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How does a smartphone app measure blood pressure and heart rate? And how accurate are they? | They shine the light into your finger and use the camera to detect when the color/darkness changes. That way they can tell how frequently blood is surging through your blood vessels, i.e. how frequently your heart is beating. They can be accurateish, depending on your phone and the app itself. I'm not a doctor, but I w... |
What would happen if the US just adopted all of Australia's gun policy laws verbatim? | A country cannot just 'adopt' gun laws without a lengthy legislature process. Lengthy legislature processes cannot be carried out unless a majority of representatives vote in favor of it. A majority of representatives will only be in favor, if the majority of their voters in their counties are in favor of putting them ... |
Why can't we just drop trash in a volcano instead of dumping it in the ocean or landfills? | This is a variation on why don't we burn it, and the answer is that we don't want the materials in garbage to be burned and released into the atmosphere", 'Volcanoes are where magma comes *out* of the earth, so the best case scenario is that the trash gets burned up and releases toxic fumes all over the place. It would... |
What is POSIX in programming? | POSIX is the Portable Operating System Interface standard and is written by the Austin Group . It is a standard specifying how certain things about an operating system should work, such as how the shell operates, certain utility programs that need to be included , how programs interact with the operating system for acc... |
Why do people make viruses that just puts pop-ups on your computer? | Some pages get money by showing ads. The problem here is, ads often only pay for unique visitors. Now if you get to visit such a page, you are a unique visitor and the page gets revenue. So by placing a virus or worm or something else on your pc that redirects you to any page, that contains ads, they scam the people th... |
How bad for you is it to have one or two beers a night? What does it actually do to your brain/body? | One or two a night is a pretty reasonable amount. It would not have serious effects on you.The biggest/most common problem from regular alcohol consumption is fatty liver disease, which is basically caused by your liver having to process too much alcohol at a time, lots of times. AFAIK 2 beers is well within a healthy ... |
Why is paying for insurance (especially life insurance) better than putting back the same amount of money each month? | I'm not 100% sure I followed you, but here it goes. What I think you are asking is - Why is paying a monthly premium for Life Insurance better than just saving the amount of money you would pay in premiums each month in an account for the same purpose? The answer is - it depends on when you die. Life Insurance is basic... |
While typing in Reddit, why do I have to press Enter key twice for the line to change in the post once? Why not do the same by pressing Enter just once? | The benefit of the system is if you copy-paste a paragraph of text that is "hard-wrapped", meaning that there is a line break after each line instead of letting the browser wrap it automatically, it'll handle it like a normal paragraph. If you do want just a single line break instead of a new paragraph, you can put two... |
Do our eyes reflect light (similar to a mirror)? | yes, your eyes do reflect some light. This can be clearly seen when taking hi-res photographs of peoples eyes, and the lighting is rightPretty much everything reflects some light. The difference between an eye and a mirror is that the mirror is backed. The purpose of a lens is to allow light to pass through, whereas mi... |
Why sometimes after taking pill it feels like it is stucked in my throat ? | It's usually just the effect of swallowing something dry, as you would feel swallowing anything without much water content within it. Pills are the worse because they are non-permeable and therefore slide down your throat with less lubrication, even if you are dunking them with water. The sore feeling should only last ... |
What is that horrible feeling you get on your fingers when you feel a microfiber blanket/cloth? Feels like its going to rip your skin off or something... | This is so weird. I've never had that experience, and I've touched lots of microfiber materials. Am I special?", 'You be ashy and in need of some lotion.I'm guessing the micro fibers snag on your skin flakes and other imperfections. If you look at your hands under a microscope it probably looks like sandpaper. |
Why do people piss themselves when scared? | > > Bladder control requires a sophisticated interplay of brain regions. > An area of the brainstem known as the pontine micturition center is in constant contact with the bladder. It knows when pressure is building, and makes the preliminary decision to void. Thankfully, this area doesn’t have exclusive control over o... |
Why Listerine at 26% alcohol burns and stings your mouth but vodka at 40% alcohol doesn't at all? | I would like to have the vodka you are having. You dont swish vodka around in your mouth for 20 seconds.Listerine burns your mouth because you are swishing it in your mouth for over a minute. Also there's other extracts like mint and eucalyptus extract and menthol inside of the mouth wash which could also lead to it bu... |
If for example 76yen = 1 USD, why don't they just say 1 yen = 1 USD ? | because tomorrow 75 yen will = 1 USD, or maybe 77 yen, or maybe 92. Its not a constant. TL;DR Different countries have different economiesIt is difficult to get people over large areas to deal with money in identical ways. Everyone has different things they want to buy different things they find important. The European... |
What is a superconductor? What is it used for? | It's a phenomena of certain materials when cooled to near absolute zero where exactly zero electrical resistance is achieved. A current can persist indefinitely through a loop of super conducting material with no power source. The most obvious use is the transmission of HUGE currents at zero loss. The other benefit is ... |
How can someone operate prosthetic limbs? | My understanding is it operates off of nerve impulses like a normal limb it reads what the brain is saying and does the corresponding actionThere are several different kinds of motor control for prosthetic limbs. For example, someone with one healthy arm and one prosthetic one might utilize a grasping prosthetic by mov... |
If the NSA knows everything we do on the Internet, how come there hasn't been a huge "child porn sting" on the news with countless arrests being made? | There are a lot of points in your post, so I'll address them one by one 1. The NSA absolutely does not see everything, that 'd be ridiculous. They wish they could, but there's just too much traffic2. Paedophiles use some fairly inventive ways of hiding the fact that they're browsing child pornography, such as Tor, VPNs... |
"See you next period" | Periods are just what each class is called in some high schools. See you next period just means I'll see you in our next class. |
What are the advantages of fur vs. feathers? Is one more advantageous? | Different advantages which is why you see animals with fur having different roles than animals with feathers and also why fish have scales. feathers are insulating and also help with flight. fur can be grown thicker over winter and shed easily.. not sure of other specific advantages but i'm sure there are many. |
why do we get shivers down our spine when we are scared or embarrassed? | You know how you sometimes see a cat that has raised its fur? It's threatening, making it look bigger, and signalling to others. We humans have those muscles in our skin, and react in sort of the same way. It's how you get goosebumps. We don't have a lot of hair anymore , but the vestigial muscles and reactions are the... |
How do indirect diplomatic negotiations work? | Usually, the Israeli and the Palestinian diplomats talk together in secret , but the presence of the Egyptians allows both sides to not lose face and keep the pretense of "officially not negotiating with each other." Although sometimes, when the relationship between is two parties is *exceptionally bad*, they would do ... |
Why are pain management doctors required to obtain periodic drug screens but medical insurance companies not required to pay for those drug screens? | Liability. The drug tests are to prove that the patient is actually taking the prescribed drug and not selling it, especially if it's a narcotic. If the patient is accused of selling their prescription narcotics, and the doctor has blood test results that support that accusation, the doctor can be charged with a crime.... |
why is emcee spelled out and not just initialized as M.C. since it stands for master of ceremonies? | I have never once in my life seen it as anything other than M.C.M.C. is also used. Emcee just looks cooler. They're interchangeable, its just personal preference really.My first thought was "Who ever uses emcee?" I would think you're trying to shorten emaciated |
What is the science behind innate behaviour? How do we instinctually know how to do something? | Oh boy, time to get called racist! Basically, for humans and every other creature with a brain, some things are 'hard coded' into the neurons. That is, some neurons contain genetic information on how to behave and other neurons learn how to behave . These systems overlap, conflict, and assist each other in various odd ... |
How did they assign zip codes to US cities and towns? | That is not how the zip code works. Before the zip code people used what where called postal zone numbers. And they would be put after the city on the envelope. Like "New York City 19, New York" 19 being the postal zone assigned to that city. Well later they changed it to a 5 digit number to be put at the end of the ma... |
Why are there news stories saying there are millions starving in America when I see so many well fed homeless people? | Not every starving person is homeless. There are people who own a house/rent an apartment, have a car, and are still not reliably able to put food on the table, if that makes sense. They have income and welfare, but after covering expenses to maintain their home and their car , they have trouble keeping food on the tab... |
Steam Distillation vs Simple Distillation? | Simple distillation is a form of distillation you use when you have two liquids that can be mixed that have drastically different boiling points. Heating up the mixture allows the one with the much lower boiling point to evaporate off and then you can cool it down and collect it. Steam distillation is used for water an... |
why are airline crash victims described as souls typically when most other deaths are described as lives or people? | souls meaning living persons. which is passengers and crew airliners carry corpses too and they're held as cargo, not passengers. when you have a crash and you end up with 100 bodies, you need to know how many actually died in the crash.Airplanes during distress may be asked to "say your souls" in order to provide an a... |
Why can't you go as fast on land as in the air? | The faster you go, the more air you need to push out of the way, and it's not a linear progression. It takes far more than twice the power to go from 100 mph to 200 mph. This means that air travel has two huge benefits. First, the higher up you are, the less air there is, and the less you have to push out of the way. I... |
What makes a sound "crisp"? | Accentuated high frequencies between 3 - 10 kHz. Things like cymbals and other metallic sounds people associate with "crispy" make noise in that freq. range.If I understand the question correctly, it's likely to be the attack portion of the sound's envelope. The envelope of a sound is how suddenly it starts, how long i... |
Why does bubble wrap pop when I squeeze it but not when I cut it? | When you squeeze and pop it, you are stressing the material to it's breaking point and it fails catastrophically, releasing all the air very quickly. When you cut it, you open a small hole first without stressing the surrounding material, releasing the air very slowly |
Do castrated males even feel the urge to masturbate or have sex? | Wow. A lot of terrible posts here. Yes, castrated men do have a sex drive, however depending on the case their drive can be significantly reduced. Some other interesting relevant information: Chemical castration is used sometimes for prostate cancer patients but often also for transsexuals. Some people are born with th... |
How Massive Can A World Be And Still Support Life? | There is no 100% direct way to relate a planets surface area to habitabilty. A large enough planet will tend to become more like a gas giant than a rocky world, but that also depends heavily on whats around the area for the planet to be formed from in the first place. A large world would also likely be more massive and... |
Why isn't there a movement in the U.S. to "vote with money" and strangle corporations that make the world a worse place? | **First, people already do this.** Companies spend a lot of money and energy avoiding negative press---sometimes through manipulation, sometimes through doing the right thing---because people tend to look down on companies that behave irresponsibly, harm people, or make the world suck. Take Chick-fil-a, whose executive... |
What makes a good interviewer i.e. Charlie Rose, Larry King? | These kinds of people are very intelligent and well-informed. They do their best to learn as much as they can about what they're interviewing them about, so they come up with genuine interesting questions in that research process. |
How does this Nikon 6mm camera lens see behind itself? | These images might help you see it better, [source of them is here.] [The Nikon 6mm f/2.8 cross sectional diagram with lines showing the light coming in.] Nikon even apparently patented a 5.4mm f/5.6 lens with an angle of view of 270 degrees, though it was never made, [here's the diagram for that.]", 'The bulge of the ... |
Why did no one expect the Spanish Inquisition? | It's a quote [this Monty Python sketch], one of their most well known sketches, in fact. Tired of questions about some routine problem, a man complains that he "didn't expect the spanish inquisition". Unexpectedly, actual spanish inquisitors burst in. The second level of the joke is, however, that the inquisitors fumbl... |
The Northern Irish republican movement | They're a movement in northern Ireland , wanting to join the independent Republic of Ireland to the south. |
Why people put the TL;DR at the end of posts instead of the beginning? | Because those people hate people, and that hatred is only intensified with each letter they type, building to words, and words to sentences, sentences with meaning and weight that they know deep down in their hearts will be left unread. Leaving the tl;dr at the end is their one last defiant act of passive aggressivenes... |
What's the difference between paella and risotto? | Both are very different. Paella is a spanish dish. You cook it in a large pan . Primary spice needed in it is saffaron. You can then flavor it with a variety of meats . This large pan creates a lot of surface area that produces a crunchy bottom on the rice.Risotto is italian. You cook the rice slowly in broth, stirring... |
Why bruises on our bodies come out in different colours | A bruise is just blood that has leaked out of the blood vessels and into the surrounding tissues. Initially when the blood leaks out a bruise is just the color of the blood, so it starts out as red. The color of blood comes from the substance, hemoglobin, which is responsible for carrying the oxygen in the blood. As he... |
Why is being fat not attractive (biologically speaking)? | Having a healthy layer of fat *was* considered a successful and positive trait for a mate. This was still the case in some tribal areas of Africa according to some documentary maybe 10-15 years ago. This is no longer the case in 1st world countries simply because it's no longer a sign of good mating material. In women ... |
How long (time & distance) would it take to slow down from traveling at the speed of light assuming I don't want to exert > 5Gs on my body? | Speed of light is 299,792,458 m/s 1G is 9.8 m/s^2 5G is 49 m/s^2 If you decelerate at 49 m/s^2 it'll take: seconds to reach 0 m/s that's 6,118,213 seconds, or about 71 days. Distance traveled is: D = + 1/2 meters So D = + 1/2 D = 1834194113837554 - 917096992677541 D = 917097121160013 meters, or 6,130 times the distance... |
Why do most Americans have an ingrained dislike for the French? | The British and the French don't have the best history. America is like the runaway child of the British. As much as we act like we dislike our parents, we usually turn out quite similar to them. So since the British don't like the French, and despite how hard America tries to be different than the British because we k... |
"BBM is now available for iPhone and Android!" What's the benefit as opposed to, say, just texting? | With BBM, you can tell if the person received the message as well as if they've read it. Tt doesn't count against your SMS messages and I believe it may use your data connection instead of your phone connection. So, if you are on a wifi network, you can send and receive messages without a phone data connection. This is... |
Why does the stuff that comes out of pimples smell so bad? | The stuff in pimples is *sebum* , which is the oil that keeps your skin moist. When you get a pimple, the gland that produces sebum gets clogged with dead skin cells or a hair, and the sebum gets backed up. Then bacteria colonize it and it starts to rot, which is why it smells bad, and also why it gets inflamedAs far a... |
Why do blackheads form more often on the nose as opposed to other places? | Are you sure they're blackheads and not [sebaceous filaments]? Sebaceous filaments are 100% normal and although their appearance can be reduced , they're a skin feature that everyone is supposed to have.There usually not black heads but sebaceous filaments. I believe they are simply pores filled sebum. They tend to sho... |
What makes a living person a philosopher? | Nowadays, technically a PhD in philosophy. But, less technically, everyone is really a philosopher, since we all hold philosophies. A philosophy is simply an idea or belief as to why we act the way we do , or why things are the way they are. And every person has their own ideas that attempt to explain these things, ran... |
Why do websites push so hard to get you to download their mobile app? What advantage does it have for the website owner over using a browser? | Many times that app is ad supported meaning they have another source of revenue. Also the app may not specifically be free giving them even more revenue. Right now in Software Engineering app development is the flavor of the month. Everyone is doing it because it's a quick profit due to the huge market.There are many b... |
What is the difference between "double" quotations and 'single' quotations? | Quotations marks are used for direct quotes. Apostrophes are used for emphasis, highlighting, paraphrasing, indirect quoting, and should NOT be used in direct quotes. |
Someone Explain 4chan like i'm five | 4chan is an American imageboard. It's user base is largely anonymous, but on some boards users can use tripcodes to try to forge an identity. It is the originator of a significant amount of the internet's memes and also the Game.4chan is an imageboard website based off a Japanese website called 2chan. 4chan is separate... |
With all the coastline in Europe, how and why did the allies end up invading at such heavily fortified locations? | The regions that were fortified were fortified for a reason they were good landing sites that provided ready access to strategically important areas. In other areas, the invading forces could not have unloaded as quickly, and those force could not reach anything of importance quickly, giving the defenders time to react... |
Why do we use the term transgendered instead of the more-accurate transsexual? | "Trans" as a prefix doesn't mean something is being transcended. It means "across" or "on the other side". For example, Transalpine Gaul was the region of Gaul across the Alps from the Romans, while Cisalpine Gaul on the near side of the Alps. "Transport" is when you carry something across a distance. So "transgender" ... |
How does forearm armor account for the fact that a wrist can rotate ~90° with respect to the elbow? | It is basically a metal plate upon a leather brace - where exactly do you see the problem? Rotating a stiff metal plate on your arm? Take a roll of tape and a few sticks and secure them near elbow and wrist - they will rotate with your wrist/arm movement just fine, like a metal plate secured with leather straps would. ... |
How China is a communist country and how their system really works | China is now far from being an actual communist nation, at least in terms of economic policy. While a lot of industries are state owned or at least state controlled, private enterprising is rampant in the country.China isn't a communist country . The Chinese system works like that of any developing country, i.e. not pe... |
Why did the eastern hemisphere develop much faster than the western hemisphere? | Guns, Germs and Steel provides one of the most common theories to explain this. Basically, it boils down to it being a long unbroken land mass at generally the same latitude from Portugal all the way to Korea. This allowed for a lot of cultural interaction to occur and for trade and communication to occur very easily. ... |
What is happeneing when we can "feel" someone looking or staring at us? | From [Psychology Today]: " the perception originates from a system in the brain that's devoted just to detecting where others are looking. This "gaze detection" system is especially sensitive to whether someone's looking directly at you . Studies that record the activity of single brain cells find that particular cells... |
What would happen if millions of people took to the streets and tried to overthrow the government? | In the U.S.: * The Continuity of Government plan would kick in* Key members of government would be picked up and taken to their emergency relocation facility* Devolution of authority plan would kick in and authority of certain, key areas of government would devolve to their respective members in alternate locations* De... |
How does Twitter incur a net loss of $162 million on revenue of $436 million this quarter. | these engineer jobs are extremely competitive and require higher wages. It cannot be denied that twitter is possibly the most fluid, smooth and well made mobile networking app. This requires very good developers. 20 people could not run an app with as much traffic as twitter gets. On top of adding a new detailed stat a... |
How does ticking the 'are you human' tick-box prove I'm human? | It is coded in such a way that a bot cannot set the status of the box to 'checked'. So only a human can check it. |
What is the difference between me eating 2000 calories a day and eating a full 4000 calories every two days (eating nothing every odd day)? | What's the difference between asking you to do 8 hours of work today and tomorrow, or just 16 hours tomorrow? Digestion is work. Your body is facing undue stress if you pile on like that.Although you're looking at the same energy usage, there are some conversions that will take place. Let's say you have a balances diet... |
If trees and other lifeforms were taken to another planet with proper care, would they eventually adapt and change and say, evolve? | They would change if the environment is different. If it is too extreme, they would immediately die. Of course, the change in the frequency of beneficial traits will happen over thousands of years. |
What makes up the vapor of electronic cigarettes? | Electronic cigaretes contain a heating element, when this element gets hot, it makes the water inside the liquid boil and forms bubbles, the same way bubbles are formed when you blow in soapy water through a straw. When these bubbles burst, the liquid on their surface does not disappear, [it turns into tiny droplets], ... |
It's there really any difference between what company I buy gasoline from? | As a number of folks mentioned, the difference is mainly in the additives. I work at an oil refinery and we put our gasoline in the same lines as our sister refineries so its pretty uniform spec prior to blending which occurs at the terminals. That said, the general consensus at our lab is that additives are mainly a f... |
How does a free trade agreement work and why is it good/bad? | Basically it means that two or more countries can trade goods without taxes on stuff that crosses borders or such. This can be done for a number of reasons. The Good:- businesses on both countries can sell their stuff in a larger market of customers without worrying that they will get hit with taxes that make their pro... |
What are those switchs above the keyboard on this typewriter? | The upper right one controls where on the ribbon it strikes. It was possible to get ribbons with both black and red ink, and that switch would choose between them. The white setting wouldn't hit the ribbon at all. It was used to cut stencils for [Mimeograph] dulicating machines. The tab set and tab clear keys should be... |
why do people cover their license plates when taking pictures of their cars? | If say, someone that doesn't know you get the photo they can find out who you are. And from that, might be able to find out where you live and/or work. There are a lot of crazy people out there that do things that issue death threats and such to people that say things they don't like so in general, a lot of people pref... |
How are spiders able to walk well on their webs? | Not all the web strands are sticky. Some of them are structural supports without the sticky coating, and the spider knows which is which and walks on the non-sticky threads. |
What's the difference between hard sci-fi and soft sci-fi ? | Hard sci-fi refers to stories with plausible technology. Soft sci-fi refers to stories with 'magical' technology. Warp travel, lightsabers, replicators, force fields, etc.Its the accuracy of the Science. The Martian is fairly accurate, though it is still wrong about some things.. but it doesnt have fanciful hyper-drive... |
What's so bad about eating chicken that smells funny? | Knock Knock. Who's there? Sam and Ella. Sam and Ella who? Salmonella poisoning, and it's no joke.It's not clear what "smells funny" means. There's a risk that eating it will make you sickThat smell is rot. The meat is poison. |
Why do people close their eyes when they hear loud noises? | Loud noises usually mean explosions or alike, with flying stuff that could damage your eyes.Not sure about it, but I think it has something to do with the fact that really loud noises are synonymous with something dangerous for example an explosion. You hear something that your brain registered as too loud and therefor... |
When turn the volume knob on a speaker, what is actually happening to make it louder? | Turning up the knob turns down a variable resistor. Therefore there will be more current flowing through the circuit. More current means the loudspeaker cone will move more. More movement of the loudspeaker means more movement of the air. Which means louder soundThe volume of the speaker is controlled by the amount of ... |
What is happening to me when I get the goose bumps? | Humans inherited goosebumps from animal ancestors. To keep themselves warm, or make themselves seem larger and scarier, animals would contract the tiny muscles that are attached to each hair. This causes the hair to stick up. When our bodies feel these same things, we act in the same way. However, since we aren't cover... |
The urge to scratch wounds | There is an evolutionary reason for it. Evolutionarily, we only recently discovered soap and other antibacterial substances. Before that every wound was inherently filthy and stayed that way. Scratching as it heals provides a cycle of letting the wound close and rebuild with the need to have the wound seep to expel for... |
The connection between Prometheus and Alien [spoilers within] | The idea with Prometheus was that the engineers were "seeding" various planets with life forms. It was implied that humans were one of the engineers\' favorites, but around 2000 years ago they got sour on us, and decided to replace us with the Alien lifeform. However, something went really, really wrong, and they stopp... |
Why inter-species offspring are not a commonality in nature | Glib answer: Part of our definition for species implies that offspring shouldn't really happen between them. Better answer: Depending on how different the two creatures are, it can cause some very nasty problems. If the egg and the sperm even combine in the first place, something like the number of chromosomes not matc... |
what does it mean when a key cannot be copied? | No, it's a legal warning to key makers that it's not a key they can legally copy. I'm sure they physically could if they wanted to, but it's unlikely doing so would be worth their job and, depending on the key, subsequent jail time that would be consequences of knowingly copying it anyway.It is just a warning . . . the... |
How exactly is alcohol creating the effects of being drunk? | Alcohol's primary activity in the brain is a positive allosteric modulator of GABA. Drugs work in general by affecting receptors; the THC in weed is an agonist cannabinoid receptors in the body, ketamine is an antagonist NMDA receptors, etc. Alcohol is similar to an agonist, except it doesn't bind directly to the recep... |
Why do our voices get higher pitched or we do the "baby voice" around cute things and people we love? | High pitch voices socially imply excitement, you squeal with excitement because it's something you like, socially this has just become the norm for us to do as we saw others do it to babies etc and learned that's what we do! |
how can muscles not seem to grow in size but can increasingly handle more and more weight? | Strength comes from how much energy the nervous system can produce . You don't need "big" muscles for your nervous system to produce a lot of energy', "This is due to adaptations in the neuromuscular system. A majority of strength gains is actually due to those adaptations with a minority coming from muscle gain. There... |
Where do the numbers for estimated unreported cases come from? | Questionnaires and interviews, mostly. Lets say I am trying to find out how many bike thefts go unreported. For the best result, you ask a representative sample of the population whether they have ever had their bike stolen and then whether they have ever reported that to the police. You might find that 1000 people hav... |
Why aren't online shopping websites using safer https, instead use http? | You don't really need to use HTTP for browsing the store and adding items to your cart. It doesn't really offer a significant benefit at that point. But you'll notice at Amazon that as soon as you go to view your cart or begin the checkout process, it switches to HTTPS .They will if you access them via an https URL ins... |
how do scented toys maintain their scents for years? | [Some scented toys actually have the scents mixed into the mold, rather than perfumed.] > Stinkor’s odiferousness was accomplished by Mattel actually mixing patchoulli oil into the mold. Mattel did the same thing with Stinkor’s nemesis, Mossman, a repurposed Beast Man with scratchy green astroturf glued on who smelled ... |
Why are bellybuttons either innies or outies? | 90% are innies. Outies are caused by two main issues:-extra scar tissue was leftover when the umbilical stump fell out.-there was an umbilical hernia that caused the stomach muscles to not fuse together property after the cord stump fell out, causing abdominal tissue to poke through. The doctor's cutting technique has ... |
How do BIP39 mnemonics work? | > How do we get from the mnemonic to a private key? > To create a binary seed from the mnemonic, we use the PBKDF2 function with a mnemonic sentence used as the password and the string "mnemonic" + passphrase used as the salt. The iteration count is set to 2048 and HMAC-SHA512 is used as the pseudo-random function. The... |
Why does it feel soothing to massage a muscle and also why does the muscle then hurt less after? | The muscles have worked themselves into remaining tense. A massage forces the muscles to relax and untense. This relaxation reduces following fatigue and allows the muscle to recoverProlonged use of muscles can cause muscle adhesions. Muscle adhesions are a form of tension where the muscle is more compact than in relax... |
How did a fly survive being microwaved? | Fear not, you have not created a fly version of Peter Parker. A microwave works by firing waves of energy into your food. There is basicly a series of ray gun death zappers in there. Anything that gets in the way of it has its molecules shaken around, this motion creates heat which is why you got to enjoy a hot coffee.... |
I eat every day, so why aren't my jaw muscle totally ripped? | To get that jacked jaw look that's all the rage nowadays, you need to progressively chew harder things. Start with almonds, work your way up to diamonds. You'll have the jaw of your dreams in no time. |
why do so many numbers involve repeating decimals | Our number system is based on 10's, and percentages are based on 100's . This means that it divides cleanly by 1, 2, 4, 5, and 10 , but not as cleanly by other numbers. Fractional values like are often used in probability don't always correspond to this base -10 system. 6 is one of those numbers that doesn't go cleanly... |
In an exponential equation, why is there no asymptote, since the graph "levels off" vertically? | It might "seem" that way to you but that's not how exponents work. There is no limit. Draw any arbitrary vertical line anywhere and the function will cross it. If there were an asymptote that would mean that beyond some value, the function would either be undefined or negative. Logically that's absurdWell, exponential ... |
Why is computer image recognition so hard? | I know we aren't supposed to post just links, but I don't think there's a better explanation than [this WaitButWhy article]. Scroll down to "The Road From ANI to AGI" paragraph. Edit: For those about to tl;dr - over millions of years of evolution our brains became really good at recognizing objects, because that's what... |
How do radar and sonar work? | Think of spitting down a hole. The longer it takes to hear the splat the deeper the hole is. Sonar is an advanced use of this method, it sends out sound wave and waits to hear them "hit" something. Then it calculates how far the object is by how long it took to hear the soundHave you ever tried walking through your hou... |
The fifth state of matter (Bose-Einstein Condensate) | I'm not sure I can provide a good rigorous explanation but on a very small scale wave functions can explain the parts of an atom. When the atoms are all the same they should have essentially the same parts and at a very low temperature the parts have wave functions that begin to overlap. When this happens one part of o... |
When a housefly lands on me, what is it hoping to find? | The old saying in elementary school was that if a fly landed on you it was to poop, barf, or lay eggs so wash afterwardsThere is a long known myth that they land on you to throw up. While this may be true, it is highly unlikely. |
Why is the US-Canada border still such a hassle for both Americans and Canadians? | From a Canadian's point of view, it is not **still** a hassle. It actually used to be much easier, but it completely changed after 9/11. The US just got crazy with the security issue, which I can understand |
Why does meth make people look so old/sick? What dies it do? | A lot of these replies are failing to mention the primary cause of physical deterioration in heavy users of methamphetamines. Abusing stimulants is incredibly taxing on the body. You can stay awake for days and feel like you have all of the energy in the world, but truly, there is no such thing as free energy. All of t... |
How did I get burned by superglue? | Normally as glue "dires" it actually under goes a chemical change. This change is usually exothermic, meaning releases heat. The reaction rate is a function of several things but the main one in this case is surface area, as it reacts with air to cure. When on your finger the surface is at it normal so the curing happe... |
why does taking steroids shrink a mans testicles and penis? | Anabolic steroids supply your body with synthetic testosterone there is no need for your testicles to produce more and they can shrink temporarily. Too much of this testosterone can give you more hormonal problems. Penis shrinkage is rather a myth. |
Why do we react to negative feedback more easily than positive feedback? Negative reactions always feel like a burst and positive always feels like a slow build-up. | Humans are on average more risk adverse than we are reward attracted. We rate as more painful losing $100 than we rate pleasurable to win $100. As such we respond strongly to avoid the discomfort if negative feedback. However, positive feedback is actually more productive in learning and shaping behavior, as the power ... |
How can we determine whether a food or drug is dangerous to our health before it's available for trials or to the public? | Hard to ELI5 this, [here is the FDA's article on it]. Depends on what you're studying. If I genetically engineer a crop to produce protein X, I'll clone it in and confirm the mutation by genomic analysis. I'll make sure the transcript is expressed nominally and doesn't interfere with other mRNA using a whole transcript... |
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