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
baqvpn	Why is it that videogames are sometimes suddenly delayed extremely close to their release dates, while this is usually unheard of when it comes to films?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "ekdh8aq", "ekdh2ag" ], "text": [ "Games can have unexpected things in them that aren't found until the last minute. These things tend to be bugs that need to be patched out; given the nature of programming, testing fixes may take an extremely long time if the bug runs deep enough. Meanwhi...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
barjof	How do digital scales work?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "ekdk5yf" ], "text": [ "There's a peice of metal inside the scale that gets squeezed when you put weight on it. When the metal gets squeezed, its electrical resistance changes in a predictable way. So, by measuring the electrical resistance of the metal, the scale can determine the amount of w...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
batgtd	Why does a video game cartridge require a battery to store save data, while something like an SD card doesn’t?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "ekduk8w", "ekdujau" ], "text": [ "SD Cards uses flash storage which didn't exist in a viable form back when cartridges where still being used. There were EPROMs and similar erasable rom technology but those tended to be very expensive and had limited rewrites. The most viable and cost eff...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
bavhql	Since we will eventually hit a wall of reducing the size of transistors on a computer processor, what else can we do to improve its performance?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "ekekx8d", "eke8ptb", "ekec31j", "eke95v3", "eke9bts", "ekef3nx", "ekeb4kp", "ekenyaw" ], "text": [ "There are a bunch of technologies that will continue to push performance forward for a while: * [Asynchronous logic]( URL_5 ). You know how CPUs are clocked, e.g., 3...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
baw4qg	If we pointed a radio telescope at Earth from space, what would we see?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "ekefxie" ], "text": [ "It depends on what frequency you choose. Unless you stay in the [Water Hole]( URL_0 ) you only see an opaque ball. There is also a narrow optical band where you can sometimes see some of the surface, but that's not a radio telescope. In the Water Hole (between 1.42 and ...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
bax7s0	Does it make a difference when buying an older film in HD/SD?	Today I pulled up my Amazon account in hopes of buying and watching Dead Poet's Society when I found myself in a dilemma. This 1997 film was offered for $9.99 SD or $17.99 HD. In the past when it's a dollar or two difference I usually splurge but with it being double the cost I gotta know... does it matter? What is the...	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "ekep83o", "ekeol5s", "ekeo6p5", "ekeodik", "ekeyahg", "ekepqsk" ], "text": [ "On a related note, bit-rate can make a difference as well. In my experience, a low resolution film with low bit-rate \"looks better\" than a high resolution film with low bit-rate. I'm not sure i...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
bayhad	How is video and music data stored digitally when there isnt any power in the device (battery dies)?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "ekey04a", "ekexvo4", "ekfda8a" ], "text": [ "When you toggle a light switch at home and the power goes out, it remains toggled in that direction until/when the power is restored. The 0/1 toggle stays where ya put it.", "Solid state memory (also known as flash memory), is what they...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
bb43hr	Phone, laptop, TV, Tablet has WiFi adapters. Why there no simple one-click way to transer files from one to another?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "ekg8qgh", "ekga5f8", "ekgd84g", "ekgtrkf" ], "text": [ "There are many different file sharing protocols. (S)FTP, SAMBA and HTTP are all examples. Even accessing Reddit right now is as easy as clicking a button. Different devices are not always configured to receive and send data t...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
bb667g	How can a plane measure it's altitude (and how was it done a 100 years ago without our current modern tools)?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "ekgjw2r", "ekid0ta", "ekgjwqh" ], "text": [ "100 years ago was the age of biplanes. The primary methods for determining position were \"look at the ground\". Not long after, planes started using barometers to determine altitude. In the modern day, radar is also an option.", "An Al...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
bb8h8d	How does prioritising traffic lights work? Those that priorities ex. buses over private cars		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "ekgycvw" ], "text": [ "You have active radio transponder on the buses or some other way to detect them and change the switching of the light so it let them trough first. So the the idea is if a buss is detected on road A then next road that will have a green light will be A and leave it green...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
bb8msz	Is there any difference between forcing a computer shutdown with the power button vs manually clicking shut down?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "ekgzh16", "ekgzmfd", "ekgzxnc" ], "text": [ "Yes there is a difference! Imagine falling asleep, this is like clicking shutdown, your brain stores all the information from the day and you remember it when you wake up. The computer does the same thing, before it turns off it stores all ...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
bb9ycc	How can you remove an object from a photo and there be more of the photo behind it?	I see this all the time in photo editing apps. I understand computers a decent bit, cameras not at all. But I just can't figure it out. If you take a photo of a beach, but there is a tree in the middle, how can you later go back and remove that tree and the beach suddenly be there as if that was the photo you took all ...	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "ekh9p6f", "ekha3df" ], "text": [ "There's a clone stamp tool, that allows you to \"clone\" the background from next to the object over the place, some cleaning up and smoothing and then you have \"removed\" the object.", "Actually there is no photo \"behind\" the thing you erase, it's...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
bba2b6	When almost all of them have 16:9/18.5:9/21:9 screen ratios, why do smartphones still mostly have 4:3 camera sensors?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "ekhb0t7", "ekhb97a", "ekhdqtl", "ekhavlz" ], "text": [ "It makes sense to capture essentially a near square image with as much information as possible (i.e. high pixel density) and then allow the devices/users to crop and render these images however they want.", "It would need...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
bbb7xa	Why are there no smartphones with E-Ink Displays?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "ekhlrx7", "ekhpwem", "ekhk8nw" ], "text": [ "e-ink doesn't come in full color, and is extremely slow to update. That's fine for reading a book. Absolutely unusable for scrolling through a webpage, contact list or anything else. Now one could have a second e-ink display for things like...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
bbc54v	What problem do digital certificates solve in public key encryption?	The classic example: Alice sends message to Bob. Alice uses Bob’s public key to encrypt the message, and Bob uses his private key to decrypt the message. Where do digital certificates come into play here?	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "ekhtcxr", "ekhrhc0" ], "text": [ "Public key cryptography doesn't require certificates, certificates are only there to ensure that Alice is actually talking to Bob Without certificates Alice asks Bob for his public key to send him a message, but Bob's evil twin Rob intercepts the message ...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
bbdfbo	What is the one thing that causes things to clip through one another in video games and why is it so hard to fix the issue?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "eki1oj4" ], "text": [ "> What is the one thing that causes things to clip through one another in video games. There is no one things. There is literally thousands of different bugs that allow for no-clip glitches. Sometimes its just as simple certain walls not having collision. Adding hitboxe...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
bbhqwe	how do apps share data with other apps?	I recently added “sugar free twizzlers” to my food log app. I don’t even really like twizzlers. I opened my Instagram and I continue to get adds for twizzlers. I understand how google will present me ads based on my search history, but how are third party apps sharing info with other third party apps?	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "ekiyeys" ], "text": [ "Typically app writers make a deal with an advertising service. When you do certain things, they send a description of what you did to that service, so the app can show you relevant ads. However, that service in turn may also be working with additional apps, so the ads s...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
bbkij9	the difference between Array VS list	Hello guys, new to programming and just don't understand it.	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "ekjefrc" ], "text": [ "As /u/EgNotaEkkiReddit wrote, an array is simply a block of data. Usually fixed size (can't resize it without creating a new array and copying the items to it), with N elements stored sequentially in memory, numbered from 0 to N-1. A list is any sequential collection of...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
bblcyv	Wouldn't passwords be exponentially more secure if websites let us select them without restriction?	It seems like a website requiring my password include A, B, and C gives anyone hoping to gain access a starting point. My first hotmail password was yaga and hotmail never asked me to change it. I figured that was my most secure password at some point because new accounts had password requirements, and nobody would eve...	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "ekjo8hx", "ekjiv1d", "ekjm8f4", "ekjj6eo", "ekjntpw", "ekjk5d3" ], "text": [ "> nobody would ever guess at that point that my password was 4 letters and nothing else special. It takes any laptop made in the last 10 years under 5 seconds to run trough all passwords of lengt...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
bbm0in	how do websites and search engines show results by "relevance"? How does the computer learn that?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "ekjomjt" ], "text": [ "Bob Page, the guy who Google's \"page rank\" is named after, came up with a way of tracking how many other web pages link to a particular page, as well as how many times a particular term appears and/or is used as a paragraph title.. In other words if you search for \"B...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
bbnp7n	why does AC in the car feel colder than air outside, when external temperature is colder than AC setting?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "ekk31a4", "ekk0exn" ], "text": [ "Setting the A/C to 66 means it is trying to get the overall internal temp of the vehicle to 66, but to do this means using much cooler than 66 degree air to mix with the warmer air until it drops to the desired 66. Additionally, you fell the moving air, v...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
bbox3h	Why won’t “old phone” be able to work in a 5G network? Do we have to get new phones when 5G becomes a more prominent thing?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "ekka04f", "ekkcaqb", "ekkauea", "ekkjwei", "ekkcuwp" ], "text": [ "The way I like to explain it: Think of network technologies like languages. 5G speaks Arabic. 4G speaks Chinese. 3G speaks English. Your phone now only speaks Chinese and English. You will need a new one to und...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
bbpla0	When security/researchers say they see a large scale hack "in real time" what exactly are they seeing?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "ekkfwp2", "ekkfk4h" ], "text": [ "Traffic. Those that know what to look for in the traffic are able to determine what communication is actually happening. One simple possibility is that you could be suddenly seeing large amounts of traffic outbound and find that data is being exfiltrated ...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
bbqryn	What's the difference between classifying internet as Title II or Title I?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "ekktaaf" ], "text": [ "Title II is the \"Common Carrier\" standard like the phone company. Anyone operating a telephone service has treat all calls equally and cannot give priority access. Otherwise, they could charge you twice as much per call for mom and your girlfriend than calling anyone ...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
bbqymm	How are Formula One cars so fast with a V6 turbo engine?	I know a V6 Turbo is really good but how do they go to 200 MPH and back to 0 in 6 seconds? I know it has something to do with the insane down force that the cars have but even then its still crazy with all the technology is in the car.	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "ekkr2jt", "ekkyzml", "ekkrl1s" ], "text": [ "F1 cars are some if not the most extreme cars on the planet. The cars generate tons of aerodynamic downforce which pushes them against the track to massively increase grip. This prevents the cars from skidding and flying off the track at th...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
bbr1nv	how do dishwashers work?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "ekkrw8f" ], "text": [ "They spray a lot of hot water around (and some soap) through small moving nozzles which builds up slightly pressurized jets of water. A little bit like a small army of Smurfs armed with power washers. It does this for usually about half an hour to an hour depending on y...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
bbt3wj	How can we edit DNA if it’s so small!?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "eklae8p", "eklpwfy" ], "text": [ "We use really small tools! & #x200B; Keep in mind that eventhough DNA is very small, it is absolutely necessary for an organism to have a full access to it and to manipulate it with critical accuracy. A single mistake, and the whole cell can become cancer...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
bbtir5	Why was the United States the only country to use semi-automatic rifles in significant numbers during WWII?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "eklbzy5", "eklhj0g" ], "text": [ "Pretty much everyone had a semi-auto rifle in development or limited deployment by 1939, but the European powers were already at war by then, and trying to swap out millions of service rifles in the middle of a war is extremely expensive. The US had a few...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
bbv4jq	Why do you have to wait a few seconds after unplugging something before plugging it back in?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "eklpgeg", "eklpuwg" ], "text": [ "It has to do with capacitance. When you unplug something for a reset you let it sit for 30 seconds so all power gets drained from the circuit and cache gets cleared.", "Mechanically, there is no reason, you can unplug something and plug it back in as ...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
bc0ojp	Why is it almost impossible to break a 256 bit encryption?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "ekmun1o", "ekmv70g", "ekmvg14" ], "text": [ "The best way to crack an encryption key and that is ‘brute-forcing,’ trial & error in simple terms. So, if the key length is 256-bit, there would be 2^256 possible combinations, and a hacker must try most of 2^256 possible combinations befo...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
bc1bs6	what is ray tracing and how does it work.		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "ekn0bjw" ], "text": [ "Former game developer here, This is a technique used to render 3D. The idea is for each pixel on your screen, you cast a virtual ray of light - you draw a line straight out into the 3D world until it hits a polygon. You then calculate how that line reflects off that pol...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
bc1kzp	How do people type in mandarin on normal-sized keyboards if it has thousands of unique characters?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "ekn1pdw", "ekn1m8d", "ekn271x" ], "text": [ "In japanese you type the phonetic sound of the character and the software gives a list of possible kanji you might want. There are also methods of free hand drawing the character if the one you want doesn't come up. It takes the drawn versi...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
bc5f3l	How did they convert petabytes of data into an image of a block hole?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "eko2ooa" ], "text": [ "URL_0 So here is a ted talk by the computer scientist who did that part of the work. One of dozens of scientists who worked on this. I think she does a pretty good job of explaining it. The first thing you have to know is that the further away or smaller something is th...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
bc6284	Why don’t magnets affect Phone screens the same way they do television sets?	I only ask because I noticed on my wallet-phone case there’s a small magnet that keeps the case closed, and sometimes it will be resting against my phone but doesn’t seem to do anything. Why is that? Follow up question: Do magnets still affect Televisions like they used to?	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "eko297k" ], "text": [ "Cathode ray tube televisions direct photons with magnetic fields. Changing that magnetic field changes where the light goes, and thus screws with the picture. LCD screens don't use magnets to control where the light goes, so magnets don't affect them. No modern computer...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
bc62ju	How do radio stations determine how many listeners they have?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "eko2zuf" ], "text": [ "In the UK radio station listeners are polled by an organisation called RAJAR. Basically householders are sent a survey and asked about their listening habits such as when they listen, how long for, which stations and so on. This data is the compiled and sent back to the...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
bc6qiv	Why is the chip reader preferred over swiping your card?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "eko7rz7" ], "text": [ "Chips in cards are more secure than swiping the magnetic strip. At this point the magnetic strip is trivially easy to read, but the chip sends a code that's only ever used once, so even if you can copy the chip you wouldn't necessarily be able to get the codes it would ...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
bc9dgj	What happens when a file is downloaded vs uploaded, and why is uploading so much slower than downloading?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "ekossqj", "ekoxzjz", "ekoyxkv" ], "text": [ "Download: you receive a file Upload: you send a file Uploading is only slower because most consumer internet connections are not symmetrical (download bandwidth is greater than upload bandwidth) Edit: typo", "Your router and ISP service...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
bcgfz9	How are clothes for activity made sweat wicking and feel cool/comfortable despite heavy sweating? Why aren’t all clothes made to handle sweat like that?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "ekqfann" ], "text": [ "The material is more expensive than cotton or blends. For instance the company that makes the Under Armor textile makes a wound dressing that if you put it on one way and put fluid on it, it passes through to the wound. If you put it on the other way, it pulls fluid out...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
bchsgu	Why do solar calculators that have been in low light display random characters on the screen, rather than go blank, or zero, and are unresponsive till a "Clear" is pressed?	I have a picture of mine here. [ URL_0 ]( URL_0 )	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "ekr07b3", "ekr09fx" ], "text": [ "first, let's talk memory. calculators have a bit of internal memory made up of what are essentially fancy switches that are configured to trap electrons (physical form of electricity). most simple calculators use an old, cheap type of memory called volati...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
bciy3e	How do they know what molecules look like?	I've never taken a chemistry class. Here's my starting point. The periodic table of elements is a thing. The elements are arranged by their atomic weight...?? I don't know how they know what the atoms weigh, but let's move on. Each atom is composed of protons and neutrons surrounded by cloud of electrons, besides the s...	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "ekrcc0n" ], "text": [ "> I've never taken a chemistry class. Oof. Which country doesn't require this by law? > The elements are arranged by their atomic weight...?? I don't know how they know what the atoms weigh They are arranged by the number of protons in their nucleus, and their atomic ma...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
bcm555	what does the 'frozen' button on the toaster change?	I eat bread slowly so I freeze it, then when I make toast I pop it in, push it down and press the 'frozen' button but what does it actually change?	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "ekrsph2" ], "text": [ "I’m no toaster expert, but I bet it lowers the temperature of the coils so that the bread can defrost and heat up evenly through." ], "score": [ 12 ], "text_urls": [ [] ] }	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
bcnlml	How do guitar pickups work?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "eks4ogq", "eks489j" ], "text": [ "Guitar pickups are bar magnets. The magnets are wrapped with a coil of wire and this makes them an \"inductor\". Electric strings are usually made of nickel, which is a metal that interacts easily with magnets. So the metal strings vibrate and those vibra...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
bco442	Why can't we have a universal format for all video files?	Why so many ? why not just one? * MP4 (mp4, m4a, m4v, f4v, f4a, m4b, m4r, f4b, mov) * 3GP (3gp, 3gp2, 3g2, 3gpp, 3gpp2) * OGG (ogg, oga, ogv, ogx) * WMV (wmv, wma, asf\) WEBM (webm) * FLV (flv) * AVI\* * QuickTime	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "eks7s8g", "eks7v05", "eksf9sd", "eksd94x", "eks9heb", "ektc18y" ], "text": [ "[relevant xkcd]( URL_0 ). Everyone format is trying to be the universal format, but each format is gonna have its on intricacy that some people find incredible useful and others find insufferable...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
bcpwou	When a computer is having Domain Name Service (DNS) issues, why can't Windows troubleshooter find a solution?	and why is it that a simple restart (temporarily) solves the inability to connect instantly when no other solution (even a networking reset and a system restore) does anything? relevant edit: this is windows 10, the worst OS ever.	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "eksj1o8", "eksju2y", "eksmrum" ], "text": [ "Usually if there is an issue with accessing the DNS, you don't have a stable uplink to the internet. DNS is the first part of going to a website, so is the part that will have issues first if you can't properly access the internet. I don't ...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
bcqdl4	How is the protocol UDP useful in gaming.	I know it doesn’t check for missing packets, but how does that show in gaming (e.g. less lag...if so, how?)	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "ekso4f8" ], "text": [ "TCP requires a back and forth conversation between a server and a client. If the client says they didn't get a packet it will ask for it again. And again. The server will try to send it whatever packets it needs. This can be really chatty but it does ensure both sides h...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
bcsojm	What is the difference between a lab grown diamond and a cubic zirconia?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "ekt3vqg", "ekt4j9c" ], "text": [ "One is a diamond and one isn’t. CZs are not made of carbon but made from zirconium dioxide.", "the question should be \"what is the difference between lab grown diamonds and natural diamonds?\"" ], "score": [ 9, 3 ], "text_urls": [ ...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
bctcmb	While programming a game, how do image textures like this work to make an actual game?	Example: Yoshi Texture from Super Mario Bros: [ URL_0 ]( URL_0 ) Another Example: Chess Game Board and Pieces: [ URL_1 ]( URL_1 ) I don't know much about programming or game development yet, but am curious to know how an image like that can be used to make a fully functional game, rather than individual pictures for ea...	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "ekta5p9", "ektc2z2" ], "text": [ "When mapping textures to the 3D model you can specify which parts of the texture go on what part of the model. You are basically telling the game engine to only use a small portion of the image for the legs, this portion for the arms, this one for the fac...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
bcw5rm	Why did it take so much data to record the image of the M87 black hole?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "eku3evf", "ektyi2d", "ekuftox", "ektzwdq", "ekv48l9" ], "text": [ "Think of it as combining and stitching thousands of large high quality pictures. This would take up a lot of space. Plus they were looking for something relatively small compared to the large amount of space. T...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
bcwbw0	How do live broadcast numbers, like poker pots, update so quickly?	So I've been watching a little bit of poker, and the bets, pots, and percentages and poker generally update within 1-2 seconds of the event happening. How is this being updated so quickly?	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "ektz7hc" ], "text": [ "Most \"Live\" broadcasts of sports still operate with a few seconds of delay. The delay allows on-screen information to update such as drawing the yard line in American football, highlighting the puck in hockey, or updating a player's cards in poker. It also allows the ...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
bcxeqa	How does Spotify know when i'm driving (car mode auto enabled), versus when i'm just a passenger in a car (no car mode).		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "ekuannt", "ekuibf0", "ekugl5e", "ekuc464", "ekuhw9l" ], "text": [ "If you're using Bluetooth then that could be a way it knows. iPhones know to turn on DND while driving when you connect to a car stereo. I'd imagine it's similar to that", "It's based on your Bluetooth. You...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
bcybqc	How do internet speed tests actually work? I think I understand ping, but how is bandwidth measured?	In my mind, a server just tries to send as much data as possible and whatever gets through per second is your download speed, but that seems too simple and also somewhat impractical. Edit: So, I'm a pretty technically inclined person, and maybe I should've explained that. I know what ping and bandwidth are. What I don'...	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "ekufa6o", "ekuix4s" ], "text": [ "Ping is the time it takes to send a message from you to a server somewhere. The time it takes to send a message. Bandwidth is how much data can be transmitted per second. So you can send 1 message in just 1 second to a server. Bandwidth is how many mess...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
bcyhes	Why do videos freeze up when entering and exiting full-screen mode?	I've noticed that videos tend to freeze up for a second or two when entering or exiting full-screen mode. This has happened on every computer I've used for as long as I can remember. Why does this happen?	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "ekuj0s6" ], "text": [ "Some video players will attempt to raise or lower the resolution of the video if you enter or exit full screen mode, which can cause the video to freeze while the different resolution footage is requested from the server. On a really slow machine the process of switchin...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
bcyhjs	How do electric vehicles cut down on carbon emissions? I know they don't use gas but don't we still have to burn coal etc to power them up?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "ekuh3qs", "ekunzeq" ], "text": [ "Power from power plants is often times much more efficient. It’s like how BNSF advertised that, by scale, a train gets roughly 340mpg compared to other shipping methods like trucks. Also, power comes from multiple sources including clean sources like hydr...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
bd18m6	How do 3D printers work?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "ekv1mvg" ], "text": [ "There are two different main kinds. The first works by building layers of resin set by a UV light source, from a screen that can be blacked out to create the shape of the layer. So you have a screen submerged inside a bath of liquid resin plastic, and the image you are ...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
bd4ymo	How does gps work?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "ekvshez", "ekvs92k" ], "text": [ "The GPS system is composed of 31 satillites orbiting the earth. Their orbits are arranged in such a way that no matter where you are you should always \"see\" at least 4 at once. Those satillites are constantly sending out radio signals telling you the cu...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
bd7lhx	Is there a way to make an electric jet?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "ekwbgcy", "ekwa91r" ], "text": [ "Sorta. For most air-breathing propulsion, the idea is to compress air, add energy to it when it's compressed, and then allow it to expand and push you with thrust (for turbines) or push a piston (for piston-cylinder engines). The reason you add energy whe...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
bd944a	How do HBO's servers work for Game of Thrones?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "ekwkcug" ], "text": [ "One of the ways is by having a big distributed network of servers spread out geographically. Each of these servers has its own copy of the content and can send it to clients (viewers) in its area." ], "score": [ 3 ], "text_urls": [ [] ] }	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
bdaj1n	How do they take videos of food cooking in ovens? Is there a specific type of camera used to do so?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "ekwx1x4" ], "text": [ "Whirlpool and Electrolux both sell home oven's with built in web cameras so you can remotely watch your food cook. Other companies make commercial cameras and camera housings to allow you to put cameras into kilns and industrial furnaces which run far hotter than an ove...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
bdbax4	how do graphics cards actually give a computer so much processing power over the CPU?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "ekx0pdc", "ekx85b8", "ekx9syf", "ekx1227" ], "text": [ "CPUs are generalists. They have components designed to tackle all sorts of tasks making them the good at all tasks but masters of none. GPUs on the other hand are specialists. They contain a huge number of cores but they are ...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
bdckit	5G mobile networks and why they are considered such a big deal		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "ekxbffz", "ekxbg2x" ], "text": [ "It's the next step in mobile network data transmission. There's new stories causing a big deal about it but it's the same as if Apple was releasing a new iOS or if Microsoft was releasing a new version of Windows. 5G is just going to be faster. Some exper...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
bdf8cx	Difference between Phishing and Social Engineering	Thanks!	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "ekxom3d", "ekxodzr" ], "text": [ "Phishing is a subset of social engineering. Social engineering is any kind of attack where you trick people into doing something that isn't in their best interest or what they thought they were doing, rather than defeating technical prevention measures. P...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
bdgaov	how torrent sites such as PirateBay manage to not get shut down?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "ekxwv4t" ], "text": [ "A lot of torrent sites try to hide behind the whole \"We don't create the files and don't censor our users\", this works to varying degrees depending on the country they are hosting the server in. Something like PirateBay as a server doesn't explicitly create and share ...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
bdgvef	If almost every large animal with mobility has forward bending knees, why do so many advanced Boston dynamics type robots have rear facing knees?	Just wondering. It would seem the only natural application to (seemingly, but are actually there ankles ie flamingos) rear bending knees are things like birds that always crouch forward. Most all the 4 legged Boston dynamic robots bend there joint backwards, and they seemed to have JUST got decent two legged ones that ...	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "eky3yk6", "eky3eh0", "ekypjvg", "eky3lrf", "ekyszi4", "ekyy6xe", "ekytnxk", "ekyv2xc", "ekzjacp", "eky4fxy", "ekz2hzg" ], "text": [ "The answer is: [because it's more efficient]( URL_0 )! In the simplest sense: figures 21 and 22 in the linked study show...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
bdioza	How do producers of movies and TV shows make lighting people on fire seem so realistic?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "ekye09w" ], "text": [ "A lot of the time when they need a flaming person to stumble out of a burning area they actually just set someone on fire. They are stuntmen of course, wearing protective fireproof suits and slathered in gel that will evaporate rather then letting their flesh burn. But ...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
bdlst1	Photo-realistic animation: How and Why?	Tried this at r/NoStupidQuestions, but I didn't understand the answer, and then I remembered this place. :) So I was watching "Love, Death, and Robots," and I actually had to look up whether the "Lucky 13" episode was animated or not. In fact, if I didn't already know that the whole series was supposed to be animated, ...	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "ekz4sdp", "ekz9rd6" ], "text": [ "So a really cool technology called photogrammetry is being used a lot more often these days in media, where high quality pictures, images, and videos are being taken and the images are then converted to code, which shows up as a 3D model rendering. That's...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
bdmmbx	how do wammy bars (on guitars) work?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "ekz9eys", "ekza87r" ], "text": [ "Basically you use the bar to add extra tension to the strings to shift the pitch as you play.", "The correct name is a tremolo bridge. When you push on the bar it removes tention from the strings causing lower notes. Some of them (floating tremolo bri...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
bdswle	How do charging pads for phones, or that new Samsung that can charge from another phone, work?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "el0gc56", "el0pa3i", "el0ohg1", "el0lnwf", "el0quvx" ], "text": [ "It's a form of inductive coupling. The phones have a coil of wire, as does the charging pad. When a high frequency alternating current is passed through the wire coil in the charging pad or phone which is provi...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
bdt1kk	How come when you film a computer or TV screen it appears to have black bars running through it that you never normally see?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "el0h9gn", "el0q4p0", "el0ne5o" ], "text": [ "Simplest explanation is because of the way old monitors/TVs display their image at a slow frame rate and how the camera is recording at a different frame rate. During playback they’re out of sync so you start to see partial scans on the dis...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
bdu2hf	How do the microphones in over-the-ear headsets isolate the voice so well? (the ones without any external microphone)		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "el0vf10" ], "text": [ "I mean something like [this]( URL_0 ). Microphone is embedded in the headphones. Just a little pinhole." ], "score": [ 5 ], "text_urls": [ [ "https://i.imgur.com/5Wnpc6R.gif" ] ] }	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
bdufd3	How do companies that make things such as drone remotes and car keys ensure that the signals won’t work with other drones/cars?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "el0rrd7", "el0rf1g", "el0rroc", "el2qu9h" ], "text": [ "Much like a physical key, each remote key system uses a unique code to identify itself. It was not always like this; in the early days of remote keys, a manufacturer would use a limited number of codes, and it was possible fo...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
bdx90x	the new PlayStation 5 details. Specifically “Ray Tracing”		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "el1ewvi", "el1ervz" ], "text": [ "Ray tracing graphics is a different sort of algorithm than the field plane algorithm used in more graphics cards. In field plane, you have high resolution images for things that are near to the point-of-view and lower resolution, smaller things far away. ...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
bdzymr	How does a theremin work and how does the capacitance work between our hand and the antennas?	Also, how does one antenna control pitch and the other control volume?	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "el24z06" ], "text": [ "There are two antennas that produce electromagnetic fields. A vertical antenna that is used to control the pitch, and a horizontal antenna to control the amplitude (volume). The theremin uses something called \"heterodyning\". This is when you combine two signals to cre...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
be09h6	Do I use less cellular data directly to my phone, or through a WiFi hotspot, which is using cellular data?	Self-explanatory. Curious.	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "el23i8p" ], "text": [ "Theoretically, if you are asking if using your phone as a wifi hotspot for a laptop will use more data than using the browser within the phone itself, the anwser would be using the phone itself. Being a phone it will request the mobile version of websites first which ar...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
be0tuv	I understand the concept of how ray-tracing works, but what was changed to make it work in real-time on graphics cards?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "el2e2fr", "el28os5" ], "text": [ "New algorithms simplify the computations required. Also, building GPU chips for ray tracing means the hardware is better suited for the specific tasks that ray tracing demands. We've heard for years that real-time ray tracing was decades away from being p...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
be1nkg	Why do routers wear out?	I've had computers, smartphones, TVs, electronics in general last for many years. Yet I feel like I've never had a router last more than 2-2.5 years. What about them causes them to invariably die fairly quickly?	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "el2gpf2", "el2incl" ], "text": [ "Lots of people store routers in cupboards or have blocked vents where they can't cool down. Mine sits in the open as a feature to stay cool. Thermal damage will happen otherwise. They should last many years", "TLDR: Low quality parts and heat damage C...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
be7avm	why data breaches are still at large given the widespread awareness and information regarding how vulnerable certain areas can be?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "el3hhml", "el3hngf" ], "text": [ "For essentially the same reason that stabbings are still, despite the widespread awareness that a knife in the body is dangerous. It is simply impossible to 100% protect yourself against the possibility that someone else might stab you, and likewise it co...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
be7rg3	Why do some lightbulbs make white light and others yellow light?	Obviously, some bulbs use tinted glass for red or green, etc, but I can't see a difference in bulbs in my house that produce white 'outside' light and yellow light.	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "el3m2g0", "el3l44i" ], "text": [ "Incandescent (filament) bulbs are generally on the warmer side, but the century old tech can't produce actual 'daylight' light which has a temperature color of around 5600 °K. Fluorescent lights tend to be on the cold/blueish side and LEDs, which are fast...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
be9bu8	What are some real-world examples of CPU cores and threads in action?	I've searched online as well as this sub, and I've got the basic concept of 'cores vs. threads' (i.e. 'workers vs. tasks') but I can't find an explanation about how this affects the programs I'm using. If I've got a video game open, or running an anti-virus scan, or multiple things like this at once, how does the numbe...	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "el40rkm", "el44lef" ], "text": [ "The amount of cores is the amount of little dudes in your PC and the threads are the things you want them to do. If you have just one core/dude and you wanna play some Fortnite (amirite kids) but you also wanna calculate a billion digits of pi at the same...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
bec53n	Why can we see 55 million light years away but we can’t (haven’t) zoomed into planets some where much close to check if there mobility/intelligent life?	This has always puzzled me. Why can we take a picture from 55 million light years away but we can’t or haven’t (??), per se, gone 27.5 million light years away and focused on any planet within some system and tried to see if there are life forms moving around. Or even those reasonably distanced like a few thousand ligh...	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "el4nbkb", "el4n11g", "el4okx0", "el4mvem" ], "text": [ "We have trouble looking at really small things. The black hole was very far away but it was also enormous and even that photo was blurry. URL_0 Xkcd put together a nice size comparison to show exactly how big that black hole ...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
behjym	How can you work out when a photo was taken (what is exif data)?	I'm vaguely aware that exif (?) data is a thing, but how can you take a random photo on the internet and work out when it was taken? If you save the image at a later date does this data change? Is it a visual thing hidden in the image or do you have to look at the file somehow, in which case can it be hidden?	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "el5yp7f" ], "text": [ "Exif data are informations stored within the photo file itself. You can see them for example (in Windows) under the \"details\" tab in file settings (I hope it's \"details\" because I only use Windows in Polish :') ) or in some more specialised \"exif viewer\" apps or w...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
behnt8	How do wheelchairs that are controlled by people blowing into the straw-like tube function?	Basically wondering how it works in general and then how it could control things like speed and turning corners and so on.	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "el63lvt" ], "text": [ "Wow something I know about! I used to work on designing these kind of devices. The straw is connected to a pressure sensor which can detect blows and sucks of different intensity. At a most basic level you can either blow or suck on the straw. On top of that it is usual...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
beibmt	How are some publishers' games "playable" at just 20% of the download?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "el637yf" ], "text": [ "A huge portion of the disk space taken up by a game may be items like maps, video/audio files, higher resolution textures, etc The actual base code needed to run is often very small in comparison. If the downloader prioritizes the base code and enough of the resources t...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
bejkqt	how do colourblind correcting lenses work?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "el6b5p1" ], "text": [ "There are mild forms of colorblindness called anomalous color vision. With that condition, you still see all colors, but since, say, red and green are more similar than for people with normal color vision, you will find it harder to distinguish between hues in that rang...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
bejmgf	How do "stream hack" or youtube-to-mp3 websites work, and how do they not get struck with massive copyright strikes?	This came up in a conversation at my work place and got curious. There is a website my friends at work used to get free music without torrenting or pirating, saying that it was free and had no issues. I did a little research into it, and I found out there's dozens of sites ridden with click bait malware ads and hard to...	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "el6bcbi", "el76nt4", "el6c31s" ], "text": [ "Every content you get by browsing the web is temporarily stored on your device. So it's not really hard to save it. For copyrighted material it's the use you make of it when you receive it the real issue, but there's no way to prevent you f...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
benmnv	how do smartphone apps know how far you’ve walked, and how long you’ve slept vs. how long you’ve been in bed?	Was having a walk in San Fran, was curious how my phone figured out the data above despite being on airplane mode!	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "el75gdn", "el74k9g" ], "text": [ "It’s based on movement, but it’s not perfect. I have a Fitbit that I don’t wear at night, and it’s usually smart enough to realize that I’ve taken it off instead of sleeping perfectly still for 10 hours straight. But if I take it off for an hour while I’m...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
beqpor	What were the noises a modem made and why did it make them?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "el7vjl2" ], "text": [ "The sound was the way a modem turned data into something that can travel down the phone line. Typically a modem was configured to play the sound on its built-in speaker until the connection was established, at which point the speaker would turn off and the modem would b...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
beu18f	How do bathroom scales measure things like body fat % and water weight?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "el8k18h", "el9p1ut" ], "text": [ "An electrical signal is sent from the bottom of one foot to another and resistance is measured. The greater the resistance the greater the body fat of the subject, in theory.", "poorly. so much so that many product review groups have categorically rej...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
bevbra	How do companies know if passwords were leaked? Is there some sort of digital alarm?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "el8vmyt" ], "text": [ "Not exactly. Imagine going into your house one day and noticing one of your windows is cracked open. You aren’t quite sure how long it’s been like that. You go over to the window and notice muddy smudges on the wall beneath the window, and one of the plants in the windo...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
bevoum	How does a program such as Handbrake rip DVDs (home videos) into MP4s using only a disk drive ?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "el8x43q", "el8zoa6" ], "text": [ "What more do you need than a source material, a writeable destination, and a computer capable of deciding/encoding a video?.", "It reads the data stream from DVD into memory, decodes it, encodes it into MP4 and writes it to disk drive." ], "score"...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
bf6zns	How did I receive a text message that's different from the sender's original text?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "elbd4uw" ], "text": [ "The way messages are sent is actually pretty complicated. Basically, each letter is sent as a few binary digits (I think 24?) and received with some mistakes expected, and it's translated back to whatever it's closest to. To make it cheaper, common things like \"tion\",...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
bf7sak	How does the hardware in a computer (capacitors, diodes, transistors, etc) process logical information? How does it go from electricity applied to a circuit board to a video on my screen?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "elbkv30" ], "text": [ "Layers of complexity. One bit is the most basic element, and that is stored by a few transistors arranged in a flip-flop device. A byte is simply eight of those right next to each other. A CPU at its core is an adder (two registers of 64bits and a register to store the ...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
bfca2u	How are video games developed for different platforms? How are they made to be consistent with each other?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "elcme2d", "elckqwm" ], "text": [ "These days most of the same code is used for all platforms. Generally speaking anything to do with the \"simulation\" aspects of the game e.g. physics, AI, gameplay, is written once and used on all platforms. The code that need to be different are the bit...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
bfdve9	LED lights vs incandescent bulbs	Why does it seem that led lights are brighter then incandescent bulbs but incandescent bulbs seem to illuminate a distance further away than LED lights do? I have recently replaced my carriage lights on the front of my house. The incandescent bulbs seemed to light up most of my driveway. The LED lights have the front o...	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "eld0ecr" ], "text": [ "It IS more directional, that is totally correct. Think of this: old incandescent lights have a filament suspended in the middle of the bulb on two thin wires. That helps throw light out in all directions, in an almost 360 degree arc around the whole thing. LEDs are usua...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
bfgb0m	Why is it that when you take a photo of your computer screen with a phone camera, the image is distorted or has some sort of pattern superimposed onto it until you zoom in on the image?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "eldf83a" ], "text": [ "They're called [Moiré patterns]( URL_0 ) The pixel grid in the camera's sensor, the pixel grid on the screen your photographing and the pixel grid on your phone's screen (that's why it changes when you zoom) are not perfectly aligned and create an interference patte...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
bfoyeg	Ever Played DuckHunt? How did that gun even work?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "elf6s42" ], "text": [ "The gun is a light sensor. When you pulled the trigger, your tv screen went black except for a white spot where the duck was. You could fake it out by pointing the gun at a light source instead of the tv." ], "score": [ 56 ], "text_urls": [ [] ] }	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
bfp1gn	what is “tuning a car”?	All I know is I can click a few options in need for speed and now my car is faster. I don’t understand mechanics or engines at all. Can I tune a Geo Tracker, or can only nice cars be tuned?	Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "elf83mz" ], "text": [ "There are a lot of parameters in cars that are possible to adjust. Many of those, in regular family cars, are set to medium values for longevity’s sake for the car. Tuned cars have some of those values set to more aggressive values, or physically changed to affect the p...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
bfpw7b	How do video game engines work and how do they last so long?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "elfigck", "elfik88", "elffhgv" ], "text": [ "When they say the same engine has been used for that length of time, they don't mean it has literally stayed the same all those years. It will have been continuously updated throughout that time. I work on a game engine that has been in use...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
bft541	Why do CPUs and GPUs perform better when cool		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "elg91zm", "elg642i", "elgc28x", "elgrl9d", "elhc4bn", "elglk2o" ], "text": [ "There is no such thing as a zero resistance conductor outside of superconductors. Resistance means the electrons are slowed down as they move through the wire or component, almost like friction, ...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
bfu7du	Why do banks use Apple/Google pay for contactless payments instead of their own apps?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "elgcil1", "elge9r5" ], "text": [ "Because much more people use google or Apple Pay instead of the banking organisations one allowing the aforementioned to be much more polished and user friendly", "The big money here is in the card transaction fees, not in what Google and Apple get. P...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]
bfucm5	How do noise canceling headphones work?		Technology	explainlikeimfive	{ "a_id": [ "elgeraj", "elgexnz", "elgky39", "elgktvc" ], "text": [ "The sound is a wave, including wave length, amplitude and frequency. Basically, if you 2 sounds with the same frequency and wave lenght but the opposite amplitude you wont have anything left (work with light on certain condit...	[ "url" ]	[ "url" ]

Subsets and Splits

No community queries yet

The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.