Split (2)

train · 226k rows

question stringlengths 3 301	answer stringlengths 9 26.1k	context list
how does the 20 questions electronic game work?	First, come up with a bunch of yes/no questions that would be good for a 20 questions game. Second, collect a bunch of objects, and answer some or most of these questions for each object. Now, you have a good database of objects and an associated list of the yes/no answers for each object. When it comes time to a...	[ "The abstract mathematical version of the game where some answers may be wrong is sometimes called Ulam's game or the Rényi–Ulam game. The game suggests that the information (as measured by Shannon's entropy statistic) required to identify an arbitrary object is at most 20 bits. The game is often used as an example...
Why was the Avro Arrow destroyed?	During the late 50’s the threat perceived to radiate from the soviets was changing. It is argued that the Canadian Government was operating in an information vacuum with regards to this threat. As a reaction to the detonation of the Soviet Hydrogen Bomb in 1953 NORAD was under development, a system that should provid...	[ "After Green Arrow (Oliver Queen) lost his fortune, the Arrow-Car became too expensive to keep. Various wrecks of the cars became highly prized among collectors of super-memorabilia, such as the Arrow-Car once destroyed during a fight between Green Arrow, Arsenal, and Solomon Grundy. When a fully functional Arrow-C...
Has there been a time in Western culture when muscular men were not considered sexy/attractive?	> The cultural standards by which a woman's weight and shape have determined her sexiness have changed dramatically over time in Western/European societies. For example large, curvy "rubenesque" women were deemed sexy for much of the 17th and 18th centuries whereas today, thinness is praised > curves. Your premise ...	[ "\"Strongman\" is often incorrectly used to describe a person who does weightlifting or bodybuilding. Due to the circus and entertainment background, nineteenth-century bodybuilders were expected to mingle with the crowd during intermission and perform strength feats like card tearing, nail bending, etc. to demonst...
how is chewing bones good for dogs teeth, and can it benefit humans?	Their teeth are specifically designed to crush softer bones like ribs and vertebrae unlike our teeth. When dogs eat lots of softer foods like commercial dog food their teeth can't get tartar build up on it just like our teeth; gnawing on bones will help scrape the build up off.	[ "While the media often portrays domestic dogs chewing bones, this is slightly misleading. Dogs chew bones only to eat any residual meat and bone marrow left on them, so it is not truly a form of osteophagy. Most modern toy \"bones\" for dogs are actually rawhide, which is simply dried animal skin, as animal bones a...
how do audio recordings that are stored in binary code on devices get re-converted to the sound that comes out of my phone’s speakers?	It is covered thanks to a device called a DAC (digital to analogue converter). When audio is traveling in a speaker wire, it is just an electrical impulse - it has a voltage and a frequency based on what the sound is. That voltage and frequency is then amplified (by an amplifier) and pushed to a speaker cone, which v...	[ "In digital recording, audio signals picked up by a microphone or other transducer or video signals picked up by a camera or similar device are converted into a stream of discrete numbers, representing the changes over time in air pressure for audio, and chroma and luminance values for video, then recorded to a sto...
[Meta] Book List Meta Thread	General question (as in every sources thread): What about non-English language sources? Yay/Nay? Only for country specific topics? ...?	[ "OttoBib.com is a website with a free tool to generate an alphabetized bibliography of books from a list of International Standard Book Numbers (ISBN) with output in MLA, APA, Chicago/Turabian, BibTeX and Wikipedia format. Each query also generates a \"temporary\" permalink (self-destructs in about one month) which...
Is it possible to make 3D contact lenses similar to 3D glasses given out at Movie Screenings?	I think it's a great idea, and I see no reason it shouldn't be doable. Indeed, polarized contact lenses have already been [patented](_URL_0_). And whereas linearly polarized contact lenses to reduce glare like polarized sunglasses would be impractical (since the effect depends on the orientation of the lens), 3D movies...	[ "This allows the observer to view the 3D subject from different angles as they move their head, simulating the real-world depth cue of shifting parallax. It also reduces or eliminates the complication of pseudoscopic viewing zones typical of \"no glasses\" 3D displays that use only two images, making it possible fo...
how can a 60hz monitor have a response time of 5ms when 1/60hz = 16.7 ms?	The response time is usually the time it takes a pixel to change from black to white, or some predetermined gray to another gray value to estimate the average real usage. This will determine the amount of time it takes the average pixel to change to the updated value after a new frame is received by the monitor; the sh...	[ "A Slow measurement (yellow line) will take approximately 5 seconds (attack time) to reach 80 dB and around 6 seconds (decay time) to drop back down to 50 dB. S is appropriate when measuring a signal that fluctuates a lot. \n", "BULLET::::- Response time is the time a pixel in a monitor takes to go from active (w...
what is the root cause of what appears to be unequal treatment of minorities by police?	From my point of view as a late 20s black male. The root cause is cultural conditioning, and that is something that will never go away which is why I strongly believe it's a problem that will never be solved. Now if you don't know what I mean by cultural conditioning, everything from kids movies, TV shows, commercials,...	[ "Research suggests that police practices, such as racial profiling, over-policing in areas populated by minorities and in-group bias may result in disproportionately high numbers of racial minorities among crime suspects. Research also suggests that there may be possible discrimination by the judicial system, which...
do animals get sick from licking another of the same animal it's wounds/blood?	Whenever an animal hunts other animals and eats meat, they're eating some of their blood. Their stomachs just pulverize everything. Same for if they were to lick another of the same species. Same for humans, too, pretty much. Something like a blood transfusion would probably cause problems, though, because it bypasses ...	[ "Wound licking is an instinctive response in humans and many other animals to lick an injury. Dogs, cats, small rodents, horses, and primates all lick wounds. Saliva contains tissue factor which promotes the blood clotting mechanism. The enzyme lysozyme is found in many tissues and is known to attack the cell walls...
why can't a human be frozen while still alive, and jumpstart and come back to life when they thaw out (like avatar)?	Someone with more knowledge can come by with more info, but the primary reason is that our cells cannot withstand the ice crystals that form when they are frozen. When our cells freeze they rupture and die. If all of our cells freeze, they all die.	[ "Ma Dong-chan (Ji Chang-wook) and Go Mi-ran (Won Jin-ah) are both frozen during an experiment. They wake up 20 years later instead of 24 hours later and must keep their body temperature above 30°C in order to survive.\n", "Centuries, or possibly millennia, later, his frozen body is found by researchers who thaw h...
What did Stalin do the first week of Barbarossa?	Stalin chose to let secretary of State Molotov announce the German invasion to the citizens of the USSR. According to Molotov's own words: "[Stalin] didn't want to be the first to speak. He needed a clear picture. He couldn't respond like an automaton to everything. He was a human being after all." During the first cou...	[ "Skorzeny took part in the invasion of the Soviet Union with the SS Division Das Reich and subsequently fought in several battles on the Eastern Front. In October 1941, he was in charge of a \"technical section\" of the German forces during the Battle of Moscow. His mission was to seize important buildings of the C...
how do radio stations broadcast album art?	Radio stations have extra radio bandwidth that they don't need for the audio alone. They can use this bandwidth to send additional data to your radio such as the station name, song title, artist, or I guess the album art. It's essentially sending data over a wireless internet connection, point-to-point from the stati...	[ "The artist who works in radio art is not necessarily a trained DJ, programmer, producer, or engineer, but one who uses sound to make art. The radio medium can be used in ways which are different from what it was intended for. In that sense, the way the message is transmitted and received by an audience is as impor...
What determines what wavelength of light is reflected from object?	The transmission/reflection spectrum of a material is a function of the [electronic structure](_URL_1_) of the molecules composing it. You can imagine an electron as a charge on a harmonic potential; the electric field in passing light excites the electron into an oscillatory motion. When the frequency of the excitory ...	[ "Apart from the transmitted light there is also a reflected part. The reflection angle is equal to the incidence angle, and the amount of light that is reflected is determined by the reflectivity of the surface. The reflectivity can be calculated from the refractive index and the incidence angle with the Fresnel eq...
the us is known as the "no vacation nation", the only developed nation without mandatory pto.	"Because why should I pay someone not to work?" That's what it amounts to basically, you can always find someone for the same job that will work for less pay or less benefits.	[ "According to the U.S. Travel Association, Americans collectively did not use 662 million vacation days in 2016. More than half of all working people in the United States forfeited paid time off at the end of the year. Two-thirds of people still do work while they are on vacation.\n", "In all twenty-five European...
Mathematically speaking, if a given game of Sudoku, in its initial state, has only one possible outcome, will it always solvable without having to resort to guessing a cell's value?	Sure, if it has a unique solution, it's "solvable" by giving that unique solution. Whether it's solvable by some particular algorithm is going to be very dependent on the details of that algorithm.	[ "For a standard formula_57 Sudoku this results in a probability of formula_58 for a unique solution. An analog calculation is done for all cardinality combinations. In the end the distribution of output cardinalities are summed up from the results. Note that the order of the input cardinality is interchangeable. Th...
How can I find a certain persons coat of arms from the 1000s?	You almost certainly won't find it at all. Formal heraldry, in which each individual possesses a unique, identifying coat of arms based on symbols inherited from the father and mother, did not develop until the 13th century. It's likely that 11th century Normans decorated their shields, but this would have been cosmeti...	[ "The coat of arms first appeared on a seal dating from 1652 AD and later in the coat of arms collection of Arnsberg of 1700 AD. It was officially authorized on October 26, 1911 with Enkhausen's patron saint St. Laurentius holding the shield.\n", "The earliest known coat of arms was recorded in 1724 by Sir John Hi...
What happened to all the Aquatic Dinosaurs?	First off, the obligatory "Giant marine reptiles were not technically dinosaurs" (some were actually pretty closely related to certain lizard groups, others were in completely different groups, none were dinosaurs proper) Second: These marine reptiles tended to be large, active top predators. Life is always a bit mo...	[ " Nonavian dinosaurs have been found in the Niobrara Chalk despite it being located hundreds of miles out to sea at the time. The most reasonable theory is that the carcasses drifted out to sea. It is unlikely that the bodies were carried out by outgoing tides along the shorelines where they died, but rather it is ...
when i’m driving, the wind can blow my car all over the road. when i’m parked, the wind can’t move my car one inch. why?	But it does move your car. If you're driving down the road and a gust of wind hits the side of your car it's going to push it off to the side until you correct it. That's because your car is already in motion but it's shifted slightly to the side during that motion. However while it's parked that same gust of wind will...	[ "However, this system causes \"wind up\" in the transmission (inter-component stress) as all the wheels are forced to rotate at the same speed, which during cornering is impossible. This led to rapid wear and breakage of the bevel gear boxes if the vehicle was used on firm surfaces, such as tarmac or concrete – in ...
why do the us elections need donations? what for? what would happen if that was not allowed?	Funding for the various candidates does not come from the Government in the US save for a very small pool of funds used to get things started. So the money that the candidates use has to either come from their own personal savings, come from party coffers, or come from donations made directly to them for the campaign. ...	[ "Another method allows the candidates to raise funds from private donors, but provides matching funds for the first chunk of donations. For instance, the government might \"match\" the first $250 of every donation. This would effectively make small donations more valuable to a campaign, potentially leading them to ...
Why are 6- (and sometimes 5-) membered rings far more prevalent in chemical compounds than rings with 4 or 3 members?	3 and 4 membered rings have high energy bond angles that are strained and unstable. 5 and 6 membered rings allow the bond angles to relax and that allows the compound to be more stable and energetically favorable.	[ "A molecule containing one or more rings is called a cyclic compound, and a molecule containing two or more rings (either in the same or different ring systems) is termed a polycyclic compound. A molecule containing no rings is called an acyclic or open-chain compound.\n", "Five-membered carbon rings are ubiquito...
If it was possible to look at from close, what would the ignition of a star look like ?	It wouldn't be easily perceivable. Externally, it's actually a gradual process. Most people don't appreciate that stars begin their lives hot even before fusion starts. This is due to the energy of gravitational contraction. When you compress something to make it smaller you heat it up, and a proto-star is very highly ...	[ "BULLET::::- In the region of the constellation \"Perseus\", a star not visible to the naked eye, and 1,533 light years distant from Earth, explodes in a nova. The light from the star, now called GK Persei, will first be seen on Earth on February 21, 1901\n", "A star with ≲ M ≲ explodes because of the energy cons...
How did attacking a city generally work in the 11th/12th-ish centuries?	I will assume that you mean Europe, and specifically Western Europe. A walled city was a very tough nut to crack for any attacking force. A walled city would have the local militia, and quite likely at least a small garrison of professional soldiers under the employ of the liege. Now, an army needed to have overwhel...	[ "Scholars had thought that invaders attacked the city in the 7th or 8th century, sacking and burning it. More recent evidence, however, seems to indicate that the burning was limited to the structures and dwellings associated primarily with the ruling class. Some think this suggests that the burning was from an int...
basic bonsai tree care.	Bonsai are trees that are deliberately grown in a way to dwarf them, and are often sculpted into specific shapes. So you start with the standard "give it the right amount of water, food, pot space and light" that applies to almost all houseplants. But the species, age and size of the bonsai all make a huge difference...	[ "Bonsai is the art of growing trees in small containers. Bonsai uses techniques such as pruning, root reduction, and shaping branches and roots to produce small trees that mimic full-sized mature trees. Bonsai is not intended for production of food, but instead mainly for contemplation by viewers, like most fine ar...
gold trading and how it's used to "back" currency and the like	Gold was money, used in trade, made into coins or bullion, sometimes by governments, most often by gold specialists. Currency is a substitute for the real money (though not only gold was used as money). Currency was usually a paper substitute for real money that were called "Bank Notes." Ideally, for every one unit o...	[ "A return to the gold standard was considered by the US Gold Commission back in 1982, but found only minority support. In 2001 Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad proposed a new currency that would be used initially for international trade among Muslim nations, using a Modern Islamic gold dinar, defined a...
why does the speed of a car seem slower when i'm inside it rather than outside?	Relativity!!! when you are in a car you are in car's frame (in other words you are moving with speed of car) and when you look from window all objects have a speed equals to object's speed minus car's speed (vector addition) which slows down everything which seems to you like car is moving slow	[ "which says that the instantaneous speed of the user is proportional to the width of the tunnel. This makes intuitive sense if we consider the analogous task of driving a car down a road: the wider the road, the faster we can drive and still stay on the road, even if there are curves in the road.\n", "The more ca...
how does the body correctly sort food and fluid (especially when you eat and drink together)?	> When it gets down your food pipes* how does the stomach and bladder get their individual shares of what’s been consumed?? The sorting happens in the intestines. It makes intuitive sense that the solids you eat become poop and the liquids you drink become pee, but that isn't actually true! Everything you swallow g...	[ "Water and saliva enter through the rumen to form a liquid pool. Liquid will ultimately escape from the reticulorumen from absorption through the wall, or through passing through the reticulo-omosal orifice, as digesta does. However, since liquid cannot be trapped in the mat as digesta can, liquid passes through th...
Why were there fewer African American soldiers in Vietnam than in other American-waged wars?	It does seem unusually low. Where did you get that statistic? [This site](_URL_0_) claims (my emphasis): > The Vietnam War saw the highest proportion of blacks ever to serve in an American war. During the height of the U.S. involvement, 1965-69, blacks, who formed 11 percent of the American population, made up 1...	[ "The Vietnam War saw many great accomplishments by many African Americans, including twenty who received the Medal of Honor for their actions. African Americans were over-represented in hazardous duty and combat roles during the conflict, and suffered disproportionately higher casualty rates. Civil-rights leaders p...
why are germs so difficult to wash off, and yet so easy to spread?	Because even a tiny bit that gets off or that remains can then apread to cover the whole surface in a relatively small timeframe, since when bacteria multiplies, its population size basically just straight up doubles.	[ "Poorly maintained scrubbers have the potential to spread disease-causing bacteria. The problem is a result of inadequate cleaning. For example, the cause of a 2005 outbreak of Legionnaires' disease in Norway was just a few infected scrubbers. The outbreak caused 10 deaths and more than 50 cases of infection.\n", ...
why can some people only twist their tongues in one direction?	I can't twist my tongue at all. I just tried.	[ "All the children have multicolored tongues; Antonucci said that the idea came after he saw his son and his friends with different-colored tongues because of eating different candy while he was working on a storyboard. The characters went through a number of \"walking cycles,\" a process used to determine how each ...
Is there any facts to back up the claim that before the Vikings came, North American Indians had a homogeneous culture that covered a large portion of the Continent but due to foreign diseases brought along by the Vikings most of them died out?	You're kind of mixing up two different claims. And it's a little difficult to disentangle them in a short answer. You might start with the popular questions page topics about [Native Americans and European Diseases](_URL_0_).	[ "New studies shed light on the founding population of indigenous Americans, suggesting that their ancestry traced to both east Asian and western Eurasians who migrated to North America directly from Siberia. A 2013 study in the journal Nature reported that DNA found in the 24,000-year-old remains of a young boy in ...
Can we tell the exact moment a subject begins to fall asleep by looking at the brain activity? Or is it a more gradual process?	The clear definition of sleep onset is not yet clear (mainly because people can report being awake, even though there are clear behavioral changes that can indicate the presence of sleep). There are various measures that can be used however to measure sleep onset. - EMG (electromyogram) shows a gradual decrease in mus...	[ "Using powerful brain imaging methods and electrical recordings Blumenfeld recently found that normal conscious perception of visual stimuli is accompanied by a cascade of activity moving through the brain in less than one second. These pictures provide a new view of how the brain normally processes information to ...
why is the "peace sign/victory sign" with two fingers used with positive connotation, if it was first used by winston churchill, a british man, and the "v-sign" is an offensive hand gesture there?	Sorry I only have time for a small part of an answer, but take a careful look at the position of the palms when people make these signs: v-sign with palm out means "victory" or "peace", v-sign with palm in means "the finger" in the UK and its relatives.	[ "By July 1941, the emblematic use of the letter V had spread through occupied Europe. On 19 July, Prime Minister Winston Churchill referred approvingly to the V for Victory campaign in a speech, from which point he started using the V hand sign. Early on he sometimes gestured palm in (sometimes with a cigar between...
Why was the Ashanti "Sika 'dwa" translated as "Golden Stool", not called the "Golden Throne"?	Slightly unrelated: stools were also given as grave goods in some Bronze Age burial mounds and Iron Age graves in Denmark and Germany, also regarded as symbols of power but still called 'stool' in the literature. Similarly, in the Caribbean chiefs also had special stools. I am unaware of the semantics behind the disti...	[ "The Golden Stool represents the Ashanti symbol of unity which is believed to possess the sunsum (soul) of the Ashanti people. In Ashanti legend, (the Golden Stool; Sika 'Dwa in the Ashanti language) of the Ashanti people—descended from heaven in a cloud of white dust and landed in the lap of the first Ashanti Empe...
when hearing a very loud noise, that blowing sound/feeling in your ears	Sound is vibrations in the air. Loud sounds = stronger vibrations. If the sound is loud enough, you can feel the vibrations in your ear.	[ "Another example is watching someone blow up a balloon beyond its normal capacity. This is often an unsettling, even disturbing thing for a person with ligyrophobia to observe, as he or she anticipates a loud sound when the balloon pops. When balloons pop, two types of reactions are heavy breathing and panic attack...
Did Libraries face the same issues as Digital Media currently experiences?	Copyright law is quite recent. You probably ought to ask u/caffarelli about this matter, as it is her specialism. I published a brief case note on this issue late 2011, however, translated roughly: "It was not until 1837 that Prussia and the German Bund introduced copyright law. Prior to this, authors needed to ens...	[ "In the 21st century, there has been increasing use of the Internet to gather and retrieve data. The shift to digital libraries has greatly impacted the way people use physical libraries. Between 2002 and 2004, the average American academic library saw the overall number of transactions decline approximately 2.2%. ...
what and how are hot jupiters formed, and what does this mean about the creation of our own solar system?	Hot Jupiters are basically gas giants that orbit very close to it's star. Usually at half earth distance or closer (less than 0.5 AU), usually towards the closer end. As a result they get very hot, to the point of glowing from the heat. The top theory about how they form is that they form at normal gas giant distance ...	[ "There are two general schools of thought regarding the origin of hot Jupiters: formation at a distance followed by inward migration and in-situ formation at the distances at which they're currently observed. The prevalent view is formation via orbital migration.\n", "Although Jupiter would need to be about 75 ti...
the difference between a fee antivirus software like avg, and a paid antivirus software like norton 360?	Computer science major here so I know a bit about this stuff, I could drag this out but to try to explain simply, a number like 98% of viruses are just evolutions if precious viruses. All antivirus softwares look for these base differences. Free antivirus software finds these and eliminates. When you start getting paid...	[ "AVG provides \"AVG AntiVirus Free\" for Windows, \"AVG AntiVirus for Mac\" for macOS, and \"AVG AntiVirus for Android\" for Android devices. All are freemium products: They are free to download, install, update and use, but for technical support, a premium plan must be purchased.\n", "John Dunn of \"PCWorld\", w...
why peanuts without shells are way cheaper than peanuts with shells if it takes labor to shell them?	My fiance worked in a peanut shelling plant for years and it basically boils down to them wanting to get equal profits from shelled vs. unshelled. Once the peanuts are shelled, they're graded and sold for different prices. There's splits, jumbos, mediums, #1s, etc. I forget all the names, but there's a few more. Even ...	[ "Because of lack of commercial availability of moriche palm nuts, shelled unsalted peanuts have been used as a staple in the diet of captive birds. They must not be fed commercial bird seed, especially fatty seed like Sunflower.\n", "Crushed shells are added as a calcareous supplement to the diet of laying poultr...
Why is it that all macroscopic organisms (that I know of, anyway) are left-right symmetric?	Generally, locomotion requires two equal sides to be most efficient. On land, feet come in pairs, so do wings in the air, and fins in the water, and most things that want to move right also want to go left. So when you find things that don't move, you start to see more variety like in trees and other plants. Yes there...	[ "Left-right asymmetry (LR asymmetry) refers to differences in structure (symmetry breaking) across the mediolateral (left and right) plane in animals. This plane is defined with respect to the anteroposterior and dorsoventral axes and is perpendicular to both. Because the left-right plane is not strictly an axis (a...
what's going on with the fcc? six months ago all i saw were how corrupt the fcc is. over the past month though i've seen a lot of positive articles about the fcc shifting towards public opinion. what's really going on?	The FCC has a long history of holding "hearings" and "information sessions" about decisions and then deciding based on what the incumbent telecoms want. Basically the process of public consultation was a farce to cover for a decision that already been made. When they announced the stuff about net neutrality and that ...	[ "Congress gave the FCC vast powers to regulate and de-regulate all digital markets when it passed the Telecommunications Act of 1996, signed by digital signature of President Clinton in the Library of Congress in February 1996. The FCC then essentially re-wrote the regulatory landscape for wireless and wireline com...
why sms messages cannot come in bold/italic/underlined, etc	Technically, they can. But the support for such formatting has to be widespread and unified between phone hardware manufacturers for it to be useful, which is obviously not the case now. Also, the SMS protocol has been designed with a limited message length in mind, adding the formatting would make the message even s...	[ "The characteristics of the display were fairly restrictive. The text display contained only two lines of six characters each, making the use of text messaging (SMS) and data services less practical than on standard LCD displays. The display used a fixed 'digital clock' style font, with no functionality for changin...
How did illiterate conquistadors transact business with the Spanish crown?	Illiteracy is a spectrum, not an absolute. More importantly, conquistadors were usually members of the 'middling' class, including artisans, craftsmen, and professionals (like lawyers and scribes). Most conquistadors probably could read some and at least write their names. Even if they couldn't there would have been a ...	[ "By 1528, Spanish colonial power had been established in the Chiapas Highlands, and \"encomienda\" rights were being issued to individual \"conquistadores\". Spanish dominion extended from the upper drainage of the Grijalva, across Comitán and Teopisca to the Ocosingo valley. The north and northwest were incorporat...
why does nasa go to such extreme measures to remove bacteria before traveling in space?	Imagine that NASA comes out and announce that they have found bacterial life on Mars and launches the world into a religious hysteria... Only to find out months later that "oops, it was actually just Earth bacteria that hitchhiked over there!"... Or... imagine that we send a rover to Mars without sterilizing it. And...	[ "There are over one hundred strains of bacteria and fungi that have been identified from manned space missions. These microorganisms survive and propagate in space. Much effort is being made to ensure that the risks from exposure to the microbes are significantly reduced. Spacecraft are sterilized as good control p...
How did societies without any "currency" survive and do business?	* [Has any society in the last 1000 years ever successfully operated as a "cashless" society?](_URL_1_) * ["The Inca as a nonmarket economy: Supply on command versus supply and demand" by Darrell La Lone](_URL_0_)	[ "When the great empires in Rome and India collapsed, the resulting checkerboard of small kingdoms and republics saw the gradual decline in standing armies and cities. This included the creation of hierarchical caste systems, the retreat of gold and silver to the temples and the abolition of slavery. Although hard c...
why are interest rates so low for me if i deposit money, but so high for students who lend it?	Because you're a very small fry and the bank makes almost no money on your deposit. And you want services, like ATM fee forgiveness, customer service, cash back credit cards, and just putting up with your smell is going to cost you half a percent! People with very large accounts can get 'OK' interest rates on a depo...	[ "Higher interest rates reduce the economy’s money supply because fewer people seek loans. When banks make loans, the loan proceeds are generally deposited in bank accounts that are part of the money supply. Therefore, when a person pays back a loan and no other loans are made to replace it, the amount of bank depos...
how does a car tire maintain the same psi measurement weather or not it is on the car?	Disregarding changes due to temperature for the moment: While you're right that the weight of the car influences the pressure, it only causes an increase in pressure in proportion to how much the weight of the car deforms the tire and causes a reduction in the volume of the tire. Think about it like it's a balloon. ...	[ "There are simple hand-held tire-pressure gauges which can be temporarily attached to the valve stem to check a tire's interior air pressure. This measurement of tire inflation pressure should be made at least once a month. Accurate readings can only be obtained when the tires are 'cold' - that is at least three ho...
South Africa	Following the Second Anglo-Boer War, the Transvaal and Orange Free State were barren. Scorched earth tactics from the British had left farmland ruined, and the concentration of the Boer population in camps had lead to a huge depopulation, with around half of the Boer children in these camps dying from disease and malnu...	[ "In 1930 Walker gave an influential lecture in Oxford, printed as \"The frontier tradition in South African history\" (Oxford University Press, London, 1930), in which Walker outlined his theory that the origins of the apartheid system in South Africa lay in conflict between blacks and whites on the frontier region...
what is the purpose of using gpa instead of a percent average?	GPA is an easier way for people to tell at a glance, what grades you got more often at school: 4 is A 3 is B 2 is C 1 is D and anything lower than that, you fail at life.	[ "The GPI indicator is based on the concept of sustainable income, presented by economist John Hicks (1948). The sustainable income is the amount a person or an economy can consume during one period without decreasing his or her consumption during the next period. In the same manner, GPI depicts the state of welfare...
how can clouds can get in the way of the sun, but don't block out the light?	Clouds do not block the sun, they change the speed of the light and defuse the light coming though them from the sun. This is why the tops of thunderclouds look like they are glowing while the bottom are dark, the light has slowed so far down it is no longer defuses.	[ "There is essentially no direct sunlight under an overcast sky, so all light is then diffuse sky radiation. The flux of light is not very wavelength-dependent because the cloud droplets are larger than the light's wavelength and scatter all colors approximately equally. The light passes through the translucent clou...
what is fiber-optics? how does it differ from traditional sources of internet?	It's basically a laser fired down a hair-thin glass cable. It travels at the speed of light, has very little signal degradation due to interference, and by using different freq of light multiple signals can be sent at the same time. If you have fiber internet there will be a special modem installed where it connects ...	[ "A fiber optic display is a light-emitting display that uses fiber optics to display images or text. Fiber-optic displays can either be static or dynamic, with the typical lighting source being halogen light bulbs.\n", "Optical fiber is used as a medium for telecommunication and computer networking because it is ...
why did i prefer eating sweets as kid but now as i got older i prefer savory food.	Children prefer sweet foods because, as a general rule, sweet foods contain more energy and children need more calories in relation to their body weight. Children also have more tastebuds and dislike bitter tastes because they experience them more intensely.	[ "The process of acquiring a taste can involve developmental maturation, genetics (of both taste sensitivity and personality), family example, and biochemical reward properties of foods. Infants are born preferring sweet foods and rejecting sour and bitter tastes, and they develop a preference for salt at approximat...
I know probiotics have been discussed before, but on the question of "recolonizing the gut" with good bacteria- is this even possible without a fecal transplant?	From what I've read in journal articles probiotics only cause a transient change in the gut microflora. There is now good data to suggest they can have an effect improving many conditions, such as lactose maldigestion and antibiotic associated diarrhea (particular attention must be paid to the specific strain of micro-...	[ "Current research suggests that manipulating the intestinal microbiota may be able to treat or prevent allergies and other immune-related conditions. Various approaches are under investigation. Probiotics (drinks or foods) have never been shown to reintroduce microbes to the gut. As yet, therapeutically relevant mi...
why does sex, for most people, feel good. i understand the release of hormones but why are they released.	A lot of questions about biology can be answered this way: "Is there a good evolutionary reason why people who had that trait would be more successful than those who didn't?" In the case of sex feeling good, yes. Imagine at some point a bunch of human ancestors had a certain amount of sex. Then one was born with a m...	[ "Sexual intimacy, as well as orgasms, increases levels of the hormone oxytocin, also known as \"the love hormone\", which helps people bond and build trust. Sexual activity is also known as one of many mood repair strategies, which means it can be used to help dissipate feelings of sadness or depression.\n", "Oth...
What did Roman provincial aristocracy and wealthy citizens do for fun?	Believe it or not, they engaged in the same types of leisure as their counterparts back at Rome: they went to the horse races in the circus, they saw animal hunts, they watched gladiators, they went to the theater, and they went to their country villas to get away from the hubbub and relax. At Colchester, for instance,...	[ "The youth of Rome had several forms of athletic play and exercise, such as jumping, wrestling, boxing, and racing. In the countryside, pastimes for the wealthy also included fishing and hunting. The Romans also had several forms of ball playing, including one resembling handball. Dice games, board games, and gambl...
First King or Queen of England	We have no particular idea who the first person to call himself a king in what's now England; the word in various forms (cyning, kyningas, cyningas, cyninges, king) goes back to Old English. But if you're asking about the first person to be king of "England" as a political entity, the answer is fairly straightforward...	[ "In 1604 James I, who had inherited the English throne the previous year, adopted the title (now usually rendered in English rather than Latin) \"King of Great Britain\". The English and Scottish parliaments, however, did not recognise this title until the Acts of Union of 1707 under Queen Anne (who was \"Queen of ...
the difference between a turtle and a tortoise.	Turtles are aquatic. They mostly live in water and have webbed front feet. Tortoises are land animals; they have regular feet. I think that's the main difference. Besides that, I am sure they in live different parts of the world, have different diets, and have different shells and other anatomy.	[ "Tortoises () are reptile species of the family Testudinidae of the order Testudines (the turtles). They are particularly distinguished from turtles by being land-dwelling, while many (though not all) turtle species are at least partly aquatic. However, like turtles, tortoises have a shell to protect from predation...
why can't allied forces bomb these long isis military parades we see pictures/video of.	They just keep forgetting to apply for the permits, so there is no way of knowing where the next parade will be held, whether it will be large enough to warrant bombing or just strafing. Damn terrorists.	[ "Small drones and quadcopters have been used for strikes by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. A group of twelve or more have been piloted by specially trained pilots to drop munitions onto enemy forces. They have been able to evade ground defense forces.\n", "During the Battle of Mosul it was reported that com...
why do emergency services wrap people in a blanket, if they're in shock? what does this do?	Preventing hypothermia, and psychological comfort. Avast ye! Yer not alone in askin', and kind strangers have explained: 1. [ELI5:Why is it after a person is saved from a fire, they are wrapped in a blanket afterwards? ](_URL_0_) ^(_66 comments_) 1. [ELI5: Why is it that people are given the grey 'safety blankets' aft...	[ "A blanket is often used since hypothermia is a major risk for a casualty. The blanket must be wrapped around the casualty to avoid the heat leak from below (this is not necessary when the stretcher has a mattress, e.g. a vacuum mattress, or in case of an ambulance stretcher). For this purpose, the blanket is put b...
How do bacterial vaccines (like whooping cough vaccination) work? I was always told growing up only viruses could be vaccinated against.	Originally, bacterial vaccines were made from killed bacteria. These vaccines generally have more side effects because of the presence of parts of the bacterial membrane called endotoxins that trigger fever and inflammation even in very small quantities. In addition, many times vaccinating with the whole bacteria wasn'...	[ "While most antivirals treat viral infection, vaccines are a preemptive first line of defense against pathogens. Vaccination involves the introduction (i.e. via injection) of a small amount of typically inactivated or attenuated antigenic material to stimulate an individual's immune system. The immune system respon...
with the japanese being very strong in the automotive industry - why are most passenger jets made by airbus (french) and boeing (american)?	From _URL_0_ > Now, to the two nations you specifically mentioned in your question. First, Japan provides significant airframe components used in the production of Boeing airliners -- Mitsubishi Heavy builds 787 wings in Nagoya, and Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd will be building "wing boxes" for the coming 777X fleet. Th...	[ "BULLET::::- Japan Airlines announces that it will purchase 31 A350 airliners from Airbus for $9,500,000,000 to replace its fleet of Boeing 777s. The announcement ends Boeings decades-long dominance of the Japanese market; before the Japan Airlines deal with Airbus, Boeing and Airbus had competed head-to-head in al...
how can geese be so intimidating to bigger animals? would a human be able to do the same?	I don't know if you've ever been attacked by a goose. But they are mean motherfuckers and they can hurt you. Plus zero fear, a 5' wingspan, and usually hang out in gangs. That strategy also tends to work for humans wanting to intimidate others.	[ "The same aggressive, territorial behavior can be utilized in the guard capacity. Geese are intelligent enough to discern unusual people or sounds from usual stimuli. Their loud honking will alert humans when the geese are alarmed.\n", "Like their wild ancestors, domestic geese are very protective of their offspr...
Who are the mysterious invaders who ended the Bronze Age? Why have I never heard this before.	Not to forestall further (in-depth comprehensive) answers, but you are likely thinking of the 'Sea Peoples', and there's been a bunch of discussion of that topic in this subreddit! There's [a section of our Frequently Asked Questions page about the Sea People](_URL_3_) featuring not only a great explanation of [where ...	[ "The late Bronze Age (14th–13th–12th centuries BCE) saw a vast migration of the so-called Sea Peoples, described in ancient Egyptian sources. They destroyed Mycenaean and Hittite sites and also attacked Egypt. According to Giovanni Ugas, the Sherden, one of the most important tribes of the sea peoples, are to be id...
why does stropping a blade with leather make it sharper?	Basically, when you use a blade, the edge gets tiny imperfections which bring the edge out of alignment. Stropping realigns the edge of the blade without removing any material like a stone would. [This](_URL_0_) website is great for visualising what is actually happening, as it has pictures of blade edges using a scan...	[ "A sharp object works by concentrating forces which creates a high pressure due to the very small area of the edge, but high pressures can nick a thin blade or even cause it to roll over into a rounded tube when it is used against hard materials. An irregular material or angled cut is also likely to apply much more...
why did/do the mafia get involved in industries such as waste management and construction?	It's easier to launder money through a legitimate business, especially one with extremely variable costs	[ "The 1950s saw the Mafia heavily penetrate the construction and cement industries. The cement business was appealing to the Mafia because it allows high levels of local economic involvement and is a good front for illegitimate operations.\n", "The Mafia plays a key role in both public and private corruption. Aris...
why is fresh food considered better than packaged food?	Packaged food is usually filled with preservatives that allow it to be packaged and stored for a while. These preservatives aren't particularly tasty or good for you, so fresh food is valued more.	[ "Many food banks don't accept fresh produce, preferring canned or packaged food due to health and safety concerns, though some have tried to change this as part of a growing worldwide awareness of the importance of nutrition. As an example, in 2012, London Food Bank (Canada) started accepting perishable food, repor...
what would happen to animals that sleep during the winter if there where a sudden ice age?	They'd quite possibly die from the unusual weather conditions, as would many animals that don't hibernate. A 'sudden ice age' would be a very traumatic event for any and all ecosystems.	[ "Winter rest in an animal is different from true hibernation, since the metabolism is not reduced drastically. The body temperature is not significantly lowered, however the heart rate is reduced. This means that animals like the raccoon can quickly become active again if temperatures rise or the snow melts. Other ...
How did scientists discover that mars had a magnetic field?	The Mars Global Surveyor was a probe sent to Mars with the purpose of detecting its magnetic field. It had a magnetometer on board that mapped the entire magnetic field of Mars from orbit. Another way is by observing the effects of the magnetic anomalies on particles. Basically magnetic fields will deflect charged pa...	[ "Observations made of the magnetic field of Mars by the \"Mars Global Surveyor\" spacecraft in 1999 showed patterns of magnetic striping discovered on this planet. Some scientists interpreted these as requiring plate tectonic processes, such as seafloor spreading. However, their data fail a \"magnetic reversal test...
how do capacitors work? why do they explode?	The simplest capacitor is two metal plates separated from each other by something that doesn't conduct electricity (a dielectric). They store charge because when a voltage is put across them, this causes some of the electrons on the positive plate to move to the negative one. If you then disconnect the capacitor, the ...	[ "Capacitors may catastrophically fail when subjected to voltages or currents beyond their rating, or as they reach their normal end of life. Dielectric or metal interconnection failures may create arcing that vaporizes the dielectric fluid, resulting in case bulging, rupture, or even an explosion. Capacitors used i...
How did taking ships as prizes actually work?	(1/2) The procedures surrounding this varied a lot by country and time and place but typically in the 17th-18th centuries there wasn't much of a rigid legal procedure that was followed. The mid-17th century Caribbean was famous for the totally corrupt English and French governors who unscrupulously sold privateering...	[ "Taking the prize before a prize court might be impractical for any number of reasons like bad weather, shortage of prize crew, dwindling water and provisions, or the proximity of an overpowering enemy force — in which case a vessel might be ransomed. That is, instead of destroying her on the spot as was their prer...
Did France ever consider intervening in the English Civil War? If not, why not?	[This answer](_URL_0_) from /u/ETFox explains the limited involvement of the continent.	[ "The English at this point were unable to prosecute the war any further: the English territories in France could not withstand more taxation, whereas the English state was nearing bankruptcy, especially after the costly but failed expedition of the Duke of Somerset in 1443. A truce would provide the English a much ...
how does the human body/mind know to growing when your young? and when to stop?	Hormones and DNA regulate when and how our bodies grow and age. DNA encodes all of the information on the physical structure of our bodies, from the overarching human form to the microscopic insides of our cells. This information is translated into physical structures, like proteins, which then make up success...	[ "Development of the human body is the process of growth to maturity. The process begins with fertilisation, where an egg released from the ovary of a female is penetrated by sperm. The egg then lodges in the uterus, where an embryo and later fetus develop until birth. Growth and development occur after birth, and i...
why is the yogurt on the rim of the cup always a little different in texture from the rest of the yogurt?	You mean the stuff that's seperate from the rest right? It's a smaller quantity and is exposed to the bit of air inside the container so it dries out. It's a little thicker because of a lower moisture content.	[ "The American franchise of Yoplait added a rim on the bottom of the yogurt containers to keep animals such as skunks from accidentally getting their heads caught. A label was added to the container stating: \"Protect Wildlife: Crush Cup Before Disposal.\"\n", "The beverage has a light, somewhat milky, and slightl...
Can children eat rare or med rare steak?	None that I can think of. The inside of a piece of uncut meat(beef) is sterile. Make sure that the meat isn't mechanically tenderized or injected with a brine solution. The problem arises when meat is ground because then the potentially contaminated outside becomes the same as the previously sterile inside. Other me...	[ "Alternatively, the tenderized steak may be cut into strips, breaded, deep fried, and served for breakfast with eggs and toast or for other meals in a basket with fries and cream gravy. Either is then known as \"finger steaks\".\n", "BULLET::::- Salisbury steak – Dr. James H. Salisbury (1823–1905), early U.S. hea...
why summer night air has that discinct "peaceful" smell?	TL;DR: Dust mostly is gone because the wind dies, air is moister and cooler and so conducts smells better, there's not as many "bad smells" that you get from a hot sun, and a lot of plants that bloom at night smell awesome. So, lots of reasons. Let's get started. The first reason is that evening air during the ...	[ "Due to its high altitude the city temperatures can reach temperatures below 0 °C. Many homes burn firewood for warmth in cold weather. This can give the city a slightly smoky smell although the number of homes burning firewood for warmth has dropped in the last two decades as more homes are integrating climate-con...
Birds such as pigeons and sea gulls are extremely successful in urban environments, why don't we see proportional numbers of predatory birds in cities as well?	Peregrine falcons were actually quite common in cities [for at least two centuries.](_URL_1_) What happened was that people started spraying DDT and the falcons saw their populations collapse as it moves up the food chain. Not that DDT is banned, they're [coming back to the cities](_URL_0_). One problem they face thou...	[ "Large flocks of pigeons and starlings in cities are often considered as a nuisance, and techniques to reduce their populations or their impacts are constantly innovated. Birds are also of medical importance, and their role as carriers of human diseases such as Japanese encephalitis, West Nile virus, and influenza ...
caffeine jitters	Caffeine like all chemicals, can change the way your body functions. Caffeine stimulates the adrenal glads, producing adrenalin. Your body literally is chemically tricked into thinking it's a in a fight or flight situation. This can eventually lead to things like heart palpitations, sweaty palms, and all sorts of adr...	[ "Caffeine, alcohol, modafinil, over the counter medicine, and other drugs are all forms of neurohacking. Every one of these substances alters or \"tricks\" the brain into desirable conditions. When ingesting caffeine, the brain is fooled into thinking the body has energy and keeps the consumer awake. The brain's ne...
If space is expanding, why has the Big Crunch been discredited?	Because we have an accelerating expansion, meaning that there must be a dark energy or similar component. Dark energy accelerates the expansion while matter slows it down. Moreover, the expansion itself dilutes matter and makes its density smaller while dark energy stays the same. Therefore the expansion certainly n...	[ "The Big Crunch scenario hypothesized that the density of matter throughout the universe is sufficiently high that gravitational attraction will overcome the expansion which began with the Big Bang. The FLRW cosmology can predict whether the expansion will eventually stop based on the average energy density, Hubble...
Are new archaeological discoveries still being made in Egyptology?	The Egyptian civilization lasted for thousands of years from the pre-dynastic period (5500 B.C.E) to The Roman Period (30 B.C.E-~300 C.E). (1) There is a wealth of information still to be discovered. There are archaeologists in the deserts now still making discoveries. There are several academic journals on the subject...	[ "Active support by the museum for excavations in Egypt continued to result in important acquisitions throughout the 20th century until changes in antiquities laws in Egypt led to the suspension of policies allowing finds to be exported, although divisions still continue in Sudan. The British Museum conducted its ow...
how a company changes when it is acquired by another company	Every merger or acquisition is different. There is no single answer here	[ "Companies view acquisitions as an opportunity to expand product lines, increase distribution channels, hedge against volatility, increase their market share, or acquire other necessary business assets. A takeover bid or mergers and acquisitions through the stock market is one of the simplest and most common ways f...
Does Jupiter's "spot" move around like a hurricane, or is it a stationary storm?	The spot stays almost stationary in latitude (North/South) but it moves longitudinally (is that even a word? > . > ). Because Jupiter is so large, the distance and speed it travels East/West varies quite a bit with even a few degree latitude shift.	[ "Every 15–17 years Jupiter is marked by especially powerful storms. They appear at 23°N latitude, where the strongest eastward jet, that can reach 150 m/s, is located. The last time such an event was observed was in March–June 2007. Two storms appeared in the northern temperate belt 55° apart in longitude. They sig...
Is the Earth orbiting the sun in a straight line?	Kinda. Freely-falling objects follow [geodesics in spacetime](_URL_1_). Whether or not these are straight lines is probably a matter of semantics. As a simpler example, consider whether you might call [geodesics on the surface of a sphere](_URL_0_) "straight lines" or not.	[ "Earth's orbit around the Sun is an ellipse. The semi-major axis of this elliptic orbit is defined to be half of the straight line segment that joins the perihelion and aphelion. The centre of the Sun lies on this straight line segment, but not at its midpoint. Because ellipses are well-understood shapes, measuring...
how do criminals crack 3-4-5 digit codes on safes,locks etc?	They generally don't crack such codes. For safes and locks, they drill them open, or otherwise use physical force. For phones and computers, they tend to trick users into entering their passwords into fake sites, or just try every single password until one works (if the software will allow it). Most "hacking" is jus...	[ "Electronic combination locks, while generally safe from the attacks on their mechanical counterparts, suffer from their own set of flaws. If the arrangement of numbers is fixed, it is easy to determine the lock sequence by viewing several successful accesses. Similarly, the numbers in the combination (but not the ...
inside the brain, how do a bunch of neurons translate to a piece of information?	This is an interesting question. The answer is I don't know, no one knows, and if you figure it out, can I get an invite to your Nobel acceptance. Certain neurons are activated when we do certain things. Let's use vision as an example. When we see something, our primary visual cortex activates. Soon after, other areas...	[ "Neurons are the basic functional unit of the brain and process and transmit information through signals. Many different types of neurons can be identified based on their function, such as sensory neurons or motor neurons. Each responds to specific stimuli and sends respective and appropriate chemical signals to ot...
why are jet engines so much faster and powerful than propeller engines	It's worth noting that jet engines aren't inherently faster and more powerful than propeller engines (also, as pointed out elsewhere, most propeller driven planes use turbines these days). Rather, the jet engine as a concept has the potential to be much faster and more powerful. Piston-driven propeller engines pr...	[ "Motorjet engines provide greater thrust than a propeller alone mounted on a piston engine; this has been successfully demonstrated in a number of different aircraft. A jet engine also can provide thrust at higher speeds where a propeller becomes less efficient or even ineffective; in fact, a jet engine gains effic...
how do laser rangefinders work?	The rangefinder measures how long it takes for a laser beam to travel there and back, and then uses that data to calculate distance.	[ "A laser rangefinder is a rangefinder that uses a laser beam to determine the distance to an object. The most common form of laser rangefinder operates on the time of flight principle by sending a laser pulse in a narrow beam towards the object and measuring the time taken by the pulse to be reflected off the targe...
How did family members find out if a relative died during WWII?	As with most countries, by telegram. Typically they would inform the family that the relative was missing, e.g.: _URL_3_ As noted, a letter (usually from the CO) would follow. Of course, some of the missing turned up, I believe the Red Cross would get lists of POWs and inform the armed forces, who would then inform t...	[ "The only family member who would still be alive at the end of the war was the baby. The authorities sent Wilfriede to a children's home run by the National Socialist People's Welfare [organisation] (\"\"Nationalsozialistische Volkswohlfahrt\"\") in nearby Waiblingen. Fairly early on she understood that her mother ...
why if i slowly submerge an oreo in milk will it completely sink in less than a minute but if i simply drop it in, it seems to float forever?	The surface tension of the milk holds it up. If you look at water, you will see that the surface is like a thin rubber skin. This keeps the cookie afloat. Also, since most of it is above the liquid, it does not soak up as much.	[ "When raw milk is left standing for a while, it turns \"sour\". This is the result of fermentation, where lactic acid bacteria ferment the lactose in the milk into lactic acid. Prolonged fermentation may render the milk unpleasant to consume. This fermentation process is exploited by the introduction of bacterial c...
Did the Soviet Union have competitive entrance examinations for Universities? If yes, how did they differ from the ones in Europe and US?	As a follow up question to OP's question, how common was it for Soviet universities to increase the difficulty of the entrance exams for, so-called, "undesirables"? [This article](_URL_0_) highlights the unfairness of entrance exams given to prospective Jewish students at the mathematics department of Moscow State Uni...	[ "The German university model was also used in Russian universities, which hired lecturers trained in Germany and which dedicated themselves to science. At the same time, Russian universities were meant to train the bureaucracy in the same way as the French grandes écoles. Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, Rus...
How good were the Confederacy's other generals in regards to Robert E Lee? Or the Northern generals for that matter? Were they second-rate, or just as good as Lee himself?	It might be best to start on a discussion of Lee just to clear up what we're looking at in terms of a measuring stick. OP's question presupposes that Robert E. Lee was one of, if not THE best general of the American Civil War. By "best" I assume this is a combination of factors including (1) scoreboard, or win/loss rat...	[ "Although plagued by an overall shortage in numbers, Lee had fewer worries about the organization and quality of his manpower. Most of his soldiers had enlisted for the duration of the war, thus his army lost few regiments due to expired terms of service. Also, thanks to its better replacement system, Confederate r...
what led to the creation of the knights templar and what was their mo?	During the Crusades, the Church controlled Jerusalem for a time, and this attracted pilgrimages to go see the holy land. The trip from Western Europe to the Levant was rough and dangerous. The Knights Templar were formed as a monastic order charged with securing the safety of pilgrims. Besides safety, they also serv...	[ "The original historic Knights Templar were a Christian military order, the Order of the Poor Fellow Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, that existed from the 12th to 14th centuries to provide warriors in the Crusades. These men were famous in the high and late Middle Ages, but the Order was disbanded ...
why we flinch	Fight or flight instinct. When surprised, your body/brain makes itself ready to defend itself, or run for the hills...	[ "Flinching is showing a strong negative physical reaction to a proposal. Common examples of flinching are gasping for air, or a visible expression of surprise or shock. The flinch can be done consciously or unconsciously. The flinch signals to the opposite party that you think the offer or proposal is absurd in hop...
what will happen if we try to land on a gas gaint, like jupiter? will we come out from the other end, never being able to land?	Think of it like a submarine going too deep into the ocean- you reach a point where the pressure is so immense you are crushed. The gas giants do not have "air" flowing over "ground" like a rocky planet, it's a dense atmosphere that gets so dense it's basically liquid, then so dense it's basically a gooey solid, much l...	[ "BULLET::::- 27 August – NASA's \"Juno\" probe makes a close pass of Jupiter, coming within of the cloud tops – the closest any spacecraft has ever approached the gas giant without entering its atmosphere.\n", "A major problem in sending space probes to Jupiter is that the planet has no solid surface on which to ...
How long did soldiers have to stand in the landing crafts during D-Day?	The convoys carrying troops departed from ports in southern England on the afternoon of June 5, 1944 and proceeded slowly across the channel with heavy air cover. They dropped anchor in their designated transport areas 23,000 yards offshore at roughly 0200 on June 6, at the same time that airborne forces were being lan...	[ "Norman Harry Poole MC (9 April 1920 – 26 June 2015) was a British soldier who was one of the first allied soldiers to land on occupied territory on D-Day in 1944. Poole won the Military Cross for his actions on that day and subsequently as he evaded capture by the enemy for six weeks.\n", "In World War II the bu...
What is the origin and historical context of so called, "honor killings?"	hi! if you don't get responses here (or even if you do), it might be worth x-posting this question to /r/AskSocialScience and/or /r/AskAnthropology for their perspective	[ "Al-Qaradawi says that honor killing is a tradition that was carried out thousands of years ago by ancient civilization; the Romans, the Dark Ages, Chinese Emperors, etc. He says, it has nothing to do with Islam; neither Qur'an nor Sunnah (Prophetic Hadith). He calls on those who done it to be punishable with death...
Would the night sky have appeared much brighter in the time of the dinosaurs?	The universe is expanding, but gravity keeps small-scale (relatively speaking!) structures like galaxies - and even groups of galaxies - together. The volume of space containing all the stars we can see is a vanishingly small part of our galaxy! So the number of stars visible doesn't really change as the Universe expan...	[ "\"Huygens\" found the brightness of the surface of Titan (at time of landing) to be about one thousand times dimmer than full solar illumination on Earth (or 500 times brighter than illumination by full moonlight)—that is, the illumination level experienced about ten minutes after sunset on Earth, approximately la...
why there are lions in india, but no tigers in africa?	> Lions, leopards and tigers are all part of the Felidae family of cats, which originated in Africa and share a common ancestor. At some point, probably around 2 million years ago, one offshoot of Felidae migrated east toward Asia, and those cats evolved into the orange-, black-, and white-striped beasts we know toda...	[ "In Africa, lions are threatened by pre-emptive killing or in retaliation for preying on livestock. Prey base depletion, loss and conversion of habitat have led to a number of subpopulations becoming small and isolated. Trophy hunting has contributed to population declines in Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Zambia....
Why do larger land animals seemingly tend to have fewer legs (among those that have them)?	There is a huge difference in the way invertebrates and vertebrates develop, the initial stage a single fertilize egg is the same, but already after a few divisions you start noticing differences. What is important is that our legs are vastly different structures than the leg of a grashopper. Vertebrates all share a ...	[ "A small bodied animal has a greater capacity to be more abundant than a large bodied one. Purely as a function of geometry many more small things can be packed into a given space than can large things into the same area. However, these limits are generally never reached in ecological systems as other resources bec...
From my understanding hundreds of years ago when a country would steal land to absorb into their empire, they’d invade and forcibly take the land they wanted. Now when countries want land they negotiate, buy and sell it, when did that change occur?	Your understanding is pretty much incorrect. First off, the entire idea of land being firmly and incontrovertibly owned by a particular sovereignty, with concrete territorial boundaries marked off, is roughly speaking a modern idea associated with what is commonly called "Westphalian sovereignty", after the Treaty ...	[ "The completion of colonial conquest of much of the world (see the Scramble for Africa), the devastation of World War I and World War II, and the alignment of both the United States and the Soviet Union with the principle of self-determination led to the abandonment of the right of conquest in formal international ...
why do spinning objects seem to stay in the air longer?	Spinning stabilizes the object so that it doesn't wobble or flip over. This enables it to continue moving through the air smoothly. By itself this doesn't make it stay up any longer, just travel farther. However, if the object is also shaped like a wing (a Frisbee is), staying in the right orientation allows it to ge...	[ "Spin (rotation) has little influence on lift and drag forces but impacts a disc's stability during flight. Imagine a spinning top. A gentle nudge will knock it off its axis of rotation for a second, but it will not topple over because spin adds gyroscopic stability. In the same way, a flying disc resists rolling (...

Subsets and Splits

No community queries yet

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