q_id stringlengths 6 6 | title stringlengths 4 294 | selftext stringlengths 0 2.48k | category stringclasses 1
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hka93h | Why is so dang hard to take a good picture of the moon in the night sky? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"What are you using? A smartphone, an entry-level point-and-shoot, a mid-range mirrorless, a professional DSLR? This is the most important question. The next most important question is: are you using a tripod? The moon moves and your hands shake, so using a tripod will m... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
hka9op | What is a 1X signal and how does it compare to 3G, 4G and 5G? | I uderstand it is the oldest signals still used but what exactly is it and was the a 2X or 2G? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fwrgsyv"
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"text": [
"Before 3G it was EDGE but could be referred to as 2G and before that was GSM which I guess we’d say was 1G. That’s what I remember seeing on my phones on the top left throughout the years as it progressed anyway. For whatever reason, they started referring to the genera... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
hkdzv7 | How do television networks know viewer statistics? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"fws49ii",
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"text": [
"There is a small statistically significant sample size of selected viewers who agreed to have a box connected to their TVs which measures their TV watching behavior. Then it’s a simple matter of extrapolation.",
"Ha! I wa... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
hkf19x | why aren't decentralized apps more popular? | Is it an engineering or adoption issue? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"fwsgdjt",
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"text": [
"A centralized app is usually easier to write and easier to operate. Reddit is centralized, and that makes it dead simple to use. All I have to do is load up the web browser and I'm done. If I wanted to use a decentralized version of Reddit, I'd probably h... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
hkfk0e | What are all the Things A.I.s can do at the moment? What about the near future? And After? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"fwseiuo",
"fwsfvo0"
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"text": [
"No one can cover ALL of AI, but there are some fun tidbits. AI became the strongest chess engine by playing itself(both AlphaZero and LC0 pulled off the feat). The same AI will troll the opponent to simplify the game into a 100% winning position to avoid ... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
hkg6j2 | I've learned that video game 'clipping' is caused by high velocity, thin colliders, and too-slow physics updates. Why are terrain surfaces in most 3D video games paper-thin? Why isn't terrain given extra fill/thickness inside and under it to prevent 'falling through the map into the void'? | I could see why you might not want to fill under the terrain in a game that features things like underground caves, but thin terrain seems to be present in a huge majority of 3D games (even those without underground features) and is not engine-specific. Why is terrain almost always a fragile piece of origami that's so ... | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"So game engines... | [
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] | [
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hkh4bf | Why does feedback loop noise turn high pitched? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fwspb3o"
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"text": [
"IT has been asked before - URL_0 One reason is that performers and sound technicians like microphones that sound 'sharp' - ones that emphasize the high pitched sounds. But this also emphisizes the high pitched sounds in feedback, which is why the low frequencies in feed... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
hkhygy | How does a microphone works? how can it converts audio into digital? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fwsr2ja"
],
"text": [
"There are a couple of different microphone types, mainly dynamic and condenser. I’ll explain the dynamic microphone, as that’s a bit easier to understand. The dynamic mic is basically the same as a speaker driver, but in reverse. The soundwaves make a membrane vibrate. ... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
hki4ya | How did the old 'Etch a Sketch' Work | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fwss6pq"
],
"text": [
"The same way the new ones work. The toy is a kind of plotter with pulleys inside. The inside surface of the glass screen is coated with aluminium powder, which is then scraped off by a movable stylus, leaving a dark line on the light gray screen. The stylus is controlle... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
hkly9z | Why did we go from 4:3 to 16:9? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"In the first half of the 20th century, movies were filmed in 4:3 or close to it. When television became popular in the 1950s, the film industry saw it as competition and started looking for gimmicks to keep people coming back to theaters. S... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
hknfdv | How does Raytracing work, and why is it better than the current methods? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fwtz0gx"
],
"text": [
"Traditional rendering (bilinear interpolation) is essentially a hack to fake something that looks ok on the screen. Basically every pixel draws itself with a texture/material lookup, a bit of tinting from lights, and doesn't interact with anything else. This makes trans... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
hkva4s | Does a mouse send 1s and 0s to the computer? | I saw a video saying it tracks and images how the mouse traverses the surface? So does it tell the computer a chain of 1s and 0s to move the cursor? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"fwv6uen",
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],
"text": [
"it does send 1s and 0s but ultimately what they are interpreted from are numbers that correspond to the change the image sensor at the bottom of the mouse picks up and of course whether the buttons are pressed. Your mouse shi... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
hkvbml | Why do some photos from the 19th and early 20th centuries appear to be of higher quality than photos from the mid to late 20th century? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fwv4qby",
"fwv75ro"
],
"text": [
"Probably because they are. Good film with good photographers were able to capture very clear very detailed pictures, more detailed than digital cameras now, because the clearness of the picture is only held up by the molecules on the film, as opposed to h... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
hkx2lf | when a video game glitches is it the game not understanding your actions or is it literally you breaking code with anomalies? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"fwvhs7e",
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"text": [
"I'd define 3 types of glitches all of them are caused by the games programming logic not handling the data it's attempting to display well. The first kind are internal glitches. These are inherent to the games code. Typically these are the kind of glitch ... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
hkxtug | How are computers able to understand code? | What is it inside them that makes them able to understand what we say? If it is a piece of hardware, how does that work? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fwvmrnd"
],
"text": [
"It's both hardware and software. Computers speak one language and humans speak another. Code is the happy medium that helps us give commands to computers. At the core of the computer is its brain, the CPU. It speaks in 1s and 0s. We speak English etc. The two middle-man... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
hky7t7 | Why does resetting the modem fix/improve the internet connection and speed? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fwvqn1f",
"fwvsil8"
],
"text": [
"Rebooting a modem or router is just like if your computer is slow. Restarts up all it's boot processes, clears it's cache and what not. Resetting it would bring it back to default settings and it will pick up a new DHCP lease from your service provider as... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
hkzi2w | How are fireworks that create complex designs made? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fwvxq96"
],
"text": [
"Basically by layering them like onions inside onions. The individual things that burn and make trails are little spherical pellets of gunpowder called stars. The gunpowder in the stars is tightly packed and glued together with a binder like starch to make them solid. Be... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
hl03w3 | CPU threads and cores. Whats the difference? How do they work? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fwvzxgy"
],
"text": [
"A core is a hardware component. The difference between multiple CPUs and multiple cores is that multiple cores share some resources on the same cpu, like cache memory where multiple ~~cores~~ CPUs don't. It makes thing more compact and efficient overall. A thread is a s... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
hl1kmo | If FM radio sends data by changing the frequency of the radio waves, then how can different station broadcast at different wavelengths (say 99.00 MHz, 95.90 MHz and so forth)? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fww71j5",
"fww7ckp"
],
"text": [
"The frequency you tune your radio to is the baseline, or middle frequency. The transmitting station modulates off of that frequency by a set range, .05 MHz if I remember correctly. So a station transmitting FM on 90.0 MHz will actually transmit in the 89.... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
hl3bc7 | Why do YouTube ads load quickly with a poor internet connection but the actual video doesn’t? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fwwlnj1"
],
"text": [
"YouTube has a zillion uploaded videos, many of them hours long, distributed across many servers and datacenters. Meanwhile, they only host a hundred or so video ads (very rough estimates here) which are generally short. The ads can be hosted by every one of their server... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
hl3cpv | What is the difference of a 32 bit and 64 bit system? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fwwi60d",
"fwwigqf"
],
"text": [
"Basically the difference is a 32-bit system uses 32 “bits” of binary (32 pairs of either “1” or “0”). The biggest binary number you can have is 11111111111111111111111111111111. In a 64-bit system, it uses 64 bits of binary (111111111111111111111111111111... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
hl3y7g | how can a company take down a website that is owned by someone else due to something like DMCA | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fwwmty9"
],
"text": [
"Nothing much to it. Their legal department sends a letter/email to the website host, saying \"Hi, we're Disney, we own this and that that's on your client's site\". The host reads the letter, and removes the material, or terminates the customer's account, because if the... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
hl72e6 | when the battery of an electronic toy is low, why does it repeat the beginning of a sound instead of only playing it less loudly? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fwx5upb",
"fwx89n3"
],
"text": [
"This is most likely because the battery isnt completing the circuit to go through the entire sound. Basically every time the circuit breaks (battery gets too low) it will need to start from the beginning of its programmed sounds. I'm sure someone can elab... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
hl7r8t | How do search engines work? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fwxatof"
],
"text": [
"They keep a giant database of every webpage on the Internet, by using a program called a crawler that goes on every website and follows every link on that website, and eventually you have a pretty complete database. Then when you run a search for a key word, they search... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
hl83z7 | How are transistors on a CPU made? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fwxdef7"
],
"text": [
"It's difficult to ELI5 Basically it's a set of chemical and manufacturing processes to make transistors on a CPU. They are not made individually, but all at once through a layering technique on top of a prepared silicon wafer. URL_0 URL_1"
],
"score": [
3
],
... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
hl85ym | What's that wall of gibberish text when you open some type file in notepad? | "¾xàÏù" An enormous wall of basically **that** is what you can expect when you open up any type of random file in notepad that isn't meant to be in notepad. What is it? What happens if you just erase a random part of this gibberish? What is it representing and is there any way to comprehensively read it? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fwxdv01",
"fwxoxwn",
"fwxritr"
],
"text": [
"You can classify computer files into two main types: text files and binary files. All computer files are just a big sequence of numbers -- or in computer terms, bytes. In a text file, each of these numbers is intended to corresponds to some... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
hl9979 | How do graphics cards work? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fwxr5p8",
"fwxl3hk",
"fwxplt3",
"fwxudda"
],
"text": [
"A simple analogy I've seen is: CPU is like a race car; it can take a couple people somewhere very fast. GPU is like a bus; it can take a huge group of people somewhere less fast. People=calculations.",
"The CPU is made to... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
hlb4lp | How do video game mods work? | How do you make them? Why can’t you use them on consoles like Xbox? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fwxws7o"
],
"text": [
"You can't do mods on consoles because they require games to be digitally signed, and the file system is locked down, so there's no way to get mods files in there. Skyrim and Fallout 4 allow mods on PS4 and Xbox One by downloading them in game, and then the game puts the... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
hle3gx | How does 5G work? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fwygg3p",
"fwynfz7"
],
"text": [
"Alright, I don't get all the technicals, but the idea is that wireless signals are waves, with peaks and troughs. Currently, networks run on 2.4 gigahertz, I think. 5g uses waves on the 25ish gigahertz band. 5G stands for 5th gen, not 5 gigahertz. More gi... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
hlfysi | why does storage on games on disc for the ps4 have to be downloaded to the console and not be stored on the disc like say the ps2? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fwysmxl"
],
"text": [
"Hard drives can typically access data much faster than a disk drive can read data off of a disk. With games becoming bigger and bigger files, the need for quick access to more info becomes more important."
],
"score": [
21
],
"text_urls": [
[]
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"url"
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hlh1gn | What is the difference between RAM and storage? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fwz05ez",
"fwzedhx"
],
"text": [
"Ram is like a piece of scratch paper you use to work out a problem and toss in the trash after use. Storage is like a tablet full of notes or information that you hold onto because you may need to reference it later. That was the ELI5 answer anyway. More ... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
hli8gp | How do emulators save games? | OK bear with me here, I suck at computers. How do emulators save my game? Where is the saved data stored? Let's say I want to move my data of gameX to another laptop. Is there a file I can shove in a hard drive, plug into laptop 2, and continue where I left off? Also, after dragging the downloaded game into the applica... | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fwz7opt"
],
"text": [
"Emulators in addition to emulating the hardware can also emulate however the original game system saves data. SNES emulators where the save data is on the cartridge will typically store save data as a separate file in the same folder and with the same name as the ROM bu... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
hlljyx | How does my phone recognize all of the different WIFI’s around me? | Though I get how routers work, how they send out/receive data as a wave signal, I’d love to know the process behind it. The question is, how does my phone recognize all of the different wifi’s sending signal on the same frequency? Is it the packets? headers of packets? or rather some sort of ID signal that it sends out... | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fwzup1w"
],
"text": [
"The explain like I'm five answer: Your device sends out a request on the WiFi signal saying hey, what's out there? The device says hey, I'm here. Wanna connect to me? Your device says hey I see you, yeah I want to connect, here's the password. All of this is possible be... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
hlmhhy | Why is a company like Intel with 4th highest R & D budget not being able to compete with ARM? Will they really "die" once ARM based chips become powerful enough for server use? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fwzv2jd",
"fwzz183",
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],
"text": [
"it's not that they aren't able to compete with ARM. it's just that big enough companies like amazon/apple maybe even facebook would rather control their entire ecosystem entirely and bring in in house design to customize for their specific ... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
hlojpr | Why are apps so much better quality at calling and texting than the calling and texting built into the phone? | Isn't the whole point of a phone the calling and texting But things like Instagram dm are just faster and images go through at higher quality but it's just an app. | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fx0euvb"
],
"text": [
"Companies have two options when it comes to deploying their innovations. They can either deploy them in their walled garden apps using proprietary protocols or they can work together with other companies and create standards such as SMS. These companies chose to do the ... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
hlowdv | Why do extended displays for computers require display port wires? Why not have them all regular HDMI? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"fx0cr2g",
"fx0lafi",
"fx0cs9n",
"fx12t64",
"fx2bjje"
],
"text": [
"Equipment manufacturers have to pay royalty fees to include HDMI ports in their equipment. Displayport has no such fees so they often use Diapkayport to save money. URL_0",
"Display port cables are able to ... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
hlrwcu | What is the relationship between bit rate and resolution? | How would a low bit rate video still retain the 1920x1080 if the video quality suffers? Isn't resolution the amount of pixels (width x height)? And don't the amount of pixels reflect quality (4k resolution better quality than 2k resolution)? So what does bitrate have to do with the drop in quality? thank you! EDIT: Doe... | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fx0vsvs"
],
"text": [
"Video is typically served compressed. There are two types of compression algorithms, lossless and lossy. Lossless compression, as its name suggests, is completely reversible. You can get the original back exactly as it is. Lossy compression on the other hand gets you ba... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
hlsif6 | What is Tor/onion? I don't know anything about the computer world but I am willing to learn. | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fx0z5cm",
"fx0zgvu",
"fx16fgf"
],
"text": [
"When you browse the internet things like your IP address can be tracked. Your public ip can be used to determine your location and your name (or at least your account holders name) This is bad for lots of reasons but a common one is if you ... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
hlsj6g | How does a GPS calculate remaining time on a road trip? | I just drove almost seven hours from Virginia to New York. I usually do 10-15 over the speed limit on road trips, so I ultimately end up arriving before the ETA that is listed at the start of the trip. My question is, does the GPS recognize that I’m consistently driving above the posted limit and factor that into the E... | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fx0ypsf"
],
"text": [
"Your hunch is bang-on. The GPS knows your speed and the remaining distance, so it simply calculates the remaining time"
],
"score": [
4
],
"text_urls": [
[]
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} | [
"url"
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hlvn96 | Why can taskmanager close my running programs when I'm not able to close them manually? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fx1j8lz",
"fx1of6e",
"fx1k5yc"
],
"text": [
"Closing the window from within the running process is trying to call a function of the running process whereas stopping it from task manager uses an operating system call to kill the process instead of the process trying to close itself. I ... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
hlxwtc | How does a scale calculate your Body Fat, Muscle Mass, BMI and etc.... when you’re weighing yourself? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fx20b56"
],
"text": [
"For BMI you would have to tell it your height as BMI is just a \"score\" based on your height and weight. For body fat/ muscle mass the scale can run a current through your body to measure your body's electrical resistance as fat and muscle have different ratios between... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
hm0f2p | How do smart watches know when you are sleeping and how much time you spend on the different stages of sleeping? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fx3n3gd",
"fx313k1"
],
"text": [
"Just to add on to other comments, smart watches really *can't* determine which stage of sleep you're in. While it's possible to make educated guesses based on movement and heart rate (which is, in fact, what sleep tracking apps do), those sensors alone ar... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
hm0vec | If you need programs to program programs, then how do you program programs that are used to program programs? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fx2i1mk"
],
"text": [
"You don't *necessarily* need programs to program programs. In fact, there's a term in programming, called *bootstrapping,* where programmers carefully program a very simple program manually, without using other programs to program the program, and then use that program ... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
hm4lk9 | How is polyphonic music encoded and read in the grooves of a vinyl LP? | I can roughly imagine how a single melody can be encoded and read from the grooves of a plate but I am completely at a loss how this works with more complex musical plays. | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fx328uo",
"fx32jjp",
"fx32ofw"
],
"text": [
"Polyphony as a concept doesn't exist in records, it only exists in sheet music or equivalent human-readable forms. The record doesn't know that there are multiple instruments playing, it just saves the resulting sound wave. When you listen ... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
hm4lxh | Why is there always huge graphical differences in gaming console generations yet PC games are only slightly better than their counter parts instead of leaps ahead? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fx32akq",
"fx3e3fh",
"fx38ub5"
],
"text": [
"Much more optimizations on consoles? Id say that it is the main reason. Some games proved that, if they're optimized on pc too, you can clearly outperform the performances and graphics that you get on a console. But it takes much more time ... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
hm4yef | If all phone numbers start with an “0” (at least they do here in the UK), why not just drop the “0” and make the numbers shorter/easier to remember? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fx33wdn",
"fx35e01",
"fx35wnt"
],
"text": [
"The 0 is a shortcut for +44, which is the international phone code of the UK Without +44 (or 0 which defaults back to it) you could run into trouble where a number could be ambiguously interpreted as either a local phone number or an intern... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
hm53lx | How come one can watch HD live streams but video calls are low quality | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fx35nlu"
],
"text": [
"Another issue is latency. A high-quality livestream has significant latency from the streamer to the viewer (several seconds). Video calls can't afford to have that kind of latency. Its a smaller time frame to process the image (capture, encode, send over, decode). So t... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
hm5np8 | Why do movies not allow to adjust the volume of effects, music, and voices, while video games have been doing it for years? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fx37yg3"
],
"text": [
"These can make or break the atmosphere of a movie. Therefore, mixing is done by a professional and encoded in a way it can be accurately reproduced in a theater or your home. At home you can change frequencies or volume of different channels, but the mixing is going to ... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
hm681p | I see people taking weeks to make a simple thing in Blender so how on Earth do game developers create so many unique assets in just a few years?! | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fx3acor",
"fx3bb8f"
],
"text": [
"1: they have massive teams, just look at how large the credits are for games like that. 2: they are the best at what they do. They do it for a living, 8-12 hours a day, 5-6 days a week. They develop shortcuts, sixth senses and instincts over time. 3: they... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
hm84nx | How speakers work | As far as I am concerned speakers have always been magic sound boxes. What are the basic principles that allow us to produce sound using these devices? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"fx3m19b",
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"text": [
"Sound is created by vibrating air. Speakers use a flat disk connected to an electro magnet to cause that vibration. [example]( URL_0 )",
"If you've got some time and interest, [this video series]( URL_0 ) goes into extreme depth on the history and mec... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
hm8fyd | Why does old music sound like old music? (50s music, for instance) | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fx3nfe6"
],
"text": [
"Some of it is related to the trends of music and how they evolve over time. Another interesting factor is recording technology has changed significantly since then, so old recordings sound old no matter what."
],
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6
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"text_urls": [
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} | [
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hm8jfh | What causes one device to have a better connection than another device? | I got a new phone this week, and while I was attempting to watch a twitch stream at breakfast, it kept stuttering. I haven't had this problem before I thought, so I got my old phone, and sure enough, my old phone could watch the same stream in the same spot at 480p, while the new phone was in a constant stuttering at 3... | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"fx3um54"
],
"text": [
"There are a lot of variables that play into this. 1. Antenna design in the device 2. Firmware of the wireless radio 3. Frequency that the radio is communicating on You may want to look if the old phone only supports 2.4GHz if it does it may be connecting on that frequen... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
hmbwbk | How do RGB lights work? Like light bulbs use a colored glass to make the color different. | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fx49pwd",
"fx49br0"
],
"text": [
"No, they aren't coloured glass. LEDs inherently release light of a single colour. A red LED is actually red. A green LED is actually green. There is no filtering glass. A white LED doesn't actually exist. A white LED light is a blue LED with a coating of ... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
hmgx24 | How do radio waves work? Are some stronger than others to get signal? | I ask this because today sitting in my old car with a non DAB radio, I could listen to French Radio KHZ 234 AM in the Midlands, UK and have no idea how it can reach that far! | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fx55iaa"
],
"text": [
"Well! The theory and applications of radio waves is extremely vast and often complex (*pun intended for those who get it*). Radio waves are just a subsection of the general electromagnetic waves. In nature there are two fundamental fields called **Electric field** and *... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
hmhi4j | Why do blacksmiths need to 'hammer' blades into their shape? Why can't they just pour the molten metal into a cast and have it cool and solidify into a blade-shaped piece of metal? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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hmidgw | Why people from different nations have different food staples? | Like in Asia people use rice as the food staple, while in Europe it is potato or bread, and in Middle East and India it is rice or bread | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fx5dobd",
"fx5eh6j"
],
"text": [
"Different grains/crops grow better in different environments. So rice isn't a staple in Europe because it isn't the best place for it to grow, and so isn't a native crop there. Staple foods will always be what is cheapest and easiest to grow in that place... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
hmk464 | How does a MIG welder work? | My son is 4 and has an abundance of questions about the world, this is one he asks regularly because I don’t have an answer for it. | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fx5nid3"
],
"text": [
"A MIG (Metal Inert Gas \\[It won't react with the metal\\]) welder is an arc welder that uses high voltage electricity to generate heat and melt the feeder wire to the base material. You have a grounding cable attached to your work station and as welder pulls the trigge... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
hml5yi | How come when you download software do you have to approve the storage it takes up and install further? Shouldn't it already take up that amount if it's on your computer? | thanks\~ | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fx5uff5"
],
"text": [
"when you buy an item from ikea. shouldn't it only take as much space as the box when you're assembling it? because it's already in your house isn't it? same concept. you download the installer which is compressed data aka the ikea box. then you have to decompress the da... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
hmm8qk | How is that we can explore space and other galaxies but haven’t explored all of our oceans yet? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"fx61m9w",
"fx621pg",
"fx6273s",
"fx62k2k",
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"text": [
"We have not explored \"other galaxies\". We have sent one probe to Pluto, it took pictures of one side of that planet (I'm not IAU compliant). We've explored some of all the oceans, mostly the top part. The bot... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
hmmcxu | How does a computer know a car is a car, even if it’s a different shape, or color etc. | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fx61xt3"
],
"text": [
"Well, in a way, we don't know. Google and their competitors all have algorithms that look at pictures and try to analyze them. These algorithms must be trained by being told what is and isn't a car. They are trained with huge amounts of data. Google's captchas are actua... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
hmmuqb | What is network jitter? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fx66xw6"
],
"text": [
"Jitter is a variation in the timing from one network packet to the next. Think about it like cars on a road. If the cars went by perfectly evenly spaced then there would be 0% jitter. If the average time between was say 10 seconds but some came as soon as 8 seconds and ... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
hmqjvj | Why do screenshots taken from the same phone have different file sizes? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fx6qjfg",
"fx6qkoo"
],
"text": [
"Photographs are rarely stored as raw data. A 1920x1080 image would be about 6 megabytes stored raw, but file compression algorithms let us get it smaller than that. These algorithms find patterns and shortcuts to use less data to store the same image. Dep... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
hmrw2c | Just how does RAM work? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fx6zpz1",
"fx6yith"
],
"text": [
"Ram is a form of memory (bit storage). In a computer you typically have a hierarchy of memory depending on how physically close to the CPU you are. For illustration let's take fairly new processor running at 3.5 GHz. One clock cycle happens in 277 pico se... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
hmscp8 | What is basically the difference between an 1GB SDcard and a 1TB SDcard if they're the same size,shape and weight? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fx70p6i"
],
"text": [
"Density of the components. That's why is harder to make higher storage because you need to fit more in the same space"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text_urls": [
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} | [
"url"
] | [
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] | |
hmxbgo | How do social media “bots” work? Are they like programmed trolls? How do their accounts/comments seem as if they could be a real person’s? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fx7u2qx"
],
"text": [
"A lot are actual people. There are offices in some countries full of people getting paid to maintain dozens to hundreds of accounts and shitpost constantly all day long. Also commonly called a Troll Farm. It sounds crazy, but think how many posts you could make in a sol... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
hmyhup | How are some songs able to remain on YouTube for years (via unofficial channels) while others are taken down almost immediately? | For example, Garth Brooks is notorious for sending out DMCA requests liberally on all unauthorized platforms, yet I can search YouTube and find all of his songs easily that have been there for years and are obviously unofficial channels. I know YouTube has an algorithm, and Garth Brooks is a pretty well known artist, s... | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fx82i8q",
"fx8g1o5"
],
"text": [
"Yuotube has a couple of different ways they allow people to deal with violations. One is to have the problem video removed. Another is to allow it to remain, but to demonetize it for the original uploader. That is, if there is an ad on the video, the mone... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
hn1uix | How do instructions from earth work to control robots in space? | ELI5: How are the Mars rover and other space exploration robots able to still receive instructions from earth given how far away they are and the time it takes for the instructions to get there? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fx8n7v1"
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"text": [
"The instructions are in the form of a \"program\" that you want the robot to autonomously perform. It's not like driving an R/C car around on the living room floor."
],
"score": [
5
],
"text_urls": [
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} | [
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hn4wd9 | What is the difference between coilguns and railguns? | What are some of the key differences in how they function and what that means in practical applications? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fx987zh",
"fx96k8n",
"fx980c1"
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"text": [
"A coilgun have a coil wrapped around the barrel creating an electromagnet. When you pull the trigger you activate this electromagnet which attracts the projectile to it. When the projectile is moving past the electromagnet you turn it off s... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
hn5jr9 | If a phone can have the shutter speed set to 1/4000 of a second, why can't it record video at higher than 240fps? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fx9h381",
"fx9mhhl"
],
"text": [
"A phone can take a still image with that shutter speed, but to do it more than 240 times per second also means you have more images to store on the phone. Moving those images from the sensor, to the the phone memory, can be a bottleneck to performance. Ev... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
hn77we | How do electronic devices work? | Say like a greeting card that plays a sound when you open it, or a Staples ‘Easy Button’ that plays a ‘That was easy’ sound when you push it. Or even a calculator.. What is _happening_ exactly when you trigger the device? What are all those transistors and colorful bits on the inside of a radio doing? etc. it’s basical... | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fx9qj05"
],
"text": [
"Well, there's a lot to it, but I'll try to give you a short version. After all, this technology has been developed over decades, and a lot of very bright people have put in a lot of effort. Many devices work on \"binary digital logic\". That means that operations are re... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
hn8c2b | Why can't you hear your own voice from the other persons speaker through their microphone during a phone call. | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fxa19wg",
"fx9sova",
"fxa1v4r"
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"text": [
"It's called phase inversion. Your phone/laptop knows the shape of the audio wave that is being sent out and flips it upside down. This makes the peaks into troughs and vice versa, cancelling out those particular sounds it picks up through t... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
hn9xu3 | How is it even possible to ban an app? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fxa2dh5"
],
"text": [
"You issue an executive order to Google and Apple to remove the app from the store. They'll either fight it because it's not really legal for that order. Or they say the fight isn't worth it and pull them from app store."
],
"score": [
3
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"text_urls": [
... | [
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hnae67 | Just how can a little $399 Go Pro with little battery shoot in 4K 60fps where as the large and cumbersome $2000 prosumer cameras that additionally consume power bricks of power from companies like Sony just do 4K 30fps? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fxa7epw",
"fxa8lhg"
],
"text": [
"4k is a resolution, effectively the size of the picture, and the fps is, well basically pictures per second. *Generally,* you can expect the more expensive cameras to be taking \"higher quality\" pictures. There are a lot of aspects that can fall under th... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
hnasd7 | Why aren't you allowed to use question marks in file names? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"fxa7cvj",
"fxa7kn1",
"fxa7j9i",
"fxak93z"
],
"text": [
"There are 9 symbols that windows uses for search functions, command line codes, commands, etc. it’ll prevent you from using them in file names because windows won’t be able to differentiate it later on. It won’t know if it is... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
hnb9qm | Is there a specific reason as to why printers use cyan as opposed to just blue? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fxabrg6",
"fxab72c",
"fxacg1a"
],
"text": [
"There are three primary color, Red, Green, and Blue. Paints work by absorbing certain colors, and reflecting the rest. If you take away all the Red, you are left with only Green and Blue. Green and Blue make Cyan. The Cyan paint is basicall... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
hnc1p9 | if TikTok is Chinese spyware, what exactly are they spying for? What benefit does the Chinese government from their users data? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fxaezvg",
"fxaju89"
],
"text": [
"To work, TikTok needs access to your camera, microphone, photos, video library, and social media profiles. With all of that, it also gets your GPS location, and activity throughout the day, regardless of whether you use the app or not. That’s an enormous ... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
hnffxb | Why do clothes need water to produce? | I have heard about how much water clothing takes to produce but I wonder why this is? The numbers quoted seem very excessive. | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fxaxv03",
"fxaz8d7"
],
"text": [
"It takes into account the entire porduction process. Take cotton for example. Cotton is a very weak crop and requires huge amounts of water (and herbicide/insecticide) to live long enough to harvest. Then there is the water that is used in preparing the g... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
hnfg0w | What is the difference between Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Lightroom? And when to use each one? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fxaxqce"
],
"text": [
"PS is used to modify photos individually, add/remove objects, etc. LR is used to process photos individually or in batches, create catalogues, etc. There is a fair degree of overlap in the software. I prefer to use LR for most things, plus it allows me to quickly organi... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
hnfpzm | Why do “missing textures” in video games usually end up purple? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fxazxry",
"fxb3ccz"
],
"text": [
"Because it’s not a color that you should normally find during gameplay, the bright neon purple sticks out like a sore thumb, so you know something is messed up",
"It actually doesn't. By default missing texture is transparent. It's the dev's job to se... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
hngn0z | How do different video formats change the size of a video, even at the same resolution and frame rate? Isn’t it the same video you’re watching? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fxb4ykk",
"fxbnrcx",
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],
"text": [
"There are two things that you can tweak. The first is the compression algorithm. This will be things like MPEG versus h.264 or h.265 algorithms. They describe how to strip down the video file to as few elements as possible to... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
hnk2z5 | why do 3D glasses have one red lense and one blue lense? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fxbsf7n"
],
"text": [
"In order to simulate 3D you need each eye to see something slightly different. The simplest way to do that is with colour filters. A red lens will block blue light and vice versa. A blue object seen through a red lens looks black. Against a black wall it might seem invi... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
hnkzv3 | is awd faster than a fwd? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fxby0g1"
],
"text": [
"AWD = all wheels drive (presumably 4) FWD = front wheels only drive Not most of the time. AWD has many more moving parts, thus higher inertia and more places for friction. There are conditions, like snow, ice, desert sand, ... where AWD is faster; but it's perhaps not a... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
hnndt0 | Why does "on hold" music on a phone sound like it's under water? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fxcebzv",
"fxcx6uw",
"fxcem90",
"fxd3to2",
"fxd7cw0"
],
"text": [
"Most human voice is between 300 Hz and 3000 Hz. So most phone systems are designed for these frequencies. In addition human voice have a lot of familiar patterns so you can save bandwidth by compressing it with... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
hnuic6 | how does a water heater work? I have the shower running hot water & the sink running cold water at the same time. How does this happen/work? | The question is pretty self-explanatory but how does one source of water in a house supply different temperatures of water to different locations at the same time? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fxdp2hd",
"fxdpd5a",
"fxdpnnl"
],
"text": [
"A water heater takes in cold water and heats it. The hot water is delivered with pipes to every faucet in the house. You have two pipes going to every faucet, one cold and one hot. Check under the sink and you'll see them. Where you turn th... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
hnwxhf | How does “maps” on my iPhone can not only accurately locate my location while I am driving but can also tell the traffic conditions, speed limit etc ? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fxe6vsy"
],
"text": [
"getting you position is just applied GPS, which is a whole topic in itself. TLDR version - it uses the time needed for signals from your phone to reach various sensors to tell where you are. speed limits are a product of good data collection. Google, apple, and lots of ... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
hnyjxk | How does mobile tracking works? | I watch a lot of crime shows and movies and a lot of them always have a sequence of someone getting tracked by someone like a computer expert or law enforcement officer and they always do it by locating their mobile location. So that made me curious as to how this whole technology works. Also is there's any Software or... | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fxef4tv"
],
"text": [
"It can be done with a technique called multilateration. Your mobile phone is in touch with several base stations (aka \"cell towers\") in a short amount of time. The base stations record these interactions and, crucially, how strong the signal from your mobile was. Usin... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
hnz1g5 | USB-C wiring | How many wires are in a USB-C to USB-A cable? Are there really 24 wires in a USB-C cable, and if so what are they connected to if USB-A needs only 4? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fxeka1z"
],
"text": [
"The are 24 pins in USB-C to USB-C, but since it is reversible, that means there are really only 12 that are repeated. [This diagram says what each pin goes to on a USB-C connector.]( URL_1 ) In a USB-C to -A cable, there are 4 wires plus some extra connections in the US... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
ho50iv | How is old film converted into digital for DVDs or online streaming? | I was watching the wire on dvd and you can tell it was filmed on film just wondered how they convert it to digital?? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fxfio5s"
],
"text": [
"They use a scanner, just like when you scan a photo. Well, not exactly the same type of scanner, but one specifically designed for scanning film."
],
"score": [
8
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
} | [
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] | [
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ho52v4 | What is a CPU core and thread? Why do they matter? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fxfjhf5",
"fxfkp8c"
],
"text": [
"Modern CPUs basically are several small CPUs in one package. These are called cores. A CPU with more cores can do more things at the same time. Threads can refer to two distinct but related things: * Software threads: these are instruction sequences that ... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
ho7d7n | Why is it so hard for a robot to tick the box '"I am not a robot"? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fxfzzdn",
"fxfyg1w",
"fxg498o",
"fxg7jku"
],
"text": [
"There's a lot more going on behind the scenes. In general, you see the simple checkbox captcha because Google already knows you're a human. With YouTube, Google Analytics, Gmail, Google Docs, Google ads, and thousands of othe... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
hoc5vr | Why is the reception for musical hold for the majority of business phone lines so terrible? | You call a place get put on hold, and then the music sounds like it's being broadcast from 1932. There's static, it fades in and out, it stops, you think someone picked up, "Hello?", and then the same bad muzak resumes. Why? Sound technology has come so far. | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fxgytux",
"fxh12q2"
],
"text": [
"The quality of sound and music has come a long way, but the technology of the way we call didn’t evolve as fast. A standard for telephone is around 13 kbits. When you listen to music on Spotify its 96 or even 160 kbits. To compress audio from 160 tot 13 k... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
hoee1d | How does this clock show the digits through the wood? | URL_0 | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fxha0gr",
"fxhh7im"
],
"text": [
"There are likely 2 layers. One is thicker and has spaces cut out for the digits. One is very very very thin and lies on top. It's so thin that the light shines through",
"The clock is either covered with a very thin layer of wood, or paper made to loo... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
hof9ls | If your monitors refresh rate is lower than your games FPS, how does FPS make the game look smoother? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fxhgw39"
],
"text": [
"Because the monitor will get more recent frames to display, even if it's displaying the them at the same rate. Let's say you have a 60 Hz monitor and play at 60 fps. Let's also assume there's no active hw/sw solutions for the following problem. Your monitor shows the la... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
hofogk | How do airport X-Ray machines identify prohibited items? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fxhi8od",
"fxhlpkc"
],
"text": [
"The machine doesn’t identify anything. There’s a human that’s sitting behind it looking at a screen that’s showing the images from the machine. If they see something suspicious they’ll pull the luggage aside and inspect it. Usually with you watching them ... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
hoievy | why can my phone have no reception but still say I could make an emergency call? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fxhzim3",
"fxhzlgd",
"fxi7hkf",
"fxi0i7f"
],
"text": [
"I believe emergency calls can route through any network/any tower. So the call can not be made on your carrier but could be picked up by another.",
"Because you have no reception with any of your providers antennas or any... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
hojdo2 | Why is the abbreviation of 'Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black' called 'CMYK' and not 'CMYB'? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fxi5wpa",
"fxi6d5s"
],
"text": [
"So the CMYK is referring to the plates of Cyan, Yellow, Magenta, and Key. This key plate is usually the last plate, and is what provided the details via lines and contrast in black ink. You can look at a print and see how there's usually not much in actua... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
holeaq | How do diapers work | I’m a father to a one year old. I have never loved something so much yet been so confused by diapers: how can such a small diaper absorb so much liquid and “hold it” there until the diaper is removed. My daughter has sometimes... produced diapers that weigh almost a kilo but without a mess! Please help me! | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fxihezu"
],
"text": [
"Inside a diaper is a material called Super Absorbent Polymer or SAP. This is a powder mixed into a cotton cushioning lining throughout the absorbent part of the diaper. When SAP encounters a liquid, it grabs onto it and becomes a gel, holding the liquid in a matrix of c... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
holmfx | How do computers randomise/shuffle? | I don’t understand how an algorithm can be truly random | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fxijd19",
"fxijvzp"
],
"text": [
"That’s the thing - it can’t. Computers are, by design, not random. Everything that you do on a computer is represented as data, and that data is stored physically as ones and zeroes, representing an electrical switch in either the on (1) or off (0) positi... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
hotvh6 | How does keyboards in computers get values? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fxk06hj",
"fxjzsjv"
],
"text": [
"It depends on the keyboard, but some use a lattice, where the rows or common and the columns are common. So when you press a key a certain column and row combo gets activated it can only be 1 option. The keyboard converts that into digital in a special wa... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
hozjh7 | before a commercial flight, why do the flight attendants make such a bid deal about everyone turning off large electronic devices and putting smaller ones in airplane mode. How does it affect the flight? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"fxl0kcp",
"fxl0aml"
],
"text": [
"(Source: my brother, an aeronautical engineer) They don't. It's possible they used to in the past, but not any more. The main problem with big electronics is that they'll go flying around the cabin if there's an accident. They normally ask for you to turn... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
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