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What actually is "conservatism"? | Can someone for the love of God please tell me what conservatism is? I understand there's different flavors of it just like socialism, but atleast I could give you a solid umbrella definition of it. All I know about it, is Burke. I've heard about realism and such, but every single conservative has a different take or d... | 60 | Here are some general headings, themes, or dispositions characteristic of philosophical conservatism. It is not meant to be a list of necessary and sufficient conditions. There is *much* to unpack here, and each of these bulletpoints is not strictly orthogonal to the others.
* ***Emphasis on experience over abstract r... | 104 |
ELI5: How can cell phones and other electronic devices tell how much battery life they have left. | do batteries put off more energy when full? | 435 | Batteries are kind of like tanks filled with water attached to a faucet. When you turn on the faucet, the water comes out. You can tell how much water is left in the tank by measuring the force at which the water comes out. Same thing with batteries, except the water is electricity and the force is the voltage. | 518 |
Why are the cynics, specifically Diogenes, rarely studied/talked about in class? | I've heard that it's because we don't have much texts on them -- only fragments. However, we also don't have many texts on the Pre-Socratics we study them regardless.
Is Diogenes often brushed over because of his criticism of Plato? | 40 | Just a heads up - German philosopher Peter Sloterdijk wrote a voluminous book about the Cynics. He thinks they have a lot of influence in comtemporary society. *Critique of Cynical Reason*it is called. it's a pretty good read. | 22 |
How does smell work? | At an interested engineer, totally not a biologist level, I can smell things. When I try to understand how smell works, though, I get confused. I've heard a couple of answers which I'm not convinced by, so thought I'd get some clarity.
* Resonating bonds between atoms in molecules. This sounds semi plausible, but i... | 46 | **Shape is the driver.** This is a core concept of biology. Biology is just physics due to shape due to chemistry.
There are tons of chemicals we can’t smell.
The ones we can smell are easy enough to explain. There is not simply one receptor per smell just as there is not just one taste receptor per compound in your ... | 33 |
ELI5: How do accents, like the American accent, form? | 122 | Isolated communities help accents and languages form more quickly. Then they just slowly evolve. Sometimes a very powerful or popular person can spread a change. Look at it on a micro-level. In your group of friends, what if the coolest guy started slurring a word or two or sounding a little different. Pretty soon when... | 82 | |
How do lasers measure the temperature of stuff? | 6,112 | Usually they're used to just align an IR sensor, but in principle you could shine a laser on something and determine the ratio of Stokes to anti-Stokes scattering, which would be an indirect measure of the temperature. | 2,049 | |
[Lion King] So is there only one family of lions in all of Africa? Also are these lions vegetarian, or are their loyal subjects just okay with being eaten? | 24 | Africa is a big place. Pride rock and the family of lions that it house that are shown in The Lion King are only one of many groups of Lions that live all over the continent.
The reason Mufasa's teritory is so large is because he can see everything the light touches from atop his throne on Pride Rock. He could spot e... | 60 | |
Is server specific code a bad idea ? | So today I made a bad mistake at work. I migrated some code from the testing environment to production, however at some point the code in production had diverged from that elsewhere in source control, so I overwrote the production approach with the approach that was used in dev and testing which didn't work properly in... | 20 | > however at some point the code in production had diverged from that elsewhere in source control
Just that sentence alone makes me cringe. Directly modifying code on prod without going through SC is ... yikes. | 36 |
CMV: Moderates get an unfairly bad rap | I'm a moderate, left moderate. I've voted Democrat my entire life, but I might vote for a Republican in the midterms and my hope is that Republicans win either the House or the Senate (but not both.)
I generally think my opinions and the opinions of most moderates are reasonable. The only area where I'm extreme is cli... | 16 | The only issue you brought up that's remotely conservative is the crt boogeyman why the heck would you want a Republican house of Congress? None of your actual policy preferences would happen if that were the case. | 73 |
Why do multiples of 9, always come back to 9 when their digits are added together? | Sorry I could have probably worded the title better.
I remember my second grade teacher taught me this but never explained why she just said it was a a magic number lol.
Example:
9*2=18, 1+8=9
9*3=27, 2+7=9
9*4=36, 3+6=9
etc, etc, etc.....,
Of course there are many interesting recurrences with small number an... | 204 | To see why this works, we first have to start with how a number, when written down, is constructed.
Take the number 123. This notation means: 1 * 100 + 2 * 10 + 3 * 1. To deconstruct a number in this way, you take a digit and multiply it by the power of 10 appropriate for the position of that digit within the number.
... | 156 |
[MCU/Raimiverse] Why the hell does green goblin despise Spider-Man so much? | Him killing his coworkers and the board for wronging him I understand but Tom Holland's Peter did absolutely nothing to him. Hell I can understand him hating raimi Spider-Man because he foils goblins plan, but Tom Holland's literally has done nothing to wrong him. | 20 | Well Peter 1 tried to cure him, which is definitely an affront to him.
But the main thing about the Green Goblin is that he has a ideology about doing whatever he wants with his power. He used it to make Norman's life better and he told Peter 2 that they could rule New York together. He also goes on to talk about how ... | 39 |
CMV: Reinstating a mandated news network impartiality law would be a terrible idea. | Inspired by [this](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-broadcast/japans-abe-seeks-to-remove-balance-requirements-in-broadcast-news-idUSKBN1H20YH) front page post in which the majority of users seem to support such a law both in Japan and the US. I won't try and comment on the law's use in Japan, but here in the US... | 89 | I don't necessarily support such an idea, but the FCC used to enforce the fairness doctrine until the 1980s. It was not exactly mandated impartiality, but rather a requirement that both sides of a controversial issue be given fair coverage during broadcast news. It did not lead to the executive branch suppressing all d... | 20 |
ELI5: Why do I get a metallic taste in my mouth and a fuzzy ache in my head and hands after a nap, but not a full night of sleep? | 344 | Those are two different things.
The metallic taste is bacteria growing in your mouth. (Nice huh.) You don't get it during the day because you regularly swallow, and you generally don't get it overnight because brushing your teeth kills off a lot of the bacteria.
If you brush your teeth before a nap (especially use mo... | 82 | |
[Star Wars] Why didn’t Count Dooku use Force Lightning in his final duel? | In The Clone Wars series, Dooku is consistently shown to use his Force Lightning as a last resort to defeat his enemies. Notable examples are in his duels against Asajj Ventress, Savage Oppress, and even Anakin on Naboo—in each case he was seemingly on the verge it defeat before turning the tide with the Lightning. Ass... | 16 | >Did he simply not get the chance to?
This is probably it, Anakin was pressing him hard and by tapping into his Chosen One potential and inner rage he could finally overpower Dooku with his superior strength. Anakin didn't give him the chance before cutting his hands off and having sabers at his neck.
Doubt it's a... | 21 |
ELI5: Difference between functions and procedures in C++? | Is it okay to say that in C++ all procedures are void, and all the rest (whatever returns a value) is a function? | 23 | Procedures and functions are pretty much interchangeable terms. The proper C++ terminology is "function", and the term "procedure" isn't used (a function which has a void return type is still a function).
Other languages (like Pascal) differentiate between procedure and function, just like you asked. | 12 |
ELI5: What is 'kafkatrapping'? | I saw the word used a few times, but when can't find an authoritative definition for it. Searches just seem to come up with blog posts that call it a logical fallacy but I don't see it included in any list of logical fallacies. Is it something new? | 18 | It refers to *The Trial*, by Kafka, where a clerk is accused of an unknown charge by a bureaucratic, totalitarian gov't, and because of all the red tape, is unable to defend himself, or even learn exactly what he is being accused of.
Kafkatrapping is when your are accused of something, and your denial is used to "prov... | 22 |
ELI5: WTF is the number after classes in the US? Informatics 101, etc. | 109 | 100 and 200 level class are general education and introductary classes to a subject. Usually they can be taken by anyone regardless of major.
300 and 400 level classes are more advanced classes and are generally only for the people who are involved in a major for those classes.
All 100 to 400 level classes are for u... | 103 | |
[Blade Runner] In Blade Runner (1982), did Deckard force himself on Rachel? | Ok I'm probably going to regret asking this, but here it goes.
[This is the scene I'm talking about](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjO8wsjPqbg)
I just saw the Final Cut of this movie for the first time in years, and previously I didn't really remember much from this scene at all. But watching it again it seemed inc... | 175 | A condemnatory take on it:
Yes it is quite rapey. More than the physically grabbing her, preventing her from leaving stuff, is the fact that he's doing this while she's in an emotionally vulnerable state, she just shot and killed a "man" ( a replicant, *like her* ). Deckard then proceeds to get her to *repeat after hi... | 145 |
[Rational Fanfic] What would the biggest changes to your favourite franchise be if the main character was given the rational treatment? | 40 | Doctor Who would be surprisingly similar, but very low-stakes, because the main changes would be that The Doctor would travel safely and understand the sorts of problems he commonly runs into.
So he'd check when he was about to walk outside into a death zone. He'd carry walkie talkies for him and everyone he meets. H... | 37 | |
[MARVEL]How did J Jonah Jameson react when Peter revealed himself as Spider-Man? | 17 | The first time, during Civil War, he fainted. When he fully processed it he had a bigger vendetta for Spider-Man than ever before. He felt completely humiliated that all those years Spider-Man was right under his nose.
The second time, in Spectacular Spider-Man, Peter and Jameson had a closer relationship than they di... | 29 | |
[Spider-Man] So...is there a racist Spider-Man out there in the multiverse somewhere? | Weird question I know, but please hear me out.
I saw a post of a discussion between two Spider-Men from different multiverses, from a multiverse event presumably.
One Spidey questions that their are two Japanese Spidey's, to which the other replies "Why not?" The first Spidey says "Oh no. I hope I'm not *racist* Spid... | 842 | Well, look at it this way. There are an infinite number of even numbers, each one unique. But none of those even numbers will ever end in an odd number.
Spider-Gwen is *definitely* not Spider-*Man*. Neither is Peter Porker, whose Spider-*Ham* conjures an uncomfortable awareness of how a character identifies as meat.
... | 652 |
ELI5: Why does slapping it actually makes tv remotes work again? | 252 | The battery has a cheap metal contact head which is different from the remote not-so-cheap copper contact. The two metal will do what is called galvanic corrosion.
microscopically, there is a thin layer of oxide on your contacts and when the battery is almost dead, that little barrier will be comparatively too much. ... | 344 | |
ELI5: Why do people have to send a message saying that they are going in war instead of just directly attacking? | Like the title suggest, why would a county declare an attack on a enemy instead of just going directly for an attack without letting the enemy know?
Wouldn't it give them more chance to win the war? | 27 | This might not directly answer what you are asking, but countries simply don't declare war anymore. There are definitely still many conflicts, but most involve "unofficial" organizations such as terrorist groups that don't require a formal declaration of war to attack. It is rare now to have one country directly invade... | 11 |
ELI5: Is a pregnant mother's blood kept separate from her fetus' blood? | I have searched online multiple times to see whether a pregnant mother's blood and her fetus' blood are kept separate. I've even looked in textbooks, and often it's implied but never said outright and plainly in those terms.
I've looked online, but I've not yet found a reputable source that spells it out clearly.
Are... | 61 | There is a placental blood barrier, yes.
> One of the placenta's jobs is to make sure blood from the mother and fetus never mixes. The placenta acts as an exchange surface between the mother and the fetus. Nutrients and oxygen are passed over by diffusion only. If the mother's and fetus's blood mixed, it could be d... | 158 |
When Giving CPR, How Are You Not Just Blowing CO2 Right Into Some Dying Dude's Lungs? | 18 | We inhale 21% oxygen from the air, and exhale 18% oxygen. We use very little of the O2 we actually breathe in, so we still exhale quite a bit of oxygen. We have to breathe more frequently mostly to get rid of excess CO2. Rescue breaths are definitely sub-optimal, because of the CO2 concentrations that can build up, but... | 39 | |
ELI5: How are calories measured, and how accurate is it? | 60 | Calories can be calculated by the following equation:
Q = mc∆T
Q is energy in calories (not Calories, which is what nutrition labels use. 1 Calorie = 1000 calories). m is mass in grams, c is specific heat in calories/gram °C, and ∆T is change in temperature in °C.
Now how do we use this? Well we can use a device such... | 22 | |
CMV: Democratic countries should have a voting system where voters can vote for as many candidates as they want | I have a couple reasons for why this is the best way to vote for any head official, like a president or prime minister.
I guess I should say how this would work though first.
So on the ballot there'd be around 5 blank lines for you to fill in candidates, you can fill in as many candidates as you want or as few. Each ... | 26 | This voting system can lead to paradoxical outcomes where almost everyone prefers candidate A to candidate B, but nevertheless candidate B wins the election.
For example, suppose that there are three candidates, A, B, and C, and three kinds of voters.
The first kind of voter prefers A over B, and B over C. Additiona... | 17 |
helicopters have rear rotors to control spin, why don't single prop planes need to control roll? | I get that the rotational torque of a helicopter's main rotor needs to be offset to prevent it the body from spinning in place--and that is what the rear rotor is for, makes sense. But in the case of a single propeller plane, why doesn't it need some smaller prop/rotor at the wingtips to help with the rotational force ... | 180 | Small single engine aircraft DO in fact have torque-based roll and thus turning tendencies. However the wings and flight control trim counter roll and rudder trim counteracts turn tendencies. The mass and surface area of the prop compared to the mass and area of the aircraft is a much smaller ratio. | 296 |
When a Pistol Shrimp snaps its claw and forms a cavitation bubble, what forms in the bubble? Does the air have normal gas concentrations or is it something altogether different? | 26 | A cavitation bubble is basically a void in the liquid. The key thing that defines the void is that it is free of liquid. Beyond that, the specifics will depend on how exactly you formed the bubble, but in general consist of some concentration of vapor. Because liquid water wants to rush back in, these voids rapidly fil... | 23 | |
ELI5: How can congress stay in office for so long and be reelected regularly when approval ratings is so low. | 15 | Because everyone has the tendency to say that it's everyone ELSE'S representative who sucks, but tend to believe that theirs is okay.
Also, because when the election comes up, it turns out people's party allegiance is way stronger than their hatred for Congress. So even if they despise their representative, they'll... | 25 | |
ELI5: Why does 100% isopropyl/ethanol/etc. not exist? | 216 | It can exist, under the proper conditions. But simple distillation of ethanol and water cannot yield pure ethanol. We need to add benzene and then distill. This helps us separate the water first. Then we are left with benzene and ethanol mixture which can then be distilled normally. Thus 100% can and is produced. It ne... | 193 | |
Apply for PhD Programs or Stay in Research Lab for 1 Extra Year? | So I'm a post bac student (5 years research experience) who just got hired on a grant to do research on Suicide Prevention & PTSD. My job appointment is 1 year, but can be extended longer if agreed by me and my boss (who relocated from out of state)
My dilemma: Should I go/apply to grad school for Clinical Psychol... | 19 | You staying in the lab to build it is really going to benefit your boss more than you. If your goal is to get a psych PhD you should apply to programs as soon as you can. If you get into a program you like you should go. | 13 |
ELI5 Why people find beer delicious and refreshing. | Honestly I think it's all a conspiracy. I believe every single one of you actually thinks beer tastes disgusting, but since everyone else has a reason to love it, you do too. How do you come up with all these sophistacted adjectives to describe it. I have tried dozens and dozens of different beers. None of them have ev... | 23 | It's similar to strong black coffee, protein shakes, liver, and many more bitter or strong tasting foods and liquids, you have to get acclimated to the taste before you can recognize the small subtleties in flavor and texture. | 24 |
ELI5: why would a landlord rent control an apartment? | If a landlord owns an apartment in say New York, why would they offer rent control when they could just raise the price of rent year over year and make more money? | 37 | Rent control is a state mandated option for people who are qualified under welfare care laws and regulations to ensure that people can afford housing.
Rent control and EHO homes are reserved pricing structures for what the tenant can afford to pay under what the laws deem appropriate. | 24 |
ELI5:If fruits are produced by plants for animals to eat and spread seeds around then why are lemons so sour? | 5,287 | A lemon is not a naturally occurring fruit, it's actually bred from a sour orange and a citron, the sour orange itself being bred from a pomelo and mandarin. So it's not the product of evolution, but selective breeding. | 6,571 | |
[Game of Thrones] What if Aemon Targaryen became the king. (Spoilers) | So what if Aemon took up his duty as the king and left the nights watch. Assuming he faced no repercussions for leaving the watch, how would things be different if he was the king and not the Mad King. Would Lyanna Stark still been taken by rhaegar targaryen? | 17 | Even the very wise cannot begin to fathom the twist and turns of fate. Perhaps Aemon would've failed to have children or they would have died early and the throne would have passed to Egg regardless.
Perhaps the tragedy at Summerhall wouldn't have happened, or maybe it would anyways.
I will tell you this. We once h... | 21 |
[Lovecraftian Mythos] Who is the top creature in the Lovecraftian mythos? | I recently started learning a little more about the creatures in the Lovecraftian universe and I'm curious as to who the most powerful creature in the universe would be? Cthulhu seems to be the most well known, but is there an all powerful king type creature? | 94 | That would be Azathoth, the "Blind God Idiot", who holds his court at the center of infinity and dreams up the universe despite not actively being aware of the fact that he is doing so.
A popular interpretation is that you re Azathoth, and that in reading Lovecraft's works you are bringing the universe and the other O... | 141 |
How does a "blood pressure" manometer measure the preasure of your blood? | The manometer cuff pressure plus atmospheric pressure is measured, and the cuff pressure is a response from squeezing your arm. By that logic, aren't we measuring the pressure of your arm as a whole (including other fluids/water, muscles, etc.)? | 477 | Blood pressure cuffs register three states when they activate.
First, they inflate to full, closing off the artery completely. Then they deflate slowly until it detects that blood flow is resumed, the point where your blood pressure is greater than the pressure of the cuff is your Systolic Pressure. Then it deflates f... | 333 |
ELI5:While on a phone call, how can you hear sounds like an alarm but the other person on the other line is unable to? | 188 | Newer phones use noise cancelling which is very good at rejecting sounds that don't come from directly in front of the phone's mic (where your mouth is).
Alarm sounds (I assume based on your premise) are coming from farther away and aren't pointed directly into the mic. Us sound guys call that "off axis". | 77 | |
[Dune] So, the Spacing Guild needs Spice for humanity to utilize FTL travel. Spice comes from Sand Worms. Sand Worms are only native to Arrakis. So how did we get to Arrakis? | It's been some years since I've read the series and so I apologize if this was covered... but as I lie in bed unable to sleep, for whatever reason *this* is the question my mind is pondering over. | 529 | Before reaching Arrakis there was "conventional" FTL travel. This system has been described as "outracing photons" and these ships used computers to deal with navigational issues. They were much slower than the later ships who had navigators and used spacefolding. Spacefolding ships *were* possible with computers, but ... | 483 |
Despite the diversity of life, no form has three sexes. Why exactly? | 27 | I took a class on the evolution of reproduction. We actually do see multiple sexes (mating types) in certain species like Physarium (a genus of slime mould) which has >500 sexes (but it still only takes two individuals, who are not the same sex, to make a baby).
The main problem that limits most species to 2 sexes ... | 25 | |
When does x^x start going up and why? | From 0 to about 0.4, x^x goes down but then we see it going up. I tried using desmos to find the exact point it makes the switch but closest I could get was 0.3679 https://desmos.com/calculator/xouvalla3h because it wouldn’t let me get very precise without just resulting in my d value going to 0 and googling this numbe... | 31 | The derivative of x^x with respect to x is x^x (ln(x) + 1). The function changes direction when this derivative is equal to 0. This happens precisely when ln(x) + 1 = 0, so ln(x) = -1. Exponentiating both sides with base e gives x = e^(-1) = 1/e, and this is your exact answer. | 65 |
ELI5: How come game engines like Unreal and Unity can render high fidelity graphics in real time but rendering a scene using actual movie software takes forever? | I'm aware that a lot of companies are now using those very tools to make their movies and shows because of that very reason but why does it work out that way? | 20 | Real-time graphics use lots of shortcuts, which are less accurate but look "good enough" at first glance. For example: most videogame engines cannot render reflections (if you do play a game with a functioning mirror, it's typically accomplished by placing a second copy of the room behind the mirror, with everything i... | 30 |
Would Darwin be a moral naturalist? | His following qoute is often recycled, that goes something like, 'had we been reared under the conditions of hive bees.. we would think it moral to do x'
The point is, it seems to me, that something about our inherited nature constrains or determines what is moral for a being like us. So, would Darwin have taken this ... | 15 | Moral realism is the position that moral sentences express propositions that refer to objective features of the world. Darwin's observations about where our moral beliefs come from have no bearing on whether moral realism is true or not. This is because an explanation of why someone believes X is not the same as an exp... | 10 |
ELI5: Why are some vitamins sometimes listed as 1500% of your RDI? and wouldn’t that be damaging to your body? | 76 | Fat-soluble vitamins, like vitamin E, are dangerous in large amounts because your body will store them. If you get too much of these, you can get sick.
Some vitamins are water soluble, so your body can just throw whatever it doesn't need into your pee, and you pee it out. Vitamin C is a good example of this! You can h... | 82 | |
If you receive a life-threatening injury, does
maintaining consciousness as people rush to get aid
really help? | You often see in the movies someone saying "stay with me buddy!" or hear about non-movie situations where people say the same: "don't fall asleep," or "keep looking at me" because if they don't, they may die.
Why is it that staying conscious should help you stay alive? What's going on in the body? Can the conscious br... | 115 | Another reason why they prefer a person stay awake is to get any vital information that may be required. An unconscious person will have a harder time explaining where it hurts than someone who is awake. Sometimes they may also need to identify a poisonous creature that may have injected venom in them. | 85 |
ELI5: why don't hockey teams hire a 500 lb. goalie to block the whole goal? | Title says it all. Why don't professional hockey teams just hire a massive dude to block the whole goal to win every game? | 134 | There is a sports science episode covering this.
It basically boils down to 1)It does not cover the whole net. And with the assumption that a 500lb guy isn't too athletic, the open part of the net will just be free goals.
Also regulation sized protective equipement does not cover a 500lb man. | 95 |
ELI5: Where do uploaded files go? | Okay, had a big discussion last night with 3 more friends about the nature of the Internet. Since our perceptions were a bit altered, and there where no engineers in the room, this turned into an all-out debate.
Sorry for the misconceptions, but here goes.
When you have, for example, a 2MB file in your computer (with... | 80 | Part of why you are having conceptual difficulty here (which others have addressed) is because the internet isn't just a big sea of information: it's a network of other computers. Any data "on the internet" is hosted from a specific computer somewhere. | 58 |
eli5: How do sleep apnea machines work? | Do they force air in? Wouldn’t that be super uncomfortable | 118 | The CPAP machine delivers a constant flow of air through tubing and a mask and into your airway. The CPAP machine creates enough pressure in your airway to hold the tissue open, so your airway doesn't collapse. The soft, steady jet of air from the CPAP machine creates enough pressure to keep the airway open.
It feels... | 93 |
[Star Wars] Can I, average Courascant citizen go up to / in to The Jedi Temple? | 163 | I imagine that there’s probably a semi-public area you could walk into, sorta like a main lobby, but getting deeper into the temple would probably be frowned upon unless you were there on official business and/or being escorted by a Jedi. Anyone trying to sneak their way in would curiously find themselves walking right... | 177 | |
Can you build Nuclear Weapons from a light-water reactor? | I was reading a wiki the other day where the United States came to a compromise with North Korea (over a decade ago) regarding nuclear energy. North Korea wanted to pursue it for "energy" purposes, so instead, the United States offered to build a light-water reactor there instead.
I would assume there would be little ... | 18 | Anytime you have a process that involves neutrons, you have the capability to create plutonium. This includes light water reactors.
That said, you need to be constantly removing fuel and separating the Plutonium, which requires complex reprocessing centers. You also need enrichment centers to bring the enrichment rat... | 15 |
CMV: There IS war in Ba Sing Se | I'm a humble cabbage merchant, been travelling the Earth Kingdom for a while now, and everywhere I go I've seen the effects of a war. Raging for 100 years, tearing apart the world. The Earth Kingdom is partially occupied by the fire nation for Rava's sake! And yet here in Ba Sing Se I've been told there is no war?
It... | 144 | Ba Sing Se stood here for hundreds of years. Be assured that any conflicts other, less developed nations call war do not match the power of the technologically advanced people of the Earth nation.
Our military is much more powerful than any other army combined. We have the most capable ground troops, able to destroy a... | 32 |
ELI5:Why can i lie still in my bed and not break a sweat, but take a short nap and wake up soaked wet? | 60 | When you sleep your body is very busy. It uses this time to grow, repair tissues, maintaining your bodies internal environment (homeostasis)
However night sweats can also be a symptom of infections, autoimmune conditions and cancer. | 15 | |
ELI5: Why does any food that's really healthy taste like cardboard and anything evil like gravy or bacon taste like heaven? | Isn't your body supposed to tell you "this is bad, so here's a bad taste in your mouth" or "here's some delicious healthy steamed bruxel sprouts, here's a taste bud explosion!"?? | 98 | Because stuff like bacon and gravy have extremely high caloric value in comparison to fruits and veggies. Back in our hunter/forager days, getting enough calories to not starve to death was far more important than having a balanced diet to promote optimum health, so we evolved to go nuts for those things whenever we go... | 106 |
ELI5: Why is it so important for museums today to have participatory museums exhibitions? Why have the tenet of visitor co-creation become so pervasive? | Some of it can be attributed to funding of course, the museums get money according to how many visitors they have and as the museums can be viewed as an alternative to amusement parks they try to become more like to other attractions to boost numbers. But as museums can enhance the number of visitors by other means tha... | 15 | Because if a museum is just a place you go to look at things and read descriptions most museums don't offer much over wikipedia. Museums are trying to differentiate themselves by being the place you go to actually *interact with* the concepts they're dedicated to, not just to learn about them as you can just about anyw... | 14 |
ELI5: FAQ Why are rapidly falling or rising exchange rates is a good or bad thing for a countries economy or the global economy? | Lately we've been getting questions about why a countries rapidly declining or rising currency rate is a good or bad thing for both that nation or the global economy.
What does a strong or weak currency imply about the nation's current or future economy?
How can a nation artificially raise or devalue their currency?... | 19 | Let's say you are USA and you sell Hot Cheetos for 1$ a bag. France sells Chaude Cheetos for 1€ a bag. It has a different name but basically it's the same bag. Same quantity and everything. If our currency was the same, you'd exchange 1 for 1 and get a bag. But! It isn't. You go to Europe and give them a dollar and the... | 16 |
Why do we only sneeze when awake? | 762 | During REM (Rapid Eye Movement) Cycles, the release of neurotransmitters such norepinephrine, and serotonin are prevented. This causes the body to completely "shut down" during the REM cycles.
The lack of these neurotransmitters prevents the motor neurons from being activated and body's muscles are unable to move. Th... | 476 | |
[Phineas and Ferb] Why is Linda so cavalier about her daughter's apparent delusions? | 38 | I think she believes Candice is exaggerating for attention. Linda likely expects Candice to feel like the kids "never get in trouble" while she is "expected to do everything and have no life" -- stereotypical teenage drama. Plus, Linda was pretty "creative" in her younger days, and likely feels like she'd be the same w... | 52 | |
What is physically happening in the brain when we forget something? | 229 | Many times it is the result of either inefficient encoding, or an insufficiently salient cue for retrieval. Memory traces do degrade with time, but sometimes a memory can be retrieved by using a different cue.
Also, while long-term potentiation seems to be necessary for memory, there is not consensus yet on whether it... | 111 | |
[SW] The Empire is a good place to live for decent law abiding citizens like me. Its only the aliens who cause problems. Why can't anyone understand that? | The new Death Star project has created tens of millions of new jobs and bolstered the sagging economies of many worlds. | 33 | The first thing you see in a new hope is the empire boarding a diplomatic vessel through a brutal breach assault followed by Vader choking bitches and snapping necks based on a hunch that they might be smuggling blue prints.
The empire is a good place to live provided you don't complain about the brutality, the inequa... | 35 |
Does an eye "absorb" a proton? | So I am looking at the sky, at all the ancient stars. And the photons from those stars may have travelled for thousands of light years to get to me. When the photon strikes my retina, and alters (I think) the molecules, is the photon converted to energy and is now more or less a part of "me"?. Every time I look at t... | 496 | Yes, this is an accurate description of the absorption of photons by the retina.
They've traveled a very long distance for a very long time (in your frame of reference) to reach you. Once they hit one of the rods or cones of your eye, they convert to a chemical form of energy which is transmitted to the brain.
N... | 469 |
ELI5: After invitro eggs are fertilized, are they kept at a certain temperature to grow before implanted? How does the lab part work? | 4,075 | They are incubated under optimal conditions (the correct Temperature, Oxygen levels and nutrients) , usually until a blastula is formed. at this point a cell can be removed for genetic analysis (also called Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis or PGD) and the embryos can be frozen in liquid nitrogen until needed. | 1,101 | |
[Battlestar Galactica (2003)] Why didn't the humans stay at Ragnar Anchorage? | Not only was the Ragnar Anchorage a munitions depot, but the hydrocarbons used in the Humans' weapons are also harvested from Ragnar's atmosphere. Although we don't see them, the tools used to make the munitions are almost certainly right there. They may not be trained in the exact sciences of how to use those tools, b... | 58 | I think Ragnar wouldn't be safe for very long. The Cylons could decide to send in ships despite the radiation, or just bombard it from long range. Shortly after the rag tag fleet escaped, Cylons boarded the station anyway, so it couldn't have been that safe. The real question is why didn't the Cylons go in sooner? | 46 |
What can I do to better understand the concept of higher dimensional space like hyperspheres? | I am trying to understand hyperspheres but every time I think I understand what I am reading/hearing I realize I don't. I can do hypothetical ideas like quantum mechanics but these things seem to much for me to grasp. | 23 | Stop trying to picture it. There's a reason mathematicians use symbols and equations to talk about this stuff: It's really powerful and can be intuitive.
Learn about Linear Algebra, which can be visually explored in 2-3 dimensions. Here, things like orthogonality, projection and distance are all immediately intuitive,... | 41 |
ELI5: temperature changing the taste of water | If it’s just too much or too little heat, why does it taste so different? Also, why does hot water taste bad? We need water to survive, but hot water tastes so bad I’d rather stay thirsty than drink it | 17 | Tasting in general works better when food is hot. This is why most food is eaten hot, and foods that are supposed to be eaten cold can taste weird when warm. (Have you ever eaten warm melted ice cream? It's sickeningly sweet, because when it's cold you don't taste it as much). | 21 |
ELI5: Can somebody please explain how radioactivity works and why it is so damaging to the human body? | It sounds really stupid but I seriously do not understand it. | 20 | It certainly isn't stupid, radiation is not something intuitive or widely understood.
Radiation refers a process where particles are given off by some source and travel out, away from the source, without any material to carry them, or without the help of whatever material they're moving through. For example, elec... | 15 |
How would the Chernobyl disaster have appeared to observers at a range of galactic and intergalactic distances? | I’m assuming it would not have been detectable at intergalactic, or even medial galactic distances. But if we had had a radio telescope pointed at a similar event on a planet orbiting Alpha Centauri, could we conceivably have caught it? What we we have observed? | 74 | Not even close. The amount of energy in the blast wasn't nearly as big as intentionally designed atomic bombs. Those range from kilotons to megatons of TNT equivalent. The Chernobyl blast was probably <20 *tons* of TNT equivalent - so like a fraction of a percent of an atomic bomb. The bigger problem was that it pro... | 140 |
If the universe is only 13.7 billion years old and 1 light year is how long light travels in a year, how have we seen objects farther then 13.7 billion light years away? | I have heard that the entire observable universe is 90 billion light years across. How do we know this if objects in the universe only had 13.7 billion years to send light to us? | 17 | The key here is that the universe is expanding. When we say "how far away" we're seeing objects, we mean "how far away are they now", not "how far away were they when they emitted the light we're seeing now".
The light we're receiving that was emitted from something 13.7 billion years ago is just reaching us now... b... | 45 |
Why aren’t underwater windmills more of a thing? | The way I reckon it, the tides go through multiple times a day in a predictable way. If turbines just sat there collecting energy 24/7 we’d get a lot of energy. You could put a nearly infinite amount of them up and down the coast line.
edit: thanks for all the reply’s | 79 | A few reasons,
1. Maintenance. It's very costly to maintain underwater infrastructure.
2. Corrosion is a big problem in salt water environments. Meaning more maintenance is needed.
3. Biological buildup. Again in saltwater, the blades are going to end up getting fouled by barnacles and other aquatic life making ... | 146 |
[Pacific Rim] What is the world government thinking in disabling the Jaeger army? | Why does the world government opt to just disband the Jaeger army and simply put up a stupid wall? They know that the Kaiju are getting bigger every time they come through and yet they think they can just put up walls to ignore the problems. I know that the price of making Jaegers is extremely high, but how is pretendi... | 22 | It's thinking that they don't have the capacity to replace Jaegers as the attacks increase, and until one broke through no one realized that the Wall could be broken that fast--the plan for the wall was for it stall Kaiju for days while defense turrets spaced along the length of wall turned the thing into swiss cheese.... | 22 |
What would the likelihood of living to 10,000 be if you had a 1/2,500 chance of dying each year? | I recently watched [this Tom Scott video](https://youtu.be/B5a6wrJpxP4) and in it he says that 1/2,500 people die of an accident each year, and that if disease didn't exist 1 in 5 people would die before 500. That makes me wonder what would the odds of living to 10,000? | 41 | The odds of you surviviing one year is 2499/2500. For 500 years its (2499/2500)^500 =0.819 - a 82% survival rate. 1000 years, (2499/2500)^1000 = 0.670. 10,000 years (2499/2500)^10000 = 0.018 - you've got a nearly 2% chance of surviving to 10,000 | 29 |
ELI5:Why do women usually live longer then men? | 22 | It mostly comes down to work.
The life expectancy for males is slightly lower than women because dangerous jobs are usually done by men, and men generally work longer than women. Soldiers, lumberjacks, miners, are pretty much only done by males and so will bring the average life expectancy down. Males are more likely... | 15 | |
Why do some jobs pay more than others? | Maybe this is a bit of a beginner question. But why do some jobs pay a lot more than others.
Since just about everyone wants to be paid more money, why don’t they move to a higher paying profession?
Besides barrier to entry (cost of education, or difficulty obtaining the degree) I can’t really think of a reason why ... | 31 | The BASIC answer to your question is that salary for workers works similarly to price of goods. Supply and demand. As supply goes up, prices go down, as demand goes up, prices go up.
So if you look at the job of cashier for example… there's a much larger pool of people who are capable of being a cashier. Things are c... | 43 |
ELI5: How can the weather forcast be wildly different depending on which provider you check it with? | 17 | Because it depends on the available data and how they interpret it. Someone who had access to most/all weather stations can give a more accurate prediction than someone with a few. And if most provides only have few stations (compared to the total or in certain areas) and they don't really share their data and they hav... | 10 | |
ELI5:What does it mean when hawks and eagles have better eyesight than us? Does it mean they can literally zoom in on creatures on the ground, or do they just see things in a higher resolution? | 93 | They can see more detail- they have the equivalent of 20/2 vision, they can see clearly at 20 feet away what a normal human needs to be at 2 feet away to see clearly. They also see a broader spectrum of light than humans, so they can see more colors than we can. | 59 | |
[MCU/DC] What is considered and Avengers Level threat? Does the Justice League have anything similar to that? | 17 | Depends, on the universe. Sometimes the heroes only gather together to defeat a threat that could destroy the earth (Ultron, Thanos, Darkseid, Starro, etc.) Other times they stay together and go on daily missions against threats that would only harm a city, state, or small country sized area. In some worlds they even r... | 14 | |
I feel like the world doesn't take overweight people seriously... CMV? | Sure, there are plenty of successful people who are overweight, but their weight is 90% of the time something that people will bring up. A good example is Melissa McCarthy. Everyone loves her and thinks she's great, but she will forever be cast as the "funny fat girl", same with Rebel Wilson. If they were to lose weigh... | 20 | People see weight as something that all people can change through work, and thus (sometimes wrongly, sometimes not) associate it with laziness and "slackers". Thus, a successful person like Bill Gates could never be overweight no sir that mother fucker has to work hard saving the world. But Chris Christie? Why i bet he... | 17 |
How to integrate knowledge from different schools of thought, how to decide what to "keep"? | I've been diving into philosophy for a very short time: just two years. However, in these two years, the amount of compounded knowledge I've observed is baffling; I'm having problems assembling it into something useful.
My question would be along the lines of: "what sort of salad am I supposed to make with Hegel, Beau... | 84 | You really shouldn't think of philosophy in terms of "schools" -- this isn't really the way contemporary philosophy is done. A lot of people outside of philosophy seem to get hung up on the categorization, and not as much on the activity of philosophy itself.
The goal isn't to take up wholesale some sort of pre-packag... | 104 |
ELI5: What is the Universe expanding into? | 28 | As a physics Nobel laureate put it on Dr Karl's show a few months back, what you have to remeber here is that it's not space that is expanding, but rather spacetime. As he said, you could regard it as expanding into the future... | 20 | |
ELI5: Why does slurping a hot beverage make it feel less hot when drinking it? | I'm drinking tea right now and it's piping hot to drink normally but when I slurp it (yes that noise) I'm talking in the same amount I would be drinking normally but it's a lot easier to drink. What's going on? | 20 | You're also using your mouth like a carburetor of sorts. Adjusting the ratio of air rushing past the surface of the liquid also changes the temperature of it while providing cooling to the tongue and inner surface of the mouth. | 16 |
Why can’t electric vehicles use total regen braking? | Here is my example. A Tesla has two regen settings and you can do one pedal driving to a point. My question relates to the need for physical disc brakes and whether they’re really needed. What is it that prevents using the motor as the brake? Is it legalities at this point? Does this generate too much electricity too f... | 177 | Regen braking force bumps into a few limits. The maximum rate the battery can charge, the maximum power the conversion electronics can handle, and the thermal limits of everything involved.
But the power limit is the most obvious. When the battery is full, there’s nowhere to send power from regen, so it just doesn’t ... | 232 |
I think the opinion that "people who use swear words to convey their point are inarticulate" is bullshit. CMV | Swear words are a natural part of human language, and we shouldn't be intellectually shamed for accessing powerful language in order to convey powerful emotions. Even if we're not trying to convey powerful emotions, swear words contain meaning just like any other more socially acceptable word. A person is not necessari... | 32 | I agree that there isn't anything *inherently* wrong with using swear words, but there are several things that swear words do to make your position *seem* more inarticulate to the person you are talking to. And since that person is who you are trying to convey your point to, then they end up being inarticulate. A few o... | 18 |
ELI5: Why do stressed animals harm themselves by pulling out patches of their fur, or in the case of birds, feathers? | And in more extreme situations chewing on their own skin and body parts until they bleed? :( | 1,065 | When animals pull hair or birds pull feathers it is painful and the brain releases endorphins to sooth this pain. Then animals/birds/humans repeat this negative behavior to get those feel good chemicals. It becomes self soothing | 1,132 |
CMV: if gender is a social construct, people would be able to be "transracial" | This has been popping in my head for a while and I just can't think of a good counter argument, but it doesn't seem like I can be right. I mean if gender is a social construct, it is set up similar to race, and I think a transgender person would be treated as similar to their desired gender as a "transracial" person wo... | 44 | Something being a social construct doesn't mean that there isn't also some amount of objective reality behind it. The classic example is the color green. There is no such thing as "green" from a physics perspective. Light is a spectrum and how we divide it is entirely a social construct. However at the same time there ... | 69 |
[Star Trek] After Kirk's visits, how come we never see or hear anything about the highly-improbable gangster, Roman, or parallel American/Russian culture planets? | You'd think that such planets would have huge sociological interest for the galaxy, and yet they seem to completely disappear from the historical records. | 15 | The records you're referring to really only focus on the 5 year mission for the first USS Enterprise. The Enterprise (and largely the whole Constitution class) was and exploration ship, not a science ship, and thus it lacked the specialized crew and equipment needed for long-term study. It's likely the Federation dis... | 13 |
ELI5: Why can’t the ring finger extend independently of its adjacent digits? | 17 | The ring finger and middle finger each have two tendons that connect near the base of the fingers. One of the tendons from the ring finger goes underneath a tendon for the middle finger, while both middle finger tendons are on top. You can lift just your middle finger because nothing is in the way, but when you try to ... | 37 | |
ELI5 - Why are Muslims OK with naming their children Mohammed, but not with depictions of Mohammed? | Why is one OK but not the other? | 39 | Depictions of Mohammed or any religious figure borders on having a "graven image" or what we would designate as an idol. That is why Islamic art is primarily geometric designs. This is also something that many Protestant branches of Christianity also believe and why they do not have pictures of Jesus, Apostles, Mary, e... | 34 |
CMV: self defense should be allowed in schools | ~~Self defense is one of the most important things that you can know. If you end up in a fight, knowing how to fight back can save your life in some cases.~~
~~So why do we get in trouble when we try to stand up to our bullies? This only benefits the bully himself, because now it takes more balls than it should to get... | 24 | So, are you saying they should explicitly *allow* self defense or just not prohibit it? Because either way, that's a GIGANTIC liability for the school. Kids fight and get hurt all the time. Encouraging it is opening themselves up for countless lawsuits.
To start, what level of bullying warrants self defense? Verbal ab... | 10 |
Why Pitch Up to Go Up while Flying? | I was ruminating over the physics of flying, and I arrived at the question: why would you want to pitch the aircraft up in order to increase vertical speed? I know lift is based on both airspeed and on angle of attack, but doesn't increased speed produce a higher increase in lift than does an increased angle of attack?... | 34 | In introductory flight training (I only have a few hours, so pilots feel free to correct me) you actually are taught to control altitude/rate of climb largely by using airspeed. Increase throttle to go up, decrease throttle to go down.
>At some point you want to pitch up ("rotate") to lift off, but wouldn't that re... | 20 |
Why do most of us stick out our tongues in some fashion when we're concentrated on doing something? | Edit: Yes, I do mean most of us.
It's also interesting to note that we all have different variations of sticking out our tongue. Some of us move them around, while others chew on them or simply stick them out. Additionally, I found that some things I would expect to trigger this for me don't, while others do. I am co... | 628 | Sticking your tongue out or biting your lip while concentrating is not really that weird. Michael Jordan was famous for his tongue sticking out while going up for a dunk. It is an example of what’s called motor overflow or motor disinhibition. It happens sometimes when our brains are working really hard at something. ... | 501 |
What can my generation do to improve the economy crisis in America? | Please explain as simply as you can. Also, I am not interested in joining politics, I just want to know what I can do as an American citizen.
Sorry I forgot the ELI5 and I can't edit it. | 26 | Don't over use credit cards. Pay off balances quickly and completely to avoid interest.
Learn to plan a budget and stick to it.
Even when buying big items on credit (House, car, ect.) make sure you can cover the payments. Don't assume you will have the same level of income over the next X number of years.
Don't le... | 23 |
ELI5: What are the differences between consumer-grade CPUs made by AMD/Intel and Digital Signal Processirs made for industrial/military purposes? | Corollary: What makes the semi conductor material so important? | 48 | You seem to be confusing two things:
- general purpose CPU vs DSP. DSP are CPU whose instruction sets and internal architecture are particularly well adapted to signal processing. For such kind of application, they are more powerful (per watt, per dollar) than usual CPU. You probably have several in your home (your... | 17 |
ELI5: why is defragging not really a thing anymore? | I was born in 1973, got my first computer in 1994, defragging was part of regular maintenance. I can't remember the last time I defragged anything, even though I have several devices with hard drives, including a Windows laptop. Has storage technology changed so much that defragging isn't necessary anymore? Is it even ... | 828 | * Bigger disks
* Better filesystems
* SSD vs. HDD
* Larger caches
Bigger disks: Most folks don't spend much time with their disk at 90% capacity anymore, so the filesystem doesn't have to split files up as much to find room for them.
Better filesystems: The OS engineers have come up with cleverer ways to organize fil... | 693 |
ELI5: Why do neurons need more oxygen when they fire? | So fMRI is an indirect method to find out activations of neurons, and I heard it is done by measuring oxygen levels in the brain. Then, why do neurons need oxygen to fire? Where is it used? (I do briefly know how neurons fire, if it helps) | 18 | So you already know how an action potential works. Lots of sodium enters the neuron, this causes the membrane potential to become more positive. This essentially causes a chain reaction where that positive signal moves down the axon (i.e. the neuron fires). So now what? Now you have a ton of sodium inside the neuron (a... | 27 |
CMV: Conscription is practically enslaving your own people | You hear some Tories and UKIP folk saying they want to reintroduce the draft for males under 35 again.
How would this be a good idea? I am 24 and why should I be forced into the military to flight in some war that politicians would probably be able to wrangle their own kids out of? (Like what happened in the US durin... | 32 | > How would this be a good idea?
For democratic governments, such as the UK and US, this is an excellent idea to solve a very specific problem -- the lack of engagement of the general public around military and foreign affairs.
At least in the USA, we have developed a military community that is segregated heavil... | 12 |
ELI5: How do we know Dinosaurs weren't purple with yellow polka dots? | Is there any science behind the colors of Dinosaurs, or is it simply speculations? | 152 | Pigments have been found in some fossilised dinosaur feathers, so we know the colour of a couple of birdlike dinosaurs.
The rest is speculation, based on the reasoning "if lizards are green and brown now, then they probably were then". | 154 |
[Jurassic World] Why was the original visitor centre abandoned? | In the original movie we see that the visitors centre has the control room, the labs, a commercial kitchen and the gift shop, indicating that the rest of the tourist facilities are there. It’s everything you need to run the park and accomodate guests. And as the centre of guest services it stands to reason that it’s pr... | 55 | Because if you use that one, people might find out about the time your company killed a load of people with rogue dinosaurs , and that might make people not want to come to your dinosaur park.
It's not *forgotten*. It's *covered up*. If there is a place where your company committed, at best, homicidal negligence? You ... | 55 |
How is dissolved oxygen related to the oxygen in the chemical formula H2O? | Im kinda confused about what dissolved oxygen is a measurement of-- if H2O is ~89% oxygen by mass, is "water" with 0% dissolved oxygen in it just hydrogen? If not, what does it mean for oxygen to be dissolved "in" a substance that is primarily made of oxygen? | 18 | You're mixing up two different things, but that's okay, I'll try to explain it: There is water—the molecule—which has two hydrogen *atoms* and one oxygen *atom* bound together and oxygen—the molecule—which is two oxygen *atoms* bound together. When oxygen is dissolved in water, it means that among all the water molecul... | 20 |
ELI5: Why some drinks, especially vitamin drinks, say "drink it cold" on the packing? | English ain't my mother language, so the title might be a little off, but I'm sure you'll get it. | 25 | Food and drinks taste very different at different temperatures. Most people prefer to drink coffee hot, it's not nearly the same when it's warm or cool or cold. And beers are meant to be served room temperature, cool, or cold depending on their type because their flavour changes at different temperatures.
The drinks y... | 16 |
ELI5: Why don't we just dump our garbage into a magma pit? | 485 | For starters, there aren't many magma pits in the world. It's a lot easier to dump your garbage in a place no one cares about that's maybe 50 miles away, as opposed to one 2000 miles away. Most of those pits are also small, and would be overfilled quickly. We throw out a lot of trash.
Secondly, many products create ha... | 414 |
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