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Why do we say musical instruments are tuned in Bb, F, Eb, C, etc? | Pianist with perfect pitch here, so I do not play a transposing instrument, and I have some difficulty with transposing since I "hear" the note that's written and not the transposed version. Technically, it is the music notation that is transposed, not the instrument. For example, music for high or low instruments such... |
Why do we so often feel the need to lean back our chairs onto two legs? | We came from primates who lived in trees. We like to balance. We are a bipedal who must balance to move at all because we are on one foot a lot of the time. By the way, many newly blinded people were injured in the back of the skull injuring the visual center of the brain. Falling backward into blindness is a terrible ... |
How does an Xbox Kinect work? [ELI5] | Thirty times per second the Kinect sends out a laser across your room. When the laser touches objects in the room it bounces back and is collected by the Kinect again. Objects that are close bounce the laser back quicker than objects which are far. This allows it to to create a depth field of your room, and monitor mov... |
Where does the mustard from "mustard gas" come from? | Sulfur mustard agents are generally yellow-brown in color and have a smell similar to mustard, garlic, or horseradish. Although if you can smell it you're in real trouble. |
Why does some food/drinks taste best when served hot, others when served cold? | Temperature is related to how our nervous system is able to process the signals for taste and smell. For instance sugar is much sweeter at high temperatures than low temperatures. So a drink that is appropriately sweet when hot will taste not sweet enough when cold, and a cold drink that is just sweet enough will be un... |
Why are the atomic numbers of elements unique? | If two atoms have the same number of protons, that's what makes them the same element. We identify elements primarily by the number of protons, as that's what makes them what they are. The number of electrons in a given element atom dictates whether or not it is charged, but electrons are much more fluid than protons, ... |
Why are some flu symptoms vomiting/diarrhea if the flu is a respiratory infection | Well, first of all, a lot of what people call the flu is not actually the flu. People talk about the stomach flu, for example, but that is not a form of flu. That said sometimes the flu can cause vomiting in that if your respiratory passages are infected, you produce a lot of mucus. Inevitably, you are gonna end up swa... |
Weather and the Earth's Rotation | Temperature changes affect air currents as hot air rises and cool air falls. As the Earth rotates, it moves in and out of direct sunlight so the temperature changes. |
How come when a movie gets a new director mid-way through filming, they often change the script of the film? | It depends on the film and how involved the director is/was with the screenplay. If the screenplay comes from a recognised top screenwriter like Charlie Kaufman or Shane Black, then the director is probably not going to mess with it much. Note also that a screenplay and a shooting script are different things, with the ... |
Why can you see the veins in your eye when the eye doctor shines a bright light into it? Why do eye doctors even do that? | They do it to see the back of the inside of your eye through your pupil. They can determine whether you are at risk for glaucoma, among other things, this way. Edit: the veins you see are on the front of the inside of your eye. You can see them because of the light reflected off the back. |
How does mail from one country go to another country that speaks a different language? | We own a business that still occasionally uses international mail. Usually mail comes addressed in English with a big USA along the bottom of the address, I assume that is enough to get it chucked into the pile of mail coming here - or it is addressed in English and the language of the country of origin. Sometimes the ... |
Did the US really create the Islamic State, and if so, why? | When people say the U.S. created the Islamic State it's not like the U.S. went to Iraq and recruited people to be in this great new ISIS thing. They mean that the U.S.' actions in the Middle East were the impetus that lead to the rise of groups like the Islamic State. |
In humans, what is the functional difference between wide, flat noses and narrow, pointed noses? | The various shapes of noses appear to be tied to adaptations to climate. The nose must properly heat and humidify the air that you breathe. In a cold climate, it's advantageous to have a narrower nose. That's so that when a person inhales, more air comes into contact with the mucosal surface of nose, which provides moi... |
How can energy companies guarantee a customer getting '100% green energy', when they also produce energy from fossil fuels? | Electricity isn't a physical object that's being piped around, so the idea of there being specific energy being produced in one place and then shipped around doesn't really work. What the energy company is guaranteeing is that they'll supply, either by producing it themselves or buying it from another producer, enough ... |
How do gunshot wounds work? [serious] | 1) Where were you shot? With deer - Head and heart mean instant death. Lungs, throat, you have a minute or two. Liver, an hour. Gut shot, could be hours if Tarantino is writing. Legs and arms, minutes or days, depending on if you hit an artery or it gets infected. The location matters. 2) TV shows are incredibly incons... |
Why does my dog need to be vaccinated yearly, but my vaccinations last for life? | Your vaccinations **don't** last for life. Vaccinations for influenza are generally good for only a single year, because the flu virus mutates rapidly. You should be getting vaccinated for tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis every 10 years . Many other vaccines last longer, because the virus they protect against mutates... |
What are the things holding back consumer robotics? | If you're talking about the robots seen in *I, Robot* or *Robot and Frank*, then about 30 more years of development and another 10 years of market introduction and expansion. We're just too far away right now to be putting a Rosie in every living room. Once we are there, they'll be prohibitively expensive for most peop... |
How come 911 works when there is no cell phone service due to being in a remote area. | "No service" on your phone actually means: "There is no signal from a carrier that recognizes that you have an active, billable account allowed to make calls." However, since an active, billable account isn't required to make a 911 call, you can make a 911 call from a cell phone as long as there is any provider in rang... |
How do drugs like Tylenol or Motrin do what they claim (i.e. pain relief, fever reduction, etc) in the body? | Tylenol is a cyclooxygenase . COX-2 is a protein in the body that produces prostaglandin which is a pro-inflammatory agent. Meaning it causes swelling in the body when a part of the body is hurt . Swelling causes pain mainly because as it gets bigger it triggers sensitive nerve endings that act like a light switch for ... |
How does radiation poisoning kill you? | Ionizing radiation, the dangerous kind of radiation, can damage your body's cells all the way down to the DNA, which is what controls the whole cell. It's like replacing your kindergarten teacher with another 5-year old. No one would do anything they were supposed to and chaos would ensue. Eventually the principal woul... |
why is the wind cold? | Air carries away the heat off your body. Same way a radiator works on a car. The faster you're moving the more the cooling effect. |
Why do gas stations offer mid grade gas | In my state premium gas is 91 octane, but regular gas is 85.5 octane. From what I understand the low-octane gas is acceptable because of the altitude, at least for older cars without engine-management computers. So the mid-grade gas is 87 octane, which is what my engine requires. Thus, I buy mid-grade gas because it's ... |
Why do things that are bad for you taste nice? | So, in the past, sugar and fat and salt were rare. Our bodies need them, in small amounts, so we evolved to find them delicious so that we'd put the effort into finding them. But now they aren't rare, and we can eat far too much of them than our bodies are able to handle safely. But we're still designed to find them in... |
; Why is the qwerty keyboard configuration slower than the alphabetical form? | It isn't that they specifically typed faster. It is that certain letters that are used frequently in combination were typed too fast causing them to lock together in typewriters. They needed to move the letters that go together often to places on the keyboard that won't cross and get stuck. We type just as fast with qw... |
Why do we not desalinate our ocean water as a viable resource for water? | It's enormously energy intensive, and electricity is expensive. A desalination plant basically requires it's own nuclear core to provide water enough for a small city, and a bigger city like LA would need several plants. But that isn't going to stop us. We're doing it anyway - in fact, desalination was one of the main ... |
- How induction motors work and how inrush current decreases as the motor starts spinning | An induction motor has two groups of windings that carry current. One is on the outer part and doesn't spin, it is connected to power and generally built into the housing of the motor, this is called the stator. There is a second set of windings wrapped around the center shaft which spins, this is called the rotor and ... |
What causes grown men to marry young girls in Arab nations specifically? | Kind of ignorant and offensive to say "Arab Nations" when it is only legal in **two** Arab countries and yet it is still considered immoral in most parts of those countries. Also, [none of the top TWENTY countries] with the highest child marriage are Arabian. Choose your words properly next time so you don't sound like... |
Powerball odds are now 1 in 175,223,510. What can that be compared to? | I'm thinking of a number between 1 and 175,223,510. Try to guess it. You have only one chance. |
Why does it sometimes take a very long time for bad news (like a loved one dying) to sink in? Why isn't it always instant? | The very first step on the stages of loss and grief is Denial and Isolation. Learning someone is dying is very hurtful. It is a very natural reaction to deny the hurtful news to spare yourself grief, and to isolate yourself from the news, or sources of news. Part of it is experience. The very first time you find out so... |
Why are military aircraft never painted blue to blend in with the sky? | That would work well if the sky happened to be exactly the same shade of blue as the plane, however it works less well if there is cloud, if the sky is hazy, if the sky is any of the other broad range of colours it can be at dawn and dual . Military planes tend to be grey as it achieves the most neutral effect in the b... |
Database servers SSD vs HDD | > I read HDD does things sequential, but was not sure what that meant. A hard disk drive operates by moving a read head across a spinning platter. This means it can only read from one portion of the disk at one time. An SSD can conceptually read from multiple areas of the drive simultaneously because it is solid state,... |
Why do humans sometimes involuntary void their bladder/bowels when scared? | Well, bladder control seems like a simple task but actually presents a significant neurological challenge to coordinate. Information about bladder wall distention is used by the body to gauge levels of urine in the bladder and is sent to the pontine micturination center in the brain stem. This region coordinates the si... |
why do some artists choose not to upload their singles on YouTube, even ones that are decades old? Wouldn't they make lots of money from advertisement? | A lot of songs are not property of the artist themselves, who would probably love to be making money off their own work.. |
Why does Windows seem to boot slower and open programs slower than Mac OS X or Linux? | Why windows feels slow: usually people buy cheaper windows laptops, bloatwear installed by vendor. Windows can incredibly fast though if you do a clean install on a decent drive whether that is an ssd of a fast disk drive. Why osx seems faster: higher end hardware usually, more optimized for the hardware it runs on. Th... |
Why do schools in the US close when theres "cold" weather? | It's only done in parts of the country where ice and snow are very rare. Kids might not have adequate winter gear to deal with exceptionally cold weather and the facilities might not be able to properly heat the classrooms sufficiently. |
How does astigmatism work? | In order to focus light to a point, you need a lens. To get good focus, the shape of a lens is pretty close to the shape you 'd get if you took a sphere and shaved a slice off it. This type of lens is called a "spherical" lens, because it's a slice off a sphere. The smaller the sphere, the more powerful the lens, becau... |
; Why do we measure land area in acres in the US instead of square miles or something else? | Over very large areas we *do* use square miles; however, when you're measuring, say, the area of a person's property, the square mile is way too big to use. An acre is 1/640th of a square mile, and thus a lot more conveniently sized to use for that purpose.As a side effect of that, often in the United States large area... |
why it takes 49 day to reincarnate for Buddhists | Because 49 is seven times seven, and seven has been a symbolic number in a huge number of mythologies. It a prime number and cannot be multiplied or divided within the first 10 numbers so it seems more special. |
What is a strawman arguement? | A strawman is when instead of arguing your opponents position, you make up a new position that they do not hold and fight that. Say Joe and bob are having a debate on illegal immigration. joe: I believe we should build a large inpenetrable fence around our borders so no illegal immigrants can come in. bob: so you belie... |
Why is it that Police officers seem to get less of a punishment when caught doing something illegal? | OP didn't specify any particular locale, but this seems to be getting out of hand in America and i just really wonder when we're going to get angry enough to force change, if ever. |
How and why does water go "bad"? | Water have various gasses dissolved within it including CO2 and oxygen, both of which influence the taste enough that they're worth adding. Over time, and especially with changes in temperature, these can come out of solution forming bubbles and even escape through the side of the bottle, making it taste different. As ... |
Why do you hear yourself breath louder when you have headphones in with no music playing? | You are blocking your ears from hearing things outside your body, so your ears are hearing the sounds resonating within your body easier. That's why you hear your heart beat and stomach rumble easier with your ears covered.There are two types of conduction for hearing. Air conduction and bone conduction. Air conduction... |
Why do we get dizzy and nauseous after a deep bath? | Because the heat causes your blood vessels to dilate, resulting in a drop in blood pressure, which leads to dizziness and nausea. |
Can you explain Quasars? | Half the point of a school project is learning to research things properly. It's fine to ask about things you don't understand, but have you looked them up at all? Is there some particular part of the idea that doesn't make sense? The [wikipedia page] has a lot of densely packed information, and the [simple english wik... |
This Study Suggesting Genetic Factors in Smoking may Increase Risk of Chronic Bronchitis | Not really what this is for, but hey, I'll give it a go. So, what they are saying is that there are multiple factors that account for CB Acquiring a disease is never set in stone. Rather, certain genes make mutation more likely, or make your body less likely to scrub out mutations early, leading to an increased risk of... |
I heard diet soda with zero calories can still lead to weight gain. How? | This is an open question that has been puzzling researchers for 40-50 years. In very tightly controlled studies, in which measured portions of food are consumed, diet drinks are in fact associated with lower weight than sugar sweetened drinks. But only in the lab. As soon as you open the doors and let the subjects out ... |
Why do companies not include batteries with so many electronic devices that need them? | Depends on the device, most seem to come with it. But I would say it's mostly price, and sometimes just the fact that batteries have a shelf life. And with things like toys, rechargeable batteries are very expensive , and it runs through batteries so fast you need a case of batteries anyways. Thus it's not worth includ... |
What are Crypto-currecny "forks" and what exactly does it mean the the currency they fork off of? | Imagine you and your friend Steve are making a new Cryptocurrency. You decide to name it "SteveCoin". People really like it and it gets used often because it has awesome features and was the first Cryptocurrency to use those special features. Later, you think " why did we call it SteveCoin? I did all the work. It shoul... |
How exactly does code made in Cello transfer into a living cell? | Basically, rewiring bacteria is what they do in [Synthetic Biology.] They are working with the simplest possible bacteria - E Coli. They could already make a two state switch since the year 2000 - see for example [this explanation] of the Gardner Cantor Collins experiment. Once we are able to emulate circuit behavior i... |
When I open a PC application with notepad, why do I get weird characters instead of "0" and "1"? | Because Notepad is used to reading the 0's and 1's that normally comprise a text file. So, it sees 0's and 1's, and tries to translate them into letters and symbols and shit like it always does. Since the 0's and 1's aren't actually representing letters, you end up with nonsense. |
What are the major differences between US Cell Phone Carriers? Why are some able to market at a significantly lower cost for a seemingly similar product? | As larger companies get more established, costs per customer go down. If I opened up a brand new mobile service and tried to put towers up all across the country it would cost me billions of dollars, and if I only had a few customers I would have to charge millions or billions per customer. Also, although each US carri... |
Why are some analogic instruments better at measuring than digital ones? (e.g. blood pressure) | Digital circuitry generally allows for lower power and much greater complexity. That greater complexity allows for digital filtering and processing, which means digital instruments almost always have greater *potential* accuracy. However, everything starts analog because the world itself is analog. To get any informati... |
What is "the stack"? | "The stack", without context, usually means the call stack. This is a region of memory where function arguments and local variables are stored during program execution. It is called a stack because it acts like a stack - data is pushed on at the top, and then popped off again. Unlike data stored on the heap, previously... |
What are the differences between all the styles of martial arts? It seems like no matter what kind you use the fastest and strongest person will win. Are there really advantages to each style? | One difference not mentioned is that many martial arts are used for sport or competetion, like judo, muay thai, and taekwondo sparring, as well as performing forms, and breaking boards. Other martial arts focus on hurting and killing people as effectively as possible, which include techniques like eye gouging, throat p... |
Why is gerrymandering an acceptable practice? | It can be good or bad. Hypothetically you can have ten districts that each have 500 people from party A and 499 people from party B . In this case, all ten districts do what group A wants every election. But, if you gerrymander the districts so that 5 go to group A and 5 go to group B then suddenly group B has power to... |
If a right handed person writes with their right hand as its more dextrous, why do string players finger with their left? | There's a saying: If you play the wrong note at the correct time, you are 50% correct but if you play the correct note at the wrong time, you are 100% wrong. iow, timing is more important than intonation. The most dexterous hand is better at timing.Fun fact: dexterous has its roots in Latin meaning "right" as in right ... |
how certain pills know how to go to certain parts of the body and work | Pills don't know to go to certain parts of the body. They enter the body and effect the entire thing, so when you take an antibiotic for strep throat it doesn't just effect your throat, it enters the blood stream and effects the entire body, and as a side effect the throat. |
Why do pro gamers have such short careers? | the younger a player, the faster the twitch reflexes reaction times also get slower as you age ', "To be competitive at a professional level of video gaming requires playing games nearly every waking hour of your day. As people get older, unless gaming is paying all their bills and supporting their families, there's ju... |
why there are so many types of pasta that are almost exactly the same except for a slight difference? | In Italy each pasta is regional so in one area they might make something one way and give it a name and in another area they make it another way and call it something else. |
If everyone except me died right now, how long would the internet be functioning for? | It would probably come down to power. The switches, routers and servers pretty much run without human intervention and would basically work until the power shut off. Yes some devices would fail and overtime you'd slowly see things disappear until you lost connectivity. |
Lawyers of Reddit. Can someone explain what is happening in this video? | Description from original video: CIVIL CONTEMPT PROCEEDING. An attempt to scam what they could NOT legally take, denied! I did a Citizen's Arrest on Fresno County Deputy District Attorney. Hear the DA tell the clerk sitting next to him to "give these things to my wife" as he pulls out his wallet and keys, he knew he wa... |
How does lifting weights help your muscles grow? | Tension on the muscle helps to cause changes in the chemistry of the muscle, allowing for growth factors that include mTOR activation and satellite cell activation. Muscular tension also most dramatically effects the connection of the motor units with the muscle cells.it's called hypertrophy. the thing most people are ... |
Would raising the national minimum wage from $7.25 to $15.00 affect the cost of living like everyone thinks? If so then why? | Hard to say - many well regarded economists are still arguing this point so there is no clear answer. The people who say it won't have an effect say that increases in wage will increase general productivity so more goods will be produced, which will keep price increases slower than wage increases. The people who say it... |
Why is it better to pull up the handbrake without holding the button and does it have any affect on the car negatively? | Usually there is no difference. The button on a lever is used to unlock [ratchet bracket mechanism] and is not connected to brake mechanism, which is activated only by lever movement.As others have stated, the commonly held belief is that by holding the button in, you are removing the ratchet mechanism from the teeth e... |
Blood. Why can 0 be used on all groups but not all can be used on 0? | So everyone has red blood cells. These cells are slightly different between people who have different blood types . The letter denotes a specific inherited antigenic property of the red blood cells. What this means is that your parents and their parents etc, have certain types of molecules that are on the surface of th... |
How, when putting in contacts, do they always stay in the correct spot over your iris? | Because the contact lens is shaped just like center, which is called the cornea, while the rest of the eye has different curves. So the contact lens rests at the spot where it is most comfortable |
What are the images we see when we close and slightly press our eyes and exactly what is it we're seeing? | These are called "phosphenes", which are a type of "entoptic phenomenon", meaning that they are visual perceptions that originate within the eyeball itself, as opposed to being caused the normal way through the perception of light. The retina is a complicated structure, and it is so sensitive that even pressure can alt... |
How did we create non biodegradable things like plastic from what I'd assume is biodegradable materials? | Plastics have properties which make them resistant to biodegradation. Firstly, plastics are water resistant. Without moisture, bacteria/fungi cannot grow on it. Also, any digestive enzymes released by these organisms will be repelled from the surface. Secondly, producing plastics is very energy-inefficient compared to ... |
is there a reason that not all animals in colder climates go into hibernation? | Animals' survival strategies need to evolve to utilise their environment's resources, but the strategy itself can vary wildly. Hibernation is just one strategy that some animals use to save energy while resources are scarce, but it is an equally good strategy for an animal to spend more time scavenging during the colde... |
how do ISP companies emerge? How would one go about starting one? | First things first, find a new city that is being built, and buy the rights to sell the internet.Basically, you will need to buy bandwidth from a Tier 1/2 ISP, much as how you have a subscription now to connect to the Internet with a ISP. You just got to buy enough bandwidth in bulk from a higher-level ISP to resell th... |
Why did Bitcoins end up being worth so much? | Bitcoins is a currency that cannot be taxed by governments. Shady people used them to transfer huge amounts of money. Since they were used, they became popular and therefore increased in value.Bitcoins have been used to purchase things from online retailers such as tigerdirect, overstock and humble bundle. So it's not ... |
What are the main types of investments, and what is the best way to get started investing? | * savings account - low interest, access your money any time* certificate of deposit - slightly higher interest than savings, but your can access your money for a certain length of time, 6 months, 1 year, 5 years. The longer the term, the higher the interest* stock - small ownership in a company, can be sold any time, ... |
Why the judicial system doesn't consider naming a suspect being involved in/owning child porn as defamation/slander when it destroys their lives even if they're not convicted. | Freedom of speech and the press mean it is almost always legal to say true things. If someone is being investigated for child porn, it is legal to say they are being investigated for child porn. It may seem unfair, but the amount of abuse that would result from being able to claim slander for true statements far outwei... |
The pros and cons of physical versus virtual money. | Physical Money Pros: * No technology is needed to exchange money and make sales* No internet access is required* No record of transactions * The other person cannot track you * You cannot get hacked and lose money Virtual Money Pros: * You only need to carry around a card or your phone* You can't lose your money or dam... |
The green "Secure" lock next to webpages. | It means there is a minimum 256 SSL certificate in use on the site. This encrypts the connection between your computer and the server the website resides on. It means that your data isn't transmitted "*in the clear*" and thus can not be intercepted by a man in the middle attack*. * There are of course exploits to this ... |
How and why do some substances stay in our body 'forever', like heavy metals? | Every metal has what is called a biological half life. IF you up take it though ingestion, absorption or inhalation, it takes some amount of time to move through your system. The concept is used quite a bit for body burden determinations when exposed to radioactive materials. The body does not differentiate between rad... |
What makes nitrous oxide a better propellant gas for whipped cream than molecular nitrogen? | Nitrous oxide becomes a liquid when compressed to about 700-800 psi. Moreover it is soluble in fatty substances such as cream. Other common aerosol propellants such as isobutane are less soluble and tend to separate from the cream in this application. To answer your question specifically, N2 gas has dramatically differ... |
Why do snow flakes form on a 2-dimensional plane instead of all directions? | They don't, different atmospheric conditions, like temperature, cause [different shapes].crystals often grow flat. This is because the edge of a crystal might have a different arrangement of atoms than its face, and that incoming molecules that stick and enlarge the crystal prefer to to it on the edge rather than the f... |
what was McCarthyism all about? | The US and the Soviet Union emerged from WWII as the world's superpowers. This rivalry become especially heated after the Soviet developed their own atomic bomb, largely through espionage. For the first time since the Civil War, Americans feared war could reach them at home. Senator McCarthy used this fear for politica... |
Why does the name "Germany" in English sound so much different than the actual name of Deutschland? | "Germany" as a place name existed long, long before "Deutchland". That part of Europe has gone through a lot of political changes throughout history. It's almost more appropriate to think of "Deutschland" as the nation currently in the area called "Germany". 200+ years ago "Germany" was the home to the Holy Roman Empir... |
Why I see more porn on /r/all at 7 am than any other time of day? | Have you considered the possibility that you are seeing the same amount of porn at 7am as throught the rest of the day but the amount of other content has been reduced because the people who post sfw content are sleeping? |
If our brain was moved from one body to another would our conscience go with it? | Well we're gonna find out, as the first head transplant is set for this year. Here's an IAmA by the patient. _URL_0_ |
Why do we get songs stuck in our head? What's the best way to get them out? | It's the lyrics stuck in your short term memory's rehearsal loop which has ten available slots. To remove it, sing happy birthday to your self, in full 5 times. Then it will be gone so long as you don't actively re-engage it . |
Why is it that some hospitals have a religious association in their title (Methodist, Baptist, etc)? | Because the hospital is either currently associated with that denomination, or was founded by that denomination. Same with faith based postsecondary institutions. For example: "Washington Adventist University"', "[Encyclopedia Britannica has some good information.] Apparently the modern concept of a hospital dates back... |
How do some drugs/chemicals impact the body (nearly) immediately? | Media often exaggerates the rapidness of drug effects, but it is true that many drugs do act pretty rapidly. Largely, the speed at which a drug works depends on how quickly it can get to its target. When you take a pill, for example, the pill has to land in the stomach, dissolve, then get absorbed. This takes a bit of ... |
why are almost all mac and cheese boxes blue? | Because the mac-and-cheese inside is orange, and blue and orange are on opposite sides of the color wheel so the orange mac-and-cheese stands out better on the blue packaging than it would on, for example, a red package. Although I would hardly say "almost all". Kraft and all the Kraft knockoffs are blue, but Stouffers... |
How does major news anchors get to locations of breaking news extremely quickly? | News Anchors are the people who typically sit behind the desk in front of the camera and report on the events from the studio. Journalists are the ones who actually report to live events as they happen. It's a combination of listening to police radio communications, social media, tippers, etc. |
What exactly is happening when you put tinfoil in a microwave? | The microwaves are creating an electric current through the foil. Occasionally, this electricity arcs across the foil, creating both the lights and the sound. |
In space, given an infintie amount of fuel could something accelerate forever? | Yes, given infinite fuel a rocket could accelerate forever at a constant rate. Note that this does not imply that the rocket will surpass the speed of light at any point. Velocity is not given by the simple Newtonian equation v=a*t at relativistic speeds, but by the slightly more complicated equation v = c tanh where c... |
The general idea to solve a rubiks cube? | The basics of solving the cube like a beginner is like this: Some terminology: * Center piece - there are six of these, they're fixed in relation to each other. * Edge piece - sits on the edge between two center pieces. There are twelve of these. * Corner piece: Sits on the corner between three edge pieces. There are e... |
How do willow trees know when to stop growing so their branches aren't dipping into water? | They don't know when to stop growing. They grow into the water and then those parts that are underwater for long periods of time die. Eventually those "dead ends" will stop their growth. |
Why do we tremble/shake when we're scared/nervous? | This is caused by the sympathetic nervous system, which is your body's fight or flight response. When you need it, your body will increase your heart rate, dump adrenaline into your blood stream for circulation around your body, dump glucose into your blood stream to be used to energy around the body, shut off non-esse... |
Why do epilogues in books number pages using roman numerals? | To denote that is is not part of the main story. Also it may be written in a different voice than the main storyThis is merely speculation but I suspect it is so you do not confuse the epilogue, preface or introduction with the book itself. Seems to be a good way to separate the parts of the book. |
Why are green screens green? Why not blue? Or red? | > Is there something special about the color green that makes it easier to superimpose images onto it? They don't superimpose images onto it, they're removing it from the image, and green is a good choice because it's dissimilar to most skin colors - when you choose the range of colors to remove in editing, you're less... |
Why are there flightless birds? | Flightless birds occur more often on islands where there aren't any ground predators. Since it takes so much energy to fly, its more advantageous for those birds to be flightless. |
How come high magnitude earthquakes off the coast do not always cause huge Tsunamis.. What are the factors? | It depends on how the plates move. If plates are sliding past each other, e.g. one North and the other South, then a slip doesn't displace any water = no Tsunami. If one plate is subducting under the other, then when the fault slips the top plate pops up, which displaces a bunch of water = Tsunami. |
What prevents undocumented Americans from obtaining citizenship? | The path to naturalization is a difficult and arduous task. First an immigrant must acquire a green card or permanent residence card. In order to acquire one of these cards you mainly have to be sponsored by a family member who is an American citizen, permanent resident or the like, or sponsored by some type of employe... |
Does it rain over all the Oceans and Seas? Are any areas over an Ocean or a Sea classified as deserts? | There are definitely bodies of water which get rained on more or less depending on where they are. The amount of precipitation which falls in the arctic is very small compared to that which falls in a tropical region. Areas of ocean which are downwind from deserts also get very little direct precipitation. Oceans and s... |
Why do I feel more tired and get a headache if I over sleep? | I'm no doctor and have no experience, but I think I know the answer. You're dehydrated. You're going a longer than normal time without drinking or eating anything, and by the time you get up and moving, you're more dehydrated and hungry than normal. |
Why do engines always specify their volume slighty (1-5cc) below a nice round number (e.g 1199cc, 4395cc)? | Everyone is mentioning laws & taxation, which is most of it, but there's also an engineering concern. Engine *cylinders* are round, this means their exact volume involves an irrational number, pi. If you're designing an engine, it's more important to make dimensions easily measurable & machinable numbers. Rounding the ... |
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