the mantle and core. Differentiation is when the heavier and denser materials, like iron and nickel, move towards the center of mass(the core) and heat the surrounding materi... | [
"Earth's core is believed to be mostly an alloy of iron and nickel. The density indicates that it also contains a significant amount of lighter elements. Elements such as hydrogen would be stable in the Earth's core, however the conditions at the formation of the core would not be suitable for its inclusion. Carbon... |
why do sounds like nails on a chalkboard hurt or bother us, whereas sounds like bass are pleasing and give us chills | The frequency is dangerously too high, almost enough to burst our eardrums after enough exposure. But our ears won't burst if it is too low (a bass).
TL;DR Nerves telling you that its too high frequency. | [
"The scratching of fingernails on a blackboard, as well as other pointed, especially metal objects against blackboards, produces a sound that is well known for being extremely irritating to most people. According to a study run by Michael Oehler, a professor at the University of Media and Communication in Cologne, ... |
If Alpha radiation is a helium nucleus (2 protons, 2 neutrons) and Beta radiation is just electrons, shouldn't combining the two just create Helium gas? | There are plenty of electrons around in matter, there’s no need to introduce a β^(-) source for that. When the α and β particles are emitted, they’re generally moving very fast; too fast to form atomic bonds until they’ve been slowed down a lot. | [
"Alpha particles, also called alpha ray or alpha radiation, consist of two protons and two neutrons bound together into a particle identical to a helium-4 nucleus. They are generally produced in the process of alpha decay, but may also be produced in other ways. Alpha particles are named after the first letter in t... |
why do restaurants serve big portions, which usually result in leftovers? | Because this is America.
People want a lot for their money and also people want a lot of food.
By serving a lot of lower quality food for cheaper, restaurants probably make more money than if they served smaller better quality food even if that means a lot of it goes to waste. | [
"Nowadays it has become common for fine dining restaurants to offer table reservations to their clients. In fact, this service has become an integral part of a restaurant's operation, because of its multiple benefits. Even though there are still types of restaurants that prefer the modality of first-come, first ser... |
Is everything radioactive if even only a VERY tiny bit? | There are nuclei that are stable, as far as we can tell, as indicated in the plot you linked to. Radioactive decay is a complicated process that requires quantum chromodynamics (QCD) to fully understand. So the stable nuclei as far as we know will not decay.
However, we know that neutrons are unstable and have a mean ... | [
"BULLET::::- Radioactive isotopes have the advantages of being detectable in very low quantities, in being easily measured by scintillation counting or other radiochemical methods, and in being localizable to particular regions of a cell, and quantifiable by autoradiography. Many compounds with the radioactive atom... |
If cameras having more resolution than the human eye are made, could we tell the difference between them and a camera with the exact same resolution as the human eye? | The resolution of a human eye is a lot more complicated than that. They're not like cameras. Each receptor only gives a signal once every second or so, but they don't all do it at once. As such, you can't really say the resolution or the frame rate. To make things worse, the receptors aren't spread out evenly. They're ... | [
"Resolution in pixels is not the only measure of image quality. A larger sensor with the same number of pixels generally produces a better image than a smaller one. One of the most important differences is an improvement in image noise. This is one of the advantages of digital SLR (single-lens reflex) cameras, whic... |
what does the word "campy" mean? (eli5 because the wikipedia article confused me, as they tend to do) | It is kinda like cheesy. | [
"The words \"camp\" and \"kitsch\" are often used interchangeably; both may relate to art, literature, music, or any object that carries an aesthetic value. However, \"kitsch\" refers specifically to the work itself, whereas \"camp\" is a mode of performance. Thus, a person may consume kitsch intentionally or unint... |
why do first class ticket holders go on planes first? | Because they are better and more important than you.
Last year, I took a trip to Alaska, and I decided, "the hell with the cost, for ONCE in my life, I'm going to fly first class."
It was pretty sweet, but is going to make flying Cattle Class that much harder the next time.
In addition to all the perks, drinks, food... | [
"Airline employees and some of their family and friends may also travel standby, often at discounted fares or free of charge. They typically have lower priority than regular passengers and are only allocated a seat after all passengers paying a regular fare have been allocated seats. It can even occur that a passen... |
how does an rgb led work? | Are you asking how do LEDs work physically to make light or how they create different colors using only RGB color values? | [
"RGB LEDs consist of one red, one green, and one blue LED. By independently adjusting each of the three, RGB LEDs are capable of producing a wide color gamut. Unlike dedicated-color LEDs, however, these do not produce pure wavelengths. Modules may not be optimized for smooth color mixing.\n",
"RGB (Red, Green, Bl... |
Sapping Hurricane Energy | Hurricanes can be affected by cooler ocean temperatures, but the idea of trying to cool the ocean to weaken the storm is incredibly impractical for two main reasons. The first is that you would need to cool the area below the hurricane to a depth of ~50m. The second is that you would need to do this at the location o... | [
"A hurricane functions as a Carnot heat engine powered by the temperature difference between the sea and the uppermost layer of the troposphere. As air is drawn in towards the eye it acquires latent heat from evaporating sea-water, which is then released as sensible heat during the rise inside the eyewall and radia... |
how can dye-containing food advertise as "all natural"? | The FDA does not have a formal definition of the word "natural" on food labels, which makes it difficult to stop it from being used misleadingly. There have been multiple lawsuits on this issue, though. | [
"Because many consumers are worried about possible health consequences of synthetic dyes, some companies are beginning to use natural food colours. Since these food colours are natural, they do not require any certification from the Food and Drug Administration. The most popular natural food colours are:\n",
"In ... |
if possible, how matrices work. | First you have to know what a vector is: a list of numbers. Vectors can be used to describe locations. The first number tells you how far to the left (negative) or right (postive). And the second number tells you have far forward (positive) or backward (negative).
Now, a picture can be described in terms of vectors... | [
"There are several methods to render matrices into a more easily accessible form. They are generally referred to as \"matrix decomposition\" or \"matrix factorization\" techniques. The interest of all these techniques is that they preserve certain properties of the matrices in question, such as determinant, rank or... |
americans and credit | Here's the thing, our economy is, for better or worse, based around credit. We have three large companies that create a database that tracks our financial transactions to determine our creditworthiness.
For example, if you pay your water bill this month, you get +1 point. Fail to do so and you get -3 points. You lose ... | [
"Credit history usually stays within one country. Even within the same credit card network or within the same multinational credit bureau, information is not shared between different countries. For example, Equifax Canada does not share credit information with Equifax in the United States. If a person has been livi... |
why don't we hear more about child prodigies as they get older? | I think this question demonstrates a misunderstanding of what a "prodigy" actually is. A prodigy is somebody who is good at something unusually early. It's not some blanket term for genius. When it's no longer early, you're no longer a prodigy. | [
"There have been implications that age plays a role because not all people show this effect. Most studies in the past have asked young adults to answer general knowledge questions. Recently, older adults have been tested and have not shown the hypercorrection effect. However, whether older adults are better at corr... |
why is it better to have more but smaller cylinders in an engine, rather than fewer larger ones? |
The stroke (the length of the piston movement) limits the effective rotation speed of the engine: The rate at which air flows into the cylinder depends on the crossection of the valves. If you increase the stroke length, you increase the size of the cylinder, and with it the amount of air that needs to flow in it - bu... | [
"The inline-four layout is in perfect primary balance and confers a degree of mechanical simplicity which makes it popular for economy cars. However, despite its simplicity, it suffers from a secondary imbalance which causes minor vibrations in smaller engines. These vibrations become more powerful as engine size a... |
ehat are those wavy lines you can see above the ground when it's hot? | The surface heats up a lot, which heats a small layer of air as well. That makes that the different layers of air have a different density, which means that the air diffracted differently | [
"Temperature variations in the air can also cause refraction of light. This can be seen as a heat haze when hot and cold air is mixed e.g. over a fire, in engine exhaust, or when opening a window on a cold day. This makes objects viewed through the mixed air appear to shimmer or move around randomly as the hot and ... |
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