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8f0m3v | Why do graphics improve over time on the same generation of gaming consoles? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"A short version is rhat developers learn how to better utilize the architecture of the console. Meaning they can squeeze more performance and thus create better visuals.",
"Imagine I told you that you would be using Excel 2019 for the next 7 years. At... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
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8f28gp | Will internet bandwidth ever be as ubiquitous and cheap as electricity is? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"That depends more on how you compare quantities than anything else. By some comparisons we're already there. The technology is already there, but sometimes artificial scarcity is more profitable. It's more a politics/economics issue. People won't pay more... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
8f8kpm | How do glass fibre optic cables bend without breaking or shattering? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dy1i4wj"
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"text": [
"Glass is bendable, the thinner it is the more bendable it is. Glass fibers are very thin, and protected in plastic cables that make it hard to bend then too sharply."
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8f9nzf | In a time where phones charge in less than an hour, why do electric toothbrushes still take 12+ hours to charge? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
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"text": [
"There usually isn't much demand for a fast charging toothbrush as they are expected to sit idle for long periods of time. A slow, gentle charging cycle saves cost and extends the life of the battery.",
"Inductive magnetic... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
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8fe0bi | How do video game discs work? | This may be a stupid question, but how do video game discs work? I understand that CDs for movies and songs just play as they spin in a certain direction, but where does the information from a disc for a video game come from? Thanks! | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"I believe all the data simply gets loaded from the disk and stored in the memory of the system, it doesn't have to look for every bit on the disk during the game. It's why you often have to install a game first, while you can just play music directly.",
... | [
"url"
] | [
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8fep1s | What is the purpose of the propeller on current hologram projectors? | Many hologram projectors have a spinning plastic beam that projects the image. Wouldn't make more sense to have a screen, grid, or lens (as conventional projectors have) for the holographic object to project from? Nothing I can find on H-projectors explains this aspect of the machine. | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"> Wouldn't make more sense to have a screen, grid, or lens (as conventional projectors have) for the holographic object to project from? In no case does an image \"project from\" the device. A spinning arm tries to fulfill the goal of having an image in a... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
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8fghf6 | Why does animation for movies cost so much? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"Because 3-D animation is exceeding painstaking. I had a roommate in college who did animation and he made a Pixar style short for his final project late in college. The four minute short took his team about half the semester ... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
8fh51m | How does a player piano work? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
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"text": [
"Player pianos are played by feeding a paper roll of \"music\" through the center of the piano. The roll has dashes punched out to indicate what music notes are to be played and when. As the roller pulls the paper through the piano the gaps trigger strings inside the pia... | [
"url"
] | [
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8fi2ih | How does split screen in video games take more processing power? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dy3qwb7"
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"text": [
"The game is processing two instances of itself on one graphics interface. It's constantly updating the visual range of each player to their movements and changing the picture to match, but twice. Or four times. However many players there are. It's like running the graph... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
8fi7gr | How does each pixel inside an LCD or similar display know what color to display, and when to change colors so that the entire screen updates at the same time? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
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"text": [
"I can't give you a proper ELI5 answer (hopefully that comes along, because I'm curious as well) but to get a good idea of what's happening on the screen I recommend you watch [this video]( URL_0 ) of both a CRT and an LCD, close up and in s... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
8fiwo4 | why are loading bars and remaining times so inacurrate? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dy3xlyc"
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"text": [
"Let's say the progress bar is for loading a game level before playing it. There of course the copying of data into memory that takes the biggest amount of time but also things like unpacking compressed files, executing code to prepare the game session, maybe connect to ... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
8fjlqw | How does an image get "burnt" into a screen? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"dy41ihz"
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"text": [
"In the days of CRTs, an image was displayed by firing a \"cathode ray\" (basically, electrons) at a screen coated in phosphor, causing it to glow. But over time, the phosphor would deplete -- it would almost literally \"burn\" away. If you had a static image on screen f... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
8fjv50 | Why CAN'T we have the characters '\', '/', ':', '*', '?', ' < ', ' > ', '|' in a file's name in Windows? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"Each of them has a special meaning on the command line, so if they showed up in filenames they would lead to ambiguity. \\ is the path element separator on Windows and / is both the path separator on Unix-style systems and th... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
8fjwai | How does power steering work? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dy45by2",
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"text": [
"Power steering adds \"power\" to the steering mechanism of the car. You turn the steering wheel, and there's a sensor that detects how much. If the system is hydraulic, then power is transferred from the engine, via hydraulic pressurized steering fluid, t... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
8fpr62 | How does a new computer know the date when you turn it on, even if not connected to the internet? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dy5hqj4",
"dy5hqzx"
],
"text": [
"There is a small battery on the motherboard which runs a variety of things including a clock. If your computer forgets the time when it turns off this battery is likely dead. They typically last 3 to 5 years.",
"They are pre set in the factory. The on... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
8frrpg | Rain-sensing variable-periodicity windshield wipers - how? | Was driving a 2012 Mercedes C350 today. Had wiper setting a the first tick intermittent (lowest). They don’t run at all when there’s no rain but speed up greatly the heavier it got without changing the wiper setting on the switchgear stalk. Doesn’t seem like it’d be measuring flow or humidity. How is rainfall rate dete... | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
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"text": [
"It is a sensor in the windshield. It detects the amount of liquid and adjusts automatically. I work for Mercedes and this question gets asked a lot haha.",
"When the rain hits the windshield, a little camera in the glass goes \"oh no, g... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
8fs4zq | How do speech to text programs work? How do these programs pronounce words that aren't real? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dy6czoa"
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"text": [
"Basically, certain phonemes produce certain waveforms which can be recognized by speech to text engines. These are then refined by cross referencing dictionaries. So, if you say \"enough\" into a speech to text interface, it is read as \"EE-nuff\" which can be cross ref... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
8fs65r | Why do cables that carry a digital signal (HDMI, Ethernet etc.) lose efficiency the longer they get? Shouldn't a digital signal be constant, regardless of length? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dy61e2n"
],
"text": [
"Two reasons: resistance and capacitance. Resistance causes the signal to get smaller (lower amplitude) the further it travels. Capacitance causes the originally 'square' digital impulses to get rounded off to a more sinusoidal shape, which makes it much harder for the r... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
8fs85i | In historical movies you often see people being carried in litters. Why was this done when wheeled conveyances were available? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"Wheeled conveyances only provide a smooth ride on nice,. smooth terrain that doesn't have any obstacles. Even then, without pneumatic tires and any sort of suspension system, the ride is probably pretty bumpy. ... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
8fx54i | Different voltage / current but same power, what is the difference? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dy76nk2"
],
"text": [
"5 volt is common because it's the USB/Thunderbolt voltage. The connection can be used for both power and data so it became popular for cell phones. Since the connection is common, many other electronics became powered by USB. Some electronic components require higher vo... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
8fxb3s | How do countries get rid of nuclear warheads when they decide they no longer want/need them? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"They take them apart and mix the plutonium with a ceramic forming a fuel pellet. These pellets are then shipped to the c... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
8fze16 | How can my 4K TV show me clearer images than what my eyes can see in real life if it’s still my eyes seeing the images? | I have fairly bad eyesight if that makes any difference. | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dy7lckb",
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"text": [
"> I have fairly bad eyesight if that makes any difference. This makes a lot of difference. If you look at say, a landcsape, your eyes and lenses are doing real work trying to focus on all the different things. Bad eyes may not ever be capable of focusing ... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
8fze2y | what is the difference between REST & SOAP web services? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dy7m6vh"
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"text": [
"A SOAP web service has a very structured request and response. Data types, required fields, etc., are all defined in a WSDL that you can consume with your application to automatically build the entire request structure. All of it goes over HTTP POST methods. The entire ... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
8fzg1t | How do camera polarization filters work? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dy7p27y"
],
"text": [
"Light normally travels straight ahead in waves that vibrate up/down, side to side and any direction in between. In polarized light the wave is vibrating in only one direction. One way light becomes polarized when it reflects off a surface, especially like water or glass... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
8g0dvi | Why is video conferencing still iffy 15 years after Skype launched, even though internet speeds and processing power have gone up dramatically? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dy7uz93",
"dy80kv2"
],
"text": [
"As technology get's better we also require higher quality video. So yes the transportation of information has gotten better, but we are also asking more of the transportation network. Additionally video is really hard to do correctly. The way the internet... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
8g5e1d | If a computer hash is procedurally generated, and will always result in the same output given the same input, why is it considered irreversible? | Note that I have password storage in mind as I ask this. | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dy91wbf",
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"dy91clg"
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"text": [
"An apple is red. A fire truck is red. The thing I'm thinking of is red. Was it an apple or a fire truck? Or was it a fire hydrant or a rose?",
"Its destructive math that loses some of the information to create the output if I take a mes... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
8g5rc6 | what is the benefit of rearranging software UI when everyone is already used to where everything is? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dy93e79",
"dy95y2f"
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"text": [
"There is always room for improvement. You might find out moving this over here, may save the user time. You might make your software feel more natural and easier to use, without a need of a manual.",
"You make an assumption that everyone of your targe... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
8g5t9c | Why do phones, for instance, require a brick to be plugged into a wall but a lamp can be plugged straight in? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dy93nbh",
"dy97baz",
"dy9lsla",
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"text": [
"The power that comes from your wall circuit is an alternating current. Lamps use this type of current without any conversion \\- it simply runs the lamp. Phones, laptops and other devices use direct current, and the block is ... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
8gd4sg | how is that even older MMOs, like WoW, can handle so many players, while modern games like Fortnite or PUBG struggle with just 100 players | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dyap9ye",
"dyavsgc"
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"text": [
"An MMO doesn't need to track players as frequently or precisely as with an FPS. This is because aiming isn't really a part of MMO play, meaning the relevant information is just if another player is in range of an ability or not. If the player is actually ... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
8ge0zh | How do telecoms and/or ISPs deal with massive, short bursts of traffic that come with arenas and stadiums that host 20-100,000 people at a time? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dyayoot",
"dyb7nqi",
"dyb024o",
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"text": [
"They have mobile antennas on trailers they setup near events where they think the current signal will be overwhelmed.",
"At large events in Seattle area, the 4g bandwidth is fucked... LPT switch to 3g or analog on your ph... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
8ge1g8 | What's actually happening within a standard computer as it's booting up? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dyaziv3",
"dyaywh0",
"dyb6i4i"
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"text": [
"### First Stage Boot Loader (Your Motherboard's Firmware) 1. Power comes on. Motherboard chip is physically programmed to go to a known location where it expects to find a boot loader. 2. The motherboard chip executes the boot loader, which... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
8gfnlp | What exactly is the purpose behind the Lorem Ipsum Text? | I know it's used in the printing industry but how and why I have no idea | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dybb4ip",
"dybb64t",
"dybqhbz",
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"text": [
"[It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opp... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
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8gfoeq | Different between internet and world wide web? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dybds8r",
"dybyy41",
"dybffre"
],
"text": [
"The Internet is the physical and logical connections connecting computers to a world wide communications network. The world wide web is run on the Internet. Web pages are part of the world wide web. Without the Internet the web would not wo... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
8gfxhd | Why does changing screen resolution (more specifically, a custom resolution) will harm your computer? | Messing with the Intel's Graphic control software, and I found this message when I clicked on "Custom resolution". URL_0 Transcript: > "Warning: Altering resolutions may (i) reduce system stability and useful life of the system and chipset; (ii) cause the chipset and other system components to fail; (iii) cause reducti... | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dybd3s1",
"dybdoq2"
],
"text": [
"It isn't something to worry about these days. Even back in the CRT age it was extremely unlikely any damage would occur. Now it's mostly justn a cover your ass text they use. If you can't support a resolution these days it just doesn't show.",
"The ke... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
8gkw26 | Why do movie companies add noise to movies when TV companies try to remove it? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dyci0v9"
],
"text": [
"Noise requires more bandwidth to transmit faithfully, and TV is heavily encoded to fit into a pretty small band. Movies don't need as much compression, as they are sent in very high bandwidth channels like FedEx. Noise, on the good side, prevents objects from looking \"... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
8gkwke | Datamining a game | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dycibdv",
"dyci2jo"
],
"text": [
"Most games are developed using the same game engines such as Unreal Engine 4. These engines have identical ways to store files, render art assets or calculate physics. If you know how the game engine works, you can open the game files and find new files, ... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
8glq1u | Why cant movies and tv shows be on multiple streaming services like music is? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dycoy3l",
"dycoymp",
"dycqgjf"
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"text": [
"Licensing. The streaming service has paid a chunk of money to be the exclusive platform for the movie. You can have exclusive deals with a music provider, but In general, music is “get as many outlets to play my shit for the exposure”.",
... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
8gmb9k | How do things like radio or wifi transmit different types of data if they are always on the same frequency? | I know this essentially works with electromagnetic radiation, but how in the world does that transmit data or fluctuations? How does your router or the cell tower or the radio tower take data from someplace up in the sky, convert it into electromagnetic radiation, and make it readable for your phone? (details are welco... | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dycutcj",
"dycuzq9"
],
"text": [
"In very simple terms, in much the same way a DVD can hold music, or video, or a game, or software, the information is coded and formatted based on how and what is being transmitted (and how far). Different technologies use different parts of the electroma... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
8godmk | why does 2001: A Space Odyssey look and sound like a movie from the 90s and not the 60s? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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8gonvt | Video game designers, why do the computers never move at the same speed as you? It always feels like they’re a tad slower, forcing you to wait for them in campaign-style games? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dyddn7q",
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"text": [
"Yes. They kinda sprint and kinda not, so your walking speed is lower but your sprinting speed is higher. I wish someone could explain this.",
"I actually remember reading about this I think around the time half life 2 was released. iirc... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
8gqbnr | Why do downloads always slow down towards the end? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dydp9z4"
],
"text": [
"A lot of progress bars are actually not following the progress of the download and are really just moving forward at a specified speed and when they reach just about the end they stop until the download actually finishes, it's a lot easier on the developers to have some... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
8gsy35 | If I took 2 identical samples of "uneducated" neural networks and learned them with identical data would the output be identical? Why? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dyefhlm",
"dyefnxt"
],
"text": [
"Keep in mind, assuming nothing goes wrong, computers are deterministic systems. A machine running the exact same software with the exact same inputs will give the exact same result. If all of your inputs are the same you should get the same result. You ne... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
8gvrl1 | How does wikipedia work..change..and update? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dyf1mdi",
"dyf202w"
],
"text": [
"Fundamentally, it's the same as Reddit or Facebook or any other website. When you submit content - be it an article, a post or a like - a record gets made in a database. The next time somebody views that page, the server reads that information from the da... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
8gy0w6 | How did we get metal to think? How does it know what the 1's and 0's are? Is it at it's core mechanical? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dyfjbrl",
"dyfj6sx",
"dyfji1f",
"dyg2a49"
],
"text": [
"You might be referring to [this quote]( URL_1 ) about computers \"thinking\". [Here is a really good video] ( URL_0 ) where people build a computer out of domino pieces. You can clearly see that those dominoes perform calcula... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
8gyih5 | how did "hunter" followed by a few numbers become a stereotypical bad password? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dyflmib",
"dyflnrd"
],
"text": [
"It came from an old meme about an IRC chat conversation where someone revealed their password as 'hunter2' URL_0 It's not necessarily a stereotypically bad password - it is a bad password though - but it gets used a lot when someone is guessing someone el... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
8gzpcb | How binary 1's and 0's translate into complex output? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"dyfv3sf"
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"text": [
"01000010 01100101 01100011 01100001 01110101 01110011 01100101 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01100011 01100001 01101110 00100000 01101011 01100101 01100101 01110000 00100000 01100001 01100100 01100100 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 011... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
8h0ns8 | Why does every website want permission to give me notifications? | Why does every pseudo-news website want to have notifications turned on and how do these work? Will I get a notification if my browser is closed? Will I get a notification if I'm on another website? And what the hell are they even trying to notify me of? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dyg4lw7",
"dyg4juy",
"dyg72uc"
],
"text": [
"Chrome has a notification API, and other browsers may have adopted it also. The intent was to make web apps more like native apps. Chrome has a background process that runs even if you close the browser that will show notifications, so yes ... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
8h25ma | Why is pointing a laser at an aircraft such a big deal? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dygfy10",
"dygfzj8",
"dyghi0b"
],
"text": [
"You can hit the cockpit windows and blind pilots. Go get one of those green lasers in your eyes and try to land an aircraft.",
"If you get hit in the eye with the laser, it can temporarily blind you. Not an optimal thing to happen to th... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
8h7bwb | How can two equal virtual adresses refer to two different physiqal adresses? | As I've understood, the virtual adress is built up by a page number and a offset. What I don't understand is how the page table could convert this into two different physiqal adresses when the page number and the offset is the same for both adresses. | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dyhkpd9"
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"text": [
"Each process has its own page table, so the virtual-to-physical mappings can be totally different for every process. For example: process 1 can access virtual page 100, and its page table maps that to physical page 1. We then switch to process 2, which accesses virtual ... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
8h7phw | How did people with bad vision deal with their vision before glasses? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dyhnazs",
"dyhrjtv"
],
"text": [
"They didn't. They did work that didn't require them to have very good vision. There was nothing there could possibly do about it before corrective lenses.",
"My dad told me he had no idea people could see the leaves on a tree until he got classes in c... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
8h7vcn | How do graphing calculators (like Desmos or GeoGebra) work? | What method/algorithm is used to solve complex transcendental equations? What exactly goes on inside the ALU when an equation is being plotted? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dyhrne2"
],
"text": [
"There are definitely lots of ways of accomplishing this, but I'll describe a simple method. Suppose for the sake of the argument that we have an equation that looks like this: y = f(x). For any particular x, we can run it through the equation to get the corresponding va... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
8h837n | Why has Twitter had the shittiest possible video playback system ever for so long? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dyhqy4p"
],
"text": [
"Because it wasn't designed to do streaming they added streaming as a secondary service not primal service. Is like asking why this sandwich can hold the soup very well."
],
"score": [
4
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
} | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
8h8vmh | How is it that we can tell the difference between watching a recording of a completely still scene, and looking at an actual still image? | Or can we? It feels like there is something lively looking,maybe a slight flicker of the light, in still video footage whereas actual still images lack this. | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dyi2e32"
],
"text": [
"If you take multiple pictures of the same scene they will be slightly different. There is away noise in a image senor the captured images will not be the same. So a video will not be a stream of identical images but almost identical images. It is also likely that the vi... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
8h94bw | What causes cars to go out of control when turning? | I've seen videos where people turn a car one way, then when they steer the other they crash because it turns too far. Why does this happen? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dyhzq1u"
],
"text": [
"They exceeded the grip of the tires Tires have three levels of friction. Static friction when the car is sitting still is the strongest. Rolling friction is when the tires are rolling on the road and is slightly weaker than static friction. Sliding friction happens when... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
8hac2t | Why do rocket engines always go over 100%? | If the standard is say 104%, than why isn’t that 100%? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dyi8fj2",
"dyi8c7m"
],
"text": [
"> If the standard is say 104%, than why isn’t that 100%? The engines were designed for a given output originally which becomes \"100%\". Afterwards there are tweaks and optimizations made which allow it to go over that output, but instead of redefining th... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
8hb4fg | What is bandwidth and how does it work? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dyihiuw",
"dyifxh9",
"dyirlzz"
],
"text": [
"To ELI5: You know how the road outside your house is smaller and slower than the interstate? That's the bandwidth of the road: the number of cars it can hold every second. Internet has the same thing, but for cat pictures.",
"The term c... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
8hbsrf | How do noise cancelling headphones work ? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dyipd2j",
"dyitc37",
"dyivquz",
"dyinmjv"
],
"text": [
"A sound wave is the compression and decompression of the air around you at certain frequencies. Noise cancellation works by detecting this and decompressing the compressed air or compressing the decompressed air so that your ... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
8hbzqi | How do thoae scammy top-down games make any money | I'm talking about those games that trick stupid straight guys with lots of anime breasts and claims that you can "raise your own dragon" but is actually just a really bad remake of Age of Empires \- how do they make any profit? Like surely whatever they earn pushing paywall purchases must be negated by how much they ne... | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dyisw0z"
],
"text": [
"Cracked had an interesting article about this topic awhile back. It’s a comedy site, but the article is pretty well-sourced with hyperlinks. URL_0"
],
"score": [
5
],
"text_urls": [
[
"http://www.cracked.com/article_18461_5-creepy-ways-video-games-... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
8hc8wa | Why weren't army uniforms using camo earlier? | So, as far as I know most current uniforms use camo patterns made of greens/browns (or if they are single-colored, it's one of these colors) as to blend in with the surrounding soil or vegetation. But why wren't army uniforms camo earlier? Everytime I see old-school uniforms in period pieces, soldiers wear bright color... | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dyiomry",
"dyip1zo",
"dyiosnw",
"dyiouk5"
],
"text": [
"In the 1700's, getting shot by other people on your \"team\" was a big problem, and color coding uniforms helps with that. You had to be quite close to shoot someone, because the firearms of the period were not excellent. By ... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
8hcbaq | How does Reddit make and keep up millions of web pages? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dyipez4",
"dyipj91",
"dyip8sb",
"dyire7q"
],
"text": [
"The trick is that there are no webpages to keep track of! There's raw data stored in various databases. When you request a user's profile (for example), reddit's servers fetch data from the database and create a page to displ... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
8hdn1u | The reason why Personal Hotspots on mobile phone can only share mobile data connection and cannot share wifi connectivity where the mobile is connected | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dyizvje",
"dyj1kth",
"dyj7vse"
],
"text": [
"Because phones have one WiFi ‘device’ for want of a better word. It can either connect to a network, or create a network but not at the same Time. With computers, you could do what you ask, but only by addicting a second, additional WiFi in... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
8he4px | How NASA predict outer and inner planets properties while they never went inside? | For example, assuming the information they can obtain is colors based on the telescope, how did they know that Venus was filled with Sulfur while the same color may indicate new substance inside other planets? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dyj3vnm",
"dyjd37b"
],
"text": [
"Each element has its unique set of emitted and absorbed wavelengths. Scientists use these patterns like fingerprints to identify the material which is emitting or absorbing light.",
"We know that Jupiter, the biggest, is an enormously massive planet b... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
8hewo2 | Why is Graphene not used to solve / better practically applicable aspects of life ? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dyj7uyj",
"dyj7vtf",
"dyj7w3b",
"dyjba0r"
],
"text": [
"Because it is an emergent tech. We are still working out how to produce it in volume cheaply enough. Producing it in more than micrograms at a time is still difficult. Once that is achieved it will start popping up in a lot o... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
8hfgz9 | What is the difference between Information Technology, Information Systems, and Computer Science? | I'm currently looking into studying Computer Studies and IT, IS, and ComSci are offered at my preferred university. I cannot seem to get a satisfactory answer asking around about it, so I came here. P.S. One thing of note is that a lot of the people that I've queried either believe that IT and IS are the same, while ot... | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dyjewx0"
],
"text": [
"Cs - writing code and algorithms IT - maintaining hardware and networks Is - design and maintaining data systems - how to collect and process data"
],
"score": [
9
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
} | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
8hg4xt | How can a scratched DVD sometimes work when just 1 wrong letter can crash computer codes? | At least in my understanding, even the smallest scratch on a CD or DVD should destroy some bits of information. How can a scratched dvd can be still be used when one small fault like a misplaced semicolon or curly bracket in a computer code makes it unusable? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dyjh6h1",
"dyjh7gy",
"dyjjb4m",
"dyjopmq",
"dyjndph",
"dyjjufe",
"dyjh9s3",
"dyjr9ee",
"dyjm0g8",
"dyjt3ap",
"dyjpofr",
"dyjjgsq",
"dyjuhcr",
"dyjujzt"
],
"text": [
"Error correction routines. Essentially, they assume the disc will be scratc... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
8hh02c | why is reddit's video hosting so much worse than gfycat and imgur? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dyjrmwu"
],
"text": [
"It's not that they cant, they just don't want to. Reddit doesn't run as many ads as imgur or gifycat so it doesn't have as much money per user to spend on big hard drives and fast internet to server better gifs and videos. Reddits idea is to just have people link to oth... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
8hix48 | Why do some old games have 999 limits on things instead of the 16-bit or 8-bit integer limits? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dyk3jvf",
"dylacgt"
],
"text": [
"It has to do with the space allocated for the display on the screen for these items. For example if the size of the screen was limited to 20 characters it would be designed like this: Lives: 3 Items: __1 Time: 300 Pick up 998 items and you have: Lives: 3 ... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
8hmvpj | Why has there been a shortage of NAND chips in the last two years? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dyky0r1",
"dyl26dh",
"dyl4bwj",
"dylh906",
"dylcqr0"
],
"text": [
"This subject is controversial. Companies are being sued over RAM pricing... they’re accused of either mis-representing the amount available or intentionally failing to produce as much as people want, to keep pr... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
8hmx5w | How do computers work physically? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dykxnkk",
"dyky6qd"
],
"text": [
"It does a bunch of math. All that needs to happen is turn tiny chips on or off (way oversimplifying) to make the binary codes of everything digital like the instructions for each letter or videos.",
"Physically: think of light switches, 1 being on, 0 ... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
8hopil | How do medical examiners know when things were done to a person's body before being killed or after? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dylbcr6",
"dylbeek",
"dylfi25"
],
"text": [
"1) How much bleeding occurred from the wound. 2) If healing has started, or how much of it has happened. 3) Dead bone, muscle, etc react differently than living so breaking and tearing patterns can be different.",
"A living body and a d... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
8hopvv | What kind of service or "package" does a Tier 3/Last Mile ISP get from a Tier 1/Infrastructure ISP | Does the Tier 3 have a data cap? Or do they get a & #37; of the Tier 1's bandwidth or utilization? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dylr5xn"
],
"text": [
"Tier 3 providers buy per gigabyte from Tier 1 ISPs and use the Tier 1 ISPs infrastructure. Tier 1's are forced by law to allow a minimum amount of Tier 3's so there aren't as many monopolies (we saw how that turned out). They generally turn it around and sell it at an u... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
8hozgy | What does a computer do when it "extracts" a zip or rar file? Where is it getting that extra data from? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dyle2ah",
"dyle3aq",
"dyldx2o",
"dylg7n8"
],
"text": [
"It's extracting the compressed data from within the zip file. Compression attempts to store the same data in less space through clever math. As an extremely basic example, say you wanted to compress this string of characters:... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
8hp55n | what is pre warping in virtual reality and how does it work to send images in less then 20ms | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dym21g1"
],
"text": [
"The lenses inside a VR headset make it possible to focus on a screen that's inches from your eyes, but they distort the image. To fix this, the image generated by the pc must be distorted in exactly the opposite way. This is done by the VR runtime. (Oculus or Steam VR) ... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
8hp7t6 | Why are the MDR and MAR necessary? | From my limited understanding of computing, it looks like the MAR has no purpose. The PC sends the address of the new instruction address to the MAR, and the MAR sends it to the RAM. Why can't the PC be directly attached to the address bus and send it to the RAM itself? Same goes for the MDR - why can't the RAM send th... | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dylj1qb"
],
"text": [
"It used to work like that, back with CPUs were slow and synchronous. I a modern CPU, you can latch data into MAR and then let those lines float while you do something else. The memory can slowly herd some bits into MDR, latch them there, and then use its data bus for so... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
8hsc62 | How do electromagnetic doors with RFID readers work, and what happens in the case of a power outage or fire? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dym5uvs"
],
"text": [
"The RFID reader is connected to a computer that determines whether or not a specific RFID card is allowed to open the door. If it is, then the door is unlocked temporarily. > what happens in the case of a power outage or fire? Depends on the door. In almost all circumst... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
8hsjtv | How does Google Maps know about current traffic congestions and jams? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dym7ub9",
"dym78yw"
],
"text": [
"Google actually put out a statement a while back asking drivers to run google maps or Apple maps (whichever of the major gps apps you have on your phone), saying the more drivers have the app running while they are driving, the more accurately they would ... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
8htf8s | How do radio waves transmit song names? | Okay, so this may seem like a stupid question but, how do radios know what song name, artist and station name I am listening to? I am in a Volvo that displays the song name and it got me wondering, how is that transmitted over radio waves without disrupting the music? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dymx40i",
"dymkeqz"
],
"text": [
"Radio is pretty simple, one radio station you listen to actually sends out 3 signals that your radio puts together to show you the information. The first channel contains the sound of the left and right audio channel (L+R). It's like that so shitty old ra... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
8hunry | how the hell does a data breach the size of the Equifax breach even occur? How does it get so big without someone in their security noticing or stopping it before it reaches that point? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dymq1ud"
],
"text": [
"If you knew a way to sneak into the cinema for free, you tell your friends. They tell their friends and at some point someone gets caught. They then replay the security footage and realise how often it was happening"
],
"score": [
9
],
"text_urls": [
[]
... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
8hv4w4 | How exactly does recording and playing back sound work? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dymrvjj"
],
"text": [
"Sound is pressure waves in the air. You use a microphone that contains a gadget (there's a few different types) that converts those pressure changes to electric current. Now typically this is very little current because sound does not contain all that much energy to beg... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
8hyuz4 | If you're not supposed to mix conventional and synthetic motor oil, how do they separate it when you recycle it? | I change my own oil. I bring the old stuff down to my townships recycled oil tank. Sometimes I use synthetic and sometimes not but it all goes into the same tank. (There's only one) | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dynkoqd"
],
"text": [
"The only reason you don't mix them is because then you're not really getting the benefits from the synthetic (and so you're wasting money). URL_0 URL_2 URL_1 There's nothing dangerous about mixing the two. That's a myth. Many synthetic oils are a mix of conventional oil... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
8hz6yd | What are Spotify's operating costs that report a Q1 loss of $49 million? Where does it all go? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dynmog2"
],
"text": [
"- The fees they have to pay the record labels/artists for the music they use. - The development cost for the Spotify client application on many different platforms (Web, Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS, Game consoles, and more). - The development cost for the Spotify ... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
8i0a5t | How do we go from bits of information (1's and 0's) to a line of text? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dynwnds",
"dynwtaz",
"dynwtyk"
],
"text": [
"> what the very first 10 or 20 one's and zeros are? Strongly depends on what file format you're dealing with. The first 20 bits of data of a .txt file are the first 2.5 characters of the text. it is the responsibility of the program reading... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
8i2ig0 | How do natural channels get footage of inside an animal nest or ant colony? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dyoj5wr"
],
"text": [
"Generally it's because of really expensive and powerful cameras. Often they use motion-sensor cameras that only record the time around when they sense motion, and so they can be placed in things like nests when they are unoccupied then conserve battery power and record ... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
8i2w04 | How does Apple know if an iPhone screen has been opened by another company/person? | Or iPad, whatever. They can always tell if someone other than an Apple employee has opened the screen! | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dyoid2e"
],
"text": [
"Well apple does not remove iPad screens. So any signs of a new display is a dead giveaway the device is not serviceable. Third party displays are noticeably different, in quality, the colors, the reflective quality. All those are easy ways to identify an iPad with a ser... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
8i2wxn | What is the black magic behind air fryers? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dyoifnc",
"dyoigv5"
],
"text": [
"They are just little convection ovens. You can get the same results with a traditional convection oven you just have to wait for it to heat up and you waste a lot of heat. Note: Convection ovens are just regular ovens like you have at home except with a f... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
8i337b | Why is the sound / EQ levels on some videos so low, when volume is maxed on the device? | On my laptop, many videos are nearly impossible to hear without an external speaker. However, i know the sound can get much louder, because some music or videos are significantly louder. Sometimes, the video is maxed, my laptop is maxed, but the eq is still barely registering, and the levels are like 5% of max. So why ... | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dyoul8m"
],
"text": [
"Imagine the volume slider as a \"multiplier\" on the original sound source. In a gross oversimplification, let's assume that the slider is a direct multiplier on the sound level, so that max setting is 100% sound--the exact sound level of the original--50% is half the s... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
8i499c | The lighting in Childish Gambino's "This Is America" on SNL | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dyp75y9"
],
"text": [
"I found a good explanation here: URL_0 Sounds like it's a TV-only effect because the TV is capturing about 32 still frames per second. Apparently the live audience would have seen something different. It's similar to how you can see a choppy rotation of propeller blades... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
8i57tw | why does the radar on big boats spin? | A lot of big boats have some spinning thing at the top. I believe it’s the radar, but why is it spinning? Only seen them on boats. | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dyoy9nk"
],
"text": [
"A radar not omni-directional. Just like a satellite TV dish it must be pointed in the direction of the signal in order to receive it. So in order for the ship to know what's going on around it it has to point in all directions. It spins 360° and scans all the signals ar... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
8i6l2j | In gaming, why does it often take as long to go back to menu screen as to load the actual levels? | This always bugs me, even games with seemingly basic main menu graphics can often take quite long to load. I don't refer to the initial startup of the game, when I assume some general assets may need to be loaded, but when going back from a level to the main menu. | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dypb8xg",
"dyp9agx",
"dyp9zzx"
],
"text": [
"Depending on the game, it may be saving your progress or doing other tasks to properly *stop* gameplay. These may either be handled before beginning to load the main menu, or simply take up a lot of resources (processing power, disk access)... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
8i8tbj | How do heatseeker missiles work | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dypu4sj"
],
"text": [
"Heat seekers have an infrared camera at the front that looks for the hottest ~~girls in your area~~ points in front of it and steer the missile towards that direction. in order to steer the missile the fins of the missile have some tabs that act like the rudder and elev... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
8icka8 | Why can automatic transmission cars be "bumped" into neutral without pressing the release on the gear shifter? Is it for safety, or something else? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dyqr872"
],
"text": [
"The button is a safety feature I believe to prevent you from bumping the shifter into another selection when it would be either dangerous or damaging to the vehicle to do so. You need to push it to go in or out of P for example because you don’t want to accidentally go ... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
8icxvj | Why when installing programs on my PC they can take/reserve more then twice the amount of space then their folder actually is after the installation? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dyqsnd4"
],
"text": [
"It's sort of like when you order a toy, and it arrives in a big box full of packing foam panels. You have to open the box, take out the foam, and then you get your toy. Once you have the toy, you can throw out the foam and cardboard box. Many programs are compressed to ... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
8id8mw | How does a computer keep time, when not getting it from the internet? | I did a search for this and the answer came back from an askscience post - but I didn't understand. so time is kept on a watch/clock using physical measurements as I understand it - the turn ratio of the cog is carefully measure to move the hands at the correct velocity? but how does a computer do it? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dyqtxld",
"dyqub0e",
"dyqzgmf",
"dyqu2o8"
],
"text": [
"There is a small battery on the motherboard which provides just enough power for the clock to keep up. It's called the CMOS",
"> so time is kept on a watch/clock using physical measurements as I understand it - the turn r... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
8idaam | How do news sites get their new articles, which are just minutes old, to the top of search engine results? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dyquch1",
"dyrfvea",
"dyr4k9i"
],
"text": [
"They don't get them there, search engines are programmed to find news articles with frequent crawls, and put them there.",
"More popular sites get crawled more often. In the case of breaking news, it's possible that as soon as Google fi... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
8ie2mh | How plausible(or implausible) is time-travel? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dyqyxj3",
"dyqz0og"
],
"text": [
"Travelling to the past is completely implausible. Travelling to the future is completely plausible, but completely impractical. It would require you to get into a spaceship and accelerate to close to the speed of light, fly away for many light years, and ... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
8iezp5 | how is a phone call traced? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dyrnkf2",
"dyr5vgi",
"dyrao5u"
],
"text": [
"It doesn't happen like in the shows or movies. It doesn't take a minimum of 60seconds to trace or they lose it. LE sends the request to the phone companies and they just hand it over.",
"A request is made to the phone company, by law en... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
8if1wx | How Football Manager pc-games simulates matches and results | I can't find out how Football Manager video games simulate matches. I'd love to know how the simulations happens, what heuretics are used and anything else you might know. Edit: Please let me know if this is better suited in maths or engineering . | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dyr9d81"
],
"text": [
"Computers can do wonders when it comes to math. You probably already know about how programming works, judging by your edit, so Ill skip a bit. As you can guess, the exact algorithm of how this particular game works is unknown, but it all comes down to list of formulas,... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
8ifeqr | Why was/is there a need of the hexadecimal system in programming? | I understand the need of the binary system. The Computer can only understand 1s and 0s but we want to use other numbers, too. So we invented a system to convert the two back and forth. Any Number can be represented in binary. So why was there a need for hexadecimal? What can the hexadecimal system do that binary cannot... | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dyr9k8j",
"dyr9lka",
"dys52sl"
],
"text": [
"Binary numbers get very long quickly making it hard for people to deal with. Converting the binary to decimal is a bit of a pain but converting to hex is easy. Each 4 bits of a binary number converts to one hex digit. This makes the numbers... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
8ig56n | How did ancient people discover how to refine stuff such as grapes into wine or cooking made food taste better? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dyrftyc",
"dyrik98",
"dyrisdy",
"dyrmp50",
"dyrpjrz",
"dyrq70q",
"dyrt0uu",
"dyrr698",
"dyrxtrc",
"dyrs4u8",
"dyrzvv5"
],
"text": [
"Food was rare back in the days which meant that throwing it away could have terrible consequences as long as it was stil... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
8ihcm3 | How does the cell phone emergency alert work (in Canada)? | We recently had a test of the emergency alert system. Many people got it, many people didn't. How hard can it be? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dyrsd9o"
],
"text": [
"The phone system is based on one to one communication. When you dial a phone number a circuit is opened between you and one other person. Over the years this has gotten a little bit more complicated, you can have three or four people on a single circuit. BUT, the phone ... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
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