Split (1)

train · 14k rows

q_id stringlengths 6 6	title stringlengths 4 294	selftext stringlengths 0 2.48k	category stringclasses 1 value	subreddit stringclasses 1 value	answers dict	title_urls listlengths 1 1	selftext_urls listlengths 1 1
h9kfks	Why do some countries still struggle to make nuclear weapons?	We hear pretty often than Iran is attempting to enrich uranium and make nuclear weapons. The same has been said of some other countries and there are countless other nations that would like nuclear weapons but can’t make them. How is this the case when this is 80 year old technology at this point? If we could make them...	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fux5309", "fux5a4x", "fux61tn", "fux5pob", "fux5hkg", "fux6eco" ], "text": [ "It’s not a matter of scientific difficulty, the process is well known and you can look it up online. The difficulty is mostly in procuring the materials and equipment against the will of the inte...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
h9kvnf	What are Cybernetics?	Something in my brain just isn't clicking. The wikipedia article is difficult for me to understand, and maybe I'm just having one of those days.	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fux8n8o" ], "text": [ "Cybernetics can be a lot, a plethora of different categories and systems can fall under the umbrella of cybernetics. A very simple understanding is: machine experiences > machine computes > machine reorganizes > machine repeats The goal of cybernetics, no matter what it...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
h9nepv	how does platforms like Steam or Amazon know if you're using a correct visa card or not if you didn't buy anything with it?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fuxoi3l", "fuxoic2", "fuxq7bl", "fuxq0bm" ], "text": [ "There is some internal logic to the format the numbers should be in. So in many cases a typo of one digit would make the number invalid. Old computer games could also do that offline where the CD key had to follow a certain f...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
h9vjqc	How do undercurrent inputs damage devices?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fuz56sb" ], "text": [ "I'm used to low Voltage/ low power devices (microcontrollers and sensor circuits) and under current doesn't damage the equipment for me; it just doesn't work. I can forsee some circuits having issues with under voltage on input, resulting is current flowing in the wro...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
h9weai	How does a breathalyzer tell how drunk you are		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fuzbao2" ], "text": [ "Your body takes time to process alchohol, and a typical healthy adult male's liver can break down roughly 1 \"standard drink\" in about an hour. If you take a shot, for example, the alcohol in that shot is gradually carried in the blood and shunted into your liver for b...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
h9wp9q	How did people construct wells before modern drilling and how dangerous was it?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fuzb434", "fuzlw1q" ], "text": [ "It depends on how deep the water table is, but... they just dug a hole until they reached the water table. There's always some risk, but it's probably not as dangerous as you think There are actually some really interesting 'primitive building' channels o...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
h9y5l2	Why does Google need users to agree to a Terms and Conditions to sign up for a Google account but don’t need it to perform a Google search when a search could expose even more personal information?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fuzn891", "fuzj8nq" ], "text": [ "Google doesn't send you a cookie if all you do is go to the URL_0 search page so it doesn't need a GDPR popup. Google doesn't need you to agree to its non-cookie data tracking. It just needs to make a statement on its data tracking available (which it is ...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
ha11j9	why does fast charging in mobile phones charge the phone to a certain % very quickly and then significantly slows down?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fuzyutc" ], "text": [ "Think of it as blowing up a balloon. At the early stages, you can inflate it pretty fast because there is not as much pressure. As the balloon expands and the pressure inside gets higher, it gets harder and harder to blow into it." ], "score": [ 16 ], "text_...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
ha2k6g	How does a color-changing light actually do that? For example: DualShock's light bar		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fv05iex" ], "text": [ "Multiple different-colored LEDs inside, dimming to different brightness. Color mixing does the rest. It's the same concept that computer screens use for their pixels, they're also just 3 monochrome (red, green, blue) subpixels at different brightness to make one \"color...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
ha41jy	- Why do older movies/shows/news/recordings have a much different "tone" of voice and feel to them? Like if you watch old movies like "It's a Wonderful Life" or hear any of Kennedy/FDR's speeches, it sounds so different than the voices on tv today?	Sorry for the awful explanation... Edit: Thank you everyone for the detailed and thorough explanations!	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fv0dxo7", "fv0ldgn", "fv14f6i", "fv32skn" ], "text": [ "The Mid-Atlantic accent, or Transatlantic accent, is a purposefully-cultivated accent of English that blends together the most prestigious features of American and British English (specifically Received Pronunciation for the ...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
ha530h	How Does Water (or other fluids) Ruin Electronics?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fv0jydo", "fv0jrxb" ], "text": [ "Water conducts electricity. Allowing current to flow between components unmetered and unchecked leading to short circuiting. Also corrosion", "Water is conductive if it has some minerals in it, but you need to go out of your way to get water without m...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
ha5h2p	The difference between 32-bit and 64-bit.		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fv0nx8w", "fv1mm53" ], "text": [ "imagine you're adding numbers like in school where you write 1 3 5 3 1 6 0 5 1 2 5 6 _________ 1 8 6 5 7 2 That's how a computer adds numbers too. A computer with \"more bits\" can work with longer numbers at once. But more importantly, because it \"knows...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
ha8f0x	Why does undervolting a CPU not decrease the performance?	How does undervolting a CPU keep the same performance? I feel like it makes sense that it would cause a decrease in performance since it consumes less power right?	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fv180de" ], "text": [ "Assuming you don't touch the clock speed, the processor is still doing the same tasks at the same rate. Although reducing the voltage too much will eventually bring it to a point where the processor starts returning the wrong values to operations, which tends to lead to...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
ha95nw	Why does an electric device trip the breaker when it jams?	When I'm mowing my lawn with my electric mower, and it gets clogged up (because I've gone too long between mowing), why does it trip my breaker? I mean, I can understand the mower jamming up and stopping (like it does). But is there some sort of electrical feedback that goes back into my house? Why is the breaker affec...	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fv1bzan", "fv1c6oj" ], "text": [ "Electric motors are just a big spool of wire, in general we would consider hooking hot to neutral with just a wire to be a short circuit or a very very large heater, but in general it'd be a bad idea. But motors are built to spin within a magnetic field, ...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
ha9hl1	With all of the scams out there, how has the DHS not found a way to track phone numbers and nail scammers by now?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fv1gqvh" ], "text": [ "Scams are low key crimes overall even though they make up a large income base when put together. Although scamming someone for 200$ may be a high crime in one or two states it’s not worth the Feds’ time to track down some guy in the middle east or India making 2$ a day ...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
haavh0	Can Wifi work under water ?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fv1ovyg", "fv1o3r5", "fv1p2m0" ], "text": [ "Water molecules is a dipole meaning that one end is positively charged while the other is negatively charged. This is similar to magnets but with electrical fields instead of magnetic fields. When you send a radio signal through water the e...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
habdi3	How does the needle of a record player ‘read’ the music on a vinyl?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fv1rwus", "fv1r4j8", "fv1vj7e" ], "text": [ "It vibrates. The needle is held at the base, while the tip is allowed to ride in the groove of the record. That groove causes the needle to vibrate (up and down, not side to side), and that vibration is picked up by whatever amplification m...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
hacehi	whats the difference between a subnet and a VLAN?	I understand that both are used to separate networks into parts, but what makes them not redundant? why would one be used over another?	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fv20am4", "fv215cz" ], "text": [ "You typically use them together, but you don't have to. A subnet is a Sub Network that is part of a larger network. They are mostly used with IP networks, most notably IPv4. For example, you have a company that has 2 offices with about 100 or so people ea...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
had1d1	Why are phone dial pads 1-9 left to right top to bottom but keyboard number pads are 1-9 left to right bottom to top?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fv22866", "fv2cs24", "fv22q29" ], "text": [ "Here are some theories collected by [Keyboard Trivia]( URL_0 ). The summary of facts: Touch-tone key pad was designed to mimic the rotary dial with the \"1\" on top and the 7-8-9 on the bottom, and AT & T conducted user testing to confirm t...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
hadqtl	Why does a google search only take 0.000005 seconds while searching for a file by name on your computer take minutes and sometimes it never completes?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fv289lm", "fv26r4m", "fv270hf" ], "text": [ "Let's say you've got a big text book for a class. I ask you to find every instance of the word \"since\" in the book. You're going to have to go through the book page by page, and look at every word. But what if I gave you a different book ...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
hae89n	Why are printers so unreliable. How come we can make cheap computers, and smartphones that work without a hitch - but every printer is seemingly riddled with issues and a nightmare to use.		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fv2hmcf", "fv2ahor", "fv2aj8d", "fv2n3ui", "fv2e4f2", "fv2khjj", "fv2mzuw", "fv2qtd6", "fv2iuue", "fv2oj49", "fv2ntz6", "fv2p5i1", "fv2qx0e", "fv2pzgh" ], "text": [ "more moving parts. more variables. The ink is exposed to air so is constant...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
haf1me	What are “32-bit games” and why the heck can’t my Mac run them?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fv2fqi7", "fv2f6bx" ], "text": [ "Some Number-bit in computing refers to how many bits of data (a 0 or a 1) can be transmitted/computed together. Computers started as 8-bit, then 16-bit, then 32-bit, and now 64-bit. 64-bit computing has been the standard for about 10 years now. Backwards ...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
hal9lo	how do they know how much happens in 24 FPS?	Standard frame rate for stop motion is 24 frames per second. But how do they figure out how much and the pacing of movement in that one second? I know how many strides I can take in a second but breaking that down to 24 bits... I can't figure out. So how do they do it? Just practice? Or do they do the motions and then ...	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fv3huul", "fv3kdmp" ], "text": [ "I used to do very amateur flash animation, which is similar in a way that flash animation is basically just a really fast slide show, although usually, it was close to 12 fps. One trick that was used is that you have an initial frame, and you have an endi...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
halqx5	How do prosthetic limbs work? How does the person control them?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fv3kkvq" ], "text": [ "So not all prosthetics are \"smart\" Some are just static. Some have some springiness to them to make walking feel more natural. Some are smart. They can attach sensors to muscles so that when you flex, it actuates a joint. Some newer tech uses other nerve endings, brai...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
haobcr	Why do storage devices not have the same amount of storage as advertised?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fv3x3xr" ], "text": [ "Space is needed for filesystem overhead. Extremely simplified, that missing space is used for a table of contents. When you ask for a specific file, it looks in the table for the correct \"page\" instead of scanning the whole drive." ], "score": [ 8 ], "text...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
haozlp	What are the two small glass pieces next to US presidents while giving speeches supposed to do? Are they some sort of protection? how does such a tiny piece of glass protect a person?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fv40sok", "fv411e3", "fv415it", "fv40pid" ], "text": [ "Those are teleprompters. They display the speech they are reading, so they can look up and in different directions instead of down at a piece of paper.", "They are teleprompter. There's a projector underneath which reflec...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
hapfn5	How can search engines like google return billions of search results in fractions of a second?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fv43tii", "fv44k6q", "fv47r79" ], "text": [ "I will use book terms. When search engines find a new page, they create an index for that page. It then adds that index into “meta-index” so to speak. When you type something in, it calls on the meta-index and spits out all of the indexed l...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
haq2o5	Induction hot-plates. Or induction in general.		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fv46p41" ], "text": [ "Electricity is created whenever a conductor and a magnetic field are moving relative to one another. The induction plate makes a magnetic field that \"pulses\"; it moves relative to the pot/pan (which must be a conductor; glass, for example, does not work). The electric...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
has8vz	Why are infantry still used in modern war despite drones and tanks?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fv4jvo4", "fv4k6zt", "fv4lech", "fv4js9q", "fv4kvlv" ], "text": [ "Infantry take up space. If you want to control an area, you can't just blow stuff up. That causes destruction, but when the vehicle goes away, the enemy just comes back. You have to attack, which is hard, and t...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
hasngb	How come when you x2, x3 , and so on the speed of a video or audio, the voices get a higher pitch?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fv4m9af" ], "text": [ "The pitch of sound is a function of its wavelength (higher frequency = higher pitch = shorter wavelength). The more distance between two peaks, the lower the pitch. When you accelerate the video, you effectively shorten that distance by compressing the soudwave (if you ...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
hasti3	What is Client-side Storage?	My current Adblock wants permission for unlimited client-side storage but doesn't explain what that means.	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fv4n36c" ], "text": [ "That's storage on your device. Your phone, your PC, etc. The thing you're using is a client and the cloud or remote device is a server." ], "score": [ 3 ], "text_urls": [ [] ] }	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
hata87	Why is 4G so bad now?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fv4qncu" ], "text": [ "More people use mobile networks now. Because the Frequencies used are limited they get shared (TDM and FDM). Because more people use the same Frequencies they get a smaller portion each, making it slow." ], "score": [ 4 ], "text_urls": [ [] ] }	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
hatd11	How does the screen rotation of a mobile phone or similar devices work?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fv4xeof" ], "text": [ "Most modern phones have two sensors in them called an accelerometer and a gyroscope, the gyroscope is pretty good at detecting which way is up, but it can be helped by the accelerometer which measures speeding up and slowing down in certain directions, once the phone us...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
hav10g	How does Minecraft limit the amount of storage space it uses?	For a game virtually infinite worlds, and hundreds of types of blocks how does it save and then reload that data?	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fv50bu1" ], "text": [ "Well the world is virtually infinite. but you never really uncover the infinity of it. The world itself is generated by a starting seed so everytime you uncover a new chunk, it just calculates it from the basic seed. the only thing that needs to be saved are the changes...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
haydjq	Why do so many loading screens go to 90% really quick, then take just as long or longer to finish the last 90%?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fv5nrza", "fv5t3j5", "fv5sujp", "fv5yx74", "fv6oz1q" ], "text": [ "Here is one example: A progress bar shows the total progress of all tasks being done. Each individual task might be different and it may not be easy to determine how long it will take (some recursive functions)...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
haz2uf	Why do some processes not shut down even after pressing the X multiple times?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fv5r2as" ], "text": [ "The X sends a request to the program to run its own close code. It can be a fairly complex process, freeing memory, collecting garbage , autosaving etc. If the program was already \"Not Responding\" then that request is behind whatever it was already stuck on. The reaso...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
hb0g3t	what the hell are cookies and why do websites want me to enable?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fv653p3", "fv604bs", "fv64z04", "fv6074m", "fv64tpm" ], "text": [ "Imagine a website is like a hotel. The hotel wants each returning guest to have their room personalized to their requests each time they visit. They have millions of guests so instead of keeping a list of what ...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
hb1he9	In movie scenes where they use gunfire, is it mostly CGI sounds and flashes? Or do they wear hearing protection?	I am watching some actions movies and as someone who owns a few guns, there's no way they're using blanks with no hearing protection (that I saw), so is it CGI?	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fv66set" ], "text": [ "There are two kinds of guns that are used in movies: 1) Real guns that are firing a blank with very little gunpowder in it - usually just enough to cycle the action and eject the cartridge; and, 2) Fake guns that have a small firework in the front of the barrel that pro...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
hb1uh0	How exactly do headphones and Bluetooth headphones work? Is the sound being projected through the cable? And if so, than how does it work for Bluetooth?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fv68q23", "fv68jv5" ], "text": [ "Headphones are speakers. Speakers work by taking an analog electrical signal and using that to move the speaker in a specific way. The cable is carrying that signal to the speakers. Bluetooth headphones are wireless, the playback device sends a *digital...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
hb22yv	Why do most websites have a pop up asking me to accept that they store my “cookies”?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fv69nfx", "fv69qav" ], "text": [ "Its a requirement in the EU that sites obtain permission to store cookie and tell you what they'll be used for.", "The EU recently (in the last few years I think) passed a law that, as I understand it, prohibits sites from automatically collecting coo...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
hb2fiv	We have VRR displays now. When will we see Variable FPS videos?	Movies that show action scenes smoother but then move back down to 24fps for drama. Video security systems changing to higher fps when motion is detected and back down to minimal when nothing so as to save space. Overall use of newer hardware capable of better performance to bring experiences not possible before.	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fv6xqcf" ], "text": [ "Codecs like H264 and H265 already do something akin to variable refresh rate. If two successive frames have very little difference, the codec will only store one frame and display it twice. This allows the effective frame rate for the video to be lower than the quoted f...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
hb3lw0	How do solar panels work?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fv6k3s1", "fv6kf4o" ], "text": [ "Photons from the sun knock loose electrons from the silicone in the panels, the electrons attempt to attach to the secondary element in the panels, but get bounced back. All of this subatomic movement creates current.", "Solar panels are made up of ph...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
hb4qlq	How do we keep making faster cables.	I know with cpus the main increase is due to smaller transistors. What technology enables cables such as USB and HDMI to get faster over time.	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fv6wcub", "fv7a6d0", "fv6s155", "fv7e9j0" ], "text": [ "Its not just the cables, its the CPUs in the gear that's pushing the data. The cables are upgraded with better electronics to be able to handle the extra speed and data.", "There’s a relatively simple concept that determi...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
hb69cj	why a picture from my front facing camera doesn't look as good as just looking at myself in the mirror.	I feel like I'm ten times more attractive in real life than I am in pictures and constantly prove it to myself by looking in the mirror and thinking I look good, only to take my phone out and the image of myself onscreen looks nowhere near as good. What gives?	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fv711k3", "fv735zn" ], "text": [ "1) Angle; if you’re not holding your phone at eye level (which almost no one ever does without consciously thinking about it) the lighting and angles all change how your face is shown. 2) unless you’re using an app like snapchat or instagram, the front ca...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
hb8c4u	When my phone or laptop is turned off, is it 100% off or is it always slightly on?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fv7didc" ], "text": [ "There’s always a cmos battery that is keeping a slight electric charge going to make sure your system clock stays on and running. (It’s the watch battery on your motherboard). Other than that if you turned the device off, it would be off." ], "score": [ 8 ], ...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
hb8hp9	How do car clocks keep the same time when you turn your car on and off?	If the power goes out, my microwave and oven clock need to be reset. But when I turn my car off, the time is correct when it turns back on. How do car clocks keep the correct time while being turned off, but the microwave and oven and alarm clock need reset. Now that I think, stuff like the GameCube also do this. They ...	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fv7ebvd", "fv7erl4" ], "text": [ "Batteries. Disconnect the car battery and you'll have to reset the clock. The car itself might be off, but the clock is taking just enough energy to keep working.", "Inside the car is the \"brain\" (computer) when you turn the key off the key turns of...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
hb9isb	What is Internet Relay Chat (IRC)? How does it work?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fv7krme" ], "text": [ "Essentially it is an older form of online chat that happened to stick around until today. There’s no particular technical difference from modern chat services, apart from being a really simple text-only service. Also noteworthy is that it’s not a product like Messenger ...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
hbbsum	How do fire alarms know when there is a fire?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fv7vlbm", "fv7vrsh" ], "text": [ "Ionization-type smoke alarms have a small amount of radioactive material between two electrically charged plates, which ionizes the air and causes current to flow between the plates. When smoke enters the chamber, it disrupts the flow of ions, thus reduci...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
hbf6yo	When chips and programs went from 32 bit to 64 bit it was a huge leap forward, what is holding us back from going to 128bit?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fv8fvnu", "fv8gv3b", "fv8qv5i" ], "text": [ "The big change from 32 bits to 64 bits was changing the width that the memory controller dealt with so instead of being limited to 4 GB of RAM we can now use 17 billion GB of RAM (16 Exabytes), there isn't much point going up to 128 bits fo...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
hbjg0p	Can someone plz explain internet ping?	I see this term used in video games when checking on the internet connection, but I dont understand completely. Can someone explain?	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fv9680p", "fv96d1w" ], "text": [ "It's pretty simple. You send a packet out to some destination, be it a router or a server. That server gets the packet and sends a reply. You know when you sent it and when you got the reply back, so now you know how long your packet takes to get there, g...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
hbke70	How do radio stations know how many people are tuning in? And can they tell if people switch stations when they run ads or play certain songs?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fv9hio7", "fv9fbrj", "fv9ki8n" ], "text": [ "There is a ratings company that measures this. It used to be Arbitron, but now Nielsen, which is far more successful, has become the main ratings tracker. Both companies used to rate TV and radio, but Nielsen became more famous and popular ...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
hboja7	In older gaming consoles (NES etc.), what does the number of 'bits' actually mean / what difference does it make?	Here's what I know: - A 'bit' is a binary digit (0 or 1). An 8-bit value therefore ranges from [binary] 00000000 to 11111111, AKA [decimal] 0 to 255. 16-bit values range from 0 to 65535. (unsigned) - I know what a CPU is, kinda. I know what volatile memory (e.g. RAM) is. I know what a hard drive is. But really I'm more...	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fva4bz9", "fva4tr9", "fva5u6p" ], "text": [ "With a CPU, the number of bits usually refers to the maximum number bits the processor can deal with in one instruction. For example, an 8 bit CPU can only add two 8 bit numbers together. If it wants to add two 16 bit numbers, first it adds...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
hbpbk8	If we can get detailed images of galaxies and nebulas thousands and thousands of light years away of us, why can't we get images of planets in our galaxy, and possibly habitable planets (I'm aware of time dilatation)		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fva7hyd", "fva7a69" ], "text": [ "It is sort of like asking why if we can take photographs of mountains several miles away, photographing an insect even a mile away is generally impossible. These are things of vastly different scale. A planet may be only a couple thousand miles across whi...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
hbpgcv	how were maps created in old times?	Nowadays we got satellites and technology and before that boats and ships , but I'm wondering in Greek times or before that, how did people reach the conclusion of how each land mass looked? Edit: thank you all so much for answering this! The carrying responses made me realize probably more than one technique was used!	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fva89rx" ], "text": [ "Imagine you want to draw the outline of a strangely shaped building. If you walk around the outside of the building looking at the angles and length of the walls you could probably draw a reasonably accurate depiction of what it would look like from above. That's how ma...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
hbr09z	How do astronauts on the ISS get their oxygen and not use it all up?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fvaicqu", "fvaj3us" ], "text": [ "They get a lot of their oxygen from supply craft. Similar to how they get food, water, new crew members, tools, etc., the supply crafts will also bring them air. In addition to supplies, they can also make their own oxygen by using electrolysis. Water is ...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
hbs6tf	How does Windows know what's a valid product key and what isn't?	The computer doesn't contact other machines or databases to tell if a product key is valid or not, so how does it verify the validity of the key offline?	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fvatkh2", "fvas5wm", "fvb13ya" ], "text": [ "It uses a form of [checksum]( URL_0 ). First, it turns all the letters into numbers. Then, it splits those numbers into 2-3 groups and does math on all the numbers in each group (e.g. adding and multiplying them). Then, it checks if all tho...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
hbve97	How do cameras capture an image? I'm honestly having trouble wrapping my head around the fact that somehow we can trap light and then put that light onto a piece of paper/screen.		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fvbcdmf", "fvbc6d6" ], "text": [ "I'm going to cover digital cameras. Older cameras used chemical reactions which I know less about. Lets start with a light sensor or [photodetectors]( URL_0 ). The light sensor can tell you how bright or dim the light it reads is because the more photons ...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
hbzeg2	How does cooling work?	I understand that we use the fact that all electricity passing by a wire causes heat to use heaters and such. But how can we simply plug something in the wall and cold comes out? How does this work?	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fvbwbf4" ], "text": [ "You see, heating is an easy matter, because normally it comes as a waste byproduct. Cars produce unwanted heat, computers produce unwanted heat, it's pretty easy to make something that deliberately produce heat. Cooling is different though. Most cooling devices depend o...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
hc62z0	Why did TV stations show a test pattern after going off the air instead of shutting the transmitter off?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fvd4hfy" ], "text": [ "Broadcast towers used (and in many cases still use) great big vacuum tubes as their power amplifiers. These expensive tubes can wear out, with most of the wear occurring during the warm up and cool down phases, or go out of adjustment. If you keep the tube warm at all...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
hc7uub	When you have VR goggle lenses that are only a few centimeters from each of your eyes, when do you stop seeing improvements in resolution quality? As in, could a person with good vision distinguish between 1080p, 4k, 8k, 16k... etc?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fvdiew4" ], "text": [ "I suppose it would depend on the FoV of the lense/screen and the FoV of the video. For example, a 4k 180° video is gonna look twice as good as a 4k 360° video. You also need to keep in mind that at any given moment, you would only be seeing a small portion of the video,...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
hc8qwk	Why is SPACE rarely allowed in usernames, emails, and urls?	SPACE is a regular ascii character, so for the computer there shouldn't be a difference. Dashes and underscores are allowed, while spaces are not. I wonder why that is?	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fvdm11n", "fvdyyto" ], "text": [ "How do you tell what's part of the email address and what is not? Eg, if I say: Email me at Dale Glass@example.com for help If spaces can be included in email addresses and URLs, you couldn't tell where the email address starts or ends. In fact, you can s...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
hc9kbx	Why are LED lights so much brighter yet more energy efficient?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fvdxfse", "fvdv04r" ], "text": [ "Incandescent light is electricity going through a solid causing lots of heat in the process thus loss of power. CFL/ Halogen lights is electricity through gas. Much easier to go through with higher voltage so less heat. LED is basically a mini lightning b...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
hc9m4o	Why is the infantry still relevant in modern war despite having tanks, jet fighters and guided missiles?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fvdqxof", "fvdqz9l", "fvdqqda", "fvduecy" ], "text": [ "Because they’re the only way to truly “capture” a place as opposed to “leveling” a place. Ground armored units could possibly do this a bit but they’re actually really vulnerable without infantry support. Also, once you captu...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
hca23p	Why does copying an image online to the clipboard on your computer happen instantly but saving that same image take a length of time to download?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fvdtc49" ], "text": [ "You're copying an image that's already in video memory, which may or may not be the original resolution of the image. The image you save may be many times larger in file size, depending on the camera and resolution, whereas a copy of a picture in vram cache is going to ...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
hcclka	Why isn't every video game character hitbox perfect?	(Ignoring, of course, the cases in which the hitbox is smaller/bigger on purpose) I'm mostly referring to competitive shooters and that kind of games, where people want pixel-perfect precision. I know that the model that we see and the zone of the hitbox itself are two very different things, but here's my main doubt: Y...	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fveatfq", "fveau4q", "fvec5uj", "fvemae5", "fvfui7z" ], "text": [ "Good looking models have lots of polygons. Lots of polygons means lots of math. Computers have limits, so we make a simpler model for the hitbox, and now we can do less math, and the game still works pretty wel...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
hcgcik	why do screens use red, green, and blue.		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fvexmsr" ], "text": [ "Red, green, and blue are the primary colors. In your eye, you have sensors called cones which came in three varieties, detecting red, green, and blue light. If you expect the primary colors to be red, yellow, and blue, those colors were chosen for artistic reasons. Wh...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
hcgtmn	How were records such as military or criminal records kept before the age of computers? Did the record only exist in one central place or were copies of it at every precint/base? How were they updated?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fvf3zyd", "fvf387o" ], "text": [ "Centralized locations were used to store hard copy information. Pertinent information is then dispersed as needed by other means of communication. Information just moved a lot slower.", "As far as military I would assume it was a central place and cop...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
hckn18	Agile vs. waterfall methodology?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fvgwd2l", "fvfkj5l" ], "text": [ "Waterfall is pretty easy to understand. If you haven't implemented and tested everything for your product, you don't release it. This leads to a lot of time spent developing and testing upfront, and only then you get your users to use it. Agile is a set...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
hclxbh	Why do black and white pictures that were take like 40-50 years ago look so clear(like an hd image)		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fvfqoun", "fvfwpek", "fvfsm7z", "fvg05io", "fvgahpj", "fvgsua5", "fvgd4ok", "fvfqo5b" ], "text": [ "Because they were taken with a film camera, which captures an image using light and chemistry with no pixels or distortion. That’s the same reason old movies can be ...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
hcn28p	What does memory usage mean in a game and what causes high memory usage?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fvfxwm4" ], "text": [ "Memory (also known as \"RAM\" or Random Access Memory) is a space where a computer temporarily stores data that it needs to access quickly, whereas other storage (like a hard drive or disc) would be too slow to read from. Games use RAM to store assets (like models, text...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
hcqnap	How's hacking really done? The movies make it seem so simple		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fvgm3rb", "fvgra15", "fvgsn4g", "fvgrg28" ], "text": [ "Typically it's exploiting human error, like phishing links, where a fake email will get a user to type their information into a duplicate website. However, the more interesting way hacking is done is by exploiting holes in th...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
hctxw1	How is it with app updates? Do apps get progressively bigger with more of them?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fvh65vc" ], "text": [ "Not necessarily. Updates can be things like \"replace this old code with this new code,\" or \"replace these old image files with some new ones.\" If the update is adding features, then yes, the app would get bigger, exactly how much bigger depends on the features." ]...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
hcuebd	Why modern cellphones still struggles to run a emulation such as psp games even the game is old?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fvhk5ew" ], "text": [ "Because emulation is the process of pretending to be other hardware. That process takes it's own cpu cycles on top of actually running the software. A simple analogy would be like talking to someone else in a language they don't understand with a translator between you....	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
hcuzia	Why are so many major store's websites absolute garbage?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fvheab0" ], "text": [ "All those other companies are solely web based. They have a vested interest in making their webpages provide perfect user experience. The stores you mentioned (except amazon) get most of their profit from physical store locations, so the webpages are a hot mess maintain...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
hcwgi1	How does a game get easier or harder when you switch difficulties?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fvhlmk0" ], "text": [ "Most of the time it changes things like how much damage you do to enemies and how much they do to you, and how much health you/the enemies have and how fast (if ever) it regenerates" ], "score": [ 3 ], "text_urls": [ [] ] }	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
hcxpbf	How hydrogen fuel cells work in vehicles vs ICE?	I never really understood much about the drivetrain or ICE and now the world seems to be moving towards lithium ion batteries in cars and hydrogen fuel cells. Can anyone explain the process by which fuel in converted into energy in a hydrogen car vs an ICE and what makes it so environmentally friendly? Thanks! :)	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fvhv1ot" ], "text": [ "An ICE - Internal Combustion Engine - is the kind of engine everyone already has in their gasoline-powered cars. Mythbusters once showed that if you had a car with no gas and instead fed hydrogen (with normal air mixed in) into such an engine it can start and run. (Mind...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
hd073k	with slow internet, why do ads load without fail but content is stagnant?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fvidwng", "fviha0t", "fvis3zb" ], "text": [ "Ads are hosted on servers run by Google or the like, and so are very fast and reliable. Content is hosted by whoever owns the site and sometimes that hardware is a potato.", "The ads and the content are in different places. Let's use Go...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
hd0l1o	how does wireless in cars work?	I am assuming it just uses data like your phone right? If so who is paying for that data? And if it’s the driver and owner then why not just use the data without the “WiFi”	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fvigofc" ], "text": [ "It's a subscription. For example, on GM vehicles you can subscribe to different levels of OnStar, some of which include the data. Of course there are promotions, like when you buy a new car the first month of data may be free. It's 3G, LTE, eventually 5G, just like your...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
hd1cuz	How does Whatsapp make money? They don't show ads. Messages are end to end encrypted, so they can't make use of user data. I tried to google it but could not find any answer that satisfied me.	Edit: Some of you have replied by saying that Whatsapp is not a money making business right now. But wouldn't they be losing millions of dollars due to cost of buying servers and maintaining them for the users? I can't understand why they are giving this kind of service for free.	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fvihfcg" ], "text": [ "As of now, WhatsApp isn’t a profit-making business line for Facebook Inc alone by itself. In it’s initial days, WhatsApp used to charge $1 per user per year (after the first free year). That was eventually dropped down. As of now, Facebook is trying to monetise WhatsApp...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
hd8ile	Why is downloading so much faster than uploading?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fvjlutq", "fvjm9kn", "fvjo7pt" ], "text": [ "Because most people only ever use download and ISPs know that, so they focus the available bandwidth on downloading. There are not that many people who need to upload 50+GB, but downloading a game is pretty common", "The practical reaso...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
hd9pcw	Why do music and podcast apps give warnings about downloading something over data, but not when streaming something over data? Wouldn't they use the same amount?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fvjuf4f" ], "text": [ "Not necessarily. Streaming is only using data while you're actively listening. Let's say it's a 1 hour podcast and the file size is 100MB. You could download it which would definitely use the entire 100MB, or you might stream only part of it, get maybe halfway through, ...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
hdbyo9	Why does the shuffle function on all of my music libraries always seem to play a select few songs often and the rest of the songs are played sparingly?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fvk7s8w", "fvli9kx" ], "text": [ "Some music players give priority to songs it deems \"favorites\", based on number of plays. Any song in your shuffle list that you've played more often is likely to get played more often, which in turn reinforces the apps idea that you want it played more...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
hdc6o0	How does a garage door opener only open MY garage?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fvk9d3x" ], "text": [ "Garage door openers operate on different frequencies typically in the 300mhz range. So first of all your remote has to be a compatible frequency compared to your neighbors garage door openers. Then there's the code. Most garage door openers have a set of dip switches in...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
hde0x5	- How do smart scales tell you such detailed info such as water percentage, visceral fat and muscle mass just from standing on them?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fvkrmfg" ], "text": [ "I work in a field where these Bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) Scales are used a lot so we'll start with the ELI5 and a bit longer explanation after that. ELI5 The BIA Scales are basically guessing almost every thing and they've gotten so good at guessing, that th...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
hde2h4	What is x86 chip architecture?	Ever since there have been rumours that Apple might switch to ARM processors everyone has been up in arms (if you pardon the pun) about x86? What exactly is this, is it intel specific or does AMD chips also use it?? Why is losing x86 a deal breaker for so many people?	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fvkox6s" ], "text": [ "> What exactly is this x86 is a CPU instruction set. It's essentially a standard that describes the capabilities of a CPU. All x86 CPUs implement those capabilities in one way or another. Having a standard instruction set like that makes it much more easier to develop s...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
hde7kf	How does an air conditioner cool the air?	Just wondering how my AC unit makes the air cooler in my room	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fvkmc33", "fvkn2dn" ], "text": [ "When you compress a gas, it gets hot, when you expand a gas it gets cold. Your air conditioner compresses a gas so it's hotter than the outside air, then cools it down to the outside temperature, then brings it back inside and expands it, so it's cold eno...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
hdhrhx	why do games sometimes have glitches where their characters bend and stretch in surreal ways, phase through the ground, or vibrate uncontrollably?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fvl9uzz", "fvliu2n", "fvldpgf", "fvlkofe", "fvlsz4u", "fvliift" ], "text": [ "Difficult to say. A character could have thousands of moving points, all working together through calculations. There could be quite a few reasons why those calculations don’t add up at that poin...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
hdj6ok	Why isn't it possible to create/program a non-pseudo random number generator?	I know about random number generators. In practice these are pseudo-random in the sense that they actually are not 'random' but behave like they are 'random'. This seems to imply that no non-pseudo random number generator exists. However, why is this is the case? Edit: Thanks for the replies! I wasn't aware of pseudo r...	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fvligw1", "fvlia91", "fvllsdx" ], "text": [ "Everything in computers is math. With math, put the same thing in, and you always get the same thing out. So as long as it's doing math, it can never make a truly random number. It can just do math to make numbers that look random. That bei...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
hdm7mf	How do 3D computer graphics render something that is smaller or thinner than a pixel?	I was reading about how ray-tracing works. As far as I understood, ray-tracing works by sending a ray from the "camera" for every pixel on the screen. The ray bounces off of surfaces and determines what color that pixel should appear. In this case, how would something that is smaller or thinner than a pixel be rendered...	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fvm13l3", "fvmb7dk", "fvmi4ui" ], "text": [ "When rendering something smaller than a pixel, there are two choices, either pick an object that occupies that pixel space and render that color, or render that pixel as a combination of all the colors in that pixel. Most go with the latter...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
hdmqan	Does the electronic devices consume notable amount of electricity while on standby?	I've always had this doubt. For instance, while we're leaving a television switched off (via remote) and the main device is on standby (power light still lit up) will it continuously consume electricity? Or does it hold with the initial electricity it consumes while it's turned on? And also, I've connected all of my Pc...	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fvm39bc", "fvm5gno" ], "text": [ "Yeah standby mode uses some power. It's vanishingly small compared to active mode though. I'd be surprised if it amounted to more than 3-5$ per year for all your devices combined.", "They have to consume some electricity while on stand-by simply becau...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
hdqi62	What is the concept of hashtags?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fvmlh02" ], "text": [ "A hashtag creates something like a folder filled with photos, tweets, memes etc. that all have the same hashtag. It allows people to scroll through the sea of posts in a slightly more organised manner if they are looking for specific information. For example, if you wan...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
hdsp1f	Why are TV screens measured diagonally and not horizontally?	Wouldn't it make more sense for it to be measured horizontally? It seems a bit easier.	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fvmxw2n", "fvmyh53", "fvnigz8", "fvmyqgb", "fvofmmv" ], "text": [ "It would make more sense to have actual dimensions, but the goal is to sell a bigger and better product, not to be sensible. Since the diagonal measurement is the longest straight line on the screen, the compan...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
hdtbxs	How does the keyboard in Chinese language work?	There are a lot of Chinese characters. Altogether around 50 000. An educated Chinese person will know about 8000, and for reading a newspaper one needs to know 2000-3000. In Latin, there are roughly saying around 30 characters, so it's easy to fit them on a keyboard. How do Chinese keyboards work? Because I can't imagi...	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fvn2og5" ], "text": [ "i've used chinese language settings before, you type the pronunciation (pinyin) of the words and it suggests phrases (hanzi) on the top of what you type that matches the pinyin. all you have to do is click the suggested phrase that you want to type! there are keyboards ...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
hdtdxo	How does a computer control every pixel on a screen? Does the main CPU really generate a hex code for each pixel or is there something more clever happening?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fvn4gf8", "fvn2ixf", "fvn7dce" ], "text": [ "Computers work in binary. Hex is for human readability. But roughly, yes. In 24 bit color (which is what pretty much everyone uses today), you have a byte for red, a byte for green, and a byte for blue. So that means a number from 0 to 255 ...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
hdx6zc	How does my phone know that an incoming call might be a scam?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fvnqbxi", "fvnrv2r" ], "text": [ "because your phone reads the caller id and the provider has a database of scamy phone numbers. so it just checks the caller id against the database and tells you.", "That might be your phone, it might be your phone company. Both have databases of bad ...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
hdygo6	What causes tasers to not set clothing on fire?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fvo7enf" ], "text": [ "How hot it gets from electricity passing though depends on how easy the electrons can go through the material. If it is easy for the electrons to go through they don't waste energy pushing through. If it's hard they waste energy and that comes out as heat. It is like wh...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
hdyilh	How can most music that's playing from headphones have separate sounds for each ear?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fvo0hwk", "fvo0xbm", "fvo113x" ], "text": [ "Think of it conceptually similar to how music is recorded, with each instrument having their own channel (or often more, with the drum kit each drum and cymbal it’s own channel). When the song is mixed, these many input channels are then ou...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
hdykgh	What exactly is a buffer in Computer Science?	I've always been confused with buffer for I've heard the term in many realms including programming (nodejs) and operating systems; plus, "buffering" in video players. So, is it the same "buffer" everywhere? I mean is it a standard of some kind because it's been used in many technologies related to computer science.	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fvnz67s", "fvo05a7" ], "text": [ "Think of it like a temporary place to put things that need to be worked on or processed. Like a to-do pile of work on your desk. Instead of just doing work the moment it's given to you, you have people put it in a folder on your desk so you can work on ev...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
he2sjf	Why is Apple moving to ARM on Mac a big thing? My understanding is it will be able to run less software.		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fvor981", "fvor6k7", "fvorute" ], "text": [ "There isn't actually anything stopping it from running specific software, the lack of supported software is simply less people write compatible software. And macs running on none Intel chips has been done before. They have previously used P...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
he38rh	if a phone or other electrical device has a power saving mode, why would you ever disable it?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "fvosren" ], "text": [ "Depending on the phone and your settings, it doesn’t do certain things on the background. Things like frequently retrieving emails, automatically updating apps, background location services, etc." ], "score": [ 6 ], "text_urls": [ [] ] }	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]

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