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9xzaqo | why is the delivery address on the incoming mail such as bills, etc. located on bottom left corner of the envelope while normally the delivery address must go on the bottom right corner of the envelope? | I am asking this because we are working on the design of invoice and I want to know if we should come up with an option that would enable people to print invoices with billing address displayed on the left side instead of right. (in quickbooks and most of the invoicing apps its printed on right side by deafult, not sure if they have left side option) example: [_URL_0_](_URL_0_) | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9xzaqo/eli5_why_is_the_delivery_address_on_the_incoming/ | {
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"What country are you in where they put delivery addresses in corners?",
"Countries have local templates. In the usa, there are several templates, including business mailings. If you work for a company that does a lot of global external forms, it's lowest cost to use the least number of layouts possible to accommodate all regions. Every once in awhile one will change forcing a new layout. Invoicing is the perfect example. You should be able to get the standard from the USPS."
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2fl1s9 | what happens when a dog is euthanized? | What is the process of the chemicals?
Is it an overdose? (in case smaller dose are used for something else)
Do they suffer?
What happens to the dog's body? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2fl1s9/eli5_what_happens_when_a_dog_is_euthanized/ | {
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"They are given an anesthetic to put the dog to sleep. When the vet is sure the dog is in a deep sleep they will give him/her an injection of any number of drugs to stop the dogs heart. As far as any animal is aware, they have just come over uncontrollably sleepy and they just don't waken. \n\nEdit: Sorry for not reading the entire question. The owner can either elect to take the pet home and bury him/her or pay a small fee for the vet to dispose of him/her.",
"My fiancees dog was put down yesterday, so while the process is fresh in my mind I may as well say what I saw and what the vet told us.\n\nTheres 2 injections that are given to put a dog down, given about 10 minutes apart. The first is the sedative that is given for most veterinary procedures, not something specific to the process. This is to make sure that the dog is calm and relaxed, and ease any pain it is in. The second injection is the one that does it, its bright blue and theres a lot more of it than I thought there would be. This does 2 things from what the vet told us, firstly, and very quickly, it puts the dog to sleep, this means that it is asleep when that liquid does everything so the dog isnt uncomfortable in any way. Then, it stops the dogs heart beating.\n\nI cant comment on whether it is an overdose or not, but its the first time Ive ever seen that blue stuff before, even after having done some work experience at a vets, so if it is then it isnt something used often, I think the answer may be no . And thankfully no, they do not suffer. Its very blatant that the entire process is put together this way to make sure this is the case. \n\nAs for what happens to the body, well the vet would discuss that with you. For our little guy, we'll be being given his ashes in a wooden box in 2 weeks. That would be up to the family though.",
"Well basically what happens when you euthanize your dog is that you start to have a flood of chemicals like serotonin and dopamine overwhelm you. It may feel like an overdose as you watch your best friend who's been there for most of your life pass on, but you know that at this point you've given him the best life he could have had and that he only made your life better. \n\nThe suffering? You may suffer for a few days, a few weeks, months, or the heartache may carry on for years. Your best friend though is in a better place. By the time the choice was made to put him down, he was probably in a condition where this was the best choice. He'll lull to sleep as if he had just had a long run like you used to. \n\nWhen it's all said and done, you take your friend and you honor his body, preferably by burying him under his favorite tree, so that way he can always bask in the shade the way he loved to.\n\nsource: I miss my buddy."
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9lf62l | what's "under" and "over" earth in space? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9lf62l/eli5_whats_under_and_over_earth_in_space/ | {
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"Well... there's lots of stuff in all directions just much farther away... I mean wherever you look into the night sky you see stars, right?"
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813y4v | how did we calculate neptune's record wind speed accurately at over 2100k/h when it is so far away? | Source _URL_0_ | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/813y4v/eli5_how_did_we_calculate_neptunes_record_wind/ | {
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"The unit is not k/h as that would be 1000/h and per time is a frequency not a speed. km/h is a speed.\n\nIF you take two images with a time between them of the planet you can see how a cloud has moved. Remove the rotational speed of the planet and you get the wind speed. \n\nYou can see a video about that here _URL_0_"
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3wfdcn | the association between punk rock and the union jack | I see it all the time, and an episode of Portlandia sparked this particular question, why is the union jack often associated with punk subculture? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3wfdcn/eli5the_association_between_punk_rock_and_the/ | {
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"It's probably due to the Sex Pistols being one of the first mainstream popular punk bands.\n\nThey definitely weren't the start of the genre, but the Sex Pistols were a bit like the Beatles except for Punk, so they're easily recognizable icons to people outside the subculture.",
"The Ramones from NYC went to London and were the inspiration for The Sex Pistols (or further inspired, rather). The Sex Pistols took the punk attitude and applied it to political issues e.g. \"God Save The Queen\"...hence invoking the Union Jack as a nationalist symbol. The middle class was suffering at the time so disaffected youth embraced the punk movement. Having little spending money, their clothes were worn until completely ragged, often held together as long as possible with safety pins which in turn led to them being a symbol of punk culture as well.",
"England was the start of the first real big punk wave, with bands like The Sex Pistols and The Clash. \"Anarchy in the UK\" is one of the most famous punk songs of all time, so much to the effect that American kids were saying it without noting the irony that, well, they weren't in the UK."
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29qgu4 | what is in the center of spiral-galaxies? do they rotate around a solid center? | I had a discussion about the theories of why planets and stars are spinning, and the discussion went on to what spiral galaxies are "rotating around". Is there a center of gravity in the middle, or are there any other explanations of why they seem to have a "hole" in the middle that they are spinning around?
| explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/29qgu4/eli5_what_is_in_the_center_of_spiralgalaxies_do/ | {
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"well by saying the most simply way there is a giant blackhole in the center"
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2jt5ho | why are flaps used on jets during take-off? | As someone who is aspiring to work in the aviation industry, I understand why flaps are used for landing. They help slow down the plane by disrupting the airflow. However, I noticed that they were partially extended (like Flaps 8 or 20 on a CRJ-900. Couldn't tell exactly) during take-off. Thanks! | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2jt5ho/eli5_why_are_flaps_used_on_jets_during_takeoff/ | {
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"To provide lift. Lift gets you in the air. The same reason they try to take off in to a head wind. It provides lift and gets you in the air quicker which is a good thing. Less runway and less fuel needed.",
"Flaps are used to generate lift, not to slow you down (though they do slow you down, this is a byproduct of their primary purpose). Air brakes slow you down.\n\nFlaps are used during takeoff so that you have the required amount of lift at slower speeds, allowing a shorter takeoff distance",
"When you take off and when you land you want to be going as slowly as possible—it reduces the strain on the landing gear and makes things generally safer if a plane can be designed to be able to take off at a slower speed.\n\nWhen a plane is flying it needs to generate enough lift to offset its weight. Lift is a function of several variables, but mostly it's the speed of the aircraft and the lift coefficient of a wing (a number that describes how \"lifty\" a shape is). When you deploy flaps you increase the lift coefficient, which means that you can be going slower and still have the same lift.\n\nThe fact that the flaps also slow down a plane by increasing drag is a secondary effect which is nice during landing, but that's not their primary intent. ",
"They change the geometry of the wing to provide extra lift at the cost of higher drag. The changed wing characteristics allows the plane to have a larger angel of attack at low speeds, thus allowing faster/shorter take-offs. "
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85pito | why a person gets tired or sick *after* they finish a stressful situation | I find myself always sleeping the majority of my first of two days off due to the stress of my job and social life. I don’t understand why. I have attempted to counteract this by increasing caffeine and doing exercises, but I wind up sleeping the majority of the day away. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/85pito/eli5_why_a_person_gets_tired_or_sick_after_they/ | {
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"Caffine and exercises will ultinately make you even more tired once the adrenaline rush wears off. Plenty of sleep during the week and less stress is the key (easier said than done I know).",
"When you’re stressed your body secretes a hormone called cortisol, along with epinephrine. This is part of your “fight or flight” response. It basically sends your body into overdrive even if you may not feel it. Without getting too much into the physiology part, you also don’t absorb all the energy from your food as well as usual. Cortisol decreases the function of your immune system, hence getting ill after exams, stressful work, etc "
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2mei4u | is black dye different than red dye in a molecular level? | Can we tell what color a dye (like the ones that we use on the walls) is by looking at its molecular structure? If not, why is it that specific color? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2mei4u/eli5_is_black_dye_different_than_red_dye_in_a/ | {
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"Color is the product of wavelengths of light and how they interact with different materials. So yes, things are different on an atomic or molecular level and that impacts color. That said, there's no such thing as like a \"red molecule\". Red can be produced by a LOT of different molecules/atoms. Same of any color, really. Hell, some atoms just in different arrangements can look totally different- white diamonds and black coal are both purely made of the same atom, carbon."
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bmthp9 | why is it ok to ride some animals, but not others? | Horses are ok to ride, but elephants are not. Surely elephants are stronger than horses? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bmthp9/eli5_why_is_it_ok_to_ride_some_animals_but_not/ | {
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"Ever heard of war elephants?",
"Riding Elephants is a pretty sensitive thing in South East Asia because most of those elephants are subjected to brutal, harsh conditions so that they can be \"conditioned\" to function as riding animals.\n\nPlus, Elephants are an endangered species, hence the outcry.",
"You technically can ride an elephant, it is just frowned upon due to the poor treatments of said elephants. For an elephant to be rideable, it must first be \"broken\" which involves keeping it in small cages for extended periods of time and beating them with sharp sticks.",
"Many people ride elephants. They were even used as war elephants to attack and trample the enemy.\n\nAlmost anything that can walk can be ridden, assuming the person riding is small enough. And even if it can't be ridden it can sometimes be used for transportation. My grandmother told me of a trip she took to Sulfur Springs, near Tampa Florida, about 1913 and she said there was a carnival, and they had an ostrich pulling a cart that the kids could ride in for a nickle. Even goats have been used to pull carts. Dogs too, can pull carts and sleds. So I think it would be tough to find something that someone hasn't tried to make into some form of transportation. Alligators, maybe, I don't think anyone has ever tried to ride those, or if they did, they didn't live to tell about it.",
"Elephants spinal disks aren’t shaped like most other riding animals, they’re sharp and they point upwards so the weight of even a small person can cause irreparable damage. They’re also not domesticated the way horses are so the training they have to undergo to be willing to tolerate people riding them is often incredibly torturous.",
"You didn't ask about zebras, but people don't ride them because of their temperament. They're too feisty to train, and refuse to be submissive.",
"Horses have a hierarchical social structure and most like to follow a trusted leader; they're also strong and comfortable enough. Zebras (which are more closely related to donkeys and asses) are theoretically rideable but don't have the temperament."
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3c8dhm | why do movie theaters explain which way to your screen? | I've been to theaters in various towns, different companies ,and they always seem to tell you which way to the specific screen. Movie theaters are not hard to navigate. There's clear signs which direction to go and often they'll be only 1 or 2 turns. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3c8dhm/eli5_why_do_movie_theaters_explain_which_way_to/ | {
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"Because soemtimes people are stupid and then other employees are stopped by lost customers which doesn't let those employees do their job",
"People are simple and stupid. Go work in customer service for a while and discover how low you can set the bar for expectations. ",
"You underestimate human idiocy. I worked at a theater in high school and people would ask me what theater their movie was in without so much as giving me their ticket or even telling me what they're there to see like I'm some kind of god damn mind reader. I had to **ask** for the ticket and point at the giant bold numbers on them for a lot of illiterate fuckers in high school."
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61dhwg | if the moon were closer to earth, would the shadow it casts during an eclipse be bigger or smaller? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/61dhwg/eli5_if_the_moon_were_closer_to_earth_would_the/ | {
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"In a way it depends on what you mean by shadow, it can be Smaller and Bigger at the same time.\n\nThe moon is at just the right distance to block the entire sun in an area called the Umbra. And to partially occlude it in a large torus around it called the penumbra.\n\nIf the moon were closer the Umbra (where there is a total eclipse would grow even as the penumbra shrinks. Farther away, the penumbra grows and the umbra shrinks (until it is gone and there is no total eclipse anywhere.\n\nThe shadow of the penumbra would get lighter and lighter the closer the moon got to the sun, until it could not be distinguished with the unaided human eye. But this is not to say the penumbra ever fades entirely.\n\n When they search for exoplanets using the transition method, they are actually searching for the planet's penumbra. So it would not be correct to day the shadow disappears. The shadow is a really small dip in energy, that takes sensitive specialized equipment to detect, but is enough to allow exoplanets to be detected from light years away. ",
"Which part of the shadow? The umbra, which totally blocks the light from the sun, or the penumbra, which only partly blocks the light?\n\nThe umbra is larger when the Moon is closer to Earth. The penumbra is larger when the Moon is further from Earth. [You can see the geometry of that here.](_URL_0_)\n\nJust like with the other reply, you can use a light bulb to see this. Find a nice brightly colored, or bright white, piece of paper and a coin. Hold that coin between the paper and a light, but very close to the paper. There should be a nice, dark shadow, but on the very edge is a slightly less dark circle. If you slowly move the coin back, you can see the darker circle shrink and the lighter circle grow in size! Eventually the dark circle disappears, while the lighter shadow gets lighter and fuzzier. This is what happens with the Moon's shadow, too!"
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377k2n | can someone tell what is with this charlie challenge? | Does anyone have any proper scientific explanation because I ain't believing in this stupid demon thing. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/377k2n/eli5_can_someone_tell_what_is_with_this_charlie/ | {
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"Pencils balanced on things move very easily with a small amount of natural pressure applied, in the form of someone just blowing on the pencil.",
"\"Charlie charlie are you a boy?\" Since you can predict the answer, you're subconsciously ready for the pencils to move a certain way. That's my guess.\n\nas far as the spinning one goes, probably just blowing on the pencil. Torque. "
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53hige | solar cell electricity, where does it go when the battery is full. | The sun shines on the panel which is connected to a battery, the battery is 100% charged. However, the sun is still shining on the panel creating electricity but not charging the battery, where does this electricity "go"? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/53hige/eli5_solar_cell_electricity_where_does_it_go_when/ | {
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"When a battery is being recharged, electrons flow from the cathode to the anode. (positive to negative). Once the reverse-chemical reaction has already taken place fully, its ineffective. The chemistry is already complete. Its like trying to charge a 100% full iPhone.",
"Doesn't go anywhere. Once the battery is charged the charge controller will (essentially) break the circuit. With no path to follow (electricity flows...) there is no flow. No flow means no transfer of electrons. The panel cells still have potential energy but it does not move.\n\nCaution: my knowledge of this is very very old and I no longer study in the field.",
"From my knowledge, the answers so far are wrong.\n\nOnce the solar panel has fully charged whatever it is designated to power, almost always it will start sending the electricity back to \"the grid\". The grid is essentially the citys power, and the reason people opt to send this energy to the grid is because often the owner of the solar panel will recieve money for the amount of energy they sent back to the grid.",
"Think about circuits: Current can only flow through a completed circuit. When a battery is charging, a complete circuit is present. This means that electrons that have been liberated by sunlight in the silicon cell can flow through the circuit, generating a current, and providing electricity to charge the battery. \n\n\nWhen the battery is full, the circuit is broken (See comment by /u/TurnbullFL below). This means that there is no pathway for these liberated electrons to take, so they kind of, on average, stay in the same place. What ends up happening is that these electrons will eventually make their way back into the silicon where it came from, losing the \"liberation energy\" from sunlight as heat. \n\n\nSilicon is an intrinsic semiconductor, which means that it is liberating electrons whenever it is exposed to light of enough energy (sunlight). Only when a directed pathway is present (a solar cell) can those electrons flow in a particular direction to make a current. ",
"Electrical engineer here.\n\nA single solar cell puts out max power when it's loaded enough to drag the voltage down to about 0.5v/cell. If it's unloaded, voltage will rise to about 0.6v.\n\nThing is, all solar cells are fundamentally diodes by construction, also some amount of capacitance. The diode is in parallel with the current source that the light creates, but it serves no function. Standard silicon diode components are ~0.7v turn-on voltage. Less than that- or negative voltage- and it does not conduct. More than 0.7v, it conducts strongly.\n\nWhat happens is if you don't use the current being generated, it charges the capacitance of the cell and the voltage rises. Once it exceeds ~0.55v (depends on temperature and cell composition), the intrinsic diode forward-biases and that shorts the current from + to - within the cell itself as it's generated, so the voltage will rise no further. \n\nThis is just wasting the current as heat inside the cell. The cell will be SLIGHTLY warmer when unloaded! Solar panels are ~15% electrical efficiency for the total light flux landing on their cross-section. Some energy is reflected light (it doesn't look like a black hole), some is harvested as electricity, most turns in to heat. \n\nSo the temp rise of an unloaded panel might be ~20% higher than a loaded panel. \n\nWhat happens in the case of a battery charger depends on the charging tech. Many NiMH batteries just let the panel dump energy into it slowly, forever, and let the battery overcharge. It can deal with low rates of overcharge but it does reduce the battery lifespan. Lithium can never be exposed to overcharge, but you could either shunt the current with a transistor with a dummy load to drag down the panel voltage so it no longer charges the battery, or just disconnect the panel from the battery (and in this case the panel voltage rises). Depends on the circuit.",
"**The shortest real answer** is that the solar panel is not really \"making electricity\" if the battery is fully charged, and nor is it making electricity if it's not connected to anything, even if light is falling on it: the energy makes it into some electrons in the solar panel, but they can't be forced to move around the circuit, so their energy is lost as heat.\n\nA solar panel works by having light hit stuff and exciting electrons in the panel. What \"excited\" means doesn't matter except that it means the electron now has a tendency to move around, and the structure of the panel only lets electrons move in one direction.\n\nWhen a panel is lit up and connected to a circuit, this means electrons flow around the circuit: electron flow is current or, as you're wording it in your question, just \"electricity.\" But when it is not connected to anything, the electrons just all get shoved to one end of the solar panel (or they get shoved a little way out of the panel into a wire.) The same thing happens if there's a fully charged battery in the way: the panel can't force more electrons through the circuit, so there's no current and no electricity being created.\n\nInstead what happens is that the electrons which get excited in the solar panel just bump into something and lose their extra energy. Ultimately this means that the energy gained is just dissipated as heat.",
"It's lost to heat, as the circuit gets broken. Better systems can dump back into the grid for costs off your electric provider.",
"You and a bunch of friends are hanging out in your backyard. Your neighbor is a Redbull promoter and keeps throwing free samples into your yard at a consistent rate. Each time a sample lands, someone picks it up, drinks it, then climbs onto the roof (gaining potential energy). This is like the carrier generation rate in a solar cell.\n\nOnce on the roof, each person will hang out for a bit until their Redbull buzz wears off then come back down. This is like the carrier recombination rate in a solar cell.\n\nHowever, your neighbor's roof is the same height as yours, and you can easily hop to it. Once someone climbs the roof they hop onto the neighbor's roof and stay there. He has a hot tub up there so nobody comes down. This is the battery. Once the roof is full, you can't go there. For every new person to climb up, it's like the neighbor's roof doesn't exist for them. The neighbor's house may as well not be there. This is effectively a solar cell at open circuit. \n\nSo what happens to people who climb onto your roof? They hang out for a bit then come down. Where does their energy go? If they climb down slowly, they will sweat and release energy as heat. This is referred to as non-radiative recombination in a solar cell. If they fall off the roof they will vomit out the Redbull. In principle this Redbull vomit can either fly into someone else's yard or one of your friends could drink it. This is referred to as radiative recombination in solar cells. The ratio of sweaty climbing to vomiting will depend on the type of solar cell.",
"The words \"Creating Electricity\" is your problem here.\n\n\"Electricity\" isn't \"created\". The electrons are already there.\n\nElectricity _moves_ when it is _pushed_ and when there is a full circle in which to flow.\n\nVoltage, also know as \"electromotive force\", is the degree to which the electricity is being pushed.\n\nCurrent is the amount of electricity that is moving.\n\nResistance is the opposition to voltage that limits how much current flows in response to that voltage.\n\nSo batteries are batteries because they push their electrons to one end (the negative end) and so the presence of extra electrons at one end, and the absence of them from the other, is what would make the electricity move through the wire, circuit, and \"load\".\n\nBatteries do this with chemistry. Basically the acid or alkali in the battery corrodes the metals in the battery differently, moving the electrons.\n\n(The \"load\" is the thing you want to do something like light up.)\n\nA solar panel, originally mis-named a \"solar battery\", sorts electrons the same way, but only when light is shining on it. Indeed we dropped the \"battery\" and replaced it with \"panel\" because \"battery\" implies storage and solar cells/panels don't _store_ anything.\n\nSo we charge batteries by pushing electricity through them \"backwards\". Forcing the electricty the other way reverses the chemical processes in the battery. It's only safe to do that with some types of batteries. That's why you need rechargable batteries instead of just regular alkaline batteries.\n\nSo when the solar cell (or a wall charger) pushes electrons \"backwards\" through the battery the battery charges. \n\nSo skipping over \"Charge Regulators\", if I make a solar cell that will put out 12 volts, and I hook it up to a car battery that nominally stores eleven to thirteen volts, the 12 volts is more than eleven volts and the electrons go through the battery backwards and charge it... until it reaches exactly the same voltage as the solar cell.\n\nOnce everything is all the same voltage, all of the pushing is in balance and the charging stops.\n\nThis is the classic \"trickle charge\". It's called \"trickle charging\" because the closer the battery voltage gets to the charger voltage the less current moves until the flow is \"just a trickle\".\n\nIn practical terms it's _very_ _hard_ to make sure that you've manufactured a battery and a panel that match that perfectly.\n\nWorse, if your battery is \"going bad\" it loses its high end. So eventually you could have a car battery that will only hold eleven-and-a-half volts but the charger is always sending twelve. Eventually that cooks the battery by messing up the chemistry.\n\nAnd some batteries get screwed up at trickle currents.\n\nSo we use various electronics to make up the difference. If too much or too little current is going from the panel to the battery then a switch isolates the two from each other.\n\nOnce there is no place for the electrons to go they stop going anywhere.\n\nThis is the same reason that electricity doesn't \"leak out\" of your wall plugs. The voltage is right there at the plug but there's no place for it to go.\n\nSo basically, once the two reach equilibrium then the pushing all balances out and everything stops. Or once the brains know that nothing good is happening, the brain just turns off the charger.",
"I saw a setup that a guy in Huntsville, Ontario had. Once his battery bank was charged, instead of breaking the circuit, he dumped the energy into a homemade electrolysis unit. Using the 12v power, he converted that water into hydrogen, using some sort of filter let off the other gases he didn't want, and stored the gas in small propane tanks (with really low pressure, had a bunch of them). If he ever had a day when his battery bank was low, he would run his 5000 watt generator from the hydrogen he stored... he didn't even make any changes to the generator except where the \"air\" line attached.",
"Enough with the water analogies: usually they are very good, but here I think they're becoming overly convoluted.\nThe solar panel uses sunlight to produce a voltage (push on electrons). When you charge the battery by pushing electrons into it, it too produces a voltage(push) in the opposite direction, which gets bigger as the battery charges. eventually the two opposite pushes equal out and the electrons don't move any more, and the push just doesn't do anything. (Like any force, it doesn't use any energy unless it's actually moving something).\nIt's a bit like squashing a spring: eventually the spring pushes back harder than you can push in: when you let go, the spring extends and releases the energy, which you can use for doing stuff like moving things.\nSource: four years researching solar panels at PhD level.",
"Kind of disappointed nobody has mentioned a load dump device yet. It describes exactly what you're talking about. we don't see it so much on the solar end, but for wind power generation it sure does. Especially during long windy stretches and you're not using as much as you're generating. \n\n_URL_0_\n\nI've heard of people using large HPS (1000W +) on small scale wind although not ideal. But I believe the water heater variant is pretty common up here for people with boilers. usually off grid running their boilers off nat. gas/lp/oil. You don't really notice, other than you just happen to run more efficiently on the boiler side. ",
"You've obviously seen this is harder to answer than most people expect. Regardless of what is hooked up to a solar cell, the sun hits it and the silicon atoms in the solar cell give up a certain number of electrons because the sun's energy was transferred to these electrons. They now have enough energy to escape the silicon atom. They float in \"free space\" and if there is a depleted battery hooked up they are drawn to it and end up charging a battery. If the battery is full, then it doesn't attract the electrons. They end up returning to the silicon atom and become \"whole\" again. Because electrons can't just return without giving up the energy the Sun gave them, they dissipate that energy in the form of heat, which is why a disconnected solar cell will be hotter than a connected one. ",
"Residential Solar panels are far more efficient. They actually feed the city's electrical grid, which gives you a credit towards your PSO Bill. Therefore once you're done paying off the solar panels(roughly $50,000 before the governments 33% tax credit is applied so about a $33,500 loan) you will never have to pay for electricity again. ",
"If the building is still connected to the power grid then you can sell the power back to the grid for credit. Then at night if the battery runs out you can still pull power back from the grid. You will only be charged if you use more power than you sold back to the power company.",
"Electricity doesn't need to \"go\" anywhere.\n\nIf you're imagining electricty as water, you've got two properties to that water... You've got pressure and volume. These are equivalent to voltage and current. These are two separate properties. You can have high pressure and low volume, like a pressure washer's spray gun. It's fast moving, but there's not a lot of it. Likewise, you can have a high volume but no pressure. Like a swimming pool. There's a LOT of water, but it's not moving at all.\n\nYou can take a bucket of water (current) and just dump it out on the floor... It's not going to do anything because there's no pressure.\n\nIf you lift that bucket up, you can get it to do something... Turn a water wheel or otherwise move something.\n\nWhen the sun hits a solar panel, it creates a voltage... It's like lifting the bucket of water up.\n\nSo let's say you're using a small bucket to fill a trash can in the kitchen. The trash can is your battery. Once you're trash can is full, you set the bucket on your counter... You're done. Your bucket is up high, it's got potential to do some work. But it's just sitting there.\n\nLikewise, the solar panel is creating a voltage... But it's not doing anything, just like your bucket sitting on the counter.",
"Ah, perfect! I helped build a solar powered car for my university last year. The energy turns into heat! Typical silicon solar cells today are around 22.5% efficient. That means when operating at maximum efficiency, 1/4 of the energy that hits the cell goes to the battery and the other 3/4 of the energy turns to heat. When the circuit is broken and the cell can't send out the electricity, all of the energy is turned to heat!",
"Its a common misconception, the panel is equipped with a special transmitter so that when it reflects the unused rays back into the sun, it can access and retrieve them later via wifi, it then can be routed back at the panel from the sun. remember this feature is unavailable during a solar eclipse, at night, or when North Korea is harvesting sun radiation during every 1st and 15th of the month. I take it the guy at Sun Run didnt go over the finer aspects of solar technology before reaping your signature at Orchard Supply Hardware."
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6wm98m | when a new company make a phone why do they make a skin? | Wouldnt it be cheaper to use stock android? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6wm98m/eli5when_a_new_company_make_a_phone_why_do_they/ | {
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"Part of the issue is that phone companies don't want to be in the business of making a hardware product that runs generic software. They want consumers to feel that it's a product from X company through and through. \n\nThis is a problem seen in the windows laptop world. The only thing differentiating HP from Dell from Lenovo is the hardware itself. And given that phone hardware is very similar as it is, the manufacturers want to appear to be distinct. \n\nSo a company like Samsung or HTC want the skin so that it makes their product appear distinct to the consumer. Otherwise, it's just another glass slab and you could buy that anywhere. "
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3rk89m | what was nelson mandela imprisoned for | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3rk89m/eli5_what_was_nelson_mandela_imprisoned_for/ | {
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"He was a political prisoner. He stood up against the White Minority Government and spoke out against Human and Civil Rights Abuses. To simplify - He was a wise black man who was a threat to a white minority government so they had to silence him",
"From Wikipedia:\n\n > On 5 December 1956, Mandela was arrested alongside most of the ANC Executive for \"high treason\" against the state. \n\nand\n\n > Under the State of Emergency measures, Mandela and other activists were arrested on 30 March, imprisoned without charge in the unsanitary conditions of the Pretoria Local prison,\n\nand\n\n > Jailed in Johannesburg's Marshall Square prison, he was charged with inciting workers' strikes and leaving the country without permission. \n\nAnd so on. Try searching the wiki page for keywords like \"arrested\" and \"charged\" and \"jailed\". It's pretty much all there.",
"In 1961 (I think) he co-founded a group called Umkhonto we Sizwe (also known as MK), which was classified as a terrorist organization at that time. \n\nHe was actually convicted of four counts of sabotage and conspiracy to violently overthrow the government. In a nutshell, terrorism.",
"unpopular opinion coming in; he was a convicted terrorist who new of, even authorised bombing of public places killing innocent people including women and children.\n\nyes apartheid was horrible and completely unjust and cruel, but he was a terrorist fighting for his ideals, did he make up for it in his peacetime work? thats for you to decide\n"
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64inoy | what causes some turds to slip out like a bullet, no wiping required, while cleaning up after others are like trying to clean a melted mars bar from a dash of a car that stood in the sun? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/64inoy/eli5_what_causes_some_turds_to_slip_out_like_a/ | {
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"Depends on what you ate, and how much energy you expended since you ate it. If you ate a lot then walked 10 miles, you're more likely to get a smooth \"rocket shit\" rather than a sloppy mess."
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36y0sw | why don't the bruises under my toenails heal like regular bruises? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/36y0sw/eli5_why_dont_the_bruises_under_my_toenails_heal/ | {
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"Toenails have a \"bed\" of living tissue, covered by armor of dead tissue. When you blacken one, that means you've caused injury to the bed, not the dead tissue (like hair, it doesn't hurt when damaged). So the bed is the part that's purple, and that part is trapped underneath the \"shield\" of armor. Some blood gets in there and turns purple. Unless you really did a number on yourself, that purple layer is really thin, but doesn't go away like other bruises because it's jammed in there and trapped.\n\nOver time, toenails grow from back to front, pushing both the bed and the armor part toward the front until the two separate and becomes a ledge of sorts (that's the clippable part of your toenail). Now the bruised part, a thin layer of now-dried blood, can flake away, and doesn't stick to either the bottom part of your clippable toenail or the skin that's just beyond the front edge of your toenail. So it disappears.\n"
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kzbut | how nikola tesla's radiant energy apparatus works and why we don't hear anything about radiant energy nowadays. | The patent for his device is found [here](_URL_0_) and I'm curious as to why, if this works, it's not more talked about or discussed today. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/kzbut/eli5_how_nikola_teslas_radiant_energy_apparatus/ | {
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"[Check again](_URL_1_).\n\nOne of the main obstacles is to get a collimated beam as to prevent transmission losses.\n\nThere are other proposals of [wireless energy transfer](_URL_0_).",
"When energy radiates outward, it radiates in all directions. Some goes straight up. Some goes up at an angle. Some goes horizontally. Some goes straight down. Some goes down at an angle.\n\nThe energy that goes up, or up on an angle, goes into the sky. The energy that goes down, or down on an angle, goes into the ground. That energy is gone.\n\nThe vast, vast majority of the energy heads toward the middle of nowhere: the sky, or the ground, or out into the woods, or toward some cows. We can't afford to beam most of our energy into the middle of nowhere.\n\nHowever: radio uses radiant energy. Yes, most radio waves go toward the middle of nowhere. But that's okay, we don't mind if we only capture 0.001% of the radio energy, as long as we capture the music.\n\n",
"Because it's very inefficient compared to using wires.",
"[Check again](_URL_1_).\n\nOne of the main obstacles is to get a collimated beam as to prevent transmission losses.\n\nThere are other proposals of [wireless energy transfer](_URL_0_).",
"When energy radiates outward, it radiates in all directions. Some goes straight up. Some goes up at an angle. Some goes horizontally. Some goes straight down. Some goes down at an angle.\n\nThe energy that goes up, or up on an angle, goes into the sky. The energy that goes down, or down on an angle, goes into the ground. That energy is gone.\n\nThe vast, vast majority of the energy heads toward the middle of nowhere: the sky, or the ground, or out into the woods, or toward some cows. We can't afford to beam most of our energy into the middle of nowhere.\n\nHowever: radio uses radiant energy. Yes, most radio waves go toward the middle of nowhere. But that's okay, we don't mind if we only capture 0.001% of the radio energy, as long as we capture the music.\n\n",
"Because it's very inefficient compared to using wires."
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4f2d01 | house of commons and house of lords in the uk. | What's the role of both and why are there two houses? Wouldn't one be enough? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4f2d01/eli5_house_of_commons_and_house_of_lords_in_the_uk/ | {
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"The commons are there to introduce legislation, and the Lords are there to kick it back and say \"Do it again properly\".\n\nThere's a decent explanation [on their website](_URL_0_) but a second chamber is common in most modern democracies. It helps prevent governments getting too big for their boots.",
"Put simply the Commons are elected folk that write new legislation, and the Lords review the bills, criticize and potentially deny it as unsuitable. Quality Assurance.\n\nThe fact in the UK you have 'hereditary peers' that can sit in the House of Lords as a matter of privilege is a bit contentious with some people.\n\nThe idea, though, is that you can't get as easily bullied by a majority if your entire legislative structure isn't selected in an election like the MPs in the Commons are. \n\nIn other Westminster parliaments there's no House of Lords, but there is still an upper house that is populated in some way other than the way the MPs who sit in the commons are elected. \n\nIn Canada, for example, the Prime-Minister appoints people to the Senate just about for life."
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9884fg | how much time does it take for disposable plastic water bottles to become dangerous to refill/reuse? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9884fg/eli5_how_much_time_does_it_take_for_disposable/ | {
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"The expiry date on the water bottle isn't for the water. It's for the bottle itself (pretty sure, heard it a long time ago)",
"Look at the bottom or the side of the water bottle. There should be a number with some arrows going in circles around it.\n\nThat number is the type of plastic they used in said water bottle. There are at least 5 different types they used in water bottles, 2 sort of rare the other 3 are more common. Look up those numbers on Google to get you started.\n\nThe MOST common one(like at grocery store) is actually pretty well off. It has a very low leech rate and usually does it if you expose the water bottle to high heat.\n\nUse glass or metal(types that passively kill bacteria) if you plan on using something to drink from long term. ",
"[Here](_URL_0_) is a good Snopes article. In short, it looks like reusing plastic water bottles is totally fine - but there is some concern around the bottle being heated. So if you have a water bottle in your car in the hot summer, there's concern potentially harmful chemicals could now be in that water.\n\nAnecdotally, as others have said, I would always toss once you notice deformations. And while plastic in inherently more sanitary than other more porous materials, reusing it can lead to a build up of bacteria so be sure to wash with hot soapy water as the article suggests.\n\nReduce, reuse, recycle :)",
"I use mine for a long ass time, typically until they shatter. Sometimes they start to smell like 'pond,' then I just put in a few drops of bleach and fill it with water. Let it sit over night, empty and reuse. \n\nI buy a lot of products just to reuse their containers. Like those Simply Orange juice jugs. Those are my favorite water vessels. ",
"I've been using the same PETE water bottle for about 3 years now... never washed it or anything. It never gets icky, either. It was originally a 1 liter 'Sky Springs Rain' ultra premium filtered rainwater bottle. I just fill it with tap water. I seem to be in fine health but that's just my opinion.\n\nThe OP's question is a fallacy in motion in that it assumes that 'disposable plastic water bottles' become dangerous to reuse. Do they? This is just one sample, but I don't think they necessarily have to.",
"I remember the first time I ever heard of bottled water. It was in the late sixties. Some ladies from town would fill glass gallon bottles with water out of our well because they said the city water tasted like crap. I never in my life thought people would start charging for water though. I was young and naive back then I guess. ",
"Assuming that the plastic container you use is made from food-safe plastic, intact, clean, and has not been used to store anything dangerous, then it is also safe to reuse or refill. Sodas, water, and juice are typically sold in bottles made from polyethylene terephthalate (PET). These bottles are safe to use (and reuse).\n\nThere was an internet rumor circulating that suggested PET plastic bottles could leech the carcinogenic element diethylhydroxylamine (DEHA). This is wrong for two reasons. First, DEHA is not used in the manufacture of these plastic bottles, nor is it produced through the degradation of these bottles. Secondly, DEHA is not a carcinogen.^1 \n\nCan chemicals leech from plastic bottles? Absolutely, which is one of several supposed reasons why bottles might have an expiration date. But these chemicals are not \"dangerous\"—they merely taste bad.^2 Similarly, vinegar is perfectly safe to drink, but it doesn't taste refreshing. ^[\\[citation](_URL_2_) ^[needed\\]](_URL_2_)\n\nYou should also not reuse a bottle that has melted or has holes. This could potentially be dangerous. You might spill your drink and trip in the puddle.\n\n-----\n1. To quote the [American Cancer Society](_URL_0_): 'the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says DEHA \"cannot reasonably be anticipated to cause cancer, teratogenic effects, immunotoxicity, neurotoxicity, gene mutations, liver, kidney, reproductive, or developmental toxicity or other serious or irreversible chronic health effects.' Meanwhile, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), says DEHA 'is not classifiable as to its carcinogenicity to humans.'\n2. This article titled *[Why Do Bottles of Water Have Expiration Dates?](_URL_1_)* goes into further detail.",
"Some baby products have explicitly stated \"Bisphenol B FREE\" on their packaging. I would assume this suggests other non-baby products have this in their plastic's container or bottle.\n \nI also found a study about micro-plastics littering our sea salt and fish's meat (so small)! \n[Tests](_URL_0_) have shown billions of people globally are drinking water contaminated by plastic particles, with 83% of samples found to be polluted. \nI think we are already doomed. ",
"I'm really bad about leaving my water bottle somewhere random while at work and losing it. I've been buying just a single cold bottle of water from a store, and refilling it until I lose it since it's cheaper to replace. I do wash it often and sometimes use them for a month or so before getting rid of. Is this bad for me ?",
"It more or less depends on the type of plastic used during production, however all plastic used for bottles can be penetrated by surrounding hazardous materials especially volatile substances such as gasoline.\n\nWhere I work the plastic will begin to degrade after approx 547 days, but that's dependent upon the environment the bottles are held in (heat will decrease this time) and what the bottles are stored near, as mentioned above. ",
"I work for a PET bottle manufacturer. Though there are different types of plastic most water bottles use the same one. And given you don’t expose it to extreme conditions (heat, microwave etc) you can technically use it as many times as you like. \n\nThe only reason why you might choose not to (and should) is bacteria. When the water is bottled a manufacturer makes sure that there is no bacteria by either killing it during the process or by using a deep underground source where the bacteria count is much lower (and still UVing it nonetheless). \n\nHowever once you open the bottle and especially once you get your saliva inside, the bacteria can really start to grow. You know those water cooler machines at the offices? If you take a swab from the nozzle the bacteria amount will be off the charts. It’s a very stupid design actually because of how often it needs to be disinfected (which most people don’t do). \n\nSo in short you shouldn’t reuse your PET bottle because of bacteria. However if you wash it properly and don’t expose to any extreme conditions, I don’t see why not. ",
"A bit late, but I once used my plastic water bottle for 1 or 2 months at work and at the end I was like \"This tastes a bit weird..\" then I looked at the bottom of the bottle just to see a green ring at the bottom. Like the green things you see in fish tanks on the glass. Now I always bring a water bottle from home and wash it often.",
"I would just buy a reusable water bottle, so much cheaper and better for the environment, and even your health, paid $15 for a stainless steel 32 oz and I find myself drinking more water than ever before since its readily available.",
"Spend the 6-10 dollars to buy a basic water bottle form Nalgene or a a little more and get a steel one. \n\nThey are washable, refillable, and cost effective in the long run. \n\nProblem solved, and you can hand wash or throw in the dishwasher to your heart's content to sterilize and reuse. ",
"I have water bottles I refill from water store with distilled water. They never grow bacteria, because well, its distilled.\n\nI don't put my mouth on them, only pouring from them to glasses to drink from."
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a9mp3h | how do weighted blankets help people fall asleep/sleep solidly through the night? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/a9mp3h/eli5_how_do_weighted_blankets_help_people_fall/ | {
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"hello. i've read somewhere not long ago that they make your body less active in terms of movement. it forces you to stay in one position and it's harder to wake up and easier to fall asleep.",
"Not a weighted blanket but similar, I like to let my 26-pound corgi sleep on my chest/abdomen. I think maybe the weight helps keep the heat in place longer? It’s not only warm but the right weight to make you feel cozy. ",
"For people with sensory overload (contributes to anxiety/panic attacks), a weighted blanket provides pressure that helps to calm and regulate sensory stimuli.",
"The research hasn't been done very deeply yet, to be honest. The studies that support it are small, and it's not the kind of experiment that a good control group can be set up. \n\nThat said, here is the theory :\n\n\"Deep touch pressure\" has been studied as a aid for Autism spectrum kids. Basically light stimulation (tickling loose clothes, the wind, etc.) excites your nervous system. If you are already anxious, it increases your fight/flight response. Deep pressure (hugging, a tight compression shirt, or a weighted blanket) pushes past that triggering response and actually *sooths* your nervous system, encouraging the release of calming neurotransmitters. ",
"nobody is really sure WHY they work, only that they do. \n\nmost speculation revolves around the idea the weight interacts positively with the human reaction to touch. we're herd animals, after all, we evolved to be around and in contact with other people. the weight of the blanket simulating the sensation of sleeping with or near another person.",
"When ya’ll inside the mother birthing pod, shit be all right and cramped. You need to feel all right and cramped. Right and cramped makes a vegan nerve response that lowers heart rate and blood pressure. ",
"Weighted blankets provide full-body deep touch pressure through proprioception, which has been shown to have calming effects on the body. You can get similar feelings from a strong hug, squeezing into tight spaces, or rolling around on a soft surface. Our bodies are habituated to the protective feeling weighted blankets offer."
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cghvn6 | body organs. what’s in the space between them? can organs leak? what holds them in place? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/cghvn6/eli5_body_organs_whats_in_the_space_between_them/ | {
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"Held in place by fascia *(sheets of strong connective tissue sort of like ligaments / tendons, but not involving bone or muscle)*. \nYes, they can leak. If it's your intestines leaking it's probably going to lead to a nasty infection. A leaking lung can lead to collapse of that lung. A leaking gall bladder or stomach can eat away nearby tissue. \nThere isn't much space; usually the organs are against each other. Some slime to make movement easier. In the brain, both between the hemispheres and between the layers of covering, there's fluid.",
"Your organs are grouped together in compartments- e.g. thorax (chest), peritonium (abdomen), pericardium (lil heart space)- and then within those sections of the body there is basically a balloon full of special fluid that takes up all the extra space in between the organs.\n\n & #x200B;\n\nThink of pressing your fist into a somewhat-inflated balloon- your hand is \"inside\" the balloon but it's not ACTUALLY inside it. There's a layer of air made by the balloon all around your fist except for where your arm is sticking in. Your organs are your fist, and your arm is where vessels and important structures connect to the organ. In each compartment, the balloon is filled with a special lubricant called serous fluid, and because it's so tightly packed in there, the balloon just forms a thin slippery layer inbetween everything, allowing the organs to rub against one another without friction."
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5lw7ya | what is happening to the one knuckle that does not crack, while all the others do? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5lw7ya/eli5_what_is_happening_to_the_one_knuckle_that/ | {
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"\"Cracking your knuckles\" is simply just gas pockets bursting when there is a buildup. Knuckle doesn't crack that means you have no gas of any kind building up in your hand"
]
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[]
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fczxem | how is it possible to visualize objects and colors with closed eyes just by thinking of them? | Sometimes if I think of color purple with my eyes closed I can see purple lines or if I think of any random color I am able to see that color when I close my eyes. I know that the color is not actually there but how am I able to see the exact same thing that I think of with my eyes closed?
In the same way, while giving a test or an exam,sometimes you close the eyes to think of the answer and you are able to see relevant information that you have studied in front of your eyes. How does that happen? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/fczxem/eli5_how_is_it_possible_to_visualize_objects_and/ | {
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"Because the visual processing part of your center isn't your eyes. Your eyes are inputs for visual information, but your brain is the processor. And with your years of experience with sensory input, your brain is able to reconstruct it without needing an actual input.",
"Your are actually activating the visual processing part of the brain to do this.\n\nYour eyes produce a stream of raw data that is then heavily edited by the brain to produce a coherent image. The brain isn't simply relaying what the eyes see, it's photoshopping the hell out of the feed (see all the optical illusions for ways to trick the system).\n\nAll that real-time photoshopping power can also be used to generate an image with no eyeball input at all, but rather recalling the relevant information from memory.",
"perception is just a process of the brain and we can trigger this process, without the usual external stimulus, with something called imagining",
"Side note for readers: if you cannot visualize things in your head, you probably have Aphantasia. Interesting thing about Aphantasia is that a lot of people with it have no idea."
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365542 | why some people have a good sleep with 4h or less and i need at least 7 | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/365542/eli5_why_some_people_have_a_good_sleep_with_4h_or/ | {
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"Psychology student here to disappoint you!\n\nBecause we're all unique. Simple as that. Some need more sleep, some need less. The human brain (hell, any brain) is a very complex organ and most of the time, we have no idea what's going on there and why.\n\nE: Downvotes for facts? Sorry I couldn't deliver on telling all kinds of cool lies.",
"I think in > 95% of the cases, the people who are claiming to sleep well with 4 hours are either lying or have no frame of reference to realize they're feeling shitty. When I was in high school I regularly functioned on 4 hours of sleep, but as an adult, I look back and have no fucking clue how I managed that. \n\nIn a few cases, some people have adjusted their sleep schedules so that they fall straight into REM sleep-- apparently you can cut your sleep down to just a couple of hours worth of well timed naps. Not sure how well this actually works, but some people vouch for it. "
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22cwqq | why is gameplay animation in video games never as fluid as it is in animated films? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/22cwqq/eli5_why_is_gameplay_animation_in_video_games/ | {
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"Video-games have to render on the fly, animated films are pre-rendered.",
"Some of the more detailed frames in Frozen [took more than 5 days to render](_URL_1_). It runs at 24 frames per second, which means there are more than 150,000 individual frames of animation in it.\n\nMovies pre-render all their animation. Then they basically have the computer take as long as it needs to to draw everything, then they take a picture of the finished product, and then they just show the pictures in sequence. \n\nOn a related note, Dreamworks uses dedicated rendering workstations like an HP Z820, which has two Intel Xeon E5-2687W processors running at 3.1GHz each. This means on this machine animators can use 16 cores for processing. On top of that it has 32GB of RAM, a 160GB SSD boot drive (and a 500GB data drive), with an Nvidia Quadro 5000 graphics card (which itself has 352 cores). On a machine like that, [rendering 16 frames of relatively simple animation can take at little as ten seconds.](_URL_0_) So that's still more than 20 seconds of processing time per second of screen time.\n\nCompare that to an Xbox One, which has an 8-core CPU running at 1.6 GHz and 8 gigs of ram (and a 700+ shader core video card running at 853 MHz), yet renders 60 frames per second (on some games), and you can see why there's such a disparity in the quality. \n\nWhat's shocking isn't that video game graphics are worse than movies, it's that they manage to look so amazing in the first place."
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"http://www.techradar.com/us/news/world-of-tech/inside-dreamworks-how-animated-movies-are-rendered-1127122",
"http://www.awn.com/animationworld/animation-disneys-frozen-striving-capture-performance"
]
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5locov | how websites like wish are able to sell products for such a low price? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5locov/eli5_how_websites_like_wish_are_able_to_sell/ | {
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"I've bought a few things from Wish. The items are generally low quality. I don't purchase anything from Wish if I really want something nice.\n\nI bought 72 pokemon figurines for stocking staffers at christmas. 3 dollars, plus shipping. They were really nice.\n\nI bought an RF bug detector which turned out to work great!\n\nI got a few pairs of tights as a gag gift that were mediocre in quality.\n\nYou get what you pay for in most cases.\n"
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dq0ost | how come sometimes when you shake a phone or other slightly dim light source in a dark room, it appears as if its springy and not moving at the same time/rate of your hand? | This might sound silly, but I've noticed this with my phone screen, and the lights on a closed 3ds, when i shake it in a dark room at night, it seems like its delayed or springy, it doesn't move like a fixed object in my hand.
Edit: it only seems to work in the dark, not when the light is on
Edit 2: could it have something to do with brighter lights being more prominent and noticable? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/dq0ost/eli5_how_come_sometimes_when_you_shake_a_phone_or/ | {
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"That is the flickering of LED lights (or OLED displays).\n\nWithout going into the specifics of LEDs, they actually behave very differently than older filament light bulbs. Where filament bulbs get hot and glow when electricity is applied, LEDs emit light (LED = Light emitting diode) [almost] immediately when current is applied. This means they can be switched off and on VERY quickly, and if they flicker fast enough, you normally wouldn't be able to tell the difference between a flickering light source and one that is constantly on.\n\nMost consumer LEDs are switched off and on around 60 times per second (60 Hz). They look like they're constantly on when you're looking right at them, but you can actually perceive the flicker if you move the light source very fast.\n\nEDIT: It only works in the dark because the amount of time the diode spends in the OFF state is less than the time it spends in the ON state, making it already though enough to see the flickering. You'd still be able to see it in a lit setting, but you'd have to move the light source much faster.",
"It's called \"persistence of vision\". If you look at a bright light, then close your eyes, you'll see a bright spot.\n\nThe same happens here. The bright screen will have a lasting after-image which will remain for a fraction of a second, while your darker hand won't. Thus, the bright screen will look slightly behind the hand.\n\nThe reason it doesn't work as well in a bright environment is that the pupil is adjusting to the brighter light, and thus, the light from the bright screen will be reduced as well.",
"Nothing to do with LED flicker, this happens with solid natural lights too. It's called the Hess effect and it's because the brain detects bright objects faster than dark ones, there's about 150 ms of delay which is easily noticable when you shake your phone or move your eyes around, makes it seem as though the bright parts are shaking compared to the darker surroundings. \n\n [Source](_URL_0_)"
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1fv9af | how large cash prizes work on game/reality shows? | I was watching America's Got Talent last night and I noticed at the end of the credits a notice which read:
"The prize, which totals $1,000,000, is payable in a financial annuity over forty years, or the contestant may choose to receive the present cash value of such annuity."
What exactly does this mean? Does this mean the contestant would get $25,000 per year for forty years? And what would be the "present cash value"? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1fv9af/eli5_how_large_cash_prizes_work_on_gamereality/ | {
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"An annuity is a type of investment where you buy the annuity and then you get paid back a little at a time over a very long period. \n\nFrom [this link](_URL_0_), the million dollar annuity would cost NBC about $450,000 to purchase. And yes, the winner would get $25K a year for 40 years under this plan.\n\nSo NBC gets to say they're giving away a million dollars when it's only really costing them less than half of that. The winner can choose to just take the $450K (the \"present cash value\") since it makes no difference out of NBC's pocket.\n"
]
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"http://www.realityblurred.com/realitytv/archives/americas_got_talent_2/2007_Aug_03_prize"
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5va82m | why hasn't a "new facebook" broken through after all these years? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5va82m/eli5_why_hasnt_a_new_facebook_broken_through/ | {
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"Because there already is pretty much everything. For something new to break through, it has to be original. Which is hard nowadays, considering the amount of different social networks there are. There is Facebook, Twitter which has the 140 character feature, Instagram which lets you share pictures and short videos, YouTube which let's you share videos in general and so on...",
"A lot of this is down to the network effect. Because almost everyone have facebook and facebook makes it hard to integrate with other competing services it is hard to get started in the market. For instance if you were to make a messaging service without any more features then the facebook messaging service and with fewer of your contacts then who would use it when there is facebook messaging. When faceboot messaging were first developed you could integrate it with other messaging services like Google Talk but both of those have switched to proprietary protocols to deliberately make it harder for people to integrate with.",
"I think it's both a networking effect and anticompetitive practices.\n\nThe networking effect as Gnonghgoi explained is simply that it's difficult to get people to join a network unless the network already exists. That means it's hard to get a network started.\n\nAnticompetitive practices involve taking ideas from other services and integrating them with their own. Facebook has integrated new ideas from Twitter and Snapchat, for instance, without negative repercussions. Or did you think \"Facebook Live\" was an original idea?",
"Well, for one thing there HAS been a large number of successful social networks that have risen up since Facebook became popular, like Twitter, and Instagram. If you look at more specific services that exist to fill a certain niche, there's tons like Snapchat, LinkedIn, etc. that have plenty big enough userbases. Each one is a bit different, however, because any company that has the budget needed to actually compete with Facebook isn't going to risk competing directly. Instead, they try to provide a different sort of service, so that people not only are more likely to have a reason to use both, removing the need to actually sway Facebook's users to their side exclusively.\n\nThe reason no successful service that attempts to do pretty much the same thing as Facebook has come to be can be boiled down to 3 reasons.\n\n1. Everybody already uses Facebook. For the single user, it's already going to be difficult to convince them to jump ship since they already have so much they've put on FB that they wouldn't want to abandon, as well as the simple familiarity of the site they know. However, when you consider that FB is a community-driven service, it becomes even harder to get people to switch to a competitor, since all of their friends have to as well, not to mention all the new friends they won't be getting by using an obscure site.\n\n2. Facebook is pretty decent, and is aimed at a mass audience. MySpace was replaced by Facebook because it had some major flaws to its system, as well as certain design choices like giving users more customization of their page made the site less likely to appeal to a wide audience. Facebook is not perfect, but it's good enough that few people are going to complain enough that they go looking for an alternative.\n\n3. Advertising. Facebook has ludicrous amounts of money to spend on advertising, as well as the sheer amount of free publicity it gets every time someone or something tells you to add them on Facebook. This ensures that for every new potential user, Facebook is almost always the first place they look, cutting out millions of people from finding a competing service."
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14hf9v | where do most american cities get their water from? | It can't be from only the lakes, right, or wouldn't they dry up? Is it all underground? Is it reused? The cities along the coast, can they use the salt water and purify it? I've always wondered this. Please and thanks! | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/14hf9v/where_do_most_american_cities_get_their_water_from/ | {
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"American cities get it from Lakes, Rivers, Aquifers, and there are a handful of salt water purification but that is not efficient yet. I do not know which is most common for the US as a whole but I do know that Texas has a lot of man made lakes and Aquifers. ",
"There's a reason why a huge number of cities are built on rivers. Those have always been the biggest historical source of water for people. I would be happy if anyone could find the specific breakdown, though.",
"The exact source will vary from city to city, but most large cities have at least one large body of water they get water from. Some cities like Milwaukee get it from natural lakes (Lake Michigan, in this case). Other places like Boston have dammed up rivers to create large man-made reservoirs (the Quabbin Reservoir in this case). As far as I know, nobody's using desalinization plants on salt water because it's way too expensive.\n\nSmaller cities will often pull their water from undammed rivers, and small towns often just use wells. These systems are more prone to running low during drought conditions. Some smaller places don't even have any water/sewer service at all -- residents must drill their own wells and install their own septic tanks.\n\nA city's water source (lakes, rivers, reservoirs) will not dry up so long as the amount of water coming in (for example from rain or snowmelt) is more than the amount being consumed. For places like Boston and Milwaukee, there is no danger of this happening any time soon. Boston gets more than enough rain, and Milwaukee's lake is humongous. However, there are some places where running out of water is a real concern, like Los Angeles and Phoenix.\n\n",
"There is a gigantic aquifer under the Midwest called the Ogallala Aquifer. It runs from south dakota all the way down to texas and that supplies a good amount of water to the western plains and eastern mountain regions. Although it is drying up at an alarming rate. "
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2jrp75 | how do child actors differentiate from fiction and reality when acting? | I've always been curios! | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2jrp75/eli5_how_do_child_actors_differentiate_from/ | {
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"I'm not really sure what you're asking.\n\nMy young daughter is not a \"child actress\" in the professional sense, but she's been in school plays ever since the age of 4, and when she has play dates, putting on a show for the adults is one of her favourite things to do with her friends.\n\nShe has no trouble understanding that when she acts, it's make-believe, just like she understands that story books and tv programs are make-believe. Like all young children, she has certain toys that she talks about as if they're real, and if you asked her, she'd even say they're real - but that doesn't mean she really believes that, or that she doesn't understand the difference between real and make-believe."
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1u5xpd | the chemistry behind love | People always talk about how two people may have good chemistry, but what is the science that's going on and causing attraction between a couple? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1u5xpd/eli5_the_chemistry_behind_love/ | {
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"There are many things going on. Firstly, on a subconscious level, you need immune system compatibility. We are constantly emitting pheromones which are odorless chemicals that influence our behavior unconsciously, and gives off information about ourselves. This is the defense mechanism that keeps us from mating with our own relatives, for example. When someone is compatible with us, we feel a greater amount of attraction to them.\n\nThis attraction is consciously perceived through a whole host of chemicals and hormones that are released. Among these are Phenylethylamine, or PEA, which is a stimulant that causes that \"butterflies\" nervous feeling when you are attracted to someone. Oxytocin is released and this causes emotional bonding to the individual, especially during sex and orgasm. Then, there is dopamine, which is a neurotransmitter that is released and creates a feeling of reward. Dopamine is at the root of all addiction, and so when you are in love with someone, you are literally addicted to them like a drug.\n\nThere are more, but these are the basics. Of course, when people say two people have \"good chemistry,\" they are referring to other things as well such as a compatible sense of humor and personality, etc. But those are just some of the biological processes that occur during \"love.\""
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2vz6pu | why is brian williams the only one bring scrutinized; why isn't nbc getting in trouble? | Could I get an educated answer and not "le big business is bad" made up answer | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2vz6pu/eli5_why_is_brian_williams_the_only_one_bring/ | {
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"Brian Williams dug his own hole. What, exactly, do you think NBC News as an institution did here that constitutes a punishable offense?",
"What Brian Williams did was an ethical, not criminal, violation.\n\nThere is no law or regulation that can be leveraged against Williams or NBC in this case.\n\nNBC will likely suffer some from a loss of credibility, though it's difficult to say to what degree.",
"My question is why dosent Fox news get scrutinized ",
"It's worth noting too that Brian Williams embellished personal anecdotes rather than falsifying a news story. 99% of his job is telling you about what has happened to other people and as far as I know he's not accused of any dishonesty doing that. He only mislead people when it came to his own personal experiences which primarily add color to stories, not content. "
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1r8c9j | after watching another tornado video destroying a us home, i have to ask: why is construction so fragile? | Please don't take this the wrong way, and i don't mean any disrespect, but it's far to common to see houses that are build with fragile materials being completely destroyed by a twister.
Is this only because of cost? In Europe it's rare to see houses made from other things than bricks, even very poor houses.
The video that caught my attention for this matter was this one:
_URL_0_ | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1r8c9j/eli5_after_watching_another_tornado_video/ | {
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"Construction is generally fine, it's just that tornadoes are *extremely* powerful. Sure we could build tornado-proof houses, but being hit by a tornado is still a very rare event, and the added cost wouldn't be worth the low risk.",
"Tornadoes destroy houses made of brick and masonry block about as easily as they do wooden houses. And then once the houses are destroyed, you get flying masonry blocks. To quote Ron White: \n > It's not *that* the wind blows. It's *what* the wind blows.\n\nCome tell me about your brick house when a minivan gets thrown into it at 300 KP/H.",
"Not only is the localized wind speed of a tornado in the hundreds of miles per hour, but the detritus and debris it picks up and flings around almost turns it into a giant, house destroying shotgun. Essentially, reinforced concrete is one of the only things strong enough to put up a resistance to the cars, rocks, timber, cows, etc that is being slammed into it at 300mph. However, by simply digging a basement one can move slightly out of the horizontal path of the tornado and survive easier. Places like OK don't have that option due to soil difficulties, but most other places in the Midwest can. \nTL;DR bricks don't mean shit to a tornado, and wood is cheaper, so why waste the dollas?",
"If putting it into perspective helps I have lived in the heart of \"tornado alley\" for my entire life and have seen a grand total of zero tornadoes. Would the added cost of \"tornado proofing\" a house really be worth the extremely low risk?",
"This question gets asked daily on here. [Here's a really good answer.](_URL_0_)"
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1heme4 | how did mars change from having so much potential for intelligent life to to the barren wasteland it is today? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1heme4/eli5_how_did_mars_change_from_having_so_much/ | {
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"Better question is why it worked on Earth but not Mars or Venus.\n\nEarth is larger and from that fact alone, our core, assuming similar composition, can get denser and hotter. Also the additional gravity allows us to hold our atmosphere better.\n\nEarth's moon is also abnormally large compared to the moons of other planets(when compared to the mass of the moons' host planets). Meaning our moon is bigger than normal for our planet size. The gravitational effects of our moon affects our planet more than a smaller moon would. The tidal effects that affect our oceans also tugs on our mantle keeping it in motion and also fluid.\n\nThe active core generates our magnetosphere that shield us from solar winds that can strip away atmosphere. \n\nIt's still debatable, but a geologically active core might be a prerequisite.\n\nVenus is closer to Earth's mass, but is geologically inactive. (correction : Venus is geologically active, but lava hasn't been observed. It does have a young crust, so that is a sign of geological activity) ",
"Your mentioning potential for intelligent life specifically, as opposed to non-intelligent life, is a little chauvinistic with regard to your intelligence (as the undisputed most intelligent species on the planet, humans can be excused for being intelligence chauvinists I suppose). Life has been around on Earth for over 3 billion years, and intelligent life is only a few million years old, or maybe a few hundred thousand, depending on your criteria. And intelligence only evolved once, maybe twice (depending on your criteria again). I'm thinking mammals, and perhaps some birds here. Contrast that with eyes, which have evolved tens of times independently (32 was the last number I saw). \n\nSo it would seem that while eyes are useful really often, it takes specific conditions for intelligence to be both A) useful enough to be worth the cost, and B) within reach. \n\nThis doesn't address the core of your question, but hopefully it illuminates a different aspect. ",
"Supposedly: The sun is blasting us with not only heat and light but also with a wind. Where we live we are surrounded by a type of shield, like in Star Wars, that keeps the wind from hitting us and also keeps our air from blowing away. They say that on Mars they they lost their shield and all their air blew away and without their air there can't be anything to breathe it.",
"Mars is smaller than the Earth and because of that the core stopped spinning a lot earlier in the life of the planet. Without a spinning core there is no magnetic field protecting the planet from the sun, thus burning away any atmosphere it might have had. I don't have any sources because this is how my geology professor explained it to me.",
"It's always been a barren rocky wasteland with a thin atmosphere. Trace amounts of oxygen, water and methane don't come close to indicating that Mars could support life. Despite these facts, we're all so fixated by life on mars that we overemphasise any shakey evidence of possible earth-like conditions.",
"So as other posters have mentioned, Mars' loss of its magnetosphere is probably largely to blame. \n\nThe movement of molten iron in the centre of planets is what generates their magnetosphere.\nThis magnetic field helps deflect the charged particles of the Solar wind, which would otherwise strip away the planet's atmosphere.\n\nSo clearly Mars lost its magnetosphere whereas Earth did not. Thus Mars lost most of its atmosphere and Earth did not. But why did Mars lose its magnetosphere?\n\nAs I mentioned, the magnetosphere is driven by molten iron in the planetary centre. But iron can only stay molten if the planet is hot inside. This heat is largely a relic of planetary formation, although some comes from tidal forces. Earth is larger than Mars, giving it a lower surface area to volume ratio, which means it cools slower. Also the tidal effect of the Earth's large moon deforms and heats its interior. All this means that the Earth cools much slower than Mars.\n\nSo it is probable that Mars with its high surface area to volume ratio and no tides cooled far more rapidly than the earth, and that its molten interior slowed and then solidified. This turned off the magnetosphere and doomed its atmosphere.\n\n With no atmosphere to trap heat and no volcanic activity to spur evolution, Mars became the cold, lifeless planet we know today.\n\nTL:DR Mars cooled quickly, its core stopped generating magnetism and its atmosphere was stripped by the solar wind.",
"One interesting thing to note is that Mars currently has many small localized magnetic fields instead of one large powerful magnetic field like the earth has. One theory behind this suggests that Mars once had a powerful magnet field much like our own which would have protected its atmosphere from the solar winds, but that it's geodynamo (the magnetic field generated by a spinning molten iron core) may have been disrupted due to a powerful impact from a meteor. In fact if you look at the impact craters on Mars, the more heavily impacted areas correspond to the weaker magnetic fields. It would be awesome if we could jump start the magnetic field again!",
"It was too small and the planet's gravity couldn't hold on to the atmosphere well enough and it evaporated into space."
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19ld0q | why have the french been branded as cowards in war when history seems to provide bouts of contrast (napoleonic wars, world wars, etc.)? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/19ld0q/why_have_the_french_been_branded_as_cowards_in/ | {
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"During World War II, they were quickly taken over by the Germans. It was so quick that many people thought they hardly put up a fight. They had a vichy (puppet) government for pretty much the rest of the war. They have since been labeled as cowards or quick to surrender.",
"The stereotype is mostly in the US, actually. It's not so in Europe. (Well, most of Europe, except with the British, since both France and England have \"they're cowards\" jokes about each other due to age-old bickering).\n\nSome people in the US keep that joke \"alive\", possibly due to people who dislike the French or their attitude about things. It became far more common after the \"freedom fries\" period.\n\nConsidering how many wars France won in past centuries, and that the coward jokes are due to losses from the last century, it's quite sad that this joke keeps going on.",
"So their enemies don't see it coming.",
"France was the wealthiest, most populous, and most influential country in Europe for about 1000 years, but in recent centuries they have had a LONG losing streak, sometimes against much smaller and less advanced enemies. \n\n1870 Lost the Franco-Prussion War \n\n1914 Fared poorly against Germany in World War I \n\n1940 Conquered by Germany in World War II \n\n1954 Defeated and forced to give up colony in Vietnam \n\n1962 Forced to give up colonial control of Algeria \n\nSo that's part of it, and people often get vindictive satisfaction out of seeing the former boss fall upon hard times. Also, France has occasionally offended other Western nations by doing things like dropping out of NATO, which left other countries feeling that France was getting a free ride, being protected from the Soviets with armies supported by the tax payers of other countries. ",
"Recently I saw an interview by Chris Hedges (I really can't remember who did the interview or when it took place, it was during class and I was on reddit for most of it) and he argued that the reason the french are painted as white-flag waving cowards by Americans these days is because of their lack of support for invading Iraq post 9-11. \n\nHe believed that because France didn't buy into the whole \"weapons of mass destruction\" thing, they were labeled as cowards because for Americans, it's easier to convince ourselves that we're doing the right thing if any opposing arguments are discredited. As a result, french fries become freedom fries and french soldiers are only shown how to raise a white flag in training. \n\nI think that Chris Hedges was right because from what I remember, I didn't hear any cowardly french jokes until after 9/11.\n\n\n ",
"\"Cheese Eating Surrender Monkeys!\"\n- Groundskeeper Willy, 1995",
"Agincourt and Crecy?",
"Don't forget Charlmagne. He and Napoleon are enough in my book to quality the French as non-cowards for the rest of history. ",
"The French have actually had a very long and successful Military History, especially if you factor in much of the fighting that had to be done for the Government to survive between 1400 - 1800. \n\nThe downward spiral started after the fall of Napoleon at Waterloo in 1815, and a series of embarrassing defeats throughout the 19th century that reflected the damaged society post-revolution. The most egregious of these defeats was ultimately during World War II, when their state-of-the-art defensive fortifications, the Maginot Line, were skirted by the German Blitzkrieg and rendered useless. \n\nFor more information, ask /r/AskHistorians.",
"Don't forget Asterix the Gaul!",
"_URL_0_ \n\nI remember this from back in high school, a little biased but nonetheless an outline of their participation in wars over the last few centuries.",
"Despite the \"melting pot\", the English roots (English as in England) of American culture are very strong. \n\nEngland and France share a long, violent history that stretches back further than their respective nationhoods. We inherited the negative jokes about Frenchmen being cowards from our English forebears. \n\nI think we got the idea that Frenchmen are romantic/exotic from them as well!",
"In sports you are as good as your last result.",
"Q: why do French cities have tree-lined streets?\nA: Germans like to march in the shade",
"I'm gonna just chime in here... I'm reading over a lot of the comments in this thread, and a lot of these answers are great. I think the top comment is pretty much your answer. But one thing which I think plays a big role in how, stereo-typically, Americans view the French, is that it has become a kind of joke...or maybe, a \"meme\" in some circles of American culture. Like, reddit hates on justin beiber and niki minage all the time, right? Well, I'd bet that a lot of people making pictures saying stuff like \"haha i sure hope JB gets hit by a car\" or whatever, probably don't really dislike his music that much. It's just a sign of the times. The hivemind. It's sort of like a self-fulfilling prophecy....but in this case, a self-reaffirming prophecy. A positive-feedback loop. I bet a lot of Americans who will causally joke about French cowardice actually don't have strong opinions about the issue.",
"A short collective memory. \n",
"Well I'm from New Zealand and we have our own reasons for branding the French as cowards which date back to 1985 when they sunk The Rainbow Warrior, killing one person in the process, in order to prevent peaceful protests against nuclear testing in our backyard.\n\n_URL_0_",
"As an American, I love the French."
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30whx6 | what are some genetic facts that can help parents establish (with a relatively high probability) if a child is biologically theirs? | a | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/30whx6/eli5_what_are_some_genetic_facts_that_can_help/ | {
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"None of these are conclusive, DNA or blood is your best bet, but if you have a lot of 'unlikely' answers it can hint at a parentage issue.\nBlue eyed parents are unlikely to have brown-eyed offspring, but it is still plausible.\nParents who can't roll their tongues are unlikely to have a child who can.\nParents who both have dimples are unlikely to have a child without dimples.\n\n"
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7h00hd | what is encapsulation/polymorphism and how does it work? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7h00hd/eli5_what_is_encapsulationpolymorphism_and_how/ | {
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"In terms of English:\n\nPolymorphism: A lion is a type of cat. A dog is not a type of cat, but a tiger is. \"cat\" is polymorphic in this sense.\n\nEncapsulsation: The computer has a hard drive. The computer has no human. The computer has a keyboard.\n\nAssociation: the computer has a human. The cat has a dog friend.",
"Sounds like you're talking about computer science. But since this is ELI5, we'll do a non-programming explanation (but I'll show how it relates to CS).\n\n**ELI5**\n\n*Polymorphism:* When different things exhibit the same behavior. For example men and women. They are technically different, but for most purposes can be treated as the same. When talking about eating, sleeping, intelligence, activities, etc. we can generally just talk about people instead of specifying men or women. That is to say men or women are polymorphic (with each other).\n\n*Encapsulation:* Keeping the attributes of something in the same place as the behavior of that thing. For example if I make a blender, it would make sense for me to put instructions about the different parts next to how those parts work (in a manual for example). That would be encapsulated. If I made one document about all the pieces, and a completely different one for how the blender works, that would be ... not encapsulation? I don't think there's a word for not encapsulation. Maybe Golang 😂\n\n\n**ELI CS Nerd**\n\n*Polymorphism:* when different object types share the same interface so the rest of the program can just say I need interface X, don't care what the object is that has it.\n\n*Encapsulation:* keeping the properties of your objects next to the methods that work on those properties (ie. classes).",
"In computer science, data is often arranged in what is called a *class*. A class is a composite variable type that has both data, and what are called method, basically subroutines tied to the class. When you create of variable of the class's type, it is called an object. For example, you might have a class called EmployeeRecord. It will contain data like startDate, salary, and hours[week], and methods like getStartDate(), adjustSalary(dollars), and totalHours(startWeek, endWeek). A particular employee might would be an object of type EmployeeRecord.\n\nEncapsulation and polymorphism are features that are generally considered desirable in a class.\n\nEncapsulation is keeping your data internal to the class, and only allowing it to be accessed via the methods the class provides. If you wanted to give Bob a raise, you can't use bob.salary = bob.salary * 1.1, you would say bob.adjustSalary(0.1). The main advantages is other people using the class don't need to know all the nitty-gritty details, and you can change the internals without making people who use that class having to change their stuff. For example, you might find a good reason to change how you interally represent time work from hours to minutes. So long as getHours() still returns hours, no one will have to update their code.\n\nPolymorphism is about similar classes having similar enough methods so they can sometimes be used in the same way. Instead of EmployeeRecord, you might have hourlyEmployee, salariedEmployee, and contractEmployee. Polymorphism allows you to sometimes treat them as the same type. You might have a subroutine called eligibleForPension() that takes any of those three employee types. In it, it would call employee.getStartDate(), and it would call the method appropriate to the class, even if each class's method was a little different. Polymorphism often works hand in hand with inheritence, but it does not require it.\n\n"
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63xxov | how come the desire to watch or listen to something familiar overrides my desire to learn something new? i.e. constantly skipping all unknown tracks from my music or being unable to finish an unseen episode? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/63xxov/eli5_how_come_the_desire_to_watch_or_listen_to/ | {
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"Think about your strategy in a boiled-down version of your scenario: Should you pursue something that you already know you enjoy or take a risk on something you may or may not enjoy?\n\nEdit: a word",
"This is a personality thing, so I don't think you will find a satisfying ELI5 answer.\n\nI've known people who do what you do. I've also known people who compulsively skip things they've already seen/heard. And people who just skip through everything because they get bored extremely easily.\n\n\nPersonality is all over the place."
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82b7jw | if our inner ear fluid controls whether or not we're dizzy, why do things spinning in movies make us dizzy? | When things spin in movies or on a screen, why does it make us dizzy if our inner ear fluid isn't moving basically? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/82b7jw/eli5_if_our_inner_ear_fluid_controls_whether_or/ | {
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"It's because what your eyes are telling your brain is not consistent with what your ears are telling your brain. This is why you get car sick, too (but the other way around). When there is inconsistent information like this, it could indicate that you've ingested poison. What's a good way to get rid of ingested poison? Vomit. (so it makes you feel like you're going to puke)",
"Because your eyes, the main way your brain takes in information, is sending the signal to the brain that your body is spinning. \n\nYou vestibular system system is sending your brain a signal that you aren't moving. "
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2lm34s | why are gauges (body piercings) so much more popular nowadays? | I feel like when I was a kid (mid 1980s) no one really had these types of jewelry and probably saw this for the first time in some documentary exploring different aboriginal cultures. Perhaps I was an oblivious kid, but what happened that caused this fashion change that doesn't seem to be going anywhere? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2lm34s/eli5_why_are_gauges_body_piercings_so_much_more/ | {
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"It's kind of just how fashion works. Things randomly become popular then die down again. You can't necessarily explain it.",
"I think it initially gained popularity because it was \"shocking\". Things like long hair on guys, dyed hair, tattoos and such stopped getting reactions out of people so people up their game to gages. After a little bit that was no longer shocking and people just started doing it because they liked it and it was no longer seen as something that would get a general bad reaction. We also refined how we do gages and body mods. Nobody was that interested in them when we had the same techniques as someone who lives in a tribe. \n"
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3d9phf | what happened with greece a couple days ago? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3d9phf/eli5what_happened_with_greece_a_couple_days_ago/ | {
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"brief overview with background\n\n* Greece is in a lot of debt\n\n* Greece does not have enough cash incoming to pay its debt\n\n* Other countries have bailed Greece out by giving them loans so that they can remain solvent while trying to reduce their debt. This has been going on for several years now.\n\n* As a condition of these loans they made Greece agree to many austerity measures. These austerity measures consist of spending less money, taxing more, and selling assets in an effort to slow down the rate at which their debt is increasing.\n\n* The austerity measures are very harmful to the Greek economy. Unemployment is high, GDP is low, etc.\n\n* As the Greek economy deteriorated, the austerity measures became wildly unpopular with the Greek people.\n\n* So, the Greek people elected the Syriza party to power in January. Syriza's campaign platform was to discontinue the austerity that previous Greek governments had agreed to.\n\n* Germany and its other creditors refused to accept this. No austerity meant no more money from them.\n\n* They \"negotiated\" for six months with very little progress. Essentially, they just kicked the can down the road and repeatedly delayed the issue.\n\n* On Jun 30, Greece had a payment due to the IMF that they could not pay without more assistance. However, Greece's creditors still refused to give Greece any more money without a commitment to austerity. \n\n* Syriza's leader, Alexis Tsipras, did not want to agree to their bailout because it contained too much austerity, and he had campaigned for office on a promise to end austerity.\n\n* Instead of accepting or rejecting a bailout, he scheduled a referendum on whether or not Greece would agree to the latest bailout deal offered by the Troika. The referendum was held on Jul 5.\n\n* Since Tsipras scheduled the referendum for after the payment was due, Greece missed its Jun 30 payment BEFORE the referendum and went in arrears with the IMF.\n\n* The bailout offer expired when Greece missed its payment to the IMF. They could not actually take the deal even though they voted on it.\n\n* When Greece missed its payment, the ECB (european central bank) froze the level of loans outstanding in Greece's ELA (emergency liquidity assistance) program.\n\n* Since there has been capital flight out of Greek banks around these events, Greek banks needed an expansion of the ELA program in order to produce cash.\n\n* Without more ELA loans from the ECB, Greece implemented capital controls. This means that there is a limit on the amount of cash anyone can withdraw from a bank, and it is forbidden for people to move cash out of the country.\n\n* Even in the face of capital controls, the Greek people voted \"no\" on the referendum and rejected austerity again.\n\n* After the referendum, it was Greece's turn to propose a bailout deal. Even though Greece voted \"no\", Alexis Tsipras basically ignored them and proposed a deal that was nearly identical to the one the people rejected.\n\n* However, that deal was no longer on the table. It had expired on Jun 30. The capital controls had inflicted a lot of damage on the Greek economy, so Greece needed even more money. Additionally, Greece's creditors had lost a lot of trust in the Greek government.\n\n* Over the past weekend, they negotiated a new deal. \n\n* This deal had worse austerity for Greece as a result of the damage the capital controls did to their economy. \n\n* It also requires them to set aside 50 billion euros worth of public assets to be auctioned off under the supervision of the IMF. The proceeds from these auctions will be used to help pay down Greece's debt. (This is one part of the deal that many Greeks find \"humiliating\", and I believe it is what /u/308Hits is referring to when s/he says land is being taken away from them)\n\n* Because of the lost trust, they will not get any money until their parliament approves the deal and makes it law. This is expected to happen tomorrow (Wed, Jul 15) \n\n* It also is only for bridge financing which will cover a bond payment due Jul 20. They will negotiate a longer term deal over the following weeks.\n\n* Greece will still be subject to capital controls for the weeks after Jul 20 until they can negotiate longer term funding. "
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69mpgl | how are derailed trains fixed? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/69mpgl/eli5how_are_derailed_trains_fixed/ | {
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"The tracks are repaired, if needed. A crane is brought in that lifts each car and puts it back onto the tracks. [Here](_URL_0_) you can see the process in action."
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87tfjs | does growing food always deplete the soil? | Say you have a vegetable garden growing potatoes and tomatoes. You take the potatoes and tomatoes to eat and compost the plants then apply the compost to the soil. But the potatoes and tomatoes took their nutrients from the soil so this will never be returned unless you spread manure or bring in other fertiliser. So you're slowly depleting the soil, right? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/87tfjs/eli5_does_growing_food_always_deplete_the_soil/ | {
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"Yes and no. In your particular example, yes - you're extracting nutrients from the soil (nitrogen compounds) to grow both tomatoes and potatoes. Assuming the plants get eaten by something (and if you're not eating them, potatoes are a particularly odd choice of plant to grow ;)), that nitrogen has been permanently extracted from the system.\n\nThat said, different plants extract different proportions of different nutrients from soil - and different plants also deposit different waste products^* in the soil, which other plants see as nutrients. This is why crop rotation goes back so far in human history. Grow crop A in year one, grow crop B in year two, grow crop C in year three, then let the field lie fallow in year four. When you get back to crop A in year five (if you've designed your rotation correctly), the soil is nutritive enough to give a full yield.\n\nWe use fertilizers - like manure - to force-replenish the soil, and avoid having to grow less-valuable crops instead of corn.\n\n^(*)This isn't strictly true. Various plants do fix nitrogen in the soil, but by and large the plant itself doesn't do that; the colony of bugs, worms, and microbes that form around its root system excrete nitrogen compounds in excess of what the plant itself needs, so the net effect is a positive rate of nitrogen fixation."
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3u1dcz | what are these little plastic covers under the cap of a liquor bottle that cause the booze to pour out slowly? | I was wondering what these are for...I am stumped! | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3u1dcz/eli5_what_are_these_little_plastic_covers_under/ | {
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"If they have holes in them, they are flame arresters. They prevent the liquor inside from bursting into flames.",
"I think they're there to allow you to pour shots with greater accuracy. \n\nTry pouring an individual shot once with the plastic thing on the spout and again without the plastic thing. \n\nYou tend to spill a lot less liquid, having more control over where the liquid pours as well as how much can come out at one time."
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nyefg | transubstantiation in catholicism and why they believe it | I cannot fathom that an adult thinks he can turn wine and crackers into flesh and blood with a few magic words. Maybe I'm misunderstanding something... | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/nyefg/eli5_transubstantiation_in_catholicism_and_why/ | {
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" A fundamental part of the Catholic concept of transubstantiation is that the objects don't change in any perceptible way--so nobody is actually expecting the wine to turn into blood in a physically detectable way. Most Catholics I know believe less that the wine is physically becoming blood and more that for that moment, the spirit of Jesus is inhabiting the physical object in some way. Of course, this concept may seem just as ridiculous to some. ",
"I get that you don't understand things, but you're really being a fucking asshole in this thread, OP. I don't know if I'm reading your tone wrong (and either way you're going to say you were being genuine), but I feel like you're incredibly jaded. If you have a question, ask it. Don't be a cocksucker.\n\nTo answer your question, though, iamderpina has it right. I was never taught there would be actual blood and flesh. The symbolism present is that, once the host is blessed, it is holy and is referencing the last supper. \n\nEDIT: missed an \"e\" in \"were\" on the first time around. ",
"It's seems more like you think it's stupid and want to repeat how stupid it is than accept their answers. It's symbolism, regardless of what \"literalists\" gave you an impression of.",
"What is transubstantiation? Let's break it down. Trans - obviously to change. Substance - that which stands under. In the time the word \"transubstantiation\" was formed, the word substance was not \"physically touchable stuff\" but \"essential nature,\" i.e. that which stands under the physical object, that facet of being which lies under the purely physical.\n\nSo what does it mean to transubstantiate? It should be obvious - to change the internal nature of some object, i.e. to alter its essential being in some way. Not to change the physical nature of the object, but to change the being which that physical body delimits. \n\nThis is of course an old conception of being which isn't the same as the modern \"everything is just particles,\" but if you accept any dualist thought it's pretty easy to see where transubstantiation can make sense. If you just think about one of the shitty paradoxes where if you replace the hilt of a sword then replace the blade is it still that thing, you can see where this sort of being fits naturally into what humans think.\n\nBasically, the modern conception of being equates it with extancy. The old Catholic sense of being also allows for the concept of substancy. "
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2ut5s3 | why the last play of the super bowl wasn't pass interference. | Can someone explain why the last play of the SB was not pass interference? The Patriots player hits the Seahawk well before the ball gets there. No one is talking about this, so I know it's not *actually* pass interference, but would love a detailed explanation of why. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2ut5s3/eli5_why_the_last_play_of_the_super_bowl_wasnt/ | {
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" > Pass interference is called if the defensive player contacts the offensive player while he is trying to catch the pass, *unless the defender has turned his head to face the oncoming pass and is attempting to intercept it*. Accidental, glancing contact is not penalized.\n\nSo, the fact that the Patriot's player was facing the ball and attempting to catch it means it was not pass interference.\n\n > In the NFL, the defender may make continuous contact with receiver *within the first five yards of the line of scrimmage*. Anything after that is penalized as illegal contact.\n\nThe line of scrimmage was at the 1 yard, so there was no illegal contact."
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k159q | how exactly does cleverbot work. | How can a program be so close to the way a human talks? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/k159q/eli5_how_exactly_does_cleverbot_work/ | {
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"Because the answer you see was written by a human. When you enter a phrase, cleverbot look in a database of previous conversations he had. If it don't know the answer, it asks the question to another user. Now it's quite good because it has a huge database of responses.\n\nIt's like speaking with the internet.\n\nHe is not a real chatbot, because it doesn't create any phrase.",
"Because the answer you see was written by a human. When you enter a phrase, cleverbot look in a database of previous conversations he had. If it don't know the answer, it asks the question to another user. Now it's quite good because it has a huge database of responses.\n\nIt's like speaking with the internet.\n\nHe is not a real chatbot, because it doesn't create any phrase."
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18nndh | how does starbucks coffee always taste the same, despite the beans coming from presumably many different farms, weather patterns, vintages, etc.? | Same goes for Rum, Beer, Orange juice, etc. Doesn't even necessarily have to be liquid - just any product that requires a crop as an ingredient, yet tastes exactly the same across large geographic distances and over time. I assume there is variation in the ingredient crops, yet the final product is always identical.
| explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/18nndh/eli5_how_does_starbucks_coffee_always_taste_the/ | {
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"Branded product is made in relatively few plants and shipped around the country. They also work very hard to keep the taste and quality consistent: ingredients are purchased from known suppliers, and in huge quantities which they test to ensure it meets their standards. \n\nCompanies employ many quality control people, who test all the ingredients and the end product at every stage of the process. Part of that testing is actually tasting everything to make sure it's consistent. ",
"Starbucks tends to over roast their beans, in my opinion at least. \nOranges taste different from different parts of the world. Other fruits too. Most people don't notice much difference, but I do. Oranges and mangoes in the US taste really different than oranges and mangoes in Brazil. ",
"Burnt coffee will always taste the same no matter the source.",
"They're also likely a blend. Easier to duplicate when you can alter the blend.",
"My understanding is that with Starbucks, generally you're tasting the roast rather than the beans. It won't always necessarily taste the same, but it'll taste very similar - with such a big company, they've got strict quality controls in place.\n\nRum and beer I'm not sure.\n\nOrange juice... is kind of icky in that it's got added flavor to make it taste like \"orange juice\". [Here's](_URL_0_) a Gizmodo article on it. ",
"They roast the hell out of it.",
"Regarding coffee, consistency of flavor is indeed difficult to maintain because of the different varieties of sources. However, the darker the roast--or more burnt they are, the more they taste the same. I posed the same question on /r/Coffee before and I received a pretty good [answer](_URL_0_).",
"Coffees from different parts of the world have similar tastes due to similar processing and growing techniques. Starbucks then sources similar grades from each area and keeps them batched together. Master Roasters and Tasters make small batches of coffee up to 6 times during the trip from source to store and make sure it meets the company's flavor profile. Once in the United States roasting plants, it uses technology to monitor the moisture content of the beans to achieve the desired roast.\n\nTo add to what others are saying, yes, for some blends Starbucks roasts it darker than others. It has a wide roast spectrum. Many people prefer it and many don't. \n\nSource: Starbucks \"Coffee Master\" for 5 years",
"As for beer, it's actually a very challenging task to overcome the variables you've stated above in order to create a nationally-consistent product. Budweiser, Coors, etc... Are some of the most difficult beers to keep consistent because of how light they can be and the fact that a beer in NY has to taste the same as a beer in LA.\n\nSource: Charlie Bamforth",
"All of these answers are pretty bad.\n\nIt's likely your palate isn't fully developed. When I started at Stabucks, I didn't have a clue. It was brown water. The more I worked I worked, you could give me a coffee and I could tell you a number of things about it including where is was likely farmed. Same thing goes with beer, alcohol, olive oil, anything there are a number of varieties with. If you're new to tasting it, it will just taste like itself. But compared side by side, you will start to notice small but distinct differences.\n\nNow in the case with Starbucks, they have great coffee beans but sadly they don't brew them. If you ever get the opportunity to have a french pressed cup of Arabian Mocha Sanani from small farms in Yemen, please do so. They have them in some stores. That coffee is really the best coffee they have and you will instantly notice that it is better than any coffee you have yet have. Starbucks, in order to turn a profit (and because most people can't tell the difference) brew House blend (cheap blend of South American coffees), French Roast (the flagship super dark roast) and various other ones.\n\nCoffee is from all over the world and really does taste different. I used to love beans for Sulawesi but haven't been able to get them because of droughts and floods in the world having an impact on that region.\n\ntl;dr: \n\n1. You don't have a sophisticated palate enough to discern small but distinct differences in flavor. \n\n2. Starbucks, although they carry fantastic coffee beans, brew the same shit every day because of reason 1.",
"Recreational Coffee Roaster here. \n\nStarbucks has a very poor reputation among roasters. The coffee is commodity-grade and mass produced, but the corporation continues to market it as high-quality. \n\nThis is basically how it works.\n\nMajor companies such as Starbucks buy MASSIVE plots of land in foreign countries on which they grow coffee. They then proceed to harvest all of this coffee from different farms and locations in one or multiple countries. They then blend all of these beans both good and bad, to create a generic, signature flavor. This blend of different beans may then be referred to as \"Starbucks Coffee.\" Without inside knowledge of the corporation, it is impossible to know how long these beans sit inside warehouses in these countries before being shipped to the United States.\n\nThere are several problems with this approach, at least when evaluating the coffee from a quality perspective. For one, Starbucks coffee is not single-origin. Because the beans come from all over one or multiple countries, the subtleties of flavor that one farm can offer are often lost in the generic blend. Furthermore, many of the beans included in the Starbucks blend are likely pretty shitty beans. This detracts immensely from the quality of the coffee as a whole. The CEO of Starbucks coffee even admitted that Starbucks Coffee \"is not a premium quality coffee, but customers enjoy the experience in Starbucks.\"\n\nSo why do so many people enjoy Starbucks? Why is it still popular?\n\nThey roast the SHIT out of their beans. They take these generic blends of coffee and roast away all the qualities of shitty beans, until the only thing you can taste is the roast. Generally, the darker the roast, the fewer unique flavors of the coffee bean you can pick out. Darker coffees all start to taste the same after a point. Starbucks tastes like Starbucks because it is over-roasted and a blend of numerous different types of coffee. \n\nCombine this mass produced, shitty coffee with massive marketing campaigns touting \"Ethically Sourced\" coffee of the \"Highest Quality Arabica\" and you have yourself an effective corporation. Americans can't tell that their coffee is shit when all the coffee they have ever tried is shit. Compared to Instant Coffee, Starbucks is incredible. \n\nTL;DR Starbucks mixes coffee from massive plots of land then over-roasts the resulting mediocre beans to hide their poor quality. ",
"For orange juice, they can process it to make it always taste the same:\n[Who Wants a Nice Tall Glass of Coca-Cola's Algorithmic Orange Juice?](_URL_0_)",
"French pressed Starbucks coffee > machine brewed Starbucks coffee\n\nDunkin Donuts machine brewed coffee > machine brewed Starbucks coffee",
"Heres a really good article about how Coca-Cola does it with Orange Juice _URL_0_",
"Well, drip coffee generally taste's pretty similar, the filters themselves absorb most of the oils the give each coffee their distinctive flavor. \n\nIf your local starbucks has a [Clover](_URL_0_) machine, I highly suggest you try out the variety of [reserve](_URL_1_) beans they have, each one has a pretty different, some good some bad, taste to them. ",
"Well, with fruits, the reason is that they're grown as a monoculture. Your orange is a clone of every other orange grown in the world. Apple trees are all grafts from the single initial version of that variety. If you plant a Granny Smith seed, you'll get an inedible crabapple tree. This is good because it allows everything to be the same, it's bad because sometimes a disease can wipe out a kind of fruit, which is what happened to the banana. The bananas you get today are the shitty second-rate variety because in 1960, a disease wiped out every cultivated banana on Earth.",
"Starbucks coffee doesn't always taste the same. ",
"Rum, Bourbon, Whiskey, Scotch, and so on:\n\nIt is someones job to taste every barrel and blend a \"batch\" of barrels together so they always taste the same. Every barrel will taste different, but, by having a refined palate you can get consistency in blending barrels.\n\nProducts labeled \"single barrel\" and \"single cask\" will always taste different, because, it is just one barrel.\n\nProducts labeled \"blended\" are something entirely different. In America, blended whiskey is typically a straight whiskey blended with vodka.\n\nIrish and Scotch that is blended is typically a blend of single malt whisky mixed with \"grain whisky\" which is lighter in flavor and cheaper to make.\n\nCaptain Morgan always tastes the same because of the amount of ~~shit~~ \"spices\" they dump in it. It is a flavored spirit, as easy to keep consistent as Coke or Kool-Aid. ",
"I work at Starbucks, and I wouldn't say all of our coffee tastes the same. However, I have been subject to comparison tastings and whatnot, whereas the average consumer hasn't.\n\nIf you want to get better at distinguishing the differences, order a French press. It tastes much better and preserves the oils better that way. Cream and sugar will also mask the flavor, so I'd advise you to drink it black.\n\nI would suggest getting the blond roasts because they are our mildest coffees (AKA: less burnt). I like the veranda which is more mellow, the willow blend is more \"clean and crisp.\" If you were to compare one of those blends to Sumatra, you would ABSOLUTELY be able to tell the difference. Sumatra is dark, bitter, and tastes like mud in my opinion. Or to French Roast, which tastes quite smoky.\n\nNow to answer your actual question, coffee beans really aren't that different no matter where you grow them. The differences you will taste in the final product will be subtle. And bold coffee, which describes most of Starbucks quality, will roast out quite a bit of those wonderful oils that add flavor. Which is why I recommend blond roast to everyone. :)",
"Starbucks Coffee always taste the same because there are lot of checks in place in the system to make sure it tastes the same. \n\nFirst, coffee is generally purchased from the same farms, co-ops or purchasers each year as Starbucks has guaranteed contracts with most of their sources. This creates a continuity between regions and weather patterns.\n\nEach growing region has a different flavour profile for their coffees. For example Latin American coffees tend to taste a little spicier, such as cinnamon notes, with nutty undertones. All of the regions that any coffee, not just Starbucks, come from will have distinctive tones to their coffees. That's not to say that some coffees won't fit a region profile, but in general, there's kind of a taste umbrella that beans fall under. \n\nThere are also three methods of processing coffee, or basically how the bean is removed from the coffee cherry. Wet-washed coffee is fermented, while natural processing lets the bean dry inside the cherry. Semi-processed is a little bit of a mix of the two. Each of these methods affect how the coffee will taste. \n\nIn Seattle, at the Green Coffee Quality Center, they have all the recipes for which beans will get mixed with which other beans, how long they will be roasted for, whether the beans need to be aged first, whether they will mix them and roast them all together, or roast them first, the mix the beans after and so on. \n\nDuring the entire process of getting the coffee from the farms to the stores, there are 26 different coffee tastings. These include pre-contract samples, pre-shipment samples, post-shipment samples, samples every 6 months if the coffee is aged, arrival samples etc. If the coffee beans fail any of these samples, they are rejected and don't make it into a Starbucks store. \n\nIn a nutshell, coffee beans start out at the same farms then get checked, and checked, and checked again until they taste the same and end up at the store. This makes sure there the continuity that you have noticed and asked about. \n\nAs for other products that need crops, I'm not sure, but I think they probably follow the same sort of system of recipes and tastings. \n",
"Because it's burnt",
"Because they burn the crap out of all of it just the same. The only way it's palatable is if you put 500 calories worth of flavored crap in it, at which point it has more in common with a creamed dessert confection than a cup of coffee. Come to Seattle, we have great coffee, we also have Starbucks.",
"Some orange juices are separated into its constituent parts and reassembled with extra chemicals added to provide a natural-tasting flavor. Without this added flavoring, the juice is nutritionally consistent but tastes like a really mild bleach.\n\nA LOT of foods are made this way to provide the right balance of cost-effectiveness, flavor, nutrition, and shelf life. Believe it or not, flavor additives are a huge business based largely in New Jersey."
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3ks9a1 | why are loading screens so inaccurate? | The bar "jumps" and there is no rate at which it constantly moves towards the end. Why is that? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3ks9a1/eli5why_are_loading_screens_so_inaccurate/ | {
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"more often than not they aren't actually measuring the progress of something, they move purely to prevent the user from thinking things are hung up.",
"Would you like them to spend cpu cycles measuring the Rate, then interpolate that into the progress of the total process using premeasured numbers to know how much dvd/hdd/cpu time each loading segment uses?\n\nThey just generally show what stage something is at, and maybe a super fuzzy smaller progress to show its not frozen.\n\nWhat i mean it gets configured by saying (using loading screen of a video game with made up numbers) \"okay we have 2gb of textures, 500mb of audio clips, 300mb of background music, 500mb of models... make each of those (size/3.3gb) of the bar and when each loading process completes move the bar up that much\"\n\nI.e. making it accurate would be very possible, but would take a fair amount of effort and use resources for something most people are not going to care one bit about.",
"Loading bars usually reflect some count of the number of things being loaded. If there are twenty things, the bar might be broken up into twenty sections.\n\nOne problem is that the loading bar is often only updated when an item is complete, so instead of moving smoothly from one end to the other, it waits for each item to load and then moves the entire distance immediately.\n\nAnother problem is that not every item takes the same amount of time. If you have a bunch of textures which each take a fraction of a second to load, but then come up to a complex light map which takes a couple of seconds to load into memory, it will suddenly look like it is making no progress at all.\n\nOther complications involve loading dependencies, where loading X requires loading Y and Z, and those might have their own dependencies. If the programmers don't traverse the tree before-hand and use that to set up the loading bar, then it becomes even less obvious what is happening.\n\nLoading bars can be improved by estimating how long things are going to take and using that to make the bar be feel better for users, but this is usually a *very* low priority. The most common response to user complaints is to simply get rid of the bar and have some simple loading animation which provides less information as it is easier than making the bar actually useful to users.",
"The bar often moves based on major events in the code.\n\nThink if you had to update a status bar as you changed a tire. You would probably have to bar move a bit after removing each lug and then more movement upon removing the tire and adding the new one back on. Then final movement/finishing of the bar when you scew the lugs back in.",
"I assumed it was like moving contents of a house. It's about amount completed, not time remaining as a percentage of the job. You can move one item to the truck, it can be a pillow, or a chest freezer. One thing gets moved in both instances, but one is clearly going to take more time and effort. As far as total process is concerned, each item is still equal to 1 of X. So you can move 20 pillows in the time it take to move one freezer, and that's where you get the peaks and valleys in progress. \n\nKeep in mind, I'm just sharing my assumptions....as far as I actually know, there is a magic wizard in my computer slacking off, then being poked by his manager. So really, I have added nothing to this ELI5. you're welcome. \n\nEdit: grammar ",
"Making the progress smooth is a difficult problem to solve because everyones hardware is different.\n\nAt different stages of the loading, the computer will be utilising a different aspect of the hardware more so than the others (CPU/RAM/Disk). This means that one particular configuration of hardware will load certain parts faster and slower than another depending on how well it performs in each of those hardware areas.\n\nThere are so many combinations of these components that the application will run on that the first 50% (or any % for that matter) will load in a different amount of time than the remaining amount. This is what leads to the jumpiness in the animation.",
"I have a hard time with the \"clock\" indicator of how much is left. Especially when downloading. Jumps down in three second increments, the one, then six, then goes back up two, the down one etc.etc.",
"Programmer here who has built progress bars. There's two things in play.\n\nOften, measuring the actual time the process will take can often take just as much time. So instead of measuring the actual time, we break the process up into several rough \"phases\" and update the progress when a phase is complete. Sometimes these phases are very slow and different, like washing your clothes versus drying your clothes, and sometimes they are quick and similar, like loading 1 of 1000 objects in a scene. The problem is different phases take different amounts of time, so it's just a rough estimate.\n\nThe second issue is that some large parts of the loading process are external to the currently running program. These are usually at the beginning or end of the process and involve things like loading dependencies. Because these things are external to the code in charge of the loading bar, that code is unable to split it up into smaller phases, as it only knows when that part is all finished. This causes that one long last phase, and is why loading bars can get \"stuck\" at 99% or 100%. For example, if your process loaded 99 objects, then loaded a dependency, you might have 100 phases on your loading bar, treating the dependency load and an object load as similar progress. In practice loading the dependency might take 10x as long as loading an object, so your loading bar spends 10x the time going from 99% to 100% as it does goes from 98% to 99%.",
"Because often the only/fastest way to determine how long an operation will take is to *run the operation*. Progress bars are and ever will be a \"best guess\".",
"I'll try to give an analogy:\n\nSay the Hard Drive is a grocery store.\n\nSo to launch something you're at the grocery story parking lot after you get a ton of groceries, the wife is on the phone nagging at you every few seconds so she can hear you're progress.\n\nYou decide to text her after every item.\n\nYou COULD just throw all the bags in, but eggs would be crushed and bread would be flattened. Which will get you even more nagging. So you must carefully tetris the the groceries from the cart into the back of the car. \n\nBut some of the items are much heavier than others so it takes more time and you don't have a free hand to text her during the moving.",
"There are no standards.\n\nSome are a measure of how many files need to be loaded(an easy metric to code for). Differently sized files can make the bar move erratically.\n\n",
"what's infuriating is when it's stuck at 100% for another couple of minutes. don't tell me it's done when it's not.",
"Because estimating how long it takes to do work can often be as costly as actually doing the work.\n\nLet's say your game needs to load 600 textures from disk for the current level / area. The game designers have no idea where the textures are stored on your hard disk, because the locations for those files were chosen by your computer, when your game was installed. So when the level loads, the game goes through the list of 600 textures, and asks the operating system to load each texture. Some textures may be very close to each other on disk, so there is no \"seek time\" for the hard disk to reposition the read-write head. But other textures may be scattered all over the place. Some large textures may be broken up into more than chunk (\"fragment\"), so that loading that individual texture requires seeking more than once.\n\nThe game has no way to predict how long this will take. So the game designer *approximates* how long it will take. The easiest approximation would be \"how many textures have been loaded so far\". In other words, approximating completion by the count of textures. A slightly better approximation would be \"how many total bytes of textures have been loaded\". But that requires knowing the size of each individual texture, and getting *that* information may require reading data from disk, which would actually slow down the loading process. (No one wants a slower loading process, just to get a more accurate progress bar.)\n\nGetting even better estimates would require knowing exactly where, on disk, the texture chunks are. And getting *that* information is literally almost as expensive as simply reading the texture files.\n",
"Software Engineer here. Progress bars suck because of unknowns. We have no way of knowing how your internet speed will change or if another program is going to hijack your CPU; if we have to do various actions like download, extract, and render, then it's difficult to make a single progress bar that's actually meaningful.\n\nSo, we normally lie. The last time I had a progress bar on a project we made it start filling at a certain rate, then halve in speed every time it filled half the remaining bar so it would never complete. When everything was ready we took down the progress bar and started the app. We never had a complaint about it in the 5 years it was in production and people were usually happy that the process finished early ;).",
"I can give a Windows specific answer:\n\nDuring Windows 7 development, a new executive mandate was issued: Thou shalt not stop loading bars. In essence, it was commanded all loading bars must move at all times.\n\nThis is why you saw the change in Vista- > 7 where the loading bar ALWAYS moves to 90% in the first 30 seconds, then creeps forever randomly to completion. The bar has no reflection in reality, it's just moving.\n\nSource: was on a Win7 team",
"Lazy programming.\n\nLet's say an install has 4 main parts, but 20 sub actions. The devs may only just update the bar once each major step is done instead of tracing internal methods as they should be.\n\nIt's actually not hard to do, it's just frequently overlooked. Microsoft is notorious for this, especially during file copy.\n\nEdit: not sure who's downvoted me, but this is EXACTLY why the bars aren't accurate when they aren't. You wanted an ELI5, you got one.\n\n There are a lot of underlying processes that are very easy to overlook and report on, and the devs just choose to skip those, leaving the user unable to rely on the bar/screen to accurately reflect how much time is left. It's exactly why it'll be at 20%then suddenly jump to 30%. That and because programmers don't care enough to properly learn about windows events.\n\nIn the case of loading textures, is ready to know that loading a 10mb resource took x time, therefore if you have an array of resources to load along with file sizes, you can accurately predict the time left. \n\nSource: I'm a dev, specializing in UX, and one of my pet peeves are loading screens and progress bars programmed by nitwits taking shortcuts. ",
"When did ELI5 changed to just ELN (Explain Like Normal)? I don't get it, the thing of the subreddit is to explain something as if you were explaining the thing to a kid",
"What about how Macs sometimes give you an estimated time that starts off ridiculous and decreases dramatically?",
"So in the case of loading bars this is especially tricky, because even though they represent a known *amount* of stuff, the nature of that stuff matters and it is unknown while the loading happens.\n\nBasically it's like if I asked you to make a list of all the things in of a bunch of boxes, and tell me how far along you are after you finish each one. If I give you 100 boxes of varying sizes, some giant boxes might contain a single item (a beanbag chair) and some small boxes might contain *thousands* of items (a coin collection). You might move fast for a while, then hit a box of coins and be stuck there for *hours,* then be able to start moving again.\n\nThe computer is in a similar situation. \"Loading\" for a computer means \"knowing\" an item. It's storing what that thing is in its brain. Until it's done loading a thing, it doesn't know how complicated the thing is going to be even if it knows how big it is.\n\nOne way to make the loading smoother is to tell the computer in advance how complicated each thing will be, so it can make accurate updates as it makes progress. *However* this slows down the whole process. The computer has to constantly stop and check against the list of how complicated things are, and report back where it thinks it is. In the box metaphor, it'd be like if I made you stop once a minute to update me even if you were trying to do something else.",
"Loading bars are rarely showing you relative time remaining, but relative tasks remaining.\n\nI've had the thought myself pretty often, especially when installing something complex, like say an operating system. It shoots to 75% completion and seemingly dies there for so much longer. Sometimes in these cases, they try to estimate an accurate time of completion with a loading bar. Largely, when they do that poorly, it comes down to tasks representing a fraction of a bar inaccurately. That said, without some pretty intense simulation or benchmarking, it has no way of knowing how your computer will handle this or that relative to another task. On their test machines, perhaps the first 25% was as fast as the following 4ths of of the bar, but on your computer, perhaps not.\n\nIt's a weird topic, and actually has seen a lot of debate on implementation and theory.",
"Because the type of progress bar you are talking about is showing progress toward completing a list of tasks, not the time remaining required to do those tasks.\n\nThis is the laziest type of progress bar to implement in software, it basically is constructed by saying \"I have 'X' things to do, each step in my progress bar will be 1/X of the bar length. Go!\"\n\nA more sophisticated approach to this problem is to combine the list of tasks with an estimated time that each task should take, then move smoothly through the steps as time progresses, pausing or jumping forward only if there is a significant difference as the list rolls toward completion. \n\nThis is often impractical or impossible if any of the tasks rely on remote resources or there are wide variants in the target hardware/software/devices that can cause large differences in task completion time from target to target. So you pretty much end up with type #1 in most software.\n\n",
"I'd say estimating how long it takes for an algorithm to complete is at least as hard as the halting problem? Don't know how to ELI5 this.",
"It's like a loading screen for a truck... or a loading screen for your knowledge across life.\n\nWe expect linear progress when this is very rare.",
"Yeah, seriously, what the hell is a spline, and why are the ones in my games always being reticulated?",
"To fill a progress bar constantly and smoothly you have to move it always at the same speed. And the only way to do it is to know exactly how much time it will take to fill up completely before you start moving it, so that you can calculate the speed at witch you should fill it.\n\nAnd it's not possible, ahead of time, to know exactly how much time it will take to load something.\n\nMuch like your car navigation system, you can have an estimate of how much time it will take, but there are a tons of factor that will make that estimate change (traffic, red lights, accidents, works on the road, other drivers, trucks, etc...). \n\nAnd, like your car navigation system it can be more complex and account for some of the things that could change that estimate, like taking in consideration traffic based on the time of the day, reports of accidents, planned works, etcc...\n\nYou can make this estimate more and more complex and more and more accurate but it will never be 100% correct. \n\nThe other problem with estimate is that the more you try to make an accurate estimation, the more complex it is, and the more time it takes. So, by trying to make your progress bar moving smoother, you are actually making your loading screen slower.\n\nProgrammer are then left with different options to solve this problem\n\n1. The most common one, and the one you are referring to, is to divide the process in \"steps\". Think it like if you have to drive from home to work and you divide your drive in how many blocks you have to cross. If you have to cross 100 blocks each block will represent 1% of your progress bar. But not all blocks are the same length, some have more traffic, some have more lights, so not every 1% part of the bar will fill at the same rate. Some will be fast and some will be very slow. This solution works fine in loading screens, because it's not hard to do and won't slow down the system much. It's also very useful to programmer because they can see which \"block\" is taking more time (so you can try to make it faster) and if there are problem you can know where the problem is.\n\n2. Trying to estimate how much time it will take and have a smooth bar. This has been done before but has a couple of side effect, that's why you don't see it often. \n\n 1. It's not easy to do an estimation, so the process of doing that estimation will actually slower the loading.\n\n 2. If the estimation was longer than the actual time, the progress bar will keep filling to 100% while your program was actually already ready to start. (or start before 100% making the progress bar not so useful anymore)\n\n 3. If the estimation was short the bar will fill up to 100% and stay there until the program actually start. And that might let the user think that it crashed while it's actually still loading.\n\n 4. Good estimation are complex, they take resources to do (that can be used to fix things in the program) and the more complex something is the more there are ~~possibility of~~ bugs. \n\n3. Not actually using a progress bar at all. This way you have something spinning or moving so that you give the user a visual information that things are \"moving\" and everything is working as expected. This has the side effect that usually the \"spinning wheel\" actually keeps spinning even if the program has actually stopped.\n\n",
"There was a a version of Mac OS a few years ago that calculated its displayed loading bar by recording how much time it took for the computer to boot up, and then displaying a loading bar that filled up in that amount of time the next time you restarted. If you didn't change much about your system it was pretty accurate, but didn't reflect what was actually happening. If you had just installed some new software or something, the actual boot process would be longer, and the bar would fill up and then sit there for a while. And then the next time you booted, the bar would move at a slow rate and then suddenly complete.",
"It is simply quite complicated and time is normally better spent elsewhere.\n\nSo much of a computer program involves it telling another program to do something. Think of them as people. If you're the oldest child and your parents tell you to clean up the house. You create some tasks (Clean bathroom, clean kitchen, tidy master bedroom...) and give them to your siblings. That gets the job done.\n\nThat's what most programs focus on.\n\nNow suppose your parents tell you to keep you them updated on the progress. How would you do it? You could ask each of your siblings for an estimate on how long it would take them for their task. More work. They might not even know.\n\nSo an easy thing to do would be to just send your parents updates when a certain task is done. So you send them an update when cleaning the washroom is done. Or when bedroom 1 is done. These are the 'jump' you speak of.\n\nSometime you see an application that gets to like 99% and then takes forever to get to 100%. That might be because one task just tasks so much longer than the rest.\n\nSo your parents just see a bunch of updates for a total of 5 tasks\nbedroom 1 done (1/5)\nbedroom 2 done (2/5)\nkitchen done (3/5)\nbathroom done (4/5)\n\nMan, it's almost done! They're so excited.\nBut the last task was clean the basement and there was a lot of clutter there, so that takes 3 hours and your poor parents are stuck there waiting thinking it is almost done.\n\nThat's basically it. It's actually a complex task to get a real estimate of how long it would take. Yeah, put some real effort into it and you could make it more accurate.\n\nIt would still be very hard. Even if you measured it. Everyone has a different computer that does things at different speeds. Sometimes there are really variable things like the speed of your internet connection.\n\nSo basically, they just take the easy way out. I mean would you rather they spend time on the progress bar or on actual program functionary and bugs?\n\n",
"Imagine your software as a haystack and your loadingbar as boxes you would like to fill with one straw each. And you want this to be the exact amount of boxes to the exact amount of straws. So what you do is you count Every single straw",
"It takes A LOT of work to create a true loading bar representation. It has to be built into the deepest parts of the engine and stream up and complicates everything. So programmers just take educated guesses but that only helps so much - not all functions scale equally. They have no idea what the scale of the final game will be so some things load literally instantly and other things hang for 90% of the time.",
"Pretend, for the minute, you are walking around in some arbitrary place, and out of the blue a friend calls; they need you to come to some exact other place, right away, and they need you to tell them, right now, how long it will take, to the minute. But the problem is, you're familiar neither with where you are, nor where you need to be; you know in academic terms that it's this far away in that direction, but you don't know exactly what routes are available, how well maintained the roads/pavements are, what methods of transport may be the best, how bad traffic will be, what the terrain is like etc. You can take a stab at how long it will take, based on how fast you tend to walk/drive on average and assuming no accidents happen or roads are closed, but it's only a wild guess at best.\n\nThis is what it's like when a computer is calculating how long things will take to load (or download, or copy). It knows that it has to load this many files, and (maybe) how big they are. If it's lucky, it knows how quick the drive/connection it's loading from can theoretically work. What it doesn't know is how these files are physically distributed across the storage medium (for disk-based stuff), or how many other things are going to be loading/saving at the same time. It doesn't know that the disk is smudged in one area and will take 3 attempts to read. It doesn't know that the server limits connections to 128kbs download rates, or that the connection's going to drop in 2 minutes and it'll need to reconnect. It doesn't know that its RAM is going to be full soon and that it needs to run garbage collection to free space for the next files.\n\nSome of these things *could* be calculated and factored in, but it's a lot of work (both in terms of CPU time and programmer time) for little gain, because most can't and so the guess will still be pretty wild. So, all they can give you is a rough estimate, with the knowledge the user will probably understand not to rely on it because every other file timer they've ever used has given a similarly wild guess. This, incidentally, is why Windows switched to a display when copying files that showed not just how far through copying the files it was, but also how quickly it was copying them, so users could see at a glance if it slowed or accelerated, and (hopefully) understand why the estimated time left changed.",
"It isn't very easy to accurately estimate how long until loading is finished, but it turns out that humans feel better about waiting for something if you give them some indicator that progress is being made, even if it doesn't accurately tell them the rate. ",
"From a design standpoint, a progress bar lets the user know that the computer is working on it. \n\nEven if it isn't accurate, it will prevent the user from minimizing the program to open up Reddit. \n\nIt would be weird to click on a link or command, and then have nothing happen visually. Progress bars, spinners, loading icons, etc. all keep the user engaged.",
"Software developer here.\n\nThese things are surprisingly *hard*.\n\nMultiple components ... may not realize it needs to even download that next 2 GB piece after it's already got the 1 GB part.\n\nThis is why companies like Blizzard schedule \"patch days\". Take everything offline and make sure it's updated, even if you have to kick everyone off.\n\nNot an option for Microsoft.",
"It's the bar that shows progress in files, not in time. Sometimes, 200 files can be done in a second and sometimes 1 file can take a minute. Again, the bar does not represent time, if it did it would have been a counter. It's a percentage bar because it shows the progress in files.",
"As a developer I can comment. Imagine you are visiting a friend and he stays about an hours drive away. If I asked you how long it takes, you say about an hour. Sometimes it's 56 min, sometimes it's 1 hour 8 min. Sometimes it's takes 2 hours because of traffic and other times only 35 min because it's 4am. There are quite a few factors effecting your prediction making it very difficult to give an exact timeframe. \n\nOn top of that, loading bars are usually done counting steps rather than estimating time. So each turn on your Gps driving to your friends house is an equal step according to the loading bar. However, one of the steps could be a 30 min stretch on the highway. It still only counts as one step, but takes nearly half the time. Same principle.... Over simplified but I guess that's the point :)",
"The more accurate a loading bar is, the longer it took to setup. If you copy 100 files then to be accurate you need to look at each one of those files and check how big it is. To be even more accurate you could test to see how quickly the disks read/write. You could add factors like how quickly the media can perform a read/write. Each of these tests take time. There are solutions - an example of this would be a timer that changes based on how quickly the work is being completed. Beyond that there are numerous possibilities depending on the application. In all honesty, quite often it can just laziness/efficiency. How much of a difference does it make? Will the loading bar being entirely accurate affect the end user's experience? In one application we made the loading bar full slowly at first and then speed up. It gave testers a little burst of excitement. There was a bit of frustration when they saw how slowly it filled but then when it sped up quicker and quicker the anticipation added to the effect.",
"Lots of people here going into unnecessary, and most importantly, untrue details.\n\nLoading bars have to be manually programmed. In other words, there is no piece of code of software that determines how much of a percentage has been loaded automatically, nor is there one that simply counts the amount of things being loaded. \n\n**A loading bar is merely a progress bar with a number value that goes from 0 to 100.** How that number progresses has to be coded from scratch by programmers. A loading code will often go \"When X is loaded, move progress bar to Y\". Because of this, programmers have to estimate the best they can how much progress which part takes. Since this is often inaccurate, this leads to the bar sometimes making wild jumps, and getting stuck at uncanny percentages.\n\nNow, you could take the time to make the most perfect of all loading bars, but that time is best spent elsewhere for the programmer, so they leave it at a rough estimation just so you know the loading \"works\". This is why your loading bar acts funny. It has nothing to do with different items being unequal in size, dependencies, and all the other techy sounding terms people are using.",
"For an extremely simple explanation, it measures HOW MUCH it has done. Different types of things take different amounts of time",
"Sometimes they are just made up. Back in 2001 I was asked to add a progress bar to a commercial program. Unfortunately, there was no was to know how long the task (occurring on a remote machine) was going to take.\n\nAfter sarcastically suggesting it, the solution I was asked to code was to update the progress bar once a second, by removing 1% of the remaining area; when the task completed, the bar would jump to the end, pause for a moment, then close.\n\nThe entire progress bar was a sham. This is my greatest shame as a computer programmer.",
"I used to work for a subsidiary of IBM. We designed a progress bar that was more accurate and dynamically updated it's understanding of progress as it went along. It was universally hated.\n\nThe problem was.. the bar used to occasionally move backwards. ",
"The whole point of a loading screen and load bar/cursor is to show you that the computer has not frozen.",
"TLDR first: many loading bars are fake, including mine.\n\nMy team built an web-app used by a data validation team at my company. Quickly our users complained that a highly used operation was slow and needed a loading bar. We already knew that we would have to change many internal details of the application, some controlled by other teams, to make this work so we tried another tactic.\n\nWe implemented, in JavaScript, a loading-bar that gets exponentially slower as it advances. Once the application responds the bar quickly zips to the end and users are taken to the result page. This bar is essentially a giant lie, but our users love it and thanked us repeatedly for finally adding this feature.",
"Because 95% of the times they are not actually linked to the activity whose process they are indicating. Progress bars are a tool which simply let the user know that something is happening in the background and they should wait. If you do not put a loading or Progress bar and present the screen as is the user might feel that nothing is happening and might try to trigger the action again (click button again). ",
"Because it's not a measure of time until loading is complete, it is a percentage of how much of the loading is complete. ",
"Because in many cases, estimating the exact workload as a measure of time is computationally expensive enough to add a significant time to the actual process. \n\nUsually a simplified method with trivial overhead is used instead. For example, when copying files, you see an estimate based on bytes copied as a fraction total bytes. Its fairly accurate in most cases but byte for byte, smaller files take a longer time to copy than bigger ones and depending on hardware this can be on the magnitude of several dozen times.\n\nAnother consideration is that somebody has to code the algorithm that estimates the time required for a task. In case of video games for example, each load is fairly unique and while having an accurate loading bar is nice, it adds nothing to the game so the studios wisely dedicate coding hours somewhere else.",
"One thing that annoys me most about modern apps on windows 8 and windows 10 are those infinitely circling animated dots.\n\nThose provides no information about the progress...and yeah, when I was downloading Windows 10 update, it was frustrating as hell not being able to know if the download was stuck on my shitty internet.",
"it makes more sense if you know about coding.\n\nwhen a program starts, it happens in steps\n\nsay\n\n 1) read a file\n 2) connect to internet\n 3) load database\n 4) play a noise\n 5) start application (display the GUI).\n\n It's difficult to know how long each step takes, so you just...\n\n do step 1 (takes 1 seconds)\n increases to 20% loaded\n\n do step 2 (takes 5 seconds)\n increases to 40% loaded\n\n do step 3 (takes 3 seconds)\n increases to 60% loaded\n\n do step 4 (takes 1 seconds)\n increases to 80% loaded \n\n do step 5 (takes 2 seconds)\n increases to 100% loaded)\n\n (display)\n\n[Edit]",
"100 total assets+code etc\n\nPut a tag on each \"thing\" that when fully loaded in adds (+1) to timer bar. \n\nCalculate the percentage of what was added (1%) add 1% gradation to said bar.\n\nIf item 15 is a gun and item 16 is a corner of the level that has many little things in it it will just simply take more time to fully load item 16 causing some of the stuttering you'll see. And so on.\n\nThough more is factored in reality but it's the simplest way I could think of.",
"I think that's mostly because monitoring, or measuring a resource incurs a resource cost. The more you measure, the longer it takes to load.\n\nSome games solve this by using text messages describing what is currently loading instead of a loading bar. Quake 3 and later versions do this. For example the Linux kernel is very verbose, but of course it's not very attractive to read all this information. Of course it could be improved and made a little more user readable, for example, \"initiating USB\", \"initiating filesystem\" and so on.\n\nAnother solution would be to estimate what is loading, how much time and resource it takes and adapt the loading bar. Problem is, loading resources might change from hardware to hardware, but you're right, it could be improved.",
"**ELI5 Definition** \n \nA friend asks you to move 2 items between two rooms - A plastic spoon, and a couch. \n \nWhen you have moved the plastic spoon (Really quickly) you are half complete, although the other half of the items (The couch) will be a lot slower since it's far harder to move. \n \n**Slightly More Advanced** \n \nYou have 100 files - Your bar is split into 1 section per file. \n \nAll the files are 1kb except for files 43 and 85 which are 50MB \n \nYour loading bar will now \"jump\" to 43, and then to 85 since all the rest are pretty much done instantly. \n \n",
"Well, imagine you are in a classroom full with kids, and you give them all food baskets. All baskets are identical: 2 apples, 3 candy, 1 soda and a sandwich. Now you want to see when a child finishes eating. But, all kids eat with different speed, and even for one kid, you know only when he finished something. So, your progress can be split in maximum 7 steps: 2 + 3 + 1 + 1. And .. you know kids, for some will take forever to take that last damn bite of sandwich.",
"Just to add to the many excellent explanations, one paradigm for creating progress bars for hard-to-predict things goes as follows:\nMove the progress bar to 50% in 10 seconds. Move 50% of the remainder in 10 seconds - you're now at 75% after 20 seconds. Move 50% of the remainder in 10 seconds - you're now at 87.5% after 30 seconds. Repeat ad nauseum. \n\nThis provides the user a sense of progress, even when you have no idea how long something will take. Several progress bars in Windows seem to exhibit this behavior.",
"I've put a loading bar into one of my programs that's literally just a gif of the damn thing moving. It actually keeps track of nothing. It's just there to give the users something to look at while the program loads and to keep them from thinking that it's froze up."
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33m6ju | a kilowatt hour. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/33m6ju/eli5_a_kilowatt_hour/ | {
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"A kilowatt is a measure of power, meaning how much energy something is sucking up every second. If you want to know how much total energy that's using, you have to factor time in as well. The hair dryer running for 5 minutes takes more energy than if you only run it for 1 minute. The \"hour\" part takes that into account.\n\nA kWh is the amount of energy you'd use if you ran something at 1000 W (1 kilowatt) for exactly one hour. You could get the same amount of energy by using 2000 W for 30 minutes, or 500 W for 2 hours. \n\nDoes that make sense?",
"Place a cup under your kitchen faucet. Now turn the faucet on. In one second the faucet will fill the cup, you just *used* one cup of water in one second. \nYou can use this and math to figure out how much water your faucet will use in 30 minutes, in an hour etc. A kilo-cup hour faucet would fill(use) a thousand cups of water an hour. \n\nNow swap faucet for lightbulb, water for electricity and cup for Joule. \n\nEdit: Thank you /u/stevemegson for the correction."
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3xnjkz | what makes harvard any better than my local state university? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3xnjkz/eli5_what_makes_harvard_any_better_than_my_local/ | {
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"The campus is likely nicer, the professors are smarter (doesn't make them better teachers), they offer a lot more types of courses, they are prestigious (looks really good on your resume), etc. \n \nNow, does taking Calculus III at Harvard vs your state university yield different end results, that is based on you as a student (as well as the differences in what material is covered).",
"Several things.\n\n1 - Money. Harvard has an endowment of over $30,000,000,000. That means that they have the nicest of everything and if they want you... you get a full ride.\n\n2 - Prestige. Harvard is a known university. Anywhere in the world a degree from Harvard is going to say \"I'm well educated and talented\".\n\n3 - People. Your professors will be among the best in your fields. Your classmates will be the cream of the crop on both the intellectual, social, political and economic spheres. Remember, it is often not \"what\" you know... it is \"who\" you know.",
"For just the right major at just the right school, it's not. Are you taking Computer Science? Do you live in Washington State? Your local state university is the University of Washington, and its CS program is rated substantially better than Harvard's.\n\nBut schools like Harvard are close to the top in lots of subjects. If you arrive at Harvard and pick a subject at random, there's a good chance you've picked one of the top dozen or so programs for that thing.\n\nThere are great schools, and there are schools with great name recognition filled with the scions of the famous and powerful. Harvard happens to be both.",
"If you looked up the curriculum that the freshman follow in one of the middle-of-the-road introductory Math Department courses at Harvard, and then compared it to what math majors in the honors department are studying in the junior or senior year at your local state university, then *chances are*, unless your \"local state university\" is Berkeley or something, the Harvard freshman are studying harder math than your state university's upperclassmen. \n\nThe difference isn't as easy to see simply from looking at the curriculum in subjects like philosophy and political science, because the order in which you study different topics and the best way to approach a topic \"aggressively\" isn't as set in stone. But you get the general flavor of it.\n\nThere are lots of other perks, of course, but the fundamental thing is that at Harvard the faculty are world-famous, the students are incredibly talented and hard-working, and the coursework is much more demanding than anything you can try to get students to do at a state university, or even at many of the top private universities.",
"It probably also helps you after you graduate. Having \"Harvard\" on your resume will probably open more doors for you than having \"State University\". (Not that I would know from first-hand experience.)",
"I studied in the best schools and universities of my country and from time to time I thought about what sets them apart. My conclusion is their culture is the differentiating factor. Yes the professors are somewhat smart and so a students, but I have seen even smarter people being wasted (not sure if this is the right word). But its the culture of working hard, the culture of understanding, shared interests in things that matter etc. that seems to gives the real advantage",
"1. Passion: Do you know what it takes to be the best in a field? Being passionate about it to the exclusion of everything else. There are people who dedicate their lives, happily, to the study of.... whatever. Saturday night they are in their labs because for them there is nothing more interesting than what they are doing. When that person is being offered a job somewhere what is going to appeal to them? Well having the funds to do world class work in whatever there area is takes first place, and harvard has the money to fund almost anything. Second they want respect and acknowledgement. You get a job at harvard and everyone knows your at the top of your field. Even if Kansas state gave you the same money they couldn't give you that. Then there are the networking opportunities. Even if I don't give a crap about respect or money, I might be a researcher in the brains of bugs, well just down the street from Harvard is MIT where the world's leading researcher on implanting microchips into bug's brains works. Guess who I get to have lunch with twice a week now? Guess how much that advances my own work and his or hers?\n\n2. Consolidation of power: The students, and faculty, at Harvard are connected, and the more connected they are the more other connected people want to associate with them in a self propagating cycle. If your dad owns CNN, my dad is the secretary of defense, and OP's dad is the US ambasador to england the three of us are going to have a lot of pull to help each other out if we want. You want to be an admiral one day? This group can give you that start. You want to be an intern at apple? This group can give you that start. You name your ambition and this group of friends could help you on that course.\n\n3. Academic Seriousness. Your typical undergrad might be there for a variety of reasons including that they don't know what else to do but go to school, or their parents made them. People who go to Harvard are typically pretty driven. A lot of people who go to Harvard don't have to be there. If they wanted to they could spend their lives sitting on a yacht with a bottle of scotch in one hand and a prostitute's butt in the other. Let's face it, given the choice I think a lot of people would spend their lives that way if they could. But these people could have that but elect to do something with their lives that is significant to themselves, and Harvard is step 1. So they get in there and generally take it more seriously than others who need a degree to get a job to avoid homelessness.",
"A lot of the people who go to Harvard are already connected. They've been playing the game their whole lives. It's simply the next step for them. They had world class educations before college, and now they're at Harvard to get a world class university education.\n\nIf you're not from their world, it's an opportunity to get in. Networking is much more valuable to the low income, first generation group than the prep school, wealthy group. The Harvard name will provide you validation in your career wherever you go. \n\nSource: went to an Ivy League.",
"Alumni networking. The fact that your still the same dumbass but a bunch of people assume you are a genius. First hand experience. ",
"Professor here (not a Harvard one though). It depends on what you want out of your education. Faculty at Harvard are selected and promoted for the research skills, not their teaching skills (which doesn't mean they aren't good teachers, it just means that is secondary to the main focus). So if you want to go in to research, Harvard is a great choice. You'll be in the best labs in the country, and have letters of recommendation from the biggest names in the field. But if that's not your goal (and for most people it isn't), it's better to choose schools based on your major, as [/u/captainAwesomePants](captainAwesomePants) said.\n\nAnd although I know this isn't necessarily relevant to the question, community colleges are a great option for people who want to explore their options before committing to a major. Most community colleges have agreements with universities where you can transfer in to the university once you finish at the community college. And when you get that degree, no one knows that it was only the last 2 years at the 4-year college.",
"First off, Harvard is a bit of a \"brand\" -and they milk that for all it's worth. \nSo, in protest, let's call it any Very Elite Institution. :-) \n\nThere are many accurate thoughts in this thread (excellence of faculty; resources available because of endowment; selectivity of student body makes for smart, hard working peers; networking with the children of the rich & successful, etc.) \n\nHere's one I think is very important: *social pressure* to excel. \n\nWe're all social animals. We take our cues from our peers in a whole range of ways. \n\nI've taught at a Very Elite Institution. I've taught at a State University. And I've taught at a Commuter School. \n\nThe *very* best students at the Commuter School have the same talent as the very best at Very Elite Institution. (seriously!) \nBut they don't \"do\" nearly as well: they aren't pushed as hard (get As on everything anyway); they don't work as hard; they don't learn much from their peers; and most important, they don't have the same initiative and confidence. \n\nThe confidence is key: with the same level of skill, they won't go nearly (nearly!) as far... because they don't know they can. Or should try. ",
"I went to Yale and most of my friends went to a state school so I might have some insight into this.\n\n\nSome people are saying it's the professors which is partly true but not really. While the professors are world famous, they are not hired for their teaching ability so you're likely not receiving any better instruction at an Ivy.\n\n\nSome people are saying it's the money which is again partly true. The huge endowments allow them to afford exceptional financial aid for most people which means your classes are fairly diverse from a socioeconomic perspective - but I don't think that is particularly game changing.\n\n\nThe one thing that really made a difference for me was the people. This plays a role both within the classroom and outside it. Every single person you meet and interact with is incredibly bright and accomplished. Outside the classroom this sort of elevates your game. The discussions you have with your peers pushes your thinking. I think learning the interact with very smart people makes you smarter. \n\n\nInside the classroom it has a similar effect. Almost all non-humanities classes are graded on a curve. When everyone in your class was a valedictorian, this makes you work harder and learn more (even though the curves sometimes mean that almost everyone gets an A or a B). Humanities classes are all discussion based which again means the discussions are typically better than they would be at a state school.\n\n\nAfter graduation there is a big difference as well. People are calling it prestige but I think that misses the point. When employers are considering hiring you, they typically have very little to go on - just a resume and an interview. If an applicant went to a school like Harvard then makes it much easier for them because they assume that Harvard already did the difficult task of weeding out people and picking the best. They don't have to wonder how much you learned at that internship cause they know that Harvard already decided that you were among the top 6% of people who applied. It's really just the easier choice. Many employers will also only consider applicants from top schools because it means significantly less work for them. If they allowed applications from everywhere, they'd have thousands of resumes to sift through. If they just look at top 5 schools, then they get only 100, but they know that the 100 are generally very high quality.",
"Because it's one of the best school's in the world for networking, the contact's you make here will be invaluable. ",
"Two ways Harvard IS better...\n\n1. Your diploma will help you immensely when you apply for your FIRST job.\n2. If you are outgoing, network, and meet the right people, the alumni network/connections will help you land a job.\n\nAnd to clear a few things up...\n\n1. The best professors will not be teaching you much. They'll be teaching grad students. And, the \"best\" professors are many times the worst teachers. Go to a small liberal arts college, if you want good teaching. \n2. The endowment doesn't really help the average student; it helps attract these top professors and build them stuff.\n3. There are HUNDREDS of colleges/universities in the US where you will get a comparable education to Harvard (or even a better education), but you just won't have the Harvard diploma.",
"Because their crest has 3 books on it! What could be smarter than 3 books? \n\nEdit: appears that Brown is four books. Those bastards."
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2tpega | how come your feet get sweaty if you dont wear socks while wearing shoes? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2tpega/eli5_how_come_your_feet_get_sweaty_if_you_dont/ | {
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"Because the cloth in socks is designed to absorb sweat. The cloth or leather in your shoes isn't. ",
"Shoes raise the temperature of your feet, which makes them sweat. Sweating is one of the body's methods for regulating temperature via evaporation. Evaporation cools. When there isn't a lot air flow to speed up evaporation, thd sweat builds up, which is why it's extra nasty. Socks soak up sweat."
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6eqn1e | why is it so hard to consciously ignore things we feel due to anxiety or something similar, even though we know it's just a made up feeling in our head? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6eqn1e/eli5_why_is_it_so_hard_to_consciously_ignore/ | {
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"Your Cerebral brain knows it's a made up feeling in your head. The feeling of anxiety is coming from your brain stem; Your \"Lizard brain\" if you will. It is a survival reaction to something subconsciously, your brain views as a threat, flooding your body with chemicals that will illicit a response it deems appropriate for the situation, in this case anxiety, which is your body's way of saying \"somethings not right, stay alert\" you may \"know\" nothing is wrong, but something very subtly tricked your brain into thinking it was dangerous. Being anxious walking alone down a dark ally, while maybe perfectly safe, is a natural survival response built into your biology when being outside in the dark by yourself exposed you to all sorts of dangerous predators."
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2r1lhy | can someone please explain toothpaste too me and how it cleans teeth? also, what keeps every brand from just being the same goop, aside from flavor or texture? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2r1lhy/eli5_can_someone_please_explain_toothpaste_too_me/ | {
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"Having worked for a while at Oral-B I can tell you with quite a degree of certainty that toothpaste historically does absolutely nothing to your teeth other than:\n\n1. get you fluoride if you don't get it already. Fluoride was pretty much a wonder-material for the prevention of tooth decay.\n\n2. get people to brush _more_. This was presumed to be a vanity thing - people brush for breath as much as they do for tooth health. Take away the toothpaste and you take away much of the incentive people have to brush their teeth. Sad, but...true! This can extended to the whitening trend in toothpastes - another vanity hook that gets brushing to happen when it might not otherwise.\n\nThe brands _are essentially the same goop_. There is not much going on with toothpaste - its much like shampoo in the personal care space - its mostly a \"pure marketing\" product, very little actual R & D based competitive advantage. its not surprising that its the marketing geniuses of proctor and gamble (owns oral-b) and colgate-palmolive that are the leaders - they all make products that are mostly marketing - soaps, detergents, shampoos, toothbrushes etc."
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28nfo0 | why do soccer/football players react so dramatically to seemingly nothing? | We all know the joke, poke a soccer player and they go down like they've been shot. Is there anything to it? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/28nfo0/eli5_why_do_soccerfootball_players_react_so/ | {
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"Stops the game, possible fouls and penalties, y'know ,cheatsy stuff.",
"If you can convince the referee that the other player injured you, then the other team gets a penalty and your team gains an advantage.",
"Even if the other player doesn't receive a penalty it stops the game which will possibly add minutes at the end of the game ",
"A friend at work explained this to me (I almost never watch soccer outside of World Cup/Olympics) the other day in a really great way.\n\nIn a game like basketball, drawing and playing up a foul will get you (at best) 2 points, and maybe put an opposing player on the bench, and his sub brought out. In a game that goes to a hundred points often, that's not a huge deal.\n\nIn a game like soccer, drawing a foul and playing it up will get you (at best, situationally) a penalty kick and an opposing player sent off. Which means you might score a point, and the opposing team now plays with 10 players, while your team still has 11.\n\nIf you compare the value of a decisive foul in soccer to basketball, that best-case soccer foul means you get to make a free throw worth 50 points and one guy on the other team can't use his left hand. \n\nSo as much as it cheapens the game for the viewer, strategically, there's no reason not to roll on the ground and scream. Especially since they don't seem to fine you like they do for flops in the NBA.",
"It is not all fake, run for 70 minutes then get kicked, your muscles are far more susceptible to feeling pain/cramping under that sort of physical exertions.\n\nIts really the only sport (so far as I know at least) where the players are not subbed out for 90 minutes straight (with the exception of three).",
"Its an easy way to break up play and let everyone reset into a better defensive or attacking position. Going down and staying down attracts a lot of attention. \nDiving is technically a foul, but the pace at which football is played makes trying to judge an individual action like this as hard as refereeing a boxing match from outside the ring. Its often easier to give an indirect free kick (One you cannot score from, must be a pass.) than to straight up card people for something that might not of happened. \nIts now unfortunately part of the sport.\nSource: I'm from England. (Or EN-GURGH-LAND if you speak football)",
"Well the free kicks, penalties, etc. But you also have to remember that these players run at each other FULL SPEED. So something shown in slow motion you have to imagine at the speed and strength these players come at each other. Hence why they fall easily or can get injured for a few moments before they regain themselves"
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2gongz | how do household ovens insulate their heat so well? why doesn't my cupboard burn from being next to a 200°c box? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2gongz/eli5_how_do_household_ovens_insulate_their_heat/ | {
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"In the oven wall there's a dense, thick fabric-like insulation blanket. It's designed to withstand temperatures of many hundred degrees (up to 1,200 degrees is common). ",
"Literally because they are insulated so well. They are surrounded with (usually) a very dense mineral fibre with a reflective skin. \n\nThis and the fact that the autoignition temperature (kindling point) of wood is over 300℃, and most ovens heat up to about 240℃.\n\nIt may be an even higher temperature required to autoignite wood used for kitchen cabinets, as they are often made up of processed wood and resin, and coated with more stuff.",
"If an oven was unsafe because it let heat escape then it also wouldn't be that efficient because it would need to constantly be burning in order to keep the internal temperature hot enough. The preheating process is like the first few rotations you make on bicycle pedals, after that you don't need to expend nearly as much energy to keep at a steady speed. The burner can turn off, turning on for short periods. \n\nNow look at a makeshift outdoor stove with just a thin strip of metal for lining. The metal will eventually reach about the same temperature as the air inside it. If you touched the metal you'd definitely burn yourself almost immediately. but depending on the temperature you could hold a wooden plank to it and it wouldn't catch on fire. Wood takes a lot of heat to ignite, and generally those temperatures are only reached through more directed heating. If you throw a log over a fire (grilling/broiling) or shine a powerful laser at it then it may start to burn, but throwing it in a convection oven I don't think it would. So even if the oven was a terrible insulator your cupboard might not ignite, though it might if there were other fuels nearby."
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lo7l6 | chinese medicine, and, if any, the scientific basis behind it. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/lo7l6/eli5_chinese_medicine_and_if_any_the_scientific/ | {
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"Certainly some of the substances and practices have some effect, but not because the theoretical backing motivating their use is a correct picture of how the human body and disease works. Instead, the substances used work (if they work at all) because their pharmacological properties, or--as is the case with the few practices that do show any effect--are a placebo.\n\nIn short, the theoretical backing behind traditional Chinese medicine does not line up with modern understandings of human anatomy and physiology, mainly because the ancient Chinese didn't really concern themselves with anatomy in the way medieval Muslims and post-16th Century Europeans did, and they had no concept equivalent to the germ theory of disease.",
"The other posts in this thread are unnecessarily dismissive.\n\nHerbal medicine, asian or otherwise, generally boils down to trial and error. People try various plants, and see what they do. They take note of the effects.\n\nIt's not rigorous, but it's far from being illogical.\n\nSometimes, this simple process produces mistakes: people think a plant is having an effect, but it's just the placebo effect. But it's inevitable that you'll occasionally stumble on a plant that really does do something.\n\nSometimes, if these plants seem to be promising enough, modern scientists will then take notice and start doing more rigorous testing. Here's an example:\n\n_URL_0_\n\nSo in that example, they've been putting an old traditional mushroom through a battery of modern tests to see if it really works. It looks like maybe it does.\n\nSo, really, it's simple: they try plants, and they see what they do.\n\nFinally: the dismissive attitude I see in the rest of this thread is destructive. If we were smart, we'd say, \"gee, several billion asians making tea out of every plant in sight is a fantastic high-throughput screening tool for identifying promising compounds.\" We'd take all the plants they've identified as promising, and put them through a rigorous battery of tests. Instead, we scoff. The scientific tests of coriolus versicolor I mentioned above? All done in Japan. Westerners won't touch it. It's terrible, and it's hurting modern medicine. \n\n\n\n\n",
"Nobody here seems to have explained the foundations of Traditional Chinese Medicine, so I'll give it a go. \n\nThere are several forces affecting the body, and if they are imbalanced, it'll cause some illness. For example: \n\n* yin-yang(阴阳) - an attribute that each part can have as to whether is is hot(yang)/cold(yin) or male(yang)/female(yin) and so on. There are many things linked to each aspect. The idea is that the body has both and they must be in balance for the body to function properly. \n\n* five elements (五行) - the universe is made entirely out of five elements wood (木), fire (火), earth (土), metal (金*), and water (水). Again, they are associated with other phenomena like colour, taste, organ and so on. They are said to counteract each other, like water puts out the fire, wood crumbles the earth. They also have helping associations like wood feeding a fire, water nourishing wood and so on. This is [a helpful diagram](_URL_1_). [Relevant wikipedia](_URL_0_). \n\n* another important concept is Qi(氣) and Meridians(经络). I barely know about this but I have been told that the meridians are channels of qi and and analogous to blood vessels for qi. It is important to note that the qi is said to push blood, not the other way round. \n\n\nSo you get illness by having an imbalance of one of the above forces. For example, sore throats and fever would be blamed on excessive heaty-ness. I am not entirely sure of how symptoms are read, so I will not elaborate. I understand that they are read in patterns and then related to one of the concepts above. \n\nTreatment:\n\n\n* The primary way of treating anything in TCM is herbs%. Herbs include animal parts. This is the cause of some/all of the animal trade problems, because things like Black Bear bile is considered to be useful in treating something. The herbs are associated with one of the five elements (which are each associated with a flavour/action) and then used to either boost the related element or get rid of the element in excess, based on the principle that one element can subdue/boost another. \n\n* Acupuncture, where needles are placed at certain points in the meridian to improve it's function. \n\n* Tui na (推拿) is a massage that deals with some special points in the meridians. \n\n* Qigong (气功) is an exercise that deals with bodily movements to move the Qi around. \n\n* Gua sha (刮痧) is when a piece of jade/bone/something is used to scrape over the skin to help remove the disease. It has something to do with the meridians but I'm not sure what. \n\n* The other two methods are cupping (拔罐) and Diē-dá (跌打) which I don't know anything about but I list here for completion's sake. \n \n\n*this is written with the character usually used for gold, but normally it's translated as metal. \n\n% Quirky translation again, the characters literally read medicinal ingredients (药材), but most English speaking people refer to it as herbs. ",
"Certainly some of the substances and practices have some effect, but not because the theoretical backing motivating their use is a correct picture of how the human body and disease works. Instead, the substances used work (if they work at all) because their pharmacological properties, or--as is the case with the few practices that do show any effect--are a placebo.\n\nIn short, the theoretical backing behind traditional Chinese medicine does not line up with modern understandings of human anatomy and physiology, mainly because the ancient Chinese didn't really concern themselves with anatomy in the way medieval Muslims and post-16th Century Europeans did, and they had no concept equivalent to the germ theory of disease.",
"The other posts in this thread are unnecessarily dismissive.\n\nHerbal medicine, asian or otherwise, generally boils down to trial and error. People try various plants, and see what they do. They take note of the effects.\n\nIt's not rigorous, but it's far from being illogical.\n\nSometimes, this simple process produces mistakes: people think a plant is having an effect, but it's just the placebo effect. But it's inevitable that you'll occasionally stumble on a plant that really does do something.\n\nSometimes, if these plants seem to be promising enough, modern scientists will then take notice and start doing more rigorous testing. Here's an example:\n\n_URL_0_\n\nSo in that example, they've been putting an old traditional mushroom through a battery of modern tests to see if it really works. It looks like maybe it does.\n\nSo, really, it's simple: they try plants, and they see what they do.\n\nFinally: the dismissive attitude I see in the rest of this thread is destructive. If we were smart, we'd say, \"gee, several billion asians making tea out of every plant in sight is a fantastic high-throughput screening tool for identifying promising compounds.\" We'd take all the plants they've identified as promising, and put them through a rigorous battery of tests. Instead, we scoff. The scientific tests of coriolus versicolor I mentioned above? All done in Japan. Westerners won't touch it. It's terrible, and it's hurting modern medicine. \n\n\n\n\n",
"Nobody here seems to have explained the foundations of Traditional Chinese Medicine, so I'll give it a go. \n\nThere are several forces affecting the body, and if they are imbalanced, it'll cause some illness. For example: \n\n* yin-yang(阴阳) - an attribute that each part can have as to whether is is hot(yang)/cold(yin) or male(yang)/female(yin) and so on. There are many things linked to each aspect. The idea is that the body has both and they must be in balance for the body to function properly. \n\n* five elements (五行) - the universe is made entirely out of five elements wood (木), fire (火), earth (土), metal (金*), and water (水). Again, they are associated with other phenomena like colour, taste, organ and so on. They are said to counteract each other, like water puts out the fire, wood crumbles the earth. They also have helping associations like wood feeding a fire, water nourishing wood and so on. This is [a helpful diagram](_URL_1_). [Relevant wikipedia](_URL_0_). \n\n* another important concept is Qi(氣) and Meridians(经络). I barely know about this but I have been told that the meridians are channels of qi and and analogous to blood vessels for qi. It is important to note that the qi is said to push blood, not the other way round. \n\n\nSo you get illness by having an imbalance of one of the above forces. For example, sore throats and fever would be blamed on excessive heaty-ness. I am not entirely sure of how symptoms are read, so I will not elaborate. I understand that they are read in patterns and then related to one of the concepts above. \n\nTreatment:\n\n\n* The primary way of treating anything in TCM is herbs%. Herbs include animal parts. This is the cause of some/all of the animal trade problems, because things like Black Bear bile is considered to be useful in treating something. The herbs are associated with one of the five elements (which are each associated with a flavour/action) and then used to either boost the related element or get rid of the element in excess, based on the principle that one element can subdue/boost another. \n\n* Acupuncture, where needles are placed at certain points in the meridian to improve it's function. \n\n* Tui na (推拿) is a massage that deals with some special points in the meridians. \n\n* Qigong (气功) is an exercise that deals with bodily movements to move the Qi around. \n\n* Gua sha (刮痧) is when a piece of jade/bone/something is used to scrape over the skin to help remove the disease. It has something to do with the meridians but I'm not sure what. \n\n* The other two methods are cupping (拔罐) and Diē-dá (跌打) which I don't know anything about but I list here for completion's sake. \n \n\n*this is written with the character usually used for gold, but normally it's translated as metal. \n\n% Quirky translation again, the characters literally read medicinal ingredients (药材), but most English speaking people refer to it as herbs. "
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3fgps8 | how exactly does orbiting work? if something is always being pulled towards earth how does it remain in a circle instead of eventually just spiraling to the earth? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3fgps8/eli5_how_exactly_does_orbiting_work_if_something/ | {
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"Think of yourself spinning a yo-yo in circles by the string. The string pull the yo-yo towards your hands while the yo-yo is attempting to fly away, because of centripetal force. The yo-yo is practically in an orbit around your hand. \n\nThe same thing happens between the earth and the moon. The rotation of the moon around the earth pushes it away while the earths gravity pulls it.\n\nYou can look more into\nCentripetal force, and newtons first law.",
"If you drop something without throwing it, it will fall straight down.\n\nIf you drop something throwing it a bit, it follows an arc down and lands maybe 10 feet away.\n\nIf you could throw something REALLY hard, it might land 20 miles away in a really broad arc.\n\nSo what happens if you can throw something so hard that the Earth's surface moves away by the time the thing should land? That's what an orbit is. It's horizontal motion fast enough so that the falling still happens, it just happens at such a broad angle that it never actually lands."
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2bxlgi | why ceasefires get respected and not abused to gain an advantage over the enemy | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2bxlgi/eli5_why_ceasefires_get_respected_and_not_abused/ | {
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"Well, they don't. \n\nCeasefires are very frequently broken.\n\nBut, there's a few things at play.\n\n1) 'Ceasefires' usually happen between relatively weaker nations or groups... and it's largely under the request of stronger nations or groups of nations. So the ceasefire is usually the request of an important strategic ally, overpowering force or something else...there's often reason to obey or comply and the nation complying may get support or something in return. You look like you're more willing to participate in peace and so on if you agree... no one wants to look like they started the war or kept it going.\n\n2) Ceasefires allow sides to achieve other strategic objectives. If you've made material gains, say, taken 8 new cities... a ceasefire allows you consolidate power in those cities and calm them down without fearing the army trying to recapture them. \nA force on the retreat can also buy time to re-assemble itself, resupply, reload and change their course of action. So in this way having a 'pause' button on a war can actually help strategically. \n\n3) The world punishes breaking rules of war more than war itself. Again more of a peer pressure thing, but in order to retain favour with the rest of the world, they want you to be fighting 'fair' in appearance. World War 1 had more nations join because a civilian ship was sank or a neutral country was invaded than actually joined based on anything to do with the original conflict. \n\n4) You actually do potentially wish to end it. One side may have hit hard and made their point, and the other side may have started something, got punched in the balls and wants to stop. While the actual underlying conflict hasn't been resolved, one side may wish to take their gains and stop, the other may wish to cut their losses and stop. The 6 Day War is a good example of one of those short conflicts where both sides probably just wanted to end it after it started. One side made a brutal display of its power, the other side learned a little lesson..both wanted it over. Sometimes that will happen, but you can't actually end the overall conflict, so a ceasefire works. \n\n"
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126ctw | why do plants need to be pruned | I bought a Nepenthes alata it was suggested to be pruned every once and while? what benefit to the plant to cut off dead leaves and what not? Doesn't nature take care of that stuff for you? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/126ctw/eli5_why_do_plants_need_to_be_pruned/ | {
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"Have a friend who grew marijuana as a proffession. IIRC he said pruning wasn't just to get rid of dead leaves, but also to increase yield (amount of plant you have). For instance : You could snip at a node of the plant, it would then grow back with two new tips, rather than one. It will end up giving it a nice bushier look. Another reason some people prune is to prevent a plant from getting too tall.\n\nLastly, I'll be honest I literally just looked this up on Google, but it says plants can still expend energy and take up resources that the plant could otherwise use on healthier stems/branches. Someone feel free to correct me if I'm wrong in any of this.",
"Reasons to prune:\n\n* Encourages new and healthy growth\n* Keeps the size and shape you want\n* Clear out dying or diseased material\n* Encourage more flowers\n* Create fuller plants\n* To allow air and light into the center of the plant\n* To propagate new plants\n\nIn your case it is suggested to prune so the plant stays full and not leggy and to remove old flowers. Also after pruning if you can root the leaves and start new plants."
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5aokyq | why do humans smell different when they wake up? what is that smell? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5aokyq/eli5_why_do_humans_smell_different_when_they_wake/ | {
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"Bacteria that has feasted on your skin, sweat,etc has byproducts that smell bad. The bacteria has had 8ish hours to feast on your body uninterrupted. If you brush your teeth and shower before bed and use clean linen, the smell will be less",
"You have thousands of different bacteria and fungus that live in and on you. A lot of their byproducts will give off a distinct oder based off the amount of each you have. This also is why your smell changes based off what you eat, hygiene, and personal health.\n\nHere are a couple articles if you want more info:\n_URL_1_\n\n_URL_0_"
]
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[],
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"https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/nih-human-microbiome-project-defines-normal-bacterial-makeup-body",
"http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/40600/title/The-Body-s-Ecosystem"
]
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6g79os | how will the repeal of the dodd-frank wall street regulations effect the common citizen. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6g79os/eli5_how_will_the_repeal_of_the_doddfrank_wall/ | {
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"It is hard to say.\n\nBut worse case scenario is that rules put in place after the 2008 real estate bubble have been removed and eventually a new depression will be triggered due to greedy behavior of institutions to big to fail.\n\nIt will take a detailed analysis far beyond what can be done in this subreddit and extrapolation. But the simple explanation is that these regulations were put in place to avoid financial catastrophes. The current set of Republicans would prefer that rich get richer, so rich they can ride out a depression. They will be glad to hire cheap servants who need jobs to survive."
]
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[]
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9pvv7p | why do most people think they sound bad when they hear their voice on audio recordings, but most people don’t have bad voices? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9pvv7p/eli5_why_do_most_people_think_they_sound_bad_when/ | {
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"text": [
"Because you are your own worst critic, and most people are not used to hearing themselves. "
]
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[]
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1sxtzk | different branches of physics | I keep hearing Theoretical physics, Applied physics and experimental physics...are there more? What are their roles? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1sxtzk/eli5_different_branches_of_physics/ | {
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"Theoretical, experimental, and applied physics are \"umbrella\" branches in some sense - physicists often use one of those labels plus their specific field.\n\nTheoretical physics: Theorists don't do experiments. Some work with equations directly to answer questions and try to understand the laws of physics, while some put those equations into computers to simulate answers.\n\nExperimental physics: Experimentalists actually take physical things and prod them or observe them. Such experiments range from things easily done in a small room to the LHC and other massive machines.\n\nApplied physics: Usually (but not always) experimental physicists. Applied physicists do physics, but their goal is not necessarily to understand the laws of nature. Their goal is usually to find and develop things that are directly useful to medicine, the semiconductor industry, etc.\n\nNow for what I would really call the branches of physics: the subjects. Unless otherwise stated, there are people who do both theoretical and experimental physics in each of these areas.\n\nAstrophysics: Studies things on the scales between planets and galaxies; asks how such objects form, move, and die.\n\nAtomic/molecular/optical physics: Looks at things at the scales of atoms and molecules. Objects of study range from the behavior of photons trapped in cavities to ultracold gases of atoms or molecules to lasers. Most people in this field are more on the experimental side.\n\nBiophysics: Physics crossed with biology. Applies physics ideas to structures like proteins and DNA. Most people in this field are experimentalists.\n\nCondensed matter physics: Studies things between a few nanometers in size and the size of a room. Looks to understand the different electronic and mechanical behaviors of solids, glasses, and liquids. Also crosses over with materials science in the hunt for new, interesting, and useful materials. Biophysics is sometimes considered to be a discipline within condensed matter.\n\nCosmology: Studies the history of the universe as a whole. Looks to understand how we went from the earliest moments of the universe to the formation of structures like galaxies.\n\nNuclear physics: Studies physics at the level of the atomic nucleus. Looks at the structure of nuclei and the processes that make them stable or unstable.\n\nParticle physics: Studies things at the scale of fundamental particles. Looks to understand the laws of the universe at the most fundamental level; studies things from what dark matter is to theories of everything (string theory, loop quantum gravity, etc.) to neutrinos.\n\nEdit: Just a disclaimer: this is not necessarily a complete list, and you can argue about what belongs here versus what belongs as subjects within these fields versus what's a subject within other fields (is mathematical physics mathematics or physics?).",
"There are a lot of branches check out (_URL_0_) for recent papers in various fields.\n\nTheoretical branches have their experimental analogues and vice versa, this could go on for a while so I'll be as succinct as possible\n\nHigh Energy \n -Large Hadron Collider type stuff usually probing the nature of the fundamental forces by looking at collisions of fundamental particles\n\nSolid State\n - a very general name for lots of research that has to do with the nature of all materials. Making new materials, understanding quantum phenomena and behaviors at all kinds of temperatures, in electromagnetic fields. Graphene, semiconductors...\n\nOptics, Photonics\n - light and its interaction with materials, how to produce it, lasers, detectors, quantum computing, often in conjunction with solid state.\n\nA blend of these all is AMO (Atomic, Molecular, and Optical) which is classified as a field in its own right. As far as I know it usually deals with understanding these phenomena at uber-cold temperatures as in close to absolute zero. \n\nFluids\n\nCosmology/Astrophysics\n\nGeophysics\n\nSolar Physics\n\nMathematical Physics (Theoretical Methods)\n\nPhysical Chemistry\n\nThe list goes on.....I'd recommend you check out arxiv\n\n\n\n"
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8k4j2p | how come it is not in nintendo’s best business interest to release their entire nes/snes catalogs for the switch online experience? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8k4j2p/eli5_how_come_it_is_not_in_nintendos_best/ | {
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"Porting old games to new consoles takes time and money. It's only in their interests if they think they'll make enough sales on the port to outweigh the cost. Even if they would make more on them, the manpower it takes to do it may be better spent on newer games. Lots of older gamers love those classic games, but most younger people with no nostalgia for them aren't going to buy them, so the market is more limited than it is for new games.",
"it worked pretty well to sell the nes and snes plug and play consoles. Their business strstegy has always been underproducing content to create nore demand."
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2ki7hk | about sd cards and why we don't use them as hard drives. | So, since we're now up to 128gb per micro SD.... Why don't we just use a shit ton of them and replace the spinny thing that is our current hard drive. Is it a matter of cost? I have no idea how this would work, or why it wouldn't for that matter.
It seems to me that if one breaks it's a lot easier to pull it out and put a new one in...
Please keep in mind that my knowledge of computers is limited to turning them on. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2ki7hk/eli5_about_sd_cards_and_why_we_dont_use_them_as/ | {
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"SD cards are slow. You could do it, but performance would be terrible.",
"SD cards are much much much slower and relatively more expensive than hard drives. A faster equivalent is SSD, which are slowly replacing hard drives, but are still relatively expensive.",
"Thats basically SSD\n\n_URL_0_",
"Actual SD cards are slow and wear out. But yeah, you basically have invented the idea of SSDs. "
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29bazn | how can multiple computers access the same file at once? | I was wondering about this while downloading a podcast. That mp3 is stored on a computer or server somewhere. When it's not being accessed, I assume there is just one copy stored on the hard drive. Yet multiple people can download that mp3 at once. How do their computers read the same file without interference? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/29bazn/eli5_how_can_multiple_computers_access_the_same/ | {
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"Because there's no problem at all on a computer with several processes reading the same file at once. You can have 100 users connected to a computer reading the same file, all at the same time.\n\nThe problem comes in two processes wanting to write a file at the same time. But in your example, nobody is writing to the file."
]
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1sjm0r | how corporations end up paying very low or no taxes by incorporating in states like delaware and florida. while on the subject, please explain how those tax haven countries like the switzerland, bermuda, the cayman and the british virgin islands help avoid the rich paying taxes. thank you. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1sjm0r/eli5_how_corporations_end_up_paying_very_low_or/ | {
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"It has been covered by the Dutch media a lot lately, I'll try to explain (please correct me if I'm wrong).\n\nFor this example we are going to take Starbucks.\n\nWhat they do is this: they create a company somewhere in a tax haven named 'Starbucks holding LLC'. This tax haven has a 5% profit tax. Then they register this company as being the owner of the Starbucks brand. Not the actual starbucks shops, but the brand. \n\nNext, they have the actual company Starbucks. They operate shops, sell coffee etc. and they, of course, make a profit. BUT! Since this second company operates under the name Starbucks, without being owner of the brand (Starbucks Holding LLC owns the brand), they have to pay a licencing fee to the first company for the use of its name. The same way radio station pays a fee to the artists for using their music.\n\nLets say that Starbucks knows it makes 1$ profit per cup of coffee they sell. They then make the company that sells the actual coffee in the US or the UK pay a licensing fee of 1$ per cup to Starbucks Holding LLC (this entity owns the brand).\n\nIf you make 1$ profit on a cup of cofee, but you have to pay a fee equal to that 1$ in licencing then your net profit, no matter how much coffee you sell, will be 0$. And since you don't have to pay profit tax if you don't make a profit (on paper), they pay no taxes.\n\nMEANWHILE, the Starbucks Holding LLC receives billions in lincencing income. But, being 'founded' in a tax haven, you now only have to pay 5% on those billions of dollars, wich you actually made in the US.\n\n\nThis is of course a simple version of the actual procedures that these companies use. And it is of course not only starbucks. \n\nThere are many more constructions to this, such as the [Double Irish with a Dutch Sandwich](_URL_0_).\n\nHere is a, imho, very good documentary about this: [VPRO International](_URL_1_)\n\n\n",
"Note that forming a company in the US doesn't really have any effect on federal taxation (and only a small effect on state taxation). Major US companies are generally formed in Delaware because Delaware has an extremely well-understood corporate law that is friendly to management, and a court system which is very good at quickly resolving cases in accordance with that law."
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"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4o13isDdfY"
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5fwez7 | what happens to the money that we donate to churches exactly? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5fwez7/eli5_what_happens_to_the_money_that_we_donate_to/ | {
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"It's used by the church to pay for things. Rent/mortgage, property taxes, utilities, salaries, purchases, repairs, and if it's Catholic, paying up to the Church organization",
"It maintains the building and land that the Church owns, pays the salaries of workers employed by the church (preachers/priests, secretaries, cleaning staff, etc), bills that they have (electric, water, gas, etc), supplies that they need (food, clothing, bibles, song books, etc) and pays for the various ministries that they have. Those that are part of a central hierarchy like Catholics or Anglicans will send a portion of the funds to pay organizational fees as well. ",
"Most posts here are missing the mark quite a bit. While yes, some of the money goes to keeping and maintaining the actual church/grounds, most of the money donated (if not a catholic church) goes towards mission fields. One of the bigger churches in my area (300-400 active people go there) donates around $150k+/y to quite a few hundred missionaries around the world. Most smaller churches obviously can't do that, but most churches have a missionary program they regularly donate to. "
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4u27kx | what are the fundamental differences in domestic and foreign policies of fascist, socialist, communist governments? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4u27kx/eli5_what_are_the_fundamental_differences_in/ | {
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"\t| Definition | Domestic policy | Foreign policy\n:--|:--|:--|:--|\nFascist | Radical authoritarian nationalism. In other words strong central control because and on behalf of a concept of national identity | Security emphasised over freedom so the police have a lot of power and individuals have little liberty. Very strong central control, frequently a dictatorship. Economic policy can be left wing or right wing, and is frequently a mixture. However traditionally fascists have been quite economically right wing. Mussolini said corporatism is the main pillar of fascism. | The nationalism inherent in fascism means they will tend to be xenophobic and antagonistic. That and strong military means they tend to get into a lot of wars.\nSocialist | Social ownership and democratic control of the means of production. In other words industry is run for the good of the workers | There's basically two forms: **non market socialism** seeks to totally replace capitalism and market forces with a totally new system whereby companies are owned and run solely for the benefit of the workers. **Market Socialism** retains the capitalist system, but seeks to increase the benefit to the workers of private enterprise either by nationalising certain industries, or by encouraging workers cooperatives, or simply by promoting social democratic policies such as redistribution and a welfare state to mitigate the anti-socialist effects of the capitalist system | There's no specifically Socialist foreign policy that I can think of but there are three main techniques for spreading socialism: **Syndicalism** basically seeks to build a socialist state in parallel to the actual state through setting up communes and worker owned industry etc... in the hope that in the end political power will transfer over to the parallel system as the capitalist system withers and dies. **Democratic Socialism** seeks to promote socialism through democratic means. **Revolutionary Socialism** seeks to encourage socialist revolutions. So a revolutionary socialist government might have a pro-revolution foreign policy.\nCommunist |In favour of an egalitarian society in which all property is owned in common and there is no state. | There are different kinds of Communist ideologies. To name just a few of the common ones: **Marxism-Lenninism** suggests that Communism needs to be created in 3 phases 1) State Capitalism, in which the Government takes control of the economy and manages it in a Socialist manner. 2) The Workers State where workers take over control of industry through setting up \"Soviets\" or Workers' Councils to run business. 3) Full Communism, which no country has ever reached. **Trotskyism** espouses the idea of a permanent revolution where workers form themselves into an uncompromising revolutionary class, who keep on revolting and revolting and revolting until they have communism. **Communalism** which is kind of the Communist equivalent of syndicalism, where they build their own communist state in parallel. | Trotskyists, and many other Communists, believe you cannot have \"socialism in one country\" and that Communism can only work if the whole world goes communist. And so they constantly try to export the revolution to other countries and have a hostile foreign policy to all non communist regimes. Other Communists believe you can have socialism in one country, and so you don't have to be antagonistic to non communist countries. Although they might happen to do so anyway."
]
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jh7gd | programming in c, grasping heap/stack | Can someone enlighten me on the different memory types, their functions and where ints, chars, etc, malloc, etc are associated with? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/jh7gd/eli5_programming_in_c_grasping_heapstack/ | {
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"The stack is used by to store variables of any type for function calls. The stack is maintained automatically for you by the compiled c code. The heap is dynamic memory that is allocated through calls to malloc or calloc. The memory allocated by these calls can be used to store any type of variable. Memory allocated on the heap must be freed by program using the free function. Your question is not something that lends itself to being answered in ELI5.",
"This does not belong in ELI5. try r/programming. ",
"The stack is used by to store variables of any type for function calls. The stack is maintained automatically for you by the compiled c code. The heap is dynamic memory that is allocated through calls to malloc or calloc. The memory allocated by these calls can be used to store any type of variable. Memory allocated on the heap must be freed by program using the free function. Your question is not something that lends itself to being answered in ELI5.",
"This does not belong in ELI5. try r/programming. "
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2mau8n | do banks keep cash for all the money deposited with them? if not, what keep the bank from making more "digital currency?" | Vaults in banks don't look big enough to hold all the money they have on deposit. Where is all the money that shows on their customers account balances? If there isn't cash backing it up, how do banks or the government control the money on their account balances. What keeps them from changing the account balance to print money?
| explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2mau8n/eli5_do_banks_keep_cash_for_all_the_money/ | {
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"No, they don't keep all that cash on hand. And controls and auditing keep them from just making more money on their books. Banks are basically in the business of selling trust, and if they abused that, they'd be out of business.",
"The government sets \"reserve requirements\", which define how much cash a bank must hold compared to the deposits people have made. When reserve requirements are 100% the bank has to have a dollar in the vault for every dollar someone has deposited with it and, therefore, can't lend out any money. When reserve requirements are lower then banks can lend out some of the deposited money, effectively creating more money in the economy. \n\nCurrent reserve requirements in the United States vary depending on how much money is deposited with the bank. Currently, under $13.3 requires no reserve, between $13.3 and $89 million requires a 3% reserve, and above $89 million requires a 10% reserve.\n\n[This](_URL_0_) article/video explains how banks \"create money\" through loans if you're interested.",
"It's all kept track of electronically in databases. Money is 'created' when a loan is made but banks are restricted on how much they can simply create out of thin air through new loans. This is from the bank of england's website:\n\n > In the modern economy, most money takes the form of bank\n > deposits. But how those bank deposits are created is often\n > misunderstood: the principal way is through commercial\n > banks making loans. Whenever a bank makes a loan, it\n > simultaneously creates a matching deposit in the\n > borrower’s bank account, thereby creating new money.\n > The reality of how money is created today differs from the\n > description found in some economics textbooks: \n\n\n > • Rather than banks receiving deposits when households\n > save and then lending them out, bank lending creates\n > deposits. \n\n > • In normal times, the central bank does not fix the amount\n > of money in circulation, nor is central bank money\n > ‘multiplied up’ into more loans and deposits. \n\n > Although commercial banks create money through lending,\n > they cannot do so freely without limit. Banks are limited in\n > how much they can lend if they are to remain profitable in a\n > competitive banking system. Prudential regulation also acts\n > as a constraint on banks’ activities in order to maintain the\n > resilience of the financial system. \n\n[Source](_URL_0_)"
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b6h9uw | how does car wax work? | I mean the way, all the water gets separated & drippy if you would throw a bucket of it on a waxed bonnet. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/b6h9uw/eli5_how_does_car_wax_work/ | {
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"Waxes are basically oils. As you know, \"oil and water don't mix\". But \"why?\", you may ask. It comes down to the relative, electrical charge on each substance. Water is a \"polar\" substance which has distinctly +/- regions within the molecule due to the distribution of electrons. Oils, fats, waxes (lipids) are non-polar and have little, if any, distinctly charged regions because the electrons are distributed so evenly within the molecule. \n\nFor substances to combine, they must share similar physical/electrical properties (\"like dissolves like\"), so polar substances can mix with other polar substances, and non-polar can mix with non-polar, but they can't mix with each other. When you wax your car, you are essentially covering it in a thin sheet of non-polar oil, which the water cannot mix with, so it beads up and assumes the most energetically efficient shape it can, which is a water droplet/sphere. "
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6g1v68 | who was the first person to think that atoms existed and make up all matter? how/why did they get the idea? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6g1v68/eli5_who_was_the_first_person_to_think_that_atoms/ | {
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"Most fascinating thing is that first atomic theories were developed back in ancient Greece. Idk how, but some of them got it quite close to the truth, actually.",
"The original concept of an indivisible fundamental particle is quite ancient. The word \"atom\" itself comes from the ancient Greeks who surmised that at some point it must no longer be possible to cut matter apart, and those final indestructible bits were called *atomon,* uncuttable.\n\nThat theory wasn't really refined and scientifically proven until thousands of years later, but the general idea can be found in many ancient cultures.",
"The modern idea of atoms was proposed by chemist John Dalton. He observed that in chemical reactions, the ratio of reactants used often appear as ratios of small integers. This suggests that chemical reactions are between discrete units in a microscopic level.\n\nA more direct idea of particles/atoms/molecules making stuff up comes from Brownian motion. Botanist Robert Brown saw dust grains in water moving in zig-zag patterns on their own. It was thought that the water molecules were knocking the grains around. Later, Einstein(This guy literally does everything: relativity, quantum mechanics, lasers, Brownian motion, quantum statistics...) used some advanced maths to show that such zig-zag motion does indeed correspond to things being made up by particles."
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fcg2bj | why is safety glass safer then normal glass ? cause it explodes into a million pieces. | My brother and i both once ( in different instances ofcourse ) slammed the glass shower door and and it shattered and cut us extremely much.
I literally stood there naked with glass cuts all over my body and splinters everywhere..
And the same thing happened to my brother years ago. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/fcg2bj/eli5_why_is_safety_glass_safer_then_normal_glass/ | {
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"I believe safety glass shatters into lots of similar sized cubes, not random shapes and potentially dangerous shards.",
"It may explode into millions of pieces, but true tempered glass doesn’t break into sharp shards or huge jagged pieces. It breaks into more rounded pieces that are less likely to penetrate deep into skin. \n\nIt still will cut the surface of your skin.",
"Toughened (\"safety\") glass is meant to break into small pieces because they are less likely to do serious damage to you. Normal glass has a tendency to break into large, pointed, sharp shards. That property of breaking into small pieces is the safety - would you rather have a lot of small cuts, or a big shard impale you?",
"Yes tempered “safety glass” will still shatter. However going thru the tempering process makes for uniformity at the molecular level improving the strength of the glass. It also causes breakage to result in the shatter you experienced since it is under internal tension. \n\nWhy is shatter better when you can still get cut? Well, 1/4” cubes of glass don’t have the mass or energy to say slice your fingers off or cut down to your arteries the same way a 15# piece of plate glass can.",
"Safety (tempered) glass is called so because it does explode I to a million tiny, but still sharp, pieces, that cause minor cuts. When normal glass breaks it becomes large razor blades that cause deep cuts and will flay you open down to the bone. Ideally in something like a shower door or sliding glass door you would have true safety glass, it's glass that has been tempered and then coated with a clear glue/film (or have it sandwiched between two pieces of glass) that will hold those million pieces together, mostly, still sharp though.",
"You got cuts and splinters all over your body from tiny, tiny pieces of glass. You did **not** get impaled by giant shards of glass because...well...it broke into tiny pieces instead. Lucky you! Scratches and splinters suck; getting impaled is way more likely to kill you.\n\nGlass is glass - it can break. There's nothing you can do about *that*. So, the backup plan is to make it much safer when it breaks."
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jw1wt | why do croatians and serbians hate each other? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/jw1wt/eli5_why_do_croatians_and_serbians_hate_each_other/ | {
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"Huh, that is tough one to explain, mate. I living in the Balkans, although in Slovenia (north of Croatia), so I know the situation but it's complicated. If you'll ask a Serb he will tell you a different story and the same with a Croat. Some the issues between these nations start from the times of Yugoslavia. On the border between Serbia and Croatia a lot of minorities overlap and they didn't get along. When Yugoslavia start falling apart Slovenia and Croatia wanted to get out, but Serbia didn't let them. So the independence war started. For Slovenia it lasted for about two weeks, but for Croatia it lasted 4 years ,see link [Croatian War of Independence.](_URL_0_)\n\nI know, I only covered the basics (if that), so if you have any further questions, please ask.",
"The main reason is religion. Croats and Serbs speak the same language, but they have different religions due to different histories. Croats are Catholic, because Croatia used to belong to Austria. Serbs are Orthodox, because Serbia used to belong to the Ottoman Empire.\n\nAs with all ethnic conflicts, over time a small difference grew into hate due to various unfortunate incidents. The last incident with Serbs and Croats was the war surrounding the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s, in which many people were killed.",
"I don't think I can even attempt to explain this to a five year old, but let me try a twelve year old...\n\nMoving backwards in time, starting from the present: In the early 1990s there was a country called Yugoslavia. This was a country made up of Serbs, Croats, Boniaks and a few more minor groups (Slovenians, Macedonians, some Albanians). This country became dominated by the Serbs, who are Orthodox Christians and distinct from the Croatian Catholic Christians and the Bosniak Muslims. There came a time when the Croatians and other peoples in the Yugoslav state decided they didn't want to be ruled by Serbian people, so they started a war for independence. The war was very gruesome and scarred that entire generation of people. So there are territorial grievances still between the Croats and Serbs, but also just resentment because of the nature of the war. A lot of Serbs feel angry because they feel they were trying to hold together a great country (Yugoslavia) and also because they feel they were ganged up on by Croatians, Americans and Europeans in the war. Serbs feel like the entire world came down and tilted things in Croatia's favor, giving them the better peace settlement and ruining Serbia and Yugoslavia.\n\nPrior to all that, during WWII the Croatians accepted the help of the Germans and as a result, they had a lot more power in the region then, and they did a lot of bad things to everyone. The Serbs are naturally more friendly to a country like Russia, so maybe you can see how there could be a divide between those two.\n\nThen, beyond all THAT, there is a lot of general medieval conflict between different peoples of different religions. It's the same kind of stuff that happened all over Europe, Catholics vs other Christians.\n\nAll of these problems are multiplied by ten because the Serbs and Croats (and everyone else) were all dispersed all over. Serbs, Boniaks and Croatians lived right on top of each other in neighboring villages, sometimes separated from their fellow ethnicity. It was like a patchwork and thus, I imagine it was common to look over to the other village and think \"Look at all those Croat jerks! They're dumb, not like us!\" and whatnot. Kind of like a city to city rivalry, but add in religion and ethnicity.\n\nHope that helps, maybe tell the five year old: \"Imagine you, your brother and your sister have to share a room for 2000 years. You all have to share toys and a bed, too. Would you be angry at them?\"",
"It's not really that widespread these days. There are surely people who feel hatred, but that's simply because they cannot forget the loss & horrors of war (therefore blaming the opposing side by default). Most youth nowdays doesn't really care, unless they're raised to hate (which i believe to be pretty rare). My guess, everything will fade out trough few generations, as it already has, so far.\n\nI just wanted to give a maybe more up-to-date version of it.\n\n(Croat here)",
"It was all Vlade Divac's fault.",
"Very short version:\n\n- Centuries of land and religious tension put the two at odds.\n- In the aftermath of WWI, Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (aka Yugoslavia) is created. The appointed monarch is a Serb, and they hold the majority of the power. Croats get pissed by this arrangement, but bide their time.\n- WWII happens, and Yugoslavia fractures. The Croats align with Hitler, and the Serbs opt to fight him. The Croats open camps like Jasenovec, killing hundreds of thousands of Serbs (and Jews). Hitler actually found the Croats too brutal for his taste, so this should tell you how awful the Serb experience was.\n- After WWII, the western powers put Yugoslavia back together, and give it to an ethnic Croat who had led the Serbian partisans, Tito. His singular aim was to preserve his own power, so he would constantly preach Yugoslav unity while turning groups against one another, and relocating them in ways that would make secession problematic. \n- After he dies, there's a power vacuum. That state holds together until the Slovenes declare independence. With German backing, they succeed. The Croats figure they can replicate this, and want to, because they want their own country. And, many still looking back to WWII as the golden years, want to kill the Serbs in their midst. \n- Because Slovenia's successful exit and Croatia's attempted exit left Serbia as the core Yugoslav power, the Croats essentially saw their part of The Wars of Yugoslav Secession, as being a fight with the Serbs. So, while they perpetrated brutal acts of violence, they also bore the consequences of retaliatory violence, which as you might imagine, stoked the flames of hate.",
"Huh, that is tough one to explain, mate. I living in the Balkans, although in Slovenia (north of Croatia), so I know the situation but it's complicated. If you'll ask a Serb he will tell you a different story and the same with a Croat. Some the issues between these nations start from the times of Yugoslavia. On the border between Serbia and Croatia a lot of minorities overlap and they didn't get along. When Yugoslavia start falling apart Slovenia and Croatia wanted to get out, but Serbia didn't let them. So the independence war started. For Slovenia it lasted for about two weeks, but for Croatia it lasted 4 years ,see link [Croatian War of Independence.](_URL_0_)\n\nI know, I only covered the basics (if that), so if you have any further questions, please ask.",
"The main reason is religion. Croats and Serbs speak the same language, but they have different religions due to different histories. Croats are Catholic, because Croatia used to belong to Austria. Serbs are Orthodox, because Serbia used to belong to the Ottoman Empire.\n\nAs with all ethnic conflicts, over time a small difference grew into hate due to various unfortunate incidents. The last incident with Serbs and Croats was the war surrounding the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s, in which many people were killed.",
"I don't think I can even attempt to explain this to a five year old, but let me try a twelve year old...\n\nMoving backwards in time, starting from the present: In the early 1990s there was a country called Yugoslavia. This was a country made up of Serbs, Croats, Boniaks and a few more minor groups (Slovenians, Macedonians, some Albanians). This country became dominated by the Serbs, who are Orthodox Christians and distinct from the Croatian Catholic Christians and the Bosniak Muslims. There came a time when the Croatians and other peoples in the Yugoslav state decided they didn't want to be ruled by Serbian people, so they started a war for independence. The war was very gruesome and scarred that entire generation of people. So there are territorial grievances still between the Croats and Serbs, but also just resentment because of the nature of the war. A lot of Serbs feel angry because they feel they were trying to hold together a great country (Yugoslavia) and also because they feel they were ganged up on by Croatians, Americans and Europeans in the war. Serbs feel like the entire world came down and tilted things in Croatia's favor, giving them the better peace settlement and ruining Serbia and Yugoslavia.\n\nPrior to all that, during WWII the Croatians accepted the help of the Germans and as a result, they had a lot more power in the region then, and they did a lot of bad things to everyone. The Serbs are naturally more friendly to a country like Russia, so maybe you can see how there could be a divide between those two.\n\nThen, beyond all THAT, there is a lot of general medieval conflict between different peoples of different religions. It's the same kind of stuff that happened all over Europe, Catholics vs other Christians.\n\nAll of these problems are multiplied by ten because the Serbs and Croats (and everyone else) were all dispersed all over. Serbs, Boniaks and Croatians lived right on top of each other in neighboring villages, sometimes separated from their fellow ethnicity. It was like a patchwork and thus, I imagine it was common to look over to the other village and think \"Look at all those Croat jerks! They're dumb, not like us!\" and whatnot. Kind of like a city to city rivalry, but add in religion and ethnicity.\n\nHope that helps, maybe tell the five year old: \"Imagine you, your brother and your sister have to share a room for 2000 years. You all have to share toys and a bed, too. Would you be angry at them?\"",
"It's not really that widespread these days. There are surely people who feel hatred, but that's simply because they cannot forget the loss & horrors of war (therefore blaming the opposing side by default). Most youth nowdays doesn't really care, unless they're raised to hate (which i believe to be pretty rare). My guess, everything will fade out trough few generations, as it already has, so far.\n\nI just wanted to give a maybe more up-to-date version of it.\n\n(Croat here)",
"It was all Vlade Divac's fault.",
"Very short version:\n\n- Centuries of land and religious tension put the two at odds.\n- In the aftermath of WWI, Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (aka Yugoslavia) is created. The appointed monarch is a Serb, and they hold the majority of the power. Croats get pissed by this arrangement, but bide their time.\n- WWII happens, and Yugoslavia fractures. The Croats align with Hitler, and the Serbs opt to fight him. The Croats open camps like Jasenovec, killing hundreds of thousands of Serbs (and Jews). Hitler actually found the Croats too brutal for his taste, so this should tell you how awful the Serb experience was.\n- After WWII, the western powers put Yugoslavia back together, and give it to an ethnic Croat who had led the Serbian partisans, Tito. His singular aim was to preserve his own power, so he would constantly preach Yugoslav unity while turning groups against one another, and relocating them in ways that would make secession problematic. \n- After he dies, there's a power vacuum. That state holds together until the Slovenes declare independence. With German backing, they succeed. The Croats figure they can replicate this, and want to, because they want their own country. And, many still looking back to WWII as the golden years, want to kill the Serbs in their midst. \n- Because Slovenia's successful exit and Croatia's attempted exit left Serbia as the core Yugoslav power, the Croats essentially saw their part of The Wars of Yugoslav Secession, as being a fight with the Serbs. So, while they perpetrated brutal acts of violence, they also bore the consequences of retaliatory violence, which as you might imagine, stoked the flames of hate."
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3z9hkp | why do women generally make much more noise in bed than men? | Men might make a bit of noise at the end...but women make noise all throughout | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3z9hkp/eli5_why_do_women_generally_make_much_more_noise/ | {
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"Lots of reasons. \n\nPorn is a big one. \n\nHow we grew up possibly. But I'd like to see a study that shows if women who masturbated a lot when younger were quieter, because I'm pretty sure they didn't do it loudly either living with parents... \n\nSexual roles, men are tough and grunt, women cry and scream. These could translate to bedroom. ",
"It's because a females orgasm is much longer and more intense. Women dont typically moan on purpose(excpet for pornos) it actually just cums (get it?) Naturally.",
"[This search result](_URL_0_?) may be useful.",
"Men always feel embarassed to let their feelings show! Especially when it's something kind and emotional. \n\nMen don't like anyone to know they're succombing to something, or not in control of themselves at the time. Making sounds of pleasure would show weakness, and therefore seem a bit sissy. Sissy to them anyway. ...Ever think a girl would want to know she's making him happy?"
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4jc1y6 | if i dug a hole from the us to the other side of the world and jumped feet first, would i come out head first on the other side? | also would i keep flying through the air on the other side from momentum?
| explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4jc1y6/eli5if_i_dug_a_hole_from_the_us_to_the_other_side/ | {
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"If you did this through the North Pole, you would come our feet first, ignoring air resistance.\n\nIf you did this anywhere else, you would slam into the side of the hole because Coriolis effect.",
"Assuming no air resistance, you'd just break even. The trip would in effect be all downhill one way, all uphill the other.\n\nYour acceleration would be highest at the surface, the pull of the ground above you progressively opposing the rest until in the centre you'd be in zero gravity.\n\nOf course, with air resistance, you'd barely get past the centre.\n\nEdit. Unless something turned you, enter feet first, arrive the samsame way, feet first.",
"Aside from most laws of physics, and the distance from center was the same, you would stop just as your head peeked out of the ground; just like a pendulum swing, you'd stop where you started. Also, the whole trip would take 45 minutes. Any straight line through the earth would take 45 minutes.",
"_URL_0_ You'd die before you hit five miles down of the heat/oxygen toxicity."
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810wxi | how and when to use comma that often separates the last word in a sentence. | Some examples I come across frequently are:
"great post, dude."
"I agree with that, too"
This comma always seems to interrupt the flow of the sentence as I'm reading it. Is it necessary? How and when should it be used? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/810wxi/eli5_how_and_when_to_use_comma_that_often/ | {
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"When you can remove the word and the sentence still make sense, right?\n\nIt's a free modifier and placed elsewhere in the sentence should still make sense without messing up the grammar and alerting the grammar nazis.\n\n\"Dude, great post!\" or \"I, too, agree with that.\"",
"Also with \"great post, dude\" you are speaking to someone and you always comma their name, which is being replaced by dude.\n\nGreat post, Louie.\n\nGreat post, dude.",
"The point of a comma is pretty much to interrupt the flow of the sentence. They basically indicate where you might take a brief pause if speaking the sentence aloud.\n\nLike in \"Great post, dude\" there's basically no time between saying \"great\" and \"post\", but a noticeable (but small) pause between \"post\" and \"dude.\""
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107sl0 | why can't the a/c in a car stay cold if the
engine isn't on? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/107sl0/eli5_why_cant_the_ac_in_a_car_stay_cold_if_the/ | {
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"The AC compressor runs off the car's engine.",
"the compressor (thing that makes the air cold) is powered by the engine. When the engine is off, the compressor cant work, and the air cant stay cold.",
"Just what everyone else said. The compressor is powered by a belt connected to the engine. When the engine is off (not spinning) the belt is not spinning, and neither is the compressor.",
"Your engine powers a compressor that circulates fluid, called a refrigerant. This refrigerant, called R-134A gets really cold when it changes from a liquid to a gas via an expansion valve. When it is in a cold gas state, air is blown over a coil called an evaporator core and into the car. The heat from inside the car gets transferred to the R-134A and then goes to a condenser coil (in front of your car's radiator) and turns back into a liquid ready for your compressor to pump it again. \n\nSo, if you don't have a pump moving the refrigerant around, you can't cool (or remove heat). Your home AC works on the same principal, however an electric motor is used to power the compressor instead of an internal combustion engine and a drive belt."
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6s9xo8 | why do we feel like pop music is getting more and more terrible? is it just an impression caused by the sorting bias (the fact that our brain mostly remembers the good things from the past) ? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6s9xo8/eli5_why_do_we_feel_like_pop_music_is_getting/ | {
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"Not everyone thinks pop music is getting terrible. I'd actually argue that the 2010s is a golden age for pop music. The top 40 has mostly been the same bland stuff, but digging a bit deeper and you find the gems.\n\nOP, you'll have much better luck if you ask at /r/nostupidquestions",
"It may actually be getting worse. Pop music is a place in time. It is fueled by a combination of the power of radio play and the hegemony of record companies. Both of these are waning. It is likely that as this happens talent stains away from the pool music industry toward other genres. ",
"I think Pop Music has always been defined around a few key figures with some otherwise forgetful faces filling the rest of the catalog with one hit wonders and careers defined to a certain decade.\n\nFor instance I think Bruno Mars might be vying for the position of this Generation's Prince or Michael Jackson.\n\nI think the worst genre in terms of lack of change is country music.\n\nI'd like to see them take influences from Punk and and bluegrass maybe. Like Steve'n Seagulls\n\n_URL_0_\n\nOn an unrelated note, I think pop music will never actually die, because it's like the fizz on top of everybody's drink. Sure there's people who really like specific genres, but Pop music is supposed to be just generic enough that there's a something for everyone. \n\nThat's why I kinda think guys like Bruno Mars know what they're doing, because they don't get overly comfortable with one genre, but they stretch their legs out by creating hits around other genres, even the ones you don't expect for a pop song. \n\nFor instance Avicii's Hey Brother is basically just EDM Bluegrass.\n\nBruno Mars did a live version of the lazy song which was basically ska, which suits him for some reason.\n\nMy thing with Pop music is I think it works best when it tries to incorporate a little bit of everything, whether that be rap, country, rock, bluegrass, punk, edm, polka, whatever. I just want pop music to be easy to understand but have some musical variety.\n\nIf the songs all sound the same that just makes me not want to listen to them.",
"- A lot of modern pop music is mass produced and based off a small selection of chords. Large teams of people write the songs, but a small monopoly of people produce them.\n\n- Shows like Pop Idol/X Factor want to get someone on board to produce songs as soon as possible and aren't overly concerned about clichéd lyrics etc.\n\n- Music from a few years ago tended to involve dubstep, which is innovative and new - but also stretches the boundaries of musical-ness and risks sounding more like noise.\n\n- Some pop songs rely heavily on auto-tune and are more focused on image than on the music itself.\n\n- Modern music sometimes involves hip-hop, which involves remixing old songs rather than creating new ones from scratch (which is fine if you're good at it, but gets old if people remix the same songs or run out of songs to sample).\n\n- People are more reliant on individual instruments and computers than a full band or orchestra to perform their music.\n"
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dsiyu1 | if a person were to not eat for a while and be running on stored fat. in what form does the fat physically leave the body, making the person weigh less? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/dsiyu1/eli5_if_a_person_were_to_not_eat_for_a_while_and/ | {
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"Fat cells are like glasses..they fill up. When the fat cell is full, the body makes a new glass, and starts filling it. \n\n\nWhen you starve yourself, your body will drink the fat from those glasses until each one is empty.",
"IIRC, much of it leaves the body as exhaled breath. \n\nI believe that it's fairly accurate when we say 'burning calories'. What we think of as burning with fire, is actually a form of 'rapid oxidation'....a substance is reacting with oxygen and there is usually a gaseous output.\n\nWhen we burn calories in our bodies, it's still oxidation...just slower. This creates carbon dioxide which we exhale as part of our respiratory system. \n\nInterestingly, we weigh less in the morning after a night of only breathing....even without going to the bathroom.",
"The overall simplified reaction that gives us energy is glucose plus oxygen yields water plus carbon dioxide. The glucose comes from the fat after it is broken down by other reactions and we breathe in the oxygen. The weight leaves a body through the loss of carbon dioxide and water produced through cellular respiration.",
"The weight is lost from the body in the form of carbon dioxide and water.\n\n_URL_0_",
"One pathway the body uses to ingest stored triglycerides is the lymphatic system to the bloodstream before the liver, where the they are filtered and passed to the [digestive system to be absorbed and packaged as food for the body](_URL_0_). Once re-packaged, the triglycerides are usable as fuel for cells, which converts it to co2.\n\nThe lymphatic system is like the sewer system of the body. It is full of white blood cells, so it can safely remove the contents of cells, rather than open direct pathways of infection to the blood system."
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3eqkze | what does "taking over a city" from a military standpoint entail today and historically? | Today you hear on the news that ISIS takes over a new city, and I don't know what that entails exactly: Does it mean they drove out the original military? Drove out all original residents? Do they have constant guards around the city?
Also, during historic wars, let's use the civil war for example, what exactly do capturing cities and moving warfronts entail? How does one side know when a city was successfully captured? What do these things look like from a soldiers' perspective? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3eqkze/eli5what_does_taking_over_a_city_from_a_military/ | {
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"Starting in modern times (ISIL for example) pretend there is the city of Kyle. In this city, the military has troops inside to protect the civilians living inside. To \"take over the city\" (or occupy as we commonly say today) ISIS troops march in and gunfire is exchanged between the military and ISIL. ISIS then officially occupies the city once all the military troops are either dead or driven out. At this time, the military declares that they have lost the city to the hands of ISIL as they now occupy (or took over) Kyle. \nHistorically, (as you said, the American Civil War) lets say Union troops took over Charleston, a former Confederate city. Now, during this time, Union army men exchanged gunfire (like modern times from the previous example) and marched in. Now this being an enemy city, the Union might possibly have burned it down due to them not wanting the enemy to come back to re-occupy it again. Again, this was how it was during that particular war. Not always during that time did the Union or Confederate burned down towns.\nGoing back to when you ask about how one side knows if they won or lost a city, (going back to ISIL and the city of Kyle) the military would know that they had lost the city when they were unable to conduct military exercises in that particular area in or around the city. That **does not** mean that the military cannot recapture the city. It means that they cannot simply walk around peacefully or conduct normal operations.\nFor knowing where the warfront is, lets look at the Vietnam war. That's set in modern times and a good example of warfronts. When the Viet Cong (the communism backed northern Vietnamese) pushed south, they marched towards the southern Vietnamese capital of Saigon. As they marched, American and Southern Vietnamese forces backed off being outnumbered (Note: this is an abridged version of the Vietnamese War I'm probably wrong in someplaces) until they arrived at Saigon. In Saigon, the American forces were surrounded by the Viet Cong, (surrounded by does not mean took over) but not overwhelmed. Now, majority of American forces and southern Vietnamese civilians were actually airlifted by helicopters and set sail in boats to awaiting aircraft carriers and navy vessels of the Vietnamese coast. Only after did everyone leave (even though Viet Cong was not in the City of Saigon itself) did the United States acknowledged that Saigon was now occupied by the Viet Cong. Now in short, it has to do with both acknowledgement of an authority (this case, the United States government), the common sense that the Viet Cong had won and the Southern Vietnamese had lost, and the fact that the United Staes and Vietnamese forces could not conduct efficient military duties in certain places. These places is where Viet Cong has total control over.\nSoldier wise, imagine facing two options, slaughter from the opposing side, or leaving the city to fight another day. seeing it like this, soldiers will still try to try to hold off the enemy but also knowing that they do need to evacuate. Basically, why would you stay to face certain defeat if you can leave and live?\nAnyway, I hope this answered what you wanted to know.",
"In addition to Phman87's answer, often 'occupying a city' means the following:\n\n1. Invading military forces either kill or capture the defenders, or force them to flee the city. In short, they need to ensure that there is no more active resistance by *official military forces* (although there may be continuing resistance by civilians / guerrilla forces);\n\n2. Taking control of key administration buildings - police stations, the mayor's house, and other civilian administration buildings tasked with the actual running of the city. Often the invaders will replace key civilian personnel with their own supporters, who then give orders to the rest of the administration staff. This is why capturing a national capital is so important, as the buildings which administer the entire country (i.e. finance ministries, justice ministry, national TV broadcaster, national police HQ, etc...) are located in the capital;\n3. Capturing other key buildings, such as national radio / TV broadcasting centers in order to diffuse news / propaganda, armories, food stores, other supply buildings, etc...\n\nTL;DR: while there is certainly a military component to occupying a town, there is often a little-regarded administrative component, which essentially means an invading military capturing civilian administration buildings and replacing key senior staff with supporters. ",
"How about trying it out as a thought exercise?\n\nIf you have groups of kids having a nerf war in a house with some uninvolved adults, how do you define when one group has control of a room?\n\nIs the room on the side of the house the other team can't get to? Is the room full of your people and none of theirs? Is the room overlooked by a room full of your people? What if the room is overlooked by your people and their people? Would the adults automatically leave a contested room?\n\nWhen would you announce control of a room? Do all of the adults need to leave? What if there's one of their people stuck behind the chair in the corner and unable to do anything? Do you need to leave guards if the other side can't get to the room? Do you need to leave guards if the adults have told the other team to stay out of that room?\n\nWhere is the warfront in the house? What causes it to move and how? If you feel safe in a room, is it on the front? What if you don't feel safe in the room, but you do feel safe behind the couch?\n\nHow does the other side know you have the room? Or, you know they have one? Do you tell each other? Do you have flags? Do you just shoot anyone you see?\n\nSo, in my analogy, the kids are combatants and the adults are the civilians. The reason all of my answers are questions, is because it's much the same on the battlefield. In an insurgency, you don't KNOW. Anyone could be working against you. Having control generally means you aren't openly opposed, but that isn't all that comforting. At some point even insurgency means losing control of a city.\n\nAs for the soldier's perspective, it varies widely from position to position and individual to individual, but suffice it to say that there's a reason why most descriptions by those intimately familiar with combat tend towards the darker and cautionary side of things."
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em90xh | does tearing up a contract like they do in films and tv actually make it null and void? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/em90xh/eli5_does_tearing_up_a_contract_like_they_do_in/ | {
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"Tearing up a contract doesn’t void it; the contract and its legal obligations survive. In fact, it probably constitutes anticipatory repudiation, which means the other party could bring an action in court for damages."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | ||
6jsn3p | why do we enjoy things like rocking chairs/swings/gliders seemingly from birth through old age? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6jsn3p/eli5_why_do_we_enjoy_things_like_rocking/ | {
"a_id": [
"djgpxye",
"djhgc2f"
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"score": [
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2
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"text": [
"maybe we get rocked back and forth in the womb since we're floating in fluid? ",
"As far as I'm aware, slow rocking or swaying is connected to human perception of a moment length of time, which comes from the length of a breath. Moving back and forth at a rate similar to that feels natural like breathing and so we find it relaxing. Faster movement like on swings is fun thanks to the adrenaline release."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] | ||
3bqcv0 | how did humans first discover black holes and realize what they were? | This question is partially because I'm lazy but mostly because I want to hear it explained simply by a fellow redditor. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3bqcv0/eli5_how_did_humans_first_discover_black_holes/ | {
"a_id": [
"csoicmu",
"csoigf1"
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"score": [
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"text": [
"The simple explanation is that they were the consequence of the equations physicists use. If you plug in certain numbers to certain equations black holes are predicted. \n \nAfter the prediction we started looking for them and found evidence. A couple of months ago a team reported that they had kind of seen the event horizon of one in a different galaxy. \n \nSo they were predicted, now they've been confirmed to some extent. ",
"I don't know when but this is how:\n\nWe know that the earth for instance isn't still while the moon revolves around it. The earth wobbles because it revolves around the [barycentric point](_URL_0_) which is the mass center between earth and moon. And it only wobbles because it has much more mass than the moon and is thus much closer to the barycentric point.\n\nThe same happens with black holes that are in binary systems together with a star that sends out light. The star wobbles or makes little loops in the sky because it revolves around the barycentric point of itself and the black hole which we don't see. So basically it wobbles without there being another visible star.\n\nAlso we have a black hole at the middle of our galaxy and stars race around it like comets around our sun all while there is nothing to see where the black hole is."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barycentric_coordinates_\\(astronomy\\)"
]
] | |
53jtbk | why did the aol and time warner merger fail so terribly? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/53jtbk/eli5why_did_the_aol_and_time_warner_merger_fail/ | {
"a_id": [
"d7tqje5",
"d7ttiys"
],
"score": [
8,
2
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"text": [
"The merger happened just before AOL's business model was about to be wrecked. As a result the value of the \"AOL\" portion of the company shrank by about 90% in the years post merger (about $200 billion in value). Two things that contributed to this: \nThe dot com crash happened literally months after the merger completed, which really mauled the \"AOL\" portion of the new company. \nAOL was effectively a dial-up internet company and the merger happened when 'broadband' was starting to make serious inroads into households. This caused a loss of subscribers, and therefor revenue, for AOL. \n",
"It was wildly successful. The owners of AOL purchased Time-Warner. As the bottom fell out out the dial up internet business, they got rid of the AOL division and name.\n\nThe original AOL investors now *are* Time-Warner, a major cable internet provider. They've done **very** well for themselves."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] | ||
1fzacr | why do people hate the xbox one? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1fzacr/why_do_people_hate_the_xbox_one/ | {
"a_id": [
"caf9yr4"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"_URL_0_\n\nHere's the official explanation, there's a lot of confusion among gamers in this thread on it, so please read the article. \n\nit does NOT require a constant connection, just the ability TO connect.\n"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"http://www.nowgamer.com/news/1955170/xbox_one_used_games_alwayson_internet_drm_explained.html"
]
] | ||
8w3rhl | how are explosives like frag or smoke grenades tested to see if they work correctly? | How are they tested without actually using (wasting) them? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8w3rhl/eli5_how_are_explosives_like_frag_or_smoke/ | {
"a_id": [
"e1sg34b",
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],
"score": [
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"text": [
"They aren't. During design or training the munitions will be used on explosives ranges against various sample targets to ensure their effectiveness. But individual munitions are not tested, they are presumed to be in working order until used.",
"It would be a matter of statistics, out of the test group how many are likely to fail vs the number in the group. This gives you a percentage failure rate. ",
"You take a few from each production batch and test them. Statistically if they work the odds of having a dud in the rest is less likely. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[]
] | |
9ex8n7 | why isn’t there a texas instruments graphing calculator app? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9ex8n7/eli5_why_isnt_there_a_texas_instruments_graphing/ | {
"a_id": [
"e5s530x",
"e5s57pp"
],
"score": [
3,
2
],
"text": [
"The problem is your phone does a lot more than a calculator.\n\nYou can't let students use their phones in an exam because it would be too hard to make sure they aren't cheating.\n\nAnd in lessons teachers wouldn't immediately be able to tell if a student is working or messing around on their phone.\n\nAn app that does all that stuff is a good idea, and I'd be surprised if there isn't already something like that. But it probably wouldn't replace actual low-tech calculators.",
"Two reasons, one is that their calculators are basically required for school and TI charges a whole lot of money for those things. They make boatloads of money off those calculators and they do not want to give you a reason not to buy them.\n\nAnd two, even if they had an app, you couldn't use it on tests because your phone is typically something not allowed."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] | ||
97rd72 | can trees grow taller infinitely, if no, how and when does it decide to stop? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/97rd72/eli5can_trees_grow_taller_infinitely_if_no_how/ | {
"a_id": [
"e4abdui"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"Water and weight, basically it becomes increasingly difficult for trees to bring water to the tops of the tree as it gets taller and the taller a tree is the greater strength that is required to support all the weight of the tree, which becomes a greater problem in windy areas."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | ||
4htkwn | is it possible to induce like poles on both ends of an iron rod? or even a "purely north-pole" or "purely south-pole" magnetic material? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4htkwn/eli5is_it_possible_to_induce_like_poles_on_both/ | {
"a_id": [
"d2s7r0e"
],
"score": [
7
],
"text": [
"You cannot have a purely north pole object (also known as a [magnetic monopole](_URL_0_). Any real-life magnet will have both a north and a south pole. You can induce a rod to have two north poles at the end, but as a consequence would necessarily have at least one 'south' pole in the middle."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_monopole"
]
] | |
2rk8v4 | why can't cuba just import more modern cars from other nations besides the u.s.? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2rk8v4/eli5_why_cant_cuba_just_import_more_modern_cars/ | {
"a_id": [
"cngntxz"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"Cuba can, but until recently individual Cubans couldn't. You needed a government permit to import a car, which was hard to get, and paid 100% import duty."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | ||
2l8q77 | why english voice overs foreign films are comically atrocious | Honestly I've never seen a film with English dubs that hasn't ruined the experience of not taking me out of the "audience" seat | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2l8q77/eli5_why_english_voice_overs_foreign_films_are/ | {
"a_id": [
"clshu68",
"clsi79z",
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"score": [
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"text": [
"A few possible reasons:\n\n* Difference in language styles. What comes off as smarmy in one language may not come off the same way in English. \"Matching\" those voice traits might make the character sound the same, but it might not make the character fell the same to an English-speaking audience.\n\n* Limited amount of voice actors. Voice dubbing is a skill, and it's not one that every voice actor can do well. Because of this, many studios that do dubbing work with a limited amount of people because they know those voice actors can do the job well.\n\n* Budget. Some studios that dub movies/shows are doing it as cheaply as possible, especially if they think the project might not make a ton of money in the English-speaking world. In these cases, they often get what they pay for talent-wise.\n\n* Easier to identify issues. If an English-speaking character's word choice is strange or doesn't portray an issue quite right, it's obvious to an English-speaking audience. The same audience can't quite pick up on the same issues in the original language. Because of this, it's much harder for English speakers to identify a \"bad\" performance in another language than it is in English.\n\n* Audience expectations. Some people simply will not accept anything other than the original language's voice actors as the \"right\" voices.",
"Because the US has a very different definition of 'voice actor' than the rest of the world.\n\nIn the US, from all that I read and hear on the subject, a 'voice actor' is 'someone who can do a lot of voices'. That's the skill, and the requirement. There is no big voice acting/dubbing industry in the US (and why would there be), so there aren't a lot of voice actors, especially if you eliminate the countless \"men with gravitas and gravel in their voice\" for commercials, infomercials and trailers. \n\n\nIn countries with big and important dubbing industries such as Germany and Italy, a voice actor, more often than not, is someone with years and decades of theatre experience, or people professionally trained for the job. They usually only have one voice, their voice, and that is the product they're selling, and their quality depends on their mood and tone variability, not on their voices variability. \n\n",
"Anime is one of the greatest offenders in this category, so I'll assume we're talking about that for the sake of providing examples of the challenges. I'm aware this applies across the board though as having spent some time in Germany recently I can confirm that the dubbing of English is equally dreadful there.\n\n**Word play.** Often in a plot arc, characters will give clues or other information about upcoming events (foreshadowing) through the use of very specific wording. \"I got rid of him\" vs \"I killed him\". To an english speaker, we make the assumption that \"got rid of\" means killed. Different countries and societies may use a different euphamism entirely that is not applicable. For example, instead of saying \"I killed him\" they might ambiguously say \"He's in the sack\". Now we have to assume he really is dead, or he's been put in a sack for some reason. But if they said \"I got rid of him\" it would be glaringly obvious. A bit of plot rewriting has to happen here.\n\n\nAlternatively, jokes or other forms of word play can be crucial to the plot, or at least just the joke of the moment, most of which can be lost in translation. The hard challenge here is if a joke can't translate literally, it has to be completely replaced. Translators exporting media might not be known for the same brilliant wit and humour as the source writers.\n\n\n\n\n**National perceptions.** If I was to tell you about a character who is a cold sociopath who's presence gives you an uncomfortable feeling, what voice would you imagine he has? Chances are many people in America would have similar preconceptions about the tone and mannerisms. Many Japanese on the other hand may describe it differently.\n\nThe difficulty here is matching the voice with the appearance to create a well balanced character. If they use the Japanese description of the voice, it's going to sound wrong in English no matter how skilled the voice actor is.\n\n\n\n\n**Syllables and timing.** It takes us 5 syllables and around 2 seconds to say \"I ate a biscuit\". Some foreign languages it might take one second to say the same thing, others it could take five seconds if those words happen to be overly elaborate.\n\nTo deal with this, the voice actor hastotalkreallyreallyfast, or possibly slow down a bit by maybe using some or lots of unnecessary words to kind of match the thing that they are saying with the movement that the lips are making.\n\nIn extreme cases they might just rewrite the line to sound correct and maintain the original sentiment of what was said.\n\nBoth of these can break a character's linguistic consistency and snap you out of your willing suspension of disbelief if done wrong.\n\n\n**Cultural perceptions.** Different media may be adapted to fit different age groups, and different countries may have different standards for censorship. It's common in Japanese anime for a well endowed female character to make an insulting remark about the size of a less endowed woman's breasts. This is also acceptable if the characters are teenagers or children depending on the context. In some anime it's a recurring theme (Disgaea, for example. Etna is supposedly over 1000 years old, but she looks very young.)\nHaving characters that appear to be children talking about their breasts or other sexualized body parts can be a complete no-go area in some other cultures. In these situations the entire conversation may have to be thrown out and rewritten, or toned down. This can result in some awkward conversations that appear to just be filler with no substance behind them.\nWorse in situations where it's a recurring joke, in that it may need to be replaced with another recurring joke that matches the characters body and face movements on screen but without any of the verbal content.\n\n\nSimilarly, there may be visual changes to deal with. A naked character may be repainted in a scene to be wearing underwear. At which point a comment or joke about their nudity doesn't amke sense, and has to be rewritten again.\n\n\n\n\nThese are just some of the hurdles that need to be overcome when dubbing media for another country."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[]
] | |
3ef01r | what will happen if iran can export oil again? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3ef01r/eli5_what_will_happen_if_iran_can_export_oil_again/ | {
"a_id": [
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"text": [
"It will likely cause the worldwide price of oil to fall since there is more supply. I've seen estimates of a 15-20% drop once they come fully online. The other consequence is that Iran will have more money, which could have unpredictable results.",
"Iran has always been able to export oil, just not to the United States. [Lots of other countries buy Iranian oil.](_URL_0_) The embargo [reduced their production a lot](_URL_1_), but it hasn't stopped them, and today Iran makes $250 billion per year on oil and natural gas exports.\n\nAt any other time, it would be likely that reducing trade barriers would increase production. With oil in oversupply however, Iran is unlikely to increase production. It will save some export duties by trading in the open market, but the overall effect will be relatively minor.\n\nWhat Iran gains from the nuclear deal is the ability to buy American goods. That means GM crops, airplane components, modern drilling equipment, movies, music, and so on. These goods will flood into the Iranian markets, increasing the efficiency of their oil industry, farming, and air travel, but also exposing them to more American culture.\n\nThe worry is that all of this advanced technology may somehow advance their military capabilities, particularly in a few decades if and when they're allowed to buy weapons again. But in the short term, it's not going to increase their military power at all.",
"As a Canadian, I imagine the immediate consequence could be similar to what the Saudis have done as of late... flood the market with cheap oil, driving out the competition that doesn't have the same level of cheap/easy access oil (the Canadian oil sands need high oil prices to be profitable far more so than Iran). Mid to longer term, Iran will have more money which could be scary, and our economy will suffer as we're too dependent on high oil prices. ",
"Meanwhile in Norway oil industry is suffering a lot. Lots of people have lost their jobs in the industry and thousands more expected to lose jobs. We take oil from the sea which is more expensive than land and though we have lots of oil companies aren't drilling anymore as we can't make a profit on the current prices. ",
"It's a part of clash between the USA and Putin's attempt to revive the USSR. Lifting the embargo is aimed at lowering the oil prices and moving Iran out of Russian influence zone - just like the recent talks about lifting the Cuban embargo.\n\nAs the Russian economy is based on the oil export, lowering the prices will have huge impact on it.",
"The hyper inflation of the country's money will stop and perhaps life for young Iranians won't be as terrible as it is turning out to be right now.",
"Considering Iran mainly sells to China (around 25% of total oil exports) not much will happen as the market is saturated by cheap (mainly Saudi) oil currently - They have the (rare, along with Venezuela and partly Russia) advantage of not selling for USD (Irans oil is paid in Iranian currency, Euro, JPY or Chinese Renmibi, depending on customer) which gives some currency freedom to purchase goods without/with less US oversight and keeps US banks out of control (which could enforce US gov embargoes, which Chinese banks certainly don't give much about).\n\nIn the long run it might help to gain a more stable gov budget (currently it runs near zero) by using higher profile customers that pay on time and/or a bit more than the Chinese (which probably have a good deal due to embargoes by other countries and due to their control of the RMB exchange rate) which could lead to higher military spending and development projects (which are not entirely embargoed currently, only long range rockets and nuclear weapons are IIRC) which in turn could cause some more (semi legal) export of technology to \"non US friendly\" governments like North Korea (which is both a buyer and seller of Iranian military tech, i.e. Taepodong rockets), Syria and Sudan - But anything like that is speculation, we'll need some years to see the outcome the ayatollah is planning."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Oil_Exports_Table_1H2011.gif",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Iran_Oil_Production.png"
],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] | ||
826u1s | what happens exactly when you polish leather shoes? | I was told that it "nourishes" the leather, what does that mean? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/826u1s/eli5_what_happens_exactly_when_you_polish_leather/ | {
"a_id": [
"dv7su72",
"dv8aht5"
],
"score": [
7,
2
],
"text": [
"Shoe polish contains ingredients that hydrate the leather, stopping it drying out / peeling / cracking.\n\nWhen you shine shoes you aren't shining the leather, instead you are building up layers of polish and buffing to a shine. The shiniest of shoes take a lot of polish and a lot of time. ",
"ELI5: Leather has lots of tiny holes in it. Polish fills those holes in and allows for a smoother surface which you can shine really well. \n\nELI'm Older: Leather is porous. Adding waxy polish fills in the holes to make the surface \"smoother.\" Smoother surfaces reflect light better, therefore the smoother you can get the surface, the better it will reflect light, the shinier it will look. \n\nAlso, some polishes contain oils to help the leather not dry out and to be slightly water resistant. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] | |
6ltsu3 | how can marijuana be illegal in the eyes of the federal government but dispensaries still pay federal taxes and report it as income? do they have to run the income through a shell company to make it appear as though it's not income from illegal sources? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6ltsu3/eli5_how_can_marijuana_be_illegal_in_the_eyes_of/ | {
"a_id": [
"djwh655",
"djwh98a"
],
"score": [
2,
2
],
"text": [
"The federal government can crack down on the dispensaries and have done so in the past, but most of the time they choice not to. Since it's legal in the state, they don't really bother. In a way it's \"legal\" just because they don't bother enforcing it in a place such as Denver.",
"Illegal activities are still taxable. I know it sounds odd, but the tax code requires income from illegal sources to be reported. See, for example,[ James v. US,](_URL_0_) holding that embezzlement income must be reported. \n\nIn fact, the Code specifically requires business to report illegal income, but they are denied the ability to use normal business deductions: Section 280E\n\n > No deduction or credit shall be allowed for any amount paid or incurred during the taxable year in carrying on any trade or business if such trade or business (or the activities which comprise such trade or business) consists of trafficking in controlled substances (within the meaning of schedule I and II of the Controlled Substances Act) which is prohibited by Federal law or the law of any State in which such trade or business is conducted."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_v._United_States_\\(1961\\)"
]
] |
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