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What are you seeing in a person's eyes that let's you know they are "staring into space" rather than into the distance or at a specific point? | We are _very good_ at reading whether we're being looked at - eye contact is a critical element of our communication . The physical location of the eyes in relation to each other and you at short distances will be "off" to your perception if they aren't looking at you. You can detect this instinctively. It's really two... |
Why is it that Japan and south Korea produce the most patents per capita and are very big on technology? | For Japan :At the end of WW2 Japan was occupied by Americans, they learned from them how to deal with huge productions, Japan turned their economy for the exports after centuries of living alone. Japan invested massively in R & D, more than in any other country. Like many countries after the war that had a baby boom. J... |
How does measuring your blood pressure work? | So your blood pressure is measured in two numbers. Systolic and diastolic . It is measured in mmhg which isn't really important here. First you pump up the cuff so it exceeds both the pressure of you blood when the heart is flexed and relaxed. At this point you hear nothing in the stethoscope because no blood is really... |
Why do people talk in a wierd voice while talking to their pets or babies? | Because babies literally hear high stuff better. The developmental physiology behind it goes something like this Inner and outer hair cells have a bulbous structure known as a kinocilium until birth. During fetal development, the kinocilium serves four major functions that set the physical foundation for the baby to be... |
Please, simplify solar energy efficiency. I.E., what does "we reached 80% efficiency" mean? Thank you. | Energy is never created or lost, only converted from one form to another. But not all of those forms are useful. When I take a gallon of gasoline and run it in a car engine, some of the energy in the gasoline was used to make the car move, but some of it escapes as heat, which isn't usable. Energy efficiency is the rat... |
Is there a way to test if boats will float without just throwing them in the sea? | It's an easy calculation: * Figure out the boat's volume ; * Calculate the weight of the same volume of water; * weigh your boat. Boat weighs more than water: sink. Water weighs more than boat: float. There's more stuff involved -- for example, if it's too tall it will fall over and fill with water, or if it is too sha... |
Why has there always been conflicts in the middle east, and is it ever going to normalize? | Really big question with no possible way to answer succinctly. There are a couple of key factors that contribute to it all, though. First, the middle east is a region that's been in conflict in some way or another for thousands of years. In many ways, it's a cultural aspect to the region. We have historical records of ... |
Why do parents work so hard to manage the sleep of young children (and is there an alternative)? | These parents are often exhausted and would really, really like to get more rest. That's why they are so keen on having their child sleep.Yes, the child will eventually run out of batteries and collapse from sheer exhaustion. The trouble is that they’re often downright *demonic* while you wait for that to happen. They ... |
How does suction work on an atomic level? | Everything is made up of atoms. To picture that you have to picture them moving around really fast all the time. For solids that means they are vibrating back and forth really fast. For gases it means they are bouncing off of things really fast. Even on a small surface in the air, the air molecules bounce off it millio... |
Can anyone be a great singer or is being a greater singer something you're born with? | As a singer i can say with utmost certainty that pretty much everyone can become a good singer in the same way that someone can become a good guitarist. But i'd say that it's more difficult if you don't already have an interest in music or aren't particularly interested. All it takes is teaching and practice. I have se... |
Why do we wash our bodies (and everything else) with hot water but our teeth with cold water? | For the same reason we prefer drinking cold water to warm water. It makes no difference, but we prefer the taste/feel of cold water in our mouths. |
ELI-12 - Steam (I'm not a gamer) | Steam is for computer games as iTunes is for music. You can purchase games through Steam, and it will manage your games within it. It has its own storefront, and manages its own downloads and updates. It also features a minor community aspect where each gamer has a profile with messenger capabilities. If you know her S... |
What do CPUs and GPU have in common and what not? | Processing an instruction is done in steps. A simple example is the MIPS architecture, which has 5 steps: Fetch the instruction, read the necessary registers, execute, memory access, and write back. Each step requires some hardware in the processor. In multicore processors, you duplicate the full hardware. A cheaper op... |
How do people hear that different tones are the same musical note? | With just a little bit of experience, you can sing two notes which have pretty much any "interval" between them. For example, if you sing a note, I can sing a perfect fifth higher, or a minor third higher . or a whole octave higher. The octave is probably the easiest of these to do, but it still takes just a little bit... |
Why don't websites use Java or HTML5 instead of Adobe Flash for videos and other interactive content? | Java got decided against long ago, in large part due to startup time . You don't want to have to wait 10 seconds for your video player to start up, but early editions of Java in the browser had really lengthy startup delays. Even if Java works well nowadays, nobody ships the plugin by default anymore because it got a b... |
Why are our lips a different color from our skin? | The skin on your lips is much thinner than other places, and the red comes from all of the blood vessels in your lips. |
Why do low-quality audio files have a 'grainy' sound to them? | The sampling rate of an audio file is how often you're telling a speaker cone to move. The bit depth is how many different positions that speaker cone can have. But sound in the real world is continuous. We hear in analog but computers output digital. Lookup a picture of a sine waveA sine wave is a 2D representation of... |
Why are drugs called dope? | Dope is derived from the Dutch word "doop," a thick sauce or gravy. The term dope began to be associated with drug use in the 1880s due to the consumption of opium by smoking a molasses-like preparation of the drug. |
what junk status is and what it means for a country? | Junk status refers to country debt because just like people, countries get a credit rating. Anything lower than BBB rating by Moody's is considered junk, meaning bond holders may expect a default. The junk rating can arise as a combination of too much debt so that the country does not have enough resources to make a pa... |
Why do people get put in hospitals for starving themselves but not for over-eating | Well you only get "put" in a hospital if someone with power of attorney over you puts you in there or you call an ambulance or show that you are a danger to yourself and others due to mental psychosis. Nobody can force you to go to a hospital otherwise. That being said, people who starve themselves more often find that... |
How can a construction company remove a crane from the top of a skyscraper after construction has finished? | Actually they lift up a slightly smaller crane, and mount that. That crane then lowers the larger crane to the ground. They then lift a smaller crane again, mount it and the lower the larger crane to the ground. They do this a number of times until the last crane is small enough to be take down the goods lift. |
Explain to me how the MLB draft works, i.e. the supplemental draft, trades and why some players in lower rounds get more money than a higher draft pick | I'll leave it to someone else to explain the in's and out's of the actual drafts. I can address the last question. Baseball players entering the draft have more bargaining power than players in other sports. A baseball player coming out of high school can actually get drafted and then decide against turning pro and go ... |
why is it pronounced "winds-day" and spelled Wednesday? | It's not technically pronounced "winds-day," it's pronounced "wends-day"I bet Brett Favre would know the answer to this one. |
What happens when rich people leave all their belongings to pets in their wills? | pets are not people, so they cannot own property. Who is a legal heir varies from country to country, but the heir can dispute the will in court, and get the belongings insteadIt depends on the jurisdiction. In America each state has different rules. People can leave everything to their pets but different courts have h... |
How do they calculate which atoms have passed through your body, etc? | Usually the claim is that each breath you take contains X molecules that newton/ceasar breathed. The calculation is rather simple, you multiply the average amount of air in a breath multiplied by the average number of breaths somebody takes in the their life. That gives you the volume of air they breathed in their life... |
Why is economic lobbying legal? | America has a pretty strict definition of bribery and corruption. Unless there's an explicit agreement in place to exchange money for favors, it's not considered illegal. Also a lot of lobbying takes place without money changing hands at all, and its one of the most important ways in which smaller industries can voice ... |
Why does a car "tick" after you turn off its engine? | I believe it's differential thermal expansion. Like you're five: Lots of materials get a little bit bigger when they get hot. Different materials do this by different amounts. Your car is made of lots of pieces made of different materials all attached together. When you park the car and the engine stops making heat, th... |
Currencies fluctuating in value against each other | If the Chinese central bank allows its currency to float in relation with other currencies, then the Chinese RMB would be market-valued according to its demand. Since China has become world's biggest exporter, and foriegn trades in Asia are being settled in Chinese RMB, there is a considerable demand for Chinese RMB in... |
Do plants 'poop' or eliminate waste in some other way? | Plant cells have cell walls which do not permit their large-molecule cellular waste to be excreted. Instead, each cell has an organelle called a vacuole which stores that cell's waste internally. Hence, this vacuole will get larger and larger over the life of the cell. It will eventually cause that cell to die, but by ... |
The US system of 'bailing-out' of jail. Being british, i really don't understand it | We British have this too, instead of sitting in jail until you go to court you front some cash to go sit at home, you get this back after your trail provided you show up. If found guilty you are still prosecuted it's not buying yourself out of prison. |
How can Russia 'kick' US astronauts out of the ISS, if its an international project? | Russia has the only transportation to/from the ISS. If they don't want to transport US astronauts we can't force them. |
What actually makes people pass out when they get knocked out? | Knock out can be caused in several ways. the most common are either restricted blood flow to/from the brain . The other is caused by the brain bouncing off the insides of the skull. Theres only a small layer of liquid between the brain and skull so not much cushioning.The brain then goes into a shutdown mode from the s... |
- SRS and why it's so hated. | I figured out what it reminds me of. Remember [Office Space]? > Peter Gibbons: Let me ask you something. When you come in on Monday and you're not feeling real well, does anyone ever say to you, "Sounds like someone has a case of the Mondays?" > Lawrence: No. No, man. Shit, no, man. I believe you 'd get your ass kicked... |
The history of the turmoil between Israel and Palestine | Thousands of years ago, the Jews lived in the area that is now Israel. Over the years, many holy wars broke out and the Jews were forced from the land. For many years, they tried unsuccessfully to return to their homeland. It wasn't until WWII that they were able, with the assistance of the United States, to reestablis... |
The difference between speed and velocity. | The only difference is that velocity has a direction, making it a vector instead of a scalar . So if I'm going 60 km per hour, that's my speed, but not my velocity. If I'm going 60 km/hour **due east**, that's my velocity.Velocity is a vector quantity that tells the rate at which an object changes its position. Speed i... |
How are advances in computers and technology made so consistently? | > Why aren't there sudden huge jumps when a technology is discovered, followed by periods of slower growth? Maybe there are and I'm just not aware of it? You're closer to the truth then you know. Technology often hits different ceilings, and we're forced to work around those ceilings, or improve others things to compen... |
Why do we wake up with bad breath in the morning? | When you are awake, your saliva constantly washes smelly bacteria from your mouth. When you sleep, you produce less saliva, so your mouth dries out somewhat, and smelly bacteria grows, and your breath smells more. To reduce it, don't eat or drink sugary or fatty drinks after dinner, and brush and floss before bed. You'... |
Why is the Chinese football league suddenly super rich? | Apparently Xi Jinping is a huge football fan and has encouraged the improvement of the nations football league by investing in it. Lots of rich businessmen in China invest in clubs as prestige objects and to curry favor with the president, combined with more and more people in China watching the sport on TV, there is s... |
What degrees of freedom are, and why you need them? | If you want to fly in 3D space, you need 6 degrees of freedom. Up, Down, Left, Right, pitch and rollAs in physics, statistics, etc? Please be more specific. |
How can cars drive high speeds continuously for many miles without overheating? | Your engine has a cooling pump, commonly called the [radiator]. Coolant flows through the engine block, sucking up heat, then flows to the radiator where it dumps the heat outsideBecause your car is designed to work at a certain temperature rainge , and has systems built in to shed excess heat. Your car circulates cool... |
How someone can be charged with multiple counts of murder for one act. | If you drunk drove and killed a family, should you be on the hook for 1 count, or 1 count for each person of the family?You get charged by the death not by the act. They can try you several times, or just once and make the process more efficient. |
How is the landing gear of a plane designed to withhold this much force? | Why: Because this is a failure mode the engineers specifically design for. How: They had to burn off all the fuel and land on fumes, and land with the nose up as long as possible, and still most of the wheel ended up decorating about a mile or two of the tarmac.A major factor is the material. Landing gear is most commo... |
How can people wear long sleeve shirts and long pants in +100° weather? | As long as it is a breathable fabric they are doing themselves a favor. It blocks the uv Rays better than sunblock. Much of the heat you feel in summer is actually radiation your skin is absorbing. If you wear vlothes your clothes absorb it |
why is it called New Year's Eve, (showing ownership) but only Christmas Eve? | New Year's Eve is referred to as such because it's the eve of New Year's Day, just as Christmas Day follows Christmas Eve. The possessive goes with the Day, but because it's the eve of the day |
Why does tap water go stale unlike bottled water? | Tiny evil particles are floating around in the air. These evil particles can enter your water and make it taste bad. When water is in a bottle, the bottle acts like a shield, protecting your water from evil, and when you put the cap on the bottle with your water inside, your water is completely protected. Perfectly pro... |
How does a single firework explode more than once and every explosion all at once. | The first is just a rocket pretty much. it explodes and a bunch of shells are released with a fuse, of a very specific length and material that is lit by the initial one. this process repeats with the last ones. We 've been making these things for thousands of years. We 've gotten very good at making fuses that burn fo... |
Why isn't the stock market open 24/7? | It is. Exchanges are open only during business hours. But there's always been "after hours" trading, and in today's global economy you can find an exchange open practically 24/7 Also, MOST securities don't trade on exchanges. Most are traded between brokers. And, brokers are and nearly always have been open "after hour... |
Does our digestive system use gravity as the motor for moving food from the stomach to the pooper? | Peristalsis is the main method, although gravity probably doesn't hurt. _URL_0_", 'not really, partially, but for example you can still swallow stuff and have your systems function when upside-down or in zero-g. Its mostly muscle contractions that move your system along', "Nope, and I have proof: Astronauts on the spac... |
Why do people stick their tongue out when they are concentrating? | One guess is that sticking your tongue out opens your airway and increases breathing ability allowing more oxygen to the brain. |
Why does security cameras have those red dots around its lenses when working at night? | Those are infra-red LEDs. Since they're right on the edge of your vision range, they appear pretty dim red to you, but the camera can see IR just fine, and they're actually quite bright. |
If exercise makes your heart healthier by increasing your heart rate, why are things like stress bad for your heart? | If it is short term stress, then sure. There are studies that show that cleaning up can help you relax . It is actually identical to the stress you get with intense exercise . The problem is chronic stress. Cortisol, the stress hormone, is supposed to enter your system , you do the flight or fighting, then it leaves yo... |
Why do some straight people find the other humans of the same sex attractive, and visa versa? | Because sexuality is a human construct. We all like same sex to some degree[Watch this, she does the best job at explaining this.] |
Why in many US Supreme Court Decisions do the justice only have a majority and dissenting opinion - and not seperate decisions for each justice? | A justice can write concurrent opinions to support the majority opinion or write separate dissenting opinions. For example, "Obergebell vs Hodges" had four separate dissenting opinions from the four justices that voted against it.Each judge has the option to make a separate opinion, it's just not always necessary if th... |
What exactly are taxi cab medallions and why are they so expensive? | Taxi Cab Medallions are just the name given to the license to operate purchased from the city. They were, likely, actual physical medallions to be displayed at one point. The reason why they're so expensive is because they can be. The city limits the number of cabs that can be in operation for a variety of reasons . As... |
What is the evolutionary advantage for cicadas to live underground for 17 years? | They don't 'do nothing', they feed and development. They stay underground for a long period of time in order to avoid predators, only surfacing long enough to reproduce for the next generation, which is ultimately all evolution cares about. As for how it got to 17 years? Not entirely sure I would speculate that it migh... |
What happens if someone buys a significant global portion of one stock? | Commodities aren't the same as stocks. Stocks are a share in a company, while commodities are a certain number of a particular resource . The difference is that stocks award you with income, or dividends. You get a fraction of the company's profit based on how much stock you own. With raw material like silver and gold,... |
Why doesn't the same inflation-adjusted income buy the same amount of stuff it used to? | I strongly recommend the [Consumer Price Index official website], which is pretty upfront and well written about how the CPI works. [The FAQ] in particular is worth reading. One thing that has changed between 1975 and now is that the way that house prices are accounted for in the CPI changed. Back then the cost of hous... |
What does radiation do to you, and how then does it happen to you from something like the elephant's foot? | It is energy that passes through you, and other objects. It can cause tissue damage which can also mutate cells. |
What would happen if you used CLR on an ancient, rusty sword? | I doubt it would come out all shiny. By "good condition" they probably mean "there's some unoxidized iron" or "we can discern its shape." The rust might penetrate deep enough that if it were removed to any great degree, the sword might fall apart. Plus, artifacts like this are generally kept as-is because they are more... |
Why is it when a tooth filling comes in contact with tin foil (that stuff you cook with) it hurts so bad? | You create a small battery and give a small shock to your tooth. The aluminum foil is one electrode, your filling is the other, and your saliva is the electrolyte the solution that allows electrons to move from one electrode to the otherWhen foil touches your filling you create a low voltage battery in your mouth. The ... |
how are there fat cops. | 'Don't cops have like an fitness standard' You passed English class, they passed the fitness test. Apparently neither are that tough. |
Why is the Google Doc different after being saved as Microsoft Word? | Your line spacing or paragraph spacing may be different. Out of curiosity, can you screenshot your document in Google Docs and in Microsoft Word? I've had friends run into this issue before, the default spacing between lines & paragraphs is different between Google and Microsoft. Unless you specify it, this means itll ... |
Why is it that when I have to pee really bad, if I wait awhile, the feeling goes away? | The feeling of needing to pee is caused by contractions in your bladder temporarily increasing the pressure, reminding your brain to take care of it. Eventually, the current contraction ends, and the urge diminishes somewhat, giving you a moment of respite. However, as the bladder continues to fill, the urges will be s... |
Why can't a large magnifying glass be used with the Suns rays to heat water etc to create steam to create renewable enegery? | It can, it's just really hard to do at a large enough scale to be useful for electricity generation. Big lenses are expensive and heavy. We do have somewhat similar solar stations, but instead of using lenses to focus light on a smaller point, they use a bunch of mirrors to redirect a lot of light onto a single locatio... |
Difference between an organizations constitution and bylaws. ELI5 | Constitution is usually the bare-minimum rules all branches of the organization must follow, and bylaws are branch specific. Usually they are for filling in gaps the constitution leaves, and if there is a contradiction, the constitution typically takes precedence. |
How do the markings on the bottom of a glass keep a beer fizzy? | Same reason a mentos makes a coke explode. The bumps in both cases are "nucleation sites," and they help dissolved carbon dioxide form into bubbles more easily. Id link you but I'm on my phone', "The markings make the beer fizz & keep it *fizzing* but they don't keep it *fizzy*. Beer is fizzy because it has carbon diox... |
Why is the Pirate Bay in Sweden despite the legal issues instead of another country where the Pirate Bay would be completely legal? | The Pirate Bay founders and organisation are based in Sweden because that's where the people involved live. However, the actual servers are not based in Sweden. Or more correctly, at times they may be, but it's incredibly difficult to work out where they are. [They run on virtual machines that can be dismantled and mov... |
Why do our muscles twitch, What causes this? | common causes of muscle twitches: 1. Twitching can occur after physical activity because lactic acid accumulates in the muscles used during exercise. It most often affects the arms, legs, and back.2.Muscle twitches caused by stress and anxiety are often called “nervous ticks.” They can affect any muscle in the body.3.C... |
What exactly is a trojan virus? And why are keygens/patches always detected as a virus? | A trojan virus is a virus that gets onto your computer "in disguise", thus the trojan horse symbol. the term can theoretically applied to any/most viruses. The keygen thing is a different matter. Game publishers distribute CD keys using a specific algorithm. keygens abuse the same algorithm to create illegitimate keys ... |
why is diesel fuel more expensive than gasoline? | You don't "make" diesel out of gasoline, or vice versa. The first step in oil refining is distilling, where you take the crude oil and: * boil it* put the stuff that evaporates off into a bucket* raise the temperature and boil it some more* put the stuff that evaporates off into a different bucket* repeat until all you... |
why British sports such as cricket and rugby were embraced by India, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa etc but not USA or Canada? | Cricket was actually quite popular in the early days of the United States. During the industrial revolution baseball became more popular because working-class people could play it. Cricket requires a carefully manicured and watered lawn, but baseball can be played in whatever field is handy. It's a similar story for Ru... |
What was the Young Turk Revolution? And why do so many groups (the record label, the news outlet, etc.) use it as a title? | The original Young Turks were the political reformers who sought to transform the Ottoman Empire from an absolute monarchy to some form of constitutional democratic republic akin to those in the West. They led a rebellion against the sultanate in 1908 that established a functioning multi-party democracy. However, that ... |
how government "black projects" are able to hide their spending | It's classified due to national security and since they're the government, they can do what they want. The US government's black budget from 2012 was $52.8 billion though. |
Why is the Australian government largely ignoring environmental issues in the country? | Our mining industry has massive sway with our politicians. Rupert Murdoch also owns like 90% of our mainstream news outlets and he loves to keep the public in the dark about important issues. There's also the attitude of "fuck it" that many people here possess as well. Put those 3 together and you get our shocking envi... |
what ultimately happens to the tons of toilet paper, soap, toothpaste, etc... that are flushed/rinsed into the average municipal sewer system every day? | Sewage treatment plants are pretty much giant biological reactors. Solids such as garbage that people flush down the toilet get strained out, then filtration and settling tanks lets suspended solids settle to the bottom, and oil/grease/fats get skimmed off the top. Finally the poop and stuff get put in oxygenated biore... |
What is it exactly in our brains that makes us naturally prefer some styles of music to another? | A study that was only published a few days suggests that music taste is learned, not something that you are born with. _URL_0_', "There's no evidence that neuroanatomy or neurochemistry are related in any way to personal preferences or tastes, in the way you're talking about. Best anybody's ever been able to tell, thos... |
How come soda foams up differently when poured on ice cream? | Soda by itself has no proteins in it so the bubbles pop almost as soon as they are made. When you pour the soda on ice cream it melts some of it and mixes with the cream. The proteins in the cream increase the strength of each bubble causing them to last longer and so creating the "foam" that sticks around longerMy dau... |
How does Scalia's passing affect the presidential election? | In many ways presidents don't actually have a lot of power. They can say a lot of things but most of it really only vaguely matters. Appointing supreme court justices is one of the most direct ways a president can effect things in the country since a lot of huge social issues eventually come down to a vote by the supre... |
What does it mean when somebody says something along the lines of - "It's great, I can write it off" | It means that the income you used to buy that item does not count towards your taxable income. Imagine a hypothetical world where tax rates are a flat 10%, and you earn $50,000 a year. That would normally be $5,000 in tax. Now let's say that you are self-employed, and you buy a small van for use in your business, and i... |
How are airplane black boxes made 'invincible' and how do they open it after crashes to recover the recording? | _URL_0_ Vox does a pretty good video on it. There have been several different styles over the years. But historically it's been recorded on a hard platter which is resilient, but not indestructible. Newer systems might be more digital. A very ELI5: When a plane crashes it breaks into pieces, but a solid object like a r... |
Why do we feel tired but then try to sleep and feel wide awake? | You should not "try" to sleep, but rather relax and let the sleep come to you. There is multiple factors to take into account it's a bad idea to overthink while trying to sleep, particularly things that produce anxiety or activation, as those usually disrupt the process needed for you to start sleeping.For example, If ... |
What would make space shuttles move laterally when lifting off? | In order to avoid causing a rotation, the thrust of the engines must point through the center of mass of the rocket. Since the main engines of the shuttle are offset from the center of the stack, they must thrust at an offset from directly forward. So the combined thrust of the engines and the boosters is slightly offs... |
What is the difference between an embassy and a consulate? | An embassy is in a country's capital, while a consulate is in another city that isn't the capital. For example, Brazil's capital is Brasilia, so the US has an embassy in Brasilia, and a consulate in Rio de Janeiro.I too was also curious about this. According to [this answer], the embassy is the lead office in a particu... |
Tonsils - why don't doctors want to remove them today? Used to be pretty common to have them taken out. | As I recall, tonsils are sort of the "front line" or "early warning system" of the body's immune system. Tonsils getting infected isn't a bug, it's a feature, giving the immune system time to respond to the new germsCutting out body parts is what you do when you have no other solutions and don't really know what's goin... |
How did salt and pepper become the primary seasonings of choice? | Sodium, which is a major component of salt, is needed by the body for a huge number of biological processes. So, salt is pretty obvious as a favorite seasoning. Pepper became popular when people figured out that it could be used to cover up the taste of semi-rotten meat. Source: _URL_0_Because they are flavour enhancer... |
When of age and consenting, why is incest illegal? | Because laws around sex are generally based on emotional arguments and what is fashionable in the times, rather than empirical science and logic. |
Why do plastic milk cartons have that little bulb on the side of them? | I assume you mean the depressed, circular area on the side of the milk jug. It may be to provide a bit of extra volume in case the jug is dropped, or starts to freeze . It could also be there to increase the rigidity of the side of the jug--a flat surface is flimsier than a curved or indented surface.Can you post a pho... |
What's non-oxygenated gas, and why would I use it? | Oxygenated fuel has ethanol added to it. Ethanol adds extra oxygen to the combustion, reducing smog-causing carbon monoxide emissions. It also increases the octane rating of the fuel, preventing knocking. But some equipment, such as lawnmowers or chainsaws or anything with a fiberglass fuel tank, doesn't work well with... |
What modern philosophy is up to. | [Free will] is a current hot topic in philosophy, partly due to recent neuroscience discoveries that have informed the topic. It's quite controversial and has potential major ramifications for law and religion. |
What parts of human society use the most oil? Are there some things that will never be replaced? (Like fertilizer production) | I'm pretty sure there will be other methods to produce good agricultural fertilizer without crude oil that will be economically feasible at some point However, crude oil based plastics are INSANELY useful, and so far we've only worked out how to make a small handful via sustainable methods. There are just so many crude... |
Why can't you drink and take sleeping pills? It seems like they'd go great together. | Alcohol is a depressant, which slows activity of the brain/central nervous system. This effect compounds with sleeping pills and so your body can easily slow down too far, resulting in generally dangerous stuff.The concern here is likely over effectiveness. Alcohol makes you rather slow and drowsy, and so does the slee... |
Why do Sugar Puffs make your urine smell so strongly of Sugar Puffs when other cereals/food do not? | I've never heard of this being the case, but as an FYI if your urine is smelling sweet sugary that's a sign of diabetes. |
How stores like Marshall's, TJ Maxx and Ross work. | At the end of every year or season, the name brand stores and warehouses will be full of unsold merchandize. If the Brand keeps these clothes, they won't be able to put new clothes anywhere, so they sell off the old merchandize wholesale at cost. Clothes are very cheap to manufacture, so the Brand isn't really loosing ... |
Why do you sound differently in your head as opposed to hearing a recording of yourself? | The sound you hear when you talk is a combination of the air vibrating and the bones in your head vibrating The sound that you make with your vocal chords reaches your own ears by bone vibrations in your skull as well as through the air from your mouth to your ear, while it reaches a recording microphone exclusively by... |
What's actually happening when someone overeats on a regular basis and their stomach "expands"? What about in reverse when their stomach gets "smaller"? | It's not just a figure of speech. Your stomach can physically expand/stretch. [Competitive eaters expand their stomachs for competition using water]. It really is like a balloon in a way. The size of the actual organ doesn't change, but it's elasticity and response to food can. The opposite is not true however. You can... |
Why is it that when we open our mouth wide open, we blow out hot air, but when we narrow it, cold air comes out? | Here's /u/thetripp's answer to the same question on /r/askscience: "Take a sheet of paper, and roll it into a tube. Now, blow through the tube with an \'o\' - shaped mouth, and put your hand on the other side. Once you push the ambient air out of the tube, you will feel your warm breath. When you blow a narrow stream o... |
if every person's genome is unique, where along the umbilical cord does the mother's genome end and the child's begin? | All of the umbilical cord contains cells with the child's DNA, and all the blood cells it transports are also made with the child's DNA. But the organ the umbilical cord connects to, the placenta, is where the mother's cells and the child's cells interface to exchange nutrients. Some cells do cross the placenta, so the... |
What is a project scope? | Some good answers here already, but I'll add another angle to the classic "handyman replacing shingles" example. Say the handyman pulls off the old shingles and tarpaper and notices that one of the roof panels underneath is not quite right. Looks fairly simple, so he fixes the panel. Then, when he looks more closely, h... |
How can a pixel make so many colors? | Most modern monitors have a white backlight, and pixels composed of three smaller *subpixels* for red, blue, and green, which are tinted LCD rectangles that, when combined side-by-side-by-side, form a square. Each LCD subpixel can change its opacity from completely clear , to completely opaque , and every shade in betw... |
Why do old batteries left in their devices sometimes leak? | ELI5:. When the battery farts hydrogen, it sometimes sharts the fluffy stuff. The "alkaline" stuff is potassium hydroxide, . When that reacts with carbon dioxide you get potassium carbonate , which is the stuff you find in the battery compartment of what used to be your favorite vintage gadget. Even when there's no cur... |
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