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Why are affluent neighborhoods clean and tidy and poorer neighborhoods dirty and unkempt? | Poorer areas tend to have more rental properties than affluent ones. If you own your residence, you're more inclined to take of it. |
why it would be bad for there to be no more sharks | If you kill all the sharks, the animals that the sharks eat won't have anything left to eat them. Their population will explode, they'll eat all their food, and then die off. Basically, it will destabilize the whole food chain, which has grown into a natural balance over a few million years. |
Why we don't go to the moon anymore | People, in general, are not motivated by discovery, or science, or broadening their horizons, but by money and survival. There is no cash on the Moon and no threat there. America was discovered because of economical reasons, Great Wall of China was build as a military experiment, unification of language was accidental ... |
The practices/beliefs of the Jewish religion. | I watched a movie once where a Jewish woman was about to get married so she shaved off her head and had to wear a wig why do Jews have to do this? Do men have anything similar? What particular Jewish category observes this? I don't know much about the religion and am curious to know more, the comments on here have help... |
Why do people cringe at certain sounds while others don't get bothered? I am fine with nails on a chalkboard but metal clanking makes me cringe. | Another ELI5 said it hurts our ears because your body is protecting you from the frequency, hopefully some one can explain it better. Om not sure why it affects one person and not another though. The sound of some one else doing it doesn't bother me but if I am the feeling makes my teeth hurt. I'd like an explanation f... |
why do the southern and central states of the US remain typically conservative where as the northern and coastal states show typically liberal outlooks? | And there's another thing to consider: when you start measuring education and literacy levels, you find that the places with the poorest education levels are almost always the most conservative, and vice-versa. Now, correlation does not automatically imply causation, but it is an *interesting* correlation. And one shou... |
All the different kinds of alcohol, what they are, how they're different, what each one kinda tastes like, etc. etc. | I'll go ahead and post this comment in place of the requisite reference to how five year-olds wouldn't exactly care-for or need these instructions. |
What is the science behind birthmarks. How do we get it? Why do we have different birthmarks? | When I was young I was always told it showed how you died in your previous life. I don't believe that now obviously, but I grew up thinking I blew my head off under my chin in the life before. |
How do TSA body scanners work? | They don't. They were pitched to congress as extremely valuable by a former congressman who happened to own stock in the company. As a result they became the only mandated equipment for the TSA. Since then there have been multiple privacy complaints about them. There have also been multiple reports and studies that sho... |
Can someone please explain the science behind this gif | Okay so he's spraying a flammable liquid into the gap, because the tire is partially still intact there's a pocket for the spray to accumulate. Then he lights it on fire and the pressure from the gas expanding pips the tire out and back into place. |
Why are so few low-wage service sector workers unionized in the U.S.? | The idea of unionization is that you get *enough* people within a certain skillset in the union that you can really fuck up an industry if they go on strike. That's where the bargaining power of unions come from. With fast food, there is 1 hour of training required. It's not skilled labor. Literally anyone can do it. Y... |
Help me understand this "The Office" reference | Might be a direct reference to: _URL_1_ But I believe the tactic was used in other hostage situationsas we'll. I think they use loud, bad music typically the joke being that Kevin enjoys the bad music.Probably because they play scary music when theres a killer around. They start playing the music and you see the killer... |
What is the difference between the alligator and the crocodile, and how did they evolve separately but so similarly? | A few related questions: How did crocodilians survive the big extinction event that killed the dinosaurs? Also, why aren't crocodiles considered dinosaurs? Is there a real genetic reason? I sorta feel like the only real reason is because scientists don't want to admit dinosaurs still exist. Are there any things popular... |
What is aftertaste and why is it so different than the taste while the food or drink is in the mouth? | I don't know if this is related, but does anyone know why when you wake up to take a piss after a night of drinking you can taste what smells like pure alcohol in your mouth? |
What is the actual use for rohypnol and why/how did it become the common 'date-rape' drug? | My other question that hasn't been answered as such would be how people get the drug in the first place? Obviously medical persons aside, do people what, buy it on the street? If so that's bizarre and terribly sad that dealers would stock it, knowing what 'clients' are in all likelihood going to do with it. Shit, I'll ... |
The difference between fajitas, tacos, burritos, enchiladas, quesadillas, etc. | Wow, there are a lot differences in this thread. I live in the Northeast of US, but we have Mexicans in the kitchen at the 3 places close by. For me a fajita is nothing like an enchilda and neither of them have beans. I've also never had a quesadilla with beans or rice. Perhaps I am too far from Mexico to know better. |
What are the negative effects of LSD? | I don't have any scientific data to back this up, but I feel like the 8 months of weekly LSD use in college has permanently affected my short and medium-term memory in a negative way. My short term memory is terrible. It's entirely possible that it's natural and genetic . I did no other drugs in high school and college... |
Why raising ones arms behind the head is a sign of relaxation? | To my understanding, crossed arms means insecure or defensive. So open raised/arms kinda shows that someone's comfortable with being somewhat vulnerable. |
Why is the consistency of my ice cream different when it melts and I refreeze it? | Everyone is correct so far: it's both the air and the crystal size. There is no air churned into your ice cream when it remelts, so it doesn't have that nice mouthfeel, and it melts in your mouth much more quickly. Additionally, the ice cream was originally churned in such a way that it froze very quickly, creating lot... |
Why is it illegal to drive without a seat belt in a car, but motorcycles don't have one? | Being strapped to your vehicle on the outside is bad no matter how you slice it. You'll note that motorcyclists are required to wear helmets and car drivers are not. --edit for clarity. why it's illegal in a car to not wear one, in case you didn't realize that, it is safer and the nanny state doesn't want you to get in... |
how can newborn marine mammals give their first breath? | The mother usually has a strong role in helping the offspring achieve their first breath. In whales for instance, the mother will swim beneath their baby and nudge them to the surface. They're already born knowing how to swim, like an innate behavior.Their mother nudges them to the surface. They are already able to swi... |
How Does a Jury Work ? | > And what if its a massive case or a celebrity, surely everyone will have an opinion on the defendants and accused before the evidence is even given. My boyfriend was in the round of jurors they were picking from for Michael Jackson's doctor's case recently and he had to fill out a 30-sum page questionnaire. It covere... |
Why are organic transplants much more common than synthetic transplants? | If we could make reliable, functional synthetic transplants, then doctors would be falling over themselves to use these rather than having to wait for a compatible donor to die, and then still have a fairly high chance of the body rejecting it. The heart might just be a pump, but it is also a pump which needs to know h... |
How similar are microwaves and wifi? Can wifi microwave my balls when my laptop is sitting on my lap, or am I just feeling the heat radiation? I swear there is a tingling. | WiFi isn't going to hurt you. The heat from the laptop though, most certainly can. Too much heat could easily reduce your sperm count, there's also been people who have gotten burns on their thighs from their laptops. You should use a cooling mat, or prop up your laptop on a table whenever possible. |
How did people know that certain combinations of certain ingredients would create drugs? | Well I can't say much about Meth, but Cocaine had a medicinal use for thousands if years. For the most part just chewing on the leaf will give you a bit of a buzz. I'm some regions its used to cope with altitude issues. In the long run, it doesn't take much for someone to wonder exactly what it is that gets you high, a... |
How did technology have this sudden boom in quick advancement from the 1950's to the present? | The Cold War. Both NATO countries and the USSR poured tons public and private money into STEM research and education. Largely for ideological and military purposes. That's why you see the explosion in cheap university education in the 1970s, and why space and science toys were so prolific in the 50s. Our modern society... |
Why does a YouTube search on Xbox/other mediums return awful results? | From what I've heard, YouTube doesn't have the right to play beyonce videos on platforms like mobile, xbox, etc. Something about the convenience of listening to it where ever you want - they want you to buy beyonce songs, not listen to them on your xbox or mobile phone. It's like hulu or spotify on the computer vs. on ... |
Why does my car vibrate while stopped in Drive but not in Neutral? | The engine is connected to the drive-train while in 'D' and not connected when is 'N'. While connected, the engine's torque is dampened with the torque converter. What you are feeling is the 'noise' that is not completely dampened by the torque converter. Unless the vibrations are strong or erratic, what you feel is no... |
What makes a safe crackable or uncrackable? | All safes are crackable. Safes are rated in terms of how many minutes it must take for an experienced person with the right tools to open it, and really good ones are rated for like 60 minutes. The purpose of a safe is not to resist talented burglars indefinitely, it's to resist dumb burglars, and prevent talented burg... |
why do we have sketch artists in the court room when we have cameras? | Because in many courtrooms , taking photographs will land you a contempt of court charge. You won't go to jail for taking a sketch, though.This could be totally wrong but there are whole fields dedicated to documentation via drawing. When you take a photograph of something you retain 100% of the information you see and... |
How is Comcast and Time Warner not considered monopolies | Because, despite Reddit's popular opinion, they are not the sole method of getting on the internet in most places. They usually coexist with DSL, satellite, and dial-up providers. Granted, the alternatives may suck, but if you really hate Comcast you can get on the internet in other ways. |
Are modern humans pure homo-sapiens? | Speciation is determined by the ability to reproduce and create viable offspring. Living things in the same genus can sometimes reproduce to make a sterile offspring, such as a horse and donkey making a mule, but only members of the same species can make a sexually viable offspring. That's how we know that nearly indis... |
If girls are born with eggs already in their ovaries, can they theoretically become parents through IVF before puberty? | This is performed in sheep and cattle through a process known as juvenile in vitro embryo transfer , in order to make quicker genetic gains by shortening the generation interval and producing more offspring with desirable genes. Basically the development of the immature eggs is stimulated by injecting reproductive horm... |
What exactly happened at Chernobil. | In Fukushima, the reactors were automatically shut down following the earthquake. But although you can stop the fission reactions, you have large amounts of unstable fission products that are highly radioactive and break down in the hours and days following. This decay produces heat, which you need to get rid of. If no... |
How can Marvel and Lucasfilm be bought for $4 billion each, when Activision just bought Candy Crush for $6 billion? | Microtransactions in a simple mobile game rake in more money than movie tickets or DVD sales, since having to create films and video games and TV shows takes an enormous amount of time and money by comparison. For one it's all digital products so there's no overhead, plus if you're *really* into the game you'll just ke... |
- Recently scientists observed negative mass. What is the significance of this? Is this anti-matter? | The mass isn't negative, the inertial mass is. If you put it on a scale or something you'd still get a normal reading. However, if you gave it a push, it'd move in the opposite direction instead. This is why scientific journalism sucks. |
Is it more economical to run my car half full of gas due to a lighter vehicle rather than filling up each time? | Nope. In theory, driving with less gas would be more fuel efficient, because of the reduced weight, but it's such a tiny difference it's negligible. On the other hand, the extra fuel you spend driving to the gas station twice as often, while still really small, is just enough to be significant. |
The scene in Die Hard-With a Vengeance where John and Zeus pour the appropriate volumes of water in the jugs. | **Step 1**. Fill up the 5 gallon **Step 2.** Pour 3 gallon from the 5 gallon into the 3 gallon jug *Now you have 2 in the 5 gallon jug and the full 3 in the 3 gallon jug* **Step 3**. Empty the 3 gallon jug and pur the 2 gallons from the 5 gallon jug into the 3 gallon jug *Now you have exactly 2 gallons in the the 3 gal... |
Why do people use heroin (and overdose) while driving in a car (sometimes even with their kid in the car)? | I never have and will probably never do heroin, but I've taken other types of euphoric drugs and what I can say is that maybe they were at low points in their lives and just gave up but wanted to go out while high of heroin |
Why does my dog prefer to eat his food from my hand, when his dog bowl filled with his dog food is sitting right in front of us? | dogs are social, he probably enjoys the attention rather than eating alone. he's likely learned that you think it's cute or otherwise worthy of giving him attention when he eats things you hand him. My former dog would do it, only she would put it down rather than eat it unless she was actually hungry or it was a choic... |
Why do sons get named after their dads, grandpas etc. and become "Jrs" or "The Thirds" but daughters/women don't?? | A lot of the reasons given so far are true as far as history goes . I think one of the reasons it hasn't gained in popularity here in the present where it's not as important to show a line of succession is simply because of marriage. Jane Rose Smith Jr. would become Jane Rose Jones Jr when she married. The Jr is part o... |
Advertisers spend a lot of money on adds we ignore, how is this profitable? | Your mind takes in all that you see, not just what you focus on. Just getting your name/brand out there is helpful but believe it or not, people do click ads. Lets say you pay $10 for an ad to appear for 2000 people, 10 people click the ad and 1 person buys a $20 product. That's profit. Advertisers are very good at dec... |
why are my allergies or cold symptoms always at their worst right before I go to sleep and right when I wake up? | Congestion from colds feel the worst when you wake up in the morning because when you're laying down, the mucus in your lungs pools differently. Rather than gravity pulling it to the bottom of your lungs, it gets pulled to the sides/backs of the lungs where it obstructs pipes that are closer to the esophagus. I have no... |
Why do water faucets have "aerators" instead if letting the water flow out normally? | Water Resources engineer here. When drinking water travels through a city's distribution system, it can pick up a lot of dissolved gasses that can affect its taste and odor. Aerators are designed to equilibeate the water with the atmosphere before it gets into your drinking glass, thus removing, or stripping, the disso... |
Why do some of us (such as yours truly) feel so absolutely murderous when we hear a crying baby? Shouldn't humans be biologically wired to care about our young? | You could be suffering from [misophonia] with one of your triggers being babies crying. I have a friend who simply can't stand the sound of people eating raw carrots and has to leave the room. |
Is it scientifically impossible to travel through or pause time? | I'm traveling through time right now, in five minute, I'll be five minutes in thhe future. Thus time travel. Also, if you go really really fast, close to the speed of light, time will slow down for you. And if you go near something really really heavy, like a black hole, time will also slow down for you. |
Why is squatting such an issue in the US? I thought Americans could use deadly force to protect their property? | These two questions don't seem connected at all. If one is squatting, they are by definition living in someone else's property, and not their own, without the property owner's knowledge or consent, which is illegal in most circumstances. This has nothing to do with people using deadly force to protect property, which i... |
Why do window shades on airplanes have to be up when taking off and landing ? | I've worked airport operations and ARFF for 15 years. Yes, the correct answer is for emergencies but it's primarily for the crew self-evacuating the aircraft, because if it's a low-speed crash the plane should be clearing out by the time the ARFF truck arrive . And then it's for fire crews to see inside as a secondary.... |
What is it that makes carnivores only able to eat meat? | Carnivores can eat anything. The only thing that they can digest is meat. So my dog can eat all the grass and tennis balls he want, but his body can't turn those things into energy. Why? Because he doesn't have the right bacteria and enzymes in his stomach to break those things down into energy. |
Why can animals drink water that sickens humans? | > It seems every other animal can drink from any water source and be fine. Seems isn't *is.* Humans don't like to be sick with parasites and risk death from contaminated water sources. Animals don't get a choice. They most certainly *do* get parasites and disease and can indeed die. Conversely, if you drink uncontamina... |
Superbowl is on. ELI5 why there are a hundred players on each team | To tag on: do fans of the teams know the names of every player? Do they all get similarly high wages? Aren't there some roles which are incredibly less important than others?", 'Sure seems to be a lot of butthurt going on in here. Sports students getting down-voted for genuine answers. & #3232; _ & #3232;', "Since many... |
Why can you never see race horses' penises? | Being able to run fast is a key element of horse survival. Horses whose penises stayed out, flopping around when they ran, would be at a disadvantage and wouldn't survive as well, so they evolved to be fully retracted. Visit a stable and you'll see they don't always stay that way. |
what happens to deceased pigeons in major cities so that you rearly see their corpses. | Seems like a lot of animals go somewhere secluded to die. There are tons of raccoons, possums, and stray cats and dogs in my city too, but I never see any dead ones unless they've been run over. |
When Signing a new document/agreement whether online or in person, what are some critical words or areas one should look out for so as not to get tied into a bad deal? | There are no magic bad words or phrases. And it's not that hard, it just takes thinking. And if there is a word or concept you don't understand, Google the word or phrase. Just read every section of the contract and ask these questions: Why is this here? Why do they want it? Why do I want it? What does it obligate them... |
how some people with down syndrome develop a similar appearance | To try and simplify the answers, your DNA is split into 46 separate parts that come in 23 different types arranged in pairs. Down's syndrome is caused by having 3 of one type instead of the usual two. The facial features that are different on someone with down's are controlled by that chromosome so when you have 3 they... |
Why do we wake up much earlier than usual if we drank too much the night before? | The primary reason is rebound hypoglycemia. In simplest terms: Alcohol increases insulin production, and your body sees alcohol as poison and drops normal regulation to put every effort into excreting it. This causes sharp decrease in blood sugar. The response to hypoglycemia is to increase blood sugar any way possible... |
How do we as humans hear everything around us when we are awake, but the second we fall asleep everything almost goes mute? | Your ears are still picking up sounds , but your brain stops processing the signals for the most part unless a certain threshold is exceeded. So you're still hearing stuff, you just don't remember. |
What causes a lake to freeze into icy scales like this? | Wind and waves break the ice as it forms. If the temperature is close enough to 0 , it won't flash freeze, its a slow process that can be broken by waves in the deeper water. |
Why do restaurants leave tails on shrimp/prawns in pasta or jambalaya dishes? | I lived in Asia for a long time where they don't even bother peeling any of the shell off the shrimp or prawn. They simply eat all of it. I thought this was disgusting at first but decided to try it one day and I've never gone back since. I much prefer shrimp with the shell on than off. It adds flavor and even a great ... |
What labor in a company is, and why it should stay low | When you sell a strip steak for $10 . You can compare this with the costs of the restaurant: * Revenue: $10* Food costs: $3 or 30%* Labor: $1.70 or 17% * Overhead : $2 or 20% In the US, the restaurant probably doesn't include waitstaff's tips in revenue or costs since those pass through . In your example, labor costs o... |
Why do "experts" and "pundits" go onto obviously biased news shows to be badgered and berated? | If you're a left-side pundit, go onto Hannity all you want. The people you want to reach aren't watching you there, so you may as well be paid to be the propaganda punching bag. |
Why is it that when a woman is in labour at a hospital all she is allowed to eat is ice chips? | At one time, it was to be sure she could safely undergo anesthesia . Also, given the extreme amount of physical labor required to get Baby out into the world, women vomit- sometimes profusely. Keeping food/drink from these mothers is thought to reduce the likelihood of aspiration. It should be up to the mother and her ... |
What causes a stitched/painful side when jogging or running? | It's your diaphragm. It's not used to working so hard. With increased use it will go away.Basically, scientists are not really sure. However there are some stellar theories surrounding it. The most recent and probable explanation is due to the parietal peritoneum which is a membrane with two layers lining your abdomina... |
Why are CD's stalled in a relatively small capacity at 700 Megabytes, and only 80 minutes per disc? | The disc format is standardized, making it difficult to upgrade it's storage capacity while still maintaining compatibility with earlier players. Arguably the DVD, and Blu-Ray were the steps taken to increase the storage size. |
How are we able to drink liquid upside down? | Have you ever squeezed toothpaste out of a tube before? Notice how you can squeeze toothpaste upwards, downwards, sideways- any way works. Swallowing works in the same way. Your muscles are squeezing behind whatever you're swallowing, pushing it along. Gravity helps, but isn't necessary. You might find this animation h... |
If WW3 were to break out with Russia, who would be on who's side? | EU and US already are buddied up in NATO. Formed the last time Russia tried to expand their borders. So NATO would be the obvious force against them since they've had an identity crisis since it stopped being easy to see who the enemy was. |
We have a dominant hand, dominant foot and a dominate eye, but do we also have a dominant ear? | Yes. Working IT I've found that a lot of sound issues are headsets only playing on one side. The interesting part is many of them are only found after one person lends their headset to someone else. Long story short, I see all the time where people don't even notice the audio from one side stopped, and can't even tell ... |
Why, when yoga balls and beach balls are so light, can they knock over grown adults when kicked at them? | A ball filled with air at slightly higher than atmospheric pressure may not *weigh* much, but it has quite a lot of air inside it and that air adds a substantial amount of mass to it. A yoga ball 105 cm in diameter weighs about 2.2 kg. The recommended fill pressure is 0.6-0.9 PSI, so I'll use the average of 0.75 PSI. A... |
Why did the musicians keep playing their instruments while the Titanic was sinking | They were being paid by the White Star Line and their obligations didn't end until the ship had been completely abandoned. Since they were under orders to play relaxing music, that's what they did. After a while, they likely knew running for it was useless and decided to go out like gentlemen.They boats were being used... |
How can Las Vegas charge two different ticket prices for clubs depending on whether you're Male or Female without being sued for gender discrimination? | Vegas resident here who has done some work for club promoters. Nighclubs are allowed to do this for the same reason that hooters is allowed to discriminate against certain women. It affects the club's bottomline. Women go to clubs to have fun, men go to pick up women . If clubs didn't give preferential treatment to wom... |
When the captchas on the web have me type words that happen to be related to what I'm doing is that just coincidence or is the Internet becoming sentient? | reCaptcha, run by Google, does not use any user data to generate the images shown to the user. It's impossible for Google to do this do to the way reCaptcha works. With reCaptcha, one image is known to Google and the other image is not known to Google. You won't know which one it knows or not, so you have to put in bot... |
And why are video games for certain consoles still sold as discs when the game is installed to the hard drive anyway? | For consoles, the disc can be a method of digital rights management, as only the owner of a disc can play the game, so the disc acts as a single transferrable license for the software. But as digital downloads have become common, this has become more common since optical media is nowhere fast enough to run many games c... |
Why are airplanes partially controlled by the pilot? | I had a discussion with a group of pilots about a new autopilot system. They were concerned about all the features and effectiveness of the system for landings, take-off and other critical flight phase. If pilots get used to an autopilot that does everything, they won't be able to react when something fails. It think t... |
Why is it illegal for someone that's not a lawyer to own a law firm but somebody that's not a doctor can own a hospital? | Or, in the case of Canada, somebody who isn't, and never was, a motherfucking doctor can be the head of Health Canada . Enter Rona Ambrose.Anyone could buy a law firm, if it was public, and if you started a corporation , you could hire non lawyers to run it, with attorneys providing services. Bar associations make it d... |
What are the consumption rules of mold on food? | Unless its cheese, if its moldy you're better off not eating it.Often, mold on food is only Penicillium anyway, but if its not supposed to be there and your worried don't bother |
The difference between vision and seeing something in your mind's eye | Everything you see and experience- right in front of your face right now- is in your minds eye. For example, you don't see anything, your eyes dont see, they pick up light signals we can only see a sliver the spectrum of. The light sensetive cells replicate what they can pick up and transmit cell to cell in a line to t... |
Under the Affordable Care Act, patients can't be refused coverage if they have preexisting conditions - but what stops insurance companies from pricing it beyond what they can afford? | The community requirement in the ACA says that the most expensive person can't be charged more then 3 times the cheapest under a particular plan. |
Tax Brackets, why do we have them? | Because we want to rich to pay more of the burden. Here's a simple example. We have Robert and Bob. Bob makes 20,000 a year. Robert makes 100,000 a year. Tax brackets are set up so that the first 10,000 has no taxes. The next 10,000 is taxed at 10%, the next 30,000 at 20% and the next 50,000 at 30%. Bob pays $1,000 a y... |
Why do sugary drinks give people worse hangovers? | One of the main causes of a hangover is dehydration.It's the main culprit for the pounding headache. Alcohol causes dehydration in a few ways - for example, making you pee a lot to filter it out which causes a net loss of body water. Sugar also causes dehydration in the body. Also by urination to filter it out.Another ... |
Why do we ask for autographs when we meet famous people? | Signatures are considered unique to each person - that's why they're required on legal documents and the like. |
What was the purpose of the nostril ring on a bull, and why have I never seen one? | It stops the bull from escaping Same with pigs. They use their face to dig under pens and fences. The rings prevent them from doing so by getting tugged on as the animal try's to root under something. |
LI5: Hey fivers, can someone tell me how wind happens? | There's more air over there than over here, so the air swishes over to here. When the air goes by that's wind!", 'Atmospheric pressure, which is caused by gravity. Blood synthesis, basically your body takes in things and blood comes out. |
Why aren't underwater internet cables, THE BIG ONES, targets for terrorist attacks? | Believe it or not many terrorist groups are on the cutting edge of utilizing social media to spread their message, using it and the larger internet to coordinate their military and political objectives. Destruction of the internet would likely be more damaging to these groups than anything. I think its worth mentioning... |
How do radio edits of songs work? Are they edited in studio prior to being released, or does the radio station edit the song after being released? | I don't know for certain, but I think the answer is both. If there's an uncensored version of an album the studio does it themselves to a certain extent. Also, some radio edits conform or are different from the music video versions. Wikipedia suggests that radio stations do a lot of edits themselves, as well, but I'd a... |
Why does the doctor tell me to count back from 10 during anesthesia? | It just gives you something to think about other than the fact that you're being knocked out. It's a distraction so you don't panic or get freaked out. They ask you to do it backwards because it requires a little more concentration and distracts you more effectively. |
Why do we accept plastic surgery in entertainment, but not steroids in organized professional athletics when it's essentially entertainment? | I think a good example of this can be found in competitive swimming. Of you remember back to 2008 and 2009 fullbody stood began haggling a guide impact on the spey due to the use of buoyant materials like polyurethane, which resulted in basically every world record falling. Then in 2009, suits were made entirely from p... |
Why would an automaker choose an inline 6, V6, or horizontally opposed 6 cylinder engine? | Packaging is probably the single biggest factor. Front wheel drive cars tend to have very crowded engine bays, with the engine, transmission, and suspension components all competing for the same space under the hood. Narrow angle V6s are a naturally compact design which makes them very popular in front wheel drive seda... |
How does a person's body decide where fat is stored? | There's a fascinating treatment of this topic in, IIRC, Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes. It is hormones. Not only do different hormones affect which locations on the body fat is stored, they also affect whether fat is stored or burned at all. In extreme cases, such as with mice in some tests, the hormonal si... |
Do battery powered cars work just as phone batteries work? | Cell phones use lithium cobalt oxide LiCoO2. Cars use lithium iron phosphate or LiFePO4. Both lithium but different characteristics. Lifepo4 have lower power than lco's but last longer. |
How does the computer start to run the operating system in Von Neumann's architecture? | So, while the responses so far are accurate to the question, you have it wrong. Von Nuemann architecture does *not* separate instructions and data. That's Harvard architecture. |
do any other animals use a “baby voice” when interacting with their young? | Humans actually do the baby voice because it allows the baby to learn language. They won't learn if you just talk to them normally. I don't know much about how animals learn communication though, except that it's a mixture of already knowing how to makes sounds and learning from others. |
Why do people believe cracking/popping knuckles causes arthiritis? | It's the belief that repetively forcing the joint to crack will in time stretch the surrounding ligaments, and in turn, allow the joint to move too freely. This would wear away cartilage at a faster rate.But you would need to be cracking the joint multiple times a day for a matter of years for this to happen.Source: I ... |
How is a snail able to crawl over a razor without getting cut open? | Don't snails leave a trail of goo behind them?Maybe this serves as a protective layer for their underbelly. |
Since cuts and abrasions are easily infected, why do many military's require that men stay clean-shaven? | Gas masks. That's it. You can't seal a gas mask with facial hair. That means you're a liability, since carrying 180 pounds of dead/dying soldier during a chemical attack is a lot of work. There's other tangential benefits such as hygiene and uniformity, but at the end of the day the military tends to be practical more ... |
how come dinosaurs got so big, but animals are so much smaller now? | The largest animal that has ever lived is a blue whale, which still exists. People killed most of the megafauna that would otherwise live in Asia, Europe, and the Americas. There were many, many small dinosaurs, reptiles, and mammals millions of years ago, but only the big charismatic ones are popular. My point is that... |
How are stuff from the safe in banks insured, if noone but the owner knows whats inside? | I assume you are referring to a safe deposit box? In that case, it's up to you to declare the items in it and/or their value. |
How is auto stop-start on modern cars more fuel efficient? Growing up I was always told that turning off and starting your car burned more gas than just idling. | I would imagine this is just a myth, similar to how people believe it's more efficient to just leave a light bulb on than it is to turn it off and turn it back on . A quick search shows that it takes about 1/2 teaspoon of gas to start a car. Might take a little more or a little less depending on how cold/warm the car i... |
Why do we raise our hands when we get excited; and for that matter, why do we clap? Is this the result of some kind of evolutionary process? | Clapping is cultural. For example, until recently, clapping had a negative connotation in Tibet. It's only in recent years that it's been used for applause and still isn't used for excitement. |
(UK) With obesity rising in the uk and with over 64% of adults being overweight or obese, why do 90% of clothing retailers not sell clothes that are larger than xxl? | Before I lost weight, I was class 1 bordering on class 2 obese but could fit an xl.jus because you are obèse doesn't mean you are so big you can't fit normal sizes", 'I don't think the OP was really talking about what obese means, obviously the term is used 2 ways. It either means a specific medical term which is like ... |
Why do some people like the taste of something but someone else detests it? For example, Coffee. I hate the taste of it but my girlfriend loves it. | In addition to u/jwynia's comment below, a lot of taste is genetic, particularly when in comes to bitter foods like coffee! You can inherit different versions of the PTC genes that dictate if some foods are not bitter, a little bit bitter or very bitter, so it may be that your girlfriend can't taste the bitterness in c... |
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