post_title stringlengths 5 304 | post_text stringlengths 0 37.5k | post_scores int64 15 83.1k | comment_text stringlengths 200 9.61k | comment_score int64 10 43.3k |
|---|---|---|---|---|
ELI5: Why string cheese tastes different if you just bite it vs stringing it | 51 | When you string it you generally put smaller amounts in your mouth, meaning only the most sensitive taste buds are activated. When you bite it you actually detect all the tastes.
Alternatively, because string cheese is produced by aligning protein along the strings, depending on how you bite it you get different prote... | 31 | |
[IT] Is Pennywise wearing the clown suit or is it his skin? | 68 | Remember that young bully kid from the new film that sort of looked like a mini kylo ren?
He was in the books but written in as a complete psychopath, void of fear and emotion and even killed his infant brother and continued to watch tv.
Anyways this kid, named Patrick Hockstedder had an encounter with It and for the... | 65 | |
[Spider-Man] How is Spidey treated in hospitals without his secret identity being revealed? | Say for example Spidey faints from a long battle with Green Goblin. Goblin goes to jail, Paramedics arrive on the scene and Spidey is in the hospital. X-rays show that Spidey has a skull fracture and may die if not treated, they have to remove his mask right? Doesn't just apply to extremely severe injuries. Any dishono... | 688 | During J. Michael Strazynski's run on Spider Man, it was established that the Hospitals of NYC have a gentleman's agreement to conceal the presence and protect the identity of any vigilante who gets brought into the ER. They move the injured hero around with decoy ambulances, involve a only a handful of trusted practit... | 855 |
ELI5: How it is possible to understand a language but not be able to speak it yourself. | 88 | Forming words and sentences is a different skill set to matching heard words with their translated counterpart.
You can hear cheval and connect that with a horse but being able to know you want the word for horse and that the word is cheval is harder.
Basically multiple choice being easier versus short answer on a ... | 139 | |
CMV: There should be more social stigma against the use of strollers in high-traffic public places. | Specifically, I'm talking about high-traffic public places that AREN'T specifically designed for kids (i.e. not science museums, playgrounds, etc.)
I'll give two examples of the kind of behavior I'm talking about:
1. During the morning and afternoon commuter rush hours on the subway (I live in New York City), there... | 24 | Imagine the shitstorm if you substituted "wheelchair" for "stroller"...People would rightfully be pissed off that you'd advocate for sacrificing universal access to public places for personal convenience. Perhaps your irritation is more well-directed at city planners and business owners for not accommodating diversity.... | 14 |
ELI5: Why are moths attracted to bright lights in the night, yet they never come out in the day? | Does the sun affect the moths? Do they get harmed by UV from the sun? Are there predators during the daytime that harm moths who sleep at night? I want to know the answer. | 16 | Most moths are nocturnal, so they don't come out during the day.
They aren't attracted to bright lights. They use the moon for navigation. By keeping the moon in the same place in their view, they can fly in a straight line. They mistake artificial lights for the moon, and in trying to keep the light in the same place... | 22 |
ELI5: why did going outside with a Game Boy (not backlit) make it easier to see the screen, but going outside with a phone make it harder? | 8,010 | Gameboy and calculator screens reflect light, just like how every other normal object works. Thus, just like any object, the more light you have shining on it, the better you can see it. Just like shining a light on a book makes it easier to read at night.
Phone screens, on the other hand, *generate* light. Having out... | 12,546 | |
[Star Wars] If Anakin, Obi-Wan, Ahsoka, and several clones were willfully carbon frozen for a mission, why did Vader need to test the process on Han Solo? | Anakin and his allies deliberately undergo carbon freezing so that they may hide from life form scanners and rescue Even Piell from the Citadel. Since they all survive the process with negligible discomfort upon thawing, what made Darth Vader decide that the freezing needed to be tested on Han Solo to make sure a livin... | 265 | Remember in ESB, Vader says "These facilities are crude, but they should suffice". The facilities he was talking about were not designed for doing live specimens. That part was being cobbled together as they spoke. | 336 |
Is 0 halfway between positive infinity and negative infinity? | 1,863 | There is lots of argument here about the "right" answer, and this is because there is no one "right" answer because the question is too ambiguous and relies on faulty assumptions. The answer might be "yes", or "no", or "so is every other number" or "that does not compute", depending on *how you specifically ask the que... | 2,811 | |
[Thor] Can Thor pick up the Excalibur? | As in the sword in the stone. | 25 | No, he likely could not.
Though we do need to have a point of order - *Excalibur is NOT the Sword in the Stone*.
The Sword in the Stone is called *Caliburn* and was enchanted so that only the true King of the Britons could draw it from the stone. Thor is not a Briton, and certainly not of the royal bloodline.
Excal... | 55 |
Do animals (and plants) that are accustomed to seasonal weather changes e.g bears, deer, wolves etc. lose this trait over the generations when they are transplanted to climates that do not have winters or have very mild winters? | If the whole world were to experience some drastic increase in temperature that eliminated winter and lasted a thousand years, would seasonal plants and animals, if the world set itself right again, be able to survive a winter? And also, how did plants and animals react with the end of interglacial periods? | 28 | Most internal systems of a plant connected to seasonal changes are actually light regulated, not temperature.
Plants have an internal clock mechanism that follows a circadian rhythm, meaning that it takes approximately 24 hours for one clock cycle to run from start to end. This mechanism is mostly light independent, ... | 13 |
[Futurama] How did no one know Leela was a mutant? | With their advanced technology they couldn't they have figured out she was a human with a minor (by Futurama standards) mutation at any hospital visit or routine check up? | 73 | The orphanarium thought she was an alien so they always sent her to alien specialists. Like Zoidberg, most alien specialists can't actually keep track of the countless species in the galaxy or how their biology differs and end up faking it for most of their careers. | 108 |
[MCU] does it hurt Thor to use lightning? Was Thor lying when he said “you lack the strength to wield it” about Stormbreaker? | He almost always yells when he uses lightning
For Stormbreaker, he says that to the Guardians, yet Captain America easily holds Stormbreaker, but Gamora and Drax are around or even stronger than base Captain America. | 44 | He yells because it’s an impressive show of strength and power—like yelling “HI-YAAH!” in karate.
Keep in mind that Cap was already worthy of Mjolnir, so it’s not a stretch to assume the enhanced durability hadn’t worn off yet. | 61 |
ELI5: Why aren't university professors expected to undergo teacher training? | elementary and high school teachers all have to get a degree or diploma in teaching but not at the university level. Many instructors in college simply write notes on the overhead projector and can be hard to understand because they aren't effective at teaching.
They can benefit from a seminar or practicum on teaching | 192 | They do get a decent amount of instruction in teaching. However, a second-grade teacher is teaching a subject matter that *all mentally competent adults understand*, so the only way for a teacher to be better-qualified than a random man on the street is to study *how* to teach it. (Well at least - one would hope - ac... | 103 |
CMV: Tipping culture promotes the wrong mindset: that every good action must be rewarded in some way | Tipping culture is bad because it creates a mindset that you should always be rewarded if you're being nice.
For Restaurants. They should just pay fairly and let their staff also have a bad day. Normally businesses assume risk and employees don't, why is it different for service staff which tends to already be financ... | 84 | >Willing to change opinion if someone can show me that the motivation of external rewards like tips creates more benefit to society rather than being nice from the get go, and sometimes simply accepting that some people aren't.
Tipping culture promotes excelling at your job, and receiving monetary rewards for i... | 13 |
ELI5: Why does boats measure speed in knots and not mph/kmh? | 23 | Earth is measured that way (nautical miles). Each degree of latitude is 60 nautical miles. Each second is 1 nautical mile. So the earth is 360 x 60 degrees (or nautical miles).
Therefore speed matches that unit for navigation purposes. Also, it becomes an important factor when choosing map projection styles (convert... | 32 | |
[Passengers]Would most humans make the choice Jim did? Would most humans be that desperate for companionship after a year alone? | 317 | Yes, they would be desperate for companionship.
However, if you are a mechanical engineer like the main character is supposed to be...you would hopefully act more like an engineer.
Try to figure out *why* you woke up. There is obviously something wrong with the ship if your pod malfunctioned. Take some time to use ... | 451 | |
ELI5: If cells in your body do not live forever and tattoo ink is applied to skin cells, how are tattoos permanent? | 25 | Tattoo ink is embedded in the deeper layers of skin, called the dermis. During this process the dermis is damaged, and as it heals, it forms fibrous tissue - the equivalent of scar tissue. The ink gets locked into it, and stays there.
Scars do break down slowly over time, but the rate of cell replacement is hugely red... | 43 | |
ELI5: Why do some medication have to be taken in solid form? Why can't they all just be liquid for those who have trouble swallowing? | 16 | Some can be ground up and put in, say, applesauce. But some, that are designed as extended release can’t be, because the capsule containing them is designed to dissolve at a certain rate so that the effect is spread out over a longer time | 28 | |
[MCU] Why isn't regular society much more advanced? | The technology of SHIELD and other superheroes is obviously much more advanced than what we have irl, and yet civilian life is more or less the same. This was true even as far back as Captain America 1's 1940's era, with things such as gravitic reversion technology revealed to the populace at the stark expo, the super ... | 28 | There's a pretty big difference between technology that has been proven at the prototype phase and proven ready for consumer use. Fusion technology has "worked" for decades, but has never and may never actually become practical.
Howard Stark's flying car never caught on because, while he could get the damn thing to f... | 19 |
ELI5: How do computer screens detect light and adjust the brightness accordingly? | 56 | They use an ambient light sensor. It isn't the screen itself that detects the external brightness, instead it can be a component of the camera or a separate sensor entirely. On the iPhone, there is an ambient light sensor next to the camera. | 19 | |
[James Bond 007] What happens to the Bond girls? | After the completion of a successful mission, what happens to the Bond girls? I figure that Tatiana Romanova (*From Russia, With Love*), Col. Wai Lin (*Tomorrow Never Dies*), Dr. Holly Goodhead (*Moonraker*) and Maj. Anya Amasova (*The Spy Who Loved Me*) were debriefed by their respective Governments.
But, what happe... | 75 | The books do a better job of transitioning Bond from bombshell to bombshell. For instance, in *Diamonds Are Forever* Bond successfully pulls Tiffany Case away from the American smugglers and lets her live with him back in London.
When we catch up with Bond in *From Russia With Love,* Tiffany has ditched Bond for an Am... | 84 |
ELI5: Why does athlete's foot only happen to your feet? | If it's a fungus, why couldn't it grow in, say, the webbing between your fingers, or behind your ears? | 15 | > If it's a fungus, why couldn't it grow in, say, the webbing between your fingers, or behind your ears?
It could if those areas were damp and warm enough. Athlete's foot only happens to the feet because if for example it is around the genitals it is "Jock itch". Conceptually you could have it in other areas of the... | 17 |
CMV: An argument based on semantics is almost always a bad argument. | I often see CMV's that are settled based on an argument that a question is stance is not technically correct, but does nothing to challenge the point that the original poster made.
For example in[ this recent CMV post](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/comments/2tekkp/cmv_an_entire_people_can_never_justifiably_be/c... | 50 | While some members of this sub do get overly caught up in semantics, to the point of refusing to debate OP's actual argument until they correct their wording, sometimes correcting semantics is a valid method to C OP's V.
Consider:
- OP does not realize their mistake. For example, they are conflating two related but ... | 19 |
[Stargate] Are the Tok'ra going to extinct in the near future ? | 34 | The symbiotes are long-lived and the human hosts are a bigger part of Tok'ra culture than typical for Goulds, so the civilization will continue to survive for quite some time.
The absence of a Queen will prevent the symbiotes from reproducing though, so that part of their society is going to go extinct in the future. ... | 22 | |
How do we know that the neutrinos have spin? | Neutrinos are neutrally charged particles that do not interact neither by strong force or electromagnetism. How do we know that neutrinos are spin 1/2 fermions? Could neutrinos have higher spin numbers? | 51 | Neutrinos were originally proposed as a way to explain the observed electron spectrum in beta decay:
n -> p + e + (anti)nu_e
Conservation of angular momentum for this reaction requires that the neutrino must be a fermion. The proton, neutron and electron are all spin-1/2. So the left-hand side of the reaction is s... | 42 |
Why does aluminum foil have one shiny side and one dull side? | May sound like a stupid question, I've always wondered. Does it serve a purpose? Is it part of the manufacturing process? Does either side have any unique or useful properties the other does not? | 48 | From Wiki:
"For thicknesses below 0.025 mm (1.0 mil), two layers are usually put together for the final pass and afterwards separated which produces foil with one bright side and one matte side.[8] The two sides in contact with each other are matte and the exterior sides become bright, this is done to reduce tearing, ... | 26 |
ELI5: Is there a biological/chemical explanation for the physical pain of Heartbreak? | More like explain like I've only had one semester of college chem and bio because I'm an engineering major.
Right now I have a physical pain in my chest and a difficulty breathing. Just because I've learned I'm not going to see a girl for a few weeks, which is objectively not a very big deal, I'm experiencing physical... | 185 | I don't know enough to go in to a ton of detail here, but it usually is some type of anxiety reaction. Anxiety often aggravates GI system. Stomach and heart share some nerves. So chest pain could be due to that (e.g. it is often for people to go to the ER thinking they are having a heart attack when they are just havin... | 36 |
ELI5: What makes some humans have irrational fears? | A friend of mine suffers from Trypophobia. (From Wikipedia: Trypophobia is the alleged pathological fear of objects with irregular patterns of holes, such as beehives, ant hills and lotus seed heads). And to me, these things aren't scary. I can look at them and not feel uncomfortable or like I need to look away etc, ye... | 26 | It's because of survival instinct.
Trypophobia comes in useful exactly with what you said about beehives: you don't wanna come near it, and if you do, you want to be cautious (= scared, in a controlled manner)
Plus, rotten and poisonous/venomous things also often are shaped in forms that trypophobes fear, and for good... | 10 |
CMV: Loyalty does not exist in professional sports and people are dumb to feel betrayed when athletes move around or demand trades | Pro sports are an entertain business. People like winning teams because watching your team win is entertaining. It's the primary job of the front office to constantly value players in comparison to the open market so that they can 1) improve their prospects of winning a championship and 2) get the best value for thei... | 112 | Regardless of whether loyalty really exists in sports, the appearance of loyalty sells tickets and merchandise and gets people to engage with the sport. If your business model relies on the illusion of a personal relationship with the fans, it's only natural that breaking the illusion results in backlash. | 30 |
ELI5: How do superchargers make cars go faster? Or why? | Wondering how and why they work. Mostly why. | 18 | Put simplistically, the power from an engine is made from the combustion of fuel and air. A supercharger compresses the incoming air, allowing more to enter the engine. More fuel is added to the engine via the fuel injectors, and the two combined combust to create more power than would have otherwise been made. | 10 |
eli5 - Why does renewable-generated electricity go up with the cost of non-renewable? | My UK energy provider says my electricity is produced with 100% renewables, so I presume water, wind, solar. So why am I affected by such big increases in electricity charges (price per kWh)? | 316 | Simple.
Your energy provider isnt an energy producer. They just BUY the energy from producers and sell it to customers like you.
​
The total supply of energy is under pressure from obvious sources, so those prices rise.
The renewable energy sources thus become more interesting for all potential buyers.
... | 377 |
How did the physiology of the horse change once we started riding them? | 5,895 | It is likely that horses/ponys were domesticated multiple times throughout human history. So the biological variances between the species started out as regional differences.
One interesting historical example of this was seen with the Mongol conquest of Asia. Mongols are known as the greatest horsemen in history. How... | 2,441 | |
ELI5: How do we move through space? Do we teleport small distances or continuously move through it? | I don’t know much physics, but I remember seeing a Wikipedia article that said distance is quantized, the smallest unit being a Planck meter. I’m not sure if my interpretation of this is right, but doesn’t that mean that every time we move, we always occupy 100% of a Planck “cube”? I’m seeing it as us being essentially... | 23 | That's a very good question and the answer is that we don't exactly know. The Planck distance is primarily a theoretical limit, we haven't actually observed things moving at those scales. It seems most likely that *distance* is quantized, but not *position*, so that you can be anywhere, but you can't move less than a c... | 23 |
ELI5: What exactly happens when something explodes? | Like when someone blows up C4. I get that there's a charging blast that sets it off, but why does that cause an explosion? | 56 | There is a ton of stored up chemical energy in the C4; when it is detonated, nearly all of it is instantly converted into another form of energy: heat. When something heats up, it expands, and when you have enough thermal energy to vaporize a solid block of substance, the expansion will be massive; this causes the expl... | 15 |
ELI5 Why are prison sentences stacked upon each other? | For example you're reading about someone convicted of a crime and they get...2 consecutive life sentences.
Or where one guy gets 300 years and another gets 500 years?
I'm not sure of the additional years are meant as a punctuation to a sentence that reflects the crime, or isbthe judge/system trying to cover their ba... | 20 | You can serve time “concurrently” or “consecutively” for multiple convictions. Someone serving concurrent 2-year sentences for burglary and weapons possession should in theory be out of jail in two years. Someone serving a consecutive sentence for the same thing would in theory be out in four years.
Now what people ... | 18 |
ELI5: What the heck were travellers cheques? How did they work? Who accepted them, and are they still in use? | Why were they so popular in the past? I can't imagine a McDonald's in Germany accepting them, for example? Argh! | 29 | In the days before digital technology and when cash was the most important form of payment, taking money to foreign countries was really difficult. You could take a credit card, but they weren't accepted everywhere, you certainly wouldn't find an ATM that would accept them, and credit card fees were quite high anyhow.
... | 25 |
[Man of Steel] How come fists moving slower than sound can hurt Kryptonians, but not supersonic bullets? | 28 | There's more mass behind punches. Think of it this way: You yourself can be shot with a BB gun and shrug it off. A BB can travel 400-600 feet per second. At the low end, 400 fps translates to a around 270 mph, and it'll probably only leave a welt. However, getting hit by a car "only" traveling 75 mph will reduce you t... | 55 | |
Possibly a dumb question: who or what decides initial exchange rates for new currencies? | The example I am thinking of specifically is India, but the question stands for any country, especially those that create their own new currency upon independence. What determines that currency's value in relation to other world currencies, like the USD? Is it substantially different from a situation like India that ha... | 33 | Usually a new currency is convertible to the old currency when it's introduced. And because people can trade in their old currency to the new one, the market exchange rates will reflect the value of the old currency as long as they're convertible or else the opportunity for arbitrage will exist (people taking advantage... | 23 |
[DC] Does Batman have any prep against Magic Users? What's stopping someone like Klarion from going to Gotham and turning him into a toad? | 142 | most protections are done by other heroes around his normal bases of operation, mostly IIRC done by Dr. fate and Giovanni Zatana. though mostly he relies on his web of informants to let him know when one is planning something. that's the big downside of magical villians. they tend to have a time limit or a specific pla... | 128 | |
ELI5: why do student loans have higher interest than car/house loans? | 17 | Because the risk to the lender is higher. With a car or house loan, the lender can repossess the physical property in question, then sell it to recoup losses. Education can't be repossessed, and students are mostly young and poor, so the rate has to be higher overall to allow banks to invest in them. | 19 | |
Is Libertarianism a self-contradictory political and moral philosophy? | I am not a philosophy student, but I had a question to see what some thought. My limited understanding of libertarianism is that it seeks to maximize the freedom of the individual by removing all government intervention, and is predicated on the moral philosophy of ethical egoism. But to me, this feels like a self-cont... | 36 | Libertarianism has nothing to do with ethical egoism. They are directly opposed to each other. If libertarianism were in bed with ethical egoism, it would indeed be self-contradictory, because basically every part of libertarianism is incompatible with ethical egoism, as you've pointed out. But because they are two sep... | 29 |
ELI5: What exactly does "Airplane mode" do and how does it keep my phone from disrupting airplane functions? | 37 | It disables the cellular transceiver in your phone. It just turns off the part of your phone that sends and receives data from cell towers. The idea is that you will not be creating electromagnetic interference that could potentially interact with the aircraft's instrumentation. The reality is that everything is so wel... | 50 | |
How can a random number generator really be random? | There has to be a circuit behind it, and an algorithm, but then is it random then? | 121 | A lot of responses in this thread have talked about PRNGs, which are, generally speaking, the best you can do with a deterministic machine like an electronic computer. However, it should be noted that, for many applications in cryptography, PRNGs may not be good enough. To get around this, some computers have hardware ... | 98 |
[Futurama] What exactly is wrong with Bender? The robot is a glutton and a wanton narcissist bent on the genocide of all. But, why? | 66 | Watch the first episode again. He may not have been all of those things before he met Fry. When they're in the museum, he gets a fairly big electrical shock (big enough to make him do a 180). Maybe he was just a regularly moral-less robot before. | 106 | |
ELI5: Is there any risk in snooping around the darknet? | 21 | By definition, you can't.
The darknets are networks that are no longer accessible to the public Internet. Cut off physically by changes in the network.
If we are talking about the Deep Web, probably not. A lot of the Deep Web is really standard stuff, like one time dynamic pages for buying plane tickets. As well, wit... | 15 | |
[Star Wars] Why did the Kaminoans decide to use a human to produce their clone army, when they could have chosen a physically superior, or more resilient species instead? | 35 | The clones were contracted to be made by Palpatine, working through Dooku (Or Sidious through Tyrannus, if you want). He's very racist towards anything not human. So of course his clones would be human. | 68 | |
ELI5: Why do so many pieces of classical music have only a technical name (Sonata #5, Concerto 2 in A minor, symphony #4, etc.) instead of a "name" like Fuhr Elise or Eine Kline Nachtmusik? | I can only speak for myself, but this makes it really hard to keep track of the songs I like. I love listening to classical music but if you asked me my favorite artists I would have difficulty telling you specifics. | 8,795 | Earlier, this was just a tradition, but around 1800 or so an idea was growing that music should speak for itself without the need for words or descriptions. This term was "absolute music" and it was thought that using words — even in a title — was a crutch that would hamper music's power to speak to ideas and emotions ... | 7,545 |
ELI5: Why isn't a birth control pill for men invented yet? | It seems like with medical advances, someone, somewhere is either working on it, or has it in use. | 378 | Healthy women do not have an egg ready for fertilization 3/4 of the time. So a birth control pill for women just has to make this not-ready state last longer.
Healthy men always have sperm ready to ejaculate. So a birth control pill for men is much harder; it has to make your body behave in a way that it never natural... | 320 |
ELI5: Solar panels. How do they work? | 188 | The sun creates these things called *photons*. These photons are little packets of light and energy. These are ejected from the sun trillions and trillions of time per second.
When photons hit things, they can give up their energy to them. That's why light can heat things up. Solar panels take this energy and store i... | 99 | |
ELI5 why a picture that I take with my smart phone or even a decent point-and-shoot camera looks NOTHING like what I see with my naked eye. | Generally, I don't get nearly as much content in the photo as I'm trying to capture, which I understand is a limitation of the lenses. But why do the pictures always seem to come out so much darker than it actually is? I can see just fine, why can't the camera? And why is it so hard to capture accurate colors? I've tri... | 36 | Regarding the light issues:
Your eye has a much larger dynamic range than a camera sensor, meaning it can differentiate a much larger range of brightness. Think of it when you walk into a dark room, you can't see anything, the eyes' dynamic range cannot differentiate objects with so little light. Same goes for when yo... | 13 |
cmv: The US government can not just "drone strike" the populace in the case of a revolution | I see way to many to many anti gun people on reddit saying guns are not protecting our freedom because the government could just drone strike us or use tanks if their was a insurrection and it would be put down immediately. This is so untrue and here's why. Just take a look at what happened when a police officer unjust... | 38 | We had the ability to kill ever single one of the people who breached the capitol.
We chose not to use it.
You assume that any incident would be supported by all the people. It wouldn't. If you had another attempted coup there would be citizens on both sides. Even if things got armed. | 45 |
Recommended Reading on Consciousness, Self Awareness, and Intelligence | I hope this is an OK question.
 
I am helping to teach (TA) a course on machine learning and artificial intelligence where we go over some compare and contrast with nature on a more "hard science" level (natural neural networks vs. artificial neural networks / AI's performance on simple cognitive tasks vs. a... | 41 | (1) David Chalmers - *The Puzzle of Conscious Experience,* David Chalmers *- Facing Up to The Problem of Consciousness,* Thomas Nagel - *What Is It Like To Be A Bat?,* David M. Rosenthal *- Two Concepts of Consciousness,* Dennett - *Consciousness: How much is that in real money?*, Putnam - *The Nature of Mental States,... | 10 |
Why can’t we see a new moon? | Why don’t we see a big round dark circle floating around creating an eclipse of the stars? | 158 | If you were able to have a new moon during the night and you were in a place where you could see plenty of stars, enough that a moon-sized hole would be clearly distinguishable, you would.
The biggest reason that you don't see this is because the new moon is only 'visible', as it were, during the day. That is to say, ... | 228 |
ELI5: What does rubbing alcohol do that once splashed on a scratch it burns, but then stops hurting? | 67 | As for why it burns, alcohol affects our cell's temperature sensing proteins or, more simply, the mechanisms that allows our cells the detect extreme temperatures. Normally when the protein detects extreme heat or cold it will allow the cell to send signals to our brain that the cell is in danger of being burnt or froz... | 33 | |
[PORTAL] What ever became of Chell and the Cube? | 18 | Bit of a tricky question because we don't know how long Chell had been in suspended animation.
I've tried looking it up and the general consensus is that she's been asleep anywhere between 25 years and... 60,000 years.
Judging by what little we know, Chell appears to have awoken in a normal-sh world. This could mean... | 26 | |
ELI5: Can dreaming a lot during the night make you more tired the next day? | Honestly, last night I had the most vivid dreams. I remember them all pretty clearly, like memories. I woke up a few times in the night after each major dream, then went back to sleep and had another extreme story play out in my head. This morning, I've got a dull headache - it feels like my brain has been in overdrive... | 181 | The dreaming itself, not really. However there are a few things here that will
Firstly interrupted sleep, like waking up after each dream, is really bad for you and will leave you utterly exhausted.
The other thing is for a proper nights rest you need a mix of light and deep sleep cycles, the dreaming only happens i... | 59 |
[Avatar: Legend of Korra Book 4] Was Su right to have declined Tenzin and Raiko’s offer to lead the effort to stabilize the fallen Earth Kingdom? | When Tenzin and Raiko arrived in Zaofu to ask Su to lead the charge and take the initiative to stabilize and defunct and fallen Earth Kingdom, she declined since she believed that she didn’t have the right/mandate to go around conquering places and imposing her ideals onto other people just because she’s a credible lea... | 71 | She could be considered both right and wrong, depending on the lens you view it through.
From a legal perspective, Su has a solid point; the same system of laws that put her in charge of the city also say that she isn't supposed to overstep the authority of that position. Zaofu, and Su's position in it, exist because ... | 53 |
ELI5: When a programmer puts the code in for the color red into a computer program, how does the computer know what red even is? What is the origin of colors for computer to reference? | 59 | The computer doesn't know what red means. For the computer it's a number just like any other (FF0000 in Hex). It will send that number to the monitor and the monitor will just route the first two numbers to the red LED in the pixel because engineers agreed on using the first two for red. It will light up at maximum int... | 116 | |
ELI5: My kid wants to know: if a ladybug fell all the way down from the top of the Empire State Building, would it die upon impact? (Assume the insect did not attempt to fly.) | 1,964 | Doubtful.
A ladybug's terminal velocity (the maximum speed it can fall at) is probably pretty darn slow (less than 30 mph) because it is very light and has a decent surface area. (Ratio of surface area/weight is important in determining terminal velocity.)
Imagine if you threw a ladybug right at the ground. It prob... | 1,747 | |
[Warhammer 40K] What other sci-fi franchises could have existed in the same universe before the events of the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy? | I recently saw something outlining how the film Event Horizon would have fit very well into the 40K universe as one of the first attempts at warp travel having gone horribly awry at the mercy of daemons from the warp.
So, what other franchises could have existed in the same universe? Everything before the 31st millen... | 78 | Gears of War.
-We know it doesn't take place on Earth (instead taking place on a planet named Sera)
-The tech is advanced but not too beyond our current tech, putting it in line with the tech status of Modern Worlds
-Much of the weaponry is almost obnoxiously brutal and takes inspiration from older tech (chainsaw bay... | 107 |
[Marvel] If the 616 Marvel Earth actually got it’s shit together and started focusing on strengthening humanity, how strong would they be compared to the other worlds such as the Kree and the Skrulls? | There’s a lot of broken abilities on earth that could be combined with others to form even more broken powers if all these various storylines didn’t focus on conflict so much. | 19 | So you mean what if everyone living on Earth decided to become like Krakoa and set aside their differences to become one unified group?
Most likely they'd quickly bump up to a Type 1 Civilization within the decade. There's so many powerhouses, supergeniueses, gods, and just the sheer power in numbers and having peopl... | 15 |
ELI5: Why does all Soap and Shampoo turn into a white foam regardless of color? | 20 | Top answer from a google.
Answer: Foam is made out of millions of very small bubbles. The light on the inside of them is much darker than the outside, so they all act like miniature mirrors. Because the light you usually look at foam in is white, you get a white reflection. | 10 | |
[Warhammer 40k] Do Space Marines need to shave? | Whenever we see a depiction of an Astartes with his helmet off, they always seem to have a smooth, hairless, and chiselled jawline. Except for Space Wolves, of course, who rock the manly, luxuriant, beards demanded of a pack of drunken space vikings.
But that raises the question: Why? Are the Space Wolves the only cha... | 18 | Beards tend to get in the way when you're trying to seal full facial helmets, so yes they probably regularly shave (or do some 40K tech equivalent). Space Wolves just go around without the helmet in order to remain at the proper level of shaggy for their chapter. | 25 |
ELI5: What is happening when time appears to be passing slowly, or faster than usual? | Why do we sometimes sit in class waiting ages for 5 minutes to pass, but when I sit down to study for a test and its already 2am? | 61 | How you perceive time deals with how much information you are taking in or how involved you are in a situation. Time flies when your having fun, or in your case, studying. Your brain is busy with things that don't involve keeping track of time, so it doesn't.
There is prospective time and retrospective time. Prospect... | 17 |
ELI5: Why doesn't the government calculate my taxes for me? Or better yet, why don't they just take the correct amount out of my paycheck so there's no such thing as "doing taxes"? | So first off, all the tax forms I've been getting (from my employer, bank, loans, et cetera) say that the forms are ALSO sent to the IRS.
So ... why doesn't the IRS just process all of these forms in some predefined system and have *it* do my taxes? Why make me do it where I'm prone to make errors?
OR, better yet, w... | 72 | That's precisely what the government does. They take the correct amount out of your paycheck.
Except it's not a perfect system. Your taxes depend on not just how much you earn in a year, but what you spend your money on that year. So the *precise* amount you owe can't be computed until after the year's over, and a ful... | 38 |
ELI5: Why when the FBI wants someone "dead or alive", they don't have the right to the Sixth Amendment? | ELI5: Why when the FBI wants someone "dead or alive", they don't have the right to the Sixth Amendment?
For example, Osama... I'm not saying he didn't deserve what was coming, he totally did and I'm happy he got it. But basically our country has a principal where even if people see you commit a crime, you're "innocent... | 83 | The FBI doesn't issue "dead or alive" warrants, as they do not exist within the borders of the United States nor do they apply to US citizens.
You may be referring to "kill or capture" orders; these are issued by the President, the CIA, or the Department of Defense. In all cases, they may only be issued for persons co... | 79 |
[Star Wars] What happens when parents of very strong force-sensitive children refuse to hand it over to the Jedi? | During the Clone Wars, let's assume a jedi is on a planet with heavy Separatist activity. In fact, it's a given that the Separatists will take control of the planet soon enough.
A jedi is hanging out in a village and discovers a force-sensitive toddler with potential power that rivals Anakin Skywalker. The jedi tries... | 19 | Most people in the core have enough respect for the Jedi that they know how much of an honor being a Jedi is. And in the outer rim most parents recognize that a child inducted into the Order will have a better life than if they stayed. But in the rare case that the parents refuse to hand the child over, than you must r... | 22 |
How come professional hackers can't just add any amount of number into a bank account? | 26 | Your mom has a jar of cookies on the counter. They are all for you, but your mom has them locked up for safe keeping so your older brother doesn't take them. She has a bunch of padlocks on it too.
One day, you figure out you can open the padlocks, and that once you have the jar open, you can touch them with your magic... | 50 | |
[Superheroes] I have superpowers like superman, instead of fighting crime i want to first clean up the local river that's polluted with trashes and chemicals. How can i clean up the river using my powers and how long will it take? | 117 | You're pretty fast, right? Fly to the White House, threaten the president and his (or her) family.
Tell them the environment needs saving, and strict environmental protection and clean water regulations need to be enforced by the national guard for a year until the new green-paradigm becomes the norm.
Remind them th... | 145 | |
ELI5: Why do orbits tend to be on the same plane? Is there some reason that perpendicular orbits do not exist? | As far as I know, planetary orbits around our solar system and other planetary systems all tend to be along a flat plane, and Pluto's odd, highly elliptical and slanted orbit is quite an anomaly. Given that space is in 3D, what makes the orbits stay in this coplanar configuration?
EDIT: Thanks for all the great answer... | 26 | Planetary systems are believed to come about from big balls of dust/gas collapsing. The center forms the star, then rest forms the planet. If the original dust/gas ball has any spin at all, that angular momentum must be conserved as everything collapses, causing the whole mess to form a disk-shape before we managed to ... | 15 |
ELI5: How is it that your facial skin is so different from the rest of your skin that products have to be made specifically for it? | (For example, hair removal lotions for your legs can't be used on your face) | 15 | Lots of products have chemicals which won't hurt your skin, but you don't want them in your eyes/nose/mouth. Your face contains those things, so they recommend that you not put the product on your face. Nair will remove leg hair without too much skin irritation. Get it in your eye, and you are gonna have a real bad day... | 14 |
[DUNE] Why do people want to transmogrify into giant sand worm monsters? | Didn't a member of house Atreides turn into one? Or was slowly developing into one? What would be the motivation to become that? | 18 | Immortal, invincible giant worm monsters. Human bodies aren't built to live 3000 years, and are vulnerable to all sorts of things. He also knew it was the only way to achieve his long term goals, thanks to his gift of prescience. | 35 |
For a specific moth or butterfly Is the DNA identical in egg, larvae, pupa, and adult stages? | 20 | Depends on what you mean. Generally speaking, the genetic sequence remains the same for all life stages, but what does change is the state of the DNA and levels of protein expresison in the cells.
As the insect goes through its life stages, different parts of the genome are made available for transcription and transl... | 22 | |
Have we been able to successfully create matter from energy? | Since we theorize that that's the basis of the big bang, have we been able to prove it experimentally, albeit in a much more controlled environment on a much smaller scale? | 66 | Yes, that's what happens all the time at CERN, Fermilab, etc... : particles are accelerated so that they gain an enormous amount of kinetic energy. This kinetic energy is then converted into new particles during collisions. | 41 |
CMV People being upset about Scarlett Johansson playing a transgender man are undermining the transgender acceptance movement. | Transgender people are working towards acceptance for who they are inside, not because of their outward appearance. Being upset about a woman playing a man is defeating the entire point. If a person were truly accepting of the idea of someone being looked at by who they are inside, you would wait and give her a chance ... | 15 | Is there any compelling reason for transgender acceptance to exclude transgender actors?
In a vacuum there is no problem with Scarlett Johansson playing a transgender man, or with any actor performing in any role, really. People are upset that cisgender actors get cast in transgender roles when trangender actors alrea... | 19 |
ELI5: how does salt/a salt water rinse help mouth ulcers or a sore throat? | I understand that it can help, but I don't understand why it helps. Could it be used for things outside of the mouth and throat? | 15 | Water follows salt, and bacteria need water. After they get pulled out of the infected area by the salt in the water, the salt pulls out the water inside the bacteria too, and that's how they die. To answer your second question, yes it can be used in other areas. In medical situations there's something called *normal s... | 15 |
What cause a jet engine to "flame out"? | When a jet engine is deprived of an oxidiser they shoot a flame at the back. It seems counterintuitive to me because shouldn't this prevent combustion from occurring? Could someone please explain this to me? | 15 | Lack of fuel or air,(oxidizer) can cause a “flame out”. Which essentially is when combustion ceases. A lack of air, (oxidizer), can cause a “rich” fuel air ratio, allowing unused fuel to exit the tail pipe which can cause a visible flame. | 11 |
ELI5: Why does fresh air feel better to breathe in than indoor air? | 683 | The lungs are evolved to be good at sensing two things: Co2, and a lack of Co2. Fresh air feels more fresh because it has a bigger lack of Co2 compared to your average indoor building.
The brain is also capable of connecting "cold" to fresh. Hence why, for instance, cold water generally tastes more fresh than warm wat... | 794 | |
[Harry Potter] Was King Arthur a real person in this universe? | Merlin, the wizard mentor in the legends of Arthur, is a central figure in the history of wizardkind, and Morgan Le Fay is also mentioned to exist. So, did King Arthur himself exist as well? Was he a wizard himself, or a muggle? | 25 | Yes. The old but canonical Pottermore site—the one that was sort of like a game where you could collect items and such—had a Chocolate Frog Card for Melin which said:
> Merlin is the most famous wizard of all time. He is sometimes known as the Prince of Enchanters and was part of the Court of King Arthur.
Note th... | 28 |
Modernism Vs. Postmodernism | What exactly is the difference? I have read sources that claim they are nearly identical, some that they they are very different, and others that claim there is a subtle difference. | 35 | *(1/2)*
As /u/larry-cripples points out, it's important to distinguish "modern" from "modernism". "Modern" is usually used to refer to the period in intellectual culture which follows the medieval and/or renaissance periods. The exact periodization is contentious, but it's usually treated as starting in the 17th centu... | 52 |
[Warhammer 40k] So I've been conscripted into the Imperial Guard. Assuming I live, how long do I have to serve, and will I ever be allowed to go home? | 36 | CONGRATULATION'S, SOLDIER!
You have survived your first battle! Let's hope it is just the first of many!
Now you are probably just *full* of questions, as most first-time, surviving conscripts are, so let me answer a few of the most regularly asked questions.
First of all, yes, we are absolutely allowed to drag you ... | 40 | |
CMV: If worker co-opts are really that much better at being productive and treating their employees. They will win out naturally in a capitalist economic system. | Really rather simple. There is absolutely nothing forbidding worker co-opts in a capitalist nation. If you and a bunch of other workers want to build your own factory and own it together. Even if there is 100s of you. You are free to do so. In fact your rights as owners will be protected whether there is 1 of you or se... | 62 | Problem holding co-opts back is capitalism. Many industries are capital heavy and require major investments to start up or grow rapidly. Co-opts only source of capital is revenue that is often not enough to compete in these fields. | 82 |
CMV: Adopting a system of universal, free college tuition in the US is a bad idea and would hurt the country rather than help it. | I believe that college degrees already don't do much anymore because of how many people have them these days. We need a master's or something else to stand out because a Bachelor's just isn't enough. Making it free, and pushing so many more people into college would just add more and more degrees and make them useless.... | 103 | >I believe free public schooling will make specialized private schools unable to compete, and die out.
Free public school has not eliminated private elementary or high schools. Why would it eliminate private university? | 86 |
Are there the same number of Protons as Electrons in the Universe? If so, why? | This article (http://cosmology.berkeley.edu/Education/CosmologyEssays/The_Standard_Cosmology.html) states that Proton creation and Electron creation after the Big Bang occurred on different schedules. As such, there would seem to be no reason for their numbers to be equal. Are they equal and, if so, why? | 36 | The number of electrons and protons in the universe is constantly changing (for example through positron annihilation and beta decay, respectively), so there's no reason for the proton:electron number ratio to be kept constant. However, it is expected that the total charge of the universe is conserved. | 31 |
[FNAF series] how does fazbear entertainment keeps itself afloat and growing? | freddy fazbear is a name that is linked with a lot of disaster, accidents and other incidents like the bite of 87 where one of the company's animatronics bite off the frontal lobe of one of the guests, that one child who got his head crushed during his birthday party, the many disapeared children linked to the locale a... | 50 | FNAF VR does say something about how the events shown in the previous games were done by an in FNAF universe Scott (creator of FNAF) and that the announcer guy says that those events aren’t true or that it isn’t as shown.
So likely FAZBEAR company probably just has a really good PR team. | 30 |
ELI5: What causes the black dot to form in the far corner of my eye when I push my finger into the inner corner of my eye | 98 | The outside portion of each eye receives light from the opposite side of the world. So the left part of your left eye and left part of your right eye see the world on the right, and the opposite for the other half. There is a crossing over in your brain to accommodate for this, so you just see normally, but that's why ... | 38 | |
ELI5 When doing the same amount of physical labor, why do some people sweat a lot while others don't? | 72 | Differing homeostasis methods that only work right under some circumstances. People genetically adapted to high heat with lots of environmental water will sweat a lot, and quickly, when under stress, because that's the optimal outcome. People descended from wetter climes will sweat less but maybe reduce their metabolis... | 37 | |
[Physics] Are center of mass and center of gravity always at the same point? What are some scenarios where they wouldn't be? | Yesterday during my AP Physics class, we were taking notes on some slides and one of the slides said "center of mass and center of gravity are usually at the same point." I asked my teacher when they wouldn't be at the same point, because the slide said "usually," and he couldn't think of a situation on the spot. Could... | 17 | The CM and CG are the same in a uniform gravitational field, but generally not equal if the field is nonuniform. Some high school level texts are sloppy and interchange CM and CG, but this is strictly wrong. Of course, since the gravity of Earth is approximately uniform near the surface, the CM and CG are approximately... | 12 |
CMV: Obama and GW-Bush aren't "the worst presidents ever". Many people just lack historical context. | Republicans will call Obama the worst president ever and Democrats will call GW-Bush the worst president ever, but what they both lack is historical context.
1 – **Many haven't really studied history outside of the past 50 years.**
James Buchanan, Millard Filmore and Franklin Pierce all allowed the country to slip ... | 188 | Who seriously calls either Bush or Obama the worst ever? Who do you argue against? It seems most instances of statements like "Obama is the worst president in US history" are purposeful hyperbole in an attempt to make a point. | 44 |
Is there any difference between mass granted by the Higg's mechanism versus mass granted by the Strong force? | Forgive my terminology, but as I understand it, the Higg's field creates mass for elementary particles, but the vast majority of mass we see is a result of the strong force holding together bundles of quarks and nucleons. How is it that these 2 seemingly different mechanisms result in something that on our scale look ... | 25 | > Is there any difference between mass granted by the Higg's mechanism versus mass granted by the Strong force?
No, there is no difference.
> How is it that these 2 seemingly different mechanisms result in something that on our scale look like exactly the same thing?
Because both mechanisms are doing the same ... | 15 |
Why do I, when sick, usually have one nostril relatively dry and the other clogged and runny? | 194 | This actually happens pretty regularly when you're not sick. Fun trick: sit up straight, cross your wrists over your chest and tuck your fingers/hands into your armpits, then try to breathe deliberately and evenly through your nose, so that your sides expand outwards at the same rate. Do this for a minute and if you fi... | 108 | |
[Dune] House Atreides is relocated to Arrakis, knows it's a trap, and yet | ... their ships are on the ground in the same place, their troops all seem to sleep at the same time, it takes them minutes and minutes to mobilize, and there seem to be a few thousand troops to defend a duke at the most coveted location in the known universe.
Granted, the loss of the shields due to treason was unfor... | 276 | There were multiple unforeseen factors that caught the Duke completely off guard. Doctor Yueh betraying them was unprecedented and robbed them of 90% of their defenses outright, but the major x-factor was the Sardaukar getting involved so quickly in tandem with the Harkonen armies.
The Duke assumed a trap but also ass... | 345 |
[Halloween 2018] Why did Michael spare the baby? | Sorry if this is a dumb question. So, in the halloween 2018 film, Michael is going on a killing spree and ends up breaking into a woman's house and killing her. on his way out, he sees a crying baby in a crib, but only glances at it before walking away.
My question is, why did Michael spare the baby? I know its not ou... | 234 | Because it didn't entertain him. The baby didn't know to be afraid.
Michael wants people to be scared. He likes that feeling. That's why he doesn't just shoot folks in the back of the head without them even knowing he's there. | 322 |
Does 'bracing for impact' actually help during minor impacts? | Even mentally? | 24 | Many people here talk about grabbing onto stuff etc. but there's a much simpler view.
Bracing for impact does help. You basically do this by contracting mucles and breathing out, anything else is optional or rather situational.
contracting muscles prevents impact from deforming your organs and helps muscles absorb th... | 17 |
Isn't the free prisoner in allegory of the cave still ignorant? | The prisoner who escapes the cave and now sees his previous truth for the false perception it is, now accepts this new truth as the ultimate truth, why? Shouldn't someone who just learnt that their truth was false be able to consider that any new truth they may learn of may also be false, just as the original shadows w... | 15 | Regarding the supposed implicit assumption about 'states of knowlege': Plato distinguishes more than two 'states of knowlege' in *The Republic* (509d–511e) through his 'analogy of the divided line', namely *eikasia, pistis, dianoia* and *noesis.* All of these 'states of knowlege' are present in the 'allegory of the cav... | 14 |
What's the difference between drivers and firmware; and why do they cause problems if they mismatch? | Say if you have a driver 1.0 and a firmware 1.0 on a compatability guide, this means that this driver is compatible with the firmware, What happens though if a different driver or firmware version interact?
​
Trying to understand difference between firmware and driver, but cant get my head around it. Espec... | 25 | firmware is the code which is embedded and actually runs *on* the hardware, it's what makes the hardware actually work and remains inside the hardware whether it's plugged into your computer or not.
a driver is software on your computer which acts as a sort the middle-man between the hardware and the OS because it le... | 38 |
ELI5: If the Universe is about 13.7 billion years old, and the diameter of the observable universe is 93 billion light years, how can it be that wide if the universe isn't even old enough to let light travel that far that quickly? | 5,639 | Imagine the universe is a balloon that is slowly inflating, now imagine your beam of light is an ant crawling along it's surface.
Lets say the ant moves 10 inches in some frame of time, and the balloon also expands to twice its size in that same time, the ant will be more than 10 inches away from where it started f... | 5,741 | |
How do you de-ice roads when too cold for salt? | In Southern Ontario, the busiest highway in Canada (401) is still a skating rink after about 72 hours without any snowfall. Temperatures have been around -40C for the last day or so, meaning too cold for salt. What other options for getting rid of ice. It just seems odd to me seemingly nothing can be done.
Edit: ... | 46 | Normal road salt is NaCl, it is effective from 0 to -15. At lower temperatures, CaCl can be used down to about -23. At lower temperatures still, the priority is tire adherence rather than ridding the road of ice, so abrasives (sand) or sand/salt mixtures are used. In more northern communities, say around Kirkland Lake,... | 40 |
what makes you interested in academia? | I'm a developer and I always hate academia. that was the feeling that I had since I listened to some lectures in Youtube, then I deleted all my social media apps , spent all my time listening to lectures. but now I seem really stupid to myself. it's not a materialistic world. it makes me feel lonelier and disconnected ... | 17 | everyday life is too easy and boring, id rather tackle societies largest problems and go on an adventure in which i wont know how it will end. novelty and constantly learning new things is another big one. seems way more fun. | 47 |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.