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What would I die of (first) if I was suddenly exposed to deep space conditions? For example if my spaceship collapses... | If you are in the spaceship, you will be crushed. If you suddenly get exposed to the vacuum of space, the lack of air. The pressure in your body will expand and you will blow up like a cartoon balloon. If you survive that, you suffocate. Contrary to common belief you won't instantly freeze, as heat needs a medium to mo... |
What is postmodernism in layman's terms? | The best way to understand post-modernism is first to understand *modernism*. This was an early C20th movement that insisted on "honesty" in all aspects of design and creativity. In architecture for example it required that "form follows function" so that you could tell from a building how it was constructed and how it... |
How does glue actually work? | It depends on the glue. PVC glue actually melts the PVC that you apply it to and then the two melted sections that you're gluing harden and form together into a solid joint. Cyanoacrylate reacts with water in the air to form a polymer. Since this polymer started as a liquid it can seep into the many nooks and crannies ... |
If you killed someone on the Four Corners Monument, which state's laws would you be prosecuted with? | [Slightly NSFW.] Since it's a serious crime that is inter-state, the federal government will likely step in. Also, it's a national monument and in Indian Reservation territory, even more reason for it to be the FBI. Double also, simply searching Google about this brought up an ELI5 post about this as the top result. |
how a boxer is crowned best pound for pound fighter, and how Pacquiao is considered higher "rank" than Mayweather? | It's basically a very subjective ranking system. Let's give ourselves Pacquiao vs Mayweather. Bear in mind that I'm not much of a boxing fan, I just know how it's measured. Anyway, Pacquiao has been against many others of his weight division with impressive w/l/d/ records. Their records are matched against each other, ... |
Why are modern computers still having trouble with editing large-ish (20-50MB) text files? | it is the limitations of the software not your computer. if you want to push 1000 balloons up a chimney they still need to go one at a time, more cores and ram = more chimneys. but if you have 100,000,000 balloons it will always bottleneck while the program tries to sort the next lot of data so the balloons appear in t... |
Why don't car companies like Ford and GM make technologically advanced replicas of some of the classics instead of ugly modern cars? | Remember what happened last time they tried that? The Chevy HHR and the PT Cruiser were created. Horrifying.they were incredibly unsafe shapes, impossible to make as safe as the newer ones without a complete redesign of the shape which would defy the point of remaking the old car also you overestimate how much people w... |
In reference to Phillip Hughes' accidental death, explain a vertebral artery dissection from such a relatively small object. | An arterial dissection is a tearing of the inner lining of an artery. Basically, an artery is composed of multiple layers of tissue. In a dissection, which can happen spontaneously or be caused by trauma, the innermost layer gets torn. Blood then gets underneath this torn layer and begins to push the two layers apart. ... |
Why does CO2 increase world temperature but a big enough Volcanic eruption lowers it? | CO2 acts like an invisible blanket, or more accurately like the glass in a greenhouse. It's a "greenhouse gas", which traps radiant heat close to the planet. A huge cloud of dust and smoke from a volcano isn't invisible. While it will also insulate, it's also quite reflective, bouncing sunlight back into space *before*... |
Static Electricity and it’s connection to objects | It’s been a while since this lecture, so forgive me if I mess up a few points. From what I remember, every object on the planet has sort of a key number of electrons it likes to have. Objects that are known to be great conductors of electricity have a much higher key number than say humans do. So, whenever an object ha... |
Why does WinRAR never actually require payment? | From _URL_1_ > Winrar is licensed as "shareware", the license type is mostly outdated now, but back in the 90's you would see most software marketed as either freeware , shareware , or just plain paid software. These days we see more software released in the demo/full version form, although some software companies stil... |
you know how people do crazy stunts like unicycling through the Amazon for charity? How does that actually raise money? | Basically people just donate money because they either think the stunt is cool, or the stunt gets their attention and then they learn about the cause and donate because they think it's righteous. The stunt is about getting attention. Nothing more. |
Why do people swap languages while talking? | i do this, switching languages after sentences/in the middle of a sentence/or whatever. the reason i do this is is because sometimes things just don't translate well. some words/phrases in another language or in English, just doesn't have an equivalent that will give you the full effect of what you're trying to say. an... |
If meds are always eliminated in half by the body, how is it ever completely eliminated? | First, the half life of a medicine is more of a general rule to follow when considering dosages, and it's not like **exactly** half is left after each half life. Also, unlike pure math, in the physical world an object can't be cut in half infinitely. Eventually you would get down to a single molecule and at the next ha... |
How come my belly expands right after eating food, even though the food I've eaten won't have reached all the way down there yet? | Well your stomach when empty is fairly small and sits just below your rib cage. When you eat it fills with food and stretches out. It will displace some of your intestines to make room. That could be causing your stomach to stick out. Also when you eat food it opens up the floodgates downstream, if you know what I mean... |
Why Do Reddit Points Fluctuate Over Time? | The fluctuations are a bot prevention mechanism. Shadow bans were created in order to get rid of malicious bots, but that could be easily tested if their upvote did not count toward a thread if the page was refreshed a minute later. Thus, Reddit came up with the idea that they should create vote fluctuations. The vote ... |
A recent YSN post said that cell phone companies can't prevent me from unlocking my phone. What does that mean? | You're mixing up unlocking and rooting. Unlocking is taking off a restriction that prevents you from putting a SIM Card into your GSM phone. When the phone is unlocked, it will let you just take your phone to the other network and have it worked. To remove something like bloatware, you need to *root* your phone. Rootin... |
how does a mere bit of suncream/sunblock protect the skin from the suns rays? | Sunblock and sun cream contain very small particles of silver and zinc oxide which reflects the rays of light off rather than letting them hit your skin, the particles are fine and plenty enough so as long as you have a layer covering your skin, they will reflect most of the rays off, but some will still get through de... |
Why can't I hear myself snoring, or anything else for that matter, when I'm half-awake/half-asleep? | As you move from a waking state to a sleeping state, your senses get turned off. This last summer, I was running a box fan in my bedroom to stay cool. In addition to providing airflow, it also make a pleasant low drone. One night, I noticed my hearing turn off because I was listening to the fan's noise. I was startled ... |
What is Obama Care? | Obama care refers to the Affordable care act, which changed a few things about American healthcare. The whole act was extremely long, and covered many aspects, which is why it took a long time to draft and pass and take effect, and is beyond the scope for a single Eli5 thread. Of significance , some key provisions prot... |
Why is riding an elephant deemed inhumane while riding a horse is not? | Horses are domesticated by humans for the purpose of cohabitation with humans. They have been selectively bred over thousands of years to be suited to a type of work, such as pulling a cart, carrying a rider, etc. Moreover the equipment used, and the veterinary knowledge of their body mechanics have been extensive stud... |
Why does air feel cooler when it's moving when energy/movement creates heat? | Our bodies are constantly radiating heat. Air, being a good insulator, forms a hot-bubble around us, like a blanket. When the wind blows, it brings cooler air against our skin and removes the air we've already heated. Also, you have to know that our skin doesn't sense temperature, but the relative flow of heat in or ou... |
Boxsprings. Is there an actual purpose to them? | Just asked this at the mattress store! Their only function is to keep the mattress flat so it wears more evenly. If you don't have a bed frame and leave your mattress on the floor you don't need one. If you have frame with a solid bottom that keeps your mattress flat, you don't need one. You only need them if your fram... |
Why do different alcoholic drinks have different effects on a person? | There is a theory that this purely psychological. Sort of like the placebo effect . For example, we associate whisky with sadness so we expect it to make us sad/mournful drunk. Usually, that's what happens. EDIT: for clarity-- what I meant by "usually, that's what happens" is that because we expect to feel sad/mournful... |
How can Pi never repeat if it never ends? | What they mean with never repeating is that it won't act like normal fractions like 1/7 = 0.142857142857142857142857142857 which repeats the sequence 142857 forever over and over again. The same sequence "142857" occurs in pi too. Apparently it occurs 210 time in the first 2 million digits of pi. So you have lots of pa... |
What is the difference between pirating a game/movie and buying a used copy? Why are "re-sales" legal but pirating isn't? | > why publishers and developers aren't pushing to end used sales. They are, but it's a delicate issue, just ask Microsoft's PR department. The concept of the first-sale doctrine in copyright law dictates that once the holder of a copyright has sold on a good to a consumer, that consumer has the right to pass on the goo... |
How come I can focus my eyes on the floaters on my cornea, but not my finger when it's almost touching it? | Your eye isn't really focusing on the floater, as it's behind the cornea. It's more like having dust on the film, it gets sent directly to the brain as is. Your finger you actually do need to focus on. |
How does Global Blue make money? | > Global Blue operates a wide and trusted Tax Free Shopping network, allowing travellers to save money on purchases they make in any one of our 270,000 partner stores around the world Above description if from their website. You only get tax refunded if you shop in one of their partner stores. Think of it as a discount... |
In the course of history, why have people exiled others as opposed to killing them? | If Napoleon was killed, it would have made a great deal of french people angry that their leader was killed, and turn him into a symbol another french army could rally around. "Our leader was killed, let's avenge him!" Instead, by exiling him, no one is angry that he's killed, and it's hard to rally around a leader whe... |
Chicken used in KFC zinger? | KFC claims it is a chicken breast filet, double breaded and deep fried. There's really no reason to doubt the claim, either. |
The practical everyday uses we gain from the American high school courses English, Math, Science, and history. | Adding a quick note to the good material already here: One major problem for many students in school is they firmly believe they already know enough of these subjects to function well in society. And if they do not they think they can get the info quickly via google or other means. We all believe we know enough at thos... |
Why do we bite our teeths together when we doing something exhausting? (Like when you're in the gym and doing a hard workout) | I'm not sure there is an exact known answer but the theory is: to make it easier on your brain. Tensing muscles together takes less effort for your brain than trying to keep multiple muscles doing different things. Kind of like the old trick of patting your head and rubbing your stomach, your mind will eventually cause... |
Why do radio stations announce the next songs and then play them in the reverse order? | They announce the most popular songs first so that it grabs your attention and more people keep listening for that song to play, then go to commercial then play them in reverse order so you wait for your song to come up. The radio world is all about getting you to listen just a little bit longer. edit: Added aside, the... |
What real power does the American president have? | The power to veto any bill or law that Congress passes. Once a piece of legislation is vetoed, it takes two-thirds vote for congress to pass it, instead of the normal majority vote. |
What are the most noticeable differences between genuine American-made Fender Stratocasters and Gibson Les Pauls, compared to cheaper counterparts like Epiphone or Squier made in Indonesia, Mexico, etc.? | For current guitars, the Made In USA badge adds a lot to the cost, but it's hard to generalise beyond the obvious factors: differences in quality of wood and parts. Historically, it's been a moving target: for example, I heard only good things about first Squiers made in Japan, some arguing that the quality exceeded th... |
What makes someone professionally good at fishing? | Probably experience and perception. I'm sure a good fisherman can tell where the fish will likely be in the lake, or how deep to go to get certain fish and what patterns they follow", 'A big portion of professional fishing is simply dedicating plenty of time to the sport and attending events. Nobody can make the fish b... |
What makes lithium ion batteries so combustible? | Lots of chemical energy separated by super thin insulators made of an easy to melt plastic. The fire produced in a tiny spot heats the insulator enough to melt it in the adjacent area, which generates more heat, . It's a chain reaction.Chemical batteries rely on a chemical process called a redox reaction. "Redox" is a ... |
After a terror attack, why do certain groups claim responsibility? | So, a lot of terrorist groups have some kind of agenda, normally they think that there is something wrong with a group of people, and they are the enlightened few who will "purge the world". If we look at them like ransomers, they have a set of demands so all they need is a hostage. When there is a terror attack and a ... |
How exactly is money transferred to athletes and celebrities when they sign those 1+ million dollar deals? Do they write cheques? Or email transfer 6 million dollars? | Pretty sure they just get checks like anyone else would. Last year Thomas Vanek got investigated by the NHL because he was gambling and signed over one of his paychecks to cover a bet to his bookie. He ended up being clear of any wrong doing but how stupid do you have to be to sign over a paycheck to a bookie.There is ... |
Why does it seem like there are way more conspiracy theorists in the USA now than 20 years ago? | Probably has a lot to do with the fact far more people have gotten on the internet in the past 10 years. Sure, internet wasn't rare in 2004 but more people than you might imagine weren't really using it until the last ~5 years. Additionally people tend to group up so that you'll get concentrations of people likely to b... |
Unsupervised Learning/Machine Learning and how data is relevant | Unsupervised learning isn't generally used to make predictions - for that task a supervised learner is typically used. You hinted at why in your question - if we *do* have a way to evaluate whether our predictions are accurate, then we should be able to frame the task as a classification problem and train a supervised ... |
Why should you not stir long-grained rice (such as basmati) when cooking, but should stir short-grain rice (like sushi or risotto rice)? | Simply put: 1 - Some types of grain break more easily than others, keep overcooking after the fire is off and/or are covered in the gran flour that makes it sticky and even a paste sometimes. Which takes me to point 2; 2 - That's the way that specific receipt is cooked, whether is because make more sense for the type o... |
Why do we sometimes get fleeting pains at random parts of our body? | The phenomenon is called "referred pain". It occurs when sensory information comes to the spinal cord as coming from one location, but is interpreted by the brain as coming from another location. Source: Gray's Anatomy for Students, 2nd edition. Page 76 under "In the clinic". Edit: Btw I'm disappointed by all the shitp... |
What causes the involuntary scowl when we eat something unexpectedly bitter? | I think it was Steven Pinker who said that it's probably an evolutionary defense mechanism. When you taste something unexpectedly bitter you tend to make a face and stick your tongue out . This is probably a mechanism to eject any of the substance still in your mouth. Not really any evidence though so it's just conject... |
If I, for example, pop a zit on my left shoulder, why do I sometimes feel a sharp sting in my lower back? | I would guess nerve endings. My SO at the time poked me in my belly button one time and I felt a sharp pain in my anus area. No jokeI thought I was the only one! when I scratch a part of my body sometimes I feel a sharp sting on another random part of my body too. |
What's the story behind the Enron scandal? | It's a very complicated situation - I've only watched the documentary *Smartest Guys in the Room*. Long story short, the leading executives made a lot of moves that put a lot of money in their pockets at the expense of their company, and the livelihood of thousands of employees", 'They were caught using fraudulent acco... |
how hard would it be for someone to go off the grid | If nobody is looking for you, its not hard. The hard part is staying off the grid. You need to be able to sustain yourself long-term, and needing a trip to a hospital if you start vomiting blood could mean an end to the whole thing. But if you are wanted by the police in any serious way, the odds of managing to stay fr... |
Why are some TV shows recorded in front of a live studio audience? | First off those type of shows are called Multi Camera Setups. And they play out more or less live like any other performance, they don't have to record one actor, then the other, then back and forth like single camera shows. Those are done on closed sets and are considered higher production value because there is more ... |
What is that grainy stuff around resized low resolution pictures? | It's impossible to truly scale up an image. You can't just stretch things; the computer needs to know what pixels are going where. There's typically an interpolation algorithm that tries to guess where the pixels should be when scaling, but there are limits to how accurate it is. Mistakes are made and you can get an en... |
What happens when one of the wings of an airplane break off? | The plane is faced with an option: either generate lift with the remaining wing and face a massive rolling force, or don't generate lift and fall out of the sky. In either case the plane likely crashes. One thing the pilot could attempt is to roll the plane 90 degrees to have the remaining wing pointing up or down, the... |
Why would Assad’s regime use chemical weapons, as opposed to conventional ones, which don't generate anywhere near the same international uproar and are presumably equally lethal, albeit less horrifically so? | Every town exists for a reason. Some enterprise is producing something of value to someone outside the borders of the community, bringing in cash to support the town's local economy. If you flatten the town, your country loses it's largest producer of widgets. Generations of experience, tools and machinery evaporated. ... |
What is an IPO and at what point do you have one? | An IPO is an Initial Public Offering for a company's stock. It's when a company starts selling their stock on a stock exchange like the New York Stock Exchange or NASDAQ. The reason for one is to take on more investment capital, and also to allow the initial investors and company founders take their investment off the ... |
Why am I able to tilt my head back and pour a drink down my mouth without it immediately traveling down into my body? Shouldn't it automatically slide down my esophagus? | You have a set of sphincter muscles in your throat which manually pushes food down, this is what allows you to eat and drink when upside down, or in a zero gravity environment, It's also why you have to swallow food, instead of letting it slide down your throat. You'd end up choking every time you tried to eat or drink... |
Why do humans live to be so old, but animals like dogs only live a few decades at most? | The short answer is that no one knows for certain. The most probable reason is the evolutionary strategy our species has, while some other animals focus on having lots and lots of offspring with the hope that at least some will survive humans have comparatively few but we spend more time nurturing and protecting them t... |
Why do so many gaming web sites demand to know your date of birth (with annoying drop-down menus), but porn sites never do? | Porn websites can't be blamed for school shootings, so gaming websites have more reason to cover their asses.Porn sites are doing the minimum it takes for legal compliance. The game industry, OTOH, holds themselves to higher standards. The ESRB requires more stringent restrictions on mature contentProbably because ever... |
How come the adverse effects on the leaflet of every drug include almost any possible effect you might think of? | If you tracked all of your high school classmates for 5 years, would some of them get into car accidents? get killed? get cancer? Odds are pretty good of that. Did that occur because of life happens? Or was that because they all attended the same high school? In a large scale drug study, same thing occurs, people get a... |
What is a Neoliberal? | Neoliberals are open border capitalist, which breaks from traditional positions liberals held as this favors corporations over labor. Labor used to be the bread and butter of liberal policyNeoliberal means that you are generally in favor of their being minimal government interference within the economy. Particularly wi... |
Why does reinstalling a program fix problems that it had Before? | Because reinstalling overwrites certain parts of a program. It fixes problems cause by file/registry corruption, and update errors. When you reinstall a program, registry entries are made for the new install, and new versions of the program's files are installed into the program directory. Finally, if there was a bad u... |
How does eviction work? | varies from place to place, in NY it takes a court order from a judge before the police can evict you. It is a long, expensive and tedious process.That should all be formally laid out in your lease. That's why everyone should read leases *very carefully* before signing. It varies from state to state and landlord to lan... |
How dose bacteria stay alive in places like my shower curtain or in my wash rag, where dose it get its nutrition from? | The bacteria in your shower curtain is actually living on the soap scum which includes oils for its nourishment. The wash rag offers even more diverse fare-- some soap as well as skin particles or food particles if a dish rag and the fiber material of the rag itself. Single celled organisms don't require very large amo... |
Why does England have so many different dialects of English but America doesn't have as much even though its a much bigger country | According to [this Wikipedia article], England has 27 accents, and the United States has 40 accents . So it looks like your assumption is mistake, and the US has more accents than England. However, if you substitute "UK" for "England" you end up with 50 for the UK, putting it slightly ahead of the US.I'm not sure I agr... |
What exactly happens when a music producer "masters" a song/album? | When most people hear the term 'mastering', they are think of the mixing process, aka balancing volumes and adding effects, etc. Mastering is actually a specialized subset of mixing that is a form of audio quality control or quality assurance. Only a relative handful of people and studios are capable of mastering, comp... |
What is the idea behind being able to post bail for short term freedom before a trial? | Getting arrested with a crime is just an *accusation*. You are not a criminal until you're actually convinced in court. Since you're not a criminal, there's not reason to hold you in jail as *punishment*. The only logical argument for keeping somebody in jail is to ensure that they don't try to escape justice. To ensur... |
How can a football team take a knee and end the game with a minute left (like in the Panthers v. Falcons game that just ended)? | He took two knees. The team with the ball is given 30 seconds to start a play, otherwise they face a "delay of game" penalty. Taking a knee is the same outcome as a running play or pass play that ends in a tackle without getting out of bounds. The play is over but the game clock keeps going and the play clock resets to... |
Why isn't it light out when it's night time? With all the trillions of stars blanketing the night sky, where does all that light hitting earth go? | There are large dust clouds within the milky way galaxy which block light from many of the stars. Apart from that, though there are many stars, they are also very far away. It used to be considered a paradox that, if there were an infinite number of stars, why wasn't the sky bright due to being filled with them. The sq... |
why the ratings on Netflix are so different from imbd or rotten tomatoes. | As I understand it, the ratings on Netflix aren't so much ratings as a guess of how much you would like it based on your viewing history. |
What's the difference between different types of liquor? | There are what are known as fusel oils in the various types of booze. They're thought, at least by some, to affect how you feel afterwards. _URL_0_ There's also psychosomatic effects. Where people just /think/ it. |
If a 5 year old were to fall into a coma and wake up 20 years later, how would they act? | Probably like a two year old. You don't spend 15 years in a coma and come back without some severe mental deficits. |
How is it that when you blow air out of your nose, you can still smell the scent you are trying to avoid by blowing air out of your nose? | Because the same air is coming out of your lungs and back out of your nose. Like asking why you taste food when throwing up.When you smell something, it's actually just tiny particles of whatever it is in your nose. So blowing air out wouldn't necessarily get these particles out. |
Does wind effect soundwaves? | Sound waves are vibrations in air like ripples on water Wind is the bulk movement of air like currents in water. If you were trying to signal to someone across a river you could drop a stone in the water by the bank you stand on, and hope they see or feel the ripples that reach the other side. If there is a strong curr... |
Why are video games still sold as CDs while USB drives can be so much smaller, more durable and hold so much more. | A disc costs considerably less to make than a USB drive. Digital media will usurp discs, not USB drives.Manufacturers have moved to using DVDs, since they hold more, but not to USB, because it costs much more. For example, you can buy 10x 4GB USB sticks for $24.69 on [Amazon]. You can buy 100x 4.7GB DVDs for $36.99 on ... |
Why do firefighters "make it rain" on a fire instead of pointing the hose at the ground or directly into the fire? | What they are trying to do is prevent the area immediately next to where the fire is from catching fire. By doing this the fire will have nowhere to go and eventually use up the fuel that is currently on fire and extinguish itself. The "make it rain" approach is common because it starves the fire of both heat and oxyge... |
why does Arkansas, a very culturally southern state, elect so many Democrats? | There are a large amount of black people still in the south, and they tend to vote democrat on everything except abortion and gay rights. Rural latinos tend to vote republican on everything except immigration. White people in rural areas tend to vote republican on all issues.They don't, anymore. Currently all 4 congres... |
What is exposure in photography? | Exposure is the chosen combination of iso, aperture and shutter speed to take a picture. This means that there's no such thing as an objectively good exposure. These variables have more effects than only lighting though, but we'll ignore that for now. For snapshots of general shots of city skylines, panorama's you want... |
why does the radar on big boats spin? | A radar not omni-directional. Just like a satellite TV dish it must be pointed in the direction of the signal in order to receive it. So in order for the ship to know what's going on around it it has to point in all directions. It spins 360° and scans all the signals around it. |
How can the oscars preview something that will be on after a commercial when it is a live show? | Just because it is a live show doesn't mean each segment isn't meticulously planned weeks in advance. The show's producers know well in advance which segments are coming up and what is scheduled to happen in those segments, so they can create previews to highlight those segments.There is always a delay of at least 5 mi... |
why do younger people start off enjoying very sweet food, but as we age, very bitter, tangy foods become more preferable? | Your tastebuds naturally change over time, along with a bunch of other things which determine what's better or worse. When you're growing you need more vitamins, minerals, and more importantly glucose to power your body and it's growth. So things like sugar are more attractive. As well, kids don't go "sugar makes me fe... |
What is Fibromyalgia and why can it hurt so bad? | " Fibromyalgia is a common syndrome in which a person has long-term, body-wide pain and tenderness in the joints, muscles, tendons, and other soft tissues. Fibromyalgia has also been linked to fatigue, sleep problems, headaches, depression, and anxiety. " Yes I know a copy/paste. Basically your nerves are WAY too sensi... |
Are honeybees in danger? If so, how much danger are they in, and why should I care? | Yes. A *lot*, they're dying off at a rate of around 33% per year and we can't figure out how to stop it or even fully what's causing it. You should care because bees don't just make delicious honey, they also act as pollinators for pretty much every fruit and vegetable you enjoy eating. If they disappear out of the web... |
Why nails grow faster at summer when you are at sea | An explanation that was once given to me is that your nails are just being cleaned more often. Any dirt that may be accumulated under your nails is removed by being in the water so often, giving the whites of the nails a longer appearance.They don't. You are experiencing [confirmation bias]. Your nails are growing at t... |
Why doesn't the US Constitution grant rights to everyone in the country instead of just Citizens? | Because they didn't want to give those rights to non-citizens, because then people could just walk across the border and demand things without having to be born here or go through a process to make them american. > Also why can the NSA spy on non-citizens outside the US? Because everyone does it, and no one really want... |
How can our relatively tiny eyeballs simultaneously absorb all the photons bouncing off something as large as the moon so that we can see it as a whole? | They're not. If *your* eyes were absorbing *all* the photons bouncing off the moon, nobody else would be able to see it plus your eyes would probably boil. Your eyes detect the minuscule proportion of photons that reach your pupils, and no more than that. Visible things scatter reflected and retracted light in lots of ... |
The difference between my voice and my recorded voice. | Your own voice resonates in your skull, which makes it sound a little lower and deeper. Think of it like singing in a big concert hall, where your voice echoes off the walls and creates a fuller sound. The sound of your voice literally echoes through your skull, but the echoes are so fast your brain doesn't sort them a... |
Why cruise ships don't tip over when being knocked around in the ocean? | The height of the ship above the waterline doesn't matter very much. More windage contributes to listing but not a great deal in a ship that size. As boats get bigger, they get more stable exponentially. I'd have to look it up but istr in general displacement increases as the cube of size, and stability increases as th... |
Why is it illegal in Kentucky to carry an ice cream cone in your back pocket? | _URL_0_ Apparently people used to stuff food into their back pockets to get horses to follow them. That way if they were caught they'd have an excuse that looked like they weren't actively trying to lead the horse away. |
Why is DNA evidence always stored in paper bags instead of plastic? | I had to look it up, but the answer is apparently moisture. Paper bags are permeable to moisture where as plastic holds in moisture. Anything that is wet goes into paper; anything dry goes into plastic. More specifically, moisture promotes bacterial and fungal growth as well as promotes enzymatic activity. Any one of t... |
How can deaf people who've been given Cochlear implants understand speech? | > the woman has been deaf since birth and therefore has obviously never heard sound before Not true. "Deaf" doesn't mean "completely unable to hear anything". Deafness is a range, and not a binary on/off description. Her hearing was just really, *really*, **really** poor. But she **had** heard before , and knew what sp... |
why do LED torches have multiple small LED's instead of one big one? | Some of them do have a single LED, such as Mag-Lite. Low-output LEDs are much less expensive to produce, so cheap flashlights often will have 25-50 of them ; their overall light output is typically less than those with a single LED. When purchasing, look for how many lumens the flashlight produces, not how many LEDs; m... |
Why does America send so much aid around the world when it’s own people have a massive homelessness, drug, healthcare, infrastructure problem? | Foreign Aid is to a large part a geopolitical tool. It also has a humanitarian aspect, but mostly it is political. This is not only about America , but an answer in general. You are making sure countries are pro-you and stabilised , people from there do not move , countries are influenced culturally as you want, you en... |
Why are spiders unable to crawl on another spider's web? | We're not *entirely* sure. There is some evidence that spiders make special sticky proteins with a particular anti-stick protein that only they know how to make, which they coat their feet and legs with. That way, they won't stick to their own web. There's also a lot of evidence that spiders build mental maps, or other... |
why does crying and being sad make you so tired? [Psychology] | Emotional stress and trauma is both physically and mentally draining. Being overwhelmed in some cases can lead to blackouts. Tears, for example, obviously use water and potassium-so excessive crying can lead to dehydration. |
If this is the "explain like I'm 5" subreddit, and everyone here obviously knows that, why does everyone put "ELI5:" at the beginning of every post? | Did you try readinng the rules? > Posts must begin with "ELI5:" > Posts only > Reported as: 10. Posts must begin with "ELI5:" > This is meant to help identify ELI5 posts on the frontpage or /r/all or any other collection.The title tags required by most subreddits do this to help viewer's read the title Subject with con... |
Why does my dog go around in circles before pooping? | To find the best playce of course. He probably has to check, whether no other dog had the same idea before*five seconds of Googling later* > It’s all starting to make sense. For years I wondered why my dog spins in a circle before depositing her daily double. But now I think I have a clue as to why. Scientists at the C... |
Why does a runny nose (post nasal drip) irritate my throat? | The mucous sliding out of your sinus cavity and down the back of your throat is drier and irritating. It can prevent moisture from reaching the tissues at the back of your throat. You should give nasal irrigation a try, using either a Neti pot or a squeeze bottle designed for the purpose. Neil-Med is the brand I use, t... |
How exactly does building credit score work? | Ahoy, matey! Yer not alone in askin', and kind strangers have explained: 1. [ELI5: How do I build credit? ]1. [ELI5: Credit Scores & Building A Good One ]1. [ELI5: Credit scores, good/bad ranges, and how to obtain it easily. ]1. [ELI5: What is credit score and how does it work ]1. [ELI5: Credit Score and building credi... |
How does the paint on the 2015 Bugatti change color? | That is a video filter. The car doesn't actually change color. Had you not noticed that everything in the background also changes color? |
Itchiness! Why do we feel "itchy" and why does scratching make the sensation go away? | Your body is made of cells. Your brain, being part of your body, is also made of cells. Each cell has different things it can do. Cells in your brain let you think, feel, and experience. Your skin, another part of you body, is also made of cells. But there are different typed of cells in your skin. There are "skin cell... |
A priori and a posteriori with easy examples | A priori means independent from experience, thus 2 plus 2 will always be 4 and can't be changed. It will always exist no matter what - we can't influence the answer. A poseriori means you have observed it happen. Like President Trump is the president of the US. That's based on what you observed. That knowledge wouldn't... |
What Do ISPs Gain From Throttling Internet Speeds? | It keeps them from having to upgrade their network. You could offer everyone the top speed but then if more than X number of people used it they would run out of bandwidth and it'd all come crashing down. They throttle in order to keep this from happening so everyone gets the speed they pay for ideally. Now they've abu... |
What do people mean when they say something "became a commodity". | Commodities, generally speaking, are goods and services that have little to no differentiation across a market. Gold, for example, is a commodity because all gold is basically the same; there's no functional difference between gold mined in Colorado and gold mined in West Africa. Agricultural and mineral raw materials ... |
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