q_id stringlengths 5 6 | title stringlengths 0 304 | selftext stringlengths 0 39.2k | document stringclasses 1 value | subreddit stringclasses 3 values | answers dict | title_urls dict | selftext_urls dict | answers_urls dict | split stringclasses 9 values | title_body stringlengths 1 39.1k | embeddings list |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
7ftndm | Why does the "church of scienctology" still have tax exempt status in the usa? | [removed] | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dqebdd4",
"dqedyp3",
"dqeb8ay",
"dqema3u",
"dqel7xo",
"dqeiudr"
],
"text": [
"There is no hard set definition of what a religion or \"church\" is in US law and each group that desires to gain tax exempt status under the religious clauses applies and then is either granted or denied that status. Once granted there is really no strong mechanism to remove the status as attempting to do so would be hindering a recognized religion and would be a violation of the First Amendment (or at least could be argued to be a violation). \n\nScientology obtained the status after years of petitioning for it, and finally effectively holding the IRS hostage by filing hundreds (if not thousands) of individual lawsuits that bogged down the system and force them to divert resources from other issues and took up court time from more legitimate cases.",
"Real questions should be why any religion should get tax exemption at all?",
"The IRS threatened to take it away, and they arranged for their members to file a huge number of simultaneous lawsuits about it. The government decided to give up.",
"This is from Australia, but I'm sure the reasoning is the same.\n\n > The Church of Scientology requested a tax exemption from wages originating from a religious institution based on the Victoria Pay-roll Tax Act 1971. The High Court asked the question on whether Scientology was to be accepted as a religion, and decided that they were. Scientology met the two criteria that they stipulated for the determination of whether an organization is religious; first “belief in a supernatural Being, Thing or Principle” and second, “the acceptance of canons of conduct in order to give effect to that belief.”\n\nIn other words, it meets the same standards as any major religion.",
"It's the same reason why John Oliver's \"Our Lady of Perpetual Exemption\" (_URL_2_ | _URL_0_ | _URL_1_) was registered as a church. The definition of what constitutes a religion is very lax in the US.",
"Why do you think Scientology exists? It's tax avoidance."
],
"score": [
70,
59,
14,
4,
2,
2
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": [
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUndxpbufkg",
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vwkqh3lCgvw",
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7y1xJAVZxXg"
]
} | train_eli5 | Why does the "church of scienctology" still have tax exempt status in the usa?
[removed] | [
0.03429412469267845,
-0.031245455145835876,
0.06231871619820595,
0.048593513667583466,
0.028861066326498985,
0.010801111347973347,
-0.054513297975063324,
-0.08384696394205093,
0.017469171434640884,
0.020940011367201805,
0.018718911334872246,
0.05332404375076294,
-0.07499966025352478,
-0.02... | |
17kapf | How "cold" can Fire get before it goes out? | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"c869sqd"
],
"text": [
"The coldest fire observed has been around 250 F or 120 C. \n\n_URL_0_"
],
"score": [
6
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": [
"http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/RT/RT1999/6000/6711wu.html"
]
} | train_eli5 | How "cold" can Fire get before it goes out?
| [
-0.002989495173096657,
0.03647521138191223,
-0.025675157085061073,
0.1191432774066925,
0.04068368300795555,
0.033760350197553635,
0.04081932082772255,
-0.017774805426597595,
0.03175092861056328,
0.03344845399260521,
-0.010006201453506947,
0.05722431838512421,
0.0338728092610836,
0.00022516... | ||
5upu93 | If no normal person can withstand water boarding can't it be used to get anyone to admit to doing anything just to make it stop? | [removed] | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"ddvyuch",
"ddvwugh",
"ddvwvrh",
"ddvwujh",
"ddw3hae"
],
"text": [
"confessions made under torture (any torture, not just waterboarding) have been deemed unreliable because there are way too many false positives. people say whatever it takes to make the pain stop\n\n[CIA torturers themselves](_URL_0_) admitted this, but continued(s) to use it anyway, because torture is fun i guess",
"Yes. That is the problem with torture in general. It isn't a way to discover actual truths.",
"Specifically because it will get people to admit to doing anything to make it stop. The information gained from torture is not useful because it is not truthful. They just want the torture to stop so they will tell you what you want to know, not what you actually need to know.",
"yeah that's pretty much one argument against torture. that it's ineffective and people will just say anything to get it to stop.",
"That is why torture is not a good intelligence gathering tool. If you torture somebody, they will admit to anything in order to get you to stop. \n\nIt all depends on what is being asked and what information a person is trying to obtain. \n\nFor instance \"Admit you killed Abraham Lincoln!\" is going to get false confessions just to make it stop. A good example is \"Admit your heresy and beg forgiveness\" used in the inquisition under torture. The fallacy here is that you have no way to verify what the person is admitting to. Did they tell you what you wanted to hear in order to stop torture, or did they really admit to something? There is no way to tell. \n\nHowever an example of usable intelligence would be \"Tell me where you planted the bomb\" or \"where are the machine gun placements on this map\" or \"Who are your accomplices\" etc because those can be verified as true or false."
],
"score": [
12,
10,
6,
3,
2
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterboarding#Effectiveness"
]
} | train_eli5 | If no normal person can withstand water boarding can't it be used to get anyone to admit to doing anything just to make it stop?
[removed] | [
0.031135281547904015,
0.06569167226552963,
0.03222501650452614,
0.014418497681617737,
0.06767503172159195,
-0.05236061289906502,
0.08358492702245712,
-0.04452010244131088,
-0.11220928281545639,
-0.012663568370044231,
0.009568302892148495,
0.0694005936384201,
-0.00038411078276112676,
0.0843... | |
3nohcj | Why do the dirtier "Grimm version" of fairy tales serve as better teaching tools than the Disney or "Clean" versions of fairy tales? | [removed] | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"cvpvl9h",
"cvpx5hf"
],
"text": [
"An example would be useful. But if you mean what I think I mean then: Reality sucks. Things don't work out perfectly 99% of the time. \"Happily ever after\" is an extremely rare occurrence. So it's better to tell stories that are a little more grounded.",
"Who are you teaching to specifically? The original versions where meant to be warnings to children back then. It was never meant to inspire hope or the like. If it were meant to be taught today to children, most of the ideas that come with it(death,etc) will either be misunderstood due to the fact that kids today live a sheltered life and not the kind of free life that kids had back then. So if you're talking about the effectiveness of the versions, it depends on the era. Kids back then will be disciplined with frightful stories, but kids today will never know true fear (until they feel it)"
],
"score": [
4,
3
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | Why do the dirtier "Grimm version" of fairy tales serve as better teaching tools than the Disney or "Clean" versions of fairy tales?
[removed] | [
0.04580579325556755,
-0.017046691849827766,
0.11991047859191895,
0.07883260399103165,
0.03372218459844589,
-0.059301041066646576,
-0.09115955978631973,
-0.009547113440930843,
0.04996876418590546,
-0.013143269345164299,
-0.052031248807907104,
0.11693676561117172,
-0.08008544147014618,
0.040... | |
1cmakw | Tumblr. What is it? How does it work? Why is it so popular? | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"c9hvyhv"
],
"text": [
"Tumblr is a blogging platform. It's typically best for short-form post. Think of it as an in between Twitter and a traditional blog. \n\nTumblr essentially allows you to post text, photos, videos, etc. It also makes it very easy to share content between blogs. For instance if you like a particular photo you can \"reblog\" the post, with credit, to your blog. The entire process is pretty easy to get a hang of if you are just starting out yet still offers the ability to professionally blog easily. \n\nTumblr became popular with youth and this popularity gradually led the platform to be adopted by journalists, artists, and other companies as a way to spread their content easily."
],
"score": [
21
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | Tumblr. What is it? How does it work? Why is it so popular?
| [
-0.028873590752482414,
-0.10976941883563995,
-0.0009800203843042254,
0.03401818498969078,
0.04968919977545738,
-0.03852151706814766,
0.05400073528289795,
0.012626027688384056,
0.06156599149107933,
0.005544946063309908,
0.02380003221333027,
0.08305800706148148,
0.007085250690579414,
-0.0470... | ||
3nyhhp | The Geneva convention, who it applies to and when it may not apply to someone. | It applies to countries at war, right? But what about in non war conflicts?
I heard that some of the more recent "wars" were in fact skirmishes and how does it apply to groups like isis who clearly wouldn't follow it, if you're actually in a war and against someone who doesn't follow it do you have to follow it? | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"cvsdv70"
],
"text": [
"It applies to those countries that signed the treaty. IS didn't exist back then so they didn't sign it. It's a treaty, not a law. That means the signed countries put up their hands and agreed they would do the commonly agreed on part of treating civilians and POWs. A rogue military member of that country doesn't have to follow those rules, cause he never signed."
],
"score": [
2
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | The Geneva convention, who it applies to and when it may not apply to someone.
It applies to countries at war, right? But what about in non war conflicts? I heard that some of the more recent "wars" were in fact skirmishes and how does it apply to groups like isis who clearly wouldn't follow it, if you're actually in a war and against someone who doesn't follow it do you have to follow it? | [
-0.024120502173900604,
0.0011619763681665063,
-0.027332881465554237,
-0.10931502282619476,
-0.027492985129356384,
0.07658778876066208,
-0.021200647577643394,
-0.06990793347358704,
0.042786214500665665,
0.03773663938045502,
0.002255564322695136,
0.03323432430624962,
-0.0017198356799781322,
... | |
7c90cb | in places where doctors can prescribe marijuana for medicinal purposes, how do they get dosage and frequency correct considering the variety and efficacy of all the strains of the drug? | [removed] | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dpo1znz",
"dpo1zwh",
"dpo3vx2",
"dpo3l93",
"dpo43lx",
"dpo4ma3",
"dpo3q4v",
"dpo4ued",
"dpo5s9u",
"dpo52t3",
"dpo3xmh",
"dpo31nr",
"dpo5a9z",
"dpo5cs6",
"dpo46x8"
],
"text": [
"It is not prescribed the same as other medications. The doctor doesn't fill out a prescription and have you take it to the pharmacy. Instead, they simply give you a \"recommendation\" granting you access to possess it legally. It is mostly on the patient from that point to make decisions about which strains may alleviate their symptoms.\n\nThe Doctors and staff at the dispensary can provide some insight as to which strains may be more effective and what dosage or method of intake might be best, but a lot of it is research and first hand testing to see what works best for the individual.",
"They don't prescribe you an amount or a strain or anything like that. They recommend that, if you don't have experience with marijuana, you start out with 5-10 mg of an edible, since edibles both allow you to control your dose more and have a longer, flatter high (I refer to it has being 'medium' rather than 'high'). They also suggest the amount based upon the persons gender, height and weight, and that you do it with someone, again, if this is their first time. \n\nHowever, this is when you are in talking to the doctor. Once you have your prescription and go to the store to actually buy it, chances are, your first time, you're going to spend a good 10-15 minutes talking to the purveyor about different strains and what you want. Assuming you are going for the flower (or bud) rather than edibles, they're going to talk to you about different THC levels and strains and try to find what works best for what you want. Each person is different in both how they react and what they want out of it, because one of the benefits to it is that the experience and medicinal qualities can be very personalized.",
"My mom went to a dispensary recommended by her cancer doc, that specializes in managing pain. They extract oils and mix to specifications for the chemicals known to alleviate pain, the first one she got had to be tweaked. I assume they QC the amounts using standard lab equipment. She started with one drop and then 2, to get the dosage right.\n\nPrior to that, she was on opioids which were making her even more nauseous and not helping with pain. MM gave her a quality of life in her last years and months, \n\nI can’t believe there is even and debate to give patents access especially with how bad opioids are.",
"Doses aren't as important because you can't OD on it. If you take too much you'll just get hungry and pass out.",
"That's a huge growth area -- scientific research on dosage and strains. I watched a great lecture series on medical marijuana last spring -- early research at a Canadian hospital shows that one puff of a measured dose about the volume of the white of a fingernail gets you pain relief without the high. \n\nVideo is online, not sure I'm allowed to link it.\n\nIn Canada, the industry feels like when we were in the early years of the dot com boom. So much energy, so many needs for growing a brand new industry.",
"Cannabis is still a schedule I controlled substance, and as such, cannot be 'prescribed.' (Drugs like Marinol notwithstanding, but that's a completely different conversation.)\n\nIn states where medical cannabis is legal, doctors can give you a 'recommendation' to use medical cannabis, which you present to a dispensary or delivery service to buy whatever you want.",
"LOL, no. In Cali at least, they just give you permission to buy MJ. That's it. It's up to you to figure out the dosage, type (edibles -vs- smoked), etc.",
"When i got my prescription, i told them I'm used to smoking like 1/5 of a gram a day, and had been using regularly for a few months. I also described some issues with anxiety that i have.\n\nGiven this information (the \"dosage\" i said i used was a total estimate, probably close but in no way measured), the doc prescribed be 15g/month (equivalent to 0.5g/day, the minimum amount), and limited my THC % to around 10% (I'd rather keep this vague, lol). Then i had to register with a licensed grower through their website (i actually filled a form in the dr office), and after a few days i got an email from the supplier/grower saying i was registered and able to start purchasing.\n\nTo get the cannabis, i peruse the company's website and buy what i want. This company sells cannabis in packages of 5g, so i can basically buy 3 different strains a month, sampling what I'd like. I was disappointed that i didn't get more insight into using the stuff as medicine, but i love having legit weed with fancy packaging. Also, i ordered something that was above my THC limit the other day, and actually received it, so maybe the Dr didn't properly set the limit. \n\nHope that made sense!",
"[This chart](_URL_0_) is useful. The issue of testing is mute. No FDA testing means no verifiable results. I use two cannabis products, neither of which is psychoactive. I use CBD oil (vaped) for a seizure disorder, and a topical THC lotion for pain secondary to arthritis. Dosing on the oil is time specific. The lotion is as needed. My Neurologist and I had a substantive conversation about cannabis as an adjunct. She had no objections. She did ask that I not smoke. Drs. will not recommend you smoke, anything.\n Cannabis has two orders(?) sativa and indica. The thumbnail rule is: if you want to clean the couch use sativa. If you want to sleep on the couch: indica. Dosing is left up to the patient. Since lethality is not an issue, it’s a comfort level issue.",
"Where I live (California), you give a guy $40 and he gives you a one year prescription. That allows you to access to the dispensaries, where they have dozens of strains, hash, oil, edibles, etc. It's all a formality so we can live like ADULTS instead of being treated like children by the government. \nIf you do use it \"medicinally\", then it's a lot like anti-depressants, you have to try different strains and dosages to find what works best for your needs.",
"I go to a MMJ dispensary in Washington, DC, Takoma Wellness Center. Your doctor recommends medical cannabis during a consultation and may offer recommendations but the onus is on the dispensaries to make sure you get what you need. If you get something that is having negative effects, or you're treating something that is best handled with a specific strain or compound, the excellent advisors at TWC will recommend and make note of it for later.",
"They guess.\n\nIn the US, marijuana is still illegal on the federal level, so the FDA's official line is it has no medical benefit. That means there is are no FDA guideline, no data from the FDA approval process, and almost no studies as to its specific effects.\n\nOn the other hand, its history indicates it is a very pharmacologically safe drug, so the health effects of getting the dosage wrong are minimal.",
"It's a recommendation, not a prescription.\n\nAlso there's medicinal use and \"medicinal\" use. If you go to, say, Santa Cruz or Venice Beach, there are loads of docs charging tourists $100+ for marijuana recommendations. It's a major point of tourism in some places.\n\nAnxiety, insomnia, PMS, etc are commonly used \"ailments\" to get a medical marijuana recommendation.",
"Would love to work in Medical MJ industry. Degree in biomed and very passionate/knowledgeable about the strains, effects what to take for which. Alas I live in the UK",
"Aside from what everyone else has said, I'm a bit confused about the logic of the question. If something were to be prescribed, it'd be a known entity beforehand."
],
"score": [
350,
34,
29,
8,
7,
3,
3,
2,
2,
2,
2,
2,
2,
2,
2
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": [
"https://goo.gl/images/jCkrKC"
]
} | train_eli5 | in places where doctors can prescribe marijuana for medicinal purposes, how do they get dosage and frequency correct considering the variety and efficacy of all the strains of the drug?
[removed] | [
0.1335982382297516,
0.013927736319601536,
-0.0346643291413784,
0.0035610634367913008,
-0.145569309592247,
0.005891232285648584,
-0.00040572474244982004,
0.0764361172914505,
0.03335559368133545,
-0.024857593700289726,
0.010720237158238888,
0.05838191881775856,
-0.016990045085549355,
0.04169... | |
sghqi | Why is it okay that I lose so much hair in the shower? | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"c4duasl"
],
"text": [
"Hair grows in a cycle. Every single hair on your body goes throw three phases:\n\n1. Growing. This phase can last weeks, months, or even years. Different hairs spend different amounts of time in this phase, which determines the maximum length of that particular hair. For instance, eyebrows generally spend a shorter amount of time in this phase than pubic hair, and a *much* shorter time than head hair.\n\n2. Disconnecting from the root. This takes a few weeks, during which time the hair becomes \"detached\", and ends up just sitting loosely in the follicle.\n\n3. Resting. During this phase, nothing much happens. The loose hair will easily come out of the follicle if disturbed (such as when washing your hair), or will be pushed out when a new hair starts to grow.\n\nAt any given time, some of your hairs are in that third phase, ready to fall out, which is exactly what you assist in happening when you wash or brush your hair."
],
"score": [
3
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | Why is it okay that I lose so much hair in the shower?
| [
0.048655927181243896,
-0.0331256203353405,
0.08715955913066864,
0.03178320825099945,
0.013209310360252857,
0.030284347012639046,
0.03605742007493973,
0.06729672849178314,
0.019157152622938156,
0.004469656851142645,
0.02348717860877514,
-0.020890560001134872,
0.041370440274477005,
0.0028790... | ||
2kj09z | What is dandruff and how does pyrithione zinc (head and shoulders) stop it? | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"cllvodt",
"clltfwz"
],
"text": [
"Dandruff is typically caused by fungus that grows in the deep part of your hair follicles. When the fungus grows there, your immune system is activated and causes inflammation, which leads to extra skin cells being shed faster than usual.\n\nThe fungus grows in the indented space that your hair sits in (it's called the infundibulum), which is normally filled with natural oil from your scalp. The fungus likes to eat this oil, which is why it lives there. The pyrithione zinc stops the fungus from functioning properly, and it is thought that the different chemicals (specifically surfactants) in your shampoo help the pyrithione zinc to get into the tiny holes your hair sits in. Specifically how this process of getting the pyrithione zinc to the fungus and how it kills the fungus is still an area of active research (see ZPT Mechanism paper).\n\nSources: Wikipedia ([dandruff] (_URL_2_) , [pyrithone zinc](_URL_3_) articles), [ZPT Mechanism](_URL_0_)'\nand also I worked in a lab that studies how shampoo assists the delivery of pyrithione zinc, among other similar problems [Garoff Lab] (_URL_1_)",
"In my experience you have to go with the selenium sulfide shampoos for real results. I'd love someone knowledgeable to chime in to explain why. Also tar shampoos. Which do you use for what condition?"
],
"score": [
20,
2
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": [
"http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2133.2011.10571.x/abstract",
"http://www.cmu.edu/physics/people/faculty/garoff.html",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dandruff",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zinc_pyrithione#Mechanism_of_action"
]
} | train_eli5 | What is dandruff and how does pyrithione zinc (head and shoulders) stop it?
| [
-0.05100483074784279,
0.0574931763112545,
0.0531013086438179,
0.011455398984253407,
0.07789110392332077,
-0.023419123142957687,
0.07243089377880096,
0.08479771763086319,
-0.05490808188915253,
-0.023241892457008362,
-0.013638988137245178,
0.025683000683784485,
0.05578523501753807,
0.0088847... | ||
13d4yy | What the hell is Homestuck and why is it so popular? | I'm afraid to Google it because it seems dumb. | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"c72vt41",
"c72x7t4"
],
"text": [
"Homestuck is a comic story on the internet a lot of people like. [Here's the website.](_URL_0_)",
"A better explanation is [this one by the author](_URL_1_)."
],
"score": [
3,
2
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": [
"http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6",
"http://mspaintadventures.com/scraps2/homestuckKS.html"
]
} | train_eli5 | What the hell is Homestuck and why is it so popular?
I'm afraid to Google it because it seems dumb. | [
-0.004063297528773546,
-0.055343933403491974,
-0.04917686805129051,
0.004672199487686157,
0.06361813843250275,
0.0687052309513092,
0.026986604556441307,
0.031089499592781067,
-0.0682881623506546,
-0.01014592032879591,
-0.09076229482889175,
0.09189313650131226,
-0.011683590710163116,
-0.088... | |
3d24cl | Why is a person whose name isn't known called a John or Jane Doe? | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"ct13oui"
],
"text": [
"This is really interesting, but apparently..\n\n > The John Doe custom was born out of a strange and long since vanished British legal process called an action of ejectment. Under old English common law, the actions landowners could take against squatters or defaulting tenants in court were often too technical and difficult to be of any use. So landlords would instead bring an action of ejectment on behalf of a fictitious tenant against another fictitious person who had allegedly evicted or ousted him. In order to figure out what rights to the property the made-up persons had, the courts first had to establish that the landlord really was the owner of the property, which settled his real reason for action without him having to jump through too many legal hoops.Frequently, landlords named the fictitious parties in their actions John Doe (the plaintiff) and Richard Roe (the defendant), though no one has been able to find the case where these names were first used or figure out why they were picked. The names don’t appear to have any particular relevance, and it might be that the first names were chosen because they were among the most common at the time. \n\n\n[Source] (_URL_0_)\nSomehow, because of this practice identified remains became known as John or Jane Doe from this practice."
],
"score": [
9
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": [
"http://m.mentalfloss.com/article.php?id=29996"
]
} | train_eli5 | Why is a person whose name isn't known called a John or Jane Doe?
| [
-0.03807506710290909,
0.017209786921739578,
0.031137190759181976,
0.047932542860507965,
-0.05281278118491173,
0.015136904083192348,
0.036248449236154556,
-0.00053640321129933,
0.028564393520355225,
0.03489106893539429,
0.00515509769320488,
0.005755116231739521,
-0.005123460665345192,
-0.01... | ||
11nc6n | Xi Jinping | Why does Time magazine think he's the new president who "really matters". | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"c6ny4cg"
],
"text": [
"He'll probably be the leader of China at some point soon.\n\nChina is kind of a big deal."
],
"score": [
7
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | Xi Jinping
Why does Time magazine think he's the new president who "really matters". | [
0.017134033143520355,
-0.00927668996155262,
0.08688943088054657,
-0.030180620029568672,
0.0735032930970192,
-0.006135951261967421,
0.09400046616792679,
-0.0013431214028969407,
0.06692612171173096,
-0.04123358428478241,
0.019287748262286186,
-0.03253345191478729,
-0.04714434593915939,
-0.00... | |
1zmr1w | If I was in the vacuum of space and a small asteroid traveling at 10,000 MPH collided with me, would it go straight through me or would my body speed up and travel with it? | Assuming we are in the black vacuum of space with little to no outside forces having an effect on our body, if an asteroid (the size of a fist) hit us would we not just match it's speed and travel with it since their is no weight/force for the asteroid to push against? | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"cfv04si",
"cfv048x",
"cfv06dc",
"cfv2lgw"
],
"text": [
"It would plow through you in a bloody spectacle of gore and transfer some of its force to your corpse, sending it speeding along the same path.\n\nThere IS a force for the asteroid to push against. As it hits you, your body is going to push back against it with equal force, which will slow it somewhat. Unfortunately for you, a space rock is much denser than meat.",
"Assuming you were not moving relative to the asteroid, it would go through you. Inertial laws work the same in space. That's why there are craters on asteroids.",
"It depends on it's size. If it's small enough (like a pebble) it would pass through you, but probably leave your body a dead lump of meat afterwards due to the energy that was sent into you when it ripped through your body. Your body would end up moving the same direction as the asteroid afterwards, the speed would depend on how massive the asteroid was and how it passed through your body. If it was small enough and hit something like your bone it might not pass through you at all, but that's about 4 times as fast as any bullets get, so it's not going to be good.\n\nIf it were bigger than you you'd just be splattered all over it with some pieces thrown off to the sides. Those pieces would probably be moving pretty quickly though.",
"That asteroid would be a fist-sized bullet. Traveling at 10,000 miles per hour, it'd shoot straight through you and sting quite a bit. You'd have a gaping hole in your chest, a splatter ejecting from the exit wound in your back, and *some* of the kinetic energy would be transferred to your body. The asteroid would slow down *very slightly*, you'd accelerate in the direction that it was traveling.\n\nThis kills the man.\n\nAssuming you were wearing an indestructible vest that would magically protect you from any injury, and further assuming you could hold onto the 10,000 mph asteroid after impact and not be ricocheted off in another direction... yeah, you'd go for a ride."
],
"score": [
10,
7,
6,
6
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | If I was in the vacuum of space and a small asteroid traveling at 10,000 MPH collided with me, would it go straight through me or would my body speed up and travel with it?
Assuming we are in the black vacuum of space with little to no outside forces having an effect on our body, if an asteroid (the size of a fist) hit us would we not just match it's speed and travel with it since their is no weight/force for the asteroid to push against? | [
0.08912357687950134,
0.012625432573258877,
0.010990708135068417,
0.0014174279058352113,
-0.01518035028129816,
-0.047808703035116196,
0.0013616473879665136,
0.023018106818199158,
-0.030684402212500572,
0.03489495813846588,
0.05916937440633774,
0.012567030265927315,
-0.038542862981557846,
-0... | |
443jxf | I'm unemployed and without health insurance, I've yet to file my taxes, can I avoid paying the penalty fee? | [removed] | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"czn5y00",
"czn7pfy",
"czn5son",
"czn6bqd"
],
"text": [
"The requirements are that you **had** health insurance last year, not that you have it right now. You're not going to retroactively change that.\n\nIf you're unemployed, don't hesitate to try signing up for your state's Medicaid program.",
"**Step one, see if you qualify for an exemption:**\n\nYou don't have to pay the fine if you qualify for an exemption. \n\nYou may qualify for an exemption if:\n\n* You’re uninsured for less than 3 months of the year;\n* The lowest-priced coverage available to you would cost more than 8% of your household income;\n* You don’t have to file a tax return because your income is too low;\n* You’re a member of a federally recognized tribe or eligible for services through an Indian Health Services provider;\n* You’re a member of a recognized health care sharing ministry;\n* You’re a member of a recognized religious sect with religious objections to insurance, including Social Security and Medicare;\n* You’re incarcerated, and not awaiting the disposition of charges against you; or\n* You’re not lawfully present in the U.S.\n\nHardship exemptions also apply under certain circumstances, but it doesn't sound like any of them apply to you (assuming you're not homeless, bankrupt, etc).\n\nIf you’ve been granted an exemption, you’ll report that exemption at Part I on form 8965.\n\nIf you’re claiming a coverage exemption because your household income or your gross income is below your filing threshold, you’ll report that at Part II on form 8965. \n\nIf you’re claiming any other kind of coverage exemption, you’ll report that at Part III on form 8965.\n\n**Step two** \n\nPay the fine.\n\n**But what if you refuse to pay the fine?**\n\nIf you absolutely refuse to pay the penalty, what can the government actually do about it?\n\n*There are no real consequences for not paying the penalty.* \n\nThe Affordable Care Act states the penalty \"shall be paid upon notice and demand\" and that the penalty would be \"collected in the same manner as an assessable penalty under subchapter B of chapter 68\" all of which sounds pretty serious. \n\nBut then it goes on to say:\n\n in the case of any failure by a taxpayer to timely pay any penalty imposed by this section, such taxpayer shall not be subject to any criminal prosecution or penalty with respect to such failure.\n\nNo jail time.\n\n the treasury may not file notice of lien with respect to any property of a taxpayer by reason of any failure to pay the penalty imposed by this section.\n\nNo liens.\n\n the treasure may not levy on any such property with respect to such failure.\n\nThey can't garnish your wages or seize your property.\n\nThe ONLY THING they CAN do is to seize any part or all of your refund in order to satisfy your obligation. \n\nTL;DR: Find out if you qualify for an exemption. If not, pay the fine. Or don't, the government has no way of punishing you for not paying.",
"If you made less than a certain amount then you don't need to worry about it. I think the amount is $10,500. _URL_0_ will be able to tell you more.",
"The IRS has a free program for low-income people to help them prepare their taxes, they may be able to help: _URL_3_\n\nAdditionally, this tool can point you to a trained, qualified navigator who may be able to help you find insurance or Medicaid: _URL_3_\n\nCalifornia accepted the Medicaid expansion so you should be qualified. You can find out how to apply for Medi-Cal here: _URL_3_"
],
"score": [
57,
17,
10,
4
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": [
"IRS.gov",
"http://www.dhcs.ca.gov/services/medi-cal/pages/applyformedi-cal.aspx",
"https://localhelp.healthcare.gov/#intro",
"https://www.irs.gov/Individuals/Free-Tax-Return-Preparation-for-You-by-Volunteers"
]
} | train_eli5 | I'm unemployed and without health insurance, I've yet to file my taxes, can I avoid paying the penalty fee?
[removed] | [
-0.006254368461668491,
0.09880360215902328,
-0.002669387264177203,
0.012337126769125462,
0.11530216783285141,
0.05303732678294182,
0.05171167105436325,
-0.012732820585370064,
-0.04356958717107773,
-0.005123848561197519,
0.07447262853384018,
-0.017761005088686943,
-0.0016326864715665579,
-0... | |
ys8ru | what happened to netflix stock since 2011? stock declined 70%. doesnt seem to make their service less awesome. how is their company, which it seems like every one i know subscribes to, decreasing in value? | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"c5yclij"
],
"text": [
"They've lost a lot of customers due to a lot of changes to their service. I know that I, for one, cancelled my service as soon as they jacked up the prices."
],
"score": [
4
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | what happened to netflix stock since 2011? stock declined 70%. doesnt seem to make their service less awesome. how is their company, which it seems like every one i know subscribes to, decreasing in value?
| [
0.04241802170872688,
-0.14706732332706451,
-0.00107645767275244,
0.04467887431383133,
0.029707539826631546,
0.049248408526182175,
0.009762759320437908,
0.0015252709854394197,
0.032366082072257996,
0.019674578681588173,
0.021147137507796288,
0.17078466713428497,
-0.01467172522097826,
-0.017... | ||
10zz07 | Why do the majority of Americans drive automatic cars as opposed to manual (stick shift) cars? | I live in the UK, and most people here and in Europe drive manual cars, largely because they're generally cheaper and gives the driver more control over the car in many ways. They are not hard to learn how to drive either, you could easilly learn it in a day or two. The general impression I get from the media (since I have not been back to America since learning to drive) is that most Americans drive automatics and have never learned how to drive a manual, is there any particular reason(s) for this? | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"c6i3umj",
"c6i30qe",
"c6i3fg7",
"c6i31rs",
"c6i2xkf",
"c6i4u6k",
"c6i8nij",
"c6icqcp",
"c6i9wra",
"c6i96iw",
"c6i8013",
"c6ib5ov",
"c6i85qp",
"c6i8s4c"
],
"text": [
"European here. The question is, why does the majority of us still prefer manual cars? I had a manual car, because it's the norm. But actually, it only adds an unnecessary task. The only reason there are still manual cars is because people want it out of habit, but there's no real reason nor does it make any sense, actually. There's no disadvantage in driving an automatic car.\n\nWe try to automate everything nowadays to make our lives less complicated everywhere else.",
"There simply is much longer distances to drive in the US, compared to Europe. So the impact of the higher fuel-consumption of ATs doesn't strike that hard. Manual transmission is said to be more economic in city-traffic.",
"With newer cars, automatic transmissions are actually faster shifting than their manual counterparts and get better gas mileage, especially with [DCT's](_URL_0_). \n\nThe 0-60 time in the new Mustang GT is actually lower with the automatic transmission and it [gets better gas mileage.](_URL_1_)",
"Availability, especially for someone who is looking at used dealerships/craigslist, 90% of the cars are automatic.",
"As an American, I have no clue. Almost everyone I know drives an automatic, as do I. I was open to the idea, but it's very hard to find a used stick shift car so I had to settle for an auto.\n\nI'm a truck driver so I do know how to drive manual vehicles.",
"It's less fun but more convenient.\n\nI would not drive an automatic for fun. Heck, I raced sportbikes, and a lot of fun is shifting gears after corners.\n\nBut for driving to work and back every day, mindless stuff like that, don't bother me. Just gimme an automatic.",
"Most of it is about habits.\n\nManual transmition cars are more fun to drive and break better but damn in heavy traffic they are a pain.",
"Having driven in the U.S., Europe, and the U.K., I'm certain that it's the driving style on the opposite sides of the pond. Typical traffic in (say) southern England requires a certain ... awareness of the road that is simply lacking in the U.S. Tight tolerances on lane widths, tighter following distances and tighter traffic make everyone drive a little closer to the road than in the U.S. And the U.K. has *civilized* drivers. Paris or, God help you, Rome require levels of concentration matched in North America only by taxi drivers in Tijuana or certain quarters of Boston.\n\nAutomatic transmissions, particularly older ones, separate you a little from the dynamics of the car -- sort of like playing Unreal Tournament (or whatever the cool kids are playing these days) at 15-20 fps instead of 120. It's serviceable, but you don't have that *edge*.",
"I've had both (manual and auto). I prefer manual. Gives me something to do while driving. Now before I get the whole \"what you should be doing is paying attention!\" Line, let me say I do. I've been doing some sort of driving job since 2001. Pizza, flowers, shuttle, and lot attendant. I enjoy driving immensely. Currently, I am at a flower shop in downtown Phoenix. I can spend anywhere from 2 to 7 hours on the road a day, Not including my commute. I would kill for my car to have a manual. Just for that added interaction. To shift when I want it to, not to wait for a preset speed to be reached. More control. Just my feelings on the subject:-)",
"It's because when we go to the US and rent a car in advance we make sure we order a dirt cheap car with manual. When we come to pick up the car, the rental agency tell us that they only have automatics left, which we can't accept. Next, the guy at the rental agency hands over the keys to a nice exotic sports car with manual for the same price. That's why!",
"In the UK there are 2 driving licenses - one for auto and one for manual. If you pass in an auto then you cant drive a manual so there is stigma there for people who only pass on autos. Plus I think its a lot harder to do doughnuts and outrageous wheel spins in an auto which therefore makes them a lot less cool.",
"American manual driver here ...\n\nA.) Control, Control, Control\n\nB.) Ramping onto a highway and working the gears and the clutch is FUN.\n\nC.) Engine braking. \n\nD.) Nothing like dropping into second around a big turn when you are going 45.\n\nIt's about driving, not riding.",
"The older generations know how to. The younger generations don't. I don't how and I don't feel bad about it.\n\nExplaining it to a Five Year Old: Automatics are easier to drive.",
"On the plus side, driving a manual in the US means a much lower chance of [your car being stolen](_URL_2_)."
],
"score": [
25,
16,
12,
11,
6,
3,
3,
2,
2,
2,
2,
2,
2,
2
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": [
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual-clutch_transmission",
"http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/PowerSearch.do?action=noform&path=7&year=2013&make=Ford&model=Mustang&srchtyp=ymm",
"http://www.nj.com/essex/index.ssf/2012/09/teen_carjacks_porsche_cant_dri.html"
]
} | train_eli5 | Why do the majority of Americans drive automatic cars as opposed to manual (stick shift) cars?
I live in the UK, and most people here and in Europe drive manual cars, largely because they're generally cheaper and gives the driver more control over the car in many ways. They are not hard to learn how to drive either, you could easilly learn it in a day or two. The general impression I get from the media (since I have not been back to America since learning to drive) is that most Americans drive automatics and have never learned how to drive a manual, is there any particular reason(s) for this? | [
0.04606537148356438,
-0.06550242006778717,
0.08779056370258331,
0.023948030546307564,
-0.016233807429671288,
0.03207435458898544,
0.032890018075704575,
0.04581202566623688,
0.023499343544244766,
0.05323848873376846,
0.024239253252744675,
0.0701790302991867,
0.01631889119744301,
0.029135938... | |
ulbzv | How did it work out that basically the entire world used Arabic numerals? | It doesn't make sense. It seems too efficient when almost every country speak a different language or uses a different scale for measuring lengths, weights, and volume. Can someone explain to me how this happened? | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"c4whc80",
"c4wdt9n",
"c4wn6ao",
"c4wdowh"
],
"text": [
"The reason is really its efficiency. Not just the idea of \"0\" (although that's the main reason, almost every early number systems missed that), but the fact that we can do multiplications and divisions MUCH easier than with Roman numerals. Also, it just feels natural: we use base 10 system because we have 10 fingers, which we use to count.\n\nThat's the \"why\". About the \"how\", all I know is that a persian mathematician, Muhammad ibn-Musa al-Khwarizmi (the word \"algorithm\" is derived from his name) wrote a book on algebra using the arabic system. And that a Latin translation of this book (which dates from AD 1120) really helped to accelerate the european transition from Roman to Arabic numerals.",
"It is a very practical way of doing math. It started in India but during the Muslim Golden Age spread to basically everywhere. A lot of the math the Arabs discovered just simply can't work practically with any other kind of notation.",
"ELY5: Doing math with Arabic numerals is a lot easier than with the numerals everybody else used before; you can add, subtract, multiply or divide very large numbers very quickly with a bit of memorization (addition and multiplication tables) and fairly simple rules. They were actually invented by the Indians, but Muslims were the civilization that had the most science and the most contact with others around that time, so they're the ones that taught these numerals to the Europeans and Chinese.",
"they were the first to discover the numeral '0' without the zero the romans were having a hard time with maths eg; with number like DCLIIIVIVIV (note: not a real number) so in essence saying 1449 is better than saying MCDXLIX"
],
"score": [
5,
5,
2,
2
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | How did it work out that basically the entire world used Arabic numerals?
It doesn't make sense. It seems too efficient when almost every country speak a different language or uses a different scale for measuring lengths, weights, and volume. Can someone explain to me how this happened? | [
-0.005896422546356916,
0.06486928462982178,
-0.01732410117983818,
-0.04294377937912941,
-0.0916275680065155,
0.005574273876845837,
-0.04441634938120842,
-0.008342611603438854,
0.11338021606206894,
-0.014815953560173512,
0.02713179402053356,
0.010661975480616093,
0.05970320105552673,
0.0278... | |
3rm03z | how the term "cracker" is supposed to be insulting to white people? | To me it seems like people came up with an arbitrary term to simply mean white person. It literally doesn't insult me in the least. | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"cwp8tzq",
"cwp90b9",
"cwp8piy",
"cwp956g"
],
"text": [
"Cracker is derived from a white man who used a whip. These were commonly cattle men who lived in the south (particularly northern Florida) who use the sound of the whip to control the direction of the cattle herds. It is derived from Spanish herding practices. \n\nThere is also a connection to the white enforcers employed by slave owners to keep the slaves in check.",
"Readers are reminded that ELI5 is not a debate subreddit. Please don't post off-topic comments on whether racism is justified, etc.",
"Also crackers are salty and brittle, so like a double whammy. Like i'm gonna crunch you up in some soup cracka. Scary stuff, being white if someone said that to me i'd rip off my shirt and fight them asking something like, \"Do you even lift brah?\" Male dominance rituals are at a pinnacle of complexity.",
"You don't see any BLACK crackers, do you?"
],
"score": [
7,
7,
2,
2
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | how the term "cracker" is supposed to be insulting to white people?
To me it seems like people came up with an arbitrary term to simply mean white person. It literally doesn't insult me in the least. | [
-0.05436906963586807,
-0.026982570067048073,
0.04386989399790764,
0.019410181790590286,
-0.04898429661989212,
-0.08721623569726944,
0.0074027120135724545,
0.05709003284573555,
-0.00172199378721416,
-0.03512313961982727,
-0.016949359327554703,
-0.10425464808940887,
0.015524565242230892,
-0.... | |
88qoi0 | how did a rocket with the computing power of a calculator get people to and from the moon? | I can’t even get my WiFi to work, but we got to the moon with IT that had less computing power than some toasters today. | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dwmj0eq",
"dwmja3o",
"dwmrza9",
"dwmwyk5"
],
"text": [
"Because almost none of the mission was controlled by that computer. It had fairly simple tasks to do. Most of the mission was pre-computed, and further computing was done on the ground at Mission Control.",
"Same question will be asked in the future: how did people get to work when they didn't have self-driving cars?\n\nThe answer is: the rocket had a [control panel](_URL_0_) full of switches that allowed the astronauts to control every detail and performance of the rocket manually, and they piloted themselves to the moon and back. With the help of Houston Control, which basically had additional people monitor various aspects of the rocket, and provide brain power / calculations when necessary.\n\nIt's all brain power, math done by hand, physics calculations done by hand, and training, lots of training. Astronauts were/are usually Air Force or Navy pilots, and they had / go through extra training for things like navigating by the sun / moon (without instruments), or for the various controls that a space shuttle or rocket has, etc.",
"Because the computing power of a calculator is all they needed. \n\nAs a side note you would probably be surprised how \"ancient\" the computers in space and military vehicles are even compared to the old computer you threw out years ago. They are designed to do one thing well, and do it reliably for decades. The less complexities there are in the system, the less chances of something going wrong.",
"Because you didn't need a lot of computer power (by today's standards) to get to the moon. And most of what you needed could be precalculated, spending hours or even weeks to get the numbers you need.\n\nAlso, it is disingenuous to say the \"power of a calculator\". They aren't talking about simple 4-function calculators, they mean programmable calculators, like the venerable [HP 15C](_URL_1_), are sophisticated computers in their own right, and can perform a wide variety of advanced mathematical calculations. That's like saying a computer from the 1990s was less powerful than a telephone. Today's smartphones are advanced computers that just happen to have phones attached to them."
],
"score": [
16,
6,
5,
2
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": [
"https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/98/Apollo_Command_Module_Main_Control_Panel.gif",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP-15C#/media/File:Hp15c.jpg"
]
} | train_eli5 | how did a rocket with the computing power of a calculator get people to and from the moon?
I can’t even get my WiFi to work, but we got to the moon with IT that had less computing power than some toasters today. | [
0.008095060475170612,
0.0461638942360878,
0.005289697553962469,
0.0019396365387365222,
-0.0945124477148056,
-0.08627170324325562,
-0.017695153132081032,
0.018819691613316536,
-0.02852894924581051,
0.016734596341848373,
0.03517156094312668,
0.010188886895775795,
0.024248454719781876,
-0.044... | |
6iliao | Why is it uncomfortable to walk slower (e.g., stuck behind a group on a sidewalk) even if I'm not in a hurry? | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dj747ag",
"dj746oc"
],
"text": [
"because it requires you to alter your natural gait and pace. You have a specific stride and when someone is walking slowly in front of you you have to shorten your stride, which disrupts the fluidity of the automatic coordination that allows you to walk without thinking.",
"More than likely your casual walking speed has been consistant your whole life. As a result it feels 'different' to walk slower.\n\nIt's kind of like going to the same bar as always for your favorite beer, but the bartender tells you they only have coke and rum for the night."
],
"score": [
46,
6
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | Why is it uncomfortable to walk slower (e.g., stuck behind a group on a sidewalk) even if I'm not in a hurry?
| [
0.07868096232414246,
-0.07262683659791946,
0.04826213791966438,
0.10495355725288391,
0.12521591782569885,
-0.009328499436378479,
0.025181172415614128,
-0.057351600378751755,
0.022087914869189262,
-0.03188774734735489,
0.10189715027809143,
0.03362136334180832,
-0.01304441224783659,
-0.00597... | ||
5n8xgh | Why can't my front windshield have those defroster lines my rear window has that defrost the rear window really quickly? | [removed] | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dc9lfkj",
"dc9lgvk",
"dc9lfo1",
"dc9q9td",
"dc9ruct",
"dc9qnnu",
"dc9rgma",
"dc9oi0c",
"dc9ojcn",
"dc9nvb8",
"dc9qt7i",
"dc9q1nz",
"dc9o4hu",
"dc9o2xo",
"dc9pog1",
"dc9obla",
"dc9ojef",
"dc9sx2q",
"dc9pwkp",
"dc9q4se",
"dc9qnsb",
"dc9q3k6",
"dc9p0cn",
"dc9t1yr",
"dc9qxm9",
"dc9qoo9",
"dc9qash",
"dc9phsw",
"dc9smfk",
"dc9tiu0",
"dc9tdf9",
"dc9t6q9",
"dc9t9bh",
"dc9t01v",
"dc9v8k4",
"dc9t7y8",
"dc9s085",
"dc9qu7q",
"dc9rjdy",
"dc9qu3h",
"dc9sf6l",
"dc9qqux",
"dc9sx1e",
"dc9sjek",
"dc9oy4j",
"dc9s88o",
"dc9qjfy",
"dc9qtwf",
"dc9sj2n",
"dc9ujt1",
"dc9sspk",
"dc9pnr4",
"dc9t80x",
"dc9svd6",
"dc9t83m",
"dc9tbmv",
"dc9r66w",
"dc9txrk",
"dc9tvwi"
],
"text": [
"It can, my 2003 Ford Focus has it. The wires are very thin and embedded inside the windscreen. It's a very common option in the UK. \n\nEdit. For those of little faith, Google 'Ford Quickclear Windscreen' and prepare for enlightenment.",
"I did some reading and everything I found said it basically comes down to price. Some companies have made models with front defrost, but it's expensive, and the windshield is expensive to replace. Since front windshields are more likely to get chipped or cracked, they don't put them on cars intended to be inexpensive.",
"Not ELI5, but this [post](_URL_0_) might help you understand.",
"I could be wrong, but didn't Ford get rid of heated windshields because they mess up red light cameras? The metallic coating reflects the flash from the camera and ruins the photo, meaning no ticket or revenue for the city.",
"I drive a 1995 F250 7.3 powerstroke. Use the hot steamy kisses of all the women I pick up to clear my windshield.",
"Ford had this back to 1987 on some Lincolns with cold weather packages. The windshield had a thin transparent sheet of gold sandwiched between the layers. Upon activation the alternator was full fielded and 140 amps of electricity was delivered to heat the windshield. Really effective when it worked, an incredibly expensive clusterfuck when it burned up the alternator, and harness when it didn't work. Need a new windshield...$3K please, and that was if they were available.",
"Automotive HVAC engineer here! My job literally is responsible for windshield clearing. \n\nAs other people have pointed out, there are some cars that use the heated wiring up front. I sat in a Range Rover that had it. They were very, very fine zigzag wires across the windshield that could only be seen when focusing your eyes on it. When driving, it wasn't noticable in the slightest.\n\nSomething that new cars have now is what's called a PTC. This is essentially an electric heater that provides warm air before the engine has had time to warm up the coolant running through the heater core. The air that comes out of it isn't hot, but it's still warm and instantly available on a cold day. Also, most cars offer remote start, which does wonders for clearing the glass in the morning.",
"Some do. Just many thin wires instead of thick ones. It was a 400$ upgrade in my range rover. Curious to see what other vehicles offer it \n\nEdit:dirty and dark picture but here's proof _URL_1_",
"Some cars do have this. Most don't because people in hot places would have no use for this, and it costs money to give this to a car.\n\nFront windshields get broken lots more than rear windows, so they need to be simple and cheap or the hot place people would be mad about their money.\n\nedit: simpler words for the subreddit this post will go to",
"I was about to say \"yeah right, the lines would wreck your visibility and you can just blast the heater on the windshield vent\" but then I realized I have no idea what I'm talking about because my idea of what a car has is based largely off my totally barebones 2000 Corolla.",
"This must be an annual favourite question.\n\nHere are a few more threads of the same question:\n\n[One](_URL_4_)\n\n[Two](_URL_5_)\n\n[Three](_URL_4_)\n\n[Four](_URL_5_)\n\nMy favourite answer is that the windshields would be very expensive to replace.",
"My 2016 Subaru Crosstrek has them where the windshield wipers come to rest. Has made all the difference in the world on cold crappy days.",
"It's already been pointed out that some Ford's have it, and to my knowledge they hold the rights to it by patent or something similar. I remember my dad's 2003 S Type Jaguar had it, because at the time Ford owned Jaguar.",
"This is one of those great simple questions we never think to ask. \n\nIf I were given the choice, I'd want a front windshield defrost before the almost standard rear one. All the vehicles, other than pickup trucks, had rear defrost.",
"And while we're on the topic, why in the world don't we have heated roads by now???",
"You can buy electric 12v windshield heaters or you can put your Sun shade on the outside of the car, they even make ice shades just for this. _URL_6_",
"I'm confused. My front windshield defrosts faster without those lines. By back windshield takes forever.",
"your front windshields after a certain date are made of [glass-plastic-glass laminate](_URL_7_).\n\nThis is likely to have very different thermal characteristics than straight glass windows (like the rear window, which is tempered glass).\n\n\"defrosting\" comes in two forms. The first involves removing condensation build-up on the inside of the windshield. Typically, this requires a heater and blower to get the air temperature up enough to absorb the moisture that humans emit when they exhale. Secondarily, this normalizes the temperature of the windshield with the temperature of the high humidity air being exhaled (which gets mixed with the cool air inside the vehicle to create a lower temperature, super saturated atmosphere that will condense moisture/frost on anything even a few degrees colder).\n\nNext, there's the shit on the outside of the windshield. Frost mostly. Ever try to \"defrost\" a windshield with snow on it? Takes forever. and generally only creates lines between the snow. There's a certain \"ice mass\" that these types of defrosting systems can tolerate and they work on outside frost due to the high thermal conductivity of glass. Throw a layer of plastic laminate between inner and outer glass layers and they probably don't work very well at all.\n\nNow.... if you were able to invent a electrically resistive (in a manner that produced a thermal by-product) plastic that could be used as a laminate for front windshields, I'd bet you could make quite a bit of money selling it to the automotive industry.",
"My friend's Jaguar has them. I figured it was an extra fancy option for luxury cars, but someone mentioned it's a common option in the UK, so maybe Jaguar just has it all the time because British.\n\nThey're extremely thin and rather wavy, unlike the rather thick and grid-shaped wires (most?) cars have in the back window. You don't notice them when you don't look for them, but as a passenger, it can be irritating to stare through them. As a driver I almost never notice them, but when he's driving, I sometimes just look out of the side window to get my eyes off the wobbly lines. Not sure how that works, probably because you're focused on the road for driving reasons, and not just for bored sightseeing.\n\nSo personally, I would say it has two reasons. It's expensive to put in there (or at least more expensive than not putting it in there), so warm regions don't have it for the two to four weeks of snow and frost they have. And it can be a bit distracting, and the front shield should be as clear as possible, so you shouldn't have them if you won't use them.",
"Although it sounds like a nice idea to have electric defrost on our front windshields, I think there are several reasons that it's not done (or commonly done): \n \n 1) The air vents and heater core are already up front, so hot air is a very easy implementation that's already been in place for a long time. \n \n 2) The visible wires across the windshield would be annoying to the driver. The wires in the rear windshield aren't as annoying because you don't look out of the rear as often and don't need to see as much detail... and people are already used to it.\n \n3) It would increase cost and the majority of people (especially in hot weather climates) wouldn't want to pay extra for it.",
"If you live in the us, thank our ridiculous federal government, who has to manage every aspect of our lives. We lose a lot of features on our cars, thanks to the dot and other dumb agencies. Ex: We can't have glass headlights, because god forbid someone might get cut, but it's ok if you can't see 10ft in front of your car at night, since your plastic lights fogged over.",
"It can. It's an option on Mercedes Benz S-class in the United States, for example.\n\nFord owns a patent for this in the UK, where demand for such a feature is much higher due to the climate and thus offering it as a widely available feature across a brand of mass-market, lower-end cars actually makes economic sense. They call it [Quickclear](_URL_8_) and it's been available for decades.",
"It's an eternity to defrost because your starting with the heat. Start with the AC and let it clear up. Once the window is clear switch to heat. It should only take 30 seconds maximum on AC to clean it off. \n\nFogged windows are due to temperature differential, and unless you have electric instant heat your gonna have to do this dance haha.",
"G-Wagons, W463, have them. Be careful what you wish for though, they are pricey when it comes time for replacement! \n\nAnother tech thing that I wish all cars had, electric heaters for instant heat until the engine gets to operating temp. If you have ever driven a diesel in a cold environment you definitely understand!",
"You know what's worse? When it's so hot and humid outside that running the a/c inside the car fogs up the windshield and creates condensation that doesn't go away unless you constantly run the windshield wipers. Fucking Florida...",
"My 2015 \"Cold Weather Package\" Jeep Cherokee has defrost lines in the bottom corners of the windshield for the areas the wipers can't reach. But not the whole windshield.",
"Some cards have it, but they are EXTREMELY expensive to replace in comparison to the regular ones, and your front window is much more likely to get broken.",
"My parents Volvos both have them. \n\nYou can only really see them if you focus on them, otherwise it's unnoticeable.\n\nVERY helpful in freezing rain though:)",
"This thread has turned into a lot of \n\"I have a [car and year] and it [has/doesn't have] a heated windshield\"",
"Just throw hot water on it straight out of the kettle!!! It wont break your windscreen i promise!!!",
"I actually recently got a job at an autoglass company and asked the same exact thing. They're so much more efficient and they work so much faster, especially if you drive a car like me where my heat doesn't really get going until I start driving. \n\nAs has been pointed out, it really just comes down to cost. It's a lot easier to route defroster vents than it is to wire the car to connect to the windshield. I think with all of the new technologies in the glass of newer cars, however, that it may become more common. For sure heated wiper blades are becoming more commonplace, and that requires wiring going to the glass itself, as would the defroster wires.",
"I'm guessing, but if you have a vehicle with the engine in the front (i.e. most vehicles), it's right there and if the vehicle is operating, it's dumping tons of normally-wasted heat out. So it makes sense to use the current approach to defrosting -- pull heat off the engine and blow the hot air onto the windshield, since it's energy that would otherwise be wasted.\n\nIf you did have a vehicle with the engine in the back, it might make a lot of sense to use this approach as well.",
"Just wanted to add one point that i learned recently with my 90s honda civic. Besides using the a/c with the defrost, (newer cars automatically cycle the a/c in the defrost setting), try setting it to fresh air instead of recirculate. Makes a huge difference. I had frost on the inside and was using my scraper on the inside until someone pointed this out to me. Dont need no fancy front defrost!",
"If you really want one, they are available and quite easy to install (if you are mechanically inclined). We've been using them on our race car windshields for years. We bought ours here: _URL_10_. They are meant to be used as a replacement for a rear window, but they work just as well on the front.\n\nYou can see it installed and in action here: _URL_9_",
"The simple answer is cost. It costs money to add in the wires and power to power it. Front windshields are much stronger than rear windows and require extra engineering which most people don't want to pay for.\n\nSource: My 2006 Range Rover has it, but it cost me about $1000 to replace it after I got hit with a rock.",
"I drive an Airbus 320. It and every other airliner has electric windshield heat. It is more for preventing thermal shock and impact resistance but it works very well to defrost/demist the windows. Practically invisible as well. Most folks don't realize it is about minus 50 C up at cruise altitude so it gets a workout even in summer.",
"Turn on the ac and direct it towards the windcreen for me. Seems to work better with heat (ac still dries the air).\n\nWhen going for your driving test, the instructor will ask you to show how to clear the windscreen. If you hesitate for a few seconds you automatically fail and have just wasted $80 or so.",
"My 1996 Dodge Caravan had them, but only on the bottom 6 inches or so of the windshield, right where the washer arms rest. It was a brilliant feature actually. Kept the windshield wipers from getting gunked up with snow and ice.",
"you can just put a heavy piece of material like leather over your windshield at night, maybe with some magnets if you're worried about it getting blown away. This will keep the frost off, take it off and shake it, waa-laah.",
"I've asked a similar question but mostly have the defroster around the wipers so they don't freeze to the windshield. Also, that's the hardest part to scrape, what with the wipers in the way. Even if you flip them up.",
"Already been answered, but yes you can put a defroster element on the front window. This is done in some endurance race cars as it can be lighter than the typical heater system. _URL_11_",
"Some cars have those in the bottom of the front windshield in case the wipers freeze to the window. Wires obstruct the view of the driver. As innocuous as they seem, it's the law.",
"As I warmed up my 15 sentra today I thought the same thing. I'm envious that it's a thing but I'm also already lazy enough that I'm glad it isn't something I have",
"My 2003 Land Rover has heated front windshield. \n\nTiny lines running vertical. Not as fast as the rear but much faster then waiting for the car to warm up and clear the windshield.",
"My 2008 Mercury Mountaineer has the little wavy kind in the front windshield. Like all the other electrical bells and whistles in the vehicle, it works about half the time.",
"For Americans, it looks like the ease of getting a new windshield from insurance is the reason this option isn't a part of the marketplace.\n\n(Boo)",
"I had the option to have an electric front windscreen installed when I got a replacement. And that's on a 2000 Honda civic in the uk",
"The reason is simple, Cars do have it but Ford filed a patent for it so you'll only get them if you buy a Ford",
"It can, Range Rover's have it. Usually it's a more expensive feature, and has to have much smaller lines as to not disrupt visibility.",
"Spread a yoga mat over your windshield at night. Works like a charm. I've been doing this and have avoided an icy windshield.",
"All electric cars have it. Electric Engines dont create warm air as fast as a combustion engines, so wala. The more you know",
"The Range Rover has it too. If you look close enough you can see them and there's a switch to turn it on.",
"They do, but they are really tiny and you gotta get the glass really clean and lean in close to see them",
"Because; as you pointed out, you would have to have the wires throughout the entire windshield which would greatly reduce visibility.",
"The Defender cars I saw officers drive when I was in the military had that kind of defrosting windcreen",
"I have an '10 Land Rover Sport and it has those thin filaments to defrost the front windshield.",
"My parents had a 1990 Toyota Cressida that had heated side view mirrors but not the wind shield.",
"I don't have patience for either, I just scrape the ice off with something like [this](_URL_12_)",
"But think about how expensive replacing the windshield would be. . Maybe that's a factor?"
],
"score": [
1162,
249,
148,
80,
53,
42,
39,
30,
28,
27,
8,
8,
7,
7,
7,
5,
5,
3,
3,
3,
3,
3,
3,
3,
3,
3,
3,
3,
3,
3,
2,
2,
2,
2,
2,
2,
2,
2,
2,
2,
2,
2,
2,
2,
2,
2,
2,
2,
2,
2,
2,
2,
2,
2,
2,
2,
2,
2,
2
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": [
"https://www.reddit.com/r/answers/comments/2o9z52/why_dont_all_windows_on_the_car_have_defroster/",
"http://imgur.com/TlEIdFg",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2p57t3/eli5_why_dont_front_windshields_have_electric/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/answers/comments/2o9z52/why_dont_all_windows_on_the_car_have_defroster/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/NoStupidQuestions/comments/2uf4f3/why_cant_they_put_the_defrosting_wires_from_the/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2o9b4z/eli5_why_do_cars_only_have_defroster_grids_in_the/",
"https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SLfZUqfyfjs",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laminated_glass",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quickclear",
"https://youtu.be/2EUekpiXj9o",
"http://www.frostfighter.com/",
"https://www.trackjunkies.org/topic/4646-windshield-defroster-bimmerworld-frost-fighter/",
"http://l.victorystore.com/gifts/campaign/under_5/images/ice_scraper_blue.jpg"
]
} | train_eli5 | Why can't my front windshield have those defroster lines my rear window has that defrost the rear window really quickly?
[removed] | [
-0.025763636454939842,
0.019291121512651443,
0.049345992505550385,
0.05262139439582825,
0.04870214685797691,
-0.0540972501039505,
-0.01880035735666752,
0.0000575737540202681,
0.11931227147579193,
-0.06706923991441727,
-0.04769032821059227,
0.06566226482391357,
-0.0020996935199946165,
-0.01... | |
3vjo2z | When in a serious accident and/or near death, why does going to sleep lead to death? | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"cxo2leq"
],
"text": [
"Going to sleep doesn't lead to death, but the inability to wake someone or even get them to respond to pain indicates that something is very, very wrong and may lead to death. So when someone is injured you make sure they can still wake up or respond in some way."
],
"score": [
16
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | When in a serious accident and/or near death, why does going to sleep lead to death?
| [
0.09637410938739777,
-0.00653002830222249,
-0.015123945660889149,
0.06795071065425873,
0.12986810505390167,
0.09656696766614914,
-0.01602843776345253,
0.05840545520186424,
0.1359662413597107,
0.04591280221939087,
-0.0659695491194725,
-0.006884465925395489,
0.03323528543114662,
0.0105259791... | ||
nil5y | How has Descartes's "Cogito ergo sum" has been critiqued? | I was taking a philosophy class a few years ago and while studying Descarte, my professor said that his argument is not longer valid, but never went to explain the arguments that "disproved" it. Anyone care to share some insight? | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"c39eqj3",
"c3ggz0s",
"c39fnb1",
"c39ib45"
],
"text": [
"I don't have a good answer, but I would point you in the direction of Eastern philosophy, i.e., schools of thought that question the very nature of existence and what it means to be. \n\nFrom the Tibetan Book of the Dead:\n\"[Decartes] found that he could find nothing at the point of origin of thought. He erroneously asserted that it was because a subject could not be an object. And he then went wild and said that this subject, this one thing he could not find, demonstrate, establish in any way, was the one thing he could be foundationally certain of! He could doubt everything, but he could not doubt that he doubted! So: I think, therefore I am. Only the laziest Buddhist philosopher would make such a statement.\n\n\"Not making his mistake, we look nakedly and see nothing established there as a fixed thing in itself. Remember, this is in our seeing itself. We cannot even see anything substantial behind the seeing of nothing. We turn again and again, whirling around pointing to the point of origin of the pointing. Our looking becomes transparent to itself. Nothing is to be seen as independent or objective. And this transparency spreads infinitely. Descartes was right, in one way: the subjective cannot be found. But, subject gone, how can objects remain substantial? A subjectivity that cannot find itself cannot indulge in finding objects out of a sense of certainty in itself. Subjectivity and objectivity both dissolve under penetrating observation of this kind, and all that remains is free, clear transparency.\"\n\nAgain, this is pretty deep, and I'm not even close to fully understanding it, but I think part of the gist against Decartes' argument lies in his assumption of subject-object duality. To poke holes in his statement you have to question what \"I\" means and question what \"am\" means. \n\nAs a side note, I wouldn't recommend this to a five year old, but certain psychedelic drugs have a way of stimulating the dissolution of things we take for granted like subject-object duality and the concept of self, and while they should not be abused at all, they can be very enlightening.",
"Some (Kant, I think) have objected to the cogito by pointing out that Descartes erroneously assumes it to be exhaustive. Basically, for Descartes the 'I think therefore I am' idea is used to prove that his essence or nature is as a 'thinking thing' (sum res cogitans). Kant's objection is that it is quite possible for one's essence to be something of which we are unaware or even incapable of knowing. \n\nAs far as I am aware though, the logical properties of the cogito are unique in that they are self-confirming and so it will be difficult to refute in its entirety; Descartes must be a thinking thing based on logic alone and so not even Kant can deny this.\n\nPerhaps your professor was referring to Descartes arguments as a whole for his two substance dualism? This is where the cogito leads him and there are a number of flaws in these arguments (such as being unable to explain mental causation, etc).",
"Coming at the problem a different way, Lacanian thought would argue that the *I* isn't a solid base upon which a person can rest. In short, the *I* is a constantly shifting amalgamation of all a person experiences, lacks, thinks, thinks he experiences, thinks he lacks, etc. So to say, \"I am,\" isn't really wrong in this sense. It's just not as useful a base as one would like for it to be.\n\n\nAll that being said, your philosophy teacher was likely referring to something different. I don't believe Lacan figures as prominently in philosophy as he does in cultural studies.",
"You can find a good rundown by searching the latin phrase in Wikipedia. My favorite part:\n\n\"...Kierkegaard argues, the proper logical flow of argument is that existence is already assumed or pre-supposed in order for thinking to occur, not that existence is concluded from that thinking.\"\n\nBasically, \"cogito\" implies the existence of \"I\" with no justification for it."
],
"score": [
6,
2,
2,
2
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | How has Descartes's "Cogito ergo sum" has been critiqued?
I was taking a philosophy class a few years ago and while studying Descarte, my professor said that his argument is not longer valid, but never went to explain the arguments that "disproved" it. Anyone care to share some insight? | [
-0.02530587837100029,
0.05644095689058304,
-0.00840899720788002,
0.03272136673331261,
-0.03055955283343792,
-0.034513916820287704,
0.06723171472549438,
0.054370198398828506,
-0.030343620106577873,
0.0030630158726125956,
-0.0534190908074379,
0.06678684055805206,
-0.07452947646379471,
-0.063... | |
2jaq6v | How are China and India not huge powers in international soccer? | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"cl9yw4p",
"cla0fqq",
"cl9z1gq"
],
"text": [
"In India the most popular sport is cricket, and they are the current Cricket World Cup holders",
"The sport is not big in these countries. Countries like Australlian and New Zealand are rugby country's, India is a cricket nation, USA plays Baseball and American ''Foot''ball (among others ofcourse). \nIn the future when the population wants to play a lot of football they ofcourse have the chance to becomea huge power. \n\nIDK this for sure (and it is not meant as racist at all) but i think that also they body types of the asian (male) population is a factor. Sport like football also require a certain hight and physical prowess. Being tall and strong gives you a certain advantage, ofcourse this does not mean that it is impossible that people without these abilities can become football superstars but it makes it a little bit harder. The same can be seen by Marathon runner where the Ethopians have advantage because of there physical builds, Africans with 100m running and Europeans with cycling.",
"For much the same reason that the USA isn't, either. It's not yet a hugely popular sport in those countries, which means that there is neither the money nor the glamour as incentives to encourage large numbers of young people to take up the game. The young people of China, India, and the USA (amongst others) channel their sporting passions in other directions."
],
"score": [
9,
3,
3
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | How are China and India not huge powers in international soccer?
| [
0.03829753026366234,
0.046632442623376846,
-0.022644467651844025,
0.016129063442349434,
0.07568609714508057,
-0.03858508542180061,
-0.018309688195586205,
-0.00876037310808897,
0.038808904588222504,
0.018499379977583885,
-0.01540349330753088,
-0.05456889420747757,
-0.00703148078173399,
0.05... | ||
oiffl | What is going on in Myanmar? | Aung San Suu Kyi and many other political prisoners were released, Clinton visited... are we seeing real change here? Should we be hopeful?
What started all this? | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"c3hj4ls"
],
"text": [
"Since it's history, Myanmar has been ruled by either totalitarian dictators or, more recently, a military council. In 2007, there were large pro-Democracy protests which resulted in a violent government crackdown and the death of 13 people (Burma VJ, a documentary, can shed more light on this). For some reason or another, the government has decided to promote political freedoms. \n\nMy theory is that they are doing this because Kim Jong-il is dead. The N. Koreans and the Burmese government have had a close relationship, and perhaps with the death of Kim Jong-il, the Burmese are seeking to better their relationship with western nations such as the US. Just a theory."
],
"score": [
8
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | What is going on in Myanmar?
Aung San Suu Kyi and many other political prisoners were released, Clinton visited... are we seeing real change here? Should we be hopeful? What started all this? | [
-0.03748171404004097,
0.024186130613088608,
0.07378390431404114,
0.00024497738922946155,
0.05685797333717346,
0.007236697245389223,
-0.05296829715371132,
-0.06182768568396568,
0.009660638868808746,
0.02324947901070118,
0.08985240757465363,
0.0059283082373440266,
-0.010436655022203922,
0.04... | |
7vrv0l | Why do rockets always look like they're curving/arcing after launch? If their goal is space, wouldn't you want to fly straight up? | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dtuluk9",
"dtum14a",
"dtuly9w",
"dtuzlmd",
"dtum4oa",
"dtv9d0f"
],
"text": [
"You actually want to be curved. If you went straight up, you'd just eventually fall straight down unless you can fly so far that you're out of Earth's gravity.\n\nTo get into orbit, you have to move so fast that when you fall, you then \"miss\" the earth. Orbit is just falling and missing the object you're orbiting (including the earth around the sun).\n\nIf everything orbiting earth were to stop moving, it would all (including the moon) fall into earth.",
"> Why do rockets always look like they're curving/arcing after launch? If their goal is space, wouldn't you want to fly straight up?\n\nJust leaving the atmosphere would put them really high up, but then they would just fall back down. The international space station experiences about 90% of the gravitational force as sea level on Earth.\n\nThe reason it doesn't just fall back down to Earth is that it is in something called \"orbit\". Imagine you have a straight line pointing off into infinity. If you place it tangent to the surface of the Earth it will gradually get more distant as the surface of Earth curves away, which of course it must because Earth is round. Similarly objects in orbit are moving to the side fast enough that the ground falls away from under them at the same speed they fall down toward Earth. This means they are constantly falling but never getting closer to the ground!\n\nSo what rockets are trying to do is get high enough that the atmosphere isn't in the way to slow them down, then move sideways at that high speed to remain in orbit in space. It turns out the best way to do this is a carefully designed curving path.",
"Because they do curve after launch. It is called a [Gravity Turn](_URL_0_) and it's a way of optimizing the ascent.\n\nWhen the rocket takes off straight up, the force of gravity acts directly negatively on it, which slows down its vertical acceleration. By doing this maneuver, it's able to save some fuel and minimize the minimum required thrust of the rocket, and it also uses the gravity to help steer it into a stable orbit.",
"Throw a baseball sideways, and it eventually falls back to the ground.\n\nThrow it sideways really fast, and the Earth curves away from the baseball as fast as the baseball falls towards it.\n\nDo this far enough above the atmosphere, and the baseball makes it all the way around the Earth.\n\nThrow the baseball even faster, and the Earth curves away from the baseball faster than the baseball falls. Thus the baseball will escape Earth's orbit and enter its own orbit around the sun.",
"Going up is easy, but to stay in orbit you need to move *sideways* at 20,000 mph.\n\nEarth's gravity is just as strong in low orbit as it is on the ground, so you have to move so fast that you miss the entire planet when you fall. Do this perpetually and you have a stable orbit.\n\nThe majority of the rocket's power is therefore used to get moving sideways fast enough to stay in orbit.",
"They go straight up at first to leave the atmosphere ASAP, because drag slows them down. As soon as they're high enough they top over to almost horizontal because, to make orbit, the key is travelling sideways very fast. Reaching orbit requires forty times more energy than just flying up to orbital height, so accelerating sideways is the great majority of the work that orbital rockets need to do."
],
"score": [
15,
4,
4,
2,
2,
2
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity_turn"
]
} | train_eli5 | Why do rockets always look like they're curving/arcing after launch? If their goal is space, wouldn't you want to fly straight up?
| [
0.025548869743943214,
-0.023930462077260017,
0.02886238507926464,
-0.03863434121012688,
-0.08470887690782547,
0.031127260997891426,
-0.026386409997940063,
0.05418167635798454,
0.05165664479136467,
0.07007534801959991,
-0.02411656081676483,
0.09660205245018005,
-0.07584450393915176,
-0.0124... | ||
320c57 | How can the surviving Boston Bomber be charged for WMDs by using pressure cookers whilst Iraq had far worst weapons than pressure cookers but was nonetheless cleared of WMD possession? | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"cq6mvxw",
"cq6mxh4",
"cq6t3wj",
"cq6xbmv",
"cq6vkvw",
"cq6s5of",
"cq6y4wd",
"cq6n0py",
"cq6u5or",
"cq6vawk",
"cq6qqbx",
"cq7m3az",
"cq7hitt",
"cq7ru3k",
"cq7jmla"
],
"text": [
"Because the military definition of WMD (biological, chemical and nuclear weapons) is different than the US criminal definition of WMD, which includes conventional bombs as well.",
"The legal definition of weapon of mass destruction is very different depending on the source of the weapon. The criminal charges for someoen in the US are not the same as the ones for another country. \n\nFor instance, A bomb with a propellant charge of more than four ounces is considered a weapon of mass destruction in terrorism cases. But internationally, the definition mainly includes nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.\n\nSo its best to think of the two terms as having nothing to do with each other, despite the similar names.",
"civilians and militaries have different laws they have to follow in regards to weaponry. its like you can't drive around with a 50 caliber M2 mounted on your car, but the military can.",
"Iraq was not really cleared of WMD possession. We knew they had chemical weapons and [found chemical weapons](_URL_0_). What we did not find was any real evidence of nuclear weapon development.\n\n > Those chemical weapons were the ones The US sold them in their fight against Iran\n\nWe did not sell them chemical/biological weapons. In the 80's we certainly made it easier for them to acquire what they needed to make them with the aim of helping them fend of Iran. They bought what they needed and made their own weapons. Was it a bad foreign policy choice? Maybe. But a Persian Gulf region dominated by a militant Iran was probably a bad thing too. Sometimes there are no good choices.",
"Because lawmakers in the US want to keep the populace terrified of terrorists.",
"If you're talking about during the second Iraq invasion, the U.S. didn't even admit what they found because most of it was completely useless crap leftover from the war with Iran. It was bad PR to admit this, so even though soldiers were constantly getting exposed to all the toxic spillage from these caches, no one wanted to bring this up at an international level. When Iraq did use these weapons, against Iran and its own Kurds, I'm guessing no one wanted to defend Iran at an international level and the Kurds were treated as a domestic/human rights issue. \n\nAt this point, does it really matter what the Boston Bomber is charged with? Based on the recent past, I'm surprised he hasn't already been disappeared to Eastern Europe or Guantanamo. Whatever \"conviction and sentencing\" he faced, his fate was decided probably before he was taken into custody.",
"Domestic US law's definition of \"WMD\" is very different from international law's definition of WMD.",
"I believe because it was a domestic bombing, that it was considered to a higher degree. Countries with multi-million dollar missiles may not have WMD's because of scale. Domestic issues are a whole other ball game. the \"street sweeper\" shotgun that hold a large number of shells is considered a destructive device in the US, but if found in the hands of Iraqi militants, is considered a small arm.\n\nSo a homemade bomb in the US, is defined as being a WMD, because of the scale at which it is found.",
"Actually, if you remember, WMDs were eventually located in Iraq.",
"It's because all of the WMD's found were supplied by the U.S. during the Iraq-Iran war. We'd look pretty dumb claiming to invade a country on the premise they have weapons that we sold them.",
"Because he isn't an entire country with political pull and resources other countries may need",
"The funny part was one of the biggest terrorist attacks in US history was the Oklahoma city bombing. This was done with a truck full of fertilizer. Therefore it may be possible to charge someone with possession of WMDs for going to the toilet.\n\nIn all seriousness though, there is little to no valid reason to call pressure cookers WMDs. They are neither nuclear, chemical or biological and that is what the term was supposed to mean.",
"The US is royally insane as is, let alone when someone does anything starting with \"terror\". In the US their all about looks and impressions, so by over charging and acting 'Big white hero-man' like, they keep up the saviour act. Just don't worry about it anyway, if he wants to throw a stone in a lions den, it's his problem.",
"Does that mean America should arrest ourselves for having nukes too? There is a big difference between owning something, and using that something to blow up innocent Americans on our home turf. Far as I'm concerned unless those other countries attack us or intend to do so, we have no business meddling in their affairs.",
"You're assuming that he'll get a fair trial.\n\nThere's your mistake."
],
"score": [
564,
85,
23,
11,
9,
7,
6,
4,
4,
3,
3,
2,
2,
2,
2
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": [
"http://www.businessinsider.com/us-chemical-weapons-iraq-2014-10?IR=T"
]
} | train_eli5 | How can the surviving Boston Bomber be charged for WMDs by using pressure cookers whilst Iraq had far worst weapons than pressure cookers but was nonetheless cleared of WMD possession?
| [
0.02102503553032875,
0.07436463981866837,
-0.005452544428408146,
0.008303106762468815,
0.0645485445857048,
-0.0023940596729516983,
0.0020875968039035797,
-0.037471603602170944,
-0.019388046115636826,
-0.02719949372112751,
0.06529279798269272,
0.015190773643553257,
0.029411114752292633,
0.0... | ||
2txh06 | Why do some electical plugs have 2 prongs that are the same size, some have 2 different sizes and some have 3? (US plugs) | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"co37haq"
],
"text": [
"Okay, so:\n\nTwo prongs (blades) are the minimum you need to make an electric circuit: the 'hot' blade and the 'neutral' blade.\n\nThe 'hot' blade is connected to the house current, and the 'neutral' blade is connected to the return path.\n\nIf the blades are two different sizes, the plug as a whole is said to be 'polarized;' you can only insert it one way. This prevents the hot and neutral from being swapped.\n\nThe third, circular blade situated below and between the other two is 'ground.' This is distinct from 'neutral' in that the ground blade is connected to something that's not the electric circuit, so that if something happens and the electric current gets fouled, it dumps to ground rather than dumping through you or through other things, potentially causing a fire."
],
"score": [
4
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | Why do some electical plugs have 2 prongs that are the same size, some have 2 different sizes and some have 3? (US plugs)
| [
-0.0000059714152484957594,
-0.011458011344075203,
-0.037874847650527954,
-0.007380364928394556,
0.05138880014419556,
-0.000409803818911314,
-0.011009225621819496,
0.023832211270928383,
0.0907343327999115,
-0.0036482890136539936,
0.06022192910313606,
-0.032163865864276886,
0.04719080030918121... | ||
69v5og | Where am I "allowed" to buy a Tesla? | [removed] | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dh9m7s2"
],
"text": [
"You can and the showrooms will help you place an order. \n\nI think a few states are still preventing this direct model still."
],
"score": [
2
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | Where am I "allowed" to buy a Tesla?
[removed] | [
0.032462261617183685,
0.058348480612039566,
0.00045094938832335174,
-0.0011884680716320872,
-0.01021923590451479,
-0.0005212968098931015,
-0.026082228869199753,
0.009145133197307587,
-0.04453471675515175,
-0.018077360466122627,
0.06714385002851486,
0.09175387769937515,
0.06042734533548355,
... | |
jlr00 | What is radiocarbon dating? | How does it work and how do we know how accurate the method is? Why do people still reject its findings? | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"c2d57hv",
"c2d688m"
],
"text": [
"Carbon-14 is a highly unstable element. The **half-life** determines how long it takes for an object's store of an element to naturally dissipate to half. Carbon-14 has a half-life of ~5750 years, so if you find an object with half of the expected C-14, it's 5750 years old. If you find one with 1/4 the expected C-14, then it is 11500 years old, etc.\n\nPeople reject carbon dating because *science is hard* and the world can't be more than 6000 years old, a date that C-14 dating regularly exceeds.",
"Most carbon in the atmosphere is carbon-12. Carbon-14, which is slightly radioactive, is created in the upper atmosphere by cosmic rays. Since both the rate at which carbon-14 decays and the rate at which it's created are constant, the ratio of carbon-12 to carbon-14 in the atmosphere is also constant. Therefore, photosynthetic plants, which get their carbon from the atmosphere and anything that eats them will also have that same ratio.\n\nWhen a plant or animal dies it stops absorbing carbon, so since carbon-14 is slightly radioactive, it decays over time, so with some caveats, the ratio of carbon-14 to carbon-12 in any formerly living matter is a reliable way to tell how long ago it died.\n\nThe caveats I mentioned involve cases where the carbon was taken out of the atmosphere long before the organism died. For example, wood taken from the very center of a 1000 year old redwood tree would read as 1000 years old even if the redwood is still alive. Also, living microbes that eat crude oil would probably read as very, very old.\n\nI believe the accuracy varies based on the age of the material being tested, but in ideal conditions, I think it can be accurate to about 50-100 years.\n\nSome people believe the carbon-14 ratio has changed over time. Other people are wary of contamination by younger sources of carbon. For example, there was concern that the Shroud of Turin was contaminated by pollen or seeds that were introduced some time after Jesus died. It had also been in a fire at some point in history, so there was concern about contamination by ashes, smoke, or other burnt material. For the most part, people who reject carbon dating completely have personal or religious motives."
],
"score": [
4,
3
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | What is radiocarbon dating?
How does it work and how do we know how accurate the method is? Why do people still reject its findings? | [
-0.01493181474506855,
0.09824241697788239,
0.02512280084192753,
0.06096034124493599,
0.03685234487056732,
0.017606738954782486,
-0.08158272504806519,
0.05609607324004173,
0.023745611310005188,
0.029091959819197655,
0.022330880165100098,
-0.0884222462773323,
-0.042214930057525635,
0.0050846... | |
1j49du | How do electric eels, and other animals that give off an electric shock create that shock? | More specifically, where does this electricity come from, and how is it controlled by an animal? | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"cbb0jl9"
],
"text": [
"It comes from specialized muscle cells. Every living cell has a small voltage between the inside and the outside. In muscle cells it's about 0.070 volts (inside negative). In normal muscle cells, the nerve that controls it causes it to lose it's voltage (or even go positive) for about 1/1000th of a second, which triggers a complex cascade of molecular events that cause the muscle to contract. \n\nIn electric fish and eels, there are specially modified muscle cells that don't have the power to contract. These are stacked up in a very orderly way in the electric organ so that they are electrically in series. This analogous to the way that the individual cells of a battery are connected in series to make a larger voltage. The nerve fires all specialized cell at once, and together they make a large voltage pulse. \n\nBonus points: In order for the voltages of the individual \"muscle\" cells to add together properly, the electric organ cells only have the machinery for generating current only on one side. This is different from a regular muscle, in which the machinery for changing the voltage is on all sides of the muscle cells. In regular muscles, then, the voltages don't add together so effectively. Also, in regular muscles, the cells don't all fire at once, but are staggered in time."
],
"score": [
4
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | How do electric eels, and other animals that give off an electric shock create that shock?
More specifically, where does this electricity come from, and how is it controlled by an animal? | [
-0.05040359869599342,
0.024137135595083237,
0.05619724467396736,
0.08296018093824387,
-0.005977670196443796,
-0.011653472669422626,
0.0485132560133934,
0.017512928694486618,
0.0038473124150186777,
0.025345413014292717,
0.0747009888291359,
-0.16252323985099792,
-0.00743632297962904,
0.00676... | |
1qa92h | How is Future Shop Canada or Best Buy Canada benefiting from trading their games for any game? | Future Shop Canada and Best Buy Canada are offering a trade in program that allows you to trade in any game for one of Assassin's Creed IV, Battlefield 4 and Call of Duty Ghosts. Aren't they losing a lot of money? What benefit is there to this? | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"cdas22k"
],
"text": [
"From what I heard it was a vendor funded promotion\n\nSource: I work for said company"
],
"score": [
5
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | How is Future Shop Canada or Best Buy Canada benefiting from trading their games for any game?
Future Shop Canada and Best Buy Canada are offering a trade in program that allows you to trade in any game for one of Assassin's Creed IV, Battlefield 4 and Call of Duty Ghosts. Aren't they losing a lot of money? What benefit is there to this? | [
-0.043371088802814484,
0.009308886714279652,
0.04427992179989815,
-0.0945863202214241,
0.03565791994333267,
0.11262310296297073,
0.042318087071180344,
0.03469643369317055,
0.05249868333339691,
0.08333666622638702,
-0.024740034714341164,
0.06467922031879425,
-0.03187622129917145,
-0.0323892... | |
1n3krb | How can we see milky way in nightsky if we are in it?? | Explain pls | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"ccf25ka",
"ccf2lq3"
],
"text": [
"The same way you can see your house if you are in it. It looks different from if you were looking at it from the outside, but you can still see the walls.",
"The same way you can see your arms with your eyes."
],
"score": [
4,
3
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | How can we see milky way in nightsky if we are in it??
Explain pls | [
0.04273219779133797,
-0.04204351827502251,
0.010434349998831749,
0.003322913311421871,
0.0034223671536892653,
0.0024118602741509676,
0.0017902825493365526,
-0.012251458130776882,
0.07098304480314255,
-0.0033316262997686863,
0.017396559938788414,
-0.06661409139633179,
0.0002389153087278828,
... | |
3v9w2v | So we the UK are now bombing in Syria, where does the extra funding come from for this new front on the war on terror? | I saw somewhere that a bomb can cost £250,000 each | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"cxllq89",
"cxmedyu",
"cxm9875"
],
"text": [
"The funding comes from the budgets that are already set for your military budgets and are gathered by your taxes. This is why you have a military. Why do so many in the UK think this will be some unfunded thing? Do they not teach how taxes and government budgets work in the UK?",
"People often struggle to understand government decisions because, for any amount over 10 million, it just sounds like 'a lot' to our brains.\n\nBritain is going to spend 742 billion pounds this year. So, let's compare that to the income of someone in the middle class in Britain who earns 74 thousand pounds a year. \n\nThe equivalency would be that for every pound that normal person spent, the British government could spend 10 million pounds and have it count as equivalent. So if the British government spends a billion bounds bombing ISIS, that's only equivalent to a middle manager having to spend 100 pounds on bombing ISIS. It's an expense, yeah, but a pretty trivial one.\n\nBy contrast, the British Government spends 230 billion pounds on general welfare, or the equivalent to a manager spending 23,000 pounds. It's not really a comparable expense - bombing ISIS is like buying two bottles of Vodka and hosting a small party compared to the price of renting out a decent flat.",
"Technically those bombs were already bought. And the fuel for the planes and pay for the pilots already in the peacetime patrol budget. They probably just fudge budgets next quarter to pay for the resupply.\n\nIn the US, our military-industrial monster is always resupplying, because not building bombs and helicopter gunships would put people out of work. War is a very lucrative business, and our busted political engine has no desire to change that."
],
"score": [
28,
3,
2
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | So we the UK are now bombing in Syria, where does the extra funding come from for this new front on the war on terror?
I saw somewhere that a bomb can cost £250,000 each | [
0.09076923877000809,
-0.038863010704517365,
0.00017139948613476008,
-0.047471217811107635,
0.07068964838981628,
0.028701363131403923,
0.04566904157400131,
-0.04106948897242546,
0.011975725181400776,
0.06390540301799774,
0.005876079201698303,
-0.004091406706720591,
0.006671658717095852,
-0.... | |
1m2g31 | Why can Charlie Rose speak to Assad directly but Obama can't? | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"cc546ia"
],
"text": [
"You honestly think Obama hasn't talked with Assad?"
],
"score": [
2
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | Why can Charlie Rose speak to Assad directly but Obama can't?
| [
0.005903901532292366,
-0.005077387671917677,
0.021108631044626236,
-0.029028844088315964,
-0.05908536911010742,
0.035073403269052505,
0.017398638650774956,
-0.054377395659685135,
0.026119476184248924,
-0.023123424500226974,
-0.1171131357550621,
0.06025904789566994,
0.03504186123609543,
-0.... | ||
8qqgr8 | Why laughing makes limbs weaker? | When I'm laughing hard and unable to stop, my hands' strength is noticeably lower - it takes significantly more effort to, say, stop someone from tickling me, than when I'm not laughing. Is it common? Why does it happen? | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"e0ld6o5"
],
"text": [
"Really deep breath can cause weakness, or specifically a sudden change in how much oxygen is in the blood. Laughter also releases endorphins, which decreases pain and can relax the body. It could also be an example of [cataplexy ](_URL_1_), the term given to sudden weakness caused my strong emotions. It's associated with narcolepsy, however not everyone who has narcolepsy experiences cataplexy, and not everyone who experiences cataplexy has narcolepsy. There's not a lot of research on this outside of narcolepsy, but I found a NYT article that you can read [**here.**](_URL_0_)"
],
"score": [
16
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": [
"https://www.nytimes.com/1999/09/14/health/how-muscles-can-go-weak-with-laughter.html",
"https://www.narcolepsy.org.uk/resources/cataplexy"
]
} | train_eli5 | Why laughing makes limbs weaker?
When I'm laughing hard and unable to stop, my hands' strength is noticeably lower - it takes significantly more effort to, say, stop someone from tickling me, than when I'm not laughing. Is it common? Why does it happen? | [
0.07954330742359161,
-0.0845106765627861,
0.05253230407834053,
0.04207688197493553,
0.039284758269786835,
-0.079605832695961,
0.10174772143363953,
0.08825600147247314,
0.02157747745513916,
-0.050297632813453674,
-0.009546796791255474,
-0.00238877278752625,
-0.027168281376361847,
0.02175253... | |
4ln17q | If Mars has lower gravity than Earth, how would a martian ocean behave in forms of density and liquidity? | If Mars one day is to become a habitable planet and the long process of terraforming the surface is about to be complete. And the now melting water ice, embedded in the martian soil forms big oceans and lakes that cover huge parts of the marsian surface.
What characteristics will that water have in such a low gravity environment? Will it even stick to the body (make wet), like water does on earth, or will it be too runny? Will the martians require special kinds of ships? Will swimming be save, or even possible? What about waves?
edit: presumable language improvement
edit*: well, thank you for your answers! I'll look into your links. I'm know now water will still be quite wet and swimming will be awesome! I hope this is going to happen one day! | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"d3onr1q",
"d3oo3nq",
"d3owmux"
],
"text": [
"I think you may be confusing if weight is a property of water or of gravity. \n\nFirst, I'll point out that most things can be thought of as a fluid. Most relevant to your question I'll point out gasses and liquids are fluid and can pour over and through each other. [Here, for example, is a video of CO2 being poured out of a bottle](_URL_0_). \n\nNow I'll answer each question individually. \n\nWater will have all the same qualities in the lower gravity that it would in Earth's \"normal gravity.\" It will still be wet, sticky, and more dense than the gasses surrounding it. Because it is more dense, it will settle along the lowest surface it can, just as it does on Earth, forming lakes and oceans and rivers. However, gravity will not pull down as hard, so the sticky-factor will let it hold still on steeper slopes. If you tried to shake it off your hand, though, it will still come off just as easily as on Earth. [Here is a video of a man in space wringing out a wet towel. You can see that the water is still sticky, but there is no gravity to pull it away from the cloth.](_URL_1_) The water is the same, but the force normally acting on it is not there. (That whole video may answer your other questions as well, but I'll continue.\n\nMartian boats will not need to be any different than Earth's. Floating is determined by density, not weight. As long as the ship as a whole is less dense than the water, it will float just as easily. Swimming is the same. \n\nThe biggest difference in Martian water will be that gravity won't be pulling it down as strongly. This means that waves will be bigger and water pressure won't increase at the same pace as on earth when you go deeper. You'd also see water being able to stick to things more, but not because the water has changed in any way; rather because gravity won't be strong enough to pull it down as hard there.",
"First, water making us wet has nothing to do with gravity, and everything to do with how water sticks to itself. Think surface tension, water running down windows, that sort of thing. The water would be wet and form familiar droplets, all of that. It will not be extra runny. We should remember that the molecules composing water, a bunch of H2O molecules, are the same anywhere in the universe. \n\nSecond, I'm going to assume we're in some sort of dome (or \"terraformed\") with regular air pressure we're used to, with the usual air. Basically, I assume that the only difference in this new ocean you ask about is that the gravity is different. \n\nShips will act much the same. This is because a ship stays up by displacing an amount of water that has a weight equal to the weight of the ship. () So here the ship requires less force to stay up, but moving aside the water pushes up less, and the two balance each other out perfectly. \n\nSwimming would be [awesome.](_URL_2_)\n\nI do not know how waves would act on mars. Perhaps without the influence of a moon as big as ours we would not see as many waves. The \"terraforming\" that has happened in our fictitious mars makes predicting weather difficult. As we are now, mars is too cold to support an ocean, so it's difficult to say.",
"Roughly three things would be different.\n\n* Lower air pressure due to gravity would change the boiling point, even if Mars was terraformed to have a significant atmosphere.\n* Lower pressure at depths, so submarines would be more viable.\n* Gravity waves would have a different period. This is because gravity is the 'restoring' force in a wave system for larger waves.\n\n_URL_3_ (Types of wind waves)\n\nThe speed of a wave(C) is equal to square root of ( g L / 2 pi ) where g is gravity and L is the length of the wave. Mars has a surface gravity of 3.711 m/s^2 or about a third of Earth's gravity, so the waves would move about three times slower."
],
"score": [
28,
5,
2
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": [
"https://youtu.be/rPfZg_xh72A?t=56s",
"https://youtu.be/l0D20Pp0WAc?t=27s",
"https://what-if.xkcd.com/124/",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean_surface_wave"
]
} | train_eli5 | If Mars has lower gravity than Earth, how would a martian ocean behave in forms of density and liquidity?
If Mars one day is to become a habitable planet and the long process of terraforming the surface is about to be complete. And the now melting water ice, embedded in the martian soil forms big oceans and lakes that cover huge parts of the marsian surface. What characteristics will that water have in such a low gravity environment? Will it even stick to the body (make wet), like water does on earth, or will it be too runny? Will the martians require special kinds of ships? Will swimming be save, or even possible? What about waves? edit: presumable language improvement edit*: well, thank you for your answers! I'll look into your links. I'm know now water will still be quite wet and swimming will be awesome! I hope this is going to happen one day! | [
-0.004606478847563267,
0.029331153258681297,
0.019360464066267014,
-0.014771740883588791,
0.025785401463508606,
-0.0507417693734169,
-0.0034902121406048536,
-0.013570170849561691,
-0.06691016256809235,
0.0427589938044548,
-0.03284865990281105,
-0.03945554420351982,
0.03188524395227432,
0.0... | |
71u1m5 | How do we know where the borders that distinguish each ocean are, (i.e between Pacific and Atlantic) and how were they distinguished? | Additionally, are there clear indications between two oceans that make them significantly different enough, resulting in why they are identified by two different names? Hope I worded that well enough. | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dndghgs"
],
"text": [
"At the boundaries between the oceans, no, there's no sudden change.\n\nThe technical borders of each ocean are dictated by the International Hydrographic Organization. For example, the boundary between the Atlantic and Indian oceans is defined by the 20E meridian from Africa to Antarctica.\n\nOn a large scale, each ocean has its own properties that make them unique and worth referring to separately. They have their own currents, their own species, etc. Despite that, on a very fine scale, there's no exact point where one becomes the other. The border for the Atlantic/Indian above could just as well be 19E or 21E. 20E is a nice round number and just so happens (coincidentally) to be very close to the southernmost point of Africa, and we had to make the distinction *somewhere*, so that was a good spot."
],
"score": [
4
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | How do we know where the borders that distinguish each ocean are, (i.e between Pacific and Atlantic) and how were they distinguished?
Additionally, are there clear indications between two oceans that make them significantly different enough, resulting in why they are identified by two different names? Hope I worded that well enough. | [
-0.0037837119307368994,
0.02218530885875225,
-0.04013381153345108,
-0.045766670256853104,
0.03372717276215553,
-0.02750600315630436,
-0.04120068624615669,
-0.046224258840084076,
0.06245855987071991,
-0.08953094482421875,
-0.045265790075063705,
-0.10353319346904755,
-0.03647788241505623,
0.... | |
2vs8g6 | Why can I control my breathing, but I also just breathe automatically when not thinking about it? Usually it's one or the other. | I vaguely recall from school that you basically have two types of muscles, involuntary and voluntary. Some things (Heart, stomach, etc...) operate more or less out of our control. I can't stop my own heartbeat or flex my digestive muscles, for example.
And then there's the muscles that control my movements, which I have total control over. My arms and legs don't normally move unless I want them to. Or my bladder, I decide when it's time to go, not my body.
So how do lungs work? I can completely control my breathing whenever I want, but as soon as I stop thinking about it, my body just takes over and I breathe involuntarily.
I understand being able to control my breathing (but not HAVING to do so) is an evolutionary advantage, but it'd be helpful if I had some control over my heartbeat as well and that never evolved. (I know you can calm yourself down and your heartbeat will slow to some extent, but that's not really the same thing)
So what's the deal, why are my lungs special, and how are they different that I kind of get the best of both worlds out of them? | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"cokggbo",
"cokhnq8"
],
"text": [
"Evolution doesn't just give you every ability that could ever help you survive - if it did that, no species would ever die out.\n\nInstead, our ancestors got lucky and developed the abilities that we have today. A few random mutations in a few million years gave us voluntary and involuntary breath control - voluntary ones like holding one's breath whenever we feel the need, and involuntary ones like how babies < 6 months old will instinctively hold their breath in water.\n\nIt would probably be advantageous sometimes to be able to control one's heartbeat. Or one's digestion. Or to be able to consciously spike adrenalin. But since all of this evolutionary stuff depends on random chance in mutations.... they just haven't happened yet.",
"There are specific areas of your brain that are called subconscious somatic motor control centers. Some examples are the red nucleus, the reticular formation, the corpora quadrigemina and several others that I don't recall off the top of my head. These areas of the brain control voluntary actions when you are not actively thinking about them. \n\nThe lungs are the the most obvious example that everyone is aware of, but there are lots of other examples. Here's another one: blinking. You usually do this automatically, but you can also take voluntary control over this and blink more often or more forcefully. Another example is your resting muscle tone. If you're not actively thinking about moving your leg, how is it that the muscles don't just all relax at once? There are areas of your brain that control what muscles are contracted and which ones are relaxed when you are at rest. \n\nTo answer your last question: The reason you have control over your breathing is because it is influenced by the external environment. If you're under water, that's probably not the best time to take a breath, and since you have voluntary control over it, you can hold your breath. Your cardiovascular system is a closed system (it does not contact the external environment), so there is no need for you to have voluntary control over it. There is no reason that you cardiovascular system would EVER need to stop (of it's own accord that is...) momentarily, so you don't need to have voluntary control over it."
],
"score": [
4,
2
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | Why can I control my breathing, but I also just breathe automatically when not thinking about it? Usually it's one or the other.
I vaguely recall from school that you basically have two types of muscles, involuntary and voluntary. Some things (Heart, stomach, etc...) operate more or less out of our control. I can't stop my own heartbeat or flex my digestive muscles, for example. And then there's the muscles that control my movements, which I have total control over. My arms and legs don't normally move unless I want them to. Or my bladder, I decide when it's time to go, not my body. So how do lungs work? I can completely control my breathing whenever I want, but as soon as I stop thinking about it, my body just takes over and I breathe involuntarily. I understand being able to control my breathing (but not HAVING to do so) is an evolutionary advantage, but it'd be helpful if I had some control over my heartbeat as well and that never evolved. (I know you can calm yourself down and your heartbeat will slow to some extent, but that's not really the same thing) So what's the deal, why are my lungs special, and how are they different that I kind of get the best of both worlds out of them? | [
0.03987947478890419,
-0.033157262951135635,
-0.004591108299791813,
0.030906133353710175,
0.036698296666145325,
-0.01497581135481596,
0.0199333056807518,
-0.02046908251941204,
0.06691566854715347,
0.005402599927037954,
-0.050017017871141434,
0.016352619975805283,
-0.025180693715810776,
-0.0... | |
65e7vh | If all the food we eat is broken down into sugar then why can't we just live off eating sugar? | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dg9iy8m",
"dg9iztc"
],
"text": [
"False premise all the food isn't broken down into sugar. Sugar is used as the energy source however the body needs fats, minerals, amino acids and vitamins from the food for other essential body processes other than just for energy.",
"Not all sugars are the same, the one you break down are usually much different than table sugar. Not to mention you also need proteins, vitamins, minerals, fats, etc. Now go brush your teeth."
],
"score": [
10,
9
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | If all the food we eat is broken down into sugar then why can't we just live off eating sugar?
| [
-0.04407598450779915,
-0.035415682941675186,
0.015897737815976143,
0.07526923716068268,
-0.028798338025808334,
0.03824014589190483,
0.04247378557920456,
-0.03619485720992088,
-0.02819770760834217,
0.09271569550037384,
-0.04819086939096451,
0.03332381322979927,
-0.09407364577054977,
-0.0491... | ||
25wb6y | Why is the "www." necessary in a domain? | It only stands for 'world wide web', every single domain name has it and browsers know to add it in if I don't type it in... so what is its use? | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"chldvvd",
"chlc3it",
"chlcwio",
"chliwl3"
],
"text": [
"It's actually not necessary. It's a common misconception, but most sites don't require www. at all. In fact, when it comes to DNS management www. is considered a subdomain of the main address. For example, if I register say, _URL_0_ as a URL, and I pay for DNS Management (Or get my own), I can control all things relating to _URL_0_\n\nPart of that is what I'm going to be talking about, called an A NAME Record. The A NAME record basically tells says that _URL_0_ goes to the IP address x.x.x.x. By default, @._URL_0_ and www._URL_0_ will be pointing to the same IP (@._URL_0_ just means no subdomain, so http://_URL_0_), but if I want to change that IP I have to change both records. Setting up www._URL_0_ is exactly the same as if I were to set up blog._URL_0_. Also, you wouldn't type www.blog._URL_0_. For the most part, www._URL_0_ and _URL_0_ will point to the same place, simply because it's common sense\n\nIn short, there is nothing special or necessary about www. It's the exact same as any other subdomain, and you can leave it off. Why it's considered necessary is probably because it *used* to be back in the 90's or something, when you had to dial into a website rather than just type it into a browser\n\nNote: I didn't use the internet until like '03, and I'm not a full fledged server admin, I just know how to set up websites and have done it myself as part of being a web dev. Someone else might come along to explain it more, but there you go",
"Not every domain has it. For example, Gmail is hosted on _URL_6_ and Google Maps is hosted on _URL_5_\n\n\"www\" is the default *for websites*, so if you don't specify a subdomain, it will usually send you to the same place as www. But websites aren't the whole Internet- mail servers, game servers, network printers, torrents, file shares, and more are all part of the Internet without being part of the world wide web.",
"the URL looks like\n\n > http://www.something._URL_14_/path?param=1\n\nhttp:// - means protocol, which to use to access this URL\n\nwww.something._URL_14_ - is domain.\n\nDomains are built from right to left. The com is top level, then _URL_14_ is it's subdomain, etc.\n\nIt's like folder on your PC - com/example/something/www\n\nNow about www part. When you host a website, you can host other services on same domain. So you have domain \"_URL_12_\". Your website is typically goes to _URL_10_, your file server to _URL_8_, mail to _URL_11_, etc.\n\nBecause most websites are just websites, they are configured to work equally for www._URL_14_ and _URL_14_.",
"It is JUST a convention that is pretty commonly followed. It has history as described by some of the other great posts, but it's really important to note that the near ubiquity of www. is for the most part unnecessary."
],
"score": [
20,
5,
4,
2
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": [
"example.com",
"www.blog.example.com",
"blog.example.com",
"http://example.com",
"www.example.com",
"https://maps.google.com",
"https://mail.google.com",
"example.com",
"ftp.companyname.com",
"www.example.com",
"www.companyname.com",
"smtp.companyname.com",
"companyname.com",
"www.something.example.com",
"http://www.something.example.com/path?param=1"
]
} | train_eli5 | Why is the "www." necessary in a domain?
It only stands for 'world wide web', every single domain name has it and browsers know to add it in if I don't type it in... so what is its use? | [
-0.0006950164679437876,
-0.025533080101013184,
0.008698400110006332,
-0.080837681889534,
-0.03516687825322151,
-0.08608949184417725,
-0.026991838589310646,
0.02070344239473343,
0.13480155169963837,
-0.04105813801288605,
0.01396912056952715,
0.05637334659695625,
0.0038250975776463747,
0.028... | |
25ko34 | How do people make computer generated art? | I have to assume they're using something other than Microsoft paint
Examples:
_URL_0_
_URL_2_
_URL_1_ | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"chi3uyf"
],
"text": [
"CG art in general is made with a wide variety of software packages. packages like Photoshop for 2D and packages like Autodesk Maya, 3DS Max, Zbrush etc for 3d images and the stuff in movies/ video games. I only listed a few, there are many more. If it is something that you're interested in i suggest youtubing something like \"painting in photoshop\" or \"3d modelling\" and there are plenty of examples/tutorials for all of the software used which should answer your question."
],
"score": [
3
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": [
"http://www.deviantart.com/art/Anime-City-Win7-Theme-181552867",
"http://www.deviantart.com/art/Black-Library-Plagues-of-Orath-453984465",
"http://www.deviantart.com/art/Gynoid-Power-On-453562381"
]
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | How do people make computer generated art?
I have to assume they're using something other than Microsoft paint Examples: _URL_0_ _URL_2_ _URL_1_ | [
-0.05793110653758049,
0.016325395554304123,
0.00017252886027563363,
-0.03534534573554993,
0.01700187288224697,
-0.019806331023573875,
-0.022018656134605408,
-0.044414907693862915,
0.00996948592364788,
-0.022079849615693092,
-0.08612679690122604,
-0.01935719884932041,
0.0883554220199585,
-0... | |
2hxqsj | A few years back, all voting machines went from actual paper to computer machines. As such, why do we have to wait for the votes to be "counted" on election night? Shouldn't we know the results as soon as the last poll closes? | Exactly what the title says. Seems to me that the point of switching to computers would be for exactly this purpose--no more waiting around. As soon as the polls close, we should instantly know the new President (or whatever). What am I missing? | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"ckwylfc",
"ckwyn6w",
"ckx0k6z"
],
"text": [
"\"All\"? As off the most recent election, my district is still using paper ballots.",
"Even in precincts where they use computers to collect votes (not mine, we still use paper ballots), they still have to bring the machines back to the elections commissioner's office for the votes to actually be tallied. They aren't network-attached.",
"I always vote on a early voter ballot which is by mail and though its due before elections it seems to take forever to count"
],
"score": [
6,
2,
2
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | A few years back, all voting machines went from actual paper to computer machines. As such, why do we have to wait for the votes to be "counted" on election night? Shouldn't we know the results as soon as the last poll closes?
Exactly what the title says. Seems to me that the point of switching to computers would be for exactly this purpose--no more waiting around. As soon as the polls close, we should instantly know the new President (or whatever). What am I missing? | [
-0.016186345368623734,
-0.04455161094665527,
0.023472143337130547,
0.02184288576245308,
0.03911794349551201,
0.05162251368165016,
-0.038014382123947144,
-0.027779653668403625,
0.15096215903759003,
0.013135374523699284,
-0.03411784768104553,
0.05388742685317993,
0.0222591795027256,
-0.06138... | |
1vuig3 | Why are AM radio frequencies still used for radio? | With a less reliable signal, it seems an entirely redundant form of radio transmission. Why are we/have we been using it for all this time while FM radio is available? | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"cevxh4p",
"cevy2h3",
"cevwfhh"
],
"text": [
"There was a previous post about this that made some good points.\n\n_URL_0_\n\nAlso, I work at an AM talk/news station. I agree AM makes no sense for music stations but they still survive as talk stations. Most are operations that have been around for decades, own the transmitter already, and continue for those historical reasons.\n\nI’m always surprised by how many younger people (by that I mean 30’s and 40’s) listen to my station because they feel we do provide a service they want. \n\nThe thing we do better than anyone is report really local news as it happens. Little stuff that wouldn’t make much of a splash on social media or the internet but that people want to know right now in their daily lives: “why is the road blocked? what are all those cop cars doing in front of my local store? did teachers at my kid’s school vote to go on strike?” Or if it does show up online, it’s usually an news room like mine that’s put the info out there in the first place.\n\nAdd into the mix people driving. Surfing the net for news or even listening to a radio station online may not be an option when behind the wheel. In that case having an AM signal to tune into still has some value.\n\nI could see a future where WiFi blankets city’s like radio signals used to – or everyone has data plans on smart phones or something – and people can stream audio instead of tuning into a radio signal. But I think the product a news radio station produces would still be relevant, just accessed through a different airwave.\n\nSo what I guess I'm saying is -- AM is a dinosaur that exists because of history, but the product is still useful.",
"Because people listen to it. And anywhere people listen, look, or watch, it's possible to place an ad. If advertising pays off and makes sufficient money for both the advertisers and the owners of the medium, the medium will continue to exist.",
"Here in Norway am is not used anymore, and fm is scheduled to go away in about 6 years, we're transitioning to dab and dab+"
],
"score": [
3,
2,
2
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": [
"http://www.reddit.com/r/answers/comments/1fttyh/"
]
} | train_eli5 | Why are AM radio frequencies still used for radio?
With a less reliable signal, it seems an entirely redundant form of radio transmission. Why are we/have we been using it for all this time while FM radio is available? | [
0.05632293224334717,
0.0759243443608284,
-0.04076598957180977,
0.05707278102636337,
0.027946898713707924,
0.02975045144557953,
-0.01748354360461235,
0.07974112778902054,
0.06314493715763092,
0.020709266886115074,
-0.06270293891429901,
0.028449485078454018,
0.06786470860242844,
0.0202827062... | |
3y5z6z | If I were to push my hand against a piece of glass for years, would my hand eventually start to go through it? | Considering glass is a very slow moving liquid, would pushing my hand against it for a long time, eventually cause my hand to start going through it? | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"cyatwgp"
],
"text": [
"Glass as a liquid is a long-standing myth that was recently disproven pretty conclusively. You can read about it here [Using 20-million-year-old amber to test the super-Arrhenius behaviour of glass-forming systems](_URL_0_) if you want all the technical details, but glass is definitely a solid. You might put enough stress on it to break it, but it's not going to flow over you unless there's enough heat to cause it to melt (around 1500 degrees Celsius, well past what your hand would survive)."
],
"score": [
10
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": [
"http://www.nature.com/ncomms/journal/v4/n4/full/ncomms2809.html"
]
} | train_eli5 | If I were to push my hand against a piece of glass for years, would my hand eventually start to go through it?
Considering glass is a very slow moving liquid, would pushing my hand against it for a long time, eventually cause my hand to start going through it? | [
0.04371735453605652,
-0.0616493783891201,
0.024720771238207817,
0.02892545610666275,
-0.01162218488752842,
-0.022379139438271523,
0.06075363606214523,
-0.07755997776985168,
0.007998195476830006,
-0.05497346818447113,
0.006400429643690586,
0.06484899669885635,
-0.008239462040364742,
0.13225... | |
28ywkp | How can we see through paper when grease gets on it? | Over my youth I have always just accepted this phenomenon, that a few splashes of grease magically cut through the paper whilst leaving it completely in tact. Allowing me to read text on the page below etc. Please explain this nonsensical alien technology that is grease. | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"cifsini",
"ciftd84",
"ciftlhi"
],
"text": [
"I don't know if I'm correct but I can give you my input on it.\n\nPaper isn't so much a solid object, but rather a bunch of fibers that have tiny little gaps of air in between the fibers. If you take 2 pieces of copy paper and draw with a sharpie(or something noticeably dark) on one piece and cover it with the other you will be able to see through it somewhat.\n\nNow when grease comes in contact with paper, it fills all those air gaps preventing the light from bouncing and scattering. This allows the light to just pass through it rather than hitting and reflecting off of the fibers.\n\nThe reason it's clearer than, say, spilling water on paper is because grease actually has a refraction index close to that of paper. I only know that from doing 3D rendering and have a little cheat sheet of refraction indexes for common materials.",
"I don't have a good answer either, I just remember that Simpson's episode with I think it was Homer rubbing a piece of fried chicken on the wall and it turned clear...then a bird smashed into the wall.",
"When water or grease contacts paper, it fills all the little air pockets between the paper fibers, so that rather than bouncing light around, it instead acts as a crude lens, ferrying the light through to the other side via the grease medium."
],
"score": [
12,
6,
3
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | How can we see through paper when grease gets on it?
Over my youth I have always just accepted this phenomenon, that a few splashes of grease magically cut through the paper whilst leaving it completely in tact. Allowing me to read text on the page below etc. Please explain this nonsensical alien technology that is grease. | [
-0.08053773641586304,
-0.036623358726501465,
0.08451715856790543,
0.0783969983458519,
0.0369756706058979,
-0.09163405746221542,
0.07431192696094513,
-0.06183909252285957,
0.06883427500724792,
-0.09295456856489182,
-0.002176053822040558,
0.10866352170705795,
-0.04745502397418022,
-0.0169194... | |
1wj2z8 | How does the stock market know the economy is bad? | Ive always wondered this because the market is all computer based so how does a computer interpret a bad economy? | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"cf2fsug"
],
"text": [
"Computers generally have people interfacing with them.\n\nThe stock market is made up of people, computers just make it a lot easier. These people spend literally their entire day crunching through huge amounts of data trying to predict the future. Their computers are running the most advance software they can get trying to see into the future using past data.\n\nThey are surprisingly good at it."
],
"score": [
2
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | How does the stock market know the economy is bad?
Ive always wondered this because the market is all computer based so how does a computer interpret a bad economy? | [
0.04432294890284538,
-0.039343155920505524,
-0.01936415769159794,
0.029594626277685165,
0.015102467499673367,
0.004009810276329517,
0.004199930466711521,
-0.005639608949422836,
0.06682977080345154,
-0.024079881608486176,
-0.043548449873924255,
0.06102330610156059,
0.012572720646858215,
-0.... | |
3vaie1 | Screenshotting HD pics? (Extra in desc.) | So I was wondering, if your on instagram or on the internet, and you find a HD picture, what happens if you screenshot it on a low pixel phone and send the picture to someone? Will the picture still be HD or will it appear low quality because of the phone quality? Ive been trying to know for so long.
EDIT: word | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"cxlr38v",
"cxlqrdi"
],
"text": [
"A screenshot only records what is displayed on screen. And so lets say you are looking at a QHD picture (1440p) on a phone with a resolution of 720p. If you take a screenshot you will notice that new image is only 720p.\n\nIf you wanted to send the image at full quality you would want to save the original image itself and send that, not take a screenshot.",
"Screenshots are captured at or slightly below the resolution of the device, for which they are then stored locally. They are rarely upscaled without intervention from a piece of software/app.\n\nThe easiest way to tell before sending it, is to check the size of the image that is saved."
],
"score": [
2,
2
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | Screenshotting HD pics? (Extra in desc.)
So I was wondering, if your on instagram or on the internet, and you find a HD picture, what happens if you screenshot it on a low pixel phone and send the picture to someone? Will the picture still be HD or will it appear low quality because of the phone quality? Ive been trying to know for so long. EDIT: word | [
-0.0541096106171608,
-0.014966603368520737,
0.06526705622673035,
-0.026170898228883743,
-0.006162017583847046,
-0.09103835374116898,
-0.002966298023238778,
0.0005858414806425571,
0.018359875306487083,
0.03388849273324013,
0.04220989719033241,
0.07782670110464096,
0.11470434814691544,
0.005... | |
1oj515 | Why does tons of company's have a mobile website but a company like Apple don't? | I was wondering this when I was browsing the Apple store on my phone and I found it weird because the majority of their products are mobile devices, and I couldn't find a logical explanation for it. | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"ccsfaer"
],
"text": [
"As mobile browsers become more advanced, dedicated mobile websites are becoming less and less necessary. A tech company is much more likely to build a single website with a fluid layout that functions properly across platforms to maintain the user experience across devices. Before long, mobile websites will be a quaint little antiquity, like guestbooks and counters."
],
"score": [
2
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | Why does tons of company's have a mobile website but a company like Apple don't?
I was wondering this when I was browsing the Apple store on my phone and I found it weird because the majority of their products are mobile devices, and I couldn't find a logical explanation for it. | [
0.00047755398554727435,
-0.028796924278140068,
0.11095825582742691,
-0.04745355248451233,
0.017250817269086838,
-0.05810442939400673,
-0.03381101414561272,
0.010221858508884907,
0.11381157487630844,
-0.03364928439259529,
0.09694721549749374,
0.06620283424854279,
0.045237619429826736,
0.000... | |
24fq6y | Cell phone cloning | What exactly is done to "clone" a cell phone and what is the use of doing so? | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"ch6orl0"
],
"text": [
"The What\n===========\n\nYou used to be able to drive up to the back of a cellphone store and grab their trash which would have tons of printed out orders with ESN numbers (codes that allow your phone to speak on the network) and phone number pairs. You could also order \"chipped\" phones which were modified phones which allowed their EEPROM (think really small disk drive) to be reprogrammed with a new ESN and phone number usually using specialized software and a data-link cable (think USB.) Some modifications allowed you to rotate through up to 50 different pairs using only the controls on the phone's keypad.\n\nIn modern phones I think it just means copying the SIM card.\n\nThe Why\n=========\n\nOne reason is to make free calls. I think this motivation was more popular in the 90's due to the expense of cell phones and cell service at the time.\n\nAnother is anonymity. You could be [tracked/triangulated](_URL_0_) eventually but you presumably wouldn't re-use the same stolen credentials for an extended period of time.\n\nThe technique is also useful in situations where you need to scam a victim but one barrier to pulling off the scam is phone call verification. Common with credit card companies etc."
],
"score": [
2
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": [
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phone_tracking"
]
} | train_eli5 | Cell phone cloning
What exactly is done to "clone" a cell phone and what is the use of doing so? | [
-0.15525615215301514,
0.0470789335668087,
-0.0024717370979487896,
-0.08145498484373093,
-0.03745485469698906,
-0.05957014486193657,
0.02756960317492485,
0.004409747198224068,
0.04238426685333252,
0.0036331454757601023,
0.06648506969213486,
0.043454140424728394,
0.06871340423822403,
-0.0878... | |
792qqr | It seems clear that subatomic particles aren't solid little spheres, what are they? | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"doynwxe",
"doyms9p",
"doz72z8",
"doz7kpu",
"doyxqlm"
],
"text": [
"Bear with me, physicists, this is super ELI5...\n\nSubatomic particles are both an infinitely-small dot, and a spread-out fuzzy cloud representing the chances that this dot will be seen at any given location. But that gives the wrong idea that the dot is the real particle, and the cloud is just a description of it. But in every sense that matters, the \"cloud of maybe\" *is* the particle.\n\nYes this is deeply weird.",
"The current physical model treats elementary particles as 0-dimensional points. We do not know if this is what they truly are, but the math works out.\n\nString Theory is a hypothesis that suggests they may be dimensional strings instead of points, but we lack the ability to test this experimentally.",
"To add to what others have said here, They’re not really anything. They’re points on their corresponding field. The particles themselves aren’t a thing. One way a professor explained it to me is that saying you have the same electron in your body that Einstein had in his brain when he discovered relativity is like saying you sign your name with the same J John Hancock used to sign the Declaration of Independence",
"Pilot wave mechanics (De Broglie-Bohm) is probably the best intuitive model of subatomic particles. \n\nA particle is a pair of things. It is a 3D wave in the electromagnetic-weak field and a little solid sphere (but like infinitely small) that bounces up and down in that wave getting led around by the wavefront. Here is a video that should make everything more intuitive:\n\n_URL_0_\n🎥 Is This What Quantum Mechanics Looks Like? - YouTube",
"What they really are doesn’t matter\n\nWhat matters is what model are we creating. And if that model fits our use to answer a specific set of questions\n\nHarder questions need better models\n\nBut the real thing is left for philosophers"
],
"score": [
84,
15,
5,
3,
2
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": [
"https://youtu.be/WIyTZDHuarQ"
]
} | train_eli5 | It seems clear that subatomic particles aren't solid little spheres, what are they?
| [
0.02120116725564003,
-0.07360932230949402,
-0.00892198458313942,
0.09658536314964294,
-0.0060636987909674644,
-0.020955508574843407,
0.05500665307044983,
0.03898271545767784,
0.015697577968239784,
0.02645278535783291,
-0.006424781400710344,
-0.015229796059429646,
-0.06761058419942856,
0.01... | ||
55098u | Is there a difference between Creative and Fiction writing? | I know that Fiction is more of a genre, but what would that make Creative Writing? It is a question I have come upon while doing a presentation on the subject. | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"d86klxu"
],
"text": [
"There is creative non fiction eg. Bill Bryson and creative journalism, fiction is made up or loosely based on real events or people."
],
"score": [
3
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | Is there a difference between Creative and Fiction writing?
I know that Fiction is more of a genre, but what would that make Creative Writing? It is a question I have come upon while doing a presentation on the subject. | [
-0.003869628766551614,
-0.02624012716114521,
0.04342680051922798,
0.04573988541960716,
0.053393714129924774,
-0.0007073635351844132,
-0.04869789257645607,
0.0061508347280323505,
0.13672032952308655,
0.049378156661987305,
-0.046553660184144974,
0.061292048543691635,
0.014632225967943668,
-0... | |
3le1ui | Why do kids sweat so much when they sleep, even if it's not particularly hot and they aren't under covers? | I babysit a 2 year old and whether I put her down for a nap in her pack and play or she falls asleep watching a movie under the fan, after a few minutes she's already drenched. | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"cv5kpf9"
],
"text": [
"_URL_0_\n\n\nAccording to the article kids sleep more deeply for longer, have immature temperature regulation ability and more sweat glands. If they aren't running a fever and there aren't any other reasons like too many blankets etc, there's not much to worry about. Most likely they'll outgrow it. Unless they are like my husband and drench the sheets every night - even in the winter"
],
"score": [
2
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": [
"http://www.babycenter.com/404_is-it-normal-for-my-preschooler-to-wake-up-drenched-in-sweat_3652519.bc"
]
} | train_eli5 | Why do kids sweat so much when they sleep, even if it's not particularly hot and they aren't under covers?
I babysit a 2 year old and whether I put her down for a nap in her pack and play or she falls asleep watching a movie under the fan, after a few minutes she's already drenched. | [
0.03132839500904083,
0.008986057713627815,
0.05466952547430992,
0.10045528411865234,
0.14547227323055267,
-0.024685081094503403,
0.04780975356698036,
-0.04129648953676224,
0.03256367892026901,
0.054231878370046616,
0.003610209096223116,
-0.11456843465566635,
0.027487630024552345,
0.0809661... | |
7d05wu | Why do french fries taste bad after they’re cold? | [removed] | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dpu19za"
],
"text": [
"Yer not alone in askin', and kind strangers have explained:\n\n1. [ELI5: Why do french fries taste awful if reheated, but something like pizza is comparable whether fresh or reheated? ](_URL_3_)\n1. [ELI5: What is it about french fries that make them taste so bad when reheated compared to other foods like pizza? ](_URL_1_)\n1. [ELI5:Why do fries lose their taste after being refrigerated? ](_URL_4_)\n1. [ELI5:why do french fries, tater-tots, or any other deep fried potato food taste different after being left out or put in the refrigerator? ](_URL_2_)\n1. [ELI5: What is it about french fries in particular that make them nearly impossible to taste good once reheated in the microwave? ](_URL_0_)"
],
"score": [
3
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": [
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4nygy5/eli5_what_is_it_about_french_fries_in_particular/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/66ftp4/eli5_what_is_it_about_french_fries_that_make_them/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2sqj0l/eli5why_do_french_fries_tatertots_or_any_other/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2jlv7x/eli5_why_do_french_fries_taste_awful_if_reheated/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/50i51s/eli5why_do_fries_lose_their_taste_after_being/"
]
} | train_eli5 | Why do french fries taste bad after they’re cold?
[removed] | [
-0.0058680931106209755,
-0.09894845634698868,
0.022090859711170197,
0.035127125680446625,
0.015691928565502167,
-0.06222959980368614,
0.03979754447937012,
0.007909842766821384,
0.09870285540819168,
-0.038284868001937866,
0.01614781655371189,
0.014100459404289722,
0.019978845492005348,
-0.0... | |
3lnl1u | How can I blow and blow and blow my nose and still have snot in there? | I just blew my nose for about three minutes and filled up multiple sheets of Kleenex. It doesn't seem like there is enough room in my sinuses to house such a mass amount of snot. How is this possible? | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"cv7q82i"
],
"text": [
"Your face actually has a lot of holes inside of it called paranasal sinuses. They're useless; they used to serve a function, but we just don't need the extra space for scent receptors anymore. Now they're just cavities that get full of mucus and bacteria, and they're why you can blow your nose and still have so much mucus left."
],
"score": [
3
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | How can I blow and blow and blow my nose and still have snot in there?
I just blew my nose for about three minutes and filled up multiple sheets of Kleenex. It doesn't seem like there is enough room in my sinuses to house such a mass amount of snot. How is this possible? | [
0.12208089977502823,
-0.055762745440006256,
-0.013184279203414917,
-0.029502620920538902,
0.040960703045129776,
-0.019533570855855942,
-0.0030781070236116648,
0.012825430370867252,
0.013628114946186543,
0.03667193278670311,
-0.0299398060888052,
-0.02416541986167431,
0.07737549394369125,
0.... | |
3cdxkp | What makes a pepper hot? | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"csumodn",
"csummkj"
],
"text": [
"There is a chemical in hot peppers that can pass freely through the walls to the cells in your mouth. On the other side of nerves in your mouth, this chemical can trigger the same machinery that makes you feel a certain type of pain.",
"Chili peppers have a chemical called capsacium. It give the peppers their heat, and are fat soluble. So dairy will neutralize the heat better than water."
],
"score": [
3,
2
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | What makes a pepper hot?
| [
-0.06103203073143959,
-0.0943530723452568,
-0.08824180066585541,
0.12398997694253922,
0.04758720472455025,
0.01360338181257248,
0.01830706000328064,
-0.010920573957264423,
-0.011223038658499718,
-0.025561662390828133,
0.09432472288608551,
-0.12443601340055466,
0.05959576368331909,
-0.02374... | ||
33was7 | Why do most animals live less than human beings? | Most animals like dogs, cats, monkeys etc go to heaven at much younger ages compared to humans.
While elephants live to be nearly 65 on average and some turtles can put supercentenarians to shame but this is not the case with most animals.
Even the ones in captivity with the best medical care don't live long. | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"cqozfl7"
],
"text": [
"I'm sure a lot of things contribute to the difference; this is just one\n\nI've heard that animals that take care of their children past their reproductive period tend to live longer. Whether a jaguar lives for 1 or 50 years after it stops bearing children doesn't really matter from evolution's perspective, because both those jaguars pass on the same amount of genes. Meanwhile an old orca, elephant, or human will still care for their young adult children: adult humans who still have parents around benefit, and longevity genes get passed on in the long run. Naked mole rats have kids their whole lives (I'm talking their 80s) and near as we can tell they don't age at all.\n\nbut then you'd expect all social animals to live a bit longer, and lions live 10-15yrs... turtles just lay eggs and leave em..."
],
"score": [
2
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | Why do most animals live less than human beings?
Most animals like dogs, cats, monkeys etc go to heaven at much younger ages compared to humans. While elephants live to be nearly 65 on average and some turtles can put supercentenarians to shame but this is not the case with most animals. Even the ones in captivity with the best medical care don't live long. | [
0.06996482610702515,
0.07472367584705353,
0.04726739227771759,
0.03846130892634392,
0.011187498457729816,
-0.019428301602602005,
-0.056636326014995575,
-0.01290945615619421,
0.06300043314695358,
0.08685208857059479,
0.027097221463918686,
-0.05957483872771263,
0.017810635268688202,
0.030803... | |
90o7py | what do the ratings water resistant devices have mean? | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"e2rwaez",
"e2rwbfr"
],
"text": [
"IP ratings are Dust and Water. The higher the rating, the better the protection.\n\nDust is rated from 1 to 6, one being not dust tight, and 6 is completely airtight.\n\nWater is from 1-8. 1 being not waterproof at all. 8 being completely waterproof. \n\nMost newer cell phones will have a rating of IP at least 54 or above (my phone has an IP rating of 54). The Samsung S8 has an IP rating of 68. \n\nMy phone, protects against solid things larger than 1mm across, and can protect against a light spray from most directions. The S8 is completely dust proof, and water resistant up to 5 meters and for 30 minutes.",
"IP ratings have two numbers. The first is for solid objects such as dust or dirt. The second is for liquid.\n\nThe higher the number the more protection.\n\n[Chart](_URL_0_)"
],
"score": [
2,
2
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": [
"https://www.flexfireleds.com/led-ip-ratings-led-flex-strip-waterproofing-explained-waterproof-v-nonwaterproof-led-strip-lights/"
]
} | train_eli5 | what do the ratings water resistant devices have mean?
| [
-0.07728758454322815,
0.06295929104089737,
0.01843467354774475,
0.033849138766527176,
0.1008196696639061,
0.009542969055473804,
0.030505988746881485,
0.050968896597623825,
-0.0637141615152359,
-0.047484274953603745,
0.01616165041923523,
-0.03778555989265442,
0.061718761920928955,
0.0640106... | ||
1s33sn | If we can control our thoughts and daydreams, why can't we control our dreams? | Example: I can look at someone and imagine having sex with them but I fall asleep and can't control anything. Why is this? | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"cdtewt7",
"cdtenxo"
],
"text": [
"As other posters have said, you *can* control your dreams. You just need to get the skill.\n\nAs to why you normally can't, is because the rational part of your brain (and I think your memory) shut down while you're dreaming. That's why you can dream about being attacked by a blue possum riding a unicycle while you're naked in front of your crush and completely believe it.",
"With practice, some people can. Google \"lucid dreaming\"."
],
"score": [
2,
2
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | If we can control our thoughts and daydreams, why can't we control our dreams?
Example: I can look at someone and imagine having sex with them but I fall asleep and can't control anything. Why is this? | [
0.07166380435228348,
-0.07419233024120331,
0.0016199720557779074,
0.056160420179367065,
0.010254036635160446,
0.08041776716709137,
-0.004674187395721674,
-0.012820406816899776,
0.12979689240455627,
0.0559636615216732,
-0.047420699149370193,
-0.004989031236618757,
-0.01995141990482807,
-0.0... | |
46a08a | Why sometimes does only one nostril get congested at a time? | [removed] | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"d03g1er"
],
"text": [
"The body does this on purpose. When you don't have congestion issues, your body will swell one side of your nose and not the other to cause a difference in the speed at which air is drawn in through each nostril. Some scents are better detected by quick airflow, others are better detected through slower air flow. By swelling one side and not the other, you can detect both types of scents equally as well. \n\nWhen you're congested, though, it magnifies this effect. Your nostrils are equally as congested, but one seems worse than the other."
],
"score": [
2
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | Why sometimes does only one nostril get congested at a time?
[removed] | [
0.06846152245998383,
-0.055580984801054,
0.017335405573248863,
0.0450294204056263,
-0.009024259634315968,
-0.09560009837150574,
-0.0002619147999212146,
0.00616501597687602,
0.0799945741891861,
-0.05755012854933739,
-0.10751862823963165,
0.022022411227226257,
0.014114192686975002,
0.0189415... | |
7iztik | Where does the air that causes an organ to produce sound come from and how is it carried to the pipes? | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dr2mzk3"
],
"text": [
"In the Olden Days, it was provided by a set of [bellows](_URL_3_), that some [assistant](_URL_2_) had to keep pumped to keep the organ supplied with air. \n\nNowadays on most organs, it's done with an electric air compressor, though there are still organs with bellows that exist. There's an organ in a church near me that still has bellows, though there's a compressor too. You can use either to get it to start working, though obviously you can't play and pump at the same time. \n\n*edit* Just noticed I only answered half your question. Hold on and I'll finish up.\n\n*edit2* for some reason I've just noticed somehow the system didn't save the second half of my message. \n\nThere's a [air reservoir](_URL_0_) inside the organ which is basically a box which has a weighted top that can move up and down on a sort of accordion kind of arrangement. \n\nAs the bellows assistant pumps, or the compressor compresses, the top of the reservoir lifts up, and the idea is that while the top of that is floating (not topped out so it can't go any higher and not bottomed out), the organ will be provided with a steady flow of air. This is necessary otherwise the organ will only sound each time the person gives a pump, which obviously will make playing anything decent difficult. \n\nBeyond that there are valves controlled by the keyboards, which allow air to the appropriate pipes. \n\nTo modify the sounds, there are [stops](_URL_1_) which are basically selections to adjust which set of pipes the air goes to (or does not go to).\n\nVolume is controlled using pedals which open or close mechanical shutters to limit how much sound can come out of the pipes. \n\nThat's about it in basic terms. Obviously you could literally write books on the mechanics of pipe organs."
],
"score": [
5
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": [
"http://www.dobsonorgan.com/html/instruments/op85_westhartford/reservoir3.jpg",
"http://www.elycathedral.org/assets/pages/00000033/organ-stops.jpg",
"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/b03Pes5JAm8/hqdefault.jpg",
"http://www.mexicanarchitecture.org/glossary/images/Oaxaca_Tlacochahuaya_SanJeronimo_full/33%20Wedge%20Bellows,%20Restored%20in%201991.jpg"
]
} | train_eli5 | Where does the air that causes an organ to produce sound come from and how is it carried to the pipes?
| [
0.04222370311617851,
-0.03930054232478142,
-0.004567414056509733,
-0.009323976933956146,
-0.05616212263703346,
-0.038163233548402786,
0.07755248248577118,
-0.01549367606639862,
0.025135351344943047,
-0.016634147614240646,
0.00944062601774931,
-0.0618688203394413,
-0.055943965911865234,
-0.... | ||
52k53x | Why Adam Lanza's school and house were torn down? | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"d7ky6ny",
"d7kwata",
"d7kwref"
],
"text": [
"It's not really unheard of for such structures to be torn down. Ariel Castro's house was torn down as a [stipulation to his plea bargain](_URL_0_). It's just a way for those involved or otherwise close to the incident to try and move on.\n\nEdit: Google also blocked out Ariel's house on their street view.. but I don't have a link to it and can't get one at the moment.",
"There's not really any reason for them not to be. No one wanted them anymore, no one was going to stand up and protest the decision to tear them down and a bunch of people wanted them torn down.",
"For the house, it became a creepy kind of tourist attraction, disturbing neighbors. Also tough to sell a house with that kind of history."
],
"score": [
3,
2,
2
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ariel_Castro_kidnappings#House_demolition"
]
} | train_eli5 | Why Adam Lanza's school and house were torn down?
| [
0.020975954830646515,
0.10299267619848251,
0.08810842037200928,
0.003164211055263877,
0.007770588155835867,
0.0179375559091568,
0.03183753788471222,
-0.024426473304629326,
-0.04591025784611702,
0.04776396602392197,
0.027784911915659904,
0.11579810827970505,
-0.029087994247674942,
-0.030889... | ||
3265l7 | Why do people in old recordings from the 50's and 60's sound so different than today? | They have a specific tone of talking, best example is the announcer in this video:
_URL_0_
I haven't seen any modern videos where people talking sounded quite like that. Why? | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"cq88u6s",
"cq88u3q",
"cq88wdq"
],
"text": [
"It's called the Transatlantic accent and it was specifically taught to people in the media - news announcers, actors, etc. Your average person back then wouldn't sound like that.",
"They are using [Mid-Atlantic English](_URL_0_), an accent developed to sound like a vague mix of upscale British and American English.",
"It's called Mid-Atlantic English, it was usually an acquired version of talking, there are still people who do it when a show/movie wants someone to talk that way, like the announced in Legend of Korra."
],
"score": [
15,
6,
5
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": [
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGy2ppViCck&t=1m55s"
]
} | {
"url": [
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid-Atlantic_English"
]
} | train_eli5 | Why do people in old recordings from the 50's and 60's sound so different than today?
They have a specific tone of talking, best example is the announcer in this video: _URL_0_ I haven't seen any modern videos where people talking sounded quite like that. Why? | [
0.01602320186793804,
-0.00841272622346878,
-0.037023402750492096,
-0.10685333609580994,
-0.03206506371498108,
0.0299970880150795,
-0.018308814615011215,
-0.04640072211623192,
0.02104172296822071,
-0.06880341470241547,
-0.03355984389781952,
0.009496275335550308,
-0.030093390494585037,
-0.00... | |
6ttsqj | What performance difference can we see between an athlete that warms up and one that doesnt before a race? | I would like to know specifically about cyclists | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dlnke5q",
"dlnk04j",
"dlon7y3",
"dlnjx5w"
],
"text": [
"In short, warming up brings the body from its natural state of rest closer to its exercising state during training, performing etc. Essentially, it makes the transition from rest to exercise much more efficient as our heart rate is already substantially increased due to warming up. Our blood circulation is subsequently increased, leading to increased delivery of oxygen and removal of metabolic waste products from working muscles. Warming up allows athletes to jump straight into performance without having to worry about the stage known as oxygen deficit, where the body literally needs to take in a greater amount of oxygen to satisfy the increased demand for oxygen by the muscles. \n\nSo to answer your question, a cyclist that has warmed up will be able to cycle harder and faster as their heart rate, blood circulation, respiratory rate and more are already substantially increased. A cyclist that has not warmed up will need an increased amount of oxygen delivered to working muscles to satisfy the sudden increase in demand.",
"The most important reason for doing a warm up is to allow the body to prepare steadily and safely, thus preventing the possibility of an injury during the performance. In case an athlete didn't do the warm up exercise and an injury like a hamstring strain did occur that will obviously affect the performance, otherwise a considerable difference in performance is highly unlikely. Basically it's a matter of safety, gradually increasing the heart rate and circulation thus loosening the joints and increasing blood flow to the muscles. There is also a psychological factor that helps athlete when doing warm-up because it's an opportunity for the athlete to prepare mentally for the performance ahead.",
"Interestingly enough there might not be much of a difference. There was a study done with runners that showed that people who did warm up and stretch before running had the same rate of injuries as those who didn't.",
"Well I'm no expert but I do play hockey. When I myself do not warm up the first half period of my game is warm up, and I only start playing at my full potential around 2/3 of the way through. Also I notice I have significantly less stamina the entire game, and it feels like I didn't get enough sleep. I'm sure It has something to do with circulation perhaps. Warming up also tends to put me into a mental mindset to where I at least feel more awake and focused."
],
"score": [
66,
9,
5,
4
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | What performance difference can we see between an athlete that warms up and one that doesnt before a race?
I would like to know specifically about cyclists | [
0.053455278277397156,
0.0906299352645874,
-0.0330093652009964,
0.0071825445629656315,
-0.002908330177888274,
0.03856559097766876,
-0.011050659231841564,
-0.020847316831350327,
0.028120582923293114,
0.0010218104580417275,
-0.0751013532280922,
-0.0109610166400671,
0.040118180215358734,
0.008... | |
28vedr | Why do you hear a whoosh noise if you put a glass on your ear? | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"cietlbh"
],
"text": [
"Blood flow in your year. I guess you can hear it because it is amplified in the enclosed space of the glass."
],
"score": [
2
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | Why do you hear a whoosh noise if you put a glass on your ear?
| [
0.05496698245406151,
-0.001990664517506957,
0.0213145948946476,
-0.055708251893520355,
-0.0008887713775038719,
-0.06526894122362137,
0.19512216746807098,
-0.0016962700756266713,
0.07866300642490387,
-0.028954269364476204,
0.016107715666294098,
-0.003923946060240269,
-0.0544259175658226,
0.... | ||
4elxr3 | Solar EMP, what are they? | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"d218upe"
],
"text": [
"An EMP is an electromagnetic pulse. It's a burst of EM energy that disrupts electronics. \n\nThe stars also have \"weather\" and storms. A strong solar storm can send a coronal mass ejection (CME) our way. Basically a big cloud of billion tons of plasma. If such a flare up was to hit earth it'd be a massive EMP strike and take out electrical grid on a massive scale when it ionizes the atmosphere. The exitent of the damage an CME can do is based more on how fast it is going rather than the size.\n\nThis is how the sun can cause an EMP on earth."
],
"score": [
2
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | Solar EMP, what are they?
| [
-0.07323534041643143,
0.06506296992301941,
0.03876421973109245,
0.04530331492424011,
0.036681920289993286,
-0.07363150268793106,
0.07998619228601456,
0.024091005325317383,
0.02577461302280426,
0.0045881993137300014,
0.11259093135595322,
-0.03434037044644356,
0.009105196222662926,
-0.045502... | ||
2th956 | What's the difference between vaccines and antibiotics? Why do we worry about the overuse of antibiotics creating super bugs, but worry about the under use of vaccines leading to more disease? | Apologies in advance, I know this is a really simple question for a lot of people. I mean, I sort of understand the differences, it's just one of those things where I would have no idea how to explain it if you asked me. | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"cnz1bbk"
],
"text": [
"Vaccines are composed of damaged or destroyed viruses. The idea is that your immune system will identify the harmless viruses as foreign invaders and add them to its antibody \"library.\"\n\nWhen a fully functional version of that same virus attempts to attack, your immune system will rapidly identify it as hostile and destroy it.\n\nIf you skip the vaccine, you're left vulnerable to some nasty viruses.\n\nAntibiotics are chemicals that injure or kill bacteria (and hopefully not your cells).\n\nHowever, there's always a chance that one badass and/or mutant germ survives the antibiotic assault. When that germ repopulates, the entire population is now genetically identical to the one that just shrugged off our medicines.\n\nOveruse and misuse of antibiotics accelerates the rate that bacteria evolve to defend against those antibiotics, making them harder to kill."
],
"score": [
2
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | What's the difference between vaccines and antibiotics? Why do we worry about the overuse of antibiotics creating super bugs, but worry about the under use of vaccines leading to more disease?
Apologies in advance, I know this is a really simple question for a lot of people. I mean, I sort of understand the differences, it's just one of those things where I would have no idea how to explain it if you asked me. | [
0.013971644453704357,
-0.020658070221543312,
0.010902793146669865,
-0.04281775280833244,
0.05004225671291351,
0.035766150802373886,
0.003301193006336689,
0.13438282907009125,
0.011808915063738823,
0.02044309303164482,
0.0071712457574903965,
0.052022822201251984,
0.10234040766954422,
0.0794... | |
3b5e76 | Why are there still radar dead spots over the oceans, despite all of the modern technology? | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"csj0eje",
"csj0p0d"
],
"text": [
"Radar needs a direct line of sight connecting the tower and the object. The earth is curved so if you go far enough away from a tower you can't see any radar towers. \n\nThe ocean is just too big to have a line of sight to from a tower to every part of it.",
"GPS is a receive technology, so you can use it to find your position but the satellites dont have any information on you. Satellite tracking is used in planes now, but requires a device on board to broadcast to the satellite. This device can be turned off. As in the case of MH 370.\nHence when your transponder is off and you're far enough to sea, basically you can't be seen."
],
"score": [
28,
3
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | Why are there still radar dead spots over the oceans, despite all of the modern technology?
| [
0.006532516796141863,
0.017599904909729958,
0.01695942133665085,
-0.022320903837680817,
0.11710527539253235,
-0.084493488073349,
-0.05550523102283478,
0.009807701222598553,
-0.037255287170410156,
-0.0038030040450394154,
0.005423364695161581,
-0.0081229442730546,
0.018707867711782455,
-0.00... | ||
2phajq | What's the story behind the cops and donuts stereotype? | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"cmwnxvl"
],
"text": [
"So 20-30 years ago pretty much the only places that were open late at night and really early in the morning were donut shops.\n\nDonut shops, which also sell coffee, became a common stop for police officers working late night/early morning shifts because there were few other options avaible.\n\nAdding to that - Donuts are cheap, tasty, packed with sugar and carbs for energy, and can sit in a patrol car for 6 hours and not spoil. In other words - the perfect snack for a cop!\n\nSo that's where the stereotype started, sheer practicality and convenience for men and woman working a job with rough hours."
],
"score": [
17
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | What's the story behind the cops and donuts stereotype?
| [
-0.0065962146036326885,
0.09889945387840271,
0.01737670786678791,
0.02408132143318653,
-0.05051194503903389,
0.017405971884727478,
0.05624374374747276,
0.02775488793849945,
0.01465617399662733,
-0.02951093018054962,
0.08045865595340729,
-0.02151578851044178,
0.06579907238483429,
-0.0254844... | ||
2zhw71 | Why is child abuse such a huge problem among politicians in the UK, what's the backstory? | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"cpj3dip",
"cpj6f92"
],
"text": [
"It has been said that high up politicians have been abusing children for 30 years, using their status as a way to get away with it. The children didn't go to the police out of fear, and when they did, the police didn't believe them. In fact, if the Jimmy Savile scandal didn't bring child abuse into the mainstream media, they may of gotten away with it for longer. tl;dr: The reason its a huge problem is because of how high ranking the MP's were and how long they went undiscovered.",
"We don't have much of a priesthood over here (Thanks Henry!) and they have to work somewhere in a position of trust/power"
],
"score": [
7,
2
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | Why is child abuse such a huge problem among politicians in the UK, what's the backstory?
| [
-0.0011985410237684846,
0.04750950634479523,
0.035265251994132996,
0.04857951030135155,
0.053894344717264175,
0.047091517597436905,
0.003006372367963195,
0.0079367496073246,
-0.0361795537173748,
0.06658782064914703,
0.02567449025809765,
0.01826941967010498,
-0.017011936753988266,
0.0126339... | ||
3sag5c | Why are coding languages so hard to understand? | I don't mean this as in they have a learning curve, I mean in the sense of their intuitiveness.
For example Javascript's regex's:
function toTitleCase(str)
{
return str.replace(/\w\S*/g, function(txt){return txt.charAt(0).toUpperCase() + txt.substr(1).toLowerCase();});
}
| explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"cwvg60g",
"cwvgdoc",
"cwvg58a",
"cwvge3w",
"cwvgszg",
"cwvil87",
"cwvgzrk"
],
"text": [
"First off, because of your formatting. Proper white space and formatting makes code a lot easier to read and understand.\n\nSecondly, because you aren't that trained in it. German and Japanese sentences might seem unintuitive to you for a long time, even after you learn the basics, until you truely become fluent in it and understand its structure and why sentences are formatted the way they are, instead of just trying to say English words in German or Japanese.",
"On the contrary, programming languages have very specific structure that's defined and documented. Much easier to understand than English. You just need to study the rules. Rules in English are just suggestions, rules in Java are completely rigid.",
"The languages were made to be easy to understand without limiting functionality. Many of the functions in your line of code have multiple purposes and can be combined in many many different ways to achieve a whole bunch of different things.\n\nIf i make a language that allows me to write liftThatMug(), it would be great for lifting a mug, but not much else.\n\nIf i instead wrote lift(that.Mug) it allows me a bunch of choices as to what i can do. I can use lift() for many different things.\n\nYou can do many things without having to learn a bunch of additionall words, you just have to figure out what order to put them in.",
"Languages aren't intuitive period. You still have to learn what words mean before you start to understand sentences. And there's a lot going on in this snippet if you don't know what all the functions mean.\n\nFirst, it helps to format the code to make readibility easier:\n\n function toTitleCase(str) { \n return str.replace(/\\w\\S*/g, function(txt){\n return txt.charAt(0).toUpperCase() + txt.substr(1).toLowerCase();\n }); \n }\n\nDo you have any experience with code? What aren't you understanding specifically?",
"regular expressions are just a royal PITA, as is XSLT. Languages are an attempt at making programs human readable and writable, but sometimes shorthand wins the day and programmers get tired of typing, and we end up with alphabet soup.",
"It's not that they're unintuitive, it's just that they're different from the languages that you're used to. \n\nThey're written primarily so that computers can interpret them usefully, and computers \"think\" differently than people. Computers are pretty much entirely deterministic and literal. They will attempt to run the code exactly as you've written it. \n\nWith that in mind, code has to be very specific and precise. Things can't really be left ambiguous or rely on assumptions. Computers aren't good at guessing what you might have meant if the code doesn't work. \n\nSo that's why the syntax is significantly different than human languages. \n\nAs for the content, code tends to be interconnected in a lot of ways, so you're quite often referencing things that are laid out elsewhere. You're referencing functions or variables or whatever that are defined elsewhere in the code. If you're not familiar enough with a language to recognize many of its common references, then it's not going to make much sense.",
"It depends on the language. There are languages out there, such as BASIC, that are designed to be \"easier to read.\" I personally find those irritating. Once you get used to it all of the shorthand is easy to understand and much easier to type.\n\nMostly it is just practice."
],
"score": [
30,
27,
15,
8,
5,
2,
2
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | Why are coding languages so hard to understand?
I don't mean this as in they have a learning curve, I mean in the sense of their intuitiveness. For example Javascript's regex's: function toTitleCase(str) { return str.replace(/\w\S*/g, function(txt){return txt.charAt(0).toUpperCase() + txt.substr(1).toLowerCase();}); } | [
-0.0018331463215872645,
-0.03519231826066971,
0.1088121309876442,
0.06430407613515854,
-0.022789200767874718,
-0.0645100325345993,
-0.03808363899588585,
0.06654106080532074,
0.08160031586885452,
0.04774590954184532,
-0.027978381142020226,
-0.0006541110924445093,
-0.03099914640188217,
-0.00... | |
7fzmco | How come we get all snotty when we cry? | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dqficr6"
],
"text": [
"It's a drainage thing. Tears mix with mucus in the sinuses, and this thins out the mucus and makes it run from your nose."
],
"score": [
7
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | How come we get all snotty when we cry?
| [
0.06193942204117775,
-0.0715838298201561,
0.0704018697142601,
0.0731704980134964,
0.03567921370267868,
0.04362671822309494,
0.055019669234752655,
0.02964826114475727,
0.08346100151538849,
-0.049712784588336945,
-0.05801888182759285,
-0.0459803007543087,
0.046256281435489655,
0.062399417161... | ||
49fcqb | Why is it that Windows needs drivers and installations, but most accessories automatically work on Linux? | I've personally experienced this over and over again for years and as a matter of fact, it's happening right now. For example, right now I have an HP USB webcam. On the Windows half of my dualboot PC, I could not get it to work at all. I installed everything that the HP support said would install the driver, because they didn't simply have a driver for my model of webcam. Nothing worked and still right now, that webcam doesn't work on Windows. I simply rebooted into the Linux half and with no installation or even a dialog, I was able to instantly open a webcam compatible website and see myself. This has happened with various devices like other webcams and wifi adapters. Why is it that Windows can't simply *use the device* like Linux does?
***Note to bot:*** I'm asking ***why.*** Last time I got a computer related curiosity and posted it here, the damn bot pointed me to /r/techsupport. I'm ***not*** asking for help, I'm wondering as to how each OS works and why they operate differently here. | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"d0re64c",
"d0rcsql",
"d0rj74v",
"d0rmo7s",
"d0rnzjk"
],
"text": [
"There could be 2 things going on here:\n\nA) linux has a way to know which webcam you are using just by plugging it, it will look around and find the driver for you. (in my experience its very rare when this happens) (windows updates does this, or at least it should)\n\nB) linux has a generic webcam driver already built in (or will download it for you, for your webcam), so your webcam might not have all the functionality that you would expect (advertised in the webcam box), but just the primary functions.",
"Apparently you are using unusual equipment or obsolete Windows without proper updates.\n\nIn most cases Windows Plug-and-Play system works flawlessly allowing to use popular (and not-so popular) hardware without any hesitation because MS has a huge amount of staff dedicated to usability and performance in exact these cases.",
"Linux is an open source kernel, so there are tons of different people who make drivers, and they all make their way into the kernel. And most distributions create a generic kernel with every possible driver. So generally, if it's supported in linux (excluding graphic cards), it will be supported out of the box. Basically if it's supported in linux that means some guy had to write the driver from scratch, usually with little help from the company, and once it's supported in the kernel, it will be there as part of the codebase forever. \n \nWindows actually does support a lot of stuff out of box, but for some stuff, it may not have the drivers, which is why there's a CD that's included with the hardware. I would suppose it's because Microsoft doesn't include every driver possible.",
"Windows has gotten much better at this. Windows 10 picked up most things without needing to download drivers.\n\nBut basically general drivers have been created but that may not mean the device will have full functionality.\n\nYou can actually notice some of this in say Windows 7 safe mode.",
"I believe Linux has built-in standard drivers for peripherals, while you need to install specific drivers on Windows."
],
"score": [
6,
4,
3,
2,
2
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | Why is it that Windows needs drivers and installations, but most accessories automatically work on Linux?
I've personally experienced this over and over again for years and as a matter of fact, it's happening right now. For example, right now I have an HP USB webcam. On the Windows half of my dualboot PC, I could not get it to work at all. I installed everything that the HP support said would install the driver, because they didn't simply have a driver for my model of webcam. Nothing worked and still right now, that webcam doesn't work on Windows. I simply rebooted into the Linux half and with no installation or even a dialog, I was able to instantly open a webcam compatible website and see myself. This has happened with various devices like other webcams and wifi adapters. Why is it that Windows can't simply *use the device* like Linux does? ***Note to bot:*** I'm asking ***why.*** Last time I got a computer related curiosity and posted it here, the damn bot pointed me to /r/techsupport. I'm ***not*** asking for help, I'm wondering as to how each OS works and why they operate differently here. | [
-0.016949614509940147,
-0.04126637801527977,
0.07710960507392883,
-0.031265679746866226,
0.12114784866571426,
-0.02510431408882141,
0.006638263817876577,
0.06596450507640839,
-0.004252901300787926,
-0.04143013060092926,
0.09523212909698486,
-0.049102649092674255,
-0.07819928228855133,
0.08... | |
yj9bb | How does one go about spending millions of dollars if all of their money is invested in real estate/stocks? | Hypothetically, if I owned around 1000 shares of Google and I wanted to buy a jet, would I sell those stocks and use that money? Wouldn't selling those stocks all of a sudden cause the price to go down? I don't understand the stock market. | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"c5w2pts",
"c5w6gtq"
],
"text": [
"You've hit on a major problem with holding assets instead of cash: *liquidity*. Liquidity refers to your ability to quickly turn your assets into cash. If you own a couple of shares of stock, no big deal - you just sell them for market price, and walk away with the money. \n\nBut if you own, say 10% of a company, that's NOT a liquid investment, for the problem you point out - if you tried to sell that 10% on the open market, the price would tank, and you wouldn't get nearly the value of your shares.\n\nThose people holding large amounts of illiquid assets have to do quite a bit of planning to make sure that they can get ahold of large sums of money when they need to. However, one option they always have is taking on loans - someone may often loan you the money at a reasonable rate, using your illiquid assets as the collateral.",
"> Hypothetically, if I owned around 1000 shares of Google and I wanted to buy a jet, would I sell those stocks and use that money?\n\nMaybe. Or you could borrow money to buy the jet; a lender that sees that you have a ton of liquid assets will tend to be more confident that you can pay back the loan.\n\nBut more generally, good financial planning dictates that you don't tie up all of your money in stock. Your stock market investments should only be money that you don't plan to touch in at least 10 years—or longer. If you're planning to buy a jet next year, you should not be investing that money in stocks. If you'd need to sell a huge portion of your stock portfolio to buy a jet, maybe you shouldn't buy that jet.\n\n > Wouldn't selling those stocks all of a sudden cause the price to go down?\n\nThat depends on how many shares you sell. I think the market will barely notice a sale of 1,000 shares of GOOG; for example, trade volume on GOOG today was 1.76 million shares, and there are about 327 million shares of Google, so your 1,000 shares would be is 0.06% of today's volume and 0.0003% Google's total stock."
],
"score": [
9,
2
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | How does one go about spending millions of dollars if all of their money is invested in real estate/stocks?
Hypothetically, if I owned around 1000 shares of Google and I wanted to buy a jet, would I sell those stocks and use that money? Wouldn't selling those stocks all of a sudden cause the price to go down? I don't understand the stock market. | [
0.0593654103577137,
-0.08818957209587097,
0.0017540330300107598,
0.02746538072824478,
-0.0892276018857956,
-0.03852219879627228,
0.04336286336183548,
-0.0026945583522319794,
-0.01558243203908205,
0.01358958799391985,
0.007151501253247261,
0.0628051683306694,
-0.03547805920243263,
0.0189937... | |
4o1jqi | Why some movies and tv shows have real operating systems and software on computers and smartphones (like Mr. Robot) while others have fake ones? | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"d48t2jm",
"d48u1kz"
],
"text": [
"It really depends what the show wants to focus on. In the case of Mr. Robot, the show is all about hacking, and appeals to a growing demographic of viewers who know enough about computers to detect fakery.\n\nOther shows, such as crime serials, are focusing on the detective work and the character interaction, rather than the technology. \n\nThere's probably also issues with branding. You generally don't want to give away ad placement by using branded equipment in a show, so faked OS's and software can avoid that.",
"In most shows it's more important that a computer screen conveys information to the audience clearly and quickly than it is to look realistic. This is why programs and OSs on TV display giant progress bars that dramatically fill up while an agent is stealing computer files while being chased by the enemy or a fingerprint matching program shows dozens of fingerprints being checked before giving the police a match."
],
"score": [
13,
6
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | Why some movies and tv shows have real operating systems and software on computers and smartphones (like Mr. Robot) while others have fake ones?
| [
-0.09246289730072021,
-0.07322706282138824,
0.021815292537212372,
-0.12258262187242508,
0.05448078736662865,
-0.08978503942489624,
-0.019108541309833527,
0.04290633648633957,
0.13590946793556213,
-0.016433129087090492,
0.045319803059101105,
0.042706556618213654,
0.05075729638338089,
0.0135... | ||
7zid34 | Why was slavery a common practice that occurred in every civilization at some point? | It is considered inhumane by today's standards, but why was it considered to be ok in virtually every civilization at some point, regardless of the ethnic groups/people that happened to be enslaved. | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"duo8znw",
"duo7g20",
"duopxbj",
"duo9rzg",
"duqk8wo",
"duocbhf",
"duo7pi3"
],
"text": [
"Slavery is viewed as immoral today because we are forming a world view where all people have equal value. For most of history, this was not a widely held view, so civilizations believed it perfectly fine to enslave \"lesser\" people.",
"I think before industrialization and automation became a thing it was simply the basic desire not to have to toil from dawn to dusk for your basic needs to be fulfilled. Plus there was the question of what to do with people of other conquered tribes.",
"I think everything changed when philosophers started to come up with the idea of humanism in the late 18th century of Europe. Humanism basically started on how we as humans perceive the childhood and basically ends (and still argues) as we humans can achieve a better existence in order to not being stuck to religion.\nFor example, the child has always been perceived as an unfinished adult which just takes some time to be finish. The flaws of a child were then just necessary as the sole purpose of a flaw is to learn from it and never make the mistake again. We know today that children need time, effort, affection and love to actually learn from their mistakes. \nThe United States never really adopted these approaches of humanism, because slavery at this time would perfectly suit their economic growth.\nThe same applies to nazi Germany. By the time Hitler wasn't actually even considering to run for a presidency, Germany had one of the most up to date's democracies. This democracy was called the Weimarer Republik and was considered as one of the best forms of ruling a country by the time. Even the old king of the German Kaiserreich actually ended his regency voluntarily by himself in order to let Germany progress into this bright future. Everything was happy and great until Germany basically suffered from the though economic times of the mid-late 1920s. Hitler then actually took advantage of the flaws of this existing German democratic system and promised work for the suffering Germans. He actually kept his promises and built a whole new Germany based on the suffering of Jews and other European minorities. Basically Germany moved away from a very humanistic democracy in order to create work and wealth under a tyranny led by a maniac. \nThe moment we humans trade humanism for the advantage of gaining wealth in a short amount of time, meaning that we actually exploit something and someone, we perceive slaves just as tool and not as the humans as they are. \nOr why else don't you feel a bit of a bad conscience while you buy clothes from H & M and co., knowing that probably a child or another kind of forced labour was involved in making it?",
"Agriculture pros: you can grow more food than you need, creating a surplus of food, which you can use to build a civilization. \n\nAgriculture cons: without modern machines, crop breeds, domesticated animals, growing crops is labor intensive hard work. \n\nAgriculture with slavery pros: you can build a food surplus and only need to pay your workers with a minimal amount of calories to keep them able to work.",
"since this is ELI5, i'll keep it simple.\n\nin the past most of the things required for civilization to flourish, required human labor. slaves were often required for large ambitious projects. we think today \"cheap labor\" but slaves had to be fed and clothed and housed, and in many societies, it was the owner's responsibility to keep their slaves relatively healthy. \n\nwith the industrial revolution, machines were created that did the same work (more efficiently and faster) as slaves. as the industrial revolution progressed, slavery became obsolete, because it no longer required tens of thousands of slaves to build a tall building, but only a few paid workers operating powerful machinery.\n\n----------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n in some societies, you could hire yourself out as a slave for a period of time, for instance, if you had a debt you couldn't repay. after your contract was up, you were free again. some societies had hard limits on the length of time a person was kept as a slave. many cultures had laws that allowed slaves to buy their freedom back, and slaves in those cultures even owned their own businesses, or even held slaves of their own. we tend to look at slavery through the lens of the western slave trade from the 1400s to the 1800s and in the Roman Empire, where slaves were treated like dirt. there were earlier cultures that kept in mind that slaves were people. obviously there were cultures that didn't.",
"Slavery occurred for different reasons in different civilizations, so this question isn't really...accurate, so to speak, because it was considered 'ok' for different reasons.\n\nI know most about Greeks and Romans so I'll talk about them. Roman slaves were often prisoners of war, and were ethnically indistinguishable from the rest of the mix of cultures that got absorbed into Rome. This was considered OK because either you kill someone or you enslave them, and wouldn't it be better to be enslaved? As someone else also mentioned, inequality was just a fact of life then. And you weren't held down to being a slave because of your race, so there wasn't an inherent prejudice so to speak. Slaves were freed at a decent rate.\n\nCompare this to the reasons that American settlers thought it was acceptable to enslave Africans, from \"we're teaching them Christian values\" to \"they're subhuman so it's OK\". \n\nThere really is no one reason across cultures that it was acceptable. Different cultures found it acceptable for different reasons.",
"Every great civilization was built on the backs of a disposable work force. Cheap labor is the key to an economically prosperous nation.\n\nSlavery is illegal today in the Western world, so we've turned to out-sourcing. Exploiting the cheap labor of poorer countries."
],
"score": [
26,
10,
5,
3,
2,
2,
2
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | Why was slavery a common practice that occurred in every civilization at some point?
It is considered inhumane by today's standards, but why was it considered to be ok in virtually every civilization at some point, regardless of the ethnic groups/people that happened to be enslaved. | [
-0.03127418830990791,
0.10734542459249496,
-0.03524160012602806,
0.015031704679131508,
-0.0087142838165164,
0.013472345657646656,
-0.03747140243649483,
-0.04704724997282028,
-0.05122167989611626,
0.0633155032992363,
0.0259411484003067,
0.0635705515742302,
0.01136030163615942,
-0.0219163075... | |
3erjt7 | How do Windows users get a screenshot of the Blue Screen of Death, since the clipboard is cleared upon restart? | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"cthoktl"
],
"text": [
"_URL_0_\n\n > All BSODs are stored on your computer. The freeware BlueScreenView not only recreates the BSOD display as-it-was, but also tries to analyze the dumps and find the guilty program/driver for you:"
],
"score": [
7
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": [
"http://superuser.com/questions/166163/capturing-blue-screen-of-death-bsod-screen"
]
} | train_eli5 | How do Windows users get a screenshot of the Blue Screen of Death, since the clipboard is cleared upon restart?
| [
-0.0020700867753475904,
-0.00554639520123601,
-0.024838371202349663,
-0.04042108356952667,
0.04111941158771515,
0.04550696536898613,
0.07545856386423111,
0.014746508561074734,
0.05965045467019081,
-0.052199725061655045,
0.07423504441976547,
0.001156100770458579,
0.006338393781334162,
0.005... | ||
76fcfu | Why are chess careers still viable when computers can beat us all at it now? | [removed] | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dodiwdj",
"dodkbyq"
],
"text": [
"Why do people run track when cars can beat them?\n\nThe point of professional chess never had anything to do with the game having a practical value - it's about watching the best players in the world play the game.",
"Two computers can play a perfect game of chess, no move will be wrong, no piece wasted. And while it sounds great in theory, in practice it ends up being kind of boring to watch because there isn't really competition. The reason why we still watch people play chess is because they aren't perfect. You could argue that, fundamentally, the whole point of games in general is the capitalization of a few mistakes. It the same reason why watching a complete rout in sports isn't as fun either. Too many mistakes and it doesn't feel competitive anymore either. In chess, one persons mistake means that the other player has a chance to use it to their advantage. In the future, you could refine two computers playing to the point that effectively whoever went first would most likely win. Then you could argue that it isn't even a game at that point.\n\nFallibility is what make competition fun. It's why we support underdogs, there is a possibility of an upset. There are tactics, creativity, non-perfect solutions that end up working anyways. That's why chess careers are still valid, because people can mess up, computers probably won't."
],
"score": [
18,
3
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | Why are chess careers still viable when computers can beat us all at it now?
[removed] | [
0.02641155943274498,
0.016666004434227943,
-0.0299809779971838,
-0.067718505859375,
0.046266645193099976,
0.008805111981928349,
-0.013806039467453957,
0.003980113193392754,
0.021970050409436226,
-0.004276263993233442,
-0.13044853508472443,
0.06485537439584732,
0.04143596440553665,
-0.01638... | |
4azqv8 | Why does crushed ice cool water faster than a block of ice that's the same size. | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"d14uw8q"
],
"text": [
"You've increased the surface area of ice/water interacting. In a block, water is only contacting the ice on the outside of the block. When you've crushed it, you've got far more contact."
],
"score": [
5
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | Why does crushed ice cool water faster than a block of ice that's the same size.
| [
-0.08168889582157135,
-0.008698422461748123,
0.021019142121076584,
0.03263748437166214,
0.03557436168193817,
-0.11886603385210037,
-0.0728631392121315,
0.06322324275970459,
0.06177736073732376,
-0.014947711490094662,
-0.024260595440864563,
0.02383950911462307,
0.009121241047978401,
0.00098... | ||
2ciwfc | You know how when you have a headache your temples or certain parts of your head will hurt when you touch them? What's going on there, is that a bruise or a sore muscle or what's the deal? | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"cjgcxnp",
"cjfxj3t"
],
"text": [
"The deal is adenosine, an endogenous (originating within the body) neurochemical that can cause pain. During a headache the extracellular (outside of cells) concentration of adenosine is increased above normal.\n\nA tiny drop of adenosine placed on the back of your hand would cause localized pain and a red spot (localized vascular dilation).",
"Overactivity of blood vessels, nerves, or muscles usually, causing tension there.\n\nI think."
],
"score": [
2,
2
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | You know how when you have a headache your temples or certain parts of your head will hurt when you touch them? What's going on there, is that a bruise or a sore muscle or what's the deal?
| [
0.0013978960923850536,
-0.09416493773460388,
0.03546934947371483,
0.06387152522802353,
0.005964191630482674,
0.03964453190565109,
0.09353889524936676,
0.05753444880247116,
0.06563449651002884,
0.02952013909816742,
-0.007744732778519392,
-0.09123095124959946,
0.006144932471215725,
0.0731073... | ||
8fkq29 | Why does your mouth water right before you vomit? | [removed] | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dy4a4gl"
],
"text": [
"The extra saliva protects your sensitive mouth and teeth from the acid in the vomit. It is a defensive reflex to mitigate damage from vomiting."
],
"score": [
3
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | Why does your mouth water right before you vomit?
[removed] | [
0.04390126094222069,
-0.023119566962122917,
0.01570206880569458,
0.006818405818194151,
0.042202066630125046,
-0.010904459282755852,
0.14155931770801544,
0.04484280198812485,
0.07654784619808197,
-0.06520432978868484,
-0.021344773471355438,
-0.015261895023286343,
0.0028683471027761698,
0.09... | |
5358sg | How come lots of metals have a grayish color? | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"d7q4tuw",
"d7qdo5o",
"d7qp4ev"
],
"text": [
"Ooh, I know this one!\n\nIt's because how the metal's electrons are placed, it causes their \"resonant\" frequency to be shifted in the direction of ultraviolet frequencies compared to most other atoms. The fact that they aren't particularly responsive to \"normal\" light frequencies means that they more or less reflect the same amount of light across the spectrum we can see, leading to a \"grayish\" hue we call silver.\n\nHowever the only exceptions are gold and copper, since their \"most stable\" electron configuration has a certain electron traveling at a significant fraction of the speed of light. This obviously means that they gain more energy (since speed = more energy and all that), which means that they have more mass, since E = mc^2 and all that. So they \"respond\" to slightly lower frequencies (for whatever reason), which means they absorb a bit of blue light along with the ultraviolet, and if they subtract only the blue light, then only red and yellow light are reflected, giving us the golden and copper hues.\n\nIf you want to go deeper into the rabbithole, here is a link: _URL_0_",
"All metals have a color, but it's usually so purple that you can't even see it, so the metal looks gray.",
"/u/droomph 's answer correctly explains why most metals don't have a color tint, but what's unusual about metals is that they're *shiny*. Why does that happen?\n\nFor most non-metals, the electrons orbiting an atom are firmly attached to one atom, and it takes a certain amount of energy to break one loose or shift it into a higher orbit. You can provide that energy using a photon (light particle) with the right energy (color), which will cause that color to be absorbed.\n\nMetals, on the other hand, have electrons that are *not* attached to an atom, but are free to drift around through the metal, gliding from atom to atom. This explains most of their properties. It explains why they're good electrical conductors: the electrons are free to move very large distances. It explains why they're good *heat* conductors: the electrons carry thermal energy as they move.\n\nAnd it explains why they're shiny. Light can be thought of as a particle, but also as a wave. That wave pushes electrically charged objects back and forth, and it's *created* whenever a charged object is pushed back and forth. When hit with a light wave, the drifting electrons in the metal are free to vibrate back and forth in time with the light wave, nothing to stop them. This causes them to emit a light wave that's equal and opposite to the one they received: they reflect light.\n\n(There are other electrons that are tied to an atom and *aren't* so free to move, they can only respond to certain colors of light. But as /u/udroomph explains, in most metals these only respond to colors of light our eyes can't see.)"
],
"score": [
244,
32,
7
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": [
"http://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/72368/why-are-most-metals-gray-silver#72412"
]
} | train_eli5 | How come lots of metals have a grayish color?
| [
0.009668005630373955,
0.07462064176797867,
0.06634504348039627,
0.049479685723781586,
-0.0006741558900102973,
-0.07358462363481522,
0.07091182470321655,
-0.008818486705422401,
0.028710050508379936,
-0.007243689615279436,
-0.022555036470294,
-0.07227177917957306,
0.02179863676428795,
0.0141... | ||
22ls1w | If the coil on a speaker cone can only vibrate at one frequency at a time, how come I can hear two notes simultaneously? | It's something that I've wondered about sound waves in general, but this is the best way I could think of wording it. If I play a song through a single speaker cone, how come I can distinctly hear each instrument? | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"cgo19qx"
],
"text": [
"A speaker does not vibrate at a single frequency. You know this for sure because of the observation in your post - a musical \"A\" is a different frequency than a \"C\". It does produce a single waveform.\n\nThink of throwing a rock into water. Now throw another rock right after it. The waves you see represent the combination of both those rocks. You see a single wave patten the result of both, it is the result of the \"frequency\" of both waves. One waveform, multiple frequencies. \n\nThe speaker is capable of creating the complex waveform that is made of multiple underlying frequencies."
],
"score": [
16
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | If the coil on a speaker cone can only vibrate at one frequency at a time, how come I can hear two notes simultaneously?
It's something that I've wondered about sound waves in general, but this is the best way I could think of wording it. If I play a song through a single speaker cone, how come I can distinctly hear each instrument? | [
0.051742881536483765,
-0.08835791796445847,
-0.04491967335343361,
-0.013010581023991108,
-0.14998692274093628,
-0.03198850899934769,
0.017320899292826653,
-0.021274778991937637,
0.0835316851735115,
-0.02364162914454937,
-0.031432200223207474,
-0.0033062114380300045,
0.01710064522922039,
0.... | |
3dd6en | The playing style of footballer Thomas Muller? | I have been watching football for the last 10 years. I have never seen such a unique player and I quite can't get what he is doing on the pitch. All I know is that he is fucking good. Explanations anyone? | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"ct40ayj",
"ct43yjo"
],
"text": [
"Sadly I haven't watched Bundesliga in a while, but what I know from internationals and world cups is that Müller is excellent in reading the game. Instinctively he just knows what to do in certain situations, such as when to make a run or when to cross instead of finish. He isn't spectacular on the ball like Messi, but he's a really intelligent player and makes up for his \"lack\" of ball skills when compared to other world class strikers.",
"Bayern Munich fan here:\n\nIt is so hard for the defenders to defend against Thomas Muller as they can't really predict what he is trying to do - mainly because he doesn't know what he's going to do either (he already said on multiple interviews that he had no clue how it eventually worked)\n\nHis youth trainers often said that even as a youth player he had the game intelligence of a 30 year old with several years of world class level experience which was another reason why he was so fast a world class player in big matches as he wasn't nervous or something like that, just look at his penalties.\n\nPlus his technique actually isn't that bad, it just doesn't look like the usual \"Ronaldinhoesque\" technique. I remember (I think it was against Gladbach) where he manages to reveice and control the ball even though he could barely touch it with his toes while being on full speed, many other would've gotten some injury while doing it :D"
],
"score": [
4,
2
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | The playing style of footballer Thomas Muller?
I have been watching football for the last 10 years. I have never seen such a unique player and I quite can't get what he is doing on the pitch. All I know is that he is fucking good. Explanations anyone? | [
0.004194228444248438,
0.02316586673259735,
-0.021049577742815018,
-0.021053440868854523,
0.004228712059557438,
0.070240817964077,
0.11721417307853699,
0.09567464888095856,
0.05577550083398819,
0.04353886842727661,
-0.05669975280761719,
-0.06120601296424866,
-0.01632832922041416,
0.05020055... | |
752mam | The artificial nose technology used in food processing | Recently, I heard that there are machines which can differentiate between ripe and damaged foods by SMELLING them and they are used in food processing and manufacturing. Can anyone explain me what is the machinery and how it can do such a complex task? | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"do2z1yp",
"do31589"
],
"text": [
"Most foods give off some very specific chemicals when rotting. So the \"artificial nose\" is not very fancy -- it's just a gas chemical detector, and when too much of one indicator chemical is present, it marks that this item is rotting.",
"It probably is not actually smelling the foods but for example certain fruits and vegetables will release ethylene gas upon ripening. So it would be detecting the presence, or lack thereof, of these molecules in proximity to the given produce item."
],
"score": [
9,
4
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | The artificial nose technology used in food processing
Recently, I heard that there are machines which can differentiate between ripe and damaged foods by SMELLING them and they are used in food processing and manufacturing. Can anyone explain me what is the machinery and how it can do such a complex task? | [
0.028551314026117325,
-0.059363704174757004,
0.04967281222343445,
0.0016792233800515532,
0.042111899703741074,
-0.03552735969424248,
0.026072587817907333,
-0.004609046969562769,
-0.022012008354067802,
-0.011920150369405746,
0.007225165609270334,
-0.021905237808823586,
-0.0020300038158893585,... | |
4937uk | When do you award an indirect free kick in soccer? | I saw a video of these free kicks from inside the box. I looked it up and it's called an indirect free kick but I can't understand why you would award one and not a penalty. | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"d0oo6hf"
],
"text": [
"A penalty is awarded when the attacking team loses out on a \"goalscoring opportunity\" because the defending team broke a rule in the penalty area.\n\nBut if the defending team breaks a rule that doesn't cost a goalscoring opportunity then an indirect free kick - one where the ball must be played to another player before scoring - is more appropriate.\n\nThese are either to do with the goalkeeper picking up the ball when he's not supposed to, or a player committing a non-contact foul such as using bad language or obstructing access to the ball in an illegal way."
],
"score": [
4
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | When do you award an indirect free kick in soccer?
I saw a video of these free kicks from inside the box. I looked it up and it's called an indirect free kick but I can't understand why you would award one and not a penalty. | [
-0.030166883021593094,
0.08653350174427032,
-0.029169049113988876,
0.0032998116221278906,
0.12003827840089798,
0.10339805483818054,
0.05907132104039192,
0.041065409779548645,
0.21278566122055054,
0.05331219732761383,
0.014605985954403877,
-0.009648097679018974,
-0.018071141093969345,
0.025... | |
7crvtz | What causes the "shuddering" sound when driving with only one rear window down in a car? | [removed] | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dps7sct",
"dps6nrj"
],
"text": [
"billows of air come in and leave by the same window. This causes turbulence through pressure changes. You hear the battle between inside and outside air.\n\nOpen a second window and you create a flow.",
"You've turned your whole car into a big whistle. Because it's so much bigger, the pitch of the sound produced is much lower."
],
"score": [
2,
2
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | What causes the "shuddering" sound when driving with only one rear window down in a car?
[removed] | [
0.028483441099524498,
-0.009024919010698795,
0.042803410440683365,
0.06914001703262329,
-0.08214215189218521,
-0.05834689363837242,
0.02686465159058571,
0.0057185348123312,
0.047850385308265686,
-0.07566965371370316,
0.004388800822198391,
-0.01568102464079857,
-0.011218673549592495,
-0.077... | |
3d8633 | During a commercial break, what happens to live-audience shows that are NOT broadcast live? | Do the hosts just jump into the next segment after a few seconds of clapping from the last segment?
Or does the audience actually wait around a little for the start of the next part?
| explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"ct2ojfa"
],
"text": [
"It's called an intermission. They go for a break to get drinks or food or stuff like that."
],
"score": [
2
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | During a commercial break, what happens to live-audience shows that are NOT broadcast live?
Do the hosts just jump into the next segment after a few seconds of clapping from the last segment? Or does the audience actually wait around a little for the start of the next part? | [
0.03735882788896561,
-0.07711289077997208,
0.030291175469756126,
-0.052534475922584534,
0.10387557744979858,
0.057453639805316925,
-0.043661151081323624,
-0.08669577538967133,
0.08444046229124069,
-0.059031639248132706,
0.007064972538501024,
0.05551875755190849,
-0.06099260598421097,
-0.03... | |
7dfj0a | If our bodies are supposed to be able to run on fat reserves, why do we feel weak and are unable to think clearly when very hungry? | I've always been basically useless when I'm hungry and my brain chugs along at 2mph if I miss a meal. Surely once my body starts metabolising fat it should continue to function normally. It seems like it'd be a severe disadvantage in a survival situation to be cognitively impaired when you need to find food. | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dpxfjkj",
"dpxhia0",
"dpxk8fd",
"dpxfo9i"
],
"text": [
"> It seems like it'd be a severe disadvantage in a survival situation to be cognitively impaired when you need to find food.\n\nYou are not nearly as impaired as you think you are, it is mostly an issue of motivation.\n\nWe have the luxury to allow ourselves to get distracted by mild hunger...not finishing your TPS reports right away isn't going leave you dead, so we blow them off to get a snack. It is not that we can't think well when hungry, we don't want to put in the effort for something that can be easily fixed.\n\nBut if you were a hunter who hasn't eaten in a day stalking prey out on the savannah, I guarantee that task would capture your full attention and leverage all of your cognitive abilities.",
"It's also because the primary source of energy for your brain is glucose. When you don't eat for a while the level of glucose in your blood drops. That's when your body has to change to burning fat and proteins. This can deliver energy to your brain to function but it rather has glucose so it makes you go hungry so you will get it some more glucose.",
"If you want to experience what it feels like to run on fat, you need to expend your glycogen reserve, get on bike and ride for 2 to 3 hours on water alone eventually you'll get to what we call the bonk you will feel so awful you'll be shaking feel sick be unable to turn the pedals you will genuinely feel like death. Then you can have one jelly baby and all of a sudden your body will recover like magic",
"Your body can switch over to fat reserves but it would rather have consistent food. So it tells you to get some food (cranky, light headed, hungry) to force you to acquire food.\n\nIf you don't acquire food it decides you are starving now and it will switch to starvation mode: burning fat reserves and cannibalizing muscle protein for repair of more important body parts. But your body really doesn't want to."
],
"score": [
23,
5,
3,
3
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | If our bodies are supposed to be able to run on fat reserves, why do we feel weak and are unable to think clearly when very hungry?
I've always been basically useless when I'm hungry and my brain chugs along at 2mph if I miss a meal. Surely once my body starts metabolising fat it should continue to function normally. It seems like it'd be a severe disadvantage in a survival situation to be cognitively impaired when you need to find food. | [
0.07137531042098999,
-0.05217723175883293,
-0.024335267022252083,
0.08153966069221497,
0.02528672106564045,
0.05418095737695694,
0.027691228315234184,
0.02202783338725567,
0.021143676713109016,
-0.0472092442214489,
-0.05906476080417633,
0.002167006488889456,
-0.03541615977883339,
-0.034132... | |
37r1k0 | What does it mean when the US accuses China of "manipulating its currency" | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"crp3na5",
"crp3sg0",
"crp5llv",
"crp4cu1",
"crp7xqs",
"crp9o20",
"crp7x49",
"crpgpb3",
"crpu7k1",
"crpeb04",
"crpekcu",
"crpffai",
"crp9mv0",
"crp62ew",
"crpq2zv",
"crpkx79",
"crpa0fi",
"crpkuhl",
"crppwyi",
"crp6nfp",
"crpazai",
"crpf6gz",
"crpdnor",
"crpl0q8",
"crpkcri",
"crpsx1q",
"crphv7h",
"crptt71",
"crprmtc",
"crprv3e",
"crp98fj",
"crp9fg8",
"crp9rnh",
"crp60to",
"crp5uca",
"crpj8i7",
"crphsgi",
"crq8zmj",
"crp9cpb",
"crpb9rj",
"crp5g2i",
"crplpf4",
"crpe3ve",
"crpbtcd",
"crphksj",
"crpc2id",
"crpm1e2",
"crpfotb",
"crpk4i2",
"crpbhcb",
"crpegn8",
"crpcsh4"
],
"text": [
"One of the reasons everything is made in China is because it is cheap. One of the reasons it is cheap is because China has a lot of people that need jobs so they accept low wages because the alternative is to have no job at all and starve.\n\nAs Chinese people start working they begin to earn money and want to buy things like cars and apartments and have families. This means they need more money and they start to demand higher wages. Higher wages mean things cost more and pretty soon making stuff in other countries makes more sense.\n\nSo China takes in all this cash from making iPods or whatever and this would normally cause the value of the Yuan to rise (again, making things more expensive). So the Chinese print more Yuan at their treasuries and they buy things like US T-Bills. The more Yuan there are on the market the less each one is worth to the rest of the world.\n\nTherefore things stay cheap and China can keep people employed and not starving in the streets.",
"They peg their currency to an exchange rate that isn't based on natural market fluctuations. There are several reasons to do this, the main reason though is that it makes exports cheaper. Keeping the exchange rate of Yuan to dollars high means that their labor is also cheaper. \n\nWhile it may seem that this is a devious practice (which it can be), we can look at groups like the EU. For example, prior to the euro, the greek drachma had a very high exchange rate, which meant that greek exports/labor was cheaper (and they could compete with their german counter parts who were on a whole more skilled). However when the euro was implemented and greece joined the EU, they no longer could compete with more productive countries, by having an export favoring exchange rate, as well as not being able to impose import tariffs, to combat cheaper imports on the euro.\n\nJay Kaplan's book [Financial Markets and the Economy](_URL_0_) is a very good cheap overview of money and banking systems and only requires a basic understanding of economics.\n\nEdit: To specifically answer the currency manipulator question: the US can officially declare china a currency manipulator to help curb the poor living conditions of the population. It would cause the exchange rate to rise, making the purchasing power of the yuan larger, meaning peoples wages would be able to purchase more. However to do so would cause global market externalities that are not favorable.",
"ITT: People that are wrong because they consumed too much mainstream media. \n \nIt doesn't mean anything. Look at all the countries with a peg or soft peg. _URL_1_ \n \nBasically it's something politicians say so they can sound cool. If countries didn't peg, the US could just run an infinite deficit and perpetually weaken the dollar vs other currencies, strengthening the US export sector at the expense of every country that isn't pegged or soft pegged to the dollar. \n \nFYI, we are currently in a devaluation war situation. Also, the US is by far the biggest currency manipulator (in terms of effect) with currently over half of issued treasuries are bought by the Fed. This means that the US funds itself and weakens its currency at the same time. \n \nAlso, to defend China the Yuan has strengthened against the dollar for a LONG time now. I think well over 30% in the past 10 years, and at the same time the trade deficit has grown.",
"When an American wholesaler is bulk buying widgets from China, they pay the Chinese company in yuan. This means they need to first exchange their dollars for yuan, creating a demand for yuan currency. Over time with many people buying billions of widgets, the value of the yuan should increase as there becomes more demand for it. So the value of the yuan should go up as China continues a trade surplus. \n\nHowever China can manipulate the value of its own currency by simply printing more yuan. China can also manipulate U.S. currency by aggressively buying U.S. debt., creating a demand for U.S. dollars. This is also beneficial because it shields them from the high inflation of the yuan. \n\nWhy does China do this? A cheap yuan makes Chinese widgets cost less on the global market, making China a favorable place for manufacturing. By purposefully keeping the yuan cheap despite increased exports, they maintain a position where they can dominate manufacturing. \n\nJapan and South Korea have faced similar accusations. Japan is actually the largest foreign holder of U.S. debt, which means that compared to the size of their economy, they're even more aggressive at buying U.S. debt. \n\nEdit: Some corrections. Surprised this comment blew up so much. < 3",
"Economist here:\n\nUnlike most other countries China maintains an artificially low exchange rate for RMB (Yuan) which is determined by the government and not the markets. Other countries have free-floating currencies which means that their value is determined by supply and demand on the financial markets. This means that the currency can go very low if the demand drops and supply increases (when more investors are selling the currency and few are buying) but it also can go very high if demand rises (everyone wants to buy the currency). Chinese Yuan doesn't do that - it has a rigid exchange rate which is set by the government very low - much lower than it would be in the market conditions considering how many Yuans people are buying to trade and invest in China. This makes Chinese exports and labour much cheaper than they otherwise would be and therefore it allows China to out-compete other countries with significantly lower prices. \n\n------\n\nExplanation:\n\nThere are two kinds of currencies - value-pegged and free-floating.\n\nValue-pegged currencies are denominated as a quantity of something else with a well defined market value. For example a USD-pegged currency is defined as 1currency=x dollars. A gold-pegged currency is defined as 1currency=x gold. This means that there is no direct supply and demand for the currency and it only reflects the supply and demand for the thing backing it i.e. dollars or gold.\n\nFree-floating currencies have no intrinsic value and depend purely on how the market works out *their* value. This means that it will depend on two factors: \n\nsupply - how much currency is in circulation and how much more of it the government will create or how much of it the current holders will sell back on the market\n\ndemand - how much of the currency everyone wants to buy currently and in the foreseeable future to store value, buy Chinese stuff or invest in China.\n\nBecause there is no intrinsic value to a free-floating currency it is only reflected in how much people want it at the moment. How much that is is reflected in how useful it is for trade and investment. A currency of a poor African country with few resources will be very undesirable because it would be nearly worthless. There isn't anything special that you can do with it other than spend in that poor African country. A currency of a big country with a strong and growing economy is another thing because you can always use it in the country to buy and invest stuff, or just exchange with people in the country who want it to make their purchases.\n\nChina is a huge growing economy and therefore having a lot of Yuan is useful because a thousand of Chinese Yuan today will (I will leave inflation out of the picture now to simplify things) buy stuff in a poorer and less developed country than tomorrow. Meaning that at no point people hold a bunch of Chinese money and think \"this will be worthless tomorrow\". Every day China grows and modernizes and with every day the money is getting more useful and not less. And therefore the demand for the money increases because with every day there's more and more things that you can to with Chinese economy.\n\nNow when that happens usually markets (people all over the world doing trades) start to want such a currency really badly and the demand for it increases. When demand increases the price of the currency increases too. Therefore if one day everyone decides that they want Chinese currency more than they want American currency it will mean that you will be able to buy fewer Yuans with the same amount of Dollars and more Dollars with the same amount of Yuans.\n\nWhen that happens every price denominated in Yuans suddenly rises for Americans and every price denominated in Dollars drops for the Chinese. \n\nThat means that an investor who set up a factory in China and employed 1000 workers for 1000USD a year now has to pay say...2000USD a year - the cost of production just increased two-fold. If those 1000 workers produced Nike Shoes at 100$ a pair and the cost was 10$ then the other costs and profits had 90$ to share. If suddenly the cost of labour grows to 20$ (and also rents, utilities etc ) that means that you have 10$ less to split between transport, marketing, dividend, profit, investment etc. It might not seem like a lot but in the long term when you consider growing trend of Chinese economy and the competition (say a pair of Nike shoes at 100$ is worth the same as a pair of Reeboks at 90$) you are faced with the possibility that the cost of production will grow and grow and grow. So to maintain profits you move the factory somewhere else - that means no more $$$ for China and all those people lose their jobs.\n\nSo China decided that they like both the jobs and the $$$ and says \"fuck the markets *we* will tell you how much Yuan is worth\" and they keep it at a level where it takes a lot of time to make manufacturing in China uncompetitive - because it has to come from the internal market pressures (internal cost of living, expectations of the workers, supply of labour in China etc).\n\nThis means that as long as China does that no other country with free-floating currency can outcompete them because every time they get really productive - people want to buy their money to trade and invest and the price of the money goes up (and therefore all prices denominated in that money). This is a balancing mechanism which works really well... provided it is not distorted - as it is in China and it maintains a certain balance in who can produce or buy what. \n\nToday I make a lot of cheap stuff and you pay me your money but then I have a lot of your money while you have very little so you drop your prices and then you make a lot of cheap stuff. The currency is flowing back and forth. With China you have a permanent black hole that just sucks in currency and it is not good in the long run - neither for the world nor for China. \n\n----------------------\n\n**TL,DR** - the price of your money (exchange rate) determines how competitive your economy is with regards to prices of your goods. If the market sets the exchange rate the more you produce the more people want your money to buy stuff from you the more expensive your money gets - and the higher the prices denominated in your currency. If you do not let the market set the exchange rate then it doesn't matter how many people want to buy your money - you tell them how much it costs and therefore you can both have the cookie (low, competitive prices which attract investment and capital) and eat it (sustained long-term economic growth)",
"That my friend, is the definition of hypocrisy and irony melted together. \n\nIt is a statement that is thrown by politicians from time to time. Only to look good and to redirect your attention. China in deed manipulates its currency but not even close to the degree the US has done it or still does.",
"Here's my best ELI5 for this. It's very much an oversimplification, but that's the name of the game here. Exchange rates below are purely hypothetical and are not intended to reflect reality:\n\nLet's say 1 US dollar is worth 5 Chinese yuan. That's the free market value of the currencies, and while there are natural fluctuation, the exchange rate naturally hangs out in that neighborhood. If the exchange rate remains stable, it doesn't really matter if I buy goods from China or the U.S.\n\nNow, let's say China deliberately prints way more money with the goal of \"currency manipulation.\" Any time you have much more of something, it's relative value goes down. Now, because there are so many yuan out there, my 1 U.S. dollar gets me 10 Chinese yuan. \n\nNow it does matter whether I buy goods from the U.S. or China, because as an American, my buying power there has grown! You see, the value of the Chinese products in China has not changed relative to the Yuan. A toy that cost 5 yuan before still costs 5 yuan now. The only difference is that my one American dollar is now worth twice as many yuan, so I can get twice as many toys for the same price in my money!\n\nThis is why European tourism in the U.S. exploded when our dollar was very weak against the Euro. While that sounds like a bad thing for America, it was actually kind of good, because Europeans knew they could do lots more shopping for the same price over here, and many of them decided to vacation in New York as a result.\n\nThere are lots of reasons a country might print more or less money, and we can get into all kinds of debates on how much is appropriate. However, when a country does it with the goal and effect of reducing the relative value of their currency in order to gain an edge in international trade, we call this \"currency manipulation.\"",
"Hi there. PhD Economist here. I taught economics in China and speak Mandarin. \n\n\n1 - no floating ForEx (foreign exchange of currencies). \nThe exchange rate in China (dollars per yuan) is controlled by the Chinese government. They do this by not allowing free exchange of yuan for other currencies. So when you go to the bank in China, you can only buy a few dollars per year per Chinese citizen. If you could buy as many dollars as you wanted, the currency would \"float.\" All of the major banks in China are owned by the Chinese government, as I recall. If they're not, they at least have very tight controls on them. \n\n2 Seignorage (printing lots of money).\nThe Chinese government knows that as people get richer, their labor becomes more expensive. This can happen for a lot of reasons. They want to spend more time on leisure, or their labor is in higher demand, so the factories drive wages up, or they have domestic consumption causing demand to rise, causing labor demand to rise, causing wages to rise. This is a fancy way of saying that as we get richer we buy more stuff, and as be buy more stuff, other people buy more stuff, and we continue to get richer. The Chinese government sees wages going up and doesn't want exports to fall, so they try to reduce the value of their currency by printing more currency. By printing more of their currency, Chinese can make more money and buy more stuff domestically, but foreign goods are still relatively expensive. Foreigners see Chinese made goods as cheaper. Think of this as; I have one banana and there is nothing else to buy...You have 1 dollar. You want to buy my banana. You would buy my banana for $1. Then lets say I have one banana and you have 2 dollars. If there is nothing else to buy, you'd buy my banana for 2 dollars. Same thing if we expand it out to the whole country. Lots of dollars and lots of goods vs twice as many dollars and the same amount of goods. This would cause price inflation and the goods would just cost twice as much. Since China is expanding so rapidly, they have more goods and more yuan, and they're buying more stuff. The CCP (Chinese Communist Party) just want to make sure that exports stay high so that their growth numbers stay high.\n\n3 Growth numbers. \nPoliticians (china) are graded on how high their growth is, so they want high exports and lots of new construction. Their selling a lot of new buildings at high prices. Those buildings are probably not worth that much and creating a property bubble. Because of low interest rates in banks, relatively high price inflation, and distrust of the stock market (lots of insider trading and manipulation), property is the best investment. If they could invest in foreign stocks, you'd see a pretty big devaluation of property.\n\n4 Why does the US give a shit? \nThe US has a huge trade deficit with China. That's a really dumb thing to say. We don't have such a big trade deficit with asia. The US buys lots of stuff from China, but China buys all that stuff from Korea, Taiwan, Japan, etc. Those places buy lots of stuff from the US. The trade deficit isn't so bad, but the US government has huge debt and China is buying a lot of it. That's not so bad if we were using the money well, but we're not. The Federal government is inefficient and wasting that money that we're borrowing for China. Its better to blame China for our economic troubles that to decide spending. Thus, China is the boogeyman. \n\nTLDR: China is printing lots of money and preventing floating currency exchange to keep exports high. US is running a huge deficit due to poor fiscal policies and blames China.",
"So you've probably heard of \"supply and demand\" before. Basically it's the concept that at higher prices there will be more people willing to supply a product (since everyone loves money) and at lower prices there will be more people willing to demand a product (since everyone hates spending money). \n\nCurrencies work the same way. China is really good at making things, and thus a lot of countries want to buy things from China. China however uses the yuan, so if you want to buy their stuff, you need the yuan! But you're the USA and you have USD not yuan, so you need to BUY yuan from China.\n\nAssuming supply of the yuan was constant, if a bunch of countries demand the yuan, the price of the yuan goes up. With me so far?\n\nBut China doesn't WANT the price of the yuan to go up, because then their goods - from the perspective of the buyer - cost more, so their buyers might look for a cheaper option in an African country to save money, and then jobs in China are lost.\n\nSo the government prints money, thus increasing the supply of the yuan, and artificially causes the price of the yuan to fall. Generally they buy gold or USD with that extra printed money.\n\nAnd then the USA gets mad because all the jobs stay in China.",
"Most of the top answers I've seen here are wrong; China's lower labor costs do not affect the value of its currency relative to other currencies. (google \"price-species flow\")\n\nThe Chinese government sets the rate at which the renminbi (yuan) is traded. So, $1 would be worth 8 yuan because the government the government sets the rates. \n\nThe value of the dollar on the other hand is determined global currency market; people can trade dollars for any other currency at whatever value they want and the US government doesn't interfere. The US has other ways of controlling the value of the dollar (\"monetary policy\", but that's a whole different discussion), it just doesn't do so by dictating how many pesos, yen, or euro each dollar must be worth.\n\nIt's worth noting that within the last decade China has increasingly set it's currency rate based on the values of a \"basket\" of other market-traded currencies, and as of this week the IMF declared that China is no longer considered a currency manipulator.\n\nSource: International economics graduate",
"It means they regularly use quantitative easing to ward off inflation, but it's immoral and called currency manipulation instead of quantitative easing because it is China and not the US.",
"It means douchebags who say this are the pot, calling the kettle black. The world has been in a currency war since 2006. Anyone who ISN'T manipulating currency is an idiot, and will lose",
"It means \"wwaaahhhhhhhh, you can't do that too! only we're allowed to support our exporters by weakening our currency! no faiiirrrrrr. bitch bitch bitch\"\n\nit means nothing.",
"A weak Chinese currency helps the Chinese manufacturers/exporters. So many products that used to be \"Made in the USA\" are now \"Made in China\". \n\nOn the other hand, all central banks play games with their currencies so it's really just politicians pointing fingers.",
"It means that the Chinese government or monetary regulatory body is intentionally depreciating their currency values on the international market. This is typically done by increasing money supply, which devalues the currency and decreases interest rates. Monetary policy is run by some sort of centralized banking industry that is certified to print money, therefore it is possible for a country to manipulate its currency by increasing M1 supply.\n\nThis translates into an unfair and unaccountable method of currency devaluation. When the Chinese currency loses value in comparison to the US dollar, it gains an export advantage where their goods are cheaper so that they can outcompete the goods of other exporting countries. This is one reason China is successful right now and that is due to a crazy and rigorous dedication to exports.\n\nAs for the Chinese elite. They make a ton of money off of cheap labor and cheap prices. Another aspect to remember is that in the FOREX markets where the rich gamble and hedge their money on appreciation or depreciation values, the rich can safely gamble their money in high valued (power) currencies such as the USD or EURO which do not waver in value very often. If a major investor knows when the Chinese banks are printing more money, he can invest his money in US dollars, securities, assets, treasuries, etc. and his money will not depreciate.",
"That the U.S. doesn't like competition. \n\nWe print money whenever we want, devaluing the currency. For instance, large banks trigger money to be added to the digital supply of US dollars at the FED upon issuance of a new loan. This adds to the total supply, lowering the value. \n\nAnd, the CIA and NSA and probably other secret organizations have classified budgets. The way this is done is, they have direct access and ability to create digital money at the FED without any oversight or approval. It truly is a self-feeding, perpetually growing leviathan. \n\nIt's why a Coke costs $1.75 instead of $0.05. Coke isn't harder to make, or more valuable. If anything, it's cheaper and easier and there's more than there's ever been. It's just that your dollar is worth 35 times less than it was when a Coke was a nickel. \n\nChinese are doing the same things for different reasons, but it has an effect on us so we bitch because we're America. \n\nWe've been devaluing our currency for a couple hundred years, extremely in the last 50 years and as we do, it has negative effects on the Chinese economy. They saw us doing it and finally said, \"Fuck it. We can too.\"",
"FYI, the U.S. manipulates currency way more than China, this is totally a case of the pot calling the kettle black. \n\n\"Quantitative Easing\", the act of printing 10 billion bucks a day in an attempt to lower the value of currency is literally the definition of currency manipulation.",
"The Chinese government takes in foreign currency and sits on it instead of converting it into their own currency and using it so that they can keep a very low ratio to other currencies.",
"What it all comes down to is the fact that the Chinese Government, who controls all the Banks in China, does not allow currencies to freely exchange. They also have caps on how much you can trade currencies within China. \n\nI think the best way to show how this effects things is to think of it on a personal level. Imagine you are a Chinese person visiting the US. You take with you 200 Yuan and when you get to the US you walk into a bank where they give you $100 for your 200 Yuan. This 2:1 figure would be based on free trade of the currencies in international exchanges, in other words supply and demand. That's how it would work on a free exchange of currency and how it works for most countries. However, China owns all the banks and exchanges within China. So when you return to China and go to turn your dollars back into Yuan, they give you 6 Yuan for every dollar, or 600 Yuan. They do this because they set their own rate within the country that doesn't honor the true exchange rate determined by the international free exchange of currency. So now your 200 yuan became 100 dollars which then became 600 yuan when you went back to China. Obviously, this wont work otherwise you could become a millionaire after a few trips across the border. So in effect China has made it so foreign exchanges, which are based on supply and demand, are forced to accept the same ratio China sets within its own country. \n\nSince China is such a large economy and % of the world economy these predetermined exchange rates set by China have an \"anchor\" effect on other currencies being traded outside China as well.",
"Every currency is manipulated but the US is accusing China of manipulating the value of their currency they are basically saying that you are unfairly making your products cheaper\n\nSo for example if real cost of making a pack of gum is\n\n1USD / 3 RMB and ignoring all other costs like transportation and human labor.\n\nbut China has RMB pegged at 6RMB\n\nWhen you make 1 pack of gum for 1USD and export it to China it costs 6 RMB.\n\nWhen you make 1 pack of gum in China it costs 3 RMB and when you export it to USA the base cost is now 50cents.",
"It means that they do exactly what the Federal Reserve ( non federally owned bank - rather private entity ) fluctuate their money but they do it way more often causing a stir in global economics but it works for china so fuck everyone else is as far as their concerned",
"It means they're being hypocrites.\n\nIt's bad for China to manipulate their currency, but it's okay for the US to end the gold standard in 1971, and engage in \"Quantitative Easing\". What a joke.",
"Most governments when pressed to raise money for domestic programs face a dilemma: raise taxes, cut back on those programs, or cut other programs, such as defense spending. None of these options is likely to win politician votes. Countries can borrow money as a way to avoid that choice. But at best, it's usually a temporary solution. Typically, the more money governments borrow, the higher interest rates they must pay. Eventually it becomes prohibitively expensive to borrow further, and the costof servicing the existing debt takes toll on the economy. The US hasn't had to face this problem - nor has it been penalized for borrowing ever-increasing amounts of money from foreign lenders. It's all part of a virtuous cycle that has been powering the global economy for the past decades. Asian economies have kept their currencies cheap, making their goods inexpensive and boosting their sales to the US etc. US Consumers have responded by buying Asian products - cars, electronics etc. In effect, Americans spend their savings abroad. This creates a surplus of dollars in China (/Asia) that central banks there invest back into the US through large purchases of Treasury and other US bonds (as indicated by funky_duck) :)",
"I just want to point out that currency manipulation isn't a bad thing, infact almost every single country in the world does it pretty actively, and there are countries who in the past have done it do a bigger extent than China is doing it. \nIt is a valid growth model that a country can use to try and grow/stabilize its economy. The reason it is an issue is because of people who don't actually know what they are talking about and are just trying to make an issue out of something that isn't an issue. It is all just political bullshit. \nEdit \nIn fact currency manipulation is a bigger problem for the Chinese people than anyone else, once it no longer becomes a viable option for growth and China stops doing it their markets are going to crash hard and the lower-middle class and poor are going to feel the hurt A LOT. \nEdit 2\nSource: 4 years of business school, including international business, plus I did a research paper on this exact topic.",
"Basically China undervalues their currency to promote exports. they do this by either using differentiated change rates (i.e. the exchange rate to buy machinery is higher than goods like food, manufactures, etc) or they simply print more currency than what is necessary for their domestic purchases. Therefore China effectively makes its currency worth less than what would be the equilibrium in the foreign exchange market (there is an excess supply of Chinese Yuan). If you look at a measure like the Gross National Product of China compared to that of the US in terms of purchasing power parity (a comparable bundle of goods using domestic prices) China and the US are roughly the same, but when looking at the Foreign Exchange market, the dollar is worth roughly 6x as much. \n\nBasically, its a means of export promotion that encourages growth in the Chinese economy. As China develops, this will become less and less viable of an option.",
"The Chinese government has made the decision to control its currency. Now if you want to buy yuen, you have to get permission from the gov't of China (GOC) because they control all of the banks that have any. Now the GOC won't let any round eye buy renenbi unless they have a good reason-like investing in infrastructure. This is pretty much what every other developed country did when they were developing, so it really shouldn't surprise anyone.",
"The Chinese \"peg\" their currency. It used to be to the U.S dollar, but now it is to a relative \"basket\" of currencies. \n\nThat is usually considered manipulation because most countries have some semblance of a \"free floating\" currency that expands or contracts in value due to (largely) market forces, not what amounts to a kind of price control like the Chinese have.",
"Basically the trade deficit should go down and it does not because China keeps the price of the US dollar artificially high, while that keeps their yen (or whatever they have) artificially low. All they do is invent there trade dollar back into us, making the deficit never disappear.",
"Only on Reddit could the top answer be so far from the truth. It even has gold but those are reasons why the economy is doing well, not why they are accused of currency manipulation",
"Lots of great guesses here but really what they're saying is that China has taught the world how to fold a dollar bill into the shape of a bird.",
"Theres more than a few parts to explain how this works, which gets very heavy into micro and macroeconomic prinicples, but we'll keep it simple for the five year olds. Things you need to know are how currency is valued, how currency can be manipulated, why we manipulate currency and the comparative value of international currencies and the resulting effects.\n\nHow Currency is Valued: \nOne dollar will get you one ice cream cone- therefore the value of your dollar is equal to that of one ice cream cone.\nOne Yen will get you half an ice cream cone, therefore the dollar is twice as strong as the yuan, it buys twice as much.\n\nHow Currency Can be Manipulated:\nThere are way too many ways, heres a few ways the US does it. Adding dollars to the existing stockpile of dollars floating around in the world already, causing the value to go down. Removing more dollars than are added, causing the value to go up. Passing a national stimulus package (Reinvestment and Recovery Act, New Deal) giving people more money to spend. Controlling interest rates, making it easier for people to afford loans. Theres many more ways of manipulating currency, its very commonplace and almost necessary in the modern era.\n\nWhy We Manipulate Currencies:\nTo control inflation and boost our economy. \nInflation is good, the value of your currency increases, but should it happen too fast your economy will fail, so we use these means to curb that from happening. Here in the US, if given the right tools (which we usually are) can almost control our currency value and the rate of inflation to tee.\nThe economy is in the shitter, its a recession, people are saving their money, no ones spending money indiscriminately so we serve a stimulus package to give them money to spend (or makes loans easier to get, or print more money than we burn). More money means people haves jobs to do (making, transporting, serving, selling that ice cream cone). Having a job to do earns you more money, which in turn you spend, which boosts the economy. Its kind of a A causes B, B causes A, with improving the economy.\n\nNOW, if this is so commonplace, whats the deal with China?? It has to do with jobs, jobs, jobs.\n\nInternational comparisons: \nChina depresses the value of their currency (should they let the free market determine the value as capitalism dictates should happen it would be much higher, probably). Why do they do this? Things cost less to make, people cost less to pay. Why are they interested in this? Because if things in China cost so much less to make then a company will opt to make things there instead of the US. If employees cost less to hire, then things cost even less to make. The continuous decision to move manufacturing to China creates a plethora of jobs, which China needs to increase the value of its economy for its 1 Billion plus citizens (remember, so people have money to spend, yadda yadda).\n\nBut why is the US concerned? Because we guess that if China didn't do this then manufacturing and employing wouldn't be so cheap, and instead those jobs would come to the US, helping our economy instead. \n\nI could go on for hours about the multitude of things that are related to this concept- the TPP, creative destruction, the progression of industrial economies. But hopefully that obscene amount of simpleton words answered the question.\n\nI'm an Economics/Political Science student in the US.",
"To super simplify: There's an automated computer \"back room\" that yells constantly \"I want to trade American $ for Chinese ¥\". This is needed because you need to use a Chinese currency while in China (outside of touristy places).\n\nSo if lots of people buy lots of Chinese umbrella, they first need to acquire ¥. And if a lot of people are asking for ¥, then a seller can charge more. And thus the ¥ should rise in price.\n\nChina has realized that a lot of people want their goods because it's cheap. But with a higher price for the ¥, the goods wouldn't be cheap. So they want to keep it low for longer, so they can continue to industrialize. Because they get the side benefit of building factories and getting workers out of farms into manufacturing the longer this lasts.\n\nHow? Well, the trade right now is $1 for 6 ¥. If it continues this way, it may soon be $1 for 5 ¥. But then China says, I'll buy $1 for 7 ¥. Now there's pressure in the other direction, so it'll stay at 6.\n\nIs this evil or bad for the US? Not really. China has lots of money in the US. Money they aren't directly able to spend on themselves. Can China compromise and trash the US economy with this much investment? No, they're really just overpaying Americans and making them richer. If anything, they're hampering the ability for a Chinese citizen to buy foreign goods. So the US feeds China, and China makes feeding them cheap, and both spiral upwards and upwards.\n\nWhat is actually bad about this? It's not sustainable and China is actively trying to slow down their growth. Speculators might get hyped up \"it's only going up!!! BUY!!!!\" and over inflate it, setting themselves up for a bubble burst. It also sucks for a Chinese citizen. While they now have a manufacturing job, they may have to buy an iPad for 8000¥ instead of what it should \"actually\" cost at 7000¥ (made up numbers).",
"Money and prices are intimately related, like two sides of a coin. When a nation prints more money, that money becomes less valuable. That is, it buys fewer things, whether we are talking about apples, or cars, or even other currencies. So two things happen when China prints more money. The first is that China's currency, the Yuan, becomes less valuable relative to dollars. So a single dollar buys more Yuan. The second is that the Yuan becomes less valuable compared to Chinese goods, like Chinese cars and T.V.s and so on. That is to say, it will take more Yuan to buy a T.V.. Which is another way of saying that Chinese prices go up.\n\nHere's the catch. The first effect, the relative price of currencies, changes really quickly in response to newly printed Yuan. The second effect takes place slowly over time. This has an important implication. For the sake of simplicity, ignore the second effect. In that case, printing of Yuan simply lowers the value of Yuan relative to dollars. A single dollar buys more Yuan than before. However, since Chinese prices are unchanged (by assumption), this also means that a single dollar buys more Chinese goods than before. That is, Chinese goods become cheaper for Americans. \n\nSo, Chinese currency manipulation increases exports out of China. That's why the Chinese want to do it. At the same time, U.S. companies have a hard time competing with these currently (you might say artificially) low Chinese prices. American exports decrease. There is one important fact to remember though. Chinese currency manipulation is good for American consumers. We get to buy goods at lower prices. Why then do we hear all the news about how bad it is for Americans? Why do we see, say, Chuck Schumer at a factory in NY lamenting Chinese currency manipulation? Because it's bad for his constituents who cannot compete in the export market.",
"To piggyback off the answers of /u/hopitcalillusion and /u/funky_duck as they are pretty good. \n\nThe follow up question becomes, why does this matter? Well the idea behind exporting our cheap manufacturing needs somewhere else is that our (the US) higher skilled labor can build something more valuable. If the Chinese wages were rising across the board the Chinese would be able to buy more (in theory) expensive American products. China only very recently overtook the US in total manufacturing by value. The difference between US and Chinese manufacturing is that the US builds very expensive products, much like Germany. Think airplanes, production machines, cars and chemicals. We want the Chinese to buy these things. \n\nWe've seen this play out with extreme luxury goods. As the Chinese rich have developed a taste for the finer things they are willing to spend to get them. China is now the number one market for wine, for example. Everyone is preying they don't develop and taste for Sushi because if they do Tuna will be extinct before Chelsea Clinton can run for President. \n\nInstead for most the Chinese hoard money and the rest don't make enough to buy F-150's.",
"IMHO the easiest way to think of currency rates (eg., the number of Chinese Yuan you would have to pay to get a US dollar), is by thinking of normal supply & demand for any item. Here the item is a Yuan, which is the Chinese currency. Its price in US dollars is set by the point of balance between supply and demand.\n\nTo simplify, there is a huge demand for Chinese Yuan because people buy their goods (b/c of cheap labor, etc) -- if you want to buy Chinese goods, you change US dollars into Yuan and then pay the manufacturer. This increase in demand should raise the price of the Yuan (or rather the exchange rate). However, when this happens, the price that Americans pay for Chinese goods goes up. b/c the Yuan has become more expensive. \n\nSo in order to keep demand for their goods high, the Chinese government increases the supply of the Yuan by selling them to the US in large numbers by buying US debt (paying Yuan for US bonds). This increases the supply of Yuan available to foreigners, and keeps the price (or exchange rate) down.",
"Having a high-valued currency means you can buy imports cheaply, but your exports cost more in foreign markets. Having a low-valued currency means the opposite, that imports are very expensive but your exports are cheap on foreign markets.\n\nChina is a member of the World Trade Organization, which requires that member countries keep barriers to trade, like import taxes/tariffs, low. Countries that put up arbitrary barriers in order to sell more of their own goods and keep others out can be taken to court and sued by the WTO.\n\nSo what China does is reap the benefits of the WTO, meaning the low trade barriers of other countries, that allow it to sell lots of cheap products to them and make lots of money by outcompeting them. One of the ways it does this is by keeping the value of its currency artificially low, so that its goods stay extra cheap and external competitors' goods stay extra expensive. So it gets the benefits of free trade (more sales) without the negatives (extra competition), by skirting the rules.\n\nSource: MA student in global economic development",
"US Corporates increased their profits by outsourcing manufacturing to a cheapo country. Many years later US-workers complain that there are no jobs.\nUS-Acedemic-Economists point out that the theory of supply-demand says that USD:YUAN should be 1:2 not 1:6.\nUS-Politicians then go on the news and spread word of a conspiracy theory in the currency market.\n\nTldr China is a cheapo country where its citizens live on $6000 USD per year. \nThe US would need to make China a costly country, by introducing high taxes, high-rents, high-costs, so that citizens cannot live on under $20,000 usd a year.\nThen China would not be able to undercut US-labour. \nOr US can introduce automation, and undercut the China-labour.\n\nThe US can not ban china trade, (its ally), and decrease the profits of US-Corporates.\n\nSo now the US is creating TPP,, so that dominated countries have to allow US-firms and US-Banks in their markets.",
"The Chinese currency is not a freely traded currency. That means that the government there is totally in control of the amount of money in circulation. They decide how many YUAN go into circulation and they decide the rate of interest and the conversion rate into and out of other currencies.\n\nThey can hold it artificially high or low so that it is not free floating -in a free market demand for their goods would determine the equilibrium\nbetween the buyer's and the sellers' currencies. \n\nThe Chinese central bank takes all the revenues in other currencies and reinvests outside the country and creates yuan for internal Chinese consumption. So the two never meet. They do not import many goods into their country. The system was set up when China had no credit rating and could only deal in cash.",
"The manipulation is an artifically cheap foreign exchange rate between the renmimbi and the dollar (known as a \"peg\"). It is set low by the Chinese government as a policy, rather than by market forces, such that it makes Chinese exports look artificially cheap in dollar terms. \n\nIf the renmimbi were allowed to float freely against the dollar Chinese exports would look more expensive in dollars than they do with that artificially low peg, and so customers would consider other options, like American goods, which would suddenly look less expensive *in comparison*. \n\nIt is therefore helping China sell their large exports, creating an equally large surplus in real cash inflows that they can use to invest in their infrastructure e.g. military, roads, energy, communications etc. while hurting other nations like the USA, from whom those dollars are being taken.",
"When your economy is focused on exports and is successful, the economy becomes stronger and your local currency eventually appreciates in value. This makes your goods more expensive relative to your peers and hurts your competitiveness.\n\nTo counteract this, the government of China prints money and uses the money to purchase foreign currency thus devaluing its currency to keep its exports cheap. The main currency in international transactions is US $ and the currency manipulation is focused on buying American government debt. If countries respond in kind, then the result is a competitive devaluation with countries trying to stymy imports and encourage exports. \n\nIt is poor taste to enact policies that clearly negatively affect the wellbeing of your trading partners.",
"I make marbles, you like marbles. I sell marbles for 1 paperclip each. You use stickers to buy stuff. 1 sticker is worth 5 paperclips but because everyone is wanting paperclips to buy my marbles, the demand for paperclips should make it more like 1 sticker is worth 3 paperclips but instead of letting things work out that way, I am dictating 1 sticker is still worth 5 paperclips. Therefore you can still buy lots of marbles from me instead of my neighbor selling marbles for 1 eraser which is equivalent to 1 sticker.",
"We print money, this causes the Chinese currency to go up against the US dollar.\n\nMaking imports from China more expensive to Americans.\n\nThe Chinese have a 'peg' to our currency, so whenever our currency goes down in value, the Chinese print more currency to maintain a fixed exchange rate.\n\nThe fun part is we encourage other countries to peg their currencies to the US dollar, but at the same time get mad at China for pegging theirs.",
"Every government 'manipulates' its currency. China has in the past just fixed their's artificially low relative to the US dollar, giving them a competitive advantage for manufacturing and exporting goods. In the past 8 years, the US has engaged in manipulation as well. Zero short term rates, expansion of the Fed's balance sheet via QE, large fiscal deficits etc. It was called Beggar Thy Neighbor in the 1930's.",
"I read the thread, and everyone's opinion is political.\n\nReally? China has 2 currencies, one domestic and one international. They manipulate them to keep the international one low, so they can sell more stuff.\n\nYes, its against the treaty rules. But, its a pretty minor thing, and they continue to get away with it.\n\nDo **we** care? Not a lot.",
"The Chinese government prints \"X\" amounts of currency and to combat the drop of their own currency, they use the new printed currency to purchase U.S. debt. By doing so, they create a demand for U.S. dollars.\n\nEdit: And no, this does not mean we will eventually be owned by China.",
"Quantitative easing. Basically they issue a lot of yuan which makes it less valuable relative to the dollar than it otherwise would be, making goods made in China cheaper than they otherwise would be, keeping production of these goods in China and attracting new production to China.",
"All OP needs to know is that if it's happening outside of your country, it's called 'manipulating currency.' If it's inside the country, it's called hedging against inflation and 'protecting currency.'",
"It means that the pot is calling the kettle black. Every country manipulates their currency through a variety of schemes.",
"Since the US has specifically not labelled China a currency manipulator- I would debate the premise of the question.",
"Every country manipulates it's own currency if possible. To accuse China of it solely is completely inaccurate.",
"Khan Academy does a great job of explaining this.\n_URL_2_",
"Don't they also create the most accurate US dollar counterfeits?"
],
"score": [
2715,
412,
211,
107,
38,
19,
16,
11,
11,
9,
9,
8,
8,
6,
5,
5,
5,
5,
4,
4,
4,
4,
3,
3,
3,
3,
3,
3,
3,
3,
2,
2,
2,
2,
2,
2,
2,
2,
2,
2,
2,
2,
2,
2,
2,
2,
2,
2,
2,
2,
2,
2
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": [
"https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Jay_Kaplan_Financial_Markets_and_the_Economy?id=lBlOBAAAQBAJ",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exchange-rate_regime",
"https://www.khanacademy.org/economics-finance-domain/core-finance/money-and-banking/china-us-debt-situation/v/floating-exchange-resolving-trade-imbalance"
]
} | train_eli5 | What does it mean when the US accuses China of "manipulating its currency"
| [
-0.06473924219608307,
0.06441770493984222,
-0.002020311076194048,
0.04441307485103607,
-0.009397449903190136,
-0.04487005993723869,
0.05478788912296295,
-0.0300434697419405,
0.0006472757668234408,
-0.021512428298592567,
0.029311850666999817,
-0.018713606521487236,
-0.014934505335986614,
0.... | ||
350suc | When scientists say that our universe may just be a giant hologram, what do they mean exactly? | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"cqzx2qw",
"cr01law",
"cr02430",
"cr00vxv",
"cr04q30"
],
"text": [
"What we think and what we know about the universe is strange and complex. I read a book titled \"the holographic universe\" over the summer and in there was a passage about a scientific study conducted on lizards. Scientists monitored the normal eating and sleeping patterns of a specific type of lizard. They then performed and surgical operation on said lizard in which they cut and removed a portion or its brain. The lizard was able to function normally and retained its normal eating and sleeping habits. In comparison if you look at a standard price of holographic film that let's say was designed to project an apple when you shined a light through it it would display the image normally. Now cut that peoce of holographic film in half shine a light through it and you still get the entire image of the apple just at half resolution. Cut that price in half now the image becomes hazy but its still an apple. This is one of the examples explained in the book \"the holographic universe\" they are trying to explain that the evidence that the universe is holographic can be seen by analysing our brains \"filesystem\". They believe that our brain stores memories holographically its why you can never truely completely forget something it just becomes extremely hazy. Now since this discovery they have tried to project this very same theory onto the universe . they believe that the university we are in right now the screen your reading this very comment on is literally just a projection of the universe from some 4 dimension space. They believe that nothing you see is actually here but it still exists its just a projection from somewhere else. I know this is a tough concept to grab hold of hell I read the entire 340 page book and I'm still having a hard time explaining it to you in this comment.",
"The maximum amount of entropy within a unit of space depends not on the volume of the space as you would expect, but on the surface area of the space. the universe can hold far less information per unit space than would otherwise would be expected.",
"It depends on who you ask, the idea that the universe might *be* a hologram is not that mature (not completely worked out, untested, not widely believed, etc). It's mostly (but not exclusively) pushed by Gerard 't Hooft, who believes gravity can be explained that way. The idea originally comes from black hole thermodynamics, where the information contained in the black hole might scale with the surface area of the black hole, not its volume. But that's already a conjecture (made for good reasons, but still), and then the holographic principle extrapolates that to any region of space, that's like a double conjecture.\n\nTL;DR it means that the information contained in any region of space can be described on its boundary",
"You're using that term \"scientists\" loosely. As far as I am aware no real scientific theory or subjective evidence points to the idea.\n\nIf I'm wrong please point me into the right direction I'd love to read more about this if it's grounded in reality and not just some assumption put forth by some people with a youtube channel. However, when I heard of this year's ago and looked into it I found nothing of the sort.",
"Has anyone here read Plato's \"Allegory of the Cave?\" It might be considered reaching but the idea that the universe is essentially a giant Hologram is eerily similar to the ideas posited by a philosopher over a thousand years ago. Obviously he had no scientific proof of this, but his philosophy and this theory sound *incredibly* alike. It's kind of spooky."
],
"score": [
19,
10,
4,
4,
2
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | When scientists say that our universe may just be a giant hologram, what do they mean exactly?
| [
0.05526066944003105,
0.019604068249464035,
0.04338998347520828,
0.009351001121103764,
0.039397746324539185,
-0.04645984619855881,
-0.033809151500463486,
0.021144399419426918,
0.04112141206860542,
-0.05760416015982628,
-0.011352302506566048,
-0.0011288010282441974,
-0.09708232432603836,
-0.... | ||
1a9p4c | The relationship between Genes, DNA, and Chromosomes | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"c8vd50s"
],
"text": [
"*Chromosomes* are the physical units of genetic material. \nyour chromosomes are made up of build blocks, *DNA*, that is in the form of a double helix or staircase that can wind and unwind, to allow for copying of itself and to allow it to be compact. \n*Genes* are found in your DNA, and there are several genes that are building instructions for proteins/enzymes that allow your body's cells to perform all the functions they need to."
],
"score": [
2
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | The relationship between Genes, DNA, and Chromosomes
| [
-0.10586930811405182,
0.10183879733085632,
-0.08779840171337128,
-0.02125556580722332,
-0.06400589644908905,
0.04409891366958618,
0.007341157179325819,
0.0028739534318447113,
0.006054012570530176,
0.0030276572797447443,
0.05223771557211876,
0.00427693035453558,
-0.04174099490046501,
-0.015... | ||
2ae75s | Why there are so many types of dogs, cats, birds etc when there only a very few types of humans? | I mean like, there are literally a lot of breeds of dogs and this is same in the case of most of the other animals too. Even monkeys are of different kinds with major visible differences. Now when it comes to Humans, these differences are lesser visible and also there are only a few of different kinds, like Chinese, Western, Black, Indian etc. | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"ciu64er",
"ciu6hdt",
"ciu62dz",
"ciu7mar",
"ciu5x6c",
"ciu5wmc",
"ciu9ykb"
],
"text": [
"Dogs are bred to be different, people have selected specific traits to give us the wide spectrum that we see today, similarly cats have been bred in this way although to a lesser extent (people have been breeding cats for a shorter period of time). Birds are a whole clade of animals, unlike cats and dogs they can't interbreed, a seagull can't breed with and ostrich for example, much like a cat can't breed with a dog (although they are both mammals).\n\nIf you are talking about a broad definition of cats (and dogs), like lions, pumas, cougars, lynxes (which on the most part can't interbreed), then I would say that for an outsiders perspective there is as much difference between a house cat and a lion as there is between a human and a spider monkey.\n\nOnly in recent history has there been only one kind of hominid, in our distant past homo sapiens have shared the earth with a wide range of other human-like animals, homo erectus and homo heidelbergensis to name few. We out competed, killed and interbred with this other hominids to leave us where we are today. But we still have chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans which share between 95 and 98 percent of our DNA.\n\nEDIT: bread changed to bred",
"Dogs, cats have been intentionally bred by humans. The breeding has been designed to enhance genetic differences - smaller size / larger ; heavier coat / thinner; swimmer / not ; short legs/longer; and other differences. \n\nNothing is actively trying to breed humans selectively, at least not with any success. Humans are all pretty much the same, and will probably just get more homogenous.\n\nWhile there are many dog breeds, the species only has [approx 0.2% genetic variance](_URL_1_). \n Humans only appear to have half that, [around 0.1%](_URL_2_). \nWhile there are forces that influence human breeding patterns, nobody could admit to actually force-breeding a population over a significant time. \n\nFurther, when speaking about animal breeds, it can be roughly equivalent to describe a breed as a group of genetically similar individuals. When speaking about human 'races' that doesn't hold up; there is [more genetic variation based on geography](_URL_0_) than on visible characteristics. \n\nThese genetic stats are predictive, but not 100% certain yet. We don't actually know what every single gene does. A lot of genes appear to be 'garbage'; differences in garbage genes probably mean there are less 'important' differences...in both dogs and between humans. \n\nI couldn't find much data about cats, but I suppose it is reasonable to compare the selective breeding of cats to that of dogs.",
"Most animals you mentioned are different species. You mentioned eagles and crows in a comment, as well as cobras and pythons. They are somewhat closely related, but they're far enough apart to where they can't breed with each other. They are related to each other in the same way we're related to other hominids (gorillas, chimps, orangutans).\n\nDogs and cats are special in that there really are a ton of different breeds of the same species. The reason for that is selective breeding by humans. We created a large number of breeds of both of these animals for various reasons, such as working conditions, or for shows, or perhaps just because we like certain traits.",
"I think it's also important to consider that at least with non-domesticated animals, like big cats, the different types (Lion, tiger, puma) are actually different species, while human nationalities (such as Chinese and Indian) aren't actually genetic differences but rather just biological traits that have developed from evolution. For example, skin color tends to be darker closer to the equator because historically and geographically people have been exposed to more sunlight. Domesticated animals, as others have said, have more variety because of human intervention and selective breeding.\nAlso, birds are a type of vertebrate, like fish or mammals, so they naturally have more species.",
"Well, for domesticated animals we selectively breed certain traits over and over again to get the looks/traits we want. Do this enough, and get it far enough away from the parent breed, and you get a new one. For example Rat terriers were breed to be small and aggressive so they would be better at killing rats around docks and ships. Also we tend not to strictly categorize people like this. As in you wouldn't see a brunette guy from Georgia, and say \"Hey look at that brown haired american\" as if that was his breed like we do animals.",
"This is a quit complex question and it is not easy to answer. Humans have evolved only recently and they originated from the same area from Africa. Humans on contrary to animals are able to adapt to external conditions by their social interaction and by inventing tools, agriculture, drugs... Etc. Therefore, we escaped natural selection. We were able to keep similar genetic variations which allow people of different regions to mate. It's like I said very complex and you need to study years of genetics evolution and biochemistry to understand it",
"I'm surprised no one has yet mentioned the [Toba castastrophe theory](_URL_3_); basically, the idea is that about 70,000 years ago the eruption of a large volcano in Indonesia may have reduced the number of humans to about 15,000 worldwide. (Alternatively, the \"bottlenecking\" was longer term... but, in either case, it seems that about 70k years ago the human population was very small.) This would have lead to a sharp decrease in the diversity of humans that could have lead to different human species."
],
"score": [
8,
2,
2,
2,
2,
2,
2
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": [
"http://genome.cshlp.org/content/14/9/1679.long",
"http://jhered.oxfordjournals.org/content/94/1/81.full",
"http://science.education.nih.gov/supplements/nih1/genetic/guide/genetic_variation1.htm",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toba_catastrophe_theory"
]
} | train_eli5 | Why there are so many types of dogs, cats, birds etc when there only a very few types of humans?
I mean like, there are literally a lot of breeds of dogs and this is same in the case of most of the other animals too. Even monkeys are of different kinds with major visible differences. Now when it comes to Humans, these differences are lesser visible and also there are only a few of different kinds, like Chinese, Western, Black, Indian etc. | [
0.06053344905376434,
-0.024966657161712646,
0.14076979458332062,
0.07928819954395294,
-0.005042999051511288,
0.004501132294535637,
-0.045801207423210144,
-0.03383338823914528,
0.12603391706943512,
0.05906239524483681,
0.035807330161333084,
-0.11198996007442474,
-0.08982865512371063,
-0.012... | |
5youx9 | what is the difference between the new and old testaments? | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"ders163",
"derr8a3"
],
"text": [
"The Old Testament is a collection of writings in the Jewish faith, which were ultimately canonized into what's known as the Tanakh. It probably wasn't _completely_ finalized until late in the first millennium B.C., but many of the books were written hundreds or thousands of years earlier, and have been preserved and studied by the Jewish people since. It's not known who wrote all the books, but many were written by very prominent Jewish leaders, such as Moses and David. The Tanakh is what the Jews still study today.\n\nThe New Testament is the collection of writings about Jesus Christ and his teachings. Jesus was crucified in 33-ish A.D., and the books were all written in the decades that followed by people who lived during Jesus's life (most of whom knew Jesus personally). Christians study both the Old and New testament. They're seen as different parts of the same text because Christians (and Jesus himself) consider Christ's teachings to be a continuation of the Jewish faith. Notably, the Old Testament has a number of promises and prophesies that herald the coming of a messiah, and Christ claimed to be that messiah. So understandably, Christians study both.",
"The old testament is a collection of texts from before Jesus. It focuses on Israel and the Jewish people, their lineage, their beliefs, their laws, their art, etc.\n\nThe new testament is a collection of texts from after Jesus. It focuses on his role in fulfilling the covenant between Israel and God, what he taught, how people ought to act especially in light of both real and perceived persecution, and largely just the propagation of their beliefs.\n\nThe general idea of the new testament is that it sets Christians apart from Jews. Christians believe that Jesus fulfilled the covenant, replacing the past laws with a new set, dictating a new era. Jews don't believe that, they believe that only the old testament is legitimately inspired by God."
],
"score": [
7,
2
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | what is the difference between the new and old testaments?
| [
-0.03270066902041435,
0.040546271950006485,
-0.018804417923092842,
-0.051988691091537476,
0.014053252525627613,
-0.009932190179824829,
-0.10708343982696533,
-0.01085815392434597,
0.06993808597326279,
0.05876263231039047,
0.011543979868292809,
0.08153073489665985,
-0.017585355788469315,
-0.... | ||
4gxox1 | What is the difference between a dwarf planet and a moon? Could a moon have its own smaller moon or moons orbiting it? | Is there anything specific that classifies an orbiting object as a moon or is it just the fact that it's orbiting a planet? Could a moon have its own orbit around a sun without having an orbit around another planet? | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"d2lo8da"
],
"text": [
"A moon is a moon cause it is revolving around a planet. That should answer both of your questions. Here is a good question, can a moon have its own satellite, and would it be called a moon too?"
],
"score": [
2
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | What is the difference between a dwarf planet and a moon? Could a moon have its own smaller moon or moons orbiting it?
Is there anything specific that classifies an orbiting object as a moon or is it just the fact that it's orbiting a planet? Could a moon have its own orbit around a sun without having an orbit around another planet? | [
0.0446089506149292,
0.0021826205775141716,
-0.006764549762010574,
0.03984071686863899,
-0.010496306233108044,
-0.0729266032576561,
0.0014322625938802958,
-0.03989528492093086,
0.0196794755756855,
0.01399270910769701,
-0.06205404922366142,
-0.015285337343811989,
0.0244089737534523,
-0.07159... | |
6i2qat | Why is orange such a holy color in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Sikhism? | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dj32efo"
],
"text": [
"As I understand it it's not orange per se, but *saffron* which is extremely expensive to cultivate and shows the dedication to the faith through that cost"
],
"score": [
9
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | Why is orange such a holy color in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Sikhism?
| [
0.055369749665260315,
0.034975480288267136,
-0.03760950639843941,
0.09857464581727982,
0.024393664672970772,
-0.0029398906044662,
0.06713325530290604,
-0.08531850576400757,
0.13950762152671814,
-0.040840767323970795,
0.02386273629963398,
-0.02850097231566906,
-0.030421217903494835,
-0.0422... | ||
1qmzcq | How come programs never run out of Serial/CD/Activation keys? | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"cdeeo1w",
"cdehpjj",
"cdeell8"
],
"text": [
"Well let's see, how long is the average activation key? 30 characters? Each one can be either a letter or a number, so that's 36 possibilities for each character. That's 30^36, or 150094635296999121000000000000000000000000000000000000 combinations, which is over 21442090756714160142857142857142857142857 times the number of people on earth.",
"The old school activation codes from the ninties worked by taking the number and do some math on it, if the result was the same as a number the program knew about then the serial was correct.\n\nFor example a very common serial code method used with old windows applications was to take the registration name and turn it into numbers, then use that number with a secret number to create a serial code, then you can take the serial code and the registration name, and make sure they turn into the secret number and you knew it was valid. This is often the case when you need both the correct name and the correct code to unlock the application.\n\ni.e if this simple formula would generate a serial key\n \n serial = name * secret \n\nthen you can test it with \n\n serial / name == secret\n\nThis way makes the serial code a derivation of the given name, so there would as many serials as there is combinations of letter to make names.\n\n\nThe new way of online registrations is often done with fat database tables of valid keys and then just cross them out when they are used, then generate more into the database when needed.",
"You've never shopped Steam sales/extremely popular Humble Bundles that activate on Steam have you?\n\nAlso, because the company can always generate more."
],
"score": [
12,
2,
2
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | How come programs never run out of Serial/CD/Activation keys?
| [
0.006373102776706219,
-0.014441801235079765,
0.0056501878425478935,
-0.06351015716791153,
-0.030674858018755913,
-0.008737131953239441,
-0.03988046571612358,
0.07311548292636871,
0.08324196934700012,
0.04454675316810608,
0.0856202244758606,
0.1357581913471222,
0.02607002668082714,
-0.09574... | ||
3sl570 | What are the benefits to REI of selling memberships? | After the REI CEO gave his AMA, there was a lot of discussion in /r/bestof about REI requiring its employees to sell memberships. Apparently, membership sales are the most important performance metric (rightly or wrongly).
According to Wikipedia, the REI memberships give customers a bunch of benefits like a 10% refund, other discounts, the ability to return used gear, etc. These seem like great perks, and apparently the membership fee is a one-time fee of $20.
I don't understand how REI benefits from pushing memberships on customers. Don't members pay less when they buy things at REI? If all of REI's customers were members, wouldn't REI make less money than if it were selling to nonmembers?
Why would REI make membership sales the most important metric for judging employees? What does REI get out of that? Does membership increase customer demand (i.e., members will shop more often at REI than nonmembers)?
| explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"cwy7cuv",
"cwy7de8"
],
"text": [
"Brand loyalty and growth. Members buy more. Plus, REI is a co-op. It's not about making more money. It's about serving its members.\n\nI joined REI decades ago. It's still my preferred place for buying winter clothes, hiking clothes, most cycling gear, sunglasses, day packs, etc. I recommend it to everyone with a clear conscious.",
"The $20 (across the entire member base) is similar to IPO capital, that becomes the money the organization can use to build new REI stores or fund other organizational activities, and it's far more stable than sales based figures. \n\nKeep in mind that it's run for the benefit of members (which means making money isn't the main goal), rather it means they'll increase the membership dividend ratio or reduce prices."
],
"score": [
3,
2
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | What are the benefits to REI of selling memberships?
After the REI CEO gave his AMA, there was a lot of discussion in /r/bestof about REI requiring its employees to sell memberships. Apparently, membership sales are the most important performance metric (rightly or wrongly). According to Wikipedia, the REI memberships give customers a bunch of benefits like a 10% refund, other discounts, the ability to return used gear, etc. These seem like great perks, and apparently the membership fee is a one-time fee of $20. I don't understand how REI benefits from pushing memberships on customers. Don't members pay less when they buy things at REI? If all of REI's customers were members, wouldn't REI make less money than if it were selling to nonmembers? Why would REI make membership sales the most important metric for judging employees? What does REI get out of that? Does membership increase customer demand (i.e., members will shop more often at REI than nonmembers)? | [
-0.037953682243824005,
-0.07913003116846085,
0.017225606366991997,
0.05773674696683884,
0.03896857798099518,
0.050681255757808685,
0.07662732899188995,
0.038790129125118256,
0.0694277212023735,
-0.025114648044109344,
0.011378847062587738,
0.03361060097813606,
0.09826495498418808,
0.0203229... | |
85nht6 | Why is the Sagrada Familia taking so long to complete? | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dvyq9t4"
],
"text": [
"Because the Sagrada Familia is only maintained with aims and donations, which makes it take much longer to build (even stop due to the lack of contributions) than if a private company or the state were to invest."
],
"score": [
2
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | Why is the Sagrada Familia taking so long to complete?
| [
0.03274814411997795,
-0.04786863923072815,
0.015614138916134834,
0.032164257019758224,
0.03411421924829483,
0.009123862721025944,
-0.1464495062828064,
-0.06030835583806038,
-0.009695935994386673,
0.02589288167655468,
0.062358558177948,
-0.021640067920088768,
-0.042428579181432724,
-0.05049... | ||
80xicm | How blood pressure medication works like Lisinopril? | I'm in great shape and have never had any health issues. Over the last couple of doctor visits my pressure has been high. I had a 24 hr monitor and it was decided that I need medication to help. I'm looking for information on how the medication works with my body. | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"duyym8h",
"duyynwc"
],
"text": [
"So, your arteries have a layer of muscle around them, this can contract reducing the artery diameter and relax increasing it.\n\nReduced diameter = less space for your blood, the problem is that, assuming you're resting, your heart always pumps the same amount of blood per minute (more or less), this means that even if the artery has a smaller diameter the amount of blood that goes trough it in, let's say, a minute, stays the same, the only way to achieve this constant flow is having the blood go faster, this raises the pressure it applies to the artery \"walls\".\n\nSo, about your question, there is this protein called Angiotensin II that causes the muscle layer to contract raising your blood pressure, this protein is produced by another protein that takes Angiotensin I (that doesn't cause contraction) and converts it to Angiotensin II, a protein that works on another protein is called an enzyme; blood pressure drugs like Lisinopril work by blocking the enzyme that won't convert Angiotensin I to Angiotensin II reducing the contraction of the muscle layer of you arteries.",
"Lisinopril is an ACE inhibitor. That stands for angiotensin converting enzyme. They relax blood vessels causing them to dilate which reduces pressure. \n\nThink of water going through a thin hose, it shoots out the end. Take the same amount of water, but double the width of the hose. The water doesn't shoot out as far because the more available space reduces the pressure.\n\nDrugs like Metoprolol are beta blockers. They work by blocking the hormone epinephrine. This causes the heart to beat more slowly and with less force. The also will relax blood vessels to some extent.\n\nThink of the example with the hoses above and add to it a less powerful pump to decrease pressure.\n\nSometimes the shape you are in doesn't matter, high blood pressure can be genetic, though I would be remiss if I didn't mention that the shape you are in plays a large part.\n\nI also forgot to mention the use of diuretics. Hydroclorothiazide or HCTZ is commonly used in in conjunction with ACE inhibitors like lisinopril. This drug inhibits the kidneys ability to reabsorb sodium. The sodium gets expelled through urine. Water follows salt so your urine output is signicantly increased. \n\nThink of the analogy with the hoses and cut the amount of water in half, thereby reducing the pressure. Maybe more easily visualized is the way water runs through a small stream after heavy rains, versus during a drought. Less water equals less pressure.\n\nEdit: Added info about HCTZ"
],
"score": [
6,
3
]
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | {
"url": []
} | train_eli5 | How blood pressure medication works like Lisinopril?
I'm in great shape and have never had any health issues. Over the last couple of doctor visits my pressure has been high. I had a 24 hr monitor and it was decided that I need medication to help. I'm looking for information on how the medication works with my body. | [
-0.01180410385131836,
-0.07788041234016418,
-0.0392320454120636,
0.019463522359728813,
-0.039066657423973083,
-0.008823568932712078,
0.03931853175163269,
0.06517700850963593,
-0.0021208864636719227,
-0.0829349234700203,
-0.04662996530532837,
0.05794906243681908,
-0.017933687195181847,
-0.0... |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.