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Why are birds and bees associated with talking to kids about sex? | I always took it to mean the way birds and bees gather nectar from flowers. Then again, if you've ever seen a bird swallow a worm ", 'I believe it's a reference to the 50's song. I forget the name. Singer might have been Sam Cooke. "Let me tell you \'bout the birds and the bees and the flowers and the trees. And a thin... |
What happens if you jump in water, while covered in a hydrophobic material? | You wouldn't get wet, but you'd definitely still sink. Interestingly, your skin is basically hydrophobic already. Your cells are hydrophobic, and they're also covered in oils. It's why you don't turn into a sponge when you take a bath. Edit: Downvote so at the risk of not being a good eli5 post, I'll stick in some scie... |
Why have major countries not taken to teaching Esperanto in classrooms to allow people to communicate internationally? | If *everyone* started teaching Esperanto now, it would be useful in about 20 years. They *also* need to teach English now, because that's the language everyone is using now. Knowing Esperanto but not English would be very useless until everyone speaks Esperanto. Also, not enough people speak it to be able to teach it i... |
How could self-confessed heroin addict Philip Seymour Hoffman get away using illegal drugs without getting arrested? Same with other celebrities who obviously use drugs? | Really, the NYPD is going to go try to get a search warrant for a celebrity's apartment because he's been on camera saying he takes drugs? What a waste of time and resources. It may interest you to know that the large majority of drug busts are either dealers, or they're *incidental* to another search. As in, you were ... |
Why can we move all of our fingers independently of each other minus our ring finger? | Hm. Mine all move independently. I've been a typist for decades, maybe there is something to the Pianist Theory. :) |
How do manufacturers test the quality of their products and then go on to sell them without wearing down the product? | > To elaborate, if you're testing a product to make sure it doesn't break for example, aren't you wearing it down and increasing the possibility it does break for the consumer? Sometimes. You can do nondestructive testing, which does not break it down, for example using a penetrating dye to look for cracks. Sometimes y... |
what would happen to humans on Mars, since the gravity is not as strong as Earth's? | Well, the most obvious thing: Martians' muscles wouldn't develop to be as naturally strong. They might grow slightly taller. Gravity plays a subtle role in the development of humans during evolution. There are probably numerous other effects, but I'm just a programmer. |
Why do humans have different blood types, and is there a purpose to the variations? | Evolution doesn't follow a purpose, the only purpose is survival and as soon as this is achieved, further perfectioning stops. Most traits exist because they don't impact survival negatively too much rather than because they improve it. |
Why do airlines sit their planes from front to back instead of back to front? | They don't all do that. In fact, I can't think of a single airline I've been on that does. Some use a random method, some load back to front and some load window-middle-aisle. |
I'm lost in the wilderness with no GPS or phone, how do I use the stars to tell me where I am or what my heading is? | You only really need to know 3 constellations. Ursa Major , Ursa Minor , And Cassiopeia , you can google all of these for pictures. The north star is the end of the handle in the little dipper. The big dipper and the W are on opposite sides of the north star, and rotate around it over the course of a day. Even if one o... |
How does Jeff Bezos afford the rich lifestyle? | Well, he inherited a 25,000 acre ranch from his family, so he wasn't exactly born poor. Another thing to keep in mind is that Jeff Bezos making $80k a year is way different from me making $80k a year. He is backed up by a net worth of $30 billion, so he can go to a bank and get whatever he wants . |
How does real "Zoom and Enhance" work? | Think of it like this. When you see some pixel art, you can understand what's going on The message is being persieved. If there is a dog under a tree but all drawn in pixels, you know that there is a dog under a tree. All enhancing is, is having the computer do some guess work. The computer knows that there is a dog an... |
Why GMO's are bad for us? | CONTRARY TO THE TOP COMMENT GMO FOODS ARE NOT COMPLETELY SAFE OR EVEN FAIRLY SAFE. _URL_0_ the paper above highlights the fact that a GMO rice crop produced by Monsanto expresses a microRNA that binds to mammalian receptors and increases the uptake of cholesterol. This is the first major blow to the GMO food case and w... |
Why does america not use the metric system | The biggest reason is it doesn't have to. If you are a small country, using the same weights and measures as other countries makes it easier for you to participate in the global economy, giving you a large incentive to switch. But when you are the world's largest economy, other countries are willing to adapt to you, so... |
Why are watches worn on the non-dominant wrist? | I always figured it was because it's harder to put a watch on using only your non-dominant hand. So if you are right handed you put it on your left wrist because your left hand is more clumsy |
What determines how much money one currency is worth in another currency? | The same thing as what determines what any commodity is worth, it's worth whatever someone is willing to pay for it. Now in terms of what makes a currency more or less desirable and thus changing what people are willing to pay for it there's a lot of factors going into play including things like interest rates, inflati... |
What would happen if I went to the zoo and fed a lion or a tiger a big bag of catnip? | Well [here's] what happened to 3 dudes who put stuff in the big cats enclosure illegally at the SF zoo. Basically, one dude and a tiger named Tatiana were killed after it was all over, and two other men were severely hurt. Everything is not as it appears. Turns out there was a design or construction flaw, and the cats ... |
How does the liquid in our inner ear serve the purpose of helping us keep our balance? | The inner ear is lined with a specialized type of cells that have little hair like projects off of them. As you move, it affects the currents of the fluid within the inner ear. This bends the hairlike projections in one direction or another. This bending opens, or closes ion channels on these projections, changing the ... |
The physics behind this falling slinky! | A slinky is like a spring. When it gets stretched, it tries to unstretch, so the edges get pulled towards the middle. When it's released, gravity pulls down, slinky stretch pulls up, so they cancel out until it's not stretched anymore. |
What do Tibetan Buddhist monks actually do day-to-day and why are they more well known than other Buddhist monk groups? | You probably hear about Tibetian Buddhist monks more because they are the only sect of Buddhism that is actively oppressed by China. Western media knows this will sell. Western governments have an interest in building Tibet up in the minds of people; after all, it keeps a thorn in the side of a powerful adversary. The ... |
Does it hurt my phone if i recharge it over night? | Personally even if it did damage the battery I would give a flying fuck, I'm not going to go to work with 2% charge.when you charge the phone to 100%, itll just say "fully charged". however the battery will stop charging until a drop of about 10% is achieved, in which case itll go back up to 100% and just continue this... |
How are the TSA allowed to have their locks on suit cases sold across the world? | They're not the TSA's locks. They're locks built by other companies that conform to the TSA standard to allow them to be opened by a TSA master key if they need to inspect your luggage. You're by no means required to use such a lock, and you're free not to buy one. If you never plan to travel to the US, I'd recommend e... |
Why are clouds grey when raining, but white otherwise? | It's the size of the droplets in the cloud. For rain to fall, the droplets must be larger than a certain size. Larger droplets absorb more light, thus making the cloud look dark. |
Why can brushing your teeth too hard damage them, but the sharp metal points dentists use to scrape enamel off don't? | Lots of misinformation here As many have said, the key factor here is frequency. If you had your teeth scraped with the metal instrument twice a day every day, you would see damage. Dentists and hygienists are trained to scrape your teeth to remove calculus or tartar from your teeth but minimise damage to the tooth str... |
Why exactly do cats hate water? | It's a natural instinct to avoid water as it slows them down and saps energy through heat and wasted energy. Also they can't balance in water and they hate anything that does that. |
how do reality shows record illegal acts in series? | The same way they film them for every other film and and tv show, it's not illegal if it's fake.There have been reality series that ended because acts aired on tv were investigated and people were charged. As far as film crews documenting said "crimes" they fall in the category documentary journalism. A third party tha... |
Why do people comment on imgur? | If I don't want to read I go to imgur, but most if the time I'm on Reddit. There is nothing wrong with the Imgur community, it's kind if like the little brother of Reddit. |
If private school teachers are not being affected by increased wages by lawmakers, why haven't we heard them complain about their salaries? | the same reason you don't hear people at the 7/11 on your block complain or at Red Robin. They are private companies, they keep their business to themselves. |
How does declawing a cat work and is there any consequences of having the surgery? | So people are mentioning how a declaw is done, and they are correct. It is the amputation of basically the tips of the toes. There are different ways to accomplish this: 1) Manual declaw : basically take a huge pair of dog claw trimmers and cut off the tip of the toe. No, dog claw trimmers aren't what is used, but the ... |
Why does CNN have such a low reputation currently? | I'd argue that any 24 hour news source suffers from terrible bias and sloppy reporting due to the amount of opinion and assumption they have to create to fill 24 hours a day.They have zero integrity. They read goddamn tweets from nobodies like you and me and make it a part of the news. And they sensationalize things th... |
Why do Americans have unwavering respect and gratitude for their Military personnel but seemingly express a completely opposite attitude towards their Police Officers? | I've never been abused by a soldier. [Edit: Spelling]", 'One factor relates to history. During the Vietnam conflict , there were many Americans who believed the American military effort was immoral, and that those who cooperated with it -- including those who agreed to be soldiers -- were complicit in the immorality. A... |
why aren't laptops smart enough to disable charging when the battery is full, and to re-enable charging when battery is lower than 10%? | Wouldn't it be better to just fully charge the battery then cut it off and run on wall power as long as it's connected? |
Please ELI5 why gas stations can charge more if you use a credit card. | IIRC, it used to be the case that VISA wouldn't let you charge more for credit card usage, under their merchant agreements. Interestingly, you *could* offer a *discount for using cash*, but you couldn't charge a premium for using a credit card, as that might create a negative image of credit card use. Of course, that m... |
What's with the Golden Dawn group in Greece? Who are they? What do they want? Why are they so violent? | As the question as has already been answered, there's something I'd like to add: As someone whose family were in Athens at the time of the Nazi occupation, it makes me sad a country that had that experience with the Nazis are now leaning in the same xenophobic directions. |
Why does a suspect for a crime receive a lesser sentence if they accept a plea deal? | The short answer is that by pleading guilty, the accused saves a lot of time and resources of the state and spares the victim the trauma of reliving the crime in court. The idea is to entice an accused who knows he committed the crime to 'fess up instead of dragging everyone through a long trial. There is no deep philo... |
Why is newspaper so different from regular paper? | Newspaper is designed to be cheap. It doesn't have to be high quality--the edition may only be current for a day, or less than that for a paper that publishes twice a day . As paper fibers tend to get broken up a little more with each use, it's normally downcycled into a lesser use. For example, those cardboard pulp cu... |
Do dreams really have "meanings" behind them? | Like most of what goes on in your mind, dreams draw on memories and emotions. As a result, dreams can reflect past life events and feelings. There has been no conclusive evidence that there are any set patterns in dreams that represent certain things in every day life that are consistent across multiple people. For ins... |
Why do really smart people usually look like the stereotypical "nerd"? | I don't think they do, it's confirmation bias. You see someone, you can't tell how smart they are just by looking at them.the amount of bouncers i know that are graphics designers, sysadmins etc and youd never guess it. lots of people fit the mould but probably more dont. ive also seen people that you could say looked ... |
How do live sports channels always catch the right camera to broadcast from several camera angles? | I'm gonna take the approach of looking at this from an esports perspective - particularly, Overwatch. Overwatch observers have 12 player cameras, top-down strategic views, and free cameras to view the action from any angle, plus cameras of each players face and the crowd. The ability of the observers to swap between th... |
What does an abnormal amount of testosterone do to the male body? | I don't have a direct answer, but you'd probably enjoy this recent episode of This American Life: _URL_0_ |
Why do graphics look 'realistic'... until we see better graphics to compare against them? | It's like if your mom can't cook very well. You spend years eating her crappy food but you like it because it's all you know. Then you eat at school or at a friend's house and you experience better food suddenly your mom's food is disgusting. The food's quality hasn't changed but your standards of quality has changed. |
Money riddle [Eli5] | It's still in your hand and you owe it to your friends.You actually borrowed $100 and spent $98, not $97. Remember that you kept $1 for yourself. As far as this riddle in concerned you spent 98 on the product ad paid back 2 totalI think the mistake is that you're mixing up the amount you owe your friends with the actua... |
Why, for the most part,we get health insurance through our employers but we buy every other kind of insurance as individuals. | Life insurance can get very pricy and is not even guaranteed for some individuals. Term insurance is the cheapest life insurance you can get, but if you smoke you triple your premium. It also goes up if you are obese or ill, and if you are terminally ill you couldn't be insured at all. I'm guessing that companies don't... |
When weather cancels 2800 flights, and 50k people are displaced, how to they all get back on schedule since so many of the flights for the next few days are already booked up? | Flight attendant here. I was operating a flight earlier this month when all winter broke loose at Toronto Pearson and hundreds of flights were cancelled. Most people are rebooked the next day or subsequent days. Some choose alternate means of transport. Some fly with other airlines. We add routes and cancel lesser load... |
Why do flight prices fluctuate from day to day? | There's a lot of variables that go into pricing a flight, both in terms of the cost of the flight to the airline company and the value they think they can get for it. Obviously, if you're booking far ahead on an empty flight they have a lot of seats left so the supply is high and the demand so far is low. If you're boo... |
How do vending machines know what kind of coins you put in? | Each machine has a built-in coin sorter, which identifies each coin, primarily by size. For example, to process US coins, you have the coins attempt to go through multiple slots, starting with the smallest. If it goes through the smallest slot, it's a dime. If it will only go through the largest, you know it's a quarte... |
How much regular household garbage gets recycled if the homeowner doesn't recycle their trash? | Traditionally, it's all gone to the landfill. Some areas now have dirty mixed waste recycling facilities, though, that don't require people to separate recycling and do all of the sorting at the facility. |
If faster rabbits survive wolves, and then wolves must get faster to catch the faster rabbits, why aren't wolves and rabbits pushing each other to ridiculous speeds every generation? | The faster wolves catch the slower or dumber rabbits. It's not just a matter of raw speed, it's a matter of overall evasion. The rabbit who is quicker in sensing danger and flees before it gets too close has a better chance of survival. But all rabbits get older or injured, and are less able to flee, so they get eaten,... |
Why does TSA make you put your laptop in its own bin? Can they not scan it properly when it's in your bag? | Honestly, I just leave my toiletries and laptop in the bag every time I fly. They've never said anything. Yeah, there's signs that say you have to take them out but I guess it's just not enforced. Not like I go to a middle-of-nowhere airport either. I live in a city with one of the most heavily traveled airports Americ... |
Why must the economy *always grow*? [LI5] | It depends on the country. For many developed countries, a significant part of their economies depends on receiving investment from less developed countries. If ever the richer economies quit growing, then almost instantaneously all investment would be pulled and sent somewhere else. This is why the USA is willing to t... |
How do live YouTube streams of TV shows get away with it? | You can't possibly keep up with how fast people put them back up when they're taken down. Nature of the beast. |
If a gas station posts $.99 gas by accident, are they legally required to sell at that price if people come in as a result? | Most pumps I've seen have a disclaimer stuck on them that says if there's a discrepancy, the price displayed at the pump is the price you pay. |
Why a front facing camera flips the image it takes? | When you are just looking at the live image from the front camera on the screen, the software flips the image, the same way as a mirror does. If you hold up your right hand, the image appears to hold up its left hand. When people look at themselves, they are used to doing it in a mirror, so this looks and feels natural... |
- Why did Latin die out? | Latin didn't die out, it evolved into other languages, the nearest to it being the Italian language. In other words it's just a matter of definitions: there are much more differences between the ancient Greek and the Greek spoken nowadays in Greece, than there are between Italian and Latin. So the Italian could be call... |
Why is it that when I buy a small drink in Costa, it's £2.50, but when I get a large (exactly twice the size) it's £3? | I work in a cafe. And from a business point of view, it costs pennies to make a coffee so the difference in cost between a medium and a large to costa would be about 2p ish. So this relatively low difference in price , seems like good value .and higher value for money entices the customer to buy the larger coffee and p... |
What is a kosher food and why are salt, pickles, and hot dogs the only ones I ever see at the store? | You see a lot of kosher foods in the store and never realize it. If there is a U or a K with a circle around it on the packaging then that is kosher food. a |
How does "fracking" cause earthquakes? | It's not fracking that is generally thought to be causing the earthquakes in Oklahoma, but wastewater injection wells. They are two very different things, but a lot of people are blaming the earthquakes on fracking because it's already got a bad rap.Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is the process of removing natural ... |
How do urine drug tests distinguish between illicit drugs and prescriptions? | Have a prescription is really the only valid answer. We did a drug test at work and one woman tested positive for methamphetamines. We asked her to produce medical documentation saying it was legal and she couldn't. |
Why are sons usually taller than their fathers? Is this meaning that generations are progressively getting taller and taller? | The only way generations are getting progressively taller is through natural selection. That's pretty slow. The selective pressure is towards taller, but you don't have to be good looking, desirable, rich, or even have ANY income to find a mate and pump out some babies, these days. So that only goes so far. Short, ugly... |
Why old english is comparatively more profoundly different from middle english compared to the difference from middle english and modern english? | Are you asking about English or Germanic languages in general? In the title you say English but the description says 'dark ages'/Germanic. I'm not familiar with any other language that has delineations between old/middle/new forms but I'm from a predominantly English-speaking country and didn't take any literature cour... |
how is it legal for car insurance companies to have higher rates for men, isn't that gender discrimination? | It is. But the alternative to it is that everyones rates would go up because the insurance companies would then rate people based on risk overall. Eventually the law will be passed and then they will base it purely on risk, and then every young driver will have higher rates, not just the males. And the shareholders wil... |
Since physical or emotional pain is so subjective, does anyone truly know the extent of someone else's? | I'll do you one better: prove to me that you experience *anything at all.* _URL_1_ |
Why is people so bothered with Google acquiring Nest? Why are they worried with Google having access to thermostat data, when it already has mobile/search engine data? | Google is a large corporation that isn't union. They shut down Ma & Pa webpages and closed down mainstreet.Why do you wanna know? Who sent you?', "I don't think the majority of people are afraid. I just believe the main stream media interviews the same 5 idiots over and over again with shit opinions and write their hea... |
masturbating too much affects actual sex? | If you are constantly rubbing one out every time you have slightest urge, you are less likely to be in the mood when the real thing is available. Add in death grip and unrealistic expectations from crazy porn, and you end up in a place where you'd rather fuck your computer than your girlfriend. Eventualiy, your girlfri... |
What's the positives in reading books, something that can't be obtained by e.g. watching movies? | There are so many good answers to this, but I would like to paraphrase one given by Douglas Adams, author of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Some of his ideas were best suited to radio, some to books, some to TV, and one could only be properly told as a video game. These are very different media and each can do s... |
Why does taking a warm bath when you have a fever feel so cold? | think of it like this. when your body is hot, what normally is relatively warm will feel relatively cold, basically what was equal to your bodys temperature when you were normal will now be lower than your bodys temperature so it feels cold |
How can you have a prison sentence for 120 years when the prisoner won't live for that long? | Each crime carries its own penalty. If, for example, murder gets you 20 years in prison and someone kills 6 victims, that comes out to 120 years for them. This amount can be relevant in case some of the charges are later overturned. For example, if it turns out that the person in question only killed 3 people, you can ... |
How does elevation heal broken bones? | From what I know, RICE is good for first aid to soft tissue injuries as it minimizes any swelling and inflammation. But! inflammation and swelling are a part of the healing process as well. Kind of like when you get a fever when you're sick. Your body is fighting itself. Bad example, I know but that's the first one I c... |
How did we actually figure out what dinosaurs/extinct animals look like? | We mostly make educated guesses; e.g we can compare it to relatives / similar animals / where they lived / etc. For example, an aquatic dino would probably have a darker backside and lighter belly, like crocs / sharks, because this helps them to not be noticed as easily And in fact, a lot of the depictions we have coul... |
How do truck/lorry drivers know of low overpasses/bridges ahead of the road ? | In the US, you can buy an atlas that's specifically made for truckers and the low clearance bridges are listed and marked on the map |
Why diesel in the united states is only used in larger engines. | One thing that people have not mentioned is that emissions standards are different between the US and Europe. The differences make it a lot easier to get diesel engines certified in Europe. Combine that with low demand due to cheap gas prices as well as a premium both in the initial cost of the car and the fuel that's ... |
Why is there no warning light for when your headlights or breaklights are no longer functioning? | Some of them do warn you about brake lights . And, as /u/michaelandrewscript said, it's pretty obvious if a headlight is out. |
If 90% of taste is from smell, why do my candles taste so bad? | The parts of the candle that you are smelling are called [volatile oils]. These are the same things that give spices their smell and taste. You smell them because they are lighter than air. Unlike several other parts of the candle. These other parts that don't become air-born aren't picked up by your nose, but still ve... |
If women are only paid 72% of what men make, why would companies even consider hiring a male over a female | No rational company would hire men if they could hire equivalent women for 72% less. The pay gap can't be explained by self-destructive irrational hiring practices. It can be explained by gender differences in career choices such as which field to enter, how many hours to work, and how much time to take off to raise ch... |
Why hasn't soccer caught on in Canada or the US, despite being huge in practicallu every other country on the planet? | For one reason, it's the cheapest sport, so while we Americans may have the resources for more expensive and entertaining sports, other countries are making do with a pair of cleats and a ball. |
Why can't we gather up all of the plastic in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and melt it down and recycle it? | We absolutely could. Technically speaking. But you'd need a really big, really fine mesh, and you'd need a very, very, VERY long time. You've got to realize, we're talking about widely dispersed, barely visible specks of plastic, spread out over ***tens of millions of square miles of open ocean.*** It's just not even r... |
How would an increase in the federal minimum wage affect the economy? | There's also another factor to keep in mind. I make money based on minimum wage increases. Now I'm at $14 an hour. So minimum wage increases to $12, workers like me also increase to $18+ |
Why are some orgasms just "meh", but others put me on the floor? | I was going to ask a question similar to this. But mine was. My gf and I recreationaly use lsd or party on adderall from time to time. When I'm high on either of those two my orgasms are damn near stroke inducing and blow Peter North size loads. But when I'm sober the orgasm is meh, sometimes a little better and my loa... |
Why we can't put a man on Mars | If you're interested, have a read through [Packing for Mars]. It goes into good detail the actual challenges involved in a manned mission to Mars. The main topics are around hygiene, weightlessness, sex, vomiting, swallowing, psychology and health. Each of these plays a part and is a major challenge to overcome. There ... |
How come guns shoot bullets where the scope is even thought the barrel is lower than the scope? | Think of two straight lines on a piece of paper. Unless they're parallel, they meet eventually. How soon they meet depends on the angle between those two lines. You can adjust the spot at which they meet by adjusting that angle. For example you can adjust the angle so the two lines meet at 300 meters. 'Zeroing' a rifle... |
After eating something spicy, why doesn't drinking water rinse the heat away immediately? | The heat is caused by capsaicin, a hydrophobic compound, meaning when water comes into contact with capsaicin, the water just bounces right off. The most effective way of 'extinguishing' the heat would be to emulsify the capsaicin which enables it to be transported away from your tongue. You could also drink washing up... |
why do older adults' voices sound different than younger adults? | Hi! Speech therapist here. When you're a child your voice box is basically smaller and the frequency of your voice is higher. When you start to grow, so does your voice box which lowers the frequency of your voice. This is why teen boys' voices change when they hit puberty. When people get to be elderly, there is a var... |
How do tankless water heaters work? | It's about trade offs for different needs. A tank heater heats up a mass of water and keeps it hot until it's needed, advantages include using off peak power which can reduce costs significantly. A tankless system has the advantage that you're not keeping water hot for long periods. So it comes down to how much off pea... |
Why do prey animals, when struck and grounded, just lay there waiting to die? | Eagles have very very strong feet, they can drive those massive talons very deep just with the strength of the grip. If an eagle grabbed me like it grabbed that little deer I'd probably just collapse too. Especially if I had been flat-out sprinting in terror for a while first. |
Why do current FM radio station channels only range from ~80 - ~105? | Armstrong's invention of frequency-modulation radio originally broadcast upon 39.1 to 47.9 Mhz with 0.1 Mhz spacing. All of this was the FM band launched in September 1947. Two issues arose. First the other manufacturers resented the role of Zenith Corporation as the sole supplier, due to patent issues, of receiving an... |
Why are some work based stereotypes still around? | The evidence that says it's still the stereotype is to look at traffic. Traffic is heaviest during traditional morning commute and evening commute times. Not on weekends, not late hours. Taking a commuter train/subway is still really full at the usual hours. |
What happens when swallowed food "goes down the wrong pipe"? | It's important to remember here that your lungs aren't big, empty sacs. They're actually comprised of a system of tiny, extensively-branched tubes that look something like [this]. Unless it's in liquid form, food can't really get in there.You have 2 pipes in your neck, food goes down one, and air goes through the other... |
why does the U.S. charge a penalty fee if you can't afford health insurance? | Short answer: The US does not charge a penalty fee if you can't afford insurance. Slightly longer answer: the idea of insurance is that everyone pays into a system. From that pool of money we can take care of people that get a bad roll of the dice and end up sick. This only works if *everyone pays into it.* So to preve... |
- Why are some pills so huge? | Different medications for different diseases have different potencies. Potency is a question of how much of the drug is needed to achieve an effect. An example would be it would take several pounds of marijuana to kill you vs. very little arsenic or botulism because of how they work on the body. Pills from pharma are t... |
Can someone explain what the Vietnam War was all about? (ELI5) | LIKE YOU ARE FIVE? America says to the former soviet union: I hate you for how you run your country, and even though we are a people of freedom and personal liberties, we are going to start a war in another country because we don't like the way they are doing things either, plus we know you guys have been talking a lot... |
Why is gluten so bad? | Its not and it doesn't. This has been proven.As a side note, not all people who avoid gluten have Celiac's disease or are assholes. My oldest son is allergic to wheat , among other things, so that's why I love the availability of gluten free stuff. And yes, I do check the products are "naturally gluten free" and not ma... |
How is the HTTPS handshake kept secret? | The handshake involves a [key exchange] mechanism such as [Diffie-Hellman]. Basically with this mechanism the two sides generate some random numbers and perform some calculations with them, resulting in a value that both sides know but anyone eavesdropping can't calculate from the information that they intercepted. [He... |
Is there really any difference between "fresh air" and the air we breath inside? | Mostly ventilation. Inside, most of the old air doesn't have any way to be replaced with new air, so things like farts and breaths linger around. Outside, there is nearly infinite ventilation. |
Why do babies need so much sleep? | Human babies are born earlier in the development cycle than other mammals, such that they're totally dependent on their parents. They sleep so much do that they can grow and not be totally dependent on their parents |
Why is there so much innovation & improvement with Cellular technologies & speed(3G, 4G, 4G LTE, 5g), but not with wired speeds? | I think there may be more going on than you may give the wired world credit for. At the time people were on 2G flip phones, their wired internet was, what, 10 meg down, with tons of people still on 1.5 meg DSL? Nowadays wired lines are getting gigabit speeds in some areas, with 100 meg not that uncommon. That's a prett... |
What makes people have bad eye sight? | A big part of the problem is from people who strain their eyes from studying a lot with their face too close to their books or in poor lighting. Also not going outside enough . My wife thought I was crazy but when she asked her eye doctor about it he agreed that this is a significant problem. In fact I've noticed my ey... |
Why did the planes that hit WTC on 9/11 explode? | In cars the fuel tank is usually in the back somewhat protected, and in many crashes it's not even hit. Even if it's split, the fuel just leaks out and liquid gasoline is a bit harder to set on fire than you might imagine. In planes the fuel tanks are in the wings. And crashes are faster, so in a crash the wings often ... |
Why do the residents of the USA do nothing about having a 2 party system when they seem to despise it? | As implied by /u/Quetzalcoatls, the USA is not limited to two parties. It's just that, because of the type of voting system that we have, smaller parties consistently get eaten up by the bigger parties. You can see this with the Democratic Party and the Progressive Caucus in the national congress. The members of the Pr... |
why are condom wrappers not made from a material that is easily gripped by sweaty hands? | This is the first Eli5 question I've seen where I don't think there will be a good answer to it. My guess is that you get hired by a condom company. |
Why we're supposed to only use one foot for the gas and brake pedals | You will inevitably end up pressing both if you are driving with two feet. When you do this your brake lights are constantly on. People behind don't know when you are braking. You are going to wear out your brakes by using them while cruising around. You are also going to use more gas, because you've got to overcome th... |
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