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Why do we feel extremly motivated to do stuff right before falling asleep in bed ? | This is likely due to a stress-motivation relationship. You are more motivated to do something when there is a 'stress' to motivate you. You have all day to complete a task, however when night approaches, you are left with less, and less time to complete tasks before the day ends, raising the level of 'stress'. As this... |
Why do the bridges from Queens to the Bronx cost so much? | * Port Authority tolls are set to discourage road traffic to favor the transit system. * The Port Authority gets to use toll revenue for other purposes than Bridge maintenance Could be worse, the boyfriend and I are going to cross the confederation bridge into PEI in two weeks. It is the only way onto the island this t... |
What exactly is a Banana Republic? (Not talking about the clothing store.) | Many decades ago, in the early 20th century, there was two corporations called the [United Fruit Company] and the [Standard Fruit company] whose business was importing fruit to the USA from Latin American countries—most famously bananas. These companies have a long history of bribing or pressuring government officials ... |
Why are alcoholics so frequently underweight and when alcohol is so high in calories? | It has no other nutrients. So they're malnourished. And they don't eat. And I've seen plenty of fat alcoholics. You're taking about poor alcoholics that can't afford food and booze.In moderation, alcohol is metabolized using the enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase. The alcohol combines with NAD to produce acetaldehyde and NAD... |
Why do dolphins tend to protect a human from a shark attack? | Dolphins just plain hate sharks, I doubt they're instinctively trying to protect humans. There's plenty of videos on youtube or dolphins just being pricks to sharks for the fun of it. |
How do tax-funded, public, buildings host wedding receptions or other events (sometimes for thousands of dollars per night); where does the money really go? | Like a wedding reception in a museum or the library? All of these buildings have upkeep and staff costs. The $ goes towards paying for the day to day running of the buildings first, to lessen how much the tax payers need to payThe money goes to mitigate the tax burden of maintaining the facilities. Facilities like this... |
Why some people ask here instead of just Googling? | It's easier to make other people sift through one or two Google sources than to actually look at the first two results yourself. |
Why is having a warmer/closer relationship between the USA and Russia a bad thing? | The issue isnt as much about the relationship with the United States and Russia , but that the President of the United States has a vested business interest in Russia that he could be giving priority over that of the country.The problem isn't just doing things favorable to Russia, it's doing so because you're being bla... |
Why have most consumer products come down in price against inflation? | Assuming you live in the US, the recent strength of the dollar has made importing products cheaper. Retailers then reduce the price in stores to drive up sales. |
How does a war neutrality work? For example, why didn't Germany just invade Switzerland and ignore its neutrality? | It had little to do with Swiss neutrality. Switzerland is a castle of a country. It's set in very mountainous area with only a few strategic roads and railways that offer quick movement across it. These all have bridges and other expanses that can easily be blown to slow down an invading force and cause a high number o... |
Why do some psychopathic people experience satisfaction after killing others. | Hi I'm studying to be a neuroscientist. There's a great episode of [*Morgan Freeman's Through The Wormhole*] where they talk about what makes people psychotic. Basically your mind is wired to feel empathy and the emotions of other human beings, this helps us get along and communicate. They found when you show people im... |
How does internet speed work? | There is a physical limit to how fast your connection can run reliably on the infrastructure your provider has in place. So yes, there is a limit. If you are on a cable connection, that limit is much higher than 16mbps, but that may be all your provider is willing to sell. There are several factors that limit speed, so... |
Why can't you buy cigarettes in any quantity less than 20 in the US? | I'm not aware of any law against it. I think it's just not profitable for the companies to sell it in lesser quantities than a "Pack" , especially with the taxes involved. The same reason they don't sell single M & Ms or Coca-Cola by the milliliter.You can buy singles at a lot of liquor stores. I believe Mr. Chappele h... |
Do stretching still hurt when you're flexible? | I'm not as limber as I used to be, but when I was in my best shape I was very flexible ; the short answer is yes; after I got to the point that I could do the splits, after a while it wasn't as drastic of a stretch and it didn't hurt to go into the splits. It could hurt if I did it really fast because I didn't get to J... |
Method Acting. Do actors like Heath Ledger really have to go to "a dark place" to portray fictional characters? | No. Most method actors aren't as insanely method as say, Daniel Day Lewis. There's always a little method involved, if you really feel the emotion you're trying to portray, it adds truth to the performance, that said, most actors are pretty good at compartmentalizing and don't take it home with them. |
Why are so many antihistamines kept in hard to open blister packs, while most other medicine is in a pill bottle? | The manufacturers claim it's done to try to inconvenience/slow down the Smurfs. Smurfing is a term law enforcement and illicit drug distributors use to refer to the hiring of individuals to purchase pseudoephedrine. These individuals buy up to the limit permitted by law in order to avoid arousing suspicion, but then po... |
What is the difference between a typeface and a font? | A typeface is a particular design of print, and a font is a particular weight or size of print. Typefaces typically have many fonts. In the modern age, the two terms are used interchangeably due to the way we script things. We no longer have to make individual plates for each typeface or font, we just program it into e... |
How something like sound can be recorded to vinyl or cd ? | Sound = pressure waves. Pressure waves make a thingie in the mic go womp womp. When it does that it basically acts like a switch and completes an electrical circuit, so then another bit records when the voltage is high or low. You can turn that into a binary signal and then stick the binary into a disk. When you play t... |
why we aren't supposed to pack laptops in checked baggage (apart from the obvious that it might get damaged) | Because a laptop battery, like most lithium batteries is highly volatile and can explode/catch fire if punctured or sufficiently damaged. Baggage handlers are not the most careful or considerate of luggage. A laptop battery exploding is not something you want happening in the baggage compartment on a crowded flight. |
Why do we leave a portion of the umbilical cord after cutting it? | There are a few reasons for this, most of them now are medical. If the child is born in a hospital, atleast 5 centimetres of the cord is left for the following reasons : 1. It's a useful conduit to access the circulatory system of the child, in case medications need to administered or blood tests need to be done.2. The... |
Why do people cut themselves when they are depressed? | It is a form of pain they control. The depression makes them feel so at the whim and mercy of the world that cutting helps them regain a sense of self governance. Another reason is cutting releases endorphins, which are natural pain relievers, and they help ease mental anguish as well as physical. The pain of a cut is ... |
In order to save endangered species, like the northern white rhino, why are scientists not cloning the few that are left? | Cloning has some benefits, but also a lot of drawbacks. Among those: 1) It's super hard. Most cloning attempts *fail* and do not result in a new animal, and even the successes do not necessarily result in a *robust* animal. 2) It doesn't solve the issue of lacking genetic diversity. You still get the problems associate... |
What exactly does it mean for a person to be a maladaptive daydreamer? | Everybody daydreams. But when you're a maladaptive daydreamer, it interferes negatively with your daily life in some way. You do it too much, and in circumstances when you should be paying more attention. |
Why do we use country names that are different than the names the countries use to refer to themselves? | Sometimes there are different roots or reasons. Germany has many different popular names - Germany in English , Allemagne in French and other Latinate languages , Deutsch in German/ic , Nemets in Slavic . They're all accurate and appropriate for where they come from. There's no arbitrary reason to choose another one wh... |
What happens in my brain/mind when I really DON'T want something to happen, and end up doing it? | I'm going to watch this one with interest. Hope an expert will weigh in. Can't help you directly but here's the one I remember from 20+ years ago: we were playing cricket with a tennis ball in the school field and we 'd stopped to rest a while. I picked up the ball and pretended that I was going to throw it at my frien... |
How do we take pictures of our galaxy and others? | We don't have pictures of our own galaxy. Nothing we've made has gotten even a little bit close to leaving the galaxy, so we can't. If you see a picture of the Milky Way from the outside it's an artist's rendition. For other galaxies, we can use very powerful telescopes.pictures of our galaxy are just pictures looking ... |
What is the difference between a director and a producer of a film? And how do producers differ from executive producers? | The director is the head of the film. Its his baby. They may spend years working on the film, every aspect of it, long before its made, every day on the set, and every day afterwards. Everything happening with the film is their success or their failure. They are in charge of making the movie. They are the creative engi... |
What are the main industry challenges for electric cars? | - There are not many places you can charge electric cars on the street. Downfall - They run out of juice pretty fast - They are more expensive to make -Therefore, they are more expensive to buy. - Petrol heads hate the sound an electrical makes, or, it doesnt make a sound at all, its not a car anymore. |
How did the challenger shuttle explode? | It was an O-Ring failure. But what's an O-Ring anyway? O-Ring joints are rubber and are designed to handle tremendous pressure and to also be flexible . Because they are rubber, if the surface is too rough, they can suffer from abrasion and wear out. Also, because they are rubber, temperature can affect them as well . ... |
Why don't big software companies take more stringent measures against piracy of their expensive softwares? | You'll note that Adobe and Microsoft are both well-known for their obnoxiously frequent updates that nag you until you install them. This is why.There is a certain point at which preventing piracy wastes more money than piracy costs the software company. Stopping piracy is impossible. There will always be someone smart... |
how do multiple studious work together to make one video game? | The simple answer is they collaborate. Much like films, you will have a primary production studio that's going to do a bulk of the work and/or act as the primary liaison for the project leadership. This studio, or producer may sub contract out pieces of the game to either the lowest bidder or to a studio with a previou... |
What is the factual difference between Hamiltonian mechanics and classical Newton mechanics? Why is Hamilton mechanics useful? Aren't Lagrangians the way to go? | Newtonian, Lagrangian, and Hamiltonian mechanics are all complementary methods which make identical predictions in systems where they can be applied. They each have their own benefits and drawbacks. Hamiltonian and Lagrangian mechanics give you an easy and systematic way to derive equations of motion for any system whe... |
Why does some YouTube clips look stunning at 360P while others at higher resolutions look worse? | Because the eye can only see 30 frames a second. Just kidding the eye sees continuos motion, not frames. Basically it's the quality of the recording, the resolution of your monitor and |
why are so many bombs that are dropped from planes duds? | No, we look for stable explosives. These things get shipped and stored possibly being handled dozens or hundreds of times before use or disposal. If just dropping things made them explode, we would have lost at least one of the Carolinas to dropped nukes. Nuclear weapons are triggered using more conventional explosives... |
the mechanism allowing or causing flowers to track the sun as it moves across the sky. | The term is "heliotropism", latin for 'sun turn\', and most plants do it with their leaves to get maximum light exposure so they can feed themselves. Some plants do it with their blooms because the facing light makes them brighter and, in some cases, warmer . What happens is there's a mechanism that pumps a chemical in... |
Why do some people love and crave the feeling from roller coasters or waterslides, while it makes others feel ill? Is it pure emotion, or are they actually having physiologically different experiences? | There is a slight difference between adrenaline junkies and non-junkies. Basically, adrenaline junkies have less sensitive adrenaline receptors, and there need more adrenaline to feel the rush. On the ther hand, non-junkies get overwhelmed by the huge influx of adrenaline and it upsets hormonal balances. This is a very... |
How come when a neutron star spins incredibly fast, it creates radio jets and becomes a pulsar? | Every neutron star spins rapidly and produces radio jets. This is because as the star gets compacted down it has to maintain its angular momentum, the same way a dancer brings their arms in to spin faster. The radio jets come from the fact that you have a lot of mass spinning very very fast, which produces very strong ... |
- Why is the longest day of the year not the hottest day? | Great question. Why does something heat up? It heats up when it is taking in more energy than it is releasing. As long as it is doing this, the temperature will continue to rise. The amount of energy that the northern hemisphere takes in during the day varies over the course of the year. That energy is highest at the s... |
Why are people from America called Americans but people from Canada aren't called Canadans? | I bet it has to do with FrenchBecause it's easier to say "canadians". This is not some cheap "one sentence answer" Say "Canadans" and then say "Canadians" Canadians is easier and less tongue-twisty. |
Why are UltraWide monitors 21:9 and not 7:3? | First, it's not actually 21:9; it's 64:27. 21:9 is just a close approximation that can be easily compared to 16:9. As to why it's 64:27, it's because monitors were initially in 4:3 ratio. Wide screen squared the ratio to 16:9 and ultrawide screen cubes it to 64:27. |
If congress has such low approval ratings, how do they keep getting re-elected? | It's a matter of who is approving of which congressmen. If I, as a resident of Massachusetts, express great approval for my congressmen while simultaneously considering the rest of the congressmen to be terrible people, then my view of Congress, as a whole, will be overwhelmingly negative . *However*, since I can only ... |
How do they make the automated machines that are seen on shows like "How It's Made"? | First design a machine that does just ONE job, but does it faster than humans can ever do . Now design the next machine, same concept: one job, faster than humans until you have a different machine for every step of the manufacturing process. Then design a conveyor system to link it all upThey are made by other automat... |
Does ingesting caffeine decrease levels of SSRI by way of urination? | I assume the metabolization process has to happen one way or another. It's going to hit your blood stream way before it can get expelled as waste. |
If the President of the United States was found to be corrupt, Who has the authority to arrest him | Congress via the Sergeant at arms of the Senate. This would be done as part of an impeachment process and the Secret Service would be compelled to stand down or assist the Sergeant. Edit: It should be noted that being corrupt is not a charge. There would have to be specific charges to merit impeachment, and those charg... |
Why did Denver perform so poorly at the super bowl? | Overall the Denver Broncos simply played poorly. All other things being equal they were facing one of the best defenses in years and Denver needed to play at their best if they wanted to hope to win. Seattle really is *that good* both physically and mentally. Some other factors that created such a huge loss: * The stad... |
Could someone tell me why the gov. can't lend students money at the same rate they lend to banks? | Simple answer: students are less likely to pay it backYou dont want the goverment giving out loans like that. The government giving out student loans is already causing a bubble in the education market, as the government gives out more money universities raise prices to get that money, then the government has to give o... |
How do fingerprint recognition systems work? If you're dead, how long after could your fingerprint still work? | Assuming your body doesn't decompose, your fingerprint remains the same after death. Edit: as far as scanners work, I know that Apple TouchID scanners work by looking at your fingerprint and turning its shape / lines into an equation. It then stores that equation in an encrypted part of the phone, then compares every s... |
why chocolate chips don't melt in a chocolate chip cookie but they do if they're alone in a bowl | They do melt in the cookie, but the density of the dough around them prevents the fluid chocolate from spreading out. When the cookie cools and hardens the chocolate becomes a 'chip' again. This is why when you eat a chocolate chip cookie when it is freshly baked, the chocolate is gooey and warm. It is already melted. |
why do pets seem to know when we are taking their photo? Why do some pets actively avoid their picture being taken? | Dogs are as smart as a 2-4 year old, and they know so . some like tv and seem to know it isn't really there. |
What creates the 'butterflies in your stomach' feeling when you have a crush? Why do you get butterflies for some people but not others, regardless of physical attributes? | The butterflies sensation is caused by a lack of blood flow to your stomach. It is a result of adrenaline being released because you are nervous. Different people have different nervous reactions. I dont get butterflies, but my legs get shaky. Some people get sweaty palms. Everyone is a bit different in their response ... |
US has south eastern protruding peninsula as State of Florida. Why did US never try to acquire south western 'Baja Peninsula' as its territory? Explain me the historical reason. | The US acquired Florida from Spain for a few reasons, amongst them Spain's inability to govern Indians in Florida and it being a slave and outlaw haven, a desire for the US to have additional good ports on the Gulf, and some good planting land. The Andrew Jackson's quasi legal invasion essentially sealed the deal and f... |
Why is gambling illegal in most of the world? | Most places in the world, even the US, still have laws based on subjective morality. For many, gambling is a moral wrong. There's also the fact that gambling invites organized crime and statistically preys on poor people. |
Why does time seem to go by exponentially quicker as I grow older? | every moment you live becomes a smaller and smaller representation of your life. ex: at 5 years old, 1year = 20% of your life at 25, 1 year = 4% of your life at 50, 1 year = 2% of your life.It's all to do with the forming of new experiences. As a child, there are many more events that happen for the first time. Age bri... |
If I'm French and my wife is Dutch and she gives birth to our child in US while on tour or something, does our child become American or French-Dutch or French-Dutch-American ? | It depends on the nationality laws of the country in question. I believe being born in the US makes you a US citizen, even of you were born while your parents were on holiday there. The child would probably also inherit French and Dutch nationality. Assuming they allow dual nationality. This logic doesn't apply univers... |
Do stockholders have have any recourse when a Trump tweet sends their shares plummeting? | I like to think he secretly buys some CNN shares before he publicly shames them. John McAfee did and still does the same thing in cryptos, tweeting his 'crypto of the week' and then selling when the price jumps up for a few minutes. |
How can corporations end black friday with profit when selling wares so cheap? | wares are ALWAYS sold with a hefty profit margin. they are almost never sold at the price they are bought at. What is more, they sell a lot more than they would normally had done throughout the year. |
Why did a geographical divide occur in the USA for the generic term of a soft drink (Pop vs Soda)? | Firstly, as others have said: Pop: The Midwest Soda: The East Coast/Northeast Coke: The South My understanding is that the West has pockets of Soda and Pop depending on where you are. Which might be a good clue as to why we have one thing with three names in broad regions of the country. When carbonated soft drinks wer... |
John Boehner's lawsuit against Obama | Basically, Boehner and House Republicans want a publicity stunt that they can use to bolster numbers in the midterm elections so as to keep the House and ideally get the Senate. The pretexts they are using, however, is that they are suing over the President's usage of executive orders to help smooth out the implementat... |
Why can I tell how full a container is by the pitch of the liquid that is falling in it. | As you add water to the container, the resonant cavity gets smaller and smaller, meaning the natural frequency gets higher and higher. |
Why, if black absorbs heat and white reflects heat, why aren't people in Africa white, and people in colder climates black? | Skin color isn't really based on how hot you can get. Instead it is based on getting Vitamin D, and not getting bad sunburns. Vitamin D is a vitamin people can make if they are exposed to sunlight. It helps with a lot of things such as born formation. There is a molecule found in skin called melanin, and the more melan... |
Why do some cheeses melt well like gruyere, some melt and split into oil like cheddar, and some don't melt at all like halloumi? | There are a couple of different things that cause cheeses to melt differently. First is how much water is in the cheese. Generally, the harder a cheese is, the less water. So, Parmesan has very little water. It can still melt, but it has trouble moving around when it does, so it's a melted blob basically. On the other ... |
What's so great about an Ivy League school versus a state school? | At an Ivy League schools students are rubbing shoulders with other future movers and shakers. They will have connections in Washington, Wall Street, Silicon Valley, and academia that wouldn't be necessarily made at Chico State or community college. In addition, graduates of these schools make more money which they give... |
Where did people get the idea of female circumcision? What purpose would such an operation hope to serve? | Genital surgeries are performed because people think the genitalia should look other than as they do naturally. Here's an anthropology paper examining the geographical clues about the origin of genital cutting: [DeMeo ]. He theorizes based on geographical pattern of genital surgeries, they had a common origin in Africa... |
There was a school shooting recently. An 8-year-old died. Why is Reddit and the media making a bigger deal about some man being dragged off a plane? | The news generally focuses its reporting on novel things . As sad as it is, a child being shot at a school isn't really particularly novel in the United States, whereas a person being dragged off a plane is very unusual. It's the same reason why the news doesn't report when people die in car crashes: everyone knows tha... |
Is it possible for a four legged winged animal to have existed? | I remember seeing a video of a golden eagle flying with a goat it had picked up. So it seems like it's possible for a four-legged animal to be kept airborne with wings. |
What is happening when we lose our voice? | Vibrations from constant yelling cause inflammation in your "voice box". This swelling makes it more difficult to vocalize properly. |
Why does my hearing get muted when I'm stretching? | You probably have voluntary control of your [Tensor Tympani Muscle] and tighten it when you're stretching. |
The conflict in the middle east. How did it start? Where did it stem from? What's happening? | The middle east is a large place. There's Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Egypt and lots of other countires any one of those has its own history and conflicts . You can search for those specifics subjects as these have been discussed in this subreddit many times. Edit: typos.If you want a real answer, it's been going on ... |
How do shock blankets work? | It substitutes for being cozy and cuddled by our parents . Even if it's psychosomatic, the barrier of the blanket gives us a sense of security and protection against whatever is going on around us. When I was in the hospital and was given "comfort blankets", they were slightly heavier and they were heated up by a large... |
How do some engines sound so different? | The exhaust is a flute of sorts. A tuned set of pipes that resonate at certain frequencies. The engine creates the exhaust gases that flow under pressure through the pipes. The larger the pipes the lower their resonant frequency. Perhaps you've seen a church pipe organ. Low notes come out if the larger pipes. Same prin... |
Why do I look good in the mirror or in photos taken at a distance, but I look ugly when I try to take a photo of myself? | What a lot of cheap cameras do is portray u differently than the human eye would see, think it's something to do with the focal length of the lens Eli5, phone camera is like mild fisheye lens, u big headed guppy |
Why can't we charge batteries more quickly? (repost) | First of all not all batteries are slow to charge. Some types of batteries are very quick to charge, however these battery types are often now as power dense as lithium ion batteries. So I think here we are primarily talking about lithium ion batteries. LI batteries have some characteristics that make them difficult to... |
What does Ebay and Paypal splitting up actually mean to me as a consumer? | Way back in the day they were seperate companies. Ebay bought paypal because it was there best choice and they had the money. Now with so many other options of online billpay it makes perfect sense to split apart again. This is probably better for ebay than paypal since they will be able to use other services and not f... |
Why do humans scream when they are in pain and animals don’t? How do animals internalize mass amounts of pain without flinching? | Lots of animals scream when in pain. If you've ever accidentally stepped on a cats tail for example they will scream. However when sustaining major injuries the nerves may get too damaged to actually feel a lot of the pain, this is most common with burn victims. Another explanation is that for some animals it's in thei... |
Why The Third Reich only wanted babies with blonde hair and blue eye's, but Hitler's hair was brown. | He thought that Aryans were superior, not necessarily blond haired blue eyed people. He wanted to create a race of blond haired blue eyed people because he believed that only pure Aryans could have blond hair and blue eyes i.e. to remove any uncertainty about their race. He believed that having blond hair and blue eyes... |
Why do gas stations have 9/10 of a gallon as a full gallon? | Where is this? Most pump stations around here are accurate to at least 0.01 gallons. If you mean why are gallons always $3.49**9**, that last digit used to be meaningful back when gas was $0.27 a gallon fifty years ago, but inflation has since rendered it useless so every station sets it to the max. |
Can I buy a mountain? | There is no reason you couldn't buy a mountaintop from anyone willing to sell one, government or otherwise. Access roads can be procured by either buying the property, or negotiating for an easement. |
Why is it so important for little kids to be able to colour inside the lines? | It isn't super important that they donot all the time. It isnimportant that they have the capacity to do it as it is a demonstration and an exercise of fine motor control. It starts to build up the hand-eye coordination and brain-hand coordination thatnis going to be necessary for writing. It can also be a good exercis... |
How is a tugboat able to pull a ship that is so much more massive than itself? | Tugs are made up almost entirely of engine. And that means they have very big, powerful, torquey engines. How powerful? Up to [6500hp]. And that's a fair portion of the horsepower which a large ship will have . Because although the ship is much, much bigger than the tug, it can't waste valuable space with larger engine... |
why do hornets/wasps nest use hexagons? | The shape that has the greatest internal area with the smallest perimeter is a circle. If you are making something for storage, you want to reduce the perimeter and increase the internal area because you get the most storage space for the lowest amount of building material. So why don't they use circles then? Because c... |
How does the TPP directly affect common people (not businesses) living in countries outside the US? | The full text of the agreement hasn't been released yet, and the few people who do know the contents of the agreement aren't allowed to comment on the specifics just yet. So basically the public is in the dark at this point and we don't know exactly what the agreement covers. As far as I know though, the trade agreemen... |
How does the see-saw powered rail cart work? How does it go both ways? | Very similar to a bike. This picture shows a diagram but basically it goes up and down to spin a gear attached to a pole. _URL_0_Have a look at this video: _URL_1_ Also, *this*, for me, is how "How it works"-style videos should be. Simple, effective, calm. Not filled with unintelligible talking, or opinions from the na... |
Why does the MH17 crash affects the US Airline stocks? | Businesses and Investors don't like instability. Instability means more risk and more importantly risk that is hard to mitigate. A passanger airline being shot down in Ukraine is a pretty serious international incident. This is a very unstable time in the region and for the world as a number of major players are involv... |
What is the point of wisdom teeth? Why do we have them? | They make us smarter! Just kidding, most anthropologists believe that wisdom teeth were helpful when humans had a much less processed diet, with uncooked meats and hard nuts.They used to come in to replace other teeth that fell out after having been used up. People used to chew on a lot of things that were harder and s... |
Why does the stomach hurt when you're hungry? | It is basically your brain sending you signals by creating a pain response in your stomach. This is an attempt to remind you to eat before it starts going into survival/starvation mode. |
Why aren't CPUs larger? | When you get to more and more advanced circuitry, the distance of said circuits from each other start to matter substantially. A physically larger chip can actually slow down the intra CPU communication. If you're talking about the size of the actual card -- a lot of that is for the card's onboard memory and heatsink/c... |
How are less popular social networking sites or previously social networking sites still economically able to survive/viable? i.e myspace, google+ | They still make enough money through advertisement. Also some social networks are preferred in some countries and or groups and subcultures. |
KA, pKA and pH. How do they all relate to each other and what does each mean? | The p in pH and pKA means something like 'do the calculation -log. In pH, this means the -log of the concentration of H+ ions, for pKA the -log of KA. That explains the relation between KA and pKA. But what are they? They are a measure of how easy the corresponding acid can rid itself of it's H+ ions. The bigger the KA... |
Why aren't there self-driving trains even though they should be easier to make than self-driving cars? | There are self driving trains. Most subway trains are automated. The conductor is only there to pull an emergency switch. |
What is the difference in the conditions that causes rain to form into snow in stead of ice? | > Precipitation falls as snow when the air temperature is below 2 °C. It is a myth that it needs to be below zero to snow. In fact, in this country, the heaviest snow falls tend to occur when the air temperature is between zero and 2 °C. The falling snow does begin to melt as soon as the temperature rises above freezin... |
How can two companies with the same name [brand name] be owned by different people without trademark infringement etc? | Most of the examples you cite are because *the two companies agreed in writing* to share the use of the name. Other examples happen because the companies are in different industries, such as Microsoft Excel software vs. Hyundai Excel automobiles -- the law says these are not "confusingly similar" since the products are... |
Why did the British give up the colonies so easily during the American Revolution? | They didn't. The American Revolution was, in effect, a sort of mini-First World War, with the French, Spanish and Dutch all waging all-out war on British interests overseas, both in the Americas and elsewhere. The British "gave up the colonies" because they had absolutely no choice. They were soundly defeated, and by l... |
I don't get how China can claim sovereignty over territories that "used" to be theirs. | They can "claim" whatever they want to claim. That's pretty much the end of it there. Either other people allow them to take it, or they don't allow them to take it. Imagine you're sitting at a lunch table. I'm next to you and look over, I say "I'm claiming your apple because I sat there last week". Do you care that I ... |
What is the difference between the term 'Sun' and 'Sol'? | Well I'd say technically speaking the star any planet revolves around would be its sun. So locals would probanly refer to it as their sun and pilots/visitors would refer to it by its 'name'.We refer to stars as "suns", yeah, but Sol is *The* sun. If we lived in a planet that orbited Alpha Centauri, we're refer to Alpha... |
if basic income means giving the entire population a sum of money. Wouldn’t that just depreciate the dollar and result in overall loss? | It's a redistribution of money rather than a creation of money. People are taxed a rate x of their income and then are given a sum y. |
How can food or drinks be considered "tasteless" | There is no universal law that says something has to taste like something. You have receptors on your tongue that respond to certain chemicals. If you fail to put any of those chemicals on your tongue, you will taste nothing. But, to be completely honest, there are not many things that are completely lacking in those c... |
Why have *most* organisms on earth evolved to live off of fresh water when salt water is so much more abundant? | Most organisms on earth use salt water. There's more life in the sea than there is on land, after all. Life on land evolved to use fresh water because fresh water is generally fairly abundant on land, while salt water is not.There are far more creatures in the ocean than there are on land utilizing fresh water ', "I'm ... |
Why is it that the moon controls our ocean's waves, but not the pools? | The moon doesn't control waves, it controls the tide. Basically the moons gravitation is strong enough to pull the water towards it, when the moon is overhead it is high tide, when the moon is on the other side of the world it is low tide. Pools are affected by the moon but they aren't big enough and there isn't enough... |
When it comes to film, what exactly does the term “box office” mean? | Ticketing used to be done via a closed booth out front of the theater. This small glass room was called box office and became shorthand for how much money the theater pulled in for a showing. These box office numbers then got added up to account for a run of a movie and published as the Box office numbers for a movie o... |
A simplified explanation of general and special theory of relativity. | Describing these two theories, even briefly, is well beyond the scope of this forum. There are many videos about this subject to get you started. Check [this], [this], [this] or [this] for special relativity and [this] or [this] for general relativity. If you have concrete questions, I'll be happy to answer them. |
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