Split (1)

train · 14k rows

q_id stringlengths 6 6	title stringlengths 4 294	selftext stringlengths 0 2.48k	category stringclasses 1 value	subreddit stringclasses 1 value	answers dict	title_urls listlengths 1 1	selftext_urls listlengths 1 1
dmddax	What is the Tor network and what should /shouldn't I be using it for?	What is the Tor network and what should /shouldn't I be using it for? From what I gather, Tor network is not a secure internet, it is another internet. How does one pull off such a thing on the same infrastructure? Does a person doing regular internet stuff need to know how and when to use it? Will using it put you o...	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f4zg0x3", "f4zzidj", "f50kyt2" ], "text": [ "It is not illegal to use it, and nobody will put you on a watchlist. Except if you're from a country where it's banned like China, but I assume you live in the US. The network works, by sending your request on a different computer, from the...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
dmhkro	How do you get oxygen on a submarine?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f50m19p", "f50obyb" ], "text": [ "Basically there's a few ways. Either oxygen generators, which is done through the electrolysis of water, separating the oxygen out of the water, pressurized tanks of compressed oxygen, or chemical reactions which release oxygen as a byproduct. The Carbon ...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
dmks21	How does cold make electricity move easier, and how does it cause superconductors to have 0 resistance?	Talked about it a little in my engineering class, and my teacher said that when he tried reading a scientific paper about it, even he was struggling to understand it, I thought this would be a good place to ask about it	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f51p5jb", "f53helb" ], "text": [ "I do not know why cold makes resistance decrease, but I can give you a rundown on superconductors which are their own process. Basically when electricity heats up a material, it does so in discrete quanta (packets of energy). If the electricity does not c...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
dmpqlr	Why do Windows Updates need to be installed in two phases, namely when shutting down and booting up? Can it not be done together in a single phase?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f53ujni", "f54icac", "f54hris", "f555i63" ], "text": [ "Windows locks certain files while the operating system is in use, and such files can only be modified when they're not in use (such as while booting up).", "Installing updates on a running program is a bit like trying to ...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
dmu0fl	How on earth do weapon suppressors work? Do they really decrease penetration/range potential of a bullet? Without it overheating, how long would it take for it to break?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f54sbri" ], "text": [ "Suppressors work like car mufflers. They capture the explosion and expanding gasses. They do not actually effect the projectile. Suppressors are actually built quite solid. I recommend lookin up iraqveteran888 on YouTube for a more knowledgeable souce." ], "score": ...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
dmw1st	Why do car speedometers show a different speed to GPS? Which one is correct?	Google maps now shows speed. I set my cruise control on my car to 70mph on the motorway, but the GPS says I'm only going 67mph. My dashcam also records speeds and says I'm only going 67mph. I get a lot of hire cars for work when I need to travel, and it seems to be the same on all of them. GPS always says I'm going a f...	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f55asnn", "f559ib4" ], "text": [ "Your cars speedo works by estimating your speed based on the revolutions per minute of your wheels multiplied by the circumference of your wheel. As the circumference of a wheel can vary due to different tires, inflation etc, the speedo tends to err on th...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
dmwlal	How are hackers able to gain access to people’s personal accounts? I’m assuming that they don’t individually type in thousands of different passwords, right?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f55py3q", "f55f2bx" ], "text": [ "Hollywood has taught people that hackers use super complex tricks and tools to hack into computers. But in reality, it's usually just some dude posing as local IT or some sort of trustworthy person and asking for passwords. Why spend hundreds of hours loo...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
dmwmrp	What is SAML and how does it work?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f5680op" ], "text": [ "SAML is used to provide federated authentication, essentially a digital passport. If I want to provide a service lots of different people can use, I need to be able to know who they are, especially if I am storing things for them. The traditional way to solve this is cr...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
dmxpfy	How does opacity of digital images work?	Let's say I've got a pixel which is pure red. Would putting a pure blue pixel over it with 50% opacity result in a perfectly purple pixel? Feel free to explain on an example using http color codes.	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f55yelc", "f56ca95" ], "text": [ "> Would putting a pure blue pixel over it with 50% opacity result in a perfectly purple pixel? [Yes it would]( URL_0 ) Putting a layer on top of the background and setting it to 50% opacity blends the two layers together at 50%, meaning half-way between r...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
dmy8qc	What makes certain computer programming languages more suitable than others for writing certain software?	There are many different computer programming languages used to write pieces of software but what makes one language more suitable for writing a certain program than other languages?	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f55yskd", "f56q5lq" ], "text": [ "There's LOTS of reasons. Some languages give the programmer lots of control over how the computer uses it's memory. For things like video games, that can be very useful because they are memory intensive. Where as automatic memory management can be very he...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
dn2n2c	How does a vinyl record store audio??		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f579jlr", "f578p8t" ], "text": [ "Because sound is vibration. So, a microphone just vibrates with the air and that movement is captured and amplified by the electronics. All you need to do to create the sound again is vibrate the air the exact same way. If you take a speaker and a microph...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
dnbjxo	Why are phones calls’ bitrate so bad? Why is Discord crisp and clean but phone calls are low quality?	Title	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f59msvd" ], "text": [ "When the telephone system was first invented the technology didn't have much bandwidth, so they limited the range of frequencies that where captured and transmitted. They were focused on intelligibility instead of fidelity. It persists today strictly for compatibility r...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
dnc45u	in space movies, how do they make it look like the actors are moving around in zero gravity?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f59fk4z", "f59f4ti", "f59guzd", "f59f74d" ], "text": [ "There are a couple of ways you can do it, but I'll share what Gravity did (because they did it really well). First, every object is computer generated. This is going to take a lot of time, and it means things aren't going to ...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
dnhxjn	How do you use Hexadecimal code?	I'm watching the Martian and he's using Hexadecimal code to speak to NASA. Why is he doing this and how does it work? Edit: Could iI get an explain like I'm a newborn? Because I still don't understand. How can you get the full range of the alphabet from 0-9 and A-F?	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f5b1bxg", "f5be7rc" ], "text": [ "ASCII tables are an agreed translation that relate a count to a character. If you wanted ro say \"HI\" an ascii table says \"H\" is 72, and \"I\" is 73. but ascii tables show lots conversions, instead of decimal 72, you can use hexadeximal 48, or binary 0...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
dniiqn	How does Google photos separate photos into such specific categories without them being labeled manually.		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f5b9ck3", "f5b9f7a", "f5bpzl6" ], "text": [ "With machine learning. A computer program has looked at many many images that _were_ labeled, and it learned from them what sorts of labels to put on other photos. It learned by looking at an image that people had labeled but not looking at...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
dnjre9	What is a national intranet that Russia seems to be doing? What makes it different than the internet?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f5bpjkz" ], "text": [ "What makes it different that it will be autonomous , at least in theory. As russian gov says, they want network infrastructure independent from global web, so if someone (read america) decides to block their access to internet, their infrastructure would not be affected...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
dnkjgf	On a shared wifi connection (university dorm), can someone else downloading movies or having a virus on their computer slow it down for everyone? Why?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f5byjyz", "f5cb81g" ], "text": [ "Imagine having a pipe that can carry X ammount of water per seconds. Now many people are drinking from that water but if for some reason one of theses person start drink 100 time more water the other person will have less water to share (pipe cant deliver...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
dnm5rf	What happens when you change the dial of an FM radio? It takes 2 seconds to match something. Is it the frequency, is it digital?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f5ck0or", "f5ckfm8" ], "text": [ "It's digital. In the \"old days\" like pre 2000 this never happened. Radios turned their dials instantly and you got whatever channel you turned to. Today things are a bit different. There's song titles coming though that display on screen. There's still ...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
dno7g3	when using machine learning to teach a computer to finish a game, how does it determine intermediate goals?	I've seen machine learning used to play fairly complex games like Super Mario. How would one set the 'successful' condition in a fairly long game, i.e. you have to go through several worlds before finally beating a boss and ending up in some end game screen? And how does the learning algorithm know that it's making any...	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f5d26g0", "f5d2bjv" ], "text": [ "This is one of the difficulties of making a machine learning algorithm. In the case of, say, Mario, you might set the goal as \"go far to the right\". The farther right it goes, the better it thinks it did. Or maybe there are keys in a level - you tell it...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
dno87d	how do online password managers work and how do we know the companies that run them can't just access our accounts, specially sensitive ones like online banking?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f5dyzy6", "f5daahc", "f5edftj", "f5djft7", "f5dxlu6", "f5demeu", "f5dlr5b", "f5f77ee", "f5e54w6", "f5dzqag", "f5e65th", "f5ebzsz" ], "text": [ "This is the ELI5 version: They actually don't know your passwords. Imagine you want to store some importa...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
dnrmua	how ad blocker extensions identify ad elements on a webpage/video/stream and remove it?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f5ev74e", "f5evwna" ], "text": [ "Users have created lists of sites/domains/ code that are advertisements. When a page starts to load it calls on those and the ad blocker filters out or blocks any calls to everything deemed an ad. advertisers constantly update so the lists constantly upda...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
dnrz2p	What is a rootkit? How does it work? And what does it do?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f5ezdxg" ], "text": [ "Software on a computer comes in layers. All of the layers are build on top of eachother and the rootkit gets installed in one of the lowest levels. This makes it harder for security systems to detect them because they're running in higher layer's. Because the rootkit is...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
dns0is	Why car computers are so slow?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f5ey5m3", "f5f0y40" ], "text": [ "They are different systems. The airbag system for instance is super fast (quicker than you can blink) whilst the radio or satnav doesn't have to. You also may encounter a problem with heat dissipation on some elements (and this is why you don't have the f...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
dnsgv0	how does 2 factor authentication work?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f5f66xw", "f5f7rm1" ], "text": [ "You verify one way, then you verify another. Like an email gives you a code, then you get a code sent to your phone thru text", "You can identify people through \"something you know\" - a password/PIN, \"something you have\" - a phone to receive messa...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
dnue0l	Why can't a DSLR camera record in 4k if they can take pictures with a resolution higher than 4k?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f5g1zl2", "f5g1b2l", "f5g5ax6" ], "text": [ "To recorded video you need to capture a picture at the frame rate you film at. So for 30 fps video you need a sensor that can read out a 4k image from the sensor 30 times per second but to take a still image you do not need that. A optical ...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
dnutg5	How does pitch correction/autotune actually work? Likewise with voice changers		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f5h83tf" ], "text": [ "Your voice is composed of a whole bunch of frequencies. Modern computers can record your voice, do a bunch of math to find these frequencies at any given instant, shift them all, and then generate new sound using these shifted frequencies. They can do this so fast that ...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
dnx06p	How does the internet exist? No I'm not talking about us using it but more so, what's actually causing it to run and who's in charge, who could possibly end it?	Edit * WOW 700 VIEWS, THANKS SO MUCH.. PS. I didn't know I could write in this box!	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f5ijemr", "f5h44j4", "f5i2nrk", "f5ib2m5", "f5itqgm" ], "text": [ "The Internet is what we call a global data network consisting of many sub networks belonging to various companies and governments. It's kind of like asking who owns the road? What road? The world is connected w...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
dny0te	If you have a sound box that plays at 50% volume and you put another (same exact) box next to it and play it at 50% volume. Will the sound be twice as loud or stay the same because they are both playing at the same volume ?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f5hekt8", "f5hn4nt" ], "text": [ "Depends where you're standing. [Check out this picture.]( URL_0 ) There's dark lines - if you're standing there, the sound will be much quieter. In the regions with stripes, the sound will be louder. The sound waves interfere with each other. A sound wave...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
dny1m6	How do inhalers work?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f5hgyak" ], "text": [ "The medication delivered by the inhaler is a bronchodilator that relaxes the muscles of the airways into the lungs, making it almost instantly easier to breathe and for the lungs to work more efficiently Edit: informative link- URL_0" ], "score": [ 6 ], "tex...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
dnyhqs	How does one yellow RCA cable carry video?	RCA cables only seem to have one pin each. How can one cable carry color video, but stereo audio requires two whole cables? It doesn’t seem like the amount of data is comparable.	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f5ieyjl", "f5i6tw4", "f5i3ody", "f5ixpgb", "f5iz8qo" ], "text": [ "A RCA cable have two wires not just one. One is connects to the inne pin and the other to the outer ring. For all electrics connector you need two conductor. Often the like the 3.5 mm audio connector with 3 wir...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
dnywey	How is a qubit in a quantum computer physically represented?	I understand that in traditional computing, a bit is either 0 or 1, where the physical representation is zero voltage for 0, and positive voltage for 1. From my limited research of quantum computing, it's saying that a qubit can be 0 and 1 at the same time (in a "superposition"), but how does that translate to electron...	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f5i2568", "f5jlnzv" ], "text": [ "Well, first off, voltage actually can be analog. It is simply less efficient to do that. You can have 1 volt, 2 volts, or 1.26947298 volts. In quantum computers, the quibit is stored in a quantum state of a particle. I'll use photons as an example becau...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
dnzifh	How do games like Fortnite, CS:GO and LoL ensure that the user isn't using a hacked/modded client?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f5icrhq" ], "text": [ "Technically they don't, which is why they continually ban players for cheating. So a better question is, \"How do you detect cheaters?\" There's a lot of third party software used to detect cheaters. Some are very basic, while others are complicated. One way is to check...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
do18pt	Why do most phones require a PIN on startup even when a fingerprint or other unlock method is normally used?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f5j6e3w", "f5jcj86", "f5j6rmn" ], "text": [ "Because you need the PIN or passcode to decrypt the phone's \"hard drive\" where the more sensitive user data is stored (as opposed to the operating system). Once the PIN or passcode is entered, the phone is decrypted and can default to a l...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
do1q0s	I'm trying to download Modern Warfare but it's only downloading at 30mb/s when the test I do says my download speed is 300mb/s?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f5jboo2" ], "text": [ "Your speed is only one factor. The upload rate of the server you are downloading from also matters. There is only so much bandwidth-- if many people are downloading it at the same time and the server is near its bandwidth limit, it'll divide it up among the people downl...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
do3eni	how did we get from the Wright Brothers to operational aircraft for war/transport in less than 15 years, then a moon landing 50 years later? This pace of technological innovation seems insane.		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f5jp5e9", "f5jpsde", "f5jmsf3", "f5jom5d" ], "text": [ "War is an amazing motivator for innovation. WW1 for planes. WW2 for rockets and also planes some more. Cold War/space race was for more rockets as that would determine who would survive in either a nuclear war or who would wi...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
do4zvt	What is trickle charging and how does it improve the battery life of a battery?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f5ngas7", "f5jz4b8" ], "text": [ "You can fast charge a lithium battery to 80%, and then you have to slow the charge rate down or you'll damage the battery. Here's a simple analogy: If you're trying to fill a glass with orange juice right to the top, you don't pour it in at full speed unt...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
do74p0	Why are the letters on the QWERTY keyboard positioned this way and how come the Dvorak keyboard was never adopted despite its efficiency?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f5kcnuy", "f5kdw0f", "f5kd2dj", "f5kcm29" ], "text": [ "As far as I know, originally the letters were organised like they are because typewriters tended to get stuck if the letters that were pressed were next to each other. Thus they organised the letters so that the most used let...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
do7rua	How braces work and move teeth.		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f5khvpu" ], "text": [ "To be very short and simple - they get glued to the teeth and therefore slowly move them into intended place. That's why you need to visit your doctor regularly to keep everything in check and to adjust your braces accordingly" ], "score": [ 4 ], "text_urls"...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
do8jz3	How does an electric guitar produce sound?	An acoustic guitar has the empty part to have the sound waves resonate like any other instrument, but an electric guitar doesn’t. How does it produce sound from just the strings?	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f5kq9uc", "f5l3h2k", "f5lhhnd" ], "text": [ "The strings is generating the sound in both electric and acoustic guitars. However in the acoustic guitar the sound is amplified by the resonant cavity which provides an impedance match that helps the energy from the strings be transmitted ...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
do97b3	what does “packet loss” on an online game mean?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f5kzf0k", "f5kxol2" ], "text": [ "Think of a mail main, your device sends packets. It's small bits of information transmitted to and from your device. Every request for website, game or app that's accessed the internet sends and receives data in packets. If you have packet loss then let's...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
docd8j	Why is sending images on messaging platforms like discord considerably slower than video call, where you're sending each other over 30 images per second almost instantaneously?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f5m2h2l", "f5m2n69", "f5ncadc" ], "text": [ "Sending an image is a kind of file transfer. It uses a TCP (Transmission Control Protocol), which is connection oriented. Essentially, all hosts (i.e. both you and your friend's computer, or each computer and a server in discord's case)...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
dogsn8	How is it possible for a smartphone to say how much the battery or phone is loaded?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f5o2m32", "f5nps33" ], "text": [ "It doesn't actually know how much charge is left in the battery. As a battery charge depletes, the voltage level drops in a predictable manner due to the battery chemistry. They determine this voltage curve through hundreds of tests and attribute a voltag...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
dogyzp	Why does it appear that, during a newscast, there is a delay at the studio end, but not at the reporters end?	What is the reason for this asymmetric delay? Intuitively I understand that it must appear to us to be instantaneous at the moment we perceive it, but I can't explain where the lost time goes.	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f5nyow0" ], "text": [ "We are seeing the conversation from the studio's point of view. Regardless of how long it's taking for the signal from the reporter to get there, we're seeing it arrive. When the anchor asks a question, we have to wait for that signal to get to the reporter and for the ...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
dohuzt	why does the shuffle feature on spotify still seem to group artists together?	I know that there's always a chance that in a 200 song playlist with 3 songs by a single artist that 2 or all 3 songs can play in a row but it still seems to happen far to often to leave it to chance. Plus I'm not the only one I know who has noticed this. Is there something about the programming that makes consecutive ...	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f5o35hk" ], "text": [ "The Spotify shuffle playlist actually is not fully random by design; people didn't like the fully random way before, I think because the situation you describe happens more often, statistically, then you would feel is right. Something like that. Let me find the article....	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
dojii3	What is the difference between two processors with the same cores and speed between a few years?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f5oe9js" ], "text": [ "CPU makers (like Intel) have learned a lot about how to make a CPU run faster. Most notably, rather than executing a single program instruction per CPU cycle, now they can look ahead and execute 2+ instructions at the same time (as long as they don't directly interfere ...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
domb3b	What exactly is fog computing and how is it different from cloud computing? Any easy examples?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f5ov71o" ], "text": [ "A very rudimentary definition would be a network between devices and the cloud that helps do a lot of the computing to speed things up. For instance: The IoT (Internet of Things) is getting so dependent on other devices (think self driving cars talking to each other) th...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
doo5u4	We code computers so they can work, but how do the computers know to follow the code? Do we code the computer to follow the code given? If so, do we code computers to follow the code that follows the first code give...?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f5p3dh1", "f5p8izm", "f5p3tv5" ], "text": [ "Computers are really just a series of switches. Switches, organized in the right way, can do math (both of the traditional and boolean logic variety). For example, if you look up logic gates, you'll find circuit designs to process logic lik...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
dos56l	What's the difference between a dynamic microphone and a condenser microphone?	I'm shopping for a microphone to record vocals and instruments, and every article about the difference between the two is just too much for my brain to handle.	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f5pzewu", "f5pyqge" ], "text": [ "A microphone is in a way the opposite of a loudspeaker. The microphone converts sound waves to an electric signal. The sound wave will exert some force on the microphone. In the dynamic microphone , the sound wave will push a membrane. (There is also a \"...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
dos7hf	How did stores know personal cheques/checks were good in the 80s/90s? What were those little machines at the cash register they ran them through, and how did they work?	I remember my mom using personal cheques for everything from Walmart to gas stations. What kind of system was in place to electronically validate cheques in the 90s?	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f5ps74m", "f5ps65i" ], "text": [ "There were clearing houses who assumed the risk of a check being bad, this protected the merchant who accepted the check. The merchant charged the customer a fee to accept the check. The merchant used the machine that scanned the checking account number o...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
doxzva	How are we able to tell the exact temperature of something so extremely hot or cold?	Like how are we able to pinpoint the temperature of something that is close to absolute zero or on the other extreme, millions and millions degree C down/up to its last digit? It can't be just an extrapolation, right? Do we work our way down (or up) step by step until close enough to the extremes?	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f5rajru" ], "text": [ "Well, high temperatures are measured by their black body radiation. We can measure the frequencies of light emitted by hot things, and use these measurements to determine their temperature quite accurately. Incredibly hot things actually emit specific bands of light, an...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
doyacq	How come cutscenes aren't preloaded in video games? Like a 4k HD video?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f5rcck7" ], "text": [ "It depends on how the cutscene is rendered (how it is drawn in the game). If it's a scripted cutscene, then everything is being shown in the actual game itself, which means everything has to be loaded as if you were playing the game even though you probably can't contro...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
dozfm3	What even is a carborator for?	I feel like I've heard it in so many movies but don't know what it does	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f5rllil", "f5rq7pt" ], "text": [ "On old vehicles pre 1990 for the most part it controls the amount gas allowed into the engine when you step on the gas pedal. In modern vehicles it’s be replaced by fuel injectors. It controls how much vroom vroom you get when you floor it.", "*Carbur...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
dozm49	Why is there a "ripple" whenever you push on a monitor screen?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f5rpp69", "f5sewd9", "f5sdpif", "f5sx0qt" ], "text": [ "Most modern displays are LCDs. LCD stands for liquid crystal display. What that means is there is a very thin layer of liquid held between two thin layers of glass. These crystals align in specific ways to make colors. When y...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
dp3r28	If rebooting is turning a system off and then back on again automatically, how does the system turn itself on while being off?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f5sd877", "f5sf841" ], "text": [ "Whether or not your computer is \"on\" ( power states of the computer) are controlled by something called the ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface). When you tell your computer to \"shut down\", the operating system tells the ACPI to stop all ...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
dp5a1v	Why Do some Lights tinkle when they Light up?	Okay so I'm not a native speaker so I hope I can translate my Question correctly. Some older Lights Do this little high pitched sounds (kinda sounds like icicles falling on ground) when you switch them on/when they light up after. What produces that Sound?	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f5skjqd" ], "text": [ "If you mean fluorescent tubes, older fluorescent fixtures used a system which featured a bimetallic starter (the small, round, silver piece). Inside the starter is a bimetallic switch which \"pings\" when energized. Newer fluorescent systems, such as the \"preheat\" or ...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
dp5uqt	how does editing software distinguish so easily between greenscreen and non greenscreen?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f5snivb" ], "text": [ "It's called Chroma Key compositing. You look for colors in certain ranges and replace them. So with green screen, you replace everything in a particular range of green colors (this is how you handle shadows, etc.) When done incorrectly (either with an incorrect color ra...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
dp6f41	Why do radios, bluetooth speakers, earphones, etc lose signal or crackle when you’re under electricity cables/lines?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f5sqz78" ], "text": [ "The massive amounts electricity create an electromagnetic field that disrupts the signals of these devices bluetooth & phone signals (microwaves) Radios (radio waves) All of these devices use electromagnetic waves to communicate, so the powerful electromagnetic field ba...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
dp7i09	What is Machine Learning? What is Cluster Analysis and Dimensionality Reduction?	I understand quite a bit about technology but I never understood how machine learning works.	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f5uh8zj" ], "text": [ "Machine Learning is, in some sense, simply a branch of statistics. It is a general term for the process of determining a function based on analysis of training data, which can then be applied to hidden data (i.e. data which hasn't yet been seen, possibly because it ...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
dpafar	If you can't type on a phone while using gloves, how can you butt dial?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f5tkqnq", "f5tigwl" ], "text": [ "The screens work by picking up tiny electric currents that pass through our skin. The cloth in gloves prevent that electricity from reaching the screens. When sweat from your body soaks into the thin fabric of your pockets, enough of those tiny currents c...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
dpg9e8	Is it better for your eyes if a screen is too bright or too dim, and why?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f5vspw8" ], "text": [ "It's best if the screen matches the surroundings. A bright screen in bright light means it's easier to see, and less work for your eyes. A dim screen in low light prevents too much light harming your eyes from a directed source." ], "score": [ 14 ], "text_ur...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
dpi9f7	When a MAC dies and you plug it in, it turns back on within seconds. When an iPhone dies, it takes several minutes to turn back on. Why?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f5vqtkn", "f5vqzep" ], "text": [ "Phones often use their battery as a buffer between the charger and the actual circuitry of the phone. If the phone is drawing more power than the charger can put out, the battery helps out and supplies the rest. In order to do that there needs to be a cer...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
dpm5re	What is fuzzy logic and how is it that it's found in missiles and rice cookers?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f5wla5z", "f5wjjze", "f5x07wd", "f5x6h1n", "f5wh2p2", "f5xfcbi", "f5wznmk", "f5x30en", "f5x5z6r", "f5wuc7r", "f5xjxsd", "f5x5kig", "f5wfh3v", "f5y9mlv" ], "text": [ "Traditional logic only knows two states: True or False. Is the rice cooker ...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
dpo5qw	How do controllable prosthetics work? How does the brain control something that's artificially attached?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f5x0qp0", "f5wzyji" ], "text": [ "Simplest prosthetic is where you just lost your hand. Since basicly all muscles controlling the hand are in your arm you can just put sensors near those that detect activity and rig it up to the right limb. It gets harder the more is lost, but the princip...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
dptj81	How does my phone's touchscreen work?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f5ycyd7", "f5ydlk3", "f5yfpk1" ], "text": [ "Your body conducts electricity. The phone's screen is able to sense that electricity. When you touch a spot on your screen, it sends electricity to that spot", "When you touch the screen a small electrical charge gets transferred to you...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
dptnhy	How can my smartwatch differentiate between my steps and my tapping to a song's rhythm ?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f5yewza", "f5yig0s", "f5ywfel" ], "text": [ "A lot of them can't. But, in some models there's a tiny metal ball on a slightly magnetic circular surface, and \"swinging\" motion is tracked differently than the \"erratic\" motion of other things.", "Sometimes they can't. Friend of m...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
dpuncb	How do the Ring Doorbell servers not get overloaded on Halloween from all the Trick-O-Treat-ers?	it would seem like with all the rings that all the data would crash the system, how do they prepare for something like this were almost every door bell in America is getting rang many times for a few hours?	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f5yol6g" ], "text": [ "A lot of the data is local. Somebody rings the doorbell, it sends video over your wifi network. There is a subscription service, and that does use servers with ring, but that isn't really an issue, since they are owned by Amazon, and Amazon has a lot of cloud servers. T...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
dpwv9h	Does a power cut affect phone data?	I live at a student accommodation and a few days ago, we had a blackout. All power went off meaning I had no access to WIFI. I decided to turn on my data (4G) just to scroll through the internet. Instead, the data I was using was 3G and when I opened apps like Instagram and Reddit, they loaded pretty slow, if not at al...	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f5z73vx", "f5z7hn9", "f5z7km3" ], "text": [ "This is a likely indication that the tower you normally get your 4G coverage from was also affected by the outage.", "It may be that your student dorms normally operate a cellular repeater in order to increase the strength of cell servi...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
dpy27s	for what reason does technology turn off when too cold?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f5zegz0" ], "text": [ "Batteries operate off of a chemical reaction that is facilitated by heat. The lower the temperature the less power output it has, until it is below the voltage threshold for the device to run." ], "score": [ 5 ], "text_urls": [ [] ] }	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
dpz1mn	How can the chance of rain be 10% when it’s pouring outside?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f5zm8rs", "f5zn46s" ], "text": [ "Forecasts are done over an area, not a point location. It might be raining at your location but not 2 blocks from you. The percentage is the chance of some place in the area of the city or whatever defined region getting rained on.", "That's not how p...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
dpzsxh	How to internet service providers, manipulate how fast or slow your internet connection is without any of their software on your device?	I've noticed some local ISPs have different rates for different speeds. How do they do accurately choke your internet connection without having to do anything to your device?	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f5zrt2q", "f5zxtnc" ], "text": [ "Imagine a water hose. On one end is connected a garden sprayer. The other end is connected to the water faucet. If you squeeze the handle, you can control how much water comes out the sprayer. But the guy standing at the faucet can begin reducing the amou...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
dpzu22	When there is a really windy and bad storm, my lights dim and flicker, but the power doesn't fully go out. Why not? How do the lights dim as if they get less power, it seems like they are either getting electricity or they aren't?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f5zs2fb" ], "text": [ "Usually it's because lines are swinging around causing intermittent faults in the system that temporarily drop the voltage." ], "score": [ 7 ], "text_urls": [ [] ] }	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
dq0pzo	If Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography is the breakthrough technology in chip manufacturing which can make 13.8nm chips, how does AMD and Samsung Exynos achieve 7nm?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f5zxkan" ], "text": [ "Complicated answer, unfortunately. The first thing you need to know is that those node names don't really mean anything anymore. New nodes used to mean that you shrunk the lithography and device by 0.707, because that would result in a 50% area shrink. Which meant for t...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
dq0qcs	When a video game crashes and/or freezes up, why does the music continue to play?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f5zy1qk", "f5zxu4d", "f6008kx", "f6019oq" ], "text": [ "When a video game runs it creates various processes of the same application. One process displays images, one runs audio, and various other processes for various tasks. When the game freezes only certain processes crash. The ...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
dq4lfg	Why are most classical calculation not possible to be accelerated through quantum computing?	> From Wikipedia, "The capacity of a quantum computer to accelerate classical algorithms has rigid limits—upper bounds of quantum computation's complexity. The overwhelming part of classical calculations cannot be accelerated on a quantum computer". From what I understand, calculations like integer factorizing a semipr...	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f60j3d4", "f6102tp" ], "text": [ "So with quantum computers you have qubits instead of regular bits. The cool thing about qubits is that they can exist in a super position of a bunch of different states at once, which means they can do also do a bunch of calculations at the same time whil...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
dq5hxd	How do data companies like Verizon work? Where does the data come from? (Sorry if it seems stupid, just something I've been wondering)		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f60ptpi" ], "text": [ "ELI5: There's the pipes, the water, and the water tanks Users (People, Companies, organizations, educational systems, governments, etc etc) produce the water Verizon is in the business of providing the pipes that move the water wirelessly. Their network ties into the bi...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
dq7aku	Why does sped up audio sound high-pitched and slowed down audio sounds low-pitched?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f60yf6s" ], "text": [ "The pitch is just how many vibrations are happening per second. If I play back some audio on my computer at double speed the speakers are being told to vibrate twice as quickly as they would at normal playback speed. Thus every pitch sounds like it's happening at twice ...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
dqa8mh	What is the difference between analog and digital computer components? (i.e. VGA vs. HDMI)		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f61u7gn" ], "text": [ "In analog voltages take any value between two limits. Eg, if a signal is 0 to 5V, then anything in between is valid. In VGA the range is 0V, which corresponds to complete darkness, to 0.7V which is full brightness. In digital signals you transmit data bit by bit and the...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
dqegeu	How does matchmaking actually work in AAA games?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f62mdwb" ], "text": [ "Every player has a number. That number goes up when you win and down when you lose. Typically, when you start playing, you are assigned either 0 or whatever the average number is for the player base. As you win more, your number goes up, so you play against people with ...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
dqf03u	Why do streaming services like Netflix and Hulu seem like they have lower quality on my 24” 2k PC monitor than on my 32” 1080p TV? I use a fire stick for the TV and the websites for my computer.		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f62ryix" ], "text": [ "Because they don't natively support that high of a resolution, so you are seeing the effects of scaling. i.e. the highest streaming resolution Hulu and Netflix offers isn't a high enough resolution to look good on your 2k monitor, but looks just like its supposed to on ...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
dqgp0e	How come music streaming services like Apple Music and Spotify making money doing same thing?	Why will a person subscribe to service which is costlier than other when both of them have almost every music one wants to listen? If one is cheaper than the other then how come both of them has huge number of subscribers?	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f63hmiv", "f63sbw3", "f64n31y" ], "text": [ "Humans are not, strictly speaking, rational. We will choose \"suboptimal\" choices because we're used to them, they make more sense to us, they're the first thing we found, or they look nicer, or any other of a long list of reasons.", "...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
dqhhmq	In simple terms, what is fracking exactly and why is it controversial?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f63x5lv", "f63v49r", "f63z6yb" ], "text": [ "Conventional oil deposits consist of oil that exists as an underground pool that's under pressure. To get it out of the ground all you need to do is to drill down into it. Because the pool is under pressure, the oil will naturally flow up t...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
dql7dj	What’s the process of Dialysis? How does the blood get filtered?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f662u6e", "f677z76" ], "text": [ "The blood passes through tiny straws, which are soaking in a bath, and yucky stuff is pulled out of the blood. It's a brita filter for your blood!", "Blood is pumped from the body and passed over semi-permeable membranes. When the blood comes into con...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
dqq2no	Nowadays we have tech that makes typing conversations easier, like in a courtroom setting. How did they accurately capture conversations in olden days though? Wouldnt the natural speed of real conversations be too fast to write down for too long?	I was thinking of old philosophy texts and stuff at first ,but court room stuff probably makes the most sense. Just curious	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f68d6a0", "f68epm5" ], "text": [ "They used stenotype. The stenotype keyboard has far fewer keys than a conventional alphanumeric keyboard. Multiple keys are pressed simultaneously (known as \"chording\" or \"stroking\") to spell out whole syllables, words, and phrases with a single hand ...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
dquiq0	How software that runs traffic lights avoids fatal errors while consumer programs crash the time	I'm sure they're better optimized, but if that's it, then why can't it be applied to other software is there something else to it? How do designers ensure that vital programs like the ones that operate traffic lights or electrical grids don't crash or malfunction?	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f69w9ye", "f69xedf", "f6aao9y", "f6auhek", "f6ajisk", "f6arw8c", "f6abnnr", "f6cos31", "f6ed6p3", "f6cegte" ], "text": [ "They do one comparatively very simple task, all the time, on standardized hardware that's exactly the same for all traffic lights using...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
dqvfok	When referring to hashes in cryptography- What are they and why are they irreversible?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f6a96wo", "f6e9c8m" ], "text": [ "A hash is a unique way to take some plaintext and reduce it down to a unique, (typically) much smaller value. Kind of like running meat through a grinder. Although the resulting hash is unique (actually, nearly unique) to that particular plaintext, a gr...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
dqyqz0	How much flying human pilots in planes actually do and how much is autopilot? And,if autopiloting would do all the work,would that mean we wouldn't need human pilots at all?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f6ctd3u", "f6bskl6", "f6d6ss2" ], "text": [ "If the runway is equipped with a suitable ILS (Instrument Landing System) which helps guide the plane/pilot down, it is possible for the autopilot to land the plane itself as well. It's not always used, but if it is then the autopilot would...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
dqzsif	How does WiFi not get confused?	If WiFi signals are sent using the same radiation, how can multiple devices send/receive data on the same network at the same time without packets getting sent to the wrong device or interfering with each other?	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f6cdmv8", "f6ccx62", "f6cdq60" ], "text": [ "Each device has a unique identifier called a MAC address. Devices on the same wifi could theoretically receive data from all the other ones, but they just ignore data packets that are not meant for them (don't have the right MAC address). I...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
dr9kqt	How do you treat injuries like the one Andre Gomes suffered from today?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f6hek3w", "f6h6qso" ], "text": [ "Sports injuries tend to be assessed in this order: First the team's trainer or doctor (a medical professional who specializes in sports injuries) will try to determine if it is a \"soft tissue injury\" (a sprain or a strain) or worse, and call over the em...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
drjllj	How did the different sides in past wars (esp WW1 and WW2) communicate and collaborate with each other so effectively when organizing their offense and defense in different countries around the world? It sounds like a logistical nightmare, even with today's communication devices.		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f6isv32", "f6itdc5", "f6iumwf", "f6jtex0" ], "text": [ "Wars are not planned \"on the fly\", even today. People sit down at desks in the War Department and write out plans, wargame those plans, and then send them out. Commanders in the field tailor the plan to the forces on the gr...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
drlov7	How does dial-up internet work and what makes modern internet technology better than dial-up?	I mean, I remember the days of AOL. And I know you had some sort of phone connection required to actually connect to the internet and be able to browse the web. But I don't exactly know the nitty gritty specifics of how it all worked and how we use modern internet technologies today.	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f6jb233", "f6jsiyd" ], "text": [ "Your modem literally started a phone call to a set number that had the ISP's hardware listening, then started whistling digital data in the audio frequency range. This is why the internet went down if somebody in the house picked up the phone in some setu...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
drocpq	How do big companies like Amazon that have customer support Twitter accounts handle all the tweets that they get by the minute?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f6k5kg3", "f6jzsr1", "f6k39v6" ], "text": [ "My fiance does this for a living for one of the huuuuge companies (she does mostly Instagram, but the software does Facebook, Twitter, insta, YouTube). Her company runs CS phone banks and email services which they contract with corps to han...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
drto7p	How can a single pixel on a TV screen change to so many different colors?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f6l1gyo", "f6l3xcn" ], "text": [ "You remember mixing paint colours when you were a kid? A single pixel is made up of a tiny blue light, a tiny red light, and a tiny green light. It can be any colour just by controlling how strong each of these colours shines inside it. More modern screen...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
drvexl	How do laser-dependent devices work? (etc. infrared thermometers and radar guns)		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f6lbmjy" ], "text": [ "The laser only helps the operator see where the device is pointing. This is like a laser sight mounted on a gun. Infrared thermometers capture how \"bright\" a surface is in the infrared spectrum with a lens and detector. The hotter something is, the more infrared light...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
drzm0o	Why can't web browsers block lightbox-style popups?	Browsers killed popups and popunders years ago, but advertisers just moved to those popups-that-aren't-technically-popups. Adblockers and browsers seem unable to stop them unless you manually pick out the code. Why can't we just kill them off like we did with popups and autoplay videos? It seems like we could use AI to...	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f6lyp64", "f6m3pja" ], "text": [ "Popups, popunders, and autoplay videos are all very specific actions. The site's code has to ask the browser to make a new window or start playing the video, and the browser can easily respond to that. Lightboxes are different, they're just another elemen...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
drzmzh	How Wikipedia website works, Who can edit or create articles. Do author need to attach source or proof with articles? How we can trust everything is right and trustworthy.		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f6ly7xh" ], "text": [ "Anyone can edit or create any page. Wikipedia has three main rules: 1) a page must be written from a neutral point of view, 2) all claims and quotations must be verified by a reliable source outside of Wikipedia, and 3) everything in the page must be attributable to an ...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
drzvww	What is Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f6lzzzr", "f6m017l" ], "text": [ "Virtual reality is where the user interacts with a fully virtual space such as a game world. Augmented reality is where a virtual overlay is added to the real world, such as an Ipad app that recognizes objects and displays information about them when the ...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
ds1ee8	If I'm paying for 100mbs download speed why does it take longer than 10 seconds to DL 1 gigabyte		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f6mcy02" ], "text": [ "You're paying for megabits(Mb) per second rather than megabytes(MB) . Megabits are a unit for measuring download speed, but it's never made clear in service provider advertising. A byte is eight times bigger than a bit, so your actual download speed is going to be a lot...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
ds39fz	How do hidden photo apps work? Where are the photos actually "hidden?"	I can't find them anywhere else at all on my phone, which is a good thing, but I cannot figure out where they actually "go" aside from into the app.	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f6mtuer" ], "text": [ "There are many ways todo so. But first a little explnation of how your phone memory work. To store a file youre phone keep a table of where in the memory each file is the name and exetension. The extension tell the system what kind of file that is (since in the phone me...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
ds4223	Why do vehicles make those pinging and popping sounds when you turn them off after driving for a while?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f6mz2iq", "f6mz9ur" ], "text": [ "Vehicles have lots of moving and tight-fitting parts, those parts heat up (expand) due to friction as you drive. When you stop and turn the car off, parts cool (at different rates due to differing materials and such). As they cool they shrink again, the p...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
ds4dod	portable USB-C chargers for laptops, Power Delivery (PD)	I'm trying to buy power options for my new used laptop and it seems like there was a new standard put into place that I'm not sure of. My laptop can take 65W for fast charge and comes with a MacBook charger (my laptop is not a macbook but apparently it works...?), I also have a Nintendo Switch and I'll probably get a U...	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "f6n8hi7" ], "text": [ "USB PD is an official spec for USB chargers that lets the charger announce the power levels it supports and then the device can request a specific power level. Importantly, it allows these to select much higher voltages to get much power, to the point that you can push ...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]

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