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how does having two eyes increase our depth perception? My depth perception seems the same whether I'm looking out of one eye or two. | So, having two eyes allows you to [triangulate] distance. Knowing the distance between your eyes and the angle to the object you're looking at from each eye, simple trigonometry allows you to calculate the distance. Your subconscious does this automatically. Your brain also uses other cues to judge distance: how big th... |
Why did so many cavalries use curved swords (sabers, scimitars, etc)? What advantage do they give? | If you stab somebody while on horseback there is a fair chance that the blade will get stuck in bone or whatever and you'll end up losing it or falling off of your horse. Both of which will get you dead. But if you're just slashing then it most likely isn't going to get stuck in any fleshy bits. Curved swords are super... |
Why do you sneeze when walking outside into bright sunlight? | It's similar to an allergic reaction in a certain percentage of people . It's called the Photic Sneeze Reflex . |
how did the Romans and Greeks end up sharing the same Gods (although slightly different)? | TLDR - the Romans were not creative The Romans loved culture and religion, but really weren't creators of it themselves. They appropriated many things from many people, all while tracing Roman ancestry back to the great civilizations of the past. The Roman's ended up sharing the Greek gods because they admired the cult... |
Why is internet Explorer hated so much | Yer not alone in askin', and kind strangers have explained: 1. [ELI5: Why does everyone hate Internet Explorer? ]1. [ELI5: Why is internet explorer hated so much? ]1. [ELI5: Why is IE so hated? Is it really that bad compared to chrome/Firefox? If so, why hasn't Microsoft improved in all these years? ]1. [ELI5 Why every... |
Why do moons on other planets have sweet names while Earth's moon is just...moon? | Excuse me, but *Moon* is a sweet name. It's so sweet that we tend to call any small body rotating a larger body a moon. It's like saying *kleenex* when you're referring to any brand of facial tissue. Or you can always use the name *Luna* for our moon. That's the Latin name.The correct term would be natural satellite, o... |
why some people can stand colder or hotter temperature better than others? | Some people have more stoves burning inside them all at once. These people can stand colder temperatures, and are miserable in the heat . Some people have fewer stoves burning, and they like it warm This is a process called thermogenesis, and it's carried out in your fat, bones, muscles, and probably other places. Most... |
Why does some lightning appear to move relatively slowly when electrons move at near the speed of light? | Well alright, here we go. A Lightning bolt occurs when air can no longer act as a dielectric, that is, a material with high resistance, there is a point where Voltage is too high and this dielectric property breaks for a certain amount of time, when there is a high voltage it means there's a large amount of electrons i... |
What's the difference between "rap" and "hip-hop"? | Rap is like a verb it's the actual quick witty poetic spoken word style. hip hop is a genre of music . hip hop doesn't have to contain rap though and the presence of rap doesn't mean it's hip hop. You could could easily have a metal song that contains rap for example.Hip hop is also both a music genre and a culture enc... |
Why are hybrid animals like ligers sterile? | The generation of gamete cells is messed up by the odd distribution of chromosomes. These gamete cells therefore end up with the wrong mix of genes to create an embry that will survive the mother's biological error-checking. |
On Saturn's moon Titan, the gravity is low enough and the atmosphere thick enough, that by attaching small wings to your arms, you could fly like a bird. | You can think of the two things separately. You have the right idea that lower gravity makes it easier to fly; this is somewhat obvious, but to be a bit more explicit: Airplanes fly by pushing against the air. If the air doesn't change, but gravity gets weaker, there's less force pulling you down, and so it takes less ... |
If an alien probe with similar dimensions and operational capability of the Pioneer or Voyager spacecraft passed through our solar system, would we detect it? | Visually, almost certainly not. If it were built to blast out omnidirectional radio signals , it still had power after millions of years, and it used frequencies that we recieve, but don't transmit on too much, we might pick it up. My guess is that it would have to come inside the moon's orbit for us to stand a chance ... |
Why are many Americans so hostile towards higher taxes? | Americans don't trust government to provide better services than they can buy with the money in their pocket. They look at bad schools and bad government-run hospitals and think that government is incapable of providing high-value care for everyone. They percieve a large population who will cheat the system, living the... |
How could anything have "happened" to cause the big bang if time and space did not exist before the big bang? | There is a theory that this universe we live in is not the first universe. Every Big Bang has given birth to a universe and after a very very long long time eventually collapsing again. There is no way to be sure that something didn't cause the Big Bang that created our universe I prefer Douglas Adams to explain this o... |
What’s the difference between an embassy and a consulate? | Most of these answers get pretty close, but I'm going to try and clarify a bit further. - As others have said, embassies are the main point of diplomatic contact between the governments of respective nation-states. - In some cases it is not feasible to have an embassy where the embassies of other countries can be used ... |
Difference between lobbying and bribing? | Not much I'm afraid. Their pretty much the same thing with bribery being illegal but lobbying legal. Also, lobbying usually includes a bunch of parties but bribing only 2 |
How come photons travel in waves rather than just going straight? | It depends on what you are referring to. A single photon will go straight. Multiple photons emitted in different directions will appear to be traveling as a wavefront. However, a photon itself is the elementary excitation of the electromagnetic field. That is to say: it's the smallest possible electromagnetic wave. But... |
what is a reverse mortgage | it's like a regular mortgage, except for two things: 1) You don't get a lump-sum payment at the beginning, the bank gives you the money in monthly installments; 2) There is often a provision that the homeowner doesn't need to make any payments on the loan, although the borrower can repay the mortgage if they have enoug... |
Is the universe actually infinite, or does it just go beyond our current observational capabilities? | We can see to the finite edge of where we can see. We cannot see what's beyond the finite edge of where we can see. We cannot verify that there is infinite space beyond the finite edge that we can wee. |
How does the brain store information/memories? | Neither. They are stored by 'rewiring' the neurons that fired together to create the experience. If a memory forms long term, these neurons are now 'consolidated', meaning that they are now connected together more intensely than they were originally. The activation of this memory now become easier as the group of neuro... |
If fire needs oxygen, where does the sun get oxygen if there's no oxygen in space? | That's not fire. That's *plasma*, which is done by a process called *nuclear fusion*, where two atoms are fused together to make bigger atoms. This releases a ***LOT*** of energy, which ultimately powers pretty much everything in the solar system.People are correct that the sun isn't on fire, but I also wouldn't think ... |
Why can't nuclear waste be used for energy? | Because it is spent fuel. Its just sort of a radioactive lump soaked in heavy water. The part where we got fuel out of it was what made it waste in the first place. So basically because there isn't a reasonable way to get energy out of it. |
Why do moon landing conspiracies exist when we have powerful telescopes like hubbel which can take pics of the moon surface which would show evidence of landings (footprints, etc) | > when we have powerful telescopes like hubbel which can take pics of the moon surface which would show evidence of landings Hubble can't show the level of detail that you're talking about. It's great at gathering very dim light, but the angular resolution needed to see details at that level on the surface of the moon ... |
Why dont humans have mating seasons? | It's not just humans, other primates don't have breeding seasons either. One theory is this is because primates are very social creatures who raise children collectively, so it's more important to be able to produce a child when social factors are right than what time of year it is. Animals like fish, reptiles, and ins... |
Why haven't we been back to the moon? | Is new scientific data from the moon worth the cost of sending people up there again? They're not likely to find anything there to greatly enhance our knowledge of the universe or our solar system. Mars is a much more interesting destination to get scientific data from. |
What were the factors that led to the destruction of the USSR particularly how did the US contribute to its demise? What impact did the end of the USSR have on Europe? | Not really questions a 5 year old would ask. It's an extremely complex subject. Simply, the general structure of communism does not lend itself to wealth. Communist states are generally poor, open to huge corruption and mismanagement. This failure caused it's population to remain poor and fail to create wealth or busin... |
how can the universe be finite? If it has a putter boundary, doesn’t there have to be something (even empty space) beyond it? | I think when people say finite they mean that if you go a googol light years away, you'll actually be in 'empty space', but there will be a discrete 'finite' universe that may still be expanding into that empty space. An interesting thing to think about though is that the electromagnetic field permeates all of space, a... |
Why is earth spinning? | Yarr! Yer not alone in askin', and kind strangers have explained: 1. [ELI5: Why does the earth spin? ] ^1. [ELI5: How exactly is the earth spinning? ] ^1. [ELI5: How does the Earth stay spinning at a constant speed after all these billions of years? ] ^1. [ELI5: Why does the Earth spin? ] ^1. [ELI5: Why is the earth sp... |
Why is a small amount of inflation considered good for the economy? | Ahoy, matey! Yer not alone in askin', and kind strangers have explained: 1. [ELI5: Why is a small inflation rate considered good but not, say, a small deflation rate? ] ^1. [ELI5: Why is inflation good for an economy? ] ^1. [ELI5: How is slow but basically unlimited inflation sustainable or even good for the economy? ]... |
why didn't new world diseases kill European settlers in the same way European diseases devastated the indigenous population? | they did plague the Europeans. But the Europeans had lived through centuries of wallowing in filth - and more importantly had come in contact with MANY MANY more people than the Native Americans they met in the Americas. Population density in Europe was a lot higher, they have had contact with Asia and Africa so they h... |
Why is carbonation added to drinks? What is the benefit? | Similarly, water with higher concentrations of free oxygen taste test better, and it's why your water tap at home likely has a screen/mesh in the nozzle. |
What happens in our body that makes our bones make a popping sound when we “crack” our knuckles, back, neck etc..? | This is a bit weird, but the sound comes from inside the sacs of fluid that surround your joints. Some of the sound is the sound of bubbles popping. Some is the sound of things shifting around, and some is the sound of your bones scraping against each other. It depends on the joint in question and what kind of shape yo... |
Why do police still use horses? | They're dramatically better in crowds, in that you can move around, be well above the crowd and thus have visibility, and horses are generally not keen on running people over whereas cars don't care. Example Gif:_URL_0_ Additionally, they're great for self-defense and maintaining order if crowds end up getting out of h... |
why doesn’t the moon slip into the suns orbit if it’s gravity is so much stronger? | The sun's gravity **isn't** much stronger. Gravity depends on mass and distance. The sun is more massive than the earth, but it is also much further from the moon, making the earth a much greater gravitational influence. The breakeven point where the earth and sun's gravity is equally strong is the L1 Lagrange point, a... |
How do wireless phone chargers work. | Why they don't make wireless electricity more popular. Like wifi these day. Imagine every device in the house doesn't have to plug in the power socket. |
What is a gas giant? How is it different from a planet? | They are planets, but which have accumulated substantial amounts of gas, much more so than we experience on Earth relative to our solid mass. One theory as to how this occurs, is that these planets may accrete beyond the 'frost line', far enough from their parent star that it hasn't pushed away most of the hydrogen and... |
If you have two objects moving at the same speed, the one further away appears to be moving slower than the one which is closer. Why? | For the same reason that things further away look smaller. Imagine you're looking at a building that's 100 meters wide, and 100 meters away from you. It will take up most of your field of vision. Now imagine that same building, but it's 200 meters away from you. It will appear to be about half as big. Now, imagine you ... |
Why does getting kicked in the balls hurt so much? | If it didn't hurt, humans wouldn't do a very good job protecting their balls from getting damaged. Damaged balls means you can't have babies. Humans need to have babies to survive as a species. |
Why aren't orbits thrown off when two planets get near each other? | > The planets in our solar system have had constant orbits for billions of years. When Earth, for example, is closest to Mars, why doesn't this slightly change the orbits of both planets? It does, and it has been stable for billions of years. > Wouldn't Earth's gravitational force on Mars be different when they are nea... |
Is there a speed faster than the speed of light? | To that scissors example, I think your teacher might refer to that certain point where the edges meet each other. Try getting a piece of ballpen, paper, and a scissor. Make a dot on the paper using the ballpen, and don't remove it. Now get you scissors and try to cut the tip of your pen. From where it stops, that's you... |
If the moon landing really happened, why haven't we gone back? | There has been little economic or scientific reason to send humans back to the moon. Back in the 1960s computers were crude and the US was eager to show the world that its rocket technology was sufficiently advanced to put a man on the moon . Now rocket technology is old-hat and computers are greatly advanced, so small... |
How do life insurance companies make money | Also keep in mind that most people to have a life insurance policy which you are thinking of. The point of life insurance is to make sure your family is financial secure once you're gone, not to have a 'bonus payment' when you die. Most people will only take out life insurance for the duration of a mortgage or until th... |
How does water become super heated or super frozen without actually boiling or freezing? How can it still be in a liquid state? | Pure water can't form the crystals required to freeze as a solid until it comes into contact with a contaminated surface.I would imagine the same is true for super boiling water as well. These are pure water |
How do we know that there is an unobservable universe beyond the observable universe if we can’t see it? | It comes from two observations: * There is an observable universe, it looks the same in every direction , and the further we look, the older it is.* We have no reason to believe earth is at the center of the universe. First it wouldn't make sense in a philosophical way. Second, the homogeneity of the universe, and the ... |
How do graphing calculators (like Desmos or GeoGebra) work? | They often use what are called numerical methods. They are not actually solving the equations, they are approximating a solution to the degree of accuracy required by the graph. For an equation in the form y = f, it is simply a guessing game similar to the higher/lower game you might have played as a child to guess a n... |
Why does the sun’s gravity keep the planets moving in orbits rather than just pulling them towards it? | because we are moving tangentially to the sun as well and planets have a shit ton of inertia. There isn't much in space to slow the planet down either so we just sort of keep going. |
If the earth is moving 67000 mph, how do space shuttles, which move slower, manage to return to earth after leaving earth’s atmosphere? | Because the space shuttle is still within the gravitational orbit of the earth - if say, a shuttle went to the moon, then the moon is in orbit around the earth so you're still along for the ride, so to speak. If you say, went to Mars, then things become more complicated for a return visit. |
What makes the earth rotate on its own axis ? | Conservation of angular momentum. Basically when the first particles that formed the Earth clumped together they didn't meet perfectly and they started a slight rotation as new bits joined on they continued the original spin due to how they joined. Something similar happened with the Sun - _URL_0_", 'As the solar syste... |
What does it mean when we say the universe is expanding? | [We should just let Carl Sagan explain it as best he can.] The important part of this explanation to remember is that the 3 dimensional graphic of the expanding sphere must be increased into a fourth dimension that we simply cannot represent in our 3 dimensional universe. I doubt there are more than a handful of people... |
If the universe is always expanding? What is it expanding into? | Space itself is expanding. And it's expanding faster than the speed of light. There is nothing outside the universe, everything is the universe and its getting bigger all the time. |
If gravity pulls things towards it, why do planets/moons/etc all orbit bigger things and not juat slam into them? | Because they went by the larger body at the perfect angle that they didn't bounce off, and didn't crash down. Basically, they entered the orbit at the angle where their momentum kept them from plummetting in the larger body. And that momentum keeps them going. They are falling, but veeeeerrryyy slowly as their orbit de... |
Why can’t we sleep with our eyes open? | We can, you just wouldn't be aware of it when it happens. If you're asking why we can't actually see while we're doing it, it's very likely that we never needed to evolve that ability. As social creatures with the ability to build protective shelters and have members of our social group keep watch while we sleep, there... |
Light is the fastest thing in the universe but WHY does light travel/move at all? | Light is a shockwave in the electric field. There is an invisible field throughout space called the electric field. This field can be dirturbed if part of it gets excited . Picture a wave in a different medium of it helps. Imagine dropping a stone into a pond. That Stone was further from the earth with some potential e... |
Why don’t we milk pigs? | [Because it take too much time and isn't profitable.] [However, Ass milk is the drink of choice for European babies and elderly Chinese] |
Isn't traveling faster than light theoretically possible? | No, because the faster you go, the more energy it takes to accelerate. As you get close to the speed of light, the energy you need to accelerate by a given amount gets closer to infinity. You can't reach light speed without infinite energy. |
How is it possible time didn't exist before the Big Bang? Wouldn't time have to exist for the Big Bang to occur in the first place? | The big bang was just a computer getting started. We're in a super real simulation and it's driving me crazy |
How do certain A.I.s “teach” themselves to walk? | The code wouldn't be burried. It would be starting from a blank slate and learning either from example or practice. If it were an AI that is. If it we're preprogrammed with certain abilites it had to find within it's coding it wouldn't necessarily be a pure AI. It would be a hybrid of sorts. Though I'm not an expert on... |
Why do some soldiers guard Grand Central Station and The Oculus for example, and others are deployed overseas? How is this decided? | It is probably units from the National Guard that are on orders from the state governor. They have funding to augment local and state police in certain areas. They more often than not operate under the authority of a civilian police officer assigned to them. I'm a former Army Guardsmen and some people in my unit were t... |
When measuring blood pressure, what does systolic, diastolic and pulse readings indicate about your health? | Systolic is simply the pressure in your arterial system when your heart is squeezing out blood. Diastolic the pressure when your heart is resting. Too high of a systolic blood pressure can lead to other problems such as Congestive Heart Failure, Chronic Kidney Disease, Stroke or Aneurysm. Too high of a diastolic blood ... |
Why do humans tend to like hot showers instead of cold ones/room temperature ones? | That depends on the outside temperature. If it's hot out and the person showering is covered in sweat, a colder than usual shower may be preferred. It comes down to humans having a temperature that they work well at. Our bodies work really hard to keep us at that temperature, either by sweating if too hot or shivering ... |
How does plastic surgery works so well that it becomes hard to identify the person? | Because surgery often involves things like shaving/resculpting bone and/or putting in implants. They literally change the shape of someone's face. |
the difference between single phase and three phase power | Imagine you are holding a pole, and someone else has the other end. The other guy pushes you with the pole, then pulls, then pushes, then pulls, etc. etc. Really fast. You never go anywhere, but you get pushed back and forth. That's single phase power. Now imagine that there are 3 poles, attached to your belt at 120 de... |
Why are standard golf balls white instead of a more vibrant color that's easier to see? | Major manufacturers might have some trouble making super premium colored golf balls. What I specifically heard is that Titleist could not make their Pro V1 cover in optic yellow to the same specifications and quality. There is a lot of demand for yellow golf balls because many people can't see the white ones as well, b... |
Why do roads and highways have different amounts of potholes? | Many potholes are created when heavy vehicles like buses and semis start moving, like at a traffic light. All that torque to get it moving can slowly rip out the asphalt. Also since highways carry so much traffic at such high speeds, they're built stronger, and resurfaced more often. |
Organ transplants- needing a donor match, but you still need life-long immunosuppressants. What exactly does a donor match entail then? | All matched organs are still incompatible with your immune system. They are just less incompatible than a non-matched organ. Like making the error of saying 2+2=5 versus 2+2=10. Both are wrong; one is less wrong. Your immune system might be the curmudgeonly teacher in this analogy, who bursts an aneurysm at the =10 err... |
Why can hot things of any kind get colder than room temperature? | Your sensation of temperature has a lot to do with the rate at which heat leaves you , rather than absolute temperature. This is why if you go outside on a winter's day, a piece of wood doesn't feel as cold as a piece of metal. The metal conducts heat away from your hand more efficiently than the wood. Thus, the metal ... |
How do companies ultimately profit from promotions that essentially give away normal stock at huge discounts? | For something like books, it could be that they want cash in hand today rather than risk continuing to hold inventory that ties up capital maybe to boost their quarterly earnings, maybe to fund other operations they think will be more profitable. Also, books are heavily marked up so there is lots of room to discount wi... |
Why does alcohol generally make one feel more loose, outgoing, talkative, and confident? | Is it okay to say this?",etc. The cerebellum is a part of the brain that controls conscious movement and coordination. Turning it down would make you physically "looser" as you aren't as aware of where your arms and legs are. The limbic system is responsible for your feelings and emotions. Parts of it are very sensitiv... |
Why are we told to only put Deoderant on our armpits, when our entire body sweats. | LPT, and I'm not joking If you have smelly armpits, slap some hand sanitizer under there once in awhile. The smell comes from bacteria. The sanitizer kills the bacteria and your pits smell fresh almost immediately. Also the sanitizer provides a cooling sensation as the spirit of millions of dead bacteria brush past you... |
What sustains Moore's law? Why is it exponential and not linear? | It's only being sustained because the industry sees it as a good guideline for how fast we should progress. The problem is that the Law is arguably dead, as we have reached the limit of integrated circuits. To keep the law alive we will probably need to delve into some sort of quantum computing. |
How does silver cream heal burns and prevent scars? Does it work to fade non burn scars too? If not, why not? | Silver kills bacteria on contact. Cream prevents scabbing. No bacteria, no infection. No scab, no scar . Silver cream isn't unique to this though. Any antibacterial cream will work just as well. As for existing scars, as far as I'm aware, silver cream doesn't fix them. However, vitamin E will help fade old scars. If th... |
Why do rules of engagement seem stricter for soldiers than for police officers? | This will vary across countries, of course. From a UK perspective, it's clearly not true. To start with, police officers don't routinely carry firearms . Any fatal shooting automatically triggers an investigation by the Independent Police Complaints Commission. ", 'It depends on the country and nature of the conflict. ... |
How do speakers at rock concerts not blow out due to the sheer volume of sound they're outputting? | There has been lots of talk about drivers so far, and rightly so because they are important. However I haven't seen anyone mention cabinet design. Obviously having cones that can handle the amount of volume they are required to generate is important, however the design of the box they are mounted in is just as importan... |
Why do racing bicycles have ultra thin tyres to make them faster, but the fastest motorbikes have very wide tyres? | One of the things that makes rubber special is its ability to stick to surfaces. So a large tire made from soft rubber will have a bit more traction than a small one. That is why formula 1 cars and especially drag racers have those ridiculously large tires made from soft rubber: it allows them to accelerate much harder... |
why do many young children walk around in their heels raised off the ground | I still do that sometimes. I feel like it's because I'm paranoid about the ground being dirty or too cold", 'I don’t know why, but I do know that if children do this too much, they shorten their achilles tendon and may possibly need physical therapy to stretch it out again. |
Why do roads continued to be made of asphalt give its proclivity to deform, and thus need constant repair? | Because it's really cheap. Concrete costs far more but lasts longer; so much longer that it is the cheaper long-term option. The problem is that most people lack the long-term dedication to actually put that kind of money up front.Asphalt is cheaper to install but breaks down faster. Concrete cost more upfront but last... |
Why can't contacts be worn for long periods of time? | How long? Extended wear lenses can be worn 30-45 days. They're made of oxygen permeable materials. |
why do most remotes run on two AAA batteries and not just one? | You can run most electronics on 3 volts including the IR LED and it's more efficient than stepping 1.5 volts to 3 volts. so the circuit is cheaper to produce and lasts longer. |
How come when humans touch power lines, they instantly get electrocuted, but when pigeons and other birds rest on power lines, nothing happens? | Electricity is lazy as f*ck and always uses the shortest path when it can. If it can choose between going just straight through the cable or leave its path to go through your body, shock you and go back to the cable; the choice is simple. However, the moment you have contact such that the path to the ground is shorter ... |
What is the difference between a psychiatrist, a psychologist, and a therapist? | A psychiatrist is a physician. They can evaluate and diagnose patients to determine whether their symptoms are the result of a physical illness, a combination of physical and mental illnesses, or strictly psychiatric illnesses. They can order tests and prescribe medications, and see patients for various types of therap... |
Why does the storage capacity on hard drives keep increasing rapidly as the years go on? | Moore's law was actually defeated in 2004 with the creation of the single atom transistor. They made a transistor using a single silver atom embedded in silicon._URL_0_ But ultimately they found that with transistors this small, when you put a lot of them on a microchip their individual electrons start to interfere wit... |
how can a human possibly survive a headshot? What would the bullet have to miss? | The brain isn't really just one thing, it's more like a whole lot of smaller systems working together. Some of them you need to live, like the part that controls breathing and making your heart beat. Others you can live without, like the part of your brain that controls speech, or vision. When a bullet goes through you... |
Why, in official military designations, are adjectives applied backwards compared to standard English? | Non military but its probably for warehouse purposes and inventory. When you need to order more coffee you'd get the options for instant and regular. The order would then go through as coffee, instant, 10 pounds |
How exactly does a consumer's money circulate throughout society after a product is bought? | Most transactions for things like phone are credit cards, so there is no physical money in the store. If you did pay cash, they'd deposit it into the bank which is also where the credit card transactions would end up. The store would use the money pay their workers' paycheck, pay the store's rent, pay their utility bil... |
Why can't a person draw well despite seeing the image in perfect detail in their mind? | There are two parts to this: 1) The image is not in perfect detail in the mind. You *think* its in perfect detail because you remember seeing it like that, but your mind does not bother to store every single detail because it just needs general ideas to remember the picture. 2) Your hand may not be trained for drawing.... |
- why are so many Windows programs installed in "users\AppData" instead of "Program Files"? | The program isn't installed there, it's just a folder with the same name that is used to hold your personal files for that program. If other people use your computer, their personal files are stored in their own, separate folder. |
During WW2 why didn't the Allies replicate the MG42 when it was superior to their variants of machine guns | US infantry doctrine was that you had infantrymen with rifles who were supported by machine guns, wheras the German infantry squad was basically a machine gun that was being supplied and guarded by riflemen. It wouldn't have been enough to simply reverse engineer a German machine gun, you'd have to change your whole st... |
how do baby giraffes not break their legs when taking their first steps more often. | Cause they're born sufficiently developed. Humans are born when they're not very developed, like a baby bird. Other animals like ungulates are precocial, fully developed when they're born, so it'd basically be like if humans have birth to a healthy 5 year old. Giraffes don't break their legs cause they've got healthy s... |
When metal rusts, does that mean we can never use it again? Could we completely run out of metal? | Iron ore basically is rust. There's a process in the furnace which turns the ore into raw iron |
Why can't long cables be stretched perfectly straight? | Late to the party, but the main characteristic of a cable is that it only supports tension along its length. That's what allows them to bend in the first place. I made a simple paint diagram to show what forces act on the cable: [here]. The red arrows show forces: gravity pulling downwards in the center, and the force ... |
How come American football kickers can 70+ yards on kickoff but only around 50 yards on a field goal. The holder can’t make that much of a difference can it? | Combination of both the first two answers. And even then not always perfect accuracy or you'd see more free kick field goal attempts.I love reddit. People get into the most interesting discussions. This one fasinating for some strange reason. Huge football fan here', "Don't forget the height of the bar it needs to go o... |
why is oil necessary when cooking? | When you cook something you're applying heat to it but that heat can be applied in a few ways. If you put something in a pan without any transfer medium like water or oil, it will simply burn where it's in contact with the pan and remain unaffected where it's not. The food has little thermal conductivity, so heat stays... |
“starvation mode” Vs “fat burning” mode | If you eat sufficient nutrients, but insufficient calories, your body will liberate fat for energy. If you eat both insufficient nutrients and calories, your body will start to liberate fat and also catabolize muscle tissue for the raw materials required for maintenance of essential systems. You stay in fat burning mod... |
If water is a incompressible fluid why does pressure increase when going under water? Wouldn’t the pressure stay the same since the density of the water doesn’t change? | Bricks aren't compressible either. But it's a lot harder to carry a stack of 20 bricks than it is to carry a single brick. Pressure is just a force over an area. Since the area remains the same, increasing the force will increase the pressure. Since weight is a force, the more weight pressing against you, the more pres... |
how different beers get different flavors | The proportion of ingredients, how they're brewed, stored, and aged, and the type of yeast all contribute to the taste, just like how there are thousands of different types of cheese that all taste different despite having mostly the same ingredients. Beers can also have other ingredients added during part of the ferme... |
Why is the Achilles' Tendon so infamous for injuries? | It's a story from Greek Mythology. Achilles was a great warrior who was dipped in a river as a child making him either invincible or very very strong . However when he was dipped in the river there was a part of his heel that didn't get submerged in the water and one day in battle he took an arrow to the heel and died. |
Why arent all pathogens airborne? Surely they'd atleast be carried by water molecules in the air from breathing. | Used to work infection control at a hospital. When dealing with airborne pathogens where simple exhales carried the virus specific rooms are used that isolate the person and the air inside with special ventilation. When dealing with a simple condition like the flu a droplet sign was used which indicated 3 feet distance... |
Where does all the world's biomass come from? | > A four year old kid would weigh around 40 lbs. Does that mean the child consumed 40 lbs.' worth of protein and calcium during those four years? Well, yeah. Actually quite a bit more, considering waste. 40 pounds might sound like a lot, but averaged out over 4 years, that's less than .03 pounds per day. For comparison... |
how has Venezuela's inflation rate gotten so out of control? | People didn't think that Venezuelan money has much value, or that it might lose value soon. It's a risk to accept it. For that risk, they demand more money. Enough people think the same way, so that drives up prices for the whole economy -- which is to say, inflation. Backing your currency with a fixed amount of oil or... |
Why do swarms of gnats follow you around? | Mosquitoes, gnats, flies etc. detect our c02 emissions and follow them. Ever seen a farm animal? They're always surrounded by swarms of all of the above. |
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