q_id stringlengths 6 6 | title stringlengths 4 294 | selftext stringlengths 0 2.48k | category stringclasses 1
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c33o1f | how did we manage to discover bread and other pastries? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Bread is just mushed up grain and water left to sit for a while and then heated. Over time, the process has been refined to produce better results. Pastry follows the same path but adds refined animal fats - probably after people realized how good bread dipped in roaste... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
c343mr | when watching a live sports broadcast, why does radio tend to deliver audio feeds a few seconds before transmitted via television? Why are they not equally quick? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"erojbu7",
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"text": [
"URL_0 Gives the broadcaster time to delete nudity, profanity, or anything else they don't want going to air. With radio, it's just the play by play guys on the microphone. Far less likely for something unwanted to go to air, so they don't need to worry ab... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
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c36nfn | What exactly is a Ddos attack, why is it dangerous, and how does it work? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"It’s like if you wanted to play a prank on your teacher so you got everyone in your class to call your teacher’s phone number at the same time so that they wouldn’t be able to use their phone for anything else for the time being. It’s dangerous because th... | [
"url"
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c3bvm4 | How do sound - cancelling headphones work? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"erpxp95",
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"text": [
"They have a microphone that picks up sounds external to the headphones. They then calculate the inverse waveform and play it as close to the same timeframe as they can manage. The two waveforms cancel each other out, resulting in silence. The ‘pressure’ s... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
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c3crr7 | how does a device know what to play for AR? Like those business cards that start playing when you point a camera at it... | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"erqcm18"
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"text": [
"The card has a machine-readable address pointing to somewhere on the internet. That address contains all the information required to display whatever is supposed to be on the card, and the reading phone needs to download it through its data connection."
],
"score": ... | [
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c3fc9k | with slow internet, why do ads load without fail but content is stagnant? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"erqlcp8",
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"text": [
"Because ads are stored on seperate special servers, requiring less time to load and search for the video ID. Source- a post from a few days ago where this same question was asked.",
"A website might prioritize loading the ad over loading the actual co... | [
"url"
] | [
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c3jvqn | Why are apple computers used so often with graphics intensive projects, such as photo editing and animation, but are never used for gaming? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"errgged"
],
"text": [
"Because of the history of apple computers and a series of very good advertising campaigns. Historically, Apple computers were cutting edge as far as graphical applications, so they gained a good reputation for graphic design and that sort of stuff. Recently, though, the... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
c3kgse | How can a game like Red Dead Redemption load quickly, while remastered old games like CTR needs loading screens that take a fair bit of time? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"errmqrf"
],
"text": [
"Optimization. Newer games use newer engines while remastered still uses the old engines. ELI5 - think of liquids in pipes. New games are like water where older games are like a sludgey oil."
],
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4
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c3l2fg | Volume past 50% on almost every car stereo, home stereo, TV, or computer speaker is uncomfortably loud but every cell phone's ear speaker needs to be above 50% just for me to understand the other person. 100% cell volume is only moderately loud. Why is this? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"errqqo7"
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"text": [
"Very simple. Sound is waves. Bigger the speaker, bigger the waves louder the sound. Phones have tiny speakers. TV’s and Cars have multiple ones and they are rather big compared to a phone"
],
"score": [
3
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c3urbd | Top-level government direct exchange is often said to proceed via a 'secure line' - how is such a line secured? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"ertgi8d",
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"text": [
"It varies of course but usually it involves something like end to end military grade encryption and only moving the call over infrastructure which is difficult for a listener to compromise, such as military communications sat... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
c3wjn1 | I just read the article on Bill Gates and big oil backing a CO2 sucking machine, why is this more effective than say planting a field of trees? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"ertny8j",
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"text": [
"Things that come to mind: 1. Doesn’t require the same space 2. Doesn’t require years and years to fully mature, and so is potentially at maximum effect earlier 3. It’s - and I cannot express this enough - PROFITABLE. How do I know for sure? Cause big oil ... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
c3xtt3 | Why is the picture in night vision goggles green? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"When the light enters the goggles, it's converted to electricity, then boosted electrically, then the light hits a phosphor screen (like the screen part of old schoo... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
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c3yjhh | Why is 60 FPS the base for smoothness for PC gaming? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"eru5auh",
"erud6cv",
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"text": [
"Basically, you want your FPS to match the refresh rate of your monitor. Most monitors are 60hz, therefore 60 fps is the ideal for them to be in sync. However, if you get a 144hz monitor and runs a game at 60 fps it won't seem as smooth beca... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
c3zi4m | Why do modern cinemas still use projectors? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"eru845h",
"eru8aaj"
],
"text": [
"If they're using a blu-ray player, that entire wall would have to be a tv-type screen, making it the complete opposite of cost effective.",
"I think you're confusing different things. A blu-ray player doesn't display anything, it just reads data from ... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
c40c9d | What stops websites from taking your Credit Cards? | You know when you input it to checkout or they "save it" isn't it saved in a database? Whats stop them from using it. And I'm not sure how safe sites are with "secured checkout" I don't even know how that works and explaining that would be nice. | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"erue7vr",
"erukygy"
],
"text": [
"Nothing stops them from using your card, but you can see how much money went where in your banking app. If you bought a shirt for 30$, and in the app you see that 30$ went to a shirt seller and another 50$ went for something you know you didn't buy, you c... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
c43t7s | How does fast(Flash?)charge work? What is limiting us to charge our phone/electronics to be fully charged in minutes? | With the recent release of Vivo flash charge which can charge 4000Mah in 13 minutes got me thinking. | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"erurygy"
],
"text": [
"A few reasons why fast charging is difficult. 1. Heat generation in the battery . No charging process is 100% efficient, they all make heat (except flow batteries which charge by replacing the electrolyte). 2. For lithium cells, overvoltage damages cells. In order to ma... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
c4423w | It seems like we only cure pork into ham, but we don't treat any other meat the same way. Why? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"erurpgi",
"erure1h",
"eruurx2"
],
"text": [
"Beef jerky is basically dry cured beef. Fish is often spoken and in northern countries also salt cured or dry cured.",
"I believe pastrami or corned beef is also cured. It's beef brisket put into a brine for a week or two then.",
"T... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
c446w8 | Could another civilisation have founded another source of energy besides electricity or is it the only source? | Maybe a dumb question. I don’t know much about these but I googled this and could not find anything. We rely most things on electricity. If there was another civilisation who never discovered electricity, could they accomplish the same things we did with another sort of energy source on earth? Edit: thanks everyone for... | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"erurmz3",
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"eruroa7",
"eruxz9m"
],
"text": [
"Electricity is not a source. It is just a way to move power around. The source is coal, nuke, wind or whatever.",
"Some amish communities have power tools that run on compressed air generated from gas powered pumps. Compr... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
c45net | What's happening when two countries "launch cyberattacks" on one another? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"erv2nw5",
"erv3far"
],
"text": [
"Kinda depends on the context. The cyber attacks can cover a large variety of things. For example the most notable one I've read about recently is where the [US is claiming they are implanting malware into Russian power grid.]( URL_0 ) (sorry for that link... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
c4d9xp | Why are DDoS attacks still effective? Why isnt there an effective countermeasure? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"ervzeyf",
"ervzm1l"
],
"text": [
"DoS was first demonstrated 20 years ago. DDoS came about because there were relatively simple guards to raise the shields against DoS. DDoS attacks while comparitively massive, can be held back, but it’s much harder and much, much more expensive. Edit: ne... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
c4e4lm | Why VR games need way more power than other games? | I was thinking about this for weeks now because basically the googles moves could be a simple mouse move, right? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"erw3umn",
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"text": [
"> the googles moves could be a simple mouse move, right? That isn't at all where the difficulty lies in computer games. Controlling the camera is dirt simple, the problem is figuring out the image to display for the camera po... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
c4ehzy | Why is speed of internet connection generally described in megabits/second whereas the size of a file is in megabytes/second? Is it purely for ISPs to make their offered connection seem faster than it actually is to the average internet user? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"erw5440",
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"text": [
"URL_0 > it is because the internet delivers those bytes of data as single bits at a time. And because those bits sometimes come out of order and from different server locations, it’s both more accurate and more intuitive to measure speed as a factor of th... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
c4gw8u | Why would game companies like Xbox or others discontinue things like guitar hero and connect? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"erwg3ti"
],
"text": [
"Because they lost popularity so it wasn't cost effective to continue supporting/making new versions of it. They're in the business to make money."
],
"score": [
6
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c4kpmz | how does the US post office know I’m using a real stamp and not just a fake stamp? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"erx2oqi",
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],
"text": [
"In reality, stamps are too cheal for post offices to really care. But there are measures in plase. For example, stamps are printed on a material that ismt just paper, so a low quality counterfit might get caught. Also, many stamps are printed with a subst... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
c4oh7g | How come Apple and Samsung, AMD and Intel, Sony and Microsoft, TV manufacturers, etc, are reaching the same technology breakthroughs at roughly the same time? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"All have huge R & D budgets All use the same market research to plan their next R & D. R & D is rarely faster if you just pump more money into it. All have similarly (but subtantially) skilled engineers. So, al... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
c4p6tm | What is an internet "route leak"? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"erxoatp",
"erxr1w2"
],
"text": [
"This is greatly oversimplified but... Routing on the Internet works by one operator telling its connected peers what networks they serve. So, for example, if Verizon is ABC Corporation's ISP, they tell Cogent, AT & T, Comcast and everyone else they connec... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
c4t8wm | Why does overheating makes computer performance lower ? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"ery7nfk",
"ery766n",
"ery7pys"
],
"text": [
"Because the the frequency the operate at get reduced so the do not get even warmer and result in permanent damage. You can build a system that operate at full speed until it get so hot so the parts get fried and you have permanent damage an... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
c4utt2 | Why is it important for websites to verify that you're not a robot? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"eryfo92",
"erymztk"
],
"text": [
"Spam bots are a common method of malicious online robot. They spam message boards or other internet sites with repeated advertisements (at best, more malicious things at worst). they also participate in phishing scams (where they try to steal your passwor... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
c4w3vz | what happens to deleted items on a computer? Where does all that data go? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"erym7tq"
],
"text": [
"It is marked as deleted by the operating system, and is then considered free space. It will be overwritten by other data later. Which is why if you want to undelete something you need to do it quickly."
],
"score": [
3
],
"text_urls": [
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c4xz0l | How are Teslas and other cars with touch screen computers able to sit in the sun without overheating, but smartphones can't? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"erz18ag"
],
"text": [
"Nah these responses are too complex still here's the best one: Car designed like that, phone not"
],
"score": [
4
],
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} | [
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c4z05w | How do speakers replicate sound? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"erz1cdg"
],
"text": [
"When you drop a stone in calm water, ripples spread from the point it entered the water, and when something makes a sound, similar waves spread through the air, you just can't see them. If you put a microphone near the sound source, these waves will vibrate the diaphrag... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
c4zfmy | What can a Raspberry Pi do? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"erz3a89"
],
"text": [
"Its a mini computer. So anything you want a cheap, small computer for. I use one for an emulator (playing old video games). I have another one I use as a wireless print server. At work, we use it in place of a computer (its displaying a dashboard on a TV, so computing p... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
c54gq5 | How Does Snapchat Know I Screenshot Something? | On that note, does someone (Apple, developer, the phone company etc.) know if I take a screenshot of, say another app, like Safari/YouTube/Bing? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"erzrhtm",
"erzx438",
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],
"text": [
"They check for the button input, so when you hit the two buttons to screenshot, Snapchat recognizes that input",
"Snapchat on Android appears to monitor for the creation of new image files and just assumes they were created by screensho... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
c5gqx7 | Why does the USA have so many nuclear power plants, despite only producing 9.6% of its electricity from nuclear? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"Your numbers are off. Us has 98 REACTORS, but only 60 PLANTS. France has 58 REACTORS in 18 PLANTS. By compairing the number of reactors in the us to the number of plants in France,... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
c5kyr3 | how do CDs store data | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"es2fcsx"
],
"text": [
"Easy. A CD is etched with millions of indentations. A laser reads this, and interprets the indent as a 1 or 0 depending on refractivity."
],
"score": [
5
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} | [
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c5mvhk | How do Photoshop detectors work? | Like the ones that they use over at r/Instagramreality | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"es2rr89"
],
"text": [
"They're looking for 1) detail distortions. A genuine photo will have a quite smooth amount of detail, although it will vary with the lens - sharp where it's focused, gradually blurrier away from focus. If the image has been modified then the amount of detail doesn't cha... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
c5rmc1 | Why are laptop chargers so bulky? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"es3lhv8",
"es3mypw"
],
"text": [
"Computers use DC, power in your walls is AC. The box is a step converter so your computer can run. The shape is aesthetics.",
"The main difference between those two styles of power supplies is that the \"classic\" one has a section of the wire at high... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
c5s0lf | How do steering wheels run the electrics for media/infotainment controls through the steering column when a steering wheel can turn multiple revolutions in both directions? Don't wires get twisted to the point of giving out? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"es3odsy",
"es3ottd"
],
"text": [
"Clock spring. It’s basically a spiral of wire in the wheel rolled up loosely so it can be wound tighter or looser depending on the direction you’re turning.",
"A device called a turn clock holds a small loop of felexible wire in a donut shape. The wir... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
c5sm9x | How does the data encryption standard (DES) from 1977 work? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"es3szfb"
],
"text": [
"The message is broken into blocks of bits, which are scrambled and combined with bits from the secret key (the password, so to speak). The same secret key can be combined with the data again to undo the process. URL_0"
],
"score": [
4
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"text_urls": [
[... | [
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c5sw4b | What is a Tor browser, how does it work and what makes it different to a "standard" browser such as chrome? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"es3vat0",
"es5hmkf",
"es3wvk9"
],
"text": [
"A Tor browser is used for truly anonymous browsing, typically on the dark web. It conceals the user's identity by routing everything through a long series of servers in foreign countries that can't be subpoenad so that nothing ever goes dir... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
c5vpcz | How do TV channels know their viewing figures and how accurate can they be with the numbers? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"es4f771"
],
"text": [
"Companies use Nielsen ratings to measure audience size and composition. You used to sign up to be a ‘Neilson family’ which just meant you agree to having our viewing habits tracked. Neilson, the company, uses this sample (people that opted-in to be be tracked) to infer ... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
c5x7v6 | If SF can ban e-cigarettes, why can't they ban real cigarettes? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"es4nagp"
],
"text": [
"Big tobacco has money in their pockets, so naturally you’re not going to ban someone whose “donating/gifting” you large sums of money. They can lobby for or against other products, e-cigs can help nurse people off smoking they even have fluids with zero nicotine. Money"... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
c65lpc | How do those electronic scales work that calculate your body fat percentage, water weight etc as well as your weight? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"es6daxh"
],
"text": [
"Fat, water, muscle, etc all have different levels electronic resistance. These scales send a small electronic shock (so small you can’t feel it) through the pads you stand on. This shock travels through your body and are read by the pads on the other side. Depending on ... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
c6arj8 | why are solar-powered cars not a thing? think of the battery recharge on a sunny day sitting in rush hour! | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"es7g2rs",
"es7cy9p",
"es7cz0y",
"es7d2rd"
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"text": [
"There is not enough energy in the sunlight to make that efficetn Sunlight is around 1000W/m\\^2 but solar panes have around 20% efficenecy so around 200W/m\\^2 in full sunlight tilted toward the sun. A Tesla model 3 is 1.9mx4... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
c6e6qc | Why do some credit card machines require you to remove your card quickly then decline your card if you’re not quick enough? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"es849nt"
],
"text": [
"Because it is the act of moving the magnetic stripe past the reader that allows it to be read. The mag stripe is made of magnetized particles, with the orientations in different directions. The act of moving the \"tiny magnets\" past the read head induces a current in t... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
c6e99q | What is the 'Frostbite' engine in gaming and what does it do? | I have no idea what that thing is but EA advertises it like it's the greatest thing | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"es84vy5"
],
"text": [
"Ok, so Toyota designs a car and the spend most of the time working on the internals. They make a frame, engine, and a transmission. All the internals that make a car go. One of the last things they do is the body style and interior. The cosmetics if you will. They will ... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
c6g4us | Why do some word processors convert "I'm" to some jargon-filled thing, eg "I’m currently out of the office" | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"Computers only think in 1's and 0's. We have created several different ways to translate back and forth between 1's and 0's and other characters, like A-Z and differ... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
c6h6ge | How does black light work? | I've always been interested in hidden messages that can only be seen when exposed to black light. So I was wondering, what makes black light seem so special? - How is it different from the light we see everyday? -How would it look like if you uses it to light up (or not) a room? -Is it related to glow in the dark objec... | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"es8pc3k"
],
"text": [
"It isn't the \"black light\" that is special, it is the compound itself. Black light is simply a frequency of light not in the visible spectrum (the UV) for humans. Certain chemical compounds can absorb UV light (the energy in that light) and in the process re-emit ligh... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
c6hk0w | How does changing a dns server solve packet loss ? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"es8sdiv",
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"es8s53e",
"es8wcm4"
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"text": [
"A dns server is a computer that gives your computer the numbered address for the named address you are looking for, e.g., you ask for the address of [ URL_1 ]( URL_0 ) and it replies with 2607:f8b0:400a:800::200e. If one of t... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
c6jguk | How do websites which ask for the X, Y and Zth letter of my password avoid storing it in plain text? | Edit: This is better than I expected! I've learned things - such as the actual secure part of the process is the 'Memorable Word' that you also have to type in with the 1st, 3rd and 9th letter of your 'password'. Use anything you can remember for the password, as it will likely be stored plain-text - use a password for... | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"es91egl",
"es91ks3",
"es9204g"
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"text": [
"There’s no guarantee that they aren’t. They very well might be. It only takes one lazy programmer or someone on an “off” day to set to store in plain text.",
"Remember the site who told you whose password you typed when you tried to cre... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
c6nl1d | how are we able to put information on radio waves? I know how radio waves travel, but how do we get info on them like music or news? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"There are two* ways to get information onto light (which is what radio waves are): change the brightness (amplitude modulation or AM) or change the color/frequency (... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
c6qk49 | how do they monitor speed by aircraft on highways? | I did a lot of driving recently and saw this sign frequently that says something like Speed Enforced by Aircraft. How does that work? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"esaidhc",
"esao3sf",
"esainbq"
],
"text": [
"There are marks painted on the pavement a known distance apart. The vehicle in question is timed from when it crosses one mark until it crosses the next mark. Divide the distance between marks by the time measured and you get speed. Then th... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
c6se1b | How come phones (iPhones) in particular lose charge at odd rates? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"esay995",
"esawkj1"
],
"text": [
"I think this a very interesting read about lithium ion batteries and how Apple is addressing this very issue in IOS 13. [ URL_0 ]( URL_0 )",
"Charge memory. It is very much not an exclusivly iPhone issue. It is a lithium-ion battery issue. Li-on is th... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
c6sgaf | Photoshop. How does it work? | Specifically, how does photoshop crop out part of the image and fill in with what was behind it? Example: I crop out my friend from the photo, and it fills in where he was as if it knew what was behind him. | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"esawbgf",
"esbb4k2"
],
"text": [
"It's not actually filling in what's behind your friend; Photoshop is actually making it up using its best guess. That content-aware fill is completely fake.",
"It's using the colors and light-dark values of adjacent pixels to calculate the replacement... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
c6vmm3 | How are ratings measured? Is there some sort of signal sent to the network after I tune in to watch? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"esbgekr"
],
"text": [
"They don't *know*, exactly. Ratings are an extrapolated statistic based on some fraction of the population who has volunteered to have their TV fitted with a device which does indeed send such a signal. If 7% of the people that have devices like that are watching someth... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
c6vq39 | What is an API? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"esbh3er"
],
"text": [
"Application Programming Interface. You can think of it like a TV remote, you want to be able to use the TV, but you don't want to go and manually change the channel from the circuitry in the TV and you don't need to understand how the TV works to use it. An API I a way ... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
c6vyep | Why didn’t Thomas Edison use dead bodies when inventing the X-Ray machine so his assistant didn’t have to die? | I just read an article about his assistant, Clarence Dally, and it said he was subjected to more than 1,000 times the amount of radiation we use now, for hours on end. They included a picture of his hand and it was fucked up to the max. Knowing Edison was present during a majority of it, why couldn’t he use dead bodies... | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"esbi9bj",
"esbid5b",
"esbi2gu",
"esbihml"
],
"text": [
"Noone knew the effect of radiation this time. People were carrying radioactive minerals in a wooden boxes, and even much later in 50th some photo lenses were made with radium and they are still radioactive, till now.",
"T... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
c71ksd | Data centers vs servers? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"escjbhv"
],
"text": [
"A data centre is where servers physically live. The game company would rent space for their servers in a data centre. Using different data centres allows you to have servers in different locations. Benefits being resilience to problems at a specific data centre and allo... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
c724ym | Video-Game streaming, how does it work in general? | When comparing the likes of Playstation Now, Xbox Game Pass and the upcoming Google Stadia, how could "streaming video games" be summarised in a general sense? Grateful for any answers. | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"eschys5"
],
"text": [
"Normally a computer or console will calculate the game world and generate images of it many times a second which forms the video which is viewed by the player. This is extremely demanding in terms of processing power. With streaming a game a computer far away does the c... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
c72jc1 | Why do Cinema screens look so clear if pixels stretch with bigger screens? | If you stretched a 4K TV to the same size as your average IMAX meaning more than 10x it's current width, wouldn't it look extremely pixelated? Is it because of the distance being much further away for a cinema viewing experience? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"esckqv2",
"esckrc2"
],
"text": [
"How pixellated a screen looks is based on how big each pixel looks to you. If each pixel takes up one millionth of your full field of vision, then it doesn't matter how big that pixel actually is. If you took an old and really low pixel count screen, and ... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
c72x08 | why do some electronic screens look wavy when they’re being taken on a phone/digital camera? | Also when I turned the picture sideways, the waves looked different. Why? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"escne00"
],
"text": [
"because most electronic screens have a refresh rate. the led's or lcd's or whatever are not continuously outputting the image. they are being refreshed 60 times a second in most cases. and your camera can pick up on that. if you change the shutter speed on your camera, ... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
c73b55 | How does a paper ballot protect the integrity of an election? | This has been coming up a lot lately as I’ve heard a few candidates talk about using certain protocols to make sure our votes are accurately counted and not manipulated. One of the first things I always hear mentioned is having a paper receipt that shows who you voted for and allows you to see that yes, I voted for can... | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"escqc3b",
"esd9520"
],
"text": [
"The receipt you get is a mechanical duplicate of a paper record kept inside the machine. After the election, an audit can check that the machine's totals match what's on the paper. A recount could process all the rolls of paper, if the need arrises.",
... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
c74tpl | How are companies able to manufacture each pixel on a screen, given how tiny they are and make them work the way they want?? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"esd1bv5",
"esd53s8"
],
"text": [
"They don't manufacture each pixel individually and then combine them to make a screen. They essentially \"print\" the pixels directly onto the screen in a process called [photolithography]( URL_0 ), which is the same process that is used to make CPUs. In ... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
c75jdi | How do fiber optics work? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"esd5ukh"
],
"text": [
"An optical fibre is...somewhat simplified, a very, very long strain of glass. A type of glass with some chemicals mixed in, so that it's somewhat bendable. The idea is that when you shine in one end of the cable with a light, it'll come out in the other end. If you use,... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
c76935 | Why do WIfi devices have an easy time spotting the existence of weak network connections, yet have trouble connecting to them? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"esdec3o",
"esdf040"
],
"text": [
"Well, because they're weak. It's like when someone is talking to you really softly. You can hear that they're trying to say something to you, but you can't make out what it is. The device can see that there's a network there, but it's too weak to move dat... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
c76nbg | What do the specs on/of a computer mean? | I always see people who know a lot about PCs compare specs, which usually consists of a bunch of names, numbers, and letters. I've even told people my specs. But I have no clue what they even mean. What are these names referring to/what are they even used for? I'm not someone who knows a lot about PCs, but I haven't be... | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"esddcaf"
],
"text": [
"The big three specs on a computer are the CPU(the brain), the graphics card (what renders games and stuff), and how much ram you have (it is super high speed memory which can significantly impact how smoothly the computer runs). Other things might be what storage is in ... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
c775o1 | How does a computer knows the length of a second? | I mean, there must be something that lasts 1 second and serves as the base measure for the system. But what? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"esdhi3o",
"esdj2t2"
],
"text": [
"There is clock signals in the computer with know frequency that you be used to determine progress of time by the circuits. The are based on technology like a [crystal\\_oscillator]( URL_0 ) often called quartz crystal that vibrate at fixed frequency becau... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
c777az | Tablet screens vs E-Reader screens | I know phones and tablets are lcd screens but what are screens for e-readers (kindle, etc) called? How can they not be lit up like a phone’s screen, still respond to touch, and be able to be seen very easily in sunlight where as a phone or tablet can be on the brightest setting and still be nothing but reflection? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"esdhs9g"
],
"text": [
"[E-ink]( URL_0 ). Instead of lighting up phosphor dots like a computer monitor, it's filled with dark, electrically charged capsules and they can use electricity to bring them to the surface. It's actually a lot like a very advanced Etch-a-Sketch (except electric instea... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
c77rg6 | How does usb to 3.5mm work? | Yup.. Like the title says! I don't get it, why is there no DAC involved? Edit: SOLVED.. I think | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"esdqs7y",
"esdlz69"
],
"text": [
"There are two ways of building a USB to headphone adapter. One is the correct way that is compliant with the USB standards, and that is to include a DAC in the adapter itself. USB is digital only, so it's against the rules of the standard to send analog a... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
c79n32 | Why do some phone batteries 'die' before reaching 0%? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"ese8nvz",
"eselscf",
"esewk8u",
"esed402"
],
"text": [
"Cell phone batteries as they get older often have issues with judging 0% to 100%. This in most cases leads to the phone shutting down below 10% as the phone is displaying incorrect battery storage info.",
"While it will v... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
c7bfir | The paradox of Asimov's laws. | AI is programed with asimov's 3 laws. AI is then asked to kill subject A in order to prevent the death of subject B. It can either kill subject A or do nothing. Either choice violates the first law. Am I missing something? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"esea1jr",
"esea8ac",
"ese9w85",
"esefb4r"
],
"text": [
"Firstly Asimov's laws are [not to be taken seriously]( URL_2 ). AI is a developing field and there's certainly a whole lot more to learn but it's pretty clear at this point that Asimov didn't stumble across actual rules that ... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
c7bzur | Why aren't browsers able to block all pop-ups (some of them seems to "escape the filter")? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"esed5qf",
"esedwoe"
],
"text": [
"There's a constant battle between browser developers and popup makers. Browser devs try to get rid of unwanted popups, while the popup makers are looking for ways to trick the browser into allowing a popup. Sometimes, the popup makers find something that ... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
c7cyza | Why are OLED displays capped at 60Hz (according to Dave Lee)? | Dave Lee says in his recent video that OLED panels are capped at 60Hz ([ URL_0 ]( URL_0 )). However, the Oneplus 7 pro which has an AMOLED display runs at 90Hz. So what is true or do I miss something? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"esepa8w"
],
"text": [
"It has to do with the panel itself. OLED and AMOLED are completely different, and AMOLED offers a much faster refresh rate than a OLED panel. That's why OnePlus is able to achieve it due to AMOLED."
],
"score": [
3
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
} | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
c7dnf9 | How do pixels know when and what color to display? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"esetutn"
],
"text": [
"They don't. The computer sets the pixel to whatever color is needs. I'm not quite sure why you think a pixel needs to \"know\" anything. Could you perhaps explain how you arrived at that idea? I should be able to better explain what's going on then."
],
"score": [
... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
c7f4q8 | how are adblockers not undetectable? | why is it so difficult to program an adblockers that is undetectable by the website? The adblocker could do all the stuff the browser would do anyway (download as file, run script, move elements around) and then in the end just not show the ad image on the screen. it could be completely "transparent" to any JavaScript,... | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"esfr714"
],
"text": [
"Yes, all of that is possible. Some of it is tricky, though, some not very wanted by end users. For instance, one of the \"selling points\" of ad blockers is that they improve performance by decreasing bandwidth and memory usage. This won't happen if it still downloads i... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
c7gpme | Why don’t law enforcement officers use tranquilizer guns to subdue perpetrators? | Stun guns require close contact with potentially dangerous individuals, and tasers require both of their prongs to make contact to actually work. Why are tranquilizer guns (like those used to sedate animals) not used on people? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"esf0gph",
"esezv6g",
"esf3f9g",
"esf8r2e"
],
"text": [
"Cop here: There's several reasons. For one, tranquilizers require time to work. In an active use-of-force situation, you're dealing with seconds at the very most. You need instantaneous options. Another is that tranquilizers ... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
c7ixqz | How a speaker is able to make two sounds at the same | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"esflit5"
],
"text": [
"When a speaker vibrates, it doesn't have to move in a single pattern. It can push out, pull back all the way, push forward a tiny bit, push back a little, push forward more, and so forth. When you consider the two frequencies of sound you mentioned, when they get added ... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
c7ksht | How come you sometimes see red-eye in cameras with flash on, but you cannot see red-eye when you look into a mirror with lights on, even shining directly into the eye? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"esfuow5"
],
"text": [
"Angle. When you get redeye in a photograph generally the person is looking directly at the flash and their pupil is dilated because it’s dark (hence the flash). When you’re in a lit room your pupil is smaller and you’re looking at the reflection of your eye, not directl... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
c7l5sm | How does bluetooth work? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"esfy31w"
],
"text": [
"It's very high frequency (2.4 gHz) radio waves that allow two devices to not only connect to each other but also to share data between one another. It's similar to other such protocols, like wi-fi - the router and your laptop communicate and share radio waves to transmi... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
c7l5sr | De-icing planes | I’m curious here and I just can’t understand the concept. How do planes wings stay de-iced? When you are traveling in the winter I know they spray de-icer on the wings sometimes. But, when you get moving to 5-600MPH how does the de-icer keep working? In the summers, they don’t spray but last week I was flying through a... | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"esgmf1b",
"esfxnf5"
],
"text": [
"SOURCE: am airline pilot It’s two different systems for different things. De-Ice Spray on the ground, and Anti-Ice equipment for in flight. The spray does nothing to prevent ice build-up during flight. The spray comes in two types: the first is just hot w... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
c7o0id | How can TVs playback content with a framerate thats not dividable by the refresh rate? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"esgmzix"
],
"text": [
"The most common is playing 24 fps movies on 30 fps TVs. It converts 24 frames per second into 29.97 frames per second. Roughly speaking, converting every 4 frames into 5 frames plus a slight slow down in speed. The first 2 output frames are original. Output frames 3 and... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
c7odlu | once somebody takes the cap off of a honeycomb, how to they extract the honey? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"esgmmxn"
],
"text": [
"They put the whole comb in a special kind of centrifuge and use centrifugal force to extract it."
],
"score": [
5
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
} | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
c7p9p9 | What is "PCIe 4.0" and what advantages does it have over its predecessor? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"esgrzla"
],
"text": [
"PCIe (Peripheral Component Interconnect express) is a standard for a type of socket in computers, generally on the motherboard, that other components like graphics cards, hard drives, wifi cards, etc, use to connect. PCIe 4.0 has a transfer rate of 16GT/s (Giga transfer... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
c7qfxy | What is a boltzmann brain? | Can someone elaborate? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"esh06je",
"esgzw1s",
"esgz6d0"
],
"text": [
"It is an example of the general idea that if you wait long enough anything that is even the slightest bit possible will eventually happen. The general concept is not very different from the idea of the perhaps better know thought experiment... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
c7qrxl | Why are the intellegence of video game NPC (specifically shooters) not seeing improvement or getting worse? | I've noticed that unlike graphical fidelity which we can see a steady improvement over the years, the intelligence of NPC and enemies in games such as Halo and Ghost Recon series are either just bad as always or getting worse. NPC teammates in the Ghost Recon series is just known to be not great and your squad in Halo ... | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"esh01ag",
"esh5654",
"esh38xb"
],
"text": [
"I watched a video on what makes games fun for players. And it turns out we do not like it when a game is too hard, when it feels unfair. The AI has got so much better over the years but they give us a sense of being the main character",
... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
c7rx4d | How did we learn to distinguish between toxic and non-toxic plants and mushrooms, and especially treat some toxic plants so that they become edible? | E.g. some beans, almonds, false morels, seeds of certain edible berries. | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"esha6r1",
"eshb4v0",
"esh7v79",
"eshycwm",
"eshtm1k"
],
"text": [
"It was given to sheep, goats, dogs and if it were safe for them we would try. Trial and error",
"There's a safer method of testing foods before eating them. Each step requires waiting a day or two for any r... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
c7w7g0 | How do Radio Waves work? They have always been around? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"eshw25x",
"eshwaz6"
],
"text": [
"Radio waves are electromagnetic waves, just like light is and X-Rays are. Radio waves have a larger wavelength than visible light, and they have always existed as a form of radiation just as every other electromagnetic wave has. They weren't used as a met... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
c7wq0r | Why can't we use nuclear fission to fuel rockets? | Why can't we harness enormous amount of energy generated from nuclear reaction to fuel rockets, since, conventional rocket fuel costs a ton? I get that, there would be threat of radiation but it would be very efficient and a big step towards space exploration. Is there any solution in theory that hasn't been tried yet? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"eshyux6",
"eshyv3b"
],
"text": [
"[We can.]( URL_0 ) But putting a nuclear reactor on a rocket is a horribly bad idea. And a nuclear rocket would still use rocket fuel, it would just ditch the oxidizer.",
"> I get that, there would be threat of radiation That is one of the big reasons... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
c803bh | What is Gradle? | Can someone explain to me what is Gradle and the purpose of it? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"esiphpt"
],
"text": [
"Gradle is an automated build system. It takes a change that you made in the source code and builds a new version of the software, bringing in all the 3rd party libraries and modules dependencies, and runs tests that you define to make sure your software is doing all the... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
c80ryh | How do Captchas know if I'm a robot or not? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"esisd2d"
],
"text": [
"IIRC a captcha collects data such as mouse movements and speed of input and such. I may be wrong though"
],
"score": [
4
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
} | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
c80x61 | What is the difference between Inkjet, Laserjet and Matrix printer? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"esisjhe"
],
"text": [
"An inkjet printer uses ink and is better for low volume (amount) printing and is normally better for home owners. A laserjet printer uses toner (dry powdery substance that gets electrically charged [stuck] to paper). This printer is much better for high volume (amount) ... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
c829he | Can someone explain blanks, squibs and live ammunition and their uses? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"esj6049",
"esjdst0"
],
"text": [
"Blanks are fake bullets. They make noise, but no bullet comes out of the gun. Squibs are packets placed under clothes, triggered by SFX people to make it look like you got shot. Live ammo... Well, real bullets come out, and you don't need squibs... Edit: ... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
c82mv2 | How does closed captioning work for live television commentary? | Is there someone writing it as the show goes along like in a courtroom? And if they mess up, how long is the delay before being broadcasted? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"esj9ws2"
],
"text": [
"Yes. Someone (called a stenographer) is usually typing along as the people talk. So there's about a three-sentence delay between what someone says and when it shows up in the captioning. If they mess up, it usually just gets put up as-is, and you might see active backsp... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
c83uzf | How are so many nuclear weapons regularly tested if we know what consequences they cause? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"esjn7hd",
"esjltla",
"esjvb1d"
],
"text": [
"There are not regular test of nuclear weapons today. Non of the major nuclear powers have tested there weapons for a long time. The last US test was in 1992, Russia(USSR) in 1990, UK in 1991, France in 1996 and China in 1996, & #x200B; Afte... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
c87ybi | How is it that large LCD flat panel displays have gotten so cheap?. I remember hearing 20 years ago that the LCD displays were created from a single crystal, but this can't be possible for the 100" panels now available. What advancement in manufacturing made this possible? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"esknxek",
"eskjio6",
"esko44n",
"eslpcaf"
],
"text": [
"In a lot of cases it's not a major breakthrough, just progressive improvements in the process and tools. If you start out with 1 panel in 10 being defective, you're wasting a lot of time and materials and have to price the ot... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
c88g98 | why can people who aren’t able to see properly IRL, see in VR? | I just saw a post about a 93 yo woman (who could barely see and only in her peripheral vision) using a VR headset and the post said that it turns out she could see properly in VR. So she experienced Google Earth and various places and she was mesmerised. It was also mentioned that she hasn’t seen colours like that in y... | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"esksyp2",
"esl524e",
"eslu4sv"
],
"text": [
"VR technology isn't some miracle that can let blind people see color. What is most likely is that the old woman has something that makes absorption of light via her lenses difficult. For example, cataracts, clouding of your eyes' lenses as ... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
c8al1v | How do satellites distinguish between all the billions of signals emitted by all the devices in the world? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"esllqd1",
"eslb4bl",
"esl9itp"
],
"text": [
"Very few of the devices that people use day-to-day communicate directly with satellites (aside from GPS, but it only receives data broadcast from the satellites to every GPS devices). If you do not own a boat or an airplane, you likely also... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
c8bxto | what does it mean when a game engine is tied to the fps? why is high fps sometimes casuing problem? | playing ff14 atm and the devs said any fps above 90 fps causes game enging problem problem and apparently causing out of bound issues and stuff, how is that related to fps? isnt that more like model collision? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"eslndsf",
"eslm39l"
],
"text": [
"So tying a game to frames per second means that certain actions are updated on a per-frame basis. The simplest way to think about this is, consider a ball that bounces up and down. To create this we need to track acceleration, velocity, directional, and c... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
c8d6oe | Why do wine bottles usually use corks instead of lids or caps? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"esm1fa9",
"esmg4uj"
],
"text": [
"Yes, it is to do with the fermentation process and allowing oxygen to enter the bottle as it ages. Fermentation is what we call it when the yeast (living organisms) change the grape juice by eating the sugar and creating the alcohol and flavors of the fin... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] | |
c8d83e | what is the difference between Hz and FPS? | I have seen some phones advertised as having 60 Hz display and the phone being ultra smooth. But recording and watching videos in a higher FPS is also a measure of smoothness right? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"eslyapn",
"eslxxfu"
],
"text": [
"Hz is just more general. Hertz is a generic unit of frequency. The number of something per second. For example sound waves are measured in Hz, the number of oscillations per second. Or for a CPU, the Hz is the number of clock cycles it does per second. So... | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
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