q_id stringlengths 5 6 | title stringlengths 3 296 | selftext stringlengths 0 34k | document stringclasses 1
value | subreddit stringclasses 1
value | url stringlengths 4 110 | answers dict | title_urls list | selftext_urls list | answers_urls list |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
4aws8k | why holding your breath in dream makes you hold your breath irl? | I clearly remember that once when I had a nightmare and was suspecting that I was dreaming, I held my breath and then was able to wake up. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4aws8k/eli5_why_holding_your_breath_in_dream_makes_you/ | {
"a_id": [
"d14jygu",
"d14uuqm"
],
"score": [
3,
2
],
"text": [
"What we call dreaming is actually not 1 single thing, it consists of various [stages](_URL_0_) where different things happen. REM sleep is where the most vivid dreaming happens and your brain actually directs your muscles a lot during this phase. However, the body also paralyzes your muscles to prevent bad things from happening*.\n\nDuring non-REM sleep your muscles are not paralyzed and during these stages dreaming can result in muscle activity like kicking, punching or even sleep-walking. However, fortunately most people have less vivid dreams during these phases, because it can be a problem when you share a bed and start doing kung fu.\n\nWhen you have a lucid dream during non-REM sleep, you can use your muscles consciously, which is what you did.\n\nHowever, most lucid dreams happen during REM sleep and then it wouldn't work, due to your muscles being paralyzed. So you can only sometimes hold your breath in real life by doing so in a dream, not always. What happened to you is probably quite rare.\n\n(*) 'Fun' fact: sometimes people wake up too early during REM sleep or stay conscious while their body falls asleep, resulting in a feeling of being paralyzed, where people are incapable of moving or even controlling their breathing. It's often accompanied by terrifying and unusually powerful hallucinations.",
"Apparently this sub does not allow answers which are one sentence long. So here's an additional sentence to pad my answer, which is a sincere one:\nI think you may just have sleep apnea. Maybe see a sleep specialist."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"http://www.sleepdex.org/stages.htm"
],
[]
] | |
6q6bhj | what the difference between btc and btc cash is and how that will affect the state of btc in both pricing and everything else | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6q6bhj/eli5_what_the_difference_between_btc_and_btc_cash/ | {
"a_id": [
"dkv1nu5"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"Bitcoin works on the principle of a decentralized distributed ledger system. There is a ledger, a list of all account balances, free for anyone to download. Having bitcoin just means having bitcoin on this ledger tied to an account that you control.\n\nThere is a certain set of rules for updating this ledger that allows it to update with no central authority that you need to trust, hence “decentralized.” So long as the vast majority agrees to these rules, there will be only one valid ledger to rule them all. \n\nAugust 1st marks a change in these rules known as Segregated Witness, or “SegWit.” New rules are fine so long as the vast majority agrees with them, which basically happened all the time in Bitcoin’s previous history. But this time around, things are different. Some people dislike these new rules, and as a result, when the new rules will kick in, they will disregard them and make a ledger under the old rules. This ledger is dubbed “Bitcoin Cash.” The other ledger retains the name “Bitcoin.” Up until the split on August 1st, their ledgers will be the same and at the moment of the split, everyone holding Bitcoin will also own equal amounts of Bitcoin Cash. This is known as a chain split because this ledger is also called the blockchain for technical reasons. \n\nPricing will likely fall, it is similar to having every single dollar bill in the world duplicate, yes you have twice the money, but that will also mean inflation, ideally, prices will double, wages will double, everything will double. Now while these aren’t identical currencies at this point prices on Bitcoin will fall, but you will also have Bitcoin Cash to spend. In the end, it is difficult to predict future price."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | ||
6sunbg | from where does earth get energy to rotate around itself and revolve around the sun? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6sunbg/eli5_from_where_does_earth_get_energy_to_rotate/ | {
"a_id": [
"dlfmqqj",
"dlfmxai",
"dlfnpaq",
"dlfrc7i"
],
"score": [
4,
2,
6,
6
],
"text": [
"The momentum of the orbit of Earth and its rotation is conserved from the initial cloud of debris from which both the sun and the entire solar system formed. These debris came in large part from the supernova of a previous star which formed all the heavier elements via nuclear fusion. The massive cloud of debris had some amount of angular momentum associated with it and when it was compressed into the current solar system it became the movement of the planets.\n\nWhy did the cloud of gas from the supernova have some angular momentum? It may have been in part from the convection currents within the dying star, similar to the massive sunspots and turbulence which we can see on our own sun.",
"It's all momentum from when the solar system formed, along with gravity. There really isn't much friction in space. Once you get moving, you're going to keep moving. \n\nImagine you are falling from a high elevation, say out of a plane, but at the last minute, the whole earth scooted out of the way, so you didn't hit it, but now you're falling to where it moved (since the Earth's gravity is pulling on you), and then it moves out of the way again. This is how orbits work. The moon is falling toward Earth, but Earth is moving so the moon doesn't hit it. Same with the Earth and the Sun.\n\nAs far as Earth spinning, that's momentum from the time the planet formed and it just hasn't stopped. It IS slowing down, but very slowly. The moon used to spin as well, but because of Earth's gravity, over time it became Tidally Locked, so one face of the moon is always pointed at us",
"Earth is falling towards the sun, for the same reason that you'd fall to the ground if you jumped - gravity!\n\nWhy doesn't it hit the sun though? Well, orbits are just when you move sideways fast enough to miss the object you're falling towards. That's we use the term free fall... in space, you're always falling, you just keep missing what you fall towards. It got that from when it was formed. And since there's no air to slow it down, it just keeps going.\n\nRotation is the same way. It started so long ago, but nothing had made it stop.\n\nOrbits do eventually decay, though! And spins slow down to where the day and year are the same length. The Moon is already there, that's why the same side always faces us. No worries, it takes so long to happen that you don't need to worry about it in your life.",
"An object in motion tends to stay in motion unless acted upon by another force.\n\nThe Earth's rotation and orbit originate from its formation from a spinning disc of debris around the sun. For it to continue moving in the same way does not require *further* input. In fact, the opposite is true. For the Earth to stop would require some other force to exert a (phenomenal) force against its motion. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[]
] | ||
7y6ifi | why do americans think that their 'freedom' is different from a lot of other countries around the world? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7y6ifi/eli5_why_do_americans_think_that_their_freedom_is/ | {
"a_id": [
"dudypk9",
"dudys33",
"dudythr",
"dudzrf6",
"dudzucc",
"dudzuf2",
"dudzxs9",
"dudzzng",
"due0e6w",
"due0g84",
"due0ghh"
],
"score": [
276,
3,
91,
29,
140,
5,
14,
15,
23,
5,
3
],
"text": [
"A lot of Americans see having firearms as the right that protects all other rights. It stems from the idea that as long as we have a means to resist the government, they can't take away our freedoms.",
"It is for two reasons, IMO.\n\nFirstly, the founding fathers wanted to create the worlds first democratic republic, and ostensibly they did.\n\nSecondly, the USA was created through violence and as such freedom is inextricably linked to violence in the form of defense. Someone once said \"the tree of liberty must be periodically watered with the blood of tyrants\". It is why the military are, in some cases, elevated to gods. \n\nThe second amendment set's out a need to remain vigilant. Unfortunately, that vigilance has transmuted to out and out fear. ",
"It is different. Our freedom has more guns, less social services, more wealth inequality.\n\nSeriously, our bill of rights was a bit revolutionary for its time. We get hung up on that and fail to see the ways it hasn’t kept up with the standards of these times. \n\nAlso, a lot of our citizens never travel outside the country or only do so in extremely safe and controlled tour groups. They don’t interact much with random people from other countries. These people are told by conservative media that life in other countries is less free and never see anything to challenge that lie.",
"Disagreeing with your government is one of the most American things you can do, but only the party that's not in power realizes it...",
"It's what we're taught. I remember learning in elementary school that America is the freest country and that other countries don't achieve anything close to the level of freedom that we have. Our troops died to protect our freedom, people stood up and gave their lives to protect our freedom. Everyone wanted to come here because everything is great here.\n\nWhen I grew up I realized that this was not all exactly true. I don't think uneducated people ever learn the truth.",
"Freedom isn't the real issue, it's just the rhetoric. Gun culture is promoted by arms manufacturers, notably through the NRA, which is a remarkably powerful lobbying group on behalf of the industry, and it's this culture that promotes gun ownership as \"freedom\".\n\nThe fact that gun rights are in the Constitution makes the connection easy to draw both culturally and legally, and there is a massive industry that has tirelessly exploited both of those avenues for its own gain. People say \"freedom\" because it's what their family and friends say, and they say it ultimately because it's what the NRA says.\n\nGun ownership makes people feel powerful, and it's that feeling that gets capitalized on. \"Freedom\" is just easy marketing in this country.",
"I don't think that the statement \"A lot of countries in the world have the same amount of freedom as Americans, just without guns.\" is correct.\nMost (all?) other western countries have much wider restrictions on freedom of speech for example, criminalizing \"hate speech\" etc.\n",
"The issue is that it is written as one of the amendments in the United States Bill of Rights, the thought being If they take one of these amendments away what is stopping the government from taking any of the others away as well",
"America does have many freedoms that the rest of the world does not. \n\nIt values free speech far more than most nations. Many European governments restrict speech that could be considered offensive, which to [many Americans](_URL_0_) is a concept that's easy for a government to abuse. \n\nWhile I am not myself a gun owner, the United States is unique among many developed nations in allowing it's citizens to bear arms. Admittedly, this idea was conceived in a time where those guns could be (and were) used to overthrow the government. I'm not as certain that it could practically be used to stand up to a tyrannical government today. However, minimally armed militants around the world have stood up to the American military, and our own nation defeated the most powerful military on Earth when it won its Independence. Regardless of whether you think it is still a practical right in this day and age, it is undeniably a governmentally protected right that most other nations don't have. \n\nFinally, Americans pay lower taxes than much of the developed world. Obviously, this means we have fewer social services. But it also means that we have the right to a larger portion of our own money. Whether you support this is a different story. ",
"One of the deepest cultural dimensions of the American psyche is rugged individualism. This mentality served a noble purpose in the early colonial times and age of exploration. Nobody would travel west through Indian territory unarmed. There was little or no government in the early years before the land had even been discovered. Life was harsh and only the strong, lucky, and prepared people survived. Trappers, hunters, farmers, cattle men, bandits and Indian fighters all depended on having guns for protection and survival. If a lawman came along and demanded that you turn over your guns he would likely get a bullet instead. Times have changed, but remnants of the early cultural attitudes and values of the American settlers and pioneers still pervade through politics and personal beliefs. \n\n- self reliance \n- puritanical attitudes \n- harsh punishments \n- distrust of government \n- outlaw celebrity \n- worship of money \n- violence \n\nGuns were the great equalizer between men and protection from the wild beasts and from the government. Culture is not always good but it made sense at the time.",
"It's literally written in our \"Bill of Rights\" in the Constituion. It's the second rule of what our right, as law abiding citizens of this country are entitled to. It shows how important gun laws were in the 1700's, and how little we have evolved as a country since then. America is still fairly young in perspective to the entire rest of the 1st world countries and that's one of the most important things that make up our culture. Other countries have rich culture of art, multiple languages, empires and regimes, renaissance love and food. What does America have? Stealing land with weapons and forming societies around our rights as people that are still worshipped, to this day. We have no real culture besides fighting with force and oppressing others (which is why we broke away and formed our own country in the first place) and it's just heartbreaking."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[
"http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/10/12/americans-more-tolerant-of-offensive-speech-than-others-in-the-world/"
],
[],
[]
] | ||
6bg52l | is voting a right, responsibility, or an option? | What are the differences between voting as a right, a responsibility, and an option?? And what are the implications behinds these ideas? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6bg52l/eli5_is_voting_a_right_responsibility_or_an_option/ | {
"a_id": [
"dhmc4og",
"dhmc5ar",
"dhmcack"
],
"score": [
7,
6,
2
],
"text": [
"It depends what country you're in.\n\nMy country for example it is not an option. You must vote or get fined.\n\nMy brother decided to keep ignoring the fines he received and they canceled his drivers license ",
" > What are the differences between voting as a right, a responsibility, and an option??\n\nIn this case your perspective.\n\nStrictly speaking voting is a right specifically given to citizens in the constitution (though it was initially pretty mute on who should have this right). A right is any activity the government specifically says is ok for citizens to do and, generally, cannot be taken away. \n\nVoting is also definitely optional in the US. No one forces you to do so.\n\nWhether or not it's a responsibility to vote is a matter of perspective. I would argue that it is, but many others would argue that making a principled decision not to vote (or even not giving a shit and ignoring elections) is just fine too.",
"Many people seem to think of the \"right\" to vote in very absolutist terms but the fact is the permission to vote has been a variable concept in the U.S. Women, native Americans, Blacks, etc. very much late arrivals on the voting scene; there have always been restrictions on who can vote and *none* of us are allowed to vote for president even today.\n\nThe \"responsibility\" to vote has never been taken as seriously in this country as it has in many others. Our % of those allowed to vote who actually do is low; in midterm and special elections it is really a rather small number of citizens who choose our government.\n\nIt is the function of our government to define who has the \"option\" to vote. The concept of a representative democracy was historically those groups of people who were permitted to vote (men, property owners, plus whomever) simply voted; you showed up and voted and there was no big deal. In the U.S. there has been a tradition to be very restrictive *within* the permitted groups, with the current trend to \"papers please\" being a pretty natural evolution of style. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[]
] | |
g0uh3d | why does cellphone signal go through buildings easily but basements are consistent dead spots? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/g0uh3d/eli5_why_does_cellphone_signal_go_through/ | {
"a_id": [
"fnbthxl"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"Likely due to the materials used.\n\nTimber frame and dry wall? It's not dense enough to provide a significant obstacle to wave signals. Concrete blocks of a basement on the other hand are."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | ||
1pnycd | what's the fascination that people have watching videos of maggot removal, zit popping, ear dirt extraction, etc. ? | these videos often have hundreds of thousands, sometimes millions of views. they are almost always some of the most disgusting things you'll ever see. what's the attraction? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1pnycd/eli5_whats_the_fascination_that_people_have/ | {
"a_id": [
"cd497hr",
"cd49nj5",
"cd4bnzf"
],
"score": [
5,
3,
4
],
"text": [
"Talking completely out of my ass here, maybe it has to do with some instinctive grooming drive that we inherited from our ancestors.\n\nIf you go to the zoo or watch a documentary, you can see that apes/etc. instinctively groom each other; so some people probably get a sense of pleasure from seeing such things because there's an instinctive drive (and psychological reward) to remove/pop/clean such things.",
"Pretty sure it's just a morbid curiosity or as you said, a fascination. These are the sorts of things people link to their friends, who watch between fingers but can't look away. It's probably the same reason some people watch bad movies.",
"I'd say it has something to do with the universal positive feeling of release/relief. \n\nI'm sure everyone at some point has had a big, ugly, uncomfortable zit that once they popped it, felt amazing. \n\nA splinter or thorn pulled out with tweezers in one piece. No more pain and a sense of satisfaction and relief. \n\nThat magical feeling you get after taking a huge dump. Maybe it's that feeling people like to relive by watching a foreign item being expelled from the body. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[]
] | |
axectp | people cover the cameras on their laptops but don't cover the front or back cameras on their phones, even though both the devices will be connected to the same network. any particular reason why people do it? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/axectp/eli5_people_cover_the_cameras_on_their_laptops/ | {
"a_id": [
"eht0fra",
"eht0o0f"
],
"score": [
3,
2
],
"text": [
"If you arent using your phone it's generally in a pocket/handbag/backpack etc. If you are using it you are aware of where it is and your surroundings.\nComputer cameras are stationary. And can be pointed right at intimate moments you dont want to be filmed. That's why they are covered but phones generally arent.",
"There is one practical aspect of the difference in behavior between phone cameras and laptops, which is that the *direction* those cameras are typically pointed is very different. A laptop might be open and pointed to cover a whole room while unattended while a phone is either going to be pointed straight up at the ceiling, down into the surface on which it is resting, or be entirely encased in a pocket or purse. All of those have a significantly lower chance of capturing something embarrassing like someone changing clothes.\n\nThen of course there is the practical aspect that the operating system and application environment of mobile devices tends to be more restrictive and therefore somewhat more secure than that of laptop/desktop devices. Such constant monitoring would also suck up a relatively large amount of power and bandwidth meaning a mobile device which is constantly recording and transmitting its findings to an outside party is going to be fairly obvious in its behavior, heating up and precipitously losing battery power.\n\nCombine all that together and trying to access smart phone cameras remotely is significantly less attractive to hackers."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] | ||
4gyw0b | why are smaller dog breed generally unmatched in tenacity/ courage when compared to larger breeds? | As an owner of many dogs in my life, I have notice the difference between smaller and larger breeds. Small breed example; jack Russell, fox terrier. Larger breed example; stafford shire terrier, kelpy. From my own experience.. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4gyw0b/eli5_why_are_smaller_dog_breed_generally/ | {
"a_id": [
"d2lxdov",
"d2ly654",
"d2lyfqh"
],
"score": [
5,
2,
4
],
"text": [
"Small dogs were meant to go down holes to catch a fox or rabbit or whatever. They needed to be fearless to go down a narrow hole, in the dark and pull out whatever was at the end of the hole. Bigger dogs didn't have to be so fearless so they never were bread for it.",
"A larger pet dog who exhibits *any* aggression frightens people and is going to be corrected and not bred.\n\nPeople tend to just excuse smaller pet dogs. The entire time that little dog is losing it's mind but people just ignore them because they aren't so threatening looking. They continue to get bred.\n\nFor working stock the purpose of the breed would define those traits, as well as the size.",
"There are 4 reasons that small dogs were bred. \n\n1) To be a hunting dog that went into the burrows of animals such as foxes, rabbits, badger, etc. These dogs needed to be very aggressive and loud in order to chase them out of the burrow or kill them in there and pull them out. \n\n2) To be ratters. Killing rats on a far was not only a job for cats. Dogs were also bred for this. This job also requires aggression. \n\n3) Turnspit Dogs were several breeds of dogs from the middle ages (now extinct) that were bred for the sole purpose of running is a large hamster wheel and turning the spit in a kitchen fireplace. Once that style of cooking ended their breed stopped and they were either absorbed by other breed or just left to die out. \n\n4) Lap dogs. These small dogs tend to be quiet and calm as they were bred to sit on the laps of nobility. \n\nMost of the small breeds are, or are a mix with one of the first two groups so they tend to have the tendencies you as about. \n\nAs for larger dogs. They pose a threat to human life when aggressive so even those bred for guarding, hunting and battle were bred to be obedient and to only show that aggression when it is appropriate. Those who were too aggressive tended to be killed. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[]
] | |
dfzwl9 | a friend of this sent this to me and as i'm not christian i do not understand what it means and why would something like this be in the testament. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/dfzwl9/eli5_a_friend_of_this_sent_this_to_me_and_as_im/ | {
"a_id": [
"f377mfv",
"f378boa"
],
"score": [
2,
5
],
"text": [
"This is the text of a cards against humanity card. They were probably hoping you would find it funny.",
"Ezek. 23 is a parable which uses the “whorish” behaviour of a pair of women as a metaphor for the unfaithful and ungodly behaviours of Israelites from two nations."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] | ||
6cbepu | why are liquids measured by their weight such as fl oz instead of always using a liquid measurement such as ml? doesn't the density of a fluid influence it's weight? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6cbepu/eli5_why_are_liquids_measured_by_their_weight/ | {
"a_id": [
"dhtckgh",
"dhtcnnj",
"dhtcsa0",
"dhtfgzn"
],
"score": [
2,
5,
2,
5
],
"text": [
"A fl oz *is* a unit of volume, like mL. That's why it has \"fl\" in front, for fluid.\n\n > A fluid ounce (abbreviated fl oz, fl. oz. or oz. fl., old forms ℥, fl ℥, f℥, ƒ ℥) is a unit of volume (also called capacity) typically used for measuring liquids. It is equivalent to approximately 30 millilitres (ml).",
"Although it has the word ounce in it a fluid ounce is actually a measure of volume just like milileters or pints etc.\n\n > A fluid ounce is a unit ofvolume (also called capacity) typically used for measuring liquids. It is equivalent to approximately 30 millilitres(ml). Whilst various definitions have been used throughout history, two remain in common use: the imperial and the United States customary fluid ounce",
"Wiki: \n\n > In 1824, the British Parliament defined the **imperial gallon as the volume of ten pounds of water at standard temperature**. The gallon was divided into four quarts, the quart into two pints, the pint into four gills, and the gill into five ounces. Thus, there were 160 imperial fluid ounces to the gallon making the mass of a fluid ounce of water approximately one avoirdupois ounce (28.4 g). This relationship is still approximately valid even though the imperial gallon's definition was later revised to be 4.54609 litres, making the imperial fluid ounce exactly 28.4130625 ml.\n\nThe main difference to me seems to be the trickery of temperature. For example, frozen water would like already as if it had more volume than boiling water",
"You aren't far off with your thought process and your question!\n\nSay you are holding a cup of mercury and another cup of water. The cup of mercury is going to feel a little bit more than Five times (5x) heavier than the cup of water. And wouldn't you guessed it, this is because of the difference in DENSITY.\n\nDensity of water equals 1\nDensity of Mercury equals 5.43\n\nNow, the cup of mercury and the cup of water are equal in VOLUME. Why? Because 1 cup = 1cup, and this 1 cup volume holds 8 fluid ounces (8 FL OZ = 1 cup). \n\nWe feel the WEIGHT difference because each FL OZ of mercury is 5.43x the MASS of each FL OZ of water.\n\n----\nOkay, now here is were things get murky, confusing, and a bit complicated. But you already almost had this figured out yourself.\n----\n\nBoth, Milliliter (mL) and Fluid Ounce (FL OZ) ARE units of measurements for the VOLUME of liquids. And 1 FL OZ = 29.7mL. \n\nNow, remember how the 1 cup holding 8 FL OZ of Mercury feels 5.43x heavier than the 8 FL OZ of water in the other cup? Well... it is the same thinking for each 1mL of mercury --- that 1mL of mercury is going to feel like the weight is 5.43x more than the weight of 1mL of water. And that is because mercury has more MASS, contains more matter/\"stuff\", thus has a higher DENSITY for every unit of 1 FL OZ or 1mL (units of VOLUME) of mercury when compared to every 1FL OZ or 1mL of water.\n\nSOOO! YES! Different DENSITY does account for differences of Weight. And this is based on different MASSES of materials, such as water and mercury, for each unit of VOLUME, such as mL or FL OZ.\n\nMathematically: Density (D) equals the amount of mass (M) per volume (V) A.K.A. D=M/V\n\nTL;DR: FL. OZ. & mL are units of volume measurements and NOT measurements of weight or mass. Density DOES effect weight because density depends on the weight (mass) per unit of volume.\n\nEdit: we are also talking about two different systems here-\nFL OZ is a unit of volume measurement in the Imperial system\n\nmL is a unit of volume measurement in the metric system\n\nIn the United States of America, we use both! "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[]
] | ||
36j1nu | how can a pregnancy test tell if you are pregnant just from your urine? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/36j1nu/eli5_how_can_a_pregnancy_test_tell_if_you_are/ | {
"a_id": [
"credc4j"
],
"score": [
9
],
"text": [
" Pregnancy tests rely on the presence of the hormone human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), a glycoprotein that is secreted by the placenta shortly after fertilization. The placenta begins developing after the fertilized egg implants in a woman's uterus, which happens about six days after conception, so the earliest these tests can be used to detect pregnancy is about six days post-conception.\n\nFertilization does not necessarily take place the same day as intercourse, so most women are advised to wait until they miss their period before trying a pregnancy test. hCG levels double about every two days in a pregnant woman, so the test is much more reliable two weeks after conception than one week later.\n\nThe tests work by binding the hCG hormone, from either blood or urine, to an antibody and an indicator. The antibody will only bind to hCG; other hormones will not give a positive test result. The usual indicator is a pigment molecule, present in a line across a home pregnancy urine test. Highly sensitive tests could use a fluorescent or radioactive molecule attached to the antibody, but these methods are unnecessary for an over-the-counter diagnostic test. The tests available over-the-counter versus obtained those at the doctor's office are the same. The primary difference is the decreased chance of user error by a trained technician. Blood tests are pretty much equally sensitive at any time.\n\nUrine tests tend to be most sensitive using urine from early morning, which tends to be more concentrated (would have the highest levels of hCG)."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | ||
f5p5fz | do predators like lion eats stomach of their prey? if yes why aren't they affected by the acid? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/f5p5fz/eli5_do_predators_like_lion_eats_stomach_of_their/ | {
"a_id": [
"fhzz9xc",
"fhzzxjo"
],
"score": [
2,
8
],
"text": [
"Predators get choice on whatever they want to eat- typically settling for the bone and muscles of their kill. Scavengers (vultures, hyenas, etc) are more likely to eat the remains and have evolved the ability to eat more questionable food. Most animals will naturally avoid the gastrointestinal tract (stomach and intestines) unless extremely hungry...leaving it for bacteria and insects.\n\nAs for stomach acid, once the stomach is punctured, it’ll drain out to the ground or be quickly diluted amongst blood and various other liquids.",
"It's amazing.. This exact same question was asked some 4 months ago. I'll repost my answer I suppose.\n\nTo my knowledge predators tend to go for the site of injury first which is commonly the neck. From there they go on to the nutritious parts such as the muscles and then organs like liver and kidneys and so on. As they gnaw on the prey, they're disrupting tissue quite extensively causing a lot of damage to the stomach exposing it's interior and releasing some of its content. So that's one factor reducing its acidity. Second, stomach is quite effective at digesting because of a number of enzymes not just acid, acid in its own is strong, but it's not when you eat it, its not like drinking a bottle of hydrochloric acid, it's actually small amounts of acid diluted with food content and spread out by chewing it with other tissue and the saliva. I mean, when you throw up it burns, but it doesn't hurt you so bad because your epithelium (cells lining your gi Tract) is quite robust and has a mucosal layer. I mean if you drink coca cola it has a pH of 2, same as the stomach although it's a different acid but either way you're fine. And a predator has a pretty evolved GI tract because it eats raw food, so it's not so comparable to ours. That's two. The third point is, the animal is dead, it's cells have no more circulation so there release of acid into the stomach is stopped, and if you look at some studies on proton pump inhibitors (drugs that stop your stomach from secreting acid to protect it during inflammation amongst other reasons), they found that when the liver is altered to be a poor metabolizer of the drug (it gets rid of the drug slower) then the pH in the stomach actually reaches 7 (neutral like water) in less than 30 min, and here you're talking about some of the drug surviving to reach the pumps and inhibit them and the efficiency of that is not 100 percent, so you don't even fully inhibit stomach acid yet you get to neutral pH so quickly. So you can imagine how the effect would be so much faster if the cells just all stopped secreting acid quite suddenly upon death. I'd think it would reach pH 4 or so within 10 min. And that's basically acetic acid (vinegar). And the predator doesn't start with the stomach, so even though this is not my field of expertise (I'm a human physiologist) I can see how logically the predator will be more than fine.\n\nI think there's a general stereotype towards acid that it's so powerful it burns through everything (prbly thanks to Hollywood) but that's not true. It depends on the acid, on the volume, on the pH, on the material you want to expose it to, etc. Like hydrofluoric acid can burn through glass, metal, human flesh, like it's nothing, but it doesn't affect some kinds of plastic. And same pH of another acid could probably sit in your skin for a while before it starts irritating you. Acid at the end of the day is chemistry, not magic.\n\nEdit: here is the previous post _URL_0_"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/dmicon"
]
] | ||
2puxj2 | why do things expire and what happens when we eat expired food? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2puxj2/eli5_why_do_things_expire_and_what_happens_when/ | {
"a_id": [
"cn08zvg",
"cn092tk"
],
"score": [
3,
3
],
"text": [
"Things expire because they are being broken down by bacteria. Just as a dead body decomposes.\n\nWhen we eat expired food we consume these bacteria and run the risk of being poisoned/getting sick.",
"Generally, food \"expires\" when mold, bacteria, or other organisms grow in numbers large enough to make you ill. At that point, the food is no longer safe to eat.\n\nWhat kinds of organisms that are present and how long they take to grow depends totally on the food."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] | ||
20kmj3 | why doesn't the second amendment trump all gun control and concealed/open carry laws? | Don't crucify me, not much of a gun person, but from a legal standpoint: doesn't the Second Amendment, as it stands, completely negate state gun control and concealed carry laws? Is there not a lawyer that can flawlessly argue the definition of "shall not be infringed?" | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/20kmj3/eli5_why_doesnt_the_second_amendment_trump_all/ | {
"a_id": [
"cg4637a"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"Two words: \"well regulated\". People tend not to focus too much on how we're defining \"militia\", but that's another matter."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | |
nrc37 | why is gif still the standard for animated image files rather than apng or mng? | Or even better, why don't most browsers support APNG by default and why is GIF still around? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/nrc37/eli5_why_is_gif_still_the_standard_for_animated/ | {
"a_id": [
"c3bblrf",
"c3bbmx3",
"c3bdj0d",
"c3bdlq7",
"c3bdoz0",
"c3bdzn3",
"c3beuj9",
"c3bh7tf",
"c4i69hn",
"c3bblrf",
"c3bbmx3",
"c3bdj0d",
"c3bdlq7",
"c3bdoz0",
"c3bdzn3",
"c3beuj9",
"c3bh7tf"
],
"score": [
100,
19,
13,
11,
4,
3,
7,
3,
3,
100,
19,
13,
11,
4,
3,
7,
3
],
"text": [
"Do you remember when America tried to go metric? It's kinda like that. ",
"Standards are hard to change. JPG and GIF have been around longer. Only a few browsers support APNG. Why post an APNG on your site if only a few browsers support it? ",
"There's actually a APNG subreddit, but no one has posted there. I think I'll subscribe... \n\n_URL_0_",
"APNG files are bigger and for most people's purposes, GIFs work just as well. They also made a few design mistakes when making APNGs, which resulted in the PNG group saying \"nope\" earlier on and dooming the project.",
"Little known fact: Firefox used to have MNG support.\n\n[You can read the discussion where it removed here.](_URL_0_)\n\ntl;dr: open source standards < 300kb of \"bloat\"",
"As an American I think I can sum up the whole football/futbal, metric system, Fahrenheit thing right [here.](_URL_0_)",
"google have webp coming along nicely by the way... \n\n_URL_0_\n\nI think last year they got lossless webp, animation and lossy or lossless transparency working! Although I don't think that's implemented completely in any browsers yet.\nBut Webp has the ability to get rid of GIF, JPG and PNG, and at a smaller file size. So let's hope all the browsers adopt this format and it becomes normal.",
"The patent restricting gifs expired. ",
"I know this is 4 months old, but I searched a bit, and found this topic. \nAs for your question, of why APNG hasn't taken over GIF I've done a little test.\nAbout 20 frames of pngs I put into apng and gif.\nHere is the APNG and GIF.\n\n[APNG](_URL_0_)\n[GIF](_URL_1_)\n\nAPNG is 120 MB\nGIF is 11 MB\n\nSure, it's 1920x864, and that's huge in my opinion. Yet it's a good test to see which one is more optimized for today's bandwidth. Since mine is only 1 MB/S down and 120 KB/S up, I'd rather not like to see a whole lot of APNG files.\n\nSorry I annoyed you with that now, hope your little red letter didn't get you too excited.\n\nJust to bother you with more though, here is my biggest GIF to date. [REDLINE](_URL_2_) It's 100 MB and 425 frames. Thanks for looking!\n",
"Do you remember when America tried to go metric? It's kinda like that. ",
"Standards are hard to change. JPG and GIF have been around longer. Only a few browsers support APNG. Why post an APNG on your site if only a few browsers support it? ",
"There's actually a APNG subreddit, but no one has posted there. I think I'll subscribe... \n\n_URL_0_",
"APNG files are bigger and for most people's purposes, GIFs work just as well. They also made a few design mistakes when making APNGs, which resulted in the PNG group saying \"nope\" earlier on and dooming the project.",
"Little known fact: Firefox used to have MNG support.\n\n[You can read the discussion where it removed here.](_URL_0_)\n\ntl;dr: open source standards < 300kb of \"bloat\"",
"As an American I think I can sum up the whole football/futbal, metric system, Fahrenheit thing right [here.](_URL_0_)",
"google have webp coming along nicely by the way... \n\n_URL_0_\n\nI think last year they got lossless webp, animation and lossy or lossless transparency working! Although I don't think that's implemented completely in any browsers yet.\nBut Webp has the ability to get rid of GIF, JPG and PNG, and at a smaller file size. So let's hope all the browsers adopt this format and it becomes normal.",
"The patent restricting gifs expired. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[
"http://www.reddit.com/r/apng"
],
[],
[
"https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=18574#c72"
],
[
"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWS-FoXbjVI"
],
[
"http://code.google.com/speed/webp/"
],
[],
[
"http://filesmelt.com/dl/test410.png",
"http://filesmelt.com... | |
2tm4hf | is there any solid in existance that will not turn into a gas at high temperature? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2tm4hf/eli5_is_there_any_solid_in_existance_that_will/ | {
"a_id": [
"co08ie2",
"co08jiu"
],
"score": [
6,
4
],
"text": [
"There is no upper bound of temperature, so everything at (very high number) degrees becomes a gas and then a plasma",
"No. Every element will eventually turn to liquid (melt), turn to gas (sublimate/evaporate), and turn to plasma given a high enough temperature. Some do take an incredibly high temperature, and some skip one stage of matter or another as is the case with things that sublimate but they will all eventually get to plasma. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] | ||
1husro | why are bugs so creepy to us? genetics or something we learn? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1husro/eli5_why_are_bugs_so_creepy_to_us_genetics_or/ | {
"a_id": [
"cay4phd",
"cay9jrn"
],
"score": [
3,
3
],
"text": [
"It's definitely a social construct. Why it exists is hard to say but insects have killed ore than 50 percent of all humans (malaria) so it make sense to be afraid of such things.",
"If you go to places that aren't Large Urban Areas, most people aren't going to be phased by bugs. So it also has something to do with exposure to them while growing up."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] | ||
207blp | how exactly does zalgo text work? | You've probably seen Zalgo text (or whatever the actual name for it is if it's something else) on the internet. If not, I'm talking about the text you can create on this website. _URL_0_
Stuff like t͙̲̗̬͓̬̺̩̩̝̭̦̬̖̺̪̹͖̀̕h̢̬̜̖̝͈̠͍̞̮̣̘̭̫́͜͠ị̴̧̱̹̦͚̜̫̝̺̬͈͈̩̫͍̖̝̳̟͞s̡̺̟̰̗̥̥͓̻͖̳̤̮̹̤̠͙̼̞̰̀́͘͟.
`
`
I don't really understand how it is possible to create text like this. I always thought that a character was restricted to a certain space, but it obviously doesn't seem to be the case. Is it some kind of bug? How exactly does it work? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/207blp/eli5_how_exactly_does_zalgo_text_work/ | {
"a_id": [
"cg0jvb5"
],
"score": [
7
],
"text": [
"In the Old Days, we used a system called [ASCII](_URL_2_) to represent numbers on computers. It's a way of translating 7-bit numbers (the numbers 0-127) into characters. This was great if you only spoke English.\n\nSomewhere along the way, somebody realized that since we were using 8-bit bytes to move all our data, we could use 8-bits to store text. This opened up codes 128-255 & many languages used their own version to store the special characters for their language. This worked great for anyone that used the [Latin alphabet](_URL_1_). Anyone that used a different alphabet (like Russian or Japanese) needed to come up with their own code.\n\nGiving everyone separate codes worked for a while but there was a catch - you needed to know what code a document was written in to make sense of it. Trying read a Russian document as an English one would just be a mess. As computers advanced, this became a bigger problem. How could you have a web page with Russian and English in it? How could your banking system store the names of foreign customers?\n\nAfter much confusion, a bunch of people got together and developed [Unicode](_URL_0_) - a system that allowed us to finally assign a code to every character in every alphabet.\n\nOne of the unique things that Unicode gives us is the ability to have symbols that modify other characters. by drawing above or below them. One that you can see easily in your example is the little coma-like mark above your 't'. There's literally dozens of these things and, if you want, you can stack them on top of each other.\n\nThat text you have simply takes dozens of \"draw below\" characters and attaches them to the recognizable characters.\n\n[If you want a more technical explanation, you can look here](_URL_3_)."
]
} | [] | [
"http://eeemo.net/"
] | [
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unicode",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_alphabet",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASCII",
"http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6579844/how-does-zalgo-text-work"
]
] | |
1ljctd | how does the nes light gun work? | Many of you probably have at least heard of the light gun attachment for the Nintendo Entertainment System. I was wondering how it works, because as far as I know, there isn't a sensor or anything used separately from the TV. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1ljctd/eli5_how_does_the_nes_light_gun_work/ | {
"a_id": [
"cbztb3d",
"cbztbwl"
],
"score": [
58,
8
],
"text": [
"Its quite brilliant actually.\n\nWhen you hit the trigger the screen went black for 1 frame, the next frame kept everything black but made the targets appear white. The gun could detect the change from black to white so if it picked up white it knew it was pointed at a target and you got a hit. If it only detected black it knew you missed.\n\n",
"The gun was the sensor. When you played, say, Duck Hunt, when you pulled the trigger, the entire screen would blank out except for the square around the duck. If the eye in the gun barrel saw the duck color, it recorded a hit."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] | |
4uxyen | how risk of smoking is measured? | I'm doing some research on the risk of smoking tobacco for a short story I'm writing, but I'm having a real bad time trying to understand how is it measured.
Is there a safe amount of cigarettes that can be smoked periodically without increasing the risk of getting any related disease?
Is there any way or statistical relation between the quantity of tobacco smoked and the risk of contracting any of the related diseases? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4uxyen/eli5_how_risk_of_smoking_is_measured/ | {
"a_id": [
"d5u8476"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"1st question: \"how is the risk measured?\"\n Source: _URL_0_ (slide 8 on Risk Assessment)\n Answer: The risk is measured by selecting an hazardous agent (e.g. the practice of smoking tobacco cigarettes), defining doses (an abstract unit of measurement called \"pack-years\" is popular for its practical utility), selecting a particular health adverse effect (say a particular type of lung cancer), and then compiling a statistic that takes into account how many diagnosed cases of the health condition happen in people that have taken different doses. The risk is measured by producing synthetic indices that condense the result of the statistic in one single number that defines the risk: the risk is created to be a measure that estimates the real occurrences (incidence) in the population of people 'at-risk' (say smokers) as compared to those in the population of 'controls' (non-smokers in this example).\nSo there isn't just one risk of smoking but there are a number of estimated measurements of the risk of smoking a particular 'dose' for a number of health conditions (lung cancer, hypertension, stroke, coronoary disease, death, and so on)\nIn brief: the risk is measured by statistics, that can be condensed in risk-estimating numbers: these numbers represent how many times you're at risk of developing a specific illness as compared to a person like you that doesn't smoke (which has a risk of 1 = 100%). (So if you've got a risk-number of 5 it means you have a 5 times greater chance to develop that illness in a set period of time as compared to a nonsmoker.)\n\n2nd question: \"is there a safe amount of cigarettes?\"\n source: _URL_1_\n Answer: What you're asking for here is usually called a \"threshold\" effect in epidemiological jargon. Not every single study agrees on this, but the vast majority never found an undoubtedly safe amount of cigarettes to smoke. However, smoking different amounts isn't just the same, see the answer to q3\n\n3rd question: \"Is there any way or statistical relation between the quantity of tobacco smoked and the risk of contracting any of the related diseases?\"\nThe question is the same as asking: \"Is tobacco risk dose-dependent?\"\n Source one: _URL_1_\n Source two: _URL_2_\n Answer: for the vast majority of health effects ever studied, yes. Higher tobacco doses raise the probability of the event happening. However there exist studies that link tobacco to specific illnesses but are unable to demonstrate that the dose plays any role (see source two on demential diseases and tobacco); the dose-independent health effects aren't so well studied and the most important health effect known are dose-dependent.\n\nWish you well on your manuscript."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"http://ocw.jhsph.edu/courses/environmentalhealth/pdfs/lecture5.pdf",
"http://getbetterhealth.com/classic-study-theres-no-safe-threshold-for-cigarette-smoking/2010.02.07",
"http://oem.bmj.com/content/70/1/63.full"
]
] | |
6aftz5 | do people actually see photos when they imagine stuff? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6aftz5/eli5_do_people_actually_see_photos_when_they/ | {
"a_id": [
"dhe8mk4",
"dhe904q",
"dheey64",
"dhei1ky",
"dhei7mg",
"dheoknz",
"dhewsr0"
],
"score": [
2,
4,
2,
2,
2,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"I can at some times and can't at other. I was never able to force it, but I have found that when I'm in a certain state (a bit tired and able to drift away slowly and spontaneously), I experience visual images too. But I really need to be invested in the thing or situation I'm thinking about.",
"I feel like being an avid reader as a child has aided my ability to mentally visualize things. I can mentally picture pretty much anything in three dimensions. This isn't limited to sight either. I can imagine tastes, textures, sounds, and scents as well but not as lucidly as images.",
"Hey reading through some of your replies don't feel stupid for asking these kinds of questions I went through the same thing before realizing that it's just something that I can't do",
"This title isn't so great but the article is pretty cool. It might describe what you experience \n\n_URL_0_ ",
"Im an architect and I kinda do. Its like an half daydream ghost image particularly when im designing an outside space. To have the strongest visual effect i have to close my eyes preferably in the dark. At that point i can have a image like a real day dream up to a dream if im calm. ",
"Well for me it really depends, when i imagine things its sort of just there, i dont need to close my eyes i just sort of phase out of concentrating on what im looking at and see lets say an object like a cube in my hand, move it around, move my view of said cube around. I can imagine walking around places, sounds, some smells and feelings. its hard to explain but its not like a photo or a computer screen more like it encompasses your whole eye sight and is just there.",
"I can't really see images dream-like all the time as some people can, but there are moments where I see a made up image crystal clear, for like a second.\n\nSo I wonder if this can be trained?"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[
"http://www.cracked.com/personal-experiences-2026-a-weird-brain-anomaly-took-my-imagination-away.html"
],
[],
[],
[]
] | |
j4r5f | someone explain to me, what do islamist's believe in? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/j4r5f/someone_explain_to_me_what_do_islamists_believe_in/ | {
"a_id": [
"c299lek",
"c294vse",
"c2956f6",
"c299lek"
],
"score": [
3,
7,
34,
3
],
"text": [
"\"islamist\" generally refers to highly political muslim fundies who strive to impose islam and its laws anywhere they can - somewhat similar to christian 'dominionists'.\n\nYou likely mean 'muslims', which means followers of Islam. \n\nIslam is basically a cross between fundie christianity and Judaism. \n\nIt's like Judaism in that it asserts a single god, however it's like (fundie) christianity in that it asserts that he's a vindictive bastard who will torture you in a literal hell forever if you piss him off. \n\nUnlike Christianity, though, there's no original sin, and no need for 'salvation' - you're only in peril of eternal torment if you actively and willfully break the rules. \n\nLike Judaism, you're meant to cut the end of your dick off and not eat pigs (plus a few other food laws, but not nearly as difficult as kosher). \n\nThere's a strong emphasis on ritual cleanliness, and a lot of hangups about bodily fluids. There's also a *very* strong emphasis on chastity; males and females that aren't related are *not* supposed to mingle, and women are expected to dress 'modestly' - not showing off skin, curves or hair outside the home, lest they drive men to lust or somesuch.\n\nThere's a strong emphasis on the importance of family and mutual support; you'll never see a muslim in an old folks home. Breaking of the rules is atoned not by penance but by giving to the poor (not the church or equivalent; straight to the poor). Muslims are expected to donate something like 10% of their income annually to charity, and to make a pilgrimage at least once to Mecca. ",
"A Muslim is one who believes that a book called the Qu'ran, which is over a thousand years old, contains god's exact words, and they believe in adhering to the rules and instructions contained within it. Being a Muslim means being a part of the religion of Islam, which has many different teachings, and it's own set of laws, called Sharia law.\n\nIslamism, which some call \"political islam\", is the merging of Islam and politics. It's a broad term, with many adherents who disagree, but they all share the idea that the running of countries should be based on Islam, and it's Sharia law. To some people, Islamism also includes the belief that all of those who follow Islam, and the countries they inhabit, should become one single nation. Others include the idea that non-Muslim influences - which they may say includes western countries - should be expelled from Muslim areas, because they are bad for Muslims.",
"if by \"islamist\" you mean \"muslim,\" or a subscriber to the islamic religion, then: (any actual muslims can correct me if i'm wrong, please do in fact)\n\nmy understanding has always been like this. muslims worship the same \"god\" as christians and jews. jehovah, god, yahweh, allah, all the same dude. whereas christians believe jesus was the direct son of god, and jews think he was a really good guy, muslims think of him like a prophet, like john the baptist. they also have another prophet, their most important one, muhammad, who was a lot like jesus is to christians (except for the whole son of god thing) and basically established the muslim way of life\n\nmuslims also (ostensibly) believe in a lot of the same key concepts as jews and christians do (ostensibly), like charity, service, and generally just being a good dude. i've heard christians and jews referred to by arab muslims as \"akhwan al-kitaab,\" meaning brothers of the book.\n\nthe main difference is that islam places a *huge* emphasis on service to god. the word itself means \"surrender,\" as in surrendering your fate and everything else to the will of god (allah). arab muslims have a saying \"in sha allah,\" which means \"if god wills it,\" that you will hear pretty often when they talk about the future, because without god's will there can be no future. there's another expression \"ma sha allah\" which means \"whatever god wills,\" which is another common one. i was told a cute story about this one time, in which a cabbie in cairo ran over a small animal in the road and when he was asked why, he said \"in sha allah,\" meaning if god had wanted that little guy to live he wouldn't have put him in the road!\n\nmuslims pray 5 times a day. they pray facing toward mecca, and mosques often have some way of showing what direction to face in order to face mecca. i've attended prayer at a mosque, and honestly it's not a lot different from catholic mass, minus a lot of the pageantry and funny outfits and candles. it's a much more humble affair, but with the same general message. the \"imam,\" or \"leader,\" takes the front of the room and leads the group in prayer. then, after some prayer, and after the imam has sung praise to allah, he gives a sermon about some topic and relates it to the religious texts and history, and then people kinda chat and filter on out.\n\nhmm. anything else you'd like explained about it?",
"\"islamist\" generally refers to highly political muslim fundies who strive to impose islam and its laws anywhere they can - somewhat similar to christian 'dominionists'.\n\nYou likely mean 'muslims', which means followers of Islam. \n\nIslam is basically a cross between fundie christianity and Judaism. \n\nIt's like Judaism in that it asserts a single god, however it's like (fundie) christianity in that it asserts that he's a vindictive bastard who will torture you in a literal hell forever if you piss him off. \n\nUnlike Christianity, though, there's no original sin, and no need for 'salvation' - you're only in peril of eternal torment if you actively and willfully break the rules. \n\nLike Judaism, you're meant to cut the end of your dick off and not eat pigs (plus a few other food laws, but not nearly as difficult as kosher). \n\nThere's a strong emphasis on ritual cleanliness, and a lot of hangups about bodily fluids. There's also a *very* strong emphasis on chastity; males and females that aren't related are *not* supposed to mingle, and women are expected to dress 'modestly' - not showing off skin, curves or hair outside the home, lest they drive men to lust or somesuch.\n\nThere's a strong emphasis on the importance of family and mutual support; you'll never see a muslim in an old folks home. Breaking of the rules is atoned not by penance but by giving to the poor (not the church or equivalent; straight to the poor). Muslims are expected to donate something like 10% of their income annually to charity, and to make a pilgrimage at least once to Mecca. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[]
] | ||
2xtry9 | why are different flavors of dog food advertised when the consumer of it (the dog) doesn't understand? | The dog doesn't understand, and they'll eat anything you put in front of them anyways. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2xtry9/eli5_why_are_different_flavors_of_dog_food/ | {
"a_id": [
"cp3apha",
"cp3bobp",
"cp3cbhc"
],
"score": [
14,
6,
8
],
"text": [
"Some dogs might show a preference of one flavour or completely avoid another for whatever reason, it happened with my cats. Some owners could like the idea to have a variety of flavours every week for their little babies, the same way humans would enjoy it (even if the dog doesn't actually give a shit).",
"In addition to dogs having preferences already mentioned, some dogs are allergic to specific proteins, beef and chicken being the most common.",
"The adverts are aimed at the owners, not the dogs. Owners are the ones with spending power. It's the same technique used to sell baby food. Owners are encouraged to buy one brand over another because they are lead to believe it's better for their dog/child. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[]
] | |
9d5mlk | on the new fad with burning nike merch please | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9d5mlk/eli5_on_the_new_fad_with_burning_nike_merch_please/ | {
"a_id": [
"e5ffy7s",
"e5ffykl",
"e5ffzjm",
"e5fgl2v"
],
"score": [
4,
4,
3,
3
],
"text": [
"They support kapernick. Kapernick supports kneeling for nat. Anthem. So Nike now is supporting this guy and people don’t like kneeling for the anthem therefor they are burning shoes to protest the support of kapernick.",
"Nike hired some Football player who was sighted wearing socks depicting comic Police officers as little comic pigs. Apparently, he also had the audacity to kneel during the US anthem, which is apparently disrespectful to the military and veterans. So, politically far right people boycott Nike....",
"The guy in the ad, Colin Kaepernick, is an American football player who is controversial because he kneels during the national anthem as protest. This pisses some people off. These people are burning their Nike merch in protest.",
"People who wear American flag underwear are upset with an American football player who knelt during the anthem, so they are burning their trainers to prove how much they love America."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[]
] | ||
21m01q | how do i have an idea made into a tv show, specifically where i have creative authority? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/21m01q/eli5_how_do_i_have_an_idea_made_into_a_tv_show/ | {
"a_id": [
"cgebux3",
"cgec3t0",
"cgecoh2"
],
"score": [
2,
4,
7
],
"text": [
"To get on you have to convince the network to air it, and convince a production company to make it. Without extensive experience it is unlikely (though not impossible) to have the network buy a show without you having a finished pilot to show them. You should probably start by finding someone to make the pilot (a production company), and then shop that around to the networks you want it to be on.",
"I looked into this once, although it was only for the BBC.\n\nThe BBC ask for you to send them a script or idea of about two pages in length to a particular department responsible for new shows. If it's something like a sitcom then you send them a script to a place called The Writers Room, everything else goes to some other department. If they like it then they call you in to discuss it in person.\n\nI'm sure other broadcasting networks have a similar set up.\n\nTrivia: the British version of The Office was created through this route.\n\nEDIT: all the specifics are on their website.",
"You work your way up.\n\nTV shows are expensive to make. They're huge endeavors that require a large team of people to make. There's the set design, costumes, actors, technicians, etc. etc. The studios need to decide what projects to invest in, and they're not going to invest in an idea without knowing that the creative force behind it can deliver.\n\nThe way you work your way up is to get your foot in the door by being a staff writer on a TV show. (Easier said than done. Before you do that, you need to get an agent. It's a catch-22, because a decent agent won't look at you unless you've done something professionally, but you can't book any professional work without an agent. Many times it comes down to knowing someone or building up a portfolio of free writing you've done.) Once you get that gig, you contribute to different episodes until you get the reins and can write an entire episode on your own. After doing that consistently well for a number of years, you have some credibility in the industry.\n\nThat is when you can finally start the process of pitching a show to studios. In addition to a script, you need to explain why it will have staying power, who the target audience is, etc. If you're good/lucky, the studio will decide to pay you for the rights and fund a pilot episode which can then be used to decide whether to make it an ongoing show. Assuming you get that far, then keeping that going becomes a question of maintaining good ratings. If the show's ratings are good, you can maintain creative authority since no one will want to kill the goose that lays the golden egg. But if ratings are bad, one of two things will happen. Either they'll cancel the show outright (most likely) or fire you and put another writer in charge. (YSK that once the studio buys the rights to a show, it becomes their intellectual property, and you are just an employee. Like with any other job, if you don't perform they can replace you. It doesn't matter who came up with the idea originally.) Over time, the more shows you do, and the more money they make, the bigger the scale of show people are willing to invest in.\n\nCheck out [Seth MacFarlane's page on IMDB](_URL_0_). He started out writing for the TV show version of Ace Venture: Pet Detective in 1995. Then he wrote for Dexter's Laboratory and Johnny Bravo. He created a few shorts on his own. Then he was finally in a position to pitch Family Guy in 1999.\n\nOf course, this isn't the only path, but it's probably the most traditional one. South Park got started because Trey Parker and Matt Stone made a video short that went viral among key people in Hollywood. But those cases are rare. (And the risk was relatively low for Comedy Central, since Trey Parker and Matt Stone had filmed the pilot episode on their own, and the cost of producing more episodes was much lower than a big budget show like The Walking Dead or something.)"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[
"http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0532235/?ref_=nv_sr_1"
]
] | ||
z2iwm | what are fractals? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/z2iwm/eli5_what_are_fractals/ | {
"a_id": [
"c60wa6j",
"c60wcup",
"c60wdh3",
"c60we5z",
"c60weg7",
"c60wf8d",
"c60wfk4",
"c60wgdd",
"c60wh5d",
"c60whqh",
"c60wjdk",
"c60wlme",
"c60x88t",
"c60xj07",
"c60xlt5",
"c60y0xe",
"c60ycqn",
"c60zcdu",
"c610ahv",
"c610hjf",
"c611h8z",
"c611hbx",
"c611t30",
"c611w9y",
"c611x4u",
"c6174r3",
"c618600"
],
"score": [
9,
35,
179,
3,
31,
34,
2,
8,
18,
4,
301,
2,
2,
14,
2,
2,
3,
2,
6,
7,
3,
2,
3,
2,
2,
2,
3
],
"text": [
"Fractals are basically things that look the same no matter how closely you look at them...I like to think of them as visual infinity. ",
"This is fun, because you can look at pretty things!\n\n[Look at this first](_URL_1_)\n\n[Then at this](_URL_0_)\n\nPretty cool, right?\n\nThese shapes are not drawn by hand but their edges are calculated. There are some formulas in math that \"never end\" when drawn as a graph.\n\nEDIT: note that the colors are not part of the formula.",
"A fractal is a mathematical set with a pattern that repeats indefinitely\n\nThe most common usage of the word is for patterns and other such mathematical art. Basically, you start with a Shape with a Pattern A, and repeat pattern A off the shape, with the pattern both increasing in overall complexity, and with every iteration, the number of repetitions of the pattern also increases. \n\nThese pictures should help:\n\n_URL_1_\n\n_URL_0_",
"Basically a repetitive building instruction. \n\n\nfor instance: Take a cube. \n\nPut a smaller cube on the free side of every cube you have.\n\nrepeat.\n\nresult: [link](_URL_0_)",
"does this have anything to do with the TIL post about that german philosopher?",
"Imagine you're at the beach. Go find a stick and draw a big triangle in the sand. Now on each side, draw another triangle about one third the size. Do the same for each of these new, smaller triangles. Just keep drawing triangles until your stick won't do the job any more.\n\nThat's where we let computers take over. They're really good at figuring out what things look like even if they're too small for us to see. You want to see what it looks like down there? Well then just scroll that mouse wheel and have a gander. You'll find that it looks the same all the way down, no matter how far out or closely you look at it. That's a fractal. Pretty cool isn't it, maths?",
"A fractal is a set whose Haussdorf dimension is not a whole number. That being said, if your set can be obtain with an inductive sequence, then your fractal will be what we call auto similar.\n\n _URL_0_\n\nMan we can't explain it like you're five, this is a very hard notion. And a lot of bullshit is said about it.",
"Is there somebody that actually studied math here? ",
"Fractals can actually be found in nature quite frequently. One example is [Romanesco Broccoli](_URL_0_), which my former math teacher was in love with (for obvious reasons).",
"Ok so, fractals are graphical representations of, usually, quite simple mathematical expressions. \n\nThink of the pixels in the picture like coordinates on a graph, each one has a different value for x and y. A fractal equation uses these x and y coordinates to work out the value (read: colour) of that pixel.\n\nThe clever bit that makes all the patterns is that the equations reference themselves in some way. So it looks it's base value, then looks at the coordinates, makes a change, then again at how that changes the base value. This repeats for a defined number of steps.\n\n\nWhat's really cool is that you don't have to make the space complete discrete; that is, you can always zoom in and find higher precision coordinates and therefore generate more colours.\n\n\nThis doesn't just apply to functions, one example I like to show is a chaotic double pendulum; _URL_0_\n\nScroll down on that site, and look at the green/red fractal. That maps how many flips the pendulum does based it's and the other's starting angles. It's hard to summarise here, and is in fact all explain on the wiki.\n\nHope that helps ",
"I wanted to tell you one of the cool things about fractals. Draw a square. This square has an area, space inside the edge, where you would normally color (you did a great job on that art project at school, by the way). You can color this shape until there is no white space left. Now take this other marker and trace the line. You can trace the line until the old line is covered up. Now if I cut a square out of the corner and put it somewhere else, like this:\n\n ______\n | |__\n | |\n | |\n | |\n |______ |\n |__|\n\n\nYou can color the same amount inside and it will still cover the entire shape. Now trace that line. Did you notice it look a little longer to trace the line? [[OOC: I would probably have graph paper to demonstrate, or cut a real shape out of blue construction paper, maybe string to show perimeter]] Now if I did this a lot of times, with smaller and smaller pieces, you can see how messy the edge would be. The inside would be the same amount of color, but it would take longer and longer to trace the line, because it is so twisty, not like a simple square. If you were to do this forever and ever, you could still color inside the shape with the same amount of color, but you would never have enough markers in the whole world to be able to draw the line. The line would always be longer than anything you could ever draw. We call this line \"infinitely long\" which is even longer than your sister takes in the bathroom!",
" > A fractal is any equation or pattern, that when seen as an image, produces a picture, which can be zoomed into infinity and will still produce the same picture. The word fractal was made by Benoît Mandelbrot in 1975 from the Latin word fractus, which means \"broken\" or \"fractured\". A simple example is a tree that branches infinitely into smaller branches, and those branches into smaller branches and so on.",
"What I'm still missing from the discussion is the explanation about dimensions. Dimensions can be for instance, height, width and length. You know how things can have either one dimension (a line), or two (a square or a circle) or three (a cube, or a tree). Fractals are defined by having an amount of dimensions that is not a whole number. You can for instance have a fractal with a dimension of 1.7 or 2.3 (Hence the word fractal, it refers to the fractal dimensionality of the structure) This results in figures with all kinds of weird properties, such as being able to have a boundary of infinite length, but still a surface area that is under a specific limit. These properties are actually useful as well, for instance in your cellphone, where an approximation of a fractal means they've been able to put a lot of surface in a small area of antenna, which is why we don't need to pull out our cell-phone antennae anymore when we make a phone call.",
"Fractals are, in a nutshell\\*, 'Pictures of infinite detail'. Like a dog with fleas, each of those fleas has fleas, their fleas having fleas and so on for ever. They are important for a few reasons:\n\nPhilosophically, they show us how something of infinite complexity can come out of a really simple process (IMO Julia sets are a great example of this). I like to tell my students that, depending on your perspective, this either proves that we don't need a god, or that it testifies to the beauty of the logic god gave to the world (it's up to you to decide!).\n\nMore concretely, though, they come up in all sorts of places. You see, when we look at, say, [a graph of the stock-market](_URL_0_) from a distance, the spikes look detailed- really detailed! And since we can imagine there'd be even more detail if we measured every half day or minute or second or whatever, we can think of stock graphs as being a picture of infinite detail- a fractal.\n\nOne way fractals can appear is as part of something called 'chaos theory'- which is the theory of stuff that looks random, even though it's not. This sort of stuff happens when no matter how well we measure something, if we can't measure it perfectly (like when your ruler doesn't go below millimetres- and the actual answer is in between two of the marks), we can't predict the outcome. When you flip a coin for example (this isn't actually chaotic- but it's just to give an idea), no matter how well you control your flip, you can't predict heads or tails, even though *in theory* you could have with physics.\n\nIn chaos theory, fractals occur as something called *strange attractors*. An *attractor* is like a magnet, which stuff is drawn to as time goes on. Like if we look at all of the numbers, and say every minute we halve all of them- halving again the next minute. Each time, every number is getting a little closer to zero- so zero is acting as the attractor. It turns out you can quite easily make physics equations which see more complicated things acting as an attractor. If the attractor is a fractal, this is called a 'strange attractor' and means the system is chaotic. \n\nThe most famous example of a strange attractor is the [Lorentz attractor](_URL_1_) which governs our weather systems- that it leads to chaos is the origin of the famous saying that \"When a butterfly flaps its wings in Brazil, it can cause a tornado in Texas\".\n\nUnderstanding fractals is the secret to understanding the apparently random in a clockwork world. They are pretty and philosophically deep, but also essential tools in handling complexity.\n\n**********************\n\\*The technical definition is more complicated and has to do with how we measure stuff. I'll add an ELI5 of that later if anyone wants it- it is pretty cool!\n\n(Edit: fixed link)",
"Perhaps this book is above a 5 year old reading level, but \"Chaos\" is a phenomenal book written in layman's terms about chaos theory, fractals, etc... \n\n\nI read it a few years back and it explained everything very clearly and was very easy to follow.\n\n\n_URL_0_",
"The point of a fractal is that if you zoom in on it, the small part you're focusing on will look like it's made up of tiny copies of the whole thing. And when you zoom in on the tiny copies, they're made up of small parts that are also tiny copies of the whole thing. In a perfect fractal, you can keep zooming in and finding more copies of the whole thing forever.\n\nFractals are cool because they can be made by very simple rules (\"when you see *this*, replace it with a copy of the fractal's pattern\"), but the shapes they produce can be infinitely complex. This lets us describe very complicated things in a very short, simple way; which is good for making files small and efficient. They also show up in nature a lot, probably because they are so easy to build.\n\nExample fractal:\n\nDraw a line. At the end of the line, split it into two so it looks like a Y. You now have one large Y.\n\nThe end of the Y is made up of two lines, each like the first one. At the end of each, branch them into two so they both look like Y's too. You now have a large Y, with Y's at the ends.\n\nYou can keep doing this until you run out of space on the paper. It ends up looking like a tree, or a piece of broccoli, or ..well.. a Fractal.",
"In truth, 5 yr old, fractals are not just 'one thing', but a set of related concepts and ideas that generally have to do with understanding the relationships between different scales. By scales I mean how much you zoom in or out, like a microscope that can change its magnification. \n\nOne aspect of fractally-structured objects, which I don't think has been mentioned here, is that normal tools we use to understand groups of things can't be properly applied to them. For example, an average (mean) is not a sensible measure of a fractal object. Consider the branches of a tree. A tree is a natural fractal structure. There is 1 huge 'branch' (the trunk) and off of that shoot a couple of smaller branches, and off of them even smaller branches, and off of them even smaller branches, etc etc. The consequence of this is that there are MANY MANY tiny branches, but only a couple really big ones. \n\nIf you tried to take the average of the cirmcumference of the branches, you would find it does not converge to a single number. That is, as you measure more and more branches, the 'average' keeps changing. 'Average' is not a good measure for a fractal object.\n\nInstead, you need to plot the distribution of branch sizes on a logxlog plot (you're a smart 5 yr old, right?). A fractal object will form a straight line (with some slope) on this plot. The slope of the line can tell you more about the distribution of branch size than can an 'average' (which assumes a bell curve distribution). \n\nHope this helps, son. ",
"The best description of fractals I ever heard was on Stuff You Should Know. Those guys are great, really explain difficult concepts well and humorously. \n\n[Here's](_URL_0_) a link to that particular episode.",
"if you like fractals come check out /r/fractalporn!",
"Explain Like I'm Five..\n\n\"Fractal\" refers to a \"fraction of a dimension.\" We understand that a flat line is 1D, Super Mario Brother is 2D, and Avatar is 3D, but it is hard to represent 1.26186D. Dimensions can get funky when you try to understand strange objects that repeat patterns and fractal geometry attempts to deal with this mathematical Bootsy Collins. For example, broccoli is a higher dimensional object then cauliflower.\n\n\nNow just for fun (you will only need some basic algebra)\n\nExplain Like A Pro...\n\nImagine a **2x2** square with an area of **4**. Now double it's size. This sound easy, but ask yourself *which of its sizes you are doubling.* If you double the length of its sides, you have a **4x4** square with an area of **16**. The original area was **4**, so while you have doubled the length of a side you have actually quadrupled the area.\n*HRMMMM*\n\nNow imagine a cube that is **2x2x2** with a volume of **8**. If you double the lengths of the sides, you get a **4x4x4** cube with a volume of **64**. You have octupled its area this time.\n*HRMMMM*\n\nIf we represent the scaling factor **2** with the variable **x**...\n\n Length Size: 2x = 4\n Area Size: 2x * 2x = 16\n Volume Size: 2x * 2x * 2x = 64\n\nor\n\n Length Size = 2: 2 * x^1 = 4\n Area Size = 4: 2 * 2 * x^2 = 16\n Volume Size = 8: 2 * 2 * 2 * x^3 = 64\n\nor\n\n Size = Size * Scaling Factor^Dimension\n\nThis means that an object's dimension can be defined by the exponent over the scale factor. Got it? Coooool.\n\nSo lets look at the [Koch Curve](_URL_0_) and see if we can figure out its dimension! Make sure to click the link so you definitely can visualize the shape!\n\nFirst, a Koch Curve starts with a 1D line\n\n ___\n\nbut you erase the middle 1/3rd of that 1D line and draw an equilateral triangle, which gives you 4 line segments of equal length.\n\n _/\\_\n\n*So, is this object 2D now? I dunno. Like I said, it's Bootsy Collins all the way down.*\n\nNow erase the middle 1/3rd of each of *those* 4 line segments and create another equilateral triangle in the gap, which gives you 16 equal length segments. Just keep erasing the middle of each line segment and adding a triangle until the universe ends. OK, that's a Koch Curve.\n\nUsing the method from before we know we are looking for the size, so let's make an equation. First, size goes on the left of the equal sign\n\n Size = ???\n\nNow let's describe the object. First, we know that we are taking this 4-sided object\n\n _/\\_\n\nand then adding stuff on all 4 of those line segments. So let's say\n\n Size = 4 * ???\n\nNow the fun part. We know that it is 4 line segments, but each of those line segments is actual **itself** and if we zoom into one of those, we see the same shape for infinity. So we say\n\n Size = 4 * Size * ???\n\nAnd if we go back to the beginning, we know that the dimension is the exponent number above the scaling factor. So, now we have a complete equation\n\n Size = 4 * Size * Scaling Factor^Dimension\n\nIf we remember that the original shape was a line\n\n ___\n\nand the we erase the middle 1/3rd to make\n\n _/\\_\n\nwe know that the scaling factor is... **1/3rd**, which means we've got\n\n Size = 4 * Size * (1/3)^Dimension\n\nWe've got a Size variable on both sides of the equation. That won't do.\n\n 1 = 4 * (1/3)^Dimension\n\nAlmost there. Let's divide each side of the equation by 4 to get\n\n (1/4) = (1/3)^Dimension\n\nAnd let's solve for Dimension of a Koch Curve\n\n Dimension = Log (1/4) / Log (1/3) ≈ 1.26186\n\n**TL;DR Fractal geometry helps us understand objects that have a dimension that is not a whole number.**\n",
"There's a lot of definitions here that are pretty good but miss the real, key defining feature.\n\nA fractal is a set of points (for example, a shape) where a piece of that set looks like the whole thing. This is a property known as [self-similarity](_URL_1_). \n\nThe simplest and most boring example of a self-similar set is a line segment. If you look at a piece of a line segment, that's another line segment. It looks just the same as the original only smaller. \n\nNow, like I said, that's the most boring example, and it's usually not considered a fractal because it's *too* boring (mathematicians have a more precise way of saying this, but it would take a while to explain). A much more interesting, but still very simple, example is the [Cantor set](_URL_4_). This is the simplest thing that can properly be called a fractal. \n\nYou draw a Cantor set like this: take a line segment and erase the middle third. Now of those two thirds remaining, erase the middle thirds of each. Next, erase the middle thirds of those four segments. Keep doing this **forever**. (There's a picture of the first six steps in that Wikipedia article I linked. Don't worry too much about the math surrounding it, the picture is the important part.)\n\nNow here we can see the two important features that make it a fractal:\n\n1. It's self-similar.\n\n2. It's very complex, and the complexity goes up as the detail with which we draw it goes up.\n\nThese two points together mean a few things:\n\n- No fractal can truly be drawn because it takes an *infinite* number of steps to draw it. So any picture you ever see of a fractal is actually just an approximation.\n\n- No matter how small of a piece you take of a fractal, you'll always find a piece of that which looks like the whole thing.\n\nFractals are interesting for a few reasons:\n\n- They're weird. Some of them are great examples of sets that have surprising and unusual properties. For example, the area inside of a [Koch snowflake](_URL_2_) is finite, but the perimeter is *infinite*.\n\n- Complex, fractal-like patterns show up in [nature](_URL_3_) a lot. For example, ferns, mountains, lightning bolts, and coastlines all have fractal-like properties.\n\n- They can be [very](_URL_0_) [pretty](_URL_5_).",
"[Actually Khan Academy does a marvelous job explaining it](_URL_0_)",
"A fractal is a mathematically defined shape that has just as much detail at any scale. \n\nCompare this to a normal photograph: if you take a photo that is 1 foot across, cut it in fourths, and blow up one of those pieces until it is the same size as the original, it gets a bit fuzzier. If you keep repeating that process, it gets super fuzzy real fast and there are no details left.\n\nIf you do that with a fractal, there will always be as many details in the picture as what you started out with, even though what you end up with might not look at all like what you started with. You can cut the picture up and enlarge a piece of it, repeat that hundreds of times, and there's still tiny, tantalizing details in every little bit.",
"_URL_0_ \n\nThis could help. Fun fact! You remember when cell phones had stupid antennas? Well the reason those went away was because someone figured out if you make an antenna out of a fractal it could be put inside the phone!",
"5 minute video of a Mandelbrot set zoom!\n\n_URL_0_",
"A fractal is something with a fractional dimension. It's not 1-dimentional or 2-dimentional, but maybe 1.26-dimensional.\n\nHow the heck does *that* work? Well, I might have to explain it a *little* bit above the 5-year-old level. But not too far.\n\nIf you have a 1-dimentional line, and magnify it by a factor of 2, it gets twice as big. More generally, if you magnify it by a factor of *k*, it gets *k*^1 times as big.\n\nNow, if you have a 2-dimentional object like a square, and you magnify it by a factor of 2, it's 4 times as big. Twice as tall and twice as wide; you can fit four of the original squares inside the magnified square. More generally, if you magnify it by a factor of *k*, it gets *k*^2 times as big.\n\nA three-dimensional object like a box, if you magnify by a factor of *k*, gets *k*^3 times as big. You can fit 2^3 = 8 small boxes inside a double-dimensioned box.\n\nNow let's consider the famous [Koch snowflake](_URL_1_). Each line of it consists of four copies, each 1/3 the size. Turned around, it takes *four* copies to make one *three* times as big. 3^*x* = 4. It turns out that *x* = log(4)/log(3) = 1.2618595...\n\nOr, to take another simple example, the (standard ternary) [Cantor dust](_URL_0_). Each piece consists of *two* copies of itself, each 1/3 the size. Its dimension is log(2)/log(3) = 0.63092975.\n\nTo draw a figure with dimension between 1 and 2, you need to use a 2-dmensional drawing surface, but the fractal doesn't use all of it.\n\nIt turns out that fractal objects are amazingly intricate and fascinating, and have a lot f nifty properties. But the origin of the term is \"fractional dimensions\".\n\nA third example: the [Menger sponge](_URL_2_). It's made up of 20 copies of itself, each 1/3 the size. Its dimension is log(20)/log(3) = 2.726833... A solid cube is made up of 27 copies of itself each 1/3 the size, so a solid cube is of dimension log(27)/log(3) = 3.",
"(I think my Friend Donald Duck does it best)[_URL_0_]"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[
"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLv9_lgGCR8",
"http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bb/Mandelbrot_Animation0.gif"
],
[
"http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fd/Von_Koch_curve.gif",
"http://mathworld.wolfram.com/images/eps-gif/Fractal1_1000.gif"
],
[
"http://... | ||
8tx9ek | why, logically, do our muscles give out when we over work them? shouldn't they keep working until we decide to stop? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8tx9ek/eli5_why_logically_do_our_muscles_give_out_when/ | {
"a_id": [
"e1azjp2",
"e1azq9v"
],
"score": [
16,
10
],
"text": [
"It's not a matter of logic. They run out of the necessary chemicals to make them go, not because it's a good idea.",
"Your muscles need energy in order to contract, and the major source of energy that your muscles use is a molecule called adenosine triphosphate, or ATP. The most efficient way to generate ATP is through a process called oxidative phosphorylation. However oxidative phosphorylation requires oxygen, and if there isn't enough oxygen, your body will default to a chemical reaction called glycolysis to generate ATP. Generating ATP glycolytically will produce lactic acid as a byproduct. Lactic acid in your blood causes soreness and pain, and that is a major reason why you stop exercising. **This is a lot more complicated than this and I can go into a bit more detail if you'd like**\n\nThe major limiting factor here however isn't the amount of lactic acid-- it's willpower.\n\nIf I tell you to hold your arm out at a 90 degree angle until you can't anymore, you'll eventually want to drop. But if I pull a gun to your head and tell you to keep it up for 10 more seconds or die, you could definitely keep your arm up for a bit longer. Your body will produce lactic acid still, and you'll hurt, but ultimately why you give up or \"can't\" do an exercise is almost certainly because of willpower. Athletes can put on a burst of energy to finish a race-- they can put the pain caused by lactic acid buildup aside and beat it with willpower in the final stretches of a race. It's also why sometimes parents can lift cars off of their children-- with enough willpower, our bodies can do a lot.\n\nHowever, if you keep working your muscles, eventually even willpower will give out. This is because your muscles reach a condition called neuromuscular fatigue. The way you \"tell\" a muscle to contract is through a neurotransmitter called acetylcholine (ACh). When you decide to flex your bicep, somatic nerves going down the spinal cord to your arm will release ACh to your muscle. I'm not going to go into how ACh causes a muscle contraction, since that is very complicated, but if you are interested I can explain this. However, with enough stimulation, eventually your neuron will run out of ACh to release. At that point, no matter **how** much you want to, you're not gonna be able to move your arm, since your body isn't going to be able to get the signal there to tell it to move. You, however, have probably never experienced full neuromuscular fatigue when you work out. That's all willpower."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] | |
4hb0eb | why do we sometime feel that we are feeling an object even though we let go of it a little while ago? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4hb0eb/eli5_why_do_we_sometime_feel_that_we_are_feeling/ | {
"a_id": [
"d2oubhy",
"d2ouqfi",
"d2ozkef",
"d2ozkkj",
"d2p1007"
],
"score": [
18,
38,
2,
5,
3
],
"text": [
"I think its because the neurons and impulses that transmit this touch information are still sending that information and the brain processes that extra information as a touch.\n\nIts like when you press down on something, release it fast and you can see how it slowly pops back into place. Same here, neuron is stimulated, causing of stimulation is removed, but neuron still has remaining activity and sends it too and thus brain processes it.\n\nI might be wrong so forgive me in advance if i am. :)",
"Like how you're done peeing, but it still feels like you are?",
"Like how sometimes i feel one of my hairs hanging, touching my forehead, but Ive been shaving my head for 8 years. ",
"Are you... are you high? ",
"Closest thing I can relate with is resting sunglasses on top of your head for an hour or so and taking them off then having 'phantom sunnies' that I can feel going past my ears :s"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] | ||
daodni | how does fishing line and other thin strings get so tangled, so easily? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/daodni/eli5_how_does_fishing_line_and_other_thin_strings/ | {
"a_id": [
"f1rpbxu",
"f1rxl4o",
"f1ryzur"
],
"score": [
15,
2,
3
],
"text": [
"This was actually a problem for physics to properly explain for some time! \"Spontaneous knotting due to agitation\" apparently occurs with a high probability of \"braid moves\" and twisting that can occur when shaken, which with thin lines like headphones can be quite high. \n\nStatic surface charge can also cause strings to want to rotate around each other when dangling loosely, so that may be a factor that contributes to this phenomena.",
"I was just wondering this as my embroidery thread gets tangled again and again, and I know it’s the twisting motion from the cross stitching but it still is a weird little phenomenon. Thanks for explaining.",
"After untangling what feels like thousands of fishing line knots (mono and fly line), I can say it's usually some loop of line that gets caught somehow. I'll work on a knot for many minutes and at the center; invariably a loop got caught where it had no business being."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[]
] | ||
1nbpi6 | why does the letter "j" sound like "h" in spanish? | Also, why does Jorge translate to Hor-hay? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1nbpi6/eli5_why_does_the_letter_j_sound_like_h_in_spanish/ | {
"a_id": [
"cch4g8r"
],
"score": [
4
],
"text": [
"because it's a sound english doesnt have, which is represented by the J. the pronunciation of the alphabet varies per language, because, well, they're different languages. we just happen to use the same (latin) alphabet. same reasons pretty much apply to Jorge. there's not really a right or wrong way to pronounce these letters, it's language in the end, but if there were, the spanish pronunciation would probably be closer to the original."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | |
4mt8zx | in computers, the main hard drive is labeled c:, and any other hard drives or storage media you install is named d:, e:, f: and so forth. where are a: and b:? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4mt8zx/eli5_in_computers_the_main_hard_drive_is_labeled/ | {
"a_id": [
"d3y3bgi",
"d3y3br0",
"d3y3cni",
"d3y3eez",
"d3y3i9w",
"d3y57j0",
"d3y6eyb",
"d3yazat",
"d3ye2ju",
"d3yejwb",
"d3yewmw",
"d3yf7ul"
],
"score": [
1229,
87,
6,
8,
6,
16,
11,
11,
5,
5,
3,
3
],
"text": [
"Once upon a time, hard drives as we know them were a luxury in personal computing.\n\nYou had a floppy disk drive for your operating system - 1.44 precious megabytes. This was A:/.\n\nYou also had another drive, typically a floppy disk drive for whatever else you wanted to do - 1.44 precious megabytes, this is B:/.\n\nThen when hard drives began to become a thing, they were C:/. And nobody had any reason to change it even when floppy drives disappeared.",
"A and B are reserved for floppy drives. This is a convention that goes all the way back to the first IBM PCs in 1981, which had two floppy drives, labelled A and B. Any non-floppy media, like hard drives, started at C.\n\nSo, today, you have no floppy drives, so your drive letters start with C.",
"This is asked all the time. Historically before hard disks were the norm you'd boot off the first removable disk A:. People would add a 2nd drive for applications/data and that was B:. A: and B: were assumed to be removable so the first non-removable would be C:. A lot of earlier applications be hard coded to open paths like \"C:\\app\\foo.bar\" so if you moved C: to A: it would break. The convention has just remained the same.\n\n",
"Floppy drives. Before hard drives were common, PCs just had one or two floppy drives, and you stored all your data on floppy disks. When hard drives came around, C: became the standard letter for hard drives. By the time floppy drives became obsolete, C: was the standard and it was too late to change it (a lot of software relied on the main drive being C:).",
"Long time ago in a galaxy very very near (our own), we had something called floppy disk. It was a plastic rectangle used to record data (barely 1.44 MB most of the time).\n\nIn the long tradition of computer's setting, the letter A and B were the ones for the floppy disks drives.\n\nThere's some few caveman in this world still using those stuff so we might still need the letter A and B... and we got enough letters left to avoid replacing those.",
"Yes, as explained drive letters A: and B: were usually reserved for floppy disk drives.\n\nFun Fact: The Windows OS no longer requires a drive letter assignment to access the disk. You can call it whatever you like, mydisk: diskofstuff:\n\nIt's just kept this way for legacy reasons.",
"So the bot removed my previous, somewhat brief explanation, so in retribution, here is the most elaborate explanation I can muster:\n\nBefore the days when personal computers came equipped with hard drives, operating systems were genuinely supplied on a floppy disk that had to be inserted in order to run. The computer would generally only have a tiny program in non volatile internal memory called a BIOS (Basic Input/Output System). Turning on the computer without a disk inserted would generally allow you to do very little, since the BIOS is not designed for, or capable of, much more than adjusting system settings. Turning on the computer with a bootable operating system disk inserted would prompt the BIOS to run a power on self test (POST) and then hand control over to the operating system on the disk. The floppy drive in which you would typically insert the OS disk was drive A. The problem is, with an OS disk inserted, how are you going to run any of your applications, that also come on floppy disks? By using a second drive, of course, this being drive B. When hard drives became more common in personal computers, they were naturally assigned the letter C, which is still used as the default assigned letter for the main hard drive to this day, although in practice the letter assigned to it is arbitrary, it's just become convention. You will notice that certain types of removable media will generally be assigned a letter within a certain range, too, with USB drives generally being assigned a letter starting at F, and SD cards generally starting at L. These are also arbitrary assignments, but have simply become standard over time. Drive E will also generally be the optical drive, since it has become very common for the average computer to use two hard drives (C and D) or two partitions on the same hard drive acting as two drives.",
"As a kid, our PC had A:/ for 3.5 inch floppy, B:/ for 5.25 inch. C:/ for hard drive. D:/ for CD rom when they started to get common.",
"Sweet summer child, those are for the floppy drives that nobody uses anymore. The letters are still reserved by convention because so many poorly written third party applications for Windows are hard coded to use C: For the system/boot device instead of using the appropriate environment variable.",
"Yeah I instantly felt old when I now realize there are people that have never seen a 3 1/2 A: drive",
"Fun fact, A: and B: can be used for anything you want. You can assign them to secondary hard drives or removable media drives (SD card slots) or network drives if you want.\n\nI tend to put my **(B)**ackups on my **B:\\** drive. Hey, I'm sure not using that drive letter for floppies!",
"A: and B: are reserved for floppy drives. Even though the majority of people has moved on to USB, or the cloud. Windows 10 still supports it if you have one installed in your system."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] | ||
2yidkx | why can't i build a custom cellphone when i can build a superior laptop or computer for cheaper than most name-brand equipment? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2yidkx/eli5_why_cant_i_build_a_custom_cellphone_when_i/ | {
"a_id": [
"cp9sr2z",
"cp9t2jr",
"cp9t69n",
"cp9ugu4",
"cp9utyi",
"cp9z0ae",
"cpa02ni"
],
"score": [
17,
7,
5,
44,
8,
8,
3
],
"text": [
"You CAN actually. Good luck figuring out how to get the OS on there though.",
"It's possible, but there aren't plug+play standards like PCI. At this level you need to make your own schematics and circuit diagrams.",
"Apparently my earlier reply was too brief...\n\nIndeed you can. Go here: _URL_0_. You'll need a compiler, mikromedia for PIC32, and a GSM board. The rest is software (which is up to you!).\n\nYou can use a much simpler processor board but it depends on how much functionality you want.",
"The \"you can\" comments are missing a major component set that makes phones VERY different from your standard computer. RF and antenna matching gets really fuckey if you don't know how to tune it properly, which requires patience and relatively costly equipment. If you are an RF engineer who has access to this (and the software/firmware for the major digital components, cool).\n\nBarring the analog and RF front ends- it's basically a computer. Do-able, but tiny, and therefore tough to pull everything together and make it play nice without many a ducat. Very important - it also has to pass rigorous network and FCC specifications and go through what is called \"type approval\" with the major carrier/s. \n\nNow in terms of getting it all to play nice, there is work being done to keep a standard interfacing between the different parts (see MIPI), but you will also be fighting various levels of firmware on the baseband/transceiver/apps processor, depending on how the phone is configured. \n\nUltimately, IMO, best-case scenario - you may have a decent pocket computer that sucks at making calls and accessing the network. ",
"Well Google is still working on the ARA project which enables you to atleast customize what modules you want to put in your cellphone(to increase CPU power, GPU, etc etc). Worth checking out: _URL_0_",
"I'd like to see a source on building a superior and cheaper laptop with custom parts. The problem is miniaturization; you don't care about how big or power-hungry your desktop is, but phones and laptops need to be small, portable, and efficient. This means custom made parts, built specifically to mesh with each other. You *could* make your own laptop by fitting a bunch of parts together, but there's no way it would be both cheaper and better than something that was mass manufactured.",
"All the technical limitations are surmountable, the real reason you can't easily is that there's not enough people interested in building their own for end-user-focused component manufacturers to spring up.\n\nPersonal computers, in the beginning (the mid-70's), were quite frequently sold as kits you put together yourself. Over time the appeal became less niche and by the late 70's there were mass-produced computers available for people that couldn't solder. Some people never made the jump, though, and always continued to build their own, so there was a market there. Take a company like Nvidia for example - they primarily make processor chipsets. But when you buy an Nvidia product you don't just get a chip that you have to design a schematic for, solder onto a board yourself, and then write a driver for - because Nvidia, like many other hardware companies since the 70's, found there's money to be made in doing all that work and then selling it as a ready-made component. And most PC hardware manufacturers work together to come up with and adhere to interoperability standards, so you can be reasonably confident that an ASUS motherboard is going to work with an Nvidia card as long as they're both PCIe, because it's in both their best interests to make sure it works like that.\n\nCell phones, on the other hand, entered the market in the 80's as a pre-assembled consumer electronic. The companies that make the components aren't interested in selling them at retail - they sell them wholesale to the companies that manufacture the phones. The companies that make the phones, of course, have no impetus to make it easier for you to build your own (because then why would you buy theirs?) so all the work they do making the components cooperate with each other, they keep to themselves.\n\nSo this won't be a possibility for your average hobbyist until a company sees an opportunity to do for phone hardware what Nvidia does for PC hardware - buy components wholesale, and then design and build them as something to be sold at retail. And that could happen, but I think for any entrepreneur to want to get into that business, there'd have to be more people interested in building their own phone than there are now."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[
"www.mikroe.com"
],
[],
[
"http://www.projectara.com/"
],
[],
[]
] | ||
jjsv8 | doing arithmetic in your head quickly | I sometimes feel so stupid. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/jjsv8/eli5_doing_arithmetic_in_your_head_quickly/ | {
"a_id": [
"c2cp7c7",
"c2cp7rc",
"c2cw4z2",
"c2cp7c7",
"c2cp7rc",
"c2cw4z2"
],
"score": [
3,
5,
2,
3,
5,
2
],
"text": [
"I am not good at it but I do it enough that I know a few tricks.\n\nIf you want to do something like add 86 and 37, you know that 86 is 14 less than 100, so call that 100 and take 14 off the 37, so this is 123 perhaps a little easier than carrying in your head.\n\nI don't know any real addition tricks that aren't some variation of this.\n\nThere are lots of tricks when multiplying. To do 10's you add a zero, obviously. To do 20's you double and add a zero. 5's is add a zero and halve. 18 you can do 20 and subtract 10%, like 18 x 33 is 660 - 66 = 594. There are lots of these.\n",
"I break everything down into smaller sums. Say 162\\*7. Times 7 is tricky, but \\*5 is easier, I can times by ten (add another nought) and divide by two. So if I can work out 162\\*5, I just need to add another 162 twice. \n\nIn other words, turn a sum you can't do into one you know you can do.\n\nAs for the quickly part, I guess you just need to practice a lot.",
"It's okay. Doing math in your head is never a good thing anyways. Once you get to higher math, such as calculus, doing derivatives and integrals in your head will be so much slower than just writing it on a piece of paper. \n\nThere is no easy way to do math in your head, you are either born with a very large memory buffer, or you have to memorize certain things. ",
"I am not good at it but I do it enough that I know a few tricks.\n\nIf you want to do something like add 86 and 37, you know that 86 is 14 less than 100, so call that 100 and take 14 off the 37, so this is 123 perhaps a little easier than carrying in your head.\n\nI don't know any real addition tricks that aren't some variation of this.\n\nThere are lots of tricks when multiplying. To do 10's you add a zero, obviously. To do 20's you double and add a zero. 5's is add a zero and halve. 18 you can do 20 and subtract 10%, like 18 x 33 is 660 - 66 = 594. There are lots of these.\n",
"I break everything down into smaller sums. Say 162\\*7. Times 7 is tricky, but \\*5 is easier, I can times by ten (add another nought) and divide by two. So if I can work out 162\\*5, I just need to add another 162 twice. \n\nIn other words, turn a sum you can't do into one you know you can do.\n\nAs for the quickly part, I guess you just need to practice a lot.",
"It's okay. Doing math in your head is never a good thing anyways. Once you get to higher math, such as calculus, doing derivatives and integrals in your head will be so much slower than just writing it on a piece of paper. \n\nThere is no easy way to do math in your head, you are either born with a very large memory buffer, or you have to memorize certain things. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] | |
51126n | how does "rng"/random work in video games? | I once heard it's based off time? But in order for something to be random, it would have to be unpredictable - which couldn't be 100% based on time? Would love this answer!
Edit: I suppose this isn't limited to just video games, but software in general requiring this capability. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/51126n/eli5_how_does_rngrandom_work_in_video_games/ | {
"a_id": [
"d78h1tp",
"d78hpgr"
],
"score": [
7,
2
],
"text": [
"Pseudo-random number generators use an algorithm to generate a number. The algorithm starts with a \"seed\" value to create the number. Then it crunches through the algorithm (essentially a formula). \n \nSince it is an algorithm, if the seed is the same, the result is the same. So systems will try to pick a seed value that is essentially random. For example, when the event occurs that triggers the RNG, take a few of the least significant numbers of the system clock. \n \nSuch a system is generally good enough for a video game \"random\" number. If you are using cryptography to protect something valuable, however, you might want something that is more robust. ",
"Awesome responses. I've seen this question been answered before, but the premise of a \"seeded\" number is a bit confusing :). \n"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] | |
4hxdjw | how do dogs sense when they are approaching a previously visited place? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4hxdjw/eli5_how_do_dogs_sense_when_they_are_approaching/ | {
"a_id": [
"d2t6a5l"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"My guess would be that your dog only gets taken on car trips lasting longer than 10-15 minutes when you are going to visit them. At the very least it's the most common long car trip so it's just a matter of conditioning."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | ||
6xjuaj | why do we crave sex sometimes but masturbation doesn't cut it, to satisfy us? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6xjuaj/eli5_why_do_we_crave_sex_sometimes_but/ | {
"a_id": [
"dmgixzx",
"dmgj2hv"
],
"score": [
2,
12
],
"text": [
"What feels better: busting a nut by yourself, or someone else helping you bust a nut? 🤷🏾♂️",
"Because we have a biological need to reproduce and spread our genes. It's not necessarily the feeling of ejaculating we crave."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] | ||
85xwye | breathing pain | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/85xwye/eli5_breathing_pain/ | {
"a_id": [
"dw0w14o",
"dw0xb74"
],
"score": [
2,
2
],
"text": [
"You should talk to a doctor about unexplained pains rather than assuming everyone on Earth shares your experiences. Taking a deep breath should be painless.",
"ELI5 isn't for personal health questions so this post has been removed. You should ask your doctor. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] | ||
1xe73c | why sponges have holes, but do not leak water | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1xe73c/eli5_why_sponges_have_holes_but_do_not_leak_water/ | {
"a_id": [
"cfaj5nk",
"cfamc0g"
],
"score": [
2,
3
],
"text": [
"I believe its something like the surface tension of the water keeps it in thr sponge. This is the same idea behind a wet towel. \n\nLol I think that how it works. ",
"Surface Tension\n\nThe many holes of a sponge hold water because of a scientific concept known as surface tension. Surface tension is the slight amount of elasticity that exists between the molecules of water that holds them together.\n Each tiny hole inside a sponge is its own little pocket of surface tension. As you handle a soaked sponge, the surface tension \"bubbles\" will break and reform inside it.\n\n\nSource: (After an \"I'm Feeling Lucky\" search on google) _URL_0_\n"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[
"http://www.ehow.com/how-does_4579369_bath-sponge-work-hold-liquid.html#ixzz2smtfN5W3"
]
] | ||
3fgh9r | what does the usa expect to achieve by imposing economic sanctions on countries like iran and cuba? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3fgh9r/eli5what_does_the_usa_expect_to_achieve_by/ | {
"a_id": [
"ctocz94"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"It keeps them from engendering enough money to prosper and cuts them off from the lion's share of international trade. If the US blacklists you the majority of states are forced to do the same else they risk being next on the list. It's a way to coerce a state into abiding by the will of the US without using military force or risking a viable backlash.\n\nTL;DR: It applies pressure to do what we want."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | ||
3hxu5x | why don't police departments have a zero tolerance policy for inappropriate behavior right now? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3hxu5x/eli5_why_dont_police_departments_have_a_zero/ | {
"a_id": [
"cubjrr6",
"cubju50",
"cubk100",
"cubk9hk"
],
"score": [
3,
8,
7,
3
],
"text": [
"The police are not a company, do not need to make money and are not responsible to a voter base or constituency. They have no reason not to militarize and are being given moral and financial reasons to now. ",
"If you started firing every cop who stepped a toe out of line pretty soon you wont have anyone to enforce the law\n",
"I am from a different country, and I see that USA wants to follow in the same stupid dirrection. In my country a police officer can't do anything untill the criminal does something. The bad guy can start shooting at them and only then they are allowed to respond. This makes the police officers not wanting to risk their lives making the whole police force useless. To be soon in USA as well by the looks of it",
"The police are not a company selling a product. They do not need to attract customers and public opinion really does not mean anything. If there is discord, you simply arrest those who accost the police as that is a crime. There is no reason to have a zero tolerance policy for minor offenses. Major offenses do have a zero tolerance policy once it is determined that they did commit a crime. Police are fined, fired, and arrested all the time. \n\nIt should be noted that police being put on paid leave while they are investigated is not their punishment. It is them being given due process and being treated as \"innocent until proven guilty\" just like any citizen. If it is determined that they have criminal misconduct they are then tried and punished. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[]
] | ||
2cj8tg | why do companies care if their stock prices go down? | after the initial bidding none of the money from the buying and selling of stocks go to the company so why would they care if it fluctuates? that seems like it should be irrelevant to the inner workings of a company. after all a racehorse doesn't actually become less fast if its odds decrease | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2cj8tg/eli5why_do_companies_care_if_their_stock_prices/ | {
"a_id": [
"cjg0dx5",
"cjg0jcs",
"cjg0mje",
"cjg0ons",
"cjg0pj2"
],
"score": [
2,
2,
2,
2,
3
],
"text": [
"A company can always sell more stock. If the price is low, then they won't be able to get as much money from their next IPO.\n\nThe people running the company probably also own stock in the company, and answer to the shareholders. If the stock price drops, the board of directors and the shareholders lose money.",
"The biggest reason is many companies pay some or all employees with stock (it's got a decent number of tax advantages for the firm). So declining stock price means pay declines retroactively which tends to make the best employees seek other employment. ",
"Because that means their company is less valuable in the eyes of investors. ",
"because the owners of the company care. who are the owners? the stock holders!",
"Based on your description, there's no reason why stock prices should be tied to the company at all. Why should the stock price go up when the company is doing well? The buying and selling isn't through the company, so why do people care about the actual fortunes of the company when trading their stock? Is the stock market just gambling with company-themed roulette wheels?\n\nThere are several answers to your question:\n\n- The first, as /u/riconquer said, is that the company can always sell more stock, or buy back its stock. The stock price going up or down determines that the company will be able to do if it needs to raise more funds in the future. In that way, a stock price could be considered something like a credit rating: it dictates how successful the company will be in the future, which dictates how likely people are to give them more money in the future.\n\n- The second is that the stock price is in some ways a barometer. It reflects public opinion in the company and public belief in the company's future success. These expectations are often self-serving: people will be more likely to patronize a company they perceive as being strong in and of itself than a new, unproven company. A falling stock price indicates sinking consumer faith in the company, which will influence sales going forward as well.\n\n- The third, and most simple, is that the governing body of the company are usually the majority shareholders. They care about the stock price because they're the ones with the greatest fortunes tied up in the company. Let's say you invest a million dollars to buy 25% of Stanley's Sprockets. If the stock price doubles, then your investment is now worth $2 million; if you decided to cash out, you made a massive profit. If the stock price halves, your investment is now worth $500,000; you've lost half your money. The people in charge are often the ones with the most to gain or lose from stock price changes, and that's why they care so strongly about the price."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] | |
4iatq9 | why do military veterans require specialized (v.a.) hospitals? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4iatq9/eli5_why_do_military_veterans_require_specialized/ | {
"a_id": [
"d2wjdy1",
"d2wmopn"
],
"score": [
9,
2
],
"text": [
"they don't require special hospitals. \n\nVeterans get free medical care because they served their country. Think of VA medical care like a special medical insurance plan. In most medical insurance plans you can only go see certain doctors and visit certain hospitals for treatment, The VA is like it's own medical insurance plan.",
"I don't think they do. This was likely something born out of convenience for the government and sold as being convenient for the veterans. \n\nFrom the government's point of view, everything is centralized. Vet is sick? Send them to the nearest VA. Literally everything *should* be under that roof.\n\nFrom a Vets point of view, doctors who only work with veterans should be the best suited to do so. Imagine going to a psychiatrist who sees a bunch of ADD kids and then you. The person who watched his friends die in Iraq. It doesn't seem like this is the best doctor, but maybe you don't know how to find a better one. \n\nCentralization and lack of competition can obviously have drawbacks though. As of a year or two ago, the VA started allowing Vets to go see outside providers for certain issues. (\"Allow\" meaning the VA still pays). I haven't seen any major complaints yet so we'll see where that goes. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] | ||
4oxkxz | after watching got tonight, how do stunt horses avoid getting hurt in action movies? | You watch a race horse fracture a bone in their leg and they are almost always euthanized, but horses in action movies look like they are legit falling over and stuff. How much of it is Hollywood and do these horses ever get hurt? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4oxkxz/eli5_after_watching_got_tonight_how_do_stunt/ | {
"a_id": [
"d4gfamk"
],
"score": [
12
],
"text": [
"[This] (_URL_0_) is how they did it. Quite amazing how many horses were actually involved. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"https://youtu.be/B93k4uhpf7g"
]
] | |
xcaxv | what will happen to north korean athletes who lose? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/xcaxv/eli5_what_will_happen_to_north_korean_athletes/ | {
"a_id": [
"c5l4jmm",
"c5l5vx1",
"c5l793d",
"c5l8f7y",
"c5l9eiv",
"c5l9mr8",
"c5l9van",
"c5lahwv",
"c5lbzhb",
"c5lceu3"
],
"score": [
88,
89,
6,
71,
11,
3,
2,
3,
3,
2
],
"text": [
"They have the glorious opportunity to help their country increase production of millet and foodstuffs, all while experiencing the majesty of the North Korean countryside. ",
"All North Korean athletes win every event they enter.\n\nIn all likelihood, that is what the North Korea media will be reporting. ",
"I'm guessing we're all being banned from /r/pyongyang right now...",
"Every post here is a joke. This really shouldn't be an ELI5 either but I'll answer it anyway. The truth is we really don't know. The athletes probably don't know, either. They'll probably go back home and pretend they won every event, train some more, and partake in the next Olympic games. There will probably be no repercussions but the truth is no one really knows.",
"Most of these comments are awful. Speaking as someone who follows the table tennis pretty intently - the North Koreans are pretty good, they have three guys in the top 100. These guys have been playing and losing for years, and nothing has happened to them. Despite this, who knows what might happen to them. NK is a black hole for reliable information",
"This is not suitable for ELI5. ",
"Death by living in North Korea with a planned economy that is really terrible and inefficient. The same fate as the rest of them.",
"This thread is just horrible, as if the North Koreans kill everyone who makes a mistake or is not the greatest athlete in the world. This is the kind of nationalism that leads to war. ",
"This is not an ELI5 post. It warrants an answer, not a simplified explanation, therefore it should be posted to /r/Answers. ",
"North Korea is the best Korea. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] | ||
21npak | why isn't it easier to remove salt from ocean floor dirt in order to replace irrigated top-soil? | I hope I phrased that in a way that makes sense. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/21npak/eli5_why_isnt_it_easier_to_remove_salt_from_ocean/ | {
"a_id": [
"cgesym1"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"If you washed all the salt out of the soil, you would also wash all the nutrients out of it as well. The soil would be completely sterile, and be no good for growing things. \nAs for replacing the water - you'd be better off desalinating the water and watering the dry soil with that. Desalinating water, in amounts needed for irrigation, uses insane amounts of energy.\n\nYou would also need lots of fresh water to wash the salt out of the soil. You'd be much better off using the water to irrigate the existing soil.\n\n"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | |
dddddq | why is it that we have to pee all day throughout the day but when we go to sleep we don’t pee for 6+ hours. isn’t it bad to hold pee/why don’t we have to pee as often? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/dddddq/eli5_why_is_it_that_we_have_to_pee_all_day/ | {
"a_id": [
"f2ftv0b",
"f2fxuc1"
],
"score": [
11,
2
],
"text": [
"You're generally drinking water and consuming food with water content during the day, but not while you're sleeping. Additionally, while you're asleep many biological processes slow down, including the kidneys taking water out of the bloodstream which then get stored in the bladder for later excretion.",
"Changes in hormonal levels during sleep, including higher levels of aldosterone and antidiuretic hormone, prevent us from needing to go to the toilet. In children, while the hormonal system is still developing, bedwetting may be partly influenced by low levels of antidiuretic hormone. [Source](_URL_0_)"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[
"https://www.sciencealert.com/chemical-messengers-how-hormones-help-us-sleep"
]
] | ||
33h9mf | how does multiple personality disorder work? | Is it something you're born with or something developed? Do some personalities know that the individual has multiple personality disorder? Just the basics of it appreciated too. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/33h9mf/eli5_how_does_multiple_personality_disorder_work/ | {
"a_id": [
"cqkvd78",
"cqkw6q9",
"cql5mh2"
],
"score": [
8,
3,
2
],
"text": [
"\"Multiple personality disorder\", that is having several different \"minds\" in one brain/body, is not recognized by modern medicine as a legitimate psychological disorder. The closest that comes to it is [Dissociative identity disorder](_URL_0_). If you read the wikipedia article, you'll see a discussion on how even that is extremely controversial among medical professionals. \n\nIn general dissociative identity disoder is brought on or accompanied by schizophrenia, drug abuse, or other similar factors that induce an altered state of mind. ",
"I'll try to sum it up for you as best I can. Before I begin I should mention that multiple personality disorder is no longer known as multiple personality disorder, but rather as dissociative identity disorder. First off, in terms of development, often times people with dissociative identity disorder had severe childhood trauma. Hence the word dissociative being included in the name, for the reason that they dissociate from reality by means of different personalities which can handle different things. For example of a reason one might need to dissociate, being painfully beaten or other very violent forms of poor treatment like severe childhood sexual abuse are (relatively) common reasons. The disorder comes as a result of the brain's way of coping with the trauma, or at least that is what is hypothesized. There is usually a main personality which is in fact aware of the other personalities, but in most cases, aside from the main personality, the personalities are not aware of each other. It goes as far as memories that are stored by a particular personality are only available for that personality to remember. Actually, some of the personalities can actually be the same personality but in different stages of life. Patient 'X', as I'll refer to the example as, could have an adult form of his personality and also a 3 year old version of his personality as well. Any other questions? There are a lot of really good resources online that might be able to explain it further.",
"The most common theory as to how DID arises (assuming that it actually exists; as other redditors said its existence is controversial) is that it is a defense mechanism against child abuse where the child develops a personality that can deal with what is happening. \n\nHowever, this doesn't explain why sufferers can develop so many personalities, especially when some of them wouldn't seem suited to it. Additionally, correlation doesn't equal causation; the theory came from observing a high incidence of child abuse among DID patients but that doesn't mean it directly causes it. Furthermore, much like how psychiatrists can unintentionally induce fake memories of child abuse in patients, they may be inducing personalities in suggestible patients that they suspect of having DID (like how hypnosis can cause people to behave differently)."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dissociative_identity_disorder"
],
[],
[]
] | |
eku4xd | why do all diodes have a forward voltage? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/eku4xd/eli5_why_do_all_diodes_have_a_forward_voltage/ | {
"a_id": [
"fdfva7q",
"fddnbeb",
"fddswnx"
],
"score": [
2,
9,
3
],
"text": [
"In the real world, semiconductor materials are not perfect. Even when the current is trying to flow in the direction that the diode allows, the imperfect materials require a small voltage to get the current flowing. That's the forward voltage.",
"Sounds oddly like school homework. \n\nThe electrical characteristics of the element silicon (and germanium) are such that a current flow will be allowed after a certain amount of pressure (voltage) is reached. The amount is different between the two materials. Those same properties prevent a flow in the opposite direction. \n\nHopefully that gives you a simple enough answer while being not enough to satisfy your teacher.",
"Imagine a diode as a one way water valve with a ball and spring, a certain amount of pressure is needed to overcome the spring force keeping the valve closed, that pressure is the forward voltage."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[]
] | ||
4cmao3 | what are the short term and long term effects of not flossing? | Most people I know in the millennial generation don't floss regularly and don't think it's necessary aside from being lectured by the dentist. Are there negative effects from this/how important really is it? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4cmao3/eli5_what_are_the_short_term_and_long_term/ | {
"a_id": [
"d1jg825"
],
"score": [
5
],
"text": [
"Short term effect is gingivitis. Because of all the plaque, you gums swell up because it is trying to fight off the germs lodged between teeth. It is harmless at this stage, but still isn't a good sign because it can become periodontitis.\n\nLong term effect is periodontitis. Remember gingivitis? The amount of germs and bacteria lodged between your teeth and gums have gotten so bad that your mouth has given up fighting it off. The gums slowly recede and when it gets bad enough, the tooth just falls out. When you get periodontitis, your dentist will require you to go to a specialized dentist to get your gum pockets cleaned out every 3 months.\n\nGum problems lead to other problems. Bacteria can get into your bloodstream through openings in your gums and this ends up infecting the rest of the body with another problem.\n\nTl;dr: Bad things beyond your imagination happens. Just floss."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | |
6uf112 | why does it seem like the same speeds are faster on one mode of transportation, but slow on others? | For example: If I ride my bike down the street at 10 mph, it feels like I'm going VERY FAST. However, if I did 10 mph in my car, it feels like
I'm crawling along, barely moving at all. Obviously I am going the same speed, in that my body is moving at the same speed, so why does the change in mode of transportation change my perception of how "fast" I am going? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6uf112/eli5_why_does_it_seem_like_the_same_speeds_are/ | {
"a_id": [
"dls8djb",
"dlsbdhf"
],
"score": [
5,
14
],
"text": [
"It is because of where you're looking. When you're biking you're more likely looking at the ground directly in front of you, when you're driving you're looking at more distant objects. The closer something is to you, the faster it appears to be moving. If you stare out the car window directly onto the ground, you'll feel like you're going pretty fast, but if you look at distant trees, you'll feel like you're going slowly. ",
"This question was asked before, and I will try and paraphrase what I can remember.\n\nEssentially, the crux of the explaination was: When you are on your bike, you feel more. You feel the wind, you feel each step you take, you feel the gravity pulling you down the hill. Each turn the g forces increase.\n\nIn a car, you feel. Less. There is a static cage around you, there is often times no wind in your face, and with power steering and all the advancements made to the frames, you generally feel less response to the speed of things. You also can experience a thing called Velocitation, which is a phenomenon wherein if you drive at high speeds for a long time, you feel as if you are going slower than you really are. Try to think: Going 30mph on your houses street would be really fast, but then you get on the highway and go 80 for an hour. When you get off and you are going 30 again, it wont feel the same. It will feel sooooooooooooooo sslllllooooooooooow. Even though its the same 30 as before."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] | |
ogt0e | who exactly profits from student debt? where exactly does all of that money go? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ogt0e/eli5_who_exactly_profits_from_student_debt_where/ | {
"a_id": [
"c3h556e"
],
"score": [
7
],
"text": [
"Just like any other loan, the company that issues the loan benefits, otherwise they couldn't stay in business.\n\nYou really want to eat a $10 fancy lunch today, but you have no money.\n\nIf I give you $10 and say, \"You can pay me back in a year, but I'm going to add $1 every month\". So you get your $10 right away to pay for lunch, but by the time you pay me back, you will owe me $22. (This is interest)\n\n**12 Months Later:**\n\nYou still don't have any money and I'm still short $10, but you \"owe\" me $22.\n\nIn order for me not to lose money, I will sell my debt. I talk to my buddy Bob and say, \"Trioxin owes me $22 dollars. I'll sell you my contract for $10.50.\"\n\nBob gives me $10.50 (I've made 50 cents) and now you owe Bob $22 (or however much Bob wants to charge). Bob will probably be more demanding and start taking other things you own, if you don't have actual money to give.\n___\nEdit:\n\nSome loans allow you to pay it off over a long period of time.\n\nDuring that time, the amount you have to pay back is growing (because of interest) but also the money that you've already given the loan agency is growing, because they're investing it or loaning it out to other people to get even more interest on it."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | ||
2v6tup | if legal growth of hemp ruins huge industries why don't those indutries use the benefits and that way stay in the buisness? | Why are/have they fought against the legalization to benefit their industries when they could be the ones using it to the fullest? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2v6tup/eli5_if_legal_growth_of_hemp_ruins_huge/ | {
"a_id": [
"coey1sm"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"No incentive, they're all about money. A hemp rope may be better than say a cotton rope, but if the cotton rope frays or tears sooner, then you have to buy a new one. Boom, they've sold two ropes in the time that they would have only sold one hemp one."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | |
2qs27m | if water in lungs is a dangerous scenario, would it be bad to breathe in water vapor? | Wouldn't the vapor condense once in our lungs and therefore cause this serious issue. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2qs27m/eli5_if_water_in_lungs_is_a_dangerous_scenario/ | {
"a_id": [
"cn8zgdt",
"cn8zlz2"
],
"score": [
5,
3
],
"text": [
"There is always water vapor present in the air we breathe [(humidity)](_URL_0_) so no, it is not bad to breathe water vapor.\n\nedit: formatting",
"Not really, it doesn't condense fast enough to be problematic. In fact, dry air is not very nice, if you ever travel to the desert you'll know what I mean. All air has some amount of water vapor though."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humidity"
],
[]
] | |
7msqjl | why do butane torch lighters need a minute to work after filling? | Every time I fill a butane lighter or torch it needs to rest a minute or two before it will work, why is that? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7msqjl/eli5_why_do_butane_torch_lighters_need_a_minute/ | {
"a_id": [
"drwen3h"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"Butane lighters commonly use a sponge-like filling to absorb butane, it takes a small amount of time for the butane to reach the wick "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | |
1e4glz | how does a mechanical wind mill work? | I can't seem to find the right website to give me details about it without having to run into a wall of seemingly incoherent text. I'm not talking about a turbine that produces electrictiy but a windmill that produces mechanical power such as to pump water etc | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1e4glz/eli5how_does_a_mechanical_wind_mill_work/ | {
"a_id": [
"c9wp8cm"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"the face of the windmill(the blades) turn, this turning is transferred to an up and down movement via a mechnism shown here _URL_1_ and here _URL_0_ (scroll down)\na little clearer here.\n\nEDIT: another version of doing it here (on its side :P) : _URL_2_"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"http://www.ironmanwindmill.com/how-windmills-work.htm",
"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03VMxlazPJU",
"http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=fvwp&v=hsaoTo1vuY4"
]
] | |
1c9ils | can somebody give me a layman's description of the difference between different computer processor "architechtures?" | Will try to keep this brief.
1. I know a little more than the average bear when it comes to computers, but rather than get a more technical answer than I may be able to handle, I felt this was an appropriate subreddit.
2. I had somebody, in extremely simple terms explain the basics of the Nehalem architecture, and why it was a huge deal in the world of processing in a computer. He basically (hope I'm not representing him incorrectly) said that the workflow that the CPU required to retrieve information from the hard drive and subsequently process it was basically changed, thus requiring a less intensive need for the L2 cache and allowing quicker response times from the machine.
In short, if someone could brief me on the difference between what was industry standard versus Nehalem vs Westmere architectures, I would be most appreciative. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1c9ils/eli5_can_somebody_give_me_a_laymans_description/ | {
"a_id": [
"c9ecg3o",
"c9ee2u9",
"c9ehz3a"
],
"score": [
4,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"I'd like this too- to the layman, it often seems like differences are attempts to purposely avoid cross- compatibility of components between brands. ",
"At the layman level, Nehalem and whatever else are all the same architecture:x86-64. Which is just the 64-bit version of the x86.\n\n*Real* different architectures, like ARM, Alpha, PowerPC, and going back in time, M68000, or Z80 and 6502, have different registers, different instruction sets, and different bus architectures.",
"Nehalem and Westmere are actually \"microarchitectures\". Usually, when someone refers to a processor's architecture, they're referring to the instruction set architecture. A microarchitecture is just the way in which a processor implements the instruction set architecture. The two you mention are made for the same ISA, so they're essentially compatible. The ELI5 of different microarchitectures for the same ISA is that you can think of it like Coke and Pepsi; you drink them the same way, they're pretty much the same thing, but they're a little different in ways you probably won't notice unless you're paying close attention. The 64-bit \"x86\" ISA, which the microarchitectures you mention implement, is the one that's effectively the industry standard for desktops and laptops (though outside of that market it's not as common, with good reason.)\n\n---\n\nThe thing you were referring to is \"Intel QuickPath Interconnect\", which was introduced in Nehalem. You basically gave the best ELI5 possible on that. The processor can talk more directly to the peripherals (like hard drives) which means it can do so more quickly.\n\nWestmere is basically the next version after Nehalem. It introduced a few new features. Most notably, you can now tell the processor some new instructions to make it do encryption stuff faster, and it lets you have more cores on the processor."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[]
] | |
1nv7va | why do we get brief moments of insanity? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1nv7va/eli5_why_do_we_get_brief_moments_of_insanity/ | {
"a_id": [
"ccmdb8t"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"You're not insane if your mind considers \"what if?\". It would be different if you have a great urge to actually do it."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | ||
3iv86i | why aren't syrian refugees going east? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3iv86i/eli5_why_arent_syrian_refugees_going_east/ | {
"a_id": [
"cujwx60",
"cujwzew",
"cujx3ru"
],
"score": [
5,
3,
2
],
"text": [
"Look at a map. Syria is bordered to the east by Iraq, and in reality much of that territory is under the control of Isis. Going east over land gets you, at best, into Iran and possibly north if you can manage it. There aren't a lot of good options. North, on the other hand, is Turkey, a modern and relatively free nation with paths on to Europe. Where would you go with your family in tow? Through Isis, Iraq, and Iran? Or through Turkey into Europe?",
"The eastern part of Syria is controlled by ISIS, as is the bordering region of Iraq, so that is hardly a refuge for people hoping to escape the ravages of civil war. The easiest route is into Turkey, and from thence into Greece; although some take boats to Italy. ",
"Most have flooded into the countries immediately surrounding Syria ([here](_URL_0_) are the numbers by country). Turkey, Lebanon, and Jordan, and Iraq have taken by far the most. \n\nRussia has offered some money and to take around 1000 refugees. China pledged money to Jordan but is not accepting refugees. Iran has also sent aid to refugees but doesn't look to be accepting any.\n\nA big reason why Syrian refugees are going to Europe instead of these other places is that:\n\n* they can get there\n\n* they won't likely be turned away"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refugees_of_the_Syrian_Civil_War"
]
] | ||
ce805b | why is using cruise control more efficient than simply maintaining the speed manually? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ce805b/eli5_why_is_using_cruise_control_more_efficient/ | {
"a_id": [
"etzwsgw",
"etzwxdv",
"etzxwo3",
"etzzqis",
"eu04q4p"
],
"score": [
7,
4,
11,
5,
2
],
"text": [
"In my experience it's more about convenience than efficiency. I find that in some situations cruise control is actually less efficient, because when the computer realizes that the vehicle isn't travelling fast enough it will push too hard sometimes to regain that speed. Especially on hills.",
"Because the exact amount of engine revolutions needed to maintain that speed is being used.\n\nThis means that provided you don't suddenly go up hill or have to make sudden changes in direction, the amount of fuel used is constant.\n\nWhen you drive manually you are constantly speeding up and slowing down based on the pressure of your foot on the accelerator. This is less efficient overall.",
"When you drive without cruise, you tend to speed up and slow down quite a bit, by a few kph. Every time you speed up that couple kph, you waste a small amount of gas. Then there are up and downhills, which both suck up your gas. You tend to speed in both, and on larger uphills might give way more gas than nececsary.\nCruise control can detect the speed variation much earlier and adjust correctly.",
"Because the ECU is better at it than you are. \n\nThere are situations where a good driver can be more efficient than the cruise control but normally the cruise control will fluctuate less than a human. The power required to maintain a certain speed goes up as the square of the speed so the if you go a little above then a little below, you burn more energy for the same average speed than just maintaining that exact speed.\n\nTo try to give an example:\n\nLet's assume something like:\n100 km/hr - > 32 kW\n90 km/hr - > 27 kW\n80 km/hr - > 24 kW\n\nOver 1 hr, the car that does 90 km/hr steady burns 27kWhr of fuel.\nOver the same hour the car that fluctuates between 80 and 100 burns 32+24/2 = 28 kWhr of fuel. The difference here is due to the fact that 80 to 90 is 3kW and 90 to 100 is 5kw.",
"It's because cruise control has sensors to determine current speed and growth or decline rate of said speed to use minimal gas to get back to cruising rate with minimal fuel usage - as opposed to human who goes \"fack too slow\" (presses gas) \"fack. Speeding.\" (Presses break) repeat.\n\nTldr. Math is faster on a computer than any human mind. Maintaining speed given current velocity varies based on your terrain. Cpu wins.\n\nSorry if this was said."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] | ||
5bv2m5 | how do servers never lose data if some of the hard drives fail ? | Harddrive failure is a common thing but it seems that servers almost never lose the data from customers. How is this possible ?
| explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5bv2m5/eli5_how_do_servers_never_lose_data_if_some_of/ | {
"a_id": [
"d9rfrd8",
"d9rfz8i",
"d9rgb06",
"d9rgi34"
],
"score": [
4,
9,
9,
3
],
"text": [
"Redundancy. There are duplicates of each server so that if one fails they can just run off the ones still up, and copy one of those to the replacement drive and keep on going.",
"Servers usually have multiple hard drives set up to be clones of each other. \n\nI've worked with servers that could \"hot swap\" drives, you can pull out a busted one and put in a replacement while it's still running. It'll automatically start filling up the drive with a copy from the other ones.",
"There are ways to make use of several hard drives at the same time so that data is a lot less likely to get lost.\n\nFrom the simplest, mirroring, where you simply have two identical hard drives and write the data to both at the same time (and where you, thanks to new-ish technology, can have the extra hard drive in another city or even another country) and need twice as much storage as you actually make use of.\n\nTo the more advanced where you spread out data on several drives and more than one drive have to fail at the same time to create data loss. because of a storage scheme where the same data exists on more than one drive simultaneously.\n\nAnd then, of course, backups. If the worst happens and there is an actual data loss that they can't recover from, they pull the storage offline and restore to a previously known state, admit that whatever happened the last day is lost, sulk about it, and carry on.\n\nIn reality, a lot of small web hosting customers won't even notice that their site is restored to yesterdays state, since they hardly change it once a month anyway. it's worse for enterprise customers, though, but they have usually requested and paid for a solution where there data is protected by being mirrored to two separate locations in the first place, and they probably won't care a bit that the London site is down for two hours since the Paris site is still seamlessly up and running.",
"A lot of people are talking about RAID. That's a great solution when you have a single server that you really don't want to go down. Essentially you have multiple hard drives that are all cloning each other in real time, so if one fails everything continues normally with the remaining drives.\n\nThe downside there is that hot-swappable RAID arrays are expensive.\n\nWhat a lot of tech companies do instead is to have thousands and thousands of really cheap servers, and back up all of the data in multiple locations around the world. When hard drives fail, they power down the whole machine and swap out the drive, then power it back on. Because everything is so redundant, nobody notices the downtime.\n"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[]
] | |
3ii6so | ; entropy - if entropy states that everything becomes less organised, how did complex things like my eye come to be? in fact how does any life fit into this theory - surely it all involves increased complexity? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3ii6so/eli5_entropy_if_entropy_states_that_everything/ | {
"a_id": [
"cugmbpa",
"cugmcmh",
"cugmecu",
"cugmf07",
"cugmgup",
"cugmizc",
"cugmjm0",
"cugms7l",
"cugmxjt",
"cugowe1",
"cugsli4"
],
"score": [
2,
3,
2,
2,
2,
7,
2,
13,
2,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"It's entropy calculated across the whole closed system. Local pockets of order do not increase overall entropy in the system. ",
"Entropy doesnt say that everything individually becomes less organized. It says as a whole the entire system becomes less organized. So animals can become more complex and organized but by doing so they are making something else less organized. When the affects are combined you end up with a net movement towards disorder.",
"In a closed system this is true, but locally it can change, We are being bombarded by the suns energy so complexity can easily arise here on earth, if you calculated the entropy of the entire universe however it has increased even though we have developed eyes during that time.",
"Entropy is related to energy and order, you can make a system more ordered by doing work. You are trading order for energy when more complex systems are built. ",
"Organization of the sort you're thinking of is a *type* of entropy, but the actual concept is a bit broader than that. The increase in entropy caused by life is **more** than offset by the decrease in entropy caused by the sun fusing hydrogen into helium and spewing energy out into space, including the energy needed to push the local entropy on Earth backwards a bit.\n\nIn fact, if local increases in entropy weren't possible, then refrigerators would defy the laws of physics.",
"There's a major point of the second law of Thermodynamics—the law that you're referencing—that often gets overlooked: it only applies to a \"closed system,\" and it only applies to the overall entropy of that system.\n\nA closed system is an area such that no matter or energy may enter or leave the area. You could imagine a perfectly insulated box as a closed system. However, Earth is *not* a closed system. It gets a ton of energy coming in from the sun.\n\nWhen you have energy coming into a system then you can have entropy decreasing within that system. For example, your house decreases entropy when the refrigerator moves heat from its cold inside to the warmer outside. Arranging all of the cold molecules together and all of the warm molecules together is more ordered than having molecules of all temperatures all over the place.\n\nYou could look at the universe as a whole as a closed system, but then you can still allow things like life by looking at the second caveat: *total* entropy increases, while local entropy may decrease. In the case of the solar system, creating order on Earth requires energy which came from an entropy-increasing interaction of taking in energy from the sun and losing it to space. There's a net increase in entropy with this interaction, even though the entropy on earth may go down. ",
"Basically anytime some set of objects become more complex and ordered (their entropy decreases) they end up increasing the entropy of their environments even more.\n\nI may be able to eat something and use that energy and material to build an eye (decreasing entropy within the me-food system), but in doing so I'll bleed so much wasted heat to the outside world that the the entropy of the universe, overall, will still increase.",
"Complexity is not the opposite of entropy. They're closely related in a very subtle manner. A cup of coffee with milk actually explains this issue perfectly. \n\nThe very early universe had very low entropy, but also very low complexity. This is similar to having a cup of warm coffee and a glass of cold milk next to it. Low entropy, low complexity. \n\nNow the universe started evolving. It expands, things start to lump together with the help of gravity. Out of this hot soup of stuff that was almost uniform across the universe stars start to form. Then planets. Eventually life and you and me. Entropy is going up, but so is complexity. It's getting much more interesting. This is similar to pouring the cold milk in the hot coffee. Next time you pour milk into a cup of coffee and notice the complex structures you see in the coffee as the milk mixes. This is not just an analogy for how complexity arose in the universe, it's literally the same process. Increase in entropy is the driving force behind the emergence of complexity. \n\nAs the universe evolves into the future entropy will keep increasing, but at some point it will start becoming less complex. All the amazing structure we see will eventually disappear and we'll be left with a very boring universe. You might have already guessed what is going to happen to our coffee and milk. It will eventually mix. All the interesting complexity you saw as they were mixing will disappear and you'll be left with a brown boring mixture. \n\nThere's a nice illustration here: _URL_0_\n\n",
"Life is sometimes defined as moving away from entropy. So a living thing needs a barrier to keep everything together, as well as the ability to move away from waste and toward energy. Living things are constantly taking in energy to avoid entropy! ",
"In short, according to 2nd law of thermodynamics, chemical reactions tend to go from a less entropic state to a more entropic state. If you want to go from a more entropic state to a less entropic one, you will need to compensate in some ways, usually in terms of energy. We consume energy to go through chemical reactions that reduces entropy, to stay 'stabilised'.",
"The explanation to this still leaves questions unanswered. The entropy in an open system always tends to increase, no matter how much external energy is available to it from the sun or any other source. To offset this tendency, the external energy must somehow be supplied to it as organizing information rather than raw energy(think of a bull in a china shop). If the energy of the sun somehow is going to transform the non-living molecules of the primordial soup into complex, highly organized, replicating living cells, and then to transmute populations of simple organisms into complex, thinking beings, then that energy has to be stored and converted into an detailed array of sophisticated machinery by an intricate array of complex codes and programs. If such codes and mechanisms are not available on the earth, then the incoming heat energy will simply disintegrate any organized systems that might accidentally have shown up there. The random aspect is a significant issue in this theory."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[
"http://www.scottaaronson.com/coffee-lrg.jpg"
],
[],
[],
[]
] | ||
z6v6y | how do tornadoes form, and sustain their vortex? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/z6v6y/eli5_how_do_tornadoes_form_and_sustain_their/ | {
"a_id": [
"c62302s"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"Ever watch water going down the bath tub drain? Even though the water was relatively motionless before you opened the drain, the low pressure area you introduced by opening the drain causes a rotating vortex to form in the water.\n\nTornadoes work in much the same way. They're associated with low pressure areas, after all. The low pressure area is formed when winds moving in opposite directions produce a rotating motion on the mass of air between them, kind of like stirring water in a mixing bowl. Like the water in the mixing bowl, the atmosphere is actually *thinner* in the low-pressure area--that is, the column of air pressing down on that part of the Earth isn't as tall as normal. If you could see the low pressure area from space, it would literally look like a depressed spot. Occasionally, the area of rotating air contracts and speeds up (conservation of angular momentum) and forms a vortex: a tornado. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | ||
6b4qnq | why do most bathroom scales fail to register a small amount of weight? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6b4qnq/eli5_why_do_most_bathroom_scales_fail_to_register/ | {
"a_id": [
"dhjr11g",
"dhjr9t3"
],
"score": [
2,
2
],
"text": [
"Bathroom scales can be either analog/mechanical (like [this](_URL_1_), in case you've never seen one) or digital.\n\nUltimately, however, they both measure weight by measuring the compression of a spring or something like that (like a [piezoelectric transducer](_URL_0_)) due to the weight of the person on top of it. \n\nWeight is a force and can move objects. In particular, when you consider a spring subjected to a force F, you can write (under some simplified conditions) F=kx, where k is the spring constant and it is known. Now since weight=mg is a force, you get mg=kx. Simple math leads to m=kx/g. Since k and g (9.81 m/s^2) are both known, you can obtain the mass m by measuring the spring compression x.\n\nNow you may get why most scales fail to register a small amount of weight. If m is very small, x is very small too and the scale is no more able to measure that compression.\n",
"Bathroom acales are made to read weight, but most people are only looking for significant changes +or - like 3 pounds, not tenths of a pound, at my school we have a scale for wrestling where that tenth of a point matters, and it measures accurately to one hundredth of a pound, so these companies that make scales save money by making it less accurate "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"http://www.explainthatstuff.com/piezoelectricity.html",
"http://c.shld.net/rpx/i/s/i/spin/image/spin_prod_178533801??hei=64&wid=64&qlt=50"
],
[]
] | ||
eqgv39 | why do most coats and winter jackets only cover our torsos, leaving our legs to get soaked through our pants? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/eqgv39/eli5_why_do_most_coats_and_winter_jackets_only/ | {
"a_id": [
"ferq1ah",
"ferse04"
],
"score": [
5,
3
],
"text": [
"Get a trenchcoat, they can be as cheap as 20$ at thrift and surplus stores.\n\nAlso, historically people wear wool pants or sweatpants under regulars. Canvas that's been doped, etc.\n\nThe whole \"jacket and nothing else\" is a modern style stemming from vehicles with heaters and buildings with stoves.",
"Coats and winter jackets are meant to provide insulation/warmth. You should look into trench coats, or rain coats. There ARE jackets that cover your legs, you're just not looking for the right type of jacket."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] | ||
2dzlpf | why do we write the letter "a" like an "o" with a tail but type it like an backwards "6"? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2dzlpf/eli5_why_do_we_write_the_letter_a_like_an_o_with/ | {
"a_id": [
"cjulj2w",
"cjunx84",
"cjuo8zp",
"cjuocmf",
"cjuq3k4",
"cjutgz4",
"cjutz0e",
"cjuxgu0",
"cjuzzjg",
"cjv245g"
],
"score": [
223,
12,
40,
8,
2,
39,
7,
2,
6,
2
],
"text": [
"Easier visible differentiation. \n\nThe small letter \"a\" like in this font is much easier to tell apart from an \"o\" than the \"O|\" combined shape. Consider the words \"ball\" and \"boll\". If the printing press (the precursor of the typewriter) had any blurring at all in its ink, you wouldn't be able to tell which was which if the ink ran the \"a\" and the \"l\" together in the first word. Ditto oh/ah; fob/fab; loon/loan and so on.\n\nBut it's hard to write an \"a\" while continuing to the rest of the letters in the word without lifting the pen, so we write the O| version instead. We do the same while writing the letter k, putting a loop in the top right leg so we can continue onto the rest of the word without slowing down to reposition the pen.",
"\"a\" is much closer to the original type for the letter as written by the [Greeks](_URL_1_) and in [Latin] (_URL_0_), but a slow diviation between the two versions exists due to handwriting. You can see from the early versions of the letter how the tail can become more prominent and the top curl less so, but still have enough differences to be told apart from any other letter. It became preference and in modern terms the difference in font.",
"I write my A's like this \"a\". Started in like 7th grade just to be different. Same with my 7's and z's. I put a line thru them. Don't know why, just know I do. ",
"There are plenty of typefaces that do not use a \"two story a\" like Futura.\n\nIt can be a stylistic choice from the typeface designer.\n\nA 2 story 'a' is similar to a lowercase 'g' like you would find in a font like Times New Roman, where it is a 2 story g, it looks like an 8.",
"In second grade I got in trouble for writing my a's as \"a\", I was told that was the wrong way to write them. Since then I refuse to write my a's any other way. Plus \"a\" just looks so much cooler than the o with a tail.",
"You guys ɑre just typing your ɑ's wrong.",
"ELI4: Your question.",
"Lol \"an backwards 6\"",
"Historically Roman scripts have existed in several variations. \n\nWe’ll take Roman Capitals as a starting point, the way they were inscribed in stone [pictured on the top right here.](_URL_0_)\n\nWritten, not inscribed, they take the form of rustic capitals below, in the middle ages the took the form of uncial and halfuncial (not shown, which had more of a single story a, ie o-with-a-tail), later carolingian miniscule (miniscule meaning small letters.) In the renaissance the printed roman type, we still have (more or less) today, developed. The miniscule, in this case the humanist miniscule (derived from the carolingian), was combined with the letters of the Roman capitals to form a type system with \"two cases\". (I’m mentioning this, because it shows, that the \"A\" and \"a\" we have today are also in essence just a variation of the same letter.) \n\nThe Renaissance also brought the humanist cursive (also derived from the carolingian miniscule), which was written with a slant and letters were written in way that doesn’t require lifting the pen. The a with one stroke, in the form of the single-story a, as opposed to the two strokes of the double story a. [Shitty Wikipedia rendering.](_URL_1_) The cursive also became a printing type. During the Baroque period those italics and roman types formed the union we know today, just as capitals and lower case letters did before.\n\nToday it’s a variation that is seen often in italics, but also used in roman (non-italic) typefaces, such as the modernist, geometric Futura, as mentioned somewhere. (Paul Renner, designer of Futura designed a [geometric double story a](_URL_2_), which looks weird to us now, whereas the other a does not). Often times geometric typefaces like this are used for children to learn writing, the idea presumably being that geometric construction is easier to grasp and copy. This, historical handwriting scripts and the reason that it’s faster to write is presumably the reason this version is prevalent in handwriting, where as the other is more common in type.\n \ntldr: The o-with-a-tail-a is in essence just a variation of the A, it’s origin is in handwriting, as it can be written faster.",
"I write it like a backwards six. It's fun."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A#mediaviewer/File:Latin-uncial-1.jpg",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Greek-uncial-1.jpg"
],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[
"http://www.nixberg.at/uni/pim/module/bilder/Entwicklung_des_A.jpg",
"https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a5/... | ||
2qttx9 | it seems like a lot of my classmates who are in the military are getting married sooner, starting families sooner, etc. why is this? | So I'm a 19 year old guy, and I've noticed lately on my Facebook feed a lot of my classmates from high school that joined the military right after graduating are getting married, having kids, and even buying new houses for their new families.
Now these people aren't even that old; they're about my age (between 19-21) so I'm curious as to whether there's a correlation or a reason why people in the military get married sooner and settle down faster than everyone else my age? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2qttx9/eli5_it_seems_like_a_lot_of_my_classmates_who_are/ | {
"a_id": [
"cnuth3b",
"cn9fk9m",
"cn9fkfd",
"cn9fnco",
"cn9fnjp",
"cn9ftwn",
"cn9i2pf",
"cn9kcrf",
"cn9o1de",
"cn9og48"
],
"score": [
2,
8,
2,
3,
2,
15,
4,
2,
3,
2
],
"text": [
"Its mostly money and venefit related. The military has a lot of benefits for families like healthcare, schooling, even subsided daycare etc plus its a safe and stable job",
"From what I understand (co worker is a vet, I asked him) you get a lot of benefits in the military for being married, not the least of which is a pay raise. (The gov wants you married and having children. They will grow up and either pay taxes or be a soldier like daddy/mommy)\n\nEdit: If this is completely off, forgive me, in not super familiar, just my understanding of the situation. (Also I accidentally a word)",
"Its a stable secure job at a young age (provided you don't die) that teaches you a lot of discipline and values, most people don't want to get married and have kids because they don't think they are ready, military service can make you grow and mature very quickly. ",
"They are physically fit, somewhat financially secure, and they have a closer level of contact to death and dying than the average person. I would imagine that has some sort of psychological impact regarding their mortality and some would argue it is a natural human instinct to avoid death through reproduction (passing on your genes etc. etc.) Being in a position that allows them to purchase a house/live independently finance-wise is just icing on the cake.",
"Pursuing a college education versus going into the military also pushes back when you have kids and get married because you have other commitments and involvements. Being in the military is just an adult job with an adult life that can accompany it- outside all of the other benefit others have mentioned. ",
"Reasons that have been given include that **because military personnel are expected to see combat, they will consider \"completing\" monumental life events** such as marriage, having children sooner, aimed also at giving their long-time boy/girlfriends some closure and guarantee in the event that they unfortunately die in the line of duty. You would see a similar pattern before major wars whenever young men were drafted or conscripted, as they would decide to do the responsible thing and settle down quickly with their loves, at least for those who already have relatively secure relationships; they just stop \"fooling around\" and decide to commit to their future.\n\nHaving a family while in the military also grants **benefits to the serviceman/woman**, such as having some personal preference in choice of posting; weekend/off-base leave; leisure time; spouse and children benefits and so on. One might think that to settle down would make their military career more economically/psychologically beneficial to themselves, albeit with some possible, but tolerable trade-offs in career advancement.",
"In a word: Benefits. I saw this happen with many of my high school classmates as well (9/11 happened my junior year of high school, so a lot of my classmates enlisted) and if they should be deployed overseas and something should happen to them, a military spouse will receive a pension check where a girlfriend will get nothing. \n\nIt is also worth noting that the divorce rate among military personnel is rather high. ",
"Another reason is so that they can get their own place. I know people who have been in the military for a few months and then get married to the first person they meet. Its a quick way to beat the system for some. I'm not sure about other branches but in the Navy you have to be an E-4 with 4 years of service to qualify for single BAH. To each their own, I guess. ",
"As a military spouse, all of these responses are correct. In the military, they do not recognize your SO unless you are married. So, if something were to happen to you, even if you were together for 7 years, your SO wouldn't be able to visit or even get officially notified of it. The system is really screwed up that way. \n\nAlso, a lot of the SO support networks only really \"accept\" spouses. So if your guy is deployed and you want support, they aren't as receptive. \n\nPlus, the money/insurance aren't a bad perk either. ",
"It is because the military heavily subsidizes marriage and families with extra pay, off-base housing, more freedoms, status, and perks.\n\nThe pay and off-base housing increases your effective take-home, after tax discretionary income by 2.5 multiples or more.\n\nIt is why my high school dropout brother brings home the same or more than I do with a degree in Chemistry and 10 years experience (about 8oK/year\n)."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] | |
3nsnub | when people make money off the stock market, ultimately, from whom are they taking that money? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3nsnub/eli5_when_people_make_money_off_the_stock_market/ | {
"a_id": [
"cvqx0ab",
"cvqx5d7",
"cvqx8vk",
"cvqxq02",
"cvqxrmr",
"cvqyycx",
"cvqz6cn",
"cvqzch3",
"cvqzlxe",
"cvr15uh",
"cvr1ml8",
"cvr1v87",
"cvr3n09",
"cvr4c2y",
"cvr4wyb",
"cvr4zet",
"cvr58p6",
"cvr598d",
"cvr5g2m",
"cvr5qsy",
"cvr61wr",
"cvr629h",
"cvr69xv",
"cvr69za",
"cvr6c8t",
"cvr6eqe",
"cvr6ls6",
"cvr6mdb",
"cvr6nit",
"cvr6r3j",
"cvr6rk6",
"cvr6vek",
"cvr6vzf",
"cvr6ynp",
"cvr7gym",
"cvr7xju",
"cvr8o50",
"cvr8oi9",
"cvr8pbo",
"cvr8txx",
"cvr8vne",
"cvrk215"
],
"score": [
75,
2,
17,
3,
717,
4,
2,
25,
10,
2,
2,
2,
3,
2,
44,
2,
2,
2,
5,
2,
2,
2,
4,
2,
2,
2,
2,
2,
2,
3,
2,
2,
6,
2,
2,
2,
3,
5,
2,
2,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"They're not taking it from anyone.\n\nThe stock market isn't a \"zero sum game\". It's not a case of you earning money means someone else must lose.\n\nYou could make money by being paid dividends. In which case no one is having money \"taken\" from them.\n\nIf you make money by selling your stock, no one is having money taken from them. They're giving you money for stock. They didn't lose, they got the stock they wanted at the price they thought it was worth (or better) and you got the amount of money you thought the stock was worth (or more). The fact that two people can value things at different amounts means that both people can come out of the transaction as winners.",
"The stock market is a marketplace of people wanting to buy stock and sell stock. You make money by buying a stock at $10, and then later selling it at $12! Its like Pokemon cards when we were little.\n\nYou can think of the stock market as _URL_0_. That's a market as well, but with tons of items. Imagine _URL_0_ where people only bought and sold stocks. On some days, people will buy a stock for cheap, then sell it for more expensive later. So they are taking money from other buyers who were willing to buy it from them. \n\nWhy would a stock price go up or down? That's dependent on the company. That determines the value of the stock. Apple stocks are valuable because its a good company that will make tons of money and pay dividends to its stockholders, for example. Just like how vintage baseball cards go up in value and people will sell it, stocks will go up and down in value also. \n",
"Stocks aren't a zero-sum game, there isn't a loser that you are taking money from in most cases. Stocks are merely an asset that can rise and fall in valuation and if you sell it for more than you bought it for then you'd make money for it. Typically if a company is still undergoing a lot of growth or is making a lot of money by offering a new product then the share price/valuation will keep going up. ",
"There are a couple ways to make money with stocks. \n\nThe direct ones are buying the stock at price X and selling it at X+Y. \n\nThe other way to make money in stocks is through dividends payments. Each quarter, a company that is a publicly traded company may pay out a portion of its profits to its investors as dividends. \n\n",
"Going to try to ELY5 combining the mostly-right answers below with a couple additions. Warning, this will be too long. \n\nFirst things first - owning a stock is literally owning X% of a company. A \"share\" is just that - a portion of the company that the company sells to people in their initial public offering (IPO). When a company goes \"public,\" they are literally selling their company to the public and the units they sell are called \"shares\". \n\nHere's how you make money on the stock market with public companies. I'm going to pretend that the company is just represented by all the candy bars in a grocery store (each bar is a \"share\" of the entire company - \"all the candy bars\"): \n\nGoing \"long\" - You buy all of the candy bars after Halloween because they are on sale - $.50 per bar. You wait until February and, since it's Valentine's Day, you sell each bar for $2.00 because they are highly valued at that time. This is the most standard stock market process for individuals. \n\nGoing \"short\" - The opposite of going long! You don't have any candy bars. On Valentine's Day, you borrow 10 of someone else's bars and sell them for $2.00 each, promising to give them all their candy back. You wait until just after Halloween and buy 10 candy bars for $.50 because they're on sale, then give them to the person you borrowed from. You made the difference in profit and they keep all their candy. \n\nDividends! The grocery store makes so much money off of candy bars that the most valuable way for them to spend some of that money is to pay every person who owns their candy bars. This is incentive for you to keep their candy bars, makes other people want to buy their candy bars to get in on it, and lets the company offload some cash. \n\nAfter those three concepts, you get into things that are really too advanced for a 5 year-old. Regardless, you are taking money from people who are buying candy bars with the exception of the dividends that the company itself pays out.",
"The money comes from the people who buy the company's products.\n\nCompanies raise money from investors in the stock market. They use that money create products. They sell those products for more than it cost to make them. The resulting profits are paid back to the investors as dividends. \n\nStocks appreciate in value when there is news that suggests more people will be buying the company's products, and thus, more future dividends.\n\nStock market money comes either directly from current purchases by customers converted into dividends, or expectation of future purchases that will be converted into dividends.\n\n\n",
"Consumers > PAY > Company > PAY > Stakeholders. \nSelling stocks is a form of capital creation, like taking a loan. This way, buyers get a piece of the company's success/failure, rather than a specified amount of money back. This gives stocks a discernable value; so, of course, people started selling them to each other. Now, if you're an investor, you'll make most of your stock money from selling stocks to other people, rather than collecting money from the company proper. ",
"From whoever you sell your stocks to.\n\nWhen you hear that the price of some stock has rises, that means little to an owner of the stock. What it means is that on that day, someone solve the stock to someone else for, say, $10. When yesterday, people were selling that stock for $9.\n\nBut if you hold the stock, you don't somehow get money put into your bank account.\n\nWhat it might mean, however, is that you might now be able to sell your stock for $10. If you bought the stock originally for $6, you've made $4. You had $6 in your bank account, bought some shares, sold them, and now have $10 in your bank account.\n\nThe money you made ultimately came from the person you sold to. They gave you $10.\n\nIt's just like if you sell your comic book for more money than you bought it.",
"People are talking about stocks not being zero sum where each winner must be paid by a loser, but in a way, they are. \n\nThink of stock and dollars as physical things you trade at a swap meet. You're new to the swap meet and you bring a few dollars with you and you want to trade them for some stocks; you end up trading $1 for one stock. The guy you bought the stock from uses that $1 to buy a different stock. That dollar stays there getting traded back and forth by different people for different stocks. \n\nIf you trade the stock you have for $2 there is a real person (or company) somewhere that came up with a real $2 to pay you and that is $1 more than you brought to the swap meet. You would think that someone else must be $1 down. But, what really happened is a new guy like you showed up and brought some money and really wanted your stock because he didn't have any yet and felt left out. He wanted it so much, that he offered you $2 instead of $1 like everyone else. So, you're extra $1 came from the new guy and not from a different stock being worth $1 less. If that sounds like a pyramid scheme, it kind of is. So what kind of guy decides to take dollars to this pyramid scheme swap meet?\n\nEveryone with a retirement fund. Pretty much every regular full-time employee puts money into a 401k for retirement and that money is put into the stock market. So every pay period, a shit ton of new money pours into the markets, and that is how the amount of money in the stock market grows and the value of stocks goes up. When you retire and take money out of the market to live on, the total value of the market is offset by new people putting money in.\n\nIt is a little more complicated since the total number of dollars in the economy is always growing, so an equal number of people can retire and start investing and the market will still grow. That's why baby boomers retiring hasn't tanked the market.\n\nEDIT: I'd like to point out that the value of a stock is 100% based on how much people are willing to pay for it; that usually is based on how well the company is doing, but it doesn't have to have anything to do with company performance and often does not. Brand name stocks routinely inflate in value because people just view them as valuable (Apple, Google, etc), then they \"correct\" back down when everyone tries to sell them to take the profit (remember you are selling the stocks to real people/companies, so there is no profit until you sell the stock).",
"Hi,\n\nUltimately the money comes from the workers[1] (as always). \n\nThe stock market is ultimately about guessing what companies will make a profit and divide that profit amongst the shareholders. \n\nThe only way for a company to make a profit is to pay the workers less than what they contribute to the company. \n\nFor example, one worker makes a stylesheet for a website. If the worker is paid $100 for it and the company can sell it for $120 the company makes a profit of $20 on that work. \n\nThe same goes for resources, like gold, oil, rice, etc. They have a value on the market because someone actually did the work and made that resource available.\n\n[1] With workers I mean anyone that actually does work, including middle class jobs such as web developer, doctor, etc. Obviously working class jobs often have a larger profit margin that middle class jobs for the company.",
"In theory, they are directly taking the money from the corporation that sold the stocks initially, and yet indirectly they are taking money from no one since the volume decreased in shares of stock sold to yield financial gains simply detracts from the entirety of the particular stock market from which they made a profit; the stock market just gets smaller.",
"Money is made from other stock holders.\n\nIf I buy a share for $10 and then sell it for $17 I have made $7. That $7 came from the person or institution who purchased my share for $17. \n\n \n\nIf that particular stock pays dividends then the money you make comes from a share of the company's profits each year. \n\n",
"I think to put it simply they're making money off the people they sell the stock back to after it rises in price.",
"- If you sell the stock you sell it to someone who thinks the value of that stock(the entire company) will go up in the future.\n\n- If you are being paid dividend, you are usually paid from the company's profits. How much you get and when you get it depends on the individual company.",
"They don't have to be \"taking\" money from anyone. \nSure, sometimes one kid doesn't know what he's doing and spends his lunch money buying an Apple at too high a price. \nBut, it a kid buys a sandwich at $1 and then the next day that sandwich is worth $5 because suddenly there's a shortage of bread did he really \"take\" the money from anyone? \nYou could argue he is taking it from the kid who is willing to pay $5 for the sandwich, but really if the sandwich is actually fairly valued at $5 then it's not a bad deal for either kid. And who knows, maybe the next day the sandwich is worth $6. \nThe stock market doesn't have to be a zero sum game (equal loser for every winner). \nSince stocks, like the sandwich above, only have perceived value (like a $6 vs $1 sandwich ) there is no rule that for every winner there must be a loser. \nNow in actuality with stock manipulation (one kid claims there is a shortage of bread so he can sell his $1 sandwich for $5) and market manipulation ( one kid holding all of the bread intentionally creates a shortage so he and his friends can sell a lot of $5 sandwiches they made themselves) , it ends up being the smart, rich kids usually \"take\" money from the kid who just wants a sandwich for after school. But that's a little too much for a five year old to get into. ",
"From other people who play the stock market. \n\nSCENARIO 1\n\nThe stock market in the form of making money by trading, is a zero sum game, like gambling. As these traders aren't interested in the company, only making money. \n\nFor you to make money, someone has to lose money. \n\nYou buy at $10 then sell at $20. Why do you sell at $20 because it's going to go down, so whoever buys from you at $20 loses money. Otherwise you would hold onto it forever. \n\nThat's 99. 9999% of all stock market transactions, they are day trades. \n\nThis is why i never day trade. Because when you realise big banks are day trading too, and they are making 3,4 billion every few months, you know you are the loser. \n\n98% of day traders lose money, 1% break even and 1% make all the money. \n\n\nSCENARIO 2\n\nThen you have people buying stocks as long term investments, who believe that a company will do good business for the next 5, 10 years. \n\nThese are fine as it's socially productive investing. \n\nSCENARIO 3\n\nThis is the real bummer scenario that they never tell you like scenario 1, it's hidden from people. \n\nBanks are constantly creating new money, they are printing and lending new money constantly into the economy. Quantitative easing is this on steroids. \n\nNow the problem of printing and creating money is that it causes inflation. This new money has ro go somewhere. \n\nSo you have to ask who gets this new money? The rich do, so then you have to ask where do they spend it? Investments. What type? Stocks, properties and other assets. \n\nSo when banks create money and give it to their rich friends, it causes the price of all assets to go up. So house prices go up, bonds go up, stocks go up. \n\nSo they end up with a greater share of the money supply through simply printing more money. \n\nI call it theft by inflation, and slavery by inflation as the poor 99.9% are completely left out of the loop. As the poor become poorer, due to the rich becoming richer. \n\nMoney is a relative existence. It represents the GDP in an economy. So by simply printing i.e. counterfeiting you can steal everyone else's share of the GDP. \n\nSo when this happens, stock prices go up like every other asset the rich buy with this newly created money. \n\nSo when you couple this with scenario 1 you can have a situation where everyone is actually making money. This is known as a bull market. Where shares in every company go up in price. Because there is a flood of newly created money flowing into the sector. \n\n\nOVERALL\n\n\nUltimately scenario 1 is completely scam, as it robs pensioners, student funds, people's savings and has no social benifit and should be banned. \n\nUnlike gambling people don't play the stock market for fun. \n\nRealising that the market is rigged to make the investment banks money, as we saw with goldman sachs. \n\nAnd realising it has no social benifit, it's just a zero sum game. \n\nSociety should ban day trading. \n\nAnd scenario 3 is outright theft of the life of people. \n\nImagine you work 10 years to save up for a 20% deposit on a house. The banks simply create more money and double the house price. \n\nYour 20% deposit now is worth 10%. Or in other words half of it was stolen. Or in other words 5 years of the 10 you worked was just stolen from you. \n\nThat to me is a prison sentence. \n\nWe work like dogs all our lives and then they steal all that work from us through inflation. \n\nIt's the biggest heist in human history. \n\nWe have all been issued with a lifetime prison sentence by the banks, their owners and their friends. ",
"Some stocks pay dividends directly, typically large companies with slow growth. When someone buys a microsoft product a small proportion of what they paid will go to the shareholders.\n\nNetflix has no dividends, yet, at the moment netflix would rather reinvest its profits back into the company. People anticipate netflix growing and paying dividends at some point in the distant future. Some people are willing to wait that long, most prefer to sell their shares on to someone else who in turn might sell them on and so on. The shares can be bought by pension funds, hedge funds, individual speculators, whoever is interested in making an investment.\n\nMarket makers, brokers and other companies that cater to people buying and selling shares can make money by charging fees or buying and selling at slightly different prices, the bid-ask spread.",
"From the people you sell your stocks to if you can sell for a higher price than when you bought it. Or in the case of dividends (some money you get for owning the stock) it is money that comes from the profits that the company makes. \n\nThere are also other options like shorting (gambling with someone that the value of the stock will go down) but the main sources are the two first. ",
"TT: lots of people with rose tinted glasses wanting to believe everyone can win and that money grows on trees.",
"Sorry to piggy back on this but Ive alwasys wondered about this.\n\nA company goes public and sells its shares at $10. The company does well and people are now buying its shares at $20. How has the company benefitted from this apart from having a reputation of doing well? They still only get the original $10 dollar per share right?",
"Is a single stock worth a percentage of a company? Like how does it work. If a company has 100 stocks to sell, each one is worth 1%. Then they later want to sell more stocks, does that mean the percentage worth of all the other stocks already sold goes down? Or is each stock worth just a monetary amount that increases as a percentage of the company's worth?",
"There's two main ways to make money from the stock marktet. One is by selling the stocks and the other is from dividends.\n\nIf someone buys your stock at a higher price than you paid for it, the money is coming from the person buying it.\n\nIf you're getting money from dividends(typically paid out once per year by the company to the stockholders as a sort of interest) you're getting the money from the company itself.",
"If the stock pays a dividend, and that is the money you are taking out of the stock market, then its because the company is sharing its profits with the investor, giving the investor a share of the profits. Profits come from the customers of the company, those who have paid for the companies products or services, at a price that allowed for paying a dividend to the owners of the company. Company shares are a limited claim on the ownership of the company, restricted by certain conditions.\n\nThese days, dividends are only a small portion of the money taken out of the stock market. The rest is mostly the greater fool theory, where you sell your shares to a fool who is willing to pay more for the share of the company than you had been willing to pay. I suppose some of this could be due to inflation, where it would take more currency to cover the same underlying asset. Or maybe the dividend increased over the time you owned the shares. So the right to collect those dividends would be worth more. Or maybe the buyer believes in a future improvement to the financial condition of the company. Mostly its speculation these days, more like a casino.",
"How are dividends distributed? Shares can always be bought/received, but if the company is sharing its yearly profits on December 31st, can't I just buy some shares the week before to ensure I receive some of those sweet dividends?",
"You make money off of whoever is buying it from you. It's a *market* after all.\n\nIt can get a little more complicated on derivatives though and other financial devices (whatever you want to call them), but ultimately you're still just selling it to someone and they're buying it from you.",
"Imagine a dog being sold for two bucks. Then suddenly the dog starts speaking French. People will value this dog more. You can now sell that dog for 200. \n\nNothing has changed apart from the perception of value on the dog based on what value it appears to provide.\n\nIt's just like selling a house for more than you bought it, except you're selling a small portion of a company.",
"I'm not an expert on this, but I've had to learn about how organizations are structured in law school. If I recall correctly, the real shares that a company issues are bought by recognized brokers. What the brokers sell to individuals that trade are fractions of the shares. \n\nIs my understanding wrong? I genuinely have a hard time understanding this stuff ",
"You can look at buying stocks as if you are giving a loan to a company. If you buy $5 worth of stock, you have given that company a $5 loan. That company (hopefully) uses that loan to help their company make more money. If they make more money, the value of the stock will rise. In this case the money that you are \"taking\" is from profits of the company. But it's not \"taking\" at all because people willingly give their money to that company in the first place. If the stock pays dividends, it's almost like the company is paying you interest for you loaning them that $5.",
"Usually it's the guy you sell to. You gave one guy 20$ for a stock then found someone willing to pay 22$ for the same stock. The 2$ gain came from the guy who bought the stock at s higher price ",
"OP might be asking more broadly about the economy?\n\nIt is possible to create value from renewable raw materials. In this case, nobody has to lose.\n\nIt is also possible to make money by creating value with a healthy dose of exploitation - of the environment and of human workers. We see this all the time.",
"In the case of dividends, you're getting paid because the people who bought the company's products paid enough more than the company needed to run the operation the way they wanted/planned and thus there was money left over to give to the shareholders. Perhaps this is due to the fact that the company simply has better workers who make the product better and faster than their competition, so they are more valuable products than the cost of the workers, or because you found a new process that eliminates some cost of production without affecting the product.\n\nThe second way is from whomever you sell stocks to. If you buy stock at $1, and 5 years later it's worth $10 because the company consistently has been innovating and becoming more valuable and is therefore a worthwhile company to invest in, when you sell that stock for $10, you're essentially getting a payout on a loan you gave to the company when you gave them $1.\n\nNow, it's entirely possible that you weren't the first person to buy shares. What the company does when they 'go public' is designate a portion of the company they they're willing to sell to the public, in units called shares. Whoever bought these first shares actually bought them from the company at a certain price. That price was an investment in the company, a one-time cash influx. It could go to the founders of the company as a buyout, it could go as basically a loan that the company is using to grow larger. \n\nFrom that point on, everyone is essentially transferring the ownership of the units of the company that were given as compensation for the money that was given first. Basically, when you're buying stock, it's almost like getting an 'IOU Some Favors' and the value of those favors depends on the success of the company and how much other people value those favors.",
"Stocks are just shares of a company. To use your term they're \"taking\" money from someone willing to buy that stock at the given price. So not really taking, more selling. It's all just confidence in the stock's value, although that confidence is connected to real world things like sales numbers and dividends payouts. \n\nWhen you say sell, you're literally trying to sell that stock to someone. This shows why stocks can have large runs down if everyone learns something that really devalues the stock. Like a report of crashing sales numbers, the entrance of a big competitor, etc. If no one's willing to buy at the price you're selling, someone will try to sell at a lower price than you and now the stock price has dropped. Your stock is worth less and that money is just gone. This doesn't mean anyone stole this money, it's just a market correction. However, you can make money by selling the stock before a run downward, if you sell the stock before it's perceived as worth less.\n\nApply the inverse to this when you think about the stock rising. Everyone thinks the stock is going to be worth more so they purchase some stock from someone that's selling the stock. Someone realizes they could make more than the listed price so they charge more, and the stock price goes up. \n\nThere are a lot more rules and exceptions but this is the general gist of how it works.",
"You don't have to \"take\" the money from anyone. You own an asset that has increased in value, someone is willing to pay you for that asset because they want to own it. They haven't lost just because you \"won\". It might be like that if all if a sudden the markets closed and never opened again, but because of the ongoing nature of financial markets, it's not a zero sum game.\n\nIt's also important to remember that wealth can literally be created out of nowhere. It's not like matter, which can't be created or destroyed.",
"I see some top comments trying tp explain what trading is. You are asking how does one make money and where is that money coming from. \n\n\nThis is very simple. You buy a % of a company at X price. In two weeks you decide you don't want to own that company anymore so you sell it for Y. You are not Taking money from anyone, the company should theatrically be worth Y when you sell it. Its just like buying any object and selling it for higher. The person that bought it from you thinks the stock will go from Y price point to Z and that's why they buy it from you.\n\nEdit: clarity ",
"Ooo ooh I can answer this one. Ex financial advisor here, student of markets, etc. This is a great question because it causes you to strike right at the most important question in economics, imo, which is whether it's all a zero sum game or a positive one. Marx said zero, Gene Roddenberry said positive! But really, maybe the question isn't so philosophical, maybe it's just really asking how people win and lose. Well, if you happen to buy a share of stock from someone else, and it goes up while you own it, then the guy who sold it to you lost out on the opportunity, simple enough. You take the profit he would have had, right. But as you start removing yourself from the minutia you can see that companies create value, value that wasn't there before. Like when you put a bunch of plastic and wires and circuits together and you have a tech thing that is worth more than the components. So companies can get big big big and not necessarily through stealing or disassembling something else. As an owner of a share you can participate in the process without actually taking anything from anyone. A share is just fractional ownership. In the real world, however, there are many gradations of theft that may occur when you become a shareholder. Companies do steal land and lives and there are infinite ways this can happen. I guess the answer depends entire on each specific situation. But in the larger picture I like to think that it's skewed as a positive sum game where value is being created, on the balance. ",
"Well, they're not \"taking\" that money in the sense of involuntary transfers; the only people who can do that and get away with it are IRS agents. \n\nThe voluntary exchanges are coming from people who value the stock (ownership interest) or bond (debt interest) more than their respective amount of dollars. \n\nIt is just like buying lemonade from a child's lemonade stand. The child values your money more than his lemonade and his labor he used to make it, and you value the lemonade and the child's labor more than the money you're using to buy it. \n\nStock markets and bond markets are all secondary markets; so it is more accurate to say that you buy a glass of lemonade from the child's stand, turn around and sell it to someone else; hopefully for more than you purchased it for, but that's not always the case. \n\nInitial stock or bond sales do come from the respective company, but then the company no longer has any real control over those interests; they can do buyback programs - but that is more complex. \n\n**The best TL;DR: one can have for this question is: \"each other.\"** That is, who in the stock market does the money come from? Another person in the market; that is, the people in the market buy and sell *to each other*. ",
"The real ELI5 answer here is you make money selling a stock when someone else is willing to buy it from you for more than what you bought it for. Ya, dividends matter and returns to shareholders count but they are pennies. They matter mostly because stock value is mathematically derived from those numbers so small increases in those returns lead to large increases in stock value and more people willing to pay more for your stock.",
"On a slightly unrelated note. What benefit to society does stock trading have?",
"Little scotty, come sit here on paw paws lap. \n\nA stock is a piece of a business. Remember that lemonade stand you ran last month? Grandma bought the lemonade mix for us, so you could say that she was a stockholder, since she helped us pay for something we needed, she owns a piece of our lemonade business. \n\nSo when you sell a cup of lemonade, you usually give some of the money you made to grandma for helping you, this is called a dividend. \n\nAnd if your lemonade stand starts making a lot of money, you give her a bigger amount than you gave her before.\n\nIn short, the money comes from your business customers, the people the business sells to. \n\nThese answers saying that stocks aren't a zero sum game is mostly false: value is transferred, from the customers pocket to our business pockets. Granted its not a perfect transfer of value, but it is mostly a zero sum game. ",
"Essentially the money flows between the buyers and sellers depending on who wins and who loses the trade.",
"All of these answers and their candy bar/candy shop analogies are stupid. You make money from other people that want to buy your share of a company, and they're willing to pay more for it than you did. ",
"Okay, now that you've learned *how* the stock market works in eli5 terms, let me answer your question. Because, as many people are missing, stocks don't just arbitrarily increase in value. They don't make money out of nothing. You're right, that money is coming from someone who's spending it.\n\nAnd here's who:\n\nThe customers of the business the shareholders hold stock in.\n\nTo boil it down to the simplest terms, shareholders are owners of a business, and keep their share of the profits from the business. Obviously, the way a business makes a profit is by selling a product or service to customers.\n\nSo yeah. Follow the dollar all the way back, the people they're taking money from is the customer. (it can get more complicated than that with various ways of buying or selling or lending or inflating value or whatever, but that's the eli5 version)"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[
"eBay.com"
],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] | ||
16m8e4 | asperger problems | So, i have always known i was a little different, the other kids told me i was wierd on a regular basis, then i was diagnosed with asperger syndrome, and it suddenly felt like people were more understanding, but i still feel wierd and different, is there anyone who knows how to handle/learn how to live with asperger syndrome?
Any help is appreciated | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/16m8e4/asperger_problems/ | {
"a_id": [
"c7xaehp"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"I think /r/aspergers is what you're looking for."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | |
a4gzqg | signs on the freeway that say "speed enforced by aircraft" | What aircraft are these? And how are they enforcing speed?
I assume it's not armed drones decimating speeding minivans. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/a4gzqg/eli5_signs_on_the_freeway_that_say_speed_enforced/ | {
"a_id": [
"ebeck8f",
"ebeclco",
"ebecuoj",
"ebed1hc",
"ebedkzd",
"ebeg0i8",
"ebehs71",
"ebepdmm"
],
"score": [
3,
30,
5,
27,
3,
3,
3,
3
],
"text": [
"It means they might have a helicopter or something that is involved in reporting and collecting info on speeders. Or it may be that something like that is allowed by law so even if they don't actually do that they post it, just to keep some of the would-be speeders nervous about planes overhead or something.",
"It just means that there may be an airplane or helicopter overhead checking your speed. If you're breaking the limit, a car will be dispatched to pull you over.\n\nThat said, it's almost always a bluff. Enforcing speed limits by aircraft is simply too expensive and not done very much.",
"There are horizontal white lines in the road that are placed a certain distance away from each other. If cars pass those lines at a specific rates the aircrafts can calculate your speed and tell if you are speeding.",
"In Virginia they tried it. They basically drew giant white lines on the interstate and put a stop watch on your vechile and a mile down the road they had another giant white line with about 20 troopers waiting. If you crossed that line faster than a specific time you must have been speeding. Utter fail. They could not issue enough tickets fast enough to justify the cost of operating the aircraft. So even if you see the signs in Virginia it pretty much means nothing.",
"It used to be light engine planes or helicopters, but now I would assume that it's drones hovering over the treeline. Either way, they're mainly going after racers, as it's still a time and traffic drag to pull you over and give you a ticket.",
"I’ve been caught speeding by an aircraft. I challenged it in court and the police provided transcripts proving that they maintained visual contact with my vehicle from the time I was caught speeding to the time I was pulled over by the officer in the cruiser.\n\nThey had multiple cruisers at a certain point and were blitzing a certain section of highway.\n\nRare but it definitely happens. ",
"Georgia and Florida do it every day. \n\nThere are lines painted across the road and a pilot times you with a stopwatch. \nI’ve known and worked with these guys. \n\nOne plane & pilot - Less than $200/hour \n\nFour cars on the road, two tickets per hour per car - minimum - at $200 per ticket, gives you 1,600 per hour. \n\n[The state makes money.](_URL_0_)",
"It's also much easier to monitor multiple roads at once or long stretches of roadway, from the air. Especially if those roads are out in the middle of a desert.\n\nI've heard several stories of people going upwards of 150 mph in the desert. Then arrive at the next town to get pulled over and find out a plane was watching them the whole time."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[
"https://www.wptv.com/news/region-c-palm-beach-county/west-palm-beach/memorial-day-weekend-fhp-aircraft-targeting-speeders-this-holiday-weekend"
],
[]
] | |
5hcaqo | why do a lot of jewish names end in stein? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5hcaqo/eli5_why_do_a_lot_of_jewish_names_end_in_stein/ | {
"a_id": [
"daz41dz"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"It is from the old High German word meaning rock/stone. Much of the European Jewish ethnic names come from High German because they spread into Europe during the period of the Holy Roman Empire. Yiddish is in and of itself a hybrid language based on High German and combined with Hebrew with a bit of Latin influence. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | |
2gussf | why do some messy professions like butcher, painter and chef have white uniforms? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2gussf/eli5_why_do_some_messy_professions_like_butcher/ | {
"a_id": [
"ckmolv5",
"ckmom9c",
"ckmtpg7",
"ckmw0dy",
"ckn0boj"
],
"score": [
65,
20,
16,
6,
2
],
"text": [
"Because they're the easiest to clean - with bleach.",
"In a kitchen, the reason for wearing white would be that anything that might contaminate someone's food (dust, uncooked meat, etc) doesn't make it out of certain areas of the kitchen. ",
"White clothes are actually pretty easy to clean, because you can throw all the cleaning products at them (for example: bleach) and they will most likely get white again.\n\nIf you would do that with a coloured shirt for example, after a few washes the colour gets bleached or washed out as well.",
"So you can see if they are dirty.\n\nIt is easier to see blood and paint on white, than say black.",
"They're easy to clean and it's easy to see when they're dirty."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] | ||
3e7q9y | the planned parenthood fetal organ donation program | I know nothing beyond the media coverage this issue has received over the last couple of weeks. The majority of that coverage comes from conservative media outlets which accuse Planned Parenthood of "selling baby parts."
I'm thinking there's more to the story.
Does this only happen with the mother's consent? Do fetal organs/tissue only come from fetuses that are not viable or threaten the life of the mother? Or does it come from any fetus?
Under what conditions can fetal organs be donated? Is "donated" even the right word? Are there legitimate questions about the legality? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3e7q9y/eli5_the_planned_parenthood_fetal_organ_donation/ | {
"a_id": [
"ctc9h5q",
"ctc9j80"
],
"score": [
2,
9
],
"text": [
"They claim yes, that it only happens with Mother's consent. No, there are no questions of the legality. Donating tissue for research is very common practice in the medical world. \n\nI would imagine they are able to donate any tissue with the consent of whom the tissue belongs to, regardless of whether the fetus is viable, or life threatening. Mothers can abort viable and non life threatening fetuses too, so why wouldn't they ask to donate that tissue? ",
"Yes, the fetal tissue is harvested after abortion only with the mother's consent. If the mother does not consent, the tissue is destroyed in the same way all medical waste is destroyed. The tissue can come from any sort of abortion, whether that is a fetus that is not viable, one that threatens the life of the mother or simply a child that the mother does not want. I do believe it needs to be a surgical abortion and the mother needs to be along a certain amount of weeks, but please don't quote me on that. I've tried to find a source for that, but it is sadly very hard to find anything in terms of sensible information out there right now with all the conservative lying and fear mongering. \n\nAs long as the tissue is well enough intact, it can be donated to companies that do medical research. PP is not allowed to sell fetal tissue, however the companies that receive said tissues can make donations to PP. Usually there is an agreement to donate enough to cover the cost of handling and transportation. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] | |
7cg9gx | how are receipes for coca-cola, kfc and others kept secret with so many people involved in production? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7cg9gx/eli5_how_are_receipes_for_cocacola_kfc_and_others/ | {
"a_id": [
"dppm40p",
"dppm6uu",
"dppnivy",
"dppo0bv",
"dppo2oq",
"dppomdb",
"dpponcs",
"dpporiu"
],
"score": [
227,
9,
11,
41,
3,
33,
2,
56
],
"text": [
"compartmentalization, Have no one person know the whole recipe. KFC has the original recipe in a double locked safe with vials of the 11 herbs and spices, and 2 factories that mix them separately before being combined. Coke numbers its ingredients from 1 to 9 with 1 though 4 being publicly known whist 5 though 9 are unknown, there is also considerable speculation on what ingredient 7x is. That could be the main ingredient or just a publicity stunt to cause speculation on why it has the x. \n\n",
"From my understanding every step along the way is compartmentalized. Just like when the us built the atom bomb during ww2. All the departments were working on its own part but not really understanding the whole. For instance kfc is not its own company but owned by a parent company thus when they buy the 11 secret herbs and spices from various distributors its hard to tell where its gonna go.",
"Even if someone knew the recipe, it wouldn't matter all that much. Of the ingredients, such as cinnamon, carry widely in taste and wildly effect the taste of composite flavor profiles like Coca-Cola when they are changed even a small amount. All ingredients in Coca-Cola are sourced a single way. You couldn't take the recipe and recreate it.",
"They aren’t actually secret. Many companies have already worked out what the recipes are. It’s the brand that can’t be replicated, and it’s the brand that people buy. ",
"Compartmentalization, to try and prevent knowledge of the whole thing, and non disclosure agreements to keep employees from talking even to each other. Happens all the time in corporate environments.",
"I worked at a Coca-Cola bottling plant during summers in high school. I was a Syrup Technician. (No joke, that was my actual title) \n\nThe formula for making coke syrup is as follows: \n\n- Man sized barrel number 1 shipped in from a Caribbean factory\n\n- Man sized barrel number 2 shipped in from a completely different factory on a different island\n\n- 5000 gallons of corn syrup and water\n\nThat's how its a secret. The barrels were from different places, unlabeled, except for \"#1\" & \"#2\", plain white plastic. ",
"Why doesnt Coke need to put all the ingredients on the label?",
"Of *course* people know the ingredients in Coca-Cola. Anyone working on the shipping dock knows exactly what goes into the secret formula. Even the notorious \"7x\" ingredient has a whole procurement department who negotiates with suppliers and arranges its shipping. It's not the Manhattan Project over there. \n\nBut the secret formula is more than a list of ingredients. For example, Coke has quite a bit of distilled orange oil in it. How hot and long you run the still has a huge impact on the drink's eventual flavor. \n\nSame thing goes for the coca extraction, and the nutmeg-cinnamon preparation--little changes in procedure can make a big difference. \n\nThat's why Sam's Choice Cola always tastes a little off. It's the same ingredients, processed roughly the same way. But it's never quite the *same*.\n\nYou'd have to rebuild Coke's entire production line and supply chain to make a true bottle of Coca-Cola. \n\nEDIT: But yeah, they almost certainly keep secret records about the *process* (for example, they would need a record of the ideal viscosity and PH of the orange oil distillate, in case the still breaks and they need to repair it back to original condition). \n\nI imagine very few people have access to the whole archive--ie, the quality control guy that verifies the orange oil blend probably has no idea about how to prepare the nutmeg mix. \n\nSo somewhere in a safe, there is likely the information necessary to make a much better Coke knockoff. But it's a lot more complicated than the list of ingredients. It would be binders full of chemical analysis and procedural notes. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] | ||
77vi2n | on aquariums, why fish from different species won't eat each other? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/77vi2n/eli5_on_aquariums_why_fish_from_different_species/ | {
"a_id": [
"dooxsey",
"dooxsit",
"dop062y"
],
"score": [
19,
7,
2
],
"text": [
"In my experience working in aquarium shops, fish selection is important. Some will eat each other. Also important is keeping them fed, so hunger doesn't become too much of a factor. Even when both of these things are taken into account, small fish still get eaten by big fish sometimes.\n\nI recall a small setup that kept losing those little neon tetras. We removed all of the other fish besides an algae-eating plecostomus, and learned quickly that algae was not the only thing it liked to eat. The neons still disappeared, and I got to watch him grab one.",
"Fish in aquariums do eat each other. It takes special care to decide which species can be safely kept in the same tank, and even then they'll attack each other if they get hungry enough.\n\nGoogle for fish attacking each other and you'll get plenty of aquarium videos.",
"They carefully choose fish that are less likely to eat one another. If a fish is used to eating blue fish in the wild, it might not see yellow fish as food.\n\nAlso, they keep the fish well fed. Piranha, for example, are pretty docile until they get hungry."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[]
] | ||
2s60ja | how are humans becoming faster over time at the 100m sprint? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2s60ja/eli5_how_are_humans_becoming_faster_over_time_at/ | {
"a_id": [
"cnmh6gf"
],
"score": [
11
],
"text": [
"Better training, better equipment, better science. \n\nThat's the TL;DR version."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | ||
5dd3zi | why some people get thrown away when they get electric shocked and some people burn dead at the same place? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5dd3zi/eli5_why_some_people_get_thrown_away_when_they/ | {
"a_id": [
"da3lyof",
"da3mlxk",
"da3nv07",
"da3zbx7",
"da46hh8"
],
"score": [
13,
21,
29,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"Your muscles communicate with your brain using electric signals.\n\nThe current from most unnatural sources is many orders of magnitude more powerful than what your body uses and this overload causes the muscles to contract powerfully.\n\nIf you were grabbing the live wire, your hands will clamp on to it with all their strength. If you weren't the kick from your other muscles is often enough to push you backwards pretty far.",
"Electricity doesn't throw you back. Electricity creates spasms in your muscles *so intense* that *you throw yourself back*.",
"This depends drastically on the voltage, current and frequency. High voltage is generally required to pass the skin, there is a certain frequency your muscles are used to being triggered at; \n\nThis, from personal experience is less than 55hz. The shift in polarity happens slow enough that muscle groups can respond to it and you go flying or get a little jerk. \n\nWhen the frequency is crazy high, your muscles tend to stay clenched strongly enough to damaged them. You then have to try and escape using other muscle groups. \n\nI've recently had the displeasure of being shocked by HVDC, a fairly rare power type. I bridged a gap between a charged armature and it's sink, my right arm and right leg ceased working entirely for five or so minutes. None of the characteristic discomfort of an ac zap; felt like a static shock so big it didn't hurt and everything was cold and numb. I thought for a moment I had broken my neck in the fall. \n\nAlways wear proper PPE folks! ",
"Ac = \"explosion\" (really its your own muscles throwing you off)\n\nDC = \"sticks\" (Your muscles are locked into contraction)",
"It's a myth that a powerful shock can/will throw you away from the source. The shock causes you to go have massive spasms as your muscles, which run on electrical impulses, are receiving an utterly huge stimulation all at once. When people appear to be thrown back from a shock, the shock itself didn't push them away, the spasms caused them to literally *leap* away from the source. This normally has the saving grace of breaking the contact between them and the source, but the spasms can also cause the person to grip down uncontrollably hard on the source of the shock, thus keeping the connection going and cooking them. It's all a matter of luck really."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] | ||
6ocuq8 | what is 5g and what would it mean if a cable company was investing in it? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6ocuq8/eli5_what_is_5g_and_what_would_it_mean_if_a_cable/ | {
"a_id": [
"dkgfiyy"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"5G is a blanket term for what is being dubbed the next generation of wireless uses, to include things like faster mobile data, internet of things, and plenty of other uses that we haven't yet nailed down. IF you ask a dozen people, in the industry what 5G will do, you'll get a variety of generic answers, plus each one will probably tell you \"we don't know yet, but we know it will be important in the future...\"\n\nAll telecom companies are investing in wireless applications such as 5G as an area that the world is moving to. Nothing interesting there. Just another step towards the future of connectivity, and everyone is getting in on the action."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | ||
evugsc | how can a ships anchor prevent a ship from drifting away, but can easily be redtracted at the same time? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/evugsc/eli5_how_can_a_ships_anchor_prevent_a_ship_from/ | {
"a_id": [
"ffyh9ny",
"ffzu58r",
"ffy2akz",
"ffy7sr4"
],
"score": [
8,
2,
10,
4
],
"text": [
"Long time boater here. Agree with those earlier and I will add that on lighter boats (not cargo vessels), the anchor is attached to several feet of chain which is then attached to rope up to the vessel. The chain is heavy so it keeps the final few of the rope/chain attachment parallel to the sea floor. This way any force of the wind and tide on the vessel is applied horizontally to the points of the anchor causing them to dig in deeper. As previously stated by others, this is negated by being above the anchor and applying vertical force to lift it. \n\nBy the way there are calculators online that help determine how much length of chain/rope (\"rode\") you need based on the depth, among other factors. It's called \"scope\". \n\nFrom [_URL_0_](https://_URL_0_): The amount of rode you put out, or *scope*, combined with weight at the *anchor* end of the rode, determines the angle of pull on the *anchor*.",
"A boat anchor lays a long heavy chain down on the seafloor. when anchored the boat is trying to drag the whole chain across the seafloor, which is difficult due to weight and length of the chain causing alot of friction. \n\nWhen picking up the anchor you are pulling the chain links up off the seafloor one by one, which is much easier to accomplish. The pull at that point is also straight up rather than dragging sideways.",
"The anchor can be retracted when you are over it. When the anchor is holding the boat you should have 5-7 times the depth of rope or chain out to keep anchor embedded\n\n[_URL_0_](_URL_0_)",
"When you’re pulling up the anchor you’re directly above, whereas when the ship moves it tries to drag the anchor making it snag on things and either only move a small amount, or become lodged on something"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"BoatUs.com",
"https://BoatUs.com"
],
[],
[
"https://youtu.be/Xc96Kgbv5w0"
],
[]
] | ||
39745m | why is it when i play a game of chess after not playing for years, i'm nowhere near as good as i used to be? what exactly has my brain forgotten? | I still know all of the moves of course, and I'm sure I still have the power to read moves ahead, how exactly has my brain changed so that it's not as familiar anymore? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/39745m/eli5_why_is_it_when_i_play_a_game_of_chess_after/ | {
"a_id": [
"cs0x202",
"cs0x5o9",
"cs0xi30"
],
"score": [
45,
3,
2
],
"text": [
"Chess is a game of pattern recognition. There are thousands of motifs and patterns, so many that even our super grandmasters cannot conciously sort through them all. Your nervous system or intuition helps you make choices. The less exposure your nervous system has, the less likely you will be able to make/find the correct moves or avoid bad situations.\n\nYou remember the moves, you forget the tactics. You remember the moves, you forget the positional strategies or themes. \nAlso, age and drug use can both limit the clarity and accuracy of your calculations.",
"A lot of stuff has happened in your brain. Without getting into detail, it would basically be the same as being an athlete and then not doing any sports for a long while and doing a lot of activities not related to sports. Once you decide to get back into it, at first it will be difficult, since your muscles aren't used to it, however after practicing for a while longer, you will regain up to the point you left off at.\n\n\nYou can think of the brain as muscle and that it has to be trained in order to be adequate at something.",
"TangledOne's answer is essentially correct. As a long-time chess player and computer science grad, the best parallel I can draw is math. It's a \"if you don't use it, you lose it\" kind of thing. Chess is an incredibly complex game, and although you might remember the core ideas behind solid play, you haven't \"exercised that muscle\" for a long time. \n\nIt's also why chess is a young person's game. You can be the most knowledgeable person in the world about chess; a former super-GM, but you're not going to stand a chance against a top player in their 20s when you're in your 50s. At least not in the vast majority of cases. \n\nThe fundamental strategy \"rules\" you'll probably always remember. You'll also remember how to select which moves to concentrate on / calculate and which ones should be ignored. But the calculation itself needs to be exercised. It's incredibly difficult and requires a massive amount of concentration to find good moves and calculate them appropriately, especially under time pressure. \n\nI played a ton of chess from the age of 5 until about 16. I was pretty good. Then I mostly stopped playing for about 15 years. I went back pretty recently and at first I was really frustrated and frankly shocked at how bad my play was in comparison. Nothing has made me notice the difference in \"thinking speed\" of older age more than trying to get back into chess. That said, I have a brand new perspective, and I'm noticing a lot more about the game than I did as a kid, so it's not all bad. Keep at it. Exercise that muscle and don't get too discouraged at your loss of skill! You'll likely get it back if you work at it!"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[]
] | |
el9fn9 | does the probability of a certain outcome change after several consecutive rolls of two dices? | So if we have two dices, the probability is as follows:
2 1/36 (2.778%)
3 2/36 (5.556%)
4 3/36 (8.333%)
5 4/36 (11.111%)
6 5/36 (13.889%)
7 6/36 (16.667%)
8 5/36 (13.889%)
9 4/36 (11.111%)
10 3/36 (8.333%)
11 2/36 (5.556%)
12 1/36 (2.778%)
The probability of the outcome looks like a normal distribution.If the previous throws, for example, amount to a denser frequency of the lower numbers, then in order for the normal distribution to be preserved, the chance to roll a higher number of eyes needs to be bigger?!
Is this true? Any real life examples? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/el9fn9/eli5_does_the_probability_of_a_certain_outcome/ | {
"a_id": [
"fdgclro",
"fdgcqvh",
"fdgl65x"
],
"score": [
7,
6,
2
],
"text": [
"Dice rolls are independent of each other, and thus the probabilty of rolling snake eyes is exactly the same regardless of whether your previous 100000 throws were snake eyes or 12 or any number in between.\n\nHowever if you ask a question differently - what is my probabilty to get at least one snake eyes after 100000 throws - then the answer is different too. But if the question is \"If i roll dice now, what is the chance\" then the answer is same every time.\n\nYour chance of rolling 10 snake eyes in a row is very low - but your chance of rolling snake eyes in any given roll, even if your previous 9 rolls were snake eyes, is still 1/36.",
"The phenomenon you're referring to is known as the 'Gambler's Fallacy'. In a truly random situation, like a fair dice roll, any previous test has no effect on any future roll.",
"This cannot be said enough times....dice don't have memory. There is nothing about any of the previous roles that effect the next role. You could roll 150 sets of snake eyes in a row. It's totally possible. Because the dice are evenly weighted it's very very very very unlikely that this would happen, but it's still totally possible. \n\n & #x200B;\n\nJust because dice tend to follow a normal distribution doesn't mean it's a rule they are seeking to obey. It's just a very common observation based on the fact that each face of the die has the same chance of showing on any given throw."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[]
] | |
9b1fmh | how does the military (any military) do air-to-air weapons testing? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9b1fmh/eli5_how_does_the_military_any_military_do/ | {
"a_id": [
"e4zmd33"
],
"score": [
10
],
"text": [
"They have drones. Sometimes there are purpose built drones like the [Chukar](_URL_0_), sometimes they'll rig a mothballed old fighter from the boneyards in Arizona and remote control it. \n\nThe 82nd aerial targets unit out of Tyndall AFB fly old F-4s as full size targets. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_BQM-74_Chukar"
]
] | ||
7gfg7z | why does chewing more prevent weight gain? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7gfg7z/eli5_why_does_chewing_more_prevent_weight_gain/ | {
"a_id": [
"dqindt9"
],
"score": [
6
],
"text": [
"Food takes time to reach the stomach, and you'll notice if you eat and then wait you'll be less hungry. Chewing more simply takes more time to do, and so you get full with less food "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | ||
4d3n47 | why do vegetable and soup cans have crinkled on the sides, but not soda cans? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4d3n47/eli5_why_do_vegetable_and_soup_cans_have_crinkled/ | {
"a_id": [
"d1ng1bo"
],
"score": [
5
],
"text": [
"Pressure! \n\nSoda and most beverage cans are under pressure, either due to their own natural carbonation or in the case of drinks like juice that dont contain carbonation, nitrogen gas is put inside the can under pressure to give it rigidness. This is why if I gave you an unopened can you likely couldn't bend the sides at all, but if I hand you an open one you could smash it with your bare hand. They are so strong when pressurized you could stand on one! These allow the cans to be stacked in high numbers for shipping and storage. \n\nHowever soups and other canned foods are not pressurized in this manner, so the cans need the crinkled sides (corrugation) to add strength and enable them to be stacked and shipped. \n\nThis [video by The Engineer Guy](_URL_0_) goes into the various genious invitations found inside the command can. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUhisi2FBuw"
]
] | ||
32lulw | how can world peace be achieved? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/32lulw/eli5_how_can_world_peace_be_achieved/ | {
"a_id": [
"cqce86a",
"cqceaop",
"cqcec3p"
],
"score": [
3,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"It can't. Its in our human nature to become aggressive and conquer. Only World in pieces can be accomplish. ",
"By figuring out how to resolve conflicts of opinion where all parties are wholly satisfied. Problem is, you can't divide a pie when someone wants the whole pie",
"Hostile aliens. Something like the movie Independence Day that forces us to work together and makes all our differences trivial. We need something to rally against to get everyone on team \"human\"."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[]
] | ||
1ipoyz | how does a house always get so dusty when there is so little disturbance? | And fans, how do they get so dusty when they are always moving? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1ipoyz/eli5_how_does_a_house_always_get_so_dusty_when/ | {
"a_id": [
"cb6yufe"
],
"score": [
7
],
"text": [
"These are actually two different answers.\n\nAs for houses, the air isn't really just gas molecules, like you might think. It's full of tiny particles of dirt and dander that are constantly being disturbed by masses moving through it. Those particles have different densities than the gas molecules surrounding them. If you had a glass of water with lots of tiny droplets of oil, you probably wouldn't be able to see the oil with your naked eye as long as you kept stirring the glass. But if you stopped stirring it, the oil would settle to the top, because the density of oil is less than that of water. Similarly, if masses stop moving through a house, the dust in the air will settle. Since furniture, floors, etc. all have densities more than dust, the dust settles on top. \n\nWith the fan problem, it's helpful to remember that while some dust particles are dry and move around easily in the air, others are slightly oily and have a tendency to stick to other surfaces. Think about how when you pet your dog and he's dry, your hand comes away relatively clean, but when you're washing him, you're suddenly covered in wet, slimy dog hair. If the fan blades are sitting still, they might not be likely to run into that kind of dust particle too often. But since the fan blades are moving through the same air over and over again, the oily dust begins to stick to the surface of the blades, and the dry dust sticks to the oily dust. Then you start to see dust buildup on your blades, but the oil is still fairly imperceptible. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | |
2dhmya | how does a black teen getting shot by a cop lead to people looting? | I've been following the news and I can't understand how Michael Brown getting questionably killed leads to the looting of local businesses. When I see these videos of looting, it seems to confirm stereotypes for me.... | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2dhmya/eli5how_does_a_black_teen_getting_shot_by_a_cop/ | {
"a_id": [
"cjpkeew",
"cjpkf61"
],
"score": [
10,
5
],
"text": [
"A teen was killed by an officer. Tensions rose, and at a candlelight vigil/memorial, tensions rose some more and it quickly escalated into a protest.\n\nFrom there a few people who probably didn't care about the shooting and just wanted an excuse to act like jackasses, probably started rioting, igniting the powder keg that was the community and causing other people to join in.\n\nIt's sad, it's outrageous, but in reality, the riot occurred because a few select individuals took advantage of the community's anger and outrage and used it for their personal gain.",
"Mob mentality is one of the scariest things, in my opinion, that the human race is capable of.\n\nIt's not like a group of people set out to go looting (at least, I shouldn't think so). Instead, it's a group of people upset that something bad happened. They get more worked up over time and, if one person starts doing something, they'll all start doing it without thinking about the consequences."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] | |
4g3o9o | how does dna code editing work? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4g3o9o/eli5_how_does_dna_code_editing_work/ | {
"a_id": [
"d2ec9sv",
"d2eftua",
"d2eq6re",
"d2eqxvt"
],
"score": [
15,
3,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"I assume you mean how we genetically modify organisms?\n\nStep one is obviously to figure out which gene you either want to insert or remove. That's just long, tedious work sequencing the genome and then doing experiments to figure out what each gene does. Think this bit of DNA codes for a certain protein? Get rid of that bit, let the organism grow, and see if it still makes that protein. If not, your hypothesis was correct! We can use all kinds of chemistry, including borrowing the enzymes that living things use to copy and edit their own DNA, to chop up the DNA we want to insert into something else and isolate the section we want. We can use other enzymes and chemistry to combine different pieces to make bigger, more complicated sections of DNA that code for multiple proteins.\n\nTo actually manipulate the genes, we have a couple different methods. One of the coolest things is almost literally a \"DNA gun\". It launches your bits of code (the base pairs) at the target cell's nucleus with a lot of energy, smashing into its DNA, hopefully with enough energy to smash them together. Obviously, this has some problems: you may not get them to merge together, you may just smash everything to bits. You may also end up putting your new code in a bad spot on the DNA, that either means it can't get used, or messed up an important bit of code that was already there so the organism can't grow correctly. After firing your DNA gun, you sit back and wait to see if it grows and how it grows to see if you got the results you want. If you did, you save that specimen and let it reproduce, preserving the change in new generations.\n\nThe more accurate way that we use now is to use a species of bacteria (*Agrobacterium tumifaciens*) to insert the DNA. The bacteria almost works like a virus, inserting part of its own DNA into the plants it infects. Normally, this means the plant starts growing tumors and dies. But when we genetically modify the plants, first we change the bacteria's DNA to the code we want the plant to have. Then we infect the plant with the bacteria, which inserts that new code we want the plant to have, then it dies off, leaving us with our new plant. This is way better than bombarding the plant's DNA because we can modify the bacteria to target parts of the plant DNA that we want changed, making it far more accurate. It's also far more likely to, you know, not smash the target DNA to bits. To change the *bacteria's* DNA, we use the same bombardment techniques, but recall that part of the step is to grow the organism to make sure it has the DNA we want in it: that's very time-consuming for a plant like corn that takes years to mature. But bacteria grow in hours or days, so it's far easier to check. In addition, the bacteria DNA is a lot simpler, so it's much easier to affect the part we want. We also sometimes use a type of virus called bacteriophages - viruses that only infect bacteria. Viruses work by changing DNA, right? So get the virus to insert its DNA (which we've modified) into the bacteria, which then inserts it into the plant. Viruses are even easier to work with than bacteria, because they're not truly alive it's harder to mess them up and \"kill\" them.",
"one way works by breaking the DNA at a certain pattern, so you end up with a frayed end of a single line of base pairs, ex: ATTGCCTTAGC. then you add in pieces of DNA with corresponding frayed ends TAACGGAATCG and in between the frayed ends is the DNA with a gene you wanted to add to the entire sequence. once the DNA has all come together again the full DNA located between the frayed ends is now part of the entire DNA strand, you get it into an organism using something like a plasmid or a virus and it will start being used like any other DNA in the cell. ",
"It really depends on what species you're trying to alter in what manner. I'm not really well-known with attempts on large organisms such as mice or flies, as I mostly work with bacteria or only DNA molecules. \n \nThere's some tricks we can do to make altered DNA genes. DNA itself is a molecule and there are some reliable methods to create DNA using a method known as PCR. We can also use PCR to alter DNA: \nPCR works like this. You have four components: \n- The DNA you wish to duplicate or alter \n- A protein known as polymerase that can duplicate DNA \n- And two guiding bits known as primers \n[picture](_URL_3_) & [Picture](_URL_1_). \nIn PCR, we heat up the original DNA strand until the the double-stranded helix shape becomes two single-stranded DNA molecules. The primers, that we selected to \"fit\" on the bits of DNA we want to copy, can guide the polymerase to where it needs to start copying stuff. \n \nThis method can be used to duplicate large amounts of DNA molecules for a gene you're interested in. But we can also make modifications to this DNA using PCR. If we use a Primer that is just a tiny bit mis-matched with the target DNA, it will still.. partially snap on. The polymerase will ignore this inconsistency and will incorperate the change it sees in the primer in the newly formed strand. [Picture, bit more complicated](_URL_2_). Using this method you can edit the DNA, causing directed changes to nucleotides and thus to the amino acids that would later form the protein.\nThis is entirely chemical. No living organisms are required for any of these steps. And although it may seem complicated, modern science made it super simple - if you have the proper chemicals, you simply put them into a tube and place it in a PCR machine, and a few hours later your edited DNA is ready to go. \n \nThis is just one of the many techniques available. The latest and hottest thing in sciences is [CRISPR](_URL_0_), where you can cause random deletion of large chunks of DNA which can also be used in all manner of techniques.",
"Don't know If anybody said that already, but the most interesting, accurate and refined genome editing technique nowadays Is CRISPR-cas9. By using it with a little knowledge you can literally edit any part of target organism DNA and change it to whatever you want. Here is the explanation of how it works : _URL_0_"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[
"http://www.21stcentech.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/rna_programmed_dna_cleavage_by_crispr_cas9.png",
"http://missinglink.ucsf.edu/lm/molecularmethods/images/clip_image003.gif",
"http://image.slidesharecdn.com/proteinengineering-141013113713-conversion-gate02/95/protein-engineering-11-63... | ||
cgbubp | how do songs/poems get translated into a different language? | How can a poem be translated into a different language and still keep the same beat? Does it still rhyme? How can a poem even have the same meaning if all the words have been slightly changed? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/cgbubp/eli5_how_do_songspoems_get_translated_into_a/ | {
"a_id": [
"eufy4zz"
],
"score": [
7
],
"text": [
"So, there are (in general) two ways to translate structured language (i.e poems and songs)\n\na ) You can change the meter, but preserve the wording. \n\n b ) You can change the wording, but preserve the meter.\n\nIf you just translate it as directly as you can then no. the beat, rhythm and rhyme will change. \n\nIf you try to preserve the meter you're going to have to change what words you use, find equivalent words that rhyme, have similar beat lengths, and convey *similar* meaning. \n\nA poem can easily have the same meaning if all the words have been changed (imagine replacing all the words with synonyms), but it's the job of a very skilled translator to do this well over the course of an entire poem. You're going to loose some of the nuance, and the meaning might slightly be altered, but a skilled translator knows what meaning was being conveyed and can try and craft a new poem with *similar enough* meaning that it passes general interpretation.\n\nYou're probably never going to get an exact 1:1 translation of meaning simply because languages are different and convey different meanings under different cultural contexts: but you can get pretty close if you're good at your job."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | |
5qypo7 | how do external hard drives store memory? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5qypo7/eli5_how_do_external_hard_drives_store_memory/ | {
"a_id": [
"dd351eg"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"First, hard drives don't store memory, hard drives are a type of memory for data. Data on a computer consists of bytes, which are 8 bits of binary data. A binary digit is a 1 or a 0, which is stored on a hard drive by a magnetic head that writes a pisitive or negative magnetic charge to the hard drive surface. Later on these can be read back and sebt through the cable to your computer."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | ||
8d8zc5 | do genetics change by each generation? | For example, if my mom was heavy set and I as her daughter was active and fit, would I pass on those genes my mom had or could I change my genetics by being fit? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8d8zc5/eli5_do_genetics_change_by_each_generation/ | {
"a_id": [
"dxl85nk",
"dxl89c6",
"dxlkcs8"
],
"score": [
2,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"The answer to your question is yes and no.\n\nYou actually have two copies of every gene, one you inherit from your mother and one you inherit from your father. These copies are called alleles.\n\nThe genetics for weight are complicated. There is no one single gene responsible for it and it is strongly influenced by environment (both external things like stress and internal things like what you eat and how much you exercise). The set of alleles you have regarding propensity for weight are not going to be identical to you mother, because you have the contribution from your father, as well. So the exact combination of alleles you inherit from each parent will determine the genetic (but not environmental) contribution to your weight. In that regard, the genetics does change from one generation to the next.\n\nAs I already mentioned, though, weight is not just genetic. It is strongly influenced by diet and exercise. If you maintain a healthy weight through doing those things, then even if both of your parents are heavy set, you might not be. That being said, you are *not* affecting your genetics. You may affect how your genes are expressed to some degree, but you cannot actually change your genes through diet and exercise.",
"\"fitness\" is not something your genetics decides _absolutely_ although it might give you certain tendencies to a more chubby or thinner body.\n\nBoth mother and father pass their dna to their children so its semi-random which attributes are chosen, though some stuff is dominant over other (like hair color, blonde dominates over black)",
"Generally no. \nThe DNA itself will only change a tiny amount ( < 0.001%/generation) and only by random mutation, not according to anything you do during your life. In 1980, every doctor and and scientist would have told you that this was the whole story. However, we are discovering the new field of epigenetics. While the DNA itself remains the same, it is packaged and labeled in a number of ways that can be changed throughout your life by things like diet, exercise, stress and other factors. \n\nThe genetic factors that influence weight, body composition, and appetite are very complicated and haven't been studied nearly enough to fully answer your concerns. \n\nAlso, keep in mind that you got a random 50% of your mom's genes and your kids will get a random 50% of your genes and that propensity to obesity is only weakly associated with genetics. So focus on being healthy yourself, teaching your kids to enjoy being active, and teaching them about eating healthy. Those factors will matter far more than the genes they (may or may not) inherit. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[]
] | |
85niyj | why does wetting your hands make it easier to open a plastic bag, when having wet hands usually makes it difficult to handle other things? | Title pretty much says it. I searched and couldn't find an answer. But having wet fingers seems counter intuitive, but makes opening trash bags and such way easier. How? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/85niyj/eli5_why_does_wetting_your_hands_make_it_easier/ | {
"a_id": [
"dvys3r4",
"dvyzmhm",
"dvz7rbt"
],
"score": [
5,
20,
47
],
"text": [
"Try running a squeedgie over glass using only water and you'll see water is actually pretty grippy on its own. ",
"Water naturally grips to things, especially stuff like plastic. If the bag was underwater it would be slippery and much harder, but with a small amount of water you can use that grippiness (called adhesion) to get a little more grab on the plastic. Another example of this is people who swipe their thumb across their lips before they separate two pieces of paper, it allows for more grip.",
"Your dry fingers have difficulty adhering to the smooth plastic. When you wet your finger, the water fills the spaces between your skin and the plastic bag. Water molecules are slightly bent, which means that they act a little bit like small magnets, with a small attractive force between them. This small attractive force (Van der Waals forces) causes the water to bond to both your fingers and to the bag, allowing you to grip it better. The forces in this case are small and the bag is light, so the force your hand apply is lower than the Van der Waals force.\n\nWhen opening a jar, the Van der Waals force is still there, but you are applying a much larger force to try to open the jar. In this case, you grip the jar much harder, which increases the surface area contact and allows you to transmit the force from your hand to the jar and lid, hence opening it. When the jar and lid is wet, the water gets between your hand and the jar. Water is a fluid and cannot transmit shear force (the force of objects moving alongside one another), so your hand slips as soon as you apply a force greater than the Van Der Waals force.\n\n "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[]
] | |
dg3szb | why does the us still only have one individual president as the leader of the country, instead of a group of leaders with equal power? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/dg3szb/eli5_why_does_the_us_still_only_have_one/ | {
"a_id": [
"f38p6x5"
],
"score": [
7
],
"text": [
"The USA is actually governed by Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches. The president is the leader of the Exceutive branch, Congress is legislative, and the Supreme Court is Judicial. There is instituted checks and balances so that no one branch has too much power."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | ||
4znbss | why is it sometimes you hear a song and you miss hear the lyrics, and after reading the correct ones you start hearing the song differently than before. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4znbss/eli5_why_is_it_sometimes_you_hear_a_song_and_you/ | {
"a_id": [
"d6x9hzd",
"d6xdkw5"
],
"score": [
5,
5
],
"text": [
"It's expectation. Before you read the lyrics, you heard them without any reference, meaning your past experiences dictated what you hear, based on the expectations related to the context of the song.\n\nAfter your read the lyrics, they overwrite your previous guess. It's like the meme \"What has been seen cannot be unseen,\" but here for hearing.\n\nThere's a similar phenomenon when you look at someone's lips when they talk. The associations you made with the movements of their mouths sometimes warps the actual sound they made, even if they said a different syllable than the one the mouth movement usually produces.",
"The opposite also happens. \n_URL_0_ \nWhat's the chorus? Da ba dee da ba daa? Or is it If I was green I would die? \nFriend told me ages ago. I \"hear\" it now."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BinWA0EenDY"
]
] | ||
2ul29p | why can't we harvest stem cells from abortion clinics? | Apologies if this has been asked before (I tried searching for it) but I've been wondering this for a while and thought I might get a better understanding by asking here. In countries where abortion is legal, why is there still controversy about harvesting/using/researching stem cells? From everything I hear about stem cells, they're the silver bullet for treating just about any medical disease. We also seem to be quite far along in understanding the practicalities of their application, unlike nanomachines for example (which seems almost science fiction in comparison). Why can't we take stem cells from abortion clinics? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2ul29p/eli5_why_cant_we_harvest_stem_cells_from_abortion/ | {
"a_id": [
"co9cd8w"
],
"score": [
7
],
"text": [
"It's primarily because it would be INCREDIBLY controversial. \n\nTo a lot of strong anti-abortionists who equate abortion with murder, it's the moral equivalent of applying the medical experiments from World War II extermination camps.\n\nNo matter how they might feel about it one way or the other, no sane politician would touch it."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | |
5xqxwi | why does 50*f feel hot during the spring right after winter but 50*f in the fall is freezing cold? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5xqxwi/eli5_why_does_50f_feel_hot_during_the_spring/ | {
"a_id": [
"dek6q72"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"I've always thought that it is perspective. Sort of like how in the summer the air conditioner feels good at 70F while drinking ice water. But in the winter if the heater is on 70F, it feels good to drink hot coffee. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | ||
16ffjt | i have heard the argument that gold is no longer a wise investment - that it is just a commodity with no intrinsic value - that it's worth stems only from people's *belief* in it's value. but, then, how it that different from the value of the u.s.dollar? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/16ffjt/i_have_heard_the_argument_that_gold_is_no_longer/ | {
"a_id": [
"c7visse"
],
"score": [
4
],
"text": [
"Investing in gold is a bid against your nation's economy: since gold is internationally priced, its relative value will be higher in a country with a worse economy. For that reason, investing in gold is a bad idea if your country doesn't seem like it's about to crash.\n\nAs to the question or real vs. perceived value: this effect is true of literally everything. Any commodity is only worth what people are willing to pay for it. If something is perceived as valuable, customers will be willing to pay more for it. Gold is no exception; if tomorrow the entire world decided that it wanted nothing to do with gold, the metal's value would plummet. However, there is no reason to assume this will happen. Gold has for all of human history been considered valuable, even though it had no practical application until very recently (electronics). In fact, gold has been one of the (if not the) most consistently valued commodities on earth for as long as can be recalled. \n\nCurrency is similar in its faith-based value, but is different in its nature. The reason a dollar USED to be considered valuable was because at any point it could be redeemed for its worth in gold. In the 1940's, the US abandoned this system for reasonable economic reasons that are beside the point. Now, the value of a dollar is the expectation that it can be traded for goods or services. Stores will accept a dollar as payment because they have a reasonable expectation that they will be able to trade it to someone else, even though the paper itself is of minimal value. Historically there have been cases where currency was not held in these expectations, and then it does become worthless. Recall postwar Germany, where money was used as wallpaper because that was cheaper than actually using it to buy wallpaper. \n\nOur global economy is founded in people's faith in this system, and so far it has served us well."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | ||
8zsued | why do muscle cells grow instead of undergoing mitosis like other cells? what would happen if someone loss a large amount of muscle cells, how would it be replenished? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8zsued/eli5_why_do_muscle_cells_grow_instead_of/ | {
"a_id": [
"e2loidp"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"Actually, muscle tissue can regenerate/grow to a certain extent.\n\nSatellite cells are stem cells which are located on your muscle fibers. These cells will continuously divide, and will fuse with damaged muscle cells to repair the tissue. Because muscle tissue is fundamentally a bunch of muscle cells fused together, this repair mechanism works and “enlarges” the muscle cell.\n\nHowever you have a problem if more cells are damaged than the satellite cells can repair. Through a very complicated set of pathways, the damaged cells signal scar tissue to form. This permanently reduces the ability of the muscle to stretch/contract.\n\nThere has been plenty of research into muscle regeneration. Some approaches try to speed up the growth of satellite cells with compounds like FGF or IGF, but these usually cause pain and abnormal swelling. Other approaches try to stop scar tissue formation by reducing compounds necessary for fibrosis such as mFAPs (yes, actual name). Even weirder research involves using bacteriophages (viruses) to stimulate cell growth."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] | ||
dv1zqk | how do we know whats happening in neutron stars? | I watched the kurzgesagt [video](_URL_0_) about neutron stars and he explained the inside of the stars are basically just a huge atomic core. But how do we know that? We have a hard time seeing atoms in labs here on Earth, how is it possible to see them light years away? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/dv1zqk/eli5_how_do_we_know_whats_happening_in_neutron/ | {
"a_id": [
"f7ac4ku"
],
"score": [
4
],
"text": [
"We don't know.\n\nBasically, we assume the laws of physics for gravity and quantum physics still apply, and try really hard to figure out some properties.\n\nWe think there is a pressure where electron get so compacted that they merge with the protons. We know if that happen that this makes a neutron (as neutron decay into proton+electrons).\n\nWe think there is a pressure where neutronium (atoms made exclusively of neutrons) start to pair up, and make di-neutronium soup, because it seems to be slightly more stable than unpaired ones (they don't like being together, but they take less space so that relieve a little bit of the pressure).\n\nWe think there is a pressure where they become pasta (1D chain), then lasagna (2D sheets) and then a core (3D solid), mostly because it looks like 1D neutronium structures are a little bit more stable than 2D neutronium structures which themselves are a little bit more stable than 3D. But at this scale of pressure it's really speculative.\n\nBelow that we have no clue. We don't know if black holes could spontaneously form then evaporate, or if we can have a weird soup of quarks, or exotic form of matter.\n\nIdeally we would have a record of seismic events at the surface of a neutron star, but that would require direct observation."
]
} | [] | [
"https://youtu.be/udFxKZRyQt4"
] | [
[]
] | |
t153y | why can't we use salt water in our toilets? | Would the salt erode the pipes at an alarming rate? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/t153y/why_cant_we_use_salt_water_in_our_toilets/ | {
"a_id": [
"c4in9m0",
"c4innbl",
"c4io2h1",
"c4iodgf",
"c4ion8u",
"c4ip1bm",
"c4ip3jq",
"c4ip6vo",
"c4ipf6n",
"c4ipff0",
"c4ipis3",
"c4ipmy3",
"c4ipq16",
"c4ipsx2",
"c4iqatt",
"c4iqgk3",
"c4iqp9g",
"c4irfbr",
"c4isbxb",
"c4isfaa",
"c4ivuri"
],
"score": [
331,
2,
22,
49,
3,
7,
76,
32,
2,
3,
4,
7,
5,
5,
7,
7,
2,
3,
2,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"The plumbing issue is minor, and can be countered with an appropriate choice of materials. Boats and ships use saltwater to flush their toilets all the time since its readily available unlike fresh water. However, on land you would need to run both a saltwater supply line **and** a second saltwater sewer line at massive expense. \n\nThis is because sewer waste is treated before discharge, and combining salt and fresh wastewater would result in brackish sewage that couldn't be discharged in normal locations. *If* you had a septic tank, you would be salting your fields.",
"Just ask the good folks at Alcatraz.",
"You could ... *if* your town had separate water mains and sewage lines for fresh and salt water.",
"I used to live in Avalon, the only recognized town on Catalina Island off the coast of Southern California, and they have a salt water system for our toilets. I think it uses a dual plumbing system and mixes it with fresh water, or filtered it (not sure of exact details). Either way, if you were gone for a while, and hadn't used the toilet, and you flushed it in the dark, the water would glow a little bit. ",
"I'm not sure, but I imagine it's probably for two reasons:\n\n1 - the expense. You'd have to run a separate line for the toilet and the sinks/showers, because who wants to drink or shower in salt water?\n\n2 - Salt is probably pretty corrosive. You'd probably have to get specially treated pipes. \n\nBut that's a guess.",
"It would be really expensive to install a second water line everywhere to transport salt water. ",
"More importantly, why aren't all toilets hooked up to flush with water from the shower drain?",
"The reason as others have said is you then need to duplicate the plumbing system for the two types of water, and that is generally not worth it.\n\nSome places, however, are particularly short on fresh water and this does make it worthwhile. [Hong Kong,](_URL_0_) for example, has a dual plumbing system and has flushed with sea water since the 1950s. HK has minimal fresh water supplies of its own and is reliant on importing fresh water from the Pearl River in China. (This reliance was arguably a factor in the British agreeing to hand the colony back to China in 1997.)",
"I don't think my cat would appreciate this - it's always got it's head in the toilet drinking.",
"Where would the dog drink from if they did that?",
"The beach bar I used to tend at in the northern Bahamas has a saltwater flush system for the toilets now. Fresh water is expensive and has to be barged or trucked in from a long way away (or collected in cisterns after very infrequent rainstorms) - the dual plumbing system was worth it to install. \n ",
"It would require completely new infrastructure as the water you drink and pee into essentially comes from the same place.",
"Because dogs would be deprived of an automatic filling water bowl.",
"Because you don't have a saltwater pipe going into your house. Infrastructure.\n\nNavy ships use seawater to flush their toilets. It's all around.",
"Is it because nobody wants to experience saltwater splashback after a night of habanero tacos?",
"My cat would hate this",
"in hong kong they use saltwater to flush toilets, the tanks that hold the water usually gets green mold growing in it and rust forms on the mechanisms.",
"Question (out of ignorance), with all that fresh water constantly being converted to sewage water and humans only exponentially grow in population. Aren't we just literally burning our fresh water supply? ",
"We could, but not everyone lives by the ocean.",
"Whoa, hey Patrick.",
"Hong Kong and China does this"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_supply_in_Hong_Kong#Seawater_flushing"
],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.