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What is the difference between "literature" and "regular fiction books" and who gets to make the official distinction? | There isn't a strict difference. When people speak of "literature" in this way, it's a lot like "art." They mean the sort of thing that is new, that understands and plays with conventions, which can be the subject of interpretation and criticism. No one can make an "official" distinction. This or that editor may feel a... |
Why do supersonic jets require subsonic airflow? | I am not quite sure what you mean specifically by requiring subsonic airflow. The typical jet engine requires subsonic airflow in order to work. Supersonic air causes a bunch of really strong shockwaves that can rip the engine apart as well as make it really inefficient when the engine is designed for subsonic flight p... |
What events could cause an economy to suddenly collapse, and how would they cause it? | All money is based on trust and belief in value. I go to work, and get paid electronically, which means I have to trust that the banks will give me my money when I want it. If the bank gives me cash, then I have to believe that a store will accept it. If I buy a house, I have to believe many things about it - that it's... |
How do NORAD, Google, and other sites track Santa? | NORAD, NORth american Aerospace Defense command, is capable of tracking anything from planes to rockets to flocks of birds. A sleigh full of toys and a bunch of reindeer stick out like a sore thumb on their radar, it looks nothing like a plane. We'll never know how he manages to visit everyone in just one night. He may... |
Why are sports games such as Madden and NBA 2k still being released each year? | I imagine that the main reason is because the teams keep changing. Every year, teams add and lose players. This is especially true with newly drafted players. Secondly, they do try to improve their games on each release by tweaking certain features such as game play, control options, graphics, and other featuresIt's be... |
Why is it that when we switch focus from one object to another, we never miss? | **TL;DR: Evolutionary advantage.** The capability to instantly look at and focus on something else is a tremendous benefit for any organism that might be either a predator or prey. Being able to focus instantly on a beast that's barrelling straight at you because you're Special Number Three on today's menu substantiall... |
How do blackheads/zits form? | All over your body you have these small holes from which your hair grows. In these holes, you also have a gland that produces oil, which keeps your skin soft and tends to your hair. When dead skin cells or dirt collects in these holes, they make a bumb in your skin. When the top layer of skin is gone, the air makes the... |
why do they say that "glass flows over time?" And why has this been proven false? | Some people mistakenly thought that glass would flow over time and used the fact that very old stained glass windows would have thicker glass at the bottom of the panes. This was proven false because it is false. The glass panes are thicker at the bottom because of the manufacturing process of glass in the past, not be... |
Why has human life become more valued over time | If I had to pick one overwhelming factor, it would be the way in which modern medicine has increased life expectancy and decreased any given person's likelihood of suddenly dropping dead. If you live in a world where, on any given day, you could cut yourself shaving or catch cholera, basically at random, and be dead be... |
how food companies decide serving size | How do food companies determine *serving size*? With old data. The Food and Drug Administration provides an exhaustively detailed set of guidelines to help manufacturers set portion size based on the amount the average person is likely to eat at once—or, in jargon, the "reference amount customarily consumed." The agenc... |
What's the difference between a regular bank and a credit union? | A bank is owned by shareholders who may or may not be account holders at the bank. The bank's mandate is to make profits to distribute to the shareholders . A credit union is owned by its account holders, not by pension funds or arm's-length investors. It may have profit sharing with its members, but the focus is suppo... |
How does the United States benefit from having territories/commonwealths like Puerto Rico, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Virgin Islands, etc.? | Guam is of strategic importance to the US. Look at a globe and notice the distance from mainland US to Asia and also notice how Guam's location provides a handy place to stage, refuel, base troops, or similar. |
Why do people forget dreams so quickly? | I read this as "why do people forget their hopes and aspirations so quickly?" :(This TED talk is all about sleep memory and dreams, I'm watching it now. Couldn't find the TED talk I actually wanted to post here. _URL_0_ I don't remember where I read / heard it, but basically the part of our brain that records memory is... |
If an electron microscope works because it uses electrons rather than photons, does this mean electrons are smaller than photons? | Electron microscopes are effective because the wavelengths of the electrons in the microscope are several thousand times shorter than the wavelengths of visible light. This allows a beam of electrons to resolve much more small detail. To something very small, visible light basically covers a large amount of the surface... |
What compels an individual to strike up personal conversations with strangers on public transport? | Likely the same reason people tell anything to Taxi drivers. He knows he'll never see you again, and it's good to get it off his chest. |
Why does if take so long for a movie to release on DVD/Blu-ray after it stops showing in theaters? | Because if the movie came out immediately, then no one would see it in theaters and movie theaters won’t bother to show a movie no one is going to seeBecause the movie studios want you to wait in anticipation and milk the movie theatre moneyMovie releases of all kinds are determined by demand and the studio calculating... |
Why do the people of Detroit don't want Nickleback to play at the lion's thanksgivings game? | As a Detroiter, and a life-long Lions and music fan, I can tell you there are at least two reasons. The first is that Nickelback is a band whose combination of trite lyrics and an awe inspiring inability to only write songs that have the same time and melody as every other one of there songs is truly superb. The second... |
Why isnt there a universal plug socket design? | Different sockets have different advantages and disadvantages. It is also hard to change existing standards. A standard is emerging though as the European countries are making their sockets compatible with each other. The result in the Schuko/Europlug design. More and more countries are making their sockets compatible ... |
How is it that acne can be caused by heredity if it's just dirt in the skin? | Acne is caused when pores on your face are blocked up and become inflamed. This could have genetic roots, because, if your genes make you produce more oils in your skin, the extra oil could clog up your pores more easily than someone who does not have that trait. Thus, you would have a lot more acne than that other per... |
How do I change sentences in passive voice to active voice? | There's a guide [here] on how to turn that feature off, but if you're interested: * Passive: Mistakes were made. * Active: I made a mistake. You can find more information on active/passive [here]. |
How are artificial flavors engineered? | Take extract of some food. Run gas-liquid chromatography on it and determine the volatile components. Take artificial versions of some of those components and see if some combination tastes right. It usually comes down to just one or a few flavors that are needed to trick the nose and tongue. |
The sensation of "too quiet" | Just spitballing, but human brains filter a huge amount of information all the time, to include ambient noise. We usually don't think about it because it isn't relevant to any of the decisions our brains think we're going to need to make soon. The sudden absence of noise, however, is unusual. It breaks the pattern, and... |
Urinary tract infections and vomiting/nausea | An advanced UTI infection can go up to the kidneys, that regulate blood pressure . Once the blood pressure is not well regulated, a person can feel effects of high/low pressure, which include nausea. Not 10/10 sure, but that's what I got for you :) |
Explain Hilbert space in layman's terms. | States in quantum mechanics are vectors. But they're not vectors in regular space ). They're vectors in an abstract vector space called a Hilbert space. |
What causes that random twitch that goes through your upper body. | It could be fasculations which is sort of an involuntary muscle spasm, because they don't cause much damage or problem they haven't been researched to their full extent. They are almost orritations in the nerves, but because of the lack of research scientists aren't sure exactly where they are being irritated, the nerv... |
Why is my internet connection noticeably slower at night? | This is easy. Imagine the internet connection your ISP runs to your neighborhood as a garden hose and everyone who has internet is represented as a straw. Now during the day the hose is running full blast at 40PSI, each straw is capable of 2 PSI max. During the day only 4 people are drinking from the straw so it's easy... |
Is there a formula to determine the terminal velocity of an object? why, why not? | v = sqrt. v = terminal velocity, m = mass, ρ = density of the fluid , C = drag coefficient , and A the area the object projects onto the ground . A sphere for example would have the area of the circle at it's middle. |
How to credit repair agencies work? | They don't do anything you can't do yourself. There's basically two things you can do to repair credit: Dispute things and ask for leniency from creditors. They basically go and dispute every negative thing on your report. By law, reporting agencies are required to follow up on disputes with creditors. If creditors can... |
In betting, how does the 'Both teams not to score' bet work? And why, if one team does score, do you still win the bet? | You are betting against BOTH teams ending up with at least one point, not against EITHER team scoring, if that makes any sense. If the bet was 'neither team scores' then a 1-0 win to whoever means you lose. But as you were betting that 'both teams will not score', if one of the teams stays on 0 points, then you have fu... |
What the UN is for, what they do and what power they actually have over countries in it | The United Nations is an association of sovereign nations who bond together for mutual benefit when it suits them. So it actually has no power over any nation. They can pass resolutions. Individual nations can provide troops for agreed on missions of the UN. The UN does many many things, they worry about refuges and ha... |
Why are there no protests over current events like there were during the Vietnam war? | There was a draft during the Vietnam war, which meant someone could be forced to go to war, and maybe die, so you had a good reason to protest. Having your emails stored or read by someone has no actual "feeling" to you, not like "Oh no, I might get drafted and killed". |
Historically, soldier uniforms had different, bright colors, but nowadays they are made to resemble the environment. How can a modern soldier find out who is an ally/enemy? | During an operation units are given clear tactical areas of operations. You are made aware during orders of what other units are in your vicinity as well as their call signs and radio frequencies. You are kept abreast of friendlies who may be in your vicinity through your company signaller should anything change.They c... |
Why is the UAE so amazing and secular when it comes to technology and engineering but poor when it comes to social justice? | American and European architects and engineers built those building. They just have a shit load of money from all the oil to throw at cool buildings', "Quite surprised you admire engineering and technology in the UAE. So many of their megaprojects are shoddily built and very, very little isn't just a case of throwing o... |
Could a Zombie Apocalypse Actually Happen? | No, for several reasons. The first being, there's nothing that actually turns people into zombies. But hey, weird shit happens so let's just say that there's some kind of infection that turns people into mindless killing machines that shamble around trying to eat people and spreading the infection through their bites. ... |
How does teeth whitening/bleaching work? | Whitening is usually used to refer to the mechanical removal of stains by some sort of physical action, IE using abrasives in toothpaste that will scrub off surface stains on the tooth enamel. Bleaching is breaking up stains via chemical action, essentially using a chemical agent to break the stains down into smaller m... |
are drop bears real? | I just got back from a 3 week trip to Australia, and can tell you right now it is a local myth to scare moronic tourists. There is no 300 pound koala that has a spiked poisonous tale and pounces on people from extremely high elevations to kill and eat them. |
With the CISA being passed, what were some documented examples of the Patriot Act abuse? | The very first prosecution under the Patriot Act was a farfetched abuse of a man who was merely convicted of running a money fowarding service without a state license. But he had an Arabic-sounding name and the Bush administration wanted him sentenced as a terrorist. Federal Judge Robert Keeton was outraged: "You’re tr... |
Why Do Economists and Journalists Jump Up And Down Over Growth Numbers like .05%? | Maybe you wouldn't, but take a figure like $1bn, which is the sort of number people talk about all the time in business, finance and economics. 0.05% becomes $500,000. So if you're talking about a $1bn, the difference between adding 0.05% or subtracting 0.05% becomes $1m. And $1m means a lot to some people. |
What is the difference between a near death experience and a coma from a biological perspective? | A coma is a wide description for complete loss of consciousness without an ability to be roused, while a near death experience is a delusional state before losing consciousness/dying. |
If Netflix and Spotify can destroy the market on renting or buying movies and buying physical music, why hasn't a simlar service for streaming video games been released to consoles yet? | The simple answer is latency and bandwidth. If you noticed, many games are far bigger than any movie. WarFrame alone is nearly 30 GB. Not to mention games like evolve require 50 GB of hard drive space. Since you experience lag in physical disc games while online, streaming would be impractical. Many players on the same... |
What happens in the brain when you suddenly remember something important (IE Leaving the oven on)? | I think you don't have any answers because this isn't an area we have got figured out yet. From a cognitive psychology perspective, something in your perceptions or in your mind that is related to your oven or your food or the kitchen or the time of day or even something you did right before or after you turned the ove... |
Why is Gender identity disorder regarded with validation and respect but Body integrity identity disorder is not? | Because we have a lot more information about gender identity disorder. It took a long time for us to gather the evidence needed to decide it is okay to reassign someone's sex to match their gender, and even still we are very careful about it. The ethical concerns are no simple matter. Body integrity identity disorder, ... |
How Apple devices know if I'm using an official Apple cable or not? | There's basically a chip in the lightning connector, which effectively sends a signal saying "Im legit". The device just registers this. |
how does alcohol kill off bacteria? | Romans drank wine because people like to get drunk. Germ theory didn’t come about until much later. Alcohol is a poison. It’s a waste product of yeast and poisonous to many organisms, including humans. |
why do older movies / TV shows simply "look old," regardless of costumes, CGI, etc.? | Part of the reason is they were shot to be viewed on a display with much lower resolution. You are seeing them in a way that was not planned for in productionOn the contrary. Watch an episode of *I Love Lucy* or the original *Star Trek*. Chances are, they'll look pretty damn good. Why? Both shows were shot and edited *... |
How do people solve rubix cubes in < 10 seconds? | Rubik's cubes are actually solved with a formula, or simple set of rules. Once you know those rules by heart, it just becomes a matter of applying them in the most efficient way and then moving your hands very, very quickly. Those with good memories for images can actually look at the cube once then put on a blindfold ... |
; Why do we sign for stuff? Does it matter if the signature matches previous ones? Is it just a papertrail? | Working for the post office here. A signature helps us prove that someone at that address actually took delivery. Our scanners give GPS locations of each scan but a signature shoes who took it. It works as a piece of mind thing to if you are sending it. It also means that we can not just leave it at your door. We have ... |
What makes your stomach hurt when you are hungry and what causes your stomach to growl? | The growling is called borborygmi and it's caused by fluids and gasses moving through the intestine, not the stomach. The stomach sits left orientated, partially in the ribcage, wedged just below the diaphragm and part of the liver. The stomach itself is pretty thick and relatively deep in comparison to the coils of in... |
What caused the Spanish and its colonies' economies to collapse? | Continental European wars regarding religion and succession to thrones. Also, inflation from too much gold and silver. Lastly, Napoleon was the last blow politically. |
How does an artist make eyes follow the onlooker? | Simply by drawing or photographing the subject looking directly forward . Since drawings and photographs are 2-dimensional, it doesn't matter which angle you look at it from, you are essentially always seeing the view from directly ahead. So if the subject is looking directly ahead, they will always appear to be lookin... |
How do we measure the calories of food? | We can measure calories by burning the food and measuring how the temperature of water raises. A calorie is the energy it takes to raise the temperature of a litre of water by 1c. You would do chemical analysis to get the nutrients. For proteins you would probably try to measure the chemicals in Amino acids.The older m... |
What do you do when a tornado is coming when you don't have a basement? | Get a weather alert radio. You're unlikely to get more than about 15 minutes warning. If you can, seek shelter with a neighbor. If not, stand in a doorway away from any windows. Some work places have shelters; so do some public buildings.As a side note the odds of your house actually being hit by a tornado are very sma... |
What is the Legal Immigration Process like in the U.S? | A nightmare. It's expensive and inefficient. I hold a green card from a k1 visa. They make it tough, to date, we paid about $15000. |
Why does water boil in lower temperatures in higher altitudes if the pressure is lower in higher altitudes? | The lower pressure makes it easier for water molecules to "escape" If you reduce the pressure to near zero the water will all boil off pretty much instantly regardless of temperature.You can think of it this way. The water molecules are constantly fighting to escape from being in liquid state into a gaseous state. The ... |
How can car insurance companies avoid discrimination while charging women less than men for the exact same product? | Not sure if they do or don't, but they back it up by data. Women get in more accidents than men , so it would be reasonable to assume those most at risk would have to pay more.Not all cases of treating women and men differently is harmful discrimination. In many cases there are legitimate differences backed up by data,... |
Diplomatic Immunity? How do you obtain it and what can you do with it? What are your limits? | you generally get it by being a representative of a foreign government, and ambassador for example. You can't really do much you couldn't normally. The real difference is what happens when you do something. If you're in the US, from Germany, and you commit theft. You won't be charged with theft in the US. The US will k... |
Why do batteries leak "acid" when they haven't been used for a long time? | Batteries produce electricity through a chemical reaction between an electrolyte and an electrode. In a lead acid battery, for example, these are sulphuric acid and lead respectively. As old batteries deteriorate - as old things tend to do - the acid can leak outPopular question. Ye may enjoy these: 1. [ELI5: Why do ba... |
How detailed are reflections in mirrors? | For most practical purposes the answer is that the mirror is infinitely detailed, given your assumption that the mirror is flawless. Hypothetically speaking, you couldn't zoom in to the mirror to the atomic scale, you'd end up looking at the atoms of the mirror. However, you could look into a mirror reflecting a magnif... |
Why is the heart located on the left body side? | Its not, its in the center. It's not perfectly symmetrical though, I guess the bottom leans a little to the left, so that probably causes the misconception. Source: [heart]", 'The heart is in the center of the chest. It is protected by the sternum of the rib cage. |
Why was Che successful during the Cuban revolution but failed in his Bolivian revolution? | It's fairly simple: Che wasn't responsible for a lot of the planning during Cuban revolution Cuban revolution had a much wider support in Cuban society. Che is singly most overrated "revolutionary". He was an useless poser who wasn't respected in the top circles of Cuban revolutionaries. If you dig a bit you'll find wh... |
How are tablets so much cheaper than smartphones? I get that it's harder to fit all of the technology into a smaller device, but once they figure that out it's less materials overall | One big cost is the radio. The radio chip of a top tier cell phone is a ridiculously complex and expensive component that draws a ton of power because it has to have a range of miles and work on over a dozen different frequency allocations . A tablet just needs a simple wifi chip with a range of a hundred feet and two ... |
What would happen if the US would shut-down at least 80% of their military bases, withdraw from combat everywhere in the world, and become a pacifist nation? | If you have Netflix there's a very good documentary titled "the world without US" It explains your exact question.Russia and China hold a meeting and divide up who gets what. Then they hold a press conference and tell everyone, giving them the chance to convert peacefully. Then they go in and crush any that didn't give... |
Why was the Dachau gas chamber never used? | Some reasons come to mind: 1. Dachau was used for "political prisoners" , "career criminals |
Why is it that people will automatically call someone “Alex” instead of “Alexander” | People automatically shorten names if possible. It’s just a cultural trend to use short names or shorten long names to nicknames Jennifer = Jen or Jenny Alexander = Alex Zacharie = Zach', "These are called hypocorisms, and they're pretty much ubiquitous throughout humanity. We've been doing it probably since we develop... |
Why is the US so slow to implement credit card chip technology? | Merchants in the USA usually buy or lease their card swipe devices. Converting to card in chip is very expensive. Most would rather pay a higher processing fee to cover the increased risk of fraud.A major reason it has taken this long is because the US is so big, with many retailers and many issuers. In addition, banks... |
If testosterone — which is found in higher levels in men — stimulates body hair growth, then why do men experience hair loss on their heads more often than women? | Though the question is phrased to the opposite of what you suggest, the answer will work: _URL_0_ It's a little more complicated than just about testosterone; it concerns genetics. |
What happens to cause the "stitch" in your side whilst you are running? | I have logged way over 150,000 miles of running over decades. I learned about side stitches in my case years ago. There have been many theories including dehydration and muscle imbalances.The truth for me is that sometimes your breathing rhythm can get out of sinc and you end up pulling muscles that should be relaxing ... |
How is it legal for the Homeowner's Association to dictate what I can/cannot do on property I've purchased? | Easy. On the deed to the property, there are restrictive covenants which say what you can and cannot do with the property. Those covenants are part of the property, much like zoning restrictions, and travel from owner to owner. The developer bought all the land, put the restrictive covenants on the deeds, and sold them... |
Do the belts on cars spin at the same rpm as the engine? | This is a case where thinking of a very extreme configuration makes the answer clear. Imagine you have a belt connecting a pair of disks that are two inches in diameter, but they are placed a mile apart. That means the belt's circumference is about two miles. Now imagine there's a spot of white paint on the belt. If th... |
Why/how did Micheal Jackson "turn white?" | He, as well as many others in the world, had a skin condition called vitiligo. This causes patches of lightened skin that can cause a person to look lighter overall. Sometime the patches can spread to be very large and cover most of the body. That combined with plastic surgery to change many of his features could give ... |
why does the inside of the ship, tank and train have so many knobs a and analogue equipment where as the u/traviss22 tractor is the "most up to date". | You are correct. Many of those controls are in case the digital controls aren't working properly. Better to have a second way to control everything, than lose control of your vehicle. |
Why does glass break when one hits a certain note and volume? | Imagine a kid on a swing. You go up behind them and give them a gentle push, in response to which they swing back and forth gently. Then you try giving them a bigger and bigger push and they swing higher, but eventually you realize that pushing them too hard will just shove them off the swing. Instead, you look at givi... |
Why do eggs turn from liquid to solid with heat? Isn't it supposed to be the other way around? | Water does what you describe, but certainly not everything. The proteins in the egg are denatured by the heat. When proteins get denatured, the bonds they hold with other molecules get broken, and they frantically try to reconnect those bonds. They end up bonding with a bunch of random stuff, EVEN the metal in the pan ... |
How does the internet data cap works in USA? | While I have no idea if such things are in the US, limits are damn common in Canada. A mid-tier plan at my ISP, for example, gives you a total of 80GB/month in usage before you run into overage charges The only reason for this is associated costs, they can make more money by making you pay for a higher limitI have neve... |
What truth is there behind the stereotype that southerners are dumb, and how did it happen? | I grew up in a very small southern town. In this town, education wasn't something that people prioritized. College wasn't a must, hell, most of the people from my parent's and their parent's generation didn't finish high school. I think there's miscommunication in some southerners being dumb, and some southerners being... |
Why do we place our arms akimbo when we're winded? | [it's my understanding that certain "power poses" increase testosterone levels and decrease cortisol, so that may play a factor]. [standing up straight also seems to provide increased lung capacity versus being hunched over].Placing the arms in that position makes you stand up straighter , allowing your lungs to expand... |
How long would it take until two separate islands of humans would be no longer able to procreate with each other? | There's not really any way to calculate this. You can estimate rates of mutation because it is a random process, and after probably 10,000s of years the two populations would be able to produce offspring that were infertile, but to not be able to produce offspring at all would probably take millions of years at the kno... |
- Why doesn't the moon rotate? | The moon *does* rotate. It rotates at the same rate that it revolves around the earth. Therefore, we always see the same side of the moonBasically, the center of the moon is heavier. When the moon was still forming and was still molten, the heavy center of the moon got pulled a little off-center, closer to the earth. S... |
Why do car windows get a grid pattern on them | Whenever the glass is rapidly cooled during the tempering process there are these air jets that blow cool air on the glass. This creates distortions in the glass that are almost invisible, until you put on polarized glasses. Different automakers have different patterns or cooling methods to reduce this distortionTemper... |
What is a nation state? How does it differ from just a nation? | Nations are groups of people, like say, the Portuguese. States are governments. Nation-States are governments that correspond to a peopleAn historical answer: Nation states are states builded around a nation in particular. For a long long time, nations and politcal power were not aligned. The King of Spain, for example... |
How does the blue Stick at the dentist work, so that the material gets hard. What's happening there? | You mean [these]? It's basically a strong light, which is used to harden light-curing polymers. The material is initially soft, but it hardens as you shine strong light on it. This is used for dental filling since it allows to use a material which does not need to be heated to be applied, but also hardens quickly after... |
How does our body know when to stop reproducing blood after it has been drawn? | There are many receptors and signalling molecules involved in the process. When you lose blood, the amount of oxygen that travels around the body is reduced . Receptors in your kidneys detect this reduction of oxygen levels and release a hormone known as erythropoieten which stimulates the production of red blood cells... |
Reddit, how the fuck does a mortgage work? | A mortgage is just the name for a loan to a piece of real estate, like a house. It doesn't work differently than other loans. You take out an amount and pay it off, including interest, over a set time, which for mortgages is usually 20 or 30 years. |
The basic plot of Dragonball Z and why it is so popular. | Dragonball Z is based of the show DragonBall which is about a boy called Goku who is sent from another planet to destroy it. He hits his head when he arrives and that causes him to lose his memory and thus forget his mission. Goku has incredible strength and is great fighter as his home planet celebrated fighting. Drag... |
Miranda warning for Suspect #2 - a more specific question. | > Every time I hear a news report on "not reading him his rights," my knee jerks right up and I start yelling at the radio saying "SO WHAT?!" You might be assuming that every suspect is well-versed on Miranda rights and that cops don't bend the truth. Meaning, a guy asks for a lawyer and the cop says "why do you think ... |
Modes (music theory) | Most basic concept: We predominantly use 2 scales in Western music, the Major and the Minor scale. Major scale is the Ionian mode. Minor scale is the Aeolian mode. The modes can be understood as scales sharing the same key signature. If you start on C and have no sharps or flats , and you play all the white keys up to ... |
Why do dogs tilt their heads back and forth when they seem confused about something? | They are adjusting their outer ears to hear the source of sound properly. They also tilt their heads to get a better view of what they seeFor the same reason as humans. When the brain struggles to understand something, a change of perspective is helpful to click things into place. The different viewpoint restarts the t... |
Why does going through clouds in an airplane make the ride more bumpy/turbulent? | Clouds form at the boundaries of different air masses. The air can be moving in different directions in the different masses. Also within clouds there tend to be stronger circulation patterns. There are updrafts and downdrafts caused by the heat convection within the cloud. This up and down movement can increase or dec... |
What do protests actually do? Do they affect anything? | You're talking about it, so that's half the battle. They aim to spread the word and get people who wouldn't care/know about an issue to be concern with it and possibly help with the fight. |
Why does the American presidential race cost millions of dollars? | Travel, opening campaign offices in each state, television and radio ads, and paying everyone who works for the campaign, from those who research your opposition, to those who manage your website -- it's a year+ long process with a lot more than a few speeches and shaken babies. |
Why is there a specific option under BMI for asians? | Because the body mass index is a terribly flawed system both in how it's improperly used but also in its simple calculation. Meaning shorter than average people get more 'wrong' interpretation of the results, just because of how it's calculated. It really needs a overhaul or to be retired, as a personal aside.Asians te... |
Why do we make noises when we stretch? | Relevant/expansion to the question: Why do we make noises when we feel pleasure in general? And pain?', "I can't cite any specific reference but I know that we and many other mammals do a lot of functions socially like eating and sleeping. You can, for example make a dog yawn by mimicing the action of yawning without d... |
How come so many people get confused about point nine repeating? | When I was teaching Calculus, I used the .999 example as the first introduction to why infinity was really, really, strange. I'd show *why* it was equal to one, in a bunch of different ways, and all the students would sort of squirm with discomfort as they tried to accommodate the counterintuitive notion in their noggi... |
How do trees higher than 10 meters move water up their stems without breaking physics? | It's late and i'm not going to get out my text books, but the answer is that the leaves, through transpiration, create a vacuum in the trees capillary system that stretch from the tips of the leaves all the way down into the roots. if you have ever chopped a live tree sometimes you will hear an audible hiss, this is th... |
Why do states feel the need to define marriage? If the nation decided same-sex marriages can now be recognized, why don't the states follow suit? | To be clear, the U.S. didn't exactly decide that same-sex marriage is legal at the federal level, what the Supreme Court recently decided was that a federal law that prohibited validly married same-sex couples from receiving federal benefits granted to heterosexual married couples was unconstitutional because it discri... |
What is the difference between the following two sentences? Could you explain this to me? Could you explain this for me? | In general speech they are used interchangeably. There is a subtle difference though: "Could you explain this **to** me" carries with it the implication that it is a difficult subject or one that I struggle with. I need some special assistance or need the explanation tailored especially for me. "To me" can mean that th... |
Why can I buy something on eBay for $1 with free shipping from China, while anything I buy that is domestic (US) I always have to pay a few dollars for shipping. | That is the amount they are charging you for shipping, not what it actually costs. An extreme example would be "free shipping" - it's not actually free of course, the vendor is just eating the cost are part of getting your business.If you consider the volume of goods being shipped from China to the US, it makes more se... |
Why are people allowed to do unproductive things at work but not productive things that aren't job related? | Think of it this way: you have a limited amount of focus points. When you take the effort to do productive work, you spend those points. When you are taking time to do unproductive things, it's just a way for you de-stress and replenish your supply of focus points. If you're spending your focus points by focusing on ot... |
If we ever met other intelligent life, how the hell would we communicate with it? Would it not be like communicating with animals? | We would have to use images or gestures as much as possible; in this case they would be trying to communicate with us as if we were animals.Well, the current plan is sending out light in bundles of primenumbers. So first of all you want to know or the life on planet X is intelligent.In every system of numbers, primenum... |
How plants like Marijuana and Tobacco were discovered for smoking? | Most likely, the plants were burned in a fire, and the people found the smoke pleasingI don't think we'll ever know for sure, but most likely it was through experimentation probably from herbalist/"medicine men" trying out new herbs and plants to help heal. These plants have other ways to ingest them that's not smoking... |
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