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awxi74
Why do you need at least an Nvidia pascal graphic card and a 7th gen intel cpu to stream 4k netflix movies with the pc app, but a smart tv without those components do it easily ?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "ehq60xo", "ehpv11f", "ehqb5os", "ehpu8sl", "ehq4c8k" ], "text": [ "You don't need both as far as I'm aware; either one is fine. They're required because they implement certain copy protection / DRM features in hardware. Netflix sends encrypted 4K streams that require these fea...
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ax0k78
can human corpses undergo taxidermy and be preserved like animals? Why or why not?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "ehqghmg", "ehqgeix", "ehqjsqb", "ehqgdy9" ], "text": [ "Short answer, yes. Long answer, taxidermy isn’t quite what you think it is. The skin/fur of the animal is taken off the body. This is then preserved, and put over a wire frame and stuffed. The teeth are put in the mouth, and ...
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ax1l5h
How does the "I'm not a robot" work?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "ehqza0t" ], "text": [ "A “robot” in this case is a macro programmed to do a certain task, such as “click here, type this, click here, etc.” So someone could make a robot that goes to a YouTube, clicks the “create an account” button, enters a username, password, and everything else, subscribes...
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ax2o0u
how does hacking in real life work? How exaggerated are hackings in movies compared to real life?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "ehqwy8n", "ehqvhx6", "ehr40uk" ], "text": [ "Hacking in real life is starting a script to run a bunch of attacks, and then reading the paper waiting for the computer to \"Bing\". Then it's snooping around in the machine you've hacked, to see if there is anything you can sell there. Us...
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ax5nqx
why a file name cant be \ / : * ? " < > |
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "ehrc40t", "ehrcasb", "ehrcj3s", "ehrp3yk" ], "text": [ "Because those are all special characters used by othe purposes by the operating system. /\\ are directory separators : is used for the drive letter/device name in Windows * and ? are wildcards < and > are used for redirection...
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ax5w1s
On 1960s-1980s era TV shows why is 'outside' footage always more grainy?
I hope the person reading this knows what I mean... You watch any sort of TV series from the olden days (I'm from the UK so Fawlty Towers, Mr Bean, Blackadder Season 1 spring to mind as examples, I'm sure this applies to way more shows internationally too). The shots which are indoors seem more 'established' for lack o...
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "ehrd3bm", "ehrgpgy", "ehry0nz" ], "text": [ "The outdoor footage was taken with a small, hand-held film camera that used smaller, lower-resolution analog film (16mm film typically).", "Dad's Army was terrible for this. The outdoor footage looks twenty years older than the rest.", ...
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axadua
How are our Phones so resistant to bugs, viruses, and crashing, when compared to a Computer?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "ehs7e48", "ehs7hec", "ehscbfq", "ehst784", "ehsicst", "ehsanf3", "ehsetqt", "ehsctgx", "ehs700t", "ehs77j1", "ehsje7l", "eht025n", "ehslkzi", "ehtd24o", "ehsaiq0", "ehse034", "eht6y3e", "ehssiy1", "eht8zh9", "eht7w2h" ], ...
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axb9w8
Why do smartphones seem immune to storage failures, whereas PCs frequently suffer from hard drive crashes?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "ehsd7jo" ], "text": [ "solid state memory with a constant power source is pretty reliable, hard drives have a lot of moving parts that can wear out and fail. PCs tend to age 4 or 5 years before they are replaces, some much longer. Phones are typically replaced every year or two. So their syst...
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axbf9y
How does a smartphone determine its GPS position instantly, whilst a purpose-built car GPS takes minutes to acquire satellites?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "ehseig2", "ehsm0bq" ], "text": [ "Because (for most users) your phone is recieving and processing GPS signals 24/7. You car, however, needs to connect to the GPS sattelites each time you turn it on.", "Your phone can self-locate using a variety of signals (GPS, mobile data and Wi-Fi i...
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axbnh3
How do laser sights work? it's either below or above the barrel, so if they're parallel then the trayectory of the laser and the bullet wont intersect, and if it's at an angle then they will but only at a certain distance right? so how does that work?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "ehsg3a1", "ehshqtg" ], "text": [ "While the LASER travels in a straight line, the actual bullet travels in an extended arc. There are generally 2 places along that arc where the LASER and the bullet would intersect. You can adjust your LASER to shift the point of aim at a given distance. ...
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axc5hu
How does YouTube have the space to hold thousands and thousands of videos? Even then having some of those videos in 4k which would take up a ton if space on a traditional harddrive.
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "ehsjn41", "ehslggv", "ehsjqc7", "eht9g7e", "ehujtxh" ], "text": [ "They use a ton of HDDs :D Basically they are held on a server farm. Which can hold petabytes of information. Though Youtube now has 100s of petabytes worth of info.. and youtube infrastructure is complicated! A...
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axcdtf
How do GPS store map data, calculate shortest paths, and overall deal with geospacial data ?
I have a project where I need to apply GPS concepts to graphs, and no article or video I found tackles the points I need to understand. So it'd be greatly appreciated if you guys could explain them to me.
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "ehsmgw8" ], "text": [ "Search online for A* (\"A Star\") algorithm. That's the one on which GPS are based on, with some differences. It's a shortest path calculation algorithm. If you think about it, a road map *is a graph*, with roads being arches and crossings being nodes. If you consider a...
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[ "url" ]
axcf55
If phones can shoot horizontal video in horizontal mode, and vertical videos in vertical mode, why can't they shoot horizontal footage when being held vertically?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "ehslzyo", "ehsm4r6" ], "text": [ "The physical sensor that detect the light is a rectangle. So you use all of it in both cases. A larger sensor would be needed to shoot both in both direction and would add the ability so shoot a larger square video. & #x200B; This is how a Iphone X camera...
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axdu33
How the spacecraft docking to the ISS is slow while orbiting at high speed?
I was watching the SpaceX crew dragon spacecraft docking to the ISS. The spacecraft was slow while docking to the ISS. But at the same time, both the ISS and the Crew Dragon were orbiting at high speed. How does this docking process work?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "ehsvzz6", "ehsweie" ], "text": [ "The craft is slow relative to the speed of the ISS. As an example, drive on the highway at 65. Someone going 70 will appear to be going 5mph in relation to you.", "The spacecraft and the station are both moving fast in orbit, but slow *relative to eac...
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axe4ie
How is certain hardware faster when electricity travels at the same speed?
A CPU or GPU is just a bunch of transistor gates in a really tight space so when you fit more transistors in a tighter space, it becomes faster. But wouldn't have no effect because electricity travels at the same speed and adding more transistors would have no effect. So what makes a certain component "faster" and how?...
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "ehsyk5r", "ehsy98v" ], "text": [ "It’s not about the speed of electricity, it’s about the speed of decisions. Since computers all operate in binary, they make decisions by either saying yes (1) or no (0). These decisions are made by transistors (back in the old days it was vacuum tubes). ...
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axebbu
Why is HD referred to as 1080P, which is it's vertical resolution (1920x1080), while UHD is referred to as 4K, which is its horizontal resolution (3840 x 2160)?
I would've assumed the naming convention was standard but just now realized they name them opposite from one another. Why not call the latter 2K? Yeah, you'd be rounding but you're rounding to 4K as is anyways. Does this even have a legitimate reason behind it?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "eht03y5", "ehszsh1" ], "text": [ "It's just different naming conventions. \"4k\" sounds more marketable than \"2160p\". \"2k\" was actually the short-lived marketing name for 2160x1440 resolution. It's even more confusing because originally \"4k\" was specifically used to refer to 4096x21...
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axeefu
How does a force quit on an application work compared to pressing the close button normally?
Why do unresponsive applications respond to force close but not regular close?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "eht2g4o", "eht0kad" ], "text": [ "Basically think of it as getting a guest to leave your house. There are a few different ways to close a program. The most \"polite\" way would be to use the red 'x', or alternatively the file- > close button. This allows the program to save data and then ...
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axewvu
Why is it that when you look at a calculator head-on, you can see all of the numbers on the display, but when you look at it from a side angle some parts of the numbers disappear into the background?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "eht4tl5" ], "text": [ "LCDs work on the basis of the polarization of light. There are a few layers in a LCD: Two polarizing filters, 2 layers of glass, and the liquid crystal in the center. Polarization is when you can get all the rays of light lined up in rows using a filter or some other me...
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axh2ag
How does an electronic device know the percentage of the battery?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "ehtl936", "ehtjqnm" ], "text": [ "The voltage is not constant as the charge drops. The voltage steadily drops as the charge does, until it becomes insufficient to power the device. The device will typically have a voltmeter to determine how much the charge has fallen and how much it has l...
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axhv0j
Why do images' data storage sizes decrease when saving in MS Paint without doing anything?
When opening an image in Microsoft Paint and pressing CTRL+S such that it saves in the same format, the size of the image in the bottom left corner decreases. Saving without doing anything can continue to decrease the size until the image reaches a point where saving can increase or decrease the size by half an MB or s...
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "ehtrapq", "ehtrazy", "ehtsj9g" ], "text": [ "Interesting. Some image formats, like JPEG, are inherently compressed file formats. MSPaint might be compressing the image even more. JPEG is lossy compression though, so you’d expect to see a slight decrease in image quality on each save. ...
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axjdbk
A vast majority of cords and cables are black. Why?
My phone charger cable is black, my aux cable is black, my hard drive cable is black. My coffee machine cord is black, my toaster cord is black. Black, black, black, black. Why is it?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "ehtx0ah", "ehtwxo6" ], "text": [ "There are several reasons for this. Black is usually a color that can be hard to spot. So no matter the color of the surrounding area it is safe to use black to hide the cable. The best is of course to have the cable in the same color as the surrounding a...
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axl0xf
How does my phone track my steps?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "ehu7lyy", "ehud185", "ehub4zr", "ehuc4us", "ehu9x54" ], "text": [ "Your phone has a three-axis accelerometer in it, which reads the force of acceleration in three orthogonal directions (think up/down, left/right, back/front although these designations vary with regard to the p...
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axldbp
what are backlinks in regards to SEO and why are they such a big deal?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "ehu8f0b", "ehudo97" ], "text": [ "Let’s say your website is URL_0 . You want to rank higher on Google. SEO specialists might say that you need more backlinks, or links that click out to ESPN on other sites (referring sites like URL_1 or even Reddit). Google searches for how many backlinks...
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axlhb5
As you remember there were polyphonic melodies in first cell phones. Why they couldn't play normal sound, was it that hard to have that technology in late 1990s and early 2000s?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "ehual8m", "ehufyfr", "ehuhh5s" ], "text": [ "Instead of recording the actual waveform of the sound, polyphonic melodies are like sheet music: they just contain a list of notes to play. This information is stored in a file format called MIDI (Musical instrument Digital Interface), and ...
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axms2v
Why can you plug an (AC) electical plug backwards in to a socket and it still works?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "ehuit28" ], "text": [ "AC stands for alternating current. The flow goes one way, then the other way, really fast. The device is receiving alternating no matter which way you plug it in." ], "score": [ 6 ], "text_urls": [ [] ] }
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axnk0o
What is Natural Language Processing
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "ehuqjtp", "ehv348h" ], "text": [ "When you are very, very young you learn how to speak. You start with \"mama\" and \"dada\" and as the time goes by, your mind understands more words, as well as the relationships between them. Then you go to school and you learn about things like \"gramma...
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axr2yz
Why does turning the volume down on my phone and up on my car give a cleaner signal at the same volume?
This is kind of a weird one but if I put the volume on my phone to full blast, I get static through my aux to tape. However, if I turn it down a couple notches on my phone and turn it up in my car, I can go even louder than before while still getting no static. What causes this?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "ehvhh7j" ], "text": [ "You are overdriving the output of the phone OR the aux-to-tape converted (the latter most likely), essentially pushing the circuitry beyond its limits. When you lower the output you put the circuit back into operating range and you can then cleanly amplify the signal us...
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axrz14
Why does it take so long to download and interpret Black Box info after a plane crash?
I realize it can take time to find the black box. But why isn’t there a computer program that hooks up to the BB and acts like a simulator? All the data is there. Why can’t they plug it in and watch a recreation of what happened immediately?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "ehvoi1q", "ehw6l28", "ehwbaha" ], "text": [ "The “black box” isnt a single system, its made up of separate recording devices through the aircraft. It doesnt record EVERYTHING, only the Time, Engine specifics and altitude, the other records cockpit voice and conversations. The data rec...
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axthjh
How do portable batteries know when to give or receive charge?
This battery I have uses the same USB C port for charging the unit itself as well as charging other devices. How does it know what mode to be in?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "ehw3hz3" ], "text": [ "The electrons will go where the voltage \"forces\" them to go, much like water falls or flows where gravity pulls it. So if the battery is the only generator of voltage, then the chemicals inside will react and produce electrons that will go through your device. However...
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axxe33
How did Stephen Hawking talked even though he can't move a muscle? How did the computer knew what he wanted to say?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "ehwphh0", "ehwpeqp" ], "text": [ "He used very subtle muscle movements to control the computer. The computer would go over a list of letters/words and Hawking would move his muscle whenever he wanted to choose the current letter or word. Towards the end of his life it would take him up to...
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axyh96
Why do modern cameras have lower (~12) megapixels as compared to older cameras?
I thought it was always better to have 'more' megapixels on your camera/phone to get a good picture. My previous phone had 21 mpx as compared to my current which has 12 mpx, still my new phone clicks better pictures as compared to the 21 mpx phone.
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "ehwvt3o", "ehwvgoy", "ehxdqr8" ], "text": [ "When I took a digital photography course in college, probably about ten years ago, it was explained to me like this: It's less about the absolute number of megapixels and more about the ratio of megapixels to the size of the photo sensor. T...
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axyjqn
Why do new Phones cost more and more but don’t seem to be that „new“?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "ehwzubv", "ehwxt1d" ], "text": [ "Very simple: because people are willing to pay for it. Top-level phones also have a very nice position right between life necessity and luxury status symbol. On the one hand, for the amount of entertainment and business utility it provides, it's understan...
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ay6ffh
Why screens are hard to read outdoor?
Not only sunny days, cloudy even overcast days. It's just hard to read screens clearly outdoor.
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "ehyovgx", "ehykt0l" ], "text": [ "Bright sunshine can exceed 50 & #8239;000 lux whereas bright lighting inside is typically more like 500 lux. Our eyes are amazing enough to deal with this factor-of-a-hundred difference but consumer display technology is not.", "The Sun is very bright...
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ay6hf5
How were video game cheats/trainers written?
Firstly, I haven't played video games for years and have no intention of cheating on any video games. But I picked up programming (C# and Python) 3 years ago and wondered how were online game cheats / offline game trainers written in the programming perspective.
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "ehynbcd", "ehysbjf", "ehyooc7" ], "text": [ "Well it involves memory for the offline. Basically it is easier to do in c++ , but since I suck at c++ I did it in c# pretty much you can hook into the game that is running. Then you memory dump what the game is doing in ram. Searching for ...
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ay8sbd
How are producers, DJs and remix artists able to separate the singing/lyrics from the original song so cleanly? (Without the instrumentals)
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "ehz3gu0", "ei0ss7m" ], "text": [ "There parts that are called Song Stems. These are broken down parts of the song. Separate parts like drums, percussion, strings, etc and of course the vocals. Sometimes this is provided by the artists or the label themselves. If stems are not available, a...
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ay97pt
Why cant all plugs just be round (like an aux cord) and not weird shapes (HDMI, USB, etc.) so they’re easier to plug in?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "ehz61oq", "ehz8gxt", "ehz69gc" ], "text": [ "1) Different shapes are a good thing. It prevents you from plugging your monitor into your networking port or audio jack when you really wanted the video port. 2) Lots of digital protocols involve various input and output wires that have to...
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ay99jj
How did people edit movies and television shows before computers? How did they change fonts, add effects, etc.?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "ehz6giy", "ehz6mma" ], "text": [ "You can cut and splice film together to get the sequences you want from the various takes. It is also possible to paint over film for title sequences or just hold a board that was made for the show in front of the camera with the words you want on it.", ...
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ay9kvn
How do you know when a letter or word ends and a new starts when using Morse Code?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "ehz8jk0" ], "text": [ "The length of the pause makes the difference. Between letters the pause is three dits, between words the pause is 7 dits." ], "score": [ 3 ], "text_urls": [ [] ] }
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ayew9b
Why are the UK telephone area codes almost in alphabetical order?
I come from Worcester and now work in Winchester and I noticed the area codes were close (01905 and 01962). This led me to look at a list to see if they were assigned in alphabetical order. & #x200B; And they *almost* are. But with other random towns added in. & #x200B; Why is this? How were they assigned?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "ei08ers" ], "text": [ "In may cases it look like it is because of name changes of the zones for example the next after Worcester is Milton Keynes but the area was originally called Wolverton & #x200B; [ URL_1 ]( URL_0 ) & #x200B; So most are alphabetical series but there have been later chang...
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ayfvv6
- Why do soap operas look different on TV compared to all other shows?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "ei12eip", "ei0oqu3", "ei1bbfs", "ei143zb", "ei0fduw", "ei0fv70", "ei0zso3", "ei1es6p", "ei1epvy", "ei19s4q", "ei1axca", "ei1cx5h", "ei1dtsi" ], "text": [ "they are shot in higher frames, so it looks more fluid, and that makes it look like you ar...
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ayfxvm
Why is prime factorization so reliable for modern encryption algorithms?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "ei0g7io", "ei0g55s", "ei0nc5e" ], "text": [ "When doing encryption, two things has to be true: 1) It must be easy to calculate 2) It must be hard to reverse Multiplying two prime numbers is insanely easy for a computer, so 1) is true. Finding out which two prime numbers were multiplie...
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aygyd0
How does encryption/decryption of a file work?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "ei0r1c6" ], "text": [ "Let's talk about a simple \"toy\" encryption algorithm. A file is a series of bytes, which are made of bits. An encryption algorithm will take a \"key\" which is a number that is secret and needed to recover the file. The algorithm will go through the bytes in the file ...
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ayi2dj
How do bots work to buy Hype items? Supreme had items drop today that sold out in less than 3 seconds. How does the bot know where to click to get the item and size, as well as overcome Captcha?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "ei0wucc" ], "text": [ "It doesn't generally have to \"click\". Your browser sends a message to the server saying \"I want to buy this\" and then does some other messaging to send payment info. A bot could do these things without a browser. A second option is to write scripts in your browser t...
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ayi9lm
Why is adding a dark theme to an app/OS so hard and doesn't take just a few color changes?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "ei0zd3n" ], "text": [ "from my experience, it's the chaotic way in which designers end up serving specifications. Might be more true in web but designers don't often enough get enough time or info to plan out a theme for their project in such ways that inversions of colors can just happen on ...
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aykz9k
- How do Video Game servers work?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "ei1k5j5", "ei21w49" ], "text": [ "I'm going to assume you're talking about servers for typical FPS (First Person Shooter) games. All the server is doing is acting as a \"middle man\" to ensure all of the players (clients) know what all of the other players are doing, and to handle any rea...
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aylrt0
How do computers understand your code?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "ei1rbso" ], "text": [ "Programming code is compiled by the compiler into Assembly language which is your code in a form of cpu instructions and memory addresses. Assembly is not very human readable so back in the day higher level languages emerged like cobol, fortran, Dartmouth Basic, and C t...
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[ "url" ]
aymo3q
The difference between DIY grade power tools and professional grade power tools
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "ei1w384", "ei1wdgf" ], "text": [ "The wear parts in professional tools are much better designed; bearings, bushings, contactors, brushes. This makes them much more expensive, for no real change in function, and have much longer life. If you use your saw for hours every day, you will have ...
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[ "url" ]
ayoa49
Youtube search is creepy
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "ei25ev9", "ei27mln" ], "text": [ "It's a whole thing with companies monitoring what you search so they try and show you things relevant to you. This is what cookies are for.", "Because you're not the first person to watch that video. Millions of people watched it already and some of t...
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ayrspt
If the infrastructure 15 years ago is still being used by cable companies today. Then how can they provide such higher internet speeds?
Currently I have 200 Mbps internet (I could have 400 Mbps with the better package) on non-fiber optic line. 15 years ago it was very good to just have 20 Mbps consistently and now it is a laughable speed. If I am not missing something, how can cable companies maintain these high bandwidths and speeds now with the same ...
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "ei2t3l6", "ei2sw12" ], "text": [ "Let's say you have a 7 lane interstate. At each end there is a toll booth. In the past payments were processed manually and there was a receipt that had to print, but the printers were slow. Only do much traffic could get through. Fast forward to the futu...
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ayu5t2
3D Printing
Hey, there. I'm not a very technologically-inclined person and depend on my boyfriend when it comes to anything new. I didn't know 3D printing was even a thing before joining reddit (a few months ago, I'm late - I know). How does this even work? Do you have a computer connected to it? Is there certain software? How doe...
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "ei39dqg", "ei3dglt" ], "text": [ "At a simplified level, imagine if we slice a 3D object into a series of 2d layers spaced a small distance apart, and then use molten plastic to draw each layer at a small thickness, and then stack each of those layers we just printed on top of each other....
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ayvjkl
How does a computer or calculator calculate the square root of something
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "ei3lfgx", "ei3k7s8" ], "text": [ "Here is a possible way: What is the square root of 5? I don't know, but it's between 1 and 5! Maybe it's 2.5. Let's check. 2.5 squared is 6.25. Oh no, that's too big. So it's between 1 and 2.5. Maybe it's 1.25. Let's check. 1.25 squared is 1.5625. Oh no, ...
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aywqoo
Why is it when round objects spin at a certain speed they appear motionless?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "ei3s2mi" ], "text": [ "Your eyes have a frame rate per second, when an object is spinning and matches your eyes frame rate they appear motionless. This is why helicopters blades will appear motionless on high speed cameras" ], "score": [ 4 ], "text_urls": [ [] ] }
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[ "url" ]
az51cs
How do headphones work?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "ei5acsn", "ei5cgco" ], "text": [ "Headphones are simply 2 baby speakers that sit very near your ear.. Since they're tiny they require very very less power, are less loud and the dynamics of sound are more notable as they are very near your ear!", "There are small magnets that vibrate ...
[ "url" ]
[ "url" ]
az82wc
How do speed cameras capture speed?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "ei5ydpo" ], "text": [ "In my understanding it's not the cameras that catch speed, they only take a photo of the speeding vehicle. You have either a ground sensor that measures the speed with which the wheels of the vehicle get from point A to point B, or a laser sensor that measures the speed...
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[ "url" ]
az8hd2
water damage to electronics.
I know that water is conductive, but I don’t quite get why water will harm something electric. For example, a phone dropped in water or left in the rain – why do they stop working? A toaster in the bath would kill someone, but why does the toaster “fry”? To boil it down to one question, what makes water and tech a bad ...
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "ei60861", "ei60hjb" ], "text": [ "The water allows the electricity to jump from one circuit to another it wasn't meant for and it can destroy the components on things like the motherboard.", "Because water is conductive, it connects connections that are not supposed to be connected. S...
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[ "url" ]
az9wjn
How do game developers generate fog?
I started learning opengl and I know about vbos, vaos, and shaders. I know what fog is in real life, but in video games, what *is* it? How do you make weird and realistic bumpy and foggy shapes? To clarify, I'm not talking about rendering distance here. I mean the physical up close oozing around and even reacting to th...
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "ei6anvz" ], "text": [ "Particles. I wish I could tell you more about it than that, but I can tell you that much. It’s the same way they generate fire (and sometimes water). As I understand it, it basically involves rendering colored points rather than shaded/textured polygons and then writing...
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[ "url" ]
azfq5l
How do we get propane and other gases from the ground?
If there are pockets of gases in the Earth how do we get them from the ground without the gases just dispersing into the air?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "ei7g1b7" ], "text": [ "We refine crude oil which contains gases in the oil(similar to carbonated beverages but less fizzy) and can undergo chemical reactions which will take bigger molecules and break them down into smaller molecules, like propane, which we then seperate out." ], "score":...
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azjlrw
How do barcodes work? How is it that they can be universally read and we haven’t “run out” of options for them?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "ei8h34l", "ei87zwi" ], "text": [ "Others have explained how they work, so to the other questions, they use standardized formats for the patterns of lines and spaces to make them universally readable by equipment that follows the standard. We don't run out of options because there are many...
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azkb5k
why does the video quality decline when a video is reposted over and over again.
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "ei8cgu8" ], "text": [ "Video compression is lossy, meaning data is permanently lost. Presumably in the cases you are talking about, the video is decoded and then recompressed using the hosting website's algorithm of choice. Doing this will cause more data to be lost, as the compression doesn'...
[ "url" ]
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azkdf2
How can data be recovered from hard drives even after multiple wipes? From my understanding when you wipe a drive you're resetting all the ones and zeros so do drives somehow remember their old data?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "ei8edwg", "ei8dy2t", "ei8x6x1", "ei8h902", "ei9437x" ], "text": [ "If you overwrite the disk once, nothing remains. If you just format the drive, all it does is overwrite the beginning of the drive, which tells operating system what file system is being used, where them files ...
[ "url" ]
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azlne1
How did ancient people handle termites? How are the wooden bridges and temples lasting hundreds of years?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "ei8ozi2", "ei8ot8f", "ei8x5jk", "ei8p4ww" ], "text": [ "Any particular locations in mind? Termites aren't a problem everywhere. They only really inhabit consistently hot (or at least warm) regions so, for example, northern europe is termite free.", "I don't think there are man...
[ "url" ]
[ "url" ]
azsyaz
How do our cheap electronic clocks automatically change time when it’s spring forward?
I have a cheap electronic clock from Walmart. Did it get programmed for the next 6 years or how ever long it may last as an appliance? Or is this some circuit board clock embedded? I seriously have no idea.
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "ei9uzyx", "eia74n9", "eia1g1t", "eia55wz", "eia7368" ], "text": [ "Did it automatically set its time? There are radio stations that broadcast the time is a format that can be easily deciphered by electronics. This allows clocks to automatically set the time and change to DST."...
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[ "url" ]
azywrw
Why do photographs of screens look like they’re “moving” when you zoom into them?
Here’s an example: URL_0
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "eib1cad" ], "text": [ "> Photographs of a [TV]( URL_1 ) screen taken with a [digital camera]( URL_2 ) often exhibit moiré patterns. Since both the TV screen and the digital camera use a scanning technique to produce or to capture pictures with horizontal scan lines, the conflicting sets of li...
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azz9zj
Why are some gas cylinders filled with other materials?
I heard that for example acetelyne cylinders are filled with a stone-like material similar-looking to pumice. What is the purpose of those fillings and wouldn't it allow less gas to be stored?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "eib41jh", "eib3ypw" ], "text": [ "That gas is explosive if above 15 psi. Obviously there's more than 15 psi in the tank so they dissolve the gas in acetone and use the pumice like stone to absorb the liquid to keep the tank from spontaneously turning itself into a bomb.", "The pomice ...
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b01ibj
Why does radio reception sometimes increase when we stand next to a radio or touch the antenna?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "eibm8i8" ], "text": [ "Your body reacts to electromagnetic radiation (which includes radio). FM just happens to have frequencies near the resonant frequency of the human body. So your body acts like a tuned antenna for some stations." ], "score": [ 13 ], "text_urls": [ [] ] ...
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b024c5
what does it mean when a song/album is remastered? What changes?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "eibsa0j" ], "text": [ "The songs you usually listen to, at least digitally, are mostly in a format called .MP3 This format basically takes hundreds of megabytes' worth of audio data, and compresses them into just a few megabytes. When you master a track, a large part of the process is control...
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b02za4
why is there such an effort from companies to block resale of promotional freebies?
In particular I am referring to the recent free game promotions with AMD and Nvidia hardware. They make you go through hoops to prevent you from giving the games away or selling them. Is there a legal reason for it or is it something else? Why do they care what you do with them?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "eibvfwf" ], "text": [ "Because it's a potential for lost revenue... And yes, there is a very big possible legal penalty - piracy and/or conspiracy to commit piracy and/or aiding and abetting piracy. Whatever you call it, what you're describing is theft." ], "score": [ 3 ], "text_u...
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b03r87
The difference between the World Wide Web and the Internet.
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "eic015d", "eic2fzp", "eibzsyq" ], "text": [ "The internet is the network that connects millions of computers together. The World Wide Web is the part which you access through your web browser. Online games, for example, use the internet, but aren't part of the www.", "Internet is ...
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b068m1
When deleting apps, games, etc, from your computer, where does that data go? How does that memory it used to take up, get erased?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "eicce2z", "eiccdh2", "eice1fz", "eiccqs8" ], "text": [ "Your game occupies a house in your PC's disk. You tell your PC you don't want that game anymore. The house continues to be there, it doesn't get erased or go anywhere. But as soon you install a new game, your PC will build a ...
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b06yxr
Does “burning in” brand new audio gears such as headphones and speakers actually work?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "eicj1aq" ], "text": [ "First: The word 'gear' in this context is already plural. It's a group noun, like 'news' and 'furniture'. Second: No. That idea comes from decades ago, when magnets were weaker and materials were worse. Even then, it had almost no impact on the sound. Only hard core aud...
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b0b6xe
How do WIFI enabled lights work?
Are they drawing energy all the time? Or just when you turn them on? Or does the amount of energy used change when you turn them on?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "eidcc4q" ], "text": [ "It'll be drawing enough energy to run the wifi card and microprocessor whenever plugged in, but will draw more power to run the light when switched on." ], "score": [ 11 ], "text_urls": [ [] ] }
[ "url" ]
[ "url" ]
b0bl78
How can websites tell when you are using an Ad Blocker?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "eidj9vg", "eidkmzp" ], "text": [ "There are a few methods, one of the easiest ways is to have your advertention server serve a piece of Javascript and then check if it loaded. URL_0 uses this Method", "A web page rarely consists of content that can be loaded by a single web request. T...
[ "url" ]
[ "url" ]
b0d21o
if my internet speed is 500mbps download, why do my devices download at less than 10% of my internets capability?
I'm trying to download an update for my Xbox One and it's taking a long time. I have Fios and the Google Mesh router. Everything is connected great with 500mbps download, but the update is only at 20-30 mbps.
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "eidqkmr", "eidqlxn", "eidtttd" ], "text": [ "Well, first of all, your speed will be limited by either your download speed or the uploaders upload speed, whatever is slowest. If the Xbox network only allows you to download at 30 Mbps, that's what you'll get. Secondly, there's a differe...
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b0d2rl
How does hanging up a phone call and calling again “fix” connection when the initial call was poor quality?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "eidt5aj", "eie6xmb" ], "text": [ "Telephone calls don't always take the exact same path from your phone to the phone at the other end. On a cell phone, hanging up and calling the person again will make your call use different radio channels, or even a different cell. This change will ofte...
[ "url" ]
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b0f9a1
How does Spotify know what music I will like and generate those discover weekly playlists?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "eie7hud" ], "text": [ "They track what you listen to, and match it up with what other people listen to. And more recently, they use machine learning to find songs and artists that are audibly similar in some manner. The models that result in people listening through the playlists are kept, an...
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b0fhhq
How is it that new phone battery can last in stock for "long" periods but once used it will degrade much faster if not properly charged often?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "eieb2br" ], "text": [ "Leave your phone at a 40% charge and turn it off, and it will last almost as well as when it was in stock storage." ], "score": [ 7 ], "text_urls": [ [] ] }
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b0gbig
How does Google search pictures?
I've done a little bit of programming so I'm familiar with searching keywords in say a database which is basically what the internet is, but how do search engines compare images and how do they do it so fast?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "eiemmb8", "eieva05" ], "text": [ "1.The name of picture or the context in a webpage 2.When you search FLOWER and appears a FLOWER you click. This make Google learn, time after time, search after search, that the picture is a flower.", "Originally it only did a regular web search for t...
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b0hes0
How can a hot computer shut down and completely turn off the fans? Wouldn’t the heat hurt the components? Seems like they should keep running for a few minutes..
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "eieof2a", "eieqj1f", "eieodg7" ], "text": [ "Once the power is turned off, no component is going to get much hotter than it was during operation. The hottest components will not get any hotter. The computer will cool down via convection and radiation even without fans.", "Also whe...
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b0j8c0
How far up into space must one go before a compass stops working, and what do they use at that point for navigation?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "eieztmi", "eiezzpb", "eifg2s6", "eift9p9" ], "text": [ "In the sense of it being a tool for navigation it would stop working pretty quickly, like before you leave the atmosphere. it might point north but that doesn't help you in a space ship. Once it leaves earths magnetic field i...
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b0jer4
what does "power cycling" a modem actually do? Why is it always 10-15 minutes?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "eif0kos" ], "text": [ "Part of is resetting the modem, and part of it is resetting the connection. Resetting the modem is obvious - it's a computer, and sometimes computers have bugs which corrupt a portion of memory. Turning them off and on restores the defaults. Resetting the connection is ...
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b0kzva
How do APIs work?
I kind of know that they allow two systems to talk to each other, but how exactly does that happen? Does each system's respective APIs connect to each other to form a pipe? Is it possible for one system to have no APIs and connect to the second using the second's APIs?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "eif9q63", "eifmdxh", "eife1jr", "eig1vd0" ], "text": [ "An API is a document that describes how you are supposed to talk to a computer system. You know. If you want to connect to it and talk, the document describes how. Everything from login credentials to error messages to what i...
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b0mf32
Why do electrical appliances such as alarm clocks have so few buttons, wouldn't it make more sense (and simplify setting up) to have a button to activate each feature (brightness, alarms, time, date, radio)?
When I need to change a setting on my clock I have to tab through every other setting before I get to the one I need and even then I sometimes tab past it and have to go around again....
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "eifjgyv" ], "text": [ "I actually work on the automotive industry, so not actually appliances but I believe the reasons are the same. Quick answer: saving money Long answer: most of the appliances we use at home are produced in large quantities and believe it or not, currently the most expens...
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b0nrm5
How did sending messages on birds work?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "eifspuo", "eiftbmo" ], "text": [ "The birds only fly home. They can navigate to their home from thousands of miles away. So you raise them in one particular place, and take them with you in a little cage when you go off to invade some other country, and when you needed to send a message y...
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b0nsbo
You know those glass windows that can blur at the press of a button? How do those work?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "eift6bt", "eifzrtq", "eig82x4", "eig37yz", "eigadoh", "eig0dxm", "eihwx6d" ], "text": [ "As I understand it they use liquid crystals like in LCD screens. When a voltage is applied, they all align and let light through. When they're not energized they just go in whateve...
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b0nv2b
How do experts believe superintelligence will emerge and engage with humanity?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "eifw2j5" ], "text": [ "**Short answer**: There is no answer. The moment that a superintelligence exists is also the moment that we cannot predict beyond. **Long answer**: The idea of the \"technological singularity\" says that as soon as an AI superintelligence comes into existence it will im...
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b0o4y8
What is big data clustering?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "eifxy5f" ], "text": [ "First, big data is just a buzz word, and just means any large amount of information. Suppose you have information about a few objects, some apples, fire trucks, and tangerines. We could take two pieces of information about these objects, the color (red or orange) and th...
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b0oz4t
How does your phone not get into a sound-feedback loop when on speakerphone?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "eig2dlr" ], "text": [ "There's a process called \"echo cancelling\". Basically, the sound that's being sent out is also flipped 180 degrees out of phase and fed into the microphone circuit. There it cancels out the sound from the speaker that's being picked up by the microphone." ], "scor...
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b0p3az
Why does Google Chrome have ~10 or more processes running at all times even if I don’t have many tabs open?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "eig418c" ], "text": [ "Chrome uses different processes not just for tabs, each extension also gets its own process and there are a couple of additional utility processes. You can see which processes are running by opening the Chrome task manager (Chrome menu > More tools > Task manager)." ]...
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b0pasx
How do they create bullet holes and make glass shatter for movies? TO my knowledge some are real and not CGI?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "eig520c" ], "text": [ "There are \"squibs\" which simulate bullet hits on people or surfaces. They don't fire live ammunition for movies. Safety glass can be made to shatter - often it is made out of materials other than glass." ], "score": [ 3 ], "text_urls": [ [] ] }
[ "url" ]
[ "url" ]
b0rg7m
How do electronic devices (phones/smartwatches) keep track of time when their batteries die?
Even when not connected to the internet, booting up a device that has kept time is super cool.
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "eiglw9l" ], "text": [ "They have a second battery. Many electronic devices like computer motherboards have circular watch batteries for the sole purpose of keeping time and a few basic configuration settings when the power is off." ], "score": [ 4 ], "text_urls": [ [] ] }
[ "url" ]
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b0vloi
What’s so special about a Tesla Coil?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "eihk3u1", "eihrsof" ], "text": [ "It raises the voltage of an electric current. This allows the electricity to jump out to other objects. This creates flashy lightning. Humans tend to be interested in flashy shiny things.", "They are strong against tanks, infantry and whatever else la...
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b0wrj8
What exactly do game studios have to do to port a game made for console to PC?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "eihs9da", "eihvy0b", "eiht52f", "eii6umc", "eii14rd" ], "text": [ "Games are computer programs. And computer programs are written as a series of commands that humans can understand, like 'jump character ' in so called 'high level languages'. These are then converted by a progr...
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b0x1yz
Why do people use the color 'green' for greenscreen and not any other color?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "eihre8g", "eihrix3", "eihrelp", "eihrea1", "eihtq0i" ], "text": [ "Green screen effect it actually called Chroma Key. Green is most often used because it does not match any natural hair or skin color, so it's the safest bet for not keying out any part of your actor.", "The...
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b0xmd3
How every pixel of a display is controlled individually?
I mean how the system controls every single pixel is controlled without using millions of different cable going each pixel? Don't they need different cable for every pixel? How can the pixels have different colors on while they aren't being controlled by different cables? I can understand the amoled screens because the...
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "eihunl5", "eii2fci", "eiihqxs" ], "text": [ "> I mean how the system controls every single pixel is controlled without using millions of different cable going each pixel? It does uses \"millions\" of different cables. They are just very short and tiny. And it is the same with OLED, LC...
[ "url" ]
[ "url" ]
b0xz49
What makes greenscreens work and why exactly they are green?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "eihw6n3" ], "text": [ "You simply hide every pixel that has that green color. Make it transparent. Green is used because it has a nice contrast to humans. But really any color can be used. Blue is also seen often, orange and red are more rare since human skin is to close to it." ], "score...
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b11ih0
Why do digital devices slow down when they get old?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "eiijtuj", "eiijvg8" ], "text": [ "The main reason is that programms and apps require better hardware as they get updated. It’s not really the digital device that slows down, but the updated software is just to heavy to run on the outdated hardware", "Most computers these days don't ha...
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b11o14
On programs such as photoshop, increasing the size of a picture beyond what it already is lowers the quality of it. How do small projectors manage to create a relatively high quality picture from such a small display?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "eiilwdk" ], "text": [ "Projectors have lenses that designed to create high quality images at a certain distance. If you try to project smaller or larger the image starts to go out of focus. On professional projectors designed for large live events you can swap in a different lens but increasi...
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b143fh
Why doesn’t a battery or electronic device charge instantly up to 100% when you plug it in? Also is this technology coming in the near future?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "eij5d7l" ], "text": [ "The electricity that you get from a charged battery works because some chemical reaction gradually moves electrons from one side of the batter to the other, causing a voltage across the batter. As more and more atoms react, they lose the ability to move electrons this w...
[ "url" ]
[ "url" ]
b14jek
How do 3D movies work?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "eij7ygp" ], "text": [ "Seeing \"3d\" works by the brain taking two slightly offset images, one in each eye, and combining them to understand depth. A 3d movie will shoot the movie with a camera with two sensors at a slight distance apart like the eyes, effectively giving a \"left\" version of...
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[ "url" ]
b14k4n
Regular software tends to have a lot of bugs and mistakes, how do programmers write software for things like airplanes or rockets where there can't be any errors?
Technology
explainlikeimfive
{ "a_id": [ "eij7lme", "eij7jk1", "eij7677", "eijf7ln" ], "text": [ "They do a lot more testing and re-testing. They also write code is much less complicated than regular code. It does only what it needs to do and nothing more. This reduces the changes for errors. Also the systems are built wi...
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