question stringlengths 3 301 | answer stringlengths 9 26.1k | context list |
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what's going on in my body when it suddenly decides to tell me i'm super hungry? | Basicly, there's a part of your brain, called Hypothalamus, that observes the bloodsugar level in your blood. And when it gets low, it sends out signals to other parts of your brain to find food.
The other way around, it also notices when you eat something, and rewards you with a satisfactory feeling, especially if y... | [
"There are numerous signals given off that initiate hunger. There are environmental signals, signals from the gastrointestinal system, and metabolic signals that trigger hunger. The environmental signals come from the body’s senses. The feeling of hunger could be triggered by the smell and thought of food, the sigh... |
Why is wireless charging so inefficient? | Because we don't control the way the energy propagates from the source. It just does so according to the rigid laws of EM.
The simplest example of the phenomena is to take a flash light and shine it at a wall up close and notice how intense the illumination is. Then step back a few feet and watch how quickly it dulls... | [
"Wireless charging is making an impact in the medical sector by means of being able to charge implants and sensors long term that are located beneath the skin. Researchers have been able to print wireless power transmitting antenna on flexible materials that could be placed under the skin of patients. This could me... |
why do we elevate a sprained ankle? isn't blood good for it? why should we be draining it away from the injury (if that's the point)? | Blood is good for it, but the amount of blood that causes the swelling isn't. Too much blood can put undue pressure on the injury, which can slow the healing process. Combined with the fact that modern medicine has stuff we can take to help the process along, and the excess of blood isn't necessary in the least, and ha... | [
"In cases where the ankle does not heal in an appropriate amount of time, other exercises need to be implemented so that strength and flexibility can be regained. Physical therapists assign different types of ankle sprain exercises that deal with ankle flexibility, strengthening, balance, and agility. If an ankle s... |
Why did the Pope move to Avignon? | ‘Ubi papa, ibi roma (Rome is where the Pope is)’: This is a famous quote from the word of one of the Avignon Popes, Urban V (r. 1362-70). Nevertheless, this passage can actually imply several aspects of the Papacy during this period as well as its pre-history, not only the famous representation of notorious ‘Babylonian... | [
"The Avignon Papacy was the period from 1309 to 1376 during which seven successive popes resided in Avignon (then in the Kingdom of Arles, part of the Holy Roman Empire, now in France) rather than in Rome. The situation arose from the conflict between the papacy and the French crown, culminating in the death of Pop... |
How did soldiers in WW1 stay so motivated? | * [What was the motivation for the continuation of the bloody back and forth fighting of WW1 on the Western Front? Why couldn't they just stay in the trenches and just defend rather than attack again and again?] (_URL_6_)
* [How did soldiers, generals, politicians, etc. cope with the carnage of the First World War?] (_... | [
"After World War II, countless veterans came back to America and many of them had a difficult time readjusting to civilian life. They searched for the adventure and adrenaline rush associated with life at war that had now left them. Civilian life felt too monotonous for some men who also craved feelings of exciteme... |
is there an evolutionary reason people think "the good old days" were better? | there are hundreds of studies in this area. as a whole it comes down to one thing, change. change is not received well by humans because change takes us out of our comfort zones. this can give the feeling of uncertainly and ultimately causes a primal response. a good thing to look at in the 'change curve'. this is the ... | [
"Good old days is a cliché in popular culture. It is used to reference a time considered by the speaker to be better than the current era. It is a form of nostalgia which can reflect homesickness or yearning for long-gone moments.\n",
"Another of Easterbrook's books, focusing on social science, is \"The Progress ... |
how did banks greatly contribute/ cause to the great recession in the 2000’s? | They made a lot of very bad lending decisions. They gave people money in exchange for pieces of paper saying they will get paid back. The people they gave money to a lot of times weren’t going to be able to pay it back, but the banks still gave them the money. Then, they sold all of their pieces of paper to their bank ... | [
"The recession came at a particularly bad time for banks because of a recent wave of deregulation. The Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act of 1980 had phased out a number of restrictions on their financial practices, broadened their lending powers, and raised the deposit insurance limit fr... |
What were the major problems which held back the development of
the French economy in the late 1700s?
| It's important to note geographical bad luck meant it lacked the plentiful and easily accessible coal, iron,etc that allowed Britain to industrialise. It then entered the Eden Treaty with Britain which lowered import duties on British manufactured goods and as a result was swamped with cheap British goods placing strai... | [
"French economic history since its late-18th century Revolution was tied to three major events and trends: the Napoleonic Era, the competition with Britain and its other neighbors in regards to 'industrialization', and the 'total wars' of the late-19th and early 20th centuries. Quantitative analysis of output data ... |
why do some diseases kill so quickly? wouldn’t it be more advantageous to be super slow and stealthy so you can get the biggest bang for your buck out of your host? | The majority of those diseases - often called plagues - are not natural to humans. They're diseases that have jumped the species gap from some other species to humans.
What's the equivalent of a cold to an animal may be far more lethal to the biology of a human. As such they didn't evolve for humans and don't exhibit ... | [
"Generally, if a virus kills its host too quickly, the host will not have a chance to come in contact with other hosts and transmit the virus before dying. However, in serial passage, when a virus was being transmitted from host to host regardless of its virulence, such as Subbaro’s experiment, the viruses that gro... |
how does a long exposure picture (10 plus hours) of other galaxies work when the earth in constantly spinning? | Normally the telescope/camera is attached to a motorised tracking device/"tripod" which ensures the object being photographed remains in the centre of the image. | [
"When light from a star or another astronomical object enters the Earth's atmosphere, atmospheric turbulence (introduced, for example, by different temperature layers and different wind speeds interacting) can distort and move the image in various ways (see astronomical seeing for a full discussion). Visual images ... |
Why does Zinc only rust on the outer layer while iron rust all the way through? | The product of the corrosion (zinc oxide) forms a protective layer preventing further oxidation of the zinc, whereas the iron oxides which are a result of iron rusting are fragile and flaky and don't form a protective layer. | [
"friable, and it provides no protection to the underlying iron, unlike the formation of patina on copper surfaces. Rusting is the common term for corrosion of iron and its alloys, such as steel. Many other metals undergo similar corrosion, but the resulting oxides are not commonly called rust.\n",
"Though usually... |
why is it that butterflies don't need to learn how to fly ? | They are little pre-programmed organic machines. Just as spiders don’t have to learn how to weave a web, and crickets don’t have to learn to chirp.
Lower level insects are reacting to stimuli and running their software loops (with an ultimate goal / focus on successful reproduction). | [
"Butterflies without defences such as toxins or mimicry protect themselves through a flight that is more bumpy and unpredictable than in other species. It is assumed this behavior makes it more difficult for predators to catch them, and is caused by the turbulence created by the small whirlpools formed by the wings... |
What would the uniform of a British officer in the North American frontier have looked like between 1750-say 1800? | Officers uniforms are substantially more difficult to generalize than that of the men under their command- By virtue of the fact that officers had their uniforms privately tailored and not issued *en masse*- The first document regulating officers' dress was issued in 1768 (which we will come to later).
Having said th... | [
"Throughout most of the 18th century the regiment's coat was white (originally the grey-white of non-dyed wool), with a blue waistcoat underneath, without turnbacks or a collar, and with pewter buttons. Facings were red (on the cuffs only). Canadian troops wore the same, except with a red waistcoat. Both fusiliers ... |
how should i interpret the new finding "processed meat has been linked to an 18% increased risk for colon cancer"? | According to BBC, it's the latter:
> In the UK, around **six out of every 100** people get bowel cancer at some point in their lives.
If they were all had an extra 50g of bacon a day for the rest of their lives then **the risk would increase by 18% to around seven in 100** people getting bowel cancer.
"So th... | [
"In May 2009, the report was criticised by University College London pharmacologist David Colquhoun on his blog Improbable Science. Colquhoun questioned the Expert Panel's conclusion that there is convincing evidence that processed meat is a cause of cancer, claiming that although the studies mentioned in the repor... |
why spanking your children is becoming less accepted by society. | It's illegal to beat anyone, why would it be legal to beat your child?
Also it's a bad tool to actually instruct your child with. Think about it like this, 2 children join their parents for a birthday party. Both kids misbehave, so the parents of kid A spanks him, but parents of kid B explains to him why what he did w... | [
"According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, \"The only way to maintain the initial effect of spanking is to systematically increase the intensity with which it is delivered, which can quickly escalate into abuse\". They note that \"Parents who spank their children are more likely to use other unacceptable for... |
How were teen pop idols such as Elvis Presley or The Beatles perceived among male teens? | Apparently the French boys loved the Beatles even more than the girls did.
> Ringo recalled, “These boys chased us all over Paris. Before, we'd been more used to girls. The audience was a roar instead of a scream; it was a bit like when we played Stowe boys' school.”
[George wasn't very enthused about that though,... | [
"Likewise, Tommy Steele, the Beatles with Beatlemania, the Rolling Stones, and The Beach Boys were teen idols, especially during the earlier part of their careers, although they quickly grew out of that status. The Rolling Stones did it through a more rebellious image, the Beatles did it through their more develope... |
Pre-settlement North America for dummies. | If you're interested in the Amerindians (natives of both North and South America, sans Inuits and a few others) rather than strictly North America, then I'd recommend Charles C. Mann's "1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus".
It's popular history and a tertiary source, but unlike many such books, it's ... | [
"One of the first locales to appear on maps of North America, listed as \"Haverstroo\", which means \"oat straw\". It was common for the Lenape to use straw thatch for roofs on their dwellings, or wigwams.\n",
"Although many species of caviomorphs have migrated into Central America since the Great American Interc... |
game engines | A game engine is nothing more than a bunch of code/software that handles the "hard" parts of making a game work so that the developers can focus on creating gameplay and content.
Some things that a game engine may do:
* Read and write graphics files (3D models, textures, sprites, etc.) and display them on the screen
... | [
"A game engine is a software-development environment designed for people to build video games. Developers use game engines to construct games for consoles, mobile devices, and personal computers. The core functionality typically provided by a game engine includes a rendering engine (\"renderer\") for 2D or 3D graph... |
Why did Iberian colonization typically involve interbreeding with/integrating the natives, while British colonization typically involved displacing natives? | While someone else with deeper knowledge on this issue comes, I can answer one of your questions:
> Was there less stigma on having children with the native people in Spanish colonies?
We have to distinguish between *actual* marriages between Spaniards and natives and other forms of producing mixed children (largely... | [
"As colonialism often played out in pre-populated areas, sociocultural evolution included the formation of various ethnically hybrid populations. Colonialism gave rise to culturally and ethnically mixed populations such as the mestizos of the Americas, as well as racially divided populations such as those found in ... |
Why doesn't atoms nuclei collapse? | > The question I'm asking is, if the strong nuclear force is that much stronger than the electromagnetic force at the distances of a atom nucleus, why does it have a radius?
It's the same thing as will the atom. Nucleons occupy discrete orbitals within the nucleus. | [
"Ordinarily, atoms are mostly electron clouds by volume, with very compact nuclei at the center (proportionally, if atoms were the size of a football stadium, their nuclei would be the size of dust mites). When a stellar core collapses, the pressure causes electrons and protons to fuse by electron capture. Without ... |
the restoring internet freedom act | Restoring Internet Freedom Act. This bill nullifies the rule adopted by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on February 26, 2015, relating to the reclassification of broadband Internet access service as a telecommunications service.
_URL_0_
_URL_1_ | [
"On January 4, 2018, the current version of \"Restoring Internet freedom\" was made public, and was officially codified in the Federal Register on February 22, 2018, with the rules taking effect on June 11, 2018.\n",
"The Freedom of Internet Act (formerly Free Internet Act) is an act aimed to legislate the Intern... |
Can satellites be in geostationary orbit at places other than the equator? Assuming it was feasible, could you have a space elevator hovering above NYC? | Hi! I work on the geostationary satellites for NOAA. Since you said you know very little about physics, here's a quick primer on orbits.
Orbits occur when an object is falling sideways fast enough to "miss" the Earth. This might be hard to imagine, so imagine throwing a baseball. The baseball goes up and down, but... | [
"A disadvantage of geostationary satellites is the incomplete geographical coverage, since ground stations at higher than roughly 60 degrees latitude have difficulty reliably receiving signals at low elevations. Satellite dishes at such high latitudes would need to be pointed almost directly towards the horizon. Th... |
how do ocean creatures survive such great depths, 2500m plus while even our steel submarines are completely crushed? | Because organic creatures (including humans) are mostly made of water, and water can't compress.
Submarines have a pressure hull which encloses an air-filled space. The strength required to resist the pressure at extreme deeps is extraordinarily high. But we have sent crewed vehicles to the bottom of the deepest ocea... | [
"At great depths, food scarcity and extreme pressure limits the ability of fish to survive. The deepest point of the ocean is about 11,000 metres. Bathypelagic fishes are not normally found below 3,000 metres. It may be that extreme pressures interfere with essential enzyme functions.\n",
"The deep trenches or fi... |
why do different items usually have the same shipping price even if they're completely different in size, weight, shape, etc? | One reason is that the shipping company has price ranges to simplify billing.
A small box that weighs next to nothing costs the same to ship as a box sized exactly the same but containing four books.
If you look at the price ranges of shipping companies it usually says something like this:
Size 1: not larger than Ax... | [
"Many markets for commonly used goods feature products which are perfectly substitutable yet are differently branded and marketed, a condition referred to as monopolistic competition. A good example may be the comparison between store brand and name brand versions of medications - the products may be \"identical\" ... |
Why doesn't Raoult's Law depend on the chemical nature of solute? | I think the issue here is it is not actually a "Law", it only holds in the case of weak interactions. [Real solutions can deviate from these laws.](_URL_0_) | [
"Raoult's law was originally discovered as an idealised experimental law. Using Raoult's law as the definition of an ideal solution, it is possible to deduce that the chemical potential of each component of the liquid is given by\n",
"Henry's law has been shown to apply to a wide range of solutes in the limit of ... |
why is it that you hear about so many new amazing materials / inventions but you rarely see them being used or sold? | A lot of the time these inventions or new “breakthroughs” are sensationalized before they ever even get adequate testing. It’s not uncommon for articles to report on something and make it sound like it’s amazing when in reality scientists/organizations haven’t even tested the stuff enough to definitively say whether or... | [
"New materials are continuously developed to address the extreme demands of market segments such as petrochemical and aerospace. Metallurgical advances have produced a wide range of high-performance materials (e.g. titanium and high-nickel alloys), but a consequence of their attractive properties is often that they... |
why does stroking (many times) my disposable razor over denim/jeans make it sharpen again? | There are three possibilities:
1) The effect is purely psychological.
2) Rubbing it on your jeans is cleaning out little bits of hair, skin and soap that were clogging it.
3) You are stropping it.
If a blade (either a razor or a knife) is made of good steel, then it will actually retain a sharp edge for quite some... | [
"A razor strop (or razor strap) is a flexible strip of leather, canvas, denim fabric, balsa wood, or other soft material, used to straighten and polish the blade of a straight razor, a knife, or a woodworking tool like a chisel. In many cases stropping re-aligns parts of the blade edge that have been bent out of al... |
why does a pitch that is slightly flat sound better than one that is slightly sharp? | I think that may be your opinion because flat sounds way worse to me than sharp. Can't say for sure though | [
"If the lower pitch is sharp or the upper pitch is flat, the interval may be said to be flat given that as a whole it is too narrow; while if the lower pitch is flat or the upper pitch is sharp, the interval may be said to be sharp given that as a whole it is too wide. Intervals are conventionally measured from the... |
why is titanium flammable? | This is not really something special about titanium.
Many materials have pretty much the same thing going on.
Metals like titanium can oxidize. When that happens to iron we call it rust. With most metal objects they automatically form a thin layer of oxidized material on the surface. If you scratch that layer you exp... | [
"Titanium is often used in medical and military applications because of its strength, weight, and corrosion resistance characteristics. In implantable medical devices, titanium is used because of its biocompatibility and its passive, stable oxide layer. Also, titanium allergies are rare and in those cases mitigatio... |
why do hackers want to use linux os even though it's easier to use windows or mac os? | Once they get through the learning curve it is easier to use linux. Besides, linux is free. The other two will cost eventually. | [
"The greatest barrier to Linux desktop adoption is probably that few desktop PCs come with it from the factory. A.Y. Siu asserted in 2006 that most people use Windows simply because most PCs come with Windows pre-installed; they didn't choose it. Linux has much lower market penetration because in most cases users h... |
How did some ancient sites survive as tourist sites? | Mostly because they were given another use.
For example, the pantheon in Rome was made into a Christian church and the Parthenon in Athens had various uses over the centuries, including as ammunition storage by the Ottoman Empire, which led to part of it exploding.
The Colloseum is an interesting one. It was left d... | [
"The tourist development observed is mainly attributable to the promotion of important archaeological sites, such as the Palace of Nestor, Ancient Messene, and the Venetian castles of Pylos, Koroni, Methoni and Kalamata, as well as to the beauty of the landscape. \n",
"Archaeological tourism can include all produ... |
What was the largest migration in human history? | The [Partition of India](_URL_0_) in 1947 and the according migration of people to either Pakistan or India as the nations formed is likely the largest migration we have records for. About 12 million people moved. | [
"A specific mass migration that is seen as especially influential to the course of history may be referred to as a 'great migration'. For example, great migrations include the Indo-European invasion of Europe and South Asia during the Bronze Age, Barbarian Invasions during the Roman Empire, the Great Migration from... |
Are quarks really the smallest "form" of matter, or is that just the assumption since we can't effectively see what could be inside of them? | Quarks are almost certainly indivisible, and here's why.
The uncertainty principle states that the product of the uncertainty in an objects position and in that objects momentum must be larger than a certain value. This has nothing to do with measurement, but rather with a fundamental property of the way frequency an... | [
"Six types of quarks (up, down, strange, charm, bottom and top) have been found experimentally; however, the majority of matter on Earth is made up of only up and down quarks. It is a fundamental question whether there exists stable matter made up of strange quarks in combination with up and down quarks. Particles ... |
Diphenhydramine(Benadryl) is most known as an allergy pill, but it's also a cough suppressant, anti-vomiting/nausea, sedative, local anesthetic, anti-OCD, etc. How does this work? | I find this to be a fascinating area of medicine/pharmacology. [Antihistamines](_URL_0_) and [Phenothiazines](_URL_1_) are closely related families of medicines, please take a look at their similar chemical structure and related derivatives. It's no wonder that the effects are shared. take [Compazine](_URL_2_) and [Ste... | [
"Dicycloverine, also known as dicyclomine, is a medication that is used to treat spasms of the intestines such as occur in irritable bowel syndrome. It is taken by mouth or by injection into a muscle. While it has been used in baby colic and enterocolitis, evidence does not support these uses.\n",
"Propylhexedrin... |
Can things spin in space with force coming from just one point? | You're both right and both wrong. The resulting motion will be composed of a translation *and* a rotation. How much of each depends on the details. If you're comfortable with conservation of linear and angular momentum, you can approach it as a collision between some impactor and the end of the pole.
It could be th... | [
"BULLET::::- The Coriolis effect gives an apparent force that acts on objects that move relative to a rotating reference frame. This apparent force acts at right angles to the motion and the rotation axis and tends to curve the motion in the opposite sense to the habitat's spin. If an astronaut inside a rotating ar... |
Were wild cats selectively bred by humans to give us our current day house cat? | I suspect that dogs and cats were rather similar in their early domestication in that _neither_ was directly selectively bred by humans. It's thought that the wolf ancestors of dogs started following human groups around to basically scavenge kills and eat garbage. The friendliest, most human tolerant wolves got the m... | [
"During domestication, cats have undergone only minor changes in anatomy and behavior, and they are still capable of surviving in the wild. House cats often interbreed with feral cats, producing hybrids such as the Kellas cat in Scotland. Hybridisation between domestic and other small wild cat species is also possi... |
Will the hydrophobic wooden ball sink? | It will sink if it's denser than water, it will float otherwise, just as if it didn't have a hydrophobic coating. The buoyancy force on the ball depends on the amount of water displaced by the ball, and if that's higher than the gravitational force on the ball, it'll float. But the amount of water displaced doesn't cha... | [
"Later, he compares the size of two pieces of wood in water. He says that even though the bigger piece of wood does not sink as it would be thought it, it is compared to the amount of water under it that allows it to not sink like the smaller piece does not as well. \n",
"The more fluid a floating object is able ... |
If all movement is relative, is there a cosmic constant zero angular velocity? | Velocity is relative, and there is no way to tell how fast you are moving. We cannot feel the motion of the planet even though we are flying through space at a very high speed.
Acceleration, however, is not frame independent. That is to say, you will be able to tell if you are accelerating because you will feel a forc... | [
"If the reference point is the instantaneous axis of rotation the expression of the velocity of a point in the rigid body will have just the angular velocity term. This is because the velocity of the instantaneous axis of rotation is zero. An example of the instantaneous axis of rotation is the hinge of a door. Ano... |
Is it true US, French and British forces fought in the Russian civil war? | Please check out my earlier answer on this topic. There is always more to be said though, so feel free to ask if there's anything it does not cover. But in general I will mention that they did not send troops to send the Tsar (who had long since been toppled), but to restore an Eastern Front against the Germans.
[Thi... | [
"During the Civil War, the Union and Russia were allies against what they saw as their potential enemy, Britain. The Russian blue-water navy was stationed in San Francisco and from 1863 in New York—with sealed orders to attack British naval targets in case war broke out between the United States and Britain. This w... |
why does one full rotation equal 360°? | 360 is a relic of ancient base 12 mathematics from the middle east.
The Mesopotamians were big fans of 12 and its multiples because of how simple the mathematics are.
360 is evenly divisible by: 180, 120, 90, 60, 45, 40, 30, 24, 20, 18, 15, 12, 10, 9, 8, 6, 5, 4, 3, and 2.
It has a *huge* number of clean divisions.
... | [
"On the other hand, formula_65 in all circumstances, because a 360° rotation of a \"spatial\" configuration is the same as no rotation at all. (This is different from a 360° rotation of the \"internal\" (spin) state of the particle, which might or might not be the same as no rotation at all.) In other words, the fo... |
mood swings due to hormones (like contraception or pms) | Hormones produced by the ovaries act as powerful neurotransmitters. When the amount you have in the body changes, it can affect your mood because it affects your brain. | [
" A large body of research has looked at the effects of positive or negative mood manipulations on performance in tasks of executive function. In most cases, positive mood inductions impair executive function, whereas negative mood has little effect. Overall, the best supported explanation for the observed effects ... |
Why does hair loss always begin from the top region of the head? | I answered a very similar question a few days ago:
_URL_0_
It has to do with varying levels of DHT sensitivity in different follicles of the scalp. Also, some men begin with the balding starting at the temples, which is how receding hairlines begin. | [
"It can be caused by a diverse group of rare disorders that destroy the hair follicle, replace it with scar tissue, and cause permanent hair loss. A variety of distributions are possible. In some cases, hair loss is gradual, without symptoms, and is unnoticed for long periods. In other cases, hair loss is associate... |
In the Middle Ages, where there any roguish adventurer-types like movies and games? | The idea of these types of heroes certainly existed by the 1600s, since Don Quixote was written (in 1605) to mock the chivalric novels that were popular at that time. In a way, Odysseus is also the same type of character, albeit travelling on a ship with a crew not alone on a horse. This doesn't answer the question, bu... | [
"BULLET::::- \"\" (2008): In this second VeggieTales feature film, three lazy wannabe pirates go back in time to the 17th century, to fight real pirates and become heroes in a battle, to rescue a royal family from an evil tyrant. The three slackers learn that a hero doesn't have to be tall, strong, and handsome to ... |
why small smudges/scratches wreak havoc on audio cd's, but don't seem to affect data and game cd's. | part of it is audio cd can detect, but not correct, read errors. data cd employs redundancy and can actually correct a certain amount of read errors. audio cd uses 2352 (i think, it's been a while) byte sectors, while data cd uses 2048 byte sectors- but in reality, both are actually the same size sectors, the differe... | [
"A wide variety of failures can cause physical damage to storage media, which may result from human errors and natural disasters. CD-ROMs can have their metallic substrate or dye layer scratched off; hard disks can suffer from a multitude of mechanical failures, such as head crashes, PCB failure and failed motors; ... |
Has the increased workforce participation of women reduced wages? | It certainly doesn't appear that way. [Here](_URL_1_) is the real median personal income, which has been rising since the 1980s, as has [the humber of dual income householda] (_URL_4_) and the % of [the workforce made up of women](_URL_3_). Furthermore, [mens wages do not appear to drop when women's wages rise](_URL_... | [
"Sociologists, economists, and politicians have proposed several theories about the causes of gender wage gap. Some believe that woman's salaries are based on the career path that women choose. They stipulate that the women chose low-paying jobs, clerical work, and to work in services (see also Pink-collar worker).... |
Why does the label on my MSG say it has 0% protein? | Nutrition labels are mandated by law. Like when you buy a bottled water, the nutrition label tells you that it has 0% everything. The deinition of what's protein and what's not is determined by the FDA (in America).
_URL_0_ | [
"The FDA considers labels such as \"no MSG\" or \"no added MSG\" misleading if the food has ingredients which are sources of free glutamate, such as hydrolyzed protein. In 1993, it proposed adding \"contains glutamate\" to the common names of certain hydrolyzed proteins with substantial amounts of glutamate.\n",
... |
When a material is cut or broken, where exactly is the separation happening? | Depends on material:
When you break ice, you break the Van der waals bonds between molecules.
When you break a metal, the metal is all atoms bound by metalic bonds so you break metal to metal bonds.
In some ceramics, the ceramic can be thought of one big molecule, and you are breaking molecules. (Ionic and covale... | [
"Fragmentation occurs when material is separated from a surface by a cutting process and the indenting abrasive causes localized fracture of the wear material. These cracks then freely propagate locally around the wear groove, resulting in additional material removal by spalling.\n",
"Cutting occurs when material... |
Is the influence of the Roman Empire overstated in Western culture when compared to other ancient civilizations like the Chinese or the Persians? | Influence on what, exactly? It's hard deny its influence on European civilization, if anything because of thr sheer amount later people intentionally identifiyng with the Greco-Roman tradition. Any influence on a larger scale is terribly hard to quantify or compare. | [
"Several scholars have made comparative studies of the two empires. As historian Samuel Adshead puts it, \"Other comparisons could be made ... None, however, offers so close a parallel with Han China as the Roman empire\". These have tended to focus on the philosophical and intellectual histories of China and the G... |
My bottle of bleach claims to kill 99.9% of all household germs. | What kind of bleach is it? [Clorox regular bleach](_URL_0_), for one example, is a registered disinfectant. Based on the US EPA [website](_URL_1_) disinfectants are "used on hard inanimate surfaces and objects to destroy or irreversibly inactivate infectious fungi and bacteria but not necessarily their spores." I'm ... | [
"Liquid bleaches for domestic use fall in 3 categories: for pool-treatment (10% hypochlorite solutions, without surfactants and detergents) for laundry and general purpose cleaning, at 3–5% active chlorine (which are usually recommended to be diluted substantially before use), and in pre-mixed specialty formulation... |
how does one navigate buying an engagement ring with so many industry pitfalls? | I found a jeweler that was referred to me that wasn’t a national brand. They spent time teaching me about diamonds and how they’re graded and what you can expect for the price you’re paying.
I ended up buying a loose diamond from them after they let me look at a bunch of stones, and then they put it in a setting for ... | [
"The online purchase of engagement rings is growing, disrupting the market for the diamonds by bringing greater transparency to an industry that has traditionally relied on opacity. Online diamond retailers and e-commerce platforms include Blue Nile, Brilliant Earth, and Costco.\n",
"One reason for the increased ... |
Why do we care so much about the facial structures of our mates? | To make it clearer, I think what the OP is trying to say is that facial features don't seem to provide any obvious evolutionary advantages, unlike the rest of our body. So we're selecting for an arbitrary set facial features for no apparent reason.
Edit: So apparently I'm both ugly and ignorant, as shown below. | [
"This hypothesis suggests that secondary sexual characteristics such as a low waist-to-chest ratio or masculine facial features (e.g. strong jawline, larger brow ridge, more muscular) are reliable indicators of mate quality as the hormones that cause their development (i.e. testosterone) suppress the immune system ... |
how exactly do the different settings on dryers (i.e. "permanent press") affect clothes? | According to [Sears](_URL_0_):
> A washer on permanent press will wash clothes in warm water and rinse them in cool water, maintaining a mild agitation and spin. The warm water helps relax creases while the slow spin prevents new wrinkles from forming. A permanent press cycle is gentler than a regular cycle, making i... | [
"In older washing machines, the permanent press setting sprays moisture during the spin cycle to maintain the moisture content of the permanent press fabrics above a certain specified limit to reduce wrinkling. Most older clothes dryers feature an automatic permanent press setting, which puts clothes through a cool... |
why is thermal clothing warm? | People are walking, talking heat generators. Normally, this heat gets lost into the air and spread out across the Earth. Thermal clothing is designed to trap pockets of air so when you heat it up, rather than blowing away to be replaced by cooler air, it stays next to you, keeping your heat close. | [
"Most heated clothing is designed for cold-weather sports and activities, such as motorcycle riding, downhill skiing, diving, winter biking, and snowmobiling, trekking and for outdoor workers such as construction workers and carpenters. Since the London Olympics, heated clothing has also been used by athletes to ke... |
Can someone help me understand the relationship between mathematical models and not yet observed things / events? | To some degree, mathematical models can predict things in the real world. When Dirac theorized the positron, for instance, he did so almost completely on the basis that some cool equations he came up with predicted it would exist. There was no physical evidence for the positron itself, but there was lots of physical ev... | [
"Theorists in astronomy endeavor to create theoretical models and from the results predict observational consequences of those models. The observation of a phenomenon predicted by a model allows astronomers to select between several alternate or conflicting models as the one best able to describe the phenomena.\n",... |
how long can someone be "knocked out" or put in a medically induced coma? and are there dangers of doing this ling term? | Medically-induced coma is used for two things: prolonged seizures that do not respond to anything else, and head trauma which is causing pressure within the skull to rise to the point where the brain may be forced down out of the skull. In the former case, it's been shown you can keep somebody induced for months. The l... | [
"On the tenth day, the first patient, Geller, recovers, and soon it becomes clear that the coma is temporary. There are no ill effects, but the recovered patients have been changed in subtle ways: they discard many of their past, irrational beliefs and fears, and in many cases change their way of life. For instance... |
how do we decipher ancient writings of civilizations that no longer exist? | Cross referencing languages that look similar, and or of same geographic area. There is more to it, but it's the tip of the ice berg. | [
"The difficulty in deciphering these systems can arise from a lack of known language descendants or from the languages being entirely isolated, from insufficient examples of text having been found and even (such as in the case of Vinča) from the question of whether the symbols actually constitute a writing system a... |
Were things as good during the Reagan era as modern-day Republicans say they were? | Hard to evaluate this question as stated, but if you're asking, "Why do Republicans like Reagan", here's an answer I gave a while back: _URL_0_ | [
"Since Reagan left office in 1989, substantial debate has occurred among scholars, historians, and the general public surrounding his legacy. Supporters have pointed to a more efficient and prosperous economy as a result of Reagan's economic policies, foreign policy triumphs including a peaceful end to the Cold War... |
What is the largest stable molecule known? What molecule has the largest number of unique elements contained within it? | To answer part of your question, things like proteins, fats, and DNA strands are just very large molecules known as macromolecules. The largest known protein is Titin. It has the chemical formula C169723 H270464 N45688 O52243 S912.
Some notably large macromolecules are found in the human genome. The genome contains 3.... | [
"The first large molecule whose atomic structure was \"partly\" determined on a molecular computer graphics system was Transfer RNA by Sung-Hou Kim's team in 1976. after initial fitting on a mechanical Richards Box. The first large molecule whose atomic structure was \"entirely\" determined on a molecular computer ... |
how have phone operating systems, today managed to reduce the time required to uninstall an app within a second, irrespective of its size(android os) | I can't destroy a building you're using in a second, but I can lock the main door in a second. The result will be the same for you, you can't use the building anymore. I'll then take my time to actually destroy it properly.
Your phone doesn't completely delete all the stuff in a second. It is just deletes the icon th... | [
"On September 1, 2016, Apple announced that starting September 7, it would be removing old apps that do not function as intended or that don't follow current review guidelines. Developers will be warned and given 30 days to update their apps, but apps that crash on startup will be removed immediately. Additionally,... |
every now and then when you inhale deeply there is that extra room to breathe in really deep that feels great. what is the biological mechanism behind this? | A deep breath increases oxygen to the brain and stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system which promotes calmness. | [
"Diaphragmatic breathing, or deep breathing, is breathing that is done by contracting the diaphragm, a muscle located horizontally between the thoracic cavity and abdominal cavity. Air enters the lungs, the chest does not rise and the belly expands during this type of breathing.\n",
"During heavy breathing, exhal... |
how is it not considered false advertising for a company to make commercial that says an offer is only good for a limited or certain amount of time, then play it for years? | In the fine print they probably reserve the right to alter, extend, cancel any promotions at any time without any obligation to inform customers. | [
"Generally, advertisements are not offers but invitations to treat, so the person advertising is not compelled to sell. In \"Partridge v Crittenden\" [1968] 1 WLR 1204, a defendant who was charged with \"offering for sale protected birds\"—bramblefinch cocks and hens that he had advertised for sale in a newspaper—w... |
why animals can breed with their own family without genetic problems but humans cant | Animals can not be bred with their own families without causing occasional problems.
This is one of the reasons why most pure-bred dogs have a [shorter life-expectancy](_URL_0_) than mixed breed or mongrels. (There are other reasons for this too, though.) | [
"Natural breedings include inbreeding by necessity, and most animals only migrate when necessary. In many cases, the closest available mate is a mother, sister, grandmother, father, brother, or grandfather. In all cases, the environment presents stresses to remove from the population those individuals who cannot su... |
What would the leaders of the American Revolution have expected to happen should the revolution have failed? | I think it's a stretch, without a firm source, to say the revolutionaries would have definitely been hanged for treason if the war went poorly. If the land-owning, formerly-respected members of the revolution sued for peace, there could have been a possibility of some manner of pardon, depending on each side's respecti... | [
"The American Revolution has occurred, but it was carried out with the support of the company, which used it as an opportunity to establish a puppet government in North America. The French Revolution also occurred, prematurely, but was considerably \"less messy\": most aristocrats were either made to live normal li... |
why does it seem that mercury(ii) thiocyanate is creating new mass when heated, therefore defying the law of conservation of mass? | It's not creating new mass, it's creating new _volume_, the same way your mom does when she whips egg whites into a meringue or when a cake or souffle rises in the oven. Whipping egg whites incorporates air bubbles into the protein structure of the egg whites. Similarly when baking a cake, the baking powder in the bat... | [
"The relativistic conservation law for energy and momentum replaces the three classical conservation laws for energy, momentum and mass. Mass is no longer conserved independently, because it has been subsumed into the total relativistic energy. This makes the relativistic conservation of energy a simpler concept th... |
how can population keep growing, and poverty declining, in a world that has limited resources? | We keep getting better at using/gathering those limited resources... and "limited" in this sense is still a really large number. | [
"An increase in global population can result in a decrease in biocapacity. This is usually due to the fact that the Earth’s resources have to be shared; therefore, there becomes little to supply the increasing demand of the increasing population. Currently, this issue can be resolved by outsourcing. However, resour... |
how does service in a (posh, i suppose) restaurant work - from the maitre d' taking orders, to what happens in the kitchen. | In any proper restaurant, you will have 2 major teams: Front of House, and Back of House. Both of these teams report up to the Owner and his team. Let's look at Front of House. In the front, you will have the Maitre d' running the show. He is responsible for the general operations of the restaurant...open/close, a... | [
"BULLET::::- In restaurants, you often order each dish as you want it, so that they are not ordered all at once at the beginning of the meal. In informal restaurants, you may be required to share a table. If so, do not force conversation: act as if you are seated at a private table. Waitstaff may be summoned by mak... |
why do you get a closer shave when you go over the same area multiple times? | because the first pass takes some hair, and some of the top layer of dead skin. so the second pass is closer to the root of the hair.
pro tip: exfoliate before you shave. then do one pass. less razor bumps, healthier skin, closer shave. | [
"Shaving is accomplished with bladed instruments, such as razors. The blade is brought close to the skin and stroked over the hair in the desired area to cut the terminal hairs and leave the skin feeling smooth. Depending upon the rate of growth, one can begin to feel the hair growing back within hours of shaving. ... |
What were some true triumphs in Hitler's military control, and what were some undeniable examples of his incompetency? | Triumph: Hitler attacked Poland, and then the following spring France, at a time when most of his generals felt that Germany was far from ready to fight. (They wanted to wait until 1945.) In both cases they achieved near-total success in a breathtakingly short time.
Failure: Hitler felt that because Russia was "rotten... | [
"In part because of the unexpected degree of German success in the Battle of France (despite the warnings of the professional military) Hitler believed himself a military genius, with a grasp of the total war-effort that eluded his generals. In August 1941, when Walther von Brauchitsch (commander-in-chief of the \"... |
how did you distinguish friendly and enemy knights during the war of the roses when knights did wear plate armor? | The first example you show is a modern painting by Graham Turner. The second is a manuscript illumination, probably painted by someone who never saw the battle depicted. So I would caution against concluding that, because of these depictions knights did not wear anything to identify thselves. I need to look up my ow... | [
"One of the greatest distinguishing marks of the knightly class was the flying of coloured banners, to display power and to distinguish knights in battle and in tournaments. Knights are generally \"armigerous\" (bearing a coat of arms), and indeed they played an essential role in the development of heraldry. As hea... |
Does it help to read works in their original languages? | Yes and no.
Basically it depends on your Latin. Reading and translating stuff ancient languages is both a science and an art. There is more to Latin than 'Latin': [there are several different sorts](_URL_0_). Hence why there are so many translations of different Latin sources. If you read something using 'your Latin' ... | [
"The most direct way to incorporate a language other than English would be to either simply present it in the foreign form and leave the reader in the unknown or translate it completely into English with the implication that it is meant to be in Japanese and move on. While it may seem redundant or unnecessary, DeWi... |
why does black ink often appear a metallic purple/orange colour? | Because black is all of the colors. It has purple and orange in it. So depending how the light hits it depends what shines | [
"The ink was traditionally prepared by adding some iron(II) sulfate (FeSO) to a solution of tannic acid, but any iron ion donor can be used. The gallotannic acid was usually extracted from oak galls or galls of other trees, hence the name. Fermentation or hydrolysis of the extract releases glucose and gallic acid, ... |
Does the quality of gold impact its conductivity? | The main conductors of electricity in metals are free electrons. Impurities serve as additional scattering sources for electrons, reducing their mean free path and lowering the conductivity. Even if it's impurities of silver or aluminum (metals that conduct better), these atoms do not perfectly merge into the crystalli... | [
"The diffusivity and solubility of gold into silicon substrate increases with rising bonding temperatures. A higher temperature than the eutectic temperature is usually preferred for the bonding procedure. This may result in the formation of a thicker Au-Si alloy layer and further a stronger eutectic bond.\n",
"G... |
How did scientists practice chemistry before the mass production of chemicals? | Well for starters you have to forget about molar concentrations, since they didn't know about molecules in the 18th century, let alone Avogadro's number. If they measured concentrations, it was in terms of volume or weight %. Magnesium was not known as such in that time either. They did know of "Epsom salt", which is n... | [
"The history of chemistry spans a period from very old times to the present. Since several millennia BC, civilizations were using technologies that would eventually form the basis of the various branches of chemistry. Examples include extracting metals from ores, making pottery and glazes, fermenting beer and wine,... |
Is there a particular reason as to why Tutankhamen's tomb wasn't discovered before 1922? | Multiple reasons, as far as I can tell. I don't think it had much to do with his father (by which you mean Akhenaten, I imagine), despite the stigma that we assume came with his progenitor's name. After the glamor and chaos of Akhenaten's rule, and compared to the pharaohs of the past, Tutankhamen (formerly Tutenkhat... | [
"His body was removed after the court returned to Thebes, and recent genetic tests have confirmed that the body found buried in tomb KV55 was the father of Tutankhamun, and is therefore \"most probably\" Akhenaten, The tomb contained numerous Amarna era objects, including a royal coffin, the face of which had been ... |
Did pop culture exist in the post-Roman period? | When you write "post-Roman," do you mean the early middle ages?
A lot of the art and culture that has been preserved from that period is sacred, partly because the institutions recording everything were affiliated with the church. You can't really separate religious life from everyday life in this time period (or magi... | [
"In Italy, by 1964, pop art was known and took different forms, such as the \"Scuola di Piazza del Popolo\" in Rome, with pop artists such as Mario Schifano, Franco Angeli, Giosetta Fioroni, Tano Festa, Claudio Cintoli, and some artworks by Piero Manzoni, Lucio Del Pezzo, Mimmo Rotella and Valerio Adami.\n",
"Alt... |
Why does hand sanitizer kill the bacteria and viruses on my hands, but not the living skin cells directly adjacent? | Sanitizer kills in two ways: it draws out water and dehydrates things, and it disrupts macromolecules, leading them to precipitate/aggregate and become nonfunctional. Both of these effects contribute to make pathogens non-infectious.
Skin is remarkably resilient and can tolerate both of these effects easily, it can de... | [
"Hand sanitizers are most effective against bacteria and less effective against some viruses. Alcohol-based hand sanitizers are almost entirely ineffective against norovirus or Norwalk type viruses, the most common cause of contagious gastroenteritis.\n",
"Despite their effectiveness, non-water agents do not clea... |
how do people make those picture mosaics where the image is made up of hundreds of smaller, different versions of the same subject? | essentially you give a program a folder full of pictures (alot!) and it calculates the color value of each, if reduced to 1x1 pixel. then you give it a picture that you wanna make "a mosaik" this way and it runs through all its pixels, trying to find the closest fitting picture by color-value. Then it just inserts a sm... | [
"The simplest way to generate a large image from a sample image is to tile it. This means multiple copies of the sample are simply copied and pasted side by side. The result is rarely satisfactory. Except in rare cases, there will be the seams in between the tiles and the image will be highly repetitive.\n",
"Pho... |
why is the feeling of silverware hitting your teeth so uncomfortable? | Soft material will absorb impact much better than hard material. Think about hitting that spoon on your shin and your calf - the shin will feel much weirder than your calf. As for WHY that sensation is so much more uncomfortable, I could only suppose it’s the way we evolved pain to avoid injuring ourselves - certain th... | [
"or air), sweet or spicy foods, and beverages. Teeth will normally have some sensation to these triggers, but what separates hypersensitivity from regular tooth sensation is the intensity of the pain. Hypersensitivity is most commonly caused by a lack of insulation from the triggers in the mouth due to gingival rec... |
why do defendents on tv court shows defend their case so vigorously if they don't pay settlements out of pocket? | Because people really want to be right, and want to be vindicated about being right on national television. That's why they went on the show on the first place. They don't like to be proven wrong. | [
"Cohen was quoted as saying that \"defenders have to try to balance an inherent media advantage enjoyed by prosecutors.\" His history of winning cases and the large legal fees he commanded put Cohen in the position of being able to choose the cases he wants to handle, including accepting clients that cannot afford ... |
how can big game developers like rockstar or valve seal all the informations about their biggest titles - like gta 6 or half life 3 - despite having hundreds or even thousands employees around the globe? | NDAs (non disclosure agreements), employee contracts and possibly legal action tend to keep employees right lipped | [
"All but the smallest developer companies work on several titles at once. This is necessary because of the time taken between shipping a game and receiving royalty payments, which may be between 6 and 18 months. Small companies may structure contracts, ask for advances on royalties, use shareware distribution, empl... |
what are 'mach' points of speed? | Mach 1 is the speed of sound (340.29 m / s)
Mach 2 is twice the speed of sound (680.58 m / s)
| [
"The Mach number (M) is defined as the ratio of the speed of an object (or of a flow) to the speed of sound. For instance, in air at room temperature, the speed of sound is about . M can range from 0 to ∞, but this broad range falls naturally into several flow regimes. These regimes are subsonic, transonic, superso... |
why do people cough up dark tar when they quit smoking, but it doesn't happen as much when they are still smoking? | There are little hairs in your lungs that move things that don't belong in your lungs out. They are called "cilia" and they have a waving motion that creates this ability. The tar and chemicals in the cigarette smoke paralyze the cilia so they can't do their job. When the person quits smoking the cilia eventually sta... | [
"Tar, when in the lungs, coats the cilia causing them to stop working and eventually die, causing conditions such as lung cancer as the toxic particles in tobacco smoke are no longer trapped by the cilia but enter the alveoli directly. Thus, the alveoli cannot come through with the process that is called ‘gas excha... |
why is it that counting down is universally easy, but keeping rhythm is not? | I'd say it's a practice thing. Also musical meter isn't always directly linked to our understanding of the passage of time. Where most people have a good idea of what a second feels like, not everyone can instantly grasp a what a beat is in a given tempo w/o a metronome. | [
"In music, counting is a system of regularly occurring sounds that serve to assist with the performance or audition of music by allowing the easy identification of the beat. Commonly, this involves verbally counting the beats in each measure as they occur, whether there be 2 beats, 3 beats, 4 beats, or even 5 beats... |
When are the earliest examples of pornography from, and what were the main forms of consumption before mass media? | I have answered this a [few](_URL_2_) [times](_URL_4_] [before](_URL_3_) and you might be interested [in my book](_URL_1_) but here was the most recent summary of this:
I'm adapting this from some older answers.
Here's the tricky thing about your question--do you mean 'porn' in the sense of moving visual art of pe... | [
"Although pornography dates back thousands of years, its existence in the U.S. can be traced to its 18th-century origins and the influx of foreign trade and immigrants. By the end of the 18th century, France had become the leading country regarding the spread of porn pictures. Porn had become the subject of playing... |
if buffets are cheaper than having a restaurant with a waiting staff, why aren't all restaurants buffets? | It may be cheaper to operate, but that doesn't mean it will make more money or more profit. | [
"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... |
what would happen if one of my eyes are covered for a long time? | If you are a child and still in a developing stage for vision and perception, covering one of your eyes can cause amblyopia. Amblyopia -a disorder also called lazy eye- causes decreased vision in covered eye due to the interruption in the eye-brain pathway.
If done with growing up, i think it is fine to strut around w... | [
"If they continue to enlarge or fail to settle within a few months, smaller lesions may be injected with a corticosteroid, or larger ones may be surgically removed using local anesthesia. This is usually done from underneath the eyelid to avoid a scar on the skin. If the chalazion is located directly under the eyel... |
What's "greener" and/or more energy efficient? Paper towels or Hand Dryers? | There are many variables, but electric dryers are lower in cost to operate and, over a lifetime, can be better for the environment (how much depends on paper source, type of dryer, power source...). However, they may not be as hygienic as paper.
An efficient dryer (like a Dyson Airblade) with a renewable electrical s... | [
"Due to the reduction in litter and waste in comparison with paper towels, which cannot be recycled, hand dryers are claimed to be better for the environment. Another study shows that whereas the majority of the environmental impact of a hand dryer occurs during its use, the environmental impact of paper towels is ... |
Everyone is talking about CO2 and global warming, but could increased water usage (Fossile water from irrigation) make temperature increase? | Water vapor is a huge greenhouse gas.
We are more worried about the ocean warming and evaporating more than we are worried about some irrigation operations.
The ocean has a vastly greater surface area and is much more capable of altering atmospheric moisture content and already is.
| [
"The effects of fossil fuels emissions, the largest contributor to climate change, cause rising CO2 levels in the earth’s atmosphere. This raises atmospheric temperatures and levels of precipitation in the Northwestern Forested Mountains. Being a very mountainous region, weather patterns contribute higher levels of... |
why gifs can't have sound. | Gif, jpg, png, mov, avi, mp4 and any other extension you see like that are really just a set of standards. A standard pretty much says, "act and look this way when this happens, but when this happens do this"
gif has a standard that doesn't include sound.
For some more information about these standards, look here:
[... | [
"The sounds are also fake. During a commercial for potato chips, the sound crew tears up cardboard to make it sound loud, crunchy, and delicious. For a commercial for fake plastic swords, they remove the original \"boring\" sound, and replace it with real metal swords clashing with each other on the right timing.\n... |
Do x-rays occur in nature? | X-rays are high energy photons produced by the acceleration of electrons, while gamma rays are higher energy photons produced by nuclei an other particles.
(In astrophysics, they instead say that x-rays are below some energy and gamma-rays are above. This is because you don't necessarily know what is producing the ph... | [
"The first picture of the Earth in X-rays was taken in March 1996, with the orbiting Polar satellite. Energetically charged particles from the Sun cause aurora and energize electrons in the Earth's magnetosphere. These electrons move along the Earth's magnetic field and eventually strike the Earth's ionosphere, pro... |
why do car keys (the one with buttons) only unlock your car and none others? not even the same model? | Small computers that are connected to eachother, they’re called immobilizers and they have specific codes to be in sync with a specific computer in a car | [
"A car key or an automobile key is a key used to open and/or start an automobile. Modern key designs are usually symmetrical, and some use grooves on both sides, rather than a cut edge, to actuate the lock. It has multiple uses for the automobile with which it was sold. A car key can open the doors, as well as star... |
why are planes round tubes instead of flattened ovals shaped? | I'm not an engineer, but structurally cylinders are incredibly strong. An "flattened tube" would probably collapse much more easily from all the stresses involved in flight. | [
"The tri-oval is the common shape of the ovals from the construction booms of the 1960s and 1990s. The use of the tri-oval shape for automobile racing was conceived by Bill France, Sr. during the planning for Daytona. The triangular layout allowed fans in the grandstands an angular perspective of the cars coming to... |
if a person had enough money to design and build a functional space ship, capable of traveling and landing and whatnot, would it be legal? would the government be able to do anything? | Well there let's consider these two options.
First let's consider that you are just a rich multi-billionaire and want to build a rocket and fly to the moon. Guess what, someone is already doing that. [SpaceX](_URL_0_) is a private company that is building and launching rockets into space right now. They have flown to ... | [
"In addition, the new law made extensive modifications to the patent law and provided that both employee inventions as well as private contractor innovations brought about through space travel would be subject to government ownership. By making the government the exclusive provider of space transport, the act effec... |
How did people light candles before the invention of matches/lighters? | Starting from a "there's no fire nearby" state would require breaking out a tinderbox and flint and steel. You would strike sparks from the flint and steel into material that would be highly susceptible to catching fire. This might be something super low tech such as ordinary tinder like wood shavings, dry pine needles... | [
"In parts of Europe, the Middle-East and Africa, where lamp oil made from olives was readily available, candle making remained unknown until the early middle-ages. Candles were primarily made from tallow and beeswax in ancient times, but have been made from spermaceti, purified animal fats (stearin) and paraffin wa... |
the california energy crisis of 2000 and the enron scandal | As for the energy crisis, basically Enron would cut off the power supply so that the cost of electricity would skyrocket, and then turn it back on in order to make more money. Enron in general, that was mostly down to a type of accounting they used that let them declare potential earnings, so that it always looked lik... | [
"On January 17, 2001, Davis declared a state of emergency in response to the electricity crisis. Speculators, led by Enron Corporation, were collectively making large profits while the state teetered on the edge for weeks and finally suffered rolling blackouts on January 17 and 18. Davis stepped in to buy power at ... |
How do groups of photons form electromagnetic waves? | You are mixing two concepts. Photons have both wave-like and particle-like properties. It is not the case that adding up the particle-properties (the quantized packets) yields the wave-like behavior.
_URL_0_ | [
"Pairs of single photons can be generated in highly correlated states from using a single high-energy photon to create two lower-energy ones. One photon from the resulting pair may be detected to 'herald' the other (so its state is pretty well known prior to detection). The two photons need not generally be the sam... |
Has an American President, after serving his term, ever served on a jury? | > In fact, no modern court has had a sitting president on a jury. Ronald Reagan came the closest when he was summoned in the 1980s by Santa Barbara County, Calif. He was granted a deferment until he was out of office.
[Source 1](_URL_3_)
[Source 2 - Former POTUS G.W. Bush's duty](_URL_0_)
That photo is good 'ole W ... | [
"On May 22, 1951 he was nominated by President Truman as Chief Judge of a new United States Court of Military Appeals. He was confirmed by the Senate June 19, and was sworn the next day, June 20 of 1951. He was reappointed to his position as Chief Justice by President Johnson for another 15-year term, but he retire... |
Border between East Germany and Czechoslovak Socialist Republic during Cold War | For citizens of the GDR (German Democratic Republic), foreign countries were divided into two categories: 1) 'Socialist Countries' and 2) 'Not Socialist Countries'.
Between the GDR and the CSSR there was a formal border crossing, but no special visas were required. What was somewhat difficult was changing money, whic... | [
"The protection of borders between the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic (CSSR) and Capitalist countries of Western Europe, namely with West Germany and Austria, in the Cold War era and especially after 1951, was provided by special troops of the Pohraniční Stráž () and system of engineer equipment which created the ... |
Did the SS take measures to reduce the spread of infection to themselves during the Holocaust? | The camps were designed to run with a minimum of SS personnel and not so much personal contact.
Kapos were frequently employed to keep order and handle a lot of the day to day business of the camp, including punishments and physical abuse. Kapos were prisoners themselves but they earned special privileges such as bet... | [
"As part of its race-centric functions during World War II, the SS oversaw the isolation and displacement of Jews from the populations of the conquered territories, seizing their assets and deporting them to concentration camps and ghettos, where they were used as slave labor or immediately killed. Chosen to implem... |
can anyone launch a satellite? or are there laws claiming space territory? | Per the [Outer Space Treaty](_URL_0_) of 1967, governments cannot stake a claim to territory in space—so yes, space is indeed borderless. However, to get to outer space, Spacex's rockets first have to pass through the airspace directly above the US, which the Federal Aviation Administration *does* have jurisdiction ove... | [
"BULLET::::- explicitly forbids any government from claiming a celestial resource such as the Moon or a planet, claiming that they are the common heritage of mankind, \"not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means\". However, the State that laun... |
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