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How can some states have zero income and/or sales tax? | In short, sales taxes and/or shitty services. Here in Washington, there is no state income tax, but we have high sales taxes . Other states just don't prioritize services like roads, libraries, and other activities, like Wyoming. Some others with no state income tax derive revenue from the use of their natural resource... |
How do carnivore plants get rid of the excess nitrogen from their insect based diet? | They don't have excess nitrogen. The whole reason they ingest insects is because they grow in nitrogen-poor soil, so they need to source the nitrogen from somewhere else, namely by ingesting insects. |
Why modern CPU has 8 core 16 thread but not 8 core 24 thread? | More than two hardware threads per core exist on speciality microprocessors, but they have not really taken off on desktop CPUs: All threads still need to share time on the core, and context-switching only takes up so much of your CPU's time. So adding more threads without new cores gets you into diminishing returns mu... |
Why does connecting an electrical circuit without an appliance on it cause fires/explosions? | That's what's called a short circuit. It causes a current so high that you'll melt something . Effective current is equal to the voltage over the effective resistance . If you have an appliance between the two poles of the circuit, it provides an effective resistance. If you just connect the two poles, that resistance ... |
what is the Novikov self-consistency principle? | It's a hypothetical solution for time paradoxes: There is only one past, and it cannot be changed. Whatever you're going to do in the past, has already happened. Think about it like this: You stare at a wall for three minutes. No time travelers show up. If the Novikov self-consistency principle is true, there's no way ... |
Why do you get that warm spit feeling right before you throw up? | I think it's the same as normal saliva but due to the large increase in volume it feels warmer than the small amounts that enter your mouth normally. Also, the reason you salivate more before vomiting is to reduce the damage done to your mouth and throat by the acids. It dilutes and neutralizes the acidity a bit. |
Stick drivers, why is it that your car dies whenever you didn't press enough gas or release the clutch too early? | The transmission has gears in it that connect the engine to the wheels. When a gear is engaged, the wheels will move at a ratio to the revolutions per minute of the engine, determined by how low or high the gear is. When you press on the gas, it makes the engine spin faster, which in turn will make the wheels spin fast... |
Why does exercise cause us to not be so depressed? | Some forms of exercise are inherently enjoyable for the right person. Many people see exercise as this necessary pain when it doesn't have to be. Find something you enjoy. There are people who love running, playing soccer, snowboarding, swimming, canoeing, and hiking. There are also people who hate one or more of those... |
Why do astronomers assume for any planet to have possible alien life it has to have the same habitable zone as planets in our own solar system? | We assume it because all of the life we know of requires water. Maybe there is other life out there that's not water based, but how would you look at a planet through a telescope and know you found something if you don't know what it looks like?", 'Of everything I’ve read and watched nearly everyone talking about life ... |
how do wheelchair bound individuals avoid getting blood clots. Like the ones you get for sitting down too long on long flights. | People who use wheelchairs are more likely to get blood clots. Most people that I work with who use wheelchairs are placed on blood thinners in order to avoid blood clots from happening. There are a couple other things that are done to prevent blood clots. Some people wear special compression stockings which are basica... |
How can sleeping with a concussion kill you? | It can't. The reason people with a potential brain injury should be kept awake is so that you can continually assess them. Outside a hospital you cannot accurately determine how severe a brain injury might be without interacting with the patient. So you want them to stay awake and keep talking, keep using their hands, ... |
How come many men are prone to baldness but women do not generally suffer the same fate? | Women do get something similar to male pattern baldness, it just happens evenly spread across their heads. Look close at an older woman, it's noticeable. |
Why are some roads paved with asphalt and why are some roads paved with concrete? | I'm sure some one will give you a better answer. I'm sure that depends on mamy things like the terrain, the type of transit, the weight, the weather, the costs. They have many difference asphalt is really flexible compared to concrete, it almost melts with high temperatures so may be concrete is better for hot weathers... |
Why do electric ovens preheat so slowly, and yet electric kettles heat so quickly? | Air is a ridiculously good insulator. Water really isn't. It takes far longer to heat the same amount of air than it does water, but kettles are about 1/6th the size of an oven too. Convection ovens sorta solve this by moving the air around and not letting pockets form. |
How do 2 factor authentication apps or RSA tokens work? | In the simplest case, you round off time to the nearest 30-second window and `encrypt`, and on the other side the sever computes `encrypt, encrypt, encrypt, ` for some number of 30-second windows. This lets you have some fudge-factor on the time you open the app, type the code, and it finally reaches the server. Assumi... |
Why have so many cultures, some that never interacted or shared history, valued gold to such a degree? | There was a [checklist for why gold became commonly used for money] across history. * Cannot be a gas* Cannot be too corrosive or reactive* Cannot be radioactive* Needs to be rare -- but not so rare that it's impossible to find. They list five finalists: rhodium, palladium, platinum, silver and gold. Silver tarnishes t... |
How do life insurance companies stay in business? | You don't get back the amount you pay in. You make monthly payments on a policy that will pay out a fixed amount. If you die young, your family will get probably more than you paid in. Most people make it to old age, though, and by the time they die, they have paid more over time than the payout. That's why starting a ... |
How does a smartphone determine its GPS position instantly, whilst a purpose-built car GPS takes minutes to acquire satellites? | It actually isn't done instantly, your phones location tracking system has a tracking filter in it that takes input from the GPS signal and other signals that your phone is receiving such as cell phone towers, wifi signals, etc. It uses all of this to create an area in which you are most likely to be. This takes time t... |
How was Germany able to recover after such mass inflation of their money after losing both World Wars? | If your currancy devalues it can be because of a few different factors. Basically the solution is often to make a new currancy and start using that as your old currancy isn't worth the paper it's printed on. |
how do minerals affect people’s health and why do people choose to use them? | If it's about the presence of minerals vibrating to the natural harmony of the universe in combination with your chakra's and when your aura aligns with your chi to . You see where I'm going They don't |
In what way is a salary better than a wage? | Getting paid more or less frequently has nothing to do with salary VS hourly. You also don't necessarily work more hours. I can work only 35 and still get paid for 40. I also get paid extra if I work my same 8 hours, but a different shift. If I work an extra hour, I just leave an hour early some other day. |
Why does music sound so much louder in your head when using one earphone compared to two even if they're both at the same volume? | Umm. That doesn't seem right. I'm sure there will be someone else here that will potentially have an educated answer but that really sounds like a trip to a doctor or ear, nose and throat specialist might be an good idea |
How passenger pigeons were trained to carry messages in WW1 when headquarter positions on the battlefield changed all the time | It wasn't exactly a two way system. You would take pigeons with you that knew where their roost is, say your HQ, and they would fly back there. So you could take them to the frontline, and when they were released they would go back to the roost. You couldn't send them back from the roost to the battlefield, someone wou... |
Why not use a 600lb goalie in hockey? | The NHL opening of the goal is 72 inches wide by 48 inches tall, That's 24 sq ft . People are not that large. |
Why don’t carnivorous animals have horns? At least none from my memory. It seems like it’d be a great help against other predators, and also against prey? | There are multiple causes in my opinion. Horns can break relatively easily and it takes a loooong time to grow them back. If horns are your primary means to hunt you will stave when it happens. Also, huge horns are great for intimidation but they are bulky and slow you down. Rams can run forward really fast but they ca... |
- Do drinking glasses have an expiration date? | Generally speaking glass doesn't have an expiration date. Temperature variation might be the culprit. If you take hot glass and cool it too quickly it will shock because the molecules in one area have expanded and others are more contracted, so this causes the glass to shock and break. Is there a seam on the glass? Any... |
When you cut a banana the join is wet, but when you break a banana the join is dry. Why? | It's already been answered but a way to imagine it is cutting an orange vs peeling it and grabbing a slice but just on a really small scake |
Why are tipping-based jobs so common in America, and how do they work? | The United States of America federal government requires a wage of at least $2.13 per hour be paid to employees that receive at least\xa0$30\xa0per month in tips. If wages and tips do not equal the federal minimum wage of\xa0$7.25\xa0per hour during any week, the employer is required to increase cash wages to compensat... |
How does my phone track my steps? | It isn't tracking actual steps, but sudden changes in direction the phone has moved. The pattern of those changes is predictable, so phone are able to distinguish steps from other types of movement. It is not perfect & can be faked, so it's not too terribly accurate, but enough to get the job done.Imagine that in your ... |
Why can my phone not connect to two different Bluetooth devices? | It should, devices have been able to connect through multiple Bluetooth channels since like 2.1. My smart watch is always connected via bluetooth, and then I can pair my earbuds with no issue. If you're specifically talking about like, bluetooth speakers, then the device has to support it . Most don't. |
; why does does it hurt more to hit a cold body part? | When you're cold, your body has to do extra work to keep you alive. Keeping your body at the right temperate for it to work takes up more energy when you're colder, so if you get hurt, your body isn't going to want to be using up even more energy repairing itself. So it ramps up how much pain you feel so that if you do... |
What is the difference between all of the USB types? (USB 3, Type C, Lightning, etc.) | USB c is a connector: the double sided, oval connector. Lightning is Apple's special connector for their iPhones and other devices. Thunderbolt 3 is an alternate protocol that uses the USB C connector. |
What happens with your body when you get chills from hearing someone sing well? | I work event security and have seen over 3,000 act. A few come to mind that did just this to me, and I'm sure others. Roy Orbison, George Michaels, Cindy Lauper, and Stevie Nicks are a few that come to mind.Something about certain musical notes and their order. The combinations make the rest of your body giggleIs this ... |
what’s a Credit score and do I need to care about it if I never plan on getting a loan or a credit card? | It's very common for young people to say they never intend to borrow money. I said it when I was young. Then once you get a little older, you get a job offer. It's in a spot where you could take the bus, but that'd mean a 90 minute commute each way, or you could buy a car and drive 15 minutes each way. Unless you're we... |
how does eye tracker work? (The thing that shows what on a monitor you are looking at.) | Mostly it's looking for your pupil, which it does using near infra-red light, and finding where the pupil is located. This is done using a host of machine-learning algorithms that have basically been trained on what to look for to identify eyes. It also uses the reflection of light on the cornea to determine small moti... |
What stops an amputee’s bones from trying to regrow through the skin at the site of amputation? | Bone regrowth in amputees is actually quite common , so to glibly answer your question: nothing. Seriously though: & #x200B; There are 2 types of stem cells , adult, which adults have, and embryonic, which unborn babies have in the womb. Embryonic stem cells don't get made in adult humans. Scientists just figured out w... |
can 3 people use the same organs? | Not in a case like you've laid out, no. If the first recipient dies shortly after the surgery or has a bad rejection reaction they might be able to. But transplants put a lot of stress on the donated organ, and they wear out very quickly. |
Why is low fat milk sometimes skim milk and cream combined, instead of partially skimmed milk? | Milk isn't consistent, not every cow produces the exact same fat content, and the fat content from any one cow can also vary from day to day. The products that you get at the store, on the other hand, are extremely consistent, and required to be consistent by the laws of most countries. A machine that partially skimmed... |
“Buying” movies or music that is then removed from iTunes | It's not that it can be taken away, exactly, it's that you can't re-download it . Conceptually, this is similar to buying a movie on DVD and then the publisher no longer selling copies. You can't go get another one, but you still have the one you originally purchased. In this case, you bought the bits. You didn't buy t... |
I'm a left hander but I don't operate as one half of the time, what gives? | TIL I wasn't a left hander. Or a right hander either for that matter. It's my first time actually hearing about cross dominance. |
what is happening from a cardiovascular perspective when you get in shape? | In addition to what the other two people have said, you're right that your heart gets stronger. Your heart muscle will grow outward and become larger . The increase in size also comes with an increase in pumping power so that you can eject more blood to all of your muscles that are actually working and need oxygen-depe... |
Why does it take so long to download and interpret Black Box info after a plane crash? | If they find the black box in tact they can get the data pretty fast. But interpreting it isn't that easy. There isn't enough data to build a complete simulation of what happened. And even if there were it wouldn't really be cost effective to develop a simulator program to reliably make sense of it. Easier to just pars... |
The difference between Type 1 and 2 diabetes | Diabetes Type 2 is caused by the body becoming less receptive to insulin the body already produces, type 1 diabetes is caused by an autoimmune disease where the immune system destroys the cells that produce insulin so they can't produce the insulin they need. |
Why does our reflection show up in a spoon so clearly right side up on one side and upside down on the other? | Light from the environment enters your eye through the pupil where it converges and then diverges and strikes your retina. The image on your retina is actually inverted both left and right and up and down. This is the always the case regardless of whether there's a mirror present. The case with a mirror is best explain... |
How have we discovered many exoplanets but not the hypothesized planet x in our own solar system? | Because the current methods we have for [discovering exoplanets] are based on the wobble of the star they orbit, or on partially obscuring the star as they pass in front of it, or on the shine from the star on the planet surface. So basically we still need to see a very bright object in the telescope. Planet X is so fa... |
In severe diabetes cases how does removing a persons foot help manage their blood sugar, what does removing the foot do? and what causes that? | It doesn't, it's an effect of the diesease. Diabetic people often have circulation problems in their extremities. They can get injured or infected and don't heal, therefore requiring amputation. |
How did Stephen Hawking talked even though he can't move a muscle? How did the computer knew what he wanted to say? | It didn't read his mind. He used a muscle in his cheek to trigger a sensor which moved a cursor across a screen of letters, words, and stock phrases. |
Neutral Switzerland - how did they do it ? | They didn't really. They cooperated with the Nazis, extended banking to them, and produced weapons and vehicles for them.Switzerland fought a great many wars during the battle for independence and won most of these, many of the battles were defensive in nature and involved being heavily outnumbered. However fighting on... |
When scientists write "sunlight/certain chemical cause(s) DNA damage", what does it really mean? | Basically DNA damage means dna damage. There are many mechanisms though I'm not sure if that's the most imporrant. What is is that dna gets damaged constantly, billions of times per day. Keep in mind though, dna of a cell is kept in that very cell. If Your dna changes in one cell, it doesn't directly affect its neighbo... |
Why can’t PC hardware run Mac OS but mac can run windows? | They are. If you have the specific hardware combination, then you can run OSX on it , though you won't have some features. It's just a combination of 1) OSX is designed to run on specific hardware while windows must fit general hardware 2) apple is the big mean and intentionally makes it difficult for people to run OSX... |
Why do condoms expire? | [here's a good source]. Spermicide shortens the shelf life. Being carried around shortens shelf life. Just existing shortens shelf life. Pretty much in order of severity. |
Why do the hands (or any joints and extremities) of people with arthritis hurt more at certain times of the day, like in the morning, or in certain types of weather? | With weather at least it's to do with barometric pressure, the lower the pressure the worse it hurts due to swelling in the joints. |
While downhill, do cars consume more fuel while in neutral or while in gear with low revs? | It will depend on the car, its age, and its programming. Most modern cars will cut fuel when coasting as the engine can be driven by the wheels. This can happen in manuals and automatics . The newer the car, the better it will control this. In a manual transmission, there is a physical/mechanical connection to the engi... |
how do you know sharks won't eat everything when introduced to an aquarium? | On the show Tanked, there were certain species that paired well with sharks and carnivores. Usually, these fish had natural defenses or were close enough in size to the predator to be more trouble than they're worth. Also, provide places for smaller fish to hide or escape the sharks. |
How do buildings collapse due to fire? While all the internal accessories may catch fire ultimately it leaves the walls and ceilings which are concrete so shouldn't at this point the fire stop? | Concrete decomposes when it reaches a high enough temperature. Metal softens when heated enough, and it can do all kinds of weird stuff when it's heated unevenly . Wood burns.Not all internal structures are concrete. And I assume that at some temperature you lose stability in any structural material. |
how does the population of China keep growing when they have a one-child policy? If two people replace themselves with just one person, shouldn’t the population be shrinking? | The one-child policy wasn't applicable everywhere, and coupled with people living longer due to advances in health care and better quality food, the overall population has kept growing. |
Why does lightning only form in clouds when it rains | Actually, that's not completely true. I've seen lightning in clouds that did not produce rain. However, there is much more activity going on in thunderstorm clouds. Air is rising quickly, and raindrops are falling. This is what produces the static electricity which is what produces lightning |
What happens when you sneeze? | You blow spit and mucus from your chest and face because that's how your body gets rid of debris in your airways. |
Why does the world's economy only grow at 3% (aprox)? | Don't fall victim to the fallacy of unweighted averages. Suppose you have $100, and I have $1. Now you find $1, and I find $2. Your growth rate is 1% . My growth rate is 200% . However, our combined growth rate is NOT the average of 1% and 200%. We started with $101 collectively, and now we have $104, a growth rate of ... |
Why is prime factorization so reliable for modern encryption algorithms? | It is very hard for computers to calculate. In fact, we don't know of any algorithm faster than exponential time to factor numbers. We do have an algorithm to factor numbers in polynomial time, but this only works on a quantum computer. Why this problem is so hard, and whether it can be solved on a non-quantum computer... |
Why does touching both ends of a (D,AA,9V) battery not complete a circuit? | Touch a 9V batter to your tongue, and you'll see that it does. When I was a kid that's how we would figure out which ones were still good. |
Why haven't electric cars (particularly the Teslas with the full glass roof) implemented solar panels/charging on the roof? | No, probably not. Solar panels aren't very efficient and would take a week or more to recharge a Tesla from just panels on the roof. Not worth the effort to install them. |
Why do people wait on death row for years before being executed? | Unlike almost every other sentence, death is irreversible. So, we give plenty of time for appeals, pardons, etc. before we take that final step. Legal procedures can take an incredibly long time. I've known some civil trials take a decade or more. |
Since animals do not brush their teeth how do they prevent cavities? How do they get fluoride for their teeth enamel? | They don't eat sugar so they don't get cavities in the young age. They don't live long enough to have these problems in the old age. But some animals do suffer from bad teeth. Elephants often starve when they are old as a result. They are large enough to have long lives without being eaten and their diet of grass requi... |
What is non-Euclidean space or geometry? | Look to r/ToxiClay for the more technical definition. The flippant ELI5 definition is that Euclidean geometry is flat and has the Pythagorean theorem for finding lengths . Non Euclidean geometry is just not this. For example, a triangle on flat paper has 3 angles which add up to 180 degrees. However, if you take a glob... |
Why is this generation so much more depressed than past ones? | This generation isnt 'more' depressed, you just see it a lot more with social media now and the internet in general. People were just as depressed in previous generations |
Why is it that smartphone batteries are said to deteriorate if used while charging, but the same is not true for laptop batteries and laptops are encouraged to be plugged in most of the time? | I understand it like this. In a smart phone space is limited. The phone always operates from the battery. When charging, the phone can't use the incoming electricity directly. So you have the heat of the phone use plus the heat of charging. Your car can operate directly off the alternator so it's different. I believe t... |
How do websites and apps securely save your credit card information? | Encryption - it's like a digital lock and key The first five minutes of [this video] does a pretty good job of explaining how encryption protocols work at a high level. |
Why does making a 3 degree difference in your homes thermostat feel like a huge change in temperature, but outdoors it feels like nothing? | So a few things you might not have known You sweat nearly almost all the time, you feel sweaty when it is not being evaporated fast enough So in winter, you likely dress for weather, coats jumpers so hence you can make 10c weather feel warm almost. Outside you are likely to be exercising like walking or whatever, this ... |
How are commuter trains able to operate backwards? | The front/end of the train has a special passenger car that has a driver's cab in it, which allows the engineer to remotely control the locomotive from the other end of the train. Here's [an example] of the ones we have in Toronto. You'll notice the little window on the right side of the car . That's where the engineer... |
How do film crews get in contact with big cartels and criminals and how are they allowed to not tell the police about gang’s location? Also how can they trust these criminals? | There is no legal requirement to report the location of criminals. Seeing a criminal and not reporting them to police isn't itself a crime. Reporters then can obtain interviews and write their stories without breaking any laws. Now how they get in touch will vary but presumably they talk to other people who can pass a ... |
Why does the square root of i = (1/square root of 2)(1+i)? | Roots of complex number is rotation in a complex plane and and a reduction it the absolute value of the complex number. The rotation depend on the angle from the positive real axis so for positive real number the rotation is 0 but you one one for negative You can write a complex number as r x e^ where r is the distance... |
Why does spinach shrink so much when cooked? | It's full of water! But there's something else in it that makes it give off that chalky kind of texture. |
- The tripod camera things that land surveyors use, what are they for? | Way back in the day, I hear it was a lucrative skillset to have. One of my relatives owned a surveying company. I imagine that now it's more of a fool-proof technology. Or at least easy to learn, maybe hard to master. |
What does it mean to "break up" a big tech company like Google (or any big company) ? If Google suddenly became three constituent companies, what would change? | breaking up of monopolies is not new in the US. the idea behind it is that if business gets too large it hurts small business owners and consumers. a classic example is John D. Rockefeller's oil business in the 19th century - Standard Oil was able to drive smaller companies complete out of business. this ends up hurtin... |
number of protons in element's atom determines what element it is. why science don't work on just changing number of protons in atoms so elements are turned into other elements? | Opposites attract and similar charges repel each other. So when you try to stick a proton inside a nucleus, which already contains a shit ton of proton, they repel each other. You can forcefully make a proton enter the nuclear region but that would require huge amount of energy. High energy = High costs. So you can man... |
Why is it nearly impossibly to revive a person after their heart stops beating? | it's not so much that the heart has stopped beating per se; it's that a heartbeat stoppage indicates some sort of major trauma, organ failure or prolonged asphyxiation, and recovering from one of *those* is generally pretty difficult. hearts are stopped and restarted pretty routinely under controlled circumstances for ... |
Why does milk go bad one day instead of progressively tasting worse? | I guess in reality you really only check your milk every 24 hours . Bacteria also grow exponentially when there is enough nutrients. Also when milk goes bad it's usually from the lactic acid bacteria raising the pH enough to curdle the milk, it doesn't necessarily taste had because there's enough bacteria to taste like... |
How do speed cameras capture speed? | They use either Doppler radar or LIDAR. You know when an ambulance or cop car goes past with its siren on, and the sound changes pitch as it gets nearer and then farther away? That's the Doppler Effect. As the vehicle gets closer, the sound waves 'catch up' to each other - in other words, their frequency gets higher. T... |
Does a high pitch sound really shatter glass? What is the explanation for this (if true)? | Resonant frequently means you hit a tone the matches the 'bounce' of the material. For glass this is a high frequency. For a bridge this can be the standard marching pace of a platoon. By playing the tone without having to increase the volume the wobble makes the material more unstable, eventually providing enough forc... |
How are humans able to imagine things that don't exist or could not possibly exist? | Hume said: > The imagination seems to be unrestrained, but actually all complex ideas are derived from simple impressions, by compounding , transposing, augmenting or diminishing mental materials derived from experience . The basic idea is that what we imagine is just taking stuff we remember from experience, and eithe... |
Why is it that a person with cold hands hands feel colder than the ambient temperature of the room. Or even colder than an inanimate object in the room. | On a side note: From personal experience, you can actually turn the cold of your own appendages into a vicious cold cycle when trying to warm them up with your own body temperature. I lived in a house with an uninsulated floor and no central heating for a while , and the corner where I had my desk and worked didn't get... |
How come my dad (who is allergic to pollen) isnt allergic to honey? | The other explanations in here about honey and pollen not being the same thing are of course correct. There are a few more things to consider, too. It is unlikely your dad is allergic to the sorts of heavy pollens that bees consume from insect-pollinated plants. Even if he were, to put it simply, these pollens are ofte... |
Why when you choke on even the tiniest bit of spit or water, do you cough/splutter/struggle to breathe for so long? | You choke on food, cough a few times and dislodge it. You choke on water and it's harder to blow out. The combination of liquid, breathing, and gravity make it very difficult to move water up and out.The vocal cords are very delicate. Any water or liquid that touches them or goes into the lungs will cause a large cough... |
why is it that homosexuals despite being less than 5% of the general population make up more than 60% of new HIV cases? | It's simply part of how the disease works, anal sex is the most effective way to contract HIV.This is specific to homosexual men. The reason for this is that anal sex is more likely to transmit HIV due to small tears that occur called anal fissures. Men having anal sex with other men are also less likely to use condoms... |
Why is paper used to substitute plastic (such as paper bags, paper cups, paper straws etc.) if it costs our trees? Is it more eco friendly? | It's considered better for the environment because paper biodegrades very quickly. Plastic trash bags, straws, etc. take a very very long time to decompose. |
How do scientists distinguish between species of organisms that asexually reproduce? | There's a species of single-celled fungi-- Candida albicans I believe-- that was believed to be two separate species at first. This fungi can switch between forms: yeast and mold . It wasn't until a while after that it was found that the mold and the yeast are actually the same species. Fungi can have sexual and asexua... |
How do barcodes work? How is it that they can be universally read and we haven’t “run out” of options for them? | You know how the barcode scanners sort of 'flicker' that laser light? That's because it's rapidly switching from emitting laser light to 'looking for' laser light. The quick flash of light reflects off the upc code and it sees the width of the white space, broken up by the black bars. This translates into a code of num... |
why does the video quality decline when a video is reposted over and over again. | When you download data it is compressed, especially if it's large data such as images or videos. When you upload a video, and then redownload it, the video is first decompressed when it's uploaded, and when you redownload it you don't get the original file the decoded video is completely compressed again. Do this often... |
Why are mercury and lead toxic while gold isn't? | Gold is actually toxic, it's just that metallic gold is very chemically stable and won't react with most acids or chemicals in general. So if you ingest metallic gold, you poop metallic gold. That last bit is true for mercury too, but there aren't many other compounds containing gold around, and mercury can vaporize ea... |
Why does the US government not produce insulin? | Because the government doesn't produce products. The government isn't a pharmaceutical company, it's a government. |
How do Diet sodas have 0 calories? | If you check the ingredients it is mainly water with a little natural flavoring and artificial sweeteners which are 0 calories. I'm sure there is SOME caloric content but rounded to the nearest calorie at that serving size it's 0. Sometimes if you get a large diet fountain drink the serving size is big enough that it d... |
Why do pee bubbles in the toilet hang around for hours while most other bubbles in liquids dissipate pretty quickly? | Foamy urine with bubbles that last long periods is frequently caused by protein in the urine. It can be caused by individual variation or benign health conditions. It can also be a symptom for kidney disease or type 2 diabetes. It's a good idea to see your doctor if you can.I’m not sure of the answer but you don’t flus... |
How do our cheap electronic clocks automatically change time when it’s spring forward? | There are a few ways to get the time automatically, but only a few of them make sense in cheap electronics : either it uses an worldwide radio broadcast, or it was programmed on the chip, which is trivial with modern electronics and works fine as long as the date of winter/summer time doesn't change. If your clock is s... |
If marbling of the meat determines its quality, why do people trim off the fat? | I don't think that everyone does this, though. Regardless of how marbled a good ribeye steak is, the fat on the boundary always adds a nice bit of juiciness and flavor. I'd hate to think that people are throwing that away. |
How do people snore and why doesn’t their snore wake them up no matter how loud it is | Sometimes I'm still partially conscious when I begin to snore and I can hear it but I can't move and then everything sort of fades away into oblivion. Does anyone else experience this? |
Cybersecurity and FISMA, FISCAM, Sarbanes-Oxley | They're federal IT security requirements that all government owned systems must meet, and are audited against. FISCAM is the audit manual that tells you how to evaluate whether or not a system meets the standard. NIST is shorthand for NIST Special Publication 800 series, usually NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 4, which is a set of... |
Why is human bio-engineering prohibited? | Short answer is human beings are not to be trusted. Long term planning is not something as a people we are good at. This would require a lot of human testing and experimentation which is very complicated because companies have no incentive to be ethical so they need to be strongly monitored. Longer answer is that the h... |
Post injury, why lower inflammation/swelling if thats the body trying to heal you? | Your body tends to overdo things, it's not very good with moderation. Yes inflammation is good for healing, but things are much more inflamed than they need to be, and with inflammation comes pain, loss of function and potentially further damage.Sometimes, lowering inflammation will show the extent of an injury. Swelli... |
Boeing 737 Max Anti-Stall System | Boeing upgraded the 737, it now has a very strong tendency to nose up. This movement may lead to a loss of speed and thus to a stall, so Boeing created an antistall system to automatically control and stop this possible stall. If this system triggers while the plane is NOT stalling, it'll push the nose down. For lion a... |
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