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How do people get Aspegers? | Having a friend and a brother with it, I can tell you that it is something that you are born with. However, it can be something that you learn to counteract. For example at the minute we are working on empathy struggles that my brother has, so he is displaying less obsessive and more understanding behaviours even thoug... |
In an alien world, how much is it possible to have complex animal species very similar to ours? | YES IT IS PROBABLE. Think about the millions of galaxies, the countless stars and planets. Do you think it is unreasonable to say that there isn't the slightest chance that one of those planets could support life? Or that they evolved, perhaps in a similar way we did? *I am not saying that there would be an exact copy*... |
What makes our bodies twitch right before we fall asleep? | When you're falling asleep your blood pressure drops. This can affect the inner ear and trigger a response where your brain thinks you're falling. So it jerks in order to right itself. |
If Capitalism is such a great system, why hasn't any State/Country/Empire/etc been able to sustain it in its purest form? | It is not a great system. Just the best one we have found so far. The reason it is not a great system is because it revolves around people taking advantage of each other, to the greatest extent possible, all the time. The reason it has never been kept perfectly pure is because people don't like being taken advantage of... |
what exactly are DJs such as Skrillex and Deadmau5 doing when they perform live besides just playing the songs from their album? | Not all DJ's stand there like skrillex an turn the bass up and down. You should listen to Daft Punk. Famous for their live shows. All their songs are made from samples, their own or from older funk songs, but every part of the song, the beat, the lows, the mids, the highs, everything is played live. For example listen ... |
Why is it better to have income tax % go up by bracket instead imposing a flat tax. | There's a certain level of income below which people can't afford to live. There is absolutely no point in taxing people who make less than that threshold, because unless you want to see bodies rotting in the streets or an increase in crime you'll have to give money back to them in the form of food stamps or other subs... |
Why does the US government feel the need to have such a high military budget when it seems every other field doesn't have enough funding? | It helps me. A poor college kid. I am doing a summer internship at a weapons manufacturer. The large defense program allows them to pay me, which in tern gives me money to spend at your business edit: Expanded version Military spending just isn't spent on useless stuff that goes to waste. It keeps people like me employ... |
How do fireworks create shapes like hearts, smiley faces, etc? | There's a [video] that explains how these are made, which also shows the making of a smiley face firework . It's in German, but you can turn on subtitles translated to English and you'll get the general idea. |
What causes that occasional feeling of hollowness and remorse after masturbating? | Serious question: I've had this feeling with masturbation only. But does noted 'wanker's remorse' happen with one night stands with mates that are, for lack of a better term, repugnant?", 'I have a question for clarification. Do you want a philosophical answer or a psychological/scientific answer? |
What are bayesian networks? | First, conditional probability describes how the probability of some outcome changes based on some other variable. If you need an example, think about some card game. When the game starts, there's some probability of any given card or hand, but this probability changes as cards are dealt. If someone is counting cards, ... |
What does it mean when a music album is remastered? | It means the track has been re-mixed using the original recordings and remastered by a mastering audio engineer. I personally am not a fan of remasters as they are often not true to the original recording. Engineers have remastered some of the Beatles catalogue by turning mono tracks into stereo tracks by rerecording i... |
Can a plane flown by air traffic control? If not, why? | Hijacking is rare. Very rare. However, if planes could be remotely controlled by the ground, the risk is that bad people on the ground might take control of them and do bad things. You wouldn't need to hijack a plane, or even go to the control tower. To take control of a plane would require a small amount of radio equi... |
How do two end clients know an encryption key but nothing in-between? | There is a mechanism called 'key exchange' which lets 2 endpoints calculate a key to use, but an eavesdropper with all the transmitted information cannot work out what the keys are. A simplified version. We decide on a number X and share it. We each think of a secret number. Mine is A. Yours is B. I send you X+A You se... |
How does the brain store memories, and how are we able to remember things after having not thought about them for years? | It's probably dated by now, but [this radiolab episode] is excellent. I haven't listening to it in a while, but I recall it saying that proteins trigger memory. As opposed to access a file, you actually re-create memories each time you visit them. |
Why do cats smell good even if they've never been bathed? Dogs lick themselves too, but they generally need to be washed or else they get smelly. | I'm not an expert, but I assume it has to do with cats' nature as stealth predators. Their natural smell is less and they spend a lot of time keeping themselves clean. Cats also seem to have less oil on their skin/fur and aren't as susceptible to skin problems like yeast infections .I have an inside cat and a few outsi... |
How do all the individual cells in our immune system communicate and know when to start fighting off an infection? | To keep this simple, we have two types of immunity, innate and adaptive. Innate is good for localized, minor infections- this includes your white blood cells natural killer cells, among others. All cells have proteins on their membrane that identify them as body cells, these are called antigens. If an antigen is recogn... |
Why do movies and TV shows insist that every electronic device make noise when interacted with? | I like how a tracking device must always beep and flash a red light the 2 things that it shouldn't be doing. I suppose you wouldn't want to lose your tracking device, cause how else can you find it again if it isn't blinking and making noise. You'd have to put a tracker on that tracker! |
Why are most dogs/cats completely uninterested by television? | They can't process the images happening quick enough to realize it's showing a sequence of events. It's like a bunch of funny flashing images/colors |
My eyes change color. Why is this and what determines which color they change to? | [Some wizards have hair that changes colour], you have eyes that change colour though. You're a wizard Stoli. |
How did the modern playground came to be? When did a swing set, a slide, a seesaw and so on become the standard? | Man, today's playgrounds suck. Rubber, padded ground. Tiny slides. Shorter swings In the 80's we had sweet playground equipment. Wooden structures that stood up to two stories tall, with monkey bars, longer swings, zip lines, etc. and the ground was made of hard packed gravel. No shortage of scrapes, cuts, and goose eg... |
Why is America going through a heroin epidemic? | I live around Detroit Michigan. what I have seen here is people getting hurt and getting prescribed way more opiates than needed. Then after they get addicted, doctors just stop prescribing without giving addicting help or anything. The they find pills on the street and the same people who sell pills also sell heroin. ... |
why dont car manufactures make their cars out of stainless steel? | The DeLorean had a stainless steel body. It was not a commercial success. Generally the extra cost of building a car that way do not justify the benefits. Modern cars don't have enough problem with rust to make it worthwhile. |
- Why all those Africans who had their hands chopped off at the wrist with machetes are alive, but people who slit their wrists with a razor blade aren't. | Real life isn't like movies, Son. When an arm or hand is cut off, it doesn't shoot out blood like you might see on a movie that Daddy doesn't really want you watching anyway. Instead what happens is the larger veins and arteries retract and cut off a majority of the blood flow. Yes, if someone did not receive any assis... |
Sometimes when i get up to quickly from the couch i feel dizzy and vision goes blurry what's going in the body? | I found a solution to this, I'm sure it's known, but nobody I know knows about it till I tell them. When you get up too fast, I think it's lack of oxygen going to the brain, and you start to black out a little bit . The best way to overcome this is to lean forward, so your chest is parrallel to the ground. It makes it ... |
In the upcoming movie, why are batman and superman against each other? | Well, it could be because Superman sees Batman as a thug, considering he's beating his enemies to a pulp? |
How exactly do we hear ourselves talking when we think? | I don't know the answer, but when I read to myself, not only do I hear myself, my tongue quietly moves as I involuntary mouth the words. No words come out, and there is minimal movement to my lips. I have also noticed this happens when I'm mad at someone and I argue with them in my head. Also I will make facial express... |
Why is it unsafe to be on an unsecured wifi network? | Imagine, for a moment, that you're standing in a football field that is spotted with people. Everyone has a megaphone. You're trying to have a conversation with someone a few meters over by using your megaphone. Now you get to the part of the conversation where you have to give the person your credit card info, includi... |
When should I use the other gears on my automatic car? | Going downhill over a long distance, like coming down a steep canyon road in the mountains, you can burn up your brakes if you aren't careful. I was taught to keep it in a lower gear so the car won't speed up as much, and you can save the brakes. Uses more gas, though. |
Why is the hatred towards Jews called "Anti-Semitism", while the hatred towards any other race is simply called racism? | Pretty much because it's a hatred that has gone on for so long and is so widespread that it warranted its own category. No other group of people has been hated so much for so long throughout history. It's not really so much about race, and perhaps if it was, then it would just be simply racism.It's because Jewish is no... |
Who contracts a groups like Blackwater and how exactly do they work comparing to armies belonging to countries? | Military contractors are like the tier-1 operators of security guards. They can and do regularly exercise the use of force, including lethal force, to protect the assets of their employer. IIRC these groups are supposed to be limited to defensive action only, and can't instigate or carry out offensive action, unlike th... |
how does an atomic bomb produce so much energy? | an atomic bomb is directly converting mass into energy. The formula for converting mass into energy is E=Mc^2. C, is the speed of light, meaning that it is, in metric units, 300,000 km per second. That means, that the energy of an atomic bomb is the amount of mass converted times 90,000,000,000 . It's hard to argue wit... |
Why does the login page for Google or Microsoft accounts separate the username and password fields into different screens? | Some domains have their own internal authentication systems . So for example if you try to login into a MS service with email somebody _URL_1_, you'll get redirected to an internal login website instead. Same will happen for other organisation domains on Gmail. This way organisations can manage and their own accounts w... |
Could a spaceship or other megastructure develop its own gravitational pull? | Simplest answer is: Google the most massive planet known to man, strap giant rockets to it's back and presto, you have a ship with a gravitational pull. The equation that rules gravitational force is proportional to the masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between two bodies. That means every... |
Why are people supporting Jeremy Clarkson when he punched his boss and threw a fit? | Because Jeremy Clarkson has somehow managed to amass the sort of following that doesn't give a solitary shit about his behaviour as long as he shouts 'POWERRRR!' or 'DAS AUTOBAHHHHHN!' at them once a week for an hour. |
In the US, why isn't a gag order a violation of the right to free speech? | You have the right to say anything you want. That doesn't mean you won't be held responsible. For example, telecoms could tell us if they have been served with secret info requests by the government, but they would face legal penalties after they did. You can breach a gag order if you want, they will just punish you af... |
How do drinks like Coke Zero and Pepsi One have no Calories? | First take a look at images of sucralose, the artificial sweeter, and sucrose, normal sugar. _URL_0URL_1_ Notice the molecular diffrence in each sugar? Sucralose, \tC12 H19 Cl3 O8Sucrose, C12 H22 O11 Sucralose uses chlorine atoms so theoretically your body doesn't know how to digest the sugar because it can't recognize... |
If movies can be bundled with "free" digital copies (i.e. Ultraviolet), why can't hardcover books be bundled with their ebook versions ? | ELI5 Answer: Because the author gets paid for every copy sold, no matter what the format. You don't get a free paperback when you buy the hardcover. You get the format you choose to buy. The longer answer has to do with how rights are sold, who owns certain format versions of the book, and the lack of place to actually... |
So Germany is mad about the US spying. What options does it realistically have? | Truth is that the German government isn't mad about it. They already know about it, and they're doing the same to us. The politicians are just milking this controversy for votes. By acting all mad at the US and telling the people that they're going to put a stop to it, they get reelected. Its all politics. |
Why are Gun Sounds in most action movies unrealistic/not the real sound of the weapon? | It's difficult to perfectly re-create a gunshot without firing real bullets. In the movie they fire blanks, but nothing is really coming out of the barrel. So nothing is being compressed in the barrel and a bullet isn't ripping through the air or making a sonic boom exiting the barrel. Also every time a gunshot is fire... |
how can people afford houses and cars when most jobs pay around 20k-30k | A lot of people just don't own homes. We rent. And I don't know anyone making 20-30k who buys an 18k car. A 10+ year old car that wasn't too fancy to begin with could cost under $1000. A really shitty car could be under $500, though at that point you risk it just dying on you in a week and then you're really fucked. So... |
How come something like 1000-1200 respondents to a survey can make for a statistically sound representation of a whole population? | There is not a good ELI5 for this - there *is* a lot of math to demonstrate that it's true though. The mathematics behind this is very sound. People complaining about the math are ignorant - disregard them. There is a valid complaint about statistics of this nature, it's not the math, **it's the sampling**. Getting a t... |
If weed is illegal, how come people like Snoop Dogg, who is photographed often smoking weed, don't get in trouble? | How can you tell from a photograph he's smoking weed? Are you going to chemically test the cigarette he was smoking 5 weeks ago? |
if I do 10 push-ups every hour for 10 hours, will my muscles gain as much as doing 100 push-ups at once? 50 push-ups per hour for two hours? | Well, I certainly applaud anyone wanting to do a hundred pushups, but take it from this old gym rat, I've spent my entire adult life in the gym, and a program like this one can do more harm than good. If you only train one part of your body , you're setting yourself up for injuries down the road. I've seen it a hundred... |
Why do molocules have such long and difficult names? | The IUPAC systematic names are designed in such a way that any chemist from any country should be able to take a name and generate the structure of the molecule, or take the structure of a molecule and generate the name from it. As such, the names of molecules need to describe every part of the molecule. If the molecul... |
What lobbying is, what its for, and why it is so good or bad. | Lobbying is just trying to convince lawmakers to support or oppose legislation. But a letter isn't as effective as hiring someone to go to Washington and talk to them in person. This is perfectly legal - people have first amendment rights to free speech and to petition the government. So corporations are political grou... |
Why race car drivers prefer manual cars over automatic? | A driver can predict what is going to happen next, and can select the correct ratio for that. An autobox is by nature reactive, and can't change gears until it has had a chance to react to other inputs; this means it's always a little behind. |
What happens in your body at concerts when it feels like your heart is about to vibrate out of your chest when they hit super low bass notes? | There was a study on correlation between low frequencies and the growth of bacteria in bloodstream/colon. I'm trying to find the source. |
Does Coke Zero really have zero calories? If so, what gets put in it that has zero calories? | It uses sugar substitutes. Sugar isn't the only thing that tastes sweet, there are plenty of chemical functional groups that taste sweet. What a sugar substitute is is a chemical that has these sweet tasting functional groups, but your body doesn't have the proper enzymes to break it down. That means that you don't gai... |
Why is there a small part of Russia in Europe? | Kaliningrad is western Russia's only year-round sea port, unless I'm mistaken. All the others freeze in the winter. |
How can the way you code programs make a program faster or slower? | Coding programs--programming--is just a way of providing instructions. If you give somebody good instructions to do something, they will be able to do it more easily. Consider the different ways you could give somebody directions from one place to another--it's faster to use a car than a bike, and it's faster to take a... |
Why is it so hard to get into medical school when there is so obviously a scarcity of doctors? | Dumbing down the course requirement does not result in quality graduates. It makes it far worse when we can't trust doctors due to the number of less-able ones. It happened here in Australia with teachers a few years ago - you could fail your exams and still get in. Ruined the name and reputation of the profession. |
how do window air conditioners (units that are not central but not mobile) keep on giving cold goodness without any kind of refill or coolant? Will it ever run out of coolness? | An air conditioner is basically the same thing as a fridge or freezer, except you're in it! Just like the fridge takes out the heat out of your food and pumps it out on the backside - the air conditioner takes the heat from your house and moves it outside! An air conditioner wouldn't work if it wasn't externally connec... |
Why people sell to the pawn stars when the item is way more valuable than the money they are getting. | You're transferring the burden of finding a buyer, the expense of storing maintaining and restoring the item, and the risk of not being able to sell it to the pawn shop. It could take a very long time and a lot of searching to find someone willing to pay the appraised value for something. You might have a cool artifact... |
Why did so few Genesis/SNES games allow you to save your game progress? | They needed a battery in the cartridge back then to save games, which made the games more expensive to make, so it wasn't as widespread. Also bear in mind that these were the first generation of consoles to have a real save feature, so it wasn't as demanded back then. |
How do extremely mentally ill homeless people survive? | Off topic a bit but I have often thought of making care packages and distributing them to homeless in my area. Or even picking one person to help from homeless to success. What's everyone's thoughts about this? Is it a good idea, what risk are involved, and are their other ways someone can help without throwing money a... |
Why aren't corporations reluctant to hire men with the wage gap? Wouldn't it be cheaper to fire the men and replace them with women? | As others have said, it's not that they can literally pay a woman less than a man. The wage gap is a statistic comparing the average earning of men vs. women, and represents a trend for men to be employed in higher paying jobs. For instance, you might have a man and woman who are similarly educated where the man is in ... |
What causes programs to have "not responding" errors? | Does it mean the program is waiting for data from the hard drive?" Windows cannot tell the difference, so it just throws it's hands up in the air and says: "This program is not collecting its mail, and I can't tell why". Why is it that windows cannot tell the difference? It boils down to a famous problem called the [ha... |
What is a credit score and how do I win? | A credit score is a rating by credit reporting companies based on info from your credit report. Do you pay your bills on time? If so, you have a good credit report and will probably have a good credit score. If you're interested in taking loans and stuff like that having a good credit score is important.Now if you are ... |
Why hasn't evolution made birth easier/safer/painless? | Theoretically, over 1000s of generations, that could/would happen if there were no intervention and if only genetic factors were involved. I'm going to use my family as an example. The women in my family have backwards-tilted uteruses. In general, this causes more pain in the back during labor, and can cause complicati... |
Why are statute of limitations a thing? | There are three main reasons why we have statute of limitations at all: 1. We expect that crimes are investigated and prosecuted in a timely manner. We don't want people wasting time bringing all reported crimes to closure. Do we want a cop spending 50 years to find someone that shop-lifted a stick of gum? 2. It hinder... |
Why is a goods lorry's container rectangular, but a petrol tanker's is cylindrical? | Exactly, a round container reduces the sloshing of the liquid. The round walls also increase the structural integrity of the tank. Given the fact that often those types of trucks are carrying hazardous chemicals or heavy liquids , a strong structure prevents leaks and rupturing if the tanker is hit. It's not perfect, b... |
How did Google convince the rest of the world to let me them map and photograph the globe. | It didn't. There are many, many edits and blind spots in Google earth. Area 51 fore example changes frequently and edits have been pointed out many times over the years and it's surely not the only one. |
Why is Bill Clinton regarded as such a great president? | Really, if you're not a total shit face you're an alright president. He was in office for eight years and really didn't fuck anything up. In truth, he was moderate as fuck and pretty personable.*Is* he regarded as such a great president?', "Because he took a large part out of his day to spend it with me, a dying kid, w... |
Why do so many right wingers dislike green energy and are stuck that oil is what we should go for when there are so many political and geological benefits to drop it? | You're not even asking the right question. Except in a few backwater heavily subsidized markets, oil is not even competitive with green energy because green energy generates electricity, when very little oil is used for electricity generation - the lion's share is used for transportation, which is the driving force beh... |
A lot of dinosaurs seemed to be armored. Why is armor rare on large animals today, when it was de regueur for hundreds of millions of years? | Well once the great mass extinction happened, large animals were at an extreme disadvantage because of their metabolic demand combined with shortages of plant life. Smaller animals, including our mammalian ancestors, were best suited for this new earth. Think of it like an evolutionary reset switch. Nature determined t... |
in the NFL, where do they come up with the words that quarterbacks yell before the play? Like "Omaha" or " blue 42"? | They choose the words and use them to change the play once they see what the defense is showing them. For example, they could assign 'blue 42' to a run play. If the quarterback thinks it will be better to run the ball he will call out 'blue 42.' The other players know that 'blue 42' changes the play to a run. |
In moments of certain death people have played music , Why ? | What else are you going to do? Panic? If it's really certain death you're facing, nothing you do is going to change it, so you might as well enjoy the time you have left rather than waste it fighting the inevitable. |
Why do cockroaches turn upside down when they die on their own? | Maybe it's the other way around? They flip over by accident and then die because they can't upright. |
Why is it considered "childish" to like ketchup and put it on a variety of food? | Taste buds, the structures on your tongue that allow you to taste foods, age. Among other things, children are more sensitive to bitterness and have a higher tolerance for sweetness than adults. This mean that children hate many foods that adults enjoy and vice versa. Since ketchup is so sweet, it makes things that chi... |
Why can they lose 10lbs+ a week on the Biggest Loser when weight loss resources for us normals say not to lose more than 2lbs a week? | It's much easier for morbidly obese people to lose significant amount of weight since there's more to lose to begin with. When you weight 400+ it's not impossible at all to lose 10 pounds a week. Those people normally get very little exercise and eat a lot of calories, so any change in lifestyle will result in weight l... |
How do illegal drugs become such a huge industry? | > the target audience is pretty small That's where you are going wrong. The target market is not pretty small. Quite a number of people have or will use drugs of some kind and many people use them over and over again over a lifetime. Total spending on drugs can also be quite high because addicted people tend to spend e... |
Why don't wild animals (e.g. lions) get salmonella and other diseases from eating raw meat (e.g. zebras)? | Short answer: they do get diseases and die. Long answer: lions basically operate the same way any human would. If the food looks bad, smells bad, has too many flies around it, etc. it's not good. They will usually only eat the stuff they kill or that they know is fresh, as bacteria hasn't grown. And they will usually l... |
Why doesn't FIFA fine floppers the way the NBA does? | Proving that it is a dive is difficult, the game is so quick that often it is far too difficult to determine whether or not it was definitely a dive. Players aren't going to be fined or banned unless FIFA or whoever is judging the incident are 100% certain. Often it can be VERY dubious, see the Robben incident against ... |
Why are pelts worn with the fur outside? | Fur is designed as it is to both trap in your body heat and block out the outside conditions. This is why if you look at an animal's fur, it usually has many different feeling types of fur in layers. The fur that we put on coats is the outer layer, which is made to stop the harsh outside conditions from coming in. So l... |
Pi. Why does it always work in equations. And whats the point of computers trying to figure out the millionth digit? | even if the millionth digit is found, how do they confirm it is correct.. there is only 9 possible digits it could be so if it would be possible to test then do they not just test those 9 digits and being possibly the millionth one? I don't really know anything so don't laugh at me.There are certain systems of equation... |
Why are banks allowed to use money in way they cannot give people their own money back? | If banks were required to keep 100% of deposits in reserve so that they could fully pay out every single depositor on demand, it would be a very wasteful system and the economy would be much smaller because of it. When you deposit money into your local bank, they can turn around and lend that money to someone else to h... |
Why is college tuition so high in the US? What does all the money go to? What would be the easiest, most effective ways to make it cheaper? | Demand is artificially by two forces: 1) Subsidization of student loan interest2) HR demanding college educations for entry level jobs that don't need it For 1, the subsidization makes it so people can afford to pay more for tuition, because they get a higher balance for the same payment. The schools aren't stupid -- t... |
How do companies with secret formula keep it secret when producing a product? | Not directly related, but Elon Musk was talking about this awesome welding technique they use on the Dragon rockets that gives them a huge advantage. He was asked if it's patented and he said it was a trade secret because the Chinese would view the patent as a blueprint and copy him. |
Why doesn't youtube let you buffer through an entire video? | Or how about when you're watching a video to the end and you want to replay it. For me it seems to have to start streaming all over again. This is on mobile. My phone provider loves it. |
Why does NASA launch spacecraft from Florida when it has some of the stormiest weather in North America? | Cape Canaveral was chosen because: 1. It's geographic location is as close as can be on the US mainland to the equator, which makes launching easier 2. Florida has a relatively stable and predictable temperature range and weather patterns. 3. It's near water in the direction that rockets go, which is helpful for emerge... |
Why don't people forget languages? | My Dutch is horribly rusty most of the time, unless I practice when I'm visiting family. My dad is 85 and as he get's older his command of proper English has odd slips, mainly in syntax - he is using English words with Dutch syntax occasionally . His brother, on the other hand, gets annoyed with him when he can't pull ... |
Why do gender-designated single person bathrooms exist? | People get freaked out about sharing a public bathroom with the opposite gender. I worked in restaurants for ~15 years, including many years in management. I had complaints about it all the time, usually from women. One woman even complained that a male employee was cleaning the women's bathroom. A woman demanded I cal... |
Why do iPhone's retain their value as opposed to Android phones? | I guess it's mainy due to demand (iPhones are considered desirable by many people, coupled by the build quality and continued support even years after the device came out. They still work well relative to their age. For many Android phones, it could be tough to expect firmware updates beyond the first year. Such is the... |
Do manufacturers build low quality items for Cyber Monday deals? | A specific product by a manufacturer is exactly the same quality regardless of the price at which it is sold. Sony, for example, doesn't make a cut-rate PS4 that they sell at half price during the holidays. The video game I bought this weekend for a third of the list price is exactly the same as the one I could have bo... |
How come carnivorous plants know that insects actually exist? | They do not. All they do is close when something lands on a designated part of them. It doesn't matter what, they close them in anyways.Land-based insects evolved before dry-land plants emerged from the sea. Thus plants emerged into an already dangerous and precarious new evolutionary niche when they first ventured to ... |
Why can you eat steak rare, but chicken has to be cooked thoroughly? | I keep hearing that this has actually turned out to be incorrect and you should cook all meat thoroughly, but the theory goes: The harmful germs in beef that could potentially make you sick can only penetrate the first few layers of the meat. This means you only need to properly cook the outside of a steak in order to ... |
How do submarines survive the pressure in the deep sea? | Commercial divers dive much deeper than recreational divers. It's also known as saturation diving. However, to avoid the bends they often live at pressure for days at a time to allow them to complete their work. The deepest simulated chamber dive I believe was just over 700m seawater. It took over a month to complete! ... |
what is the difference between rubbing alcohol and drinking alcohol | I'm not sure about a chemical difference between the two, but I have a friend that owns a vodka distilling company. He distills enough ethenol that he sells half of it to the medical industry which use it to sanitize implements and such. He just then adds water to his half to proof it to 80 and bottles it up. |
Why is it that we are not able to retain any memories of our early childhood? | I think the ability to recall bits of early childhood memories is dependent on the individual in question's memory. I can remeber potty training, learning to walk, sitting in high chairs, and watching disney movies fairly well. My younger brother, who's only a few years younger than me, can barely remember anything fro... |
Why do drivers ed. programs place so much emphasis on parallel parking? | Because it's easy to teach, the fact of the matter is that a lot of drivers don't know the really important stuff. Parking isn't the most important part of driving, if someone can't park the might dink a few cars, if someone doesn't know how to avoid skidding out on an oil slick then they can wipe out a school bus. The... |
Why did early traders sail around the southern horn of Africa, when traveling to China and India, rather than make the *very* short land trip through what is now the Suez Canal? | One reason that hasn't been mentioned yet is the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in the mid 1400s. This closed off the overland trade routes that had run through the Byzantine Empire. That's one of the reasons for the search for a Western route to the far east which led to the European discovery of the Amer... |
How can individuals like the Whites from "The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia" and the Moonshiners from Discovery blatantly perform illegal actions on film and still get away with it? | I've not seen either show specifically, but perhaps they applied for and received the proper permits? I'm sure The Discovery Channel has a team of lawyers that could help them. If it's a subject you're into, I have to recommend [The Last One], a documentary about [Popcorn Sutton], it's a great watch, highly entertainin... |
What is in the extra chromosome inside people with down syndrome? | If you're still curious about Down syndrome, you may also find articles where it's referred to as trisomy 21, referring to the fact that you have three copies of chromosome 21 . |
2016 Presidential election FAQ & Megathread | ELI5: How can the IBD Poll, the most accurate poll in recent history, be calling Trump 2 points ahead, while CNN's 'Poll of Polls', NBC'S poll, and many others call Clinton currently ahead by double or near double digits? How can these polls be describing the same reality?", 'EIL5: did Hillary really do anything wrong?... |
How can you tell if a large body of water is frozen enough to walk safely on? | Two ways: * Air bubbles move when you apply pressure. If they're moving when you take a cautious step, not safe.* Find a large rock, more than 5 pounds, and throw it as high as you can in front of you. If it breaks the surface, probably not a great idea to go there. :) Not scientific, but kept us out of trouble!", 'The... |
Why do cars not have oil level sensors? | Some Porsches have this. I hate it. You have to assume that it's working correctly. Over the lifetime of the car there is a non-trivial chance that one day it will fail in a way that makes it read 'full' all the time even when the crankcase is empty. A dipstick is pretty much 100% foolproof. |
How does the International Space station maintain it's altitude? | Imagine you fire a bullet, it will slowly approach the earth until it hits the ground in a inverted U trajectory, the faster the bullet the further it goes. In the case of satellites after lifting them up to a certain height you give them enough speed so that its trajectory doesn't hit the ground, thus becoming a circl... |
Why do we allow the media to not source their findings/articles? | That article has multiple sources. It doesn't have a bibliography, but the sources are internally referenced: *German biologist Stefan Lanka *An article in Suedkurier, a German regional newspaper *An announcement by the World Health Organization *The Ravensburg, Germany regional court's verdict |
Why American's don't like soccer/football | It's not on TV, so it doesn't get a big audience compared to other sports. The reason its on TV is because there are few breaks and little opportunity for commercials. Plus, the US doesn't have a good history when it comes to domestic leagues. The NASL folded in the 80s, and it wasn't until the mid-90s that the MLS sta... |
What is Entropy and why can't it be decreased? | Many people have answered your question and given the impression that disorder must always increase. This is a misunderstanding of the Second Law. The Second Law doesn't actually say disorder must increase, it says that all things will spontaneously seek the lowest energy state available to them. To understand the diff... |
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